MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[MACMAN5]

In all honesty i think that macmurray college should close its doors.  The sports programs should def. be shut down.  When you recruit players like brett carroll that is a sign that your program is headed nowhere fast.  He is easily the worst basketball player i have ever been forced to watch.

[20eagle31]

I agree with hopefan on all of the predictions except the blackburn westminster game. It is a long ride for blackburn and westminster does have a little size over them.  But blackburn is use to playing a lil undersized and they have great guard play.  Eventhough there is alot of new faces for blackburn, there is still enough guys left that remember what it was like going there last year and playing.  Blackburn wins over Westminster and keeps the lead in the sliac.

[Daryl L Lloyd]

MACMAN5:  Very insightful post.  Please continue the tirade, we consider your uneducated comments humorous.  Now you are "forced" to watch certain players, heres a thought don't go to the games.  If you want to single out players do it to thier face, not on a message board like a little punk. 

[hopefan]

got no response on my comment regarding the post season tourney, so I'll throw it out again  -  Why not hold the tourney at Fontbonne, for one of several reasons....  Nicest facility, central location for conference, more than adequate seating, and , at least this year, very likely a neutral court for all 4 teams.  Even if "my team", Maryville, earns 1st place, I would be more than willing to see the conference tourney at Fontbonne.

To have the tourney at Blackburn, with extremely limited seating and poor lighting, as well as additional travel for Westminster, just does not make sense.  It doesn't reward the 4 teams who make the playoffs, nor does it make for a pleasant experience for the limited fan base of the SLIAC who would want to see all 3 games. (For those of you who have not been to Blackburn, there are 4 rows of bleachers on one side of the court only, no concessions, no programs, and poor lighting. The Bleachers can't even be pulled out to their full width, because they would encroach on to the floor - making seating all the more narrow, and creating a giant step up to the top row)

How do other posters feel?  Would the league office care to comment if they read this, or perhaps a school rep.  I had a great conversation with the Blackburn coach the other day  -   a practical guy  -  I think even he would agree that it would make more sense to go to a neutral court.

If the SLIAC wants to give its student athletes the best possible experience, they have to get practical with this decision.

[20eagle31]

i think the tourney should be held at the number one seeds gym. it is a way of rewarding that team for a great conference season. eventhough blackburn doesn't have the best facilities it does make for a great home court advantage for the beavers. if they did host the tourney they would probably bring in bleachers because if i'm not mistaken they use to have bleachers behind the players bench. ehh, i'm not sure on that one. i'm sure the campus of blackburn would step up its game a bit for the tourney. i hope anyway. my question is that if they would have it at fontbonne(possible neutral court for everyone) would it always be held there or would the location of the tourney be moved around so that there is not a home court advantage for any team?

[hopefan]

Eagle - good to have a Blackburn fan posting.  Of course a fan like me or you can only wish about location of tourney - so even if they did decide to have the tourney at Fontbonne because it's neutral this year, who knows about the future.  I guess my thought is have it at Fontbonne every year because it DOESN'T present too much of an advantage in court environment for any team (I don't think a big place like that presents Fontbonne with too much of an advantage), fans in the stands etc.  Obviously the Blackburn situation does present a tremendous home court advantage should it wind up there.
In talking with a league official at the game, he expected that if Blackburn hosts, they would clear the gym between games- another painful experience for all concerned.
Once again - not to say I don't enjoy the atmosphere of Blackburn.  The guys in the corner were fun to watch - they had a good time, but didn't take it so far as to interfere with the visiting team.  I wish that kind of spirit hit all the SLIAC campuses during hoops season.
Still hoping someone involved with the conference or schools might respond so I can hear if my thoughts are plain silly, or could really be considered.

Even if top seed wasn't awarded the advantage of homecourt, they would at least play only no 4 seed the first night, so there is still a benefit in draw.

[Mac Attack]

I agree with DL 100%. A message board like this is no place to attack any player or coach or team or school. Opinions on style of play, coaching decisions, and team performance is great, as well as singling out kids who are doing well or who you believe deserve an opportunity. But to single out a kid like that is sickening. I can tell you this much - the specific player who was verbally attacked works as hard as anybody, he's a great kid, and he never complains. And for what it's worth, which I think is a lot, he makes his grades and stays out of trouble. I'd much rather have a player like that, regardless of talent, than a prima donna who sulks about his minutes or shots, or your back stiffens every time the phone rings for fear its the campus police or the Dean of Students. You're certainly entitled to your opinion - but keep those opinions civil and thoughtful. You can flush the other bunk down the toilet.

[fcnews]

To All - Thanks for the compliment on FU's facilities. It's along way from playing games at the Quazi Hut at Concordia just 16 yrs ago. That said, It will never happen. Do you realize that with the addition of LCC and EC the voting power for the St. Louis Intercolligate Conference is now controlled by central IL. Scary. I agree it will be an unfair seating arrangement. I saw that first hand at the last conference tourney championship before it's hiatus at Greenville. And Greenville seats 10 times more the BC. But again, It will never happen.

[MACMAN5]

i would like to take back the statement i made because i wrote the wrong name...i should have said evan birch not brett carroll....i apologize for the confusion....oh and DL you can suck it chump

[fcnews]

MacMan - Your making a complete fool of yourself and should re name MacChild. Beleive me u don't want to be calling Daryl out !!!!

[cam]

Isn't there an age requirement to able to post here? Clearly MACMAN5 falls short of the requirement. However, I must applaud him. It does take guts to make statements on a public forum (that can be tracked)  that are so idiotic. But enough about that....let's hoe he has gotten all the response he's going to get. He doesn't deserve anymore......................................

Back in the day.......I played in a SLAIC championship game at Blackburn (when the conference had a full tourney at the end of the year, and at which the tourney winner advanced to the nat'l tourney). I must tell you that it seemed a bit ridiculous to play such an important game in a grade school-sized gym. But, that being said, they earned home court advantage (even though we did win the game) and deserved to host the game. It would be unlikely for the SLIAC to change the host site. I can appreciate "hopefan"s reasoning behind it (and it clearly makes sense), but it won't happen.

It is definitely a 3 team race for the conference. The play for the fourth spot will be fun to watch. I don't see anyone cracking MU, BC or WC (barring injury). Home team in the tourney will probably take the championship.

Anyone have early thoughts on all conference selections?

[yjacklok]

For a truly neutral court, why not see if the Wash U gym is available. There are no basketball games scheduled there for the days of the SLIAC tourney.

[hopefan]

I'm inclined to agree with yjacklok on his Wash U suggestion, though I'd imagine the logistics of setting it up on a nonSLIAC campus might be a little testier.  The other problem could be (though not this year) Wash U's scheduling.  Their conference, the UAA, does not have a conference tourney, so Wash U has final regular season games the same weekend that the SLIAC tourney would be.  This year, they happen to be away that weekend.

[pantherpride]

SLIAC Championship at Neutral Site:

I do like the home court if you are the best team, but I am in agreement with all the concerns of traveling to the Beaver Dome and playing a conference tournament game there.  People give Greenville Fans and Gym alot of greif, but Blackburn's arena is dark and very small to host that type of tournament.  We will just have to see what develops.

Greenville d. Principia last night at Elsah 63-77.  Greenville had a pretty secure lead throughout the game.  The first half ended on  Prin run that cut the Greenville lead to 9.  Prin battled away in the 2nd half, cutting the lead to 49-48.  From that point, Greenville went to to end the game on a 29-14 run.  Greenville put five players in double figures, led by AJ Turner and Bryson Taylor with 16.  Prin had good games out of Chris Watts and Jonah Swiderski with 19 each.

Big game for Greenville on Saturday.  They host Webster.  Greenville lost by a combined 3 points to the Gorloks last year including a 63-62 lost at their place.  Greenville needs a win to get over the .500 mark in SLIAC play and set themselves up for a second half run that includes four home games.

[hopefan]

panther - I agree - the Greenville - Webster game is  THE game in the SLIAC this weekend.  The winner of that game will clearly have a step up on the 4th conference tourney spot  (I know, it's early -but a win will be BIG for either team).