MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[fcnews]

Have Great Day, Hopefan

POY - is based predominitly on conference play. In that case I'll take Regan and no ones close for second.

Cam - Ditto, from me!

[Daryl L Lloyd]

To bad I did not get to say good-bye to the mental midget before he was dismissed, I guess some on this board did not or do not find his particular brand of simple minded wit humorous.

As for the POY question Im out of the loop on this, as I have stated I have not been able to attend many games this season.  

FC:  Forget the wings, buy the beer, although I havent ventured to McClain's in a while.  How was the game, wish I could have made it.  

[fcnews]

Hey Daryl - It was nice to see Mr. Watterkotte at last nites contest. "Watterkotte Attorney at Law" has a nice ring.

It was not the game I was expecting. FU did not start Storandt or Kirkpatrick due to circumstances. They didn't see action for the first 9 minutes. Storandt ended with 15 and 6. But, basically WU's three point shooting woke up 10-18 (Spinner 5-9) and that was the difference. I must say it was not the best FU or WU teams I've seen in awhile. Rather of watched a Griffin v. Gorlock alumni game. Now that would sell tickets. Will buy ya that beer after the return game. I forgot wings are not in your diet.

[20eagle31]

congrats on blackburn getting another win while playing a team with more size.  seems to me that blackburns guards are pretty salty and there post defence is not to shabby.  i guess they just find ways to get it done. blackburn hands down has the best guard play in the sliac.  just think what they could do with a scoring threat inside. blackburn has now been tops in the conference for atleast 3 of the past 4 seasons. maybe it is time to start givin that program some credit. o and somebody give them some athletic facilities please.
keep gettin after it fellas.

[pantherpride]

Big Weekend of Basketball as the SLIAC End's the first round with some crutial games.

Webster at Greenville:  Greenville took one on the chin at the hands of Westminster which puts them in a sticky spot early in the conference season.  Being from Greenville, gotta pull for my Panthers, however, this one will be tough.

Blackburn at Fontbonne:  Blackburn has impressed me very much through six games.  Fontbonne will play well, but Blackburn prevails pretty handedly.

Westminster at MacMurray:  This one could be a barn burner.  Both team are also looking to get a snug position in the conference standings.  Pulling for Mac in this one with that high scoring offense.

Principia at Maryville:  Prin gave us a little scare mid way through the second Tuesday Night, cutting the 15 point lead to one at one point, but never could overtake the lead.  Maryville should have an easy time picking up win #6 v. Prin.

[hopefan]

Looking over Pantherpride's remarks regarding weekend games:

Prin at Maryville  :  This game shouldn't be close, though Coach Rogers will keep it from getting too out of hand by giving a lot of minutes to the non starters.
Interesting point - Mike Turpen will get a few minutes in this game to start testing his achy knees.  If he could come back for the 2nd half of the conference, his outside shooting threat coupled with Regan and Hebl give Maryville superb perimeter scoring depth.

Webster at Greenville  -  I'm going to pass up my favorite locals, Maryville, to go see this game.  A total contrast with Webster's strong inside game, and Greenville's quickness and outside shooting.  Both teams need this game, but Greenville needs it more.  However, Webster has the guards that could defend Greenville, Greenville doesn't have the size to counter Webster.... Webster in a close one.

Blackburn at Fontbonne  -  I can hope all I want for an upset, but i don't think it will happen.  Hope FCnews will give us a report.

Westminster at Mac  -  Pantherpride referred to Mac's high scoring offense, but I didn't see any evidence of it on Wednesday night.  In fact, I saw a team that was in pretty serious disarray.  Westminster evidently plays its best ball vs Maryville, as it seems I overestimated their chances of beating Blackburn, but I think they should win this game easily.  Note, I know everyone wanted MacMan5 off this board with his trashy talk, but he was right when he told us that Mac's starting point guard would not play vs Maryville.

[macnews]

HF, went to game Wed but didn't read your post until after, otherwise would have looked you up. 

Sat. games I will go with Blackburn, Maryville, Westminster as much as I hate it, but Mac is having some problems, and I'm going out on a limb here, Greenville. 

I'm hoping with Mac's game at home some calmness will come and some adjustments have been made at practices.  Now with Seth W. out of the picture there needs to be some changes.  It to bad he couldn't hang in there, great kid.

[fcnews]

I hope Blackburn is looking past this game. If they are it could be closer then they bargained for.

Sorry eagle - but until I see blackburn it's hard to imagine better guard combo then MU. I'll keep an open mind.

Big Thanks to Pat !!!!!

[20eagle31]

well fcnews you may want to start imagining it. lets just go with bc and mu last match-up at the beaverdome. hebl-8pts and reagan-11pts for maryville.  for blackburn: Hammand-20pts, Waters-13pts, Allan-14pts, and Djedovic-12pts. mcwhorter and stevens are solid guards also. just think what a player like Bash would bring to a team with these guards.
pics-maryville over prin big
       webster over greenville
       bc over fu
       wc over mac

[Mac Attack]

HopeFan: Whalem wasn't Mac's starting point gurad. Kevin Downham is the starting point guard and he's done a very solid job all season long. Whalem was coming off the bench. Earlier in the season, when Mac was going with the "five in, five out" system, Whalem was getting a chunk of minutes. But as the turnovers (and losses) mounted, Mac went back to a ten-man rotation. While I'm extremely disappointed in the way the season has unfolded for the Highlanders, as I'm sure Coach DeNeve is, they did the right thing by dumping the "system" and going back to a more traditional style of play. I think it will make it easier to recruit players, and it will reward the team's best players with the most opportunities. The early season loss of Birch, and the mid-term loss of Long, Greene and Saunders really hurt the team's depth and competition in practice. Whalem had a role to play on the team, but apparently he felt he deserved a larger role and walked away. That happens, and it hurts when good kids do it. I know it's a long season and many things happen that can impact a team's success over the course of three-four months. But the Mac team that played at Millikin it first game of the season looked tough - real tough. And they've had some really hard-to-take close losses since then. But it comes down to execution at both ends of the floor, and little things like helping out on defense, blocking out on the boards, hitting your free throws, shot selection, and taking care of the basketball (especially at critical moments). While Mac will graduate some tough kids who have really contributed - especially Eberhart and Downham - they have a solid group coming back. And if Birch, Long, Greene, and Saunders all return - and I think they will - and they can land 3-4 recruits, I think they'll be ready to go. But let's not give up on this season yet - still some games to play, and Mac is capable of getting it done. Go Highlanders!

[Daryl L Lloyd]

After Eagle posted the information about the gaurd play of BC vs MU when they faced each other I went back and checked the box score, something just seemed odd.  I noticed that the Beaver guards (almost all of them) scored half thier points at the charity strip, where MU scored almost none.  Was anyone at this game that can explain what went on to cause this? Thanks. 

[Make_Believe]

My picks for tomorrow's games...
Principia over Maryville
Fontbonne over Blackburn
Webster and Greenville is a toss-up
and lastly, Mac over Westminster

More on Mac later.

[hopefan]

Bad memories, Darryl, bad memories.  Go back two or three pages and read my review of the game....  it pretty well answers your question...   

[ganno65]

Daryl L Lloyd

In the first half it looked like MU wanted to feed everything into the post and had success with that. At the end of the first half and beginning of the second half Blackburn went on a run. In response to the run the MU guards started putting up some 3 pointers, pretty successfully, that is until the BC defense tightened up. The MU guards about midway through the second half began driving the ball into the lane and were called several times for the charging foul. The Refs in that game were not consistant with their calls, at times they would let them play while other times they made some ticky tack calls. I know both teams weren't very happy with some of the calls made by the officials. The MU guards were in foul trouble for a good portion of the second half. So my guess is that had something to do with the lack of points scored by the MU guards at the charity stripe.

I expect a good game between the two teams when they meet at Maryville!! Hopefully the officials will let the two teams duke it out. Both teams are physical defenders and fly around. I would love to see a game between the two teams where they can just go at it!!! Good luck Blackburn Beavers!!!

[hopefan]

good response Ganno65.   Funny thing is, as a Maryville fan, I pretty much saw what the refs were calling, except that "phantom" 5th on Regan (see my writeup about the game back two or three pages).  The rematch should be a great game - and hopefully a third game for the conference championship.