MBB: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[tomt4525]

The final segment........


questions from the audience....What was the mood after saturday?  Very difficult to lose, it's a very awkward feeling because they haven't lost much lately.  The guys bounced back and we never want to make excuses, no finger pointing...the practices after the loss have been very good and focused

Expand on the upset this early in the season?  Too early to tell with teams losing this early, 3 or 4 highly ranked teams lost this past saturday....after good teams get that first loss it is important for them to reel of some wins in a row...also, after a good team loses for the first time, it makes it that much more difficult to beat them as they see some weaknesses.

Whitewater has a lot of new personnel but will be just as difficult as any contest with Whitewater, it is gonna be a battle....two transfers for Whitewater are capable of going off for double double....Davis  and Byrd are gonna be a handful, Byrd was recruited by D1 schools...Whitewater isn't very deep so Semling wants to get them in foul trouble...they are very talented offensively but giving up points defensively....they always play Point tougher than there other opponents because they "get up" to play Point.

Two MIAC games before and after break will be huge in region games...Macalester and St. Thomas

Semling can't wait to get to wednesday, after a loss all you can think about is getting another chance to play.  Semling thanked Frank O'Brien and that was the end of the show.

Next show is on the 24th of January

[John Gleich]

Wonderful!  Thanks, almost better than listening myself!

[tomt4525]

No Problem PointSpecial...I am happy I saw your post or I wouldn't have listened to any of the show. 

What Semling stressed about the River Falls games I thought was right on the money.  I knew Point should have a huge advantage down in the post as River Falls really doesn't have any traditional posts that play significant minutes.  And, as I expected, Point tried to take advantage of it.  Hurd, Hoelzel and Dan Tillema all had quite a few deep post ups that ended with good looks but missed shots.  It was frustrating for me to watch because I have seen them play so much better.

Also, I made plans a long time ago to go watch this game and then go out afterwards with some friends of mine who happen to be RF grads...I had to deal with quite a bit of razzing from them along with many RF fans that made it out to the bars that night.  I can't wait for a little revenge at Quandt, not to mention the big rival coming to town Wednesday.

[East Beast]

Pointer radio show is on the air.  I'm going to miss the rest of it... can somebody else listen and let us know what Semling has to say?

He quelled the rumors that he was thinking about going back to junior high ball and said he thought the Pointers could go .500 this year if they tried hard.   

[John Gleich]

Pointer radio show is on the air.  I'm going to miss the rest of it... can somebody else listen and let us know what Semling has to say?

He quelled the rumors that he was thinking about going back to junior high ball and said he thought the Pointers could go .500 this year if they tried hard.   

Speaking of rumors...  I forgot to mention this on Saturday, but the Point radio guys said they asked Coach Sem about Jenkins and for at least the time being, they are going to play like he's not going to be a part of the team this year.  I think that they were supposed to get together and talk about it and eventually make an official statement, but that hasn't happened yet and they're not sure when it will, if it will at all.

I think that's how we've all sort of approached this year anyway without Jared... there's no point in wishing you had something that isn't going to be there.

No Problem PointSpecial...I am happy I saw your post or I wouldn't have listened to any of the show. 

What Semling stressed about the River Falls games I thought was right on the money.  I knew Point should have a huge advantage down in the post as River Falls really doesn't have any traditional posts that play significant minutes.  And, as I expected, Point tried to take advantage of it.  Hurd, Hoelzel and Dan Tillema all had quite a few deep post ups that ended with good looks but missed shots.  It was frustrating for me to watch because I have seen them play so much better.

Also, I made plans a long time ago to go watch this game and then go out afterwards with some friends of mine who happen to be RF grads...I had to deal with quite a bit of razzing from them along with many RF fans that made it out to the bars that night.  I can't wait for a little revenge at Quandt, not to mention the big rival coming to town Wednesday.

The reason that Point won the national championship last year is because they had great inside-outside balance.  Whether that came from the big guys finishing inside or from the perimeter players penetrating and finishing, they had great balance.

The value of Matt Moses from last year shouldn't be understated... he had the ability to score from all over the floor, including off the dribble. 

The same goes for Jared Jenkins.  His strength allowed him to do things that most guards aren't able to do on this level.


I think that this team is still trying to figure out how to play without those guys.  I mean, those two guys averaged 25 of Point's 74 last season.  If anything, the guys inside have to step up even more, and at least against River Falls, they didn't do so.  Point was outrebounding RF by 5 at the half... and they ended the game being outrebounded by 8.  This included 5 offensive rebounds... and the Falcons only missed 12 shots in the second half.  You're not going to win many games if you only rebound 57% of the misses of your opponents.  To contrast, RF rebounded 73% of SP's misses (and they missed 19 times).  Not a winning formula.


In the first 15 minutes of the program that you missed tomt4525, Coach Sem said they worked on their individual on-ball defense and their transition defense.  When you're not hitting your shots, like on Friday, you've gotta battle on the defensive end and make it tough for the opponent.  They did the opposite... RF shot 55% in the second half, getting lots of transition buckets and second chance points.  I'm not talking about true fast break... I'm talking about secondary breaks.  A team is only going to get a few true fast breaks when they're 1 or 2-0... it's much more common to have 1 on 1, 3 on 2, 2 on 2, etc... before everybody is down the floor and before everything is set.  Point's defense is predicated on TEAM defense, as I've said before, so when the team defense isn't set, it puts that much more pressure on the individuals.

The rebounding disparity happened because Point went small.  Scott Hoelzel sat for some more extended stretches in the second half and so he wasn't there grabbing boards.  He didn't seem that effective in the first half, though, anyway... he missed 3 shots that were contested but that a big guy's gotta make.  I like Scott a whole bunch, I think he has a ton of upside and I think that he hasn't fully reached his potential.  He's such a great athlete and can do so many different things that many people can't do on this level, but sometimes he may try to do a little too much.  It isn't that I don't think Scott can handle the ball... but when you have ball handlers like Point does, the ball is better served to be in their hands the majority of the time.

[tomt4525]

I agree with everything you said PointSpecial.  Against RF, like you said, they didn't get many true fastbreak points.  The transition points were gained by RF getting the ball up the court very quickly and not allowing Point to get into their base defense which allowed RF to get open looks, it was mainly Koonkaew that hurt them with these transition points.  Also, yes Scott was not very effective which caused him to sit on the bench for most of the 2nd half.  Hoelzel was inserted in the lineup in the middle of the 2nd half to help negate some of RF's rebounding, but it didn't seem to make a difference.

Point's defense was not its best against RF but I think it was good enough to win.  RF hit a lot of shots and worked harder on the boards.  From watching the game, it really came down to, atleast in my opinion, to Point's inability to hit the bunnies down low.  Semling alluded to that in his radio show.  Point posted up at will against RF and just couldn't finish.  Louis and Dan left atleast 20 points out on the court with missed opportunities.  Last point i'll make is...I don't know the numbers off the top of my head, I don't think we shot many free throws and on top of that, the free throw percentage was pretty low.  In the past, Point has been one of the best free throw shooting teams around...if not the best.

[wcbsas]

The value of Matt Moses from last year shouldn't be understated... he had the ability to score from all over the floor, including off the dribble.  

I think the point (pun intended) is more important than people let on ... Moses not only was a good to great scorer but he was top 3 in every imaginable statistical category - assists, steals, rebounds ...

He was a very good competitor and in many ways the heart of last year's team.  There has been a lot of discussion about missing Jenkins and what he could do for this team but I would argue that losing Moses was a bigger loss.

You don't simply lace up the sneakers next year and move on as if he wasn't there.

The good thing is UWSP probably can recover and still win the WIAC especially with UWW having a down year.  

[phoenix_rising]

Another late addition to a past discussion: Why coaches stay in the locker room until game time--Someone said no one seems to notice. That's not true. I notice if our coach doesn't come out of the locker room right away. With the musical chairs of coaches we've had over the past several years, I get nervous if the most current coach doesn't come out on the floor right away.

[Greek Tragedy]

wcbsas,

I don't think we are underestimating Moses' contribution last year.  The difference between Moses and Jenkins is that the latter had a chance to come back and play this year!  That's why all the talk has centered around Jenkins.

[UWRF]

Top 25 Poll

#4 UW-Stevens Point (3)

#18 UW-River Falls

No other teams in the Top 25 or RV

[chmarx]

I agree with Brian that we had a pretty good trip to Eau Claire, except for the loss.  However, I do not share his enamoration with rickety old arenas.

La Crosse will be lucky to make the conference tourney the way they are playing.  Very disappointing.  We had a freshman who played well in Madison, and haven't seen much of him since. 

[East Beast]

Oshkosh beats Platteville in OT.  Gerber drives the lane with 2 seconds left in OT, is hacked badly, foul not called, and misses the driving layup.  Oshkosh missed both ends of the double bonus to make this possible.  Both these teams stink.  69 points in OT FTW?   

[cubs]

Anyone check out the box score from the River Falls game tonight?  Talk about balanced scoring!!!  The Falcons with NINE players who scored between 6 and 11 points, and they all played at least 14 minutes, so it wasn't like they scored during "garbage time."

[fredfalcon]

RF 75-51 winners over EC. A very aggressive Falcon D held EC to 21 second half points. Fofana held to 2 pts. on 2/9 shooting, mostly by Jake Voeltz. Ruh, a very good player who had 14 at half, held to 18 (unofficially). EC got out-hustled, and did not appear ready to play, but it may have been just an off night for them.

The biggest difference between this year's Falcon team and last year's seems to be defense. They are making believers out of the locals.

Only one player, Shane Manor, scored in double figures (11). Eight others had between 6-8 points, the most balance and bench strength RF has shown in years.

[Just Bill]

RF 75-51 winners over EC. A very aggressive Falcon D held EC to 21 second half points. Fofana held to 2 pts. on 2/9 shooting, mostly by Jake Voeltz.

Why do his baskets only count 1 point? Hardly seems fair.