MBB: St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[hopefan]

If I was a member of the Fontbonne family, I'd either be extremely angry, or extremely concerned right now...   Personally, I'm just baffled, as Landon Kurz is an openly known individual, Frostbite has been a steady factual poster, and I've been watching Fontbonne hoops and SLIAC hoops for 7 years now without a thought of such things going on.  Someone is going to look like an idiot in this situation - I'm sorry to say, I hope it is Mr. Kurz.....

[Jim Matson]

Nice work, Q.

[hopefan]

So guys, what's the next step  -   should this be pursued   -  there are no retractions, but no denials either  -  would be easy enough for either to occur  -  or would pursuit of the truth be viewed as blatant sensationalism?   Funny, I mentioned the Mark McGuire thing humorously just two days ago to push away from some silly remarks that had been made   -   is that what this should go to?

  People who read these pages who are on the periphery of this issue know me (Westminster people, Fontbonne people, SLIAC coaches, D3Hoops hofrs) - I'm looking for advice - feel free to PM me.

[hopefan]

On another front, I guess when a game is scheduled, probably a year ahead of time, no one can be sure of the ramifications -  sometimes the scheduling is brilliant, other times, not so wise...

What a shame that Webster, coming off a huge win at Spalding that puts them back in the conference playoff picture, can't concentrate today on their huge Wed. game with Eureka   -  no, unfortunately they have to face Wash U today  -  ugh   -   Can't help but think that the score will be inconsequential and that both coaches will use a lot of players in preparation for upcoming league play.....   Bunch and Edwards, two really good guys.... 

[WUPHF]

should this be pursued

I would probably let this one go, considering that he did not list names.  And, technically, it would be hard to prove that Landon Kurz wrote the posts, though, considering the sequence of events, it sure seems likely.

[WUPHF]

Can't help but think that the score will be inconsequential and that both coaches will use a lot of players in preparation for upcoming league play.

I think you are right about this one in terms of the approach of the coaching staff. 

Webster has been flexible in scheduling this game over the past few seasons so I am not suprised that they agreed to such a challenging week.  They even changed the start time of both games to accomodate our staff day.

[ec_fan14]

Sorry I havent posted anything recently.  With the holidays and all my life has been pretty busy.

A good win for EC against Dominican before break and they come back and start right where they left off beating Fontbonne at their place.  A nice recap of the game has already been posted so I wont say much being that i wasnt at the game.

Looks like its going to be mighty tough for anyone to stop EC's dynamic duo of Bell and Zasada.  If you key on one the other hurts you.  It seems like these 2 feed of each others energy.

Big game wednesday as EC prepares to take one Webster at Webster.  Webster should have some confidence coming off that win vs Spalding.   However i dont know how they will match up with the Red Devils.    Andy Leppard has been a huge lift for Eureka this season avg about 10pts 5 reb. 

The situation with the performance enhancing drugs is unfortunate and lets hope untrue.

[hopefan]

Copied from a post I made in UAA room regarding the Webster - Wash U game  -  too lazy to rewrite.

I thought Webster played outstanding defense yesterday...  WUH's description of the flow of the game didn't give Webster enough credit...  that comfortable lead never exceeded 13 in the second half and closed to 8 a couple times... Webster played them tough, and Wash U had to play the 'great 8' the whole game.   Two telling features in the game.... the fast early start by the Bears, and ... get this.... Wash U outscores Webster 16-4 from the foul line - field goals were even despite Webster having a horrible 1st half shooting....   

And by the way, as soon as you saw who was officiating, you knew it was going to be awful  -  those 3, well......   I preach not worrying about the refs.....   two off the ball screens on offense foul calls in the midst of Webster's run just killed them.......

[y_jack_lok]

Quote from WUH on UAA board re yesterday's Wash U/Webster game: "I thought the officiating was possibly the worst I have seen at home all season.  Not horrible, but not great either.  I do not expect everyone to agree with me on this issue, but I thought that the Gorlocks got the better of the calls, particularly in the second half."

Quote from hopefan on UAA and SLIAC board re yesrterday's Wash U/Webster game: "get this.... Wash U outscores Webster 16-4 from the foul line - field goals were even despite Webster having a horrible 1st half shooting...." "And by the way, as soon as you saw who was officiating, you knew it was going to be awful  -  those 3, well......   I preach not worrying about the refs.....   two off the ball screens on offense foul calls in the midst of Webster's run just killed them......."

Quote from WydownBlvd on UAA board re yesterday's Wash U/Webster game: "Wow... worst officiating I have seen at the Fieldhouse in a long time. It was not who the calls were for or against, but it was the inconsistency that bothered me. Sometimes calling handchecks, but then not calling obvious blocking calls. WashU benefited from those moving screen calls (even when Cam Smith had a handful of jersey  ), but then the refs completely ignored when Wallis drew contact or AT was hacked on one of his three point attempts in the second half. "

It's all in the eye of the beholder -- and that includes the officials. But to put the fouling and free throw comments in some perspective -- from the box score, Webster was called for 18 fouls, Wash U for 13. Webster shot 8 free throws, Wash U shot 20. In fairness to Wash U, I expect they fouled less because, from what little I saw of the video broadcast, Webster was not getting the ball inside very much, which is where many fouls get called.

[hopefan]

Just to make sure  -  in no way was I meaning to imply that the officiating was tilted in Wash U's favor - as Yjak said, there is a reason Wash U would shoot more FTs than Webster - ... my comments regarding the officiating was  meant to be similar to what wydown and WUH said  -  it was just plain awful...  on both sides of the court  -  and as I said, when you see the old redhead, the big bald guy, and a third older local, you simply know that they are out there to be a part of the show, rather than to let the game flow....

[Wydown Blvd.]

Maybe I should have been more clear too. The refs sucked (for both teams). More of a distraction than good officiating.

[y_jack_lok]

I wasn't trying to stir things up, I was just amused that there were three separate observations made about the officiating yesterday which seemed in some ways consistent with one another and in other ways inconsistent. It seems now that there is a consensus that the officiating was not very good and that neither team benefitted more than the other. If that's the case then at least it was consistently bad.

Someday it would be nice if someone thinks the officials did a good job, that they post something to that effect. The poor refs almost always get criticized but virtually never get complimented.

[WUPHF]

I stand by my comment that Webster got the better of the calls (and non-calls) last night, but understand that this comment would be true even if Webster benefitted from one call.  I am not implying that the Bears win by 25 with good officiating.  Not at all.

I accept that I could be wrong in my assessment because I watch the game from the south bleachers.  I get a very good view on one side of the court and a not-so-good view on the other.  I did not, for example, get a good view of the off-the-ball screens.

I know what you mean about the challenges of officiating and the fact that no one ever compliments the referees on a job well done.  I do think that the officiating at the Field House has been mostly good all season.  That is why I mentioned it last night.

I would like to make one follow-up comment to my post last night regarding the defense.  I probably should have given Webster a little more credit for their defense.  I would rank it the third best defensive effort that I have seen in the Field House this year, though the quality of the defense by other visiting teams drops off from there.  

It is very interesting to me how one man's (or woman's) outstanding defense is another man's cold shooting.  The WUSTL Athletics press release, for example, references a strong defensive effort by the Bears in the first ten minutes.  I would probably call that cold shooting, based on what I watched, though usually, you do not have one without the other on some level.

In my humble opinion, both teams played strong defense.  Webster responded with a lot of outside shooting and Washington University responded with a conservative offense.  Action, reaction.

[WUPHF]

I wasn't trying to stir things up...

You should never worry about this.  Give the people what they want: something to read and something to talk about!

[hopefan]

It's funny, despite my positive reaction to Webster's performance vs Wash U, I can't for the life of me figure out how to put them in a favorite's role tomorrow night vs Eureka.  More of the matchups seem to favor Eureka, and unless Webster gets its offense going like it was going for a while in the second half yesterday, it simply seems like Eureka will outscore Webster.  Of course the contra is that if Webster can hold Wash U scoring down, they can do the same to Eureka....


Kindred (E) vs Strickland  (W)-  Kindred is quick, aggressive and can score - Strickland has toned his game down and gotten out of the dog house, had a pretty good game vs Wash U.  Still, I think Kindred does more for his team, and rates a slight plus

Leppert (E) vs Resthoff (W)  -  Resthoff has the size advantage, but it doesn't help if you don't use it - to me, he's mainly a streak shooter who doesn't do much off the dribble - Leppert, on the other hand, has improved leaps and bounds and makes a great one two guard combo with Kindred.   He's a good shooter and aggressive to the basket.  I favor Leppert

Black  (E) vs Moore (W)  -  Black seems to be a role player with little offensive responsibility.  Moore has had some ups and downs, but like Strickland has toned his game down and fit into Coach Bunch's game plan.  He's a real offensive threat, though I hope he doesn't start to become just a 3 point shooter - he goes to the basket well.   Big plus for Moore

Zasada (E) vs Ortwerth (W)  -  this really isn't a fair match, but size wise, this seems to be how it would go.  Zasada is probably the best player in the conference, comfortable inside with any number of moves to the hole, as well as on the perimeter.  He really moves well without the ball too, works well with Bell.  Ortwerth is your typical D3 middleman, hard worker, undersized vs athletes who can really jump.  Can't figure who he'd really guard man to man, unless they put him vs Black.....       Big edge for Zasada

Bell (E)  vs  Jones (W)   ask me this question last year, coming into this year, and I would have rated Jones near level with Zasada - instead...  well Jones fiddles 90% of the time on the perimeter, never gets the ball on a cut, never goes to the hole  -   I don't get it.  Bell has had monster games, and but got in foul trouble yesterday, had a solid first half.  Threw up a dipsy doo shot, but everything else was smooth....  Edge to Bell, BUT,this is where the game could turn around for Webster - get a big game out of Jones and hold Bell down, Webster has a chance.

Bench - Webster has at least 4 guys who will see time, but Eureka's Lessen and Nicholas both made a big impact in the game vs Fontbonne.   Meeh is solid, but Whitcombe, Trippet, and Miller have been inconsistent.   It's a tossup, though if Eureka were to get in serious foul trouble they would suffer more.

Just one guy's opinion as a preview of what I see to be a big game....