MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Denny McKinney]

Thank You Dr. Feelgood. Good win IWC. It's a win over Prov. Ind DIII team. Basically these two teams are in similar stages of the process. Difference being IWC has a conference.

IWC over ITT is on level with IWU over Blackburn.

[Gregory Sager]

Thank You Dr. Feelgood. Good win IWC. It's a win over Prov. Ind DIII team. Basically these two teams are in similar stages of the process. Difference being IWC has a conference.

I'd say that IWC is a few stages beyond IIT, but not because IWC's in the SLIAC while IIT has thus far been locked out of the NACC. Iowa Wesleyan's in better shape as a program than Illlinois Tech because IIT discontinued men's basketball in 2009 and then revived the sport last year. In retrospect, it looks pretty short-sighted of the school to have eliminated the sport, only to bring it back three years later. At any rate, IIT men's basketball is only in its second year now. At least Iowa Wesleyan has had continuity in the program, in spite of the switch from NAIA D2 to NCAA D3.

IWC over ITT is on level with IWU over Blackburn.

That's a good analogy, Denny.

[hopefan]

I'm going to start pretty early with the hopefan standings that I've done the last few years... Here is the premise this year..

There are 6 teams battling for the four spots in the conference tournament...  Those 6 teams are Eureka, Webster, Westminster, Greenville, MacMurray, and Spalding..
The other four teams, at this point at least, seem destined for spots 7-10 in the standings.. Fontbonne, Blackburn, Iowa Wesleyan, and Principia...   Not to say that none of these teams could jump up and nip one of the top 6 on any given night... particularly this year..

Anyway... expectations of the top 6 are that they win ALL games vs the bottom 4. and ALL HOME GAMES against the other 5  in the top 6.. if all of the top 6 do this, there will be a beautiful 6 way tie at season end

The hopefan standings assign value to the wins and losses of the top 6:
-1 point for any loss to the bottom 4
-1 point for a loss at home to one of the other top 5
+1 point for a win on the road against one of the other top 5

Right now hopefan standings are:

MacMurray +1    (won AT Eureka)
Webster  0
Greenville  0
Spalding  0
Westminster  0
Eureka   -1    (lost at home to Mac)

This is an interesting little addendum when viewing the regular won loss records....

[ecreddevils]

EC was manhandled by a pretty good Loras team.  Really a carbon copy of the Westmin game, could get no half court offense generated at all, settled for off balance or bad look three point attempts.  Outplayed in every phase.  Hopefully this group can regroup over break.

[y_jack_lok]

Thanks, ec. I'll be there Friday and maybe post a brief report, although I'll leave much of the more astute game analysis to hopefan, if he is at the game, since he is more qualified to do that.

unfortunately Mrs hopefan has Mr hopefan tied up on Friday... will have to depend on cub reporter yjack   Will anxiously await report about 10PM, 10:30 PM Friday night

Not quite sure what to say about the game. As I was watching I spent a lot of time agonizing over the responsibility to live up to the hopefan standard of game analysis, especially since it was a pretty disappointing performance by Webster for 30+ minutes and I didn't want to be really critical or mention any players who I felt played to less than their full capability. Somehow, miraculously, the Gorloks pull out the win, getting their only lead of the game with 3.2 seconds left on an Aaron Griffin 6 foot floater after rebounding an Ahmad Smith miss. When the box score is posted check out the play-by-play. It was a pretty intense and gripping final 2 minutes. Now I need to calm down, catch my breath, and get my adrenaline level back to normal.

[Titan Q]

unfortunately Mrs hopefan has Mr hopefan tied up on Friday

Who knew?!  Congrats.

[hopefan]

unfortunately Mrs hopefan has Mr hopefan tied up on Friday

Who knew?!  Congrats.

I guess I've been keeping it a secret to some for the last 42 years..

[jaybird44]

Doing some recon work for the Wash-U/Fontbonne game Dec. 30.  There might be a Josh Branch sighting at Mabee Gym/Lee McKinney Court.  I work with him at Zumwalt West High School, and he may be at that game.

Quite a shooter, that Branch...over 1500 points for his career and made 85 treys in one season.

[sac]

Spalding 78  Transylvania 68

Transy's a bit down this year but still a good win I would think.

[ecreddevils]

Spalding 78  Transylvania 68

Transy's a bit down this year but still a good win I would think.

Rare good non-conf day for the SLIAC; WU beats MC 68-67.

[Denny McKinney]

Doing some recon work for the Wash-U/Fontbonne game Dec. 30.  There might be a Josh Branch sighting at Mabee Gym/Lee McKinney Court.  I work with him at Zumwalt West High School, and he may be at that game.

Quite a shooter, that Branch...over 1500 points for his career and made 85 treys in one season.

Jaybird, I am afraid it won't be the best of games. Tell Josh to enjoy the visit back. He spent a lot of time in that gym.

[hopefan]

Received an early Christmas present as I studied the SLIAC Conference schedule for Jan Feb.... If 6 teams are considered relatively evenly matched playing for 4 tourney spots, it makes for a huge number of games that are meaningful for both teams... and not to forget the other 4 teams, matchups between them can generate competitive enjoyable games too...  Anyway, I see 23 potential dates in Jan, Feb where I could be seeing games... Great fun not to have a particular horse in the race and only looking for working-hard competitive play!!!!  Will be interesting to see, given my energy level, weather conditions, and my wife's 'open-mindedness', how many of those games I actually get to....
I'll put the over under at 18 in 7 weeks   

of course, I might sneak a Friday/Sunday Wash U game or 2 in too 

[jaybird44]

Hopefan and Denny, feel free and say hello @ Fontbonne Dec. 30 or @ Wash-U home games.

[hopefan]

First week of league games after New Year's will tell us so much......6 games matching top 6 teams...

Tuesday Jan 7...
Greenville at Eureka.... was Eureka's win at home over Webster for real?
Mac at Westminster..  one of top dogs take the tough trip tp Fulton

Thursday Jan 9...
Spalding at Eureka.... LONG trip
Westmin at Webster.. How will Westmin combat the Webster inside game?

Saturday Jan11...
Westmin at Greenville.. What a week for Westmin!!!
Spalding at Mac... Many feel these two are at the top...


GREAT WEEK!!!

[Denny McKinney]

Jaybird - Not sure who you are. So it would be tough to say Hello. Besides, I won't be at the game on the 30th. Sorry.