MBB: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Falcons04]

UWRF really struggled with St. Thomas' press in the second half.  UST was double teaming the PG after made baskets and RF had numerous TO's.  When they did get into their offense it didn't flow nearly as well as the first half.  It will be interesting to see if UST can do something similar to a team like Point.  I'd imagine Tillema or Ryf wouldn't have the same trouble. 

RF has a lot of new faces but like FF said they look like they could at least be competitive.  Consistent scoring will be a big question mark and it might take some time for them to settle on the right combination/rotation.  Not sure this UST team is comparable to recent years but RF was right there with until late in the game.  That was a bit more than I expected tonight.

[Greek Tragedy]

Another good day for tue WIAC. 4 games were close.

In what was supposed to be the game of the night turned out to be the only blowout. Stevens Point topped Hope 82-62 as the dawgs shot 77% in the 2nd half.

River Falls blew an 11-point halftime lead and lost 75-69 to ranked St. Thomas.

Platteville had problems with winless Simpson 75-72.

Marian came storming back from 14 down but ran out of gas and time, falling to Eau Claire 81-79.

Oshkosh held off Finlandia 78-74.

[fredfalcon]

Falcons04--I don't agree that t.o.'s were a big problem for the Falcons last night. They had a total of 11. Last year they averaged over 14. The three guards, Erickson, Buckley, and Sewer each had one last night. In fact, I'm very encouraged by the sure handedness of this year's team--SO FAR. They totaled only 15 t.o.'s in their first two games.

Yes, they struggled in the second half, but The Tommies stepped up their half court D too so we got fewer shots second half, but still hit 47% of those, compared to 55% first half. But more significantly, we  took only 8 shots the entire second half compared to 16 first half. Meanwhile, UST got 17 offensive rbds. while we got 4(full game stats).

[frodotwo]

UWSP and Hope were in a tight game throughout the first half, dominated on both ends of the court by 6'10" Van Arendonk. Point had difficulty getting the ball up inside on many occasions in the half and saw several shots that did get thru, roll off the rim. Point was outscored in the paint in the first half 22-12, but the game turned when Jordan Lutz his consecutive three pointers.

Point came out in the second half intent on challenging the Hope interior defense and did so, scoring 30 points in the paint, 28 on layups left, right and behind Van Arendonk to the delight of the crowd. The charge was led by Tyler Tillema who scored 19 in the half, constantly driving into the hole for layups. When he didn't get the layin he got fouled or found cutting teammates going to the bucket. Alex Richard was the beneficiary of many of the great passes from Ty and Ryf in the second half, scoring 15 of his 18 points on 6 of 6 shooting. Starting at the 16 minute mark, Point's last thirteen buckets were layups.

About the only negative to the game for Point was the number of offensive rebounds they gave up, 9 and that is now a 39-12 deficit on the year. Can't give up that many second chances, they will catch up to the team eventually. But if they continue to shoot well (67% on the year thus far) they will be tough to beat.

Besides the play of Van Arendonk in the first half (13 pts/4 reb), I was impressed with the play of Soph Ben Gardner who scored 16 and ran their offense well (3 ast) despite being hounded by 2013 WIAC 1st team defense player Austin Ryf and also by Stephen Pelkofer.

[Greek Tragedy]

Not a good day in the WIAC.

Platteville got surprised at home to St. Olaf and Oshkosh got smoked by Clarke.

[AppletonRocks]

Oshkosh played poorly in the first half, no outside shooting to break the zone and didn't rebound well.  Second half, much better intensity and some better shooting from 3 point range.  Still working on combinations, not surprising with 10 freshman.   Played everyone today. 

[Falcons04]

Falcons04--I don't agree that t.o.'s were a big problem for the Falcons last night. They had a total of 11. Last year they averaged over 14. The three guards, Erickson, Buckley, and Sewer each had one last night. In fact, I'm very encouraged by the sure handedness of this year's team--SO FAR. They totaled only 15 t.o.'s in their first two games.

Yes, they struggled in the second half, but The Tommies stepped up their half court D too so we got fewer shots second half, but still hit 47% of those, compared to 55% first half. But more significantly, we  took only 8 shots the entire second half compared to 16 first half. Meanwhile, UST got 17 offensive rbds. while we got 4(full game stats).

FF - 11 TO's is not bad at all, but with 7 coming in the second half, I guess that seemed to stick in my mind as more of an issue with RF not handling the press as the lead disappeared.  I agree it was the overall intensity of the defense and the fact that RF couldn't seem to get into a rhythm on offense like they did in the first half.

[havej]

I know we're less than 2 weeks into the season and it's really early, but which WIAC teams look to be better than they were last year besides Point?

There have been some uncharacteristic bad non- conference losses by Pville, LAX, Superior, and Stout and the bottom 3 from last year will most likely be the bottom 3 this year - although RF seems to have made some definite progress.  Nice to see White playing well after his injury last year.

[John Gleich]

I know we're less than 2 weeks into the season and it's really early, but which WIAC teams look to be better than they were last year besides Point?

There have been some uncharacteristic bad non- conference losses by Pville, LAX, Superior, and Stout and the bottom 3 from last year will most likely be the bottom 3 this year - although RF seems to have made some definite progress.  Nice to see White playing well after his injury last year.

I'm not so sure that I'd call them uncharacteristic and bad losses at this point...

If you look at this thread, it has the conference non-con record of all D-III conferences (vs D-III opponents) and the WIAC is on top.

http://www.d3boards.com/index.php?topic=1167.msg1557588#msg1557588


We, as a conference, were up over 80% non-con winning percentage about a decade ago. I think that those days may be over... in part because there's been some separation in programs and in part because the parity in college basketball has gotten greater (we've come down a bit and everyone else has come up).

[havej]

John - you make excellent points as usual.  I'm still of the opinion that Pville losing to St Olaf, Lax losing to Luther, and Stout losing to Mount Mercy are not good losses.

You talk of parity which I agree with but our league has more 5 year players and transfer backs than any of these smaller schools that compete in the IIAC and MIAC. 

[John Gleich]

John - you make excellent points as usual.  I'm still of the opinion that Pville losing to St Olaf, Lax losing to Luther, and Stout losing to Mount Mercy are not good losses.

You talk of parity which I agree with but our league has more 5 year players and transfer backs than any of these smaller schools that compete in the IIAC and MIAC.

Point can attest to the toughness of playing St. Olaf... it took a Joe Ritchay 3 for Point to get the win last year!

While we're on the topic... the Ole's head to central Wisconsin on Wednesday.  I'm not going to say that they're world beaters... but they're clearly doing things a bit differently than WIAC teams must be used to.

FWIW, they beat Platteville by 6, as noted above, and their only loss is to Augustana, by 9 (who Platteville beat by 10).

Yay comparative scores...!

[Greek Tragedy]

I still think its a bad loss. The #3 WIAC team should beat the #5 MIAC team on its home floor.

[fredfalcon]

Falcons04--did not remember that 7 t.o.s came in second half, which does emphasize your point.

Check out WIAC stats to see that Grant Erickson leads (yeah, I know it's only 3 games) in assists (tie) and in assist to t.o. ratio by a big margin. Remarkable for a freshman. He really plays within himself and is the most sure handed player I've seen for the Falcons in a long time.

[John Gleich]

I still think its a bad loss. The #3 WIAC team should beat the #5 MIAC team on its home floor.

MIAC teams can be a tough draw... St. Johns beat Point a few years ago, St. Olaf took SP to the absolute limit last year, and the UWSP/UST game is always one of the best of the year.

The MIAC tends to be a really tough defensive league with everybody playing very tough man-to-man... and has historically been a pretty physical league. That may change with the new rules this year... but...

[John Gleich]

New Top 25 is out.

http://d3hoops.com/top25/men/2013-14/week1

Point up to #2 with 6 first place votes.
Whitewater up to #5 with a first place vote.
Platteville enters at #20

Stout still receiving 2 votes in the poll as well.