MBB: Upper Midwest Athletic Conference

[Smitty Oom]

Northwestern and North Central host NACC foes MSOE and Wisconsin Lutheran in a pair of games each. Northwestern plays MSOE tonight in a matchup of conference winners from last season and plays Wisconsin Lutheran on Saturday. North Central is vice versa.

Bethany Lutheran hosts what should be one of the better team in the ARC this season in Simpson. Should be an excellent game.

St. Scholastica hosts UW-EC in what is probably a very stiff challenge out of the gate.

Crown hosts Bethel tomorrow. Player of the year Tim Wendel returns for Crown, interested to see how much help he has this season. Tough game to start the season.

Wisconsin-Superior is hosting a tournament this weekend and plays Marian tonight, the other game is St. John's and Nebraska Wesleyan. Wisconsin-Superior will play one of those two on Saturday.

Minnesota-Morris visits Concordia-Moorhead tonight.

Northland is on the road for two, playing Macalester tonight and Bemidji State tomorrow.

Martin Luther doesn't open until next weekend.

Just a little 'dull' rundown of the UMAC weekend games. No conversation here like what is going on at the MIAC football board where those sophisticated renaissance gentlemen are having deep conversations about,
Beer
Fishing- Ice, Lake, River (also known as fly fishing)
Movie Trivia
Presidential assassins of the 19th & 20th century
Murderous dictators
Religious cult leaders
UST students daddy's cars
UST female students low moral standards
Soybean & corn harvest in Minnesota & central Iowa
Hair Bands of the 80's
Tailgating
Fruitcake
Homemade beer, wine, cider, moonshine
And many more that they just can't think of currently.

I appreciate the dull write up!! Would love some UMAC chatter throughout the season. I think the Northwestern and MSOE is going to be a fun game tonight, will for sure have an eye on that one.

Anyone out there have a scouting report on the Cougars for their matchup against the Cobbers tonight?

[Baldini]

Tough beat for Northwestern tonight against MSOE, Northwestern was up 6 with 41 seconds left and takes the lose 76-75.

[Baldini]

The UMAC men's hoops programs open the season going 3-4 last night.

Wins
Bethany Lutheran 106, Simpson 102
Minnesota-Morris 86, Concordia-Moorhead 82
Wisconsin-Superior 60, Marian 55

Loses
MSOE 76, Northwestern 75
Wisconsin Lutheran 96, North Central (Minn.) 82
UW-EC 71, St. Scholastica 52
Macalester 72, Northland 56

Against conferences,

ARC 1-0
MIAC 1-1
NACC 1-2
WIAC 0-1

[Smitty Oom]

Really solid win for Bethany Lutheran, I think they are my early season favorite for the UMAC. Simpson was a lot of peoples favorite under the radar team from not just the West but nationally. Cire Mayfield is a dude and they have a legit inside presence with Trenton Krueger. Excited to see how their season plays out, but a nice program is being run down in Mankato. Also, extreme props to their head coach for a legit D3 schedule. Here are their non-conference games:

• Home vs. Simpson - WIN
• Home vs. Buena Vista -
• At St. Olaf -
• Home vs. Luther -
• At UW-Stout -
• At Central -

CAL LUTHERAN TOURNEY

• Neutral floor vs. Messiah -
• Rosemont/Cal Lutheran 

Sure these are not top of their conferences, but challenging themselves with WIAC, MIAC and ARC games and giving them a full 25 sample of D3 results is pretty huge should they have a La Roche type of season this year. Kudos to them and I will be cheering for them throughout the season.

[Baldini]

After going 3-4 Friday the UMAC teams went 1-4 on Saturday. Here are those scores.

Win

Northwestern 87, Wisconsin Lutheran 82

Loses

MSOE 81, North Central (Minn.) 75
Bethel 100, Crown 82
Nebraska Wesleyan 87, UW-Superior 51
Bemidji St. 117, Northland 60

Against conferences,

ARC 1-1
MIAC 1-2
NACC 2-3
WIAC 0-1
Division Two 0-1

[Greek Tragedy]

Nice work, Baldini +1 karma

[Baldini]

Thanks Greek, it is always good to get some positivity.

The UMAC men were back in action on Tuesday night and came away 1-3 in the four games.

Win

UW-Superior 75, Concordia-Moorhead 69

Loses

Carleton 82, North Central (Minn.) 67
UW-River Falls 83, St. Scholastica 60
Buena Vista 92, Bethany Lutheran 76

A couple of thoughts on these games. First is Bethany Lutheran getting beaten and beaten soundly by Buena Vista, they were down 20 at the half. Did they get a little to high on themselves already or is Buena Vista just a lot better than people believed they would be? BLC defeated Simpson on Friday, who was picked 2nd in the coaches poll in the ARC and turn around and lose to Buena Vista who was picked 2nd to last in the coaches poll. Will be watching these 2 teams with a little more interest. Second is Concordia-Moorhead getting beat for the 2nd time by a middle of the pack UMAC team in the first 5 days of games, this should be a little alarming for their connections and doesn't look good for the coming MIAC schedule. Plenty of time left to right their ship, but alarming none the less.

[Baldini]

The UMAC went head-to-head with the MIAC tonight in 4 games and came away with a split. Crown @ Hamline had a wild finish to it, Crown lead by 8 with 29 seconds left, but Hamline cut it down and had a chance to tie with a 3 at the buzzer. Crown survives for the win.

Wins

Northwestern 94, Macalester 69
Crown 83, Hamline 80

Loses

St. John's 86, Minnesota-Morris 80
Augsburg 102, Northland 54

Vs. Conferences

ARC 1-2
MIAC 4-5
NACC 2-3
WIAC 0-2
Division Two  0-1

[Baldini]

UW-EC defeated UW-Superior 75-69 in the only game this evening. This brings the UMAC to 11-20 to date in non-conference play.

Vs. Conferences

ARC 1-2
Independent  1-0
MIAC 5-9
MWC 0-1
NACC 2-3
SLIAC 0-1
WIAC 0-3

NCCAA-2  2-0
Division Two  0-1

[Greek Tragedy]

The fact that someone is actually posting in here is a positive! It's been a few years, but still seems weird to see UW-Superior a non-conference game.

[Baldini]

The fact that someone is actually posting in here is a positive! It's been a few years, but still seems weird to see UW-Superior a non-conference game.

It felt weird typing it also GT. I had a flashback to some of the games I seen in person when UW-Superior would visit Eau Claire in the late 70's and early 80's. Ken Anderson's teams always seemed straight laced and the Superior teams would be this band of misfits year in and year out. The pregame warmups would be this highflying dunk feast by Superior and Eau Claire would run a simple layup drill without a single dunk preformed. The year 'Stretch' Gregory was a Yellowjacket was a very interesting watch, it was odd to watch someone who was on the fast track to legend status for the Badgers then playing for UW-Superior of all teams. 

[Greek Tragedy]

Superior was the only conference school I never visited for a game. Now that they are out of the conference, I can say I've seen everyone's home court!

[Baldini]

With no more games in the UMAC until Monday I thought this would be a good time to get current. In games last night, Bethany Lutheran had another impressive win in defeating UW-Stout 103-99.

Vs. Conferences

ACAA  1-0
ARC  2-6
CCIW  0-1
Independent  1-0
MIAC  5-13
MWC 0-2
NACC 2-3
SLIAC 0-1
WIAC 1-6

NAIA-2  1-2
NCCAA-2  4-0
Division Two  0-2

Overall - 17-36

[Baldini]

The Concordia-Moorhead @ Martin Luther game that was scheduled for tonight has been re-scheduled for January 13th. Guessing there is a lot of snow in Minnesota?

[Pat Coleman]

The Concordia-Moorhead @ Martin Luther game that was scheduled for tonight has been re-scheduled for January 13th. Guessing there is a lot of snow in Minnesota?

We have had some snow of late, but also the roads were pretty slick in the metro this morning as well, so I'm guessing that the trip from Moorhead to New Ulm would be even worse.