Augustana is much better than Bemidji State

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This thread reminds me of this classic post from last year:

Greetings from WKU

Now to tell you a little about this years team. This is probably the deepest most athletic team we have had on the hill in 20 years. We can easily go 10 deep without a huge dropoff in talent. Although there is a little after 6 or 7. Everyone on this team can slam it down. With the horses and athletes we have this year we want to get out and run and apply a full court man to man pressure on the ball with some half court traps thrown in. I'll give you a breakdown of our players.


Pre-season conf. player of the year Sergio "I aint scurred" Kerusch (guard/forward)- What can I say, he is the heart and energy of this team. Has good athleticism. Won our dunk contest 2 of the last 3 years. Great at penetration and getting to the hole. But he likes to take jumpers and chuck 3's a little more then he should. He has a good looking stroke but he settles for the jumper to often. But when he is on, he can't be stopped. Case in point dropping 31 opening day against St. Joes, and shooting 6-8 from 3. But his biggest strength to our team is his rebounding ability. He will come flying in out of nowhere and sky for the rebound. Has been coming off the bench as kind of a wake up call from coach. NBA-type caliber player

Steffphon "Hurcules" Pettigrew (forward)-- He is our workhorse. Nicknamed Hilltopper Hurcules because is a monster. He is built like a D-1 linebacker. He is not flashy, but at the end of the game when you look up at the scoreboard he will have 19 pts and 8 reb. At 6-5 he is small for the post. But he creates a problem for opposing big men. He is fast and can throw his strength around to muscle into good postion on the block. Also has a decent long range jump shot. NBA-type caliber player


"The chosen" Juan Pattillo (forward)--Those of you that watch the game are going to be in for some high light dunks from this guy. He is a monster at the art of finishing at the rim or in traffic. Will get several AND "JUAN's" a game. Nicknames (Air Force "Juan"...The Chosen "Juan"). He has a decent lookin shot, but he puts so much arch on the ball that it often hits the front of the rim. If he can knock that down he is almost unstoppable. But he is really only reliable offensively from 10 feet and and in. He is however a GREAT defender when he wants to be. He can literally guard any position on the court. NBA-type caliber player

Brandon "Snap" Peters (guard)-- Our star freshman recruit. Led Yates HS to #1 in the nation last year and led them in scoring. You may remember Yates as the team from Texas that destroyed a team 171-40 or something like that. He is also an A+ athlete with a 48" vertical. Has a decent shot, but at this point early in his freshman year it looks like defense and driving to the basket is his bread and butter. In our first game he had 9 pts, 7 asst, and 7 steals. He is a pest in the defensive side of the ball and will create several turnovers a game. Looking forward to him being on this team for the next few seasons.

Ken "The Jet" Brown (PG)-- He is one of the fastest players I have ever seen with the ball. He can go end to end in the blink of an eye. Just forget the fact that he sounds like Mike Tyson. He is a JUCO transfer at the Point. Good at distributing the ball and pushing the pase of the game in our favor. Excellent on ball defender as well.

Cliff "Kevin Durants bro" Dixon (Forward/Center)-- Not his brother by any means. But then again they are only half brothers. He is athletic and just an all around hustle guy. Last season he thought he was a guard and tried to play on the perimeter way too much. This season he gets it and is quickly becoming a contributor for this team.

Caden "Butters" Dickerson (guard)-- Our 3 pt specialist. Although he had surgery in the off season and hasnt had the same stroke so far to begin the season. I am sure it will be back at some point though.

"Can you smell what Jamal is Crookin" Jamal Crook (pg)-- Not a great shot, good distribution and tenacious defender. Doesnt push tempo as much as Brown but can still run with the best of them. Can be a bit foul and turnover prone however.

Those are our key players. I am sure a couple more of the fresh/newcomers will get some minutes as well. Kahlill McDonald is another 3 pt specialist off the bench for us and Kene Anyigbo is the next Pettigrew when he learns the college game a little more.


Any more questions you guys may have for me feel free to ask away. I look forward to our game against you guys tomorrow night. And wish you luck the rest of the season. I hope you all only lose one game all year.
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60's Guy said:
Anybody who thinks any Division I coach is ok with losing to a DII school in front of 10,000 people is whacked. Yes, they'll play the roster but they are going to dole those minutes out mindful of winning the game. It ain't a scrimmage with people buying tickets.Can it get away and you lose because you tried some people who didn't perform and then it snowballed? Ya, but you are not going to be happy acting like it didn't matter. As a coach, you are going to try to win. You can't go back in the lockerroom and say: well we would of won but I played our lousy players. You can't make excuses or the team will and you can't not care or the team won't either. You play to win in practice. You compete. You sure do so in an exhibition game.

So if the Gophers lose and make excuses it'll be a long season. You must be accountable.
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Exactly. If this "game" doesn't matter, then keep the starters on the bench, give the seconds & deep reserves the game and make it a freebie for the fans.

But it does in spite of what some GH-ers think.

Tubby will sub just like has in any pre-BIG game against the smaller schools. If the seconds can't keep up, then the starters will need to pickup up the slack and hope for the best. But if there is a crunch time, expect to see the best players in there at the end as it does the program no good to loose to an Augustana.
 

Bayfieldgopher said:
Exactly. If this "game" doesn't matter, then keep the starters on the bench, give the seconds & deep reserves the game and make it a freebie for the fans.

But it does in spite of what some GH-ers think.

Tubby will sub just like has in any pre-BIG game against the smaller schools. If the seconds can't keep up, then the starters will need to pickup up the slack and hope for the best. But if there is a crunch time, expect to see the best players in there at the end as it does the program no good to loose to an Augustana.
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If the Gophers win or lose, what is their record?

It's 0-0? Oh, Okay.
 


Blizzard -

I definitely get where you're coming from, but as an Augie fan, I don't think we're spending a ton of time talking about how we're so good that we're going to come in and toss the Gophers around. I've already emphasized that our bigs should get dominated (assuming Minnesota's bigs stay out of foul trouble), and the only 2-3 players I see as being competitive, possibly even against the Gophers' starters (again, competitive, not dominant) are Augie's 3 starting guards, Schilling, McCaffrey and Murray.

Honestly, I don't see our bench even remotely being able to hang with Minnesota's bench. At least, they shouldn't be able to.

You might just be comparing this thread's initial post with that outlandish post you just quoted, but I don't think either of the Augie guys on here has made a statement quite as bold/over-the-top/silly as the guy with hilarious nicknames for every player on the team and totally unrealistic expectations.

My hope is that Augie at least competes tonight (and/or possibly wins, obviously), just to show people that the talent disparity isn't quite what a lot of folks on here seem to think it is. But I think the Gophers should be more than capable of winning by 20 if they play well and not quite as unpolished as they did against Bemidji State. In which case, I'd be the one seeing that the talent disparity is as wide as lots of people on this message board think it is.
 


Sorry if this has already been posted, but didn't Steve "Sunshine" Esselink transfer to Augustana and dominate?
 

Bayfieldgopher said:
Duh!

If it isn't important, then don't schedule it.
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it is important ... to practice.

Why does the NFL, NBA, MLB have pre-season/spring training games? To practice. Do they matter towards the record? Nope.

Can you go 4-0 in preseason and 0-16 in regular season? Sure can. Ask the Detroit Lions. Can you go 0-4 in preseason and win the super bowl? Absolutley.

AKA, the outcome of these games means squat.
 

DesMoinesGopher said:
Sorry if this has already been posted, but didn't Steve "Sunshine" Esselink transfer to Augustana and dominate?
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I think they were trying to bring him in my freshman year, but I believe the NCAA denied his transfer request for whatever reason. He would've been a huge help on Augie's team that season, and most likely their best player. Assuming I'm thinking of the right person. Augie was trying to bring this guy in around 03-04 I think. He had long hair (I'm guessing where the "Sunshine" nickname comes from) and was sort of a longer, lankier kind of player?

Either way, one thing to keep in mind is that this was back in Billeter's first year as Augie's head coach and the Vikings were bottom dwellers at that point. His first two seasons they were 6-21 and 8-20, so probably any D1 transfer from any caliber of team/conference would've been a dominant player on teams that bad.

Still though, to your point, a lot of major D1 transfers have come in and been dominant players in D2, especially in the north Midwest region. A few years ago Augie brough in Corey MacIntosh, a PG transfer who had started for Iowa State the year before and he more or less transformed the entire program's image as a legitimate contender. Clayton Vette, another Cyclone who transferred to Winona State after his freshman year, has been an absolute beast for Winona and he's only a junior this season. He'll most likely be the most dominant big man in the NSIC for two years, unless something drastic changes that.

Again, I'm not saying D2 athletes are better than or equal to D1 athletes in every capacity. If they were, most of them would be playing D1 and D2 wouldn't exist. I just think guys like Schilling and McCaffrey might come out tonight and show Gopher fans that D2 athletes aren't just the scrubs who rode the bench on their high school basketball teams, which appears to be the image some people have in their heads of D2 basketball.
 

Steve Esslink

Esslink actually started his career at Augustana and transferred to the Gophers. He then went to Sioux Falls.
 



I couldn't remember how that went. One thing was for certain, Sunshine had hops. I wouldn't think any D2 player was "just the scrub who rode the bench on their high school basketball team." Obviously, a D2 player can play -- typically just not at the same overall level as D1 players. D3players are guys who were usually studs on their high school teams, but for whatever reason (size being a big reason) aren't cut for D1 basketball.
 

Well, even though the game's not quite over, I'll be the first to admit that the point I was driving home all week (that Augie and D2 in general aren't that weak athletically) didn't exactly get proven by the Vikes. Our stars really struggled against the Gopher defenders and the only player who really performed well was our D1 transfer, Drae Murray.

Really would've liked to see both Schilling and McCaffrey have stronger games. Schilling really looked like he was forcing just about everything, with minimal success. McCaffrey almost seemed nonexistent at times. I don't foresee that being the case in future games, but I doubt many of the Gopher fans care much about Augie's future, so I won't ramble about that.

The Gopher bigs (mostly Mbakwe, obviously) were too much to handle for the Vikes. Honestly, I wasn't terribly impressed by any of Minnesota's guards, but there were definitely some times when their athleticism was too much for the Vikes.

I also think, as could be expected, Augie got tired way too early on. That showed both in their individual performances as well as their foul issues (both of Augie's starting big men fouled out, as did one of our substitute big men).

Overall, (and I say this knowing they beat us by 12), I wasn't overly impressed with the U of M. It seemed a lot of times that they didn't have any idea where their offense would come from unless it was Mbakwe getting an and-1 call.

I would've liked to see Augie finish this one a little closer than 12, but it's encouraging that it wasn't more. Congrats to the Gophers on the win.
 

Is Augie what most fans call Augustana? No offense but it sounds like a Dog's name. If I was an Augustana fan I'd come up with something better. That being said, you have to feel pretty good about your team's effort only losing by 12.
 

MadtownGopher said:
Is Augie what most fans call Augustana? No offense but it sounds like a Dog's name. If I was an Augustana fan I'd come up with something better. That being said, you have to feel pretty good about your team's effort only losing by 12.
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Haha, yeah, Augie's easier to say than "Augustana" every time. At one point we had a second mascot (only a physical mascot, not like a logo or anything) that was the "Augie Doggie," but that was before my time. Thankfully.

I don't feel bad about losing by 12 by any means, but our star player shooting 6-21 (1-7 on 3's) doesn't exactly thrill me. He's a scoring machine, so he'll be fine as the season continues, but if he even shoots 12-21, we're in a whole different situation. That was absolutely due the Gophers playing strong defense on him and taking him out of his element, but every Augie fan has come to expect more and better of Schilling, so it was frustrating to watch him struggle.

Overall, our bench needs work. We really don't know what to do once Murray and Schilling come out of the game, which will be problematic in the future. Both of our true backup point guards (one of which is definitely a scoring point guard) are out with injuries until December, so it'll be awhile before we have some consistency at that position. For now it'll be like tonight, where that second wave of Vikings come in and seem a little lost. There will need to be a short-term remedy for that until our backups are healthy again.

Thanks for the positive feedback though. I think we'll be fine, this just would've been a fun one to win.
 



Trevor Mbakwe's certainly don't exist in the D2 landscape and in my mind that was difference last night. The Gophers poured on the athleticism in the second half and walled off the paint to Augie's guards. Turning Drae, Cody, and Cam into jump shooters was pretty impressive to see. Congrats to Tubby and Co for a well deserved win. It was an absolute blast to be in Williams last night, I loved every second of it. The Augieholics were definitely out in full force.
 

I thought the game was entertaining last night. It was good to see the Gophers have to claw it out a bit rather than destroy an exhibition opponent. Soon the Gophers will be in Orlando, soon Augie will be at such exotic destinations as Crookston. Such as it goes I guess.
 

Reserve said:
I thought the game was entertaining last night. It was good to see the Gophers have to claw it out a bit rather than destroy an exhibition opponent. Soon the Gophers will be in Orlando, soon Augie will be at such exotic destinations as Crookston. Such as it goes I guess.
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Most depressing away game I've ever been to. I had the "fortune" of only being a couple of hours away when Augie played a game there 4 or 5 years ago and decided to drive over and support them.

The town itself - Miserable. Barren and cold and seemingly deserted.

The gym - Worse than an abandoned high school's gym.

The crowd - Nonexistent. There might've been 25 Augie fans who made the trip and maybe 35 Crookston fans there. I think it was over a Christmas break or something, but I'm not even exaggerating when I say there couldn't have been more than 40 Crookston fans in the entire gym.

Why ANYONE would play a sport there, I'll never understand.

Thanks for stirring up those (clearly) awful memories in my mind.
 

Schilling made some terrific shots, just not enough of them. I credit that pretty generally to Rodney Williams. He shadowed Cody all night long and did a terrific job. Cody isn't going to face very many defenders who are that athletic.
 

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