MBB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association

[northb]

BA the hay RN

[ziggy]

BA the hay RN

WE ON

[goodknight]

Calvin takes out the Pointers.

Final from UW-Stevens Point:

Calvin 67
UWSP 58

Jordan Brink leads the Knights with 21, with a perfect 5-5 from beyond the arc.
Tom Snikkers with a double-double with 14 points and 11boards.
Tyler Kruis with 10 points, and Mickey DeVries with 9 on 4-4 from the field on his 21st birthday.

[northb]

Who's up next week?

[northb]

Who's up next week?

Looks like we will have a chance to avenge our womenfolk, as St. Thomas is ahead of Wheaton with a few minutes left.

[DBQ1965]

Who's up next week?

Looks like St. Thomas.

[John Gleich]

Well done by the Knights.  With the exception of the last :26, Calvin owned the second half.

UST was beating Wheaton by about 15 or so... no live stats and the video went out as well.

The matchup for the Thunder Knights this weekend is a formidable one. The Tommies are 27-1 28-1 on the year with their lone loss @Concordia-Morehead by 2 (CM is 18-8 on the season). they Beat CM at home by 29 earlier in the season. Their closest home game was a win over 22-5 UWSP by 5 and a win over lowly St. Olaf by 5 late in the year. I suppose Wheaton fans could point to their schedule and say they havne't played as many tough opponents. That gives us a glimmer of hope. On to the matchps;

UST features:

"We" Will "Rock-you" Deberg          6-0, Sr, G, 12.4pt, 2.3 reb, 1.5 A/TO, 41% 3pt (64-156), 86% FT
Tommy "Amaker" Hannon               6-7, Sr, C  11.4pts 6.7 reb
John "Larry" Nance                         6-3, Sr, G, 9.7pts, 3.0reb, 42% 3pt
Zach "Randolph" Riedeman            6-4, Jr, F,   9.3ppg, 3.5 reb, 39% 3pt
Erik "Spoelstra" Tengwall               6-1, Jr, G,    6.1ppg, 2.7 reb, 41% 3pt

Off the bench they bring:

"Joachim" Noah Kaiser                   6-5, Sr, F    6.9ppg, 2.0 Reb
Conner "Elin" Nord "Egren"           6-6 soph, F
Marcus "Muhammed" Ali-pate       6-0, soph, G

The Tommies are shooting 42% from 3 pt land for the season on an average of 16 attempts a game. So you can expect them to make 6-9 3's. Their defense is clearly at a high level. Only 2 teams have scored 70pts on them all year. Their lone loss came when they managed only 52 pts and shot 37%. If the Thunder wants to have a chance, they better play the best defense they have played all season and they need to shoot a really high percentage from the perimeter. Tough duty against a veteran squad.

One of the cornerstones of St. Thomas basketball over their string of great basketball from the past several years has been their depth.

If you look at their stats, no one player averaves more than 23 minutes per game. In only 4 games did UST's leading scorer score 20+ (though, in full disclosure, in one of those games there were two 20 point scorers).

And yet, they still average over 82 points per game... which means that pretty much everybody out on the floor is capable of scoring.

It should also be noted that UST likes to play an up-tempo style (but only at times... see below) and they press a lot. They force 15+ TO's per game and average nearly 9 steals per game. Those are oftentimes converted into easy points.

But UST also is unselfish, as noted above. They don't care who scores and will break you down and make you defend for the whole 35 seconds. They're averaging just 62 offensive possessions per game, with an offensive efficiency of 132.86. They're able to score so many points because they shoot a high percentage (52% overall, #1 in the country, 42.7% from 3, #3 in the country). That's reminiscent of Williams in 2010, when they led the country in both categories. That Williams team lost in the National Title game, and it was only due to an extreme defensive effort and some timely hit shots that Stevens Point was able to come back (they were down 10 with 11 minutes to go and the game was tied with 8:12 left).


All told, here's what St. Thomas would like to do to their opponent. They want to turn them over and get quick, easy baskets. They come at you in waves and will put lots of pressure on the ball. In the half court, they will force teams out of their comfort zone with pressure, all the while trying to force turnovers and to make things difficult. Their 3 pt fg % defense is very good (28.1%) because of their pressure, but also because they get a lead and teams have to try to shoot out of it (and can't).

On offense, UST only turns it over 10 times per game (10th in the country) and has the 2nd best assist-to-TO ratio (7th in the country in assists, assiting on 60% of their shots). That, paired with their patience on offense (and, frankly, skill... you can be the most patient team in the land, but if you can't shoot, it won't matter).

St. Thomas is an excellent team. They are sound fundamentally, they don't beat themselves, and they are deep and unselfish. If an offensive team can take care of the ball and make UST work on defense the whole time, they might be able to knock off the Tommies, especially if UST isn't hitting their shots. An inside go-to guy helps, but a team needs to be very good on a night that the Tommies are strugging in order to win.

In the UWSP/UST game, I think that if the game had gone another 5 minutes, Point would have won it. UWSP had the momentum and sort of just ran out of time. UST did help their cause... there was a fantom foul called with a under a minute on a dead ball (great acting job by a savy senior - Will DeBerg - a 90% FT shooter - did what he "had to" to get the ball in his hands) that took a 2 point game and made it a 4 point game and SP ran out of time.

SP turned it over just 7 times that game... but an untimely turnover with :02 left before the end of the first half allowed Riedman to hit a 3/4 cout shot. Without that, it might have turned out differently... but it just goes to show that UST will make you pay!

Here's a little scouting report on the Tommies....

[GoKnights68]

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/108640996/XLIVE.HTM

[John Gleich]

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/108640996/XLIVE.HTM

Just saw that. Wheaton cut it to 6 with under 2 minutes...

[calvinite]

St. Thomas it is...

[goodknight]

The Knights completely shut down the Pointers' Trevor Haas --  0-4 from the field and 4 rebounds in 29 minutes.

St. Paul, here we come.

[sac]

St. Thomas is a flight for Calvin.

[oldknight]

Another impressive road win by the Knights. Mr. Brink wasn't needed in Terre Haute but he made a timely appearance in Stevens Point. I spent quite a bit of time listening to the Stevens Point broadcast and they were an excellent pair.

[calvinite]

St. Thomas is a flight for Calvin.

Has to be better than a bus ride.... Let's hope the video feed is better, too.

[KnightSlappy]

St. Thomas is a flight for Calvin.

Has to be better than a bus ride.... Let's hope the video feed is better, too.

ziggy and I checked the St. Thomas feed during halftime of the Calvin game -- for that very reason -- and it ran smoothly for us. Some might call that hubris, but we call it preparation.