MBB: American Rivers Conference

[Greek Tragedy]

Dubuque just lost again. If Whitworth wins again this weekend, they will surely jump Dubuque in next week's rankings, the last to be published. I think it's definitely a 1-team league this year for the NCAAs.

REG	#1	#2	TEAM-RECORD	REC	CON	SCHEDULE
WEST	1	1	UW-Stevens Point	22-1, 22-1	WIAC	WON at Oshkosh 70-51, vs Stout 2/22
WEST	2	2	UW-Whitewater	21-3, 21-3	WIAC	at Eau Claire 2/22
WEST	3	3	St. Thomas	20-3, 20-3	MIAC	WON at Gustavus Adolphus 73-68, vs St. John's 2/22
WEST	5	4	St. Olaf	18-5, 18-5	MIAC	WON vs Macalester 78-54, at Bethel 2/22
WEST	4	5	Dubuque	17-3, 20-3	IIAC	LOST at Buena Vista 77-75
WEST	6	6	Whitworth	19-4, 19-4	NWC	WON vs Whitman 79-76, at Lewis and Clark 2/21
WEST	7	7	Pomona-Pitzer	16-5, 16-7	SCIAC	WON at La Verne 65-59, vs Occidental 2/22
WEST	8	8	Colorado College	14-5, 16-6	SCAC	vs University of Dallas 2/22
WEST	n/a	9	Augsburg	16-7, 16-7	MIAC	WON vs Carleton 75-67, at St. Mary's (MN) 2/22
DROP
WEST	9	n/a	C-M-S		SCIAC

[doolittledog]

Great story developing out of Pella.  A team picked to finish last in the conference wins the regular season title.  And that, my friends, is why you play the games.  This will be great motivation for other teams in the future. 

I thought this might be the year my Spartans could get their 1st regular season conference title since I was a student...maybe next year.  And there still is the conference tourney.

Standings with 1 game to go...

Central -y          11-2  18-6
Dubuque -x (rv)  9-4   20-4
Luther -x            7-6   15-9
Loras -x             7-6   14-10
Buena Vista -x    7-6   12-12
Wartburg -x       6-7   12-12
Coe                   3-10 11-13
Simpson            2-11   4-20

Saturday games...

Loras @ Coe   
Simpson @ Buena Vista   
Wartburg @ Central   
Dubuque @ Luther

[doolittledog]

Congrats to Central on the regular season title.

Final standings...

Central -y       11-3  18-7
Dubuque -x    10-4   21-4
Loras -x           8-6   15-10
Buena Vista -x  8-6   13-12
Luther -x          7-7   15-10
Wartburg -x      7-7   13-12
Coe                  3-11 11-14
Simpson           2-12   4-21

Tuesday 1st round conference tourney games...

Wartburg @ Buena Vista     
Luther @ Loras

[doolittledog]

The little speakers on my work computer are old and don't work the best...so can someone tell me the name of the Luther player that sounds like the Luther announcer is calling him Uncle Thermos???  Because I'm guessing there isn't a kid on the Norse roster named Uncle Thermos 

[John Gleich]

The little speakers on my work computer are old and don't work the best...so can someone tell me the name of the Luther player that sounds like the Luther announcer is calling him Uncle Thermos???  Because I'm guessing there isn't a kid on the Norse roster named Uncle Thermos 

https://www.luther.edu/sports/men/basketball/roster/?id=344151

Cody Kliethermes?

[doolittledog]

The little speakers on my work computer are old and don't work the best...so can someone tell me the name of the Luther player that sounds like the Luther announcer is calling him Uncle Thermos???  Because I'm guessing there isn't a kid on the Norse roster named Uncle Thermos 

https://www.luther.edu/sports/men/basketball/roster/?id=344151

Cody Kliethermes?

That must be him.  The announcer typically just went by the last name of the players. 

[doolittledog]

#6Luther wins @ #3Loras 86-77
#4BVU beats #5Wartburg 85-83

Thursday games...

#6Luther @ #2Dubuque
#4BVU @ #1Central

Off to watch the Loras/Luther matchup...if Loras has it archived yet. 

[sac]

BV and Wartburg traded 3's in the final minute. BV then made two ft's to force a 3 from Wartburg in the final seconds.  BV chose to foul and send Wartburg to the line, made the first missed the second, rebound came out to Wartburg 3 point shooter on left wing, shot missed at the buzzer.

Exciting finish.

[Floyd in Iowa City]

I need to also go back and watch the Luther-Loras game as I only saw the last seven minutes on the computer.  It looked like the Norse shot it well from behind the arc (12-26) and that was one of the big differences in the game.

Luther may have shot it well, but it was nothing compared to the Iowa-Minnesota game that I was at.  The Gophers were 9-11 from behind the arc in the 1st half after being something like 8-45 the previous two games.  95-89 was a little higher score than I was planning on.  Big game and a big gut check for the Hawks at Indiana on Thursday.

Can Dubuque beat Luther for the 3rd time this year?  Yes, and the Spartans should be a very solid favorite as Norris and Frazier will once again be hard to stop.

Central-B.V. should be a very good game.

[Fannosaurus Rex]

Couple of exciting games in IIAC tonight.  I am always happy to see Central win but I feel just a little bad that BV's leading scorer was out for most of the game.  At least I got to watch the streamed game and listen to the Trevor Castle/Coach Ware call which is about as good as it gets in D3.

[Floyd in Iowa City]

Congrats to the Norse for working back from 18 down to make the IIAC title game!

Dubuque is a very good team and both teams shot the ball VERY well again.  The Norse followed up the 12-26 from behind the arc against Loras to shoot 12-27 tonight.  Dubuque was 12-22 as well.

John Androus had 22 for the Norse.  Good player just like Norris and Frazier for UD.

Central and Luther has played two high scoring, close games.  Can the 3rd game be fun to watch as well?

[Floyd in Iowa City]

From the Luther website:

Luther advanced to the championship game of the Iowa Conference Tournament after defeating No. 2 seed University of Dubuque 87-83 tonight in Dubuque.

Trailing by 18 points (73-55) with eight minutes remaining, the Norse put together a 27-9 run and tied the game at 82-82 with 49 ticks left on the clock. The tie was only the third and final tie of the ball game. Dubuque retook the lead with 13 seconds left, on a free throw by Andre Norris (83-82) who finished the night with 21 points. The rest of the way it was John Androus who scored the final five points, thanks to an old fashion three-point play and two free throws down the stretch.

Androus led all scorers with 22 points. Cale Austin and Michael Crocker both tallied 14, while Jake Martin and Brian Nnaoji chipped in 13 and 10 respectively. The free throw line proved to be the difference as Luther connected on 15-of-17 attempts.

[Floyd in Iowa City]

Two very bad calls tonight at Pella that helped to make sure that Central won in a tight contest.  Austin went up to shoot a 3 just behind the arc with the Norse down by 3, but Central fouled to send Austin to the line.  The refs got together and decided that Austin wasn't in the act of shooting, and even the Central announcers thought Austin was shooting the ball.

The other call was that Martin lost the ball out of bounds with the Norse down a point just a couple plays earlier.  It was right in front of the Norse bench and the camera angle.

Having said that, the IIAC refs do a better job overall and can handle the speed of the game than the Big Ten refs do in that conference. 

Central had a great season and played well for good chunks of the game tonight.  They did not need help to win the game.

Good luck to the Dutch in the NCAA playoffs.  They are a good shooting team and all three games between the Dutch and Norse were close.

I hope the refs have to watch the video of tonight's game in Coach Franzen's office.

This was another fun season of IIAC hoops as I have been entertained for much of the last five seasons.  I will admit that I grew up more following IIAC football, baseball, and wrestling.

[doolittledog]

I will echo your thoughts on the IIAC refs.  I was thinking this weekend that there wasn't a single game this season where I was upset or thought the refs favored one team over the other.  I also thought the IIAC refs were amazingly consistent throughout the season.  They called the games the same way each and every game I saw.  I thought they did an especially good job of calling hand checking (which the NCAA called for).  One thing I did notice, is that they were so conscious of calling hand checking that it seemed any time a player got the ball down low, he could have 3 opponents hanging on him and wouldn't get a shooting foul called.  But, it was consistent and called the same way for both teams all season.  I agree, the IIAC refs seem better at calling a game than the Big Ten refs. 

Congrats to Central.  I love a 8th place preseason ranking winning it all.  Provides inspiration to all teams out there.  Make some noise in the playoffs!!!

[Floyd in Iowa City]

I agree as I say go Dutch, go Hawks, and let's have some real spring weather this year!  Last spring wasn't as fun as previous IIAC seasons on the ball diamond.

St. Olaf beat St. Thomas in the MIAC final.  I would have loved to see Norse vs. Oles in the NCAA Basketball tourney.