MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[fcnews]

Fontbonne is also dealing with a couple of injuries. Cartez Parker returns to practice today, after missing two weeks with a ankle sprain. Chad Fournie is dealing with a heal spur condition.

Fu's first opponent in Chicago is Wm. Penn. The Statesman are currently 3-1 with one more game against Peru St. before meeting the Griffins. Wm. Penn is coming off a 25-9 season and it's second consecutive conference championship in the Midwest Classic Conference.

[hopefan]

At initial glance, the opening night of hoops should generate some good competitve games for the SLIAC.
Only Eureka, opening at Whitewater, would seemingly be looked at as a decided underdog- but it will be a great experience for the team - having been up at Whitewater to watch Wash U and Hope play last year, Eureka can expect to play in front of a large spirited crowd - great atmosphere.  Regardless of the outcome, it will be an experience they won't forget.

The rest of the games could all be close
Fontbonne plays William Penn, already 3-1 on the season - looking at their box scores, they shoot a lot of 3's, over 20 a game, but must not run too wildly though, as their scores generally have been in the 70's.  The two conference championships in a row should not be too intimidating - Wm Penn was 0-3 vs D3 teams last year.
Webster plays Transylvania - always a good opponent - they've held their own in the tough HCAC - looked good when I saw them at Maryville 2 years ago.
Lincoln Christian opens with Great Lakes Christian - GLC has already played 4 games - not sure how they did....
MacMurray plays in the Adrian tourney against home team Adrian - Adrian is a tough place to play -long trip  but Adrian is not usually better than a 500 team in the MIAA - Mac could give them a game - Best of luck to new coach Todd Creal and his new look squad.
Maryville plays Edgewood at the Platteville tourney - a much more winnable game than if they had to start with Platteville.  One thing about Maryville - Coach Roger's bizarre substitution patterns of last year got many of the kids alot of experience - we'll see if it has paid off this year.  Here's hoping - a great SLIAC season last year would have been even better if MU had been in the mix.
Westminster goes down to Rhodes in Memphis - another game that should be competitive - Rhodes sometimes has a homecourt advantage with a dark older facilty, but we know Westminster is used to that kind of atmosphere with their own historic facility.

Nobody has taken us up on passing along scores  -  FC, I'll phone you - and Yjak has to be out of town this weekend, I'll call you!! Eureka SID, I'll try the number I had for you last year!!   If you are connected to a SLIAC team, perhaps as a manager, announcer, statman, SID, contact me - we pass scores along from  the sites we're at!!!!

[fcnews]

Hopefan - My laptop is now wireless so I will try posting halftime scores. Wm. Penn is a very big squad (6'10, 6'7, 6'6). This will be probably one of the few match ups were the Griffin's will be out sized. I have the same cell #.

[fcnews]

SLIAC Pre Season Coaches Poll is now up on the sliac.org.

[hopefan]

Hmmmm  Fontbonne 5, Webster 4  1st place votes -  wonder what coach didn't vote and why?

Really no surprises there, except MacMurrays huge fall to eighth  -  I'm thinking new coach Todd King Creole and a new face or two may pull them higher.  Anybody who reads this site and attends games, or has contact, Please post scores here when you hear them.

[pantherpride06]

Possibly no vote from Lincoln Christian since they are not an "official" member anymore?  Just a stab.  Good luck to all the teams this weekend as they start play in the Midwest.  HEY, if you are in the Bloomington area or Wheaton (Ill) area, Puget Sound (my new school) is playing in the NCAA III Volleyball National Championship Tournament at IWU and NCAA III Soccer Sectional at Wheaton (Ill) in between all the basketball!

GO PANTHERS / GO LOGGERS

[Gregory Sager]

Maryville plays Edgewood at the Platteville tourney - a much more winnable game than if they had to start with Platteville.

True, but Edgewood was picked second in the preseason poll in the twelve-team NAthC, and the Eagles return a pair of All-NAthC first-teamers in 6'6 senior center Charlie Averkamp (14.3 ppg, 10.3 rpg) and 6'7 junior forward Chris DeMarco (20.0 ppg, 7.2 rpg). The Saints will be up against it on Friday night, regardless of the fact that they aren't facing host UW-Platteville.

[sully309]

I'm not surprised at all at the preseason poll. I think Eureka will finish higher than 6th, of course. The only thing that would have made it better is if Webster and Fontbonne would have tied for the top spot, just so that all the posters could have something else to talk about.

Good run-down of Friday's action, Hopefan. I won't be going to Whitewater, but it looks like I'll be able to listen to the game from home.

I should mention something about the SLIAC site that fans may want to know. The schedule and results page obviously has a different look. That's because SIDs or coaches or other school reps can enter scores anytime and have them show up on the SLIAC site. Basically, the SLIAC is now using the same scoreboard as D3Hoops, so we hopefully won't have to wait until 10 pm every night to get all of the scores. I've noticed during the fall season that when I enter a score, it shows up on the SLIAC site less than a minute later. I think that's pretty cool. The only hurdle is each school having someone reporting the scores in a timely manner. Still, I say all systems go on the Hopefan phone pool.

I was going to point out how loaded the Edgewood team's roster is this year, but Sager beat me to it. That will be a very tough game for Maryville. It should be noted that Edgewood was only picked 2nd in the NAthCon because Aurora is also in the league.

[buncheriffic]

Among the many things to watch for this weekend - please take note as Darin Hoggatt is only 7 points away from 1,000 for his career. Look for the big man to put up 500+ this year.

[fcnews]

FU's first opponent moved to 4-1 last nite. Wm. Penn's only loss was the season opener Spring Arbor who is now 4-2. Wm. Penn is led by a transfer from Wash. St.. Looking at their roster WP will be a tough match up for the Griffin's. I know they lost to all DIII opponents last year, but playing a team with five games under their belt will be a challenge.

Cartez Parker has been cleared to practice for the first time since the opening week. Parker will need to be healthy before facing WU on 12/5.

I was suprised by the pre season poll. WU was conference co-champs and return to excellent seniors. Remember FU finished fourth and lost one of the best players in the SLIAC in Trevor White. We will soon know more.

Congrats in advance to Darrin. Probably one of the top 5-6 posts in SLIAC's short history.

[BunchTime]

Interesting note:

Darrin Hoggatt is 7 points shy of the 1,000 point milestone.  He will certainly be achieiving this feat this weekend.  He will be only the 7th Gorlok to hit the 1,000 point plateau.  Furthermore, he is only 220 points shy of being number two on the all-time scoring list.  Hoggatt has already had an excellent career and hopefully his last year is his best one yet!  Congrats!

[fcnews]

A tidbit of info on next years scheduling:
Fontbonne will give the St. Louis fans an oppurtunity to sse the much talked about "System". They will host Grinnell College on 01/07. This game has been discussed since back in the day, when Coach McKinney's son Dino set the carreer record (at that time) for 3pts. made at 403. It was a pretty lofty number back then.
It was made even more impressive since he had only 16 as a freshmen at Missouri Baptist. Before anyone says the coaches son must of been a gunner (which he was), he posted a carreer 3pt fg.% of 49.7.

Also, the Wheaton game I spoke about earlier was a scheduling problem. Wheaton's only available date conflicted with an already scheduled meeting with Wash U.

Good luck to all the SLIAC teams this weekend. For those fans traveling, have a safe trip.

[hopefan]

Will circle that date  -  have always wanted to see the system at work -  Very exciting news for Fontbonne and SLIAC fans  ...   now FC, if we could only get Hope down to St Louis....

[fcnews]

Hope - They wouldn't be a cupcake.

[oldschool32]

Who do everyone think will win the conference this year?  Will Eureka pull it off, or will MacMurray stay on top?   I think that it's kind of up for grabs, the teams tied for fifth last year (Westminster, Greenville) were only three games behind.  Who are the teams to watch for?  The players to watch for, starters and bench role players?