MBB: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Greek Tragedy]

Sat 1/23/10 Games:

Previous game
UW-Eau Claire at UW-La Crosse
La Crosse won 69-64 in previous meeting 12/5; Mane and Stratton combined for 42 and Austin Scott chipped in with 15.  Probst went off for 26 and Marcus Ruh was the only other Blugold in double figures.

UW-Stevens Point at UW-Oshkosh
Stevens Point held on for a 73-67 win on 1/6.  Point had four players score 16 or more points and only one other player score at all (2 points from Krull).  Marsh led Oshkosh with 22, but had 8 of the Titans 13 TOs.  Schrimpf had 11 points in a foul-plagued game (5 fouls in 22 min.) and Wittwer chipped in with 14.

UW-Platteville at UW-Superior
Platteville won 75-63 on 12/5, but trailed by 6 at half time.  Hanson had 29 points while Shaw and Wall each had double-doubles with 14 & 12, and 18 & 12.  Aalfs, Smith and Hill combined for 53 points.  Neither played their benches much with 9 total players logging 35 minutes or more (and Nick Allen playing 31).

UW-River Falls at UW-Stout
Stout crushed River Falls 78-53.  Enerson-Matthews had 32.  Guerin was the lone birght spot for the Falcons with 23 & 7. 

[buf]

and no Jacob Schlub (what happened?)

I think that i heard on one of the pregame shows that he has back problems and is done playing.  I guess he is still doing pregame drills, etc, but won't be playing.

Again, just what I heard.

[John Gleich]

I picked other for the poll... Matt Moses tonight.  One of the top 3 shooting pure performances I have seen from a Pointer (along with Iserloth's first 40 point game and Rortvedt's 9/11 night in the conference tournament two years ago against Platteville).

There are certain nights when somebody is just on and there isn't anything the other team can do about it. 

Tonight was that night for Matt Moses... I'm not sure Oshkosh could have beaten Point tonight.

And Point was without the services of Louis Hurd and Vinny Ritchay, both at home with the flu, and the Tillema bro's are still out too.  Point just has so many weapons!

Really interesting night tonight (afternoon, really)...

Point 73 Oshkosh 54
Stout 85 River Falls 78

These were likely the "expected" results, based on how the first half of the year shook out...

Eau Claire 72 La Crosse 51   
Superior 78  Platteville 65

I suspected the last one... Superior has been playing really well and it isn't that Platteville hasn't... but they really haven't had too many performances that have really gotten my attention.

I'm really shocked with the EC/LaX result.  I'd love to hear a recap from that one.

EC did play with Point through pretty much the whole game until Point was able to get a few stops... but they (EC) seem to have a lot of weapons this year too.  LaX does as well, but if a team manages to shut down their two shooters... who do they have left?  I'm not too sure from a scoring standpoint.

More on Point/Oshkosh later, though pretty much the whole story was Moses, Moses, Moses (with Jenkins' defense on Marsh thrown in).

[bgbacker]

EC led 38-18 at the half ... maintained in the 2nd H ... dominated the backboards and did a VG job on "D." Prince made Mane work and Stratton was shut down completely. I don't mean to knock La Crosse, but they looked like the team with "bus legs" ... almost lethargic at times. EC is playing with a lot of intensity and gained some confidence with "W" over WW and good game against SP.

By the way, Old School, you heard right on Schlub. He has a bad back and will not play any more BB, but is still a spiritual leader on the club.

[chmarx]

bgbacker has it right.  Second straight disappointing home performance for the Eagles.

We didn't look like a top half WIAC team tonight.

[Greek Tragedy]

RECENT RESULTS

Sat 1/16/10
UW-Eau Claire 80, UW-Whitewater 67 @ Eau Claire   
UW-Oshkosh 87, UW-Stout 75  @ Oshkosh 
UW-Platteville 79, UW-River Falls 65  @ River Falls   
UW-Stevens Point 56, UW-Superior 53 @ Superior 

Wed 1/20/10
UW-La Crosse 61, UW-Oshkosh 55 @ Oshkosh 
UW-Stevens Point 74, UW-Eau Claire 68 @ Eau Claire   
UW-Stout 70, UW-Superior 66 @ Menomonie 
UW-Whitewater 73, UW-Platteville 63 @ Platteville 

Sat 1/23/10
UW-Eau Claire 72, UW-La Crosse 51  @ La Crosse   
UW-Stevens Point 73, UW-Oshkosh 54  @ Oshkosh 
UW-Stout 85, UW-River Falls 78  @ Menomonie 
UW-Superior 78, UW-Platteville 65  @ Superior

[Greek Tragedy]

Old School's Sporadic Unofficial In-Season Conference Power Rankings

1.  Stevens Point (17-1 overall, 8-1 conference, 3-0 since last rankings)
Nice road trip vs. a tough Superior team, an Eau Claire team that just had knocked off Whitewater and at arch-rival Oshkosh without their leading scorer, Louis Hurd

2.  Whitewater (15-2, 7-1, 1-1)
Shocked at Eau Claire before bouncing back against rival Platteville, also on the road.  The Warhawks' trip continues with a visit to Quandt on Wednesday.

3.  La Crosse (13-5, 5-4, 1-1)
Jekyll and Hyde at home and on the road for the Eagles.  They top a good playing Oshkosh at the time at Kolf but then get blown out at home to the Blugolds.

4.  Stout (9-8, 4-5, 2-1)
Blue Devils have been red hot with four conference wins in five games.  A hiccup at Kolf is followed by some good home cooking against an improved Superior team and River Falls.

5.  Eau Claire (11-6, 4-5, 2-1)
Huge home win against Whitewater and a tough loss to Point opens some eyes.  Routing the Eagles on the road has us looking.

6.  Superior (10-7, 4-5, 1-2)
Two losses by a combined seven points hurt.  The Yellowjackets take out their frustrations on a flat Pioneers' team.

7.  Platteville (10-8, 4-5, 1-2)
Good road win against River Falls is followed by whitewashings from the Warhawks and Yellowjackets. 

8.  River Falls (8-10, 2-7, 0-2)
Voeltz injury hurts big time with losses to Platteville at home and to Stout up in Menomonie. 

9.  Oshkosh (7-10, 2-7, 1-2)
Tops Stout surprisingly easy, but then home cooking goes sour with a loss to the Eagles.  The Titans forget to turn the oven on against Point with a blowout loss.

[Greek Tragedy]

A LOOK AHEAD TO NEXT WEEK

Wed 1/27/10 (previous meeting)
UW-Oshkosh @ UW-Eau Claire ( Osh 85, EC 57)   
UW-Stout @ UW-La Crosse (LC 78, ST 64)  
UW-River Falls  @ UW-Superior (SUP 83, RF 81 OT)   
UW-Whitewater @ UW-Stevens Point (WW 67, SP 60 OT)    

Sat 1/30/10
UW-Eau Claire  @ Finlandia (MI)  
UW-La Crosse  @ UW-Platteville (LC 84, PL 70)  
UW-Oshkosh @ UW-River Falls (RF 82, OSH 73)      
UW-Superior @ UW-Stevens Point (SP 56, SUP 53)   
UW-Stout @ UW-Whitewater (WW 62, ST 57)

[stoutguy]

Any of you prognosticators willing to change your mind about Stout this year?  Everyone (including me ) had Stout finishing dead last this year and maybe they still will, but for what it's worth, this team really impresses me right now.  

[Greek Tragedy]

Well, they didn't start the year off very good, record-wise, but if you look at their results, it may have been a little fool's gold. 

Their first 3 conference games were against, in my opinion, possibly the top 3 teams in the league to start the year...Stevens Point, Whitewater and La Crosse.  Add a double-digit loss to Eau Claire (where they were within 2 with 6 min. to play) and that puts the Blue Devils at 0-4.  Of course we thought it would be a long year!

Since then, they've beaten River Falls twice, Platteville and Superior.  They also had a blowout loss at Oshkosh.  The jury is still out because they still have to go to Whitewater and La Crosse, two teams they lost to AT HOME. 

I don't think they'll end up 9th because Oshkosh just isn't very good, even more so with Schrimpf out and I'm still puzzled about River Falls (0-4 at home?!).  It doesn't help that Voeltz has been out of the lineup.

[John Gleich]

Home win = +0
Road win = +1
Home loss = -1
Road loss = +0

Whitewater	+4	(3-0 at home, 4-1 on the road)
Stevens Point	+4	(4-0 at home, 4-1 on the road)
Platteville	+0	(3-1 at home, 1-4 on the road)
La Crosse	+0	(2-3 at home, 3-1 on the road)
Superior	-1	(3-2 at home, 1-3 on the road)
Eau Claire	-1	(3-2 at home, 1-3 on the road)
Stout	-1	(3-2 at home, 1-3 on the road)
River Falls	-2	(0-4 at home, 2-3 on the road)
Oshkosh	-3	(2-3 at home, 0-4 on the road)

This is pretty amazing, if you ask me.  If you weren't convinced that there was a separation between Point/WW and everybody else, this proves it.

[John Gleich]

KnightSlappy has compiled rankings by a contrived RPI (using a weighting of in-region winning percentage (WP), OWP, and OOWP...  .25(WP)+.50(OWP)+.25(OOWP)=RPI).  I'm not sure if we've got official word from the NCAA if this metric is used... but Point and Whitewater are 1 and 2, respectively in the country.  Their Strength of Schedules (2/3 x OWP + 1/3 x OOWP) are 3rd (WW) and 9th (SP) in the country, and when you factor in winning percentage against those schedules.  Point and Whitewater will get a minimum of 2 losses between themselves (one on Wed, one in the conference tournament to be "eligible" for Pool C contention), which will drop their WP a bit... but not enough to really affect things.  Unless Whitewater and Point lose upwards of 6 or 7 games, they're still in.

What I find interesting is that, even though La Crosse is tied for the second-worst record at home, if the season ended today, they also would likely get a Pool C bid.  There's more complexity to their chances, though...  First off, for them to get in, they need to win.  That seems obvious, but they've lost 3/4, and 2 of those have been at home.  The New Year certainly hasn't been kind to the Eagles.  Their 2 wins have been by a total of 10 points.

[John Gleich]

I don't know if it needs to be said or not... but the game tomorrow in Point is really big.  Which ever team wins is obviously going to have an advantage... but it's interesting how the rest of the schedule finishes up.

After 1/27...

Whitewater has 7 games left.  5 are at home (LaX, Superior, Platteville, Eau Claire, Stout), 2 are away (RF and Oshkosh)

Point has 6 games left.  3 are at home (Eau Claire, Superior, River Falls), 3 are on the road (Platteville, La Crosse, Stout)

I might be Captain Obvious on some of these statements, but...

If Point wins, they have 1 fewer game left to play... so the pressure is really on Whitewater.  WW would need to win an additional game and have somebody else beat Point to tie for the conference title.  Point's last two games are at Platteville and La Crosse, which makes for a tough end of the season, though Point handled both teams pretty easily at home.

If Whitewater wins, then then the pressure is really on Point.  They have just 6 more games, and half of them are on the road.  Whitewater has just 2 more away games, and though one is a long trip (River Falls), the Falcons haven't been playing as well as they did earlier in the year.  The other is a short trip up to Oshosh.  Both of those teams are at the bottom of the conference... so Point would have to hope someone could go into Mitchell and knock off the Warhawks.  La Crosse is the only team with a positive win % on the road, though WW had obvious troubles with Eau Claire, and they just squeaked by Stout too.

[John Gleich]

I think the season really breaks down into two sections after tomorrow for Point and Whitewater.

The first half is 1/30-2/6

1/30
WW hosts Stout
Point hosts Superior

2/3
WW hosts La Crosse
Point at Stout

2/6
WW at River Falls
Point bye

Point and WW will then be even in terms of the number of games they've played in conference (11). 

1/30 Both teams have to face their demons... facing teams that gave them quite a scare in the first round.  The friendly confines may make the difference.  Point's alumni night, so it should be a good crowd.

2/3 Both teams handled these foes in the first round.  They seem to be going in opposite directions though... Stout has won 5/6 and La Crosse has lose 2/4.  LaX currently has a better win percentage (3 wins to 1 loss) on the road than Stout (3 wins to 2 losses) at home, but perhaps more interesting is that La Crosse hosts Stout tomorrow.

Stout is just 1-3 on the road, but La Crosse is under .500 at home (2-3).  We'll see which team wants to lose less...?

2/6 Long trip for Whitewater, but RF is sliding... they've lost 4/5.  After traveling to Superior tomorrow, they've got 3 in a row at home, so that may help the Falcons.

[John Gleich]

The second part of the mini-season for Point and Whitewater is from 2/10-2/20.  Point has 2 at home, then 2 on the road.  WW has 2 at home, 1 on the road, and the finale at home.

2/10
Point hosts EC
WW hosts Plt

Rematch of a tough game for Point.  I don't think Platteville has played to their expectations... after a 2-0 start, they're 1-5 in their last 6 conference games.  They didn't let WW run away with the game last time, but they couldn't get much closer than about 10 in the second half.

2/13
Point hosts RF
WW hosts EC

Eau Claire is going to wonder who does the scheduling... they play Point and WW in back to back games in the first AND second half of the season.  This is the alumni game for WW and it could have some big implications for both teams in terms of seeding (or even making the conference tournament).  Point hosts RF... this one scares me a bit.  Point only led RF by 6 in the first game and though they won by 12 (just 2 points shy of their biggest lead), RF caused 17 turnovers for Point, their second highest total of the season.

2/17
Whitewater at Oshkosh
Point at Platteville

Oshkosh gave Whitewater all they could handle in Kachel gym and they've won 4 of the last 5 in the Kolf as well.  Point has won 18/25 against Platteville since 2000 but just 6/10 at Williams.

2/20
Point at La Crosse
Whitewater hosts Superior

It's really too hard to project this game.  LaX and Superior may be playing for their playoff lives, and I'm sure it's going to have conference championship implications (unless either Point or WW implodes over this final stretch, which I don't see happening).







If you were wondering, yes, this had all originally been one post... You guys went and did it again...  Except for OS's 4 posts (and 3 single posts from 3 different posters), there hasn't been much talk on the board and I had to write a novel again!