MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Gregory Sager]

Good point, Ryan.

[GU1999]

Not injuries.  Illness.  The broadcasters during the NCC game did not say COVID, but did say that illness was the reason for the JV call-ups. 

[hopefan]

Back in SLIAC country for Thanksgiving holiday, but time to be spent with family and friends doesn't allow for any game time....  Happy Thanksgiving to all!!!

[GU1999]

Back in SLIAC country for Thanksgiving holiday, but time to be spent with family and friends doesn't allow for any game time....  Happy Thanksgiving to all!!!

Happy Thanksgiving to you also!  Enjoy your family and being in the greatest season of them all, Fall. 

[GU1999]

SLIAC is off to an 0 and 10 start. 

Between now and November 25 there will be 39 additional games played.  If I were handicapping these 39 based on what I currently know, I would have the SLIAC favored in 4 of the games and all four are home games for the SLIAC.

Spalding v. Boyce on the 15th
Eureka v Knox on the 17th
Greenville v. Northpark on the 20th
Fontbonne v. Lincoln Christian on Nov 23rd

Of course any of these games could be won.   Massey has the SLIAC going 2 and 37 during this stretch with only the wins coming against Boyce and Lincoln Christian.  If correct, the SLIAC would be off to a 2 and 47 start. 

Lets hope I am wrong.

I was REALLY wrong.  Since getting off to an 0 - 10 start, the SLIAC is 8 - 7.  With wins over Buena Vista, Simpson x2, York (NY), Dominican, Boyce, WashU, and Central (IA). 

Let's keep rolling SLIAC. 

GU, the last winless SLIAC team, may be that way for awhile.  I would like to think that the North Park game on Saturday would be a really good chance to get win #1 (and it may be), but I fear that NPU is a much better than the last time these two teams faced off.  During the 2018/9 season, the game at NPU resulted in a 40 point difference (153-113) and Dr. Barber taking the press off for the last half of the 2nd.

After the 0 - 10 the league managed to go 15-19 during my arbitrary pre-turkey day timeline. 

[y_jack_lok]

Happy Thanksgiving!

[WUPHF]

The Webster Women's basketball team defeats Augustana.  It is early but Massey has the undefeated Gorlocks ranked No. 50.

[y_jack_lok]

The Webster Women's basketball team defeats Augustana.  It is early but Massey has the undefeated Gorlocks ranked No. 50.

Webster women off to the best start in program history at 7-0 after that 81-74 win over Augie. After only scoring 5 points in the second quarter the Gorloks scored 38 in the 3rd to build an 18 pont lead going into the 4th and held on for the win. Nice to see that this is all reflected in the Massey stats.

Update: Just checked and Massey now has Webster at #44, but SoS is only 292. Augie is #47 with an SoS of 61.

[hopefan]

Something I came across that I never realized... Kevin Gray, long time head coach at Spalding....  played at Tennessee Chattanooga

"Kevin Gray was a sharp-shooting left-handed guard for the Mocs from 1973-76.  He led UTC to the 1976 NCAA Division II National Championship game and was MVP of the South Region that season.

Gray posted 1,385 career points over 113 games in his four-year career.  A four-year starter and three-year captain, Gray averaged 12.3 ppg.  He shot 51.3% from the field and 80.5% from the free throw line.  He was also the team MVP following his senior season."

[hopefan]

In early November, I posted it would be interesting to follow the progress of 3 long time SLIAC coaches towards the 300 career win mark.... I said it would be tough, but it certainly looks even tougher as we hit mid December...

Westminster Coach Matt Mitchell started the year with 291 wins and has picked up 4 more non conference wins thus far, totaling 295 wins to date.... with 2 non conference and a full 14 conference games schedule remaining, Coach Mitchell has an excellent shot at reaching 300 by season's end.... but the SLIAC looks extremely evenly matched, the 5 needed wins are far from a given..    My bet is yes, we see it..

Greenville Coach George Barber started out with 288 wins, but has picked up only one more this season to get to 289.... 3 non conference and 14 SLIAC games remain, but it remains to be seen whether all the Greenville new faces will have advanced enough to dominate SLIAC play and push to the 300 wins this season...

Webster Coach Chris Bunch started the season with 287 wins and has picked up only 1 more in non conference games....so now at 288.... Very disappointing from the little I've seen..  the talent is there, but wow, little team play... vast improvement is necessary if 12 more wins are to be accomplished this season....

I would also note I failed to mention earlier that Coach Kevin Gray of Spalding has already reached the 300 career wins mark... hitting it in the 2018-19 season.... however because Spalding was not an NCAA team for many of those years, a large portion of those wins occurred in the NAIA or the USCAA... my brief search could not find an exact number of wins for him....

[y_jack_lok]

Something I came across that I never realized... Kevin Gray, long time head coach at Spalding....  played at Tennessee Chattanooga

"Kevin Gray was a sharp-shooting left-handed guard for the Mocs from 1973-76.  He led UTC to the 1976 NCAA Division II National Championship game and was MVP of the South Region that season.

Gray posted 1,385 career points over 113 games in his four-year career.  A four-year starter and three-year captain, Gray averaged 12.3 ppg.  He shot 51.3% from the field and 80.5% from the free throw line.  He was also the team MVP following his senior season."

I had to do a little research because my alma mater, Randolph-Macon, was  D2 in basketball in the 1970s and made it to the championship game one year. So I got to wondering if they'd ever played Tennesse Chattanooga. Turns out it was in  1977 that they played in the championship and lost to Chattanooga, one year after Coach Gray must have graduated when his team lost the championship game to Puget Sound, which is now a D3 school.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCAA_Division_II_Men's_Basketball_Tournament

[WUPHF]

Webster Coach Chris Bunch started the season with 287 wins and has picked up only 1 more in non conference games....so now at 288.... Very disappointing from the little I've seen..  the talent is there, but wow, little team play... vast improvement is necessary if 12 more wins are to be accomplished this season....

I have watched minutes from a number of Webster games and they look generally look good to me, but obviously they are not putting things together.

[WUPHF]

Fontbonne beat a quality NAIA scholarship school in Missouri Baptist tonight. 

The Griffins shot 54% from the field and 50% from three-point range en route to a 94-80 victory.  25 assists.  10 steals.  6 players finished in double figures.

[hopefan]

The thing that stands out to me regarding the Fontbonne - Mo Bap result is that Mo Bap beat Webster by 30 a couple weeks ago.... Note, the win over Webster is Mo Bap's only win of the season....

[WUPHF]

Note, the win over Webster is Mo Bap's only win of the season....

Missouri Baptist is 7-7.