MBB: Midwest Conference

[Mr. Ypsi]

Um, guys, football season isn't over yet. Don't forget to cheer on the Scots this Saturday.  (I know Mr. Ypsi will be.  And probably TQ, too, right?) 

p.s.  You're right about the whole Grinnell-record-thing.   

Dang right I'll be rooting for the Scots on Saturday - take down the Tommies!

Before then, tomorrow in fact, 0-1 Monmouth plays at 3-0 IWU.  Unless things have changed since I was a student (back in the leather helmet and peach basket days! ), bball and fball players tend to hang out together and root for each other.  "Remember the Football Team" may not have quite the ring of "Remember the Alamo", but I predict that score may get pretty ugly!

[Titan Q]

Before then, tomorrow in fact, 0-1 Monmouth plays at 3-0 IWU.  Unless things have changed since I was a student (back in the leather helmet and peach basket days! ), bball and fball players tend to hang out together and root for each other.  "Remember the Football Team" may not have quite the ring of "Remember the Alamo", but I predict that score may get pretty ugly!

Chuck, you've posted this a few times now.  I honestly don't think the recent IWU/Monmouth football game will have any impact on the intensity of the IWU/Monmouth basketball game.  It's not like the football game was chippy, or that there is bad blood between the universities.  The two schools played in a great football game, and the football game is over and done with.

I think you can dial down the drama on this.

[Titan Q]

Um, guys, football season isn't over yet. Don't forget to cheer on the Scots this Saturday.  (I know Mr. Ypsi will be.  And probably TQ, too, right?) 

I will absolutely be rooting for Monmouth vs St. Thomas.  I watched the game Saturday and came away really impressed with the Scots.  They play the game the right way, and Tanney is a sensational player.

Good luck up there!

[iwu70]

Ypsi, I agree with Q on this one.  Football is football, and it was a great game, almost matching the OT game with Wabash two years back.  But, basketball is something else.  I, too, will cheer for Monmouth vs. St. Thomas and the Scots will really have their hands full by all accounts.  Monmouth played well, especially in staying with it to the very end of the 3rd OT, with a better than expected running game.  I wasn't that super impressed with Tanney, but clearly he's a good QB, as the numbers show.  We handled him reasonably well, but just made to many errors in the second half and at very inopportune moments.  Good luck to Monmouth in going further. . .  and to NCC vs. Wabash.  That should be the better match-up, a great DIII game I would expect.  The Titan-Monmouth game was a superb DIII playoff game.  Titans should have their heads held high, a great season at 9-2. 

I'll be at Shirk tomorrow for two good basketball games, as the JV play at 5:15 p.m. and the varsity at 7:30 p.m.  I very much expect our Titans to be victorious tomorrow evening in both games.  Do wish more Titan fans would turnout to watch both of these exciting IWU squads.  The quality of play so far, this early in the season, has been outstanding.  Gotta be optimistic. 

IWU70

[hopefan]

.....Do you mean, like this?   

http://espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=223452181

Scottie  :   Exactly   

[Mr. Ypsi]

To my fellow Titans - the Monmouth guys know I'm just having a little fun.  None of them have objected; lighten up!  (I explained on the Midwest football board why family ties have given me a real soft spot for Monmouth, interrupted only briefly for three hours last Saturday. )

[RogK]

I'll preface my comments by stating that I'm a fan of the speedy style that Grinnell usually plays, although I prefer the version employed by the Olivet Nazarene women (they use it for team goals, never for individual stats).
Anyway, using one guy for 36 minutes was a major deviation from "the system," not an example of it.
I'll grant that the 89 point tally by one guy was an accomplishment.
If Principia felt provoked to really clobber Lentsch late in the game, they earned our admiration for resisting that urge. I'm guessing that they may have been just a bit agitated. Did Coach Arseneault consider that risk?

[John Gleich]

Those are all good points, PointSpecial.  Your rebuttal was spot on.  Frankly, I agree with your points as well and, in the big picture, I can not argue your points at all.  I, however, was simply pointing out that Lentsch is very good and expect that he will continue to play minutes that normally exceed the Systems typical game plan this season.

With respect to the fact that you called the actions of the game "classless."  Any reasonable person would agree with you most of the time.  Lentsch should have grabbed a seat for the remainder of the game aroung 6-8 minutes remaining in the game and he would have played about 30 minutes as you have suggested.  That is how I would have coached the game.  However, that is not how it all went down.  Its not the players, including Lentsch's, fault that it happened as it did and I refuse to condemn any of them for the outcome.  Yet, as stated before Lentsch can play.  It takes an amazing athlete to "chuck" as many shots as he took and making as many as he did regardless of opponent.  I do think we will see some point explosions from him again in the future.  I do expect him to play a lot more minutes than anyone else at GC this season as well.

Finally, the stats.  I know others in the history of basketball have had better shooting nights than Lentsch.  I get that.  You are correct.  I played with a guy that went 12 of 13 from the field and 2-2 from the freethrow line scoring 26 points (prior to the 3-point line) in a college game many, many years ago as well and that was about as good of a game played by an individual that I have witnessed.  He played within the system of his team's strategies with great efficiency.  I understand what you are saying.  But, the "macro" analysis of shooting statistics are that a player has shot the ball very well when his total points exceed his total shot attempts (field goals and free throws combined).  That is all I am saying.  Lentsch shot very well on Saturday.  He scored a lot of points, too.  And, he should have.

Don't get me wrong... I absolutely agree with you here.  It's not Lentsch's fault.  The only way it would be his fault is if he went "rogue" and started jacking shots apart from the team concept... and then it's up to the coach to control his player.  I think Titan Q's initial comments showed rather plainly that the directive to have Lentsch try to score a bajillion points came directly from Coach A.

In the same way that it was pointed out above that Lincoln's coach apologized after putting up 201 points, I think it's Coach A's responsibility to apologize in this case...  I'm not holding my breath that this will happen.

Lentsch was just doing what he was told.  I can imagine that the players likely would be enthusiastic about it... but do you blame them?  It was their coach's idea, and they've been taught from an early age to do whatever their coach says.

If someone (a player) even brought up the fact that it might be unsporting, there might also be negative consequences (from the coach/team).


Honestly, I'm hoping for the players' sakes that there isn't any backlash against those players because of this game.  From the team concept, it seems like it might be justice for them to get slaughtered by a superior team...

But I'm going to backtrack from saying that I hope they get destroyed.  I hope that, in some way, they learn from this experience and that they avoid taking advantage of lesser opponents in the future.  If it's against the nature of amateur athletics to run up the score or take advantage of a lesser opponent, it would be similarly against the nature of amateur athletics to do it to Grinnell.

[OBC]

There is always KARMA I believe.

[larry_u]

Apparently Little Davy had absolutely no qualms about it, (not real surprising considering the apple didn't fall far from the tree on this one)  if you read some of his quotes in this article...

http://www.foxsportsnorth.com/11/21/11/Minnesota-native-breaks-D-III-basketball/landing.html?blockID=609344&feedID=5930

[jeffdc]

Looking forward (unapologetically) to seeing GC take on Wartburg tonight. It may or may not be a record-breaking night for Lentsch, but it will be, as always, some great system ball.

[jeffdc]

Nice game last night by GC against a very fast Wartburg team. Basically a tie game for most of the first half. I was particularly impressed with how Wartburg kept changing their defensive strategy, trying to find a way to break the GC press. Senior Skelly, Junior Lentsch, and Freshman Yeager all had great nights. The newbies made some great contributions. This may be one of the most balanced GC teams I've seen in the last 15 years.

[Gregory Sager]

Don't sleep on Lake Forest this season. I saw the Foresters take down Chicago at the Ratner Center last night, a game I fully expected Chicago to win, and LFC really impressed me in the process. Chris Conger has them playing like bulldogs on defense, and Travis Clark -- who has slimmed down about ten or fifteen pounds -- is more mobile and more dangerous in the post than he's been in the past. The Foresters could make some noise in the MWC this year.

[sncdangler]

Based on the amount of discussion about the 89 pointer the other day, thought I'd throw out that this is the proper way to handle a blowout. Plenty of minutes to go around.

http://www.snc.edu/athletics/teamfiles/basketballm/2011-12/2012-03.pdf

[gcfan33]

Congratulations to Grinnell on their win over Wartburg.  The press coughed up 36 turnovers (more than vs. Principia), and there were 8 blocked shots.  The size of Grinnell seems to be better than in past years and it is going to cause a lot of teams problems throwing passes through those long arms.  Grabbing 18 offensive rebounds doesn't hurt either!