MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[hopefan]

All Sliac teams have at least one conference game this week, and with the exception of the Prin games, should be close and tough to call... however, here is what I see...

Monday... tonight...  Mac at Spalding....  LONG ride for Mac, tough to get off the bus and play.. wonder if they travelled on Sunday?  Mac has more size and depth if everyone is healthy...  Mac is the predicted winner

Tuesday.... Blackburn at Prin....   With or without Steve White (this fan would love to know), Blackburn should win easily

Wednesday...  Westmin at Webster....  both teams off to disappointing starts, though Webster has played a tougher schedule... Actually very similar teams, but Westmin perimeter shooting should be better.. Close games are won at the foul line, and Webster has some poor shooters... surprise, I think Westmin takes this one

Greenville at Eureka... Greenville can't match up with Mark Lessen's size, and doesn't seem to have someone who matches with Jordan Kindred.... I'm excited about both these teams, but I'll go with Eureka in this one.

Saturday   4 conf games
Blackburn at Fontbonne....   If I knew BC had Steve White, I'd go with Blackburn for sure.... without Steve White, this game is a good matchup... I like Fontbonne's physical style over BC's 3 pointers, and give it to Fontbonne.

Prin at Eureka... Eureka doesn't have much depth either, but their players are MUCH better.... Eureka

Greenville at Mac....  I'll be at Fontbonne, but would LOVE to see this game... Burton vs Hilliard is a great matchup... I'm going with home team Mac with the home court

Westmin at Spalding ...  I think Spalding may be too quick, too athletic, especially with Westmin travelling... Spalding

SERIOUSLY, no one get upset about these picks... most of these games are real tossups...... I could have gone the otherway just as easily.. and pointspreads, heck nothing more than 3 or 4 except for Prin games..

Prin... hang in there....You are admired.... but where is Hasseinmardi?

[hopefan]

Tough room to get a response

[hopefan]

Wish Spalding poster 'Metaljacket' would report on games......

[y_jack_lok]

Okay, hopefan, I'll take on a couple of your predictions. First, Webster will beat Westminster. The free throw shooting won't be that bad, regardless of who is at the line. But if Bradfisch can get fouled on some drives to the hoop, he will escalate the free throw shooting even more. Same for Sooter. I also predict Webster's perimeter shooting will be just fine on Wednesday. The Achilles heel for Webster is perimeter defense.

I'll also take Blackburn over Fontbonne on Saturday -- based solely on what I saw of Fontbonne against Rose-Hulman.

Finally, I'll take Westminster over Spalding on Saturday. Spalding without McAfee is like Louisville without Felton Spencer. 

I could take opposite sides on some of the others, but don't have any good reasons for those, either, so I'll stop with the above.

[WUPHF]

Hopefan: any chance I could get you to give a quick lecture on the game to that group of international visitors that is coming to the Webster-Washington University game?  If you let me know your speakers fee, we can talk specifics.

[RustCollege]

HopeFan He did it again tonight Markeith Wilson 41pts 12rebs 10 assists... I told you its a long season give him time

[hopefan]

ALL RIGHT MARKEITH!!!!!!

[hopefan]

Mac takes down Spalding  60-53    Huge conference road win for Mac right off the bat... My reasons for picking Mac in this game might have been wrong as Spalding out rebounds Mac and Spalding's bench has a big night...but reasons for Mac win are obvious  -- Spalding gives up a large number of possessions by going 4-19 from 3's and turn the ball over 16 times, and Mac's Burton and Lee go to the hoop (GREAT!!!) to go 16-19 from the line, while home team Spalding is only 5-11 from the line for the night.

[GC Panther 01]

2 GC alums will be continuing their basketball carreers in the Premier Basketball League after being drafted this month.
Selected in the second round with the 13th pick was Laphonso Ellis to the Chicago Muscle.  Selected in the second round with pick # 19 to the NW Indiana Stars was Obinna Agomo.  Good luck to these two young men in continuing their basketball careers.

[hopefan]

Agreed GC... Ellis and Agomo both good players and good guys...  hope they are successful....

Found some answers to questions last night... Blackburn's Steve White is out with eligibility issues.. seems he played not only at Robert Morris Springfield, but may have also played at D2 Quincy,.. so it is a situation where BC is being safe and letting the NCAA determine if there is eligibility left..hopefully we'll see him soon, or at least in the second semester...
  Prin's Naveed Hasseinmardi was out with a rolled ankle, but returned to play last night.. he helped Prin to be far more competitive than I expected last night vs Blackburn....With Haseinmardi and the extra depth he provides, Prin can be competitive vs most SLIAC teams....

[y_jack_lok]

A good first half for both teams at Prin last night. But in the 2nd half Prin fell victim to what often seems to plague them -- poor shooting. Not necessarily bad shots, just couldn't put the ball in the hoop.

[hopefan]

One of the things I have difficulty with over the years is early season evaluation of Webster... especially years like this where there is significant turnover in the lineup... I see Webster play games vs good teams and seem to focus on the negatives... in the Webster losses in their tourney, I focused on poor shot selection, out of control drives to the hoop, limited production form the big man in the middle.... I fail to acknowledge that much of that has to do with the high level of competition Webster chooses to play in non league games...

Well, Bunch (Coach Bunch) gets me again  ... Webster looked super in all aspects of the game last night agianst Westmin... very much more athletic and quick than Westmin, generating many drives to the basket for easy hoops, moving the ball well to get good looks for perimeter shots, showing a zone defense that exposed Westmins lack of any kind of offense in the middle, virtually every shot came from the perimeter, and nothing was falling for anyone except Kurt Kovach... Stefan Whittingham had a game that makes me think first team all conference 8 for 12 from the field, 12 rebounds; Roman Robinson seemed to be all over the court with his quickness and gets 11 rebounds himself; Jerrod Huskey begins to look like the Jerrod Huskey of last year; Dietrich Sooter shoots very well coming off the bench...  Yjack saw all this coming.. I sure didn't...  and wow, Westmin, back to the drawing board... not much excitement except for frosh Verdis Lee... and not the kind of smart basketball that we're used to seeing from Westmin that I thought would offset Webster's physical advantage ....  someone is going to have to step it up inside for them, and last years solid shooters Tolson, James, Hohenstein have got to find the range.. or this team won't win at a 500 clip....

The Greenville - Eureka game must have been a barnburner..  wish I could have seen that one.... Eureka wins in OT

Winning on the road against contending teams is always critical... so far, Mac's win at Spalding is a biggie....

Big games Saturday... Blackburn at Fontbonne, Greenville at Mac....   Prin at Eureka should be a gimme

[y_jack_lok]

"Yjack saw all this coming.."

Well, I thought Webster would win, but I was certainly wrong about the free throw and 3 point shooting, based on the box score.

[hopefan]

I repeat.... YJak saw all this coming as he picks Blackburn over Fontbonne and Westmin over Spalding... and it happens!!!!

I AM IN AWE of this man's PRONOGSTICATION PROWESS!!!!!

The Blackburn - Fontbonne game was... about as ridiculous as it gets... Blackburn, playing without center Madison Medlly who was out with a shoulder injury, just made Fontbonne look AWFUL for 30 minutes... we were wondering if Fontbonne would even score 40... the lead had been up to 27.... Fontbonne has a makeshift lineup in, they press, BC gets incredibly cocky, and flat out dumb, and darn near gives up a 20+ point lead in about the final 4 minutes... If fontbonne makes one or two critical 3 point shots, they actually would have had a shot to tie or win... BC turns it over with lazy passes, with horrible ball handling, with a flagrant foul for no apparent reason, and with a Technical for too much mouthiness...   At least 5 turnovers in that final 4 minutes + the flagrant + the Tech...  and an attitude by Julian what's his name that needs big time correcting....   Well at least it was entertaining....

Westminster wins at Spalding... WHAT???  Way to go Mitch.... that's a big one after the disappointing performance at Webster.....
Mac takes Greenville... though no boxscore yet... Mac must still be dealing with  the flood....
Eureka beats Prin as expected....  'Coach' Zimmerman, if you read this, you shoulda been at Fontbonne... you think you had fun with Julian on Wednesday, you would have been in heaven today.....

Mac has now established themselves as the favorite (though only slight), the rest is a mishmash, but becoming more clear... Webster,  Then Eureka, Gville, Westmin,     Then BC and Font needing to get better to challenge, and Prin   Spalding not near as good without McAfee, Cutsinger.....

[Titan Q]

IWU 97
Webster 64