MBB: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Greek Tragedy]

STEVENS POINT 14-0, 5-0
Won at Stout 61-60
Won at Superior 86-69

Point wins a nailbiter at Stout with the Blue Devils having a couple of chances for the upset. Oman misses a 3 and then gets another chance when Hass misses both free throws at the end. As usual, Hass (19) and Tillema (17) lead the way with Ritchay chipping in with 12. Point then takes care of Superior in a game that's basically over by halftime (49-33). Tillema was the man with 26, but Heuer comes out of nowhere with 20 and 6. Hass gets a double double (18 and 11) as well.

Wed. vs Oshkosh
Sat. vs River Falls

You could call this a little break in the schedule, but it is the WIAC, stranger things have happened. Two home games against teams that combine for a 2-9 conference record. Can't look past these games with trips to Platteville and La Crosse looming.

PLATTEVILLE 10-4, 5-0
Won at Stout 61-42

Possibly taking advantage of the game day off, Platteville has no problem with Stout that may have used all their energy against Point on Wednesday. 4 players scoring in double figures for the Pioneers as Stocki also chips in with 9 points. Manning had a solid game with 10 points and 7 boards.

Wed. at Whitewater
Sat. vs La Crosse

After playing the admittedly bottom-half of the conference, Platteville runs into the meat of the schedule with two games against Whitewater, a matchup with La Crosse and a visit from Stevens Point in the next 5 games (four at home).

WHITEWATER 12-2, 3-2
Won at Oshkosh 86-55
Won vs Eau Claire 90-51

After the early losses at Stout and Point, Whitewater is on a roll. The Warhawks were up 18 (36-18) against Oshkosh at halftime and 23 (43-20) against Eau Claire at the break. Hearn had 14 and 8 against Oshkosh, while Young was 10 for 10 from the field for 25 against Eau Claire.

Wed. vs Platteville
Sat. vs Superior

Big Rivalry game as Platteville makes a visit and then Superior comes into town before going on the road for 3 straight.

LA CROSSE 10-4, 4-1
Won vs Superior 79-51

The Eagles have no problem with Superior despite Skogman out. Trent Schmidt fills in nicely with 15 points and 6 rebounds for the hosts. They were up 23 at halftime, so no starter played more than 22 minutes.

Wed. at Stout
Sat. at Platteville

This could be a make or break week for La Crosse. They head to Stout to play the wounded animal, both literally (Jenny hobbling, Whitehead has been out) and figuratively (two tough losses for different reasons in the last week). After that, a daunting trip to Platteville.

STOUT 8-6, 3-3
Lost vs Stevens Point 61-60
Lost vs Platteville 61-42

Two tough losses for the Blue Devils. Despite Oman's heroics (20 points and 6 rebounds), Stout couldn't get the win against the #1 ranked team in the land. With a chance to redeem themselves against a tough Platteville team, no one showed up and took a beating against the Pioneers. Oman again lead the way with 14, but non one else scored more than 6 and no other starter scored more than 3.

Wed. vs La Crosse
Sat. at Oshkosh

Another chance to get back on track as the Eagles come into town. The big question will be is if Whitehead returns and also to see how healed Jenny is. A trip to Oshkosh is next, but that isn't always easy.

OSHKOSH 5-8, 1-4
Lost vs Whitewater 86-55
Won at River Falls 65-63

Not surprisingly, the Titans were no match for the Warhawks with only Wurtz scoring in double digits with just 10. Down 18 at the break, the white flag may have been raised early with no starter playing more than 24 minutes. The beating didn't effect their trip to River Falls as they pulled off a minor upset. Wurtz, Royston and Alex Olson combined for 43 while Nick Olson chipped in with 11 and 5.

Wed. at Stevens Point
Sat. vs Stout

The Titans make the short trip to Quandt on Wednesday before hosting Stout on the weekend. Schebel has been limited, so the Titans are hoping he'll be back to full strength this week.

EAU CLAIRE 8-7, 1-5
Won vs River Falls 59-57
Lost at Whitewater 90-51

The Blugolds broke into the conference win column against the Falcons. Mau and Hjelter combined for 30 points, 12 rebounds, 8 assists and 4 steals for the win. We'll forget about the nine turnovers. Kohner was also in double figures with 10 points. After a morale boosting win, Eau Claire got taken behind the woodshed in Whitewater. Mau had 13 points and 5 rebounds, but nothing else good happened down there.

Wed. vs Superior
Sat. vs BYE

The Blugolds get a chance to bounce back on Wednesday as Superior makes a visit and then winnable games at Oshkosh and a visit from Stout to follow.

SUPERIOR 4-10, 1-4
Lost at La Crosse 79-51
Lost to Stevens Point 86-69

Not a good week as the Yellowjackets really failed to show for either game. They were down 23 at the break against La Crosse and 16 against Point. Aaron Corry put up respectable numbers against La Crosse, going for 12 and 6 as the only guy in double figures. Peterson lead the way against Point with 16 and 6, while Burch had 12 and Schradle contributed 11.

Wed. at Eau Claire
Sat. at Whitewater

Superior starts a 5-game road trip starting with Eau Claire and then travels to Whitewater on the weekend. They have trips to River Falls, Platteville and Stevens Point to round out the road trip. Better bring the passport.

RIVER FALLS 6-9, 1-5
Lost at Eau Claire 59-57
Lost vs Oshkosh 65-63

Two tough losses with both games decided by 2 points. Down 7 at the break, River Falls had a chance to win it at the end but couldn't pull out the victory. Gresmer was a stud going for 20 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists. White had 18 and Buckley had 11 and 6. White and Gresmer combined for 38, but it wasn't enough against Oshkosh. Erickson was also in double figures with 11.

Wed. vs BYE
Sat. at Stevens Point

They have a week to sit on their "close but no cigar" losses before heading to Point this weekend.

[02 Warhawk]

Anyone know what's going on with Skogman?

[Greek Tragedy]

Skogman warmed up, with a face mask on, but didn't play.  According to the La Crosse Tribune, he has a broken nose from the Point game, but is expected to play in our next game.

[John Gleich]

Skogman warmed up, with a face mask on, but didn't play.  According to the La Crosse Tribune, he has a broken nose from the Point game, but is expected to play in our next game.

According to the radio broadcast, Tyler Tillema was also wearing a face mask on Saturday.

He, however, did play.

And it didn't appear that the face mask hindered his play:

26 points 6 rebounds 4 assists 1 block

Also encouraging... he hit 12/13 ft's for 92%, better than his season average of 76%.


Point hit 19/22 ft's on Saturday (86%), much better than their team average 68%.



As an aside... It appears that there are more fouls this year than in the past and thus that there would be more foul shots.

Are the additional fouls (and additional foul shots) hampering teams in anyone's opinion? I'm not speaking in the defensive sense (obviously, if a guy gets two quick fouls, he's going to have to sit, which would hurt defensively, as well as offensively). I'm talking more from an offensive sense. It sure seems to me like ft% are down this year.

Time to investigate....

FREE THROW PERCENTAGES # Team                         G    FTM   FTA   Pct ------------------------------------------------------ 1. UW-Platteville......... 14    207   286  .724 2. UW-La Crosse........ 14    170   238  .714 3. UW-Whitewater..... 14    256   364  .703 4. UW-Oshkosh.......... 13    189   269  .703 5. UW-Superior........... 14    211   302  .699 6. UW-Stevens Point.. 14    201   292  .688 7. UW-River Falls........ 15    218   323  .675 8. UW-Stout............... 14    191   292  .654 9. UW-Eau Claire....... 15    169   274  .617 FTA/gm: 20.79 FT%: 68.6% Here are the last 5 years: 2012-13 FREE THROW PERCENTAGES # Team                  G    FTM   FTA   Pct -------------------------------------------- 1.UW-Stevens Point.... 28    335   432  .775 2.UW-La Crosse.......... 26    253   329  .769 3.UW-River Falls.......... 25    334   453  .737 4.UW-Oshkosh............ 25    252   350  .720 5.UW-Platteville........... 28    390   549  .710 6.UW-Whitewater....... 29    449   644  .697 7.UW-Eau Claire......... 25    290   420  .690 8.UW-Stout................. 27    330   478  .690 9.UW-Superior............ 26    318   465  .684 FTA/gm: 17.24 FT%: 71.6% 2011-12 FREE THROW PERCENTAGES # Team                  G    FTM   FTA   Pct -------------------------------------------- 1.UW-Oshkosh............ 25    382   467  .818 2.UW-Stevens Point.... 28    441   565  .781 3.UW-Platteville........... 26    361   496  .728 4.UW-Whitewater........ 33    472   656  .720 5.UW-Eau Claire.......... 25    383   546  .701 6.UW-Superior............. 26    280   408  .686 7.UW-River Falls.......... 28    396   581  .682 8.UW-La Crosse.......... 27    259   413  .627 9.UW-Stout................. 25    267   434  .615 FTA/gm: 18.79 FT%: 71.0% 2010-11 FREE THROW PERCENTAGES # Team                  G    FTM   FTA   Pct -------------------------------------------- 1.UW-Whitewater........ 26    422   557  .758 2.UW-Oshkosh............. 25    406   542  .749 3.UW-Superior............. 27    256   352  .727 4.UW-Stout................. 25    337   467  .722 5.UW-Stevens Point.... 30    423   594  .712 6.UW-La Crosse.......... 26    300   422  .711 7.UW-Platteville.......... 27    372   538  .691 8.UW-River Falls......... 28    389   563  .691 9.UW-Eau Claire......... 25    251   375  .669 FTA/gm: 18.45 FT%: 71.6% 2010-09 FREE THROW PERCENTAGES # Team                  G    FTM   FTA   Pct -------------------------------------------- 1.UW-Oshkosh............. 25    408   506  .806 2.UW-Platteville........... 26    382   485  .788 3.UW-Superior............. 27    390   500  .780 4.UW-La Crosse.......... 26    352   475  .741 5.UW-Stevens Point.... 33    439   593  .740 6.UW-Whitewater....... 29    494   678  .729 7.UW-River Falls.......... 25    337   479  .704 8.UW-Stout................. 27    325   472  .689 9.UW-Eau Claire.......... 25    328   478  .686 FTA/gm: 19.2 FT%: 74.0% 2009-08 FREE THROW PERCENTAGES # Team                  G    FTM   FTA   Pct -------------------------------------------- 1.UW-Oshkosh............. 27    409   509  .804 2.UW-Platteville........... 29    502   657  .764 3.UW-La Crosse.......... 25    313   411  .762 4.UW-Whitewater....... 29    515   679  .758 5.UW-River Falls.......... 26    334   448  .746 6.UW-Superior............. 25    287   388  .740 7.UW-Stevens Point.... 29    348   473  .736 8.UW-Eau Claire.......... 26    378   528  .716 9.UW-Stout................. 25    238   369  .645 FTA/gm: 18.51 FT%: 74.5% This seems to be significant. I don't have time to do the statistical work to SEE if it's significant or not... but at the very least, the trend for ft% seems to be falling (though it may be falling irregardless of the number of attempts).

[havej]

John G - really good presentation on the free throw percentage trend.  Bottom line, I think it's rather shocking that the current percentages are so low and I'm sure the coaches feel the same way.  Spending time with a coach from a ranked D3 school recently revealed how important it is in today's game (with all of the advanced scouting) to get easy baskets and to get to the foul line.  But if you shoot less than 70% from the line as a team, that certainly reduces the effectiveness of that approach.

I think the decrease may point to the reduced skills of the players - how many knockdown shooters are there in the WIAC right now other than Hass?  Many of the current leading scorers in conference play are drivers or bigs.  And I'm talking about knockdown shooters being guys shooting it more than 5 or 6 times a game.

[bulk19]

A somewhat serious comment,  but somewhat in jest, too:
Declining free throw percentages are due to too many kids working on their ESPN highlight dunks, and not spending enough time shooting 100 free throws every day...

[Greek Tragedy]

In D3?

[sac]

The NCAA used to have a stats page dedicated to trends.  It appears they've discontinued online access to that.


The D3 avg for team FT% was about 68% last year.  It has been trending down since the mid 90s across college basketball.

[badgerwarhawk]

John G - really good presentation on the free throw percentage trend.  Bottom line, I think it's rather shocking that the current percentages are so low and I'm sure the coaches feel the same way.  Spending time with a coach from a ranked D3 school recently revealed how important it is in today's game (with all of the advanced scouting) to get easy baskets and to get to the foul line.  But if you shoot less than 70% from the line as a team, that certainly reduces the effectiveness of that approach.

I think the decrease may point to the reduced skills of the players - how many knockdown shooters are there in the WIAC right now other than Hass?  Many of the current leading scorers in conference play are drivers or bigs.  And I'm talking about knockdown shooters being guys shooting it more than 5 or 6 times a game.

I think you may be on to something there.  While there are some pretty good players in the league I'm not sure that generally speaking the overall talent is quite as good as some years in the recent past. 

[02 Warhawk]

John G - really good presentation on the free throw percentage trend.  Bottom line, I think it's rather shocking that the current percentages are so low and I'm sure the coaches feel the same way.  Spending time with a coach from a ranked D3 school recently revealed how important it is in today's game (with all of the advanced scouting) to get easy baskets and to get to the foul line.  But if you shoot less than 70% from the line as a team, that certainly reduces the effectiveness of that approach.

I think the decrease may point to the reduced skills of the players - how many knockdown shooters are there in the WIAC right now other than Hass?  Many of the current leading scorers in conference play are drivers or bigs.  And I'm talking about knockdown shooters being guys shooting it more than 5 or 6 times a game.

I think you may be on to something there.  While there are some pretty good players in the league I'm not sure that generally speaking the overall talent is quite as good as some years in the recent past.

That's probably it. I believe today's basketball players are more athletic/quicker than ever. However, rather than focussing on shooting and fundamentals, majority of the athletes would much rather hone their driving skills and get to the rim. The decrease in free throw % is probably a result from this.

The mid-range jump shot is a lost art.

[havej]

02 Warhawk - there's no doubt the physicality of some of these D3 players is impressive.  I'm just guessing that most off-season workouts consist of lifting and playing pickup or playing in open college leagues.  The majority do not go to the gym solo and get up 500 or work on their handle.

And totally agree with Badgerwarhawk's assessment of the downward trend in the talent level of the league - that's an absolute no doubter.  I've been following the league for the last 6 years and there's a definite drop off.

[hoops2]

I might agree that the overall talent level is down and it appears that we have a little more separation again between the upper to lower tier teams.  A few years back it was really a battle every night out but it doesn't seem that's quite the case right now.  Like most things, I believe this goes in cycles and that the league overall talent will come back.  I also think that part of the reason is more D-II schools are invading the state to pick prime talent and they at least are starting out their college careers elsewhere.  Wisconsin perhaps doesn't produce tons of D-I talent each year but for many years because of great high school coaching and a strong work ethic generally, the state has really had many quality players that are now going to places like SW Minn, Duluth, Mich Tech, N Mich, Augustant S.D., etc. or getting private school $$ to play there.  It's getting harder and harder to keep the really good players here when someone offers them $$, even if it's a partial.  Whitewater has done a great job through the years of getting some of those players that "come home" after going elsewhere to start.  Point has certainly had several fine transfers.  I still think the WIAC is pretty talented and should hold up well on the national stage.  That however remains to be seen.       

[John Gleich]

I also think that part of the reason is more D-II schools are invading the state to pick prime talent and they at least are starting out their college careers elsewhere.

THIS.


I was thinking much the same thing.

[havej]

Not sure why this just crossed my mind in terms of the current drop off but everyone probably remembers the PG that played at River Falls (Koonkaew) - I saw him play live twice and thought he was very good.  He never made first team all conference and in the current WIAC he'd be arguably the best PG in the league.

Just a point - he'd probably be glad I remembered him.

[bgbacker]

just my 2 cents worth ... Whitewater is an outstanding team ... yes, I know a blowout win over the Blugolds doesn't necessarily confirm that, but they are playing extremely solid BB right now. Young ...All-WIAC last year ... is much better this year. KJ is a beast ..and Hearn is a surprise. Look out the rest of the way if the 'Hawks can keep it up.