MBB: Midwest Conference

[fightingscots13]

Well, Roop...whaddya got for Friday's MC v. Beloit game?  Any notes of interest from the Beloit camp?  Obviously it's early, but the initial stats for both teams aren't painting a pretty picture for the game.  For BC, is that because of their early season schedule? 

I'll have a seat at mid-court, so I'll be sure to submit a post-game summary.
FS13

[augie_superfan]

Big weekend of basketball in the MWC with St. Norbert and Ripon traveling to Grinnell.  I'm going to try and make it to Grinnell on Saturday for the game against Ripon.  It'll be my first game seeing the system live so hopefully the weather holds up and it doesn't get icy.   

[OBC]

Grinnell Beat St Norbert tonight 108-98. St Norbert player hit a long 3 at the buzzer. GC lead by 20 midway through the first half, St Norbert came all the way back to tie in the second half, then Grinnell made a run. That Grinnell could hang in there as well as they did without 2 of their top 5 players was interesting. The first 10 minutes of the game were about as good as the system can work.

[The Roop]

fs13 For this weekend anyway Beloit will be shorthanded, so it was nice to pick up a win under the circumstances. I could only catch part of the game online and had to sneak home for lunch to do it. I do think schedule has been a factor in this years showing. Other forces are at work and while I know the whats, I'm not 100% on the whys yet.

So for now it's safe to say that with new people on campus come new ideas. This has put some tension in the air that isn't limited to the athletic department. Long term this leads to optimism, short term leads to uncertainty. I'm not going to chronicle the time line and causal chain but the trigger point seems to be adding mens and womens LaCrosse for 2013.

[OBC]

Grinnell handled Ripon today 125-103. Lentsch had 12 points. The beauty of the system was evident on the floor and in the box score. Lots of players stepped up and the scoring was quite balanced. People were hitting 3s in bunches. Ripon, you'll remember is the team that crushed Illinois Wesleyan earlier this year. Not to put too fine a point on it, but to lose 2 outstanding players (Levin and Skelly) and still win this big against a quality team is an achievement. The team looks terrific at times, but still has periods of sketchy play. Looks like the prospects are there for a very good year.

[augie_superfan]

I took in my first Grinnell game in person today...not my cup o' tea but interesting none the less.  One thing should be noted is that Ripon is playing without Taylor Koth....I think he got hurt early on in the IWU game and hasn't appeared since.  Watching a "system" game makes it really hard for me to see how good some of these players are.  I think Ripon has the better talent overall but the system style definitely did not suit them tonight.  Was not that impressed with Lentsch but other than the first 2 minutes of the game, he really didn't force anything.  This was partly due to some of the other guards shooting lights out when they were open.  He really just blended into the mix but maybe that seemed like a good thing in today's game.

The one thing that really bothered me about the game was the officiating.  I have to at least preface it by saying the refs definitely worked their butts off by getting up and down the court with the players.  The "helter skelter" pace of play really allowed Grinnell to get away with a lot of hacks and reaches which turned into a decent amount of Ripon turnovers.  I think early on this seemed to get Ripon frustrated.

The one really amazing thing was to see these Grinnell players knock down the open threes.  They shot 44.6% for the night overall but I bet they were close to 75% when they had decent space, which unfortunately for Ripon, happened way too often.  Going into the weekend, I thought clearly Ripon was the best team followed by Grinnell and St. Norbert.  But within the past 2 nights, I think Grinnell clearly place themselves as the team to beat in the MWC.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Grinnell handled Ripon today 125-103. Lentsch had 12 points. The beauty of the system was evident on the floor and in the box score. Lots of players stepped up and the scoring was quite balanced. People were hitting 3s in bunches. Ripon, you'll remember is the team that crushed Illinois Wesleyan earlier this year. Not to put too fine a point on it, but to lose 2 outstanding players (Levin and Skelly) and still win this big against a quality team is an achievement. The team looks terrific at times, but still has periods of sketchy play. Looks like the prospects are there for a very good year.

This year, that is not necessarily a major feat.  Looking at their graduation losses, I predicted back in March that this would be a VERY down year for the Titans.  I would be absolutely thrilled if they even make the (4-team) CCIW tournament this year.

I DO have hopes for next year.

[OBC]

I've been so impressed by the level of play and coaching in the CCIW that I always count a win over any school in that conference as an achievement.

[Mr. Ypsi]

I've been so impressed by the level of play and coaching in the CCIW that I always count a win over any school in that conference as an achievement.

Ah, just the subservient attitude we try to encourage!

(If only coaches and players would get off the bus with that feeling, we'd NEVER lose a non-con game!   In his memoir, Dennie Bridges [IWU's HoF coach] responded to a question of "What is the secret of success?":  "Getting off the bus with the better players". )

[augie_superfan]

Regardless of how good IWU is this year, I do think Ripon is a very good team.  Today, Grinnell and the system were just too much for Ripon to handle.  Ripon looked much different than the team I saw beat IWU earlier this year.

[systemfan86]

.....Do you mean, like this?   

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

Scottie  :   Exactly   

See Scottie, I think you're just a 'glass is half empty' guy. I look at that and see Grinnell scored a 110 on a D1 team. I think you'd be hard pressed to name another D3 team that could accomplish that. 

[scottie]

I think you'd be hard pressed to see (m)any other DIII teams give up 160 to a DI team.  How's that for a glass-half-full point of view? 

[jeffdc]

Looking forward to the next 2 GC games against Knox and Carroll. Anyone seen these 2 in action? How are they looking?

[gcfan33]

I watched a 36-32 high school game last night.  Thank God Grinnell is playing tonight so I can erase that memory from my head.

[The Roop]

If you think that's bad. Back in the pre-shot clock era Beloit topped Knox 24-18 after Knox took the air out of the ball for 39 minutes.