MBB: American Rivers Conference

[doolittledog]

Picked to finish 1st and they finish 6th in the league, with 2 solid senior starters? Shows that pre-season rankings don't mean anything and shows maybe Wartburg gets too much credit. Why has Timmermans not played well in his career at Wartburg? He was solid at Coe and had a good year stat wise last year if I don't recall. Ever since there new arena, they haven't been the same team. That would have been Steege and Schmidt's senior year, the year BV somehow upset them at home in the conference tournament. Those were the good old Knight days!

Well, to be fair, if Loras hadn't hit a 3 pointer with 1 second left last Wednesday Wartburg would be in a 5 way tie for 2nd place right now.  But yes, the Knights have been far from a title contender this year and even if they had won last Wednesday they would have finished 5 games out of 1st place.  Not really what was expected of them.  Then again, most of us on here were questioning at the beginning on the season how the Knights were picked to be the favorites in the conference when they hadn't really done much the last few years. 

[IntramuralChamp]

Coe @ Buena Vista -- Buena Vista gets revenge against the KoHawks at home and play well following the loss to Dubuque at home

   
Cornell @ Central-- Cornell comes limping into the game but Central does nothing to prove their the number one team in the league until late and pull out the win by 6.

Luther @ Loras - Loras wins a defensive battle with the Norse and claims the 2 seed in the tournament. A great 2nd half run in the league for the Duhawks.

   
Simpson @ Dubuque- Dubuque finds a way late to beat the young Storm, and Dunleavy plays in his last game ending a great career.

[doolittledog]

Simpson up on Dubuque 37-34 at the half.

My daughter tells me that Simpson was up 21-12 early in the half, so I suppose I will be happy with a 3 point deficit now. 

[doolittledog]

IntramuralChamp made a good call.  Dubuque found a way late to beat the young Storm

71-67 UD wins.  10-6 in conference play.  Very good job men!!!

[doolittledog]

The Iowa Conference website shows the mens standings like this...

y-RV Central 14-2 21-4
x-Buena Vista 10-6 14-11
x-Loras 10-6 15-10
x-Dubuque 10-6 17-8
x-Cornell 9-7 15-10
x-Wartburg 8-8 14-11
Luther 6-10 12-12
Simpson 3-13 6-19
Coe 2-14 4-21

Dubuque beat BVU twice this season and lost to Loras twice this season.  Dubuque has the best overall record of the 3 teams at 10-6.  How do they do the tie breaker?  I can see how Loras would win out over UD.  But I can't see how BVU ends up getting 2nd place? 

[Klompen]

Picked to finish 1st and they finish 6th in the league, with 2 solid senior starters? Shows that pre-season rankings don't mean anything and shows maybe Wartburg gets too much credit. Why has Timmermans not played well in his career at Wartburg? He was solid at Coe and had a good year stat wise last year if I don't recall. Ever since there new arena, they haven't been the same team. That would have been Steege and Schmidt's senior year, the year BV somehow upset them at home in the conference tournament. Those were the good old Knight days!

Well, to be fair, if Loras hadn't hit a 3 pointer with 1 second left last Wednesday Wartburg would be in a 5 way tie for 2nd place right now.  But yes, the Knights have been far from a title contender this year and even if they had won last Wednesday they would have finished 5 games out of 1st place.  Not really what was expected of them.  Then again, most of us on here were questioning at the beginning on the season how the Knights were picked to be the favorites in the conference when they hadn't really done much the last few years. 

Good point.

[Klompen]

The Iowa Conference website shows the mens standings like this...

y-RV Central 14-2 21-4
x-Buena Vista 10-6 14-11
x-Loras 10-6 15-10
x-Dubuque 10-6 17-8
x-Cornell 9-7 15-10
x-Wartburg 8-8 14-11
Luther 6-10 12-12
Simpson 3-13 6-19
Coe 2-14 4-21

Dubuque beat BVU twice this season and lost to Loras twice this season.  Dubuque has the best overall record of the 3 teams at 10-6.  How do they do the tie breaker?  I can see how Loras would win out over UD.  But I can't see how BVU ends up getting 2nd place?  

That one is hard to figure out.  I think UD was better then BV, then again, we did lose to BV once.  Could that have played into it?  Who beat the #1 seed?  We also lost to Loras, and they both got seeded higher.

[doolittledog]

BVU, Dubuque, and Loras all went 10-6 in conference play.  BVU went 2-0 against Loras.  Loras went 2-0 against Dubuque.  Dubuque went 2-0 against BVU.  So the 3 teams each went 2-2 in their head-to-head matchups.  I suppose the next tie-breaker would be how they did against the 1st place team.  If BVU and Loras each had a win against Central they would then take BVU and their 2 wins against Loras. 

Too bad UD let Central hit a 3 pointer at the buzzer in Dubuque to take a win there.  Oh well, woulda coulda shoulda I suppose. 

[Klompen]

Too bad UD let Central hit a 3 pointer at the buzzer in Dubuque to take a win there.  Oh well, woulda coulda shoulda I suppose. 

Wait a minute!  This sounds familiar.  Central and Dubuque battle it out to dead even in Dubuque and Central scores a miraculous 3 points to win and end the game with a victory.  Have I heard that scenario somewhere before???   Say it isn't so!

[Pat Coleman]

+1, nicely done

[IntramuralChamp]

What a regular season in the IIAC! Central wins 21 regular season games, the most since the 1977-1978 season and wins the IIAC title outright! A well deserved title and season, considering this senior class at Central had a record of 12-13 in 2009, 15-9 in 2008, and 11-14 in 2007. We shall see if they can win the automatic bid, because based on Buena Vista not getting in last year, I find it hard they would get an at large.

Buena Vista somehow manages to get 2nd in the league, despite having lost at Coe, Simpson and getting swept by Dubuque. However, a win over Central, sweeps of Loras and Cornell, probably is deserved. Does BV have a run in them like they did in 2006 to get an automatic bid?

Loras reels off 5 conference wins throughout the season to get them from 3-3 to 8-3 and then loses a tough home game to Luther that costs them the 2 seed and a first round bye. They have shown they can beat everyone in the league except Buena Vista, but they may get one more chance with a win over Wartburg Tuesday.

Dubuque may have the best player in the league in Taylor Blum. They have improved every year and if Blum goes off they could make a run and make their first national tournament since ____. If they beat Cornell, the Central match up will be closer then the 25 point beating they got the first time in Pella.

Cornell is only a year removed from winning the conference tournament, however this time they will have to do it on the road.  At one point they were 12-4  having played some easy teams early along with their easy non-conference schedule and ended up 15-10. A tough stretch to end the year having to play the top teams. We will see what Cornell team shows up for the tournament.

Wartburg the conference pick to win the league rounds out the top 6.  In the last 7 games, Wartburg is 3-4. However all four losses have been lost by 2 points each. If they had just won 3 of those games, they could easily have been the 2 seed with 11 wins. If they shoot well, they will be the team to beat.

First Round Picks

Wartburg @ Loras- I will take the Duhawks at home. Having only met 6 days ago, and Wartburg not playing Saturday, makes me want to pick Wartburg, but the home court gets it done Tuesday night in a all out battle.

Cornell @ Dubuque- Cornell is hard to pick because you don't know what team is going to show up. I think their recent struggles will continue and therefore I will go with another home team and pick the Spartans as Blum and Bellaire get it done.

[doolittledog]

Too bad UD let Central hit a 3 pointer at the buzzer in Dubuque to take a win there.  Oh well, woulda coulda shoulda I suppose. 

Wait a minute!  This sounds familiar.  Central and Dubuque battle it out to dead even in Dubuque and Central scores a miraculous 3 points to win and end the game with a victory.  Have I heard that scenario somewhere before???   Say it isn't so!

Nicely done indeed

Though, when it comes right down to it I would rather lose a close one to you darn Dutch than to lose a football game 86-14 or a basketball game 82-48!!!

[Klompen]

Though, when it comes right down to it I would rather lose a close one to you darn Dutch than to lose a football game 86-14 or a basketball game 82-48!!!

Agreed, and you gave us all we could handle in both games.  UD has been earning respect from a lot of us Dutch fans.  We know we were lucky to leave with a win in both instances.  One of these days we will stop reminding you.   

[Klompen]

IC had a nice run down of how things ended up.  As a Central fan, I knew the Dutch were due for a nice year, but then again, I thought we could have done better last year.  It took awhile to really believe and it was clear that towards the end of the season they were starting to believe in themselves.  Not that they blew teams out, but they had the confidence to believe they could win the close ones.  It was nice to end the regular season undefeated at home and with bigger crowds of students.  The BV and WB games the student side was full and cheering loudly.

Good luck to the teams in the conference tourney, best of luck to the Dutch!   

To those seniors who played their last games on Saturday, thanks for playing, it isn't easy when you are at the bottom.  Thanks for sticking with it and all the best in the future.

[doolittledog]

Big games tonight...both in the city of Dubuque!!!

#6 Wartburg @ #3 Loras 7 p.m.
#5 Cornell @ #4 Dubuque 7 p.m.

Wartburg and Loras I really have no idea.  Loras had no business losing at Luther.  Wartburgs last 4 losses were by a combined 8 points.  But that includes a 2 point loss at home to Loras.  I will take Loras at home.

Dubuque let a sure win slip away at home early in the season against Cornell.  Then won convincingly in Mt. Vernon over the Rams.  I will take Dubuque tonight for a home team sweep.