There has been no postgame interview with Coach Steele posted on MuRedHawks.com since Saturday’s loss and no pregame interview or even a pregame article for tomorrow night’s game which is just a little over 28 hours away as I started to research Spalding.
So who, what, and where is Spalding? It is a private Catholic University in Louisville, Ky with 576 undergrad students. They play in the SLIAC, which stands for St.Louis Intercollegiate Athletic conference. Last year they were 8-17 ( 7-7). So far this year they are 0-4 but have not played a single home game.
They played an exhibition game at IUPUI and lost by only 70-63. Here are there regular season results:
At Hanover L 91-60
At Berea L 81-80
Neutral L Asbury 82-79
At Centre L 61-52
Preseason conference awards
Anthony Dillar 2nd team
Jacoby Johnson All Defensive team
Jonathan Henson All Sportsmanship (Interesting preseason selection)
As for us, a chance to even our record at 3-3 and regain some confidence after Saturday’s beatdown. So far we have been unable to handle big, strong players. That should not be an issue tomorrow. We have good ballhandling and shooting, and when faced with competition which does not have size and strength inside, we look good.
We are starting 2 small guards and bringing in another one for the top sub. At forwards we are starting two 6-5 wings and bringing in another as a sub. All 3 of these guys are really shooting guards, but they are playing the 3 and 4 spots. We are left with Morris, a skinny 6-8 Sophomore and two freshmen in Kotecki and Elmer, Tomorrow those guys will look great but against good DI teams we are currently too young, too skinny, and too inexperienced to carry the load. Again, this is not the roster than our staff recruited and planned for, all the 4 missing players would have been playing the forward or center spots. It is fortunate that we have Spalding and Wilberforce still remaining on our pre MAC schedule, to keep confidence up and to get some wins. We have good players, but not enough inside at this point to be competitive against good D-I teams.
It is a long season, and if we keep our attitudes up and work we can be in a much better spot later.
Why? Because we’ve beaten the teams we were favored to beat and lost to the teams we were supposed to lose to? While down 2 of the top 3 centers? When rebounding has been the biggest weakness?
If we struggle in this one, I’ll start to wonder a bit, but not until then…Dick, think those numbers are off a bit, while hardly a “University” (they must offer circulum), Spalding’s total enrollment is north of 2K and undergrad is closer to 1,200 (unless you have some updated post-Covid numbers, probably got hit hard in enrollment). Closer to a small college/Univeristy like a Denison or Kenyon (in size that is, not endowment and/or prestige).
It’s a small Catholic, private with long history, but maybe newer location in Lousville.
I just typed in Spalding University and copied the information from the website. I knew nothing about it beforehand, such as where it is or what kind of school it is. If any of this is wrong information, it is just what I found on the internet.
