MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[juniormint]

sorry we newer posters dont fulfill your needs fc..... haha jk

[fcnews]

Hang in there Juniormint.

Suprise of the Day: EC goes to the Gorlok Dome and wins 80-76.

Looking forword to recaps from Yjak, EC_SID and Hopefan.

[fcnews]

FU got balance scoring from the five starters.
Forrest - 16 7-11 from the field
Branch -  14 pts 7 rebs and 4 assists
McCoy  -  13 pts. 7 assists and 0 turnovers
Fogerty -  13 pts. and 13 rebounds
Storandt - 10 pts. 12 rebounds 4 steals and 3 blks.

Prin was led by Zimmerman 17pts. (6-21) and Douglas 17. Angle was held to 8 on 3-13 shooting.

FU won the battle of the boards 51-28 and had 34 pts from the bench.

[fcnews]

Hopefan corrects on the women's site (for the record I was wrong). But doesn't post on the men's site. What's up with that?

[y_jack_lok]

Good game at, what did fc call it??, the Gorlok Dome today. The write up on the Webster website, including Coach Bunch's coments, tells the story quite well. Link to the article below.

http://www.websterathletics.com/news/2009/1/17/MBB_0117091712.aspx

[fcnews]

Thanks for the link, Yjak. I thought the Gorlok Dome had a nice ring. My Bad.

[y_jack_lok]

I wasn't being critical aboutt he term Gorlok Dome, I just had to look back at your post to remember it. I think it has a nice ring, too.

[sully309]

Obviously a huge win for Eureka today at Webster. Maybe we finally broke out of that mold of a teamthat everyone respects and thinks can play good teams close to the end, but then lose. Quite frankly, I was beginning to expect that too.

I have to admit, I walked away from the Maryville loss 2 weeks ago with little or no hope of the Red Devils recovering from an 0-3 start to SLIAC play. A fortunate schedule helped, but this was a big one. I'm not ready to say we've completely recovered from those back-to-back home losses yet, but perhaps a win at Mac Wednesday will do the trick. If that 3 point win for Greenville is correct, maybe Mac is in this thing for the long haul too, so that's not going to be easy.

I have a difficult time with Webster. All their players seem to look the same to me this year. You really have no clue who is going to have a good game for them besides Turk. I guess that's a good thing because they have a lot a good players capable of beating you, but it's got to be tough to figure out who to play and when.

Y-Jak certainly had some nice things to say about Zasada as a player. Can't say I disagree  . Jordan Kindred may have thrown his hat into the Newcomer of te Year talk with his game today. He's been going along well all season, but today he had a fantastic game. EC wouldn't have won without him, though some of the veterans came through in the clutch as well.

I haven't seen Westminster yet, but they sure have gotten to 6-0 the hard way. 4 games decided by 4 points or less. Man!

[fcnews]

Eureka_SID- I'll take a good look at Jordon when he comes to the STL. In the first match up he went 1-5 and 3 pts in 36 minutes. While Forrest was 9-10 21pts 5 rebs. and 4 assists in the same game.

I value your views on EC and will pass that game off as a bad outing. I look forword to seeing you at Fontbonne.

I have a real hard time getting a feeling on how next Wednesday's nite FU @ WC game will play out. EC_SID does have a point about WC's margin of victories. But, that also means they know how to when the close one.

To hope for a SLIAC Tourney in the STL, this is a must win for FU. If the Griffin's can limit Crawford and Vislay, FU should be able to score enough points. FU does have the advantage of having four different players that can go for 25 on any given night. I don't think you can zone FU because of Forrest, McCoy, Branch and Scheetz. But, can WC match up with Fogerty and Storandt.

FU does have mptivation. They lost in OT at Fulton last year without Fogerty and with what I still call some questionable calls. How the game is officiated will play a major part. This should be a battle of tempo. Which team can force it's style on who.

I am a true HOMER so I always like FU's chances. The two games involving these two teams with PC baffles me.

[hopefan]

My attentions had to go to the wife and pop when I got home from Westmin, so didn't have the time to talk about Westmin - Maryville...   here we go, with the stories first.....

Driving into Fulton, there were obviously problems... Police at every lighted intersection, no cars in the shopping center lots...  It was obvious there was a massive power failure in the area.  Fortunately, by the time I got as far south as 'the town', the power was ok, and therefore ok at Westmin - for a fleeting moment I was horrified by the thought of CANCELLATION!!

The westmin Gym has been beautifully upgraded much like Greenville - main bleachers shifted to the other side of the floor, player benches and just 4 rows of bleachers shift to the left side.  I decided to sit behind the Maryville bench in the small bleachers next to the scorers table and next to a nice looking fellow my age with a westmin jersey on.  We did a lot of chatting, discovered we both had gone to school in upstate NY and graduated within a year of each other - had a real good time chatting and enjoying the game.  He seemed to know EVERYONE - at halftime, I finally asked him what he taught - "Oh, I don't teach, I'm the President of the school'   whereupon we decided that I had a seat in the Presidential Box!!!!

Mr President excused himself to go sit with some faculty members during the Men's game, where upon his place was taken by none other than Titan Q, who had driven the short trip from his new home in Columbia to see his first SLIAC Conference game....  Sitting with Bob is always fun as he is so full of knowlege and is eager for more - a thousand questions regarding SLIAC teams, recruiting, Maryville to D2, individual players and comparisons etc....  unfortuanately Bob always has to throw in a comment to make sure I know how much better the CCIW is than the SLIAC, which I always take with a grain of salt - it might tend to rub others a bit harshly.   Well as TQ said as the game was a thriller, Hopefan, I see why you enjoy these games as much as you do...

Maryville was still missing Aaron Steincke (HINT each game hurts less- maybe nobody was missing him anymore) and 6"6" Jacob Dulle was on the bench ill -  when I saw that, I really didn't think the game would be close - it was a game where Westmin was ahead the whole game, but Maryville kept hanging close - Kyle Winters made an unbelievable 3 pointer to tie with about 7 seconds left, from the sideline, falling out of bounds on a fadeaway to avoid the defense.
Westmin rushed the ball up the floor but fumbled the ball and a wild scrum on the floor for the ball ensued as the buzzer sounded.  Westmin dominated the OT.  Westmin did not shoot well the whole night, which I assume was not the norm - key players Warnicke, S Crawford, Millard were 8 for 30 between them

I know many of our readers haven't seem Westmin yet - a solid 2 games ahead of everyone - they start
Jason Warnicke - he was a perimeter 3 point threat last year and didn't handle the ball much - this year he is the main ball handler, does a lot more penetrating, shooting shots on the move - they haven't been falling for him
Stan Crawford - Smooth 2 guard - had a poor shooting night, but he clearly is a player....
Buddy Sodeman - the other2 guard - steady role player - not a scorer, but a leader - good defensive
Ky Millard - Athletic, tried to do too much 4 turn overs.
Mike Crawford - He started in the middle, played a lot of forward later in the game - I remember liking him off the bench last year - he's aggressive, good shooter, really bangs the boards

6 man Jake Vislay was as advertised - Exciting player, comes in firing and jumping.  Some frosh mistakes, but he was the most athletic player on the floor.
Forward/middleman  Kurt Kovach and Kurt Kueschell - both have accepted their roles and make for no letdown when they enter the game - I really like Kueschel - an animal on the boards.

I see exactly why Westmin is undefeated, yet winning games close - limited size, not outstanding shooters, but they play very hard aggressive basketball and seem more athletic than other SLIAC teams.  While their bench is using only 3 other players significantly, each of those 3 come right in and bang  -  they each could just as easily be starting.

The Fontbonne game with Westmin will be superbly entertaining - the teams are similar - both very aggressive - I don't see a significant edge - though Westmin's Millard and Stan Crawford will need to have better games.  Matchups are beautiful   McCoy-Warnicke, Sodeman-Forest   I look for Mike Crawford and Kurt Kueschal to be in the line up together to better matchup with Fogerty and Storandt.

Tough loss for Maryville - they are 0-3 since the loss of Steincke - but not a bad team, Rogers won't let them be.  Jason Simmons had another solid game, and assuming Dulle is back for Wednesday, they'll be OK.  They will contend for a playoff spot with The middle pack   -  I put Fontbonne and Westmin in as the two best teams in the conference, though I haven't seen Greenville yet.

Oh and first award of the season - The Westmin half time  dance squad - they have to be seen to be believed!!  In another world from Webster and Fontbonne.  VERY entertaining, I was snowed...


I may have to drive to Fulton on Wednesday night - could be a tough Thursday morn.......

[Razor Back]

Tough loss for MacMurray.

Led most of the game, but ran out of gas down the stretch.

Randle and Larry - academic casualties.

Knox done for year - injury.

A season that started with so much promise.....

Mac will still play hard, and with Coleman, Miller, and Sichting, be dangerous. But this isn't the same team that Coach Creal had on Day #1.

Looks like Fulton, Missouri will be the site of the post-season tournament, but still 4-5 teams could walk away with the NCAA ticket.

Nice to see Eureka get the win. Greenville will be there at the end. Maryville and Webster will be tough outs. Fontbonne still a favorite.

Should be fun.

Razor

Back

[y_jack_lok]

I have a difficult time with Webster. All their players seem to look the same to me this year. You really have no clue who is going to have a good game for them besides Turk. I guess that's a good thing because they have a lot a good players capable of beating you, but it's got to be tough to figure out who to play and when.

This is a pretty good observation, but in my mind it refers mostly to four sophomores -- Jones, Restoff, Trppett, and Meeh, who do have similar, but not identical games. Those guys saw limited action last year as freshmen because the top nine players in minutes were Hoggatt, Robinson, Kuhn, Turk, Niebrugge, Hrdlicka, Whitcomb, Stiegemeier, and Paradoski. With Hoggatt, Robinson and Kuhn gone it opens up minutes for these sophomores, who are generally doing a nice job when on the floor. The inside presence this year was supposed to be freshman Kevin Miller. However he suffered a season ending injury in the third game. So Webster is running a different offense now. At the beginning of the season I wondered where the scoring was going to come from for Webster, besides Turk. One or more of those four sophomores plus Niebrugge and Hrdlicka have been able to put up points in any given game so things are actually better than I thought they might be. Hats off to the coaches and players.

And a message for Steve Hrdlicka. My wife says you should keep wearing the gold socks you had on in the Maryville game!!

[fcnews]

Razor Back- With the log jam that we have I wouldn't rule Mac out yet. We know it only takes five to win. Tiebreakers are going to be fun to figure out.

Yjak- It seems as Hrdalicka goes so do the Gorloks.

Hopefan - I think the match ups maybe Crawford/Forrest, Warnake/Branch and Soderman/McCoy

[sully309]

FC, when I made that comment about Kindred, I honestly didn't think juniors were eligible to win Newcomer of the Year, it looks like they are. We've had 1 NOTY in our 3 years in the SLIAC and he was a freshman, so I have limited personal experience with the award.

Certainly guys like Crawford of Westminster and Forrest of Fontbonne have much better statistics so far than Kindred when you compare them straight up. Personally, I think juniors have a tremendous advantage over freshman, but rules are rules. It's fun to discuss, but there's still over half the conference season left to play and predicting these award winners is tough.

[hopefan]

A quick look at Wednesday's schedule

In reality, every game is big already, with one or two or even 3 clear leaders, and a huge middle pack vying for playoff spots

Webster at Prin on Tuesday  -  with 7 teams vying for four spots, wins over the two last place teams are mandatory - but not a given - Webster must take care of business

Blackburn at Maryville - same as what I said regarding Webster  -  Maryville has to take care of business

Eureka at Mac  -  the loser of this game will likely be the first 'pack team' to hit 4 losses, and will be a game behind everyone else - there is lots of time, but niether team wants to be in that position.  Coming off a great road win at Webster, Eureka has momentum and confidence, but look at the tight game Mac gave Greenville....

Font at Westmin.....  A westmin win really puts Westmin in the drivers seat for the conference championship,  a Fontbonne win actually would put Font a snig ahead, as a repeat later in the season in St Louis would give the Griffs the two victory tie breaker.  Of course lots of other games left to be played, and no one is blowing out the competition.....

and looking ahead to Saturday, another huge day - with cellar dwellars Blackburn and Prin playing each other, there is nothing else but contender vs contender games....  HUGE.