MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Denny McKinney]

Thanks for the recap Hopefan. FU's Greg Gentry was dressed last nite. Watched about 15 minutes of SU feed. SU has a lot of talent. Moore would be "the Man" on 8 of Sliac's 10 teams. There overall speed and athletism makes their pressure defense very disruptive. It took FU's Williams out of his game. Dorhaur came on and handled it a little better. FU has a very hard time scoring. Does not shoot well enough to win tough road games. SU is in with WU, GC and Mac. But, there are some tough road stops ahead.

[hopefan]

GC  42   EC  35   At half         Ron Harris GC 12  Parker Gibson EC 9

[Denny McKinney]

Thanks Hopefan. Good crowd?

[hopefan]

Not good crowd for GC

Final. GC 86 EC 73

EC cut it to 4, then GC dominated

[Denny McKinney]

Students still gone at GC. Little Brother has a Senior going to GC next year. Solid win for Panthers. A home game you should win. But, a good win.

[hopefan]

Greenville looked good, not great last night, but in a down year for the SLIAC, I really think that's all it's going to take for the Panthers to wind up in the drivers seat for the Conference championship.   They led Eureka the whole way last night, and while Eureka did cut it to four midway through the second half, there was little doubt the GC would win this one.

How Ron Harris was held scoreless for 39 minutes at Iowa Wesleyan will forever be a mystery to me... he is a versatile athlete and player.. he looks good on midrange jump shots, and is tremendously active around the basket.. a demonstrative player who is fun to watch... On the other hand, Ted Daniel plays so quietly, he's almost invisible, but you watch him closely, you realize how hard he works WITHOUT the ball to get open when the ball is rotated... and with a picture perfect shot from 20 feet, he's going to hit it 50% of the time on most nights... and yet he's strong on the glass too...  Add to these two veterans JC transfer Andrew Scott.. tremendous upper body strength, the proverbial bull in the china closet.. his dunk on an offensive rebound was the play of the game last night...  Put these 3 together and it's a perfect SLIAC frontcourt..   3 athletic kids, all who show maturity in their games, board hard, each capable of scoring double figures any night, with the extra perk of having an outstanding, consistent long range shooter.   The backcourt is a pretty decent too, with Brian Ehresman and Michael Hohm.. both can score, but realize the bread and butter comes from the 3 forwards.. and I see pretty solid defense from both the guards too....

AND  Elmo Smith off the bench could start for most SLIAC teams... at 6'3 and athletic, can really enter the game for any of the starters and fits right in... Stevonte Young who backs up Ehresman at point is out with an ankle injury but hopes to be ready for the matchup with Webster on Saturday.. I liked what I saw from him earlier in the year when I saw GC beat Spalding...

I haven't mention Nick Trisko either...  If Coach Barber can mold him to fit in with this group, it will be a big plus.. we've seen that at 6'8" against SLIAC competition, he can score almost at will if he gets the ball in the paint.. but his game has to mature in decision making, shot selection, taking care of the ball, DEFENSE... he has to have his head in the game 100% of the time.....

NOTE, I'd love to hear a comparison of Nick Trisko and Prin's Justin Ball.... coming from an opposing coach like Coach Creal or Coach Mitchell....Just can't make up my mind on these two big guys...

Eureka's downfall... well, while very improved over last year, man for man they couldn't match up with Greenville's talent level... Seth Wickert looked strong and confident and kept Eureka in the game in the 2nd half along with a strong performance off the bench from Brandon Gosset (who looked like he could be instant offense)... but the rest of the starters, at least last night, pretty much baffled me.... last weeks player of the week Greg Kent never got involved with the ball (0-3 in 30 minutes), and Ian Saathoff seemed to be forgotten too....  The offense seemed to revolve around Sam James during much of the game, but I'll label much of his shot selection as questionable, though he did get to the line often... Parker Gibson started out hot, but pretty much disappeared in the 2nd half.  I don't think I saw Eureka at its best last night... getting down early and having to be in comeback mode certainly impacted their game...

So the question is, how does Eureka rate in my visions of playoff potential.. well, I'd say they'd be at the bottom of  the top 5.. but it's hard to understand that loss to Fontbonne... I don't look at the win over Webster as a fluke... they're capable of playing with Spalding, but I think strong inside play from opponents will really hurt them... they're just not that big.... Greenville, Mac, Fontbonne. maybe even Prin have the kind of frontcourt activity that Eureka will have trouble with....

[y_jack_lok]

Did Eureka try its 2-3 zone against Greenville, which apparently worked against Webster, or play man all the way? Also, this was a road game for them. GC still has to go to Eureka.

[hopefan]

Did Eureka try its 2-3 zone against Greenville, which apparently worked against Webster, or play man all the way? Also, this was a road game for them. GC still has to go to Eureka.

Ehresman and Daniel were zone busters... Ehresman hit a couple of 3's, and also did a nice job of penetrating.... Greenville rotates the ball nicely, kept finding Daniel in the corner, though he didn't have a great shooting night....  I don't know, the difference in talent level may render EC home court inconsequential....

Incidentally, there was a big kid helping at the scorer's table last night... I asked Coach who it was... looked to be 6'6, 6'7... Barber answered he's the big frosh from Indiana, not quite ready... YET.... he's playing JV, but he is on the recruits page, and he LOOKS like a basketball player....  Wondering if this fellow could mature enough to help replace Harris next year... note other four Greenville starters all return along with top 3 off the bench I mentioned earlier.

[Denny McKinney]

Thanks for the recap, Hope.

[hopefan]

Upsets tonight?   BIG upsets?    BC at Spalding...  IWC at Webster.... 

Webster and Spalding better come ready to play


In the SLIAC, this year,  Never say NEVER....

[SliacChamp]

What a disgusting first half by Webster. No effort, no energy, no heart. Giving up this early? Hunter Ward just jogging around and shaking his head after every shot by Webster.

I would say Aaron Griffin was the only positive with 11 points but he may have given up 20 in the paint.

Leonard Smith was also kicked off of the bench near the end of the half. What an embarrassment to Webster Athletics.

[SliacChamp]

Kevin Miller where art thou? Will you return to save Webster? Please, for our sanity, come back and bring those boys back.

[y_jack_lok]

What a disgusting first half by Webster. No effort, no energy, no heart. Giving up this early? Hunter Ward just jogging around and shaking his head after every shot by Webster.

I would say Aaron Griffin was the only positive with 11 points but he may have given up 20 in the paint.

Leonard Smith was also kicked off of the bench near the end of the half. What an embarrassment to Webster Athletics.

Iowa Wesleyan is a better team.

[hopefan]

Rest easy boys, tonight my lips are sealed....

[hopefan]

Coach Wilde, Coach Hall, get those boys ready for February.. I hear there's an open spot in the conference tourney!!  Heck, Iowa Wez should be thinking about it too....

Don't get mad at me.. I know what I saw tonight....