Posters' Poll

[Ralph Turner]

Mine is in.  Thanks!

[magicman]

Mine is in as well.

[larry_u]

Would Lawrence have taken UWSP to OT, if the Elite 8 game at UPS game had been played at Quandt or back in Wisconsin, on an isolated neutral floor before 245 fans in Washington state?  I thought that UPS-location "neutralized" the sectional.

Larry U shot amazing in the first half.  That certainly wouldn't have been predicted after the come-from-behind overtime victory the afternoon before, but it just shows the quality team they were when they were at their best.

LU shot 8/10 from 3.  Unbelievable.  They only missed 9 shots in the first half and though I don't really remember too much specifically from that first half, they did get a 10 point lead.  Now, in a gym with 245 people, the roar of the crowd isn't a factor... and the cheers that there were came out about 50/50 if my memory serves me correctly... thus, when LU got their 10 point lead, their fans were cheering, to be true (and I think EVERYONE there cheered louder than usual to try to make up for the lack of sheer numbers from what was an excellently played game), but there wasn't the deflated lack of cheers that there would have been in front of 2800 in SP. 

Now, Point fans are pretty basketball savvy... and over the years, they've had plenty of good things to cheer about, but when they get down, (either from excellent play by an opponent or lackluster play by the Pointers), the Point fans usually cheer to get the team enthusiasm up.  So that lack of cheers would only be temporary, probably right around the time when the team really does need a pick me up.  Lots of times the biggest cheers in the first half are the ones that are in reaction to poor play... to get the ship righted, rather than from outstanding play.  But I digress...

Point is used to playing in front of big crowds in big games, but they also are used to playing in front of small crowds.  Every year, we've gotta take a trip up to Superior, where, though there is usually a small crowd by SP's standards (and a larger one, in general, by Superiors standards), the crowd is usually still a factor.  Superiors hecklers are more effective than those at other schools because you can actually hear everything they say!  And this might be a bad example, because SP lost to Sup not only IN Sup that year, but also at home... but again I digress...

LU shot amazing in the first half.  But Point managed to come back and draw the game back to a 1 point deficit with a half court shot after a rather lackluster (2/8) shooting performance from deep in the first stanza.  If this had been in Point, this would have, of course, electrified the gym, and that previous statement about loud cheers in the first half would be certainly nullified!

In the second half, LU was still on fire... though the fire didn't burn quite as hot.  We only hit 2 3 pointers in the second half too, including one of the best shots I have ever seen... Nick Bennetts game tying bomb with 9 seconds in regulation ... and it was back and forth the whole way. 

To actually answer your question... I don't know if we could have mustered up the will to stick with them due to how amazing they were playing under any different circumstances.  It is so hard to try to take the game out of its context... because we were all so focused on the minute by minute happenings.  The heavy-weight fight analogy is an overused one in the discussion of athletics, but if you look at the running play by play and see that neither team had more than a 4 point lead in the second half, it really DOES look like a blow by blow fight.  And the rallies of the first half, both by LU to take the 10 point lead and Point to wrestle it back at the end of the half.  I'm meandering...  I'm going to refocus...



I think that Lawrence would have at the very 'least taken to OT'/beaten anyone on any floor based on how they played.  They played one of those games that their losing opponent would be resigned to say that it was just one of those nights.  Truly, it was UWSP that had to make the unbelievable plays like the aforementioned half court shot and the Bennett Bomb and Maus's game winner w/ 5 secs in OT.  I mean, two guys off the bench went for 18 and 22 and hit 10/15 3s.  They were just ON.  They came back from an 18 point second half deficit with under 12 minutes and wrestled the lead in just 8 minutes.  They had no business even being in the game, playing against a Point team that had blown out the hosts the night before.

I don't know if having the game in Point would have altered any of these performances.  As it was, the next year, Point hosted Lawrence in the second game and blew em out by 34.  They then again played UPS in the sweet 16, which was a decidedly different game... UPS didn't try to outscore Point like they had tried the year before.  And SP held them to 63 points.  Perhaps these outcomes would have occurred the year before had the game been in Point.  Interestingly, with the second championship run it was another ASC Texas (...) team that provided the biggest test for Point.  Really, it wasn't a test... it was the championship.  And as with Lawrence the year before, Point had to wrest the game from Trinity.  With a tie game at 50 and 2:42 to go, it was Grusczynskis gutsy layup over 6 foot 10 inch Sean Devins that broke the tie. It was not in hand until Nick Bennett's flopping, sprawling runner that sat on the rim for about 20 minutes before falling in.  Jon Krull had another hue play, securing a Devins miss while holding off the much bigger player to allow the game to be sealed with FTs. 

The venue did not matter positively or negatively in this game, as it was too tight to notice the surroundings.  But the celebration afterward was that much more sweet because it was at home.

Talk about fricking daggers.....that one hurt deep.  Man I thought we were going top pull that one out till somehow that shot went in....

I also thought Hollenbeck's three at the end of overtime was good...one inch longer and LU was going to Salem.  Still the best basketball game I have ever seen at any level, and was a pleasure to be on the call for it...

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Working on it now; will be in soon.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I shifted a few teams around, but not a lot of big moves.  Conference tournaments will really tell us something about who's playing well right now.

[smedindy]

In.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Six ballots now in and tallied.  With the real poll's #2 - #5 teams all picking up a loss, not surprisingly we have a clear #1, but all other spots are hotly contested.  So far three different teams have each gotten two votes for #2, and (amazingly) FIVE different teams have gotten a #3 vote!

So late voters - YOUR vote WILL matter!

[SLP-O-8]

Six ballots now in and tallied.  With the real poll's #2 - #5 teams all picking up a loss, not surprisingly we have a clear #1, but all other spots are hotly contested.  So far three different teams have each gotten two votes for #2, and (amazingly) FIVE different teams have gotten a #3 vote!

So late voters - YOUR vote WILL matter!

Do we send a private message to you or how does this work i would like to try my hand in it.  Thanks

[Mr. Ypsi]

Six ballots now in and tallied.  With the real poll's #2 - #5 teams all picking up a loss, not surprisingly we have a clear #1, but all other spots are hotly contested.  So far three different teams have each gotten two votes for #2, and (amazingly) FIVE different teams have gotten a #3 vote!

So late voters - YOUR vote WILL matter!

Do we send a private message to you or how does this work i would like to try my hand in it.  Thanks

Yeah, the preferred method is a PM to 'Mr. Ypsi'.

[Mr. Ypsi]

We're now at eight ballots, but have been frozen there for over 16 hours - any more coming?

[Mr. Ypsi]

Since there are two regular voters not yet heard from, I'll wait a bit longer and hope.

The poll WILL be up sometime this evening.

[Mr. Ypsi]

I had HOPEd the missing regulars would catch the POINT of my earlier post, but no dice!

POSTERS' POLL thru games of 2-22-09:

1.  St. Thomas     200 (unanimous)
2.  Wash U          183 (2,2,3,3,3,3,4,6)
3.  UPS                173 (2,2,3,4,4,4,7,9)
4.  UWP               170 (2,3,4,5,5,6,6,7)
t5. UWW              163 (3,4,5,5,6,6,8,8)
t5. Wheaton        163 (2,2,2,4,7,9,9,10)
7.  UWSP             161 (4,5,5,5,6,7,7,8)
8.  Ithaca             142 (3,5,8,8,9,9,10,14)
9.  Buena V          138 (6,6,7,8,9,10,12,12)
10 R. Stockton      132 (7,8,9,9,10,11,11,11)
11 Capital             115 (10,11,11,11,12,12,13,13)
12 Trinity TX         113 (8,12,12,12,12,13,13,13)
13 Elms                  97 (10,10,11,11,13,17,19,20)
14 Middlebury        91 (13,14,14,14,14,15,16,17)
15 JCU                   85 (10,14,15,15,15,15,18,21)
16 Elmhurst           84 (7,13,14,14,16,19,20,21)
17 RIC                   60 (16,16,17,18,18,19,21,23)
18 Guilford            57 (17,17,17,19,19,19,21,22)
t19 Centre            54 (16,16,16,17,18,21,24,-)
t19 UMD                54 (15,15,18,18,19,20,24,25)
21 Randy Mac        33 (17,19,22,22,22,23,24,-)
22 Augie                32 (18,18,20,21,24,24,25,-)
23 Amherst            31 (15,19,21,23,23,25,25,25)
24 TX Dallas           19 (16,21,24,24,----)
25 F & M                 16 (20,22,22,25,25,---)

26 WPI                   12 (22,23,23,24)
27 CMU                   10 (20,22)
28 Whitworth           9 (20,23)
29 St. Lawrence       3 (23)
30 Chapman            1

[sac]

Sorry Mr Y I was actually working on it but had to make a meds run before my head exploded.  In due time.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I was the one who didn't have Centre on the list.  I accept that might have been a bad decision.  I certainly have them in the top 30.

[Ralph Turner]

I was the one who didn't have Centre on the list.  I accept that might have been a bad decision.  I certainly have them in the top 30.

Centre, Randy Mac, Augie, UT-Dallas and F&M seem to be "bubble" teams.

I drank the UAA Kool-aid and gave CMU a place on my ballot instead of UT-Dallas.  However, that vote would not have pushed UT-Dallas out of 24th.

There is just too much parity beyond the Top 10.  Trinity had its "ugly" road trip two weekend's ago.  That told me something.  There is not that much difference between #12 and #50.