WOW!!!  Heroics by UWW, especially Merg.  UWW down 12 late in the game.  Merg hits a 25 foot 3 at the buzzer to tie.  She then hits the game winner in OT at the buzzer.  On to the championship game!

Congrats to UWW.  Great comeback!

WOW!  Just caught the end of the George Fox/Puget Sound game.  George Fox with a 5 point lead with less than 5 sec left.  Puget Sound hits a 3 with 3 seconds.  PS fouls and George Fox misses both FTs.  Puget Sound gets a half court shot and makes it......But it was a split second after the buzzer.  The refs actually conferred with each other for about a minute and then waved it off.

Both Point and UWEC lose close ones tonight.  WIAC is now done.

As far as EC game, EC got out to a quick start and led 8-0.  Chicago then went on a 32-14 run the rest of the half.  However, EC came out in the 2nd half and got the deficit down to 1, 5 min into the half.  Chicago maintained a small lead all the way until Plendl hit a layup with just under 2min left to give EC a one point lead.  Chicago got a bucket and foul (after what looked like a missed 3-second violation on the Chicago point guard) after a time out.  Christenson then had a 3-point shot go in and out that would have given EC a one-point lead with 1min left.  Chicago hit its FTs down the stretch and EC had a turnover and a missed front end of 1-1 in the last minute.

Plendl ends her career with a monster game, 23pts & 12 rebs and a few blocked shots.  She clearly outplayed Chicago's All American (Simpson).

EC definately had their chances in this game, but their downfall all year (turnovers) came back to bite them in the end.  EC had 20 TOs compared to only 9 for Chicago. 

Good season for EC!  At the beginning of the year, I really didn't think they had a chance to to even be close to the top of the conference.  And then here they have a conference championship and an advancement to the 2nd round of the national tournament, barely falling to an undefeated team on its home court.

WOW!  UWRF getting punked, down 18 with 10min to go at home to Edgewood.  While Edgewood is looking good, UWRF looks horrible.

WIAC goes 2-2.

Point and UWEC win close ones.
UWW & UWRF lose

Both UWW and UWSP have tied games at the half.  Point controlled 90% of the 1st half but Franklin ended the half on a 12-2 run.

Quote from: WilsonHoops on February 28, 2012, 02:34:50 PM
LA RAMS, I think I am agreeing with you.  What the MIAC needs to do is shorten their conference season so they don't have to spend many games playing teams like Carleton and St. Kates twice each when they could use those games to do, for example, like UWRF did and play Carthage and Simpson and Thomas More, teams that will help their strength of schedule.

Exactly!  The long conference season basically eliminates the MIAC's top teams from having a high strength of schedule.

Quote from: tomt4525 on February 27, 2012, 03:19:37 PM
It sure seems to me that a Conference that sends 4 teams to the big dance probably deserves to have 1 of them hosting the first wkd.  Point really got screwed getting sent to Calvin.

I agree with you.  I thought that for sure Point was going to host a pod.

Quote from: LA RAMS on February 27, 2012, 05:53:20 PM

Quote from: bulk19 on February 27, 2012, 03:11:55 PM
Sweet!

Now, if you're the UWEC Blugolds, here's a motivating factor, a chip on the shoulder (even if the team shaked out higher in the actual selection process):

We're #64! 

Well, wow.  So glad the WIAC gets its requisite four teams in while the MIAC gets (expletive deleted) over again - for the third year in a row.  Funny to see you guys talk about what an injustice it is that none of the WIAC teams are getting to host. 

Using the selection criteria, please explain why you think Gustavus, I assume, should have gotten in over any of the 3 WIAC pool C teams.

Pat has UWEC NOT getting in.  Instead they are left on the table.  He has Cathage getting in ahead of UWEC.  He says that Carthage was ahead of UWEC in the regional rankings last week.  It looks like they were both out unless he has some access to a longer list???  I just don't see how Carthage would be ahead of UWEC. They have a  worse regional record, a worse SOS, worse amount of games and winning percentage against regionally ranked opponnents.

My best guess for national tourney:

UWW, UWRF and UWEC all get in.

UWW goes to a pod @ Chicago with Monmouth and Carthage.  UWW would play Carthage.

UWRF goes to a pod @ St Thomas with Coe and Martin Luther.  UWRF vs. Coe

UWEC goes to a pod @ UWSP with Illinois Wesleyan and Westminster.  IWU has played both UWEC & UWSP so there would be a 1st round matchup between teams who played in the regular season.  Point as the high seed would play Westminster

Wash U flies to George Fox pod

A possible flip of Wash U and IWU

As BW said, EC kills themselves with turnovers.  The press did most of the damage.  But you also have to factor in the time it took EC to get over the half court line (when they didn't turn it over).  Hard to dump it down to the bigs with only 15 seconds in the frontcourt.


With a win, EC would have been a lock.  Now EC sits on the bubble. 

Quote from: JMM on February 22, 2012, 07:07:08 PM
WoW!  Final regional rankings! Guess what team needs to beat Whitewater to make the tournament. Tomorrow night could be the last game of a great season for that school on the Chippewa River - the "clear water school". I don't see them taking down Whitewater. WW over EC by 8.

Yes, I'm a bit suprised to see EC fall out of the rankings after going 2-0, including a win over the conference leader at the time.  Instead, UWW leapfrogs at least 2 teams into 5th place.  One other factor to consider is that UWEC's results against regional ranked opponents is a bit delayed.  As I found out in the men's CCIW room, since UWW just got in the regional rankings for the 1st time, its opponents will not get credit for  'results against that regionally ranked opponent' until the following week.  So essentially UWEC is 3-4 (7 games) vs 2-3 (5 games).  They will obviously pick up yet another result when they play UWW Thrusday evening.

Just because UWEC is not in the regional rankings doesn't mean that they can't get an at large.  In fact if I remember correctly, the regional rankings throughout the nation don't even add up to the number of teams that will make the national tournament.  Also, you could have lets say 10 teams in from the Central.  Four of those would not show in the last regional rankings.  There is no limit as to how many teams from a particular region can get into the tournament.

With the above said, its a big game for both teams.  I'm not sure who is going to win.  UWW does scare me a bit right now.  In my opinion, they are the team that is peaking the most at the end of the season. 

UWEC doubles up Superior, 76-38 @ Zorn.  Plendl had 14pts, 13rebs.  Blugolds jumped out quickly and looked good throughout the game.