MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Gregory Sager]

I don't know. Are they making morey for their schools? Are they increasing the school's visibility within their target recruiting areas?

i don't follow D1 closely enough to know whether or not these things occur for non-Power 5 teams. But I'm pretty sure that they don't occur for D2 schools.

[hopefan]

      Greg, My thought is if they are reporting attendance over 200 per game, they are exaggerating... besides students (no charge) and family (I assume most get in on a pass list), I'd be surprised if paid hits 70 per game at $5 per head....

But hey, if Eckerd hit 8 3's in a game, you get a coupon for  free Dominoes (small) pizza.. so between my wife and I, if both men and women hit 8 3's, that's 4 pizzas!!!  A tasty dinner after the game or for Sunday NFL!!!

[RFMichigan]

Dunno about hopefan, but I always refer to D2 as the Neither Fish Nor Fowl Division.

I think that both D1 and D3 have their virtues, but none of them seem to translate to D2. Having said that, I'm glad that D2 is there to soak up a lot of those mid-sized schools that might otherwise be bullies at the D3 level.

I tend to agree with this. When you look at those old NCAA "College Division" basketball tournaments back in the 60's and before, they are comprised almost completely of teams which would be DII or even mid-major DI today. Getting into the tournament in those days for a "DIII" school would be a pretty tall order. (Concordia - River Forest made it into the College Division tournament in the 1963 and 1965 seasons and had the honor of playing Jerry Sloan's Evansville team in '63 and Southern Illinois headed by Walt Frazier in '65.)

[Gregory Sager]

(Concordia - River Forest made it into the College Division tournament in the 1963 and 1965 seasons and had the honor of playing Jerry Sloan's Evansville team in '63 and Southern Illinois headed by Walt Frazier in '65.)

The Cougars also made it into the 1969 College Division tournament, losing in the opening round to Valparaiso, 91-81. In that same regional, Illinois State defeated North Park, 69-62. The next night, North Park defeated CURF in the regional third-place game, 90-73.

[y_jack_lok]

UW-Stout did that at the beginning of the season too, twice. They played a D3 opponent at home one night and then traveled and played D1 UW-Green Bay the following day. Then they traveled to Michigan and played a D3 opponent one night and then Saginaw Valley State the following day. Both non D3 games were exhibition games.

Greek, you are probably aware of this, but I mention it in case not. The Maryville referred to is D2 Maryville here in St. Louis, a former member of the SLIAC.

[GU1999]

12/17/19

Dominican @ GU - GU -19.5

Dominican has struggled this year.  They were over matched last year and this game is in Greenville.  That's a long bus ride at the end of a semester.  GU will figure out the rotations tonight.  I predict that Williams and Bateman move into top two shifts.  There will be more shifts for the 3rd, but it will not be equal like last game v. Fontbonne. Coming off of that awful game Saturday, GU will be very motivated to head into break ona good note.  GU going away.

[hopefan]

Dominican 127 Greenville 114   wow...wow... seems the addition of Bateman and Williams has upset the apple cart....coach has got to find some remedies... we know these two were very good player last year, but they have to blend with the mix this year... and the mix seems to be a delicate balance this year...

Greenville generated 36 Dominican turnovers.... but gave up the ball 29 times themselves.... unacceptable... or was Domican running the system too?

[hopefan]

With Mac losing the heartbreaker to Coe, and Greenville drowning vs Dominican, I'm not so sure the SLIAC will get any additional D3 nonconference wins... our record vs D3 nonconference teams will be will be the worst in D3...by far...

and so I'll bring up one word that I'd love to have a real discussion about... it's a word that I hate to bring up, because I think so much of most of the SLIAC men's basketball coaches....

That word is   (Gulp, gulp, gulp)   

Accountability

[y_jack_lok]

^^^ What are you looking for here? Opinions as to who (not just a single individual) might be responsible for a collective poor performance this season by men's basketball teams? Or thoughts as to why -- which might lead to the who question? And so that any discussion doesn't deviate beyond men's basketball, it should be said that a similar tally of how SLIAC teams do in other sports would probably show a higher level of competitiveness.

[WUPHF]

I have said this to both of you privately, but I think for the SLIAC members, like so many other, are under such financial pressure that accountability means maintaining a full roster of students who are generally good members of the study body.

By the way, this was probably discussed elsewhere, but Steve Kollar and his Concordia squad upset Benedictine on Monday, 90-72.

[Gregory Sager]

I have said this to both of you privately, but I think for the SLIAC members, like so many other, are under such financial pressure that accountability means maintaining a full roster of students who are generally good members of the study body.

I have often thought the same thing. This is a bad time to be a small liberal arts college in America, and among them it's the schools that have the least amount of financial resources for whom the situation is the most dire. The SLIAC is loaded with institutions that fall into that category. Some perspective is in order regarding what SLIAC schools can and cannot do in this environment, and that extends into athletics as well.

[WUPHF]

I do think it would be an interesting exercise to rank institutions based on the difficulty of the job.

It is subject to the point of being impossible when you add in the factors internal to the institution, but interesting nonetheless.

Lot's of ways to parse these rankings:
-best campus
-best gym
-best academic reputation
-best overall budget
-best community

There is a diversity of campus challenges and opportunities that may not be as salient in conferences such the NESCAC or WIAC.

Off the top of my head...

If I were ranking, I would have Iowa Wesleyan as one of the most challenging jobs because the financial situation of the institution has twice been a public story.  How do you convince a kid from Ankeny or Osceola to join your team when everyone (including other coaches) knows that there is risk?  It is no surprise that the coach has decided to look overseas.

I think Eureka and Westminster have two of the best campuses in the region and that matters a lot, though I am not sure what students see when they see a gym like the Blue Jay gym or whatever it is called.  I love it.  Do prospective players love it too?

Greenville has challenges because of its faith-based mission, but these challenges are also opportunities (e.g. character scholarship).  On the other hand, Principia has one of the most beautiful campuses in Division III but they have mission-related challenges x 100.

Have to think about the others.

[hopefan]

Eureka at Maryville (Mo) tonight.... I would love beyond words to see Eureka beat the ex-SLIAC team... Maryville is no better than a mediocre D2 team this year... there will probably be more Eureka fans (lets guess 30) than Maryville fans (I'll go with 25) in attendance... Eureka should be pumped to beat an upper level team..... at least the setting is a ripe one for an upset....

Iowa Wez got clobbered by Quincy last night...an exhibition for Wez.... but I notice IWU's Kaleb Cresswell still not playing... wish somebody could divulge what the situation is.....

[hopefan]

EC keeps it close in the first half at Maryville, succumbs in 2nd half...

Nothing to hang our heads about....

No Jordan Dehm... ECred, info?......   also subpar game from Ian Milsteadt, and only 16 minutes.. hoiping that was a coach's decision (watch and learn), and not an injury...

[hopefan]

No hopefan player of the week for this past week.. too few games

SLIAC vs non conference D3 through 12/22/19    9 wins   40 losses  .184     ranking 45 out of 45 D3 conf

SLIAC vs D3 Conference:

MWC   2   8
ARC    1    9
HCAC   1   7
CCIW   1   6
USAC   2   2
SAA    0    2
NACC   1   1
UAA    0    2
MIAA   0   1
WIAC   0   1
UMAC   1   0
NCAC   0   1
      9       40

While I find this extremely disappointing, as I said before, the conference games are so intriguing... 6 teams at 2-1...