Top 25 talk

[John Gleich]

RF with a 66-63 lead with 2:41 in OT, Whitewater ball.

[John Gleich]

RF with a 66-63 lead with 2:41 in OT, Whitewater ball.

Whitewater took a 67-66 lead but RF responds, timeout RF with a 68-67 lead.  WW has missed at least 4 or 5 FT's in OT.  3/7 in OT, there ya go.

[John Gleich]

RF with a 66-63 lead with 2:41 in OT, Whitewater ball.

Whitewater took a 67-66 lead but RF responds, timeout RF with a 68-67 lead.  WW has missed at least 4 or 5 FT's in OT.  3/7 in OT, there ya go.

River Falls pulls out the upset of Whitewater 69-68 as Dantzler missed a 3 with :04.  A RF player rebounded and just threw it down the floor to run out the clock.

[John Gleich]

... Re: the toss down the floor, you may recall that in 2001-2002 a pretty wacky WIAC season...

In the conference tournament, the 1, 2, and 3 seeds all lost... and in that 3/6 game, River Falls was hosting Oshkosh.  After an Oshkosh miss with the clock running down, an RF player got the ball and threw it in the air to run out the clock.  The ball hit the ceiling and Oshkosh nailed a 3 to tie and send the game to overtime.

Oshkosh won in OT 95-87.

First thing I thought of when I heard that Danny Johnson lobbed the ball down the court like that!





Oh, and RF goes to Stevens Point on Wednesday.  Can they pull a Stout and upset the Pointers too?

[John Gleich]

#9 St. Norbert goes down to Lake Forest 66-59

[magicman]

With an 11-9 record, Stout is obviously not going to get any top 25 votes, but I've gotta wonder who else in the country could beat UWW and UWSP back to back!

(Since they ARE 11-9, I suppose lots of teams, if lightning happened to strike twice! )

And this Wednesday when River Falls travels to Stevens Point we just may get to see that occur!!!

[nwhoops1903]

Whitworth has led in its games for 578:22 out of the last 640 minutes (16 games) since losing to Pomona.  That's better than 90% including wins over Whitewater, Stout and McKendree (now #8 NAIA).  Pirates have perhaps their toughest conference road trip this weekend as they face an improved Pacific and a strong George Fox (not the womens) team.  Go Pirates!!

Add another 80 minutes to the total.  On the road and never trailed.   

Whitworth won its 18th consecutive game to improve to 19-2 overall and 12-0 in the NWC. The Bucs clinched at least a share of the Conference title after second-place Linfield fell to 8-4 following a home loss to Willamette tonight.  4 games still to play, It's possible we might win one of em. 

[John Gleich]

With an 11-9 record, Stout is obviously not going to get any top 25 votes, but I've gotta wonder who else in the country could beat UWW and UWSP back to back!

(Since they ARE 11-9, I suppose lots of teams, if lightning happened to strike twice! )

And this Wednesday when River Falls travels to Stevens Point we just may get to see that occur!!!

I actually was wrong on the schedule... RF goes to SP on Saturday... it's RF's next game but they have the bye on Wed.  SP hosts Eau Claire, I think, on Wed.  ...and we know what they did to Whitewater earlier too!

I think this season's recent results are just a combination of schedule grind on WW and SP, as well as the overall strength of the WIAC showing itself.  Look at the standings... RF is in 9th and Oshkosh (who took both WW and SP to the brink earlier in the year is in 8th.  RF also only lost to St Thomas by 1 in Nov or Dec too.

Remember... the WIAC as a conference won its games at an 80% clip this year.  We hadn't seen non-con numbers that good since the early aughts... back when the WIAC was the Wacky WIAC...  there are no nights off.

I hope the voters really think about that before simply knocking SP and WW down... both schools did pretty much dominate the first half of the conference schedule and there was a ton of parity in the bottom seven, so the W/L numbers for those teams aren't gaudy...  but it doesn't mean those teams aren't good.  right about now, I'd take Stout against anybody in the country.

That's another dynamic... if you look at the results, La Crosse had a solid hold on 3rd place... and Platteville was a pretty strong 4th.  Since then, both teams have lost a bundle of games to the point that LAX is sitting in 7th, out of the conference tournament below .500 and Pville is tied for 4th at .500.

Somebody on the WIAC page figured out that the bottom 7 could end up the year all at 6-10.  I don't think its likely, but it is possibe.

[Ralph Turner]

With an 11-9 record, Stout is obviously not going to get any top 25 votes, but I've gotta wonder who else in the country could beat UWW and UWSP back to back!

(Since they ARE 11-9, I suppose lots of teams, if lightning happened to strike twice! )

And this Wednesday when River Falls travels to Stevens Point we just may get to see that occur!!!

...

Somebody on the WIAC page figured out that the bottom 7 could end up the year all at 6-10.  I don't think its likely, but it is possibe.

We had a year like that in ASC football a few seasons back.  If one were to change the outcome in two games that were competitive late in the fourth quarter, then there would have been a 7-way tie for 3rd at 3-5.

[John Gleich]

With an 11-9 record, Stout is obviously not going to get any top 25 votes, but I've gotta wonder who else in the country could beat UWW and UWSP back to back!

(Since they ARE 11-9, I suppose lots of teams, if lightning happened to strike twice! )

And this Wednesday when River Falls travels to Stevens Point we just may get to see that occur!!!

...

Somebody on the WIAC page figured out that the bottom 7 could end up the year all at 6-10.  I don't think its likely, but it is possibe.

We had a year like that in ASC football a few seasons back.  If one were to change the outcome in two games that were competitive late in the fourth quarter, then there would have been a 7-way tie for 3rd at 3-5.

I've seen it referred to (but it was before my time here) that back in 2000-01 when there was a tie for the WIAC title at 10-6, 2 teams in 3rd at 9-7 and 2 in 5th at 8-8, also the year of the upset in the conference tournament), but somebody also figured out with about 5 games left how all 9 teams could have ended up at 8-8!

[Darryl Nester]

How They Fared

Top 25

Rank	Pts	Team	W-L	Results
#1	624	Guilford	19-1	def. Hampden-Sydney, 76-74
#2	571	Williams	21-1	def. #25 Colby, 82-58; def. Bowdoin, 97-54
#3	567	Washington U.	18-2	def. Rochester, 68-59; def. #31 Emory, 83-69
#4	544	UW-Stevens Point	18-3	LOST at UW-Stout, 67-69
#5	525	St. Thomas	19-2	def. St. Mary's (Minn.), 82-70; def. Carleton, 58-55
#6	487	UW-Whitewater	17-4	def. UW-La Crosse, 67-52; LOST at UW-River Falls, 68-69 OT
#7	468	Virginia Wesleyan	18-2	def. Bridgewater (Va.), 66-51
#8	391	Middlebury	19-2	def. Bowdoin, 76-65; def. #25 Colby, 72-57
#9	388	St. Norbert	18-2	def. Lawrence, 66-48; def. Monmouth, 78-52; LOST to Lake Forest, 59-66
#10	357	Whitworth	19-2	def. Pacific, 87-68; def. George Fox, 98-88
#11	350	Chapman	20-2	def. S'western (Ariz.), 78-44; def. La Sierra, 86-57
#12	348	MIT	19-2	def. Babson, 67-49
#13	345	William Paterson	21-1	def. Ramapo, 72-65
#14	281	Anderson	18-2	def. Bluffton, 72-66
#15	254	Franklin and Marshall	17-3	def. Ursinus, 70-62
#16	250	Eastern Mennonite	16-3	def. Lynchburg, 85-67
#17	219	Texas-Dallas	17-4	LOST at Louisiana College, 68-69; def. #24 Mississippi College, 84-81
#18	215	Randolph-Macon	16-4	def. Roanoke, 87-54
#19	196	Brandeis	15-4	LOST at Case Western Reserve, 61-63; def. Carnegie Mellon, 62-43
#20	177	St. Mary's (Md.)	17-3	def. Christopher Newport, 91-82 OT
#21	131	Wooster	17-4	def. Allegheny, 85-72; def. Wabash, 64-61
#22	130	Medaille	20-2	def. Penn State-Behrend, 76-74; LOST at Mount Aloysius, 64-65
#23	92	Carthage	16-5	def. Wheaton (Ill.), 68-63; LOST to Augustana, 59-70
#24	60	Mississippi College	16-4	def. University of the Ozarks, 80-74; LOST to #17 Texas-Dallas, 81-84
#25	44	Colby	16-4	def. Southern Maine, 74-60; LOST at #2 Williams, 58-82; LOST at #8 Middlebury, 57-72

Others receiving votes

Rank	Pts	Team	W-L	Results
#26	40	Albright	16-4	LOST to Widener, 48-49; LOST at Elizabethtown, 67-74
#27	34	Illinois Wesleyan	17-4	def. North Central (Ill.), 92-85; def. Elmhurst, 73-59
#28	14	Amherst	14-7	def. Rhode Island College, 105-84; LOST at Bates, 47-76; LOST at Tufts, 68-69
#29	12	Cabrini	18-2	def. Baptist Bible, 79-50; def. Rosemont, 81-58
#30	4	Lycoming	17-4	LOST at Lebanon Valley, 72-75 OT; def. Arcadia, 69-68
#31	3	Emory	13-7	LOST at Chicago, 68-73; LOST at #3 Washington U., 69-83
T#32	2	St. John Fisher	18-4	def. Rochester Tech, 74-57; def. Elmira, 72-65 OT
T#32	2	Stevens	16-4	def. Utica, 68-53

[r-buddy]

A good weekend for the Wash U Bears, with decisive wins over Emory and Rochester.  Defense was tough as usual, and the offense was as effective as any time this year.  One amazing stat in the Emory game:  29 goals scored and 29 assists.  That must be rare--anyone seen a game in which a team scored an assist for every one of its goals? 

[nwhoops1903]

I would not be surprised to see Whitewater drop to below 10th.  Any case for them staying top 10?  Would any voters still place them higher than say...Whitworth?    Head to head win plus WW easily beat Stout.

[nwhoops1903]

Anyone think Eastern Mennonite can win at Guilford tonight?  What would it take for EM to upset?

[deanslist]

EMU def has the talent and athletes to win tonight at #1 Guilford. I think it will be important for them to get off to a good start, so their confidence grows as the game progresses especially being on the road. I also believe it will be really important for EMU to limit second chance points for Guilford. If you EMU can do a solid job on the defensive end of the boards, expect the Runnin' Royals to give the Quakers a tough game. Go EMU!