MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[WUPHF]

I have never seen Slapshot but Oglethorpe is the school with what is probably my favorite mascot: the Stormy Petrel.  One of my favorite mascots.

[hopefan]

WOW!!!

Fontbonne beats Oglethorpe, who entered the game with an 8-2 record... 64-60........Looks like Colton Woods got the key hoop at 35 seconds, putting Fontbonne up 63-60... This could be the win that defines the beginning of the Fontbonne comeback to legitimacy... I'm just really excited for Coach Schafer and the Griffs...... and a couple of SLIAC teams may be looking at the conference race a little differently...Woods gets the double double with 13 points and 12 boards, Greenlee nearly joins him with 13 and 9

[Gregory Sager]

Great win tonight for Steve and Roshawn. I'm glad to see Fontbonne start to find itself.

[jaybird44]

The Wash-U/MacMurray game has been rescheduled for Wednesday, January 2nd at Mac, with a tipoff at 3:00 p.m.

The plan to provide an audio broadcast of the game will proceed as originally planned, with the pre-game discussion (aka the Bears Den Pre-Game Show) slated to start at 2:30 with yours truly and Wash-U SID Chris Mitchell.

Good to get this game in before the conference slates begin for both teams on January 5th.

[hopefan]

not bad... pay attention to the Mac Wash U game in the afternoon and see Westmin at Fontbonne that night!!

[jaybird44]

I should've amended my note to include "in earnest", when discussing the conference schedules.  I believe MacMurray and the rest of the SLIAC teams have had at least one conference-game appetizer or two by now, before the main course.  Whereas the UAA begins conference play January 5th.

[y_jack_lok]

I just wondered to myself if, when Iowa Wesleyan joins the conference and there are10 teams, the conference tournament might expand to six teams with the 1 & 2 seeds getting first round byes and the #6 team playing a first round game at the  #3 team and the #5 team playing a first round game at the #4 team, then the winners would play #1 & #2 at the venue of the #1 team.

[hopefan]

I just wondered to myself if, when Iowa Wesleyan joins the conference and there are 10 teams, the conference tournament might expand to six teams with the 1 & 2 seeds getting first round byes and the #6 team playing a first round game at the  #3 team and the #5 team playing a first round game at the #4 team, then the winners would play #1 & #2 at the venue of the #1 team.

Given that the conference is the SLIAC, based in St Louis... I think it should be a top 8, neutral site in St. Louis, Thursday Friday Saturday, all the SLIAC hoops in one place!! .. hmmm glad I live 30 minutes from St Louis!!

[y_jack_lok]

I just wondered to myself if, when Iowa Wesleyan joins the conference and there are 10 teams, the conference tournament might expand to six teams with the 1 & 2 seeds getting first round byes and the #6 team playing a first round game at the  #3 team and the #5 team playing a first round game at the #4 team, then the winners would play #1 & #2 at the venue of the #1 team.

Given that the conference is the SLIAC, based in St Louis... I think it should be a top 8, neutral site in St. Louis, Thursday Friday Saturday, all the SLIAC hoops in one place!! .. hmmm glad I live 30 minutes from St Louis!!

I  would favor that as well, for selfish reasons, obviously.

[hopefan]

The scheduling of the conference games, with 10 teams, and a wide geographic dispersion, will be a nightmare... Iowa Wesleyan, Westminster, and Spalding are such outliers ... if the scheduler paired up teams for geography sake, going to a Friday Saturday schedule, there would be nobody to pair with Spalding and Westminster    (ie pair Iowa Wesleyan and Eureka, Blackburn and Mac, Font and Webster, Gville and Prin...  so on a weekend, Webster would play at Iowa Wez and Eureka  etc).. but you can't pair up Westmin and Spalding...   and if you paired Westmin and Iowa Wez, one of the Illinois schools would get left out... the real fly in the ointment (geographically) is Spalding... they just aren't a match with anyone... scheduling and travel will have to be very creative to keep the kids from missing too many classes....  wonder if the SLIAC would consider going to Sunday games?

[y_jack_lok]

wonder if the SLIAC would consider going to Sunday games?

In the "old days" (2001-02 and 2002-03 -- maybe one more season) the men used to play on Wednesday and Saturday and the women on Thursday and Sunday. Then the conference went to the current men's/women's doubleheader system -- generally Wed & Sat, which makes sense from a travel expense standpoint. However, plenty of conferences hold games on Sundays, so the SLIAC could consider that.

In fact, the UAA has a Friday/Sunday schedule. Of course their travel distances are insane compared to most conferences.

[formersliaccommish]

I'm one of the guys Hopefan detests, a reader but not a poster, at least not very often.

Some thoughts on future scheduling with a ten team conference, and the tournament.

1) Hopefan was probably jesting but the tournament will never be held at a neutral site. It's one of the few major money makers for the conference so it must be held on campus sites.

2) The six team tournament sounds like a good idea to me with the first two games being played on campus sites of the higher seed, and the semi-finals and championship game being on the regular season champion's floor. I know that since the tournament was reinstated eight or nine years ago the championship game was a "neutral site" game about half the time because the #1 seed lost in the semi-finals but at least at that point, followers of the two teams are willing to travel and support their teams' attempt to get in the NCAA Tournament.

3) The conference will never play Sunday tournament games, except in post season tournaments in outdoor sports where there has been postponement due to weather and the conference is faced with an NCAA deadline. Greenville and Principia will not play on Sunday and there may be others.

4) The solution to the travel problem with Iowa Weslyean and Spalding is to allow them to change their Wednesday-Saturday format to Friday-Saturday on some trips. I believe Spalding has already been doing this. It's a little unfair to make them play back-to-back games while the others are playing Wednesday-Saturday but this is D3 sports and one long trip is a heck of a lot better financially, and academically, than two.

Merry Christmas to all!   

[y_jack_lok]

I'm one of the guys Hopefan detests, a reader but not a poster, at least not very often.

Some thoughts on future scheduling with a ten team conference, and the tournament.

1) Hopefan was probably jesting but the tournament will never be held at a neutral site. It's one of the few major money makers for the conference so it must be held on campus sites.

2) The six team tournament sounds like a good idea to me with the first two games being played on campus sites of the higher seed, and the semi-finals and championship game being on the regular season champion's floor. I know that since the tournament was reinstated eight or nine years ago the championship game was a "neutral site" game about half the time because the #1 seed lost in the semi-finals but at least at that point, followers of the two teams are willing to travel and support their teams' attempt to get in the NCAA Tournament.

3) The conference will never play Sunday tournament games, except in post season tournaments in outdoor sports where there has been postponement due to weather and the conference is faced with an NCAA deadline. Greenville and Principia will not play on Sunday and there may be others.

4) The solution to the travel problem with Iowa Weslyean and Spalding is to allow them to change their Wednesday-Saturday format to Friday-Saturday on some trips. I believe Spalding has already been doing this. It's a little unfair to make them play back-to-back games while the others are playing Wednesday-Saturday but this is D3 sports and one long trip is a heck of a lot better financially, and academically, than two.

Merry Christmas to all!

Thanks for those thoughts, commish. As for Spalding and Iowa Wes, they knew what they were getting into joining the conference, so they just have to live with it or look for another home.

[hopefan]

It must be raining in Florida!!!!   Commish not on the golf course!!!!   

Great to hear from you!!

[hopefan]

Here's hoping all Sliac fans and readers had a wonderful Christmas day...