MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[fcnews]

Good teams win ugly. FU wins to move to 10-3. MU down 3 with 4.5 left and the ball out of bounds under their basket. FU fouls intentionally ( not intentional ). Kid goes to the line makes the first and doesn't try a set play for a tip on the second. What? They foul the in bounds and McCoy makes both. McCoy for MU tries a runner with his foot on the line. The ref had two fingers down while the ball was in the air. Game over on to LCC.

[Gville_Panther]

y_jack had a nice post and it was nice to see the compliments to the greenville boys despite their loss.
webster is a nice team and with their record improving to 5-0 in conference will surely look to be a team to beat. it will be a good game when webster plays westminister.
But, back to my Greenville Panthers, they played a game that had some coaching errors in my opinion and lost one of their key players at the end of the game due to a thumb injury. Coach Barber took out all of his key starting players with 16mins left in the 2nd half and they were down 20. Being a come from behind team this should have been prime time for his starters. On top of that like y_jack said shots just weren't falling and the rebounding was sorely lacking. A few too many turnovers and you end up with a score like tonight.
Webster has a good team and I would like to see them keep up their play. Hopefully, the next match up will be a bit closer though.

[hopefan]

You know, after an emotionally charged game like last night's Maryville-Fontbonne game, I sit down to comment, and I have so much to say, praise and critisism, but I wonder who reads this, and how much does it impact individuals.   I have no specific rooting interest - though at one time I supported the Maryville program because I thought so much of Bash and Hebl and Elwell and Klein though he drove me nuts, -  so I can be more objective than most people.  And that objectivity and my somewhat inquisitive nature leads me to ask questions - or make direct comments.  But that pisses people off, and I hate that because I'm sensitive too, and I hate pissing people off who love D3hoops like I do. So I'll keep it in..

Good game last night..

[fcnews]

I'd like to send my compliments out to two MU players. Curtis Goodwin - I didn't even know who this kid was before last night. But, I do now 18 pts. (4-8) 3's, Great game. Jared McCoy - A very nice young man from the same home town as FU's Chad Fournie. It was nice to hear some of his comments after the game. He told FU's Coach McKinney that it wasn't fair that FU went to a zone. Jared ,believe me, it was not a choice FU ever likes to make. It might be the most minutes I've seen a FU team remain in a zone for one game.

There is still alot of basketball to played. But, on effort only, I've got to beleive that MU will be a solid 4 spot come tourney time.

[fcnews]

Hopefan - I just got your message this morning. I was out getting a cup of coffee after the game and thanking my lucky stars. I wish I would of heard your message about EC then. EC has a bunch of nice kids and I like the new coach. As hard as they play, it would have been a tough loss. I look forword to EC being a member of the SLIAC for years to come.

[pantherpride06]

The gym looks terrific. Nice bleachers, new (or refinished) floor, new paint all over. Very nice job.

I'm glad you like the new look of the gym.  I do believe we/they refinished the floor over the summer.  It was great to be able to sit in my office during second semester and over the summer and see the transformation of HJ Long.  It's very sharp.

[y_jack_lok]

Eureka_sid I just noticed on the previous page that yesterday you questioned (I might even say mocked) hopefan's prediction of a Webster victory at Greenville. On what did you base your certainty of a Greenville win? Not trying to be critical here, just curious.

[hopefan]

Speaking of Eureka SID, I've got to relate how much I enjoy his enthusiasm for the Eureka program - more low key than Panther Pride was for Greenville, but just as intense.  Eureka SID really wears his emotions on his sleeve and doesnt mince words.  He and I have talked on our little scoreboard connection over the phone several times - last week was tough and poor ESID was as down as one could be over the Eureka losses.  Again last night when I first called him and Eureka was losing to Mac, the sense of dismay in his voice was just ...horrible.  Heck, I wanted Eureka to win just for SID!!!!  When I called later and he told me that Eureka had come back and won in double OT, he was so pleased, it lifted me too!!!!
I can identify with those feelings cause my life was a series of ups and downs with each game when we lived in Michigan when I was a huge supporter of Hope  Basketball.   I hope Eureka realizes they have the right guy in that job!

[sully309]

Eureka_sid I just noticed on the previous page that yesterday you questioned (I might even say mocked) hopefan's prediction of a Webster victory at Greenville. On what did you base your certainty of a Greenville win? Not trying to be critical here, just curious.

Not mocking at all what Hopefan said. I laughed at what he wrote about Greenville because I thought it was funny...not because I thought he was wrong or way off base. As I said, I hadn't seen either play, while Hopefan had. Just goes to show you can't get everything out of a boxscore.

The reasons I thought Greenville could pull that out was home court, their momentum from nearly coming back at Maryville and then winning vs. Blackburn, and the recent lack of production from Kuhn and Hoggatt (mainly Hoggatt hasn't been rebounding and Kuhn really hasn't been up to the high standard he set last season). Obviously, I was the one way off base here. I shouldn't have questioned a team like Webster, even on the road. Greenville continues to be very up and down. Congrats to the Gorloks on a well deserved victory. I look forward to seeing them play 1st hand this Saturday.

[y_jack_lok]

eureka_sid, I obviously didn't read your post closely enough. I see now that you were quite specific that you hadn't seen either team play and that you were going off stats. And you are right never to discount home court advantage.

And after reading hopefan's post again I can now see how you thought it funny. It's just that I never think anything hopefan says is funny, he's always so serious

[sully309]

Eureka beats MacMurray 91-87 in double O.T.

Well, that was fun. Not that most of us hoops junkies need many reminders on this kind of thing, but it's games like this that remind you why we became fans in the first place. Are these the most talented teams I've ever seen? No. Was this a well played game on both sides? Not exactly. Did both teams fight to the bitter end, have unexpected heros, and find out they were capable of more than they previously thought? Absolutely!

EC missed way too many easy lay ups in the first half of this game. Mac was getting beat in transition and off the dribble, but didn't have to pay for it because EC couldn't finish. Still, Eureka lead 34-29 at halftime. I thought EC displayed they were the better team, but I didn't feel too good about things at halftime because the game should not have been that close.

With the way Mac played for most of the game, they never should have lost. Schmidt and Long had tremendous games with 20 and 17 points by my count. Schmidt had 16 in the 1st half. He made 3 treys all from the same spot on the floor in the corner I think.

EC fell behind by 13 with 12 minutes left, but for some reason I actually felt better about our chances then than I did at halftime. Mac was making some tough shots and I thought eventually they would cool off and EC would get back into it. That's exactly what happened. Darnall, Wildenradt, Zasada, McComb and McCoy were just some of the guys that stepped up for the comeback, but it really took the whole team to make it happen.

Seth McCoy hit the big shot on the night, knotting the score at 69 with 6 seconds left after draining a 15 footer. I think everyone with EC was happy the shot went in, but it made it even sweeter that Seth was the one that made it. No one has given more support from the bench over the last 2 years. Even though he got very limited minutes, he never gave up and probably always knew the day would come when he would hit that big shot to help his team win. This gets said a lot, but it really couldn't have happened to a better guy. Way to go Seth!

I've seen Brady W. play some great games, but I can't remember him playing better than he did last night. It was a shame he couldn't finish after he cramped up in the 2nd O.T. Darnall was awesome in overtime scoring 13 points to finish with 30. Funny thing about him...he's played 65 games for EC and had two 30+ point scoring games. Both have some at MacMurray in the only 2 games he's played there. I could go on, but you can read more about the game on our web site or on the D3Hoops scoreboard.

Fontbonne wins despite 31 turnovers. Maryville almost wins despite shooting 33%. It sounded like this was a wild atmosphere from talking with Hopefan. Credit Maryville for holding Fontbonne to 60 points...I didn't think they could do it. It's almost impossible to win with 31 turnovers...especially when scoring a season-low in points to boot, but FU found a way. Well done to them.

Thank you very much for those nice comments, Hopefan. That does mean a lot coming from an unbiased neutral observer like yourself that knows and loves the game like you do.  I feel like I do a good job of not giving away too much with my actions during games, and sometimes people are surrpised when they talk to me how much I really care about it. It's hard to not get wrapped up in wanting people you like succeed at something they love to do like play basketball.  I'm lucky that I get to do something I love and get to spend time with a lot of high quality inviduals.

Whoops...looks like my "lunch" break is over...gotta go!

[y_jack_lok]

eureka_sid, you may recall that i've told you that Seth McCoy is one of your players that my son went to Jr. High with. (Zach Davis is the other.). It was great to read that he hit such a clutch shot. Please tell him that Andrew Hudson's father says congratulations.

[hopefan]

A way to look at the conference standings :

the top 3
Fontbonne, Webster, Westminster
what they must do : beat the 6 lower teams, win at home vs 2 other top group teams
where they stand
Webster +1  they won AT Fontbonne
Westminster 0  sofar, as expected
Fontbonne -1  they lost at Home to Webster

Middle 3, playing for 4th
Maryville, Eureka, Greenville
what they must do : beat the 3 bottom teams, win at home vs other middle two teams
Where they stand:
Maryville 0   has beaten Eureka/Gville at home, and beaten any bottom 3 team they've played
Eureka 0  lost to Maryville at Maryville, beaten any bottom 3 team played
Greenville 0  lost to Maryville at Maryville, beaten any bottom 3 team played

This shows how big the loss by Fontbonne at home COULD be - it means they have to win one on the road to contend for 1st

It also downplays Maryville's wins at home over Greenville and Eureka - in that in order to get a lead for 4th, they still need to win one away vs the middle 3, or beat a top 3 team....

[y_jack_lok]

What a great analysis by hopefan. There would have to be some major changes/surprises with some of the teams (injuries, discipline issues affecting playing time or tenure on the team, etc.) for that scenario not to prove accurate.

[FU Fan]

MU's starting 8 loses to FU's 5 man team.
Enough said.
They gotta' go.