MBB: Midwest Conference

[Sam Johnson]

Important news that only I care about...My Gophers completed the sweep of the Badgers, the WCHA is all notted up, and OS may not talk to me for a little bit about it. 

I'm not sure if LU will roll through the rest of the year with a zero in the L column...my personal opinion is yes, if they take Ripon at Ripon.  Carroll at Carroll with be a GAME, but I just have this gut feel that if they are still undefeated (and ranked #2) when the face the soon to be #15 Carroll Pioneers, they will finish strong.

I'm taking "The Roop's" (notice the quotes   ) advice and inventing  theories...bold theories.  I think I'm drunk on the joy of sweet, sweet Gopher victory.  8)

PS: Did anyone else see the State game today? Shannon Brown? Now thats a DUNK! 

[hjmphelp]

titan2000-
I consider that a compliment coming from someone at the bottom of that pool, sir!

[viking68]

John Grotberg is the best 1st year in the league. Hands Down. Feet Down. Don't care what those of you who haven't seen him play think. I'll have to keep my ears covered and keep jumping up and down yelling things like "lalalalalalalalalalala" ti you do, eh?

LU vs. GC:

Grotberg: FG: 11-26, 3-Pt: 3-12, FT: 2-3, A: 2, TO: 5, 27 TP
Kroger: FG: 13-18, 3-Pt: 1-1, FT: 4-4, A: 4, TO: 2, 31 TP

Who's the best freshman now  ?

[mwc4life]

d3bbfan~

To answer your question....no.  Braier is hands down the POY and should probably garnish votes for D3 player of the year if LU makes a little run in the tourney.

Roop~

What about Ripon's schedule....already played @Grinnell, LU, CC, LFC, MC, IC....If Ripon can pull off the upset on Tuesday, it would look pretty good for the redhawks especially since they have Grinnell coming in soon and they never win in Ripon.

Viking68~

Great stat line...3-12 3pt% Better then last night

[Greek Tragedy]

Important news that only I care about...My Gophers completed the sweep of the Badgers, the WCHA is all notted up, and OS may not talk to me for a little bit about it. 

Please keep all sharp objects away from me.  I witness my Pointers lose to Edgewood AND the three refs and then watch as the Badgers blow a 1-0 lead and get swept at home (at least we swept Minnesota at their place!)...btw, Connelly, the Badgers' backup blows.  I could've stopped those shots.

[Greek Tragedy]

Nice of the Saturday's Wisconsin State Journal to post that Beloit beat Lawrence 60-57.  Duh.  It freaked out my friend and we had an argument about that Saturday afternoon and he even claimed, "maybe d3hoops.com is wrong!"  I also checked the MWC page prior to that anyway. 

[d3bbfan]

"d3bbfan~

To answer your question....no.  Braier is hands down the POY and should probably garnish votes for D3 player of the year if LU makes a little run in the tourney."

Cant say I agree. Briar is no where near the ofeenseive threat Hinz is. He cant create his own shots like Hinz can. Hinz is doing it while getting double and triple teamed every time he touches the ball. Hinz is the better all around player...better offensivley, just as good a rebounder and now is a pretty good defender. I dont think Briar could have put up the numbers Hinz has  getting the same kinds of defensives thrown at him. Briar doenst get the double teams like Hinz does. Theres not a team in the leage that doesnt double Hinz and he's still ave better than 20 and 10 a a game. Briar is a great player no doubt but LU would be pretty good with out him. BC would have a hard time winning a game if they didnt have Hinz. These are just my humble opinions btw. Like I said...Briar is a great palyer and if he were to be the POY I would not have a huge argument with that descion...I just think Hinz is the better all around player this yearand the best in the league.

BC is getting better but its mainly because Hinz has decided to play like an All-American. I think with the fact that Hinz had the broken hand at the beginning of the season he got a slow start and is now really coming into his own.  what I would love to have seen is Hinz and Briar on the same team....wholy cow would that have been soemthing.

[hjmphelp]

viking68-
John Grotberg.

Your man is good, but not ast good OR CONSISTENT GAME TO GAME as JOHN GROTBERG.

[gobucs]

Braier will probably get it, but as far as a player that a team rides on, it's Hinz.  Braier has had the luxury of having depth and talent around him for 4 years now. Hinz hasn't had that.  Hinz is a better offensive player, and has improved his boards.  Braier refuses to lose and will do anything to win.  They are both great players and both deserve alot of recognition.  Other players that have really impressed me are Maclin( I think he'll be phenomenol next year) Grotberg, Nordlund,
the sharpshooter with the tall socks from MC. 

[Maverick]

the sharpshooter with the tall socks from MC. 

That would be Anthony Beaird of the Scots.

[titan2000]

Braier will probably get it, but as far as a player that a team rides on, it's Hinz.  Braier has had the luxury of having depth and talent around him for 4 years now.

Funny, I recall a bunch of Gillespites here suggesting that Braier was the whole team at LU and we would go down in flames in 2006/2007 without him.  Whixh one is it? 

Jeffp, in Iowa a wastewater treatment plant doubles as a waterpark 

If Roop comes to Appleton to watch Bloit in the MWC tourney, I suspect we'll have to rent out a wing of the Paper Valley for all the groupies. 

[polek2]

Ok so say life continues as is with LU in the Top 4 polls.  Do they host the weekend play at their tiny gym with no seating?  I am just curiouse what you all think the NCAA will do with the lack of an ideal gym to host the tourny.  Obviously if they go as the only NCAA team without a lose they deserve a home court advantage but come on that place was redesigned when they weren't good and had no fan support.  So will the NCAA give them the hosting job and have people be left out in the cold? (I mean where would the park? that is a whole nother issue)  It is a month away but something to think about. 

[Greek Tragedy]

Ok so say life continues as is with LU in the Top 4 polls.  Do they host the weekend play at their tiny gym with no seating?  I am just curiouse what you all think the NCAA will do with the lack of an ideal gym to host the tourny.  Obviously if they go as the only NCAA team without a lose they deserve a home court advantage but come on that place was redesigned when they weren't good and had no fan support.  So will the NCAA give them the hosting job and have people be left out in the cold? (I mean where would the park? that is a whole nother issue)  It is a month away but something to think about. 

The best case senario is to get one of five first round byes and then host the winner of a Wed 1st round game on Saturday to advance to the sectionals.

I don't see the NCAA handing Lawrence and the Alex a sectional homecourt "quad".  The NCAA has never been about "give the best team homecourt advantage," at least when it comes to sectionals.  It's all about the cheapest way to get four teams to play together.  Three drives and a flight are a whole lot better than 2 drives and 2 flights. 

And, if you bring up two years ago when three teams flew out to Puget Sound, that is because Stevens Point was already hosting the women's sectional, Lawrence was way too small to host four teams and Sul Ross State was "ranked" lower than Puget Sound.  Since three teams were flying regardless, they gave it to Puget Sound for being the higher seed.

Had Point been able to host, they would've because it was a hop skip and a jump for Lawrence and the NCAA would've had to only fly two teams...even though Puget Sound was the #1 seed.

I think the Alex is too small to host.  I'm sure there are specifics in the NCAA handbook to find out.

Oh yeah, they don't care about the polls at all.  They look at things like the QOWI, in-region winning % and stuff like that. 

[titan2000]

Let's do it at Alex anyway.  There weren't 200 people at that Final 8 game in Seattle 2 years ago.  I know, I was there.

And polek,  there is plenty of parking. 

[larry_u]

What a weekend.  Big sweep for Lu and for the hockey gophers.  Thats punk Sam beat me to it, because I was in madison for the two games....I'm now a lifetime 4-0 atr the Kohl Centel with my teams when i am in attendence....not too shabby.

I think LU should get a first round bye if they win out, though one loss and I think they would drop significantly, enough to endanger thier home hosting hopes.  The sectional will be intereting to see.  The NCAA does do some weird things, it will depend primariallyon who's lef tat that point of the tourny.  All Viking fans can hope for is for them to keep winning, that will give us the best chance of not getting screwed over.