MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Greek Tragedy]

It was kind of a guess, hence the question-mark. I guess I should've worded that differently.

[hopefan]

In conversations I had over at Westmin, there was no indication that Jimmy Villabalos would be returning.. I could have asked him as he walked right by me several times, but it wasn't my place as a stranger to him to ask that question....

[hopefan]

Another near-miss performance by Fontbonne, missing a game winner in final seconds at Illinois Tech.... the Griffs are suffering, but they are learning...

on the other hand, Prin scores 13 points in the first half vs UC Santa Cruz, lose 66-49.... their offense has done a 180 from early in the season... Ross and Davidson roaming the perimeter 100% ineffective, Paulson, Goodman forcing everything, Sellers not getting enough minutes... I'd even put Eisenhaur in, just to bench these guys for a couple minutes when they deserve it....

But what do I know.....

[hopefan]

Eureka comes from behind in last minutes to beat Dominican 72-64... Feehan has a rare off-night, but Hank Thomas takes over, finishes with 27... Feehan adds 17... Wiegand and Dehm both double figures rebounds.. nice win going into the holiday....

[hopefan]

UNBELIEVABLE.....  ABSOLUTELY UNBELIEVABLE.... PRIN 82  PACIFIC 79

Those of you who know me know that I root for the underdog, but yes, after several poor performances including horrible offense, questionable (IN MY MIND) coaching decisions, rotten behavior by star players (technical fouls after referee whistles), I had given up on Prin...

Then last night happens, a couple thousand miles from home, Prin (2-6) beats Pacific (8-1)...

AND EVEN MORE AMAZING
1) 6th man Payton Sellers doesn't play.. I'm assuming he sustained an injury vs UC Santa Cruz the night before.. so Tyler Holt who had played 4 minutes all season, plays 12 minutes (without a turnover!!)

2) Trevaugh Goodman, whom I said was the best player in the conference several weeks ago, but lately couldn't touch the ball without turning it over or missing a layup, FINDS HIS GAME...12-15 from the field, 10-13 from the line, NO 3 point attempts, only 3 turnovers... a performance as good as it gets...

3) Prin wins even though my other pet peeves are not corrected.. Micah Paulson still throwing them up 4-18, 3-9 from 3's.... Parker Davidson, 4-5 from 2's, but wasting his time and skills by roaming the perimeter and going 2-7 from 3's... he is so good to have his game skunked by that type of play... it slays me...

AND THEY STILL WON!!!!   They got the lead with about 7 minutes left, and though Pacific had several shots to tie or go ahead in the last minutes, they never hit  them... Goodman and Ross made huge free throws in the final 30 seconds to clinch the win!!!

Go Prin!!! What else can I say??!!!

Incidentally... I don't have any idea how good Pacific really is... their 8-1 record was run up against a very weak schedule... they haven't played any of the top NWC teams yet, but still, at this point in the season, this win shows as one of the biggest upset wins in D3 this year... come on Ryan Scott, give the SLIAC some print....

[hopefan]

Iowa Wesleyan and Blackburn don't have the positive results last night that Principia did... but...

After being down 26 at half to Loras, Blackburn bounces back to cut the lead to single digits,  makes the final score respectable, losing 102-90... Jamaya Wyatt has an incredible performance off the bench for BC, 12 for 12 from the field, 28 points, 7 rebounds, NO turnovers in 22 minutes!!    12 for 12.. will that go down as the most shots without a miss in a game in D3 this season?

Iowa Wesleyan loses to D2 St. Cloud St by a lot... but Butler, Drey, Johnson all play, all hit double figures... that kind of performance from those 3 could lead to more wins in conference play....

[hopefan]

MacMurray plays University of Dallas tonight, U of Texas-Dallas tomorrow... win or lose, they've had a great trip, busing to Oklahoma City and seeing the OKC Thunder game, then to Dallas yesterday and getting a tour of the Dallas Cowboys Football Stadium (and hopefully Kennedy Memorials/Book Depository).. what a great trip, and a way to unwind after finals... hoping for solid performances on the court to help prep for the remainder of the SLIAC Conference season... it's still a totally wide open race for the 4 conference spots with Mac and Iowa Wez winning, and BC losing last Saturday....

[Greek Tragedy]

Wow, I haven't seen hopefan that excited in awhile!

I'm really torn with Iowa Wesleyan. I have Butler on my fantasy team and he's been pretty good. With Johnson and Drey back in the fold, hopefully permanently, I think they have a real shot to win some games in the SLIAC. But, I don't want it to be a case where Butler shares his points with the latter two, kind of like Paulson, Davidson and Goodman. However, for reasons unknown, i have a little soft spot for Iowa Wesleyan and will be cheering them on. If Butler's numbers drop considerably, I drop him but will still wish him and the rest of the team the best of luck. Hopefully they'll start winning and Butler's numbers don't drop much!

[hopefan]

Wow, I haven't seen hopefan that excited in awhile!

How about.... RIGHT NOW

MacMurray  88   U of Dallas (7-1 coming into the game) 82    The SLIAC scores their 2nd huge upset in two nights!!! 

The boxscore reads like I expected from the beginning of the season... Long 32 points, 10 boards... Kendall Davis 22 points... Mike Cameron getting them the ball 8 assists, chipping in with 9 points...

OK Mac, don't fall asleep now... get the 2nd one tomorrow night!!!

[Greek Tragedy]

"Hi, I'm Kendall Davis. Remember me?"

Look who finally showed up...

[Former Devil 40]

Surprised no one mentioned the new face at Eureka that Hopefan had hinted about earlier this month.  Dakota Bennington from Peoria Christian has joined the Red Devils for the rest of the year.  Dakota transferred from Olivet Nazarene where he played decent minutes last year and averaged 10ppg.  He was the 2015-16 PJStar Small School PoY and named to the 2A All State Team.  He has some youtube videos out there and it looks like the kid is a serious athlete.

A nice get for Coach Wilde!  Should be a high level SLIAC Player this year and the next 2 years assuming he stays in a Red Devil uniform.

[hopefan]

Surprised no one mentioned the new face at Eureka that Hopefan had hinted about earlier this month.  Dakota Bennington from Peoria Christian has joined the Red Devils for the rest of the year.  Dakota transferred from Olivet Nazarene where he played decent minutes last year and averaged 10ppg.  He was the 2015-16 PJStar Small School PoY and named to the 2A All State Team.  He has some youtube videos out there and it looks like the kid is a serious athlete.

A nice get for Coach Wilde!  Should be a high level SLIAC Player this year and the next 2 years assuming he stays in a Red Devil uniform.

Noticed, didn't comment until I could see his role... wonder if at 6'3" and athletic if he can help out on the boards... Dehm and Wiegand need all the help they can get... If he moves into the lineup and does score, it's great... take some of the load off Feehan/Thomas, get better shots.... exciting news...

[hopefan]

Well, the upset bubble popped, a beatin' for Mac from UT-Dallas, but still 2 super upsets for the SLIAC that they can't take away from us!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE....  no more SLIAC game action until 12/29, 12/30, 12/31.... then conference resumes full force on 1/2/18!!

[Greek Tragedy]

Well, the upset bubble popped, a beatin' for Mac from UT-Dallas, but still 2 super upsets for the SLIAC that they can't take away from us!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE....  no more SLIAC game action until 12/29, 12/30, 12/31.... then conference resumes full force on 1/2/18!!

http://cometsports.utdallas.edu/boxscore.aspx?id=3956&path=mbball

Kendall Davis came off the bench once again and put up 25 pts on 9-19 shooting including 5-12 on 3s. He did cough the ball up 8 times, but it is nice to see him produce on the offensive end.

MacMurray and Iowa Wesleyan have shown some improvement lately and if Davis can continue his brief resurgence, they could fulfill their preseason conference ranking. Iowa Wesleyan should also improve if Drey and Johnson stay in the lineup to help out Butler.

[hopefan]

While SLIAC teams have fared worse against Non-Conference D3 teams this year than they did last year, recent results show optimism should prevail for each of the conference teams as they (we) break for semester and the holidays...

Blackburn... the loss to Iowa Wesleyan was disappointing, but no one (except Coach Kollar) could have thought this team would be in a tie for the conference lead after 4 games.... a nice 2nd half comeback vs a good Loras team to make it a competitive game was also a big plus... Blackburn plays in the St. Norbert Tournament on 12/29 against host St. Norbert, a doubtful positive result there, but will likely play Finlandia the next night and get a win then... First Conference game after break is at Principia on Tuesday, 1/2... that should be a good one

Eureka...  Tied for first in the conference, were without Shea Feehan in the loss to Blackburn, and with the addition of Dakota Bennington to bolster the player rotation...gotta be feeling very good about things... Eureka has a game at D2 Maryville (Mo.) on Dec 30 (what a feather in the SLIAC cap a win would be, and it's possible) and first conference game after break is Jan. 3 at home vs Spalding... EC can't take that one for granted...

Fontbonne...  Winless in conference, but competitive in the games they should have been... Single digit losses to Spalding, Blackburn, Greenville, Illinois Tech... young... they'll win in the second semester....just gotta believe...no more nonconference they're at Westmin on Jan. 3... that one will be tough for the Griffs with Westmin defensive pressure...

Greenville... With all the new faces, it seems like someone different is having a big game each night... after looking so bad vs Eureka, they come back and beat Westminster... and if you can beat Westminster, you can beat anyone in the conference... Greenville plays in the Defiance Tourney opening with Waynesburg, a 4-5 team who has won their last 3 in a row...This is probably a pretty decent team, but who knows how they'll handle the system... the second night, Greenville will have either Defiance or non D3 Wright St Lake... Gville could come out of this with two wins, at least a split.. their conference play then opens on Wednesday Jan 3 with MacMurray, who had big trouble with the system last year.

Iowa Wesleyan...  This was a black hole, until they jumped up and beat Blackburn in SLIAC Gameday #4... now the thought is that there is enough to compete if Drey and Johnson show up to play alongside Brock Butler.  They have no non conference game after Christmas, opening the second semester at Webster on Wednesday Jan. 3.... I expect a Webster win, the IWU threesome isn't enough.

MacMurray... finally showed that the new mix of players could do it when they beat Spalding, then scored the huge upset over the University of Dallas.... Remember, this is the team I thought would win conference... now if Mike Cameron keeps dishing assists, Kendall Davis keeps hitting jump shots to the tune of 20 ppg, and Brent Long continues to play Conference MOP level Basketball, Mac can jump back into the race for the conference tourney....Mac has a home game on Dec 30 with .500 Sewanee, a good test, then reopens conference play with Greenville on January 3rd... not a must win, but one that would help Mac in a big way... they can't afford to dig too much of a hole...


Principia...  after two inept losses to Westminster and UC Santa Cruz, Prin bounced back with their stunning upset win over Pacific... Now, can Prin correct their mistakes, get the ball to Ross and Davidson down low and/or clear things out so Goodman can go to the hoop... will Micah Paulson take on the role of an assist oriented point guard rather than missing 15 shots in a game... is their only legit reserve off the bench, Payton Sellers, going to play (why did he miss Pacific game?)... this team can win in the conference if they would just play to their strengths....Prin has a single game at Millikin on Saturday the 30th, then opens 2nd semester conference play with Blackburn at home on Tuesday, Jan. 2.....

Spalding... the win over nonconference Centre was a big positive, but there seems to be no excuse to have lost up at Mac... with conference wins over Fontbonne and Iowa Wez, Spalding still needs to show they can beat the teams that are really considered to be the conference contenders... they do seem to be improving, the lineup juggling seems to be settling down... Coach Gray may have simply been prepping for a big Semester run....  No more nonconference, Spalding opens post Christmas Conference play at Eureka... that one will be tough, very tough...

Webster... I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everyone is back for Webster in 2nd semester, and wondering if an old face from 2 years ago might be suited up... it would be a big addition if it happens... Webster is young, inexperienced, but very talented and has already had big highs, big lows... always a question of which team will show up, but they are capable of beating anyone in the conference...  they have a nonconference game on the 29th with Berry in Memphis, then get back into Conference games with Iowa Wesleyan on Jan. 3rd.... should be a Gorlock win, IF they show up ready to play....

Westminster... coming off home wins last weekend vs Principia and Millikin, the Jays likely feel they can beat anyone in the conference and return to the NCAA Tourney...and they are doing it with tough defense and a bunch of guards trying to score any way they can...I will say though, an undersized Stu Hollandsworth is doing a nice job in the middle, getting open for easy shots and grabbing timely rebounds.  Westmin has an active nonconference schedule next week, playing Sewanee on the 29th, then Wash U on the 31st... the game with Wash U could have been HUGE with Westmin's expected lineup... now with all the munchkins running around, hard to imagine how they'll keep Wash U's size away from the basket.... They'll then reopen conference play with Fontbonne on Jan. 3rd.