MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[hopefan]

not mentioned, but noticed by this writer  -  superb job by Fontbonne's Chris Forest on MU's Kyle Winter  -  I don't think Winter, MU's 3 point shot who clearly has carte blanche on any attempt within 35 feet, had an unforced shot all day - Forrest's defense was that good.

No question in my mind that the MOP in the conference comes down to two players - Fontbonne's Forest and Fogerty - will be interesting to see.... somehow, I almost think....   ahhh we'll see. 

Now then, if Coach McKinney can't vote for his own player, who does he vote for?  Westminster stan Crawford - no, too inconsistent, and hasn't taken his team to wins in close games - same could be said for Westmin's Warnicke.  Maryville Jason Simmons, no - he's come on big in the conference season, but he's a frosh making frosh mistakes, and the Rogers system takes minutes away from him.  Greenville's Laphonso Ellis - well maybe - but in the lone Gville game I saw, he disappeared for a whole half after a super first half.   Eureka Zasada that's choice 1A - when I've seen him, he's played as hard as anyone on the court - I love his diversity, as he plays well around the hoop, but can shoot from the 3 point line too.  Choice 1B has to be Ryan Turk of Webster - my reservation on him is a certain passiviity at times, but he takes over at crunch time and has taken Webster to wins in a number of close games.

Well that paragraph ends up being meaningless, as Forest and Fogerty are the clear prime contenders.

Of course, I still haven't forgiven the voters for last year, when they totally left off the Conf tourney MVP Chad Fournie, from any mention in the All Conference selection - that one was a travesty, coaches....

[hopefan]

uh - oh....  Just noticed Steve Hrdlecka did not play for Webster down at Spalding - is he OK?  Will he play in the big game Wednesday night at Fontbonne -  FURBUG, we need the inside scoop  -  this could have a big impact on the pregame prognostication!!!!

[juniormint]

 

not mentioned, but noticed by this writer  -  superb job by Fontbonne's Chris Forest on MU's Kyle Winter  -  I don't think Winter, MU's 3 point shot who clearly has carte blanche on any attempt within 35 feet, had an unforced shot all day - Forrest's defense was that good.

No question in my mind that the MOP in the conference comes down to two players - Fontbonne's Forest and Fogerty - will be interesting to see.... somehow, I almost think....   ahhh we'll see. 

Now then, if Coach McKinney can't vote for his own player, who does he vote for?  Westminster stan Crawford - no, too inconsistent, and hasn't taken his team to wins in close games - same could be said for Westmin's Warnicke. 

hope I do not disagree that Forrest and Fogerty deserve the respect you have given them.   but to call Crawford inconsistent and yet to take his team to win in close games may not be correct. 

in the three conf games WC has lost he is averaging 15.3 pts, 4.3 rebs and 4.6 steals.  For a guard those are pretty good numbers.  With the style WC runs they have so many guys that can step up and take the shot at the end and it may hurt one or two individuals in terms of numbers but they are sitting on top of the conference with that style.  I dont think you can take away from a guy just because his team spreads out shots more than some other teams do in the conference.   

Both Fogerty and Forrest get better numbers, but they also shoot a lot more than WC does.  So far WC has played 1 more game than fontbonne and has MADE 250 LESS shots.  WC's style and team takes away from individual numbers but still provides W's.  What crawford does on offense and DEFENSE makes me believe he is right up there with anyone FU has in terms of MOP. 

If Warncke hadnt gone down he'd have a place in this conversation too, with the way he controls the game.  Look at Greenville's point total Saturday compared to the rest of their conference games.  Is it any secret WC slows the game down and doesnt run the same style as many teams in the league?  WC has held Greenville to two of three of its lowest point totals in conference. 

PRINCIPIA              W    89-42 

* at Fontbonne           W    77-72 

* MARYVILLE (MO.)             83-85  L

* at Westminster (Mo.)        66-69 L 

* BLACKBURN              W    83-66 

* at MacMurray           W    71-68   

* WEBSTER                     62-65  L

* EUREKA                 W    84-76 

* at Principia           W    74-53   

* MACMURRAY              W   102-74 

* WESTMINSTER (MO.)           54-73  L

[hopefan]

Good points juniormint....  I looked at Westmins 3 losses - (all of which I've seen - hope I'm not a jinx)  Stan Crawford has had one great game (vs Webster), one fair game (vs Maryville) and one poor game (vs Fontbonne).
He merits consideration, though I've stated my thought.  Warnicke on the other hand, simply hasn't done enough to be in the conversation for MOP. He's a good guard, but conference stats of 40.8% from the field, 31.9% from 3 point, and an assist to turnover of .9 with 1.7 asst/game doesn't cut it for MOP.  Throwing out points per game where he is far behind, he  is also far short of Turk and McCoy in those stats, and relatively level with Cochrane of Greenville....

[fcnews]

Jr.mint - WC has made 250 less shots because of fg%. They have only attempted 2 less fg per game then FU. And, in the FU win over WC, WC took 16 more shots.

I think your mixing up MVP and MOP. If WC wins it all, Crawford would definately get big look at MVP.

As MOP goes. Fogerty is averaging a double-double. Tough to do on a team with 4 guys avg. double figures and competing for rebounds with the leagues best rebounder from last year (Storandt).

Forrest is avg. 18.9 pts. on 117 fg. attempts. (Crawford has 145 attempts), shooting an unbelievable % and doing it on a team that has 3 other players go for 30 pts. Plus, he's FU's best defender.

* These are conf. only stats.

[juniormint]

Looking at the rest of the schedule

FU (9-3) has 3 games against contenders, 1 against non-Contender.  1 contender game on road, 1 overall. 

WC (9-3) has 2 contender games, 1 on the road, 1 road game total.  2 non-contender games

GC (8-4) has 3 contender games, 2 on the road, 3 road games total, 1 non-contender. 

WU (7-4) has 3 games against contenders, 2 against non-C's.  2 contender games  on road, rest of games at home. 

MU (7-4) has 3 contender games, 2 non-C.  They are on the road for 1 contender game, 3 overall road games.

EC (7-5) has 2 contender games, 1 on the road, 2 road games total (not counting LCC road trip).  2 non-contender games. 


I think Fontbonne wins 2 of 3 to get to 11-4 going into the last game and westminster wins all three at home to get to 12-3.  Westminster then locks up the championship as Webster is the third place team.  Westminster has 1 win over Webster and Fontbonne is swept by Webster.  (all speculation of course, im sure ill be way off).   

If Fontbonne wins all three games or WC loses one leading to that game it will be for the conference championship which would be a great game. 

I think Webster goes 4-1 to end up 11-5.  Maryville does the same to end 11-5.  Webster wins the tiebreak.  Eureka splits to end 9-7 and Greenville loses 3 of 4 to go 9-7 as well. 

I think those are the four best teams and that would be the best tournament setup.  It would be huge for Westminster to win that last game and host against the three STL schools but if Fontbonne were to win it would be nice for the STL schools, and good for the people traveling there from WC. 

[juniormint]

Is MOP an actual award given out by the SLIAC?  You're right, I was thinking MVP, and did think S Crawford was getting slighted for that.  So when they decide POY is it based mostly off of offensive stats (MOP) or the guy who means the most to his team from an all around standpoint (MVP)? 

I think WC's win Saturday is huge for them going into the final 4 or 5 games.  A convincing win on the road in a tough place to play on a white out saturday is pretty big for this WC team.  If they lose that game, theyre just hoping for a fontbonne loss somewhere along the way before they meet again at the end.  Now they control their destiny in every sense of the word. 

WC had another balanced scoring attack Saturday: four guys in double figures (vislay 15, warncke 13, stan 13, mike crawford 12).

WC defense won the game as they got 15 steals and 4 blocks.  GC shot 38% and had 21 TO due to the WC defense.  Warncke and Stan did a number on B. Cochran as he was 1 for 11 with 4 TO.

[fcnews]

Hopefan - Word from WU @ FU JV game (FU won by 5). Hrdlicka  s rest with a nagging shoulder soreness. I know the "Griffin Killer" will be ready to go Wednesday nite.

Very well played JV game tonite. Both teams ran their plays and FU played up tempo D.

The California Kid from WU Ogunsalou (?) played well.
Juco transfer - Gillet never got in flow.

FU had good contribution from Reese, Alfred and Buford. Zeollner got in about 25-30 minutes of sweatin. Play good post defense against both of Webster's Bigs. Zeollner is same hiegth as Ogunsalu. Needs to add bulk. Plays Tall.


Nice to see the two Head Coach's chatting and visiting. Away from the pressure of in-game situations. Coach McKinney attended the wedding of Coach Bunch. Tonite the WU coach good to meet the 4th child of the McKinney's. LUCKY. Only in a place that you built, can a coach bring his dog to watch a JV game.

It's enjoyable to see the same passion for the game, coming from coaches that are at the opposite end of careers. Chris Bunch is going to be very successful in this game. Webster better get that guy on a long term contract.


CONGRATS - FU's Brian Fogerty was Player of the Week. 22.5 pts. and 10.5 rebounds, with 8 steals and 4 blks in two games. Shot 64.5% for the week.

[hopefan]

I'll have to bring Mattie and Cruiser to the next JV game....

[Gregory Sager]

This school's name has come up in conversations here related to SLIAC expansion, so let it be noted that William Jewell is moving to D2 and the Great Lakes Valley Conference.

[theoneandonly]

This school's name has come up in conversations here related to SLIAC expansion, so let it be noted that William Jewell is moving to D2 and the Great Lakes Valley Conference.

Thats too bad, i was actually hoping to see some more schools move into the SLIAC and yes like you said, there was a lot of talk about this maybe being the next, besides spaulding of course.. I guess it wont be. Oh well next school?

[Razor Back]

"MacMurray has had two others since Bob Gay"

I think the answer is three.

Darren DeNeve

Steve Hettinga

Todd Creal

Check out MacMurray's Adam Polston's numbers the past few games.

For his minutes played, he does a lot of three-point damage.

Razor

Back

[hopefan]

Just as I felt with Maryville, I feel that Wm Jewell is a much better fit with Division III  -  I'd imagine the dearth of DIII schools out their direction was one of the factors influencing their decision.   

Actually the western division of the Great Lakes Valley conference really is becoming a nice Division of academicly similar schools - Mizzou S&T, Rockhurst, Drury, Maryville, Quincy, Wm Jewell - all private schools with pride in academics...   Wish they were all D3....   

[y_jack_lok]

D2 is so crowded that it wouldn't surprise me if the NCAA is steering schools to D2 when approached. Also, and those who know better can correct me if I'm wrong, I believe I read that the number of sports D2 schools are required to offer for each gender is no greater than for D3.

[pantherpride06]

The NCAA isn't really asking teams to go NCAA II if they join.  That was some of the discussion as apart of the NCAA III/IV discussion last year.  NCAA III wanted the NCAA to steer schools that way due to the numbers.

It actually would make since for these NAIA schools to go NCAA II due to the scholarships.  They wouldn't be losing or changing a lot on that end.  I realize there are differences, however, between the two.

Although the moratorium is lifted on schools allowed into NCAA III, I believe they are only accepted a small number per year.