MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[hopefan]

FC  -  given the opportunity, it was exciting to see how well the youngsters performed  -  somewhat contra to FC's theory of play your best 5 35 minutes per game -   Remember, the minimal to negligible use of a bench in Most game situations would seem to reflect the coach's lack of confidence in that bench.  
A comment by somewhat evaluating a bench that rarely gets used,  can only be reflective of that implied lack of confidence of the coach because the evaluator never gets to see them in game situations.

Perhaps it was a good thing that Coach McKinney saw strong performances when he was forced to give minutes to those guys - that experience can only help down the road, be it this year or next....

[sully309]

The Eureka/MacMurray game wasn't quite as helter-skelter as I thought it would be. Both teams stuggled offensively, especially EC in the 2nd half.  Good thing the Red Devils hit 29 of 31 at the line or Mac may have been able to come back.

Mac started out well, going up 25-18. Then EC switched to a more defensive-minded line up and Mac scored just 1 point over the next 8 minutes during a 22-1 run.  EC went up 40-26, but credit Mac for not giving up.  They got within 3 points late in the game, but never could tie it up.

Kameron Bell saved the Red Devils with 27 points on just 11 field goal attempts. He was 3-3 on three-pointers, while the rest of the line up was 5-24. Zasada had a quiet 22 and 11, if that's even possible. Frosh Murad Abbed came in off the bench to play some tough D and grab 8 boards.

Farrid Coleman kept his team in it hitting 6 treys for 25 points. Miller and Sichting each had double-doubles for Mac.  They have some weapons offensively that will give teams trouble. I know they've lost some players recently, but they aren't out of it.  I think they have enough to be a factor the 2nd time through the league.

It was intersting to me to see the difference between intersity levels among the players there were on the teams 2 years ago and the newcomers. Mac and EC have had 5 tense battles the last 2 years and you could tell there was extra motivation in the guys that had played in all those games.

Big showdown Saturday with Westminster coming to town. For those of you picking EC, you may want to consider that Eureka has lost 9 in a row to Westminster and won just once at home all season. I'm obviously hoping for a reverse of those trends, but it's not just going to happen because Westminster is a little banged up. Eureka is going to need to play at least as well as against Webster, if not better and that hasn't happened very often this year.

Also, an interesting stat about the SLIAC this season: home teams are just 14-18 so far. So much for home court advantage.

[fcnews]

Hopefan - The very successful coaching philosophy is play your best 5 30-32 minutes. Only exception is when two of your starters get 2 fouls in the first 4 minutes of a game. Or, you lose a starter for a game.

Posts have been that FU only has five players. Now we see that it is not the case. Good players like knowing that they are going to get all the minutes they want. I've heard from more then one, in the past, that have said this influenced their decision to come to FU.

I've yet to meet a great player who has said "I only want to play 18-20 minutes". Which seems to be an evolving coaching philosophy.

The seven man rotation has been in effect as long as I've been around the FU program. Remember (in most cases) these are 18-21 yeqr old young men that are conditioned in practice and the off season to play this way. But, the bench is there when the situation presents itself.

Beleive me the Coach knew what he was going to get when he went to those guys. Just like Abozen last year. If needed there is a plug for the dam.

As other posters have mentioned, FU gets some pretty good players, do you think this may have something to do with it.

If it ain't broke don't fix it.

[juniormint]

Going with the home court disadvantage trend I think Maryville is the only one of the three "pack" games that holds serve.  The two dubs...Webster and Westmo get wins on the road. 

[hopefan]

mint any further word on Warnicke   ??

[juniormint]

Heard he was sore and a lot of pain.  Had a root canal Friday to fix tooth that was chipped.  Surgery Tuesday to do a short-term fix for the rest of the season and then most likely more major surgery at the end of the season to do all corrections.  He's a tough kid, I'd expect him back in 3-4 games. 

[fcnews]

Congrats to the Beavers. W's are sweet whenever they come.

Home court was not the answer for contenders today.

Probably a wise decision to travel up on Friday nite for WC. GC missed an oppurtunity.

It will be interesting. Good Luck to all in the final half.

[y_jack_lok]

Webster went into halftime behind by 9 at Greenville. The key to the win was a 15-0 run to start the second half. Great game by both teams. Always nice to go to GC -- great fans, great sportsmanship, great games. I'm sure hopefan will post his always informative writeup.

[hotshot_8617]

I have watched Maryville's last two games and I am impressed. They do not have the talent of Fontbonne, but they can beat them. I don't think Westminster does. Give them credit for getting a lot out of the talent they have, but they are just not that good to slug it out 40 minutes with Fontbonne. They have pulled several out of the fire and that tends to even out as the year goes on. Webster is well coached, but I think in the end Fontbonne has too many horses for them this year.

Fontbonne should win the regualr season crown, but that was said many times over the last 20+ years, and they have only won the conference twice. I think this is their best team ever. It is good to see them getting some minutes out of the bench recently. I have felt that has hurt them in the past years because they do tend to play some kids 40 minutes a night and they get hurt or worn down as the year wears on.

This is the best Fontbonne team I have ever seen, at least the first five. If they will just give a bit of emphasis to defense, I think they have the best chance I have seen to get the SLIAC's first post season victory. Defense in the past has hurt them when the step outside the SLIAC. In conference, they can just out score people. When they play better teams outside the SLIAC, that will not get it done. Now is the time for the coaches to at least give some emphasis to defense.

Anyway, impressed with Maryville, but still think it is Fontbonne's to lose.

[hopefan]

Gotta disagree with buddy yjak on his evaluation of the game - to me a pretty sloppy game with a very exciting ending - and I was somewhat disappointed with the turnout - Greenville's side not full, the bench side half empty.

First half was ugly - turnovers and poor shooting from the Gorlocks - nice performance by Niebrugge, Whitcombe and Restoff kept the deficit to only 9 at half -  As Yjak said, Webster scored the first 15 points in the second half to go up 41-35 with 15 min left.  Greenville switched to a 2-3 zone that really stymied Webster and caught up 49-48 at 9:30.. from then on, neither team had a lead bigger than 3 points    54-54 at 6 mins, 58-58 at 3:30, 60-60 at 1:45 , Whicomb hits Hrdlicka under the basket at 1:30, Cosby on a drive to tie at 1:05.   Turk was fouled out front at :42 for 64-62, and Greenville turned it over, then fouled Turk at :28 with Webster in a 1 and 1  -  Turk Missed and Greenville rebounded---   They isolated Cocrane at the top of the key, but he missed a go ahead 3, the ball bounced to Cosby on the wing who also missed a 3, and Hrdlicka was fouled with 3.7 secons left  - he missed the first, made the second, Greenville made a quick pass down the court and Laphonso Ellis had a legit shot to tie - but off the rim for the Webster win.

First time seeing Greenville - nice first half, but only scored 27 points in the 2nd half... Eliis who had 14 points in the first half was held to only 2 in the 2nd half... Cochran is unbelievably quick, but seemingly out of control many times - fun to watch though,  new face 6-6 AJ Brooks is good - but was hampered by fouls...  and Chris Hohm is excellent off the bench - a strong to the basket guy who can jump!!

Turk a horrible day shooting, but he really runs the offense - his penetration and dishes set up Niebrugge and Whitcombe numerous times  -  Restoff and Hrdlicka solid off the bench  -  good win without Nick Jones who was out injured or ill.

Really admire the way the Greenville team conducts itself and the prayer circle after the game.....  And the Gym is beautiful - also fun to sneak over to the auxilliary gym at half time and throw up a few j's with the youth of Greenville!!!!

[y_jack_lok]

Always nice to be the straight man for hopefan  . So it wasn't a great game, as great games go. Can't remember if it was in the first half or second half, but there was one sequence of consecutive turnovers by each team that looked like it had been scripted by the Keystone Cops. It all happened incredibly fast and each team had possession of the ball two or three times, but each possession lasted maybe 3-5 seconds. A lot of high energy hustling going on but no one could keep the ball under control.

And in self-defense, I didn't say the fans were plentiful -- but they are still great fans.

[fcnews]

- also fun to sneak over to the auxilliary gym at half time and throw up a few j's with the youth of Greenville!!!!

That sight has got to be worth the price of admission.

Webster 3-15  Greenville 1-12  3pt shooting. That's an amazing stat for that gym. Great defense or poor shooting?

Did Greenville feel any ill effects from the 105-108 Ind.- NW game on Thursday?

Wednesday's big games: WC @ WU and EC @ GC and FU will not be looking past BC.

[y_jack_lok]

- also fun to sneak over to the auxilliary gym at half time and throw up a few j's with the youth of Greenville!!!!

That sight has got to be worth the price of admission.

Webster 3-15  Greenville 1-12  3pt shooting. That's an amazing stat for that gym. Great defense or poor shooting?

Did Greenville feel any ill effects from the 105-108 Ind.- NW game on Thursday?

Wednesday's big games: WC @ WU and EC @ GC and FU will not be looking past BC.

I asked hopefan how many shots he made and his reply was "not too many".

As for any effect on Greenville from Thursday night's game -- I didn't know they had played Thursday night -- but I'd say there was no evidence of a lack of energy or hustle. Just because the score was high doesn't mean it was like playing Grinnell. And I did look for a box score from that game to check for minutes played by each player, but GC doesn't have the box scores of it's last several games posted. We need pantherpride!!

[sully309]

Saturday's game was a struggle for Eureka in a 70-61 loss to Westminster.  That's by far the best defense I've seen any team in the conference play against EC. Westminster played great pressure defense all game long. They are solid all the way around, though the one question mark would be who that guy is going to be that can bail them out offensively if they do run into a team having an hot night offensively.

Ty Cochran filled in for Warncke. He certainly didn't hurt them any when he was in there. It's tough for me to judge since I haven't seen them with Warncke in the lineup though.

Several posters have been bragging about Jake Vislay of Westminster, but aside from one dunk off a missed shot, he didn't stand out to me. Kurt Kovach hit several tough shots and both Crawfords played well. Stanley Crawford in particular was a pest defensively with quite a few steals and fast break layups. Ky Millard set up some easy buckets with nice passes and got some tough rebounds.

Westmisnter was definitely the more physical team and the game was called loosely.  Eureka didn't get much off the dribble and was forced into 20 turnovers, 33% field goal shooting and 15% 3-point shooting.

Westminster finished the 1st half on an 11-2 run for a 39-28 lead.  They went ahead by 15 early in the 2nd half, but Eureka scored 9 straight to get within 6.  The Red Devils missed golden 1 golden opportunity after another as the score stayed at 54-48 forever.  EC fell behind by 12 again, then got with 4 with 40 seconds left, but 2 missed free throws really hurt and EC couldn't get any closer.

If it's going to take 10 wins to get in the tournament, Eureka will need 6 wins the rest of the way. Assuming they win the rest of their home games (just for argument's sake...I know EC is 1-4 at home and this is a huge assumption) against Blackburn, Webster, Maryville and MacMurray and wins at Principia, that would give them 9 wins. Assuming EC loses at Westminster and Fontbonne, that leaves...Wednesday's game AT Greenville. Sounds like a big game to me.

[hopefan]

Good analysis EC - winning at Greenville will be a challenge - I see Eureka and Greenville as very similar teams.....  Zasada vs ellis and Willenbrandt vs Cochrane are intriguing matchups....   Beating both Webster and Maryville at home is a tall order too....  Personally, I'm not so sure 10 wins will be necessary - I think 4th place could be a log jam at 9 wins