MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[hopefan]

Maryville beats a pretty good Reinhardt team 65-54....  strange game, great cause for optimism for this young Maryville team.
Where to start...  How about this, Maryville's starting lineup was the smallest I've ever seen in my 40 years associated with college basketball..
Frosh  Tyler Saxton,at 5'8", Frosh Jake Baechle at 5'11", Frosh Jared McCoy at 5'11", So Teddy Mcgrath, power forward at 5'11", and sr Jason Rezebek in the middle at 6'4".  This against a very athletic group from Reinhardt.
Coach Rogers used - get this - a 15 man rotation!!!!!!
Two VERY impressive things about the game - THE great energy and enthusiasm that Maryville played the whole game with - and how they expanded the lead in the final four minutes of the game - they had been up 8with 12 minutes left, saw it cut to 1 or 2 with 4 to 5 minutes left, and really dominated the final four minutes of play - very few bad decisions by the 3 frosh guards and Teddy Mcgrath.
a large number of individual moments worth mentioning - Casey Holland had a series of rebounds in the first half and displayed leadership without the usual turnovers;  Scott Murfin hit 3 big 3 pointers in the 2nd half that were killers to Reinhardt's comeback, Big Matt Deimeke continued to show offensive skills close to the basket and was in the middle of several scraps for the ball, Jason Rezebeck went to the hole hard- had 9 points but would have had 17 if not for missed layups; Aaron Steinke went to the basket hard for 2, something he'd been shy about before.
In the long run, both teams shot POORLY - Maryville won it on hustle and better than expected poise from Frosh guards McCoy and Saxton, and great leadership from McGrath and Holland.

I also see that Prin gets crushed by Hendrix 97-50

Interesting early season comparison tomorrow as Webster and Maryville exchange opponents.  Webster played much better than MU down at Transy, but a win by MU tomorrow over MSOE will give Maryville a justified optimism heading into that first big conference game against Webster in early December.

[y_jack_lok]

Just to add a word to BunchTime's comments about the Webster-MSoE game. Webster was down 19 in the first  half, went to halftime down 15 then went on a 20-5 run to tie it at 54 at the start of the 2nd half. Couldn't get the lead, though. It's tough to win close ones when you shoot 10 free throws and the other team shoots 28.

[Mac Attack]

As anyone who has ever seen Grinnell play, this is about as frustrating as it can get. I came out of the game with one of worst headaches I've ever had. This was YMCA basketball at its best, or worst, depending on your point of view. Where to start...

First half was like watching a high school P.E. class with 15 players on each team running up and down the floor. Grinnell substituted every 35 seconds with five new players. They brought 18 players and everyone of them played. Mac chose to shoot only lay-ups and not attempt any three point shots. Worked pretty good. Score was 70-67 at the half. If Mac would have attacked the full-court press with quick, short passes in the middle of the court, this game would have been a lot closer than the final score. But instead we continually tried to dribble down the sidelines (where we would get trapped and turn the ball over) or throw full-court baseball passes (all of which were intercepted).

Mac scored the first six points of the second half to grab a 73-70 lead. From there, it was back and forth for about the next ten minutes before Grinnell pulled away. Mac just flat ran out of gas. Grotburg, Grinnell's pre-season All-American pick, was flat out incredible. Best shooter I've ever seen. Mac had a hand in his face most of the day but it didn't make any difference. They had two or three other shooters that if left unguarded could drain it. They had one interior player who was decent, but that's really not what they want to do.

Grinnell has a nice group of kids. Well coached and well behaved. Wish I could say the same for some of their fans. Given the amount of pushing, shoving, and grabbing that was going on, I thought the referees did a very good job. But about 10-12 Grinnell fans rode the refs all day long, most of it pretty loud and pretty obnoxious. They should have stayed home...

In the "for what it's worth" department, several MacMurray players had very good games. Freshman shooting guard Adam Poulson had a very good game on both ends of the floor. While I don't have stats yet, he probably scored about 15 points and grabbed some rebounds. He's a real scrapper and a nice shooter. Look for him to play some more. Sophmore forward Jerel Robertson probably had about 20 points and 10 rebounds. Sophomore Brady Greene may have had another double-double as well. Good bench minutes from Billy Long and Jimmy Michels. Our two point guards, Seth Whalum and Farrid Coleman, really struggled against the pressure, but I look for both of them to bounce back. Still looking for our seniors to step up and contribute at both ends of the floor. Our underclassmen are really playing well - but our seniors have to step up and make some major contributions for this team to finish above .500 and be a factor in the SLIAC. My guess is that will happen, but it's time for those players to start getting it done when they're on the floor.

Rough, tough, physical guard play is the only way to beat Grinnell, along with a good passing team that can split their press. Thank God we don't have to play another team like this the rest of the way, and I would hope the MacMurray AD chooses to not reschedule Grinnell after this season. We need to be playing teams like Knox, Illinois College, North Park, etc.

Mac gets some time off before traveling to Lincoln Christian and Webster in a couple of weeks. I was really hoping the Highlanders could go at least 2-2 out of the gate, but that's not going to happen now. I can take some heart in seeing that Monmouth (who beat Mac by six) defeated a pretty good Hannibal-LaGrange team. Need to get on the winning side of things at Lincoln Christian and hopefully build on that...

[Mac Attack]

From the SLIAC website...

Saturday, November 25   
Maryville d. Reinhardt College 65-54
Milwaukee School of Engineering d. Webster 82-79
Hendrix d. Principia 97-50
Grinnell d. MacMurray 136-116
Rose-Hulman d. Blackburn 74-57

[fcnews]

Very suprising score at Blackburn. When was the last time someone went into the Beaver Dome and won this way? I have heard RHIT is going to be better this year, But!!!

[fcnews]

From the RHIT website: RHIT shot 60% from the field and held BC to just 32% fg and 3-20 from behind the arc. RHIT must have practiced shooting with the lights out to get ready for this one.

[hopefan]

Good one FC - regarding the Rose Hulman practice strategy

Incidently - I did note the Rose Hulman coach was scouting Blackburn at the Blackburn - Wash U game.

[pantherpride06]

Very suprising score at Blackburn. When was the last time someone went into the Beaver Dome and won this way? I have heard RHIT is going to be better this year, But!!!

Feb. 23, 2006 - SLIAC Conference Tournament Semi-Final @ Blackburn
Blackburn 59, Westminster 84.

[fcnews]

RHIT and FU is always a good game. When either team has been down a year they have still got up for this one. This will be another good road test for the young Griffins.

Good work Pride. Still not to often.

[Mac Attack]

pantherpride06 was 5 for 5 in the pick 'em yesterday. Time to buy a lottery ticket...

[fcnews]

4-5 gets you squat.
Pride are you ready for the upcoming FU@GC event. Remember - extra throat rest, extra fluids, plenty of sharp pencils and an extra game tape ( in case it goes over 2 OT's).

[wilburt]

Lipscomb 80 Fisk 68
Fisk hel lead till late. LU shot 25ft to Fisk 10 (10-10). Fisk did not shoot as well the 2nd half and was in foul trouble.
FU will have their hands full. WU vs. Fisk ought to be a good game.

How much trouble can an (0-3) Fisk team be fcnews?

FU wins the game on Monday night - Hands down.

[fcnews]

Wilburt can you add some sizes to players. Glaze, Hall, Patton, Hinton, ect.
I've looked everywhere for a copy of Fisk's Roster.

[hopefan]

MSOE 70 - Maryville 52    -  ugly, very ugly - some disappointing reactions on the bench, very disappointing.   How quickly things can turn.  The score is not indicitive of the 40 point blowout it could have been.

The one constant between yesterday's win and today's loss was terrible, TERRIBLE, outside shooting - MU better figure out how to put the ball in the hole, or all the hustle in the world isn't going to make a 500 team out of them.

The people whom I said were the leaders last night need to take a hold of the reins, get things back together this week and prep for Webster on Dec 6.  Anyone who doesn't want to be there, don't wreck it for the rest of the guys.

[fcnews]

Reinhardt 74 Webster 73

This weekends games show us what?