MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Gregory Sager]

Looks like none of the SLIAC teams faired well yesterday.

On the contrary, I'd say that the SLIAC fared very well last night. It may not show at first blush, since they were losses, but the tight games that Webster, Maryville, and MacMurray played against the big boys -- the two favorites of the HCAC (including 2005 NCAA Sweet Sixteen entrant Hanover) and a CCIW team -- have to be seen as very encouraging for anyone who follows this conference.

When your league is at the bottom of the power ratings, sometimes close losses against upper-echelon teams (or teams from upper-echelon conferences) can be a bigger achievement than wins against the likes of St. Louis Pharmacy.

[Daryl L Lloyd]

Greg:
I agree. I was attempting to quickly point out that no SLIAC team won yesterday.  Ill chose my wording more carefully in the future.

[hopefan]

Another disappointing afternoon vs the HCAC.

In game one, Transy destroyed Webster by around 30.  I saw little of the game, but this obviously was not the same Webster effort that took Hanover to overtime the previous night.  The one comment I heard was that Webster made Transy slow down the pace to Webster's speed, but got killed anyway.

In game two it was a virtual duplicate for Maryville from the previous night.  Hang on all game trailing 4-6, finally catch them at 2 minutes left, then hand the game to them with an inopportune turnover or bad shot.  Maryville loses to Hanover by 6.
Observation -  the heart is willing, but is the body?  Maryville is playing a fullcourt pressing defense - they do alot of it in the half court too, but unless they get quicker or anticipate better, the good skip pass is leading to wide open 3 point shots - Hanover had to have made at least 10 3 pointers -the looks they are getting are too good  -  NOTE -WE are not getting good looks like that (ie Regan and Hebl are not getting the wide open 3's)
So 3 of the 4 games were excellent, but the SLIAC still comes out 0-4

PS  -Titan Q and IWU fans - this is not the ultra strong big bodied Hanover of the past.  Defend the perimeter and you should be in good shape.

[Titan Q]

Hopefan, Regarding Hanover's size, last year's team was "sneaky big."  They started...

Nate Minyard 6-0
Matt Moore 6-0*
Brian Chrin 6-3
Ryan Lanning 6-6*
Tommy Dennis 6-5*

* graduated

Hanover would give up 2-3 inches at most positions to "big" teams like Illinois Wesleyan, but then the game would start and it'd be the Panthers dominating it physically.  I assume 6-4 Ben Lye is now in the starting lineup and he is another example of "sneaky big" - he just plays way bigger and stronger than 6-4.

Because of their style, it seems to me that Hanover rarely blows anyone out...and they are also prone to losing games you really don't expect.  For example, last year Hanover was outstanding - probably one of the top 5 teams in the country - yet a few scores that don't really add on paper...

vs Webster 61-54 (W)
@ Wabash 66-63 (W)
vs Ripon 64-52 (L)
vs Blufton 59-55 (L)
Mount St. Joseph 72-71 (W)
@ Defiance 67-61 (L)
Franklin 68-67

A deliberate, halfcourt oriented squad like Hanover is always going to have a bunch of really ugly games - games where the shots are not falling but because of that great defense they play, games the Panthers are in until the end.  It seems like whether they're playing Blackburn or Illinois Wesleyan, they'll find a way to make the game close. 

A final thought on Hanover is that it sure seems to me their guys excel when the bright lights come on.  I've seen all four IWU/Hanover games the last two years and I can tell those guys absolutely love the "big game" atmosphere.  Sometimes teams like this tend to sleepwalk through the ones they should win...like that loss at home to Blufton last year...or at Defiance.

[Mac Attack]

Mac's opponent Tuesday night, Grinnell, won at home 136-112 against Cornell. Cornell was 6-19 last year and only won two games on the road, so this didn't appear to be the 1970 UCLA Bruins. Just the same, I hope Mac doesn't attempt to match Grinnell three point shot for three point shot, or the outcome will be the same. Mac can beat this team, and other teams, if they concentrate on tough defense, rebounding, getting good shots (including in the paint scoring), cutting down on turnovers, and hitting their free throws. Based on the Millikin experience, Mac can win this way - but I don't think they can win many shoot outs - i.e. the first team to 100 wins. The Highlanders can be pretty good inside (Kowa, Compton, Robertson, Greene) and out (Hipshir, Downham, Workman, Long) - but it has to be a well-balanced attack. If they revert to a "shoot first, play defense later" mentality, they'll lose games they should win - starting with the Tuesday night game at Grinnell. Looking a little further down the road, Mac's first round game in the IC Tournament, Domincan, has started out 2-0, beating fellow SLIAC members Blackburn 60-46 and Greenville 76-65. Concordia University is also in the IC Tournament, and they're also 2-0, defeating Greenville 60-56 and Blackburn 61-59. IC is 1-0, having defeated Eureka College 91-77.

Go Highlanders!!!

[Gregory Sager]

"Sneaky big", Bob? Are you going to pull a Pat Riley and patent that phrase?

[Titan Q]

I've started printing the T-Shirts already!!

[fcnews]

Home where my computer loves me. FC beat Moody Bible 65-61. Bright spots are Fr. Patrick McCoy (Salem, MO.) 22 pts, 6 assists and All Tourney Team. Justin Storandt (Herman, MO.) 20 rebs and 4 blocks( For the weekend 30 rebs., 7 blks and 10 pts per game), a 6'9 fr. playing the 3 spot. Post player Fr. Ryan Kirkpatrick (West Frankfort, IL.) went 10-12 from the feild for the weekend and avg. 8 rebs and 3 blks.

Starting one sophmore and four freshmen, with the first three off the bench being freshmen, this turned out to be a delightful suprise for Griffin Nation.

Along with the freshmen mentioned above look for alot of minutes out of fr. Brian Fogerty 6'5 (Winfeild H.S.)

Bright spot - FC defensively allowed just 64.5 pts per game.

[Mac Attack]

I was looking at some of the stats from last season and came across the attendance stats. Please tell me these numbers are wrong. For example, it says that Blackburn played 11 home games and drew a total of 290 fans - for an average of 26 per game??? Fontbonne had 12 home games and had a total of 275 - for an average of 23 per game??? Is attendance that low in the SLIAC? That's impossible to believe. I've seen more people at a scholastic bowl meet. Please tell me these numbers are wrong... Millikin had about 1000 at its home game against MacMurray. I realize Decatur is much larger than Carlinville or Jacksonville, but still you would expect students, friends, family, and just general basketball fans in the area to come out...

[hopefan]

Mac that's average attendance per home game, not total attendance for the season.  Still pretty pitiful, especially at the small town schools where it likely is the only thing going on. 

[Mac Attack]

That's not the way I read it. It says Blackburn played 11 home games and drew a total of 209 people - for an average of 26 per game. They drew better on the road, and a season average of 178 when you combined home and away games. But the way I read it, Blackburn averaged 26 people per game. Fontbonne 23. Principia 28.  Here's the link. PLEASE tell me I'm wrong. MacMurray was around 150 for home games, which I think is sad considering the size of Jacksonville. But there is another college in Jacksonville, plus the high school plays in a nice conference - but STILL.....

Tell me I'm misreading this....

http://www.sliac.org/mens3/mbasketball/stats/confldrs.htm

[yjacklok]

I've been to enough games over the past 4 years to know that there is probably no one actually counting the number of people in the stands. I would put absolutely no faith in those numbers. It would be nice if someone tried to get a reasonably accurate count at each game. Since the games are free and no one is counting as people enter the gyms, then it should be incumbent upon someone at the scorers table at some point early to mid way through the first half to stand up and count the people as closely as possible. Kind of like trying to take attendance at church. After all, basketball is, as we all know, a religion to some.

[fcnews]

Not an excuse just an observation. Stat Crew, currently used by the SLIAC has the attendance space inside it's program, this is what the NCAA recognized as the offical attendance. Unfortunately, at most schools the stat person does this as work study or because their asked to. Most do not take this question as important part of the games stats. In most cases it is simply 0. This is what throws off the entire years total. I'll estimate FU's hpme attendance at 300 per game and that is pitiful I know.

So what I'm saying is it's better then it looks, but not to great.

[hopefan]

Good point by FCNews...perhaps in the situation Mac mentioned, someone did enter attendance, and it only got entered one time during the season.   In Blackburn's situation, I saw Maryville play their on a Saturday afternoon last year, and the place was packed - Meaning 5 rows of bleachers full court and some people at the ends - maybe 400?

[hopefan]

A number of SLIAC games tonite - can't anyone tell us about them??