The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

[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

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?

[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

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. :)

[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

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.

[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.

[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

[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)

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

With the Vikes picking up 1-1 splits on the road the past two weekends, I've noticed that my desire to check these boards has diminished. Probably why I wrote a novel and a half or so over on the football side a little while ago. No wonder Crookston, Duluth, U-Mary, etc. fans don't flood these boards with posts that frequently (and the only U-Mary fans that ever did contribute followed along with the Randall Herbst/Anthony Moody "meteoric two-year rise and immediate vanishing act" approach).

That being said, this is essentially a must-go-2-and-0 weekend for the Vikes with Crookston and Bemidji coming to town. Anything less would, I assume, make us a 100% lock for win-the-NSIC-Tourney-or-hang-up-the-sneakers territory. We continue to put the puzzle together for 30-33 minutes or so pretty consistently followed by 7-10 minutes of a "how do we fit these last few pieces into place" stall that ends up being our downfall. Hopefully the upperclassmen can guide our young warriors past those little blips and help us maintain leads when we're up 7 or 8 around the 7 minute mark of the 2nd half.

If we can get a good groove going this weekend, it would be great to head into next weekend against USF and SMSU with some confidence. I think those are both very winnable games if we play as well as we are capable of, even on the road. But it starts with tomorrow and Saturday night's efforts and making sure we win the ones we need to win. Although just about every game from here on out is kind of a need to win at this point.

[MrAugustana]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

http://www.argusleader.com/story/spo...kota/97023446/

Very good article in the SF Argus leader on incoming freshman Tayt Vincent.

I think he and Matt Cartwright from O'Gorman are going to be really, really solid for the Vikes in a few years. Paired with our young bigs like Lucas Walford, Andy Kerkman and Bodey Behrends (redshirting this year), we could be looking at a special group a couple of years from now. Also excited to see how Jameson Bryan from MN fits into the puzzle too.

The biggest thing will be whether or not the Vikes can pull in a good small forward/wing type player to fill out our starting spots from top to bottom. If we can find another Al Richter type of kid in the next year or two to fill that 3 spot, we'll have a pretty salty squad.

[vikingfaithful]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

http://www.argusleader.com/story/spo...kota/97023446/

Very good article in the SF Argus leader on incoming freshman Tayt Vincent.

[vikingfaithful]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

https://www.hudl.com/video/3/6964017...5b3d264439b94d
The sophomore can dunk.

[vikingfaithful]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

https://twitter.com/sdattack/status/823347314706251776

Wow! an early scholarship offer to a legendary last name in Augustana basketball history.

[Guest69]

Re: The NEW Official Thread of the Augustana Vikings

It's like they created this video just for you after you wrote your post:

It's proper mental to finally have a bloke (Lucas Walford) who can fininsh his pocket passes with a dunk.