MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[hopefan]

uhhhh   Free admission to all SLIAC games!!!!

[hs_pg_qb]

Well Watchdog.... retirement isn't too far away, and my wife is gonna make me do SOMETHING....

I'm sure your wife would love nothing better for you to spend more time with D3 Hoops than you do now!

[hopefan]

Wow, sounds like you know her as well as I do....   must have been a random guess solicited from my past remarks.....   but not an inaccurate one........

[watchdog]

Hope,

Not everyone charges now, so the SLIAC may be one of the best fiscal bargains in intercollegiate athletics. Regardless, I'm sure we could get you media credentials if you promise to be nice in your critiques of SLIAC teams (measured, of course, by the column inch).

Let the stretch run begin!

[hopefan]

Watchdog  - I have been kicking myself that I have never come over to see a Autumn Football game at Westmin  -  it has to be picturesque.....

[Into_the_Blue]

There is nothing better than the fighting Welty's in November taking on a SLIAC foe on the mighty Stinson.

[watchdog]

The Fighting Weltys are in the UMAC, but the Stinson Creek Shootout is a sight to behold!

[Into_the_Blue]

I was thinking WC joined the Sliac in football from an article I read a few years ago but maybe it said that some Sliac teams had joined the UMAC?  Or maybe I was just wrong altogether. Whatever happened to the kids enrolled to play football at Blackburn?

Pretty ironic a guest comes on here to call someone out on his true identity.

[Pat Coleman]

Pretty ironic a guest comes on here to call someone out on his true identity.

Indeed. Nothing like the lack of guts of a hit-and-run poster. We'll get that mess cleaned up.

[watchdog]

To help clarify:

The SLIAC first sponsored football from 1996-99 with five teams playing (Blackburn, Greenville, MacMurray, Principia and Westminster), but with a change in the conference sport sponsorship requirements (four teams to six), football was dropped as a conference sport.

In 2000 and 2001, Blackburn, Principia and Westminster were independent, while Greenville and MacMurray played in the Illini-Badger.

From 2002-2007, Blackburn, Principia and Westminster played in the UMAC, while Greenville and MacMurray continued to play in the Illini-Badger.

In 2008, the SLIAC sponsored football with Blackburn, Eureka, Greenville, MacMurray, Principia, and Westminster participating. Huntingdon and LaGrange joined as associate members for football only.

When it was announced that Blackburn was dropping football and Principia was suspending football prior to the 2009 season, SLIAC football was no more. Eureka, Greenville, MacMurray and Westminster (once again) hooked up with the UMAC. And Huntingdon and LaGrange were dropped as associate members.

And, that is where we are.

[watchdog]

And back to basketball:

Feb. 13 (the home team goes 3-1)

Eureka 75, at Spalding 79
Greenville 82, at Principia 59
Westminster (Mo.) 71, at MacMurray 81
Blackburn 84, at Fontbonne 111

[hopefan]

Congrats to Coach McKinney on achieving career coaching victory number 800.   The game unfortunately reminded me of a YMCA lunchtime run and gun... Blacburn playing without Todd West, just didn't have the horses to play defense... Fontbonne took turns shooting 3's, and Forrest and Sheetz shoot pretty darned well with all the time they had...and hey hey hey, Kevin Lisch made a couple -hope he finds some confidence from that!!

 Eureka and Westmin both suffer relatively meaningless losses, but that confidence factor has got to be building up at Mac.....  
greenville takes care of business with Prin, now Webster has to do the same.....

[hopefan]

HEY   where is everyone?

With Saturday's results, let's take a look at the what ifs......

Westmin is at 2 losses, Mac with 4....  Westmin may lose at Eureka, but no way will they lose to Prin...  so they are a virtual lock for first place and host of the tourney....  Ugh for me, out of work a snig early, a FAST trip to Fulton with a stop at Mac's, back home at midnight or 12:30, and back up to work in 5 hours  -  can this old man do it??

Mac is at second alone with 4 losses, a split with Westmin, a split with Eureka, a sweep over Webster, a loss to Greenville, a sweep over Fontbonne.  Mac has Greenville at home and Blackburn away left. 
Even if they were to lose those last two, Mac has clinched a 2nd seed-3rd seed game spot - if they did lose two and finished tied with Webster for  3rd-4th, or Eureka - Webster for 2nd 3rd 4th, their sweep over Webster guarantees them a 2-3 spot.
Mac is clearly the hottest team in the conference - and is a threat to Westmin

The next two spots are really up for grabs, with Eureka's loss to Spalding on Saturday complicating things.

Eureka, Webster, Greenville and Fontbonne are still alive


There are still far too many permutations of wins and losses to show all the possibilities. 

As far as controlling their own destiny, Eureka and Webster remain in the drivers seat... if they both win out there is nothing Greenville or Font can do....

But Eureka has not yet clinched a spot... I see ways if they lose two and Greenville wins 3 and Webster wins 3 that Eureka would lose a tiebreaker....  not likely, but possible.
And of course Webster hasn't clinched...  Wins over Prin and Spalding still wouldn't clinch by Saturday if Greenville also were to win 2.

But the likely:
It all ends Saturday, When Webster, after beating Prin, beats Spalding, and Greenville loses to Mac...the Webster win coupled with a Greenville loss clinches for both Eureka and Webster.
The tourney is then Westmin, Mac 2nd, Eureka likely third, though that might be determined the last night of the season, and Webster 4th.

[hopefan]

Missed seeing Todd West playing for Blackburn on Saturday...  he had been putting up glowing stats, I was looking forward to it....   He wasn't dressed out on Saturday........Found out yesterday why he was gone....  something was more important, same thing happened to a Maryville player a year or two ago... team, the heck with it, something else can't be lived without for two more weeks...  well Todd, hope it works out for you, but I have a feeling you're going to miss those other special minutes on the court a lot more as time goes on.  

[hopefan]

While the game tonight vs Prin is critical for Webster, I'm relatively certain it will be a walkover, and we can already start to look forward to Saturday's Webster-Spalding game.   Along with all the playoff ramifications as a result of that game, I'm also looking forward to seeing DeWhon McAfee play again... he was very impressive against Fontbonne early in the season, and I've been writing him in as a shoo-in 1st team all Conference, but it's been 2 months... anxious to see if he lives up to my expectations.   It would seem that McAfee, Bell, Zasada, and Forest would be locks, and the 5th spot wide open amongst Vislay, Randall, Slagle, Sichting, Ellis..... Slagle has come on VERY strong, and perhaps could overtake Webster's Moore for Newcomer....

Incidently... I noticed another dark horse to watch for next year... keep your eye on Dakota Tucker from Blackburn...  kid can get up nice, good looking shooter... could very well be expected to take over some of the scoring that is being lost with Sykes graduation and the possible departure of Todd West.  He was on the bench as a 7th or 8th man this year, but Looked good vs Fontbonne.