MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Gem Shooz]

My guess is the SLIAC will be topsy-turvy all season long, much like last year. There will be upsets throughout conference play. Webster and Fontbonne once again look like the teams to beat. I agree with fcnews, in that this year may be a little more top heavy, but lots of parity as well. Should be fun to watch.

I don't know what the individual situations are with Greene and Coleman at Mac. One possibility is if they play the second semester, that would count as one year. If they sit out the second semester, one (Coleman) would have a full season of eligibility left for the 08-09 season and the other (Greene) would have two full seasons left. While both would make Mac more competitive right now, each player will have to weigh burning up a full season of eligibility by playing only 10 games or so. Mac's second semester doesn't start until next week. That's when I'd check the box scores.

[fcnews]

Right Guard - Any word on the availability of BC's two big men? You had mentioned earlier about serious injuries.

[fcnews]

A shout out to P-Pride. Spoke to him by phone today. Eventhough he has moved on to bigger and better things, he was at GC today putting in time in the Panther office. How did the SLIAC let this guy get away?

Pride enjoy yourself in Nashville.

[Gem Shooz]

Landon Kurz scored 12 points Thursday to lift Westminster College past Illinois College 68-62.  Brad Johnson led Illinois College (5-3) with 19 points, six assists and two steals. Joe Womble finished with 13 points and grabbed nine rebounds.
Westminster improved to 5-3.

Westy beats LCC by six in Fulton. Hmmmmm....

Maybe even more parity than we originally thought?

[hopefan]

Gem shoes   -  West over LCC by 6???   sked says they play tomorrow

good win last night for Westminster over Illinois College  Illinois was coming off a win over North Central of the CCIW.

So opening January with league play tomorrow

Fontbonne goes to Blackburn  -  Always a tough place to play, but Fontbonne should win this one easily - far more talent on the floor - Blackburns only hope will be to slow the tempo and hope that Fontbonne shots poorly from the perimeter - and if Font pushes it inside to Fogarty and Storandt, Blackburn has no answer.

Mac at Greenville  -  I keep waiting for Coach Creol's influence to kick in, but with the exception of the close loss to Lakeland, it hasn't happened.  Of course if new faces show up for Mac, it's a different story.  But the home court and Greenville's experince likely lead to a win for the home team.

Webster at Prin - Should be a winner for Webster

Eureka at Maryville  -  Maryville has been pretty competitive vs some decent D3 competition - Eureka comes in 2-0 in conference, but haven't won outside of it.  Don't let the 2-0 fool you, Maryville should win going away.


Westmin has the non league game with LCC

[fcnews]

I'm not saying that Prin. will beat Webster, but look for it to be much closer then folks think. Kyle Johnson was a good player added this year. Principia will upset someone at home, I hope it's not the Griffin's cause we never play well there.

I saw Formersliaccommish lurking yesterday. Sure is nice to know he still has interest.

[formersliaccommish]

FC News,

You must either have eyes that can see 800 miles, or you were slumming on our island.

I do, however, hope to make a trip up there February 6-10 to see Webster-Fontbonne on Wednesday, UMSL Thursday, Wash U on Friday, Greenville-Maryville and UMSL Saturday, and Wash U again on Sunday. Maybe I'll see you, and some of the others, then.

I will always retain a strong interest in the SLIAC and have kept up with the happenings there via the conference website and this site. I'll miss being at the NCAA Convention which is either this, or next, weekend.

It's cold enough not to play golf today, or Wednesday and Thursday, but it will be in the low 70s tomorrow and Sunday, and I played a couple of times in early December in shorts.

Finally, beware of the Blue Jays. They don't have much of an inside presence, but all of you know that experienced guards can overcome a lot of other shortcomings.

[fcnews]

Coach I wish my eye sight was that good. I have enough trouble just reading the paper. The secret is, when you are on here your name appears in the viewing area at the top of the page.

Glad to hear your out playing golf. How's the tennis facilities?

The NCAA Convention is next weekend. Coach McKinney flies out on Wednesday, then back friday nite for the Saturday game. Then back on the plane Saturday nite. He and Panther Pride are going to meet up and get a chance to chat.

Hope you had a great holiday and that all are healthy. Your face is definately missed in the stands of all the sports. You left some big shoes to fill.

[hopefan]

Which reminds me, the new SLIAC Commish has not made an appearance on these pages  -  FC, have you met him?   If he's been at games that I've been at, he hasn't been pointed out to me....  Would love to meet him and hear what he hopes to accomplish with the conference.

[fcnews]

Hopefan - Have not had the chance to meet him yet. I think he did a good job in handling the LCC problem. I know he is young and did follow through with his desire to update the SLIAC website. I just don't know if he will be as visible as the former.

Formersliaccommish - Was very involved with all sports. He was a big Tennis supporter and could always be seen at alot of SLIAC contests. I do think the attendance standard that Former set is very important. It gives him a chance to see the different schools and observe the overall running of all our programs.

We still need to give the Newsliaccommish a chance to get settled in.

[Pat Coleman]

We still need to give the Newsliaccommish a chance to get settled in.

And also recognize that the commissioner is under no obligation to post here just because the old one did. No other conference's commissioner posts on the board, as far as I can tell.

[hopefan]

Pat - fully understood  -  I think his activity on these pages was a direct hats off to you, because he knew he was responding to a handful of fans that really cared about SLIAC hoops from how they posted here....

[fcnews]

Hopefan- Text me some scores today. If you can figure out the new technology. I know people from your generation have trouble with those things.

[hopefan]

Results are in - as expected Fontbonne, Webster win by double digits, Greenville beats Mac badly (if Mac had any new faces, they were no help) and Westminster disposes of LCC.

The one minor surprise was Eureka playing Maryville close, losing by 4.  I told EC SID prior to game that Eureka's hope was that Maryville would shoot themselves out of the game ... they darn near did.  Just an atrocious number of 3 point shot attempts by Maryville, (box score is up  38 attempts).  I absolutely hate it - it's awful basketball - sorry Coach, To throw up that many, totally forsaking any kind of inside game - gee, wasn't that a nice layup by Baker - once.  Eureka impressed me by not quitting, and had a chance at the end when Maryville missed about 10 in a row. 

The Maryville game shows me one thing - the fourth spot in the league is up for grabs, because Maryville will lose to the competition unless the mix of shots changes dramaticly.  Whether against man to man or zone today - they shot 3's.

I will say it was nice to see Tyler Saxton back at Maryville - the brief stint at St. Norbs must not have worked out - but making him a 3 point shooter, just like last year, rather than a penetrator and disher, a creator, seem a great misuse of his talent - this is a guy who shot 20 somthing percent from 3 last year, but has a good knowledge of the game and should have the ball in his hands. He is not a selfish player....

Yjak, you may as well send us Tiemann, he'd fit in great at MU.

[hopefan]

Speaking of Tieman, I notice niether he nor Regan appeared in the Webster box score??