MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[fcnews]

Sorry! After further review I can not put a 4-22 team above even an unproven Saints. Eureka will be a mid tier conference team this year,

[Mac Attack]

In anyone's book, 4-22 is a flat out awful season. It's kind of like the good news, bad news. Good news is everyone's back. Bad news is everyone's back. That being said about Eureka, let's take a closer look at how the Devils did against the SLIAC last season.

Westminster W 64-62
Webster        W 83-76
at Blackburn   L  91-63
at Greenville  W 84-74
at Westminster L 86-68
at Principia     W 72-39
at Webster     L  64-62

Based on the above, and with their two best players (Richard and Tim Peffer) coming back, Eureka looks to be very competitive in the SLIAC - but time will tell.

AJ Richard is a very good player. Stands 6'7", runs the floor well, can play inside and out, and is a terrific defender. From their website:

" Richard, a junior from Gibson City, Ill. (GCMS HS), was named to the 10-member All-Conference team. The 6'7'' pivot and history/secondary education major ranked in the top six in four important categories during league play. He was fourth in blocks (1.55 bpg), fifth in rebounds (7.7 rpg) and field goal percentage (50.7-percent), and sixth in scoring (15.5 ppg)."

"Peffer, a 6'2'' guard and criminal justice major, scored at least 11 points in all but one conference game and also posted three games of over 20 tallies. He ranked sixth in the league in scoring (15.5 ppg) and seventh in three-point field goal percentage (42.9-percent). Although he fell 12 attempts short of having enough to be ranked nationally, Peffer's 98.1-percent (52-53) from the free throw line would bested the top ranked Division III foul shooter."

[BB Fan]

I am amazed that people spend  so much time critizing D3 players who play for the love of the game.

Calling out the individual players is really immature expecially since most of you haven't seen these guys play.  Not everyone can be a great scorer, rebounder, etc...

I know a great coach who had a stat/reward called the X factor for good hard working players who didn't have great stats but you wanted them on your team.  Great defense is definitely not a stat but very valuable.

I know this sounds like a lecture and thank goodness most of these fine young men don't read this.

[fcnews]

BBfan - I read back through the last few posts and I don't see where any player was criticized or called out. Was this posted on the right thread?

[Mac Attack]

We had a poster on this board about midway through last season who was way out of line, but I think he crawled back under his rock. Not too long ago, somebody alluded to a Mac player's free throw percentage being pretty bad and criticized the coach for being too loyal to his senior players, but I think was fairly mild (if not accurate). I'm with fcnews on this one. I don't think anyone on this board is guilty of calling out players.

[hopefan]

Bball fan  -  way off base for this chat room  -  those of us who post are the most faithful of an intimately small fan base that the SLIAC has -  we're either zealous homers (ie Mac Attack, FCNews), or guys who simply enjoy the level playing field (many competitive games) that this conference presents (hopefan, yjaklock).  None of the regular posters bash players for their skill or lack of it.  If anything, we promote the league. 

I had posted my predictions based on what was coming back from last season in April - I still am totally unfamiliar with new faces (I failed to make it to the summer league games) -  I'm not going to make any prediction attempts (including newcomers) at this point.  While I still remain a fan of Coach Rogers and his style of play, I may hit a larger variety of games this year given the bright outlooks at Fontbonne and Webster.  Wash U also has an outstanding recruiting class - they'll be fun to follow too.

[hopefan]

Geeeeeesh   the Cubbies sweep the Cardinals  - next thing we know, Prin and Lincoln  will sweep the SLIAC!!!!

Summer is going toooo slow with each Cardinal loss  --Will D3Hoops time ever arrive???

[fcnews]

I agree Hopefan - hey if your lookinf gor a team to follow I can probably hook you up with some purple wear.

A little non bball but definately SLIAC related news. FU has anounced the incoming freshmen class for this years NCAA d3 Lacrosse team. The first of it's kind in the midwest. FU will boast 22 freshmen from six states and 29 players total. This will bring a little bit of attention to the conference. FU will host Wittenburg at Soocer Park in October at the Midwest Showcase. The Griffin's will play on the newly installed sporturf at Gay Field.

[Mac Attack]

From the MacMurray College athletics website (interesting that the date of the release is July 12 - but it was only posted on the school's website today???):

For Immediate Release: - July 12, 2006 (Jacksonville, IL)

MacMurray College Announces Two New Head Coaches

MacMurray College announces that Steve Hettinga has been named the Men's Head Basketball Coach and Cindy Kemp the Head Women's Swimming Coach for the Highlanders.


Hettinga, a native of Michigan, brings eight years of collegiate head coaching and one year of professional coaching experience with him to his new position. This past season, he was an assistant coach at nationally-ranked Lake Michigan Community College where the team placed 8th in the nation. Hettinga takes over a Highlander program that finished 5th (6-8) in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and 9-16 overall. In addition to his coaching duties, Hettinga will teach in the Education Department.


Kemp, a Jacksonville resident, has over twenty years of coaching experience in the sport at the club, high school and collegiate levels. During her career, she has produced four nationally-ranked swimmers at the club level and two collegiate All-Americans. Most recently, Kemp served as the head girl's varsity coach at Jacksonville High School while teaching at Meredosia Community High School.


"We are very pleased to have people the caliber of Cindy and Steve joining the MacMurray College Department of Intercollegiate Athletics family", said Kevin Haslam, MacMurray College Director of Athletics. Haslam continued, "Not only are they great individuals, they both have great leadership skills, vision and they both understand the direction and vision of the Department of Athletics. These qualities, when coupled with their previous successes in coaching swimming and basketball, indicates a very bright future for MacMurray athletics."


Hettinga and Kemp will assume their respective roles on August 1st.

 
   

[hopefan]

News from Blackburn up on their site :

Blackburn College has announced the hiring of Kirk Chandler as the new head men's basketball and head women's tennis coach.

Chandler comes to Blackburn after spending twelve years as head men's basketball coach at Averett University in Danville, Va., where he led the Cougars to runner-up finishes in the Dixie Athletic Conference tournament in 2000 and 2001. He also earned Conference Coach of the Year honors in 2001 and developed many of his players into All-American, all-region, and all-conference performers.

While at Averett, Chandler was also known for his emphasis on academic achievement, as nearly every one of his players graduated or was on track to graduate during his time there.
In addition, Chandler served as assistant athletic director at Averett for five years and also served as head coach of the golf team. Prior to his time at Averett, Chandler served one-year stints as assistant men's basketball coach at Barton College and St. Andrews Presbyterian College, both in North Carolina, and spent two years as an assistant men's basketball coach at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, an NCAA Division I program.

A 1981 graduate of Elon University in North Carolina with a B.S. in Physical Education, Chandler earned an M.S. in Health and Physical Education from North Carolina A& T in 1989.

Chandler replaces Dave Kaneshiro, who resigned after three years in the post. Kaneshiro led Blackburn to a SLIAC tournament title in men's basketball in 2005 and a share of the regular-season SLIAC title this season.

The Blackburn men's basketball program has won a SLIAC title in three of the last four seasons and has won a total of eight SLIAC championships in men's basketball, more than any league school.

[hopefan]

OK  so Blackburn now has a coach - it's funny what a person can find out if he looks just a little....  I checked the Averett site to see how they've been doing- Great season last year winning the conference, but then I looked at the Coach's page - the current coach has been there two years already, winning thirteen games in 2004-05, and plus 20 in 2005-06.  Prior to that, (under Coach Chandler?), Averett was 0-25 in 03-04, and 2-23 in 2002-03.

This answered my question why Coach Chandler comes from Averett to Blackburn - he doesn't, because he wasn't coaching Averett the last two years - I wonder what he was doing?

This is not to get on Coach Chandler's case, because I think highly of the kids that have played for Blackburn the last couple years...  But the press release was a "bit" misleading.

[Mac Attack]

Just for the record - according to an article on D3 Hoops on May 24, 2004, Coach Chandler resigned his coaching position at Averett in March 2004. According to the article, Averett had lost 32 straight games at that point and 48 of their last 50. You never know what happened or why - but Coach Chandler had a record of achievement before tough times set in, and he clearly still has a passion to coach. I'm sure he will have Blackburn ready to go when the whistle blows. Welcome to the SLIAC, Coach Chandler, and best wishes to you and your team.

[Pat Coleman]

Good research, guys. I have that release and those very additions to it on my to-do list for the day.

[mattgrubb]

Chris bunch used to slap chandler around the south region, now he gets a chance to do it in the midwest region

Bunch is the man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[y_jack_lok]

Glad there's a Chris Bunch fan out there. He's doing a fine job at Webster. But wasn't he an assistant coach while Chandler was a head coach?