MBB: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Pioneer Hoops Fan]

Well it was an ugly game tonight in Platteville.  Pioneers couldn't take care of the ball.  Big story down here though, was Coach Koebel getting the boot with just under 40 seconds left in the game.  The game wasn't officiated very consistently at all.  Calls they make on one instance, they wouldn't call again.  La Crosse was begging all night for Jeff to get a 3 second call, and were begging for a good reason.  The officials called it twice I think, and could've gotten him a lot more.  Coach Koebel deserved the first technical, as he called the timeout, basically to jump the officials, but I don't know what he did to get the second one.

Anywho, Jeff played well for the most part.  He still needs to able make better decisions with the ball.  Any La Crosse fans at the game tonight?  Interested in hearing your thoughts.

[phoenix_rising]

wish I had something to say to that but ....

Well, you know, when I'm right, I'm right.

Big sweep for Superior tonight; even the women won. must be some kind of harmonic cosmic convergence.

Also looks like Stout caught fire. Hope it's doused by 2/13 or I'll be raspberrying myself.

[John Gleich]

Hmm... do we have to start talking about a 5 team race...?  Eau Claire is starting to make things interesting...

Whitewater   5-1     W vs. Point,  L vs. Osh, W vs. EC
Oshkosh        5-2     W vs. Point, W vs. WW, L vs Platte, L vs. EC
Platteville       5-2     W vs. Osh, L vs. Point, L vs. EC
Stevens Pt     4-2     W vs. Platte, L vs. Osh, L vs. WW
Eau Claire      3-3     W vs. Platte, W vs. Osh, L vs. LaX, L vs. WW, L vs. Sup

... basically all this shows is that there are a TON of games left... and that there are legitimately 6 teams (possibly 7 if La Crosse gets hot and starts knocking off teams).

[Greek Tragedy]

Eau Claire 57, Oshkosh 54

Platteville 74, La Crosse 65 (boxscore link)

Stevens Point 83, Stout 77 (boxscore link)

Superior 76, River Falls 74

[fredfalcon]

Stats were close, but F.T's and threes favored Jackets enuf to give them a two point win. There is no better, or even equal, corps of youngsters in the league than Superior's. First year players Culy, Smith, and Manor plus the sophomore Hill all were in double figures, Hill with 25. They play with the poise of upper classmen. Culy hit the buzzer beating 12 footer as the game ended. I was impressed.

Robertson w/21, Reese w/13, Davis w/11 led RF. I would say at this point it's RF and Stout fighting to avoid last place.

[bgbacker]

EC held serve with a home W tonight. Key, IMHO, was the "D" on Miller... hit a pair of threes and a bucket in a three-minute span early in 2nd H ... otherwise shut down by a switching defense. If Jordan Johnson could shoot from outside, it wouldn't work...but he didn't look like he wanted any part of those wide-open looks. He is, however, the best 6-5 rebounder in captivity.

Seckar-hyphen-Anderson was a load in the 1st H...quieter in the 2nd. The most impressive thing about the W for EC was that they did it, essentially w/o Beyer due to foul trouble. Shea looks like a freshman at times...but like a senior at other times.

Dan Mullen and Rashann Goodwin and Colin Boone were solid off the bench, which does seem to be TVD's weak spot.

[magicman]

I think PointSpecial said all those things about Oshkosh (and they don't get bit by anybody else along the way) then they've got the conference title locked down), just to jinx them.
   Good job it worked!!

[Greek Tragedy]

No mention of Probst, bgbacker?  Ouch.  He played 40 minutes, scored 13 points and pulled down 8 boards.  Pretty impressive game by the guy always overshadowed by Beyer and Co.  And yeah, he's on my fantasy team! lol

Point's game at Stout kind of reminded me of the Oshkosh game with them hitting everything.  50% from 3, and some long range, defended shots, 62% in the 2nd half and just some good shots by Stout.  Obviously Webb was unstoppable and no one could guard him.

Luckily for Point, they also shot well in the 2nd half and had a nice 5 minute spurt that gave them enough room to pull out the win at the end.  R2 or Ross Rortvedt had ice in his veins hitting all 10 FTs, Hurd solid in just 11 minutes and Matt Moses playing very well.  Jared Jenkins comes off the bench in a surprise move, doing well.

Point's bench seems to be getting stronger with Moses getting 25 minutes (even though El-Amin didn't commit a foul in 21 minutes), Ross Rortvedt chipping in with a very solid 21 minutes and Hurd was productive in just 11 minutes, probably due to his 3 fouls. 

[chmarx]

Well it was an ugly game tonight in Platteville.  Pioneers couldn't take care of the ball.  Big story down here though, was Coach Koebel getting the boot with just under 40 seconds left in the game.  The game wasn't officiated very consistently at all.  Calls they make on one instance, they wouldn't call again.  La Crosse was begging all night for Jeff to get a 3 second call, and were begging for a good reason.  The officials called it twice I think, and could've gotten him a lot more.  Coach Koebel deserved the first technical, as he called the timeout, basically to jump the officials, but I don't know what he did to get the second one.

Anywho, Jeff played well for the most part.  He still needs to able make better decisions with the ball.  Any La Crosse fans at the game tonight?  Interested in hearing your thoughts.

Gracious of you to acknowledge inconsistency by the officials.  I'd give you karma, but I've already spent mine for today.

Brian and I were out to dinner with another friend.  Brian brought a radio and we checked the game occasionally.  I didn't expect La Crosse to win, but when we stayed with Platteville, we had our hopes up.

Neither of us remembers Koebl being kicked out of a game previously.

[Mr. Downtown]

Again, it was another pleasant trip to Zorn.

Why did Oshkosh lose to Eau Claire last night?

Ryan Shea. Genius move by Coach Gibbons to stick him on Matt Miller.

There is one thing that I'm going to throw out there concerning this Oshkosh team. At the beginning of the season, it was said that Oshkosh had 5 shooters on the floor. I'm starting to see a trend in which that's not the case anymore, and the Titans are back to their old way's only having 3 scorers. That's not going to cut it if they want to be in this race for the second half of the season.

[Mr. Downtown]

Conference Tournament (if the season ended today)

1  Whitewater    5-1
8  River Falls       1-5

4  Stevens Point   4-2
5  Superior          3-3

3  Oshkosh          5-2
6  Eau Claire        3-3

2  Platteville        5-2
7  La Crosse         2-4

Left out: Stout 0-6

Last night, I coined the phrase "Make or Break" Wednesday for the WIAC in the broadcast, cause it really was the last chance for Superior and Eau Claire to stay in the race.

I think Saturday is going to be "Contender or Pretender" with an Eau Claire team who does not play well on the road going to River Falls, and right now a preview of the 4/5 match up with Stevens Point and Superior (Did anybody ever think that a Point vs Superior would have so much on the line?).

Platteville has the bye, so Oshkosh for a weekend could jump back to the #2 spot (or, #1 if Stout pulls off the miracle. For the Blue Devils, they are not upsets anymore, instead, miracles). That is until the Titans have their bye on Wednesday.

If you are a Warhawk fan, you have to be happy with the position your team is going into the midway point of the season.

[badgerwarhawk]

The win in Zorn on Saturday just got a little better looking.   I'd rather be in first place than last place but there is a long way to go and way too many things can happen yet.   I'll be surprised if the conference champ doesn't have 3-4 losses.   

[phoenix_rising]

Did anybody ever think that a Point vs Superior would have so much on the line?

I doubt if anyone seriously believes Superior at Point will pull off a win. This is another one of those games you simply hope the team is competitive. We didn't manage that after the first ten minutes against Oshkosh at home, so I'm not real optimistic for Saturday. In this case (as in Oshkosh), I think it's a matter of too many weapons for a very young team to be able to fend off. Having said that, I love the enthusiasm and the maturity Superior is already showing. I think the players genuinely like each other; even the bench seems to get involved in keeping heads in the game. That could very easily have been quite different if older players had been soured by such extensive use of younger players. It may be that Buchanan layed it on the line early about what he planned to do, and players either bought into it or left.

If I were looking at coach of the year honors, and of course I'm blindly biased, I'd be looking at Buchanan as a front runner. It's clear that he had a vision and recruited a specific team, that he has prepared the team to take advantage of the players' talents, that he has been able to coach during the game by bringing them into games it looked like they were out of. Sadly, he might not have enough wins this year.

And Dwight Hill is still my hero.

[buf]

Why did Oshkosh lose to Eau Claire last night?

Ryan Shea. Genius move by Coach Gibbons to stick him on Matt Miller.

There is one thing that I'm going to throw out there concerning this Oshkosh team. At the beginning of the season, it was said that Oshkosh had 5 shooters on the floor. I'm starting to see a trend in which that's not the case anymore, and the Titans are back to their old way's only having 3 scorers. That's not going to cut it if they want to be in this race for the second half of the season.

That was a good move by EC to stick Shea on Miller.  I thought that they would probably do this.  Shea is 6'3" with long arms, which would make it way more difficult for the much shorter Miller to shoot over than Ryan.  And Ryan didn't have to guard a taller player so the switch was available.  It was a big part in the EC victory.  Some costly turnovers underneath the hoop also did not help UWO try to pull off the victory.


-Downtown

I'm seeing the same thing you are.  For years now UWO has had the "3 scorers" thing.  Must be TVD's thing.  Also, like bgbacker said, if Johnson could shoot from the outside he would have had a bunch of points.  No one was near him the whole night when he had the ball near the 3-point arc.  However, the guy is scrappy underneath the hoop.

[buf]

The most impressive thing about the W for EC was that they did it, essentially w/o Beyer due to foul trouble.

I was surprised that EC did that well without him.  I thought they would be doomed when he picked up his 2nd foul.  The other players certainly picked it up.