The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

[MrAugustana]

One of the things that's so frustrating as an Augie fan is that he's arguably our "best" player all around in terms of the threat he poses offensively, his length defensively (not saying he's our best defender, but he's not necessarily a straight defensive liability as some other Augie guards have been in the past), and just his general clutch factor when it comes to late game situations, but that sort of just gets overlooked when we're discussing teams as the season goes on. For example, if Augie doesn't finish #1 or #2 in the standings (which, frankly, I don't see happening at this point), people will say it's a letdown of a season because we were preseason #1. Yet, on the flipside, if the Wolves didn't have either Parker Fox or Mason Stark for most of the past two seasons, I don't know that they're finishing at the top of the top like they have been the past couple of years. Maybe they're still up there, but it's a lot harder when you are missing a key difference-maker.

I know Augie has other good players and it's not like I'm saying losing Cartwright justifies last year's record (last year's record was definitely due to more than Cartwright being injured), but I would just love to see what this team looks like mostly or fully healthy for a full season. I feel like we haven't really had that since about 2015-2017 or so, and now I've been spoiled by seeing how well things can go when you're not dealing with injuries all the time.

[AU Vikings]

My bigger concern is that we're looking at 2 straight seasons in which Cartwright has only played roughly 35% of the games (none of them fully healthy either). Seems hard to believe he'll just bounce back next year at 100% without any issues.

That being said, I won't be upset if he ends up resting for 3-6 months and is able to really take the time to get everything straightened out and fixed up and decides he wants to come back and try again. He's a really good player when he's healthy.

Cartwright will be having surgery soon and the plan is for him to play next year but you are right, it will be interesting to see how he comes back after missing big parts of two seasons.

[MrAugustana]

Cool development for Augie. Midco is giving $1.35 million to "renew and enlarge Midco's athletics sponsorship and create the Midco Media Campus & Production Center on Augustana's campus."

https://goaugie.com/news/2021/1/27/g...niversity.aspx

[MrAugustana]

For better or worse, the wins this weekend have given me revitalized hope that the Vikings may still have something in the tank.

Whether they do or don't win both against Wayne to keep their spot in the conference tourney, the two wins against USF were still fun. Here are a few highlights from this weekend in case Augie fans missed them this weekend:

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[MrAugustana]

Congrats to NSIC South Player of the Week Tyler Riemersma:

Tyler Riemersma has been named the NSIC South Division Player of the Week. Riemersma helped lead the Augustana men's basketball team to a weekend sweep over Sioux Falls.

The native of Bloomington, Minnesota, averaged a double-double of 11.5 points and 10 rebounds over the two games. He shot 71.4 percent from the field over the games while also dishing 5.5 assists per outing.

In Augustana's 67-65 win on Friday night, Riemersma totaled 12 points, nine rebounds and a career-best eight assists while going 5-of-7 from the field. In Saturday's nine-point victory, Riemersma totaled 11 points and 11 rebounds while again shooting 5-of-7 from the field.

The Vikings close out the regular season Friday and Saturday inside the Sanford Pentagon against Wayne State. Tipoff on Friday is at 7 p.m. with Saturday's contest slated for 3 p.m. Tickets will go on-sale on Thursday at 10 a.m.

[MrAugustana]

According to an Argus headline that links to a subscribers-only article: "Sandlin sworn in as federal lawyer, opening door for Biden appointment."

I would assume she will not be the president at Augie much longer.

[Blue Ridge Viking]

According to an Argus headline that links to a subscribers-only article: "Sandlin sworn in as federal lawyer, opening door for Biden appointment."

I would assume she will not be the president at Augie much longer.

Non-political question: How has the school fared under her leadership? Tough to get a feel for these sorts of things when you live half a country away.

Is the school headed in the right direction? Financially healthy? Responding to demographic and technological changes appropriately? Holding its own in the pandemic?

She seemed to have ambitious plans for the school, which I liked, but I have no idea if that translated into real progress. She is a politician at heart, after all.

[Augieholic]

Non-political question: How has the school fared under her leadership? Tough to get a feel for these sorts of things when you live half a country away.

Is the school headed in the right direction? Financially healthy? Responding to demographic and technological changes appropriately? Holding its own in the pandemic?

She seemed to have ambitious plans for the school, which I liked, but I have no idea if that translated into real progress. She is a politician at heart, after all.

If she does leave in the near term I think the answer would be mostly positive. Obviously announcing the D1 move but failing to get a conference invite is less than ideal but we don't know how much of that was caused by the pandemic. Under her guidance the school expanded Masters offerings which was long overdue, appears to have adapted well to the pandemic with in person and online classes, and finally built the long discussed on campus track (even if it should've been an indoor complex). The small interactions I've had and have heard about from others have all been positive.

From a name recognition basis in our area it will be hard to do better than Herseth Sandlin.

[MrAugustana]

Augie's favorite former Argus Leader reporter Stu Whitney may have spoken too soon about Stephanie leaving...

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(I still think she's leaving, but it's interesting nonetheless.)

[MrAugustana]

Congrats to incoming Viking Angelo Winkel on surpassing his school's career scoring record and single-season rebounding record:

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[MrAugustana]

If anyone on here who is smarter than me (so basically anyone besides simple) is bored, I would love to hear some analysis of Augie's best case scenario, other than just winning both games this weekend. Who specifically do we need to lose games still have hope? Besides USF, I mean.

[Moorhead123]

If anyone on here who is smarter than me (so basically anyone besides simple) is bored, I would love to hear some analysis of Augie's best case scenario, other than just winning both games this weekend. Who specifically do we need to lose games still have hope?.

[Blue Ridge Viking]

All I can say is I'm glad Augie played MSU-Moorhead the first week of the season. No way they sweep them if they played now.

I've watched parts of several Dragon games, and that is one deep team. Augie, of the seven-man rotation, is decidedly not.

[Moorhead123]

All I can say is I'm glad Augie played MSU-Moorhead the first week of the season. No way they sweep them if they played now.

I've watched parts of several Dragon games, and that is one deep team. Augie, of the seven-man rotation, is decidedly not.

[MrAugustana]

This has been a weird year. Despite how good we were supposed to be in terms of preseason expectations, we also had some frustrating things happen (specifically not having a healthy Cartwright and missing LeBrun for the two Mankato games, when his athleticism and defense would've been hugely helpful). In general, I think this team looks dramatically different with Cartwright. Not only for his 15+ ppg and general court leadership, but also because it strengthens our bench, which has been shallower than a usual Augie team this season.

That being said, we still should've been a top team in the South. Our losses this season were by 5 points and 9 points (after fouling a few times at the very end) against Mankato, by 5 against Winona, by 10 against UIU (in a game closer than the score indicated), and by 5 the next night in overtime. The only game that was clearly out of reach was the Wayne game on Sunday. That one was out of reach with 5 minutes left and Wayne never let us get it back from there.

My point is, I think this Augie team is still a good team. While I didn't think when the season started that Augie fans would be celebrating sneaking into the conference tournament on a miracle play from another team, I'm glad we still have a chance. Would love to see these guys pull off the win against Northern and get a shot at a Regional bid. Definitely a tall task, but not impossible. Thursday can't get here fast enough.