MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[hopefan]

Point of clarification - Mac was up by 8 at the half against Eureka and never trailed during the game. 

Thanks Coach.. I think I saw on my phone Eureka up by 8 at half time while I was at Blackburn-Webster game... they either had it flipped, or I flipped it in my mind (wouldn't be the first time )

[SliacChamp]

Pretty solid half from Webster over Westminster. They lead 32-22. Might be the best energy I have seen them come out of the gates with in a few games. Aaron Griffin was solid on the interior and has 0 fouls to start 2nd half with. He can be over aggressive challenging shots and should cause fits for WC.

[y_jack_lok]

^^ Aaron Griffin did a lot of good things today - scored, rebounded, passed, defended well. I know he missed a couple of what would seem to be easy buckets on nice passes from Ward in the second half and his frustration was obvious. In a close game that would matter, but it didn't today. And he was fouled on a couple of those and hit 9 of 10 free throws for the game.

Westminster is struggling.

Something is wrong with either the box score or the printed program (which I failed to bring home) because not all the Westminster player uniform numbers are the same in both places. The box score shows Matt Murphy going 0-5 for the game, but the Matt Murphy in the program scored WC's first two baskets on nice baseline jumpers and had at least one more of those in the second half. I was afraid he might have a career day doing that but somehow WC was unable to make that happen.

Looks like hopefan's top four beat their bottom four opponents and Fontbonne won the 5/6 matchup over Eureka.

[Denny McKinney]

Strange stat of the day: SU had 4 of starting 5 played 40 mins. Only one sub. 

[hopefan]

No change in hopefan standings... only Eureka could have gained a + by beating a top 6 on the road, and they failed to win at Fontbonne... nobody picked up a negative

-1 is awarded to a top 6 team for any loss to the bottom 4, and for any loss at home to the other 5 of the top 6.
+1 is awarded for a win on the road vs a top 6

Current hopefan standings after games of Jan 24
Spalding   +1   (Won at Mac)
Mac  +1  (Lost at home to Spalding) (Won at Greenville) (won at Eureka)
Greenville  0   (Won at Fontbonne) (lost at home to Mac)
Fontbonne( -1)   (won at Eureka) (Lost to IWC) (lost at home to Greenville)
Webster (-1)    (Lost to Iowa Wes) 
Eureka   (-2)    (Lost at home to Fontbonne) (lost at home to Mac)

[hopefan]

So let's talk about today's games...

Fontbonne crushes Eureka.... I must be a jinx for Eureka, because in reality, this group has failed to show me top 6 quality in either game I've seen, bad losses to Greenville and Fontbonne... it's just a fluke, but I simply have seen Kent, James, Saathoff at their low points of the season... and uh oh, I'm counting on coming up to see the Wednesday game vs Spalding!!  13 points in the first half!!  Only one Eureka player had field goals in the first half - Saathoff.. and Kent banked a free throw shot in!!! Things didn't change much until the last 10 minutes of the game when the game was already decided....
And now Denny.. a shocking statement... I'm REALLY liking this Fontbonne team... Coach Hall has narrowed his player rotation to 8 or 9, the guys are ready to play, and they're buying into Coach Hall's firey brand of coaching.. Evan Johnson in Seth Wickert's face most of the game, Wickert couldn't get a shot with the exception of a fast break layup for the first 25-30 minutes.... Sam James again took what I thought were a number of bad shots.. Ian Saathoff was pressured and doubled   ... there was no one that could jump start EC at any point in the game.. it was total dominance by Fontbonne's Defense.  As I expected, Greenlee, Kissing and Rucker ruled the boards   rebounding finished 46-29 in favor of Font.... Just as with Mac Font's achilles heal appears to be foul shooting.. the Griffs missed their first 8 in the game, and the two guys who get to the line with regularity look totally uncomfortable at the line- Gentry and Greenlee... but wow Gentry, Greenlee, Rucker, Johnson really had it going today... If Fontbonne can maintain that intensity, they WILL beat some top 4 teams...

Spalding beats BC... interesting BC had it close at half time.. very strange indeed, as Denny pointed out, that Spalding goes with just 6 players?  Gabriel's turn to have a big game with 24 points... Spalding holds Chris J Davis to 2 points...

Webster romps over Westminster... Etter and Moore get angry about hopefan's comments after the BC game and both score double figures ... good job guys... KEEP IT UP

Prin gives Mac much more of a game than expected, losing by 10... in reality, the margin was single digits most of the game... Mac's defense shuts down Prin big man Justin Ball, but Larry Patterson goes for 31... that boggles me, as I haven't seen him be an aggressive scorer in other games this year....  Whitlock, Johnson, and Sutton each score in double figures and grab 9 rebounds... each a rebound away from a double-double.... Still, if Mac is our leading NCAA candidate, shouldn't they be beating a Prin handily?

Greenville romps on IWC.. interesting if Box Score is correct, Elmo Smith has replaced Michael Hohm in the starting lineup, making Greenville bigger and more athletic around the basket.....  Jamal Daniels and Stevonte Young both back playing, helps Greenville's depth.... Nick Trisko 8 boards in 13 minutes....

[SliacChamp]

Agreeing with Hopefan. It was good to see Etter and Moore have decent scoring games. Lately I almost think Etter has been timid shooting the ball. He's a nice shooter and should be more aggressive with his shot selections. That will be hard for the fan of a "true PG" type of game to hear but Without Ahmad smith, there are a lot of shots missing. Gorloks seem to be hitting their stride, a week off until a tough road game at Mac.

[y_jack_lok]

Regarding my comment above on the box score from yesterday's WU/WC game, the one that you can link to from the Webster men's basketball schedule page is the one that was off yesterday and is still off now. However, the one on the SLIAC site appears correct to me.

The Webster bench players gave some good minutes yesterday, but it will be tougher for them against Mac.

[hopefan]

Gorloks seem to be hitting their stride, a week off until a tough road game at Mac.

Can't agree with this statement at all... beating BC in a horrible shooting game, beating the weakest Westmin team I've seen in the 12 years I've followed the SLIAC....doesn't give me a whole lot to get excited about...

Full stride to me is :
Griff continues what he's done at 15 and 10, Smith returns and goes for 15 ppg, Ward 15 and 8 and very few 3 point shots, Etter goes back to being a true point guard and hits 2 three pointers and some FTs at the end, Moore gets 10, with penetration drives, bench contributes 15, defense holds someone good to 65 or less...  what does that result in? a 80-65 win over a top 6 team... too much to ask?  They each have it in them, but to me, they haven't come near to a sweet spot ...  To me, they are very vulnerable to being upset out of the top four... Saturday vs Mac will tell us alot, but watch out for that Fontbonne-Spalding game being played at the same time....

[SliacChamp]

I say hitting their stride because that team had a certain swagger and confidence that we haven't seen out of the Gorloks all year. Regardless of how bad WC may be this year, they were aggressive and played hard and if they play that same way they will get a big win at MAC Saturday. I think that win over WC was a good one for those kids because it allowed them to see their zone completely shock and shut down a team.

[hopefan]

I guess I'm still concerned as to whether the Gorlocks can maintain the positive levels against the better competition... We'll see on Saturday... Mac has not shown a penchant for defense this year, and they had a horrible time scoring against Webster's zone earlier in the year, so it's a great opportunity foe Webster... another thing to keep a thought on is that if Webster beats Mac on Saturday, they will have the sweep on Mac and therefore own the tiebreaker at seeding time....

[hopefan]

So let's speculate about the 2nd half of the season

1)  Does the remaining schedule favor any of the top 6?
           Greenville and Spalding have already played twice, and split, each winning at home... They each have four games against the top 6 left.  Likewise Fontbonne and Eureka have played twice with Fontbonne sweeping.. they both have four games left vs top 6....  Mac and Webster have 5 games against top 6 remaining..
            Assuming playing away is tougher, Spalding has the toughest road... 3 of 4 games against the top 4 are on the road at EC, FU, and WU, with only Mac at home.......    Webster has to play at Mac, at Font, and at GC, with Spalding and EC at home..  Font and EC both have to play each of the top 4, but Font has only Greenville on the road, while Eureka has to go to Mac and Webster.. that's another edge to Fontbonne over Eureka

2)  Do either Fontbonne or Eureka have a chance to catch anyone and get into the Tourney...?
    Yes, it's still feasible...But they'd need to beat Webster or GC, and then make up another game in the standings as they are currently 2 back of WU/GC.... Certainly not impossible... and the way Fontbonne played vs Eureka, I'd give them a real shot...

3) barring Fontbonne or Eureka jumping into the top 4, could we see a change at the top?
        Absolutely... the SLIAC world should be rooting for Eureka to defend their homecourt against Spalding tomorrow night... if that happens, it keeps Eureka alive, but more importantly it opens up first place to be within reach for the other top 4 teams... We'll have each top 4 team with either 2 or 3 losses if Eureka can do it.....

4)  playing for pride... IWC, BC, PC, WC... who will come in No 7....?
       IWC wins over Webster and Fontbonne give them a tremendous advantage, but Blackburn could still catch them... PC is just too short of bodies... and Westmin just doesn't have it this year... the injury to Verdis Lee has hurt tremendously...kudos to him for gutting out the playing time, but he is not the All Conference player we've seen in the past....

[Denny McKinney]

Hopefan. I'm glad your enjoying Coach Hall and the Griff's recent play. He has that bunch playing with a high motor. Greenlee had a monster game 20 pts (9-14) and 14 rbs. Deserves probably all conference discussion. And, his 14 attempts was great to see. Rucker continued to be trouble to keep off the boards. FU's D was intense. It's a shame you don't get points for hustle. FU's sweep of EC is a step.

That being said, FU beat a team that shot incredibly bad. Historic? 29% and 7% from 3's? And, got out rebounded by 20. My first time watching EC and Wow. EC got beat by 20 by and FU team that was 8-20 from the line and 4-20 from 3's. If FU shoots like this in Iowa, they could get swept this year by IWC. Truly this FU win should be what it takes to finish 5th.

FU will probably have 5 seniors for starters. But, because of scheduling, this group never had a chance to learn how to win. I hope Coach Hall can find some shooters.

[hopefan]

Traveling to Eureka, Il this afternoon to see EC-Spalding.... hoping to see a big upset, if a Eureka win would be considered an upset... and hey, nothing against Spalding and the fantastic job they've done this year reloading from the loss of 4 outstanding seniors from last year...

Should be a pretty good ladies game too... I imagine many will be rooting for a Eureka win there also...

ECred, will you be there?  Find me.. Red plaid shirt, jeans, glasses gray/back hair...by myself... hope to be there for start of ladies game..

[y_jack_lok]

Traveling to Eureka, Il this afternoon to see EC-Spalding.... hoping to see a big upset, if a Eureka win would be considered an upset... and hey, nothing against Spalding and the fantastic job they've done this year reloading from the loss of 4 outstanding seniors from last year...

Should be a pretty good ladies game too... I imagine many will be rooting for a Eureka win there also...

ECred, will you be there?  Find me.. Red plaid shirt, jeans, glasses gray/back hair...by myself... hope to be there for start of ladies game..

Hope you arrived safely. Can you find out the answer to this question for me. Spalding is at Eureka today and at Iowa Wesleyan on Thursday. Will they go back to Louisville after tonight's game and then travel all the way to Mt. Pleasant, IA on Thursday? Or will they spend tonight and tomorrow night "on the road" and then head back to Louisville?