MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[hopefan]

I will say that I looked back at this board this time last year and there was no mention of a preseason poll of SLIAC coaches - not to say there might not have been one and it just didn't get publicized

Maryville also has a scrimmage tonight  against the "St Louis Allstars" - the Allstars are said to include former SLU playes Justin Tatum, Ken Brown, John Redden, and Corey Frazier and several other recognizable area hoopsters from the recent past.

Not only were the articles in the post on the SLIAC teams short, they were either totally sandbagged by the coaches or ridiculously represented by the writers because at least for Webster and Maryville players mentioned were not key players to the success of the upcoming season.

[Mac Attack]

From two years ago at about this same time Westminster newspaper):

Men's Basketball News

Westminster Teams Fourth, Seventh In Polls
11/16/2004 
The Westminster College women are picked fourth and the men are picked seventh in the preseason polls of St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference basketball coaches.

Five starters return for a Blue Jay women's team that finished 11-12 overall a year ago and tied for fifth in the league standings at 6-8. Three starters return for a Westminster men's team that went 9-16 overall and finished seventh at 4-10 in conference play last year.

SLIAC Preseason
Women's Basketball Poll:
1. Maryville University
2. Webster University
3. Fontbonne University
4. Westminster College
5. Greenville College
6. Blackburn College
7. MacMurray College
8. Principia College

SLIAC Preseason
Men's Basketball Poll
1. Maryville University
2. Webster University
3. Blackburn College
4. Fontbonne College
5. Greenville College
6. Principia College
7. Westminster College
8. MacMurray College

I would assume a similar poll was done last season, but maybe didn't make it to the D3 Hoops site.

[Mac Attack]

From today's Peoria newspaper:

Eureka men
COACH: Jay Bruer (3rd season at Eureka, 10-42).

LAST SEASON: 4-22, 0-10 in the NIIC

KEY LOSSES: Mike Trotter (4.6 ppg, 3.5 rpg); Andrew Walton (4.5 ppg, 3.5 rpg); Luke Sottos (4.5 ppg, 2.4 rpg).

KEY RETURNEES: Tim Peffer (15.1 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 74 3s, 52-of-53 free throws); A. J. Richard 14.6 ppg, 6.2 rpg); Chris Tarpley (11.4 ppg, 8.0 rpg); Matt Macomb (4.8 ppg, 2.1 rpg, 63 assists).

KEY ADDITONS: 6-4 Fr. Michael Zasada (McHenry); 6-0 So. Randy Ledbetter (Washburn/ICC).

CRITICS SAY: Same old, same old.

DIEHARDS SAY: Nearly 70 percent of the team's offense returns, and all four of Eureka's victories came against teams from Eureka's new conference.

WE SAY: Red Devils fortunes should improve after going 4-22.

DID YOU KNOW? This is Eureka's first season in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference after 10 seasons in the Northern Illinois-Iowa Conference.

ONE-LINER: "You have believe you can win before it will take place. You win that battle and success will come." - Eureka coach Jay Bruer.

[Mr. Ypsi]

"I would like to ask both of you why you gave as much coverage to Washington University as you gave to the Webster, Maryville, and Fontbonne combined? In my opinion all four universities deserve equal coverage, not just in your pre-season articles, but throughout the seasons as well. I hope to see more balanced coverage throughout the season."

While I am sympathetic to your appeal (I imagine that Webster, Maryville, and Fontbonne athletes TRY just as hard as WashU bballers), you're not recognizing the realities of the newspaper BUSINESS.  Of d3 schools, I'd imagine that WashU is THE recognized name in St. Louis (plus, in most recent years, WashU would probably beat an all-star team from the 3 SLIAC schools).  At Eastern Michigan we've long endured the same sort of disproportionate coverage in the local media, since the University of Michigan is 8 miles down Washtenaw Avenue! 

At least we get some sort of a story - the local d3 [Concordia, Ann Arbor] is often lucky to get 3 lines in the agate section!  But then, they are also lucky to get 3 wins in a season in just about any sport!

[y_jack_lok]

I'm fully aware of the newspaper business, and I know exactly what's going on. I'm just being a squeaky wheel, and tilting at windmills. I have sent  one or two similar e-mails in past years, citing insufficient coverage of all area D3 sports. This year the Post-Dispatch at least did the pre-season article. Could my prior e-mails have made a difference? Probably not. But who knows for sure? The recent artice is a first in the five years I've lived here, as far as I know. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong abou that.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Gotcha.  And keep on being a squeaky wheel - SOMETIMES they DO get the grease!

[Beaver_SID]

FC-
Coach K, his wife, and their new daughter Maya have moved back to Hawaii where he took an assistant coaches position at University of Hawaii - Hilo, a nice DII program. Last season they went 16-9 overall and 6-6 in their conference. Seemingly doing well for himself.

[y_jack_lok]

Here's a link to a short but very nice article on the U of H-Hilo men's basketball page about their coaching staff this year. Coach K gets some good ink.

http://vulcans.uhh.hawaii.edu/sport.php?s=mbk

[Mac Attack]

Read where Illinois Wesleyan defeated Blackburn last night in exhibition play. No score or details. Couldn't find anything on Greenville's exhibition at Millikin. Any information or stats on these games would be appreciated.

[hopefan]

I too would be very interested to hear details on Blackburn - IWU scrimmage -   A BC squad with several cream of the SLIAC crop veterans but a short bench, vs an IWu squad that lost most of their players from last year to graduation.  BlackburnSID, how about it?   Too bad TitanQ was out of town - we would have gotten a good report over on the CCIW page had he been in attendance.

The Maryville scrimmage was tough to watch - The StL allstars had a big lead of 20 points in the 2nd half, most of which they reliquished when they either ran out of gas or lost interest in the last 10 minutes of the game.  Maryville is just too inexperienced to show any consistancy, and when they could have won the game in the last 3 or 4 minutes, they failed to run any offense to get good shots.  I just don't know where the level of play necessary to win games is going to come from - Coach Rogers can only do so much -  BUT somewhere the recruiting has failed, because the level of player ability has dropped off dramaticly from the fine group of seniors in last years class.

Right now, the starting unit has no point guard - Josh Andrews does a good job pushing the ball up the floor, but has a rough time consistantly taking advantage of any step he has gained-  in other words, out of control.  The little frosh point guard, and i do mean little, plays with an attitude and can handle, but needs alot of seasoning and probably should be a JV player.  The big frosh at 6"8" knows what to do with the ball around the basket, but is a plodder up and down the court and hardly fits Coach Rogers style of play.  Turpen has done little in two scrimmages, bad decisions, and needs to find a more rounded game because he's a very inconsistant shooter.  Casey Holland - as I said last spring - mistakes himself out of games often, and already has done it in the scrimmages.  Marcus Van H is already hurt, and played little last night after looking good vs Harris Stowe.  Rezebeck has been a solid complementary player in the past, but if he has to be a go to guy, I'm doubtful.  Steinke is a 6'6' kid good athlete who runs the floor well but REFUSES to take the ball to the hole with any courage.  Teddy McGrath, Cole Van H and Scott Murfin each had decent performances off the bench, and any of the three could find themselves playing alot if they keep it up.

Another thing I noticed is that a couple of the frosh who played fairly well against Stowe did not dress last night - good decision - assuming there is a JV schedule, better to play at that level full time -  a name in that group to watch for is Jake Baechle, who was very impressive taking the ball to the basket against Stowe

Brutal - yes - but it's only because I care - and hope the kids realize they have a long way to go..... neither of these scrimmages were close to resembling the level of intensity or defensive pressure they'll face starting next Friday   -   that being said, best of luck to both Webster and Maryville down in Kentucky next weekend.

[y_jack_lok]

Below is a reply from one of the two P-D reporters who did the pre-season articles on the Saint Louis D3 schools.

"I forwarded your e-mail to Cameron Hollway, our assistant sports editor. He makes decisions of space.

"Thank you for your comment."

- Brian Sumers

[fcnews]

FU beat (D2) Oakland City Univ. 96-87 today on the road. FU led 37-33 at the break. OCU's size had Storandt in early early foul trouble, but the young kids kept their composure in front of good size loyal crowd. The scoring for FU was very balanced. FU was lead by Fr. Cartez Parker's 22, Fr. Josh Branch 21, So. Brian Fogerty had 20, So. Patrick McCoy 19 and Fr. Trevor White 14. The Griffin's lead by 20 with 5:59 to go before some inexperience showed and OCU cut the lead to 6 pts. and at the line with 1:13 to go. A missed free throw and a Branch 3 pt was the final margin of victory. FU was 11-20 from behind the arc and shot 58% from the flloor for the night. The under sized FU also won the battle of the boards 37-28.

If I'm not mistaken this is the first win against a D2 squad in the short history of the program. This was a great tune up for Hannibal-LaGrange next friday nite in Chicago at the Big Four Classic.

[y_jack_lok]

Congrats to the Griffins. This win lends some credibility to my opinion that FU will be a force in the conference this year. In looking at the Oakland City website it seems that they feel more connected to the NCCAA (National Christian College athletic Association) where they finished second overall last year, than they do to Division II. Not to suggest that this takes anything away from the Fontbonne win. I just don't know how the NCCAA stacks up competitively to D2 or D3.

For those interested,  here's alink to Oakland City's schedule and resluts from last year: http://www.oak.edu/athletics/mbasketball/schedule03.htm

That season included a 110-62 win over Lincoln Christian and an 81-65 loss to SIU-Edwardsville as part of an 18-11 overall record.

[fcnews]

Y Jack - you are correct in their association with NCCAA. They are a D2 Independent, In talking with Coach Sandifar yesterday, it sounds as if they will be joining a conference in the very near future. As of now they play the required number of games against NCAA DII opponents. Looks like UMR, SIUE and Huntsville are some mainstay matches.

They are a very talented squad with good size and strong compliment of usual Indiana guards.

They openened the game by trying to muscle up against a smaller team. They were posting up their larger guards and pounding it into their big men. Then FU pushed the pace of the game and OCU got out of their game plan. The speed of FU's pt. guard Parker was a deciding factor. Parkers full court defense on OCU's points cause them some trouble. His ability to really push the ball up the floor resulted in some really good looks for Branch and McCoy. Brian Fogerty did a great job early scoring 14 of his 20 in the first half.

Fontbonne did a great job of staying with the game plan and this teams vast improvement in help D was a nice change. When SLIAC play starts this team will not be at as much of a size disadvantage. FU's guard play will cause some teams problems.

[dynasty22]

I watched the Blackburn vs. Illinois-Weslyn scrimmage. IWU showed why they made a good run in last years tourny and they have a lot of depth and tremendous size all around. I was very impressed with BC, despite losing some key players from last years run.
Zak Allan as always, was very smart handling the ball and running the offense for the Beavers. He recorded a lot of assists. Zeb Hammond, another key returner had good touch from the outside and it showed they had he has been workin hard. Bryan Waters, a key returner, helped Allan in running the offense and also did a good job of moving the ball to the best shot possible.
I was EXTEREMLY impressed by Leotis Howard. He was unstoppable from the outside. I believe in this 1st game, he went something like 9-10 from outside and it continued into the other games. Howard, who saw minimal time last year,you can tell has worked very hard on his game, and if he keeps it up, he will be another threat added to this years squad. Grant Largsmis and Ryan Smith were the 2 big men playing the inside game for BC. They were both being physical and used their bodies well. It looks as if they both will be able to give Blackburn the inside game they have been lacking recently.
Brandon Bundren, transfer, and Tommy Baros, new-comer, saw playing time at the guard positions and were able to control the offense when others needed breathers. They had great chemistry with the returning players and their is no doubt in this fans mind that this questionable year, could very likely turn into another magical Blackburn run into the conference tourney.
I believe BC won 2 of the games during the scrimmage.
Hopefully this will give some insight to anyone wondering about Blackburns team or the scrimmage...