MBB: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Just Bill]

the last play could have been called both a foul and a travel and decided the game differently, or even in favor of the Titans.

Vikings!  He meant Vikings.  Don't kill him you Fox Valley people.

[John Gleich]

Titans, Vikings....  I get so confused, especially when T2K is around!  Speaking of... I wonder what he thought of tonight's game?

[chmarx]

La Crosse beat Viterbo tonight handily.  I saw all but about the last ten minutes, due to another commitment.

Werner and Ask looked good.  La Crosse was brutal on three pointers.  I felt that Brandon Brown was a little shaky at point.  And they seem to be searching for effective front line men to complement Werner.  One freshman got some significant minutes in the first half.

I understand that with the victory iced, Koebl cleared the bench.  Hopefully, he found some big guys who can play.

There was a nice ceremony before the game honoring Luke Homan.  His parents were presented with his jersey, framed.  They presented the school with checks from his memorial fund for $2000 for the basketball program and $1000 for the stadium building fund.

[Gregory Sager]

Titans, Vikings....  I get so confused, especially when T2K is around!  Speaking of... I wonder what he thought of tonight's game?

C'mon, PS ... that's like saying "Beetlejuice" three times! 

[Greek Tragedy]

Overall, Point played a pretty good game and really should've won by more than 3, though, at the end, they actually could've lost...if that makes any sense.

In the 2nd half, Point's shots stopped going in.  LU's shots off the rim were going in and Point's shots off the rim weren't.   Not an excuse, just how the ball bounces.  In all honesty, LU's comeback had more to do with that than LU "clamping down" on defense.  It got a little tougher, but it's not like Point's outside shooting went from hot to cold (like at Carroll), it just wasn't ever hot.  Points in the paint are helping them out.  Beamish looks like a stud this year if he can stay out of foul trouble, and mid range jumpers from Hicklin and an improved Drew Jackson, along with solid play from Matt Moses and El Amin, to name a couple of players, makes this team look solid.  Krull is the only post up presence, but we have plenty of players that can shoot from outside and from midrange.  I'm not too worried about not hitting 40% from 3...though Rortvedt will eventually get hot.

I give LU ccredit for being resilient (I know I spelled that wrong, or did I?).  They didn't give up and came up with some big offensive plays.  Like I said before, i don't think it was a matter of their defense, rather our offense.

Krull made a couple of huge mistakes down at the end of the game, so giving up a big lead can't be blamed entirely on youth.  He forked over the ball bringing it up court and then forced his way into an offensive foul on another occasion instead of being patient both times.

Defense will also help Point out.  Great perimeter defense by Moses and Shawn Lee really caused trouble for LU's guards.  So far, I've been very impressed with Point. 

the difference between LU and Carroll is that LU is a lot deeper and can bring more players in that can have an impact.  #15 for LU (forgot his name) was pretty good inside and he seemed to have his way with Beamish, though some of the fouls were questionable.

Looking forward to Friday night...the 3rd of the top 3 MWC teams.

Regarding the ranking...in order to move up to top 10 or even top 5, teams above you also have to lose to make room!

[Mr. Downtown]

I wouldn't be surprised to see Point ahead of WW in the polls...but I think the WIAC will have 4 teams in the top 25 (La Crosse and Oshkosh) in the next poll.

I've been watching this conference now for my 4th season, and I gotta say this is probably the strongest this conference has been the past 5 years.

[John Gleich]

OS,

I don't really think you can put too much of that on Krull... he was working REAL hard inside, and the guys on the perimeter were just standing around watching him for much of that second half.  Lawrence's defense was sagging 2 and 3 men down on the post, and it's really easy to defend when you're able to pinch down on the post AND remain in the passing lane because your man hasn't moved since entering into the post.  There was one possession where Krull tried to get the ball to Beamish when B's man doubled.  It ended up getting tipped away, but I think it would have gone right out of bounds b/c Beamish didn't cut to the basket.  It would have been wide open for an easy lay-up.  That's how Eric Maus made his career!

A couple other thoughts...  This Point team, like last years, takes care of the ball very well.  But if they are firing from the perimeter and not taking moving or making strikes toward the basket, the defense is going to contently allow them to throw it up from 20 feet and collect the rebound.  Now, if Point starts hitting, then the opponent is in trouble... but they really haven't shot well for an entire game to start the year off so far.

I'm going to be interested to see how Point comes out on Friday.  It'll be the home opener, against, seemingly, a bit lesser of an opponent (under the assumption that a ranked opponent is a better opponent).  Point has really come out of the gates fast in the first two games, I want to see how they do in the friendly confines of Quandt.

[John Gleich]

Mr. DT,

I'd agree, the league looks pretty tough.  It seems like last year the league was a bit down because all of the teams were pretty young.  The most veteran team, Whitewater, ended up making a run at the end of the year and sealing the conference championship.  They also represented the conference the best in the NCAA's as well.

This year, it seems like all of the teams are coming into their own, not reloading.  Most of the players we were talking about last year are now seniors, and senior-laden teams (or a senior-laden conference) tend to be more competitive, more clutch.  I think this should be a pretty exciting year!

Other seasons, the conference has seemed more top heavy, but this year even the lower tier teams seem to be competing well too!  Any team can always beat any other team, but it seems like this could occur with regularity this year.

[Greek Tragedy]

PS,

I only thought Krull was responsible for those two bonehead plays...dribbling up the court real fast and trying to take the guy one on one (instead of just passing it off and setting up the offense) and the baseline rampage that even I could see coming as an offensive foul.  I wasn't trying to put the whole blown lead as Krull's fault...but, both Swampgoon and I thought those were two glaring boo boos.  No big deal, I'm going to go through the whole game and single out every bad play, but those two stood out. 

I think it's too early to get all excited about the WIAC and the teams.  I'd like to see how they look after the Christmas break, a couple more nonconference games and a couple of conference games in there.  Whitewater looked horrible in the game I saw, but obviously played an outstanding 1st half against IWU, which looked pretty good.

Did I miss a BadgerWarhawk post on the UWW/IWU game?

Ripon, I think, was like Oshkosh last year.  They had some high expectations, but fell flat on their face.  They blew a 20-point halftime lead vs. Buena Vista and lost in overtime.  They have three very good players in forwards Bo Johnson, Brian Schmitting and lightning quick guard David McMullen.  The fowards are real good, so Beamish and Co. will have their hands full again.  It should be another great game.

[I Can Sell It]

PS:

Ripon's team was so selfish in 2005/2006 that Coach Gillespie petitioned the MWC to allow their games to be played with 2 balls at a time so there were enough shots for all his players. 

Bo Johnson does look a little lile George Gervin, come to think of it. 

[badgerwarhawk]

No, you didn't miss it OS.  I didn't post it.  Others had made comments so I just let it slide.

Most have put the loss on Gio's shoulders which is a tad unfair imo.  True, he did miss the free throws but it should never have gotten to that point.  We played such good defense in the first half and had we maintained that intensity for 40 minutes instead of 25 we would have been fine.  Also if the bench had played like they had the night before we would have been fine.  Plus we shot poorly in both halves.  It wasn't such an issue in the first half because we were playing defense but in the second half when we lost that intensity it was. 

Lastly you have to give the lion's share of credit to an IWU team that never quit playing and finally in the second half the shots started dropping for them.  They were 7 of 10 on three-pointers and just didn't miss many shots otherwise.   

On a positive note Mike Toellner played very well on both ends.  He scored a career high 25 (I think it's a career high anyway) and defensively shut down Zach Freeman.  Freeman is a legit national POY candidate so that was no small accomplishment.   IWU may have lost a lot of players but they have a very good team.  It was the best game I've seen Mike play.

It's early in the season so I don't think the loss will ruin the season.  In a way perhaps it's for the best.  As I mentioned to you all that #4 talk is simply nonsense. 

[Greek Tragedy]

Whitewater struggles through another win tonight in Fond du Lac.  I was able to drive the 40 minutes to see Marian more than hold their own against the Warhawks.  Whitewater held a slim 35-34 lead at the break and never took control of the game like I thought they would.  I'm not sure if Whitewater has a hard time getting up for games against so-called lesser opponents, but Marian was not afraid of them.

Once again, defense, or lack thereof, hurt Whitewater.  They had a hard time rotating and helping out on defense and didn't communicate well on offense.  There were plenty of times when Marian would come and double from behind and no Whitewater player told the ball handler and would be stripped of the ball.

Rob Perry was a force and I'm not sure why he doesn't start.  I noticed that Craig Anderson barely made it off the bench after starting, so I think Perry will see the majority of those minutes.  Gio Riley came through with some clutch shots and defense.  Freund looked lackluster as did all of the big men on Whitewater, seemingly always getting outrebounded and outhustled.

Whitewater boxscore

[John Gleich]

Goodness... WW shoots 37 free throws and only wins the game by 4.  19 TO's.  ZERO made 3's (only 0-5, but still...)

WW gives up 16 offensive rebounds and takes 17 less shots than Marian.  With all of this going against them, it's amazing that WW still came up with the W.  This definately isn't the 4th best team in the country at this point from the looks of it!  That's not to say that they won't "pull it together" but this team looks like it's got quite a bit of room to grow.  I know Coach Miller will have them playing well when it matters the most, but that's two years in a row that the team in the WIACE slated as one of the potentially best in the country seems to be struggling from the outset.

[TitleTown2]

Wondering what the news is out of good ole' Platteville these days? Charlie Lohoff and Mike Jamerson lead the way this past weekend and unlike in years past, Jeff Skemp started slow (You may remember his 16 point performance against the Badgers as a freshman and his 14 he chipped in against UWM last year). Does this team have what it takes to contend in the WIAC this year? Here they used solid contributions from a number of freshman, 2 in particular, Michael Shaw (Edgewood HS) and Curt Hanson (Deerfield, IL). I guess the lure of Platteville Orange and Blue outweighed the Pioneer motto (UWP where the men are men and so are the women). Also back for the Pioneers is Mark Gossens for his 5th year of eligibility. I look for him to have another solid year.
It will be interesting to see if the Pioneers have the talent and chemistry to get back to the top of the WIAC and nation. With a solid foundation set, and two solid recruiting classes chipping in, this could be the year.
Oh and WW lost to IWU...an IWU team with 4 new starters...yes old news, I know, but for now I'll just chalk it up to me being new to the posting community.
If any Pioneer fans have anything new, I'd love to hear it. Won't be able to get to any games, but it's always fun staying up on Pioneer and WIAC hoops!

[Greek Tragedy]

Oh and WW lost to IWU...an IWU team with 4 new starters...yes old news, I know, but for now I'll just chalk it up to me being new to the posting community.

When the "old" starter is Zach Freeman, it doesn't matter who the other four are.  OK, that's not entirely true, but IWU hardly rebuilds.  They have a very solid team even with the losses of Keelan, Dauksas and the other twins not named Freeman. 

As for Whitewater, they just don't seem to care much.  They just looked lazy out there and with the size they have, they shouldn't be out rebounded by Marian.  I give Marian a lot of credit though...they have some good players that play hard.  Rob Perry seems to be the difference maker for Whitewater, I have no idea why he doesn't start...a spark plug off the bench, I guess.

DON'T FORGET THE CONFERENCE KICKS OFF WEDNESDAY, GET YOUR PICKS IN!