MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Webster is an arts-focused liberal arts institution with programs in digital media, journalism, sound design, sports communication, film, television and video production.  I think they are missing an opportunity to provide for hands-on experience by not working closely with athletics, but...

I preach this to schools who either hire me - or call me - for advice. I have run several school's efforts and the whole idea is to provide real-world experience for students before they actually enter the real world. The other idea is to give them experience that differs from the classroom. One school I worked at has a film major and they learn a certain style of doing things. I tell them I am going to teach them something completely different. It is not to say what they are learning in the classroom is wrong, it is to give them more experience and a different perspective giving them more tools in their tool kit for when they work after school.

I'm not sure that most college administrators fully realize the impact, or the potential impact, that webstreaming their athletics events has. It's another portal to the outside world, another venue to make people aware of your school. And people definitely notice (and make judgments based upon) the quality of the production, which includes everything from picture quality to camera angles to technical reliability to replay capacity to the professionalism of the broadcasters. That's why, although North Park's basic game production isn't anything out of the ordinary, NPU shells out money to bring in an outside production company for events such as Homecoming games and postseason tournament soccer matches in which viewership is guaranteed to be higher and the school's exposure to outsiders raised. That brings in multiple camera angles, replays, improved picture and sound, etc.

The other aspect is internal. People pay a lot of money to send their kids to your college, and if they're student-athletes, chances are that their parents and/or relatives will watch at least some of their games through your webstream. You want to get things right for them. You also want to get things right for your alumni constituency that watches online and wants to see that you're keeping up with the Joneses. Granted, SLIAC budgets are on the small end of D3, and that likely extends to such matters as video production, but when the video of your league's most important basketball game is webcast from your gym and the picture looks like somebody's jiggling a Picasso in front of the camera, people come away with a bad impression of your school -- whether that's fair or unfair.

Webstreaming your games gives the world a direct window into your school. Why would you not want to take advantage of that?

They don't fully grasp the opportunities, exposure (including bad), and whatnot. Schools have their heads in the sand when it comes to this stuff ... oh, but they want their graduation and other "big events" web streamed. SMH

[y_jack_lok]

I agree with all that's being said about quality livestreaming of athletic events. I would add that it should be free. For most schools it is, but some still charge -- including fairly high end and well off institutions like Rochester and Rhodes, who should easily be able to convince one or two deep pocketd alums to make tax decuctible contributions cover the cost.

[Gregory Sager]

Rochester's reputation definitely suffers among the people who peruse d3boards.com as a result of that short-sighted policy.

[hopefan]

Didn't realize this conversation was going on until right now...

I had sent an email to numerous members of the athletic staff at Webster prior to my initial post regarding the tourney on line video... first I heard back from SID Ben Greenburg informing me about the outside group doing the tourney... I passed that info along in my post..

Later in the day, I received a brief, but positive note from AD Scott Kilgallon..I'll quote.

"Thank you for your note and thoughts.  Appreciate the feedback.

We will adjust accordingly."

Hoping that this kind of discourse points to improvements next season... If everyone returns to Webster next year(unfortunately history tells us to be wary), Webster has a chance to be very good... good enough to perhaps be mentioned on the national level... they have an opportunity to be seen by more than just the locals in a very positive light...

[hopefan]

Would be nice to see a full house at Webster tonight, but it won't happen... the dismantling of Greenville by Webster last weekend will unfortunately take the glow off the games that might have remained had Webster and Greenville finished with more points and a closer result.... kudos to Webster for playing so well..
I wish the public would recognize how much fun the games tonight will be.. Greenville-Eureka will be totally unlike Greenville Webster... Eureka will run and shoot with Greenville as long as their legs will allow... it will be a super game, and will hopefully match the 300+ points that were scored when they played two weeks ago... and the nightcap Webster-Blackburn will feature relatively evenly matched teams, well coached, potential good shooting from the arc, the hot team will win this game...

Ec is too far away, BC will bring no one... hoping the great GC home support translates to a big crowd from them, and that perhaps the Gorlocks have generated enough interest on campus to generate more than cursory interest... these teams deserve to play in a conference championship atmosphere...

[WUPHF]

If everyone returns to Webster next year (unfortunately history tells us to be wary), Webster has a chance to be very good... good enough to perhaps be mentioned on the national level... they have an opportunity to be seen by more than just the locals in a very positive light...

I have only seen Webster three times in person and two or three times on the live stream, but I have to think you are right about this.

As for the atmosphere, I understand your point, but I am still excited to have the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament back in St. Louis.

I think the turnout will be good tomorrow if Webster advances. 

[GU1999]

Forbes is hyping the tourney today.  Thank you Tim Casey! 

...am I wrong to think that there will be droves of Bentley driving Chesterfield based titans of industry rolling onto campus tonight? 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/timcasey/2019/02/22/how-a-former-rick-pitino-assistant-is-breaking-ncaa-scoring-records/#1109b44f6bad

[hopefan]

If everyone returns to Webster next year (unfortunately history tells us to be wary), Webster has a chance to be very good... good enough to perhaps be mentioned on the national level... they have an opportunity to be seen by more than just the locals in a very positive light...

I have only seen Webster three times in person and two or three times on the live stream, but I have to think you are right about this.

As for the atmosphere, I understand your point, but I am still excited to have the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament back in St. Louis.

I think the turnout will be good tomorrow if Webster advances.

Woooopiff.. I think you are wrong... from all SLIAC tourneys I've seen, Friday doubleheader draws better, four schools, curiosity about other game etc... Saturday final is almost an afterthought...

[hopefan]

Forbes is hyping the tourney today.  Thank you Tim Casey! 

...am I wrong to think that there will be droves of Bentley driving Chesterfield based titans of industry rolling onto campus tonight? 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/timcasey/2019/02/22/how-a-former-rick-pitino-assistant-is-breaking-ncaa-scoring-records/#1109b44f6bad

My gosh.... FANTASTIC!!!!!

[hopefan]

The article in Forbes points out that Greenville, averaging 134.7 ppg, is on track to break the NCAA record of 132.4..

Let's say we want to see Greenville average 133 ppg to solidly break the record..
If they were to lose to Eureka tonight, they would need to score 91 points to average 133
If they beat Eureka, but lose in the championship game, they would need to average 112 ppg in the 2 games to finish at 133
If they win the conference, but lose in the first round of the NCAAs, they would need to average 119 for the 3 games to end at 133.

Go GET EM GC

[WUPHF]

I think you are wrong... from all SLIAC tourneys I've seen, Friday doubleheader draws better, four schools, curiosity about other game etc... Saturday final is almost an afterthought...

I think you are wrong, but I also think we define good turnout differently.

In my mind, good turnout would be a turnout of students, families and friends equivalent to last weekend.  My standards are very low.

[GU1999]

In related news, it will be interesting to see of the SLIAC coaches hold the 200 pt game against the GU elite in all-conference voting which should be revealed tonight. The ladies were announced last night on the first night of their tourney.

Wilcox is Hope's MOP.  Wilcox had a really good conference season on a very good team, but I do think that the numbers need a bit of analyzing.

For the comparison of my Hope's MOP and the two GU candidates, I am using conference season stats (certainly the better statistical portion Wilcox's season):

Wilcox (WU so) 15.3 ppg / 11.4 rpg / 2.6 bpg player with a 1.0 a:to and a shooting slash of 58.4/0.0 / 56.6.  This player played 34 minutes a game which helps normalize a bit for comparison sake with Dix & Williams (see below)  who play roughly 19 mins per game albeit at a high pace.

Dix (GU sr) with his conference numbers of 19.2 ppg/ 6.7 apg / 3.9 rpg / 3.6 spg / 2.7 a:to and a shooting slash of 46.5/35.7/71.9

Williams (GU jr) 25.3 ppg / 7.4 rpg (4.66 orpg) / 2.33 spg / .7 a:to and a shooting slash of 53.6 / 35.6 / 67.3

It would be really fun to see per possession played normalizing stats for each of these three as well as usage percentage stats but I have not seen this information aggregated anywhere.  Maybe the coaches have the benefit of Synergy or some other internal systems to help them with this when they do their voting, but I don't see it posted in a general manner anywhere on the conf or team sites.

Dix and Williams are 1st team caliber, along with Wilcox, Paulson and Tabb. I do however think that the MOP is Dix, even though he does not play for the regular season champ. 

I would be most surprised however, if this award were given to Dix or Williams.   

[WUPHF]

I talked to a friend of mine at Webster.  There are people on-campus who generally do not appreciate varsity athletics who understand that the game tonight (and hopefully tomorrow) is an opportunity to foster school spirit and build community.  Those people are working to turn out the students tonight.  Let's see if it works.

[Greek Tragedy]

I talked to a friend of mine at Webster.  There are people on-campus who generally do not appreciate varsity athletics who understand that the game tonight (and hopefully tomorrow) is an opportunity to foster school spirit and build community.  Those people are working to turn out the students tonight.  Let's see if it works.

FWIW, Webster leads the league in home attendance, 520ish, Eureka is 2nd at 510. It's 2 hr and 45 min away. Manageable. There's got to be some hope for the Red Devils since the beat them once already. What's the general feeling of SLIAC foes and St. Louis area basketball fans in regards to Greenville? Are they kind of over it? Is it still a novelty? Would general basketball fans in the St. Louis area go to the Webster games or this weekend to watch?

[WUPHF]

Would general basketball fans in the St. Louis area go to the Webster games or this weekend to watch?

Last weekend, there were two McKendree alums in front of me that brought there family to watch.  They read about Greenville in the paper.