MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[y_jack_lok]

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....

Three or four of the lazy passes hopefan refers to were by the same player who couldn't deal with the FU pressure. Boggles my mind that the Blackburn coach didn't put in a sub for the guy. He has players who could have done better, in my opinion.

[hopefan]

Yjak, do you suppose if we offered to pay for posts, that we could get a little more activity in this room?  I'll go 50-50 with you...

[Mr. Ypsi]

Yjak, do you suppose if we offered to pay for posts, that we could get a little more activity in this room?  I'll go 50-50 with you...

Depends.  How much you offering?

So far I'm still mainly following football, but my bball attention is coming soon.

[y_jack_lok]

Yjak, do you suppose if we offered to pay for posts, that we could get a little more activity in this room?  I'll go 50-50 with you...

If you'll pay 75%, I'll pay 25% -- as long as I get paid for my posts. 

[Mr. Ypsi]

y_jack,

If we hold to our bargaining positions, we either get rich or hopefan gets very lonely!

Man, I'm feelin' like Kobe!

[hopefan]

75 - 25   highway robbery..... 50-50, but I'll pay 75-25 for any individual who posts over 50 times....

[magicman]

75 - 25   highway robbery..... 50-50, but I'll pay 75-25 for any individual who posts over 50 times....

over 50 times....    Do you need my address to send me the money?

[y_jack_lok]

It appears there are a couple of people out there as interested in money as in basketball. However, the lack of any response suggests there just isn't much interest at all, or they don't think hopefan is serious. (Trust me, he isn't!) Nor am I willing to pay to get other people to participate.

Back to hoops. Lots of SLIAC teams in action this week. Check the schedule here: http://sliac.org/sports/mbkb/2011-12/schedule

[metaljacket]

 I have only gotten to see 3 teams play and I can give my quick synopsis on each.

MacMurray - not the most talented team on the floor, has in my opinion one pure scorer that can play consistenly enough to call them a scorer. The difference with this team is that they are prepared to play. Their coach is an intense passionate guy, and it seems like the guys buy into that. Because of this they will win games they shouldnt win, but I also think they will lose games they shouldnt lose. They will be tournament team but may not have the steam to win it.

Westminster -  well coached bunch that does not have the horses they have had in the past. Their player #22 is really good and can really take over a game, especially against bad front court defense. I think their bigs are a little sloppy around the basket and not athletic enough to make a real difference. They may make the tournament, simply because they know how to win a little, but lose in the first round.

Spalding - nowhere near the team they were a year ago. Sure losing McAfee and Cutsinger is a big blow but they still have the speed and athleticism to compete and they simple are not. It may be for a lack of preparation or maybe the other team is more prepared. Some young freshmen are playing big roles and are keeping up. This team needs a jolt of energy, no reason to lose two at home to teams that they are either as good as or better than. They are not eligible for the postseason but if they were, I dont think they would make it.

[hopefan]

Great post metal... I've been wondering about Spalding's performance.. Was surprised at Mac's win over there, just about fell out of my chair when I saw Westmin beat them, because as you can tell from my writings, Westmin was not good at Webster.....  Westmin's 22 is skylar Tolson, and he has yet to approach the level he played at last year....  I agree whole heartedly about your comments on Coach Creole from Mac... he will not let his kids play at less than 100%, and with that intensity, and at least two very good players in Lee and Burton, I think they'll be tough to beat....  good to hear from you, and I'm hoping to get over to Spalding to see a game this year.....  Heard it's a fun place to see a game, and I love the old gyms.....

[hopefan]

Fontbonne stays close to Augie for a half, but offense fails them in 2nd half leading to a 20 point loss.....
Prin hammered by Mo Bap, Greenville routes STL Christian, Blackburn squeaks by Lindenwood Belleville by two...
Looks like Brandon Adams had a solid game for Blackburn, 12 points 8 boards, but Billy Ray Wilridge and Julian Lott had another tough night.. 8 for 32 from the field, 4 for 16 from 3 point land.   Medly still out, BC just doesn't have much size.....

[y_jack_lok]

Fontbonne stays close to Augie for a half, but offense fails them in 2nd half leading to a 20 point loss.....

Maybe defense failed them, too. Fontbonne was whistled for 30 fouls, giving Augie 15 more points from the free throw line than FU. Hopefully some of those fouls prevented Augie buckets. If they were open court or offensive rebounding fouls it could have been an even closer game.

[y_jack_lok]

The articles on the Webster http://www.websterathletics.com/news/2011/12/7/MBB_1207113956.aspx and Wash U http://bearsports.wustl.edu/Sports/Content/Pages/mbk12-7-11.aspx websites pretty much tell the story of tonight's game. Wash U killed Webster's zone in the first 10 minutes. After a timeout Webster switched to man and the last 10 minutes of the first half and first 10 minutes of the second half were pretty competitive, although Webster never really threatened seriously to take a lead having fallen behind by 14 at the half. The next five minutes were all Wash U as their size (both height and girth) and talent took over and put the game completely out of reach. Still, I like this Webster team and the Wash U article does credit Webster for a solid advantage in the points off turnovers stat.

Huskey didn't play, although he was suited up and doing the warm-up drills.

Webster has a brutal weekend with a long trip to Rust and back on Saturday, followed by a Sunday at 6 game against Austin College. Then no more games until Blackburn comes to Saint Louis on January 4th.

[hopefan]

    Wash U -Webster                         The result doesn't surprise me, and keeps right in line With Coach Bunch's theory of playing the best competion, learn from it, and be at the ultimate level of preparation for SLIAC competition.  The boxscore showed the obvious...tougher to shoot well against better competion, and Webster shot poorly after burning up the nets against Westmin... and without the presence of Huskey in the middle, they just got killed on the boards, almost 2 to1.  I'm amazed that Webster forced 19 turnovers out of Wash U, 16 of which were awarded as steals to Webster... Wash U must have been very sloppy with the ball.. can't do that when they play UAA competition...

Incidentally, the MacMurray-Greenville boxscore is now up... it was missing in action for a while....  Mac won by 8 and seemed to have helped themselves by being selective with 3 point shots (only 12 attempts), and shooting them well.... (6 for 12)....  they outrebounded Gville 36 - 26 with Slagle getting 10 and Burton 7.  But the single big shocker was the performance of Mac Frosh Dylan Guthrie... he came into the game with very few points and limited playing time, but plays 14 minutes, 5 for 6 from the field, 12 for 14 from the line , 24 points...INCREDIBLE!!!!

[GC Panther 01]

Guthrie was a solid player on West Central 1a State runner up team last year.  Should be a solid player for a while there.