MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[FU Fan]

After looking at the boxscore of the MU/FU game.
Here's a guesstimate of the score without the additional 3 MU players
FU 72
MU 48
The officiating in this  conference is terrible. I came to this conclusion adding the non calls ( walking in park , the straight arm push off all legal here ) with the over calls ( cavalry charge with a cut block and 2 defenders one on each arm, along with the player who falls down and rolls 4 ft. into a defender block, all illegal here ). The automatic timeout on a inbounds pass
and the block in the back to force a player out of bounds are always helpful when trying to make a comeback.
You know I used to watch some of these guys at high school games. Hey guess what ? They were bad there also. I know this isn't easy. The powers that be really need to evaluate some of these guys and clean house.

[FU_Pride]

The officiating in the SLIAC has never been the best that you are going to find.  However, one thing that I can say is that it is usually consitantly bad.  One positive thing that FU can bring out of last night's game is that if you ask anyone of the Griffins who played last night, I can almost guarentee you that he will not blame the officiating for almost losing a lead.  Heck, if anything, letting the players play physical does nothing but benefit guys like Storandt and Fogerty, who like to get in there and bang.

A side note, I wasn't able to attend the game last night but I heard that senior Chad Fourne had a well played game.  I'll be the first to congratulate Chad on a good game.  Chad came to Fontbonne as a sophomore transfer from Mascoutah Junior College, and was thrown into the point guard position.  He will be the first to tell you that he struggled a bit.  But instead of getting down and quitting, Chad has totally transformed his game by hitting the weights and the gym atleast two extra hours daily (and this is outside of practice).  Without Chad Fourne as their spark plug, this Griffins team isn't 10-3!!

[y_jack_lok]

The poor officials take so much flak -- while they're doing their jobs and by posters all over d3hoops.com. We love to beat up on them. I have yet to come across anyone in any conference posting room who says they think they have good officials in their conference. This topic has been worn out. We've already covered the subject once this season, including making it clear that these officials are not exclusively SLIAC officials. They ref UAA games at Wash U. Some of them probably do some CCIW games. They probably officiate at Illinois college, which plays in yet another conference. We talked about it last season, too. It has been a topic of one of the Daily Dose features at some point in the past.

I think they make bad calls, too. And I've been known to yell out loud about calls I didn't like. But I am working very hard to let that go, enjoy the games, root for my team, and then leave the gym happy for having the opportunity to see the best free entertainment in Saint Louis and its environs.

HELLO!!! IF ANYONE OUT THERE READING THIS THINKS THE OFFICIALS IN THEIR CONFERENCE ARE GOOD, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE POST A REPLY HERE AND TELL US WHAT CONFERENCE AND WHY YOU THINK THEY ARE DOING A GOOD JOB.

[baller321]

After 5 to 6 games into the conference season I havnt really been that impressed with anything.  Yes you have the standouts up top with Webster, Westminister, and Fontbonne but I dont feel like there is one team that anyone can guarentee or come close to guarenteeing the winner.  I believe this conference is more random this year then i have seen in the past.  

For example Webster (which in my opinion is the best team and so far is the only out of the top 3 with a heads up win which was Fontbonne by 22 points) is averaging a 20.6 winning margin in conference play.  So far the closest game they have ran into was against MacMurray who lost to them by 10.....9 points less than the next best which was Greenville losing by 19.

Then you have Westminister which is averaging a 22.4 winning margin (the 51 point win to Principia put a little mark on that).  But they dominated the 4th place Maryville by 21, and MacMurray was their closest game which they won by 12.  

Then you have Fontbonne...the most important game they have played was against Webster and they lost by 22 at HOME!!!! Then they snuck out an important win against Maryville by 3.  But where as Webster and Westminister have had there hardest time against the bottom team of MacMurray, Fontbonne handed them a 45 point dinner.  And is averaging 24.6 winning margin.  

There are alot of games left to be played and I believe this thing is so wide open that anything can happen with that 4th spot.  Its almost even enough to say MacMurray still has a shot at the 4th spot.  It will take a very good run but its possible and they are 0-6.  

I do believe Maryville will be up there considering they have played both Fontbonne and Westminister and granted they have lost both but they have won the games they have to and are still sitting on the top side.

I can't wait to start seeing what happens when the "Big 3" start playing each other and seeing who separates from the pack.  Im guessing one will get left and they will be fighting to get in....

[FU Fan]

I'll get off the officiating with this note.
When I was watching at the high school level I saw a lot more well officiated games. In the first few minutes you saw the officiating in action and that was what would be happening call wise the entire game. ( from good crews and there were some good ones. ) I see some that I've seen at both of those levels at SLIAC games and guess what again ? The bad ones are still bad.
Fournie will be a big set of hard playing shoes ( about size 15 ) for this team to replace. He is truly the 6th man. He doesn't score the most, make the big steal or those things that get you all the 'atta boys, but he truly makes this team go. Without him you could lose a lot of games. There's no "I" in his team. Big Plus- he's a great guy.

[fcnews]

Yjak - I agree with alot of what you have to say. There are some very good officials in this conference. It's just that when you put them into a crew there is always one that disturbs you.

I will say it is a lot easier to set back and just enjoy the game when you don't have a vested interest. Like say a parent or fellow student friends. I'm not condoning any behavior. I'm just reminding you of a different perspective. I also have the fortune, or misfortune, of seeing game films. Some are extremely ugly. I for one am doing my damnest to be just a spectator.

Baller - It may be of interest, that FU played without Fogerty in the Webster game.

[pantherpride06]

Interesting news on here on the west coast.  You can see this story on the front cover of D3 Hoops.  If you are like me, you probably have this board bookmarked and bypass the front.  (Sorry Pat.  I still check the front daily)

Former Puget Sound coach Eric Bridgeland is the new coach of the Pepperdine Waves.  He left UPS to be an Assistant at Pepperdine and promoted to Interim head coach when Vance Walberg stepped down.  It was interesting to learn a little about Bridgeland today.  No media buzz in Tacoma, but some phone calls confirming some parts of the story.

As for the officials... As much as I harp and yell at them sometimes, they do a good job.  You cannot compare high school officials and college officials.  Atleast on the officiating aspect because the College game is much more physical and you have to officiate it differently than high schoolers.  Also, many of the college officials are doing high school games on Friday night.  I know I've talked with many of the men's officials and they do high school games.

Part of the problem with the officials in the SLIAC is they can sometimes be unprofessional (from an officials standard) by talking and joking with the fans.  In watching the officials here in the NWC, it's all business.  They call the game and leave the floor.

It's a tough job and if you haven't been out there calling games you don't understand this.  I've officiated during summer camps and intramural leagues.  I know these are different, but the coaches still want to win are still riding you.

[SLIAC Man]

Good point Panther Pride. I was about to say I'd had better High School than SLIAC refs, but didn't consider that the physical nature is about 10 times more!

Overall, I don't think you can complain about SLIAC refs. There's a few who have some bad games, but those games are so rare that I can't even remember specific ones. Although...I've never been in a DII or D1 conference, so I have really nothing to compare them with.

[SLIAC Man]

-1 Karma? Ouch...I guess I'll have to keep my anti-Fontbonneness to myself!

[hopefan]

Hard to say much about tomorrow's SLIAC matchups

Mac at Maryville...  Hopefully Maryville won't suffer any letdown after the rough and tumble affair with Fontbonne.  Mac showed they are capable of playing a reasonably close game with a top level team when they competed well with Webster, but unless Maryville decides to have a 3 point shooting contest, they should win this game in double digits.

Webster at Eureka - Eureka needs to put a full game together rather than continuing their 2nd half comeback trend.  Webster has to take the long bus trip.  Just as I said with the Webster Greenville game, the underdog has some positives, but Webster is just too strong and deep.. and Coach Bunch won't let his team drop their guard down...

Greenville - Prin  shouldn't be close.

Westmin - Blackburn  I'll take Blackburn     and forty

[pantherpride06]

I would echo many of the comments hopefan stated in regards with this weekend's match ups.  Greenville at Principia shouldn't be a game at all.  However, the Panthers (Greenville that is) tends to go up on the hillside in Elsah and let our guard down a little.  Greenville handles Principia at home, beating them pretty good.  However, when at Prin, the wins tend to come in a little tougher fashion, with Greenville winning two of the last three at Prin, but only by margins of seven and 14 and a 83-75 loss to them in OT in 2005.

Greenville players reading this, don't let your guard down.  You need to beat the lower tier teams to make the SLIAC Tournament.  Take care of Principia early and don't let them get out quick.  If we can do this, you should have no problem.

Maryville d. MacMurray
Webster d. Eureka (Barn Burner)
Westminster d. Blackburn
Fontbonne d. Lincoln Christian

[baller321]

This weekend shouldnt be too crazy...

Webster over Eureka
Fontbonne easily over LC
Greenville over Principia
Westminister dominates Blackburn


MacMurray shocks Maryville....The MacMurray team will win some games and they have proven to be able to hang with the best teams as of late (Westminister 12 and Webster 10) which Maryville lost to Westminister by 21 and beat Eureka by only 4...I believe this will be a better match up then what people think...

[fcnews]

SLIAC MAN - I wouldn't worry to much about the -1 Smite vote. Since the start of the season I've given just one karma pt. and that was to Hopefan for his weekly observation work. Karma is a state of mind and a way we live our lives.

Like a week ago. I stopped to get a bit of petro at a local station. The girl gave me back more change then I gave her monies. I didn't notice till I was almost back to the vechile. When I went back in to show her that she made a mistake, see claimed with authority that see gave me what the machine told her to. After, a couple of minutes trying to explain it to her a asst. manager came over and backed the computer up to my transaction. The asst. then explained to her that "Amount Due is what the customer owes. Not how much the customer is due'. After a good chuckle I walked around the counter towards the door. At this time a man, with Store Manager on his name tag, said "here you go sir". He handed me a gas card for more then I had spent total. I tried to explain that it wasn't necessary. He said he is allowed to hand out so much a month to handle disagreements and he said" most people are not that honest and he appreciated my help".

Now that is Karma. And I must of had good Karma wednesday nite.

[Elwells2short]

FU Fan - It's one thing to say the officiating wasn't the best you've ever seen, but to say that it was 8 against 5 or that the score should have been 72-48 is a little much.  It seems stupid to me that on a night when two rivals played their hearts our for 40 minutes and your boys gutted out a road win, you come on here acting like your team got screwed.

The yelling at the refs was a bit out of hand on Wednesday.  EVERY call or no-call had someone in the stands throwing a fit.  I'm all for raucous crowds, and I think fans should be able to give opposing teams and their crowds a little bit of trouble as long as it's done in good taste, and I think that if a ref makes a terrible call, there's nothing wrong with giving him some grief.  I love seeing crowds getting into a game and having fun.  But to stand up throw an arm flailing temper tantrum at the refs every 20 seconds has to get old.

I used to whine and cry to the refs all the time until I had to ref a mere intramural basketball game for my work/study.  The game moved at a snail's pace compared the college game and it was still an extremely hard job to do.  I got yelled at a lot and I hated it.  After that, I decided not to be such a dick to the refs and I think I enjoy game more now.  I understand it's easy to let emotions get the best of you in hotly contested game, but it seemed once I showed just a tad of respect to the refs, some of the calls I would complain about before starting going the other way. 

I don't think the SLIAC guys do a bad job and they aren't trying to screw anybody.  Sure they miss some stuff, but every single game is going to have missed calls, it's just the way it is.  We should probably thank them for doing such a thankless job because without them, there are no games to watch.  Again, I don't think there's anything wrong with complaining to those sitting around you and yelling every once in a while, but I don't feel there's a need to make such a scene the entire friggin game.   

[fcnews]

Good to here from you Tim. Always nice to here from former players.

I think the big problem with this one game discussion is: 1.) The team that played zone for 30 minutes had 20 fouls. The team pressing had 21. 2.) Haviing watched the film, there was another obvious 19 fouls committed by MU and 6 by FU that should of been called. 3.) I will bet anyone a cup of coffee that when MU plays @ FU the Saints will have at least 10 more fouls then FU.

It is hard for a crew to call everything against the Home team, no matter where you are. Just be consistant. If it's going to be a physical game, don't call touch fouls at one end and no calls on the other. The first half was a very well called half. Then the second half is called completely different. Be consistant. The kids get a feel for the game then you change. That is not fair for either team.

Food for thought: If this game would have been played in open gym, call your own, what would the final have been.

Like the previous poster stated, it was a well deserved road win for FU. FU proved, for once, that they can win a low scoring game. Fontbonne won a game where they committed 31 turnovers and MU took 16 more shots.

If you don't think Curtis Goodwin could play at any SLIAC school check these stats. MU shot 21 - 63 and 8 - 26 from 3's. Take Godwin out of the equation. MU goes 16-53 and 4-16. That's what I call a difference maker. Great game young man.