MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[hopefan]

Friday, Dec. 29... 4 SLIAC teams play... fortunately, none seem to be facing any snowy roads, but it's gonna be COLD!!!  Safe Travels!!! 
Hopefan won't rub any salt in wounds to tell what the temperature is where he is... just know he'll be wearing shorts to game he is attending on Saturday!!

Today's SLIAC action...
Greenville plays Waynesburg in Defiance Tourney... rare opportunity for a SLIAC team to play a President's AC team... that conference is centered around Pittsburgh (hopefan's OLD stomping grounds), and is very similar in nature to the SLIAC... Waynesburg had been the doormat in this conference, but came around to being very competitive the last several years...two of this year's losses were to NWC powerhouses Whitman and Whitworth, and they come in on a 3 game winning streak.  But as I said earlier, are they prepared for a system team?   Will be interesting to see....

Webster plays Berry in the Music City Classic in Nashville... this is a Tourney that includes teams from all over the country, but Webster is traveling to play only this one game in it (so I don't understand).....it was an opportunity to play another inter-regional game in a big tourney setting, but Webster filled up their schedule with Robert Morris Peoria, a home game that attracted a very small crowd....Berry enters this game at 3-7, but don't be fooled, they have lost to several very good teams (Emory, Emory and Henry, Dubuque)... this also might be a pretty good game....

Blackburn plays St Norbert in St. Norb's tourney....St. Norbert is 8-1 with their only loss vs undefeated UW-Oshkosh.... BUT, their wins have been against good but not great competition...still, the long trip, playing on St. Norb's court... it will be a tough outing for BC

Westminster plays Sewanee at home.... home court advantage helps, but Sewanee at 4-4 is pretty good.. they've lost only to teams with winning records... they beat Centre 70-63, similar to same score Webster beat Centre.... another good game

No sure thing matchups here... would be lovely to see the SLIAC emerge with 3 wins, but no major surprise either if they fell in 3 or even all 4 games... a fun day to follow the teams!!

[Greek Tragedy]

Waynesburg nips Greenville 127-125. Down 1, Greenville's Dix goes 1 for 2 to tie it at 125 with 16 seconds to go. Waynesburg scores with 5 seconds to go and Greenville turns it over with just 2 seconds to go, per play by play.

Westminster scores just 18 points in the 1st half and trails by 10 at the break but storms back for the 62-59 win over Sewanee. Kobe Wands shoots just 3-17, but still goes for 14 pts and 9 boards. Cody Shaw comes off the bench to lead Westminster with 16.

Webster couldn't hold onto a 1-pt halftime lead as they fell to Berry, 74-71. Christian Crespo went off for 25 for Webster, but the other four starters combined for just 14 points. Crespo missed a 3 at the buzzer to potentially send it into OT.

Blackburn lost 65-52 in a game they trailed by 9 at the break. They got to within 6 three minutes into the 2nd half, but never really threatened after that.

The SLIAC goes 1-3 but it could've easily been 3-1.

[hopefan]

Yes Greek, a disappointing night in the SLIAC... Could have come away with 3 wins, but the last minute went the wrong way for both Greenville and Webster... opponents converted to put the SLIAC teams in desperate situations, and we couldn't do it..  The Westmin game, though a win. read really ugly in the play by play... turnovers, missed shots, missed free throws down the stretch made it read like a game no one wanted to win... and a horrible discrepancy in free throws probably had the Sewanee coaches shaking their heads, Sewanee whistled for 28 fouls, Westmin for 13, Sewanee goes 7 for 9 from the line, Westmin shoots a poor 18 for 31 but it's enough to win.... if either team shoots reasonably from the arc, they win easy, but Sewanee goes 4 for 23, Westmin 4 for 19.... like I said, an ugly game, but a great comeback for Westmin, who was way behind in the first half... how about this, score after 14 minutes was 23-5, Sewanee...

other notables... as mentioned previously, Webster's Davian Joseph returns to the court after a 2 year academic hiatus... unfortunately very rusty...10 points on 4-12 shooting, but 9 rebounds... killer may have been Enrique Tankins.. likely in foul trouble much of the night, gets only 19 minutes, fouls out, scoreless.... Crespo another huge night, would love to know coach's expectations coming off of recruitment, into the season... he's scoring at an amazing clip for a frosh who didn't even start the first several games....good to see nice night from Rod Etienne, 14 points, 5 boards, no turnovers, he had been pretty quiet recently...

horrible shooting night killed Blackburn ...35% from the field, despite a solid 9 for 21 from 3 point land... their must have been some intimidating defense around the basket, as BC shoots 9 for 31 inside the arc, 28%....

Greenville generated 31 Waynesburg turnovers, just didn't shoot well enough from the field, 39% overall, to get the win... Waynesburg goes 22 for 25 from the line to earn the victory... stats say Greenville played well enough to win....

[hopefan]

SLIAC games today

Defiance   TH   HCAC      Greenville   TA   SLIAC
              Wright State Lake upsets Defiance.... Hopefully Greenville can also beat them


Blackburn   TTBD   SLIAC      Finlandia   NA   ACAA
               Should be a SLIAC win


Millikin   H   CCIW      Principia   A   SLIAC
                Prin will need to be at their best, but a win is possible


Eureka   A   SLIAC      Maryville (Mo.)   H   NCAA-D2
                 Heck, D2 Maryville is 9-2... no grandiose expectations for Eureka here, but let's hope Feehan puts on a show


MacMurray   H   SLIAC      Sewanee   A   SAA
                  Sewanee gave Westmin a tough game, Mac should expect the same... a SLIAC win will be an upset...

[y_jack_lok]

Webster's Davian Joseph returns to the court after a 2 year academic hiatus... unfortunately very rusty...10 points on 4-12 shooting, but 9 rebounds...

Big question is: Why does he take six three pointers? He made one, so that means he made 3 of 6 two pointers. I'd say that doesn't necessarily mean he was rusty physically, but maybe rusty in his on court decision making.

[hopefan]

Webster's Davian Joseph returns to the court after a 2 year academic hiatus... unfortunately very rusty...10 points on 4-12 shooting, but 9 rebounds...

Big question is: Why does he take six three pointers? He made one, so that means he made 3 of 6 two pointers. I'd say that doesn't necessarily mean he was rusty physically, but maybe rusty in his on court decision making.

Agreed... his successful semester two years ago was based on a deadly 15 foot wing shot... seemed he never missed... first game back, he's wandering the 3 point arc, away from the basket (does that remind anyone of a former Webster all star the last four years, frittering away countless offensive possessions on the arc, rather than being around the hoop with unstoppable athletic ability?)  Let's hope Mr. Joseph gets where he belongs, leaves the 3 point shooting to Johnson and Crespo.  I give credit to Ettienne and Tankins, they are to the hoop guys, rarely looking for the 3...

Joseph played in 9 games 2 years ago... attempted 10 3 pointers, made 1... but shot 32 for 54 from inside the arc, 59%, averaging 9 points and 8 rebounds per game..... here's a twilight zone deal.. I was looking for Davian Joseph data on SLIAC.org... seems another player inherited his number in the 2nd semester of 2015-16, and also received all of Joseph's stats in the SLIAC.org system.. that player, Kevin Smith, likely played a couple minutes  in 2nd semester, and had those stats added to Joseph's and received all the credit... Joseph's name does not appear in the SLIC.org stats...I found Joseph's stats by googling his name and being referred to a 2015-16 Webster site.... SLIAC.org is in error...

[hopefan]

If anyone from other schools ever posted (aside from Eureka posters and Y-Jack), we'd have a little more knowledge about the mysteries of SLIAC rosters...

Funny Farm no 1... Drey and Johnson do NOT appear in the Iowa Wesleyan box score in Exhibition vs Truman, Iowa Wez goes down by 55... these two on again off again appearances is unlike anything I've ever seen before...Wez has played 11 games, Drey has played in 5, Johnson in 4 per the statistics, BUT they are not consecutive game appearances, as if there had been an injury... now I wonder if they are gone for the 2nd semester???

also concerning is the absence of Payton Sellers fron the Prin lineup for the last two games.. this is more reasonably explainable, but what is explanation? injury where he can return, or something more permanent?  Without Sellers, seriously, Prin has ZERO expectations of help from the bench....

ok  a little research shows Sellers was injured in Hawaii, late in the game vs Santa Cruz... he walks off the court with an injury perhaps to his back (he walked off bent over)  later appeared to have some kind of pack on his back under his jersey, in obvious distress... hopefully this is a recoverable situation... Sellers one of the 5 best frosh in the conference and essential to Prin's success...

[hopefan]

Westminster at Wash U today.... does Coach Mitchell have the answers as to how to pull a major upset?

In a quick review of yesterday's games:

Greenville a nice win at Defiance...Johari Dix a career day with 33 points, and Sonti Grady (who?) adds 27....Grady had missed several games in the first semester... this is the first time he stood out to my notice...Greenville generates 28 turnovers..

Mac gets a good win over Sewanee in OT.. Sewanee loses to both Mac and Westmin, tough Christmas break...Brent Long goes 20 points, 17 boards... Davis and Cameron both hit double figures....both teams missed shots to win at the end of regulation, Sewanne gets hit for a Technical foul in last minute of OT down 1?, giving Mac 3 point lead... Sewanee misses several tying 3 point attempts in last 30 seconds...

Blackburn clobbers Finlandia... no surprise.... 6 in double figures for the beavs....

Prin falls to Millikin, 89-72... Prin crushed on the boards, basically 5 guys playing... note to outsiders, if Evan Eisenauer is getting serious minutes, and Payton Sellers is out with injury, believe me, Prin is playing with 5 players... Eisenauer is not your typical fill any role 6th man... I admire him for continuing to be on the roster... and behind him, well, undefined....

Eureka falls to Maryville U.... a decent SLIAC team against a decent D2 team.... 23 point margin is not all that bad.....

[WUPHF]

Washington University 79
Westminster College 71

This game reminded me a little of the 2010 first round tournament match-up between these two teams.  Oddly enough, the final score of that game was 79-71.

Westminster played a good game and continued to play tough even after Kobe Wands went out early in the second half.  The Blue Jays actually scored two more in the second half. 

Westminster played evenly on the boards through most of the game as well.  The Blue Jays may be the smallest team to play at the Field House this season, but that was not always obvious by the way they played.  They brought it on the defensive end.  8 steals and 17 forced turnovers.  What else can you say?

That Wands injury appeared to be a high ankle sprain, but who knows?  Wands needed assistance off the court and to the locker room.  Something to watch for...

Washington University was fortunate to get yet another big game from Jack Nolan.  Nolan has 26 three pointers on the year would crush the school season record if he keeps this up.  The season record is 56. 

Matt Highsmith has shrugged off some early season shooting woes and his field goal percentage is back to where it should be.  He actually leads the team in three point field goal percentage at 46%.  I am not sure if there was a better mid range shooter in the nation last year.  Highsmith has proven he can back up a few feet at knock them down.

Edited: Not sure if I had the right career record...

[y_jack_lok]

Westminster at Wash U today.... does Coach Mitchell have the answers as to how to pull a major upset?

Unfortunately not. It was 66-63 Westminster with 5 minutes left, but the Blue Jays missed their next 5 shots while Wash U scored 12 points in that 4 minute span. So, down 9 with a minute left was too much to overcome. About 3 minutes into the 2nd half Kobe Wands went down with a right leg injury and never came back to the bench. Hope he's okay. All-in-all a good game by both teams. I was impressed with Westminster. They play tough defense and gave Wash U trouble most of the game. They got outrebounded by a taller team but still did a good job on the boards.

On a side note, I thought the name of Westminster's #42, Nolan Huot, sounded familiar. I checked and was correct that he was on Webster's roster as a freshman last season but only saw 2 minutes of varsity action.

[jaybird44]

Random thoughts...

Westminster is well-coached.  With Kobe Wands out, the Bluejays were still tough to beat in the 2nd half.  I can see why Westminster was able to beat Webster and Greenville (nee Grinnell) last season in the SLIAC Tournament.  Shifting gears in a short amount of prep time to defeat two diverse teams is impressive.  Matt Mitchell obviously learned a lot from playing for Eddie Sutton and Nolan Richardson at the U. of Arkansas.

Barring injury or some other weird happenstance, Jack Nolan will likely become Wash-U's next 1,000-point scorer.  Dude is money when Wash-U needs a cashier's check to stay ahead of its opponents.

Wash-U gained an important victory, in the sense of having to become resourceful in order to win the game.  Teams are vigorously trying to take Wash-U out of its normal offense, and in the last couple of games have clamped down on Kevin Kucera and Jake Knupp.  The Bears discovered today that they can come up with a Plan B or C to win a game, when Plan A is taken away.  That will serve the Bears well, when UAA play begins Saturday vs. Chicago.

[WUPHF]

On a side note, I thought the name of Westminster's #42, Nolan Huot, sounded familiar. I checked and was correct that he was on Webster's roster as a freshman last season but only saw 2 minutes of varsity action.

It looks like Nolan Huot is from Westphalia.  That may be the biggest reason behind the transfer.

Huot could probably live at home and commute to Westminster if he wanted to.

Barring injury or some other weird happenstance, Jack Nolan will likely become Wash-U's next 1,000-point scorer. 

This is interesting...

Thanks in part to the addition of Nolan, Washington University is currently on pace with the current team season record for three pointers per game at 8.  If they were to keep up the pace, the team would finish the regular season 24-25 three pointers short of the season record which happened during the 2008-2009 national championship season.  If they were to get a few post season games, that record would definitely be within reach.

[hopefan]

Thanks to Yjack for redirecting the the sub-string of UAA lying within the SLIAC room back to the UAA site!!!!  Check that site out for more Wash U talk

So second semester SLIAC conference action starts tonight with Blackburn coming down to Prin..... this might have been a no-brainer to predict a winner, but when Blackburn fell flat and lost to Iowa Wesleyan, it opened up virtually any conference matchup to a tossup mentality... and that's what makes being a SLIAC fan so much fun.... 

Prin is hurting so bad if frosh Peyton Sellers is still out with injury.. I just don't see how they can do it with only 5 guys... a Prin article regarding the Prin-Millikin game said Prin dressed only 7, and if one of those 7 isn't Sellers tonight, well, grit and determination out of those left on the bench just won't do it... Blackburn on the other hand seems over the surprise loss to Wez, giving St Norbert a pretty good game, then defeating Finlandia... 10 guys playing, everyone contributing, their tough defense will likely frustrate Prin.. on the other hand it is so easy to root for a team that comes on the floor with only 7 or 8 players, and who shows the potential with their starting five to beat anyone...This game COULD go either way, but I suspect BC to come out on top, pulling away to double digits in the 2nd half.....

Tonight and tomorrow night presents a critical round of games for the overall SLIAC standings and the season itself... each game matches (in my mind) one of the favorite teams to finish top 4 vs one of the more suspect teams... and in each case tomorrow night, the favorite team is at home...
Spalding is at Eureka
MacMurray is at Greenville
Iowa Wesleyan is at Webster
Fontbonne is at Westminster

It seems to me that if 4 home teams win tomorrow night and BC wins at Prin tonight, all of a sudden there is a clear cut-off of top 5 and bottom 5... any other team winning will take a big step in getting themselves in the mix.....

[WUPHF]

Thanks to Yjack for redirecting the the sub-string of UAA lying within the SLIAC room back to the UAA site!!!!  Check that site out for more Wash U talk

[Gregory Sager]