SIUE loses…we can’t rebound.

So the SIUE Cougars are not off to a great start at starting great. In all three regular season losses, the Cougars dug themselves into deep holes going into the locker room before rallying to a decent second half.

Last night’s game was flat out embarrassing. It was the Cougars biggest loss of the season, and it was against the one team they had a legitimate chance of beating. Here are the numbers.

SIUE is being outscored by their opponents 68-133 in the first half.
In the second half, SIUE is being outscored 121-107 in the second half.

What a difference a 15 minute break does for this team. I don’t know what it is. Coach Forrester has been stressing all along in his post-game press conferences that the team needs to play an entire 40 minutes. It is one thing to say it and another to do it. Who knows what it is. Whether it is nerves, inexperience, pre-game preparation or just a lack of urgency out of the gates something needs to be addressed by the Cougars coaching staff. Something has to be done to make this team score early, and it starts from the inside out.

The rebounding game has got to be better, and it’s not the players fault, we don’t have the tools to compete with some of the bigger athletes. Many of you saw the game against Illinois State, the Cougars were dominated in the paint. The same happened at Illinois. Last night, Evansville out-rebounded the Cougars 49-23. Those are eye-popping stats. the Aces grabbed 26 more rebounds than SIUE. You cannot win basketball games doing that. Mark Yelovich grabbed seven boards to lead the Cougars, followed by Aamir McCleary’s four. McCleary leads SIUE averaging five rebounds a game. Your offensive minded team leader and GUARD cannot lead your team in rebounds. This is spawned by the Cougars weak inside game, Nikolo Bundalo and Dob Mavrik shared time against Evansville in the paint, with 18 and 19 minutes respectfully. Mav had 2 rebounds and 2 points, while Nik had 3 rebounds and 4 points. There is no production from inside the paint. Zeke Schneider is finally sitting on the bench, he played just three minutes last night.

For the Cougars, the inside game and establishing some physical presence should be a priority. Whether it is feasible with this cast of players remains to be seen.

On the bright side, help is on the way for next season. Mike Messer, a shooting guard has committed to SIUE, he is the first of SIUE’s three commitments for next season to be evaluated by Scouts Inc. and he comes in with an 85 ranking, which in english terms means he is a “mid major prospect,” expected to start for 2-3 seasons. They say “Messer is a smooth and skilled wing that competes on both ends of the floor. He has a terrific work ethic that allows him to be productive on a regular basis. In transition Messer runs the outside lane for the spot up jumpers or displays his ability to handle…” on the ESPN website.

That’s great, now get us some help in the paint.

The three point shooting needs to settle down. SIUE was 2-15 from long range, take Cody Rincker out of the equation and they were 0-13.

SHOT SELECTION
SHOT SELECTION
SHOT SELECTION.

needless to say, it hasn’t been smart.

Next up for SIUE is Ball State. the Cardinals are 1-0 after a 10 point win over Valparaiso on the road. Ball State had six players in double figures, and all eight players on the floor scored. Jarrod Jones provide the size that the Cougars have not proved they can stop, measuring 6″9. He led them with 19 points in the game and had six rebounds.

The Cardinals can rebound, kind of scary, considering SIUE cant.

Thats all for today kids:

Allan Lewis
Alestle Sports Editor

siue vs evansville

posting from my cellphone listening to the game on the radio in the car and this is just a flat out embarrassing performance for siue. evansville picked last in the mvc this year and siue is making them look like northern iowa. cougars are down 21 and i am making myself finish listening to the game. cougars came out flat for the third straight game and went to the break down by 20 plus again. playing the aces about equally in the second its typical 2009 siue basketball. no rebounding and sporadic shooting. siue being outrebounded by 15 and outscored by 20 with less than 10 minutes left. forgive my capitalization and punctuation not as easy to do those things on a phone. anyways ill write more after a trip to lovejoy. go cougars…

Proof the Alestle was at U of I

Watching the replay of the game i found this funny…

LIVE BLOG SIUE vs. ISU

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Women v Milwaukee Live Coverage

LIVE COVERAGE OF SIUE WOMEN VS MILWAUKEE

Preview: SIUE Women vs. Milwaukee

Women’s basketball started off their season with a bang Friday, beating the preseason OVC favorites Morehead State 67-64.

SIUE (1-0) will look to build upon their early season success against Milwaukee (1-0) at noon on Sunday at the Vadalabene Center. The Panthers come off a 77-68 victory on the road against Evansville on Friday.

Milwaukee is a much different team than Morehead State. While the Eagles were almost solely a perimeter team, Milwaukee has much more size in the paint and plays physically inside. Voted fifth in the Horizon League preseason standings, Milwaukee is looking to rebound from their 15-18 last year.

The Panthers lost five players — three starters — from last year, but it didn’t seem to show in their first win. Lindsay Laur led the team with 19 points and 13 rebounds against Evansville, and averaged a double-double in their first two exhibition games. She is a threat from everywhere on the floor — she shot 2-3 from beyond the arc in the first game as well.

The key to SIUE winning Sunday will depend on how they can defend the paint. Raven Berry and Whitney Champlin looked good Friday, but they will need to continue to play at a high level. Head Coach Amanda Levens said Champlin is coming off a shin injury, so hopefully she will continue to improve as the season progresses.

A couple of things SIUE needs to improve on — following their shot. Too often the ball will bounce back but they have already drifted backwards. They need to play with a consistent amount of energy as well. There are times if they start to fall behind, it takes a while to get back into it. The end of the first half, the Cougars just played flat.

Bey might have a harder time crashing the paint with Milwaukee’s added size. But Bey can still be effective if she can collapse the defense add allow Melia Duncan, Madison Meade, and Kate Affourtit to have open looks outside. The team needs to improve on their outside shooting — they were 3-16 from behind the arc against Morehead State.

Another spot to improve is getting back on defense quickly. Too often SIUE was caught on their heels as the Eagles moved the ball up the floor.

Don’t mistake my critiquing. This team can be very good, but they are young and the season is young. Mistakes will be made, improvements will be made.

There are times where, in the words of Levens, the team has “glimpses” of how good they can be. They have an good understanding of the fundamentals — the prime example is Duncan taking the charge. She has four in the last two games, and has a great job limiting the other team’s possessions. Bey knows how to draw the foul and get to the free throw line. Her 10 free throws were the difference Friday between winning and losing.

SIUE should receive a huge boost from the crowd Sunday. Nicely placed before the men’s home opener against Illinois State, there will be a much bigger crowd for Milwaukee than for Morehead.

The Cougars play the next five games on the road after Milwaukee, so getting a second win at home on Sunday should give the Cougars a great deal of energy and momentum.

SIUE Women get first victory, knock off Morehead State

This time, it counts.

Coming off of a 12-point exhibition win over UMSL, SIUE’s women’s basketball team rode the momentum into Friday’s game against Morehead State and knocked off the Eagles, 67-64.

The Cougars held off the Eagles after MSU came within one with 31 seconds left in the game. A huge contributing factor to the Cougars late hold was Ashley Bey. She led the way for the Cougars, netting 18 points and 5 steals. Bey also made 10-12 free throws and held strong in the clutch  - scoring three in the last 25 seconds of the game.

After an 11-2 run by MSU to end the first, the Cougars were down 30-35 entering the second half. A lay-up by Whitney Champlin put them up 38-37, they never trailed again.

Raven Berry followed up her impressive exhibition performance, scoring 15 points and grabbing 9 rebounds. Berry was aggressive in the paint and drew several fouls. Even after coming down hard, which she needed to come out of the game, Berry fought through the pain and helped the Cougars back on track late in the second.

Bey and Berry really carried the team in the second half. Both came out of the locker room with a ton of intensity and helped right the ship for the Cougars. Bey had two steals and a couple of fast breaks to get the Cougars back in the game early in the second. She closed out the game, not only with the free throws, but forcing the Eagles to turn the ball over twice.

Bey never gives up on a play either. There was a play late in the second where MSU had a fast break and about to turn the tide of the game. MSU had a steal and four players ahead of the Cougars down the floor. The MSU player tried to lob it over Bey, but Bey stole it and turned the play around, preserving SIUE’s lead.

Melia Duncan carried the Cougars in the first half, scoring all of her 12 points. Whitney Champlin, who Levens said is coming off of a shin injury, scored six points, grabbed eight rebounds, and four blocks in 25 minutes. She and Berry helped the Cougars to a 34-20 point margin in the paint. They closed of lanes to opposing players driving the lane. When the Eagles weren’t shooting a three-pointer, they only converted 30 percent of their shots.

This was a big win. To start out well, and against a team supposed to be good is promising for this team. They have ton of scoring options as well. Bey, Duncan, Meade, and Berry have all scored in double figures so far, and Champlin has a chance to join that group as well once she is healthy. Having the option of scoring inside with Berry and Champlin brings a dimension the Cougars did not have last year.

Winning against UMSL was a confidence booster, this win puts SIUE on a whole other level. Sunday brings another test in UW-Milwaukee, but hopefully having a big crowd can be another boost to completing a 2-0 start. I’ll have a breakdown of the game Saturday on the site, so keep checking back.

So far, it looks to be an exciting year for women’s basketball. Come out and support them at noon Sunday.

Box Score

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SIUE men’s basketball at Illinois

Preview of Women v. Morehead State

Coming off of a 12-point exhibition win against D-II UMSL, the Cougars take on the future opponents of the Ohio Valley Conference in Morehead State at home Friday.

Last season, the two teams met at Morehead St in early November, and the Eagles handled the Cougars 77-63.

It will be a tremendous test for SIUE. Morehead St. was voted to win the OVC in a preseason poll by coaches and athletic directors, and for good reason. They return four starters, including last year’s highest returning scorer in the conference, Chynna Bozeman.

Bozeman netted 15.9 points per game last year, and shot well behind the arc. She towers at guard — shes 5′10″ — which allows her to have the height advantage at her position. Morehead State shoots the ball well beyond the arc, with Bozeman setting the pace. She shot 39 percent from three-point range while the team shot 32 percent.

Morehead State’s weakness may be their post presence. They have size on their team as a whole, but they do not have one lockdown player in the paint. Brittany Pittman was a rock last year, providing the Eagles with 12 points and 10 rebounds per game, coupled with 164 blocks for the season.

So, like SIUE, they are relying on new talent to fill the role. However, they haven’t had a player step up as Raven Berry has in the preseason. The Eagles have relied on their perimeter game so far and haven’t had to change that against lesser teams.

This is going to be a tough matchup for SIUE. Positions one though four will be difficult because of the Cougar’s size. Ashley Bey and Madison Meade — both 5′6″ or shorter — will have to play bigger than they are.

Look for SIUE’s defense on the perimeter to be a key to the game. Head Coach Amanda Levens said the Cougars provided too many open shots to UMSL late in the game. Fortunately for SIUE, UMSL only hit 2-20 from long range. If they continue that against Morehead State, the Cougars could be looking to climb their way out of a early hole.

The Cougars will need to limit their turnovers and execute their offense well — this depends on Ashley Bey. She worked UMSL effectively in the exhibition by finding the open player after driving the lane. She’ll need to take on an even larger role Friday to keep SIUE competitive.

While the women will not have as tough of a task as the men do Friday — they play the University of Illinois — they will definitely have their work cut out for them.

We are going to try out Cover It Live, an interactive live blog, for the first time Friday for both games. The link for the Women’s game is http://bit.ly/1wbaZz. Feel free to join to comment on the game or ask questions, should be a good time.

LIVE BLOG LINKS

Please click on the links below during the games to view our live blog of the action. You will be able to post your own feedback throughout the contest and interact with the Alestle Sports team on Friday.

SIUE men’s basketball at Illinois

SIUE women’s basketball vs. Morehead State

St. Xavier @ SIU-Edwardsville PREVIEW

Coming off a tough eight game road swing, the Cougars return home tomorrow night to face St. Xavier University at the Vadalabene Center.

SIUE went 2-6 during their trip, and celebrated two victories (University of Missouri-Kansas City and Southeast Missouri State,) while suffering two blowout losses against teams from the Big 12 Conference, (Missouri and Iowa State.)

Hopefully the road-trip provided some battle testing for a young SIUE team, returning home for the first time since suffering an embarrassing 70-59 loss at the hands of Division III Millikin University, a result they would like to avoid against NAIA St. Xavier.

About the opponent

ST. Xavier is located in Chicago, and likewise SIUE, is nicknamed the Cougars. The team competes in the NAIA Chicagoland Conference, while the university has a total enrollment of 5,722.

SXU comes to SIUE sporting a 10-8 record, and has been having a down year, after going 27-9 in 2007-2008. In their last outing, the Cougars lost a 22 point decision to Georgetown College of Kentucky, 85-63. In their lone D-I game thus far, SXU fell to Chicago State 112-83.

Tom O’Malley has been the head coach at SXU for 9 years, and began this season with a career mark of 283-99.

Historically, SIUE has had some trouble with SXU, as the Cougars are 2-3 all-time against the Chicago school.

The two schools, however have not met since 1982, when SIUE narrowly escaped with a 56-54 win.

St. Xavier is a solid offensive basketball team, averaging 85 points per game, while opponents average 75. SIUE is averaging 64 per contest, but keep in mind those stats are against a different pedigree of competition than that of SXU. the Cougars are allowing right around 75 per game as well.

Just for fun, SIUE averages 106 points per game against NAIA schools this season, the number they put up on Blackburn Nov. 25.

SIUE will have to watch SXU from the perimeter, as they average 7.7 buckets a game from beyond the arc.

Rob Broughton is the player to watch for SXU, averaging 15 points and six rebounds per game. Broughton is also the team leader in blocked shots and ranks third in assists. He is also a legitimate deep threat, shooting 48 percent from three.

The last time out for SIUE, the Cougars started out strong against Iowa State, leading the Cyclones 8-2 early, before Bryan Peterson, Justin Hamilton, Craig Brackins and ISU went off to bury the Cougars 91-55.

Aamir McCleary continued his recent tear, scoring 16 from the field, along with a team leading eight rebounds.

St. Xavier likes to play an up-tempo style of basketball, but so does SIUE. I am not convinced SXU has the firepower to match SIUE on the offensive side of the ball, and SIUE could be their own worst enemy in this one, as was the case against Millikin. If SIUE comes out prepared and plays their game, they should come away with a lopsided victory.

Projected Starting Lineup for SIUE
G McCleary 8.7 PPG
G Wellington 10.7 PPG
F Edminson 7.8 PPG
F Yelovich 12.7 PPG
C Bundalo 8.6 PPG

Game time is 7:30 P.M Thursday, stay tuned to the Alestlelive sports blog for updates throughout the action.

Allan Lewis
Alestle Opinion Editor/Sports Columnist

SIUE looks to get a win as they come home to face St. Xavier-Sean Roberts

Donning the crimson of the Big Red, Kurt Warner will take the field in an NFC championship game.

By Allan Lewis

I remember the glory days of the St. Louis Rams with Warner at the helm, all the deep routes to Issac Bruce and Torry Holt, the hand-offs to Marshall Faulk out of the backfield, the two Super Bowl appearances and Georgia Frontiere hoisting high the Lombardi trophy.

Those days are over. The Rams went 2-14 this season, and most of the players from that magic run have left the Edward Jones Dome for good. This year’s Arizona Cardinals give St. Louis a reason to cheer throughout the road to the Super Bowl, even more now, after pulling off two upsets to get this far, and getting the NFC championship on home turf Sunday when the Philadelphia Eagles come calling in a Thanksgiving rematch.

For many people in St. Louis, tensions grew strong with the Cardinals franchise and Bill Bidwell because the city would not fund a football only facility. The gateway to the west was without an NFL franchise for eight years before the Rams moved from L.A.

The Cardinals were mediocre at best in St. Louis from 1960 until 1974, when they earned their first playoff birth in St. Louis. They lost. In 1975, the Big Red went to the playoffs again, and lost. The Cardinals would play in the postseason once more in 1982, but suffer yet another first round loss.

This football team was a joke in St. Louis during their limited stay. Busch Stadium became less and less a desirable venue for football. Fans would cheer against the Cardinals as a pastime, and an excuse to drink beer on Sunday afternoons. Sadly, the Cardinals left St. Louis after the 1987 season for Phoenix.

The NFL would return to St. Louis in the form of the Rams, another struggling franchise. 1995,1996, 1997, and 1998 were not good years for the Rams, but atleast St. Louis had a team again. In 1999, the Rams front office decided to up the antie and sign free agent Quarterback Trent Green. The Rams chances in 1999 got increasingly worse, after Greene suffered a major injury in a pre-season game, until a grocery boy from Iowa, by the name of Kurt Warner came along and won the Rams a Super Bowl.

After a divorce from the Rams franchise, and a rough couple years with the New York Giants and Arizona, the Kurt Warner we all know and love is back in the playoffs.

Warner is a great guy off the field as well, and still works with charities throughout the St. Louis area. If anybody deserves another shot at the Super Bowl, it is this guy.

Irony has set in, as St. Louis’ former quarterback is in control of St. Louis’ former team, with a shot at the Super Bowl.

I will be cheering for you Kurt.

Affourtit to inbound to Winslow, Bey now with the ball, patiently waits for Duncan, they try to feed to winslow down low, Seattle comes away with the ball, Murillo gets held up near the sideline, timeout Seattle with 7:47 to play in regulation.

First game of a double header, the men set to square off once this one is concluded.

Seattle reclaims the lead 48-47, SIUE will have the ball after a mad scramble results in a jump ball with the arrow pointing towards SIUE.

Bey, Meade and Winslow lead the Cougars with seven points apiece. Affourtit cannot inbound the ball, so she banks it off a defender and tries again. Bey with eight on the shot clock, Duncan just misses a long three, Cougars down one, Morrison takes a three on the other end, it rims off the shot clock out of bounds to SIUE.

Bey drives to the basket, SIUE leads 48-47 in what is becoming an exciting back and forth contest, Morrison with the layup, Seattle leads again, Affourtit with it, drives to the basket, gets it to Wuest and it goes out of bounds to SU. Murillo to the line, looking to add to a slim lead, she does, and now it is a two point game, make it three as Bey dribbles down court, Wuest to Stapleton who gets the ball knocked away Affourtit to inbound to Stapleton, passes to Duncan to Bey. Bey takes a screen by Wuest, Stapleton banks in a shot, Cougars back to within one. Elle Kerfoot calls a timeout for Seattle after a mad scramble for the basketball, posession arrow is still with Seattle, Kerfoot rebounds, loose ball comes away to Bey, Duncan nearly makes a shot underneath the basket, Cougars unable to save it, Kerfoot coming out of the game as she grabs her waist in pain. Williams misses underneath, might have been fouled, no call, Wuest drains a mid range shot for Seattle, they lead by three. That steal by Bey sets the school record with 94.
54-51 Seattle, 3:58 left in regulation, SIUE will have the ball.

Final minutes of regulation

Bey takes the ball across mid court, tries to drive to the hoop, she is fouled by Williams, her second, Cougars shooting in the bonus, nine fouls for Seattle. Bey is off the mark, Seattle has the ball.

SIUE has fallen off the rebounding battle, Seattle out-rebounding the Cougars 39-33 and they trail by three, 54-51. Bey is fouled again, nearly hits the shot, Cougars now in the double-bonus, shooting two.

Bey misses that one, Cougars just 6-14 from the stripe, the second shot falls, Cougars trail by two. Morrison hits the shot on the other end, four point game, Morrison with the steal, an arrant pass will give SIUE the ball back, 2:38 left.

Officials checking the clock, appears it did not start at the inbound, they will but one second back on the clock and reset the shot clock, Bey with the ball, dribbles around the lane, Affourtit turns it over, Cougars reeling with two minutes left, Morrison misses the three, that could have put this one away, instead Meade for three, off the mark, timeout Seattle pinned in the corner to keep the ball, SIUE down 56-62 with 1:37 to play.

Seattle breaks the half court pressure, 10 to shoot, out to Kerfoot, she is fouled by Duncan.

Both shots fall, Seattle appears to be pulling away here late, a minute left, six point game, Levens calls the timeout.

Bey off the inbound, Stapleton drives the lane, jump ball goes to Seattle. 46 seconds left, SIUE needs to foul. they do not, Wuest with a rebound, hard colision underneath, Bey will return to the line with 32 seconds left.

First shot will fall for Bey, 58-53 Seattle. now 58-54 Seattle, Morrison to the line for the Redhawks, she has not been to the line yet today, Both shots are good, six point game. Cougars take some time off the clock, Wuest finally fouls a Redhawk, Murillo heads to the line, way off the mark on her first shot, 61-54 game now, Cougars need to hurry, bey stops and pops, seven ticks left, 61-57 Seattle. Half a second comes off the game clock, 6.5 ticks remaining, Murillo to the line shooting two. First shot falls for Murillo, second is good as well, Bey misses the three, Cougars fight, but lose by six. 63-57.

Men’s game underway

SIUE starters
Yelovich
Garriot,
McCleary,
Bundalo
Wellington

After an exciting women’s game the Cougar men hope to provide the same excitement. SIUE fell in their last meeting against the Redhawks 99-82, lots of offense there, Coach Forrester likely put an emphasis on the defensive end in preparation. One minute into the game Seattle has the lead, 2-0. The Redhawks are a big team, Bundalo puts in a layup, tie game at two 18:27 to play.
It is coaches vs Canceer night here at the VC, all across college basketball coaches are wearing sneakers with their suits, and the referees are equipped with pink whistles. I saw the same thing earlier todayh in the Purdue-Michigan and North Carolina-NC State games.

Redhawks now lead the game 4-2, Austen Powers, with a layup for SU, the International Man of Mystery proving he can do more than just shag. Five second call on Seattle, SIUE with the ball, Garriot to Yelovich, he hits the three, SIUE takes the lead 5-4 early. Wellington fights for the rebound, Chris Gweth called for the foul on Wellington, second of the game for SU. Jones now in the game, Garriot to McClearly, nice pass, shot goes wide, Garriot knocks it out of bounds, Seattle ball. Yelovbich steals it away, gets it to Wellington, Garriot to McCleary, Yelovich off the mark with his shot, SU basketball, Williams and Dunson set to check in for the first time, one handed rebound by Bundalo Wellington passes to Garriot, McCleary with the basketball, Bundalo is fouled, substitutions coming, media timeout with 14:50 to play in the first half, SIUE leads Seattle 5-4, lots of intensity early.

McCleary has the basketball, dishes it to jones, back to McCleary, he is blocked underneath, ball rolls out of bounds, SIUE keeps the ball, 10 seconds to shoot, McCleary long three, just wide, Seattle takes it down court. Williams skies for the block, but instead of getting ball he gets the arm of Burl and he will head to the line for two, first shot is off the mark. The second one will fall, tie game, 5-5 six minutes in.

Dunson changes that, he hits a long three, SIUE 8 Seattle 5, Foul on Bowles. Stineman checks in to the game for McCleary. Both shots fall for Burl, Stineman to Bowles, three off the mark, on Seattles possession the ball goes out of play, Bowles inbounds to Stineman, Bowles is charged with the charge in the lane, his second foul already as we play early. Two offensive rebounds lead to two points for Seattle, who regains the lead with 12:19 to play in the first half.

Long inbound pass to Yelovich, gets it to Garriot who feeds to Bundalo who lays it in for two, he has four in the early going, 10-9 SIUE, intense game thus far as we reach the under 12 media timeout.

Garriot off with a three, Wellington grabs the offensive board, he is fouled in the act of shooting, and heads to the line for two shots. Wellington hits the back end, Harris dribbles across the timeline for Seattle. Bowles goes up for a block on Burl, ball is knocked out of bounds, Redhawks to inbound with five to shoot, the shot clock will expire, as the Redhawks turn the ball over to SIUE.

Yelovich off on a jumper from about 10 feet, Seattle goes down on the other end Wright with the layup, as both teams run up and down the court at a rapid pace, Cougars already in the bonus, as Garriot is fouled. He hits the front end, Cougars regain the lead, 12-11 SIUE. The back end goes off the back iron, and after nearly going out of bounds, SU saves it to ensure posession, Williams is called for the foul on the shot, Austen Powers to the line. Ya Baby. His first shot falls, back to a 12-12 ballgame. Second shot true as well, Seattle has the lead 13-12.
Bundalo called for the charge, SU ball.

Yelovich the rebound for SIUE, gets it to Stineman and back to Yelovich, Cougars passing the ball around the circle, and lose possession as Stineman pushes an arrant pass out of bounds. 8:35 to play, Yelovich fouls Wright underneath the basket, the call could have really went either way, but it goes for Seattle, first shot is good, second off, Powers goes up for the board, Seattle is dominating SIUE in the rebounding game early, 15-6, Basket falls for Burl and Seattle in the paint, a free throw coming on the foul after the timeout.

Halftime Perspective

SIUE trails their transitional brother Seattle 32-21 at the break, very different game from the one these two teams played a week ago.

Rebounding has been a problem for the Cougars, as it has been for much of the season, they are losing that battle 22-13, and the numbers on the offensive glass stick out even more, Cougars at a 10-2 disadvantage on that end of the glass.

SIUE is shooting 36 percent for the half, Seattle is at 35 percentm but has had 12 more chances. Michael Wright is well on his way to a double-double, 13 points and nine assists for the Redhawk forward.

SIUE has also had some trouble from the charity stripe, they are 5-10 from the line.

Yelovich leads SIUE with seven points, Bundalo has five. Yelovich also has two steals to his credit, Bundalo with three blocks and a presence inside.

Look for the Cougars to push the issue in the second half.

SIUe men’s basketball prepares for senior day against North Dakota

Good afternoon, Allan Lewis here for the Alestle getting ready for the men’s basketball team to take on the Fighting Sioux of North Dakota, better known for their hockey, but in their first year making the switch to D-I in basketball, the Sioux are 14-11, and own just two D-I wins, against Missouri-Kansas City and yours truly, SIUE.

These two teams met Feb. 19 in North Dakota, a game the Sioux took from the Cougars 76-68, taking advantage of 45 free throws.

Still time to come out to the VC, the game will tip off in roughly half an hour, and it will be your last chance to catch the Cougars in 2008-2009.

Today is also senior day for John Edmison, the Cougars captain and lone senior. Edmison is averaging 7.8 points and 4 boards per game.

odds and ends: OVC finals and Brandon Dunson

OVC title decided in thriller

In 2013, SIUE will have the shot to do what Morehead State did today, clinch an automatic seed into the NCAA tournament as champion of the Ohio Valley Conference. It took two overtimes, and a last second jumper from unlikely hero freshman Steve Peterson to send the underdog 19-15 Eagles dancing with a 67-65 victory over Austin Peay.

Morehead State will be making their first appearance in the NCAA tournament since 1984.

Congratulations to the Eagles who will likely be receiving a 15 or 16 seed in the tournament come selection Sunday, and make the OVC proud.

Brandon Dunson

The other night, I went with a friend from Illinois State to the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament quarterfinals match up between ISU and our old friend Marty Simmon’s Evansville squad. I sat in the ISU student section, feeling a little out of place, wearing my SIUE t-shirt, and watched the game from a completely unbiased standpoint, although I was leaning towards Evansville, which nearly pulled the upset behind 29 points from Shy Ely.
Besides being the guy who obviously does not go to ISU, the “e” on my shirt started two conversations, both dealing with SIUE freshmen guard Brandon Dunson.
At first, I got a “do you know…” and you know how that is when people see you go to the same school as someone they know and think automatically out of a pool of 13,000 students you will automatically know that person.

…Brandon Dunson.

Well, not personally,but I do know he is on the basketball team and is a really electric player.

Walking out of the Scottrade Center I ran into another guy who asked me if I knew Dunson. This guy told me he had been playing ball with Dunson, and his brother Dodie Dunson (who plays for Bradley University) since third grade.

Dunson has averaged six points and two rebounds for the Cougars in 19 games after sitting out the fall semester as a transfer eligibility requirement.

This guy posed a legitimate question, he asked if Brandon was better than Dodie, and I said that I was confident that in time he can become that type of player, if not better, given his experience level.

It’s not impossible.

There is a buzz surrounding Brandon Dunson away from the SIUE campus, and with good reason. He has deserved more playing time than he has been receiving this season (16 minutes) and has made some showstopping dunks and knows how to work the basketball through traffic. He can also hit from beyond three point range, (33 percent.)

The Cougars have three more years of this guy, Mark Yelovich, Aaron Garriot and an array of young talent, and while it worked to their disadvantage this season, that inexperience will turn to experience in no time, and with a few strategically used redshirt options on these players, although a difficult decision for coach Lennox Forrester, the Cougars could be loaded with upperclassmen talent come 2012-2013 when they are eligible to compete for the OVC crown and a slot in the Madness.

Play In game takes away from Tournament

-Allan Lewis
Alestle Opinion Editor

Last night, Morehead State earned the 64th and final spot in the NCAA tournament with a 58-43 point victory over Alabama State in the tournament’s play-in game.

Play-In game may not be the politically correct term for the Tuesday night shenanigans in Dayton, but holding a 65 team tournament with only two playing outside the bracket is not a good idea.

Especially when the two teams playing are conference champions.

If anyone has to earn a spot in the NCAA tournament, Arizona should be playing Wisconsin in a battle of undeserving bubble teams.

The NCAA has wanted to give this extra game the atmosphere of a tournament event, but since its inception it has been nothing special. The NCAA tournament is all about the big schools, the Duke’s, North Carolina’s and UCLA’s of the world. Since George Mason University went to the Final Four in 2006, the number of mid-majors receiving at-large bids has shrunk dramatically, creating match-ups like Utah against Arizona. In order for the play-in game to be feasable, it needs to be expanded to give teams like St. Mary’s College, San Diego State University and Creighton a little wiggle room getting into the dance.

Or, just eliminate it altogether.

The NCAA wants to make this extra game some sort of spectacle, so make it one. Expand the tournament to 68 teams, let three more schools earn at-large berths, and turn the play-in game into a quadruple header on CBS. Allow eight schools from lower-tier conferences to battle for the 16 seeds, so no two schools are singled out as the worst of the best and have to play in this hypocrisy.

Who is the selection committee to decided who the number 64 and 65 are? Morehead State and the Ohio Valley Conference were done a disservice having to travel to Dayton to play in a game that should not exist. They proved the OVC is stronger than the SWAC, and earned an easy victory in an overall ugly basketball game.

The prize for Morehead State? a date with the number one overall seed, the Louisville Cardinals. The two Kentucky schools played each other early in the season and Louisville easily won by 38. Likely, a similar result will occur when the two teams hit the hardwood Friday to open the real tournament.

For the sake of the OVC, and college basketball, either expand the play-in format, or eliminate it altogether, and if an extra bubble team gets popped, so be it.

Alestle Sports Final Four picks

Since Sunday, people all over the country have been fine-tuning their NCAA tournament brackets, looking for the perfect upset possibilities and for possible sleeper teams with a shot at playing for a national championship.

After following the season intently, and analyzing the match ups, here are our Final Four picks.

Sports Editor-Levi Kirby
Midwest:
(1) Louisville
West:
(4) Washington
East:
(1) Pittsburgh
South
(2) Oklahoma

Opinion Editor- Allan Lewis
Midwest:
(1) Louisville
West:
(3) Missouri
East:
(1) Pittsburgh
South
(2) Oklahoma

“Louisville is a dynamic team that can run the floor with the best, and Terrence Williams (not the SIUE one, the other one,) is a force inside for the Cardinals. Missouri has a tough road to Detroit, but they can wear an opponent down with their up-tempo style of play. They will be tested against the likes of Marquette, Memphis and Connecticut if the top seeds advance through the West. Mizzou beat SIUE by 50, and won the Big 12 Tournament, they are streaky, but look for them to catch fire at the right time. Mizzou will not be the only Big 12 team in the Final Four, as Blake Griffin leads Oklahoma past North Carolina in a big Elite Eight Matchup. Noone can match up with Pitt inside, so they will be around as well.”

Sports reporter T.J Cowell
Midwest:
(1) Louisville
West:
(2) Memphis
East:
(1) Pittsburgh
South
(1) North Carolina (kills me to write this)

Here we are again at my favorite time of the year, March Madness. Selection Sunday is the college basketball fan’s Christmas and this year proved to be no different. Of course there are always going to be the bubble teams who get a bid even though they do not deserve it (Arizona, Wisconsin and Maryland). But I am not here to complain so let’s get going

Midwest Region-
To start things off no love for the OVC. It looks like Morehead St will take their second whipping off the year from overall top-seeded Louisville. The 8 and 9 seed game between Ohio State and Siena is one of the reasons why I hate to fill out brackets sometimes. Why do I have to pick between these two teams? Since I am a Big Ten kind of guy lets go with the Buckeyes. Even though I was just bashing on the 19-13 Wildcats, I look for Arizona to knock off 5th seeded Utah. Wake Forest is one of those teams who could either go all the way or get beat in the second round. Boston College and USC, again why do they make me choose these kind of games. I have Arizona going on a bit of a run before losing to Louisville in the Sweet 16. I do not have a lot of faith in Tom Izzo’s Spartans, even though he is a heck of a coach. Let’s go with Louisville over Kansas in the final of this region (Levi Kirby is not going to like that too much).

West-
The team I am really going to be watching in this region is Purdue. Even though they face a good ball club in Northern Iowa the first round, I have them knocking off Washington in round two. There is something about the Huskies (who were 0-9 in football this year just for the record) that I do not trust. But it is March so I do not know who to trust anymore. Utah State is 30-4 on the year but keep in mind they are in the WAC. I look for Marquette to end their season even though I must say Utah State has one of the most awesome looking mascots in the NCAA. Just to let everybody know, I am not an ACC fan. Hence I could never work at ESPN because that’s all they do is praise the ACC. I do not like Dick Vitale either. I am not in love with any team in this region but I am going to go with Memphis over UConn. Although I can see Purdue or Washington knocking off UConn.

East-
Another 12 seed surviving the first round in Wisconsin over Florida State. I have the Badgers picked in all of my brackets that I have filled out thus far so hopefully last year’s Big Ten champs come through for me. Something about me wants to take VCU over UCLA but I am not going to. Hopefully I do not regret that later. In the end it is Pittsburgh over Duke to advance to the Final Four

South-
Of course my Illinois Fighting Illini get stuck in arguably the toughest region there is. I have been hearing all week how Western Kentucky is going to beat Illinois in the first round. If Illinois does survive the first round then they have got a tough road ahead with Gonzaga then UNC. I am not going to count my chickens before they hatch so I will comment more on this later. After an epic six OT victory over UConn last week, I like Syracuse even more now. A second round game between Clemson (one of the few teams in the ACC who I do not mind) and Oklahoma is one this reporter is looking forward to. Hopefully the Tigers knock off Oklahoma because I get so tired of hearing about Blake Griffin. Tar Heels over Syracuse in the Elite 8. Once again, I despise the ACC.

Final Four- Two of my Final Four teams I can see getting beat in Louisville and Memphis. WKU (Yeah I know the team Illinois plays in the first round) beat Louisville 68-54 in Nashville earlier this season. But that also happened in November and this is March. Championship game I see whoever wins the Pittsburgh/UNC battle to take the cake this year. In this case, I will go with the Panthers over Louisville by a final score of 82-75.

Alestle Correspondent Aren Dow
Midwest:
(2) Michigan State
West:
(5) Purdue
East:
(1) Pittsburgh
South
(1) North Carolina

Catch up with the Tournament action all week long on alestlelive.com/sportsblog.

Oklahoma forward Blake Griffin (23) tried to push through Oklahoma State forward Marshall Moses (33) during the quarterfinals of the NCAA Big 12 men's basketball tournament at Ford Arena in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on Thursday, March 12, 2009. Oklahoma State defeated Oklahoma 71-70. (Shane Keyser/Kansas City Star/MCT)

NCAA tournament blog day 1: session 1

Could this be the year a 16 seed topples a number one?

A two seed received a scare in the first session of the tournament, as Memphis trailed Cal-State-Northridge with as little as six minutes remaining before the Tigers woke up and took down the Matadors 81-70.

Right now, Radford and Chattanooga are keeping their respective opponents close, and we should be reminded that the longer a lower seed can stay in a game, the more cinfiedent they will be, and the greater chance at victory.

North Carolina seems to be running away from Radford at the moment, 30-18, UNC playing without their All-American point guard Ty Lawson, and Connecticut, who leads Chattanooga 14-8 is without their head coach Jim Calhoun, who is ill.

Without Lawson, North Carolina is not as safe of a Final Four pick as they are with him, but they should still be able to handle the Highlanders in round one.

So far, the first shot at the annual 5-12 upset is not going the way Northern Iowa would like it, they trail Purdue by 12, which comes as a surprise to me, as I picked the Missouri Valley Conference champion.

There’s a cloud in my head that screams the Big 10 and the Pac 10 are overrated, California proving the latter, trailing to Maryland of the ACC at the moment.

Chattanooga still hanging around UConn, two point game as they play about halfway through the first half.

Player of the day thus far: Roburt Sallie (Memphis) Sallie scored a career high 35 points of the bench in the win, and was the primary reason the Tigers were able to rally and down Northridge. Sallie had been averaging just over four points a game before his breakout tournament performance.

Memphis gets either Maryland or Cal in the second round, and the Terrapins could provide a real test for the conference USA powerhouse. After their effort today, Memphis needs to get their chickens in a row, or could face an early exit in the round of 32.

More later when I get bored between classes.

-Allan Lewis
Alestle Opinion Editor

No number one seeds getting upset on Thursday, After fast starts by Chattanooga and Radford, Connecticut and North Carolina have pulled away by halftime and are on their way to easy victories.

If you have UNC-LSU and UCONN-Texas A&M matchups in the second round, congratulations.

I had Butler. oops.

Two sessions down in the NCAA tournament, no huge upsets thus far, as the power schools have remained the status quo.

My only general thought right now is that the Pac-10 is overrated, as I previously said. (10)Maryland easily defeated (7) California in their first round match-up, and Mississippi State is slowly slipping away from Washington, and trails by 11 at halftime. The SEC tournament champions were giving the fourth seeded Huskies all they could handle early on, and I fully expect the Bulldogs to make a run in the second half and cut into this lead.

Illinois has Western Kentucky later on this evening, in a game that will be receiving some attention locally. Nothing will come easy for the Illini, who will be without Chester Frazier who has a potentially broken hand.

Frazier is one of the Illini’s impact players, averaging six points and six rebounds this season. Illinois has to make up for his numbers on the boards against a very talented and dangerous Western Kentucky team if they expect to come out of the first round alive.

This is probably it for this evenings blog, unless I get bored in CMIS class tonight, so here’s a rundown of this evenings game and some picks.

Texas vs. Minnesota – Longhorns win this one, Minnesota barely squeaked into the tournament on the bubble, and while this Texas team is not too strong, JJ Abrams of Texas cannot be stopped the Gophers. These teams come in with similar records, but in the end, Texas and the Big 12 are too strong.

Michigan vs. Clemson- Clemson. Trevor Booker is averaging a double-double per night, they have three players averaging in double-figures, and Michigan again, a product of a weak Big 10 Conference, stealing an automatic bid. As far as I’m concerned Big Blue has no place in this year’s field. Clemson started the year 16-0 and are 1-0 against the Big 10 with a win over Illinois.

Duke vs. Binghampton- Not Binghampton.

Villanova vs. American- Expect Villanova to win this one, 14 seeds have beaten 3 seeds in the past, And the Patriot League champions come in with an impressive record, and a 13-1 conference mark. American’s game is defense, opponents average 58 points a game against the Eagles, who are also riding a 13 game winning streak. If the Eagles can play their game and frustrate Villanova, they have a shot. Then again, don’t bet on it.

Gonzaga vs. Akron- The zags once again carrying the torch for the little guy, and Akron, the MAC champions have no shot at the Bulldogs.

Morgan State vs. Oklahoma- I have the Sooners in the Final Four, noone can stop Blake Griffin, not even the Morgan State Bears.

VCU vs. UCLA- This is a tricky one, in one corner the established program coming out of the Pac-10 (terrible conference, but gets the love because of their name) and in the other, Virginia Commonwealth of the CAA, the conference which produced 2006 Final Four participant George Mason. VCU could be this year’s George Mason, and with many of UCLA’s star players of years past bolting for the NBA draft, they are on a down year…if you can call 26-8 a down year.
The Rams have not played a tough schedule, and lost to Oklahoma by 11 in their most high profile game. There are no bad losses for UCLA this season, and they have kind of flew under the radar. UCLA in a close one.

Western Kentucky vs. Illinois- No Chester Frazier, no cigar. WKU takes the upset.

That’s all for now, Washington still has the edge on Mississippi State, by 16. Looks like they will advance.

Taking the positives from a sweep

Allan Lewis-
Alestle Opinion Editor

The St. Louis Blues went on an absolute tear to get into the postseason, and just as St. Louis fell back in love with its hockey team, the Blues were dispatched in four straight games to the Vancouver Canucks, promptly ending one of the most memorable seasons the franchise has put together in recent memory.

As painful as a playoff failure is to take as a fan, a sweep is even harder, but for some reason this one feels different. Am I really proud of a team that lost four straight postseason games? Was I really joining the crowd in chanting “Lets Go Blues” at the Scottrade Center after giving up a weak goal on a botched play with under 20 seconds left in overtime sending the Canadian Yankees to the Conference semifinals? The answer to both of those questions is yes, you are. and even today after such a disappointing loss topping off a disappointing series with so much emotional buildup I still bleed blue.

Sitting in section 333 of the Scott I said to myself, hold on for double overtime guys, as the clock ticked under a minute in the first extra frame of a 2-2 tie, chanting LUOOOOOONGO!, screaming expletives and yelling LETS GO BLUES every time an airhorn went off. In the end, I don’t have a voice and the Blues are headed to the golf course for the summer. I am not happy with the result of game 4, but I am happy with the experience the young Blues team has gotten from their first playoff exposure.

Brad Boyes, T.J Oshie, Patrick Burgland, David Perron and David Backes all got their first taste of the playoffs. Keith Tkachuk finally skated in the postseason with the Bluenote across his chest, and Chris Mason continued to play well in goal.

Paul Kariya did not make his much anticipated season cameo as he did in D3: The Mighty Ducks, but the proven veteran will be back next year.

The Blues ran into a tough goalie and a team on fire. You can go through the “what if’s” of losing the regular season finale against Colorado and taking on the top seeded San Jose Sharks in the first round, but its a moot point. The Blues played four tough games and came up short each time. None of the games were blowouts, the Blues played well but the Canucks played better. A few bounces this way, a few more that and the Blues could be sitting pretty with a series victory or a 2-2 series tie going back to Canada.

Hockey involves some luck, and St. Louis just didn’t have it.

There are reasons to be critical of the Blues loss, such as an injured Barrett Jackman turning the puck over and Chris Mason letting in a soft five hole goal with only 18 seconds of clock left to kill. We can talk about the power play that went 1-25 in the series, and failed to capitalize on a four-minute power play prompted by a double-minor in overtime and missed out on numerous five on three oppurtunities.

The Blues strength, their special teams were nowhere to be found all week.

After the initial feeling of letdown, There is cause to celebrate Blues fans. We went from 15th place and dead last to sixth in the conference and a date in the playoffs. This team is ahead of its rebuilding plan, and with all the young talent and great veterans that make up the St. Louis Blues the 2009-2010 NHL season looks very promising.

I Bleed Blue, LETS GO BLUES.

Garriott, Dunson, Wellington and Williams all leaving SIUE hoops squad

A little late on the news and we should get a story in the paper shortly, but according to an article from midstatehoops.com, four players on the SIUE men’s basketball team have decided to leave the program.

Aaron Garriot, Brandon Dunson, Barry Wellington and Terrance Williams will no longer be a part of Lennox Forrester’s team in the Cougar’s second year as a Division I program.

Next year’s roster will certainly look different from the one that earned the Cougars a number of Division I wins, and a 10-20 record.

Garriott played in 30 games for SIUE, and averaged 9 points per game, and was a 77 percent free throw shooter. Dunson, who appeared in 20 games after sitting out the first semester as a requirement for his transfer TO SIUE, averaged just six points per game, and in my opinion was not used to his full potential by the coaching staff, keeping in mind his electric presence on the court. Dunson made nearly half of his shots from the field on the year, posting a 42 percent mark.

Both Garriott and Dunson were strong contenders to crack the starting lineup for the Cougars in 2009-2010.

Wellington, a junior guard from Memphis, like Dunson will be moving on to his third school, after attending Mineral Area College before SIUE. Wellington started ALL 30 games for the Cougars, shot 45 percent from the field, 33 percent from three point range, and averaged just over 10 points per game.

Williams decision, on the other hand comes as no surprise, as his name was taken off the SIUE roster prior to the team’s final home game against North Dakota.

For me, something isn’t adding up. How is SIUE going to establish itself as a legitimate Division I school if key pieces to the basketball puzzle leave after one year? Sure, there are better basketball oppurtunities out there for a player like Garriott or Dunson, and maybe playing time for these two was an issue. The fact of the matter is both of them are freshmen, and their time will come. What does SIUE have to do to keep its athletes? Thank god Mark Yelovich and Aamir Mccleary are returning, or Coach Forrester would have to basically start from scratch, as he nearly has to do here with two big time potential basketball players, and another role playing starter heading elsewhere.

Williams, as a big man is not the answer, and was a mistake to recruit in the first place, but Garriot and Dunson were keys to the future success of the Cougars, who now have to find other pieces, and will have the luxury to do so with three additional scholarship positions becoming free. Only problem is the team will be full of inexperienced freshmen once again, and the transition process will become that much harder for SIUE. This type of thing cannot help recruiting either. What kind of message does that say to a potential athlete learning four players who contributed to the team the year before leaving send?

This all starts from the top, with the Athletic department, and also comes down on the coaching staff for letting something like this happen to the program. What is best in the athlete’s mind should always be given thought, but the program needs to express its interest in these players as well, and I don’t think that was communicated very well. I have not spoken with any of the athletes or Coach Forrester, but something just isn’t adding up here, I’ll send TJ to find out more.

-Allan Lewis, The Alestle.

Dude, Brett Favre…It’s over.

So #4 is looking to come out of retirement a second time, and is talking to the Minnesota Vikings.

Favre has a meeting with Head Coach Brad Childress tomorrow, and if all goes well Brett could be in Vikings camp soon.

If last summer wasn’t enough, this year looks like its going to be a sequel to all the post retirement drama.

No question Favre wanted to play for the Vikes last season, and now that they are interested, Favre is listening. Obviously, this is all about revenge on Packers management, and a chance to prove the owner who gave up on Favre’s indecisiveness last summer in favor of Aaron Rodgers (that’s what happens when you wait until July to decide if you are playing) and its stupid. I don’t want to hear it any more, for the love of god Brett, put on the purple jersey tomorrow after your meeting or go back to Mississippi and fish. the NHL playoffs are on, we don’t need you stealing the ESPN spotlight.

On the bright side, if Favre DOES decide to play for Minnesota, the Vikings do play the Rams in St. Louis this season, and if that is the case, I will definitely be there.

That’s all.

Allan Lewis

Athletica bolt

No wonder Jeff Cooper has been unable to get St. Louis an MLS franchise, the man can’t even make up his mind on where we wants the WPS affiliated Athletica to play.

The team announced today that they will play the remainder of their season at Soccer Park in Fenton, Mo. rather than Korte Stadium at SIUE as was originally planned.

Why, I would like to know.

Making a move like this two home games into the season makes absolutely no sense, and makes the entire franchise look like a joke. No wonder American professional women’s soccer leagues have failed time and time again, and now its obvious why St. Louis, historically known as a soccer hotbed in this country can not secure a team.

Korte Stadium in the first place was not an ideal home for this team. The venue holds 3,000 people and is by far the smallest WPS facility, heck, the LA Sol play in the cathedral of American soccer, the Home Depot Center. Is soccer park that much better to make the switch now? don’t hold your breath, you could drown. (It is located in a flood plain.)

Reasons why this makes no sense:
It’s in a freaking flood plain in the middle of the summer.
Soccer Park’s capacity is comparable to SIUE.
There are season ticket holders in Illinois who committed to this team knowing the games will be at SIUE.
Parking at Soccer Park is going to be an absolute disaster, and traffic will be just as bad.
aaaaand they have already had to reschedule the first Athletica game at soccer park because a high school girls tournament is going on the same weekend.
Soccer park is just that, a soccer park, not a place to boast a professional franchise, and while SIUE is not ideal either, stick to your guns Cooper, or that MLS team will never come to Collinsville…after all, the league recently picked freaking Toronto over St. Louis for an expansion team.

I have lost a lot of respect for this franchise and Jeff Cooper.

Daily View From the Sidelines: Cougar Volleyball learning to adjust with young team

The SIUE volleyball team is learning on the fly.

In two days, the Cougars have already lost about a quarter of the games they lost all of last season, going 0-4 at Indiana State University’s season opening tournament.

Ouch.

The season indeed got off to a rocky start, and the Cougars are coming into 2009 a completely new team from the one that nearly went .500 in their first year as a Division I squad. At this point, the Cougars will be lucky to win five games, and the reason is two letters.

Mallory Clements.

The stalky senior setter led the Cougars in nearly all statistical categories last season, and could single-handedly change the way teams prepare to play the Cougars. Without her presence, this team will have their problems.

Clements, currently serving as an assistant coach for the team holds the school record for career service aces with 189 and posted the most kills by a setter with 830. She is ranked No. 2 all-time in assists with 4,311 and digs with 1,459. For her career, she was a .249 hitter and was responsible for 1,139 points all-time, which is ninth-best in school history.

Those shoes are going to be hard to fill, and freshmen Sammi Minton and Jaimie Mueller are smaller, and less experienced than Clements.

Overall, the Cougars are a taller team than they were a year ago. That plays to their advantage, but the one downsized position is going to cause problems. The setter is the center of the team, and the most important player on the volleyball court, they are like the pitcher in baseball or the anchor in rowing. The setter has got to be someone with a solid grasp of the team and the necessary components to compete at this level. So far, the young players have not answered the call, not that they won’t in due time.

Time is what it is going to take, and these players should be able to adjust to the position and the faster, stronger and bigger level of play they will discover in college, but for now the learning curve is sharp and winding.

It is not just the freshmen trying to adjust to the team, because the team is trying to adjust to themselves. Head Coach Todd Gober has incorporated a new style of play, switching to a 6-2 offense and a rotational defense. So far, it is not working, but remember, the season is only four games young.

Gober said the blocking was not there in the opening series, and the team was not always in sync throughout an entire match. They had their up games over the weekend, but were unable to put together a solid match of five games, and that screams inexperience.

Hopefully things begin to click for Cougar volleyball when they challenge Western Illinois University on Tuesday in Macomb before a tough weekend with Louisville of the Big East waiting.

Illinois looks to the “Juice” to improve on a disappointing 2008 campaign

By: T.J. Cowell

We are just a few days away from the 2009 renewal of the State Farm Arch Rivalry between the Illinois Fighting Illini and Missouri Tigers at the Edward Jones Dome. The Fighting Illini are looking to rebound from a 5-7 2008 campaign when the orange and blue began the season ranked but failed to even make a bowl game. The Fighting Illini are 1-5 against Mizzou in St. Louis with the Tigers also holding the advantage in the all-time series between the two teams, 15-7. This year, the good guys (I’m born and raised an Illini fan) are favored to win in hopes of getting their 2009 season off on the right foot.

If Williams and junior wide receiver Arrelious Benn are clicking, the Mizzou defense will have reasons to worry. Over the past couple years, Williams and Benn have proved themselves to be one of the most dangerous quarterback/wide receiver duos in the nation. Benn has caught at least one pass in 25 consecutive games and broke the 1,000 yard receiving mark last year with leading the Fighting Illini with 67 catches. Williams passed for an impressive 451 yards and threw five touchdowns a season ago against Mizzou even though the Illini fell to the Tigers, 52-42. Both Williams and Benn earned first-team All-Big Ten honors in 2008. Illinois ranked first in the Big Ten in passing a year ago.

Mizzou will be coming off a 10-4 season when the Tigers ranked fifth nationally with 76 touchdowns while averaging 42.2 points per contest. Mizzou capped off their 2008 campaign with a 30-23 overtime win over Northwestern in the Alamo Bowl. The Tigers were ranked as high as #3 in the AP National Polls in 2008. Quarterback Chase Daniel will be missed on the offensive side of the ball for Mizzou, as the Tigers look to be shaky this year offensively. Jeremy Maclin and Chase Coffman accounted for the top two Tiger receivers last year, but both players have since moved on. Maclin was also the “heart and soul” of punt and kick returns as a Tiger. Mizzou looks unsure on special teams this year.

Last year after the first fifteen minutes, Illinois trailed Mizzou 6-7. The Tigers then busted out a 24-point second quarter effort to start running the offensive stats up. If Illinois can control the Tigers’ rickety offense, good things can be projected for orange and blue fans.

Even though Mizzou does not look overly impressive this year on paper offensively and Illinois has not played their greatest against the Tigers for the past few years, expect another offensive duel this year because after all, this is college football we are talking about. In addition to Juice and Benn, Illinois has offensive threats in 6’5 senior WR Jeff Cumberland, senior RB Daniel Dufrene and sophomore RB (and Belleville native) Jason Ford. Dufrene and Williams averaged about 120 rushing yards per game combined last season.

Looking past Mizzou, the road to redemption for Illinois will not be an easy one. The Fighting Illini have eight opponents on their 2009 schedule that made qualified bowl last year (including Mizzou). As the 1-5 record against Mizzou in St. Louis shows, Illinois cannot afford to look past anyone. Do I have to recall losing to Western Michigan a season ago?

Kickoff for Saturday’s game is 2:40 pm.

Let’s take time to appreciate this Cardinals team

NL MVP?
Check.
NL Cy Young?
Double check.
Best free agent aquisition, best defensive catcher, best NL closer, deep bench, future Hall of Fame pitcher pitching fourth?
Check, check, check, check, and check.

Oh yes, this St. Louis Cardinals team is good.

So good in fact, it may be the best team in its 117 year history. It rivals the 2004 season when they won 104 games or 1934 when Dizzy Dean and his brother Paul won 50 games together.

This lineup is complete from top to bottom. The Cardinals are so loaded with talent, Tony La Russa has options at nearly every position to effectively match up to the opposing starting pitcher. He can put Skip Schumaker and Colby Rasmus in if a righty is starting or Julio Lugo and Ryan Ludwick is a lefty is on the mound. The best part is there isn’t a dropoff in talent.

Since Matt Holliday joined the Redbirds on July 24th, the team has been the best in the league, compiling a 26-9 record. Holliday himself has an OBP of .437 since then, and has an astonishing 1.128 OPS during that time as well.

It is really almost unfair for opposing teams. Basically, the Cardinals have a clone of Pujols, who many consider the best player in baseball, batting right behind him. Teams can no longer intentionally walk Pujols and expect relief. It also takes tremendous pressure of El Hombre to single-handedly win every game. The Cardinals now actually have a chance to win if he goes 0-4 at the plate.

I know how good this team is. The fans know how good this team is.

Just about everyone knows how good this team is.

The 2006 season is almost is direct contrast with this one. 2006 was great as it took people by surprise. Anthony Reyes, Jeff Weaver, and Jeff Suppan pitched the best games of their lives during the ‘06 World Series. Of course, now they are living comfortably on their paychecks based on those few games.

But it provided suspense, new heroes, and the tenth championship for the franchise. Part of the magic was that no one expected Adam Wainwright to transform into a terrific closer or that Yadier Molina to hit a game-winning home run during the NLCS.

Not this year. This year, fans expect to win. The expectations are high, and many people think this team should contend for number eleven. While it certainly won’t take away from any accomplishments this season, no matter the outcome, the bar has been set. I hope they can pull it off, because the window may be closing on the Cardinals.

Yes, Albert Pujols is signed, booked and sealed for the next several years. Ryan Franklin and Trevor Miller just signed extensions as well.

The unknown future is because of Matt Holliday, Tony La Russa, and Dave Duncan. Those three are vitality important to the success of the team (Yes, even La Russa). But, if Duncan splits because of the Cardinals not treating his son like a superstar, and Holliday decides he likes a lot of money, then the Cardinals are back to where they were. A slightly above average team who has to fight to make the playoffs.

So drink it in Cardinal fans, it may not last. But we can least enjoy it while it does. With the team they currently field, a World Series is a definite possibility.

Of course, because the Cardinals are good on paper, doesn’t mean the games will turn out that way.

Just ask the Chicago Cubs.

Volleyball searches for key, season changing win

By: T.J. Cowell
In his ninth year as volleyball Head Coach at SIUE, Todd Gober and his team are off to a rocky start. The Cougars head into the UT Chattoonga Tournament (Country Inn & Suites Volleyball Challenge) this weekend with an 0-8 record. On paper, things do not look like they will get much easier when SIUE takes on Loyola (Ill.) University, UT Chattanooga and Austin Peay over Friday and Saturday.
Last season, the Cougars fell to both Austin Peay and Loyola (Ill.). The Lady Governors took on SIUE in the opening match of the 2008 season disposing of their opponents in three sets at the Lady Govs Volleyball Classic. Later in the year, SIUE traveled to Loyola where the Cougars where held to a .131 hitting percentage in the three sets they lost.
The Cougars will kick things off Friday against the Lady Ramblers Friday evening. Loyola comes into the match fresh off a 3-0 sweep over Western Illinois, a team who defeated Gober’s Cougars last week. Before facing the Cougars on Friday, the Ramblers have a home match against Chicago State. Loyola holds a 2-5 campaign this far with a loss against Illinois State on Sept. 1. The Redbirds will host SIUE on Sept. 15.
Leading up to this weekend, the Mocs of Chattanooga will have only played in four matches, whether that is an advantage or disadvantage for them will remain to be seen.
The Lady Govs of Austin Peay will head into this weekend at 4-3. Austin Peay capped off an appearance in the Marquette Classic this past weekend with a strong showing, dropping only to the tournament hosts in the four games they played.
So far this year, junior outside hitter Sydney Winslow has been the anchor for this Cougar squad. Winslow is the front runner in team hitting percentage at .288 and has also collected 78 kills in eight matches. Freshmen setters Jamie Mueller and Sammi Minton are adjusting to the tempo of collegiate volleyball. Gober said it himself; he has put a lot of weight on them to carry. Minton and Mueller have 151 and 105 assists, respectively.
I could sit here and type all day what SIUE needs to fix to heal this eight game slump, but as the saying goes, “winning fixes everything”. During SIUE’s last tournament at Ball State, Gober switched his team back to a perimeter defense, the kind of defensive style his team played last year when they went 13-14. Gober said his team needs to be done experimenting and start playing. There have been times where the Cougars would go on a run and win a set this year, but they have failed to keep the momentum going long enough to produce a win.
Like I said it could be inconsistency with the momentum, having all these new players, inexperience or a combination of the three, but once the Cougars notch a win or two under their belt, things will start rolling easier for the squad. One of these key victories could definitely come out of the UT Chattanooga Tournament if SIUE plays like they want it bad enough.

SIUE fandom needs some work

Walking into the Vadalabene Center freshman year, I was pumped to get the first glimpse of my collegiate basketball team. Football and basketball are the two staples of college sports, and since SIUE unfortunately did not have a football team, I expected a packed stadium that night.

I arrived about 10 minutes early with a buddy of mine, and hoped we could still get decent seats on short notice. Lets just say I was surprised when I walked in and found a quarter full stadium.

The student section consisted of about 40 die-hard fans under the opposing hoop. The rest of the arena was made up of students who were not as rabid, and a couple hundred supportive family members and alumni.

We won handily against a small school I had never heard of before. I chalked up the experience as a fun one, but left slightly disappointed because of the small crowd.

Cameron Indoor Stadium, this was not.

However, judging by the number of schools students supported with apparel as they walked around campus they thought they were there. That I could see more “Chief” shirts than SIUE shirts was disheartening.

This was three years ago, and since then things have changed ever so slightly. The crowds are slowly growing and I do see more school pride. The official SIUE sports page looks presentable now, as opposed to, well, then. As I read the article in the Sept 8 Alestle about students organizing to create a better run Red Storm, I got a little excited. It’s one thing to say we’re D-I, and it’s another thing to be D-I.

We need to have students there to cheer a team on, and now more people have reason to do so. I can see how Southwest Baptist would not elicit excitement, but this year we have actual teams to play. Not only that, some are actually coming to SIUE.

Murray State and UW-Milwaukee are taking on the Cougars here in Edwardsville. Yep, two teams that have made the NCAA tournament recently decided come here. Illinois State is making the trip as well.

Of course, there are other sports here than basketball. The club football team recently received permission to play at Ralph Korte Stadium on Oct 10, a huge leap for the program. Showing up and supporting the club football team could go a long way to get the university to spend the money for a D-I program. Hearing about Carbondale’s plans to renovate their stadium, I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of jealousy.

Bring your friends on the tenth, show up early and make an event out of it. Heck, tailgate if you can. Make it seem like any other college football program. The excitement will not go unnoticed by the university.

I agree with the new Red Storm coordinator – Let’s start being D-I fans for the new D-I programs.

Live blog post: women’s soccer vs. Northern Illinois

Allan Lewis from the Alestle in the press box at Ralph Korte Stadium, not a whole lot going on, about 30 minutes left to play, SIUE and Northern have played to a 0-0 tie thus far, not a whole lot of scoring chances, SIUE has outplayed the Huskies for what seems to be a majority of the contest, outshooting them 4-1, but nothing has went in yet, and with the pace being played right now it seems unlikely.

Breaking down the “Bad News Bears”-Week 1

By: T.J. Cowell

Ever since the clock expired on the Bears’ season opener at Lambeau Field last night, I have been trying to dig up some positives that could have come out of a disappointing 21-15 Bears’ loss. Between Jay Cutler throwing four picks, a poor showing by the offensive line and the announcement of Brian Urlacher out for the season after dislocating his wrist, being a Chicago Bears fan is not the easiest thing to do right now.

In the words of Lovie Smith, “Anytime you have four turnovers you are normally not going to win a football game…” NBC announcer Chris Collinsworth continued to stand up for Cutler last night whenever he underperformed, even going as far to blame the four INT’s on playing calling and receivers not running their routes.

True the Bears did have their moments, especially in the third quarter, where they moved the ball efficiently on the offensive side, but for the money they are paying and the hype he has gotten, Cutler needs to play better. Cutler has the “C” on his jersey for “Captain” not “Can’t throw a pass without getting picked”. I would agree that expectations were set high for Cutler and the nerves of starting your first game in one of the biggest environments in the NFL, is easier said than done. Cutler needs to put up the numbers.

As a rookie in 2008, running back Matt Forte ranked amongst the NFL’s most elite in rushing a year ago. Forte’s second season as a Bear did not start off as well with he had hoped with 55 yards on over 20 carries. The Packer defense brought the pressure constantly last and without guys like John Tait (who retired in the offseason), the Bears had trouble protecting Cutler.

Cutler did, however, put up 277 yards; a feat which Chicago fans are not used to. Overall, Chicago edged the Packers in total net yards, 352-226. But as the Bears have proved in the past, it is not all about the offensive effort. There were some highlights on wide receivers in the likes of Devin Hester, Earl Bennett and Johnny Knox. However, the Bears would be better off with Hester just on punt and kick returns. That is a bold statement but I will stick with it. The man is a heck of an athlete and a decent receiver but he will never be able to carry the offensive load, no matter how many times you throw him the ball.

It does not matter who you have the Bears’ QB, they are still the Bears and they are still a running team. It has been that way for years and will continue to be that way, especially with franchise guys like Forte in the backfield.

On top of Cutler’s subpar performance, Chicago was plagued with injuries, most of which were to key players. Obviously, most of us know by now that Urlacher (who left the game in the first half) will miss the rest of the season. There are also core players in tight end Desmond Clark and linebacker Pisa Tinoisomoa. Even cornerback Trumaine McBride is needed out there. Charles “Peanut” Tillman should not have to anchor the Chicago secondary by himself.

As of Monday, the Bears picked up 25-year old Tim Shaw to a one-year contract. Shaw played last season as a Jaguar and will be counted on to help repair Chicago’s wounds at linebacker. Reportedly, Chicago has also shown interest in eleven time Pro Bowler Derrick Brooks. Brooks played under Lovie Smith in Tampa Bay and is said to know Smith style of play.

The case would be if the Bears do pick up Brooks along with Shaw, they cannot be expected to do everything. Yes, Cutler will eventually step up (hopefully sooner than later). But there are eleven guys on the field for a reason. The Bears do not have a player the quite caliber of Adrian Peterson, but somebody needs to make their presence known.

Things will not get any easier for the Bears’ schedule wise in the next two weeks. Chicago hosts defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Sunday afternoon at Soldier Field. If the offensive line cannot pick up the blocks, the Steelers will tear them to shreds. My best friend is a Steeler fan, I don’t want to have to listen to him Monday morning about how Roethlisberger tore up the Chicago secondary. After a rendezvous with Pittsburgh, Lovie’s crew will head to Seattle to take on a dangerous Seahawk squad who won 28-0 in Week 1 against the St. Louis Rams (Lambs).

I could sit here and talk all day about the Bears, but I better end it here. I will however say one more thing, despite long snapper Patrick Mannelly’s questionable call early in the fourth quarter on Sunday, he is still one of the best in the league at what he does.

For the most part the Chicago defense fought hard, despite one critical play that ultimately lost us the game. With or without Urlacher, with or without a solid quarterback, there are fifteen games left in the season. It could be a long and disappointing one if the Bears don’t get off wake up and realize that.

Cougars, Cardinals, and Rams! Oh my! Seriously. Oh my…

This week will a myriad of issues instead of just one poorly drawn out story. Here we go…

GO WATCH SIUE CLUB FOOTBALL!

They haven’t had a game yet, but this will be my battle cry until Oct. 10, the day club football plays at Korte Stadium. For a team that receives little recognition from the school (even though they are a club team, it’s football. they are higher on the priority list than other club teams), they work their assignments off. They practice four days a week, several hours a day. The least the student body could do is to take a couple hours Saturday, Oct. 10 at 1pm and cheer them on.

I hope the university (or Red Storm) will advertise the game. Will they? Who knows. I do know I haven’t seen anything yet. Yes, it’s in two weeks, but the publicity needs to start now to spread the word. The university should get a Cougar Shuttle to transport students to the dorms and back for the game. Go all out. Go to the www.siueclubfootball.com/index.html and look at the roster, get pumped about Oct. 10. At 1 pm. Be there.

Cardinals backing into the playoffs

The recent stretch of Cardinal baseball hasn’t been encouraging. They have lost seven of the last twelve against the likes of Atlanta, Florida, and Houston. Not terrible teams, but definitely not playoff teams. A major issue for the St. Louis Cardinals right now is offense, averaging two runs a game in the seven losses. Mark DeRosa has been terrible, Ankiel is the biggest waste of an at-bat, and even Ludwick has been mediocre, even though batting behind Pujols and Holliday.

A huge reason for the struggles is Ryan Franklin. The only save he has recorded since Sept 5 is a blown save, and three of them at that. Franklin is perhaps the most important part of this Redbird squad, in terms of value over replacement. It is no coincidence the recent skid is in accordance with Franklin’s troubles.

But, let’s make one thing clear. Franklin does not, despite what some crazy fans have told me, suck. Not at all. He has had a bit of trouble, and it is definitely worrisome it is happening in September, but he has been too good for too long of the season to completely collapse now. Franklin and the Cardinals will turn out okay, I promise.

What the Rams are good for

A loss on Sunday. And hopefully, a loss this Sunday, because the Green Bay Packers are in town. As a Packer fan, I have to deal with the torment of turning on the television on watching the Rams instead of a competent team. I’m sure if you are of a fan of a team besides the Rams, you understand how I feel. The Rams, including this season, have won five games in the last three seasons. For Rams fans (I’m sorry), it sucks. For the rest of us it sucks. For the announcers, for the cheerleaders, for anyone remotely interested in football, it sucks.

The Rams are by far the worst team in the league. They are so bad, you can’t even make fun of them. There is no pleasure in it. For the Raiders, we have Al Davis, for the Lions, Millen and 0-16. Nobody even cares about the Rams, and I’m sorry Rams fans, but you may have to move back to LA in a few years.

I will say I am thankful for the Rams for making me get my homework done in time on Sunday. Because, well, anything is better than watching the Rams.

Bracketology

The SIUE men’s basketball team keeps getting recognition.

Heck, they deserve it.

About a week separates us from Midnight Madness and the unofficial start of college basketball season. Exhibition play is still over a month away, as the Cougars prepare for perennial cupcake MacMurray.

this year is going to be very exciting, and I can only hope the campus is buzzing with anticipation, as teams like Illinois State, Murray State and UW-Milwaukee roll in. I have already beat the names of visitors to death in numerous blogs and articles so i will shy away from doing it some more, but my inner cheerleader is still strong with Cougar Pride as the basketball season gets closer.

The newest Revelation to this is the Cougar’s upcoming involvement in the ESPN bracketbuster series, where mid-majors with similar qualities are paired up mid-season for what usually turns out to be a pretty competitive game.

The Bracketbuster is huge for legitimizing tournament credentials and getting the host campus excited about their basketball team. They are called “bracketbusters” for a reason, because the marquee matchups can make or break a bubble team’s shot at getting called on selection Sunday.

Another interesting sidenote to this is the Cougars eligibility for NCAA postseason play, aside from the NCAA Tournament.

We can be in the NIT this season, and I think this year’s scheduling gives us a real shot at getting invited to that particular event, and if not the NIT, the CBI or the other losers tournament. For some schools, anything besides the NCAA tournament is unacceptable, and sort of a dejecting feeling to play for the right to be the 66th best team in the country.

For SIUE, a school not allowed to participate in the NCAA’s this is huge, and the bracketbuster has the potential to mean something. We SHOULD have an exciting basketball team. We SHOULDN’T lose any game by more than 30 points. There is potential for the SIUE men to actually be pretty damn good.

Now only if EA sports is paying attention to my bitching on their forums to include us in their video game we’ll be in business.

There are to my count 20 winnable games on the Cougars schedule, as long as a Millikin fiasco doesn’t go down again.

SIUE will be on the road in their bracketbuster, but will likely host one next season. This, ontop of last year’s Charleston Classic, a game on ESPNU against Purdue this season and a host of other national spotlight opportunities will help the Cougars move forward and become the OVC powerhouse I expect them to be. SIUE has one of the largest enrollments in the conference, and once they establish an identity and a fanbase, it could be stupid scary to see what this team can do down the road.

On a sidenote, ANOTHER new floor is almost completed at the Vadalabene Center after the original was damaged by a storm in May.

Rams are NOT showing signs of improvement

Despite what a local sportswriter might have told you, the Rams are not improving. As a Packer fan, I know what Green Bay can and cannot do. The Rams were not showing signs of improvement last Sunday, they were just exploiting the Packers’ weaknesses.

Leonard Little tripled the Rams sack total, or so I read from a certain newspaper. That’s impressive, except not against the Packers.

Green Bay’s offensive line is horrific. Atrocious. Degrading adjective after degrading adjective. What the offensive line has done has made a defensive superstar for one week. Check it -

Week One – Adewale Ogunleye: 2 sacks, 5 QB hits, 3 tackles for loss (4 total sacks, safety)
Week Two – Antwan Odom: 5 sacks, 7 QB hits, 5 tackles for loss (6 total sacks)
Week Three – Leonard Little: 2 sacks, 0 QB hits, 0 tackles for loss (2 total sacks)

What the Packers did for week three was a massive improvement for the offensive line. They even had their most experienced lineman and left tackle Chad Clifton out for most of the game. The Rams may have improved as a team, but that is only because Green Bay has a terribly inexperienced line. The starting center Spitz was out Sunday and their right tackle had never started a game before the year. The Packers put up 36 points as well, 12 more than either game this year. How that is an improvement for the Rams, I don’t know.

The columnist goes on to say if the Rams had not committed “horrific miscues” they could have closed the gap to 23-17, “much more respectable”. That this is even considered a valid argument boggles my mind. You cannot just take away mistakes from a team without considering the team makes mistakes as well. I once made this argument in junior high to my uncle, and he ripped me to shreds because of it. I should have known better at the time.

So, basically, if the Rams execute well, and the other team plays with mistakes, the Rams have a chance of making the game close.

Here’s who I was impressed with – Kyle Boller. I have continually made fun of Boller because of this video, but he actually looked decent Sunday. He had fewer picks (1) than Cutler (4) or Palmer (2) had against the Packers. He also moves much better than Bulger, gaining yardage with his feet. All this with wide receivers I don’t even think Boller even knew.

Is it even possible to watch the St. Louis Rams play football anymore?

I call myself a St. Louis Rams fan. I am out of the closet in that regard. They have been my football team since moving to St. Louis in 1995, but really, this is pathetic.

After a 35-0 loss to San Fransisco we can establish the following assessments from this team’s performance.

The Offensive line sucks.

The Defense (Besides O.J Atogwe) sucks.

The recievers suck.

The special teams suck.

Josh Brown sucks.

Mark Bulger and Kyle Bulger really suck.

The only thing they are “Ram’ing” is their heads and their fans heads into a brick wall.

Let’s face it, the St. Louis Rams are not going anywhere, and people around here realize it. There are more Packers and Bears fans at SIUE then Rams fans. Of course, if we start winning again everyone will jump onto the bandwagon again, but at this rate we could be waiting awhile.

This team is not worth anyone’s time or money until Billy Devaney can prove the Rams can be winners again. Steve Spagnoulo is the right coach for this team, but he is still stuck with Scott Linehans garbage can players.

I heard Oscar the Grouch is trying out at Rams Park for the Tight End Position next week. He’ll do a better job than Randy McMichael, sign him up.

The other disturbing note in St. Louis sports deals with the Cardinals backing into the playoffs. The birds have 3 wins in their last 10, but hopefully they can get hot when NLDS action picks up Wednesday in LA.

On the bright side, and believe me there is a bright side are the St. Louis Blues. Two games and two wins in the NHL Premiere series against the Detroit Red Wings in Stockholm, Sweeden and four big points.

The Blues are for real.

That’s all for today.

Allan Lewis

GO WATCH SIUE CLUB FOOTBALL.

LIVE blog SIUE Volleyball vs. Western Illinois

Hopefully people are reading our blog tonight, if not, well, we are at the Cougars volleyball game against Western Illinois, about to get underway.

Here are the starting lineups:

For SIUE: BIRKEY, Brittni; ROSENKRANZ, Haley; DOWNING, Karie; MINTON, Sammi; WINSLOW, Sydney; HEMANN, Jessica; libero TURNER, Tiffany.
For WIU: Krissy Bergquist; Brooke Stittleburg; Ellen Miller; Katie Hosteng; Cait Egan; Lindsay Muehlbauer; libero Bridget Murphy.

Fun fact of the day, I went to middle school with Emily Harrison, who is on the Western Illinois team.

Allan Lewis
Alestle sports editor

UPDATE:

SIUE has a 12-10 lead, Western Illinois with a timeout, slow start for the Cougars, but they seem to have bounced back well and out together a few runs and clearly have first set momentum at home

AL

UPDATE:

Oh how things change.

The Cougars were looking good, but WIU just reeled off a 10-2 run to close out the first set 25-18.
SIUE looked a little confused deeper into the set, got caught on a lot in the backcourt on short serves.

We will see how SIUE adjusts to this style of play in the second set.

AL

Second set not looking too much better for SIUE, they are in an 8-3 hole right now early coming out of a timeout.

AL

That timeout must have done something for the Cougars, Todd Gober’s team just put away five in a row, looking a lot more comfortable right now, the set is tied at 10. Sammi Minton about to serve for the Cougars.

AL

Gober with his final timeout of the set, he is obviously looking a little nervous right now, as Western has scored five straight of their own to take a commanding 16-11 lead.

AL

SIUE hanging in there, three in a row makes it a game at 21-19 Western. From my observations, this SIUE team could be really good if they were a little better blocking at the nets, more understanding of their offense and made fewer mistakes. For now, they are right there but struggling to put opponents away. Action has started out of the timeout and it is now 22-19 Western. Lets see how this plays out.

AL

At the break, SIUE trails two sets to none. This team is just not able to put opponents away right now. They had chances in both sets, but big runs for Western put away all hope for SIUE to salvage an early win.

The team is just looking inconsistent throughout this matchup thus far, and although they have shown shades of brilliance it has not went their way.

Maybe they can come out of the locker room with some fire here and turn this thing around…but looking at the way this season has went so far for SIUE, that would be some kind of miracle.

AL

UPDATE 3RD SET

Western Illinois took a four point lead at 13-9, but SIUE has taken four straight points to make it a game, we are tied at 13 in the third set. The crowd is trying to get behind the struggling Cougars, who are playing their typical game at the moment.

UPDATE

SIUE is on the verge of defeat again, down 23-21 in the third set, Gober took both of his timeouts late to try and turn this around, and that needs to happen fast.

Moving on is the hardest part

by Aren Dow

As I sat there, with my hands covering my face, I couldn’t help but think this Holliday experiment was for nothing. Yes, fans cheered him. Gave him a standing O, even after he dropped the ball for the third out and Game 2 of the St. Louis Cardinals-L.A Dodgers series. Deep down inside I think we know he is not coming back. But, more on that later.

The sweep of the Cardinals was hard to take. In football, there isn’t a second chance, but here the Cardinals had three opportunities. Three chances to win one game to find momentum. But it never happened.

With a sweep, it is a collective problem. It wasn’t just Holliday’s drop, it was the Cardinal bats who couldn’t drive anyone home. It was Chris Carpenter and Joel Pinerio who both collapsed. Ryan Franklin and Kyle McClellan. You get the point.

What is so frustrating is that this Cardinals team was so damn good. For most of the year, Carpenter, Wainwright, and Pineiro were top 10 pitchers in the National League. Carp and Adam were talked up as Cy Young candidates; Pineiro had three complete games, two of those shutouts. Franklin, through Sept. 5, had converted 37 save opportunities in 39 chances. Pujols was a lock for his third MVP.

So how did this Cardinals team lose? The bullpen and Matt Holliday. We all knew Holliday was a terrible outfielder, but his bat killed the Cardinals. He had as many strikeouts as hits (two) and somehow only managed to see 15 pitches in his final eight at-bats. There were countless opportunities for him to drive in runs, and he never took advantage. Pujols was intentionally walked three times in the series to get to Holliday. It wasn’t as if pitchers weren’t giving him anything to hit.

Now he is a free agent, and with Scott Boras as his agent, he will garner some serious cash. So now it begs the question, will the Cardinals pony up for Holliday? I think they’ll make a decent sized offer, but will be outbid. Which I do not necessarily have a problem with.

I would only want Holliday to stay if that means Pujols stays. Pujols wants to win, and will stay as long as they field a competitive team. Hopefully, if they let Holliday go, Pujols does not see that as a lack of commitment.

Either way, the Holliday deal hurts. He was supposed to come in and protect Pujols and give the offense a push to the World Series. He fell well short of both, and now the Cardinals have lost good prospects (Brett Wallace and Clay Mortensen) for a one-time shot.

The bigger issue of leaving is with Tony La Russa and Dave Duncan. La Russa, for some reason, is not well liked by Cardinal fans despite taking them to the playoffs nearly every year. Duncan is supposedly angry at management for trading his son Chris to the Red Sox. Those two gave St. Louis their tenth championship, and first in 24 years. If they do not return, it may be a while before it happens again.

SIUE Club football almost squeaks out a win

Let me just say running back Brendan Gibson is a beast. He single-handedly carried the offense on their one touchdown late in the second quarter, breaking off two big runs.

I thought SIUE might have had a chance to pull off the victory going into halftime, only down 14-8 to University of New Orleans. They had scored 14 straight points after Gibson shoved every Privateer out of his way to his touchdown to tie up the game 14-14. But, SIUE’s offense was shut down after the score and the Privateers seemed to run at will, winning the game 21-14.

UNO’s defense pressured quarterback Justin Chappel all game, recording six sacks. Chappel played okay, usually making plays with his feet, and I only remember one pass off the mark. As was said before, Gibson’s number usually preceded any SIUE first down. The offense even threw a couple trick plays, one completed, the other intercepted.

SIUE’s defense played well for the first quarter, not allowing any points. A 52-yard bomb from UNO changed that on the first play of the second quarter changed that however. UNO had two 50+ yard passes that killed the defense, but besides those two strikes, SIUE’s defense held up well. They nabbed an interception early (which would have been a short field goal if the team had a kicker), recovered a fumble for a touchdown, and nearly had another interception late in the third quarter.

It was great having the game at Korte, and a decent number of fans turned up. I was hoping for more though, considering they couldn’t have had a better day weather-wise to play.

We should have a video up soon highlighting the game, so keep an eye out for that.

Chicago Bear WR’s stepping up big

After a heart wrenching 15-21 loss against Green Bay at Lambeau in Week 1, it seemed Jay Cutler and the Bears were already backed into a corner. At that point, the Bears could either lay down and have a disappointing 2009 campaign, or use their frustrations to build upon something positive. And with three consecutive victories in a row, including one over the defending Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers, Chicago is now one of the hottest teams in the NFL.

The Bears came into the season with what looked like an answer to their offensive in quarterback Jay Cutler, but still lacked depth in the wide receiving game. After constantly being ridiculed for being an Achilles’ heel of the team, wide receivers Earl Bennett and Johnny Knox have both stepped up big for Chicago early this season. Bennett has established himself as a core part of Chicago’s passing game, leading the team with fifteen catches. On the other hand, the talk of Devin Hester’s explosive speed has taken a backseat to Knox, who may have more quickness than Hester.

Four games and five weeks into Chicago’s season, the 3-1 Bears have five different players with ten or more catches (including Bennett and Knox). With running back Matt Forte starting out a little slow early on (271 yards on 71 rushes with only one rushing TD), other offensive players stepping up has resulted in the Bears turning their season around.

Although the Bears were off this week, they pick things back up with a road contest against the 3-1 Atlanta Falcons on Sunday. Behind quarterback Matt Ryan, Atlanta toasted a solid 49ers team on Sunday, 45-10. With the Vikings at 5-0 and Green Bay at 2-2, every game is a must win for Chicago at this point. If we can sneak past the next upcoming weeks (Sunday at Atlanta and October 25 at Cincinnati), the Bears could prove themselves to be a serious contender this year.

T.J. Cowell
Alestle Sports Reporter

Thoughts on football at the e

Allan Lewis-Sports Editor

It’s about 4 in the morning here in the student success center, trying to study some political theory, here’s some advice for everyone out there, poli sci is not a great choice for a minor, especially if you are a sports journalism major like myself.

So out of my caffeine and nicotine induced coma in present you with a few thoughts about a recent story i wrote about SIUE’s reasoning behind not having a football team.

It would cost a lot of money, and the university obviously doesn’t have that kind of cash to fork over. Personally, with tuition around 4 grand i wouldn’t mind an additional $400 bucks being tacked onto my parents bill in order for us to play football. It is something that makes the university experience great and something I feel is really lacking here at “the e.” (I hate that manufactured nickname, but like to use it on occasion.)

It would take a LONG time before SIUE could be respectable at the division IAA level. (or championship subdivision to be technical) but it would be worth it. I endure watching the St. Louis Rams on a weekly basis, what’s another bad football team to root for to me? It’s an excuse to drink on campus. I like that.

Seriously, the new cougar would look amazing on a football helmet too. Think about it for a minute.

I did not attend the club football game on Saturday but after viewing pictures and videos of the historical event at Korte Stadium we hold our own in terms of fans. 4,000 or so people coming out to watch an intramural event, although we cover them like the real thing here at the Alestle is something impressive. The club football team is nothing more than an intramural team on steroids in terms of the way they look. Take a look at the scores and stories from their previous games against junior varsity NAIA squads. Not the prettiest thing, that’s for sure. The club football team is bad in terms of being a college football team. They are a great group of guys and a great thing for the university, but they are not a good football team. New Orleans is not a good football team either. Any club team is bad, really. But you know what? the students came out and supported them and that speaks volumes.

The people on the fence about coming out to see the club football game would go if it was an NCAA game. The people who will not return to watch the Club team’s second home game albeit at the RecPlex would return for a second NCAA game. The stands would be packed. SIUE would draw numbers at Korte for an athletic department sanctioned team. We probably won’t see 4,000 people at the Vadalabene Center Nov. 13 against Illinois State in men’s basketball. If a few million bucks were spent to improve Korte we could draw 10,000 easily each and every Saturday for football, I will guarantee that.

Remember, SIUE is the second largest school in the OVC, although it doesn’t appear that way whatsoever, we are.

Football would improve things immensely. As a fan, student and sportswriter I would like to see it, although I know after speaking with those in charge it is mainly a pipe dream. One of these days it will come true, for now we get one big club game a year, and many more reasons to support Cougar basketball and the athletic department as a whole.

Bold Cougar basketball predictions

Allan Lewis- Alestle Sports Editor

As hard to believe as it may be, the college basketball season tips off in less than two weeks.

It’s awesome baby.

SIUE begins its second season in Division I play Nov. 4, with an exhibition game against MacMurray College. Having never heard of MacMurray before, it should be quite the exhibition. I wouldn’t bet against us putting 100 on the scoreboard in this one.

This is the greatest time of the year, for me, as far as work goes. The Alestle sports team will be with the Cougars for two early-season road match-ups, Nov. 13 against Big Ten conference power Illinois, and again on Nov. 18 when the Cougars take on former head coach Marty Simmons and his Evansville Purple Aces of the Missouri Valley Conference.

The first week of regular season basketball gets even better with a visit by MVC power Illinois State to the Vadalabene Center on Nov. 15.

We may be in for a throttling against Illinois to open the season. That is almost expected of coach Forrester’s bunch. As long as half the SIUE campus wearing orange isn’t celebrating afterward I’ll be okay with that.

Bruce Webber’s bunch seems primed to make a run this season. They managed to squeak into the NCAA tournament last year as the #5 seed, only to lose to #12 Western Kentucky in a 12/5 upset anyone could have picked with their eyes closed. Although the Illini were not expected to do much last season, this year is different. Illinois has a solid class of three freshmen, highlighted by DJ Richardson and Brandon Paul to go along with a slew of returning players like Mike Tisdale, Mike Davis and Demitri McCamey. If there is one place the Illini are going to be weak this season, it’s going to be post play, with an inexperienced group of big men. At 6′9, Davis is probably the Illini’s biggest rebounding threat, but nonetheless SIUE is going to have their work cut out for them against an Illini team preparing likewise with two exhibitions under their belt, against Quincy, (Division II, Great Lakes Valley Conference) and Missouri Southern (D-II, MIAA.)

PREDICTION: Illinois 89 SIUE 55

U of I is too powerful for the Cougars, it’s going to be bad, but not a complete embarrassment.

The home-opener has potential for trouble as well, but the one saving-grace the Cougars have is home court. This means the Vadalabene Center has GOT to be packed. If we can squeeze 4,000 fans into that thing, it is going to be loud, and a hostile environment could shake up Illinois State, who last season played just three non-conference road games, and although they won all three, they were against lesser opponents and they narrowly escaped each one.
Here’s how ISU played non-conference away from Redbird Arena last year:

ISU 69 Wright State 61 (18-12, 12-6 Horizon League)
ISU 84 Southern Methodist 73 (9-20, 3-13 Conference USA)
ISU 72 Central Michigan 69 (11-18, 7-9 Mid American Conference)

ISU started the season 14-0, and finished the regular season at 22-8, but thanks to their weak non-conference schedule, had to settle for the NIT after an overtime loss in the championship game of the MVC tournament.

ISU lost two of their four biggest weapons from a year ago. Champ Oguchi averaged 15 points a game. He is gone. Emmanuel “All Day” Holloway’s day is done, and he put up ten a game.

ISU is not going to be nearly as good as they have been, and there is upset potential to this game, especially being at home for the Cougars. At Redbird Arena I would almost immediately write us off, but not here. Why ISU coach Tim Jankovich scheduled this game I have no idea. It remains that Osiris Eldrige is one of the most exciting college players I have seen in person, however, and Dinma Odiakosa is back after averaging eight and seven and a half playing the post for the Redbirds, but the Cougars have a fighting shot here. Lloyd Phillips could also do some damage for ISU.

Ultimately, ISU is the safe bet to win this game, but don’t hold that to heart, and if we win, everyone better be on the court afterward.

PREDICTION: Illinois State 61 SIUE 57

The third game of the season brings all the exciting story-lines we should already be used to. It is a tale of two schools with so many coaching connections you would think they branched off of each other to form two different schools. Or it’s just some stupid coincidence. Anyways, it breaks down like this.

Marty Simmons – Played at Evansville from 1986-1988

Lennox Forrester – Transferred to Evansville in 1990, injuries kept him from playing, was a student assistant with the team.

Marty Simmons – Assistant Coach at Evansville from 1990-1996 and 1998-2002.

Lennox Forrester – Joined the staff at Evansville after graduating in 1992, was an assistant with Simmons from 1992-2002, before moving on as an assistant at Bradley from 2002-2007.

Marty Simmons – Head Coach at SIUE from 2002-2007. Led the Cougars to the D-II Elite Eight in 2006.

Lennox Forrester - Replaces Simmons as SIUE Head Coach in 2007.

Marty Simmons – Named Evansville Head Coach in 2007

Mark Allaria – 2002 graduate of Evansville, Cougars assistant under Simmons 2002-2007, retained by Forrester. Started at Evansville from 2000-2002 with Forrester and Simmons on the coaching staff.

Ben Wierzda- Assistant Coach at Evansville. SIUE Alumnus (2000) Hired as an assistant at SIUE under Simmons from 2006-2007, and went with Simmons to Evansville in 2007.

It’s basically a college hoops soap opera in the twilight zone.

Evansville is a team on the rise under Simmons, although they will have to do a little bit of re-tooling after losing four starters. Pieter Von Tongeran is the only returning starter for the Aces, but he did play impressive against the Cougars last year, with 17 points and eight rebounds. Kavon Lacy scored 14 off the bench in Evansville’s 89-58 win on Dec. 2 last season. He is back as well.

This year it is going to be closer. We are better than we were last year, and Evansville, for all intensive purposes until they can show something without Shy Ely (who absolutely torched the Cougars last season, and was impressive in the MVC tournament against ISU) is worse.

For now, safety says the Aces win and drop us to 0-3.

PREDICTION: Evansville 83 SIUE 71

So, when do we get our first win? Mark your calenders, I am making a guarantee.
A bold guarantee.

November 21st at Ball State. (game four)

Last season, the Cardinals beat the Cougars by 12 WITHOUT leading scorer Mark Yelovich. This year with Yelovich the Cougars will go into Muncie and get a win. Last season, the Cougars first win also came against a team from the MAC in Western Michigan. The Cougars start the season with three tough games, Ball State starts with Valparaiso. Bottom line, Cougars win in Muncie before coming home and beating Lipscomb and IPFW back to back to start the season 3-3.

Final record: The Cougars will go 11-15.

This is a manageable schedule. We can play with North and South Dakota, IPFW is not the greatest team in the world, neither is Kennesaw State, and there are teams on the schedule we have beaten in the past in UMKC and SEMO. SEMO is just a sad team to boot.

This may be a little optimistic, but if all goes well, we could be looking at a .500 season once we are eligible for the OVC.

* The Feb. 20 bracketbuster game is not included in the 11-15 prediction.

Women’s basketball poised to improve in 2009-10

By Aren Dow

As noted by my colleague, the basketball season is nearly underway. Just two weeks from now, we will have regular season games at the Vadalabene and hopefully the stadium will be rocking.

Home-field advantage was coined for a reason, the home team feeds off the energy of the crowd. For women’s basketball, they have a great opportunity to start a season off on a high note if they can manage an a home victory against Morehead St. or UW- Milwaukee.

The University has made a, literally, huge promotion of women’s basketball. A 30-foot schedule is on the VC and shows every home game for the Cougars. Talking to senior point guard Ashley Bey, she said she was surprised when I saw it. I was too. First, that the University really started promoting athletics, and second, that it was women’s basketball. It was a nods of approval when I first saw the schedule, then a noticeable double-take when I saw it was for women’s basketball.

Few universities would promote their women’s program over the men’s. Talking to the players and coaches, they appreciate the promotion. Hopefully, no matter what is up there, it reminds students the school is committed to have entertaining and successful programs at SIUE.

As with many of the teams right now, they are in rebuilding phase. Moving to D-I also meant moving on with coaches and personnel. Many of those coaches just had their first chance to recruit at the D-I level and show what they can contribute.

Women’s Basketball Head Coach Amanda Levens is one of those coaches. Last year was her first year, and she brought in Bey, Madison Meade, Kate Affourtit, and Marquia Taylor. Bey was outstanding, setting a SIUE record for steals (112) and added 9.4 points per game. Meade chipped in 7.4 ppg and Affourtit had 4.4 ppg. Affourtit was one of the better shooters from behind the arc for the Cougars, shooting 31 percent.

While the Cougars finished just 5-24 for the season, they played much better at home with a record of 4-7. The Cougars had their lone road win at Wisconsin Parkside, 52-51.

And when the Cougars take on Morehead State Nov. 14 to start the season, they will do so at home.

SIUE faced off with the Eagles last year at Morehead St., losing 77-63. It was just the third game of the season for the Cougars and the points rested within those who had been with the program.

Morehead State has lost just one starter this year, but it is a big absence. 6′3″ Brittany Pittman, the Eagles’ center last year, was a main part of their offense and defense. Pittman averaged 11.9 ppg, second on the team and 10.1 rebounds. She also had 164 blocks, making her a focal point for the team.

Last year, Jenny Wuest was the Cougars tallest player at 5′11″. Even though coaches and players testify Wuest played well beyond her height, having taller players does make a difference. 6′ 3″ Whitney Champlin, who transfered here from Oregan State, gives a much needed boost in size.

Now the Eagles center is a freshman and it seems the roles have been reversed. SIUE holds the size advantage and the home court advantage. If Champlin can step up in her first game as a Cougar and control the boards, SIUE has a real chance to open their season with a win.

The second consecutive home game is against Milwaukee. The Panthers played SIUE early last season as well and dominated 88-65, and as with Morehead St, this was also on the road. The Panthers locked down the boards with a 58-27 margin and shot over 50 percent from the field. This is a much less likely win than Morehead State.

The Cougars then start a five game road trip, beginning with Valparaiso and including Northwestern, Loyola, New Mexico St., and Stephen F. Austin.

Northwestern and Loyola are both bottom of the barrel for their conferences. Loyola did beat SIUE last year, mostly because their defense held the Cougars to 23 percent shooting. Size plagued this game as well as Loyola outscored SIUE 32-20 in the paint. These will be tough games for the Cougars considering they are on the road.

SIUE has the chance to be very good. They were awfully limited in size last year; out rebounded 1296-1059 for the season. If Champlin can provide an interior presence, they can be dangerous.

This team could be 2-3, even 3-2 to start off the season. As stated before, two factors will be involved: Size and depth. If the Cougars can lead a balanced attack and receive scoring off of the bench, they should obliterate last year’s record.

Look for the first blog post of the 2009-2010 basketball season later this afternoon. I will be breaking down the MacMurray Highlanders, whom SIUE faces tomorrow evening in their exhibition opener.

 

This blog will be very active in the coming days, as myself and the Alestle sports staff begin to get into covering the basketball Cougars from every angle as they enter year two in Division I.

-Allan Lewis

Alestle Sports Editor

Breaking Down MacMurray

Tonight is the night, basketball season finally gets started as the Cougars face the MacMurray Highlanders, a Division III team at the Vadalabene Center in exhibition action. As promised, the sports blog is going to be active every time Cougar news breaks throughout the season.

First, a couple of facts about MacMurray.

The school is incredibly small. Student population is 518, and it is located in Jacksonville, Illinois. They are members of the D-II St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, along with a few teams SIUE is used to playing by now, in Blackburn (106-53 win last season) and Robert Morris College of Springfield (88-58 win last season, 6-0 all-time against them.)

This looks to be the perfect tune-up for SIUE heading into their exhibition finale against Illinois College, and more importantly, their season opener at the University of Illinois next Friday.

MacMurray is no Duke, that’s for sure.

The Highlanders finished last season with a 6-19 mark, and finished their SLIAC schedule at 5-11.

Todd Creal is their second year coach, sporting a 9-41 record. Not exactly coach K either.

MacMurray is young, they have seven freshmen on their roster and just three seniors.

Their biggest weapon is Ryan Sichting, a junior who averaged 15.2 points per game and 5.1 rebounds last season.

Historically, MacMurray has played well against SIUE. They lead the all-time series 2-1, but the two teams have not met since 1990, the Cougars won that one 99-91 at the Vadalabene Center.

Against common opponents, MacMurray went 2-1 last season. They split their season series against Blackburn, and defeated Robert Morris handily, 104-76.

One of the things Head Coach Lennox Forrester has stressed of his Cougars going into this season is to treat every opponent with the same respect, and that means playing MacMurray like they are the University of Illinois. This should be the mindset of every team, and the Cougars appear to me as being more mature this season, with three seniors, including Aamir McCleary, who led the team in assists last season and put up nearly 10 points a contest. Look for McCleary to be a leader and tear MacMurray apart tonight. The Cougars will be more mature, a few problems are gone from the team, and they are a year older. Mark Yelovich led the team in scoring as a freshmen, he will only get better from here.

If SIUE does what they are capable of doing tonight, look for the scoreboard to light up the VC. No idea what to expect from the Cougars defensively, but hopefully they are able to lock down.

Last season, the Cougars seemed to have more problems with lesser tier teams than they did with the likes of mid-majors at the D-I level. A loss to Millikin, and a close call in pre-season action to Westminster gives games like this have a red-flag. If this team proves to be mature enough to bear down and use this game as a means of preparing for the season and working on the things they have done in practice and executing them on the floor they should win easily. Hopefully the Cougars don’t take MacMurray lightly, and given MacMurray’s track record they could easily just stay away from the gym and still win by 20.

A lack of effort tonight could leave the Cougars unprepared come the 15th when the games count for real, however, so expect Forrester to have his team ready to play and amped for a new season.

Triple digits are expected, although No. 25 Syracuse did lose to D-II LaMonye last night, so anything can happen.

-Allan Lewis

Alestle Sports Editor

SIUE’s red light special looks discounted

by Sean Roberts, Alestle photographer

Sean Roberts

SIUE is a legitimate Division I university. At least, that’s what SIUE wants us to think.

We have a giant poster hanging on the Vadalabene Center, the press needs credentials to get into the games, and now we have red lights all around campus advertising the games. The idea is simple: when the red light is on, the game is at home and students should rush to get tickets and show their school spirit.

When I first saw the red light at the Morris University Center’s Information Center, I thought it was a new desk lamp. In fact, it is an upside down desk lamp with a cheap red light bulb. After careful inspection, I saw that there was also game information scribbled on a cheap, small dry erase board next to it.

You would think SIUE would be able to afford some flashier equipment, especially with the $145 athletic fee we’re all paying. What SIUE has now certainly wouldn’t notify me that a game was going on.  Students would notice more if there were lights that actually stood out, perhaps with decorations or a plastic covering.

As it stands now, it’s a very cheap, very tacky desk lamp that happens to have a red light bulb with a even cheaper dry erase board. Come on SIUE, if you want to promote the basketball games, that’s great, but don’t go halfway.  It was a very cool idea, but not at all well executed.

The lights would get a lot more attention if they looks a bit better than something you’d see advertising clearance specials at KMart.

The red light and dry erase board at the MUC's Information Center are meant to notify students when there is a home game to increase attendance at basketball games.

LIVE blog and reaction SIUE vs. MacMurray

Light crowd at the VC, a few notes for the pre-season opener:

Last year’s leading scorer Mark Yelovich will not be playing this evening. We will get reasoning from Head Coach Lennox Forrester at the game, Dane Church and Stephen Jones are also not dressed.

In pre-season warmups, the Highlanders look incredibly under-sized. Tallest player on the team is 6′6.

AL

2ND MEDIA TIMEOUT (11:26)

SIUE has taken the lead back, Hopefully they can keep it, they will get the ball out of the timeout, the offense is looking a little more fluid right now, perhaps the nerves are out of the way, Forrester still using his depth, Cody Rincker is 1-2 from the field with 3 points, he is starting to to get into his game, Cougars have upped their shooting to 39 percent. Both teams have been sloppy turning the ball over so far.

AL

Starting Lineups

MacMurray (0-0)

McClellan

Colston

Slagel

Lee

Robertson

SIUE (0-0)

Bowles

McCleary

Rincker

Boarden

Mavrak

FIRST MEDIA TIMEOUT (15:20)

Sloppy start for SIUE, trailing MacMurray 11-7 thus far, Coach Forrester is playing a lot of his young guys and new additions, Zeke Schneider, LeShaun Murphy, Dobrvoje Mavrak, Anthony Mitchell and Cody Rincker have all seen playing time, Cougars not getting things together gelling as a team. Schneider has not looked good at all, he is getting pushed around on defense by the much smaller Highlanders.

Mav has looked good in limited action, and Kevin Stineman is 1-1 from the field with a three pointer.

MacMurray is shooting 77 percent from the field.

-AL

SIUE first timeout (8:01)

Tied at 18, the Cougars are looking to run the ball up the floor a little bit more, still looking very sloppy. None of the freshmen recruits have played well so far. Zeke Schneider has looked awful thus far, he has committed two fouls, has not taken a shot and got caught traveling in the paint against an undersized defender.

Lots of kinks to work out before the action starts for real next Friday. SIUE is shooting 36 percent from the field, has seven turnovers and is 20 percent from behind the arc.

Media Timeout (3:42)

Not much new to say, SIUE is still struggling, more than this girl shooting during this contest.

They are not shooting too bad, but nine turnovers is just too much. David Boarden is looking like an adequate replacement for Barry Wellington, he has four points and six rebounds, so his presence has been huge. Scoring has been distributed fairly equally for the Cougars, Kevin Stineman leads the team with seven.

Half-time grades

The Cougars made a 17-6 run to close out the first half, opening up their lead to 11. Things have improved since a little bit earlier in this one.

Here are the individual grades for SIUE in the first half

Zeke Schneider F: Zeke has been absolutely terrible, and it’s hard to be so hard on the guy, after all, it is his first college game. In 7 minutes, Zeke has 3 fouls and three turnovers without managing to take a single shot. He was also responsible for a fourth SIUE turnover, posting up in the paint and missing a pass. Not a very high attention span.

Kevin Stineman A: Greatly improved from a season ago. Stineman leads the Cougars with nine points, is 4-7 from the field and although he is 1-4 from beyond the arc he has impressed in 13 minutes.

David Boarden A: Looks to be an adequate replacement for Barry Wellington, 4 points and 7 rebounds. 7 rebounds for a guy who’s 6′4. that in and of itself earns him an A.

LeShaun Murphy: C-: Again, being critical of the new guys, The Sasche Texas native has 4 points and two rebounds while shooting 0-3 from 3 point range.

Denycko Bowles B: Not a bad effort for the Bahaman. Two points and two rebounds in five minutes.

That’s it for now, more to come later. Second half is now underway.

Second Half Live Blog SIUE vs MacMurray

First Media Timeout of the second half (16:20)

David Boarden has looked good here in the second half, Boarden, Bowles and McCleary each have baskets early, Cougars lead is 13.

McCleary is up to eight points on the night, Kevin Stineman still hustling all over the court, I have been incredibly impressed with his performance tonight. Looks like he could be earning a starting job once the season starts.

Second timeout (11:59)

Cougars have their first player in double digits, McCleary now has 11 to go along with 5 rebounds, he is putting forth a strong effort thus far.

Just an observation as the pace of the game slows down, the crowd has not been into this one at all. The student section, as small as it may be is packed, but we heard our first bit of noise from the crowd with the Highlanders at the free throw stripe.

SIUE is only on an 11-9 run spanning the last 3:48, pace is a little slower, SIUE not running as much. Anthony Mitchell has had a nice little stretch with four points.

Zeke just got his first points as a Cougar after missing two free throws.

TIMEOUT

A MacMurray player is down on the court in front of the basket, still cannot verify the number, he is not looking good, an ambulance is on its way to the VC, hopefully he is okay.

Player on the floor is Clint Lee went up for a loose ball and hit the floor pretty hard. Looks like its his ankle, he is talking, so nothing too serious. We are talking here in press row about the lack of emergency personnel, there are no paramedics on call here in the gym, probably noone on campus, this could take a while as the SIUE staff stands with Slagle on the court. It also appears MacMurray has no trainers or medical personnel on their staff either.

Still in an emergency delay here at the VC, interesting to see the cheerleaders and fans behind the basket watch Lee get his leg snapped back into place, Stretcher is leaving the floor, time to play again, SIUE only leads by 11 with 10:50 to play.

Cougars lead 66-50 right now, Stineman and McCleary both drain jumpers, fittingly they lead the team in scoring, Stineman has 11 and McCleary 13. David Boarden is 5-9 from the floor with 8 rebounds and 10 points. All three of them have had outstanding games, while the rest of the team seems to be struggling.

Cody Rincker back in the score column with two big threes, he has been spotty, but catching back on fire, he now has 12 points. The Cougars have four guys in double figures and are winning the rebounding battle by 39-28, and have opened up a 20 point lead.

LeShaun Murphy, the freshman has turned things around in the second half and is now also in double figures with ten. SIUE leads by 24, finally settling into their game, not as large of a victory as some of us were expecting, but without  Yelovich it makes sense. 4:48 to go in this one.

Desmond Young about to take the floor for the first time as a Cougar, SIUE leads by 24 with 3:58 to play.

Zeke Schneider fouls out with five points and three points, turned his day around a little bit in the second half, not a great first effort for him.

LeShaun Murphy with a monster dunk, after a layup on the other end, Desmond Young goes straight down the court and gets two points and a foul while being hit in mid-air to jolt the VC. Anthony Mitchell would tip the miss in to give SIUE an 89-62 lead.

Cougars really turning things around in the second half. LeShaun Murphy with another monster dunk, he is an electric athlete.

Another huge dunk by Anthony Mitchell, Technical foul was called on SIUE, that’s what happens when you get three monster dunks in the span of a minute. SIUE might get to that 100 mark afterwards.

SIUE is going to win this one 94-64 as MacMurray gets the basketball with under 30 seconds left.

Wrapping up last night’s game

SIUE came away with a 30 point triumph over MacMurray last night in exhibition play, a few performances stood out, scoring was distributed nicely, and once the Cougars found their rhythm they looked tough to beat.

You can read more later on in the day, I just submitted my “view from the sidelines” column on the game, TJ should be getting the game story in shortly and they will be posted on Alestlelive.com sooner than later.

First, the good from last night, SIUE had six players scoring in double figures. That’s huge to have that many guys on your team who are able to contribute that much offense. This comes with the team missing their leading scorer and starting center, whom we learned from coach Lennox Forrester after the game were benched for “violating team rules.” Senior guard Stephen Jones was in the same boat. All things considered, the Cougars played well and pushed aside a sluggish start.

Last night yielded some impressive performances, notably sophomore guard Kevin Stineman, junior guard David Boarden and freshman guard LeShaun Murphy. You can throw junior guard Cody Rincker into the mix as well, scoring 12 points.

Stineman hustled better than anyone on the floor.

Boarden led the Cougars with 8 rebounds, which was impressive considering he fills a 6′4 frame, Rincker made his case to become a key component of the bench, and was SIUE’s hottest three point shooter, going 4-6, and Murphy showed he can be an explosive player capable of swinging momentum in a heartbeat.

Boarden and Murphy seem to be the perfect answer to the question of “who will replace Barry Wellington and Brandon Dunson?”

They fit the role seamlessly.

The post game could be better for the Cougars, Zeke Schneider did not play well at all, Dobrivoje Mavrak got off to a nice start, but his play tapered off considerably in the second half, but that will improve with Bundalo in the lineup.

Overall, not a bad effort, but still things to improve upon come the regular season opener.

-Allan Lewis

Alestle Sports Editor

Previewing IC and exhibition number two

The SIUE women’s team will be taking the court in the next hour and a half against the University of Missouri-St. Louis, but for now let’s focus on the men, who will follow with their second dress rehearsal for the University of Illinois and their season opener next Friday.

We will see Mark Yelovich, Stephen Jones and Nikolo Bundalo tonight. They missed Wednesday’s game for “violating team rules,” and the suspension imposed on them by Head Coach Lennox Forrester was just for that particular game.

It will be interesting to see if the Cougars can keep a balanced offensive attack going with three additional weapons, and perhaps their biggest in Yelovich in the lineup, after six players scored in double figures against MacMurray.

Now to talk about Illinois College, the first of three teams SIUE will face with “Illinois” in their name, and by far the easiest of the group to handle.

This should be a walk in the park tonight. Just like MacMurray, IC is located in Jacksonville, Illinois, and just like MacMurray has an enrollment under 1,000 at 891.

They compete in NCAA Division III. They went 11-12 last season, and 8-8 in conference play.

This will be the second all-time meeting between the Cougars and Blue Boys, who first met in 1987, a 100-73 SIUE victory.

David Stewart is going to be the Blue Boy to watch, he averaged just over 11 points last season to compliment five rebounds per-game.

3 SIUE Players to watch

Mark Yelovich – Led SIUE in scoring last season, making his season debut tonight

Zeke Schneider – Important to see if the new recruit can rebound from a rough outing Wednesday. He fouled out and had four turnovers in 11 minutes.

LeShaun Murphy – Best second half of any Cougar Wednesday.

That’s all for now, look for live posts during both the men’s and women’s games this evening.

Allan Lewis

-Alestle Sports Editor

LIVE BLOG: Cougars v. UMSL first half

About to tip-off here at the Vadalabene Center. Cougars return only a handful of players this season. Head Coach Amanda Levens will be looking to senior guard Ashley Bey to lead the way for this young team — the Cougars have five freshman on the roster this season.

Whitney Champlin, 6′3″ is the player to watch tonight. If she comes out firing, that is good news for the squad. The Cougars were heavily outrebounded last year and Champlin provides a four inch height difference from last years tallest player, 5′11″ Jenny Wuest.

UMSL is returning their top five scorers from last season, so the Cougars may be a bit rusty to start out against this experienced squad. UMSL was only 7-21 last year, barely eclipsing the Cougars 5-24 mark.

UMSL in black with white and red trim tonight, so that will blend in nicely with SIUE’s white uni’s trimmed in red.

Arena about half full in the bottom area — hopefully more trickling in a bit.

UMSL off to an early lead 8-4. Meade has made two nice jump shots, almost every other possession has been a turnover for the Cougars. UMSL has been driving to the basket for most of their possessions.

First timeout 15:21. Cougars have done a decent job rebounding. Meade is 3-3, and is playing very well as the point guard — driving and finding the open player on the floor.

Freshman Raven Berry a bright spot so far. She has made her presence in the post known, grabbed a few rebounds and has the only other points besides Meade — a solid three-point play.

Cougars only outrebounded 5-4 right now, and Champlin has not even seen the floor yet.

Bey is back in the game, and its noticeable. She has two rebounds in the last minute and made a nice cut to the basket to put the Cougars within two — 14-12. She hustles all over the court — really the energy of the team when she is on the floor.

Six turnovers so far for the Cougars, even though its early not something you want to see. Two or three of those turnovers have been traveling violations.

Duncan makes the first Cougar FG in about six minutes. They have been jacking it from beyond the arc unsuccessfully — 2-9 from three point range. Cougars only down by three points though 19-16. Raven Berry has looked good so far with four points and three rebounds, solid play from a freshman.

Ashley Bey really knows how to drive to the basket and get called for the foul. She brings another element to the Cougar offense by slashing the paint.

Great defense by SIUE late in the first half here –UMSL hasn’t scored for more than five minutes. Duncan’s three-pointer puts SIUE up 28-19.

Meade just got popped in the mouth — but got called for the foul. She is touching her mouth as if blood was drawn. Levens is not happy with the call.

Little crazy to end the first half. Meade was slow to get up after crashing to the ground after an attempted lay-up. Bey took control and put in four quick points driving to the basket. Cougars still up by six at halftime, 33-27. Halftime grades up in a bit.

Halftime grades

Madison Meade – A – She has been all over the floor, leading the Cougars with 10 points. Tough player. She really compliments Bey well when they are both on the floor as they are both good ball-handlers. Couple of turnovers though — mostly traveling.

Malia Duncan – A – Nine points, five rebounds. She shot well from behind the arc in the half, and aggressive on the defensive side. Only 5′8″ and has more rebounds than anyone else in the game. She has also taken three charges for the game. Great game so far.

Ashley Bey – B – She led the team late in the half, with three buckets, all lay-ups. A few turnovers, but the whole team could stand to improve on this area — they have 12.

Raven Berry – B – Amazing first game for the freshman. Can’t say enough about her for her offense or defense. Hopefully she is the player they can rely on the post for the season.

Danielle Bennett – C – A couple of poor shots so far, and three turnovers. It is her first game ever as a Cougar though; hopefully she can correct those mistakes.

Courtney Kenner – C – Hasn’t done a whole lot this game

Cougars 4-12 from behind the arc; not great but not terrible.

LIVE BLOG: Cougars v. UMSL second half

Duncan continues to impress by scoring the first four points for the Cougars in the second half. And she just hit her third three-pointer. It looks like Duncan will be the one who can replace Jenny Wuest, the Cougars leading scorer last year. She can drive or hit the jump shot. A complete performance so far.

Cougars keeping up with UMSL rebound-wise 24-24. A big area last year where the Cougars lost ground, they have kept up with UMSL so far.

Cougars have kept a good balance of threes and driving it into the post. Raven Berry is a huge part of opening up the post game, and Duncan has been deadly from behind the arc.

UMSL really struggling from behind the arc — they are 0-10 for the game. Cougars playing pretty good defense in the last 20 minutes.

And just as I say that, UMSL goes on a 10-6 run to close the lead to 7, SIUE still up 48-41.

10:54 left in the second half, score still the same. Bey committed her fifth turnover as she overthrew Duncan on a break-away. Duncan still dominating the floor with 18 points and 8 rebounds.

Eight offensive rebounds for the Cougars and they have capitalized on those. They could have had three or four more if players had followed shots though.

Bey with another driving lay-up to help keep the Cougars ahead. They have been flirting with a double-digit lead but can’t quite get there. Just under four left in the half and Cougars are up 58-49. Play has been a bit sloppy by both teams lately.

Duncan just hit a lay-up to bring her total to 20 points. Couple that with 10 rebounds — giving her a double-double — she has dominated. Berry continues to be a force defensively, if she isn’t getting the rebound, she’s tipping it to someone else.

Raven Berry just knocked down a three – crowd goes wild. I can’t imagine Berry thought she would have had a game like this. Huge ovation for Berry as she leaves the game.

Cougars run out the clock as they complete a 70-58 victory. Just an exhibition, but if you are Coach Levens, you have to be happy with the performance tonight.

SIUE men vs. Illinois College Live Blog

The first of three consecutive games against teams with Illinois in their name, today, it’s Illinois College, an NAIA school in exhibition play.

Pre-game news and notes

According to sports information director Eric Hess, Nikolo Bundalo will be missing tonight’s game due to ankle problems. He did not play in the Cougars game Wednesday night against MacMurray College either.

That leaves Dobrivioje Mavrak and Zeke Schneider as the Cougars two guys inside.

Mav had six points and four rebounds against MacMurray and Zeke had five points in the second half.

Illinois College freshman guard Nathan Kohler is repeat Illinois High School State Association Class A state three-point shooting champion.

We could expect a shootout if Kohler sees the floor and is on his game and the Cougars shooters do likewise.

Wednesday, the Cougars were 7-23 from three point range, a number they would like to change.

Junior guard Cody Rincker put down the majority of those baskets, going 4-6 from long range for all 12 of his points.

Illinois College is a much taller team than MacMurray. They have five players over 6″5.

More to come in about 15 minutes when we tip-off.

 

Live blog SIUE vs Illinois College 1st half

Starters for SIUE

Mark Yelovich

Denycko Bowles

Aamir McCleary

Stephen Jones

Zeke Schneider

Getting an early look at Yelovich and Jones who sat out Wednesday, Zeke gets a shot at redemption after his performance Wednesday.

————

IC comes out of the gate pressing, and to an 8-0 lead.

Mark Yelovich back to his old tricks, he hit a three pointer to get the Cougars on the board after a very slow start.

Cougars shooting the three ball alot here early, they are 3-4 from long range, 0-3 from the field. Cody Rincker and Aamir McCleary have hit from long range along with Yelovich.

IC got a lucky break right before the first media timeout, an airball with two seconds left on the shot clock should have resulted in a violation, but the clock reset and IC put up a second chance layup.

SIUE off to a slow start once again, 14:54 to play in the first half, down 16-9.

Cougars still playing from behind early, this is something they are going to have  to fix.

Yelovich has looked good early, he has five points and one rebound. LeShaun Murphy missed a dunk on an explosive move through the middle of the lane. Cougars trailing 18-16, They are only shooting 35 percent from the field.

Stephen Jones takes the free throw line when the game resumes, he was an 81 percent shooter last season.

New game, same story. IC just took their first timeout. SIUE is on a 13-2 run over the last 5:14, David Boarden got himself in the score column with a layup right before. SIUE now leads 22-18 and is looking like the superior team they are.

Dob Mavrak finally scoring, he gets two points a rebound, he has looked sloppy, really none of the big guys have impressed so far for SIUE, they are missing Nikolo Bundalo badly here, leading by four.

Aamir McCleary just committed a very hard foul in mid-air on Jacob Tucker of IC, he heads to the free throw line trying to turn things around for IC, SIUE is on a 20-4 run over the last ten minutes.

Cougars are really reeling right now. 3-11 from three point range after a fast start from there, IC is shooting almost 50 percent from the field, SIUE has 7 turnovers and all that results in a terrible first half. Illinois College has taken the lead back from SIUE at 35-34 with five seconds left in the first half. The hoop and harm brought Melvin Walker to the line and he added one more, Cougars look very disappointed going into the locker room, while IC brought a large fan following with them sending them off to the locker room happy.

There are not words to describe how the first half went for the Cougars.

IC came to play.

They are 80 percent from the free throw line, and that is where 12 of their points come from. They are 2-5 from three point range and 11-22 for an even 50 percent from the field.

SIUE on the contrast is struggling.

This first half gets an F-, especially given the Cougars are playing a DIII squad.

Live blog Second Half SIUE vs. IC

Cougars are still in the locker room with three minutes left before we resume play, hopefully Coach Forrester is giving them a hard time being down two to a DIII squad.

Kevin Stineman is not looking good at all after a breakout performance earlier in the week. He needs to improve and be a leader for this team. Mark Yelovich has looked good, but noone else has really stood out. Zeke Schneider is not looking awful, and neither is Mav down low, but the big guys are not performing as usual.

Maybe the Cougars are a second half team, hopefully we come out with some extra swagger, there is huge incentive to win, because this would not look good heading into the Illinois game with a loss.

Mark Yelovich hit a three pointer after a shot was made in the paint by Yelovich, Cougars grab the lead back at 40-38, IC timeout, let’s see if SIUE can make a run for it here in the second half.

Cougars still in a battle here, IC won’t go away, it’s 42-41 .

LeShaun Murphy got the crowd into this game for the first time tonight with a dunk, Cougars take a three point lead, Blueboys call a timeout during a scrum for a loose ball. Interesting how Forrester is using his bench (or not using it) tonight with Yelovich in the lineup. It’s a different style of personnel management than we saw earlier in the week.

Stephen Jones 6-8 from the line, he is approaching double figures with eight. Cougars lead is now six, still way too close for comfort with just under 12 minutes remaining in the game and a meida timeout.

For the second time in two games, the Cougars catch a rough break, the ball bounced off the top of the backboard, and instead of an out of bounds call IC got two more points and is within two again.

Stephen Jones is now in double-digits with ten points.

IC is going to get the ball coming out of the under 8 media timeout, trailing SIUE by just two. Same story as last year tonight against lesser schools, Cougars just not giving 110% and this exhibition is quickly turning into a nail-biter.

McCleary and Rincker knock down three’s for SIUE, but Devin Gilman provided an immidiate answer, and the six point lead SIUE had is back down to three with 4:27 to play coming out of SIUE’s timeout.

From a fan’s perspective, this game is absolutely embarrassing. There is no way any D-I school in the country should be fighting for their lives against a DIII school.

Cougars now in the double bonus with Mav at the line after an offensive foul on IC.

Mav made one of his shots, but on the other end Yelovich draws a foul as Jacob Tucker makes a basket, converts the three point play and the lead is trimmed to one.

After IC regained the lead from SIUE, Jones drained a three to to take the lead back, and then on the other end he takes a charge, to get the ball back, SIUE trying to wind this one down now, after a tense couple of minutes.

Denycko Bowles fouls out with 1:13 left in the game, we are tied with a minute to play at 66….

IC ball with 48 seconds left.

Aamir McCleary runs the length of the floor after stealing the basketball to lay in the go ahead basket, IC ball, 28 seconds left, SIUE leads 68-66

SIUE calls a timeout, David Stewart gets the hoop and the harm, going to the line with a chance to win the game for IC, tied at 68 with 6 seconds left…

Stewarts shot is well off the mark as the VC gets loud, the crowd gets an assist on that miss, McCleary got the last shot for SIUE in transition, but his leaner was off the mark and we are going to overtime against Illinois College.

Overtime SIUE vs DIII Illinois College

McCleary and Jones both take the court here in overtime with four fouls a piece. We will play at least another five minutes. SIUE loses the tip-off, underway.

IC takes the early advantage in overtime, leading 72-68, Jones to the line for SIUE.

Jones got one, missed the second, Yelovich the offensive rebound, he is fouled and going to the line.

Cody Rincker hits a three, SIUE back ontop by one.

on the tip-in IC takes the lead back, its 75-74, they have the ball, 1:21 left.

Tied at 75 with a Jones free throw

One Stewart free throw gives IC the lead back, Jones draws another foul, doing a good job at that, he’s back at the line, makes his first one to tie it back at 76 misses the second, IC ball 25 seconds…

SIUE loses to IC…

Postgame reaction to the women’s defeat of UMSL

by Aren Dow

Coming into Saturday’s match, I talked about how Whitney Champlin could be a big part turning around last year’s 5-24 season by providing presence in the paint. Well, we didn’t see much of Champlin yesterday — she only played two minutes.

The player we did see was Raven Berry. And let me just say her play, hopefully, a sign of things to come. The freshman had a fantastic game against UMSL, putting in 13 points and hauling in 9 rebounds. She was aggressive around the basket and boxed out her opponent well.

She scored from all over the floor — four free throws, three field goals in the paint, and even a three-pointer late in the game. Berry started off well, completing a three-point play less than a minute after she subbed into the game and ended with a three-pointer eliciting emotions from the crowd.

As good as Berry was Saturday, forward Melia Duncan was great. The sophomore had a double-double with 20 points and 11 rebounds, leading the Cougars at both ends of the floor. She shot 53 percent (8-15) from the field and 50 percent (3-6) from behind the arc.

SIUE lost Jenny Wuest and Jessie Stapleton this year who had combined for 21.2 points and 14 boards last season. If this game is any indication, it looks as if Duncan can step into a prominent role for both areas. Duncan said rebounding was a focal point for her this offseason and it showed.

Duncan had great instincts as well. Several times after a steal, she was the first player down the floor helping the Cougars score on the fast break. She also drew three charges and had a steal.

The Cougars looked good for the most part although there were some areas which need to be corrected. Numerous times SIUE was called for traveling and were a major part of their 18 turnovers. The Cougars also caught multiple breaks, particularly late in the game, when UMSL missed a ton of open three-pointers — UMSL went 2-20 from beyond the arc.

However, the Cougars were solid in the paint by only allowing 20 points throughout the game. Berry was a big reason for that, and if Champlin plays more, she will too. Champlin, in her limited time, hauled in two rebounds and closed off inside lanes from driving UMSL players.

Before I go any further, I need to mention Ashley Bey. She has quickness to drive through the lane for a lay-up and the vision to kick it out to an open player. Bey makes the defense collapse around her which frees up her teammates on the outside. It is a big reason for her four assists Saturday and gives her teammates good open shots on the perimeter.

As I said during the live blog, when Madison Meade and Bey are on the court at the same time, the ball is distributed well. Meade also has a good jump shot and led the Cougars out of the gate with seven of their first ten points.

SIUE’s field goal and three-point percentages were better than last season’s averages, but their shots from behind the arc could still stand to improve. Freshman Courtney Kenner was 0-3 from behind the line and Kate Affourtit was 0-4. If those two could help balance the scoring, this offense would be much more formidable.

The Cougars will need to keep their intensity high to stay competitive against Morehead State Friday. There will be a noticeably higher level of play from Morehead State as they were voted to place first in the Ohio Valley Conference by coaches and directors. Morehead State also boasts the leading scorer for the OVC last year in Chynna Bozeman — 15.9 points per game.

The day after SIUE vs. IC

So, SIUE lost its second exhibition game to Illinois College, a DIII school with less than 1,000 students.

Last season, SIUE became the first DI school in history to lose to a DIII school, (Millikin) and now they do it again.

I do not know what the deal was last night.

SIUE came out flat. IC raced out to an 8-0 lead early and built some confidence and momentum. The crowd was not in the game at all until the very end of regulation when the Cougars were walking the tight line of defeat. The Cougars should have never been in that situation with Mark Yelovich in the lineup, but that was the case.

A career game by Stephen Jones was not enough for SIUE either.

IC outworked, out-hustled, and outplayed SIUE from the word go.

This is not just disappointing, this is flat out embarrassing, and SIUE could be in for a very rude awakening if they haven’t received one already, Friday when they head up to Champaign to open the regular season against Illinois.

Even if SIUE pulled out a victory last night it was not earned. This game should not have went to overtime, this game shouldn’t have been close to begin with.

After the game Aamir McCleary said the Cougars were expecting a win, and that could have contributed to their lackluster performance.

Syracuse lost to LaMoyne last week and your team lost to Millikin last season. There should never be a game, exhibition, regular season or post-season where a team expects to win. You can be okay with being the favorites but you still have to battle, especially given IC had a size advantage on the Cougars, who are built more for quickness than post-play.

Lesson be learned, Cougars. Be thankful ESPN isn’t covering this, because it was the worst loss by any D-I team in the country so far this November.

Testing cover it live software

Click Here

Today, we are testing a new way of live blogging games, through a service called “cover it live.”

With this software, we will be able to update readers on game coverage up to the second, with a more interactive approach. Hope you check it out, There will be a link on the blog to access it.

This is a test, check it out!

SIUE vs Illinois

SIUE and Charter reach TV agreement

SIUE sports information announced yesterday an agreement has been made with Charter Communications to air ten SIUE basketball games LIVE from the Vadalabene Center.

This is great news for the university, considering Charter reaches half a million homes in the St. Louis area, and the television contract will allow SIUE to further branch out into the St. Louis market, and put itself into the local college hoops conversation with Missouri, Illinois and SLU.

Don’t know the cost, or any specifics regarding the contract, besides the games will air on Channel 3, the Charter Communications Information Network (basically the public access channel, but it’s a channel nonetheless) as they happen and again in tape delay, Randy Karraker, a well known St. Louis media personality will be doing the play by play, and ten games, including the home openers are set to be broadcast.

This boosts SIUE’s television exposure this season to 12 games, Friday’s men’s opener at the University of Illinois will air on ESPN360.com (also a part of ESPN’s pay per view package on television, so I’m sure Charter will broadcast the feed live on television locally, as they did last season for a pair of games) and the Dec. 22 game at Purdue is on ESPNU.

That explains the new press conferences and confusion over media seating at the VC during the exhibition games. Should be a great thing for SIUE, hopefully it doesn’t take away from attendance at the games.

Here is Charter’s schedule for the season from the press release:

Date Opponent Game Time
Sun., Nov. 15 Milwaukee (W) Noon
Sun., Nov. 15 Illinois State (M) 2:30 p.m.
Sat., Nov. 28 Lipscomb (M) 2:00 p.m.
Sun., Dec. 20 Loyola (M) 2:00 p.m.
Tue., Dec. 22 Missouri State (W) 7:00 p.m.
Mon., Dec. 28 UMKC (M) 7:00 p.m.
Wed., Dec. 30 Murray State (M) 7:00 p.m.
Tue., Jan. 5 Milwaukee (M) 7:00 p.m.
Fri., Feb. 5 South Dakota (M) 7:00 p.m.
Sun., Feb. 7 North Dakota (M) 1:30 p.m.

Headed to the U of I tomorrow around two with T.J, should be fun, be sure to keep up with the live blog during the game, and as you watch online. Instead of blogging straight into this we will have a link available around 6 p.m with cover it live, so you can interact and ask questions about the game as it happens or share your input. Much more interactive approach, hope you join us!

Allan Lewis
Alestle Sports Editor