MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[hopefan]

I'm very excited for Principia.... granted their win was against Lincoln Christian, but you gotta love that two Prin Frosh, Parker Davidson and Jeff Ross, both started their College careers with Double-Doubles.... Ross goes 24 and 14, Davidson hits 17 and 13....  the bad news for Prin is that they basically used only 6 players... easy to do against a weak LCC team, highly difficult to keep up the pace in a competitive game.....

[y_jack_lok]

Sooooooo.. the SLIAC men get 3 wins on Saturday, but only one of them is against a D3 team.. Eureka's win over Rockford....

AND.. the question in my mind... Can Webster really compete without Kevin Miller.....  you expect streakiness out of Smith, Ward, Griffin... but Miller is a rock who gives you 15 and 8 every night....

Yes, it's interesting what one player can do for a team. Imagine what the 2010-11 Webster team would have been like without Willie Trimble. It was a mostly veteran team, but Willie was a difference maker who also made it possible for Jarrod Huskey to have a great freshman season -- something Huskey never repeated, although he still contributed solid minutes for three more seasons.

Let's see what happens against Knox today. 

[Gregory Sager]

Monmouth 67  Webster 49     abysmal box score in all areas

Yep it was me that was crying Webster deserved Top 25 recognition - Sager, who supported some of my thoughts, I APOLOGIZE!!!!

I don't care who was missing from the lineup, you shouldn't be losing to Monmouth getting out rebounded badly, shooting poorly, turning the ball over 20 times...  very disappointing.

I'm a little more forgiving. No Miller, no Griffin, a Smith who has hardly practiced ... that's a recipe for an opening-day disaster. And this year Monmouth probably won't be the usual patsy it's been for so long, as the Scots returned all five starters (and ten lettermen in all).

Now, a loss to Knox, on the other hand ...

[y_jack_lok]

Quote from hopefan yesterday morning: "Spalding falls in season opener to Oglethorpe, 79-67. Spalding jumped off to an 8 - 0 lead, but Oglethorpe dominated the rest of the way, leading by 13 at half... closest Spalding got in the 2nd half was 9..."

Spalding beats Toccoa Falls... Spalding's Brandon Gabriel has a huge game with 25 point, 8 rebounds, 3 assists.. newcomer Jametrius Moore has another solid effort off the bench with 12 points, 8 rebounds....

Were both of these games technically played on November 15th? Is there an NCAA rule about how many hours must elapse between the start of games? I know lots of games get played at night one day then early afternoon the next, so less than 24 hours between start times.

[Denny McKinney]

Easy, Easy, Boys! This is the non-conference season. Webster is playing without three of their big men from last year. One to graduation and two to injury. Don't expect to see Miller for a while. These non conference games are just a tune up for the Sliac season. Winning the post season tourney is all that counts. Long way to go. Calm Down. 

WU started 4 guards. Playing small.

[Gregory Sager]

Spalding's schedule indicates that yesterday's game against Oglethorpe tipped off a minute after midnight -- in other words, the earliest possible moment that a D3 team could've played this season (aside from the special exemption that the NCAA granted to Mount St. Joe and Hiram for their women's game, due to the Lauren Hill situation). The game against Toccoa Falls tipped off at 6 pm last night, which means that there were about 16 hours between games.

I haven't been able to find an NCAA rule regarding elapsed time between games, y_jack. Of course, the sensible thing to do is to avoid playing twice in one calendar day (as opposed to a night game followed by a day game on the day after, which is common for tournaments and really isn't the same thing at all, since there's an overnight sleep interval between the two games). I would imagine, though, that the Golden Eagles went back to their hotel rooms and went straight to bed following the 1:45 am conclusion of their game against Oglethorpe. In terms of elapsed time and sleep intervals, it was probably not much different than playing a game on a Friday evening and another game on a Saturday afternoon.

But sometimes two games on a calendar day can't be avoided. A good example is the University of Georgia's march to the 2008 SEC tournament championship, which was held, coincidentally, in Atlanta. Since a tornado had damaged the Georgia Dome, where the tourney was scheduled to be held, the venue had to be changed to Georgia Tech's Alexander Memorial Coliseum at the last minute -- and Georgia was forced to play two games there on Saturday, March 15, 2008, an overtime win over Kentucky and a victory in regulation later that day over Mississippi State. The Bulldogs then beat Arkansas the next day to become the first bottom-seeded SEC team ever to win that tournament.

[Denny McKinney]

WUH, Did the Bears expect to have that much trouble in Memphis. I haven't seen a final, but Wash U only had a 3 pt lead on Hendrix with 1:30 to go.

[WUPHF]

Did the Bears expect to have that much trouble in Memphis. I haven't seen a final, but Wash U only had a 3 pt lead on Hendrix with 1:30 to go.

Washington University played to expectations in my novice opinion.  The final score from today was 75-68 in a game that the Bears led early, but Hendrix did lead by 7-10 for extended periods in the first half.  Hendix had a great defensive game plan for Palucki and played hard until the end.

Keep in mind that the Bears are rebuilding after losing the UAA player of the year in Chris Klimek, the UAA defender of the year in Tim Cooney and first team all UAA Alan Aboona.

The 2013-2014 seniors accounted for 47.5 points and 17 rebounds per game.

They returned two starters in Matt Palucki and Nick Burt, but only Palucki averaged in double figures.  The Bears returned two role players in Silverman-Lloyd and David Fatoki, but besides Palucki and Burt, only Fatoki averaged more than 10 minutes per game.  They started a junior this weekend, Mitch Styczynski who played nominal minutes last season.  Otherwise, Coach Edwards played 3-4 players more over the weekend than he did in conference play last season.

The last time we had a Bears squad this young and inexperienced, 2010-2011, they started the season ranked but did not go to the NCAA tournament, if I remember correctly.  I am not sure if we can expect more from this season, though obviously, it is very early and there are reason to be optimistic including the 15 points per game from Fatoki who was not a reliable scoring threat last season and the 7 points scored on 3-3 shooting in 14 minutes by freshman Matt Highsmith on Saturday and the 9 points scored by Michael Bregman today.

[WUPHF]

It only takes a few days before I start to feel self-conscious when I look and see that I was the last to post.

Greenville is playing at Division II Lindenwood tonight.  It looks like Lindenwood is 0-2 on the season so far after going 11-19 last season after the first few successful years under Coach Soderberg.  No video, but you can listen on line to the student broadcasters of 89.1 The Wood: www.891thewood.com

MacMurray is playing at Division II Quincy University tonight as well. Quincy smoked Blackburn in exhibition play.  Video available online at: http://quhawks.com/schedule.aspx?path=mbball

[y_jack_lok]

It only takes a few days before I start to feel self-conscious when I look and see that I was the last to post.

Greenville is playing at Division II Lindenwood tonight.  It looks like Lindenwood is 0-2 on the season so far after going 11-19 last season after the first few successful years under Coach Soderberg.  No video, but you can listen on line to the student broadcasters of 89.1 The Wood: www.891thewood.com

MacMurray is playing at Division II Quincy University tonight as well. Quincy smoked Blackburn in exhibition play.  Video available online at: http://quhawks.com/schedule.aspx?path=mbball

We appreciate you keeping the board from going totally silent. I know hopefan is occupied with a short return to his old job (the only other person who knew how to do what he did left so they made him an offer he couldn't refuse to come back and get them back on track) plus he's been dealing with a family matter. I'm waiting to see Webster play on Friday and Saturday (two tough games against Millikin and UT-Dallas) before saying too much. Hoping one of the big men will be back, but I doubt it. An impressive performance against Knox last Sunday by senior Ahmad Smith -- 30 points on 12 of 16 shooting including 4-4 three pointers.

[WUPHF]

An impressive performance against Knox last Sunday by senior Ahmad Smith -- 30 points on 12 of 16 shooting including 4-4 three pointers.

Impressive is an understatement! Wow! I may have to go to a Webster game this weekend. 

[y_jack_lok]

An impressive performance against Knox last Sunday by senior Ahmad Smith -- 30 points on 12 of 16 shooting including 4-4 three pointers.

Impressive is an understatement! Wow! I may have to go to a Webster game this weekend.

If you make it to a game I think you know where to find us -- the side of the gym opposite the player benches in or near the top row as close to mid court as possible. Just look for all the old guys. We'd love to see you.

[Denny McKinney]

Off topic. I don't care. Lady Griffin's lost to an All American led IL. College 73-70. On the road. Had two chances to tie. Welcome Coach Sias era!

[WUPHF]

Off topic. I don't care. Lady Griffin's lost to an All American led IL. College 73-70. On the road. Had two chances to tie. Welcome Coach Sias era!

I actually think the thread would be better (i.e. more traffic, more posters) if both Men's and Women's basketball were discussed here.

[y_jack_lok]

Off topic. I don't care. Lady Griffin's lost to an All American led IL. College 73-70. On the road. Had two chances to tie. Welcome Coach Sias era!

I actually think the thread would be better (i.e. more traffic, more posters) if both Men's and Women's basketball were discussed here.

I agree, WUH, but some "gender sensitive" people might not like it.