MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[louhoopsfan]

I received a list of Westminster's recruits...  unfortunately most of the new faces are either not from the St Louis area or are from JCs, so I couldn't find much in the way of stats...  it looks like a very solid, well rounded group of players..

2 kids from Blair Oaks, down near Jeff City... Ben Cooper, 6'2" and Kellen Brondell, 6'7"...  Blair Oaks is a class # school, plays pretty decent competition... found some box scores where both of these guys performed well...  Both made first team Al Tricounty and First Team All District.   The remarks that I've heard is that both are good enough to find playing time as Frosh. 

2 kids from Rolla   Jay Zallis 6'2"  16 points per game; Keegan Garner 6'5" 10ppg  8rpg

Mike Ebert 6'6" Lindbergh...  9 ppgt, 4rpg,  3 apg...  gotta think he's played against good competition...

Mike Bussman  6'5" Gillespie....  13 ppg (from St Louis Post, which had about 70% of Gillepsie's games)

Trent Roach  6'2"  Pleasant Hill Missouri just outside of KC...

and two JCrs

Robbie Burroughs  6'2"....  Santa Rosa JC   from Coach Mitchell   "Great Athlete that will help immediately"
Could this be the SLIAC's next Willie Trimble?  I found some writeups that he started on s a very good JC team....

Jordan Jones  6'0"   STLCC.   All Region XVI JC First Team  "Immediate Depth at Point guard"

There is some size here that is badly needed, even moreso dependent on the health of Joe Prophet....but it all is in the freshman group... big question is can one or two of those frosh bigs step up....  If Jones and Burroughs can flow right in, Westmin could be extremely athletic, but with no size but the frosh....

Only kids I recognize are Ebert and Jones (STL Area). Ebert is TOUGH; a little undersized for a post/wing though. Any word on the Stonecipher kid? I saw Lafayette a few times last winter and thought he was extremely under-utilized, playing behind a very, very good PG there; sad to see. Saw both Ebert and Stonecipher this summer. Stonecipher had a tremendous last game of the year against a big, strong Lindenwood-Belleville team. Ebert had to play more of a big man, especially on defense, which is probably good for him in developing strength.

I've seen this topic brought up on this board before, but my opinion is that these large school kids (mainly from STL), seem to be more prepared for college ball due to the type of competition they played in HS. I've seen countless players who have dominated at Class 1, 3, whatever, and STRUGGLE in the SLIAC, just because they haven't gotten to see the Chaminades, Vianneys, etc. on a regular basis.

Just my thoughts..

[hopefan]

I saw Stonecipher this summer too... and he was good in the game I saw... he was not on the list I received, but i'm sure he will get a shot...I remember being shocked when I saw his stats from Lafayette.. he is a perfect example of what you mention .. put him in a slightly smaller school, or even a big school with a little less talent, and he starts and is a double figure scorer...  but at a Lafayette, he falls behind one guy in the pecking order and his time is cut severely... from what i saw this summer, he can play....

[hopefan]

A little more news from Westminster.. Joe Prophet, who came on so strong in the second half of the season last year but went down with a bad knee injury right before the conference tourney, is back on campus and healthy... I'm hoping that means his recovery is complete and that he'll be able to play... at times, he may have been the best 3 man in the conference last year....

[louhoopsfan]

Heard a rumor this summer that Nolan Zoellner would not be playing for Fontbonne for his senior year. Any truth to this?

[hopefan]

For what it's worth, he (Nolan Zoellner) is not on the roster on the Fontbonne site....  I take that as a pretty good sign that he has departed....  There is a kid whom I thought would be a pretty good player when I watched him as a newbie at Fontbonne... never lived up to it....

[hopefan]

Not sure if I missed it originally, or if it has been recently added, but Greenville has a ninth non Conference game on their schedule:

at Western Illinois (D1) on January 9......

[hopefan]

Another schedule clarification... Spalding's site had a Christmas Tourney labelled as the ECAC Holiday Tourney in Centerville Mass.... Digging a little, I find there is a D3 ECAC Holiday Tourney on the dates Spalding indicates... but rather than travelling to Eastern Massachusetts in the dead of winter, they'll be playing at the tournament in Kissimmee Florida... I'm sure the team  will enjoy that locale much more than the northeast and potential subfreezing temperatures and blizzards.  Turns out that Centerville Mass is relevant to the conversation.. it is the headquarters location of the ECAC... Spalding might consider making a correction on their schedule.....

[GC Panther 01]

Hope the WIU game was a recent addidion.  Should be a tough contest as the WIU team is much improved of late.  Not an unusual addition as Coach Barber was at Bradley in Peoria as an assistant when Coach Molinari was the HC there.  Being in my backyard I will most likely be in attendance for that one.

[hopefan]

I drew up a SLIAC schedule and hypothesized what games I would see if I was free EVERY game day... Wife and work will narrow that down, but I'm going to try to track the games I see vs this calender....  I always choose the 'best' game, within driving distance.... living near St Louis, Fontbonne and Webster are in my backyard, but I can, with decent weather, get to games at Westminster, MacMurray, Greenville, Principia, and Blackburn....  Only Eureka and Spalding are too far away to get to after work and get home after the game and still get up next morn....

Total games to see....  41

I'd see Webster 12 times, Mac 11 times, Westminster, 9 times, Fontbonne 8 times, Greenville 6 times, Eureka 5 times, and Spalding 4 times.....  that would change as 'Best Games' change... particularly if Fontbonne, Blackburn or Prin came on strong...

Many games would be seen at Webster and Fontbonne, but I'd still end up at Westminster 6 times (aaah, McDonalds on Rt 70), Mac 5 times  (lots of places to eat on the main road through Jacksonville), and Greenville 4 times (Reminder, never Hit chinese Restaurant in Greenville... AWFUL)  Also side trips to Wash U, Missouri S&T, McKendree, and SIUE.  I won't have to make the long drive to Eureka or Spalding unless there is an absolute must see game!!!

Hey, what the heck, I enjoy it.....   

Incidentally... Yjak...  expect your company on MANY of these..!!!!

[MObball41]

I noticed Westminster's schedule is now up on their website. Included is an exhbition against the provisional D2 Lindenwood. I look forward to seeing how the Jays stack up against a team that has experienced a lot of success at the NAIA level in recent years.  I noticed Greenville is also playing Lindenwood.

Just like Hopefan, I am a big fan of WC's nonconference schedule. There is not an easy game on there. Cornell was 3-22 last year and may seem to be the weak point, but guess who one of those 3 wins was against... (WC)... The IIAC has some strong teams... I expect WC to be competitive in just about every one of these games. They have an opportunity along with the other SLIAC schools to make a statement during the non-conference games about the level of play in the conference. With a lot of talent coming back throughout the league, one shouldn't be surprised if the SLIAC has more success in the non-conference season than in other years. At least I hope that's the case. The beginning of the year can be a very unpredictable time. 

[ac slater]

Westminster's spark plug Tony Woods is out with a torn ACL.

This guy was very important to the team with his hustle, and I was looking forward to him getting on the court and showing his hard-nosed play this year.

[hopefan]

Westminster's spark plug Tony Woods is out with a torn ACL.

This guy was very important to the team with his hustle, and I was looking forward to him getting on the court and showing his hard-nosed play this year.

I'll only say that I expect either or both of the JC transfers (Robbie Burroughs and Jordan Jones) to contribute much more than I would have expected from Tony Woods...

[y_jack_lok]

Incidentally... Yjak...  expect your company on MANY of these..!!!!

Since I no longer work downtown, connecting for travel to Illinois schools on weeknights might not work. Otherwise, I'll see what I can do based on all life's variables.

[hopefan]

Received a note from Webster's Coach Bunch at about the same time I noticed their roster was up.... Hard to speculate on what this year's new faces will add to the program... to be honest this group, from what I could find on the net, seems well short of some of the other classes that we're aware of in the conference... but Coach Bunch has surprised me too often to just write them off...   Two frosh that sound like they might be able to help right away are point guard Jordan Roland from Denver Colorado (described by Coach as very quick 1-2 man who can score) and Taylor Walton from Okawville, probably a 2-3 guy with size who averaged 14 points a game and shot extremely well in hs for a very good team.  2 transfers emit only curiosity, a player from Lincoln Land CC who got only minimal minutes there, and a transfer from Rust who wasn't on the team...? 

The published roster did show, unfortunately for anyone who is a fan of SLIAC hoops, that Willie Trimble has not returned..  definitely the most exciting small man I've seen in D3 as far as explosiveness to the basket, he was here and gone far too quickly...  one year was just not enough.....

[y_jack_lok]

Quote from hopefan: "2 transfers emit only curiosity,...".

I didn't know it was possible to emit curiosity, but I love the phrase.