MBB: American Rivers Conference

[Walston Hoover]

Hawk Sighting is doing his best to show how much he knows about all the players in the conference that don't go to Coe. He was just clarifying for everyone that no matter what position Steege plays, he is not the best Big Man in the conference . Come on people-this guy is trying to help you all out in making your decision for MVP.

[Droppin Bombs]

First of all I would like to ask Hawk who he is talking about from Coe that is so great off the bench?  I can see Brungard, but even he's been struggling lately, who else is so great off the bench?  The majority of the minutes at guard are now split between brun, axdahl, and hanna.  The only time posts play and contribute to the game is when Kilburg and Kuenstling get extremely tired or are in foul trouble.  DeShaw hardly comes out of the game.  For Kuenstling's little brother the rumor is that he's a stud and is just as big as kyle maybe bigger.  I hear there are much larger schools then D3 looking at him, including D1 schools.  Even though the 7th man off the bench at Coe may not be the best, Kehe is a very good basketball player and I think that his skills are comparable non only to the others that play off the bench but a lot of the kids that don't even take their practice gear off.

PS

You know what I've got for Person

And I also got another question, why are so many people talking about Coe now?  Is everyone saying that it is safe to put Wartburg out of the picture?

[coocooforcoekohawk]

And I also got another question, why are so many people talking about Coe now?  Is everyone saying that it is safe to put Wartburg out of the picture?

Not at all, Coe has a very tough game at Loras friday night.  The Wart could be in charge day after tomorrow.  Regardless, this has been a fine year to be a Kohawk.

[sportsknight]

Is everyone saying that it is safe to put Wartburg out of the picture?

Doubt it.  With the expanded NCAA tourney this year, I think the IIAC is at least a two-bid league.  Unless either has a collossal stumble between now and Feb. 25, I think both teams make it.

The one thing about Coe that surprises me is how little zone they see.  Maybe its just me, but I'd think a good way to stop a team with good posts and average guards is to slap a 2-3 or 1-3-1 on them.

[PainTrain]

I do remember a time not long ago the WBurg faithful was on here asking "where have all the fans from other schools besides wartburg gone?". maybe it was dave devine and his incredible insight, can't really remember. But I think its safe to say that when your team is one of the leaders in the conference more people talk about them, as opposed to a bottom dweller. With Coe's recent athletic success that would be a helluva theory to disprove

[Charlie Kohawk]

I found this statistical comparison of Kuenstling, Kilburg and Steege quite telling.

Scoring - #4 Kilburg 16.3 ppg, #5 Steege 15.9 ppg, #6 Kuenstling 15.7 ppg

Rebounding - #2 Kuenstling 7.0/g, #7 Kilburg 5.9/g, ?? Steege 2.9/g

Field Goal pct. - #2 Kilburg .594, #3 Kuenstling .576, ?? Steege .413

Assists - #3 Steege 4.27/g, #6 Kuenstling 3.81/g, ?? Kilburg 0.9/g

Free Throw pct - #2 Steege .858, ?? Kuenstling .713, ?? Kilburg .634

Steals - #14 Steege 1.23/g, ?? Kuenstling 0.43/g, ?? Kilburg 0.43/g

3-Point FG Made - #5 Steege 2.23/g, ?? Kuenstling 0.81/g, ?? Kilburg 0

Blocked Shots - #2 Kuenstling 1.19/g, #12 Kilburg 0.48/g, ?? Steege 0

Assist/Turnover Ratio - #5 Steege 1.54, #9 Kuenstling 1.08, ?? Kilburg 0.5

Offensive Rebounds - #3 Kilburg 2.00/g, #5 Kuenstling 1.90/g, ?? Steege 0.23/g

Defensive Rebounds - #2 Kuenstling 5.05/g, #11 Kilburg 3.90/g, ?? Steege 2.68/g

Minutes Played - #10 Kuenstling 29.76/g, #14 Steege 27.77/g, ?? Kilburg 23.48/g

As a guard, I wouldn't expect Steege to get many rebounds or block many shots, and he doesn't.

As a post, I wouldn't expect Kuenstling to have many assists, yet he ranks 6th in the conference in that category.

That, in my opinion, makes Kuenstling the favorite for MVP.

[Gregory Sager]

Doubt it.  With the expanded NCAA tourney this year, I think the IIAC is at least a two-bid league.  Unless either has a collossal stumble between now and Feb. 25, I think both teams make it.

Don't count your chickens before they've hatched. The only reliable indicator as to the current status of Pool C possibilities is the regional rankings. The first rankings came out on Wednesday, and only one IIAC team was ranked in the West Region: Wartburg (fifth out of eight teams ranked). Coe has a very fine 12-4 regional record, but their Quality Of Wins Index of 9.400 is only good for 64th place in the nation.

In other words, Coe's strength of schedule isn't very good. Over half of the teams in the IIAC have losing regional records, and of the three in-region non-conference games that Coe's played against teams that have winning regional records (UW-LaCrosse, Augustana, and Clarke) the Kohawks lost two of them. On the 0-to-15 scale by which QOWI is measured, Coe only has one game that rates as much as a 14 (their win over Wartburg). Their win at Simpson was worth 13 QOWI points, and their home wins over Loras and Clarke were each worth 12. Nothing else rates higher than an 11 for Coe, and the best teams in the land have QOWIs that average 11 or higher.

The IIAC's best bet for two teams in the dance is probably for Wartburg to run the table until the IIAC tournament championship game, and then for the Knights to lose that game to a team (not necessarily Coe) that would thereby claim the league's Pool A bid. Wartburg would then be sitting pretty to get a Pool C bid.

[coocooforcoekohawk]

I think it is reasonable that a team like Coe has to play their way in via a pool A bid this year.  If they don't win the pool A bid then they cannot expect to make the tournament.  That being said, I think Coe has as good a chance of  winning the IIAC tournament as any team.  Especially if they get home court advantage.

[Hawk Sighting]

I would first like to take my foot out of my mouth!!!!  While typing I was thinking about last years MVP and for some idiotic reason not putting two and two together.  I know a lot about the conference having played in it, but my opinion still stays with Kyle.  I do apologize to the many that caught my mistype.  But as Charlie showed with the stats my choice is still valid, minus the stupid remarks about posts earlier.  Best of luck to everyone this weekend!!  This weekend will really put the period on the season!! 

[balla_1982]

Gregory Sager is right, almost the only thing that matters is regional rankings.  If Coe wins the conference tournament the IIAC will get two teams, if Wartburg wins it we only get one.  Coe might be well respected within the conference this year, but they aren't nationally and the IIAC has, for the most part, been viewed as a weak conference by the rest of the nation.  On that note, Wartburg will win the conference tournament.  It will be just like last year was with BV and Wartburg.  Wartburg won the regular season, but deep down everyone still knew BV was the team to beat.  It's hard to win the regular season as a heavy favorite because every night you have a huge target on your back.  This year Wartburg was that team.  I guarantee teams were more jacked up playing Wartburg than they were Coe because you want to beat the defending champs.  At BV we saw everybody's best last year from Wartburg all the way down to Cornell.  Once conference tournament time rolls around everyone starts out at the same level and I know Wartburg will be much more focused, especially Schmidt who will start playing like it means something again.  Experience is absolutely huge in a conference tournament, the games are nothing like regular season, you know you have to play your best or you go home.  Most of the guys on this Wartburg team have seen two or three conference championship games already while Coe's roster is dominated by younger players.  Coe's year will be next year, because I don't see these Wartburg seniors settling for going out with anything less than a conference tourny championship.  I can see all the Coe fans hate posts flowing in already.

[The Show]

For some reason, I think Wartburg may be the only team in the post season for the IIAC year.

However, I don't believe there's a player on the BV squad that has ever lost a conference tournament game.  This year they'll probably only have the first game at home and then have to battle through on the road...which will be a change of pace.  But if Wagner, Joekel, and Bissen are hitting the 3's, watch out!

[sportsknight]

I take back all those bad things I ever said about Loras...

DUHAWKS BEAT COE TONIGHT!!!!

Well, maybe not all the bad things.

Sounds like Loras played a 3-2 zone and made Coe shoot something like 40 3 Pointers.  Still haven't heard a final score on the Loras broadcast, but Loras wins.

[sportsknight]

OK, so I've got the low-down on the #1 seed tiebreaker from IIAC Director of Information Wil Wolper.  Here's how it breaks down if Wartburg and Coe finish with identical IIAC records...

-  First off, they are regular season co-champions.  Means little other than bragging rights, banners, and points in the all-sports standings.

-  Tie breaker is record against the top teams in the IIAC.  For example, if Loras finishes 3rd, Wartburg and Coe both have 1-1 records against Loras.  So the tiebreaker goes to the 4th place team (probably Simpson).  Assuming both teams win out, both teams would be 2-0 against Simpson, so it goes down to BV.  Wartburg would be 2-0 against BV, where Coe would only by 1-1, so Wartburg gets the #1 seed. 

-  Basically, for Wartburg to win the #1 seed, they need to win out and need BV to stay ahead of Luther in the IIAC standings.  Without knowing tonight's scores, BV (6-6) is one game up on Luther (5-7).  Wartburg still has to play BV, and Coe has to go to Luther.  If both BV and Luther win out except for those games, BV will stay up and Wartburg wins the #1 seed.  In other words, that BV-Luther game in Decorah tomorrow night is VERY important.

-  If it would happen that the record tiebreaker goes all the way through the standings without determining a winner, it goes to a coin flip.

[Charlie Kohawk]

Sounds like Loras played a 3-2 zone and made Coe shoot something like 40 3 Pointers.

44 to be exact, and only 14 of them were successful. Lot's of factors were at play, but none mattered more than Coe not hitting their shots. But I did get to meet coocoo tonight, so it wasn't a complete loss.

[coocooforcoekohawk]

It was great to finally meet Charlie tonight.  It's great to watch basketball with knowledgeable fans, and I thank Charlie for his insight.  Enjoyed seeing my fraternity brother DD who played for the Kohawks from 88-92.  Thought I also saw two other alums in the crowd.  Great support from the Kohawk faithful tonight, good size Coe crowd.  As far as the game went, the Kohawks needed more defensive stops.  I think Loras answered at least half of Coe's three's with one of their own.  We'll see how the Kohawks answer the bell tomorrow, and the rest of the season.  It is definately gut check time.  My money is on Kilburg to answer the bell.

Thanks sportsknight for the info on the tie breaker.  Lot of basketball to be played before the tie break comes into play.