The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Congrats to Mike Busack for earning Player of the Week #2 on the season (and career).

http://northernsun.org/news/2017/2/6...206173749.aspx

NSIC South Division Player of the Week
#4 Mike Busack (F, 6-5, 205, Sr., Belview, Minn. / Redwood Valley HS)
Augustana
- Averaged 18.0 points and 14.0 rebounds on the weekend
- Averaged a double-double, setting a career-high in rebounds on Friday night before matching it on Saturday
- Also shot 51.7 percent (15-of-29) from the field, including 50 percent (6-of-12) from 3-point range
- Grabbed 23 of his 28 total rebounds of the defensive glass
- Opened the weekend with 15 points and 14 rebounds in 87-68 win over Minnesota Crookston
- Followed that with 21 points and a career-high tying 14 rebounds in a 78-60 win over BSU
- Was 9-of -14 from the field and hit 3-of-4 from 3-point range
- Named NSIC Player of the Week for the second time this season (1/9/17)

[laker]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Nice article about the Spice brothers, Curt and Casey, who are now officiating basketball.

http://www.dglobe.com/sports/4213219...s6cRrs.twitter

[DapperDan]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Noticed Augustana has a couple guys transferring out, including 6'9" Hoiseth. Appears he is going to Hamline so I assume his skills were not up to par for DII. Also Concordia has a big leaving for NAIA.

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Noticed Augustana has a couple guys transferring out, including 6'9" Hoiseth. Appears he is going to Hamline so I assume his skills were not up to par for DII. Also Concordia has a big leaving for NAIA.

Augieholic may be able to confirm, but my understanding is that a couple of the outgoing transfers were walk-ons. Hoiseth I'm almost positive was.

[vikingfaithful]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Augieholic may be able to confirm, but my understanding is that a couple of the outgoing transfers were walk-ons. Hoiseth I'm almost positive was.

http://verbalcommits.com/schools/augustana Verbal commits shows walkons Luke Eastman and Tommy Jensen also have left team.

Anybody know how redshirt Bodey Behrends is progressing?

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Big weekend for the Vikes this past Friday and Saturday. Really glad to see them finally close out a tough game or two instead of giving up big leads and letting things slip away. USF was definitely tough and I'm very glad John Warren did a good enough job on Mack Johnson to really keep him in check (6-14 shooting overall, 2-5 on threes for 14 points, below his average of 16, 3 assists but also 3 turnovers, etc.), particularly when it came down to keeping the ball out of his hands for that last possession. A Daniel Hurtt long 2 when you're up 2 with no time left is much more desirable than a crazy Mack Johnson 3 when you're up 2 with no time left, to say the least.

To then turn around after a battle like that and take care of business against one of the top teams in the conference the following night (at their place) was fantastic to see. As has been noted, Jordan Spencer was spectacular. Those mid-range jumpers he just kept hitting made it the kind of thing where you didn't even realize how many points he had until you looked up at the scoreboard and saw it jumping up from 18 to 26 to 33 to 39. Thank goodness he and, in the first half in particular, Busack, came ready to play because it seemed to take about a full half before some of the other Vikes (Beyer, Schaefer, etc.) kicked it into gear too. Spencer just looked like there was no way he was going to let the Mustangs take another one from him, even if he ended up doing all of the work himself--which, for a while at least, is basically what happened. Also, props to Busack for being a charge-taking machine on Saturday night. I believe he took 3 of them doing the best Tom VerDouw impression he could pull off.

I'll be really surprised if Spencer isn't announced as Player of the Week this week, but I also haven't seen all of the other stats from the games, so maybe someone else had a big weekend as well. EDIT: It looks like Jordan did earn PotW. Congrats to him.

In general, the Vikings fought hard this weekend and finally saw the results of closing out BOTH games effectively. Hopefully that's an upward trend heading into the postseason. Would love for these guys to at least get a chance in the Regional, even if it's just to walk into the NWMSU buzzsaw in the first round. Busack seems to have finally gelled his way into this starting lineup in a way that makes him feel a bit more like a natural rather than an outsider, so I like our chances against the Bearcats a little bit more this time around than I did at the beginning of the season. But first the Vikes need to win about 4 or 5 more games to lock in a spot. Or I suppose winning another NSIC Tournament would be an ok way to do it too. Just less stressful when you have your spot semi-reserved already. :)

[Stanger86]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

You guys might already know this but Jordan Spencer is only 40 assists from breaking the Augie career record. The roster also has the two best 3-point shooters in program history (Schaefer and Beyer).

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Ok, now that we know where the Vikes stand in the first Regional Rankings:

CENTRAL REGION
1. Northwest Missouri State (20-0, 19-0)
2. Arkansas-Monticello (16-2, 16-2)
3. Southwest Minnesota State (20-5, 20-5)
4. East Central (17-6, 17-6)
5. Minnesota State-Moorhead (20-4, 20-4)
6. Arkansas Tech (15-4, 15-4)
7. Upper Iowa (18-8, 16-8)
8. Augustana (16-7, 16-7)
------------------------------
9. Northern State (18-7, 18-7)
10. Central Missouri (14-6, 14-6)

...I'm relying on you number masters to help me figure out Augie's best case scenarios. Have we reached the point where it benefits the Vikes when any team above us in the rankings loses? Are there any weird circumstances where, for example, East Central winning helps us because our win over them increases our strength-of-schedule type situation? Or is it simply "hope everybody above us loses and win like crazy" now?

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Congrats to Dan Jansen for being named one of the NSIC's "Top 25" on the men's side as part of the conference's 25th Anniversary campaign: https://www.facebook.com/NSICFB/phot...type=3&theater



Certainly not a shock based on the accolades and records (even if Gage Davis will be passing up his NSIC career scoring mark at some point toward the beginning of his senior year), but seeing as they're only choosing 25 athletes from the entirety of NSIC men's athletics (all sports) in the past 25 years, it's still kind of impressive.

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Nice feature story on incoming Viking commit Matt Cartwright from Sioux Falls O'Gorman.

http://www.argusleader.com/story/spo...c176a0da852523

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Just came across this tweet from the Augie Men's Basketball account and figured Augie fans might enjoy it:

Congrats to @danjans25 on continuing to improve throughout the season! If you miss watching Dan play like we do here are some clips of him. https://t.co/g9xyPBzMrs

— AugieMensBball (@AugieMensBball) February 17, 2017

Our Player of the Game went to @danjans25 from @LimUtd as he recorded 20 pts, 5 rebs, 1 ast, 1 stl & 2 blks pic.twitter.com/GEUYmgYZ92

— ThisIsBasketball (@ThisIsBasketbal) February 16, 2017

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Couple of future Vikings putting together solid games during their senior seasons. Tayt Vincent dropped 39 points with 9 threes a few nights ago and yesterday Matt Cartwright broke the O'Gorman High School single-game scoring record by putting up 41 against Sioux Falls Lincoln. Also tied a school record with 7 threes.

Looking forward to having them (and Jameson Bryan) on the roster next season.

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Coach Billeter mentioned an interesting stat on the post-game radio show last night. Apparently Mike Busack crossed the 1,000 point career scoring mark during last night's game against the Peacocks. He has scored 445 (nearly half) of those 1,000-ish points as a Viking in this one season alone.

Fun way to finish off your last year of college basketball.

[Stanger86]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Coach Billeter mentioned an interesting stat on the post-game radio show last night. Apparently Mike Busack crossed the 1,000 point career scoring mark during last night's game against the Peacocks. He has scored 445 (nearly half) of those 1,000-ish points as a Viking in this one season alone.

Fun way to finish off your last year of college basketball.

Thought I remembered the broadcast saying that at one point when I was going back and forth between games.

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

Congrats to Mike Busack on his third Player of the Week award this season with the Vikes!

#NSICMBB Release No 14#NSICPOW
N: Harrison Cleary @UMCAthletics
S: Mike Busack @GoAugiehttps://t.co/p5UFnGl74n pic.twitter.com/wohV7WEIsu

— NSIC (@NorthernSunConf) February 20, 2017