The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

[Ole.]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Anyone know what happened to Ben Weisbeck and Will Hoiseth? They aren't on the roster anymore.

[Stanger86]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

And Jameson probably has a good 5-6 inches on Vinard, so that's extra encouraging. ;)

All jokes aside, that little bowling ball of a human was a thorn in Augie's side way too many times. Hopefully Jameson can be a similar thorn to other NSIC teams. But Birch was a pretty special player. One of only a few guys in our conference over the past several seasons where I would consistently think, I would really, really prefer to see him in an Augie jersey.

Yes he was!

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Vinard Birch came out of Eastview HS, if you want an example of the type of PG that program can produce.

And Jameson probably has a good 5-6 inches on Vinard, so that's extra encouraging. ;)

All jokes aside, that little bowling ball of a human was a thorn in Augie's side way too many times. Hopefully Jameson can be a similar thorn to other NSIC teams. But Birch was a pretty special player. One of only a few guys in our conference over the past several seasons where I would consistently think, I would really, really prefer to see him in an Augie jersey.

[Stanger86]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

One quote I found interesting:



I didn't realize it, but his conference includes Eden Prairie, Lakeview North/South, Apple Valley, Shakopee, and a few other very solid schools. He's somewhat small and doesn't have the high offensive numbers that incoming Augie recruits typically put up, but anyone who has started at point guard in a conference with Apple Valley, Lakeville North/South, etc. for four straight years will have to have put together some pretty good experience by the time he graduates.

Vinard Birch came out of Eastview HS, if you want an example of the type of PG that program can produce.

[Augieholic]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Augustana improves to 2-0 with a 67-61 win over GAC preseason favorite East Central. It was a choppy contest with lots of fouls and little rhythm. Spencer had 19 and Steven Schaefer had several huge baskets in the second half on his way to a career high 16 points.

[Augieholic]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Augustana already one game ahead of last year's 34-2 pace

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Meant to post in the game thread.

[vikingfaithful]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Halftime at SWOSU and the Bulldogs are struggling mightily against the Vikings 49-15. Jordan Spencer with 12 and Steven Schaefer 11.

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

One quote I found interesting:

Coach Billeter on Jameson Bryan: "Jameson has been playing a varsity point guard for Eastview since his freshman season. He is a very solid player who has faced some of the best high school competition in the region. This is a fun signing for me personally too, as Jameson's father, John, was my student assistant when I coached at North Dakota State."

I didn't realize it, but his conference includes Eden Prairie, Lakeview North/South, Apple Valley, Shakopee, and a few other very solid schools. He's somewhat small and doesn't have the high offensive numbers that incoming Augie recruits typically put up, but anyone who has started at point guard in a conference with Apple Valley, Lakeville North/South, etc. for four straight years will have to have put together some pretty good experience by the time he graduates.

I also continue to hear really good things about both Vincent and Cartwright from people in this Sioux Falls region. I look forward to seeing what all three of these guys can do as Vikings after they wrap up their senior years. Best of luck for your senior seasons, gentlemen, and congrats on joining a great program.

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Here's the GoAugie.com release on the early 2017 signings for the Vikes:
http://goaugie.com/news/2016/11/10/m...r-2017-18.aspx

Men's basketball inks three high school standouts for 2017-18

Here are some Twitter photos of Augie's early signings from the men's basketball Twitter account:

Pleased to officially welcome local standout @Mcartwright23 to the family. One of the best shooters in the country. pic.twitter.com/0nWBaM3wrO

— AugieMensBball (@AugieMensBball) November 10, 2016

Welcome aboard @JdubBryan29 Hard working and tough PG who will bring a ton of value to our program. pic.twitter.com/SQps6oWO1e

— AugieMensBball (@AugieMensBball) November 9, 2016

We would like to officially welcome Tayton Vincent to the Augustana Basketball Family. Bright future ahead both on and off the court. pic.twitter.com/1ryxHRHHlp

— AugieMensBball (@AugieMensBball) November 9, 2016

[Stanger86]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

I agree with that take Augieholic

[Augieholic]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

One aspect of this year's team I'm excited to watch is the evolution of Jordan Spencer from supporting cast to featured player. His responsibilities over the last two years have been: dribble, puncture the D, make the obvious pass or take the wide open shot. Naturally there are probably some who think his accolades for this exemplary production were simply a byproduct of the Jansen-Schilling-Richter ecosystem.

Now that those scrubs have moved onto the professional ranks of basketball and slop we will be able to see Spenny stretch his talents while getting vastly more attention from the opposition. His performance against the Blue Devils was just priming the pump: 4pts-4reb-7assists in 38 minutes. Given who was guarding him (Matt Jones, who? Matt Jones and Luke Kennard) the fact that he managed to be productively efficient, with nearly a 2-1 assist to turnover ratio, is a dangerous sign for the rest of Augie's opponents.

He has the speed and ball handling toggles to get by anyone in the league which should result in 10-15 points per night on primarily layups and FTs. That's before we mention how he's a career 43% marksman from downtown, however this should drop given the increased interference he'll encounter. Having said that, even if he's still in the mid 30s that's another half step defenses have to step out and contest which uncorks the lane behind them.

All of this is to say that I think conditions are ripe for him to average 12 points/ 7 assists /5 rebounds. If he does this while helping keep Augie in the NSIC race I think he's a sure fire All NSIC first teamer and a plausible NSIC POY candidate.

[Guest69]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Everyone should have to slop hogs at some time in their life.

I didn't truly discover who I was until I slopped a hog.

[laker]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Did you see the "where are they now" part where some of the graduated Augie players were playing in Europe, but Spice is home on the pig farm. They were making a big deal about that. Kind of like when Bjorklund for NDSU beat Notre Dame and his coach said he just gets the job done, like when he is home slopping the hogs. Evidently big city people get a kick out of that, as if they can't imagine that you probably have to do chores twice a day. Everyone should have to slop hogs at some time in their life- it makes them appreciate bacon more.

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Some thoughts on last night. It was definitely rough, but I was honestly expecting a loss in the 35-40 point range anyway, so it wasn't a total shock. It's been awhile since the Vikings have been beaten that soundly, so hopefully it was a nice wake-up call, particularly for the guys who have only been a part of the 65-5 stretch over the past two years. To be honest, I'd rather Duke put the hurt on us like this than come out next weekend and blow one or both games against our in-region D2 opponents down in Oklahoma. No need to bust out a repeat of Washburn last year due to overconfidence.

Kind of hard to break down the "good things" we saw from the Vikes since the athleticism and talent disparity was pretty vast, but there were at least a few things...

1) The Vikes were still able to get a lot of open looks from three. While they unfortunately weren't hitting them last night, I hope they'll get more comfortable shooting as the year goes on. It was good to at least see Jordan Spencer finding those guys for open perimeter shots, even if we weren't knocking them down.

2) Busack was our leading scorer. When it came out that he was going to be on the Augie roster next year, I was slightly skeptical based on his history, but if his head is on straight, it's pretty clear we're going to need him this season if we want to stay competitive. He had some foul trouble, but that's to be expected when the team you're playing has 8 McDonald's All-Americans currently on its roster. A little bit harder to stay in front of those guys than pretty much anyone they'll be facing at the D2 level this year (except maybe Justin Pitts).

3) Lucas Walford had a really solid showing for a true freshman playing his first college game of his career against the #1 D1 team in the country at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Two pretty nasty dunks, two free throws and a 3 to go with a few rebounds isn't a bad first game. Hopefully he continues to develop because unless Kerkman gets healed up pretty quickly, we will need Lucas. Frankly, if this isn't just a one-hit wonder of a game, we might need him whether or not Kerkman heals up quickly. (On a side note, Kerkman was the only person who didn't play in the game. I'm assuming that's still due to his injury.)

On a related note, I've watched the replay of Walford's tip dunk a few times on ESPN3 (it's archived, for anyone interested), and it might've been the best overall dunk of the game. Gotta be kind of fun to be able to say you dunked on Duke twice at Cameron Indoor during your career. Who knows, maybe we can win another NC in the next few years and he'll have a chance in a couple seasons to add a few more dunks. :)

(For anyone pulling up the repeat of the game on ESPN3, Walford's dunks came with around 4:40 to go in the 1st half and around 9:02 to go in the 2nd half.)

4) Nobody got hurt. This was possibly my biggest concern going into this game. Even if we'd managed to keep it within 25 or 20, it wouldn't have been worth it to see Jordan, Adam, etc. go down with an injury. With how important our starters in particular will be for this year's team, I'll take a 53-point loss with no injuries and still feel ok about it in the end.

5) Program-wise, the Vikes did get a TON of nice coverage on ESPN3, especially early in the game. The announcers were really good about talking about Augie's program, the success we've had, the talent we recently lost, etc. As the game went on, it predictably got to be more and more pro-Duke (not that they had a lot more they could say about Augie after a while anyway), but the broadcast crew was well-informed and very complimentary of the program as a whole.

6) The announcers consistently referred to Austin Saugstad as Austin "Swagstad," which might be the best accidental nickname I've heard in a long, long time.

Overall, I hope the guys had a fun experience. Based on what we lost from last year's team, this went only slightly worse than I'd expected, but not by much. What matters more is how the Vikes get better from this and how they prepare to get a couple in-region wins down in Oklahoma next weekend. Very, very glad basketball season is back underway.