MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[hopefan]

5 conference games to start the second half of the season tomorrow.... what are my impressions of SLIAC teams so far?  Keep reading...  (Warning, keep children and parents away, it's a tad brutal)... and that's not to say I'm down on the SLIAC, it's going to be a great conference race... I just feel that in almost all cases, with the exception of Greenville, we're talking rebuilding, and neither returning old heads or new faces are having quite the year I expected....

Webster.... The Gorlocks have started out 7-3... the losses have been disappointing as they didn't come close to Wash U, Texas-Dallas, or Monmouth, but the wins over Millikin and Central, and the huge comeback over Loras were impressive.  The league games at 3-0 are a nice start, but nipping Prin, Beating Mac before the appearance of Deavis Johnson, and a 'slow to learn' Westminster doesn't mean they are going to run away with the Conference Championship. 
Anybody notice that Webster is 10th out of 10 in the conference in offensive rebounds per game...TENTH... why?   Too many fade aways by Ahmad Smith, taking him out of the play... too many 3 point attempts (at a poor percentage) by Hunter Ward, taking him out of the play.... the bench, besides Danny Zehner is inexperienced, but at least those guys GO TO THE BASKET...  Webster will lose games in the conference unless they change their mindset... there will be cold days from the field on 20 foot jumpers and 3 point shots... the answer is put backs and drives to the hole... Griffin can't do it himself...

Greenville... I've seen Greenville once, and they were very impressive beating Spalding by 17...  Sure they are 6-4, but 3 losses are to D2, D1, and the 4th to Elmhurst in the first game of the year... What we don't know about Greenville is how they will compete against the SLIAC... Mac, Webster, Font, EC... their only real wins are the Spalding game and Millikin.. though granted they beat Prin Badly, the same Prin that took Webster to OT...Some solid adds to the lineup. Andrew Scott is a real starter who can score and plays smart, Stevonte Young and Elmo Smith are good off the bench.... Size off the bench is worrisome if Harris, Daniel get in trouble.. I have not much confidence in Trisko or Potts if the game is tight..

MacMurray...  I don't think things are working out as Todd Creal imagined coming into the season..  The frosh show potential.. For 2016-17... right now they're a bunch of skinny overmatched, small hs kids who should be playing mostly JV...  Clayton Whitlock has come back from last season's dismal performance, but the supporting cast he needs has not stepped up on a consistent basis...Williams and Sutton have been especially disappointing... and then Deavis Johnson, is he just rounding into shape, or does he not really want to play?  8 ppg, 7 rpg, 4 fouls per game is not what I was expecting.   This team needs to get it together, play Creal defense, and see to it that Whitlock/Johnson get 35 ppg....

Spalding....  I like the Brandons, Goeing and Gabriel and either can get hot enough ON OCCASION to keep Spalding in a game... but live by the 3, die by the three (more often)... they're getting no help from anyone else....  They may still make the conference tourney, but only because this is a really down year in the SLIAC.

Fontbonne...  Two of the three guys that I thought would lead Fontbonne to the conference tourney are doing vitually nothing.. Gentry (is he even on the team, or hurt?) and Ben Kissing, whom I was told was a super, but has generated nothing in Fontbonne's last four games.... Thank goodness for Jared Greenlee (first team All Conference potential) and Darius Rucker (hopefully out of the Coach's doghouse)... to win, one of the guards has got to step up and be a consistent scoring threat... Welch, McDowell, Dorhauer, right?  Williams I like, get the ball moving and give it up....

Westminster... poor Coach Mitch... one of my favorites, a favorite gym along with Prin and Greenville, but for the first time in a while, a down year... WAY DOWN....  WHERE IS VERDIS LEE?  Readers, if you have knowledge, let us know... I haven't seen Westmin play yet this year, no one has numbers but Brandon Moore, and they're less than I expected.  This week is huge for Westmin, playing Mac, Prin, and Eureka.. all teams they need to beat out if they are to turn this thing around.

Eureka...  haven't seen them, but gotta love they almost beat Monmouth... would be going up to Eureka tomorrow to see them play Webster, but celebrating two grandchildren birthdays.... Looks like starting 5 can compete, but bench is very short beyond Nick Finney... Again, in a down year for the SLIAC, this team could make some noise...

Blackburn... Could be the dark horse of dark horses... just have to have the confidence they can win any night in the SLIAC.... The close loss at Rose Hulman, and the win over Iowa Wes gives me positive vibes... some of the new faces are getting a chance and performing well off the bench.

Iowa Wesleyan... the win over Fontbonne, close losses to Eureka and BC shows they can compete in the conference.

Principia... two of the best frosh in the conference, a big man who works hard and can score, and an experienced sr at point guard with great quicks.... But the drop off after that is tremendous... can they win with 4 players?

[Denny McKinney]

Hopefan. Thank You for the work put into your Sliac preview. Very informative.

I wouldn't read to much into Gentry not making the Cali trip.  I don't think he has left the team. Just didn't make the trip. I could be wrong. Just my opinion.

FU is puzzling. Probably one of the more experienced teams. Dorhaur, Welch, Rucker and Greenlee are in their 3rd year of starting together. Johnson and Kissing are experienced transfers. It seems that the core four have underachieved expectations. With the departure of Schirmer, there is only one freshmen.

FU had the best schedule to begin conference with for them. If you believe FU can beat BC at home. FU can stack up some early wins. I think at this time it looks like Webster, GC and Mac show signs of separation. FU has to be favored for the 4 Spot.

Or, does FU need a huge recruiting campaign before next year? Cause this group isn't talented enough to post a double figure win season. They are a puzzling bunch.

[y_jack_lok]

hopefan says "...it's going to be a great conference race." I couldn't agree more. Road wins are always important. I think they will be even more so this season. It starts big time today.

[hopefan]

Today's SLIAC schedule

Westmin at MacMurray   An early season must win for both teams

Webster at Eureka  This could be much closer than expected

Spalding at Principia    Gotta think Spalding depth helps here

Greenville at Iowa Wesleyan     It's a long trip for Greenville, but the old head coaching vs the newbie should win out

Blackburn at Fontbonne   Another critical must win matchup for both teams

Logic tells us the boldface teams are favorites in the matchups....  how many upsets will we see?

[y_jack_lok]

Fun game between Blackburn and Fontbonne. Fontbonne builds a 20 point lead in the first half and Blackburn cuts it to 4 at halftime. Second half, Fontbonne builds a 20 point lead and Blackburn cuts it to 4 with one minute left. Both teams play a 2-3 zone. Fontbonne was a little better at attacking BCs zone. FU did switch to man the final minute of the game and made most of their free throws for a nine point win. Blackburn is a young team -- no seniors and only two juniors, and one of them, Chris A. Davis, was not there today. I heard he had not come back to school. No info on whether he will be back eventually or not as classes haven't started yet. I think Blackburn has the ingredients with their freshmen and sophomores to become competitive in the next two seasons -- maybe even this season. No stars, but some guys who seem fundamentally sound.

I see Webster lost at Eureka. I was worried about that.

[hopefan]

 GC beats IWC 72-70
EC upsets Webster
Font handles BC
Mac wins in second half over Westmin
Spalding clobbers Prin

Almost got my ha-ha of top 2 getting beat!!

[y_jack_lok]

Looks like a rough second half for Webster after leading by 4 at halftime. Eureka has 12 steals in the game.

[ecreddevils]

Looks like a rough second half for Webster after leading by 4 at halftime. Eureka has 12 steals in the game.

Great day for Red Devil cagers.  Men out-scrap Webster for a much needed win.  Brandon Gossett gets his first real minutes of the year and provides a huge lift going 4-5 from 3 range.  Ian Saathoff with another very solid game, playing huge important minutes as a Freshman.  Greg Kent shows he is an elite level athlete in this conference. 

Webster is obviously a solid team--difference today was timely perimeter shooting from EC and a very intense defensive effort (2-3 zone in the second half bothered Web) and winning many 50/50 battles.  Will be interesting to see if EC can this momentum forward @ 1st place GC.

On the women's side, huge win for lady Red Devils, only playing with five regular players as Emily Camden out with injury.  Down 13 in second half, battle back for win.

[y_jack_lok]

Four teams-- Webster, Fontbonne, Blackburn, and Eureka are now playing 2-3 zones. Did Eureka play man the first half today and switch to zone in the second?

[ecreddevils]

Four teams-- Webster, Fontbonne, Blackburn, and Eureka are now playing 2-3 zones. Did Eureka play man the first half today and switch to zone in the second?

Yes, first half was man. Very unusual to see an EC team in a zone, but was very effective today with athletic guards able to close out and scramble for long rebounds. 

[SliacChamp]

Webster's loss yesterday was not surprising. Difference of the game was free throws. Webster Goes 11-21 from the line and loses by six.

Box Score Comparison:
FG % - WU 42 to EU 44
Turnovers - WU 18 to EU 16
Points off TO - WU 18 to EU 16
Points in Paint - 30 Each
Bench Points WU 17 to EU 21 (Hunter Ward Did not start so technically WU has 8 Bench points since Walton did not score)

Everything looks close to me, Im going to go ahead and say that Webster got out played. I didn't see the game in person but I bet EU took it to them. EU probably hit some uncontested threes because WU players were not working hard out of the zone. Wouldn't surprise me.

Let's hope this loss doesn't affect Webster's chance at the title like it did last year

[hopefan]

Let's hope this loss doesn't affect Webster's chance at the title like it did last year

MUCH more likely this year than last year.. Many could be in contention this year... last year it was basically a two team race -Spalding and Webster...

Heck... Webster could be in a good game vs IWC on Wednesday... and Greenville on Saturday looms critical..

Looks like turnovers (Webster had 18) and poor 3 point shooting (Webster 3-14) also played a major role.... that's a lot of possessions where a better shot might have been found...

Wondering what put Hunter Ward on the bench to begin with? Also wondering why Danny Zehner go only 2 minutes.. injury?

Man for man, Webster better than Eureka, why not go to man at times?  If Etter can't match up with Greg Kent,  Odjo could have been the answer...

Speaking of Kent, and Eurekared already mentioned... what a game... 15 points, 6 bounds, 3 assts, 4 steals, and only 1 turnover

[SliacChamp]

Maybe Ward took an extended Christmas break, maybe Bunch wanted to mix things up...Who Knows

Next Four Games for Webster - IWC (Who played Greenville Tough), Greenville (Who is Top 4), Spalding (Team that gives Webster fits because of aggressiveness, 3 pt shooting, and hard play {Sounds like EU}) and finally Fontbonne (high emotion game where anything could happen especially with Webster)

Should be an interesting stretch but I can imagine that Bunch is going to put some fear into his boys this week at practice. I think this team has too much talent to be losing games like EU. In my opinion, and this may be a bold statement but they don't pay me to write this stuff so Im going to say it, Webster should have won out their conference games and should be sitting at 24-3 going into selection day at the national tournament. I know the loss of Miller is HUGE, literally and figuratively, but I think those guys have enough talent, speed, athleticism, shooter, ball handlers to accomplish all of that.

Now, hopefully the Gorloks play well the rest of the way and my prediction holds somewhat true and I don't look crazy for typing all of that.

[hopefan]

Let's look at the other games last night:

Fontbonne handles BC, but they give up a 25 point lead in the 2nd half as BC cuts it to 5 in the last minute.... Fontbonne didn't have a field goal in last 7 minutes but make critical FTs in last couple minutes.  No Chris A Davis?  BC getting good production off the bench, bodes well for the future.  I said Font needed production from one of their guards, and they got it from Blake Welch...but Williams and Johnson have poor games, Dorhauer only gets 4 minutes?   No Gentry?  Once again Greenlee and Rucker produce... Kissing helps out today... Good threesome

Spalding no problem with Prin...  Four players from Prin I mentioned previously score 56 points... everyone else, 0 points... tough to win with 4 players...  Spalding's Renaldo Moore finally getting it going, 23 points 11 rebounds... if he contributes on a regular basis, will help Goeing and Gabriel get better shots....  incidentally, Goeing didn't start?

Westminster  down to Mac.... Verdis Lee is back.. GOOD, makes them competitive... Kellen Brondell gets starting spot back and gets 13 points, 7 boards.. Westmin needs it...  Mac gets 20 from Whitlock, 12 from Johnson, it works.  Hunter Sutton bounces back with 14 points, 10 boards... that kind of production from the 3 interior men will win games every night in the SLIAC..

Greenville nips Iowa Wesleyan... Ripley's believe it or not.. Ron Harris, who may be the best forward in the conference, gets shut out the whole game, until he hits a jump shot with 22 seconds left to win the game... IWC has come a LONG way from last year...  Tim Daniel, quiet player, quiet 18 points...  Nick Trisko, amusing, 8 minutes, 9 shots, 8 points, 5 boards, 3 fouls... things happen when big Nick gets out there....

[hopefan]

I think those guys have enough talent, speed, athleticism, shooter, ball handlers to accomplish all of that.

My thought ... too much one on one.. everyone else stands and watches... how often do we see good offside cuts, backdoors etc, much less the pass being made leading to a hoop...  Griff gets it, it's going up, Smith gets it, it's going up, Ward just passes it around the perimeter until he thinks it's his turn to shoot (rarely cutting which in his case he should do every time and get the ball back in the paint), Etter gives it up, cuts down the middle, never sees it back...