Wondering what happens to SIU's recruiting for next season, given the pending retirement of Coach Stein and the intentional delay of searching for a new coach to replace her.
SIU vs Evansville 2:00 pm, Saturday 2/26 at Banterra Center (Magic 95.1 & ESPN3)
Series History:
Last time out – We won 75-62 in Evansville extending our run in the series to nine straight wins. The Aces had four in double figures and were led by Myia Clark’s 14 points. All-Conference forward Abby Feit had a 10 & 11 double-double. Anna Newman and Je’Naiya Davis each had ten.
Overview Of Aces:
Evansville has struggled this year. But, with the struggles of Bradley, Evansville could get the nine seed at Hoops In The Heartland. It would be their best finish and seed since 2016-2017. Last game they played was a 99-57 loss at Missouri State on Thursday. Evansville is sixteenth in the nation in free throws made. Feit and Davis are just behind Brockmeyer and Silvey in points per game and Feit is second to Brockmeyer in rebounds per game.
Warren Nolan.com has us as a -20 favorite with an 94% chance to win.
Probable Starters:
Abby Feit Jr F 14.8 ppg 9.1 rebounds per game
Celine Dupont R-SO F 3.3 ppg
Je’Naiya Davis Jr G 15.9 ppg 3.5 assists per game
Anna Newman Sr. G 6.8 ppg
Myia Clark Sr G 12.0 ppg
Current Valley Standings/NET/RPI as of 2/24-25
1) SIU 13-2 (18-7)/ 68 / 51
2) Missouri State 12-3 (21-5) / 39 / 36
3) Illinois State 11-5 (15-12) / 124 / 157
4) Northern Iowa 10-5 (17-9) / 54 / 84
5) Loyola 9-7 (17-10) / 118 / 162
6) Valpo 8-8 (10-17) / 235 / 277
7) Drake 6-9 (14-12) / 85 / 110
8) Indiana State 5-10 (10-16) / 204 / 263
9) Evansville 2-13 (8-18) / 288 / 316
10) Bradley 1-15 (4-21) / 279 / 323
How We’re Doing:
Our Quadrant wins/losses by NET:
Q1 0-5 Indiana, Tennessee, UNI, Missouri State by one point, Middle Tennessee State by one point (all on the road)
Q2 4-1 Loss to UMKC
Q3 6-1 Loss to Western Illinois
Q4 7-0
We’re two points and one bad quarter from being 3-2 in Quadrant One. Which would make us much more attractive as an at-large possibility. The bad quarter was the first quarter at UNI where we got down 30-11, but outscored them 46-36 the rest of the game. The loss to Western could have been avoided as we coughed up a late lead in that one and lost 85-80.
The skinny for us the rest of the way is this….We win out; we get the number one seed at The Valley tournament. We lose one and Missouri State wins out; we’re the conference co-champions, but the number two seed in Moline due to our split with them and the tiebreaker being our lower NET ranking. That one point loss in Springfield really bites.
Found some statistics for us that place us in the top fifty nationally in…
Defense (Points allowed) 38th
3 point FG % Defense 18th
Assist to Turnover Ratio 49th
Turnover Margin 11th.
It’s Senior day! We’re 10-0 at home, let’s get this one and make it a perfect send off!
This game may be the last time we get to see the talents of Abby Brockmeyer, Makenzie Silvey, Gabby Walker, Caitlin Link and Payton McCallister in person. (Link and McCallister have the option of running it back next year for their COVID eligibility season.) If you can, get to Banterra, they deserve our support. This could also be the final home appearance for Coach Stein. For all of the tumultuous years prior to Coach Stein’s arrival nine years ago, she has run a clean and basically drama free program in her time at Southern. She will be honored as well, and deservedly so.
GO DAWGS!!
"The bureaucratic mentality is the only constant in the universe." ~Dr. Leonard H. McCoy
Good looking crowd today. Might be close to 1000.
"The bureaucratic mentality is the only constant in the universe." ~Dr. Leonard H. McCoy
Wow! Two threes and a couple of layups within the first 1:48.
10-0 Dawgs.
"The bureaucratic mentality is the only constant in the universe." ~Dr. Leonard H. McCoy
End of the 1st.
SIU 24
Aces 13
Mak came out gunning and had 9 in the quarter.
"The bureaucratic mentality is the only constant in the universe." ~Dr. Leonard H. McCoy
Sloppy 2nd quarter. Evansville pressing on nearly every possession.
38-20 SIU. Should be about 50.
"The bureaucratic mentality is the only constant in the universe." ~Dr. Leonard H. McCoy
After 3
SIU 60
UE 40
I think Stein is taking it east on them. She's been substituting pretty freely. And now she's digging deep into the bench. A Paige Clubb sighting.
"The bureaucratic mentality is the only constant in the universe." ~Dr. Leonard H. McCoy
Stein took her foot off the gas too early. UE creeping back into it. We're only up 16.
"The bureaucratic mentality is the only constant in the universe." ~Dr. Leonard H. McCoy
In a game that was much closer than it should have been....
SIU 80
UE 66
"The bureaucratic mentality is the only constant in the universe." ~Dr. Leonard H. McCoy
Abby finishes with another double double..
19 & 13
Mak finishes with 18.
Gabby was rebound short of a double double. 13 & 9
Caitlin Link had 12.
Love had 9.
"The bureaucratic mentality is the only constant in the universe." ~Dr. Leonard H. McCoy
Missouri State holds off a late rush from Indiana State (sounds familiar but with different teams) just beats the Trees 72-65.
ISU outscored MSU 26-17 in the fourth. MSU was up 60-40 with 8 to play. (Again, sounds familiar.)
It all comes down to next weekend. We get Loyola first on Thursday, then Valpo Saturday. MoSt has the opposite.
"The bureaucratic mentality is the only constant in the universe." ~Dr. Leonard H. McCoy
SIU vs Loyola 6:00 pm, Thursday 3/3 at The Gentile Arena (Magic 95.1 & ESPN+)
Series History:
Last time out – Waaay back on January 2nd we took care of business against the Fighting Sister Jean’s inside Banterra with a 63-50 win. Mak had 20, Abby had 15, and Gabby had 14. Allison Day led the Ramblers with 18. Although we own a 12-10 lead in the series, Loyola has won three of the last five - including three in a row at Gentile.
Overview Of Ramblers:
After starting the conference 0-2 Loyola has played .500 ball since and is currently on a five game winning streak and in 5th place in the Valley. Depending on how games shake out this weekend they could finish anywhere from a tie for third, to seventh place. Although their best seed at The Valley tournament is 5th. This is a very good defensive team. I chatted with one of our coaches after last Saturday’s game and that coach mentioned Loyola’s defense first when talking about them. LU-C is 2nd in points allowed. Second in FG% defense. First in 3 point FG% defense. But when you look at their offense it’s a bit of a different story: 9th in points per game. 7th in FG %. 6th in three point shooting.
Warren Nolan.com had us as +1 underdog a week ago. Now Nolan has us as -1 favorite with a 54 percent chance of winning.
Probable Starters for Loyola:
Sam Galanopolus 5-8 Jr. Guard 7.3ppg 35 % 3pt shooting
Mya Chandler 5-7 So. Guard 10.7ppg
Bre Hampton-Bey 5-7 Gr-S Guard 8.5ppg 5.2rpg
Julia Hoefling 6-1 Jr F 4.6ppg 5.1rpg
Allison Day 6-1 Sr F 10.1ppg 5.4rpg
Current Valley Tourney Probable Seeding for Moline
SIU 1 or 2
MSU 1, 2 or 3
UNI 2, 3 or 4
ISU-R 3 or 4
Loyola 5, 6, or 7
Valpo 5, 6 or 7
Drake 5, 6, 7 or 8
ISU-B 7 or 8
Evansville 9 or 10
Bradley 9 or 10
(This from The Valley’s web site. According to The Valley’s tiebreaker rules, I don’t see how MSU could fall to a three seed and UNI could move up to a two seed. The tie breaker is head to head then NET ranking and MSU is well ahead of the Panthers in NET and RPI.)
How We’re Doing:
Math is pretty simple here. We sweep the weekend and we’re the outright champs and number one seed in Moline. We split and MoSt splits; we’re still outright champs and number one seed. We split and MSU sweeps it’s co-champs and the number two seed in Moline due to tie breakers. Disaster strikes and we lose both (MSU either splits or sweeps) - we finish no worse than 2nd and the number two seed. MSU losses both and we’re still champs by ourselves no matter how we do and number one seed. See – that one point loss in Springfield is still haunting us.
Our Quardant Three loss (85-80 to Western Illinois in Macomb) has turned into a Quadrant FOUR loss thanks to WIU’s crappy play. So that pretty much shoots our at-large chances to hell. (Not that they were that great to begin with.) Our home win over Missouri State is a Q2 win, but our one point loss there is a Q1 loss. The NET and RPI calculations for quadrant wins and losses are kinda dumb.
So – It’s MVC Tourney title or bust if we want to make the NCAA Tournament. I think our projected fourteen seed as AQ is a bit low, but what do I know….
On to happier stuff! Makenzie Silvey is sitting at 1944 career points which is THIRD in Saluki Basketball HISTORY 27 points ahead of Anthony Bean and 68 points behind second place Kent Williams. Granted she’s played 139 games to Kent Williams’ 130 and Bean’s 129 but it’s still pretty cool!
GO DAWGS!!
"The bureaucratic mentality is the only constant in the universe." ~Dr. Leonard H. McCoy
Okay...
And.
Here.
We.
Go....
"The bureaucratic mentality is the only constant in the universe." ~Dr. Leonard H. McCoy
Started out 12-2 within the 1st 4-5 minutes. Loyola goes on a 6-0 run to end the quarter as their defense shows up.
SIU 12
LU 8
"The bureaucratic mentality is the only constant in the universe." ~Dr. Leonard H. McCoy
Great Saluki run in the 2nd forces a Loyola time out. 21-10 SIU leads.
