MBB: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[UWPSUPERFAN77]

Thank you again for the - karma, easy to be anoynmous. God Bless!

[stoutguy]

Thank you again for the - karma, easy to be anoynmous. God Bless!

I used to teach school.  It always bothered me when kids in my class got picked on.  But when the kid getting picked on reacted too much, the picking got worse.  Does Karma really matter?
Just a thought.  No need to react.

[badgerwarhawk]

The WARHAWKS are showing some signs of life.  I hope they make me, of little faith, eat my words.   Keep it going HAWKS.

Can negative karma keep you out of heaven? 

[Pioneer Hoops Fan]

Any body have Kori Vernon on their fantasy team?  Nice line 9pts., 10bds., and 5asts.  Congrats to the victors!  Game wasn't as close as 15 either.  Shaw and Hanson hit threes in last minute against the Warhawk 12th man crew.

Pioneers couldn't match the energy of the Warhawks last night when it mattered most.  I for sure would've liked to see a little more "fire" from those Pioneer eyes last night, but they'll learn....hopefully.

Congrats to the Eagles also!  Nice win.  Any guesses on what time the TVD hater train is going to roll in?  Hopefully they can be gracious enough to give credit where credit is due.

[badgerwarhawk]

My guess is as soon as the bluegill stop hitting on Lake Winnebago. 

[Mr. Downtown]

Any guesses on what time the TVD hater train is going to roll in?

I don't know when T2K will come around...


However, last night's loss for Oshkosh was more on the shoulders of the players. I think Oshkosh was prepared and had a good game plan (attacking Werner and Wilcox down low, get the post players into foul trouble), however, they did not execute and pretty much let the Eagles do whatever they wanted to in the second half.

We heard a lot of yelling down the hallway from the locker rooms. Trust me, TVD made sure his players understood they let this one slip away.

[Greek Tragedy]

Another great team win by Point last night.  I'll keep it brief since it's the same o, same o, when it comes to what Point did right.

Any questions about attitude or lack of confidence went right out the window as Point hit 11 in a row, after missing their first shot.

Story Here

Kalifa El-Amin dished out 11 dimes and Hicklin was on fire to start, I think hitting his first 3 long-range bombs. 

Slight injury to Beamish midway through the first half, but it looks like things should be OK with him.

Rortvedt continues to show he's just not a 3-pt shooter, going to the hole a lot and getting a lot of his looks off cuts into the lanes.  He also lead the team with 6 rebounds.

Point had no one to guard Beyer (27 pts and 10 rebs), but when the rest of the team is held more than in check, that's ok. 

Great win for Point AND for La Crosse...huge game on Saturday!  Maybe I'll watch it on TV if it's available since Mr. Downtown thinks it's better to do that than pay $7 for a ticket and drive 3 hours! lol    Just kidding dude, I'm in a good mood for obvious reasons!

[OshDude]

I don't have a vote, but Werner is the player of the year based on what he did against Oshkosh last night. He and Ask were amazing in the second half.
You can say the POY shouldn't pick up two fouls in the first four minutes and sit the last 16 of the first half when you're season could be on the line like Werner did. But he simply dominated after the break, freeing up Ask to hit his big shots.
On the defensive end, Werner held Gibson in check (for the most part) in the second half, and Ask owned Capelle all night.
I was very, very impressed with the Eagles, who played with much more energy than the Titans. LC picked apart the OSH zone to perfection near the end. It doesn't get any more textbook than how they beat it, with Kegler hitting from mid-range, Werner sealing the inside and Ask bombing away.
LC poses the toughest matchup for Oshkosh should they meet in the WIAC tournament, but that's nothing new.
Oshkosh has a thin margin for error from here on out. For a Pool C bid, I think they can get away with one more regular season loss as long as they reach the semifinals in the tourney, which would put them at 20 wins. Easier said than done with its remaining regular season schedule (@EC, @WW, @PV), and WIAC tourney games are never gimmes.

[Greek Tragedy]

Oshdude and others at the game,

If Joe Werner actually did get two fouls in the first four minutes of that game and then sat out virtually the rest of the half, did Oshkosh take advantage of that and throw it into Gibson ALL THE TIME?  Did Oshkosh play that zone in the first half to get the ball out of Gibson's hand?  It sounds like they did the complete opposite from what they did at the Point game.  At the Point game, and I pointed this out that this should be done in all games, they threw it into Gibson until Point could show they could stop it.  He had 13 shots and got to the foul line 7 times and also had three assists.

With Werner on the bench, if I were TVD, I would've thrown it into Gibson every time down the floor.  And with Werner on the bench with TWO fouls in the first half, how come he only ended up WITH TWO fouls for the game?  I'm not one to blame coaching, and I'm not one of those TVD haters...but seems to me that was a coaching error.

Werner is out basically the whole first half and you only have a 5 point lead?  Two fouls on Werner and Gibson only gets 10 looks at the basket and doesn't even get to the free throw line?  I know I'm talking about Werner and Gibson here a lot, but that seems to be the key match up. 

Werner is a stud and I believe, based on the whole year, and especially the last couple of games, he deserves POTY and I think he'll get it. 

A part of me wished that Point had played IN River Falls or Stout on Wednesday because I would've been in Oshkosh in a heartbeat for the La Crosse game. 

It's not wins that matter.  In fact, Oshkosh is, indeed, on thin ice.  It's in-region winning % that matters, among other criteria.  In the NCAA's eyes, THREE wins don't even count; Mount Mercy, Cardinal Stritch (both non-D3 schools) and Tri-State (out of region).  The NCAA is really looking at Oshkosh at 14-4 right now, not 17-4.  Say they end up 3-1 to end the season and 1-1 in the WIAC tourney, that'd put them at 18-6.  La Crosse got in at 18-7 last year.  Other factors go into Pool C bids, so it's not like records are the end of the world.  Quality of Wins Index is also a primary factor.  As is regional ranking....wins against regionally ranked opponents etc.

[John Gleich]

I was wondering where all of La Crosse's points game from equally as much as I was wondering why Oshkosh didn't get more...

La Crosse had 22 at the half, and Ask and Werner combined for just 7 in the first half.  That means that 15 points had to come from somewhere...  which is possible, but if the two main weapons were pretty much shut down, and especially because Fehrenbach (one of my fantasy leage guys...) didn't appear to get a ton of great looks from the basket for the game. 

Looking at the running box, it looks like La Crosse spread it around... Brown got a few buckets in there, but it seemed pretty spread around for the rest of the first half points... and then it really DOES get back to OS's original question... how did La Crosse keep Oshkosh to just 27, especially with Werner on the pine?

... well, Gibson did make 5 of his 8 shots in the first half, so there's part of it...  it looks like they DID get it in to him... at least a bit.  He was 5/7 from the floor.  But why didn't he have more attempts?  Perhaps La Crosse found another way to either keep the ball out of his hands, or to GET the ball out of his hands...  His attempts (7) were 1/4 of the team's total for the first half.  But his attempts were just 19% of his team's totals, whereas in last Wednesday's Oshkosh win against Point, Gibson shot 28% of his team's shots for the game (and these totals don't have attempts that were negated by fouls, though, ironically, and this could be key, he shot NONE against La Crosse...).  So, Werner CLEARLY had an impact on Gibson's effectiveness for the game in the second half.  Ya know, I was wondering why Werner only played 24 mins... must have played the first four, and the last 20... and Gibson was out there for 38.

Now, lost in all of this, though is the guard play of Oshkosh.  It was this guard play, especially by DJ Marsh that drew the focus, if only momentarily, away from Gibson, and also gave Capelle open looks against Point.  Marsh wasn't as effective against La Crosse.

Against Point:
7/9 3/3 8 rebs 1 assist 2 TO's

Against LaX:
3/7 0/1 2 rebs 1 assist 4 TO's


... But let's get right down to it.  La Crosse swept Oshkosh.  That puts LaX in the 2 seed if both teams win out, but also gives Oshkosh an outside chance at a piece of the conference title with an additional Point loss (in addition to the implied Saturday loss with LaX winning out).  Does Oshkosh "root" for La Crosse and the possibility of Point losing a third time in the final few games, or for Point, to put the ball back in their own court and set up what would be (barring first round upsets) a third game against La Crosse IN Oshkosh again?


If Point wins Saturday, then I think it's safe to say they've sealed up the #1 seed and another conference championship.  With 4 to play, they'd be up a game and a half (and two in the loss column).

[David Collinge]

With Werner on the bench, if I were TVD, I would've thrown it into Gibson every time down the floor.  And with Werner on the bench with TWO fouls in the first half, how come he only ended up WITH TWO fouls for the game?  I'm not one to blame coaching, and I'm not one of those TVD haters...but seems to me that was a coaching error.

I see a lot of D3 basketball here in Ohio, ranging in quality from Wooster and Wittenberg to Denison and Oberlin, and this is one of my biggest frustrations:  nobody seems to be willing or able to take advantage of the guy who is in foul trouble.  Especially when it's a stud center.  I'm with you; if their post if on the bench, I go inside at least to set up the kick-out.  And when he comes back and plays with those fouls, I'm challenging him on every possession.  But I just never see that actually happen, and I don't know why.

[Pat Coleman]

Though, half of the money will go back to UW-Oshkosh to help improve the stream quality. We are still looking for some sponsers in the Oshkosh area interested in making the games free to viewers.

Give me some viewership numbers and a price and we might be interested.

[Pioneer Hoops Fan]

Calm day on the WIAC front today huh? 

With Werner on the bench, if I were TVD, I would've thrown it into Gibson every time down the floor.  And with Werner on the bench with TWO fouls in the first half, how come he only ended up WITH TWO fouls for the game?  I'm not one to blame coaching, and I'm not one of those TVD haters...but seems to me that was a coaching error.

I see a lot of D3 basketball here in Ohio, ranging in quality from Wooster and Wittenberg to Denison and Oberlin, and this is one of my biggest frustrations:  nobody seems to be willing or able to take advantage of the guy who is in foul trouble.  Especially when it's a stud center.  I'm with you; if their post if on the bench, I go inside at least to set up the kick-out.  And when he comes back and plays with those fouls, I'm challenging him on every possession.  But I just never see that actually happen, and I don't know why.

Based on earlier posts I dont think this is the case, but maybe Werner switched guys in the second half.  Maybe it was a coaching error by TVD, or lack of aggresiveness by Gibson's part of not attacking Werner.  Maybe Werner had 16 minutes to sit and watch what and how the Titans were moving, and in the second half made adjustments not to get out of position.  Who knows?  I don't.  I do agree with you though that teams more these days do not take advantage of this when they should.  Part of that is from the guy in the suit and tie, and part from the guys in the jerseys on the floor.  I'm a big believer in that the players have to be held accountable for some things as well.  Most of these guys were the best player on their respective high school teams and are playing at the next level not only on their ability but also their intelligence.  Probably more the intelligence since at the D3 level they are STUDENT-athletes.

It's a lost art, much like the mid range jumper.

[Greek Tragedy]

It's a lost art, much like the mid range jumper.

I always complimented Steve Hicklin's ability to usually hit that...and Rortvedt has really improved on that too.

SLOW DAY ON THE WIAC BOARD, SO I STOLE THIS IDEA FROM THE MWC BOARD...

If you were a coach, putting an all-star roster together, pick 10 players you'd have on it...of course, not necessarily the 10 BEST players.  Starting five and 5 reserves!  Let's get this board running a little over the weekend! lol    Oh yeah, put a little "note" behind your reasoning (for example, for each player).

[Greek Tragedy]

This was a lot harder than I thought!

C-Kerry Gibson (tons of blocks, decent passer)
SF-Jim Capelle (inside and out)
PF-Joe Werner (rebounder and wide guy in the middle!)
SG-Pete Rortvedt (3-pt. shooting isn't his only game now)
PG-Kalifa El-Amin (true point guard, assist to turnover ratio is amazing)

Four different guys can hit from 3.  Solid passing all around, good rebounding and four are capable of bringing the ball up the court.

Coming off the bench:

Jon Krull (rebounding, scoring, 3-pt shooting)
Nate Robertson (quick like another former Falcon)
Charlie Lohoff (another guard)
Jerrel Enerson-Matthews (for scoring)
Bryan Beamish (jack of all trades)

Just missing the cut:

Jacob Nonemacher (one 7-footer was enough)
Dan Beyer (too many good big men)
Gio Riley (too similar to El-Amin)
Leonard Cobb (see Beyer)
Steve Hicklin (tough to leave off with his 3-pt ability and, more importantly, that midrange jumper!)

I know it's a total homer list, but what do you expect?! lol