MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[y_jack_lok]

hopefan goes high tech with a scrolling headline.
Very neat.

[y_jack_lok]

I was taught that if I didn't have anything nice to say then I shouldn't say anything at all. So I am not going to say anything about what I saw tonight.

[hopefan]

agreed Yjak.... and we are talking about the Spalding - Fontbonne Game...  both teams played with great intensity, BUT..
Fontbonne  10% from 3's, 30% overall, 50% from the line...  SO many chances to get close, and they never could get closer than 4

Spalding not much better at 20% from 3's, 35% overall.... they could have easily won by double digits, but shot horribly too

One player played beyond it... Jametrius Brasher dominated stretches of the game for Spalding..
Another who stood out to me last night was Tyler St Julian... very quick, good player......  I could really get into Spalding hoops, but I just don't get to see them very often....

observation... don't get Spalding Coach Grey mad at you on the bench... he was very physical with one young man who either said or did the wrong things... and Coach has one evil stare....

note for next year...Spalding has no seniors... and MCAfee and Cutsinger return....   of course, Webster has no seniors, and Eureka has no seniors in their top 6...  the league will be good....

another major 24 second clock discussion in the last minute that was critical to the outcome of the game...  but different from the controversial ending at the Wash U game where officials ignored the table, the head official here immediately came over to the table to discuss the situation with the clock official (who was obviously just a student helping out at the game)... 

Anxious for Saturday and Eureka at Greenville....  that one should be a barnburner, and may double up on the total points produced in the Spalding-fontbonne game last night..... I notice KJ hilliard played last night against Prin.. recovered from his eye injury.... that's a big plus for Greenville....

Fontbonne.... want more than 45 points in a game?   my observation is there was WAY too much standing around on offense....  if we can't shoot the 3's, we have to get better looks with movement off the ball....

[Pat Coleman]

Here's the tiebreaker procedures.

Tie-Breaker:  The following procedure shall be utilized to break all ties for SLIAC Tournament seeding
and qualification:
(1) Head-to-head competition between tied teams
(2) Record vs. other SLIAC teams, starting with first-place
(3) Quality of Wins Index, Conference contests only (see Appendix E)
(4) Use seed, not place finish.  Break other ties first, use team seeds rather than place finish
(5) Look at losses.  Using the same formula as the quality of wins index but taking only loses into
account
(6) Look at wins.  Using the  same formula as the quality of wins index but taking only wins into
account
(7) Disregard the "always return to head-to-head competition once a team is eliminated" and use the
tie-breaker to put a team in the Tournament or to assign a higher seed.
(8) Coin toss
The tie-breaker process for multi-team ties will always return to head-to-head competition once a
team has been eliminated.  Only games counted as Conference competitions shall be used in tiebreaker process.

The SLIAC still uses the Quality of Wins Index, this many years after the NCAA dismissed it?

[hopefan]

GreatSaturday of D3 hoops.... I haven't done very well on picks, but it's still fun....

Webster at Blackburn....  Blackburn can be tough on the homecourt, but this game should be a no contest... Webster

Eureka at Greenville..... tough call..... Greenville has enough size to counter Mark Lessen, and Greenville uses their depth so well.... I'll go with Greenville...

Spalding at Westmin ... The spalding I saw last night shot very poorly.... I don't think Jametrius Brasher can do it himself....  crucial game for Westmin... I think they'll take it....

Fontbonne at Mac....  I can not come up with any logical way that Fontbonne wins this game.... same thing I said before they beat Mac at Fontbonne....  Mac wins easy in a revenge game....

[MacHighlander]

Agree with hopefan on today's games, although certainly potential for one or more upsets. Westy certainly capable of laying an egg  on its home court vs. Spalding. Eureka may be headed for a little slide but could very well rise to the occasion and steal one at Greenville. Webster just needs to take care of business. Same for Mac.

Webster still has some heavy-lifting to do, with games at Spalding, Mac, and Westy, plus a home game vs. Eureka. But they are clearly in the drivers seat. Free-for-all for the other three spots, but don't count Mac out yet for a first-place regular season finish. Highlanders look like they're hitting their stride at just the right time.

Looks like six of the nine conference teams have a chance to finish .500 or better overall. Just checking the SLIAC archives, there were six teams that finished .500 or better during the 2006-2007 season, which was a very good year for the SLIAC. Lots of very competitive teams and exciting games, home and away, all season long. But it looks like outside of that season, there hasn't been six SLIAC teams finish .500 or better in a long time. Not sure what that means.....

Weather not good in central Illinois right now and the forecast is for snow and ice. Hope the roads are clear for those headed to Carlinville and Jacksonville. Safe travels everyone.

[hopefan]

Weather not good in central Illinois right now and the forecast is for snow and ice. Hope the roads are clear for those headed to Carlinville and Jacksonville. Safe travels everyone.

Thanks for the update, Mac
Yjak, Furbug..... be safe on trip to Carlinville....

[MacHighlander]

Westy and Spalding tied at 31 at the half. Greenville up by 12 over Eureka in the 1st half.

[MacHighlander]

Webster 67   Blackburn 62  Final - Gorlocks dodge a bullet

Westy 69   Spalding 55 Final - Long bus ride over, longer bus ride back

Eurkea up 85-76 at Greenville with five minutes left - Defense optional

Nothing on Mac yet.

[MacHighlander]

Eureka beats Greenville 101-97. Solid road win for the Red Devils.

[y_jack_lok]

Weather not good in central Illinois right now and the forecast is for snow and ice. Hope the roads are clear for those headed to Carlinville and Jacksonville. Safe travels everyone.

Thanks for the update, Mac
Yjak, Furbug..... be safe on trip to Carlinville....

Thanks for the safe travel wishes. Weather was gorgeous both up and back. Webster was playing without Sooter today. Not sure why. WU up 36-20 at the half. Blackburn cuts into it a bit in the early part of the 2nd half, WU goes back up by 19, then can't sustain a double digit lead. BC cuts it to 3 a couple of times.Their press on WU inbounds plays causes problems and a couple of turnovers, but they can't grab a lead and have to foul the last minute. WU hits just enough free throws to keep the lead and win.

That Blackburn gym is dark again. I thought they had corrected that problem a few years back. Someone sitting near me said he was an electrician and pointed out that a lot of the bulbs were starting to look greenish -- a sign that they are weakening and not producing as much light. If that's true, then BC should replace the bulbs.

[MacHighlander]

Mac beats Fontbonne 87-68.

[hopefan]

Well, I certainly picked the game to see in going over to Greenville and watching Eureka-Gville... one of the all time single game performances in SLIAC play as Jordan Kindred gets 40.... likely about 30 of them in the 2nd half.. as Eureka comes back from a double digit deficeit, goes up 9, then fights off a fantastic rally by Greenville in the last two minutes to cut it to 1... Ec ove GC 101-97..

I have been extolling the virtues of Kindred ever since he and fellow frosh Andy Lepard led Eureka to an incredible comeback win over Fontbonne in the 2008-09 season... Leppard ended up leaving last year and Kindred sat out the season with an injury... when I saw Kindred earlier this year, he still played with that great flare, but seemed badly out of sync with his new transfer teammates, and made a number of out of control plays... wow, not out of control yesterday... 3 pointers from everywhere, drives to the basket, great cuts without the ball to get backdoor layups, even followups on his own misses for hoops.... It's a performance I won't forget (and neither will Coach Barber )....not to take away from the rest of the team.. Nailor, Riviera, Lessen and Fritsch all had double figures, and Nailor in particular fueled the comeback with some great penetration to the key...
Greenville played great early, and dominated in the first half... a real team effort, as the bench didn't let down when they got their minutes and pushed the lead up.. but Eureka ate away the lead and caught them with 10 minutes left in the 2nd half... the 2nd half positive was all Markeith Brown... he finished with 22, but 20 were in the 2nd half.... in one 3 or 4 minute stretch, he and opponent Kindred put on a show, exchanging hoops back and forth, unstoppable each time they touched the ball.... it was really fun to watch....

Surprisingly, it was Greenville that seemed to run out of steam in the 2nd half, lots of shots short, a little less activity on the boards, a little less energy on defense when they needed critical stops...Eureka subs did little scoring, but they were capable enough to maintain the flow of the game and not make a negative contribution....

[hopefan]

Hopefan Plan REVISED with Saturday's results for simplicity  let's assume each team wins it's remaining home games against each other (Therefore they lose when they are away), and each team wins any remaining games with BC, Font, and Prin

Ending standings would look like this:

1    Webster      13-3   (Holds forecast spot beating BC)
2    Mac            12-4    (Holds forecast spot beating Prin)
4    Greenville     10-6  (Greenville falls back to the pack with the home loss to Eureka)
4    Westmin       10-6   (Holds forecast spot beating Spalding at home)
4     Eureka        10-6   (Eureka catches up to the pack with the win at Greenville)
NA   Spalding       10-6   (Holds forecast record losing on the road to Westmin)
Obviously any game between these teams is Huge... and on any full 4 game league game day, there will be at least one, if not 2 or even 3, HUGE games......

contender vs contender games this week to look forward to:
Webster at Westmin    Wednesday

Eureka at Webster Saturaday
Westmin at Greenville  Saturday       

Tough decision for neutral minded hopefan as to which game to go to on Saturday... I think I know where Yjack will be 

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

SLIAC fans, tune into Hoopsville tonight!

- Blackburn College men's basketball coach Jason Baribeau will join us to talk about his team along with the Centennial Celebration of Blackburn basketball. Plus we will talk about the SLIAC and the Midwest Region.
- Bob Quillman will joins us for the first time this season with his take on the Midwest Region.
- And Men's National Committee Chair Ken Schumann will join us to talk about the upcoming regional rankings (February 8th) and the slight changes in the selection process this year.

Show runs from 7 - 9 PM EST... and usually runs into a bit of an overtime period.

You can also follow us on multiple social media platforms:
Twitter: @d3hoopsville or #hoopsville (now over 900 followers)
Website: www.d3hoopsville.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Hoopsville
Email: hoopsville@d3hoops.com
Ustream: www.ustream.tv/channel/hoopsville