MBB: American Rivers Conference

[doolittledog]

Tough watching Dubuque give up a 10 point lead with 5 to go.  But NWU played well and got the win.  On to the next one.  Fairly sure me watching the entire game instead of my usual turning it on late in the 2nd half or waiting until the next day to watch was the Spartans undoing.  Will go back to my old ways next week!

[SpartyBlue]

Wild night in the ARC last night....

Dubuque nearly gets knocked off by 1-19 Luther in Decorah, holds on 60-59 thanks to 29 pts. from Jaylin McCants

5-16 Simpson shocks 12-9 Coe 83-78 on the back of 13 made 3 pointers.  Really bad loss for the Kohawks--no offense to the Storm, but one of the worst teams I've ever seen in person when UD rolled them a couple of weeks ago.

BV pulls a mild upset over Central 83-77...the story....3 pointers again...19-42 made for the Beavers vs. 5-21 by the Dutch.

Loras held court over a really bad Wartburg team.

As is stands....NWU and UD in position for the coveted top seed byes in the conference tournament.  Central, Loras, BV, and Coe are chasing for seeding. Central at 8-4 has a shot at a first or second seed--they hold a win over NWU.  These look to be the 6 teams who will make it. 

[doolittledog]

Curious if we will have games tonight with all the snow coming down.  A bit late in the season to fit make up dates in.

[Greek Tragedy]

Looks like Dubuque beat Wartburg tonight with the other 3 games tomorrow.

[Schipper Strong]

Central hit a tough slide with 3 losses. Loras at Loras and UD are tough opponents. Frustrating though as Central leads in the second half and just can't score. I don't know if we aren't substituting enough in the first half so we run out of steam or what. Often times it is the three pointers that doom us. The other teams get hot and we just can't hit.

Congratulations to Josh Van Gorp on becoming Central's all time scoring leader in the game against UD. He is up for top small college player and has made the cut for top 50 out of 1100 some schools.

[doolittledog]

Silver lining for Central is that despite a late season slide, you just need to get hot at tourney time.  Win 3 straight and you go to the dance.

[doolittledog]

Dubuque with a 3 point win @ Coe gives the Spartans the outright conference title.
NWU and Loras are playing for 2nd and 3rd place.
Coe and Central are 8-7 heading into the final regular season game on Saturday.
Wartburg and BVU are 7-8 going into their final game this weekend. 
I have no idea how those tie breakers could play out. 

[SpartyBlue]

Dubuque with a 3 point win @ Coe gives the Spartans the outright conference title.
NWU and Loras are playing for 2nd and 3rd place.
Coe and Central are 8-7 heading into the final regular season game on Saturday.
Wartburg and BVU are 7-8 going into their final game this weekend. 
I have no idea how those tie breakers could play out. 

I believe this is a 3 horse race...UD and NWU are the obvious clear favorites...Loras has a chance but as the saying goes, defense wins championships....Loras has to win shootouts.  Coe and Central just don't have enough firepower in my view. 

Breakdown:

Dubuque:  Outright conference champs.  The most athletic team in the conference headed by should-be all-American Jaylin McCants.  UD has speed, size, and hurt you in lots of different ways.  That said, prone to bonehead stretches of play sometimes and bad free throw shooting, definitely not unbeatable.  Still my clear favorite to win it.

NWU:  Wellman has brought back the 3-2 zone that won him a national title and it's really annoying to play against.  The two wins over UD are huge, but it looks like they will have to travel if they want to win a tournament title, a tough task that puts them at a disadvantage. 

Loras:  A good offensive team.  They have some talented scorers but just not athletic enough defensively.  A typically offensively aggressively Chris Martin team, will have to get stops.  Big game Saturday at UD for bragging rights, UD put up 100 last time out. 

Coe:  Well-coached team, but lack size and athleticism.  Scrappy though and are not an easy out.

Central:  No disrespect to Van Gorp, he's had a great career, but does not do as well against other bigs where he can't just bull his way in for easy layups.  Brand is a nice player in the midrange but WILL NOT shoot threes.  This means you can pretty comfortably sag way off of Brand and put an extra defender in the lane to help on Van Gorp....Schipper is the only other scoring, huge drop off after that.  Have also lost four in a row, bringing no confidence into the tourney.

Wartburg and BV:  Just not the year for either one.  Wartburg did somehow knock off NWU, but don't see either of these teams advancing past the first round. 

[doolittledog]

UD wins in double OT over Loras.  Incredible game to watch online.  And even better I got to watch my son playing his trombone in the pep band. 

Anxious to see how SpartyBlue breaks down the conference playoffs. 

[GusD]

LORAS RECRUITS

Loras has received commitments from;

Braylon Gray, a 6'1" PG from Grant HS in Fox Lake, IL (far out NW suburb of Chicago).

Patrick Coen, a 6'9" C from Rolling Meadows IL HS.

[SpartyBlue]

ARC Playoffs Round One:

#5 Coe @ #4 Central:  Split the season series, Coe 88-74 at home and then Central 77-73 a game in which Van Gorp had....wait for it....55 points on 36 field goal attempts.  Coe obviously has a deficiency of big bodies to stop the giant JVG.  That said, I think that level of production is just unlikely to happen again and Coe is the better team in my analysis.  Both teams struggled down the stretch, Central lost 4 of their last 5 and Coe weirdly got thumped by Wartburg last Saturday.  Still, I just think Coe is the more complete team and even on the road find a way to win this close.  Prediction: Coe 71 Central 67

#6 Wartburg @ #3 Loras   Loras swept the season series quite easily and I don't see anything slowing them down here.  Just a far more talented and deeper team.  The Duhawks come off an absolutely battle in a double overtime loss 90-86 at Dubuque on Saturday.  Did that game sap their legs on the quick turnaround?  I think not enough. Loras/NWU sets up to be an extremely interesting semifinal game. Prediction: Loras 83 Wartburg 68

[SpartyBlue]

Well, yesterday's post didn't age well.  Central 99 Coe 83  Kohawks had no answer for Van Gorp.

Wartburg 96 Loras 86  A real stunner...the Uhawks (no D) get steamrolled on their home court by a subpar Knights squad.  WC shoots 63% from the field, Loras goes 3-25 from three pt. land on their own court.  That Saturday scorcher vs. Dubuque maybe did take it out of them. 

I should avoid the prediction game but....what fun is that.

Rd. 2:  Dubuque 81 Central 71  Sparty has had the formula twice vs. Central.  They've proven they have the size and athleticism to slow Van Gorp and the Dutch cannot match the speed and quickness of McCants, Scott, John, etc. 

NWU 72 Wartburg 65   They split the season series....NWU has huge home court advantage with the involved travel. 

[Greek Tragedy]

Interesting that they don't do the "lowest seed vs highest seed" in the semi-final round. I still think it's NWU vs Dubuque.

[Pat Coleman]

Interesting that they don't do the "lowest seed vs highest seed" in the semi-final round. I still think it's NWU vs Dubuque.

Most conferences do not reseed.

[GusD]

ARC CONFERENCE TOURNEY SEMIFINALS

Nebr Wesleyan 85
Wartburg             53

Central      78
Dubuque   71

Looks like the tourney championship game will be outside of the conceptual conference boundaries.
Too bad the Platte runs east-west. 😏