MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[hopefan]

Dang Dave, and I thought you were here just to read and comment on what I had to say about SLIAC hoops!!!!

Seriously Jason Barbereau?   I hope the angle is the tough time a young new coach has when inheriting a program that has hit rock bottom, then losing two recruits who were good enough to make a major impact..... Barbereau needs a couple of very good recruiting seasons with frosh classes that stay for four years to rebuild the program to the level it was 4 or 5 years ago.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

hopefan - we wanted to talk to him as part of our "whyd3" segment about the Centennial Celebration of Blackburn Basketball... and it is nice to put a spotlight on other schools who don't necessarily get the attention all the time.

[hopefan]

Thanks Dave...Unfortunately I live in the 'pucks' and any video comes in choppy.... going to try to sneak a listen in tomorrow at work.....I've chatted with Jason a couple of times at games and had pretty high expectations preseason for BC... unfortunately they had just fallen too far behind to catch up to pack and be a contender for a SLIAC playoff spot.....

[WU FAN]

Hopefan-Big week coming up here in SLIAC play. With wins over Westminster and Eureka the Gorloks can basically lock up the conference title but a couple losses would make the month of February very interesting. I know you love chaos but what's your picks?  You've got to give Webster at least some credit here that they handled both teams fairly easily in the 1st go around don't you?

[hopefan]

Agreed WU... what I think will happen, and what I want to happen are two completely different things as Webster is seemingly running away from the conference race... will anyone beat them...well, no one has...would I love to see a couple losses to make the last several games interesting.... you bet... the thing with Webster, SOMEONE always steps up.... despite grossly inconsistent play from the point position, Sooter always seems to come up with a clutch hoop, Edwards with a big steal.  No offense from the middle, but Huskey and Williams bang enough to hold down the opposite big men.  Bradfish and Whittingham disappear for long stretches, but seem unstoppable at crunch time.  Robinson gets out of control, gets hollered at by Coach, then makes 3 or 4 hoops in a row.  Smith and Zehner are always pluses off the bench and can not be ignored by the defense.  It's a perfect storm....AND  they've beaten Westmin by 20, Eureka by 16, Mac by 9.... those are the other 3 playoff teams unless Greenville can figure out how to win close games....

I really like the program, but when you win all the time (in conference), it almost gets boring!!!  The exciting games I've seen involving Eureka, Greenville, Westmin recently certainly inspires me to root for them, but that doesn't mean I root against the Gorlocks....  MAY EVERY GAME BE DECIDED AT THE BUZZER

Predictions... having seen the lopsided affair between Westmin at Webster... it's very hard to figure out a strategy for Matt Mitchell to use that might turn the tables....his go to guys are not the ones people would have thought, his all conference player shouldn't make all conference, his bench is contributing little... but Mitch finds a way...  still, I assume Webster wins, because I can't figure out how Westmin does... unless Webster has the big letdown....  in other words, if Webster does get beat, I think it's more a Webster downer than a Westmin uprising....


Saturday... with the Eureka I saw this past Saturday.... should be a good one.....

Interesting thought... does Webster want to play Westmin or Greenville in the conference tourney..... me thinks Westmin is the far better matchup... Maybe the Gorlocks need a Westmin win on Wednesday?? .... no one take offense, I'm jesting.....

[hopefan]

Yikes...  Mac barely beats Prin 84-79.... Wouldn't that have been something.....  Dylan Burton misses another game.. Wonder what's going on?

[hopefan]

Today in the SLIAC

Webster at Westmin....   Based on previous meeting Webster should win this one easy.... but Webster had a letdown at BC that almost got them upset.... they can't do that in Fulton and win... I'm primed for an upset, but I'm not ready to throw my $ out there.... in the hopefan standings, this is a CRITICAL game for Westmin..... They need the home win...

Greenville at Fontbonne.....  Greenville is better than the bottom 3... I think Fontbonne wants the season to end... Greenville wins

Blackburn at Eureka....  Eureka should be flying high... BC will work hard, and lose....

[y_jack_lok]

Webster at Westmin....   Based on previous meeting Webster should win this one easy.... but Webster had a letdown at BC that almost got them upset.... they can't do that in Fulton and win... I'm primed for an upset, but I'm not ready to throw my $ out there.... in the hopefan standings, this is a CRITICAL game for Westmin..... They need the home win...

I don't think there is an easy win left for anyone the remainder of conference season. There are "should win" games, but no easy ones. Both Webster and Westminster seem to have played inconsistently of late. I expect this one to be much closer than the first one and will not speculate on who will win.

[MacHighlander]

Webster goes down. The plot thickens...

Greenville    79   Fontbonne    78    Final   
Webster    58   Westminster (Mo.) 65    Final   
Blackburn    59   Eureka    88    Final

[WU FAN]

The plot does indeed thicken. Poor play by the Gorloks, hot shooting by the Blue Jays at the end (especially by Lee who I think made 4 3's in a row.....hopefan you were keeping track behind me....can you verify?), and some questionable refing have made Saturday's game between Webster and Eureka large for most of the conference. Hopefan your wish for chaos has started to come true.

[hopefan]

WU   it was Joe Prophet who had the streak, though frosh Lee was tremendous too.... I'll comment further later in the day, but lots of mysteries (at least mysterious to me) last night....... this was like a 3 on 3 game... Robinson, Whittingham and Edwards vs Lee, Prophet and James...  my gosh, what happened to everyone else?

[hopefan]

Prophet and Lee were unstoppable in the last 10 minutes... I had Prophet with 4 3's in a row, though the box score credits Lee with one of them, so i may have erred.... attitude adjustment called for with one Webster player, can't keep making the same mistakes over and over and expect to get minutes, much less start... Hollis Edwards played the best game I've seen him have, good decisions, and finally some of those shots went in... I've always thought Hollis looked good shooting, but it just never dropped... Whittingham, 15 boards, critical offensive possessions in 2nd half... he really kept Webster in the game by himself...

And so, what have you done for me lately... has Webster been overacheiving?  Are the wins more a fabrication of Chris Bunch's outstanding coaching than the talent level of the individuals on the team?  Flat out, in a league that has 5 or 6 outstanding veteran coaches, I put Coach Bunch at the top for getting the kids to play HIS kind of game.... But, is that going to be good enough to maintain that top spot?...

The Eureka game on Saturday is now HUGE.... another Webster loss, and Mac could have their destiny in their own hands when Webster goes up to Jacksonville on Feb 18.  This thing very easily could really get 'juicy'

[hopefan]

Hopefan standings after Wednesday night
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 record losing to Westmin on the road)
2    Mac            12-4    (Holds forecast record beating Prin)
4    Greenville     10-6  (Holds forecast record beating Font)
4    Westmin       10-6   (Holds forecast record beating Webster at home)
4     Eureka        10-6   (Holds forecast record beating Blackburn)
NA   Spalding       10-6   (Holds forecast record  - DNP)


Critical Saturday:
Eureka at Webster
Westminster at Greenville
Mac stays put with non league game vs McKendree

Note.... A webster loss goes against them, and positive to Eureka...  would move Webster to hypothetical 12-4, Eureka to hypothetical 11-5

[y_jack_lok]

Wester gets some electronic ink on D3hoops. You have to scroll past the write up of Chicago women to read it.

http://www.d3hoops.com/columns/around-the-region/midwest-west/2011-12/deja-vu-for-maroons

[WU FAN]

Mark Lessen misses a WIDE OPEN layup to send the Webster vs. Eureka game to OT at 74 up!!!