MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Denny McKinney]

Hopefan thanks for you FU post. I am following a Hometown Kid, Jacob Martin. Jacob suffered a knee injury prior to the start of practices. He played Tuesday nite off 2 JV appearances, one at Central, IA and a game Monday at home. He just started full practice today.

Great Student and Great Kid. He is young to the game. He's only played organized ball for four years. He will need to be coached up. But, if you have to have a project, might as well be 6'10 and 240. If he develops he could be a monster in the SLIAC before he finishes.

Thanks again for your post of the game.

[jaybird44]

I was impressed by the determination and the skill level of the Griffins.  With 15 freshmen out of 22 players on the roster, I didn't know if they would collapse and get overwhelmed by 30-40 points.  They didn't, and the outcome was respectable.  Even when Wash-U played very well and had balanced scoring from the backcourt and inside the paint.

I especially liked Dorhauer, Greenlee, Gentry, Martin, and Rucker.  Generally speaking, it looks like Coach Schafer has brought in many gym rats who have a good handle and confidence despite their collegiate inexperience.  They could pull off a few upsets in the SLIAC, depending on the talent of the other teams in the conference.

Good luck to Fontbonne...I see very good things ahead for it, in the next couple of seasons, if the crew can be kept intact.

[hopefan]

Good to see some Fontbonne faithful return to the boards.. I agree with both statements.. Martin indeed could be a SLIAC handful...compare him to Whitlock of Mac, who did well his frosh year and appears capable of being dominant this season...that's the level Coach Schafer and young Mr. Martin need to shoot for....And coming from a great basketball school like Borgia, the fundamentals and work ethic is already there....And certainly this Fontbonne team could develop into something to get excited about over the next several years.. I love the fact that there seems to be balance.. several capable guards, a 3 man in Rucker, a solid 4 in Greenlee, a true post man in Martin... and a coach who seems willing to use them from the start....

[hopefan]

Early battle of the SLIAC big men

Brasheer, Spalding   1 game   8 for 8 fg, 2 for 4 ft, 18 points, 10 rebounds

Whitlock, Mac        3 games   18 for 28 fg,  3 for 7 ft,  39 points,  16 rebounds

Lessen, Eureka       2 games   14 for 25 fg,  14 for 17 ft,  42 points, 14 rebounds

Sydness, Prin... not playing ?

Webster, Westmin, BC, Greenville ... well......

Fontbonne...  Martin.... give it some time.....

But the 3 guys above... 3 of the better men in the middle we've seen in the SLIAC.......

[hopefan]

The first controversial ending of the season in the Fontbonne - Edgewood game....   Anybody have tape?... I know what I thought I saw...

Fontbonne trails most of the game... finally catches and passes Edgewood with 17 seconds left on the clock... TOO MUCH TIME.... Edgewood comes down and gets it in the hands of their best player Cashton Craig.. Craig gets double teamed off a pick, he gets it to the screener rolling for a wide open layup and it is MISSED, but it hangs on the rim... and gets tipped in right before the buzzer goes off...  No question in my mind the ball was on the rim... Even Edgewood fans I asked said it was close.. no one said emphatically it was clearly off....  It would have been a gutsy call... but I think it would have been the correct call...

Lots of players saw action... frosh still dominated time, but upperclassmen contributed too... Greg Gentry had a great game....25 points, dominated the ball in 36 minutes of action and had 0 turnovers.... Frosh Dorhauer, Stephens, Greenlee, and Rucker all played really well....  I admire Hamilton, DeMisse, Chism coming in and playing hard....

Edgewood won it with terrific 3 point shooting..10-14... overcoming a big shortfall on the freethrow line..

Will be going to Fulton tomorrow to see this same Edgewood team play Westminster... Westmin crushed MSOE tonight,  but I notice Joe Prophet did not play..... Will provide interesting comparison....

[y_jack_lok]

The first controversial ending of the season in the Fontbonne - Edgewood game....   Anybody have tape?... I know what I thought I saw...

Very hard to tell from where we sat. I think everyone, including the officials, were uncertain. They didn't call it a goaltend, but they did congregate at the scorer's table during the FU timeout with 0.3 seconds left after the tip went in. The points were not put up on the board until after the meeting at the table. Could have been to discuss whether anyone was sure how the call should be made or to discuss time on the clock. Since the call wasn't made immediately by any one of the officials it would be hard to justify not allowing the bucket.

Hard to evaluate FU after seeing them lose a close game against an average opponent that happened to hit a bunch of threes. Since hopefan is going to Westminster, maybe I'll go see FU vs MSOE. In past years MSOE wouldn't get blown out by a SLIAC team, so is Westminster that good, or is MSOE having a down year?

[y_jack_lok]

FU got down by double digits early to MSOE and Greg Gentry, after a great game vs Edgewood, had two fouls in the first 5 minutes and while he ran the offense okay while in the game, couldn't manage to score. The deficit for FU was around 20 with a little more than 8 minutes left when they started to press furiously and had some success. They cut the deficit to 10 several times and to 9 with 55 seconds left, then had to start fouling. MSOE made enough free throws to preserve the win. MSOE shot 50 percent in the first half, but it seemed like 75% -- and might have been in the first 10-12 minutes. MSOE is a taller and better team than Edgewood, so I'm still curious about their lopsided loss to Westminster.

FU will not be an easy win for anyone in the SLIAC this year. But they lack size except for Jacob Martin who played 16 pretty good minutes today after not getting in at all against Edgewood.

[y_jack_lok]

Finally found a result for Wartburg v MacMurray. Mac loses 64-60. http://www.go-knights.net/news/2012/11/24/MBB_1124125058.aspx. The SLIAC site indicates no game for MacMurray today but the Mac site says they have a game against TBD, which in this case would mean Lancaster Bible, who lost to UW-Platteville in the same tournament yesterday.

[hopefan]

Mac beats Lancaster Bible by 10... Clayton Whitlock has a big game and Spencer Pratt has another huge game off the bench... just not getting enough out of the rest of the starters, should Pratt be in there and getting more minutes?  I also like the frosh Kollen Keltner, who looks very confident in limited minutes.... simply need more production out of Slagle, Guthrie, Bishop..... this group is not performing at the level I expected based on last seasons level....

[hopefan]

League games begin Wednesday...  Wish I could be at Eureka hosting Mac... great way to start the league season.... Eureka guys, how has the video feed worked?  Is it free? Is it uncomplicated?  If so, might try to take laptop (nope, don't have an I pad) to Webster game to keep up with it... Nothing like watching a game live and seeing another one on the computer....

Well what has the first couple weeks shown us...

Originally, I split the projected league standings into 4 groups... a top four (Westmin, Mac, Spalding, Eureka), a next two (Greenville, Webster), a 2 unknowns due to large recruiting classes (Fontbonne, Blackburn)  and Principia at the tail end..
Now
From what I've seen, there is really no distance between Greenville and Webster and the top four... we may as well call them a top 6....   Unfortunately, no one team has risen to the top either...
Seeing Westminster vs Edgewood, Westmin has no inside offense and were pretty much handcuffed by solid defense.. Joe Prophet is key, but will his knee hold up - he looked tenative to me even though he had a good second half...  otherwise, Westmin's best offense was getting shots off their pressing defense.

Haven't seen Greenville yet, should see them on Thursday at Prin.. can only evaluate seeing they beat Rhodes and Hendrix pretty much as Westmin did.  But new faces are scoring....   

MacMurray looked pretty good vs Rust with a comeback and nice inside outside scoring from Clayton Whitlock and Luke Bishop... but since then Bishop has been handcuffed, and despite great play off the bench by Spencer Pratt, no one else has really picked up the slack....  Mac should be undefeated at this point, but they aren't.  I'm looking for Dylan Burton's return, but when?

Eureka has played average teams close and shouldn't lose to Central....  getting nice scoring from Fritch and Lessen... will Misuraca continue to start or will we see Kindred back in that role...  oops, Jordan had 5 TO vs Central... Still not sure about the depth, anxious to see new faces Lincoln and Dunlap.... Experience should lead to wins...

Spalding has all the names back, though I thought we'd see Cutsinger contributing and he hasn't played. Noticed Brasheer played only 8 minutes vs Cincy Christian and I feared an injury, but a study of the play by play shows he got a big T in the first half, got yanked, and did not return... a little tough love I suspect.  Spalding lost first two games by 1 point each but beat Cincy Chriz with Dewhon McAfee going for 32....This group may be the most talented team in the conference, and are pretty deep too... but the travel is tough being on the far edge of the conference geography....

Webster splits down at Spalding just like Spalding did... How far can Coach Bunch stretch Robinson and Smith.., need some consistancy out of Cody Bradfish and Dietrick Sooter....pleasant surprises from Griffin and Zehner, scratch that, GIANT surprises, hope they keep it going...   Gotta get Huskey and Williams helping out more in the middle.  This group could knock someone out of a playoff spot.

Fontbonne...FRosh, Frosh, Frosh, Frosh, Frosh, Frosh, Frosh, Junior... can they win this year... well, I'd like to think they could get a couple off the top 6 just to make things interesting...  do they have the makings of a top 4 team in another year or two... you bet...

Blackburn... lots of new names haven't changed things... yet... 0-5, but were in the games with Millikin and Hendrix in the 2nd half....   lots of Turnovers, poor shooting... they need to get it together

Principia...  new face Larry Patterson is averaging 20 ppg in two relatively close losses.... where is Kenny Sydness? these guys might win some games in conference with Sydness back....

[ecreddevils]

League games begin Wednesday...  Wish I could be at Eureka hosting Mac... great way to start the league season.... Eureka guys, how has the video feed worked?  Is it free? Is it uncomplicated?  If so, might try to take laptop (nope, don't have an I pad) to Webster game to keep up with it... Nothing like watching a game live and seeing another one on the computer....


Eureka has played average teams close and shouldn't lose to Central....  getting nice scoring from Fritch and Lessen... will Misuraca continue to start or will we see Kindred back in that role...  oops, Jordan had 5 TO vs Central... Still not sure about the depth, anxious to see new faces Lincoln and Dunlap.... Experience should lead to wins...

I believe the EC feed is pay-per-view for now. 

EC is off to a somewhat perplexing start.  Played a nip and tuck game with what I believe is a good Monmouth team, steamrolled a down Rockford squad, but then came back the next day and lost to Central.  I only saw part of the second half against Central, but it did look like maybe we had slightly tired legs.  Central wasn't great, but they were very efficient, got up and down the floor and to the rim very well.  That said, this is a game that a SLIAC top contender should win, particularly at home.  Not entirely sure what went wrong.

To somewhat answer your question:  Dunlap is a really nice addition, he can handle the ball with quickness and has nice outside shooting touch.  Lincoln is a strong body, who maybe took a few too many 3s against Rockford (although he was 3-7). 

Looking forward to Mac on Wed.  Need to win it convincingly to set a solid tone for the conference.

[hopefan]

ECred - I'll be surprised if a win by EC over Mac would be by a 'convincing' margin... I look for this to be a tight one... Lessen vs Whitlock will be interesting ... Frisch vs Slagle good matchup... actually, each of the starting spots match up very evenly.. not sure what happens if Ec gets Lessen or Fritch in foul trouble... like I said, wish i could be there, just an hour and a half too far away.....Give us a report here after the game!!!!

[Dutch32]

Eureka guys, how has the video feed worked?  Is it free? Is it uncomplicated?  If so, might try to take laptop (nope, don't have an I pad) to Webster game to keep up with it... Nothing like watching a game live and seeing another one on the computer....

Eureka's video is pay-per-view for this season.  If you're not interested in paying, the live stats are free and have been working great.

[Former Devil 40]

The live stats on the website are free though.  I will be attending Wednesday's game and will be sure to have a full write up probably the morning after...

In regards to Kindred regaining his starting spot,  I think Eureka NEEDS to have him in the starting lineup.  For his career he has averaged 30+ mins per game.  He is agruably Eureka's best ball handler and is the 1 guy that can create a shot for himself from anywhere on the floor.  With the conf. schedule starting i'd look for him to get back in the starting lineup and dominate minutes again. 

I feel the same way about Eureka's other 4 starters as well (Lessen, Fritsch, Nailor, Rivera).  I understand that people need breaks thoughout the game but IMO you need to ride the horses that will take you to the promise land (conference tournament/NCAA's).  Dave Darnall won a national championship and his rotation wasn't more than 6-7 guys with his starting 5 playing 90% of the game.

In more recent years when Fontbonne won 3 straight conference tournaments Fogerty, Storandt, and McCoy all played 30+ mpg as well as the other major contributors from year to year (forrest/branch/white).  These are 18-22 year old young men( for the most part, i remember T-Love was 34ish) and they should be able to play 30min a night.

not to look to far ahead but Eureka plays at Spalding on Saturday.  Will be interesting to see how the preseason # 1&2 matchup this early.  That long bus ride to Kentucky can really wear you out.  I hope Eureka leaves early on Friday. 

[WUPHF]

I am so sorry for yet another off-topic post, but would anyone be interested in driving up for the Illinois College-Grinnell College game in January?  I have long wanted to watch the system in action and Illinois College is only about two hours away.