MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[hopefan]

Thanks Yjak... I'd imagine that the quickness of Lott and Willridge may have limited his open looks at the hoop....  curious as to who didn't play for Blackburn (big man Steve White) - hope all is ok there..... but with the crazy things hapeening to SLIAC rosters, nothing would surprise me.....

[hopefan]

Let's review last night's SLIAC box scores... the SLIAC goes 1-4, not unexpected, though I hoped for 2 wins with an outside shot at 3...
The absence of Steve White, anointed by me as the SLIAC's best big man after seeing the exhibition vs SIUE, from the Blackburn Boxscore and Dylan Burton, probably the most athletic kid in the conference,  getting only 4 minutes for Mac has nothing but bad connotations.   Whether injury or other problems (I've got a shakey feeling about that), it's bad for these two to not be playing.

First Congrats to Greenville for coming back from the close loss to Pharma and beating Hendrix, 79-60. Coach Barber gives his bench a lot of minutes, and it clearly paid off last night as the subs had 38 points, led by instant offense man Markeith Brown, who had 17 points in 15 minutes.. he keeps it easy, go to the basket and score!! KJ Hilliard had 14 points, and Travis Garrison dominated the boards with 14 rebounds.  Greenville shot over 50% from the field despite going 1 for 13 from 3's...also 18 for 22 from the line never hurts.

Illinois Wesleyan Clobbered Mac 102 - 62.. dominated all the stats... Mac 0 fer from 3 point land, shoots poorly, out rebounded badly, couldn't stop IWU from scoring... none of that bothers me more than the Dylan Burton absence... hope he's ok

Blackburn stays with North Central, but gets beat 91-78... North Central dominates the boards 44-27... with White not playing, and Madison Medley seeing limited time () Blackburn is small vs a CCIW team... their athleticsm will compensate in SLIAC competition... Guards Julian Lott and Billy Ray Willridge both go for 20 points (7 for 12 from behind the arc), but BC needs an inside game to play with the big boys....

Spalding crushed by D1 Coastal Carolina 87-43... without McAfee (ok, he's gone, I'll stop mentioning him until next year), there was no hope....  Spalding shoots 25% from the field..

Westminster got beat badly by Rhodes.. 69-53..  Would have expected a close game in this one, but Westminster shot poorly, under 40%, while Rhodes hit 50%... Rhodes also held a slight rebounding margin...  Joe James had a nice game off the bench with 12 points, but the expected 1-2 punch of Skylar Tolson and Kurt Kovach were 6 for 20 from the field, and Westminster got next to nothing from their inside game....

Lots of games today.. I'll see Fontbonne - Central, Rust - Maryville (Tn), Webster Bluffton,   Mac plays Manchester, Greenville and Westmin switch opponents with Greenville playing Rhodes and Westmin vs Hendrix (interesting to compare results), Prin plays Grinnell, Eureka vs Rockford, and Blackburn against Aurora   ... Here's hopin we see 4 SLIAC wins (or more)... BUT, well, it could be less....

[Titan Q]

Illinois Wesleyan Clobbered Mac 102 - 62.. dominated all the stats... Mac 0 fer from 3 point land, shoots poorly, out rebounded badly, couldn't stop IWU from scoring... none of that bothers me more than the Dylan Burton absence... hope he's ok

Dylan Burton played 29 minutes today in MacMurray's impressive win over Manchester.

http://www.manchester.edu/Athletics/basketballm/stats/stats2012/1119mcmc.htm

Todd Creal on Facebook:

"So proud of my guys tonight! Battling sickness, injuries and personal losses and they rose up and got the programs biggest win since I have been here over Manchester College a 2nd round NCAA Tournament team last year, 38th in the national D3 poll in order of votes this year. They stepped up big time 76-73! So Proud!"
-----
"They have 2 giants 6'10 255 and 6'7 245...plus they have reigning HCAC Player of the year Moss who is 6'4 wing. They are good...IC (Illinois College) is real good"

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=48701753

[y_jack_lok]

Very exciting OT game between Webster & Bluffton tonight. Game tied in reg with 41 seconds left. Bluffton gets a huge three with about 25 seconds to go. Webster gets the ball, calls time out with 19 seconds on the clock. A last second three by Dietrick Sooter ties it. Tied again in OT at 76, Bluffton with the ball and 31 seconds. Call timeout. Hold the ball for last shot and #4 buries a three from NBA range with 0.4 left to win it.

The relatively young Gorloks started two junior transfers (Roman Robinson and Sooter), junior Cody Bradfisch and sophomores Jarrod Huskey & Stefan Whittington, with mostly sophomores and freshmen coming off the bench. Robinson is quick and athletic in the Willie Trimble mode, though taller at 6' 3". Played well together for their first game and against a veteran team. Looking forward to the rest of the season. Should be fun.

[y_jack_lok]

Played well together for their first game and against a veteran team.

I should modify the "veteran team" comment a bit. Bluffton started four seniors and a sophomore, but it was three sophomores who got the most minutes off the bench.

[Darryl Nester]

Can someone from Webster post the score of the Bluffton/Rust game? (And, while you're at it, Maryville/Webster.)  I've been waiting for it to show up on the scoreboard for quite a while now -- I assume the second game is over by now ...

(Maybe it will show up once I post this ...)

[y_jack_lok]

Bluffton beat Rust in triple OT by 3, 97-94 I think. This delayed the Webster-Maryville game by an hour. Maryville won by about 14. Can't remember the exact score -- something like 89-75.

[Darryl Nester]

Bluffton beat Rust in triple OT by 3, 97-94 I think. This delayed the Webster-Maryville game by an hour. Maryville won by about 14. Can't remember the exact score -- something like 89-75.

Thanks!  The Maryville/Webster score was posted about 20 minutes ago -- it was 89-73.

[magicman]

hopefan,
I assume you missed Friday's game between Rust and Maryville when your survivor pick bit the dust as you were celebrating your 39th anniversary (I just had my 39th back in August). Congratulations on making it that far with the same lady. (You, like myself and Indy, "chose wisely" )

Anyway I wondered if you caught last night's triple OT game between Rust and Bluffton?   

[hopefan]

To all my faithful readers (including the magicman)... complete news by 11 tonite!!!!

[hopefan]

Lots of games on Saturday and Sunday to talk about...

To respond to Magic...The games were Saturday and Sunday...Saw all four games.  Rust, well put it this way...they seemed to have two goals..let's only go one on one, and try to take the most difficult shot we can find, and 2) lets start running to the offensive end before we get a defensive rebound...  Maryville just killed them on the boards, and Rust's dreams of being THE Bumblin B this year already seem to be snuffed out.  Rust C's All American man, Markeith Wilson was left begging for the ball on the perimeter as teammates drove to the basket often out of control... didn't see a penetrate and dish either game.....Markeith is (I regret to say) not of All American quality.. he is, simply put, a one dimensional player.. SHOOT..  as for Rust C, a great kid, who has been presented with a new challenge professionally.. he is the Head Coach of the Rust College Women's Team, as well as the Asst Coach of the Men....  he is really an affable guy who bleeds Rust College Blue.....

Guys. sorry, just too tired to keep going... maybe tomorrow..

[hopefan]

ok more comments on the weekend
Fontbonne game was SO MUCH FUN  ....   the spark is back.....  For the last two seasons, I had been preaching, sometimes quietly, sometimes loudly, that I though Daniel Lisch would help this team... now granted, at times he got a chance and blew it with poor decisions on shot selection, but his time was so limited that he had no opportunity to learn from his mistakes... now, captain of the team, a leader on the floor, no shot longer than a layup, taking over at critical times, some good dishes.. and still that incredible hardnosed defense... He was key in this win.  Equally as impressive was the play off the bench of Andrew Chism... injury kept him invisible last year, but this kid brought the same thing to the table as Lisch... hard nosed hoops, penetration with the ball.  Add the two new faces into the guard rotation, Yada Demisse and Will Rapier and it's a great mix of quicks and heady play along with physical tough play... I really liked it.  Nolan Zoellner shot well in the first half to get Fontbonne the lead and he finished with 19, Eric Hamilton was physical and Saliou Dioum provides the hops to keep the Griffs even on the boards with a bigger stronger Central team.   Central didn't really play very well, but the Griffs played so much smarter than the last couple of years in order to get the win.  VERY anxious to see how it goes against Rose Hulman tonight.   and Incidently... new Coach Steve Shaeffer has already made a tremendous impact...
Webster played their hearts out, 3 very good halfs of basketball to take Bluffton to OT and stay even with Maryville... they just ran out of gas in the 2nd half vs Maryville... I think Webster has the quicks and athleticsm to overcome other weaknesses and will be in the thick of the SLIAC race..the competition they faced this weekend was beyond what will be presented in the SLIAC, And Websters newbies stood up to it.  Perimeter shooters Derek Sooter and Cody Bradfish are going to have to shoot far better than the 5 for 24 they shot this weekend.. Stefon Whittingham and Roman Robinson held there own going to the hoop and rebounding.  Jarrod Huskey is an enigma to me.. he was terrific with drop step moves and making everthing around the basket last year.. now he seems more impacted by the pressure, not making close up shots and his foul shooting is, well, abysmal... a return to form by him should open things up for better shots for Bradfish and Sooter... another positive is Websters newfound depth... Frosh Zehner and Williams both flowed in pretty nicely, and we know Hollis Edwards is solid.

Great weekend for Greenville, and I have to look at the loss to Pharma as an anomily with the Pharma kid going for 40. Greenville beats both Hendrix and Rhodes, and all the years Westmin and Greenville have played that doubleheader, it's been rare that the SLIAC team has come away with two wins.  Balanced scoring, equal minutes to 11 guys... 80 points over two nights from the bench... what could be better???  Kudos to Coach Barber for turning things around so quickly with only 3 or 4 guys who saw real minutes in the past.....

Westminster also had a turnaround game after being beat badly by Rhodes... Kovachs and Tolson still haven't found the range, and the team goes 1 for 15 from 3's, yet still wins easily over Hendrix.. super game off the bench by Verdis Lee, a frosh from Fulton,  with 23 points in 18 minutes.. he clearly was the difference maker.  James and Hoehnstein only get 7 minutes a piece in the win?  Besides Lee, no one else has much in the way of a stat line.....

Mac comes back for a great win over Manchester.. Burton plays normal amount of time... great to see... Cole Busch goes 9 for 9 from the field!!! Clint Lee gets 15 ...    Mac also handles pharma easily last night....

BC goes down to Aurora... if a team has to depend on 3 point shots for a major part of the offense, they are usually going to be in trouble more often than not...Lott, Willridge and Tucker go 2 for 16.. that's 14 times down the floor without scoring...  I hope that the info I heard on Stev White.. foot injury.. is not serious and he's able to get back.. he will make a huge difference in rounding this team out.  With him, I still feel this team is a conference tourney contender.

Eureka loses to Rockford in OT..  must have been a heck of a game to see...  Big man Mark Lessen has a career game with 27 points...  he could dominate in the SLIAC with his size...  one of my favorites, Jordan Kindred, finishes with 9 assists....

Prin lost by 19 last night to william Woods... not too bad considering they played the starting 5 almost the whole 40 minutes.. one good note is that Kenny Sydness had 17 against good competition... he is obviously developing nicely... where is Hassenmardi?  Good player, he would help....  Tough to see how 5 guys can go a whole season....

It certainly continues to appear this will be a 7 team race for 4 conference tourney spots...... FUN, FUN, FUN

[hopefan]

I took a look at the Massey ratings..

out of 412 D3 schools
Spalding      231
MacMurray   255
Webster      274
Westmin      292
Greenville    330
Fontbonne   333
Eureka        335
Blackburn    383
Principia      394

The SLIAC is rated 36 of 43 D3 conferences, ahead of
Commonwealth Coast Conf
New England Collegiant
D3 Independents
Allegheny Mountain CC
Upper Midwest
North Eastern AC
North Atlantic AC
   

[y_jack_lok]

Webster played their hearts out, 3 very good halfs of basketball to take Bluffton to OT and stay even with Maryville... they just ran out of gas in the 2nd half vs Maryville... I think Webster has the quicks and athleticsm to overcome other weaknesses and will be in the thick of the SLIAC race..the competition they faced this weekend was beyond what will be presented in the SLIAC, And Websters newbies stood up to it.  Perimeter shooters Derek Sooter and Cody Bradfish are going to have to shoot far better than the 5 for 24 they shot this weekend.. Stefon Whittingham and Roman Robinson held there own going to the hoop and rebounding.  Jarrod Huskey is an enigma to me.. he was terrific with drop step moves and making everthing around the basket last year.. now he seems more impacted by the pressure, not making close up shots and his foul shooting is, well, abysmal... a return to form by him should open things up for better shots for Bradfish and Sooter... another positive is Websters newfound depth... Frosh Zehner and Williams both flowed in pretty nicely, and we know Hollis Edwards is solid.

This is right on. I think part of the shooting woes for Sooter and Bradfisch, at least against Maryville, were due to being guarded be much taller guys. Also want to give a shout out to Derrell Lee for six solid minutes off the bench against Maryville. He hasn't played much the past two years, but from my observation was poised and comfortable on the floor. Webster can play ten guys, and they will all get better.

[hopefan]

Yjak, really appreciate you chipping in... wish we could get feedback from others on the non St Louis schools so that we would have better ideas of what's going on.... there are readers.. we've had 350 views  in 24 hours, but it's going to be hard to make in depth comment throughout the season without some kind of comments to lend 'inspiration'.....