MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Denny McKinney]

I would think that in that situation any team playing Spalding would be reluctant to get a key player hurt. Would make the Championship game a little less important.

Yjak do you remember the name of the big kid from CA that stayed at Webster a year. He was like the City POY in like San Diego. I wanted to see if he ended up somewhere else.

[y_jack_lok]

Richard Ogunsalu.

[hopefan]

   2008 high school writeup......Grossmont senior Richard Ogunsalu earned selection to the All-Division II Second Team after keying the Foothillers to a 7-1 Grossmont North League championship record, 20-7 overall mark and a berth in the Division II semifinal playoffs. Ogunsalu averaged 18.0 points and 12.6 rebounds per game.

I don't know that this indicates POY of San Diego, but it certainly indicates he was a PLAYER... will never understand why he couldn't adapt to SLIAC hoops and be a help...  incredibly, when I looked him up on google, much was written about him being a witness to a shooting in the housing complex he lives in - just back in August...

[Denny McKinney]

Sorry I am little tardy on your response regarding Webster's recruits, Hopefan (and others).

6 players should make an immediate impact for next season....

Kevin Miller...6'7"...Belleville East...freshman -- Huge body around 290 pounds.....good finisher around the basket and good foot work for his build.  Should be tough to handle in the SLIAC

Richard Ogunsalu...6'5"...Grossmont, CA...freshman -- Should add some size and bulk to the interior......MVP of San Diego league and avg 18 and 13 in a very tough conference.  Google his name and you can find articles and some box scores where he posted some 30 point 10 plus rebound games.  
Jon Gillett...6'6"...Michigan native...College of Dupage...transfer -- Can play the high and low post......good shooter, passer, and rebounder.  Part time starter and 6th man for a very good juco program

Reggie Smith...6'2"...Chicago area...College of Dupage....transfer -- 2 year starter at the off guard.  Very athletic and has the ability to play the one or the two guard spots

Berton Wong...5'9" point guard from Hawaii...freshman -- Played for one of the best high school programs in the state of hawaii.....very smart and should add depth at the point guard positıon

Cyrus Collins...6'7"...transfer from MN -- Long and athletic and should add some depth to the high and low post for next season

This is the lastest recruiting news from Webster.  Sounds like Coach Bunch and Coach Siener put together another terrific class.  They continue to prove themselves as top-notch recruiters in the SLIAC.  Kudos to both Coaches!

Hopefan I guess this is were I remembered something about City POY.

This Kid had the size and body to dominate in SLIAC. Saw him in 3 JV games, unstoppable.
Great skill set.

... will never understand why he couldn't adapt to SLIAC hoops and be a help...  incredibly, when I looked him up on google, much was written about him being a witness to a shooting in the housing complex he lives in - just back in August.

Richard only appeared in 9 games / 4.9 mins per in 08-09. I don't think "he couldn't apdapt", it was a matter of oppurtunity.

Maybe if WU could of kept him in the STL this shooting incident could of been avoided for him. This would of been his senior year.

Back to my previous posts. You just don't see many 4 yr Black players in the SLIAC.

I think Wong was the only one of this bunch that stuck around.

Real shame for Ogunsalu. I had hoped he caught on at another school.

[hopefan]

Just in case you're looking for something to do after the Cardinal game tonight... Webster has fun and games with midnight madness ....there is a writeup on their site... but food and contests for fans at 10 PM, and player intros and contests for the teams at 11:00

[GC Panther 01]

accident over the weekend involving Charles "Brady" Slagle and his little brother.  Prayers go out to the family.

http://wlds.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7692:winchester-boy-seriously-hurt-in-wreck&catid=56:local-news&Itemid=72

[hopefan]

Thanks GC.... hate to hear this.. prayers to the family and friends at MacMurray.

[Gregory Sager]

SLIAC fans should find this to be a very interesting press release.

[y_jack_lok]

Interesting, indeed. Of surprise to me is that the nearest SLIAC school is MacMurray 157 miles away, then Eureka, 161 miles away, then Westminster 193 miles, then Blackburn 196, Principia 198, Saint Louis 225, Greenville 253. Only Spalding at 450 miles could be considered unreasonably far away.

[Gregory Sager]

There's a discussion of IWC and its possible move to D3, including its interest in the SLIAC, going on within the General Division III Issues tree.

Although the distances to SLIAC campuses look do-able for IWC, the distances to IIAC campuses are much closer. In fact, one IIAC school (Central) is within a hundred miles of IWC's hometown of Mount Pleasant. And the conundrum that has been raised in the "Iowa Wesleyan to apply to DIII" room on the General Division III Issues tree, which is why IWC would choose to apply to a league that can't provide a home for the school's football team, is an interesting one.

[y_jack_lok]

I don't know anything about the IIAC schools, but IWC had an enrollment of 863 in 2009 according to an article I located on its website. That would make it smaller than Webster, close to Westminster and Greenville, larger than Mac, Eureka and Blackburn. I don't know how large Spalding, Prin and Fontbonne are. Also, re football, they haven't won more than 3 games in the past 6 seasons. Perhaps they could affiliate with the IIAC for football, or with whomever Greenville and Westminster affiliate with -- or ditch football.

[hopefan]

Iowa Wesleyan to the SLIAC makes sense to me... I'm not too familiar with Wesleyan, but think of it as smaller than most of the IIAC schools, and likely more competitive in the SLIAC.... It seems to fit better geographically than Spalding...  of course, i would have been much happier if one or two of the Missouri NAIA schools would have made the move to SLIAC... Willian Wood, William Jewell, Columbia, Mo Baptist, Culver Stockton, Central Methodist...   any might have been a good fit to D3

[Pat Coleman]

There's a discussion of IWC and its possible move to D3, including its interest in the SLIAC, going on within the General Division III Issues tree.

Although the distances to SLIAC campuses look do-able for IWC, the distances to IIAC campuses are much closer. In fact, one IIAC school (Central) is within a hundred miles of IWC's hometown of Mount Pleasant. And the conundrum that has been raised in the "Iowa Wesleyan to apply to DIII" room on the General Division III Issues tree, which is why IWC would choose to apply to a league that can't provide a home for the school's football team, is an interesting one.

The IIAC has a rule that you must sponsor every conference sport, and IWC doesn't have wrestling.

[Gregory Sager]

There's a discussion of IWC and its possible move to D3, including its interest in the SLIAC, going on within the General Division III Issues tree.

Although the distances to SLIAC campuses look do-able for IWC, the distances to IIAC campuses are much closer. In fact, one IIAC school (Central) is within a hundred miles of IWC's hometown of Mount Pleasant. And the conundrum that has been raised in the "Iowa Wesleyan to apply to DIII" room on the General Division III Issues tree, which is why IWC would choose to apply to a league that can't provide a home for the school's football team, is an interesting one.

The IIAC has a rule that you must sponsor every conference sport, and IWC doesn't have wrestling.

True, which is why Grinnell resisted IIAC membership. Wrestling's a rather inexpensive sport to add, though -- unless you're talking about Title IX entanglements -- so I doubt that that's the overriding reason why IWC would choose the SLIAC over the IIAC. I think it's more likely a function of school size, as y_jack and hopefan surmise. Alternatively, it's entirely possible that the IWC administration made some discreet inquiries to the IIAC and was told that the league wasn't interested in adding IWC.

I don't know anything about the IIAC schools, but IWC had an enrollment of 863 in 2009 according to an article I located on its website.

It's actually much smaller than that. According to the d3sports.com story on IWC's impending move, the school currently reports an enrollment of 662 full-time undergraduates.

That would make it smaller than Webster, close to Westminster and Greenville, larger than Mac, Eureka and Blackburn. I don't know how large Spalding, Prin and Fontbonne are.

According to petersons.com:

Spalding = 1,306 undergraduates
Principia = 542 undergraduates
Fontbonne = 1,694 undergraduates

Cornell, which is leaving the IIAC to return to its original home in the MWC, is the smallest IIAC school at around 1,100 full-time undergrads. The next-smallest IIAC schools, Coe and Dubuque, are somewhere in the 1,300 to 1,400 range.

Also, re football, they haven't won more than 3 games in the past 6 seasons.

Sports success is not really a function of student-body size, since athletes are specifically recruited rather than selected from among the general student population. It may be a function of related criteria such as course offerings and financial/facilities resources, although those things don't necessarily correspond to student-body size.

Unless a school's failure in a particular sport is so dramatic, and so fixed by circumstances external to the program itself, that the administration feels that it must step in and accordingly tailor that sport's venue of participation (e.g., Macalester leaving the MIAC in football to become an independent, while staying a MIAC member in all other sports), it's not likely that a school would base an affiliation decision upon a recent lack of success. Iowa Wesleyan isn't very good in football in their current NAIA league, but it doesn't make sense that the school's administration would thus seek to find a D3 league for the school that doesn't sponsor the sport at all. It's not as though the IIAC is chock-full of D3 football powerhouses.

Perhaps they could affiliate with the IIAC for football, or with whomever Greenville and Westminster affiliate with -- or ditch football.

As far as joining the IIAC as a football-only member is concerned, Pat's explained that the IIAC has an all-sports-only policy for its members. And as to dropping football, keep in mind that Iowa Wesleyan has a 60:40 female:male ratio. A small school like that, with such a disproportionate number of women to men, is not likely to abandon something that brings a lot of male students onto the campus.

It's likely that, should IWC go through with this and join D3 and the SLIAC, it would follow the second course you suggest, which would be to join the UMAC in football. Only six of the eight UMAC members have football programs, so two years ago the UMAC brought in the four SLIAC football orphans (Westminster, Eureka, Greenville, and MacMurray) as associate members for football in order to maintain an automatic qualifier for the D3 football playoff. Iowa Wesleyan would presumably join the UMAC as another associate member for football, although this would give the UMAC an unbalanced eleven-team membership in that sport. (Since Finlandia, way up in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, is in the process of adding football as a sport, perhaps it could come into the UMAC in tandem with Iowa Wesleyan and raise the football membership to twelve, allowing the UMAC to go to two six-team divisions.) Any way you look at it, though, joining the SLIAC/UMAC would mean a lot more travel for Iowa Wesleyan student-athletes than would IIAC membership.

[Gregory Sager]

Iowa Wesleyan to the SLIAC makes sense to me... I'm not too familiar with Wesleyan, but think of it as smaller than most of the IIAC schools, and likely more competitive in the SLIAC.... It seems to fit better geographically than Spalding...  of course, i would have been much happier if one or two of the Missouri NAIA schools would have made the move to SLIAC... Willian Wood, William Jewell, Columbia, Mo Baptist, Culver Stockton, Central Methodist...   any might have been a good fit to D3

One of the posters participating in the "Iowa Wesleyan to apply to DIII" room mentioned that there is a rumor floating around an NAIA chatroom that Culver-Stockton is investigating a switch in affiliation to D3 and the SLIAC. I've never heard or seen that confirmed anywhere else, though.