MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[hopefan]

Sager got me!!!... I looked at returning people for some of the schools, but did not for Elmhurst or Millikin, thinking the CCIW pecking order wouldn't change much... my mistake..  On a 4 point scale, I gave Elmhurst a 3, Millikin a 2.5 and Wash U a 2.5... IWU a 4... Perhaps teams playing Elmhurst and Millikin got short changed...

Anyway, glad some people read it and enjoyed, or at least got inspired!!  Fun to talk hoops again...

[AndOne]

Hope-

I am not sure what your 4 point scale is a rating of, but I note you give Elmhurst a 3, while rating IWU as a 4. If you are rating ability/team strength, you better reverse the rankings. EC returns their entire starting 5, plus their 6th man who is better than at least one of the starters. They also get back a guy who I believe started at the beginning of last season and was injured and lost for the year after a few games. IWU who had such superior guard play, lost 3 senior guards to graduation. Their guard play will be good this year, but not as good as Elmhurst's, who will start 3 guards, and EC also has 2 bigs who have more overall talent than any 2 bigs IWU can put on the floor.
I think you will see EC ranked ahead of IWU both in the CCIW Coaches Poll and in the preseason D3Hoops rankings.

[AndOne]

BLACKBURN NEWS

All indications are that Blackburn will be getting Jake Maestranzi, a 5'8" PG transfer from D2 Delta State. He will have 2 years of eligibility remaining. Jake played his HS ball at Chicago Notre Dame.
That is all. 😊

[iwumichigander]

Agree with Sager and AndOne - Elmhurst can no longer be considered as in the lower part of the CCIW which would have been a fair comparison 3-4 seasons ago.  No longer.  Coach Baines has Elmhurst back in the top four or better of the CCIW.  His recruiting skills should keep them there for some time. 

I would also put Elmhurst above IWU right now?  The Blue Jays starting five probably set and will get challenged by one or more to keep those starting slots.  The real question maybe how deep and talented will the bench be?  Elmhurst could go deep into the NCAA tournament if their bench depth improves.

[Titan Q]

BLACKBURN NEWS

All indications are that Blackburn will be getting Jake Maestranzi, a 5'8" PG transfer from D2 Delta State. He will have 2 years of eligibility remaining. Jake played his HS ball at Chicago Notre Dame.
That is all. 😊

Looks like originally committed to North Central...

NCC TRANSFER

Jake Maestranzi, 5'8" PG from D2 Delta State. HS at Niles Notre Dame. Will be a junior.

[AndOne]

BLACKBURN NEWS

All indications are that Blackburn will be getting Jake Maestranzi, a 5'8" PG transfer from D2 Delta State. He will have 2 years of eligibility remaining. Jake played his HS ball at Chicago Notre Dame.
That is all. 😊

Looks like originally committed to North Central...

NCC TRANSFER

Jake Maestranzi, 5'8" PG from D2 Delta State. HS at Niles Notre Dame. Will be a junior.

Nope. What actually happened was that we had a failure in communication which was due to a misunderstanding on my part. I was informed Jake was considering NCC, Manchester (IN), and Blackburn. He subsequently played open gym with the NCC guys several times in the spring which seemed to bode well for NCC. When he followed up the open gyms by also playing, mostly with the NCC team, in the Elmhurst summer league, I assumed he had chosen NCC, and thus added him to the Cardinal recruit list. When I learned he hadn't actually made a final decision yet, I deleted his name from the NCC list sometime in July. I was told he has now made the decision to attend Blackburn and reported as such today. He did not ever actually commit to NCC so there was no decommitt or rescission involved.

[hopefan]

Jake Maestranzi... from Delta State site:

"2014-15 (Sophomore): Played in 20 games with four starts...Tallied 29 assists and eight steals...Brought down 10 rebounds (0.5 rpg)...Career-high three points three times...Career-high six assists versus Christian Brothers (1.31.15)."

So he played a little as a soph... interesting plus is 29 assists vs only 7 turnovers .. better than 4 to 1 a/to ratio.. life may have gotten a little brighter for Chris Davis, Jamie Moore....

[Gregory Sager]

Agree with Sager and AndOne - Elmhurst can no longer be considered as in the lower part of the CCIW which would have been a fair comparison 3-4 seasons ago.  No longer.  Coach Baines has Elmhurst back in the top four or better of the CCIW.  His recruiting skills should keep them there for some time. 

I would also put Elmhurst above IWU right now?  The Blue Jays starting five probably set and will get challenged by one or more to keep those starting slots.  The real question maybe how deep and talented will the bench be?  Elmhurst could go deep into the NCAA tournament if their bench depth improves.

Huh?

Sorry to irritate you SLIAC guys by further hijacking your board, but I have to address this. Elmhurst's 2015-16 roster has already been posted. As you can see by looking at EC's 2014-15 stats, there were eleven Bluejays who averaged double-digit minutes last season. All eleven of those players -- Peyton Wyatt, Eric Leonard, Kenny Payonk, Pat "the Guru" Coleman, Kyle Wuest, Erik Crittenden, Brandon Schwebke, Nathan Rogers, Bryant Ackerman, Will Nixon, and Jalen Loving (the injured player whom AndOne mentioned) -- are back this year. Nine of the eleven are seniors, and the other two are juniors. Six of those guys have three years of varsity experience, with four of them getting starts as freshmen. Nine of them have two years of varsity experience.

Bench depth is the last thing about which John Baines needs to worry. Elmhurst has the best bench depth in the CCIW, and I would argue that there's a compelling case to be made that the Bluejays have the best bench depth in the entire country. After all, how many other teams that made the D3 tourney last March have eleven players coming back who averaged double-digit minutes last season?

BLACKBURN NEWS

All indications are that Blackburn will be getting Jake Maestranzi, a 5'8" PG transfer from D2 Delta State. He will have 2 years of eligibility remaining. Jake played his HS ball at Chicago Notre Dame.
That is all. 😊

Looks like originally committed to North Central...

NCC TRANSFER

Jake Maestranzi, 5'8" PG from D2 Delta State. HS at Niles Notre Dame. Will be a junior.

Nope. What actually happened was that we had a failure in communication

[Dutch32]

Eureka replaced Robert Morris-Peoria on the schedule with D-I Loyola-Chicago, FWIW.

http://eurekareddevils.com/schedule.aspx?path=mbball

[hopefan]

Eureka replaced Robert Morris-Peoria on the schedule with D-I Loyola-Chicago, FWIW.

http://eurekareddevils.com/schedule.aspx?path=mbball

Wow, that's an exciting upgrade.... it is always a thrill for d3 kids to have a shot at playing vs D1... and for an old head like me, I still remember Loyola Chi stunning the hoops world winning the NCAA championship, beating Cincinnati.

[magicman]

hopefan,

Good job on the out of conference schedules. Can't give Greg an opening he'll make you pay. Elmhurst should be a Top 25 team or higher all season long. Plus K to both of you for the comments. I did see the CHL  comment/picture coming Greg, as soon as I saw the words, failure and communicate in the same sentence.  

[Gregory Sager]

Eureka replaced Robert Morris-Peoria on the schedule with D-I Loyola-Chicago, FWIW.

WIW = $$$$$ 

hopefan,

Good job on the out of conference schedules. Can't give Greg an opening he'll make you pay. Elmhurst should be a Top 25 team or higher all season long. Plus K to both of you for the comments. I did see the CHL  comment/picture coming Greg, as soon as I saw the words, failure and communicate in the same sentence.  

Thanks, Prestidigitator. I'm glad that somebody recognized the picture. It'd be a shame if nobody who reads this room had ever seen that classic movie.

[magicman]

Eureka replaced Robert Morris-Peoria on the schedule with D-I Loyola-Chicago, FWIW.

WIW = $$$$$ 

hopefan,

Good job on the out of conference schedules. Can't give Greg an opening he'll make you pay. Elmhurst should be a Top 25 team or higher all season long. Plus K to both of you for the comments. I did see the CHL  comment/picture coming Greg, as soon as I saw the words, failure and communicate in the same sentence.  

Thanks, Prestidigitator. I'm glad that somebody recognized the picture. It'd be a shame if nobody who reads this room had ever seen that classic movie.

Strother Martin was absolutely perfect in that role.

[Gregory Sager]

Yes, he was.

[Denny McKinney]

I saw the page number and got excited. Just to find out the CCIW needed more room to post. Oct. 15th is right around the corner Hopefan. Enjoy!