MBB: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Greek Tragedy]

Pretty slow posting day considering there are games tonight!  What the heck?    Anyway, I was reading some stats on the Pointer preview and, though they are playing well, their defense is a shell of what they were last year.  I don't feel like looking it up again, but their opponents only managed 41% shooting from the field just 5 times (or something like that) all last year.  Four of five have managed over that already and opposing offenses are shooting at a 46% clip, or there abouts.  I think Point offsets that by getting to the free throw line and causing a lot of turnovers while only forking the ball over about 11 times a game. 

In the past, I believe, the knock on Whitewater was that they score a lot but couldn't stop anyone.  Should be an interesting game tonight.  It's the first game of the week, so look for freshman Rortveldt to do well and play a lot of minutes.  Waiting in the wings is fellow freshman Bryan Beamish. 

They upperclassmen are leading the way with Krull leading in points, Bauer scoring in double-figures every game (and already surpassed last year's point total, or real close to it) and Hicklin leading the league in assists/game.  He had seven turnovers in the first game but has cut that to two a game or so since then.  Not sure what happened to Matt Bouche, he started the first two games or so and now hardly sees any playing time.  Kevin Grusczynski has really improved, so that could be the reason.

Don't know much about Whitewater, but heading out of the friendly confines of Quandt will be interesting to the new boys. 

Any Point fans remember Kevan Bradley?  He's doing really well for Lawrence now.

[platteville1985]

I didnt think that gibbons up in EC was doing that bad, they have struggled this year and last but didnt they make it to the final 4 not to long ago.

Anyways cant wait for tonights game vs la crosse.  Growing up in tomah, la cross was always the favorite D3 team.  Plus a lot of local players and coaches on the team.  Should be interesting to see how much they improved.

[laxeagles1]

Anyways cant wait for tonights game vs la crosse.  Growing up in tomah, la cross was always the favorite D3 team.  Plus a lot of local players and coaches on the team.  Should be interesting to see how much they improved.

platteville, La Crosse will be fun to watch.  Also tell me with the speed and type of players that Lax has that they shouldn't be pressing more, if not the entire game.  Also watch for a Werner facial!

[John Gleich]

OS,

The youth of UWSP really can't be understated.  ESPECIALLY defensively, the new guys are at a decided disadvantage compared to the Pointer teams of the past and compared to more seasoned, experienced WIAC teams this year.  Learning how to play Pointer defense at COLLEGE gamespeed is really something that takes a while.  4 years ago, Point found themself in a very unique situation with Eric Maus.  Mausy was an outstanding position defender coming in as a Freshman, and he did nothing but get better thoughout his career.  With a team's inside threat at worst neutralized, at best simply shut down, teams had to rely on their perimeter shooting.  Now, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that short shots are easier to make than short ones (thus the low shooting percentage from years past).  Also not to be forgotten is how great a defender Tamaris Relerford was out front.  He really controlled the tempo of the opposing team's offense and he kept the other team's point guard from taking control of the game (this DID happen a few times... Reitzner at Platteville, at Whitewater when Manchester took control... and Point lost those games).  So, your inside threat is compromised and your point guard can't control the tempo.  Add to that UWSP's height from last year (Bennett, Kalsow, Bauer, Grusczynski, Krull) and you had big, long guys closing out to the opposition's shooters...  It was a great combination.

This year, they have a lot of new players.  Bauer and Krull are the only guys who have more than one year of playing experience.  Hicklin has last year's post-season, and practice... but that's about it.  Just take a look at the box scores from the first few games.  This team is still trying to figure out who can get the job done.

Honestly, though, I've been pretty impressed with their play.  They've had a few games they haven't played the greatest, that I think can be attributed to their youth (giving up 89 points to Ripon, losing to Lakeland... though I think Lakeland is going to turn out to be a pretty decent squad this year from what I've heard about them).  Other than that, they've held their opponents to 54, 61, and 51 points in the other games.  That's pretty darn good.

And this team will do nothing but get better, both as a team defensively, and as a cohesive offensive unit.

[Greek Tragedy]

You set the table, OS. All I did was toss a couple of extra pieces of silverware onto it. 

I always miss the salad fork.  I mean, seriously, why can't you use the same fork for the salad and the mashed potatoes? 

[buf]

Platteville 1985

Ever since 2001, the UWEC program has been going downhill.  I believe UWEC got to the Final Four in 2000, but alot of that had to do with Sherm Carstenson falling in Gibby's lap.

cubs

Relating to the poster from the other message board:  When Marilyn was at UWEC, the men were winning.  She left like 5 years ago, before the current slide of the men's team.  UWEC's SID was an intern AD for 3 years (no clue why it takes 3 years to hire a full time AD) or so before this new one was hired(Kilgallon). 

Gibby is full of excuses.  He has completely overused the "were young" excuse for the last few years.  He used this excuse even last year many times when Archy, Jefferson, Drake, Breidenbach, Birkel, Smith, etc. were all on the team.  Archy and Jefferson were four year starters.  Drake started the year before and played off the bench the year before that.  Birkel and Smith saw playing time their prevous 2 years in the program.  How is that being "young"? 

Now that fans are sick and tired of hearing the "we're young" excuse, he has started in with the "UWEC has higher academic standards than the other schools in the conferece" excuse.  C'mon!  I do think some schools are a LITTLE easier to get into, but the conference as a whole is about the same, I believe.  The reporter brought up the point that UWSP and Platteville have thrived with higher academic standards, so why can't UWEC.  The reporter states, "there has to be smart kids somewhere who can win baskeball games in the WIAC.  Certainly the Stevens Points and Plattevilles of the world haven't done it with half-wits."

cubs-

what other message boards(websites) about the WIAC do you go to?  I would like to check it out.

[uww4ever]

Can somebody put a muzzel on Mrs. VanderMuelen please?  She needs to shut up.

ww wins 70-64

Toellner big in the end for UWW with big free throws.  Game that UWSP should have won with 3 point shooting, but the last part of the half I don't believe that they made a single one.  Krull is a good player, but Mr. Anderson is better off the bench.

A lot of passing around the exterior for UWW.  No inside game with Freund out for personal reasons.  Melvin missed some bunnies in the beginning, but I think they will start to fall later on in the season.  Anderson 3 of 4 from three, not a lot of turnovers, big win for UWW early in the season.

UWW down 8 early, but come back to win over a young team!!!!!!! Now on to football and Superior.  Goooooooooo Hawks.

[buf]

EC beats RF by 1 in a game RF will want to soon forget.  RF was leading by 19 with 12min left.  They were up by about 16 with 8min to go when EC went on an 11-point run to cut the lead to five.  EC slowly chipped away to finally take the lead with 30sec left.  I think that RF only scored 2 points in the last 8min or so of the second half.

EC won this game by,

1. Outhustling RF.  Ec scored many of their last few baskets off of second chance opportuities(offensive rebounds)

2. RF losing its composure.  After EC made a couple 3-point baskets, RF started to panic.  They had some unforced turnovers and a few airballs.  I think EC only had 10 turnovers compared to RF's 21???

[John Gleich]

Per the scoreboard:

Stout 58 - Superior 37 Box Score (just 95 points scored...?  So much for Stout being a run and gun team)
Oshkosh 57- Norberts 52 Box Score St. Norbert shot just 31.7 percent from the field... And Oshkosh still only won by 5.  Wow)
Whitewater over Point 70-64  Box Score The only part of this game I was able to listen to was the end of the first half.  Point had an 8 pt lead, and Whitewater cut it to 1 at the half.  Just in the 3 minutes I listened to, Whitewater probably had 6 offensive rebounds (didn't make any of the inside shots, but kept getting the ball).  UWSP shot THIRTY 3 pointers, making 10.
EC over RF 57-56
La Crosse over Platte 79-68 (maybe a slightly different score... the live stats are stuck on 21 seconds on Platteville's site) Box Score

[buf]

Point Special-

I think the score was,

RF 56
EC 57

[Greek Tragedy]

Per the scoreboard:
EC over RF 57-56

Point Special-

I think the score was,

RF 56
EC 57

Unless my eyes are playing tricks on me, you two are saying the same thing.

Though a loss is always disappointing, from reading the Game Story, it makes it even more of a disappointment. 

It sounds like Point should've won this game, leading basically all game, holding a 28-20 lead before Whitewater cut it to one at the break.  They also had lead through most of the second half.  I almost would've rather had Point lose big!  Almost.  Anyway, Point sounded like they played well and the kids (Rortveldt, Grusczynski and Beamish) all had respectable nights.  That bolds well. 


One other thing:  477 fans?  Point vs. Whitewater???  Come on.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Yes, but notice that PS had an 11:05 edit.  I didn't see the original post, but I would guess that he had it backwards originally, then corrected it after buf posted.

And why in the hell am I getting in the middle of a WIAC squabble?!

[John Gleich]

My post originally said "EC over RF by 1, not sure of the actual score."  This was before ANY of the box scores were posted on the school's individual sites or before the LaX/Platt game was even finished (it was pretty much decided... LaX had a 12 pt lead with 4 minutes or so to go when I logged on to Platteville's site).

Like I said, the only part of the game I was able to listen to was the 3 minutes right before half, and little KG (to differentiate from his bro) hit a 3, bringing the lead to 8.  Then, Whitewater played catch off the backboard a few times (the box score says they got just one offensive rebound, but the radio guys made it seem like they got 5 O. boards and were just missing bunnies).

Point was 0/6 in the last 2:03, including 5 misses from deep (thanks to a bunch of offensive rebounds themself).  Speaking of 3's... I mentioned that they shot 30... they hit their last one with about 10 minutes to go in the game, and missed their last 7.  From that point in the game, Point lead by 4.  The box score says they missed 6 layups during that stretch as well.  Now, perhaps the box is just wrong, but if that's the case, then this game was DEFINATELY winnable by Point.  I mean, I think it's obvious that they could have won it... they were leading late and didn't make a basket in the last two minutes, but...

Oh well, welcome to the WIAC boys.  Ya don't have time to worry about the past.  UWSP travels to La Crosse on Saturday, taking on 2-1 La Crosse, fresh off their win at Platteville tonight.  Gotta get ready for the Eagles.

[abercrombie92]

Drove down to the RF vs. EC game tonight with a few old managers and what not! This will probably be the last time I roadtrip to a Falcon game that is for sure.

RF plays solid for the first 30 minutes of ball game. Hoeg is one of the best players in the conference. Ryan Tompson and Corey Rondeau played very well for the Falcons. Problem was we didnt play just 15 minute halves tonight.

EC hits 4 straight 3's, RF doesn't call a timeout to calm the team down and set up a decent offense position. RF did not get one good look in the last 5 minutes and EC did nothing different defensively the last 5 minutes. Very sad to see. You can blame it on just poor play by the Falcons, but also poor coaching. Have to give EC a little bit of credit, but that team is horrible. That is the worst WIAC team i have ever seen by far. RF high school could give EC a run, they do have a solid player in Jake Voeltz, but man unbelievable.

RF has to get some sort of contribution out of Mark James and Scott Kelley if they are going to be competitive in the WIAC. You have to find a backup for Thompson as well! Nick HAll came in for 3 possesions in the 2nd half and committed 3 turnovers and a lay-up for EC.

RF has to go with thompson at point, kossoris at 2, hoeg at 3, james at four and rondeau at 5. Kossoris is the 2nd best player on the team and only saw 5 minutes in 1st half, played alot the second and hit 3 threes.

Frustrating to watch, Bowen did have a nice kick of the chair though, made me laugh!

Havent posted in awhile, feels good to post, no not really!

[Greek Tragedy]

Oh well, welcome to the WIAC boys.  Ya don't have time to worry about the past.  UWSP travels to La Crosse on Saturday, taking on 3-0 La Crosse, fresh off their win at Platteville tonight.  Gotta get ready for the Eagles.

Actually, La Crosse is 2-1.  They lost their conference home opener to Whitewater.

Nice to see you back on the board Abby, disappointed you aren't playing the WIAC pick em league.