MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Into_the_Blue]

Hope do you have any more for us regarding WashU and WC?  I figured you were busy this weekend but wondered if you had any break down?

[hopefan]

Blue... not really... I was obviously snowed by the game Westmin played.. they didn't alter their game at all... 

Of couse Skylar Tolson shot lights out in the first half, which for all intents and purposes kept Westmin close...  4 3 pointers,  the fourth of which was a line drive hand in his face that still went in.
The big difference in the second half was Stanly Crawford...  he was just into it seemingly more than in the regular season.. perhaps Coach gave him more freedom to create... but he played great.
Unfortunately Justin Gilmore ended up taking two critical shots, one a 3 pointer, that missed in the last couple of minutes.. my impression is that these were not the shots Westmin wanted....  Not a negative to Gilmore, he played well.

TQ asked me prior to the IWU WashU game what I thought... and (gulp) I told him that the Westmin game had to expose certain weaknesses that I felt IWU could exploit.. mainly, Wash U, besides Cam Smith, simply doesn't have the defensive quickness, stopping power, likely necessary to beat IWU....  and in the long run, they simply couldn't get key stops that would have allowed them to go for the win vs IWU.

[Into_the_Blue]

Thanks for writeup Hope.  Bet you had fun at the field house this weekend.

WC will miss Crawford and Millard.  What great careers these two had. 

They will return a great squad which should be favorites to repeat in the SLIAC. 
Vislay
Mallette
Kovach
Tolson
Gilmore
Rudd

These guys will be the core coming back.  Theyll get some help from guys off the bench as well.  It will be interesting to see how WC tries to get Kovach and Tolson on the floor at the same time next year, they split time at the point for most of the year. 

[iwumichigander]

Blue... not really... I was obviously snowed by the game Westmin played.. they didn't alter their game at all... 

Of couse Skylar Tolson shot lights out in the first half, which for all intents and purposes kept Westmin close...  4 3 pointers,  the fourth of which was a line drive hand in his face that still went in.
The big difference in the second half was Stanly Crawford...  he was just into it seemingly more than in the regular season.. perhaps Coach gave him more freedom to create... but he played great.
Unfortunately Justin Gilmore ended up taking two critical shots, one a 3 pointer, that missed in the last couple of minutes.. my impression is that these were not the shots Westmin wanted....  Not a negative to Gilmore, he played well.

TQ asked me prior to the IWU WashU game what I thought... and (gulp) I told him that the Westmin game had to expose certain weaknesses that I felt IWU could exploit.. mainly, Wash U, besides Cam Smith, simply doesn't have the defensive quickness, stopping power, likely necessary to beat IWU....  and in the long run, they simply couldn't get key stops that would have allowed them to go for the win vs IWU.

Interested on your take regarding WashU sitting down Thompson @ 12:49 and Wallis @ 9:25 left in 1st half - both with two fouls.  I thought the foul situation benefited the Titans.  I don't know that I would have sat both with that much time on the clock.  I think I would have sat them for a few minutes and then taken my chances until one got the third foul.

[iwumichigander]

FWIW - I thought Westminister did the SLIAC proud in the WashU game.  Good job!

[Into_the_Blue]

FWIW - I thought Westminister did the SLIAC proud in the WashU game.  Good job!

I think a lot of people expected WC to be blown out.  I think the SLIAC has narrowed the gap between itself and the upper echelon conferences...although until it gets that first big win it will always be looked at as weak. 


I cant speak for the WashU sub situation but sometimes you gotta let your players play and trust them....sometimes refs wont allow for that though, and sometimes you just cant trust your players.  I wouldnt think the latter would be the case here.

[iwumichigander]

FWIW - I thought Westminister did the SLIAC proud in the WashU game.  Good job!

I think a lot of people expected WC to be blown out.  I think the SLIAC has narrowed the gap between itself and the upper echelon conferences...although until it gets that first big win it will always be looked at as weak. 


I cant speak for the WashU sub situation but sometimes you gotta let your players play and trust them....sometimes refs wont allow for that though, and sometimes you just cant trust your players.  I wouldnt think the latter would be the case here.

It did not seem to me the refs let them play in the IWU/WashU contest.  45 called fouls a bunch in a 2nd round game. 

On the SLIAC, I would again encourage the teams to play hard non-conference, in-region contests.  Those help in the NCAA rankings particularly in the SOS calculation.

[hopefan]

Blue  
My impression this year was that the guard slots for Westmin were interchangeable...  Crawford could actually have been called a point guard too.. I'm sure it's not a concern starting both Kovach and Tolson, unless height is a concern... and as we saw with IWU, you can have 2   6' guards and not have a problem.  Heightening my enjoyment of the weekend was spending significant time with Coach MCkinney, Commish Wolper, fellow D3hoopers TQ (with wife in tow) and WUH (unable to locate his wife?) and Webster AD Tom Hart.  Lots of good hoops conversation...

Incidently -  great crowd on Friday night  -  seemed to be as many Westmin fans as there were at the conference tourney, good turnout from Wash U and IWU, and small but vocal student group from Central.   Better atmosphere than i remember at prior year tourneys at Wash U....   Saturday was far less as many Wash  students headed out for spring break.
Such a shame that the missed freethrow with 15 seconds by IWU couldn't have been corralled by Wash U - exciting to imagine the opportunity to take an attempt at game tying 3 pointer  -  but not to be...   I have no problem rooting for IWU to go all the way....  they are such great reps of what I project D3 is all about.....

[Into_the_Blue]

I have no problem rooting for IWU to go all the way....  they are such great reps of what I project D3 is all about.....

WUH quoted a Titans rep when they showed up in STL as saying, "We're here for Basketball!"

Since I read that Ive visualized a team of drones there to do just that, play basketball and take care of business.  What more could a coach, fans, parents, D3 fans want?  Sounds like they have a good shot at advancing even further, although Carthage got them 2 out of 3 times so far. 

[WUPHF]

Interested on your take regarding WashU sitting down Thompson @ 12:49 and Wallis @ 9:25 left in 1st half - both with two fouls.  I thought the foul situation benefited the Titans.  I don't know that I would have sat both with that much time on the clock.  I think I would have sat them for a few minutes and then taken my chances until one got the third foul.

I know that this is the SLIAC thread, but let me comment on this question quickly.  If you look at how the Bears finished the first half, compared to how they played through most of the second half, and how Aaron Thompson was shooting early on, probably not a bad decision.

The referees were calling a tight game.  One official in particular.  Not my favorite group of officials I will say that.
__________________

Hopefan: never did find my wife.  I have her completely burned out.  And, the high school she teaches is the consensus favorite to win the state championship and that starts on Thursday.  Add in the sectional at Washington University and I have three more games to drag her to kicking and screaming.

Are you going to the sectional games?

[Into_the_Blue]

Blue  
My impression this year was that the guard slots for Westmin were interchangeable...  Crawford could actually have been called a point guard too.. I'm sure it's not a concern starting both Kovach and Tolson, unless height is a concern... and as we saw with IWU, you can have 2   6' guards and not have a problem.  

I think you're right.  They should be set with Tolson and Kovach on the floor together and should be okay in the SLIAC at least with that height.  May be a problem if they make it out again but may not hurt them.  

On another note I was just looking at Eurekas roster, Leppard and Kindred are both freshmen?  Watch out for those two the next three years.  Kindred had 27 pts and a pretty nasty dunk in the semis against Mac if Im remembering right.  Leppard had 17 that night I think too...

[Into_the_Blue]

Hopefan: never did find my wife.  I have her completely burned out.  And, the high school she teaches is the consensus favorite to win the state championship and that starts on Thursday.  Add in the sectional at Washington University and I have three more games to drag her to kicking and screaming.

I hear that WUH.  Between the team I coached this year, my brother finishing his senior year of high school ball, catching my team last year's district game, the SLIAC tournament and Mizzou games my wife is ready to never see a game again.  Oh and golf practice just started.  You and I are lucky to have great women! 

[WUPHF]

We are indeed lucky!  I do not know what I would do if my wife was not supportive of my addiction to high school and college-level sports.  If I had to add it all up over the past academic year, I am thinking 13-15 college soccer games, 12 college and high school volleyball games, 30-40 high school and college basketball games.  Many of these were free of charge...my wife is apparently a free date.

I do have to be honest though, I have had to make deals on a lot of the games.  Most notably are the sports for movies exchanges where I end up going to movies such as Twilight and New Moon. 

[The Roop]

My "moment" was Waiting to Exhale several years ago.

[hopefan]

Blue  -  regarding Lepperd and Kindred...  they both played last year...  the Eureka page is a little confusing and you've got a 50-50 shot at hitting this year's roster vs last year's.  They both were sophs this year...  now then, the big kid in the middle, Lessen, is a frosh this year....