MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[hopefan]

Speaking of recognition, the SLIAC got, not one, but TWO games listed on the D3 Pick Em League slate this week.

Principia at Spalding
Eureka at Greenville

Definitely moving up in the D3 World!!!!!!

[hopefan]

Just to note... the Prin-Spalding game that was to be tonight has been pushed out to Thursday... inclement weather closed the Spalding Campus today...

[Gregory Sager]

He coughs up the ball more than my cat coughs up hairballs. I'm still finding hairballs and I haven't had my cat for 10 years...and I've moved twice.

[hopefan]

What's going on tonight in the SLIAC.... some critical games, that's what!!!

Huge to both is the Westminster at Blackburn game... only a week or two ago, these two teams seemed to share the spotlight as the unsung favorites to make the conference tourney... but a couple of big wins doesn't guarantee anything, and these two teams are beginning to nosedive in the standings... one will get a reprieve tonight... Westminster is 2-2 since Kobe Wands went down with a leg injury, but niether of those wins were against the other 6  so called conference contenders.... they'll nedd to show that they can beat a contender, starting tonight... no one is telling me what the status of K Wands is...let's hope... Westmin's next 5 games are against contenders....   Blackburn hasn't lost any players to injury, but lost 2 close games on the road after their huge win over Greenville...I'm sure they're happy to be back on their home court tonight....and unless Kobe Wands appears, I feel pretty comfortable forecasting a Blackburn win tonight...

Eureka travels to Fontbonne.... It seems pretty obvious this is likely to be another learning experience for the Griffs... It's a long trip for Eureka, and I guess this is a trap game, a letdown could be possible, but I don't see Coach Wilde allowing that to happen....There could be a lot of points on the scoreboard by the end of this one....

MacMurray at Iowa Wesleyan... each team with two wins, not totally out of things, but either obviously MUST win this one to make a push to catch the front runners.... Still no explanation for Mac's Brent Long not seeing the ball in the win over Westminster, but Davis and Cameron took up the slack nicely... surely that can't be the game plan tonight???... Iowa Wesleyan has been very competitive at home, and Brock Butler continues to fill it up... if he gets the new found scoring help from Jake Neubauer, and Mitch Drey plays AGAIN, Wez may have enough points on the board to win this one....

The Biggest game of the night is Greenville at Webster... huge doubleheader as the ladies' game is also critical to the standings... I'm sure the conference will be rooting for a Webster win to bring GC back in the standings to the main group of contenders, but I'm not so sure it will happen... Webster's youth is prone to turnovers, and this will be just about everyone's first look at the system... how will they handle it?   BUT... lookie, lookie... Coach Bunch is 4-0 vs the system since GC came in with it 2 seasons ago... Perhaps he knows the secret, but can the Gorlocks carry out the game plan...  and heck, Greenville is really playing well... super leadership for a hoard of new faces from  Johari Dix, and the new guys seem to love the system...

[Greek Tragedy]

It's a big day in fantasy land too. No wife tonight, so hopefully I'll be able to catch a game online. I'll give the kid some goldfish and the tv controller and I should be set for 2 hours!

I'm back to hoarding SLIAC players as I traded for Brock Butler and also added Bennington to my stacked roster. I'm expecting big things from my Eureka duo of Feehan and Bennington this week with games against two of the top three worst defenses in the league. My two other guys are going head to head tonight as well. Butler's Iowa Wesleyan takes on Long's MacMurray. I really hope Long's performance last time out was an exception to his performance and doesn't become the norm especially since he's going up against a team that gives up 96 points a game.

I'll keep an eye on the live stats of the other two just for fun. A poster in the One and Done League took THREE Webster guys hoping for some System points, so I'll want to see those points spread out to prevent a run away in this week's games. Last week the two posters that took Davidson and Goodman against the System had huge weeks. I don't anticipate 50+ points from any of the Webster guys tonight. Not much interest in the last game, but it will be interesting to see if Kobe Wands returns.

A thought crossed my mind about heading to the SLIAC conference tourney if Eureka hosted (a manageable 4 1/2 hrs) for a Friday/Saturday trip, but my hopes and dreams were crushed when I found out this is the year they do Thursday/Saturday.

[hopefan]

Tonight.... Shea Feehan!!!!!!  Goes for 44....

[hopefan]

So had fun last night with all 4 games lined up across the top of the computer, hit the button, watch the game....and the timing was such that had the games been close, I could have watched the ending of each... unfortunately, only one was really close..

The best game, the close one, was Eureka-Fontbonne... geesh, Fontbonne again shows it can play with anyone in the league, game was tied 76-76 with 3 and a half minutes left, but from there on, Fontbonne could not make a critical shot, missing 7 reasonable good shots in a row as Eureka put the game out of reach... Shea Feehan was unstoppable, 13 for 19 from the field, 16 for 20 from FT on a night when Thomas and Bennington were slightly off the mark...

Elsewhere, Webster got embarrassed down 36 at half to Greenville....my fears of turnovers were realized as the Gorlocks threw it away 21 times in the first half, giving up 74 points to Greenville... GC played out the string in the 2nd half winning by 24..Marvin Bateman led the charge for Greenville with 8 for 10 shooting from 3's, 28 points.... yes a couple of guys had big numbers for Webster, but hardly worth mentioning when you lose that badly....

Mac hung around at Iowa Wesleyan, Westminster did the same at Blackburn, but in reality both games were relative yawners, and the winners were pretty evident with lots of time left in the games...Brock Butler had an off night for IWU, but Mitch Drey picked it up with a career night, 26 points, 8 boards, 6 assists.....Blackburn won a defensive struggle (or maybe a "lack of offense" struggle), no one had noteworthy numbers, but I like Malcolm Scott's quiet 12 and 8 night....

Principia-Spalding tonight if the road to Louisville has cleared of snow and ice....


Finally, I liked that Greek questioned one or two things on my All-Conference to date system... as something to whet the whistles of anyone who cares, I'm going to let you, the readers, know when individual players max out with "5" in my rating system on each game night....

Last night I awarded 5's to the following  (it matches my writeups exactly)
Shea Feehan  44 points on 13 for 19, 16 for 20 shooting in Eureka's win
Marvin Bateman  28 points on 8 for 10 from 3's. 7 boards, 3 blocks, no turnovers in Greenville's win
Mitch Drey 26 points on 9 for 13 shooting, 8 rebounds, 6 assists

[y_jack_lok]

^^^ Re Greenville/Webster -- Gorloks definitely no match for the system, especially in the first half. Second half was better for Webster -- and It's not as though Greenville backed off or used third and fourth units a lot. They don't have a fourth unit. Eleven Greenville guys played all but 8 of the minutes. A learning experience for Webster.

[Greek Tragedy]

Webster v Greenville from Fantasy Land:

Webster's Davion Joseph goes for 23 pts and 19 rebs totalling 47 fpts.

Nigel Wilcox betters Joseph by going for 33 and 20, good for 52 fpts.

No one in the One and Done League picked either player. Crespo, Johnson and Tankins were all taken. Johnson was the only one that did (semi) well.

[hopefan]

Very meaningful game tonight as Prin travels to Spalding.... winner is in 3rd place alone with 3 losses, one loss behind leaders Eureka and Greenville that have 2 losses... loser will be grouped in the middle of the standings with the pack of Blackburn, Webster and Westminster at 4 losses.  Spalding is tough at home having beaten Webster and Blackburn, and losing close to Westminster when Westminster had Kobe Wands...Prin likes to score, Spalding plays defense, should be a good game....

[hopefan]

ok I was out for the evening, come back to see the final score... Splding 87  Prin 75... first thing that jumps out is a pretty big difference in free throws, Spalding 19 for 26, Prin 9 for 13, and that Trevon Goodman fouled out playing 27 minutes... I kind of chuckled thinking friendly home court officiating, but I've seen far greater discrepancies...

THEN my eyes wandered down... Prin FOUR Technicals.. Goodman, Ross, 2 team... that is just not right, not justifiable under any circumstances.. I wonder if the Commish gets involved in situations like this... Ross and Goodman have each had T's in recent games too, but they evidently haven't learned... Goodman seems to react poorly to the slightest provocation... I hope to see the video of the game, I'll write more if I do see it to describe the situations in which the T's occurred... I've kind of been rooting for Prin the whole season due to their 5+1 man rotation, but it's very hard to support them in this situation....

[Greek Tragedy]

I'm with you on this one. I like Principia for that fact and I enjoy seeing their big fantasy outputs playing with a 5 and 1 aspect. But, you gotta get your guys under control. After two ok performances by Mr. Paulson, I dropped him and then, of course, he goes for 28 pts and 7 rebounds (on par from his Greenville game output, minus the 10 turnovers) and produces 41 fpts. I think he had 37 fpts against Greenville and had less than 30 in the Fontbonne game. Go figure.

[hopefan]

Saturday... a full slate of SLIAC games

The biggest game of the SLIAC season thus far... Coleaders Eureka vs Greenville, at Greenville.... Eureka dominated in the first matchup between the two, 131-109.... both teams have a huge addition to the lineup since that game, with Greenville getting back Sonti Grady who was out with injury, Eureka adding Dakota Bennington at semester... Greenville has gotten much better quickly since that bad loss, this should be a high scoring shootout the whole way... wish I was there... the winner gets first place to themselves....

Blackburn at MacMurray... Blackburn won first time around at home, 88-82.... Mac hasn't shown the depth that Blackburn has, I'm not sure how they can stay with them... huge game for BC, can't afford a loss to the bottom 3....

Spalding at Fontbonne... Splading won 82-76 first time... just like BC, a crucial game for Spalding against one of the non-contenders.... wish Luke DeLine was in the lineup... but I still smell strong upset possibilities in this one....Need McCann, Wiggins to step up, help their young teammates over the hump...

Westminster at Webster... Westmin clobbered Webster first time, but had Kobe Wands then... both teams in a swoon now... winner stays alive, loser is really beginning to put themselves in a bad place.... I see Webster getting over the Greenville debacle and winning this one...but watch out for turnovers...

Iowa Wes at Principia.... prin won 85-78 at Iowa Wez... Trevaughn Goodman had a big game first time around, who will stop him this time?  I HOPE that Prin cleans up their act after the 4 T display at Spalding.... I hope fans and admin alike push the team in that positive direction....

[hopefan]

 hopefan standings after Wednesday/Thursday games

for now, splitting the league into 7 contenders, 3 non contenders Mac, Fontbonne, Iowa Wesleyan)

Contenders are expected to win at home against everyone, and not lose to non contenders at home or away

+1 for a road win vs a contender
-1 for a home loss to a contender
-1 for any loss to a non contender


Greenville   +1   Won at Webster

Eureka       +1    won at Westminster

Principia      0   all results as they should be

Blackburn  -1   loss to Iowa Wesleyan     (note BC losses to Webster, Spalding, Principia were all on the road)

Webster      -1   lost at home to Greenville

Westminster -1   lost to MacMurray, won at Spalding, lost at home to Eureka

Spalding     -2       lost at home to Westminster, lost to MacMurray

So if everything goes as it should the rest of the way, we'd finish with Greenville/Eureka tied for first, Prin alone in 3rd, and BC, Webster, Westmin tied for the final spot, with Spalding out....Why Prin in 3rd?  because they have 4 games at home vs contenders and only 2 on the road...win those 4 at home, plus win 3 vs non contenders, that would be 7 and 2 the rest of the way, 12 and 6 overall....

[Greek Tragedy]

I wonder if Kobe Wands is ever coming back.