MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[hopefan]

In the mean time - Hopefan gets a clean sweep into the NCAAs - A St Louis rep from the SLIAC, Wash U from the UAA, old favorite Hope scores a mild upset win over archrival Calvin to get in, and alma mater HUGE darkhorse RPI comes out of nowhere to claim the Liberty League title by upsetting Hamilton and St. Lawrence

Must be all my good clean livin'   

[fcnews]

Looks like Hopefan may be doing some travel.

[hopefan]

hoooah...... Fontbonne  AND  Hope  at Wheaton......  wasn't gonna travel this year....  now   gotta!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Font vs Wheaton;  Hope vs Wisc Platteville

[hopefan]

Amusing  -  only the third post after my friends at Hope see the draw, someone posts how tough it will be playing Wheaton at Wheaton.....  being overlooked can sometimes be a big benefit....

[Titan Q]

Massey ratings of the teams in the Wheaton/St. Thomas quad...

http://www.mratings.com/rate.php?lg=cb&yr=2009&sub=III&mid=6


#1 - St. Thomas
#2 - Wheaton
#3 - UW-Stevens Point
#4 - Puget Sound
#5 - UW-Platteville
#6 - UW-Whitewater
#7 - Wash U
#8 - Elmhurst
#9 - Whitworth
#25 - Lawrence
#28 - Cornell
#31 - Hope
#36 - Claremont-Mudd-Scripps
#87 - Aurora
#156 - Fontbonne

Fontbonne with a tough road to Salem.

[andrewmp]

I don't think the Wheaton team will be overlooking anyone.  The tremendous benefit that Wheaton has is a lot of tournament experience, and maybe some understanding of what being "overlooked" feels like.  Last year, they were the last team in and got to the Elite Eight.  I don't know much about Fontbonne, but I don't think Wheaton will be playing with an eye towards the next night.  They have seemed to be able to bring focus to every game this year, as evidenced by how soundly they put away non-conference teams.  They have also came to this record with injuries to two of their best players, who are both at full strength now.

[fcnews]

Titan Q has set the line as Wheaton -16.

[hopefan]

well problem no 1   Wheaton is pretty big  -  I checked out their lineup to see if forest could match up against Wheaton's All American guard Kent Raymond, and it doesn't look good..... Wheaton starts 6'6", 6'7", and 6'8", meaning if Forest were to guard Raymond, Branch would be outsized badly guarding a forward.....   yet Branch and McCoy - who can play Raymond?
Well, coach, that's why they pay you the big bucks - 4 days to figure something out....... 

Fontbonne fans who travel up are in for a treat.  Beautiful campus, large gym, lots of orange and blue everywhere....  Billy Graham museum on campus is awesome.....  if allowed, eat relatively cheap at the campus cafeteria - absolutely the BEST cafateria I've ever seen on a college campus.

Now then... only 2 Friday night upsets from a Hope-Fontbonne matchup  -  and I thought I had it bad when Hope played Wash U the last two years!!!!

[theoneandonly]

when will all conference be posted?

[theoneandonly]

scratch that last post..



Congrats to all of the All Conference Players


FIRST TEAM ALL-SLIAC     
NAME    SCHOOL
Michael Zasada    Eureka
Brian Fogerty    Fontbonne
Chris Forrest    Fontbonne
LaPhonso Ellis    Greenville
Ryan Turk    Webster
     
SECOND TEAM ALL-SLIAC    
NAME    SCHOOL
Rod Sykes    Blackburn
Patrick McCoy    Fontbonne
Kyle Winters    Maryville (Mo.)
Stanley Crawford    Westminster (Mo.)
Jason Warncke    Westminster (Mo.)
     
HONORABLE MENTION ALL-SLIAC    
NAME    SCHOOL
Kameron Bell    Eureka
Farrid Coleman    MacMurray
Ryan Sichting    MacMurray
Eric Gruenewald    Maryville (Mo.)
Todd Zimmerman    Principia
     
ALL-DEFENSIVE TEAM    
NAME    SCHOOL
Rod Sykes    Blackburn
Chris Hohm    Greenville
Steve Hrdlicka    Webster
Stanley Crawford    Westminster (Mo.)
Ky Millard    Westminster (Mo.)
     
PLAYER OF THE YEAR    
Brian Fogerty    Fontbonne
     
NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR    
Chris Forrest    Fontbonne
     
COACH OF THE YEAR    
Matt Mitchell    Westminster (Mo.)
     
SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD    
Greenville College

[andrewmp]

well problem no 1   Wheaton is pretty big  -  I checked out their lineup to see if forest could match up against Wheaton's All American guard Kent Raymond, and it doesn't look good..... Wheaton starts 6'6", 6'7", and 6'8", meaning if Forest were to guard Raymond, Branch would be outsized badly guarding a forward.....   yet Branch and McCoy - who can play Raymond?
Well, coach, that's why they pay you the big bucks - 4 days to figure something out....... 

Fontbonne fans who travel up are in for a treat.  Beautiful campus, large gym, lots of orange and blue everywhere....  Billy Graham museum on campus is awesome.....  if allowed, eat relatively cheap at the campus cafeteria - absolutely the BEST cafateria I've ever seen on a college campus.

Now then... only 2 Friday night upsets from a Hope-Fontbonne matchup  -  and I thought I had it bad when Hope played Wash U the last two years!!!!

Yes, you are allowed to eat at the cafeteria, you just have to pay.  The dinner might be pretty poor, though, as it is the start of spring break.  Often, the cafeteria puts out a whole lot less when that happens. 

[juniormint]

Great SLIAC tournament.  Looks like an awesome game between WC and WU, followed by a great championship game.  If Westmo makes their free throws we might have a different outcome (4-12, all in the second half).  And if a couple Fontbonne guys don't have one of the best shooting nights of their lives, again we might have a different story.  But FU won and hopefully they can make some noise in the big dance against a tough Wheaton team on the road. 
 
After the game Coach McKinney told the Westminster team it was the classiest group of guys he has ever coached against.  Which is a great gesture on his part and a great honor to Coach Mitchell as he preaches "win with class, lose with class; day in and day out."

Great games this weekend.  I think fc summed it all up pretty well.  The one thing I wanted to point out was the student fans on Saturday.

That being said, I will say that I was a little disappointed in the WC student section during the award ceremony. 

While one particular FC player was receiving an award, A loud boo was heard from the WC section.  I can almost understand as this player was jawing a little towards the Student section at the end of the game.  A little unsportsman like from both sides but I think the FC player, as a player, should be held to a little bit higher standard and should know better than to let the crowd get under their skin whether winning or losing.  Just walk off the court and let the scoreboard to do the talking.

Beyond that incident, I was also a little surprised with the WC students when the two teams were being recognized.  As WC was called out for being the runner up in the tourney, I noted that every single person in the FC section was applauding the great effort and game that the WC team played.  I would have expected the same courtesy from the WC section when FB was called as the winners.  I saw exactly ONE person applaud the FB game.  Everyone else just stood there with their arms at their sides or crossed.

Now I must admit I am a real newb to these games and this is my first post tourney award ceremony.  Is this unusual.  Does the disappointment of defeat usually carry over like this?  Was I even the only one to notice and am making a mountain out of a molehill?

Anyway, to BOTH the Griffs and Jays, thank you for a great and hard fought battle!

From a very credible source I heard that two FU players were not only "jawing" at the WC crowd....here is the report I received with names taken out although almost everyone there knows who it was. 

"At the end of the game an FU player took the basketball, put it in front of his crotch, humped the ball 3-4 times then threw it at a Westminster student.   Another FU player walked over to the Westminster student section with 3 fingers held up and waved it at the Westminster students.  Everyone knows they have one 3 tournaments in a row, act like you've been there."

I don't know what the Westminster crowd said to these guys.  They may have made inappropriate comments.  They should have applauded the efforts of the WC and FU players as well as all other awards.  On the other hand, a player actually threw the ball into the student section?  If what was described would have happened at a D-1 game the players would have been suspended.  Im not condoning the crowd actions or the reactions of the FU players...but to think the WC students would applaud an FU team who had two of its starters make gestures and throw the ball at them is actually quite comical to me.  Too bad any of this had to happen. 
 
Change of subject to all conference...how does Stan Crawford not make first team?  He lead the Blue Jays in points and rebounds and lead the conference in steals on a team that tied for the league championship.  Crawford and Ellis had the same scoring, same rebounding and Crawford led the league in steals.  Winning has to count for something, Zasada and Ellis' teams crumbled down the stretch and didn't make the tournament.  I'm not taking away from what those two guys did all year, but to reward them as one of the best five players in the league on teams that weren't even in the top 4 isn't fair.  Crawford deserved to be on the first team.

And Ky Millard probably should not have been left off.  The kid doesn't score a ton of points, but might be the most valuable member to the Blue Jay team (who won the conference) and he put on a show in the conference tournament.  No one could guard him all weekend. Watch out for him next year.
 
As for next years Westminster team.  The blue jays return 70 of the 82 points scored in the championship game.  With Millard, S. Crawford, Kovach, and Vislay.  You won't find a better four than that coming back.  They will just need to fill a couple gaps. 

[juniormint]

Quickest way to silence this board is a Fontbonne win.  8)

ya.  something like that.

[fcnews]

Wow I sat directly next to the WC section. Right next to the WC adult fan who was moved off the front row by security. Head official requested the action. Loud but not over the line comments.

And I didn't see anything unwarranted by the WC group or players. I heard the the WC students comments toward FU players. Same thing you hear in every gym on Saturday. I saw the player do the crowd hush and the three fingers. Not unwarranted after the game was over. Didn't do it till the buzzer.  Didn't see the ball thrown. Sorry just didn't see it. Could of happen though. The WC mother took the student from FU doing the broom sweep very well. Playful joust.

All in All both did a great job of giving us that atmosphere. Sorry to hear the remarks about the post game. Cause the game was great.

[Gregory Sager]

As I pondered the scores, such a shame for the SLIAC winner to be out here - my impression is that if this were a national one location tourney that a team at Fontbonne's level would be more than competitive out east, mid atlantic, northeast.
But there are just so few lower level leagues out here that the likelihood of Fontbonne or a SLIAC school getting a competitve matchup in the first round is virtually nonexistent.

Well said, Hopefan. Q's seen Fontbonne play a couple of times, and he thinks very highly of them. I suspect that you're right about the Griffins doing some damage if they were lucky enough to be playing in one of the two eastern sections rather than having to step into the meatgrinder in Wheaton this coming weekend.