MBB: American Rivers Conference

[CrAzYkNiGhT]

best week of the year........basketball at its best, what more could you want??

[Charlie Kohawk]

Consider this scenario:

Bus weary Wartburg falls at BV and beats Cornell to finish 12-4.
Coe wins out at Luther and vs. Simpson to finish 12-4.
Coe earns the #1 seed by virtue of two wins over Luther to Wartburg's one.

Loras wins out over Cornell and Luther to finish 11-5 and gets the #3 seed.
BV wins out over Wartburg and Dubuque to finish 10-6 and gets the #4 seed.
Simpson beats Dubuque but loses to Coe to finish 8-8 and #5.
Dubuque and Luther both lose out and one of them gets the #6 seed.

Hate to toot my own horn, but seven out of eight is pretty good. I only missed on the Loras-Luther game, which actually may have worked to Coe's advantage. Let's see how I do in the playoffs.

First round --
Luther at BV -- BV wins
Simpson at Loras -- Loras wins

Second round --
BV at Wartburg -- Wartburg wins
Loras at Coe -- Coe wins

Championship --
Wartburg at Coe in a much-anticipated final at Eby Fieldhouse.

[CrAzYkNiGhT]

Tuesday 2/21
Luther At Buena Vista

Simpson At Loras

   Gonna go w/ 2 upsets, Luther winning at BV again and Simpson wants another shot at Coe

Thursday 2/23

Luther At Wartburg

Simpson At Coe

   As everyone wants and expects, Wartburg at Coe, A showdown at Eby Saturday Night

[The Show]

BV has been playing too well as of late to lose their only home game of the conference tourny.

Simpson should have beat Wartburg last year on the road in the first round.

So I'll take the Beavers and the Storm tonight.

[pdmcgee]

show-

simpson should have won at wartburg in the first round, but they didn't.  They scored 3 points in 9 minutes against a zone .... I still think that is funny.  Their coach is so easy to figure out and he is so predictable, he needs to go.  i wouldn't take simpson against loras, big mistake.

First Round:
BV over Luther
Loras over simpson

Second Round:
Wartburg over BV
Coe over Loras

Championship:
Wartburg over Coe in a barn burner Eby

Warburg will pull it out like the champions they are.  Two championships in a row.  Way to go boys, now get to the dance!!

March Madness is starting again and I can't be more excited to see some quality basketball.

[sportsknight]

I'll take the homers tonight.  BV and Loras to win and advance.

PS - There is a bus ride being organized for Saturday's Championship game.  It will load up in Waverly at 4:30 on Saturday and head for CR around 4:45.  Cost is $15 and seats are filling fast.  If either Wartburg or Coe loses before Saturday (doubtful but not outside the realm of possibility), the bus will be cancelled.  Let me know if you're interested.

[balla_1982]

The way it sounds to me everyone seems to forget Wartburg and Coe have to each win tough games to advance.  One of the two won't make the finals, which, I don't know, but there has been way too much parity in the conference this year to assume all the favorites will win.

[The Show]

simpson should have won at wartburg in the first round, but they didn't. They scored 3 points in 9 minutes against a zone .... I still think that is funny.

Didn't a freshman miss a dunk to win it?  That was the only thing I found amusing...

One of the two won't make the finals, which, I don't know, but there has been way too much parity in the conference this year to assume all the favorites will win.

Agreed.

[sportsknight]

BV wins by 2 over Luther, 73-71.  Game looked like it was pretty back and forth, although the two teams scored a combined 0 points in the last 2:20.  Combined 0-6 from the field.  That's either really good defense or some shoddy execution with the game on the line.

Simpson over Loras 78-68 at the Fieldhouse.  Sounds like Loras made a big run at the end of the first half to lead by 7 at the break, but the Storm chipped away until they got into the lead, which they protected and extended with some good free throw shooting down the stretch.

Thursday's games:
#5 Simpson at #1 Coe, 7:00
#3 Buena Vista at #2 Wartburg, 7:00

I know BV had their live audio stream working tonight, and I'm sure Wartburg will have the same on Thursday.  As far as audio of the Simpson-Coe game, I have no idea.

PS - Good work to the Sports Info Depts. at Simpson and BV for getting game recaps and stats online tonight.  You'd be hard-pressed to find a stronger D3 conference, SID-wise, than the IIAC. 

[Charlie Kohawk]

Good work to the Sports Info Depts. at Simpson and BV for getting game recaps and stats online tonight.  You'd be hard-pressed to find a stronger D3 conference, SID-wise, than the IIAC. 

I concur SportsKnight. I'd put Iowa Conference SIDs up against any conference in the nation.

As for Simpson-Coe radio, there will be none. However, you can access live play-by-play at www.coe.edu/athletics.

[coocooforcoekohawk]

Simpson over Loras 78-68 at the Fieldhouse. 

I was afraid of that.  I think Simpson has a much better chance at beating Coe than Loras did.  They played the Kohawks well last Saturday.

Charlie, at the Simpson game one of the refs blew up at the Coe crowd and said, "Leave it alone."  Do you know what that was all about?  Did one of their players transfer from Coe to Simpson or something?  I thought the whole thing had something to do with #24.  What ever it was the crowd stopped right after the ref said something.

We are going to need a much bigger crowd on thursday than we had on saturday.

Go KOHAWKS!

[Droppin Bombs]

I don't know if you all know this but Loras actually beat Coe, so I don't know how you think that Simpson has a better chance.

[coocooforcoekohawk]

I don't know if you all know this but Loras actually beat Coe, so I don't know how you think that Simpson has a better chance.

   
     Simpson took a major blow losing their best player and have needed time to gel.  Simpson played Coe tough on Saturday, they are putting it all together now.
     The biggest reason I am worried about Simpson is that Simpson is the only team in the league that can say they beat one of the top four teams in the conference on the road.  Wartburg, B.V, Loras, and Coe cannot make that claim.  Simpson is getting better with each game.
     I also think Loras is much better at home than on the road.  When Loras beat Coe they shot 52% beyond the arc.  I doubt they would be able to do that at Eby. 
    We will never know if Loras could win at Eby, why, cause they lost to Simpson.

[Charlie Kohawk]

Charlie, at the Simpson game one of the refs blew up at the Coe crowd and said, "Leave it alone."  Do you know what that was all about?  Did one of their players transfer from Coe to Simpson or something?  I thought the whole thing had something to do with #24.  What ever it was the crowd stopped right after the ref said something.

I have no direct knowledge of this incident, but I suspect it may have involved the near altercation that occured when a Simpson player -- could have been #24 -- reacted after he thought a Coe player had thrown the ball at him when he was on the floor. Actually, the ball was batted back onto the court -- inadvertently hitting the player -- from the student section. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed. Sounds like the official handled the situation well.

[The Show]

I'm rooting for the upsets tonight so BV can host the championship game on Saturday, but have a feeling there will only be one tonight.

BV over Wartburg
We may need more than Charlie's karma points this time... Keeping Fogleman out of foul trouble will be the key.

Coe over Simpson
Although it's tough to beat a decent team three times in one season.