MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[pantherpride06]

The Northwest Conference host a three team tournament.  Seed 1 is Neutral the first night and the 3 seed travels to the 2 seed.  The winner then goes to the 1 seed for the title game on Saturday night.

I echo the comments by Bunchtime in not trying to downgrade what you are doing at Blackburn.  As it pertains to basketball and tournament issues, the SLIAC needs to make that call.  Clearing the gym and making fans repay for the second game was hog wash.  No I did not go to the tournament, but I've been in the Beaver Dome many times to know how things are ran.  In sports administration, I've learned that the way things are ran during the regular season is how they are ran during the post season.  Meaning things were probably not ran much different during the tournament.

As for an alternate site for SLIAC Tourney play, it's a good thought in theory, but it's already hard to get folks to game around the conference.  Moving the tournament off campus would further draw people away from attending.  I know if we hosted the tourney at Greenville, we'd do all we could to pack the house for our game. 

[BunchTime]

Heck Panther, I would say have the tourney at Greenville if you could guarantee the fans.  All kidding aside, I always felt that Greenville was the best atmosphere of any of the SLIAC schools.  Hands down the greatest home court advantage for any team, despite what the records indicate.

[sac]

 Keep in mind, my old favorite school, Hope, could not host NCAAs for several years in their old facility, due to floor size and distance from the endline to walls at the ends of the court... This despite the fact they sold out every home game season after season at 2700 per game...

grumble, grumble, grumble.

The history on this is that in 1995 the NCAA decided all courts needed to meet the 94 feet regulation size for the NCAA tournament.   The Holland Civic Center, where Hope played had a 90foot court.   So Hope was forced to move to an on campus facility not meant for spectators, where 1200 people could enjoy sitting on bleachers meant for Tulip Time.  To this day I have yet to see a facility that produced the kind of home court advantage that the Civic Center provided Hope.  It was very cramped, could get exceptionally loud for only 2700 people, and just breathed basketball.



The kicker was that this very same court was perfectly well suited for numerous previous NCAA men's tournaments games but the real sore spot was the Civic Center hosted the 1990 Women's D3 Final Four.  So the court that was approved to host a final four was suddenly  not good enough to host tournament games.

The real problem was Hope was notified of this new guideline only a few days before the 1995 tournament kicked off and they scrambled to set up the on campus Dow Center to host its first ever men's basketball game.  Hope lost that game, which was supposed to be a home game, but turned into a game in a familar setting under unfamiliar circumstances.



This became our tournament home through our great runs of 96, 97 and 98, along with single games in 95 and 2003.

In the end, it worked out ok, as the tournament in some small way led to the drive for an on campus facility, and through the generosity of others led to DeVos Fieldhouse





Funny how its come almost completely full circle, this coming March, Hope will host the 2008 Women's D3 Final Four

Sorry to hijack your board, but its a story worth telling.

[Gregory Sager]

I know that the well versed hall of famers regularly lurk our writings-  Greg, TQ, Ypsi, etal   -   how do other conferences work this situation?

The CCIW, which is fairly new to the whole conference tournament thing, has the league's champion host the tournament. That's true on both the men's and women's side; if you earn the big trophy, you also earn the right to host the postseason tourney. If the same school wins both the men's title and the women's title, then the tournament game times are staggered to accommodate both tourneys at the same site.

The WIAC used to have a neutral-site tourney (in Madison), but their eight-team tourney now features a format in which the quarterfinals are held in the gyms of the four higher seeds, and the semifinals and finals are held in the gym of the highest-remaining seed. I'm pretty sure that the OAC (and possibly the NJAC) have that same setup. The SUNYAC has a neutral-site tourney that's held in Utica, which isn't far from the geographical center of the state.

[fcnews]

The board is quiet tonight. FC won a must game 62-60. After trailing 29-19 at half the Griffin;s found a way to win in the second Half by putting up 43. FC tried to give it away missing 7 straight FT's in the last 2:30 after taking a 7 point lead late. Kurz did a great job on McCoy, Pat did chip in with 7 assists on 2 to's. Branch got on track in the 2nd half hitting 3-7 from 3's and a great job defensively on Warnecke 4 pts on 1-9 (0-4). The Buxton / Fournie match up was a great spectator performance.

Brian Fogerty was unstoppable in the 2nd half, finishing with 22 pts. Storandt had his usual game with 10 pts. and 14 boards.

New name for WC - write this down Mike Crawford had 13 pts. (6-7) in 14 mins.

A Great night to be a fan!!!

Congrats to BC on getting off the snide.

[sully309]

Eureka beats Greenville 67-60

The Red Devils played well again tonight...much like they did Saturday, though they lost to Webster.  I was disappointed in the talent level of Greenville. I figured with their losses they wouldn't be as talented as last year's team, but they have fallen farther than I thought.  The Panthers still played hard and had a good 2nd half to make a game of it.  They have some good 3-point shooters that heated up in the 2nd half.

Cochran looks to be about 12 years old, but he led GC with 11. His teammate's shot selection the 1st half left much to be desired. This was a big loss for GC, but they are far from out of it with home games left against Maryville and Eureka. It will be very tough for EC to get a win down there later.

EC was very composed against the press and got good shots on most possessions in the 1st half. EC really took it to Greenville, running out to a 27-10 lead. Credit GC for hanging in there, but this was really in the Red Devils' control for the most part. I saw a few too many missed FT's for my liking from both sides. It was a balanced attack that got it done for EC. Zasada played one of his better games since injuring his ankle.

It sounds like Westminster let one get away at Fontbonne. That would have crushed FU's chances at the regular season title and set up a great showdown next week. I think Westminster at least proved what I already thought...that they are for real.

Webster wins by a large score again. They shot almost 60% in the 2nd half.

Congrats to Blackburn on their 1st win. Speaking of whom, I have no problem letting Blackburn host the tourney if they win the league. Personally, I would like to see 8 teams in the tourney, have the higher seed host every game, and play it out over the course of a week. But it today's era of equality for all sports, that's probably not going to happen anytime soon.

[fcnews]

EC SID - Congrats on a big win. It seems the battle for the four spot has tightened up.

I'm not quite sure you can say WC let one get away. FU's halftime offensive adjustments and Storandt' and Fogerty's control of the defensive boards, forced WC into FU's style of ball in the 2nd half. If you watched the game, it wasn't a matter of WC letting it get away. More like FU letting WC get back in. FU streched the lead to 7 (a missed dunk would have made it 9) and if they hit their free throws this would of been a double figure win.

WC has very big guards, they gave FU's guards trouble in the first half. Like I said before, Kurz never did let McCoy get started.

FU now has Mac, GC and BC, before the rematch with Webster. WC will not go away, they have a ton of Sr. leadership.

[Gem Shooz]

Congrats to MacMurray on their 76-64 win last night over Lincoln Christian. Billy Long scored 25 points, Neil Compton tallied 20, and Adam Polston added 15.
Hopefully the Highlanders can string together some wins after some pretty tough losses.

[fcnews]

D III Basketball Commercial

Parking - free
Admission - free
Pepsi and Pizza - free

A chance to watch SLIAC Basketball - Priceless!!!!!

[fcnews]

News from Maryville Blog - Three Saints were out last nite (including McCoy and Bachele). Several more started feeling the effects of some type of virus during the game. Get well wishes to the Saints from this poster.

[hopefan]

the hopefan ratings don't change  with last nights games... Fontbonne defends home vs Westmin, Webster beats middle tier Maryville, Eureka defends home vs Greenville....

Webster still up with their road win vs Fontbonne in the Webster/Font/Westmin battle for spots 1-3; Maryville/Greenville/ Eureka still level for 4th.

Big game on Saturday is Westmin at Greenville - huge opportunity for Greenville to impact the standings.

[BunchTime]

I just checked the boxscore from the Maryville-Webster game last night and the Gorlok bigs had a monster night.  Robinson was 6-13 from the field, 15 rebounds in which 7 were offensive boards, and 14 points in 24 minutes of action.  Hoggatt was 7-10 from the field with 19 points in 23 minutes of action.  Note to Coach Bunch:  whatever it is that you are not teaching the post players, keep it up.

Also, interesting stat from the FU boxscore was the bench played a total of 13 minutes.  And it seems as if the team got better as the game progressed, not vice versa, as many people here think the starters are going to wear down over the course of a game.

[pantherpride06]

Live from Indianapolis, Ind. at the NCAA Intern Convention...

Well, little let down last night when I saw the Greenville/Eureka score.  Looks like the Devils were hot from the field, shooting .500 from the field and .455 from three point land.  Greenville's Ben Hensold did what I said he needed to do and come out with a big game as did Ben Cochran.  LaPhonso Ellis had a decent night as did Christopher Simmons, but need to shoot a little better.   Free Throws (as mentioned by EC_SID) didn't help the Panthers, shooting maybe a season low .571 percent.

Saturday will be a big game as the Panthers host Westminster in the first home game with students back on campus.  Hopefully they will come out and the Panthers can get back on track for trip #2 through the SLIAC.  However, something tells me Coach Mitchell and the birds won't be happy after their 62-60 loss to Fontbonne.

As for Greenville hosting the SLIAC Tournament and packing the house, sign me up.  Especially if Greenville is playing.  I can guarantee 800-1,000 fans!  haha!  600-700 for game 2.

[depew24]

BunchTime, I would agree on that late note about the WU bigs...keep up the work on not helping the bigs. Coming straight from Darin.

[BunchTime]

I am not going to get back in this debate with you Depew, but you should of clearly noticed that I said that statement scoffing at your previous statements.  Depew, can you please answer this question: Why has every post player in Coach Bunch's tenure improved duing his career? The list goes on (and I am including some post-guard combos): Jerry Vogt, Brady Barke, Kaniela Aiona, Christian Basilio, Brad Robinson, and Darrin Hoggatt.  And so now as you claim, Hoggatt is blaming some of his average perforances on "lack of teaching", but is now attributing his above average performances to that same "lack of teaching."  You cannot have it both ways brother.  And lastly, I doubt Hoggatt has told you anything.