MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[hopefan]

Only one midweek conference game in the SLIAC... Prin at IWC... Unless Prin takes better care of the ball, spreads the scoring around, I can't see them challenging in this game....Prin in my mind is just as good as IWC, but From what I saw on Saturday, IWC is playing a whole lot smarter....... 4 non conference... the most interesting may be Webster at Millikin, and I fully expect to see Webster add to Millikin's winless streak.... I also fully expect Fontbonne vs Wash U and Mac vs Quincy to be ugly, very ugly....Would love to see Spalding get on the winning track over Berea....

Full conference slate on Saturday....

[Mr. Ypsi]

Agree on Webster @ Millikin.  I'll be mildly surprised if the Big Blue win a single game all season.  I thought Matt Nadelhoffer might be getting them back to semi-respectability, but there seems to be some really deep problems in Decatur.

[WUPHF]

Fontbonne shooting almost 70% from the field, 5-8 from three point range in the first quarter.

Fontbonne can hang with any SLIAC team shooting like that.

[hopefan]

Fontbonne shooting almost 70% from the field, 5-8 from three point range in the first quarter.

Fontbonne can hang with any SLIAC team shooting like that.

give 'em time, WUH, give 'em time....

[WUPHF]

Fontbonne has cooled, but for 10 minutes, they were having a game.

[hopefan]

Prin beats Iowa Wesleyan... IWC misses pretty good shot at buzzer off the back of the rim that would have tied... Frosh TreVaughn Goodman drives to the basket in last several minutes were a major difference... Micah Paulson's play at the point,  wow, just be a little more controlled and you'll be a super, and this team can get to the top....

[hopefan]

Fontbonne has cooled, but for 10 minutes, they were having a game.

ouch, from a 6 point lead at 10 minutes to a 16 point deficit at half... like they went into the deep freeze...

[hopefan]

I'll be darned.. Spalding has another Tuesday night game, James Turner doesn't play, assumingly at his can't miss grad school Tuesday night class again, and Spalding gets thumped by Berea... tough circumstance for Spalding

[WUPHF]

Unfortunately, the second half did not go as well for Fontbonne.

Orkan Bakis went down pretty hard after a very good 20 minutes.  He was holding his arm.  I hope everything is OK.

The Griffins looked down but there were definitely positives, things to build on.

[cheapseats]

The cold snap in the air, frosty windows in the morning, and darkness at 4:30pm...Love me some basketball season!

Now that we are a few games into the season, are there any surprises in the SLIAC? I'm shocked that Mac isn't better than they are. I know they lost pieces, but Brent Long should be more of a feature, in my opinion. Westminster looks really tough, especially when they can put it all together. And Iowa Wesleyan can really score the ball with anyone, if they can play even a little defense, they are going to be TOUGH to beat. Any chance Prin can continue to develop into a top-6 team this year?

[hopefan]

The cold snap in the air, frosty windows in the morning, and darkness at 4:30pm...Love me some basketball season!

Now that we are a few games into the season, are there any surprises in the SLIAC? I'm shocked that Mac isn't better than they are. I know they lost pieces, but Brent Long should be more of a feature, in my opinion. Westminster looks really tough, especially when they can put it all together. And Iowa Wesleyan can really score the ball with anyone, if they can play even a little defense, they are going to be TOUGH to beat. Any chance Prin can continue to develop into a top-6 team this year?

I'm amazed that someone is interested enough to express the questions/comments that you have, cheapseats... I remember you did the same last year... wish you would post more often... it would be fun to have a two way discussion on this board... another +1 for your interest...  and by the way, I was going to wait until after Saturday's league matchups to do a little writeup on each team and how they've fared this season... but right now, I'd still label them as the great 8 and the Titanic 2... (Titanic, alluding to sunk).

[cheapseats]

I'm amazed that someone is interested enough to express the questions/comments that you have, cheapseats... I remember you did the same last year... wish you would post more often... it would be fun to have a two way discussion on this board... another +1 for your interest...  and by the way, I was going to wait until after Saturday's league matchups to do a little writeup on each team and how they've fared this season... but right now, I'd still label them as the great 8 and the Titanic 2... (Titanic, alluding to sunk).

I just love me some small college hoops! I'll be posting more this year, I've been a long time reader, just haven't thought of getting in the action! I'll be looking forward to the write up this weekend.

Does anyone have any insight on why Spalding is in the conference and how players seem to play one year, take a year off, then come play for another season? Just curious.

[hopefan]

Full league schedule tomorrow.... after only 2 or 3 games, we find ourselves with only one unbeaten team, Webster... and surprisingly, Spalding starting off 0-2.... here's what tomorrow's games look like

Greenville at MacMurry... This one could be ugly... with Mac not having much in the way of ball handling, experience, or bench depth, I don't see them keeping up with the system...

Blackburn at Fontbonne... IF Deandre Manuel is still benched, this game might prove to be a candidate for a major upset.. basically a Guards vs Guards game.. still, BCs athleticsm and overall quickness, their activity around the basket in the person of Willie Orange, will likely make for a win for BC.  If Manuel is playing, that much more advantage to BC.

Iowa Wesleyan at Spalding... Spalding coach Kevin Gray changes his starting lineup big time vs Berea, but it didn't help, another loss... There appears to be little or no help from newcomers, including 'second-timers' Abrams and Leon... no perimeter shooting to speak of, if Trisko is adequately defended inside, the offense is reduced to little more than one on one from point guard Rylan Rowe... I don't think they can score enough to beat Iowa Wesleyan, who have 5 individuals capable of scoring double figures on any night... The only problem is the LONG ride from Mt Pleasant Iowa to Louisville can be tough on the body....I still think IWC comes away with the win..

Prin at Eureka... this is the fun game of the day, but the long drive from Eureka Mo to Eureka Ill has me opting to go over to Fulton to see Webster at Westminster  (at least an hour twenty minutes closer).... I'd like to think Prin at Eureka will be a fast paced high scoring game.... I'm not going to forecast a winner here, just saying the Shea Feehan - Kendall Davis show vs Prin's 'potential' scorers (will the ball find Davidson and Ball enough to put them in double digits?) makes for an exciting contest... wish it was closer, also wish there was a lady's conference game to watch in conjunction with it....

Webster at Westmin... Webster didn't look particularly good on offense up at Millikin the other night, but the zone defense just smothered Millikin... Millikin wouldn't have scored 50 had it not been for their rush against the end of Webster's bench in the last 3 minutes of the game....I will never figure out how Westmin collapsed so badly vs Greenville's system, but vs Webster, it becomes the question of how good is their perimeter shooting, and can Tabb and O'brien get the ball inside...last year these two teams split games, using many of the same players as this year... should be a tight game.... also looking forward to the ladies game, Westmin was awful when I saw them up at Millikin, this could be a blow out for Webster's version of the system....

So.. the real key game as I see it, is the Spalding game... if they don't start getting things together quickly, they may fall too far behind to catch up.... the 7 teams ahead of them aren't going to hand a playoff spot over to them.... they need to upset IWC....

[hopefan]

Many of you who read these pages are aware there is a site called Massey Ratings that does quite a bit of data maneuvering to rate ALL Basketball teams... part of what they do is predict D3 games with point spreads ... but data based, no first hand knowledge, and the data early in the season is sparse.... here is what they came up with Saturday, and how I would use the spreads if I had a little extra money at Vegas and Vegas used Massey

Blackburn 2.5 over Fontbonne.....    Yes I'd like Blackburn for $1,000 please givng 2.5

Spalding 3.5 over Iowa Wesleyan... not as certain, But I'll put $500 on Iowa Wesleyan getting 3.5

Greenville 8.5 over Mac.... oh my, they're giving $$$ away... $2000 on Greenville giving 8.5

Westmin 2.5 over Webster.... I'll stay away from this one

Eureka 9.5 over Principia.... If Prin loses, I don't think it will be double digits.... $200 on Prin getting 9.5

Lest ANYONE make any accusations, these games are not bettable at Vegas, the spreads are on Massey site only, and I'm only doing this for the pure laughter....It would make a good contest on the other board!!

[hopefan]

NEXT PLANE TO VEGAS!!!!!