MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Denny McKinney]

Where have I been. Coach Bushong has returned to the PC sidelines. He , gentlemen, is the only winning coach in PC history. And, he has five he can put on the floor and compete.

Sorry Hopefan. In my excitement I misquoted myself. I should of said he's the only PC coach to lead the Panther's to a winning season. He did it several times, also. Did not mean to get you scrambling looking for his career records. Considering his last two years, it would be tough to have an overall winning record.

What a Great schedule to get the Justin Ball era started. I don't remember any SLIAC teams having an 8 game home stand, in recent memory.

Again Sorry Hopefan. My Bad.

[hopefan]

MU 46 GC 37 half. MUs Griffin with 26. 5 3s in a row.  Otherwise reasonably close

[hopefan]

Final MU 89 GC 78

[Denny McKinney]

Thanks for the score Hopefan.

[hopefan]

half WC 37 EC 27 !!

[hopefan]

wc 55 54.    8min

[hopefan]

final westmin 70 ec 66

[hopefan]

Great day in Fulton Mo... horrible Chinese Buffet, a quick visit to the Calloway County Museum (I'm a senior citizen now... I'm SUPPOSED to be intereste in that stuff).. then over to Westminster for FOUR games...
Quickly, let's dismiss two of them.. the women's games were pretty bad... lots of entertainment during them though with conversation with GC coach Barber and Westmin Coach Mitchell, as well as Milikin Coach Nadelhoffer who introduced himself after noticing my Hope sweatshirt.. he had been married on the Hope campus...  also got the compliment of the night from Joe James, Westmin senior.."You're Hopefan.. everyone knows who you are... you're FAMOUS...."    I'VE HIT THE BIG TIME!!!!!

Greenville Millikin game was good.. GC got down big in the first half when Millikin made 6 3's in the lat 6 or 7 minutes of the half..TJ Griffin made 5 in a row  ..he was in one of those unconsious zones where he literally touched it and shot, off breaks, nearly out of bounds on the wing, etc... swish swish swish.. Greenville cut it to four early in the second half, but the margin was generally 8 to 10, and Greenville couldn't catch them.. Millikin played without starter Deavis Johnson, a 3rd team all CCIW player, due to 'Coach's decision'.. he'll play tonight, and Trent windemueller was out with shoulder problems... Griffin finished with 34 points, 11-17 from the field, 6-9 from 3 point land.  Tommy Pilackes had a nice game off the bench with a couple of 3's and he really dominated the ball getting to the foul line in the last everal minutes of the game...
Greenville looked a little better than OK.. they will contend for a top four spot in the SLIAC...Newcomers Jake Dewitt and Ron Harris are both all conference quality..Dewitt a 6'2" guard who gets shots when he wants and looks good shooting, though he wasn't hitting last night.. and Harris a strong 6'5" forward who immediately may be considered the best strong forward in the conference... got in to early fould trouble and sat the whole first half, came back with 16 in the second half against a bunch of Millikin players his size.. they couldn't stop him.. Tim Daniel, a soph who saw considerable time as a frosh late last season, is a solid steady small forward, not flashy, good shooter.. he'll be a PLAYER for the next 3 years... and newcomer Jamal Daniels also looked steadyat point/off guard...

Westmin - Elmhurst game was 'different'.. hard to figure... Elmhurst clearly had better athletes, pretty much better talent.. far better size... but Westmin led the whole game, and won.. it was like Elmhurst was just waiting to take control of the game, but never did... they cut the Westmin lead to 1 at 8 minutes left, but then Westminster scored 10 in a row.. Elmhurst cut it to 5 after that, but couldn't get closer until the final seconds... they never had a possesion with a chance to tie or go ahead in the last 7 minutes...  Westminster wins it with basicly 3 players doing all the scoring.. Verdis Lee, Joe James, and newcomer Brandon Moore...Jordan Jones had a ministreak of drives to the hoops early in the 2nd half that helped, but he really didn't get a lot of minutes... the 4-5 positions were manned by a smorasborg of young guys who played JV last year who were totally outsized by Elmhurst.. Ebert, Cooper, Brondell, Bussman.. guy who impressed me was senior Travis Cleveland, who I don't think has played before, but was strong enough to muscle a little and was visible on the boards.. Joe James was terrific, controlling the ball, penetrating and drawing fouls or dishing to Moore and Lee.. Moore is a real nice shooter, but not a one on one player.. he needs a james to find him when he's open.. Lee had a poor shooting night, but his activity around the basket was mandatory to get the win... Elmhurst guards Kyle Wuest and Bryant Ackerman both looked good, but had tough shooting nights and missed some key shots when it looked like Elmhurst would come back.. big men Nick Sanford and and Kenny Payonk dominated the paint and kept Elmhurst close...

[GC Panther 01]

Illinois College 114-Principia 53 at the IC tourney.

[hopefan]

What a dismal game for Prin.. hard to understand, as Iwas hoping they could compete.. maybe their time will be tonight vs Knox... Big man Frosh Justin Ball foulded out in only 11 minutes, probably hardly worked up a sweat.. Kenny sydness as usual was a one man gang, going for 23... Knox lost to Bluffton 86-65

Blackburn got beat at Wheaton  78-46.... newcomer Chris Davis, a frosh from Paducah Kentucky had 21 for BC.. I don't know anything about him...  the game was likely worse than it sounds  BC was down 49-11 at half.

Spalding loses to Birmingham So 78-66  they were down 21 at half... shot poorly 4-20 from 3 point land.. outrebounded Birminham big  Spalding got crushed from the foul line.. Bi So 31-38,  spalding 14-18...

[GC Panther 01]

How were the officials calling the games at Fulton.  Wondering how the D1 tigher foul calls will filter down this year to D3?  If they call it tighter it could be a real disadvantage to pressing teams.  I can remember when Coach Barber first arrived at GC and we implemented our agressive full court press defenses, he told us to expect a plethora of foul calls early on that may not be deserved, it was something that Pitino had taught them at UK, that it would take a year for officials to adjust to those presses when it is installed in a new league. Just wondering if the same adjustments will have to be made on new rules.

[Denny McKinney]

GC 01 - I wouldn't call them new rules. It's just making the foul calls that they have been ignoring. The hand checking and physical play in the paint fouls, that were called in the M. St vs UK game. Is just an attempt to reign back in the physical play. The Duke vs KU game was a great example how not to call it! No new rules. You just can't use your hands on a player when playing D. The paint play is just trying to eliminate all the clutching and pushing. It's not a WWE match. Besides the refs will only call it this way for the first month. Then forget it. Hand Checking has been a point of emphasis at the start of several past years.

I missed my evaluation of a New Look PC. Wow!!!

[y_jack_lok]

From what I saw at the women's games last night I think several outcomes of the more intense emphasis of of whistling hand checks, at least until players adjust, are going to be (1) longer games due to more calls resulting in more clock stoppage and free throw shooting, and (2) higher scores because players will get past defenders more easily and either be able to score off the dribble or make passes to open teammates for buckets. Looking at the scores on D3hoops scoreboard from last night, I'd say the scores are higher overall than in previous years.

[hopefan]

Most of the fouls called were on the ball fouls, not rebounding or off the ball...two things that are new that old heads won't like

1)  lots of luck stepping in to draw the charge... there might have been 2 all night.... guys were sacrificing their bodies and getting called for the foul instead of drawing the foul.. the offensive foul call seemed to be non existant

2)  new 'media' timeouts... somehow expected to ready teams for the tournament.. seem to add a half dozen timeouts per game, many at 'who cares' time... for the fan, BORING...

What the additional fouls mean is...  you better have bench players capable of coming in and 'picking it up'...  that may have been part of Principia's demise last night, where as Jordan Jones did a masterful job when he came off the bench for Westmin....

[y_jack_lok]

In the women's games last night, especially the Webster game, there were a number of offensive/charging foul calls. Hard to know if it is due to different officials who see things differently or interpret the rule differently. Just need let the season play out and see how it evolves.

Agreed that the media timeouts are an AWFUL thing for the game. It's one reason why I've had no interest in attending D1 games at an arena. At least if you are watching on tv you can get up and refresh your drink, refresh yourself, get a snack, etc. Even the officials had to think really hard to make sure they called those time outs.