The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Texas Tom was on KWSN yesterday talking about this weekend's games. Hate to chip away at your unmitigated dislike for anything Augustana, NSU4LIFE, but he actually said some nice things about Northern and their style of play a little over halfway through the interview: http://kwsn.com/podcasts/sports-talk...-of-home-games

[vikingfaithful]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

You do understand that the games are in Sioux Falls this weekend, right? smh

That's good. Yeah been a little off my game recently.

[simple as a $3 bill]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Big Big weekend on the road. Last season we lost to the Wolves and came back angry the next night and took it out on the Dragons for an easy win. Hopefully the Vikings have it in them for a split. Probably the toughest road trip of the season. Go Augie Go!

You do understand that the games are in Sioux Falls this weekend, right? smh

[vikingfaithful]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Big Big weekend on the road. Last season we lost to the Wolves and came back angry the next night and took it out on the Dragons for an easy win. Hopefully the Vikings have it in them for a split. Probably the toughest road trip of the season. Go Augie Go!

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Congrats to Mike Busack for being named this week's South Division Player of the Week: http://northernsun.org/news/2017/1/9...109172727.aspx. Although the numbers themselves are relatively tame for a Player of the Week award, they are numbers I'm more than happy to see (and continue seeing in the future).

Also must've been fun for him to win it over a weekend that included a game against the Mavericks. Wonder if he ever won any PotW awards when he was wearing purple and yellow. I don't remember and I'm too lazy to look it up.

In other news, huge, huge weekend coming up for the Vikes. From a standings standpoint, two wins this weekend would not only help boost the Vikings' regional hopes, but they would also help our cause when it comes to a conference championship and final standings. Northern and Moorhead are right there at or near the top, so wins over both would be huge.

Last year's team wasn't able to pull off the Moorhead/Northern weekend sweep, so here's to hoping we fare a little bit better at home this time around.

Also of note, the Northern game will be broadcast via ESPN3. Hopefully that doesn't hurt fan attendance, but a big crowd and a fun game would certainly make that ESPN3 appearance a little more exciting. And a win would obviously be ideal.

Feels weird going into the weekend hoping we win one of two instead of expecting to win two of two and being shocked when we don't. But even after the SMSU/USF weekend's disastrous outcome, all is not lost. Still a lot of conference play left if we can stay focused and do things the right way at the right time.

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Certainly not the outcome most Augie fans envisioned for this weekend going into Friday night. Obviously disappointing to go 0-2 any weekend, especially at home, and especially to a rival. A few things to be frustrated about. At the same time, the Vikes are still 10-4 with a handful of solid wins. I think the Minot loss still hurts worse than the SMSU game or the USF game, even with the rivalry factored in, but it's not a season-ending weekend by any means. I do think that unless a few teams step up to knock SMSU (and St. Cloud...and Upper Iowa...) off a few times, our chances of repeating as conference champs seem a little lower than before this weekend, but that's not really as important as making the Regional cut, which is always a challenge any year.

Not even really sure what happened this weekend as far as specific reasons for the losses. I'm sure others have better analysis than I can provide. I just hope the Vikes took this weekend hard and commit to doing the little things that will prevent those late-game mental mistakes and overall collapses. We were way too reminiscent of the 2013-14 Augie team that went 16-14 this weekend. We had two solid leads in the 2nd half of both games and, unlike in the past couple of years, we just weren't able to get over the hump and extend those leads to a game-sealing amount.

On the one hand, that's part of losing big-time players who played key, clutch minutes for 3-4 years straight. The guys playing this year typically weren't in those intense situations for more or less two seasons. On the other hand, someone has to step up in Jansen/Schilling/Richters' places, and that didn't exactly happen when it needed to against SMSU and USF.

Still lots to be optimistic about, but the Vikes definitely need at least one or two weekend road sweeps to make up for the home sweep we gave up. I still feel good about this team and look forward to the continued development of the younger guys. Lucas Walford has slowed down a little in terms of numbers, but I still feel good when he's out on the floor (from what I can tell, he's a better shot-blocker than any Viking in recent memory...or even less-than-recent memory...), and it was good to get the oft-injured Matt Brazendale back for a few minutes this weekend, even if he didn't contribute much when he was in. It still feels like maybe there's just a little too much pressure on Jordan Spencer, especially at the end of games, so hopefully a few guys will step up and relieve him of that "win the game for us" burden that used to be distributed amongst three players.

I'm rambling, as usual. Like I said, the weekend was a bit of a bummer basketball-wise for Augie fans, but I'm not ready to throw in the towel quite yet, even if I am the Apostle of Apprehension.

On a side note, I am looking forward to the SMSU/USF road trip. While we haven't exactly been historically great in the R/A Facility, I think the Vikes have the ability to snag one from the Mustangs there and as much as I hate the Stewart Center (which is a lot), it'll be great to get in there and try to take down the Cougars on their home floor.

[Stanger86]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Lady Vikings lost both nights as well! I wonder when both Women and Men both lost all 4 home games on a home stand. Never fear better days are ahead.

It may have felt like a loss, but they won on Friday.

[vikingfaithful]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Nov 9-10 2013 was the last time the Vikings have lost back to back games. Our one year man Mike Busack showed up well both nights. T.T will need his diaper dandies to grow up quickly for continued success. Lady Vikings lost both nights as well! I wonder when both Women and Men both lost all 4 home games on a home stand. Never fear better days are ahead.

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Just caught the recording of yesterday's KWSN interview with Texas Tom regarding the upcoming SMSU and USF games. Very complimentary of both teams. Also discusses the rivalry with USF and why he kind of sees Mankato and a few of those types of schools as bigger rivals than USF, even with the crosstown component and everything, which I wasn't expecting. For any of those Augie (or SMSU/USF) fans interested:

http://kwsn.com/podcasts/sports-talk...alry-with-usf/

[laker]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Congrats to Coach Billeter and the Vikings on what I would assume is the final media award of the year from last year's run.

Well deserved award after a national title. I never overlook a natty. I think that the Star-Tribune picked the guy who organized the Ryder Cup to be their sportsman of the year instead of the Gopher women winning the national title. Can't even begin to understand that. Call him business man of the year if you want, the women won the title. He didn't even swing a club.

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Congrats to Coach Billeter and the Vikings on what I would assume is the final media award of the year from last year's run.

http://goaugie.com/news/2016/12/27/m...sociation.aspx

Men's basketball earns year-end awards from South Dakota Sportswriters Association

[vikingfaithful]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Well stated Mr A. We are a glimpse of Big-man Andy Kerkmans potential in the Doane game. 10-2 is great thus far.

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Some thoughts and ramblings as we head into the break:

1) I certainly wasn't expecting the Vikes to be 10-2 heading into the break. (Bonus thought: I also didn't expect one of those "2" to be against Minot...oh well...) Really glad to see Augie avoiding a major drop-off after last season. While I will admit that, as always, Augieholic was right and we do have a better-than-I-thought team this year, I still think we're a reasonable distance away from doing damage in the Regional--if we make the Regional, obviously. That being said, if our young guys keep coming along like they have been, I will feel much better about our odds come February/March.

2) I continue to be glad the Vikes picked up Busack in the offseason. I think there are going to be nights where I shake my head and wish he'd stop forcing shots, but I also think there are going to be nights when his 12, 15, 17, etc. will be exactly what we need to win close games. The fact that he didn't try to overdo it against Mankato a few weeks ago was a big boost in my confidence toward Busack. I assumed he'd come out and force everything trying to put up 20+ points against the Mavericks. Instead, he showed a lot of maturity and did exactly what the Vikes needed him to do to get the win. If we continue to see that maturity combined with his decent offensive IQ, he will continue to be a pretty major asset for us.

3) I hope we're able to get Jordan and Adam's minutes down as the season goes on. I can't remember the last time Coach Billeter had a guy near the top of the "Minutes Played" category in the conference statistics (McCaffrey, maybe?), but Spencer is up there. Would love for him not to be worn out entirely by the time the end of the season comes around. Beyer isn't playing quite so many minutes (often times due to early foul trouble), but I would still love to see his minutes go down a little bit too. Plus, if that's happening, it means it's because some of our other guys (Jansen, Saugstad, John Warren, etc.) are carrying the load, and that wouldn't be a bad thing at all.

4) Should be an interesting post-Christmas stretch in conference play. Some nights the pick 'em goes exactly how you'd expect it to. Other nights I just shake my head and wonder what is going on in the NSIC this year. I know there are always upsets each weekend, but I don't remember so many nights where I have no idea what to expect in 6 or 7 of the 8 match-ups. Especially with Mankato's sudden drop-off and Moorhead playing so many close games--and, until last Saturday, generally escaping with (some semi-miraculous) wins. I'm hoping Augie will have enough in the tank to ultimately beat out SMSU's veteran group for NSIC South supremacy, but the Mustangs have looked good and have proven they have the grit to win the close games, so that might not be an easy task.

Like I said, I'm happy to see the Vikes at 10-2 heading into Christmas break. I was convinced we'd be looking at a minimum of a 9-3, possibly even an 8-4 record or worse at this point. Here's to hoping the guys get some rest and come back guns blazing after the break. Should be a fun start to second half of the 2016-17 season.

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Nice article from the Argus. We haven't seen much from them this year (not their fault, as their staff is beyond overworked), but it's nice to see a feature article from Zimmer: http://www.argusleader.com/story/spo...ions/95609906/

[vikingfaithful]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Proud to hear our National Champion Vikings for life men doing well in their post college careers!