MBB: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[badgerwarhawk]

WARHAWKS: 69
Stevens Point: 72

Playing without their second leading scorer, the conferences leading rebounder and in a gym where we struggle to win even at full strength the WARHAWKS hung in there but the Pointers proved too much in the end.  With the exception of one tie the WARHAWKS held a lead for the game's first ten minutes until Jordan Lutz's second three pointer gave Point a 16-14 lead. A 7-2 run by the Pointers increase their lead to a first high of seven points, 23-16, before the WARHAWKS finished the last three minutes outscoring the Pointers 6-4 and leading 29-27 at the buzzer.   Muhamad Rajon (11) and Steve Egan (8) paced the WARHAWKS scorers while the team outrebounded the Pointers 17-9 leading to a 14-4 scoring bulge in the paint.  The Pointers were led by Lutz's 9 points with Austin Ryf and Stephen Pelkofer chipped in 7 apiece.  Aside from a pair of ties the WARHAWKS maintained a lead for the first six minutes of the second half before Pelkofer's fast break layup put the Pointers on top 40-39.  Over the next seven minutes of play the two teams would exchange the lead four times and tie twice before  Lutz hit a three pointer putting the Pointers on top 57-54 with four minutes to play.  TIn the remaining time the Pointer lead would reach a high of seven and the WARHAWKS were able to reduce it to a single point on four occassions but came up short when Muhammand and Young each missed three point attempts in the game's final twenty-two seconds. 

Steve Egan: 16 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 blocks
Quardell Young: 11 points, 6 assists, 3 steals
Rahjan Muhammad: 13 points, 2 assists, 2 steals
Cody Odegaard: 11 points
Xzavier Moananu: 9 points, 7 rebounds

Stevens Point:
Jordan Lutz: 22 points, 5-6 three points
Austin Ryf: 15 points,  6 rebounds, 5 assists
Joe Richtay: 15 points, 5 rebounds
Stephen Pelkofer: 9 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists

[badgerwarhawk]

Elsewhere:

LaCrosse: 67   Oshkosh: 64 -  Shooting just a shade under 55% from the floor the Eagles built a comfortable fourteen point lead, 38-24, in the first half.  That lead essentially in double figures through the first thirteen and half minutes of the second half before the Titans closed out the game with a 10-4 run and closed to within a single point with 30 seconds remaining.  Skylar Camerons two free throws stretched it to three points and sealed the win when the Titans missed a pair of three point attempts in the game's final four seconds.  Joe Sokovich (23), Cameron Skylar (18) and Cale Zuiker (13) led the Eagles.  Alex Olson's 20 points with Alex Mueller's 11 points and Taylor Jansen's 10 paced the Titans.

River Falls: 77   Stout: 74 - The Falcons out shot the Blue Devils 52% to 32% from the floor but only held a seven point lead, 37-30, at the half.  The Falcon lead quickly grew to double digits and reached a high of twenty before the Blue Devils were able to slice to three points, 71-68, with a minute and half to play.  Grant Erickson sank 4 of 6 free throws in the remaining time to perserve the win.  Jon Christian double-double (16, 14), CJ Lewis (15) and Grant Pearson (14) paced the Falcons who shot 55% from the floor.  Jalen Patterson (15), John Lathi (13) led the Blue Devils while Jarvis Ragland and John Keefe each added 10.

EauClaire: 80   Platteville: 62 - The BluGolds took a lead midway through the first half and never surrendered it for the remainder of the first half leading by four 31-27 when it ended.  After three ties and four lead changes in the second half the BluGolds finished the game's final 12 minutes outscoring the Pioneers 37-19.  The BluGolds shot 65% from the floor and connected on 5of 7 three point shots in the second half.  EauClaire was led by Jack Martinek (21), Tyson Kalein (15), Jacob Kohner (10) and CJ Lewis (10 rebounds).  Jim Stocki (24) and Cory Vaassen (12) led the Pioneers.       

[John Gleich]

Sounds like a good one. I was wrapped up in the Stout vs. River game and I have one observation: the smart money is on Coach Andrist leaving at the end of the season (or before.) If he or the administration haven't thought about it yet, they should start. That is the least amount of energy I have seen on the sidelines in the WIAC in, well, ever. He looks as though he's given up on those kids and the program. There's nothing going on positive in that program right now. It might just be time to step aside and let Robinson try to resurrect the program or bring in a new guy. It is really puzzling.

The Devils are likely to be winless this year. With decent young talent, they need a breath of fresh air at the top, imho. Look at Oshkosh, for example... Juckem has brought that program back from an 0-16 season a few years back to a team vying for a home playoff game. That's what the Blue Devils need.

And something needs to spring at Eau Claire, or they'll be in a similar boat. This could be the fourth (or fifth?) straight year missing the tournament.

Before I get lambasted here, I recognize Point and WW are the darlings of the league, but the terminal inconsistency of EC and the rapid demise of Stout are troubling.

Perhaps a bit ironic that you mentioned Eau Claire... they had a big 18 point win over Platteville last night to keep their conference tournament hopes alive.

More on that in a bit.

[GBMAN]

Point made the shots and stops when they had to. 

[Mr. Ypsi]

With UWW and UWSP splitting the h-to-h, what is the tie-break procedure for hosting the WIAC tourney?

[GBMAN]

With UWW and UWSP splitting the h-to-h, what is the tie-break procedure for hosting the WIAC tourney?

From what I understand, it's a coin flip.

[bleedpurple]

Who gets to call it? 

[Greek Tragedy]

Who gets to call it? 

They have a coin flip to see who calls the coin flip. Not sure what the tie - breaker is. Probably a coin flip.

[Just Bill]

Yep. A coin flip, because if they both win out and finish 15-1 the first 4 tiebreakers won't resolve it.

http://www.wiacsports.com/sports/2015/1/7/MBB_0107150114.aspx?path=mbball

Seeding
Teams will be seeded 1 through 6 based on the final regular season conference standings.  If necessary, the following tie-breaker criteria will be applied to determine entry into the tournament or to seed teams with identical records:

1.    Head-to-head competition between tied teams;
2.    Cumulative Won/Loss record vs. teams placed higher in the conference standings;
3.    Record vs. teams in conference standings in descending order (i.e., #1 seed, #2 seed).

[Note:  When comparing tied teams against positions lower in the standings which are also tied, those “lower tied positions” are considered as a “single position” for purposes of comparison.  Example:  Team A and Team B tied for second would compare against Team X and Team Y tied for sixth as follows: Team A would compare its combined record against both X and Y versus Team B’s combined record against both X and Y.];

4.    Team with the best road record in conference games;
5.    Coin toss conducted by the WIAC commissioner.

[Note:  If two (2) teams remain tied after a third or other teams are eliminated, the tiebreaker reverts to criteria No. 1.  For example, if four (4) teams are tied with 4-2, 3-3, 3-3, 2-4 head -to-head records, the 4-2 receives highest seed and the 2-4 team the lowest seed in the grouping.  Since two teams remain tied at 3-3, we revert back to criteria #1 (head-to-head) between those two teams and then (if necessary) utilize the remaining criteria in order.]

If somehow they both take a loss and finish 14-2, then it will depend on who lost to the better team in the standings.

Personally I would prefer a Miller vs. Semling sumo match.

[Just Bill]

Who gets to call it? 

First team alphabetically is assigned heads and the second team alphabetically is assigned tails.


(Actually, I just made that up. Sounded good though, didn't it?)

[AppletonRocks]

SNC is better than Point. JMHO.

Great analysis.

Thanks. 

[Greek Tragedy]

More on that in a bit.

Still waiting. 

[John Gleich]

More on that in a bit.

Still waiting. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBIxScJ5rlY

[Hoops_n_Golf]

Sounds like a good one. I was wrapped up in the Stout vs. River game and I have one observation: the smart money is on Coach Andrist leaving at the end of the season (or before.) If he or the administration haven't thought about it yet, they should start. That is the least amount of energy I have seen on the sidelines in the WIAC in, well, ever. He looks as though he's given up on those kids and the program. There's nothing going on positive in that program right now. It might just be time to step aside and let Robinson try to resurrect the program or bring in a new guy. It is really puzzling.

The Devils are likely to be winless this year. With decent young talent, they need a breath of fresh air at the top, imho. Look at Oshkosh, for example... Juckem has brought that program back from an 0-16 season a few years back to a team vying for a home playoff game. That's what the Blue Devils need.

And something needs to spring at Eau Claire, or they'll be in a similar boat. This could be the fourth (or fifth?) straight year missing the tournament.

Before I get lambasted here, I recognize Point and WW are the darlings of the league, but the terminal inconsistency of EC and the rapid demise of Stout are troubling.

Just out of curiousity I'm wondering why you think you would get "lambasted" for either of those troubling patterns if you hadn't recognized Point and WW are the "darlings of the league."  I can't speak for Point fans but speaking for myself I wouldn't have any problem with it had you left it out.

Personally I don't think there is any way Andrist leaves before the end of the season unless the university dismisses him given that there are only three games remaining.  He may leave once it finishes.

Fair enough, I can acknowledge improper phrasing. Instead of darlings of the league, I'll call them perennial powers. The point I was trying to make is this:

Point and WW will almost always (although I counted Point out at the outset of the season) battle for the top spot, if recent history continues. They often are challenged by the second tier teams, if you will: LaXrosse Platteville, Oshkosh a while back. Those challenges are when one of those teams matures with the right combination of guys and they have a shot at the title, so to speak. Yes, stout and River have finished in the top 3 a couple times recently, but then follow that up with bottom of the barrel finishes.

I understand that this is all subjective. It only takes into account my recent knowledge of the league, about 10-15 years or so. And my comment wasn't meant to be demeaning. Those two teams have built perennial contenders. They've done so through great recruiting, great coaching, great player development, and hard working players.

Finally, about Coach Andeits leaving before the end of the season, well, that was a bit cynical. My point was that maybe he already HAS left. Mentally, of course. They have a lot of work to do to get competitive again. Nice young players, but so does everyone else! Perhaps they'll be one of those challenging teams in 2 or 3 years. But if history repeats itself, they're right back to the outside looking in.

[Greek Tragedy]

It will be interesting to see how Whitewater and Point start and finish their games this weekend. Whitewater will again be missing Evans but they played extremely well in Point. Could there be a letdown? River Falls played well against Whitewater at home, so we'll see if they can catch Whitewater napping. Four of Point's starters played 38, 38, 38 and 35 minutes so we'll see if they have tired legs. Stout has obviously nothing to lose and could surprise the winded Pointers.  I don't see that happening though. 

Eau Claire shocked nearly everyone with their big win over Platteville.  Now comes La Crosse.

Oshkosh should take out their frustrations out on Superior as well.