MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[hopefan]

Good grief, some actual back and forth discussion... I LOVE IT!!!!!

[Gregory Sager]

Interesting, as I was looking to call up the livestats that Greek had already found, I run into a seemingly live broadcast of a Principia Women's game, against
Lewis and Clark (a 2 year school)... I had no idea that Prin had already gotten the women's program together... and looking a little further, I find evidence that they have already played 3 games against Wash U Club, Millikin (their real team?) and Robert Morris Springfield....
Congrats to Prin for getting the program restarted... wonder what the projection is for elevating back to a full SLIAC and D3 schedule?

Principia is obviously playing at a JV level, as the Panthers played the Millikin JV team.

[Greek Tragedy]

Interesting, as I was looking to call up the livestats that Greek had already found, I run into a seemingly live broadcast of a Principia Women's game, against
Lewis and Clark (a 2 year school)... I had no idea that Prin had already gotten the women's program together... and looking a little further, I find evidence that they have already played 3 games against Wash U Club, Millikin (their real team?) and Robert Morris Springfield....
Congrats to Prin for getting the program restarted... wonder what the projection is for elevating back to a full SLIAC and D3 schedule?

Principia is obviously playing at a JV level, as the Panthers played the Millikin JV not real team.

Fixed it for you. 

[Gregory Sager]

Spoken like a true WIACer.

[hopefan]

Interesting, as I was looking to call up the livestats that Greek had already found, I run into a seemingly live broadcast of a Principia Women's game, against
Lewis and Clark (a 2 year school)... I had no idea that Prin had already gotten the women's program together... and looking a little further, I find evidence that they have already played 3 games against Wash U Club, Millikin (their real team?) and Robert Morris Springfield....
Congrats to Prin for getting the program restarted... wonder what the projection is for elevating back to a full SLIAC and D3 schedule?

Principia is obviously playing at a JV level, as the Panthers played the Millikin JV team.

From Millikin JV sked:

Jan. 4          Principia College        Elsah, Ill.   7 p.m.
Jan. 8   Olney Central College   Decatur, Ill.               CANCELED
Jan. 12   Lincoln College   Lincoln, Ill.   CANCELED   
Jan. 16   Lincoln Land Community College   Springfield, Ill.   CANCELED
Jan. 17   Illinois Wesleyan JV   Decatur, Ill.   CANCELED
Jan. 20   John Wood Community College   Decatur, Ill.   CANCELED


Prin gave them such a battle, Millikin had to cancel their next 5 games!!!

[hopefan]

Westmin beats Geenville
Mac beats Eureka
Iowa Wez beat Spalding

only Blackburn holds serve, beats Fontbonne


hopefan standings after Saturday games

for now, splitting the league into 7 contenders, 3 non contenders (Mac, Fontbonne, Iowa Wesleyan)

Contenders are expected to win at home against everyone, and not lose to non contenders at home or away

+1 for a road win vs a contender
-1 for a home loss to a contender
-1 for any loss to a non contender


Greenville   +1   Won at Webster

Eureka          0   won at Westminster, lost to MacMurray

Westminster  0   lost to MacMurray, won at Spalding, lost at home to Eureka, won at Webster

Principia      -1   lost at home to Webster

Webster      -1   lost at home to Greenville, lost at home to Westminster, won at Principia

Blackburn  -2   loss to Iowa Wesleyan, loss to MacMurray     (note BC losses to Webster, Spalding, Principia were all on the road)

Spalding     -3       lost at home to Westminster, lost to MacMurray, lost to Iowa Wesleyan

[hopefan]

incidentally... for those of you breathlessly waiting...

5's for hopefan's performance valuation on Tuesday/Wednesday went to

Brock Butler... Iowa Wesleyan

and

Reed Rusten... Blackburn

there were a number of 4.5's, but that's top secret....

[Greek Tragedy]

Steven Brandt had the best night against the System. 25 pts, 10 rebounds, 2-5 from 3, 3-4 FTs, 1 turnover. What do you need for a 5? That's a pretty good stat line.

[hopefan]

So let's look back at upset Wednesday....

Biggest upset of course was Mac's one point win over Eureka... I watched this game as best I could, but VERY difficult when sister in-law and friend were visiting... must also meet wife's expectations, or hear about it all day today.. (I guess I did ok, haven't gotten chastised yet)... Mac missed 3 ctitical free throws in the last minute, trying to give this one away... Eureka has the ball with 20+ seconds, Shea Feehan drives and is defended very well, forced to put up a floater in heavy traffic that misses with 5 seconds left, Hank thomas gets the ball for a put back that misses, but the ball goes off Mac and Eureka gets it under the basket with 1.6... several timeouts later, Eureka has their play and it fails and Ryan McElmurry lobs it from out of bounds to apparent nobody... BUT WAIT.. the horn "inadvertently" goes off before anyone touches the ball!!!   holy Olympic USA vs Russia...lets give them another chance!!!  This time, the play works, but, unfortunately for Eureka, Thomas' 3 pointer falls short, and Mac hangs on for the win....    GREAT revenge for Mac, after enduring some very ugly words and shows of poor sportsmanship from EC in the first meeting between the two teams....and how appropriate that Kendall Davis leads the way with 22 points....But this was a real team effort... Brent long with 20 points 14 boards 6 assists,  Mike Cameron with a bizarre 0 for 8 from the field, but 5 rebounds and 10 assists... and look at role players Wade Fox 11 points 6 rebounds 4 blocks,   AND Taten Musso, unheard from most of the season, off the bench going 5 for 6 from the field... a real team effort.  Shea Feehan does all he can, finishing with 30, and Dakota Bennington gets 15 and 8, but not quite enough for Eureka... where did they lose it?  How about 4 for 23 from 3 point land....  and I'm sure they're really kicking themselves after seeing Greenville lose to Westmin...

Westmin pulls the mild surprise, winning at home over Greenville, 116-110... Westmin leads the whole way... as hopefan said, big key was whether Westmin's 2 big men could finish the multitude of fast break plays, and they did... Hollingsworth 23, Brandt 25 and 9 boards....Critical was the return of Kobe Wands, hardly the couple minute cameo that I expected, but 28 minutes, 15 points, 8 assists, 3 steals... put that together with Carter Wands 16 points and 11 assists, as well as Cody Shaws 14 points and 6 boards, and it's a heck of a team effort...Johari Dix leads Greenville with 29 points, but the Panthers just don't shoot well enough from 3 point land (29%) to get the win....

Indeed, Iowa Wez wins at home vs travel weary Spalding, in OT, 81-79... Spalding had a 12 point lead with under 4 minutes left and gave it up as Brock Butler went on a tear... Iowa Wesleyan could have won in Regulation as Mitch Drey shooting 2, down one, but missed one to go to OT... Spalding goes up 6 in OT, but Elijah Johnson and Mitch Drey make shots, Butler makes Free throws to go ahead, and it's over... Butler finishes with 35 and 8 for IWU, gets a little help from everyone else... Dom Ellis 26 for Spalding....tough loss for Spalding, puts them in almost a no hope situation for the conference tourney....

And Blackburn beats Fontbonne 82-78 to keep Conference Tourney hopes alive... super game off the bench by Reed Rusten, 9 for 12 from the field, 26 points...frosh Noah Coddington has 18 points, 9 boards for Fontbonne as they lose close AGAIN... Wiggins and McCann can't seem to put it together, should underclassmen get more minutes?

Real standings
Greenville 3 losses
Westmin and Eureka 4 losses
BC, Spalding, Webster, Principia 5 losses....

BUT LOOK... Iowa Wez, Mac 7 losses... not impossible to catch the field with 7 games remaining....

[hopefan]

Steven Brandt had the best night against the System. 25 pts, 10 rebounds, 2-5 from 3, 3-4 FTs, 1 turnover. What do you need for a 5? That's a pretty good stat line.

Nice night... but, points are easy to come by against the system... AND... when I introduced my valuation points system.. I said MAX 10 points for winning team, 7 points for losing team, 5 points for individual... a number of Westmin players had good game, points got divvied up...

[ecreddevils]

So let's look back at upset Wednesday....

Biggest upset of course was Mac's one point win over Eureka... I watched this game as best I could, but VERY difficult when sister in-law and friend were visiting... must also meet wife's expectations, or hear about it all day today.. (I guess I did ok, haven't gotten chastised yet)... Mac missed 3 ctitical free throws in the last minute, trying to give this one away... Eureka has the ball with 20+ seconds, Shea Feehan drives and is defended very well, forced to put up a floater in heavy traffic that misses with 5 seconds left, Hank thomas gets the ball for a put back that misses, but the ball goes off Mac and Eureka gets it under the basket with 1.6... several timeouts later, Eureka has their play and it fails and Ryan McElmurry lobs it from out of bounds to apparent nobody... BUT WAIT.. the horn "inadvertently" goes off before anyone touches the ball!!!   holy Olympic USA vs Russia...lets give them another chance!!!  This time, the play works, but, unfortunately for Eureka, Thomas' 3 pointer falls short, and Mac hangs on for the win....    GREAT revenge for Mac, after enduring some very ugly words and shows of poor sportsmanship from EC in the first meeting between the two teams....and how appropriate that Kendall Davis leads the way with 22 points....But this was a real team effort... Brent long with 20 points 14 boards 6 assists,  Mike Cameron with a bizarre 0 for 8 from the field, but 5 rebounds and 10 assists... and look at role players Wade Fox 11 points 6 rebounds 4 blocks,   AND Taten Musso, unheard from most of the season, off the bench going 5 for 6 from the field... a real team effort.  Shea Feehan does all he can, finishing with 30, and Dakota Bennington gets 15 and 8, but not quite enough for Eureka... where did they lose it?  How about 4 for 23 from 3 point land....  and I'm sure they're really kicking themselves after seeing Greenville lose to Westmin...

This was a very exciting game, despite the EC loss.  Cold first half shooting by EC combined with solid play from Mac's bigs were the difference: Long, Fox, and even Bourk gave some good minutes.  Credit Wade Fox, he stepped up and played some great defense, hit a key three, and was otherwise an annoying presence.  Eureka got it going in the second half offensively and was able to claw back, just couldn't close it out.  The big picture still looks good for EC, still very tough to beat at home, should handle BC tomorrow.  Bennington adds a really interesting scoring dynamic to this team. 

I will also say that I really believe that buzzer at the end was inadvertent, if you watch closely the inbound pass was just being made as it went off.  Also, the "sportsmanship" issue is most definitely a two way street and it's unfair to single out EC; this game was intense and both sides were fired up.  I will maintain that EC has the best game atmosphere in the SLIAC.  College students aren't perfect, but would rather have a raucous atmosphere than a quiet gym any day.

[Greek Tragedy]

I, for one, hope that Eureka hosts the SLIAC tournament, despite it being on a Thursday. It's, by far, the closest conference school for me at just around 4 hrs. I would drive that to see Eureka in one game and the System in the other semi. It does suck that it's Thursday/Saturday, so I'll just see the semis, if things fall into place, both at home and in the conference standings.

[hopefan]

So let's look back at upset Wednesday....

Biggest upset of course was Mac's one point win over Eureka... I watched this game as best I could, but VERY difficult when sister in-law and friend were visiting... must also meet wife's expectations, or hear about it all day today.. (I guess I did ok, haven't gotten chastised yet)... Mac missed 3 ctitical free throws in the last minute, trying to give this one away... Eureka has the ball with 20+ seconds, Shea Feehan drives and is defended very well, forced to put up a floater in heavy traffic that misses with 5 seconds left, Hank thomas gets the ball for a put back that misses, but the ball goes off Mac and Eureka gets it under the basket with 1.6... several timeouts later, Eureka has their play and it fails and Ryan McElmurry lobs it from out of bounds to apparent nobody... BUT WAIT.. the horn "inadvertently" goes off before anyone touches the ball!!!   holy Olympic USA vs Russia...lets give them another chance!!!  This time, the play works, but, unfortunately for Eureka, Thomas' 3 pointer falls short, and Mac hangs on for the win....    GREAT revenge for Mac, after enduring some very ugly words and shows of poor sportsmanship from EC in the first meeting between the two teams....and how appropriate that Kendall Davis leads the way with 22 points....But this was a real team effort... Brent long with 20 points 14 boards 6 assists,  Mike Cameron with a bizarre 0 for 8 from the field, but 5 rebounds and 10 assists... and look at role players Wade Fox 11 points 6 rebounds 4 blocks,   AND Taten Musso, unheard from most of the season, off the bench going 5 for 6 from the field... a real team effort.  Shea Feehan does all he can, finishing with 30, and Dakota Bennington gets 15 and 8, but not quite enough for Eureka... where did they lose it?  How about 4 for 23 from 3 point land....  and I'm sure they're really kicking themselves after seeing Greenville lose to Westmin...

I will also say that I really believe that buzzer at the end was inadvertent, if you watch closely the inbound pass was just being made as it went off.  Also, the "sportsmanship" issue is most definitely a two way street and it's unfair to single out EC; this game was intense and both sides were fired up.  I will maintain that EC has the best game atmosphere in the SLIAC.  College students aren't perfect, but would rather have a raucous atmosphere than a quiet gym any day.

I'll address both topics... and EC, you know I totally respect you, so don't take anything as a potshot at you...
The out of bounds play... I thought it was a 5 second call, because McElmurry had the ball for a lengthy time, the go to cuts were covered, and he had nothing to do but lob it over the pack... that's what made the horn/buzzer suspicious...for it to go off after he had the ball for 3-4 seconds.

As for the sportsmanship deal, yes there are two sides to every story, but after seeing a whole row of students plus the AD be ejected for behavior at the Greenville game, I had my impressions.. then to hear ABOUT certain things said to Kendall Davis, and then after the game in the lobby to Mac admin and family, well, until I hear the other side, I only know what I'm told....And I will put it out here to possibly hear the other side...

[hopefan]

Saturdays get bigger as teams face critical games that will point to positions in the standings... and conference tourney...

Blackburn (6-5) at Eureka (7-4)....  huge for both teams....BC doesn't want to fall behind the pack with a loss, Eureka doesn't want to fall into the pack with a loss... Eureka coming off the upset loss to Mac should be in a "gettin' down to business" mood...Blackburn has the quickness to defend Shea Feehan, but I'm not sure they can stop Bennington and Thomas too... and, if they can hold Eureka to say 75, can they put enough offense together to stay ahead.... actually, I think not, I think EC wins this one....

Spalding (6-5) at Westmin (7-4)... the third of Spalding's 3 games on the road... they have to be zonked.... Westmin, maybe by a lot....

Webster (6-5) at Fontbonne (1-10)... it will be close, it will be exciting, but Webster can't lay an egg in such a critical game, can they?  I hope Coddington and Wilcox stay four years, what a potentially great matchup....

Iowa Wesleyan (4-7) at Greenville (8-3).... I think it's fantastic that IWU has bounced back to the fringes of contesting for a tourney spot, but I just don't think they have enough depth to compete against the system... Greenville should score 140...

Principia (6-5) at Mac (4-7)... another huge game for both teams.... Prin doesn't want to fall behind the pack with a loss.. Mac can't afford to lose again, and they're riding high with the win vs Eureka... this should be a good one.. critical matchup Cameron vs Paulson, Cameron has to slow him down, don't want Prin running...Big question, how will Mac stop Goodman?... another great matchup Davidson vs Long... This could be a very good game, OR, either team is capable of a total flop....With the game at Mac, wonder if the world will have to wait until the game is over to find out what's happening there??

Good Luck to everyone.... 5 BIG Games!!!!  Hopefan loves it!!

[hopefan]

Incidentally... with this being Game #12, the revised , updated Hopefan All Conference teams should be out after today's results... any changes?  We'll see...