MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[MU fan]

Should be interesting tonight.  Klein should be back in the line up but I'm not sure how much time he will get.  Maryville has had a few issues as a team but all decided to be men and handle everything as a team.  Heard some news about Rezabeck and it sounds as if he might be out for a long while because of his back.  Hope Maryville doesn't underestimate their opponent tonight because if they come out and play their game, they should not have a problem.  They have a tendancy to play to the level of the other team though.  That can be a great thing when they are out matched or a very bad thing if they were to do that tonight.  Well, I will be at Greenville tonight to see it. 

Hope they come out ready....

[fcnews]

Hopefan again you didn't read my entire post. I said I was using Maryville as an example and not implying anything directly. My comments were the result of some discussions about spring sports. DON'T put me in the position of stirring things up. I have know knowledge of the Saints team situations and did not represent that. Just setting the record straight.

[fcnews]

Halftime MC 36 FU 32

[fcnews]

Final MC 77 FU 70 - more later.

[hopefan]

back from Greenville, where Maryville beat Gville 96-71.  1st half wasn't like that though, with Greenville leading 47-46.  Greenville shot lights out from 3, hitting 7 in the first half, and gave MU alot of trouble with full court pressure.  In the second half, Maryville stepped up the defense, Greenville shots stopped falling, and Maryville pulled away.

Maryville's offense ran well. The Big 3 tonite were wings Hebl and Regan, and Ryan Klein returning from his brief sabbatical coming off the bench.  Hebl finished with 5 3's and 30, Regan with 26 and a boatload of free throws, and Klein with 17 including 4 monster dunks.  Bash scored little, but did his usual dominating job on the boards.  Frosh Matt Baker had a brief spell where he had 8 points around the basket, but all in all the bench crew again did not play to the level expected.  Coach Rodgers system calls for a large amount of time from non starters, particularly in the first half - wish some of these guys would step up more consistently.

Greenville is athletic and quick, and as I mentioned, shot extremely well, but they are VERY weak inside.  They are capable of playing with anyone in the conference, and as I said about Webster, are contenders for the 4 team conference tourney.  Speaking of Webster, congrats on their first conf win tonite over Westminster

[Mac Attack]

Mac played pretty well last night, start to finish. Congratulations to the coaches and players! Shot selection was a little better and the defense was solid. It helps to be able to match up with a team similar in size. Mac still gives up too many lay-ups and makes too many silly turnovers, but they rebound tough and play hard. Mac will be in the conference mix if they can win a game or two on the road and win at home. Academics, injuries, and financial issues have reduced the roster, but they have enough left to be competitive in the SLIAC. At 3-9, I'm not ready to stand in line for play-off tickets quite yet - but at 1-1 in the conference, it's a whole new ballgame. Nice to see Birch, Long and Greene on the sidelines last night. Hopefully Saunders will return as well and they can all come back next season and play a big role in the rebuilding of the program.

[hopefan]

Blackburn  beats Prin as expected.....  So MU and BC are 2-0, FC and Prin 0-2, and WC, WU, Mac, and GC have split

Saturday shows
MU at FC  -  road wins are valuable
WC at GC  -  tossup
BC at Webster - Can Webster build on Wednesday's win?
Prin at Mac  -  no upset here.

[MWCSID2005]

The Midwest Conference will webcast four contests with live audio and video free of charge on Friday, January 13.

The matchups feature Grinnell College at Lawrence University and Lake Forest College at Ripon College. The women's contests tip-off at 5:30 p.m. with the men's contests to follow at 7:30 p.m. Links to the webcast are available at www.midwestconference.org and on the athletic websites of each participating institution.

The release linked below gives more information on the webcast, as well as previews for each contest.

http://www.midwestconference.org/wbasketball/WebStreamJan12.pdf

[fcnews]

I would like to mention on highlight for FU in last nights loss. Freshmen Justin Storandt had his second straight double - double in conference play. Scoring 14 pts. and 17 rebounds ( based on MC's stat crew ), this gives him 32 rebounds in two games. At 6'8 and growing Justin is playing the 4 and a lot at the 3 spot, a good mid range shooter and improving around the basket. He will be force in this conference for a while.

I might of been to optimistic in my expectations of this young team, but am excited in FU's decision to rebuild instead of just reloading. Winning with five freshmen on the floor is tough at any level. Looking towards the future Storandt, Kirkpatrick, Fogerty and the addition of Sheppard gives FU a good base of size. Patrick McCoy, Matt Reeband sophmore Andrew Alamany give the  Griffins a good core of guards to build on. If they do go the Juco route to add a point and some maturity the future still looks bright.

I would also like to appauld the Mac coaching staff for turning to a more tradititonal style of ball. I said on this site last year that Mac had the talent to be a much better team then they showed in the "system".

[pantherpride]

Hopefan:

It was great seeing you again back in "The Jungle" in Greenville.  We did play a tough first half.  The second half was what was fustrating for me.  We played so well in the first half of play.  We fell off the table.

That SLIAC is going to be a tough conference.

Greenville at Westminster.  Should be another battle between the birds and cats out there.

[fcnews]

Final from Fontbonne - MU 73 FU 61
The SLIAC's best back court was to much for the Griffins, Regan and Hebl, combined for 38 pts. FU had trouble with MU's transition game and Hebl hit the big 3 when the Saints needed it. After being down by as much as 12 in the first half FU cut the lead to 44 -38 at the half. FU started the second half cutting the score to 44-42 before going 5 mins. without scoring.

A loss is a loss, but I was extremely proud of the young FU squad they played hard and with alot of desire against a much more experienced Saints team. FU handled MU's interior play holding Bash to 4 points and 5 boards in 26 minutes of play. After allowing the visitors to shoot 51% from the feild the first half the Griffins held MU to 26 % in the 2nd and only 1-8 from the three's.

Today's game may have been one of the best officaiated games I've seen from a SLIAC crew in quite awhile. Even though MU shot 28 ft to FU's 15, FU made some stupid fouls and fouled to stop Regan from scoring lay-ups in transistion. Matt was 12-14 from the line. FU after giving up 44 pts in the 1st half held MU to 29 in the second, but couldn't score when we had oppurtunities.

As long as these kids play hard and don't quit you can't ask for much more.

[hopefan]

As I said going in, road wins are valuable, and I breath a sigh of relief as MU gets by Fontbonne.  Fontbonne's young team was really impressive...  I really liked Storant and Fogerty; can't figure out why Kirkpatrick isn't more involved with the ball.  And all 3 are frosh!!!!
Maryville  well, nickname them the streaks.  As in Streaky - They blazed up and down the court the first 12-14 minutes, then basicly played flat the rest of the game.  Hebl came back to earth after shooting lights out 5 halves in a row, Regan kept drawing fouls, Bash and Klein disappeared offensively.  My unsung man of the game was Mccarthy... a couple of key bounds, a few points that seemed to make a difference.  Nice to see Steinke score some points, but the bench still fails to keep the flow going.

[fcnews]

Yes Hopefan 12 freshmen 1 sophmore 1 junior (Fournie is soph. academically). Coach Rogers was forced to play his Seniors more then usual because FU made their runs when MU's under classmen were on the floor. And your right if Steinke adds some weight he'll be a nice player. FU's interior defense has been playing well all year, that could explain Bash and Kliens lack of offense. Brian Fogerty had 9 pts. and 9 boards and plays with alot of energy. Kirkpatrick does a good job defensively, but is still trying to make the transition offensively playing against players his own size. McCoy had an off day shooting or the score could of been closer. Matt Reeb is picking up the offenses the Griffins run and is going to be a nice player.

Maryville will go as far as this Senior class will carry them. Then the Saints will need to look to rebuild next year. One question, where was Mike Turpin I was interested in seeing him play. Is he one of the injured Saints you've mentioned?

Next up for FU is Principia. This "should" give this young bunch a chance to get some confidence back.

It was great to see Steve Bash back running floor. No one wants to see a kids career end with an injury.

[hopefan]

"Turp" is out suffering with knee tendonitis that popped up over the holidays.  I heard he'll give it another several days rest, then start workouts - back to dressing in a week.  Rezabeck likely out for the year.

[fcnews]

Is it Rezebeck's shoulder again?