4 Minnesota Teams Advance to NCAA D3 Tournament; 4 Minnesota Teams Wash Out of NCAA D3 Tournament

A Quick Update

As if 0-for-4 wasn't bad enough, now 2 of the teams that helped to embarrass Minnesota's D3 contingent have gone down to defeat as well.

Anderson (Indiana) beat nationally rated St. Thomas by 2 on Saturday, then got clobbered 76-58 on Sunday by Carthage (Wisconsin). And Wisconsin-Whitewater did the same to the Tommies women 91-73, then they too lost to Carthage 79-74.

Meanwhile the Wisconsin-Stevens Point men and women, who beat Carleton and Minnesota-Morris, respectively, both defeated St. Norbert on Sunday. The Pointer brothers won 63-48, while the Pointer sisters won 71-58.

Zero-for-Four

Wow. That was quick.

At a few minutes after 7 p.m. Wisconsin-Stevens Point had finished with the Minnesota-Morris women 86-64.

About 30 minutes later Anderson (Indiana) finished off the St. Thomas men 73-71.

A couple hours later the St. Thomas women joined the men on the sideline courtesy of Wisconsin-Whitewater 91-73.

And just a minute or two later, Wisconsin-Stevens Point hit a pair of free throws at 0:05 to beat Carleton 59-58.

Four up, four down. Bing bang boom bash. See ya next year.

The gutsiest performance of the 4 was Carleton's, on the home court of the #5 rated Pointers. The Knights fell behind 14-5 and 29-18 early, but battled back to within 32-24 at the half. Carter Biewen hit 3 3s early in the 2nd half to key a 24-11 run across the intermission, and Carleton led for the 1st time in the game 42-40. The Knights must have relaxed a bit, however, because Point scored 8 points in a row. But, still Carleton came back to lead 54-52 on another Biewen basket at 2:27. Point tied it up. The Knights made it 56-54, and this time Point went ahead with a 3 ball at 0:37. Seth Jonker responded with his 4th basket of the 2nd half, including 3 of the 4 shots that put Carleton into the lead. The 4th came off the offensive glass at 0:07. But Point came all the way down court and drew a shooting foul on Jonker at 0:05. Matt Moses converted both throws for the 59-58 final score.

The St. Thomas men also kept it close, losing to Anderson (Indiana) 73-71 in a see-saw battle. There were 11 lead changes and 4 ties in the 1st half alone. The Tommies once led 28-21 but Anderson came right back to tie it up at 28. St. Thomas led 33-32 at half-time. But Anderson took a 7 point lead of its own at 44-37 in the 2nd half. The Tommies came back to tie it up at 56 and 58, but never again led after 35-34. And, from 58-58 it was Anderson scoring the next 3 buckets. St. Thomas only had the ball with a chance to tie once after that, and that was on a Tyler Nicolai 3 at 0:01. Alex Healy scored 26 points and added 6 assists for the Tommies.

The Tommie women didn't fare nearly as well, falling behind 9-4 and 11-6. They took their 2nd lead (after 2-0) at 16-15 and, from there, the lead changed hands 11 times with 4 ties in the 1st half alone (yes, exactly the same as the men). Whitewater pulled out to a 7-point lead early in the 2nd half but St. Thomas again caught up and took the lead at 61-60 and 64-63. The promptly were out-scored 13-2, which Whitewater extended out to 28-9 by the final buzzer. Having taken the lead at 9:52, the Tommies turned the ball over on 8 of their last 12 possessions from 9:11 on. Rachel Booth led the Tommies with 21 points, 8 rebounds and 3 blocks.

Finally, Minnesota-Morris shocked #23 Wisconsin-Stevens Point, leading by as much as 15-6 and as late as 39-36 at 1:30 of the 1st half. But the Pointers scored the last 6 points of the 1st half and the first 4 of the 2nd. By 11:00 of the 2nd half, Point was completing a 27-7 run to a 63-46 lead. Point won the 2nd half 44-25.

4 Minnesota Teams Invited to NCAA D3 Tournament

The MIAC post-season champions, the Carleton men and the St. Thomas women, plus the St. Thomas men, who won the regular season championship, received invitations to the NCAA D3 tournament today. They are joined by a surprise entry, the Minnesota-Morris women, who won the UMAC regular season title with a 13-1 record before losing to Presentation in the playoff semi-finals 63-42.

All 4 teams will open play next Friday, March 5, and all 4 will be traveling to Wisconsin for 1st and 2nd round action.

Men

Carleton (19-9) gets to play Wisconsin-Stevens Point (23-4) on the Pointers' home court. If victorious, the Knights would get either Hope (Michigan) (21-7) or St. Norbert's (Wisconsin) (22-3).

St. Thomas (22-3) opens with Anderson (Indiana) (22-5) at Kenosha, WI. A 2nd round match-up with the host team, Carthage (22-5), or Aurora (Illinois) (18-10) awaits.

Women

St. Thomas (21-7) travels to Wisconsin-Whitewater (20-7). Carthage (22-4) and Northland (18-8), located in Ashland, WI, await the winner of that game.

Minnesota-Morris (19-7) gets Wisconsin-Stevens Point (21-6) at DePere, WI. The host team, St. Norbert's (22-3), or Calvin (Michigan) (24-4) awaits.

The Cougar women received an at-large bid ahead of MIAC regular season co-champions Gustavus (20-6) and St. Ben's (21-6). Cougar coach Tim Grove was named the UMAC women's coach of the year as his team won the regular season title and won 14 games in a row leading right up to the Presentation loss. The Cougar men won the post-season title after finishing 2nd in the regular season, but the UMAC will not have an automatic NCAA tournament bid until next year. So, for now, the Cougar women (19-7) are moving on while the men (16-11) are hanging up their togs for the season.

Just for the record, UM-M beat Bethel 68-56 at home in its only game against an MIAC opponent. St. Ben's beat Bethel by 15 and 14 points, and St. Thomas beat Bethel by 24 and 18. There was only one other MIAC-UMAC match-up, in which Concordia (Moorhead) defeated St. Scholastica 90-51. UM-M defeat Scholastica 56-48 and 58-51. There were no other common opponents, but it's also true the UM-M made up for its presumably weaker UMAC schedule (compared to the MIAC) by playing 2 games against D2 opponents while the Bennies and Tommies did not play any D2 opponents.

The Prognosis

MIAC teams have had a tough time in post-season since the St. Thomas women (2001) and the Gustavus men (2003) went to the D3 Final Four. There's too much parity in the MIAC right now. No one program is getting all the best talent. Which makes for an exciting regular season, but also means that nobody has the overwhelming talent needed to contest for national honors.

Still, maybe this will be the year for the Tommie men. They've gotten a favorable draw. I mean, I'd rather play Carthage on their home court in Kenosha, WI, than Wisconsin-Stevens Point or Whitewater, which is what the other 3 Minnesota teams will all have to do to get to the Sweet Sixteen. So I'll predict:

Tommie men win 2

Tommie women win 1

Carleton men 0

Minnesota-Morris women 0

Finals

Carleton men 78 Gustavus 71 (ot)

St. Thomas women 65 St. Ben's 62 (ot)

The 4th and 5th-seeds, the Carleton men and St. Thomas women, respectively, both needed OT to complete their surprising runs to MIAC play-off titles.

Carleton fell behind Gustavus 21-15 and 27-22, but caught up at 28-27 and tied it up at half-time, 32-32, on a pair of Seth Jonker FT. The Knights got the first bucket of the 2nd half on a Blaise Davis 3, and led by as many as 8 at 48-40 at 13:36. The Gusties promptly reeled off 11 straight points and eventually led by as many as 4 at 57-53 at 5:15, and again at 59-55 at 3:49. Carleton took the lead again at 63-61 on a Bryan Rosett 3 at 1:54, and Gustavus tied it up exactly a minute later on a lay-up by Paul Blacklock after an offensive board by Jesse Van Sickle. Each team missed 1 shot before the end of regulation.

The Knights scored the 1st 7 points of OT on a pair of Jeremy Sutherland lay-ups and a 2+1 by Davis. The Gusties got within 3 at 74-71 at 0:39, but missed their last 4 FG attempts while Carleton was making 4-of-6 throws.

Gustavus dominated the possession game with 10 extra offensive boards (15-to-5) and 4 fewer turnovers (just 4 to Carleton's 8). But the Knights shot 53 percent from the floor, while the Gusties shot 44 and only got to the FT line for 3 attempts, making 1. Sutherland led the way for the Knights with 22 points and 5 assists, while Rosett contributed 19 and 8 boards. Phil Wirtjes scored 22 for the Gusties.

Tournament MVP: Jeremy Sutherland, Carleton

The St. Thomas women fell behind St. Ben's 11-1 and 17-7, but caught up at 17 at 8:12, and never again trailed by more than 2. The Tommies largest lead was at 41-36 at 11:29 on just Rachel Booth's 10th 3 of the season, but they also needed a Sara Smith jumper at 0:08, on a pass from Booth, to tie it up at 55 and force the OT.

The Bennies led once in OT, 57-56, on a Laura Canton bucket, but the Tommies responded with a Booth 2, and then a Jordyn Sears 2+1 after an offensive board by Jazmin Townsend. St. Ben's got within 1 at 63-62 at 0:47 on a Heather Gillund 2. St. Thomas missed their last 3 FG attempts to give the Bennies a chance, but Heather Gillund missed the front end of a 1-and-1 at 1:23 and then a FG attempt at 0:09. Smith hit 2 FT at 0:07 for the final margin.

The Tommies went big against the Blazers. 6-foot sophomore back-up post Smith, who averages 16 minutes a game, played 32, some of them in place of Booth but most of them beside her. And, she came up huge with 20 points including the Tommies' last 2 points of both regulation and in overtime. Booth had her usual stellar game with 20 points, and a game-high 10 boards, 3 assists and 3 blocks.

Neither team shot well, the Tommies 34 percent and St. Ben's 30 percent. The possession game was pretty even, but in OT St. Thomas got the only offensive board and St. Ben's the only turnover. The offensive board at 3:33 led to Sears' 2+1, which gave the Tommies a 4-point lead,and they never trailed again.

Tournament MVP: Rachel Booth, St. Thomas

Men's Semi-Finals

Carleton 73 St. Thomas 67

Gustavus 59 Augsburg 57

Two weeks ago I noted that the St. Thomas women and the Carleton men were the hottest teams in the MIAC. The Knights were in 4th place and the Tommies in 5th at the time. I followed my heart and picked the Tommies to win the women's post-season title and, indeed, they'll be playing on Saturday afternoon for that honor.

But I couldn't see anybody knocking off the top-seeded Tommie men. Wrong.

Carleton won for the 11th time in 12 games, avenging their only loss since January 18, shocking St. Thomas with a close but convincing 73-67 win. But it was more convincing than close. The Knights led by 15 at 3:02. That's convincing. The Tommies threw everything they had at Carleton with a late 11-0 run, getting within 66-62 at 1:25. And still, the Knights came through. That's close, but convincing.

Carleton served notice that it would not go down quietly by erasing a 17-13 St. Thomas lead at 8:09 of the 1st half. Carter Biewen hit a 3, then immediately contributed a block and a rebound on the defensive end, and later scored on a put-back. The Knights ended the 1st half on a 17-7 run to take a surprising 30-24 lead.

The Knights extended their lead to 10 points at 18:33 and 11 at 16:00. St. Thomas cut it to 4 at 13:15, but Carleton pushed it back to 12 at 10:53 and 13 at 10:05. They made it 14 at 7:55 and 15 at 3:02. An 8-0 run from 43-39 at 13:15 to 51-39 at 10:53 was decisive, as the Tommies didn't cut the lead below double figures until 2:12. Too little, too late.

St. Thomas dominated the possession game, getting 6 extra offensive boards and 4 fewer turnovers. But they shot "only" 47 percent from the field, while the Knights shot 60 percent including 52 percent (9-of-17) from beyond the arc. Carleton also got to the line for 15 FT attempts, the Tommies just 6.

Jeremy Sutherland (20 points/3 assists/2 steals) and Seth Jonker (19/8 rebounds) led the way for the Knights.

Augsburg pushed the host Gusties down to the wire. They didn't lead after 19-18 at 9:33 of the 1st half, but tied the game 3 times in the 2nd (at 37, 39 and finally at 57 at 1:38). But 5 times in the 2nd half, Augsburg had the ball with the score tied, and all 5 times the Auggies came up dry. There was a Seth Anderson steal at 13:45, then a missed 3 pointer by the Auggies. Then, inside of 2:00, there were a pair of missed shots by the Auggies. Then, with 0:10 left and the score tied at 59, the Gusties Phil Wirtjes stole an Augsburg in-bound pass and took it coast-to-coast for a lay-up at 0:04. Anderson got another steal at the final buzzer to prevent a game-winning 3 point attempt.

Gustavus will host Carleton on Saturday night for the MIAC play-off championship and the automatic bid to the NCAA D3 tournament. Who wouldn't want to bet on the host Gusties, the 2nd most successful MIAC program with 16 regular season and 3 post-season titles through the years? But, on the other hand, who would want to bet against the Carleton Knights, the way they've been playing? Not me.

Women's Semi-Finals

St. Thomas 63 Gustavus 60

St. Ben's 69 St. Catherine 61 (ot)

The surprises just keep on coming in the MIAC women's playoffs. And, no, I'm not talking about St. Thomas. The Tommies won their second road play-off game but neither one is really an upset, as I told you a week or two ago.

But St. Catherine, now, that's another story. St. Cate's took it to #1 seeded St. Ben's, leading 35-23 at the half, 44-30 at about 15:00 of the 2nd half, and 46-39 at about 10:00. But the Bennies mounted a charge--a 15-0 charge, in fact--to take their first lead since 20-18. They never again trailed, though the game was tied again at 58 and 60. In fact, when Heather Gillund missed a pair of throws at 0:02, that 58-all tie called for an overtime to settle the issue.

St. Ben's scored 1st in OT but the Cates tied it up at 60. But from there it was all Bennies all the time as Gillund scored 6 of her 25 points and St. Cate's missed their last 6 FG attempts.

It was a game of runs. St. Cate's took charge by finishing up the 1st half with a 19-3 run during which Laura Kalbfell contributed 8 points and 5 boards. St. Ben's responded with that 15-0 run--part of a larger 27-4 run--in which Laura Canton scored 8 points. An Amy Battey 3 at 0:17 forced the OT. But the Bennies got the last laugh, blitzing the Cates 11-3 in OT.

Meanwhile, neither the Tommies nor the Gusties ever led the other by more than 5 points. The Tommies' biggest leads were at 8-3 and 61-56, the Gusties' at 49-44. You can do the math. From 44-49 (at about the 10:00 mark) to 61-56 (inside of a minute), St. Thomas out-scored the Gusties 17-7 as Jazmin Townsend scored 7, Booth 6 and Sara Smith 4 points. In the end, the Tommies were able to hold on when Brianna Radtke missed a 3 at 0:01.

Now it's traditional rivals St. Thomas at St. Ben's. Oddly enough, both teams lost the possession game last night. St. Ben's had 4 more turnovers and 5 fewer offensive boards than St. Cate's. And, the Tommies had 5 more turnovers and 6 fewer offensive boards than Gustavus. One of them will do better on those parameters on Saturday night, and on the season's record it should be St. Ben's on turnovers and the Tommies on the offensive glass. The Bennies averaged 13.7 turnovers and 8.9 offensive boards, the Tommies 19.9 and 10.9. Still, I've ridden with St. Thomas so far, and I think they'll win on Saturday. After all, the last time these 2 teams played at St. Ben's, the Tommies prevailed 66-65. (Of course, the Bennies won in St. Paul 60-51).

Men's 1st Round

Augsburg 86 St. John's 75

Carleton 71 Hamline 63

February 23, 2010

There were no upsets this time, unless it was Hamline's Ray Brown finishing his college career with just 2 field goals and 9 points in the Pipers 71-63 loss at the Carleton Knights. Junior center Carl Hipp made the most of just 19 minutes of playing time as the only Piper in double figures with 26 points, while also adding 7 rebounds and 4 blocks. But Hipp made just 6-of-14 free throws.

Hamline led by as many as 7 (16-9) and as late as 10:14 of the 2nd half (42-41). But Carleton went on a 14-4 run with the last 8 of those 14 points coming on an 8-0 run, all with Hipp on the bench with 4 fouls. Hipp promptly returned and over the final 6:37 he hit 6-of-7 FG but only 2-of-4 FT, plus a defensive rebound and a pair of blocks. Still, the Pipers never got closer than 4. Trailing 62-58 at 1:52, Hipp missed a free throw and then Brandon Rieg turned it over. Finally at 1:01 Carleton scored off of the offensive glass.

That put-back was among Seth Jonker's 26 points for the Knights.

The Augsburg-St. John's contest followed a similar script to a point. The visiting Johnnies led by as many as 7 (14-7 and 16-9) and as late as 8:19 of the 1st half (27-24). But in this case the home team took the lead for good at 7:08 of the 1st, and led by 5 at the half and as many as 17 in the 2nd.

David Olson led Augsburg with 18 points, 5 boards and 3 steals, and Matt Quammen came off the bench to hit 5 3s. Aaron Burtzel led the Johnnies as usual with 22 points and 7 boards.

The MIAC Player of the Year completed his season tonight, it's just a question of whether that is Burtzel or Hipp. And as a result of this 1st round action, #3 seed Augsburg will visit #2 Gustavus in Thursday's semi, while the Tommies will host #4 Carleton.

Women's 1st Round

St. Thomas 60 Macalester 52

St. Catherine's 79 Concordia (Moorhead) 65

February 22, 2010

The lower seeds won both games, but only St. Cate's won an upset.

St. Thomas continued its excellent late-season play, falling behind 7-0 but promptly putting together a 24-6 run. The Tommies led 28-21 at the half, and the Lady Scots never got closer than 6. Macalester's senior bigs, Ann Baltzer and Trina PaStarr, combined for 29 points and 18 boards, but didn't get enough help. The Lady Scots shot just 25 percent from the field. Meanwhile, Tommies' post Rachel Booth led everybody with 20 points and 15 boards.

St. Cate's broke away from a 46-46 tie in the 2nd half. A 20-9 run put the Wildcats ahead 66-55 with 3:20 to go, and they ultimately extended the lead to 79-62. Junior Laura Kalbfell led the MIAC in scoring at 17.5 points per regular season game, and tonight she led all scorers with 23 and her team with 7 boards. St. Cate's shot 54.6 percent from the field, including 7-for-9 during their game-winning surge.

As a result of St. Cate's upset, they will travel to St. Ben's, while St. Thomas will visit Gustavus, both on Thursday. I'm still picking the arch-rival Tommies and Bennies to advance.

Playoff Preview

February 21, 2010

It seems way too early for post-season play to be underway, but in the MIAC, there it is.

Women Start Monday February 22

The great story of this MIAC season has been the performance of the Macalester Lady Scots, whose program was suspended as recently as 5 years ago for lack of enough healthy bodies to put out there on the court. Coach Ellen Thompson and a senior class led by Trina PaStarr and Ann Baltzer have brought the Scots all the way back to legitimate contention for an MIAC title. The regular season title didn't quite happen, as Macalester finished 2 games behind co-champions Gustavus and St. Ben's in 4th place. But they, and 4 other teams, can be considered to have a chance at the post-season title for 2010.

The featured 1st round game, then, is St. Thomas (15-7, 18-7) at Macalester (16-6, 16-9). St. Thomas is trying to bounce back, too, though they've got a higher standard with 11 MIAC titles, 4 NCAA D3 Final 4s, and a national championship in 1991. Center Rachel Booth, who transferred in from D2 St. Cloud State, where she was the NSIC post-season MVP last year, is a legitimate MIAC Player of the Year candidate, though it took awhile for coach Ruth Sinn to get all of the pieces integrated. Just when it looked as if that had happened, the Tommies faltered a bit, losing 2 of their last 3 games.

The Lady Scots, meanwhile, won their last 5 after a bit of a January swoon, and have 2 Player of the Year candidates in Baltzer and PaStarr.

The other 1st round game has St. Catherine's (10-12, 11-14) at Concordia (Moorhead) (17-5, 18-7) in a game that the hosts should win fairly easily. Laura Kalbfell of St. Cate's led the MIAC in scoring at 17.5 ppg, and St. Cate's stayed within 76-71 at Concordia just last week, so who knows?

I'm picking St. Thomas and Concordia to advance, which would mean that the Tommies would visit Gustavus, and Concordia would take on St. Ben's in the semi-finals on Thursday. If those are the match-ups, I like St. Thomas and St. Ben's, and so the 2 arch-rivals would square off at St. Joseph, MN, on Saturday afternoon. Even I can't figure out who would win that one.

Men Start Tuesday February 23

The big news here was an all-time MIAC record 32 straight conference wins by, well, I doubt that I have to tell you who did that. If you find that and 5 straight regular season conference titles to be a bit boring, well, you can get in line. But, I'll tell you what. If coach Steve Fritz and the Tommies can translate all of that into some post-season NCAA D3 noise, all will be forgiven.

The Tommies, of course, get a 1st round bye. They should probably get a 2nd round bye as well, what with a 6 game margin over 2nd place in the final regular season standings. So, the featured 1st round attraction is Hamline (11-9, 15-10) at Carleton (12-8, 16-9). The news here is that Carleton is in the play-offs at all, much less opening on their home court. The Carls struggled throughout the early going after losing superstar Zach Johnson from last year's squad to graduation. But, after a 3-7 start in the conference, the Knights finished 9-1, losing only to the 1st place Tommies, and only 58-55 at that just 2 weeks ago. Guard Jeremy Sutherland leads the Carls' balanced attack with 13 points and 4 assists per game.

Hamline counters with surely 2 of the MIAC's 5 best players--post Carl Hipp (3rd in the conference with 17.2 ppg) and guard Ray Brown (2nd at 17.7). But after a big win over Gustavus, the Pipers lost their last 3 games of the regular season.

The other 1st round game has St. John's (11-9, 14-11) at Augsburg (13-7, 18-7). The Johnnies' Aaron Burtzel is another of the conference's top performers with 13 points, 10 rebounds and a league-leading 5 assists per game, plus a league-leading 63 percent shooting percentage. But Augsburg would appear to have more weapons.

So Augsburg join Carleton as favorites in these 1st round match-ups, which means it would be Carleton at St. Thomas and Augsburg at Gustavus in the semis. The home teams should win again, and nobody is going to beat St. Thomas in the final no matter where they play that one.

Players of the Year

My picks would be Ann Baltzer of Macalester, and Aaron Burtzel of St. John's.

The first 5 among the women are Baltzer, Booth, Nord (Concordia), PaStarr, Stifter (St. Ben's).

Men: Burtzel, Brown, Hipp, Healy and Nicolai (the latter 2 being the Tommies' guards).

Class of 2010 (Incoming, Not Outgoing) Key to Pam Borton's Legacy

Gopher Women's Update

Maybe you saw Brittney McCoy's comment to a Strib reporter the other day, just before the Gophers went out and stunk it up again in the Big Ten tournament. "I think there are some people who are checked out.... We're just trying to drag them along with us." Ouch. When was the last time you heard an elite athlete say something like that about her teammates. The frustration must have been thick there at the end.

I have no idea who McCoy is referring to as having "checked out," but I do know that Ashley Ellis-Milan's numbers dropped from 12 ppg last year to under 10 this year, and from 7 boards to 5. Katie Ohm's FT percentage dropped from 72 to 61!

Among the returnees for next year, barring any out-bound transfers: Kiara Buford 40.2 FG percentage, Jackie Voigt 38.4, Brianna Mastey 34, China Antoine 37.8, Leah Cotton 25.3, Katie Loberg 36.

But next year is a new year, and how. Five new players are coming in, "maybe more," according to assistant coach Barb Smith. Does this in fact imply some out-bound migration? Think about that. There are or were 3 sophomores who "played" this year, and 2 first-years (a frosh and a JC transfer). Next year, 5 new kids. Practically half the roster. Only 1 of them a Minnesotan.

Last week the all-Big Ten team was announced and it included Jenna Smith of Illinois and formerly Bloomington Kennedy, and Kachine Alexander of Iowa and formerly Benilde-St. Margaret's on the 1st team. And, Alyssa Karel of Wisconsin and formerly Cretin-Derham Hall, and Kamille Wahlin of Iowa and formerly Crookston, MN, on the 2nd and 3rd teams, respectively. Meanwhile, 2 Gophers, McCoy and Buford, got honorable mention, one from the coaches and one from the writers.

Losing is one thing. Losing with kids from exotic places while Minnesotans are winning at Iowa and Wisconsin, surely that is the road to an early retirement.

Class of 2010 (Incoming, Not Outgoing) Key to Pam Borton's Legacy

Originally posted February 20

A couple days into the new year, I saw the Minnesota Gopher women beat Iowa 72-69 in overtime at the Barn. I quickly emailed my buddy Kevin that "these are probably the 2 worst teams in the Big Ten."

But, no, I was wrong. The young Hawkeyes have improved--after a terrible 1-5 start in the conference, they're now an amazing 8-7. But, the older and more experienced Gophers have indeed been 1 of the 2 worst teams in the Big Ten, and perhaps the worst. After 6 straight losses, they managed a win at Penn State and then a respectable showing against 1st place Ohio State. Still, they're just a half a game ahead of last place Illinois, and they've lost twice to the Illini--it wasn't even close at the Barn, 61-48 Illinois. And, right now, the Gophers are the only Big Ten team with a losing record overall.

As a result, there's been a fair amount of discussion on the Gopher women's basketball forums about Pam Borton's status as Gopher coach. Of course, the only discussion that matters is the one going on inside of athletic director Joel Maturi's head and, as one forum participant said, it would seem likely that "Pam Borton isn't going anywhere."

Her college class of 2010, in other words, won't decide her fate, no matter how hard her critics might wish it to be so. But, on the other hand, the high school class of 2010 very likely will.

But, it would be pretty unheard of for a coach to be dismissed with a 164-86 record, 5 seasons (out of 7, now 8) with 20 wins, and never a losing season until (in all likelihood) this year. And her record in the Big Ten is a more than respectable 77-52. Her 164 wins are just 8 shy of Ellen Mosher-Hanson's record total, and both her overall and conference winning percentages are the best ever for the Gopher program. In fact, she's only the 2nd Minnesota coach ever to fashion a winning record in more than 1 season at the helm. Let's not pretend that this is an easy place to win.

So, for Gopher fans who can still remember coaches LaRue Fields and Cheryl Littlejohn, these are the good old days, even considering the disaster that 2009-2010 has become.

Still, her critics can and do throw a lot of shortcomings up against the wall, and some of them stick. First, even when winning, Borton's crew is excrutiatingly difficult to watch sometimes. Essentially, the theory goes, Borton recruits for defense, and she's not a good enough coach to teach her kids to play offense after they arrive at the U. Their style is, fundamentally, to grind down the other side. But, in doing so, they grind down their fans, too, with those 30 percent shooting nights, and worse. The tangible evidence is that attendance at Gopher games began a long, slow decline even as they won 19, 17, 20 and 20 games the past 4 years, and as this season has wound down, attendance recently has been barely half of what was typical 4 and 5 years ago.

Then there's the general lack of improvement that I referenced above when I noted that the young Iowa Hawkeyes have improved--dramatically improved--over the course of this season. Borton's teams, on the other hand, don't seem to improve over the course of a season and her players don't seem to improve over the course of their careers. Corollary to the first point is the alleged late-season swoon. Her teams, they say, collapse down the stretch.

The evidence for this is mixed. Her overall conference winning percentage is .597. Through January 31, it's .609 and, in February and March, it's .583. That's a difference of 2 1/2 games, or an extra late-season loss every 3 1/2 years. Of course, her hugely talented 2006 squad dropped from 7-1 to 4-4 in the conference, and from 17-4 as of February 5 to 2-6 the rest of the way. From 2006 to 2010, they've gone 27-19 through January 31, and 17-18 thereafter. Of course, the real point may be that since 2006 they've gone just 33-32 in the conference overall.

The one fact that supports the "late-season swoon" theory is the Gophers' disappointing 4-7 record in the Big Ten tournament under Borton, with 4 of the 7 losses coming against opponents seeded lower than themselves.

In the end her legacy comes down to how you regard the 2 great events of her career--the Final Four in 2004, and the mass exodus of players who bolted from her program in 2006. Her supporters celebrate her achievements in 2004 (and 2003 and 2005) with Lindsay Whalen and Janel McCarville) and they tend to cut her some slack because she's had to rebuild the program since 2006. Her critics credit 2003, 2004 and 2005 to Whalen and McCarville and Brenda Oldfield Freese and even Cheryl Littlejohn, who recruited Whalen and McCarville, more than they credit Borton. And, they say, if Borton had to rebuild after 2006, it was her own damn fault for alienating Broback, Davis, Lacy, Podominick and Williams.

And, her legacy comes down to whether you think or thought that the success of 2002 through February 5, 2006 (115 wins and 36 losses) is or was sustainable. The evidence here is pretty conclusive. Minnesota has not produced another player like Lindsay Whalen since, well, Whalen in 2000, with the possible exception of Tayler Hill in 2009. Forget whether the Gophers could recruit such a player, which in the case of Hill they could not do. The point is that such a player did not exist. So the idea that Borton and the Gophers could be expected to replicate that success seems somewhat far-fetched.

On the other hand, the 2006 squad seemed to have the potential to do just that. That team had 5 Minnesota Ms. Basketballs--April Calhoun, Shannon Bolden, Liz Podominick, Leslie Knight and Ashley Ellis-Milan--plus Minnesotans Jamie Broback, Kelly Roysland and Shannon Schonrock. In other words, the Gophers had successfully recruited every Minnesotan worth having and had missed on virtually no one. But, then, in addition to that, there were the fruits of the Final Four--Brittney Davis, Emily Fox, Lauren Lacy and Natasha Williams, highly recruited players from outside the Gophers' natural recruiting area. And it was Pam Borton who recruited every single one of those players to her program.

But, dissension destroyed that nucleus, and some say that Pam has "lost" the class of 2010, too--that the kids aren't really competing, that they've checked out. How much blame the exodus of 2006 you assign to Pam Borton probably pretty much defines your position on whether she should continue as Gopher coach, and it probably also predicts whether you think she's "lost" this year's team, as well.

Recruiting Questions

For some, Borton's recruiting strategies and tactics are almost worse than the griding style of play and the slow decline in the won and lost columns. Most discouraging is the fact that there have been a few of Minnesota's best players who didn't want to play for Pam Borton. Everybody knows that Tayler Hill was never going to go to the U. And highly regarded Lakeville North post Cassie Rochel was rumored to have no interest whatsoever in becoming a Minnesota Gopher. After flirting with the Iowa Hawkeyes, she became a Wisconsin Badger. Theiarra Taylor also made it pretty clear she wasn't going to play for Pam, and ended up in Iowa City.

Then there are the kids whom Pam never offered. That would include such talents as Kamille Wahlin, who became a starter for Iowa as a freshman, and Brittney Chambers, who is averaging in double figures for Kansas State, also as a freshman. Then, to double the heartburn of the Gopher faithful, Minnesota at the same time was short of depth in the backcourt and only filled up the roster with a couple of quick-and-dirty-fixes from the junior college ranks (Kay Sylva and then China Antoine. Antoine proved to be an exciting player--but not nearly as effective as Wahlin or Alyssa Karel, a graduate of Cretin High in St. Paul, for the Wisconsin Badgers.)

Just because Wahin and Karel have become better Big Ten point guards than the Gophers' Antoine and Brittney McCoy doesn't mean they were better prospects. It may mean--and Borton's critics say, it proves--that the Gophers aren't getting as good of coaching in college, and they're not developing the way they should. The Gophers' highly regarded recruiting class of 2009/2013 is another case in point. Rating in the top 20 coming in, Kiara Buford, Briana Mastey and Jackie Voigt are now part of the nucleus of the Gophers' worst team in almost a decade. Is it nature, or nurture? Did Pam recruit the wrong kids, or coach them badly?

Or both? Pam seems habitually to recruit kids who played inside in high school (Leslie Knight, Katie Ohm, Brianna Mastey) and then try to move them to the perimeter in college, only to find they lack the quickness and ball-handling skills to do so successfully. Knight only thrived under Borton when the mass exodus allowed her to move back inside where, clearly, she belonged.

But, like the man said, "Pam ain't goin' nowhere." Still, the die will be cast next year, as Pam brings in her second "big" class of 5 recruits. Disappointing as they've been, this year's senior class will leave some big holes in the Gophers' lineup. Next year's freshmen will have the opportunity to contribute right away, if they can.

2010-2011 Roster

Freshmen in italics

Center--Amber Dvorak, Kristin Dockery

Power Forward--Jackie Voigt, Katie Loberg, Shonte Clay, Micaella Riche, Nicole Mastey

Small Forward--Brianna Mastey, Kionna Kellogg

Point Guard--China Antoine, Leah Cotton, Janelle Cannon

Off Guard--Kiara Buford, Sari Noga

Key roster issues include: 1) There's no obvious post, as Dvorak has red-shirted this year and Dockery has been plagued by injuries and illness throughout her career. Katie Loberg, who has played the 4 this year and seems to shy away from contact a bit, nevertheless may be the best option in the paint. Clay and Riche are smallish posts (at 6-foot-2) who will probably move over to the 4.

2) Guard depth, as no one can say whether Cotton, Cannon or Noga can contribute, potentially leaving the Gophers with only 2 useful guards (at a time when, as noted, Minnesota high school guards are excelling from Iowa to Wisconsin and from Ohio State to Kansas State).

If these holes cannot be filled, and filled quickly, then the Gopher program and Pam Borton are in for a very hard time, and Borton will be gone before the high school class of 2010 has used up their eligibility.

Cretin and Stillwater Preview Section 4AAAA Action

The question of the day is whether anybody can beat the Hopkins (in 4A) or St. Paul Johnson (in 3A) boys in this year's MSHSL play-offs. Well, Cretin-Derham Hall and Stillwater played an exciting, hard-fought, physical Suburban East battle tonight in which the Ponies prevailed 60-58. Cretin was rated #4AAAA going in, while Stillwater was rated in the top 10 earlier in the season. But tonight's loss cost Cretin a chance to tie for the Suburban East conference title--the Raiders now trail 1st place Forest Lake by 2 games with 1 to play--and also could have cost them the #1 seed in Section 4AAAA. If not the Raiders, that honor is likely to go to Henry Sibley rather than the Ponies, who still trail Cretin in the Suburban East.

The bottom line: Neither of the 2 teams I saw tonight is a threat to Hopkins at the state tournament. But there's a catch. Cretin was without 6-8 post Seantrel Henderson and 6-4 sophomore forward Taylor Montero, the team's #1 and #3 scorers during the month of February. It's not hard to imagine Cretin--assuming both Henderson and Montero are back on the court at full strength--turning the tables on the Ponies in Section 4AAAA play. I was told by a Raider fan that Henderson has a sore ankle, but would be back on the court as soon as the games mean something. I didn't get a report on Montero's injury.

With Henderson out, Stillwater opened up by pounding the ball in to 6-9 post Ryan Duxbury down low, and the senior responded by hitting his first 3 shots of the game. The Ponies quickly were in charge 6-0 and then 13-2. Cretin adjusted, however, and Duxbury didn't score another field goal the rest of the night. Alex Oman took over the scoring leadership the rest of the 1st half, and Stillwater led 6-0, 13-2, 23-12 and 28-17. Cretin began to creep back into contention after shifting to a trapping 2-3 zone defense at about the 4:00 mark. The Ponies shot 52 percent for the half, but just 33 percent against Cretin's zone. The score at the half was Stillwater 30 Cretin 22. Cretin shot just 35 percent.

Stillwater took its largest lead at 37-24 at 14:50 of the 2nd half, as Miles Heller scored 5 of the Ponies' 1st 7 points. The Raiders went back into their trapping 2-3 zone about this time, and picked up the intensity a notch or three. Stillwater was able to protect the ball, but now the Ponies weren't getting the shots they wanted. Meanwhile, Raijon Kelly suddenly became a 1-man wrecking crew. Kelly scored all of his 23 points in the 2nd half on 8-of-11 shooting, including dipsy-doodle drives to the hoop, rainbow 3s, 15-footers, and even a put-back. Suddenly, Cretin was ahead 40-39 at 9:28, then 45-41 at 8:38, and 52-49 at 3:22.

Still, 2 plays by Brian Smith characterized the Raiders' night. Trailing 37-24, Smith drove to the hoop from the right wing, but had his shot blocked. The ball was on the floor for what seemed like 30 seconds when Smith finally recovered it and called a timeout. A few seconds later, Kelly scored his 1st 2 points of the night, the 1st 2 of what would become a 7-0 and then an 18-2 and a 21-4 run for the Raiders.

Then, leading 52-51 at 2:32, Smith again drove to the hoop from the right wing, and laid the ball into the hoop. Long after the shot had left his hand, Smith came back down to earth on top of Stillwater's Oman. He was called for the charge and instead of leading by 3, the lead remained at 1. Fifteen seconds later Heller scored on an alley oop from guard Paul Franklin, Heller's 7th straight Pony point, for a 53-52 Stillwater lead. Kelly now missed a shot, Franklin drove for 2 more Pony points, and the FT shooting contest began. The Ponies hit just enough of them, 5-0f-7, to hold on for the win.

Cretin shot 58 percent from the field in the 2nd half and a respectable 46 percent for the night, but Kelly was the only Raider in double figures with those 23 points. The Ponies shot 48 percent from the field, as Heller scored 18 and Oman 15. Both teams made a combined 14-of-29 FT.

Olympic Games Are Pretty Spectacular

I go from "the Olympic Games are a big money-making machine" to "the Olympic Games are just plain spectacular as spectacle and as sport." Today, I'm thinking, they're pretty spectacular.

Most Awesome Things Olympic 2010

1. Shaun White, snowboard, pulls off the double McTwist.

2. Figure skater Joannie Rochette is sweeter and more beautiful than anybody, and more courageous even than Shaun White.

3. U.S. 2 Canada 2 at the end of regulation. OK, I'll still put Canada 3 U.S. 2 (OT) in the 3rd slot, as long as I can also mention that U.S. goalie Ryan Miller was named MVP of the Olympic hockey tournament.

4. Short track speedskater Apolo Ohno continues to charm everybody--well, everybody except the judge who (rightfully, as it happens) DQs Apolo in the 500.

5. Alpine skier Lindsay Vonn. Man, can she talk. Still, I like her.

6. The 2 Koreans wipe out, handing medals to Ohno and J.R. Celski in the men's 1500.

7. "The screamer," Katherine Reuter of the U.S., wins silver in ladies 1000 m short track speed skating.

8. Evan Lysacek thumps that cocky Russian, Plushenko, in men's figure skating. Not that figure skating is a sport, of course.

9. Bode Miller, U.S., won how many medals in Alpine skiing?

10. Americans Bill DeMong and Johnny Spillane kick ass in the combined. Combined what?

The Big Game February 2010

The Big Game February 2010

Plus the Most Valuable Minnesotan and Most Valuable Coach of the day. But first, the summation:

All-February

Rachel Booth, St. Thomas women

Cassie Rochel, Lakeville North girls

Matt Schneck, St. Cloud State men

Zack Riedeman, Forest Lake boys

Kevin Noreen, Minnesota Transitions boys

Team of the Month

Lakeville North girls

St. Thomas women

Carleton men

Minneapolis Community and Technical College men

Minnesota State-Mankato men

Coach of the Month

Andy Berkvam, Lakeville North girls

Vern Simmons, St. Paul Johnson boys

Ruth Sinn, St. Thomas women

Guy Kalland, Carleton men

Jay Pivic, MCTC men

History in the Making

1. Michigan women 74 Minnesota 40. One of the worst defeats in Gophers history.

2. MCTC team will be disbanded at the end of this season. Women, too, I assume.

3. Carleton men 73 St. Thomas 67. On any given night.

4. Kevin Noreen has 55 and 50 point nights.

5. Minnesota men 62 Illinois 60. First win in Champaign in 14 years.

2/28 Rochester CC men 85 Minneapolis CTC 74, and Anoka-Ramsey women 74 Minneapolis 72. MVM: Katie Loberg, Minnesota. The freshman was about the only Gopher who showed up today, finishing with 10 points and 11 boards, 8 of them on the offensive end, plus 3 steals and a block, all team highs along with her 6 turnovers. (Against all odds, both Illinois and Indiana won today to relegate the Gophers to sole possession of last place in the Big Ten.) MVC: Jay Pivec, Minneapolis CTC.

2/27 Minnesota men 62 Illinois 60. The Gophers win in Champaign for the 1st time in 14 years, though the Illini came up just 1 possession short of over-coming a 51-32 deficit with 7:11 to go. Jeremy Sutherland, Carleton men 22/5 assists. Guy Kalland, Carleton men, and Ruth Sinn, St. Thomas women (see separate post on MIAC play-offs).

2/26 Anoka-Ramsey CC women 94 Rainy River 53, and Minneapolis CTC men 88 Vermillion 67. The two #5 nationally-rated teams start the MCAC playoffs with victories. MVM: Identical twins Kenny (22/10 rebounds/11 assists) and Peter (29/10 rebounds) Olafeso, MCTC. MVC: Andy Berkvam, Lakeville North girls.

2/25 Michigan women 65 Minnesota 54. The Gophers took a 13-0 lead and seemed to be in command until about 11:00 of the 2nd half, when the Wolverines went on a 10 minute 24-2 run. Michigan scored on 9 of 14 possessions with no turnovers, while the Gophers scored on 1 of 14 with 4 turnovers. Marshall Bjorklund, Sibley East boys. Guy Kalland, Carleton men (see separate post on MIAC play-offs).

2/24 Purdue men 59 Minnesota 58. The Gophers fell behind 26-12, then used a 24-4 run to take command. But Purdue scored on 11 of its last 13 possessions after the 9 minute mark. Ralph Sampson, Minnesota 21/7 rebounds/2 assists. Mike Durbin, St. Ben's.

2/23 New London-Spicer girls 45 Sauk Center 41. #2AA over #1AA, and both in Section 5AA. Louis Cox and Jordan Hughes, Mpls. Henry combined 56/16 assists/13 rebounds/Hughes 5 steals in 105-88 win over Washburn. Mike Dreier, New London-Spicer.

2/22 MIAC Play-offs: St. Thomas women 60 Macalester 52, and St. Catherine's 79 Concordia (Moorhead) 65. The lower seeds won both games, but only St. Cate's won an upset. The Wildcats pulled away from a 46-46 tie to lead 66-55 at 3:20. The Tommies fell behind 7-0, then went on a 24-6 run. The Lady Scots never got closer than 6. Rachel Booth, St. Thomas 20/15 rebounds. Gary Rufsvold, St. Cate's.

2/21 Minnesota Gopher women 59 Indiana 50. The Gophers opened the game with a 12-0 run and then, with the score 29-25 early in the 2nd half, ripped off a 14-0 run. Kiara Buford and Katie Ohm scored 19 of 26 points in the 2 big runs. The Hoosiers turned the ball over on half of their 16 possessions during those runs. Still, it was Brittney McCoy who was the Gophers' MVP with 5 points, 4 boards, 4 assists and 2 steals during the 2 runs and 9 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists in total. Pam Borton, Minnesota.

2/20 Minnesota Gopher men 81 Indiana 58. Gophers get back to .500 in the Big Ten, and keep their slim NCAA tournament hopes alive. Jineen Williams, Concordia (St. Paul) 36. Vern Simmons, St. Paul Johnson boys.

2/19 Mpls. Roosevelt girls 54 Mpls. South 52. The Teddies take sole possession of 1st place in the Mpls. Conference as Shakila Boler hits 2 throws with 4 seconds remaining in the game. Kahla Becken, Centennial girls 29. Jill Becken, Centennial 300th win.

2/18 Minnesota men 68 Wisconsin 52. Wisconsin shoots 31 percent. Blake Hoffarber, Minnesota 16/9 rebounds. Tubby Smith, Minnesota.

2/17 St. Thomas men 75 Gustavus 51. 1st place (and #3 nationally) Tommies are 24 points and 6 games better than 2nd place. Heather Gillund, St. Ben's 25. Guy Kalland, Carleton men.

2/16 Lakeville North girls 84 Eden Prairie 60. You can see my full report on this game at www.kjasr.com. Zack Riedeman, Forest Lake 30. Andy Berkvam, Lakeville North.

2/15 Mpls. North boys 80 Mpls. Patrick Henry 74. Rivalry game. Malik El-Amin scored 29 for North. I heard that he is Khalid's nephew, but nobody seems to be quite sure. Malik El-Amin, Mpls. North. Aaron Clusiau, Nashwauk-Keewatin girls.

2/14 Northwestern men 77 Minnesota 74. Ouch. Leading 48-35, the Gophers turned it over 3 of their next 4 and 4 of their next 7 possessions. By the time they scored again, they were behind 55-52. Then tied at 62 in OT, the Gophers turned it over twice in a row and never caught up. The Wildcats closed regulation on a 22-9 run, and outscored Minnesota 21-12 off of turnovers.

Ohio State women 64 Minnesota 59. Leading 35-31, the Gophers turned it over 3 of their next 5 possessions. By the time they scored again, they were behind 42-40, and they never led again.

2/13 New London-Spicer boys 89 Morris Area 68. #2AA at #1 AA finally gets played after 2 snow-0uts. #1 NLS is more than up for the challenge. Matt Schneck, St. Cloud State 34/10 rebounds. Kevin Schlagel, St. Cloud State.

2/12 Forest Lake boys 80 Cretin-Derham Hall 79 (OT). #6AAAA over #4. Zack Riedemen, Forest Lake 34. Dan Cremisino, Forest Lake.

2/11 Robbinsdale Cooper boys 93 Benilde-St. Margaret's 89 (OT). #5AAAA over #3AAA. Darryl Jones, Jr., Cooper 28, including a 25-footer at the buzzer to send it into OT. David Johnson, Cooper.

2/10 Macalester women 84 Concordia (Moorhead) 81. The Lady Scots clinched a play-off spot and knocked the Cobbers out of a tie for 2nd place Trina PaStarr matched her career high with 27 points. Bobby Fong, St. Olaf men 34/11 rebounds. Ruth Sinn, St. Thomas women.

2/9 Apple Valley boys 58 Eden Prairie 54. EP suffers its 2nd straight loss after gaining #1 status in AAAA. Tyus Jones, AV 18. Zach Goring, AV.

2/8 Bigfork girls 47 Deer River 39. #6A Bigfork gets to 17-2. Megan Powell, Bigfork 14. Greg Powell, Bigfork. (Morris Area boys [#2AAA] at New London-Spicer [#1AAA] was postponed for the second time.)

2/7 Michigan women 74 Minnesota 40. The Gopher women made it 6 straight losses, shooting 24.1 percent from the field, and 17.6 percent in the 2nd half. No MVM today. As for MVC, you're kidding, right?

2/6 Minnesota men 66 Penn State 64. The Gophers keep the Nittany Lions winless in the Big Ten on Lawrence Westbrook's 19-footer at the buzzer. Kevin Noreen, Minnesota Transitions boys 55. Nelson Whitmore and Melissa Young-Kruse, Hamline men and women.

2/5 Minnesota Timberwolves 117 Dallas 108. The Wolves broke a 4-year losing streak against the Mavs by finishing up on a 13-2 run. Cassie Rochel, Lakeville North girls 26. Kurt Rambis, Minnesota Timberwolves.

2/4 Wisconsin women 76 Minnesota 74 (20t). Make a positive of this if you can: With 24 seconds left in 2OT, the Gophs were up by 1. From that point forward, the Badgers had 2 possessions, 3 offensive rebounds, a steal, 3 points, 1 win, and the Gophers 1 possession, 1 turnover, 1 loss. Alyssa Karel, Wisconsin (formerly Cretin-Derham) 18 including those last 3 points. Kevin Boozikee, Mayer Lutheran boys.

2/3 Gustavus women 74 Macalester 66. The Gusties held on to 1st place in the MIAC, while the Lady Scots lost their 4th straight to fall 4 games behind Gustavus. Molly Mathiowetz, Gustavus 11/6 steals/2 blocks. Mark Tuchscherer, Champlin Park boys.

2/2 St. Croix Lutheran girls 65 Blake 35. The Crusaders remain unbeaten. SaVaughn Jordan, Maranatha boys 29. David Mielke, St. Croix Lutheran.

2/1 Columbia Heights boys 98 Robbinsdale Cooper 96. What fun. Jacob Thomas, Columbia Heights 34. Andy Berkvam, Lakeville North girls.

The Tommies Are Back

The Tommies are back? Well, we're obviously not talking about the men, who now have won 120 games in the past 4+ years while losing 18, and have just clinched their 5th straight MIAC regular season title.

No, clearly we're talking about the women who, after finishing 1st or 2nd in the MIAC 17 times in 21 years, have done so in just one of the past 7 years. Still, after a pair of losing seasons in 2004-05 and 2005-06 (only the 2nd and 3rd in the program's history), the Tommies have a respectable 65-25 record the past 3+ years with a conference title in 2007-08.

So, what do you mean, they're back? Have they been away?

Well, yes, they've been away, compared to what's going to happen next.

By which I mean to reference the fact that they're playing some damn good basketball now that the MIAC and D3 seasons are heading into the stretch run. The evidence includes a complete thrashing of Bethel last night at the Tommies' temporary home, Gangelhoff Arena, 74-57, in a game that wasn't that close. That was the Tommies' 7th straight win by an average of 21 points, including revenge wins over Macalester and St. Cate's.

But not only that. Next year, and beyond, the sky's the limit.

Last fall I picked the St. Thomas women to win the MIAC title, largely due to Rachel Booth's transferring in from D2 St. Cloud State, where she was the NSIC tournament MVP last March. An all-star in D2 ought to be a superstar at D3, I thought. Well, maybe, but not necessarily right away. It took the Tommies awhile to get themselves organized, by which time they'd started out the conference season with a disappointing 3-3 and, then 5-4, and, then, 7-5 record.

Part of the problem was the lack of a home court this year. Schoenecker Arena has been razed to make way for the new Anderson Athletic and Recreation Center. So, home games were split between Concordia and Macalester. On January 2, St. Thomas lost a road game at Macalester 60-41. In January 30, they won a home game at Macalester 76-75. After starting 2-3 at "home," the Tommies have now won 5 straight.

The bottom line is that Coach Ruth Sinn has Booth and company looking like a well-oiled machine at the appointed hour.

St. Thomas 74 Bethel 57

Last night, for example, the Tommies jumped out to a 6-0 lead as Becky Theisen contributed 4 points and 2 offensive rebounds. She had her 4th offensive board and her 1st steal by the 17:00 mark, but Bethel soon had tied it up at 7. It was still 15-13 at 10:54 when the Tommies made their next move, a 9-0 run that extended the lead into double figures for the 1st time at 24-13. Ali Johnson had a 3 and a pair of assists during this run. Then, with the score 31-22, the Tommies scored the last 8 points of the half as Johnson contributed another 3, 2 assists, a rebound and a block.

In the second half, Bethel got as close as 13 before a 22-11 run made it St. Thomas 65 Bethel 41. Johnson scored the 1st 6 of those 22 points on a pair of 3s, and the rout was on.

Booth contributed 14 points, plus 6 rebounds and 6 blocked shots, and I think it's fair to say that she is nicely integrated into the whole scheme of things. She passed up shots to look to kick the ball out to her teammates on the outside. A reasonable person (such as myself) could say that she should have shot the ball more often than the 10 times that she did. (She made 5-of-10 shots, pretty much in line with her season's percentage of .517, but with less than her usual output of 6-and-a-half field goals made out of 13 shots per game.) She already owned the Tommies' season record with 63 blocks before last night, and she leads the team with 16 points and 9 rebounds per game.

Has she lived up to my designation of her as the MIAC pre-season player of the year? Probably not. I would now go with Ann Baltzer, who has been a tower of strength for the surprising Macalester Lady Scots with 16 points and 7 boards per game. Even among her own teammates, Booth is more of a "first among equals" type of contributor. Johnson, Jordyn Sears and Theisen are a formidable trio of perimeter players. Johnson is the 3 point bomber with almost half of her team's 3s so far this year. Sears is the assist leader while Theisen, statistically, just does a little bit of everything. Last night it was hitting the offensive board.

Looking Ahead

And everybody will be back next year for St. Thomas except reserve post Andi Olson, who scores 3 points per game. Forwards Johnson and Jazmin Townsend are a sophomore and a junior, respectively, and so are guards Sears and Theisen a sophomore and a junior, respectively.

Then comes word of 2 new recruits who are rumored to be joining the Tommies next year: Maggie Weiers, a big, strong, 6-3 post from New Prague, and Taylor Young, a 6-0 guard who recently set the Edina career scoring record. Like Booth, these are girls who surely can play D2 ball and, like Booth, they are girls who surely will excel at D3. I would have thought that both would be going D1--Weiers is every bit the player, for example, that her teammate Hannah Strop is, and Strop is going to D1 South Dakota State.

Either one of these two players dropping down to D3 would be a coup for any program. But both of them? More MIAC titles would seem achievable. And national prominence, such as was enjoyed during the Ted Riverso era--4 D2 Final Fours and a national championship in 1991? I'd say yes.

But first, there's work to be done yet this year. An MIAC regular season title seems out of reach right now. But nobody is going to be happy to be playing the Tommies in the post-season tournament. The way they're playing now--and the way the other leaders have slipped up from time to time--the Tommies could even be termed the favorite. If the playoffs started today, it looks like St. Thomas would get Hamline at "home" and then, if victorious, a visit to arch-rival St. Ben's, where the Tommies already own a 66-65 win. If still kicking at that point, another road trip would be likely, this time to St. Peter and Gustavus, over whom the Tommies already have a 77-63 win.

Software Review: LiveStats; SideArm good, NeuLion disgraceful

How many people track basketball games-in-progress on the Internet? I have no idea. But there must be a lot of us, because LiveStats* applications are proliferating all over the place. I must have followed 150 games or more on LiveStats* during January alone--everything from the Timberwolves and Gopher men and women, to the MIAC and Northern Sun, and to other NBA, Big Ten and college games. The one thing you won't find yet is high school games on LiveStats* applications.

*I'm using LiveStats as a generic here, though the truth is that LiveStats is one of the brand names for these types of applications, though even then there are competing LiveStats apps, so LiveStats is in fact more of a generic than not. Other brand names include GameTracker and Game Channel.

But what they all have in common is they present screens in your Web browser, and then populate those screens with live, real-time feeds from basketball games in progress, generally right from the official scorers' automated stats system. Popular screen formats include scoreboard icons, and box scores, and play-by-play, summaries of team stats, and the like. There are even purported re-enactments of the play, but most of those are in embarrassingly rudimentary video game style (think early Pac Man) that detract from rather than enhance the LiveStats experience.

LiveStats applications of varying degrees of sophistication are available anywhere and everywhere--on sports news sites such as Yahoo Sports and ESPN, and on your favorite team or conference Web sites. I use Yahoo Sports as my vanilla day-to-day, minute-to-minute source for sports updates, and when I click on an NBA or NCAA box score of a game that is in progress, I get a rudimentary LiveStats app. There's a box score, but there's also a truncated play-by-play (after the game is over, it goes away and what's left is just the box score). On the other hand, if I click on GameChannel for the same game, I get a fully-featured LiveStats application.

I've seen and used maybe a dozen different systems, maybe more, and at the present time, I would say that the best, most useful system is one called SideArm LiveStats and its used, believe it or not, by many of the small colleges in the MIAC and Northern Sun conferences. I'll describe what I mean by a "fully-featured LiveStats application" by describing what a SideArm screen looks like. (Actually, there's more than one SideArm "look and feel." Personally, I like the one that would probably be described as more rudimentary, such as is used by the Winona State Warriors of the NSIC among many others.

Go to the Winona State Warriors Web site, click Multimedia > LiveStats > Basketball, Men's, and you'll see an example of the most perfect LiveStats screen yet devised. The other SideArm screen format--one that's used by St.Mary's of Winona and the MIAC and Minnesota State-Mankato of the NSIC--has a little more glitz but also a little less utility.

The SideArm Game Status Page

In the upper left there's a scoreboard. It's not 3D, it doesn't pretend to be the scoreboard in the arena. It just does what needs to be done, presenting the team names, the score and the time remaining. The score by halves is there, too, but that's more of a "nice to have" than a "need to have" feature. (The more the app tries to mimic any "real" object that you see in an arena or gymnasium, the less I like it. All of that stuff just gets in the way.)

To the right is your menu, enabling you to drill into and expand any of the content you see here on the Game Status page.

Below the scoreboard you've got your summary team stats and your abbreviated box score for each team.

Finally, near the center/right of the screen you've got your play by play for the current half.

These are the essential elements of any statistical package, and so they're the essential elements of a competent LiveStats system. What makes this the nearly-perfect LiveStats screen is that it's all here in one place. You can track the game in the play by play window, and watch the team and individual stats at the same time, without having to toggle to another page. And, yet, you can toggle to another page for additional detail if you want. But, because the graphics are functional but not fancy, the download time to go from page to page is acceptable within the context of an event in which you don't want to miss the details as they occur because you're stuck in limbo between pages.

Problems, Problems, Problems

Not that SideArm is truly "perfect," by the way. But the problems that are endemic to these applications are less serious in the SideArm system than in any other app I've seen. The 2 most frustrating features of these systems include:

1. Toggling between pages. This is by far the most frequent problem, though not necessarily the most annoying. And it's caused by the wasted screen space that is devoted to the completely useless Pac-Man "re-enactments" of game action, which are in fact not re-enactments at all but just little canned graphics that represent things like a FG made, FG missed, FT made, FT missed, rebound, etc. Every FG made, in other words, looks exactly like every other FG made, so it doesn't really tell you a damn thing. Except, well, it tells you that the designer of the app doesn't know shit about basketball and basketball fans. But anyway, because as much as half of the screen in some systems is dedicated to this useless stuff, the actual data won't fit on one screen, and so you've got to toggle to see all of the data. Not only that, but the video game garbage slows the whole app down to the point that the wait between screens exceeds the time between meaningful entries into your play by play, so you miss stuff. It's among the most hopelessly incompetent features that I've seen in any software app in probably a quarter-century.

2. Scrolling within the play by play. Sometimes the system falls behind and then dumps several plays into the play by play all at once, and you've got to scroll back to see what happened. This happens more in some systems than others, and specifically it seems to happen mostly in systems with those stupid Pac-Man visualizations. They take longer to run on-screen than they do in the real game. So anyway, they get behind and then you've got to scroll back. The problem is that all systems have automatic refresh features that bring you down to the most current play, which is a reasonable feature. But it overrides the manual use of the scroll. So it can be fiendishly difficult to scroll back, to find, to read and to understand some previous play or plays before you're bumped back to the bottom. If you're 5 or 6 plays behind, which happens with these systems, it can be utterly impossible to review the data until the half or the game is over and the auto-refresh is turned off. It's a function, first, of the frequency of refresh, and some refresh with ridiculous frequency, like every 3 or 4 seconds, others might give you 8 or 10. (And, just to be clear, those that refresh most frequently do not necessarily have any new data to present when they do. In fact, those that refresh the most frequently [i.e. that interfere with your efforts to scroll manually] are the same ones that have new data to present least frequently. Go figure.) And some scroll controls are hopelessly clunky and unresponsive in the first place--and you can guess that that is most likely the case in those apps where all your system resources are going to running to useless video game elements. And, those are the systems that create the need for scrolling most often. So, like I said, for some systems, all of this just snowballs to the point where the play by play is almost useless. If the system missed something, just forget about it because you're just not going to be able to reconstruct it with those applications until after the game is over.

So, the underlying issues are wasted screen space and the inability of the system to "keep up" with the play by play. Systems that don't do that eliminate these 2 problems right from the get-go, though it's true that every system that I've seen has some degree of difficulty associated with scrolling manually within the play by play. SideArm is probably the least clunky of them all.

A third issue:

3. Finding the application in the first place. There are a number of different conventions for how to locate the LiveStats application on a team Web site, but most of them are found in one of 2 places.

• Like Winona State, many have a Multimedia control in their Toolbar, and LiveStats can be found under there. In other cases, however, there's a Multimedia control, but that's not where you'll find LiveStats. Or, others don't have a Multimedia control at all.

• Some put a LiveStats icon on their schedules, so you have to find the Home page for the team in question, click on the schedule for that team, find today's game, and click on the LiveStats icon. Or, more and more, there's a Schedules control on the Toolbar, which seems to be designed primarily as a Quick Link to LiveStats, live audio and live video applications. Click on the team and game in question, and you'll get a dialog box showing the various ways to interact with that game, including LiveStats.

• And then there are all the rest of the methods, which mean that you have to hunt and peck. There's no rules of thumb and no rhyme or reason. If it's not under Multimedia and it's not on the Schedule, then God help you. It could be any-freaking-where.

Rating the Systems

The other problem is that users cannot yet choose their preferred LiveStats system. You decide what game or games you want to track, and the chances are there's only one highly-featured system to choose from (and then maybe a more rudimentary system like Yahoo Sports "box scores" as a back up; I've sometimes abandoned the more fully-featured systems for the reasons listed above and gone to a simpler system such as Yahoo box scores that provides less data but more reliably). So you use the tool that your team or sports Web site decides you should use. And sometimes people choose the worst damn systems.

I'm only going to comment on a few systems that I'm especially familiar with. There are many other apps out there.

1. SideArm. Still, SideArm is the best system I've seen. SideArm is a product of Internet Consulting Services, Syracuse, NY, which wants to build the whole darn Web site for college sports programs, and usually does. LiveStats is just one small part of the much larger system that includes live audio and/or video, podcasting, merchandising, newsletters, fund-raising, news releases, Halls of Fame, even recruiting services. It's probably a bit much to judge the quality of all of this other stuff by their acumen in designing their LiveStats app, but it sure looks like the folks at SideArm know college sports and sports fans and, oh yes, the Internet and Web technology.

As I mentioned above, SideArm LiveStats right now is the state of the art system. All the other systems can be evaluated basically by enumerating the things the SideArm does and they don't. The best thing about SideArm, however, is the one thing that you want as a user of these apps. You want the app to run at the speed at which the action takes place. You don't want to sit and wait and wait and wait for information when you know damn well that somewhere there's a basketball game that isn't waiting around for you. You don't want the app to be slowed down with stupid, uninformative graphics, and when you want to click to a different screen, you don't want the screen download to run more slowly than the game you're tracking. SideArm does all of that. It's not fancy. And I mean that in the best possible way. It gets the job done. Why is that so hard?

2. Game Channel. I access Game Channel from Yahoo Sports to track NBA games. For some reason, Game Channel lets me track NBA games whereas it tells me that I don't meet the system requirements to use Game Channel for college games. Specifically, apparently NCAA games only run on Game Channel if you've got IE Explorer and a new enough Windows OS. Well, screw that. But what I like about the NBA Game Channel app is, again, that everything is on one page. Actually, every else is too big and the play-by-play is too small. Have I said that play-by-play is the heart of any system? Without play-by-play, you're not even a real LiveStats application. Why can't people get the play-by-play right? Well, here it's a pretty fine play-by-play tool except that it's schmusched into the too-small dialogue box on the extreme right-hand side of the screen. A larger, more central play-by-play would just be good common sense. Still, it runs, it runs quick enough, and I can even scroll back in the play-by-play without too much trouble.

3. Yahoo Sports Box Scores. As mentioned above, when you click on box score for a game-in-progress on Yahoo Sports (NBA and NCAA men), you get more than a box. You get a truncated play-by-play, too. It only shows recent plays, maybe a eight to ten or 12 lines of text, and once a play gets older than that and it disappears from the dialogue box, it's gone, there's no mechanism to retrieve it. Not only that, but the play-by-play and boxes are truncated also in terms of what specific events they capture. The play-by-play and box only capture shots--made or missed--plus fouls. No rebounds, no assists, no nothing else. So it's hardly an all-purpose tool. But it runs and runs fast, so it's a good down-'n-dirty tool for a cursory update rather than fully tracking a game.

4. CBSSports Game Tracker or Live Stats. I'm guessing that CBSSports provides a variety of inducements, promotional considerations, and whatever, to rope in your major NCAA conferences and programs, 100 percent of which use a CBSSports application for LiveStats and other stuff. The problem is that these CBSSports LiveStats apps are the worst. I'm thinking that somebody's brother-in-law runs the LiveStats shop and has pictures of somebody upstairs doin' stuff they hadn't ought to do. There is no other plausible explanation for how an organization like CBSSports could be involved with such a major league loser of an operation.

The bottom line is that the CBSSports LiveStats apps exemplify everything that reeks in these applications. Half the screen space displays these incredibly moronic Pac Man figures gliding about a basketball court doing absolutely nothing that actually looks like basketball. I mean, there are hoops and there are little orange round things that bounce around. But, seriously, I've been to a basketball game and I've never seen a Pac Man figure hit a 3 point shot or go to the floor for a loose ball. This screen concept and design gives incompetence a bad name.

And I'm guessing that because the video game elements suck up all of the system resources, the whole things runs slower than molasses and therefore is often behind the action on the floor. Sometimes the scoreboard element will show a score like (I'll make up a score here) 42-35 with 7:00 left. But the Pac Men will still be enacting something that happened when the score was 38-33 with 9:00 left. And so the scoreboard will flash "42-35, 7:00" but then quickly go back to the older score and time, and re-enact all the plays that came between 9:00 and 7:00. By the time it finally gets down to 7:00, you know that the game has moved on, too, and there's probably 5:30 left and a new score that hasn't been posted yet.

And the play-by-play will often freeze up for 3 or 4 minutes at a time. You know damn well that the game is moving on, but you're not seeing any new play-by-play, nor any new score, until the Pac Men are done with their stupid little dance. Then, suddenly, the play-by-play will download 2 or 3 minutes' worth of plays. In order to find out what you've missed, you've got to scroll back, but the app won't let you do that because it's refreshing every 3 or 4 seconds. Even throughout that period of 3 or 4 minutes where you got no new data, the scroll still bumped you down to the bottom every 3 or 4 seconds, thereby preventing you from using that time for your own purposes insofar as your purposes might have been to review the play-by-play.

Now, the good news is that the play-by-play is among the most complete, what with assists and steals and blocks and turnovers and substitutions and all that stuff. But as soon as the play-by-play gets a little bit behind, you're never going to be able to look at all of that data anyway.

Like I said, launch this app and, suddenly, it's 1985.

5. NeuLion CBSSports LiveStats. CBSSports has 2 or 3 different LiveStats systems that it allows within its larger Web environment. I only remember that one of them is called NeuLion. Whether the folks who put it together are from Penn State or wherever, I don't know. Nor do I know what they've been smoking, but My God! Everything I said about CBSSports Live Stats generally (above) holds true, and then add that this is just the most klunky and buggy one of them all. Oh, and did I mention that this is the app that the Sports Information Office at the University of Minnesota, my alma mater, chose to thrust upon an unsuspecting Minnesota public. Ouch, that hurts.

For any number of Gopher games, both men and women, once the game ended the play-by-play purged about half of the data. It would show a play--let's say a FG made at 10:00 and the score tied 44-44. The very next play would be with 0:56 left in the game and the score 72-68. Sometimes it would do this for both the 1st and 2nd halves, sometimes just for the 2nd half.

Trying to use the app in real time is just as bad for the reasons I've mentioned above. Manually scrolling to see the plays you've missed (because the system missed them in real time) is among the most frustrating experiences I've had with a software app of any kind in many, many years and I've got about 50 applications in my Dock, everything from MS Office to Web browsers to your photo and movie and music software to you name it. This NeuLion software is just a total disgrace.