The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Good games for several Vikes last night.

-Jordan Spencer gets his second straight points/assists double double with 14 and 12. That is really solid.

-Adam Beyer scores 21 second half points to finish with a career high 24.

-Steven Schaefer comes off the bench to score 17, including 10 or 11 in the first half that were hugely important.

-Busack had 18 points and 9 boards. That is helpful. Really hoping he plays his game tonight and doesn't try to do too much against his former squad.

-John Warren chipped in a quiet 11.

-Lucas Walford continued his 1 dunk per game rate after a solid dish from Spencer.

All in all, a solid, kind of must-win victory last night in the sense that Mankato should prove to be a lot tougher and we couldn't afford to go 0-2 on a home weekend. Glad the Vikes took over in the second half. Hope we can come out the same way tonight against the Mavs.

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

As noted by wscsuperfan in the other thread, congrats to Jordan Spencer on being named NSIC South Division Player of the Week:

South Division Player of the Week
G - Jordan Spencer, Augustana (JR)
- Averaged 17.0 points, 9.5 assists and 5.0 rebounds leading Augustana to a pair of wins last week
- Shot 43.5 percent from the field and hit five 3-pointers while going 9-of-11 from the free throw line
- Nearly posted back-to-back double-doubles after finishing with 23 points, nine assists and four rebounds against Wayne State last Monday
- Followed with an 11-point, 10-assist, six rebound performance against Peru State
- Picked up his third career double-double against Peru State
- Has dished out 10 or more assists in a game 10 times in his career
- Has now handed out five or more assists in 58 of 74 career games played at Augustana

Is this his first PotW honor? Either way, hoping to see even more of them in the future. Keep up the good work, Jordan!

[Taxman]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

[runs in out of breath] Am I only a week late to this? The new points of emphasis for referees are big changes for the game. Dan Jansen would have been in foul trouble every game with the new screening rules and there will be a lot more contact on shots around the rim since the referees looking more at verticality than contact. Some games had a ton of fouls, like that USF-Emporia game had 60+ and I've seen quite a few more with high 40s and 50s in total fouls.

I'm all for more whistles to get the game cleaned up.

[fanofnsic]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Each new season the NCAA sends out its rules info and point of emphasis for the year. Each year starts out with a ton of fouls being called with pissed off coaches, players and fans. By January the calls start to become less and by March we are back on to hand to hand combat the way it should be.

[Guest69]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

If live stats were correct, WSC had five players foul out and two more with 4.

[runs in out of breath] Am I only a week late to this? The new points of emphasis for referees are big changes for the game. Dan Jansen would have been in foul trouble every game with the new screening rules and there will be a lot more contact on shots around the rim since the referees looking more at verticality than contact. Some games had a ton of fouls, like that USF-Emporia game had 60+ and I've seen quite a few more with high 40s and 50s in total fouls.

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Back from Thanksgiving with a few quick thoughts on the Peru State game from Friday...

1) Glad to see John Warren have a breakout game. 23 points on 9-16 shooting, 5-10 from three, along with 3 steals (one of which led to a fast break dunk) and 5 boards. If he can keep playing like that--or even 85% of that--moving forward, I will be much less Apprehensiony about this year's team.

2) Jordan Spencer puts together a clean game of 11 points, 10 assists, 6 rebounds and a steal. When guys like Warren are hitting their open looks, Jordan should be able to get 7-8 assists or more pretty much every game.

3) Busack continues to be a consistent scoring threat for us. I'm not sure how I feel about him yet in terms of how his skill set flows with the rest of our offense (he forces shots a bit more, both inside and outside, than I feel like I'm used to seeing from the Vikings, but maybe that's just my perception), but it's hard to deny how important he is when he's currently our 2nd-leading scorer at 11.2 points per game while grabbing 5.5 rebounds per game.

4) Lucas Walford didn't have as solid a game as he's been having, only putting up 4 points and grabbing 4 boards in 16 minutes, but he did have another nasty tip dunk, continuing his one dunk per game average that, from what I can remember, has not been matched in the Tom Billeter era. I tend to feel good about things when he's out there, even when he's not scoring 8-10 points like he had been up until Peru State.

5) Sounds like Levi Jansen suffered a pretty severe injury in the game. Broke the orbital bone under his left eye and damaged something else in his face from what I heard. On the "bonus points for toughness" category, Levi did go out and shoot his two free throws after essentially getting his eye socket caved in (went 1 for 2), so I give him props for that. Here's to hoping he recovers soon.

6) Speaking of injuries, Andy Kerkman finally got some minutes last night against the Peruvians. Only played 4 minutes but pulled in 3 boards and snagged a steal. He did miss three free throws, so hopefully he continues to work on that moving forward. Either way, he's a big boy. Hard to believe he's a true freshman with that kind of size. Should be crazy to see what he looks like after he's spent a season and summer working out with Augie's weight training staff. If he sheds a little non-muscle and adds some muscle, he'll be a physical force to be reckoned with for the next several years.

7) Steven Schaefer had another strong game, putting up 11 points and shooting 3-6 from three. He also pulled down 7 boards, which is great to see from a guard.

All in all, this weekend's games will certainly be telling. Not sure what to expect from CSP, but Mankato could either be fun if we keep it close or ugly if we go through any "noffense" (copyright colt45) stretches or just can't hit open looks. We've had a solid record at home for the past 2 seasons (I believe we're undefeated at home since at least the beginning of the 2014-15 season), so hopefully we can keep that magic alive and get through the weekend with two wins.

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

A few quick(er than my last post-game thoughts post) thoughts:

1) I really hope Wayne is substantially improved. If this Wayne team finishes 14th or 15th in the conference, then I fear Augie will only be a spot or two above that. On the flip side, if it's less that Augie played poorly and more that the Wildcats are getting better, that's encouraging for both parties. Plus, it'd be nice to have a competitive travel partner after a handful of years where Augie's Saturday night opponent got to rest starters for the last 7-10 minutes the night before against Wayne on more than a few occasions.

2) Free throw shooting was a disappointment. 30-46 for 65% is not good enough, especially in close games against the top teams in the conference. We barely made it out with the win last night. Would love not to see a similar free throw shooting performance against teams like Mankato and Moorhead.

3) Jordan Spencer -- still good. 23 points, 9 assists (to 3 turnovers) with 4 rebounds and a steal. Those are solid numbers.

4) Lucas Walford -- another (nasty) dunk, this time a putback slam after someone's missed shot. His 9 points and 3 rebounds--in fairly clutch minutes, before he fouled out--continue to be more than I was expecting from him as a freshman.

5) Levi Jansen -- finally had some big shots and had a decent game overall. I've asked around a bit, and it sounds like he's battling some injuries, so hopefully he can get over that sooner than later. For how good he is supposed to be for us in the future, I'd love to see him playing at 100%.

6) Decent fan showing for a Monday night against Wayne a few days before Thanksgiving. Looking forward to some solid weekend crowds when conference play rolls around.

All in all, a conference, in-region win is a win, even if it didn't come the way Augie fans might've been expecting. As has been said, it may just be that Wayne is drastically improved, but there were still a handful of things the Vikes need to be working on before we're fully in the swing of conference play.

One thing Coach Billeter noted in the post-game show is that, when it comes to conference play, only 3 teams have beaten us in the last two years (Mankato and Winona in '14-'15 and Northern in '15-'16) and they're all going to want to get back at us this year. I realized while thinking about that stat that several of those wins were by high double digits. So a lot of these teams are going to be ready to knock us down a peg. I remember feeling that way about Winona for several years after the '08 season. A win against the Warriors just felt...bigger...than a similar win against even Mankato or St. Cloud. There's something about being able to say to people, "Yeah, I mean we just took down the defending National Champions...this is a big win..." And since the Vikes are probably still a year away from being solid Regional contenders again, this is the year for those teams we've been beating by 15, 25, 35 to get us back. Hope the Vikings keep that in mind and come prepared to defend their title every game, because NSIC teams in particularly are certainly going to come at them more aggressively than ever this season.

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

If live stats were correct, WSC had five players foul out and two more with 4.

Not quite as bad on the Augie side, but we did have one foul-out and three guys with 4 fouls. It was a bit of a sloppy night with fouls.

They might sneak up on some teams. Played SDSU close too.

It might just be that we aren't as good as I would like to hope, but I'll be surprised if Wayne ends the year 15th out of 16 teams. They looked like they'll throw more than a few teams off this year, especially in the early part of conference play. I know it's early, but Kaminsky is looking like he might have been a pretty good hire by the Wildcats.

[Augieholic]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Augie survives Wayne with the help of 46 free throw attempts on 37 Wayne fouls. Spencer ends with 23pts-9ast-4reb to blaze a trail to victory on banner raising night.

I didn't get to watch the game but Wayne is clearly improved and the only two meaningful changes from last year are the hiring of Kaminsky and the return of Kendall Jacks. Fylling and company mentioned numerous times that they play almost exclusively small ball which creates mismatches all over the court.

Augie needs to shore up their FT shooting and dribble drive defense before the Mavericks come to town in two weekends for the Busack Bowl. The offense clearly has firepower but finding any sort of consistency is proving exactly as difficult as replacing three future Hall of Famers should be.

[wscsuperfan]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Maybe a sliver of hope this year......been a good start despite a 1-2 record

[Stanger86]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Impressed by how the 'Cats played

They might sneak up on some teams. Played SDSU close too.

[digz]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

If live stats were correct, WSC had five players foul out and two more with 4.

[wscsuperfan]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Augie wins 94-87 in overtime. Impressed by how the 'Cats played

[Stanger86]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Wow, no video....good thing NSIC doesn't charge like other conferences do. (I paid $22 over the weekend for the two SMSU games)

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Is this game going into overtime?

Yes.