MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

Greek Tragedy · January 14, 2023, 07:28:45 AM

Nice work. I enjoy your updates of the league.

y_jack_lok · January 14, 2023, 09:24:12 AM

Quote from: Greek Tragedy on January 14, 2023, 07:28:45 AM
Nice work. I enjoy your updates of the league.

Thanks. The recent mid-week games (Tues/Wed/Thurs) were not as close as last Saturday's games, but were still reasonably competitive. Webster's 25 point win over Greenville doesn't really count as a blowout because it was against Greenville's version of "The System" and it appears the Panthers simply don't have shooters who are as good as ones they've had in the past. Other margins of victory were 11 (PC over Westmin), 8 (EC over BC), and 13 (FU over SU). I think it's going to be a wide open conference race. Spalding and Greenville are struggling at the moment, but 11 games remain and seeding for the conference tournament is likely to come down to a bunch of tie-breakers.

y_jack_lok · January 14, 2023, 06:40:59 PM

A wild afternoon. Prin handles Blackburn easily at home 74-53. But the other three games were tight. I tuned in to Spalding at Eureka with about 4:30 left and Spalding up by 12. Apparently their lead had been 27 just four minutes earlier. Eureka started pressing, getting turnovers and scoring, but Spalding held on for its first conference win 81-78. Webster wins at Westminster 80-74 and Fontbonne ekes one out at Greenville 117-114. GU still looking for a SLIAC win.

y_jack_lok · January 19, 2023, 03:37:40 PM

Greenville gets its first conference win at Westminster. Fontbonne downs Blackburn at home. Webster remains unbeaten in-conference, with three of those wins on the road, including last night's at Eureka. Kudos to Coach Bunch and the guys for figuring things out. On Tuesday night Prin won at Spalding.

Maybe hopefan could make a cameo appearance and do a "hopefan standings".

hopefan · January 20, 2023, 09:35:39 AM

Quote from: y_jack_lok on January 19, 2023, 03:37:40 PM
Greenville gets its first conference win at Westminster. Fontbonne downs Blackburn at home. Webster remains unbeaten in-conference, with three of those wins on the road, including last night's at Eureka. Kudos to Coach Bunch and the guys for figuring things out. On Tuesday night Prin won at Spalding.

Maybe hopefan could make a cameo appearance and do a "hopefan standings".

OK Yjack... you lured me in...
hopefan standings have been supplied by me for many years... perhaps predating the more simplified versions used in the CCIW and MIAA rooms..
hopefan standings are based on 2 premises
1) there is a line drawn between "contending" teams and "non contending" teams.... the theory is that a contending team should ALWAYS beat a non contending team.
2) contending teams should ALWAYS win at home,against other contending teams

consequently... a +1 is rewarded to a contending team that wins on the road vs another contending team
a -1 is assigned to a contending team losing to a non contending team, or losing at home to another contending team.

So first who are contending teams?
at this point after 5 games, contending teams are obviously Webster, Fontbonne, Principia, and Eureka. I am also inserting Blackburn as a contender, as they were in the coach's SLIAC preseason poll as a top 4 team..... therefore Westminster, Greenville and Spalding are considered non contenders

So given that.... hopefan standings through 5 games

Webster +1 They won AT Eureka
Prin 0 They have done as expected
Fontbonne 0 They have done as expected
Eureka -1 They get a +1 for winning at Blackburn, -1 for losing at home to Webster, -1 for losing to non contender Spalding
Blackburn -2 They get -1 for losing at home to Eureka, -1 for losing to non-contender Westminster

now I'm invested... I'll update periodically.... Prin and Eureka have opportunities to move up on Saturday playing at Webster and Fontbonne...

y_jack_lok · January 20, 2023, 09:54:12 AM

^^^ Thanks. This is more sophisticated than the system mentioned recently on the CCIW and UAA boards (I don't frequent the MIAA board). Will look forward to future updates.

Greek Tragedy · January 20, 2023, 11:10:20 AM

Welcome back, hopefan!

hopefan · January 21, 2023, 06:00:42 PM

Quote from: y_jack_lok on January 20, 2023, 09:54:12 AM
^^^ Thanks. This is more sophisticated than the system mentioned recently on the CCIW and UAA boards (I don't frequent the MIAA board). Will look forward to future updates.

Webster and Fontbonne win at home, Blackburn beats GU... no changes in hopefan standings on Saturday

y_jack_lok · January 21, 2023, 07:44:52 PM

Webster gets a tough win over Principia 65-63 on a layup from Wynne Brown Jr. with 2.8 seconds left. Prin had what looked like a good plan to try to tie or win, getting the ball to an open Payton Sellers, but time expired before he could get a shot off. Gorloks have a non-conference home game Monday vs Harris- Stowe then travel to Blackburn on Wednesday. Always tough to win in the Beaverdome.

In today's game between non-contenders in the hopefan standings, Spalding wins at home 79-54 over Westminster.

y_jack_lok · January 24, 2023, 10:07:57 AM

Last night Webster got a non-conference win at NAIA Harris-Stowe, 66-45. I didn't watch closely, but in the second half it appeared Webster was playing zone defense pretty effectively. It was not too many years ago that the Gorloks had a group of really quick players who utilized a zone with great success.

hopefan · January 25, 2023, 08:51:38 AM

Nice win for Principia at home over Eureka.. 82-76...

Notice a big difference for Prin... in the past, the bench contribution was negligible... at times only 2 or 3 bodies there, and usually negligible minutes from them.... this year, an 8 man rotation, all contributors... last night 3 off the bench showed 29 points, 10 rebounds, 5 steals only 2 turnovers.. outstanding!! Eureka shut out 3 point shooter Jake Kampf, but it made little difference....

hopefan standings don't change... Prin protects home court..

y_jack_lok · January 26, 2023, 09:41:14 AM

With about 6:30 left Webster and Blackburn were tied 51-51. Webster outscores BC 19-8 the rest of the way to win 71-59 on the road. BC took plenty of shots, just couldn't make many, and turned the ball over three times against Webster's zone in that stretch, Congrats to the Gorloks on making it through the first half of conference play 7-0.

hopefan · January 29, 2023, 06:58:48 AM

Four good games yesterday as underdogs made runs in each game... Greenville beats Eureka, Spalding beats Webster, Westminster takes Blackburn to OT, and Fontbonne has a tremendous rally fall just short at Principia. Days like yesterday are why I continue to follow the SLIAC closely...

So, how do hopefan standings look? (see prior post for my grading system)

Webster +1 They won AT Eureka, They won at Blackburn, they lost to non contender Spalding
Prin 0 They continue to do as expected
Fontbonne 0 They continue to do as expected
Eureka -2 They get a +1 for winning at Blackburn, -1 for losing at home to Webster, -1 for losing to non contender Spalding, -1 for loss to Greenville
Blackburn -3. They get -1 for losing at home to Eureka, -1 for losing to non-contender Westminster, -1 for losing at home to Webster

y_jack_lok · January 29, 2023, 10:09:12 AM

^^^ hopefan, is Blackburn's home loss to Webster on Wednesday figured into your standings?

I was mostly watching another game while Webster was playing Spalding, so don't have much feel for what happened. From the box score it appears that poor three-point and free throw shooting and getting outrebounded by 13 were the main factors in Webster's loss.

hopefan · January 29, 2023, 03:32:34 PM

Quote from: y_jack_lok on January 29, 2023, 10:09:12 AM
^^^ hopefan, is Blackburn's home loss to Webster on Wednesday figured into your standings?

I was mostly watching another game while Webster was playing Spalding, so don't have much feel for what happened. From the box score it appears that poor three-point and free throw shooting and getting outrebounded by 13 were the main factors in Webster's loss.

Good point.. I corrected