MBB: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[tomt4525]

Oshkosh is 0-5 in conference at the moment, without their best player...doesn't matter To UWSP apparently.  They can't match energy and get blown out on their home floor.

It is officially baseball season for me.

Hope they didn't have any recruits there watching that tonight.

['95 Blugold]

Blugolds force 22 turnovers en route to a 81-53 win over Stout at home. Blugolds finished the 1st half strong and continued it through the 2nd half as they were were never really challenged from there on out.

Huschka and Renta leads the 'golds with 30 and 23 points respectively. Next up UWSP at home this weekend.

[Greek Tragedy]

I agree. Always getting behind the 8 ball. I really had a bad feeling going into this game. Oshkosh was 0-5 in conference and Point hasn't played well at home. Recipe for disaster. 1-3 at home now.

[cubs]

Whitewater knocks off #1 Platteville tonight, tightening things up at the top a bit...

[Greek Tragedy]

Probably the closest thing we'll get to Rivalry Wednesday as we'll ever get. Throw out the records.

https://athletics.uwsp.edu/news/2025/1/22/mens-basketball-pointers-cold-shooting-leads-to-home-defeat.aspx

Point takes a complete dump at home, losing to Oshkosh 60-43. They shot 29%. They were down 21-19 with 3:20 to go in the half and went scoreless the rest of the way until HT. I think they missed 3 or 4 3s and a couple of 2s.  2-17 from 3, out rebounded by 19. Nothing to do but to move on.

Whitewater upset Platteville on the road, 74-68.

https://uwwsports.com/news/2025/1/22/mens-basketball-warhawks-fend-off-no-1-ranked-uw-platteville-defeat-the-pioneers-74-68.aspx

La Crosse took care of River Falls 77-56.

https://uwlathletics.com/news/2025/1/22/uwl-extends-winning-streak-to-four-with-victory-over-uw-river-falls-eighth-win-in-last-nine-contests.aspx

Eau Claire smoked Stout 81-53

https://blugolds.com/news/2025/1/22/mens-basketball-mens-basketball-hammers-uw-stout-in-first-rivalry-game-at-sonnentag.aspx

[Greek Tragedy]

Updated NPI.

https://d3datacast.com/npi/

Platteville drops one spot to #2 and holds the Pool A slot.

La Crosse moves up and is now the #1 Pool C team.

Point drops big to #35 overall and is now Pool C 17, probably out of the tournament with bid thieves.

Oshkosh jumps to #50 overall and #28 Pool C.

#67 Eau Claire, Pool C 43.

[ChickenHoops]

Probably the closest thing we'll get to Rivalry Wednesday as we'll ever get. Throw out the records.

https://athletics.uwsp.edu/news/2025/1/22/mens-basketball-pointers-cold-shooting-leads-to-home-defeat.aspx

Point takes a complete dump at home, losing to Oshkosh 60-43. They shot 29%. They were down 21-19 with 3:20 to go in the half and went scoreless the rest of the way until HT. I think they missed 3 or 4 3s and a couple of 2s.  2-17 from 3, out rebounded by 19. Nothing to do but to move on.

I watched late last night after returning from Oshkosh and feeding the chickens. The Lady Dawgs lost a really close one.

Oshkosh really wanted that one and Point looked like they didn't care. Seth Miron fought to get his spot on offense or defense, others were more passive.  I closely watched the body language when they came to the bench (as that is where the camera always goes) during a few timeouts, didn't look like anyone was coming ready to listen to Dernbach. The end zone beer drinkers didn't seem too jolly, either.

Lack of depth really hurts Pointers. Point better hope the recruits stayed home due to the frigid weather.

[WashingtonWiz99]

Seen a few posts on here about "hopefully there were no recruits in attendance" for that game.

I can tell you, that at times poor peformance can look bad in front of a recruit. No doubt. However, I would say that is rare and as you know there a lot of other factors that go into this.

Sometimes struggling in front of a recruit can show the recruit that they might be able to help sooner than later.

Losing doesn't carry as much weight as you think in recruiting.

[ChickenHoops]

Seen a few posts on here about "hopefully there were no recruits in attendance" for that game.

I can tell you, that at times poor peformance can look bad in front of a recruit. No doubt. However, I would say that is rare and as you know there a lot of other factors that go into this.

Sometimes struggling in front of a recruit can show the recruit that they might be able to help sooner than later.

Losing doesn't carry as much weight as you think in recruiting.

I agree.  But acting like a loser can.  Oshkosh played 3 freshman heavily and Point has one, a local SPASH player. Freshman can matter.

[Greek Tragedy]

Was someone acting like a loser? Remember, we were in Oshkosh's boat last season. 3 freshmen and 2 transfers.

[ChickenHoops]

The bench vibe when players walked off the court wasn't good....of course Oshkosh was up quite a bit. They looked defeated...."loser" is too negative. Sorry.

[tomt4525]

It's been a couple days since the drubbing Point took on Wednesday, and the couple posts talking about body language and things of that nature made me want to give my two cents.  First, I couldn't agree more.  Point's body language was terrible on Wednesday.  I'm just looking from the live feed, but it was apparent.  I watched guys pretty much quit in the 2nd half.  I saw multiple kids jog back and forth on the floor, I watched people pointing fingers at each other.  As was also said, I watched kids come off the floor on stoppages not even bother to acknowledge Dernbach talking to them.  Those are issues that need correcting.  I'm going off memory here, but UWSP isn't going to beat anyone when Josiah Butler and Cal Krohn combine for 6(I think) points.  Butler failed to score.  Butler has improved defensively this season but regressed on the offensive end.

The depth of this Pointer team has been brought up as well, and listening to Coach Dernbach's pre and postgame commentary, as well as the radio shows, he has brought up needing to build the depth over and over.    The lack of depth, to me, comes down to 2 things.  Casey Verhagen transferred.  This made it so the only guard off the bench you're willing to put on the floor is a freshman who isn't an offensive threat whatsoever.  I'm on record as not liking Darrius Bolden's game, I think he plays carelessly.  He dribbles into double teams over and over, he leaves his feet a lot when he should play off 2 feet and he takes extremely inefficient deep step back 2's often.  I would expect Verhagen to be a better option to start at PG than Bolden.  Verhagen I think has backed that up with his play at Concordia Wisconsin thus far.  With that said, even if he isn't starting, Verhagen would be a huge upgrade as your backup guard.  And secondly, the transfer post you brought in to be able to spell Krohn, turned out to be terrible and impossible to put on the floor.  You went into the year knowing you needed another post that could play minutes for you, and it didn't happen.  Now, you're stuck throwing Baumgartner out there as your backup 5.  Baumgartner certainly battles out there but he shouldn't be in that position.  The last couple games Tyshawn-Teague Johnson and Grant Manz have gotten a few spot minutes, that needs to continue.  I know you want to build the depth at practice, but they need some minutes in actual games too.

Sorry for the rambling but that's my 2 cents.  UWSP is vulnerable because of this depth issue, an issue Dernbach needs to fix for next season.  You lose a PG and a versatile wing out of the 7 guys that get meaningful minutes.  I think Tyshawn-Teague Johnson can step into Malik's role but I don't think you have a guard on the roster ready for starter minutes.  If Manz continues to improve, I can see him being the backup big you needed this year but more depth in the post is important too.

[Greek Tragedy]

No need to apologize for your rambling. I'd actually prefer more of your ramblings than just recruit updates. Trust me, I appreciate those too, but other post-game reactions, positive or negative, are welcome.

I couldn't agree with you more on your points. As bad as Bolden can be, he can be just as good. We don't win that Stout game without him, but then again, we could've easily lost that game with him. I was mistaken thinking he had one more year, which I don't think he has. Depth has been a problem all year and I don't see it magically getting better with the games we have left. That will be a big concern next year as well. However, throwing Combs out there now will only help next year and hopefully he'll figure out some offense.

With Butler regressing offensively, we really don't have a go-to guy. We definitely can't go into a game thinking we're just going to outscore everyone and tomorrow's game against Eau Claire could be a high scoring affair in their new gym. Huschka is basically unstoppable.

This was the first game (and maybe the Platteville game) that was a real clunker. So, hopefully Coach can get them back to playing at the level that helped us beat Trine and Christopher Newport.

We also have to get out of playing so poorly in the 1st half.

I was planning on hitting up the Stout/Platteville game and then taking the short drive to Eau Claire for the Point game...even heading back to Stout for the Pointer hockey game. However, life got in the way. Guess I'll be content on watching games on the internet all day instead.

[palum]

Platteville bounces back from their loss to WW with 84-54 win at Stout. Platteville was up 41-24 at halftime and they held Stout scoreless for nearly the first 5 minutes of the 2nd half and were in control for the rest of the game. Logan Pearson led Platteville with 18 points followed by Brady Olson with 15. Platteville is at Oshkosh Wednesday then hosts La Crosse and Stevens Point.

[Greek Tragedy]

https://athletics.uwsp.edu/news/2025/1/25/mens-basketball-pointers-fall-at-uwec-despite-game-high-24-from-butler.aspx

Point drops their 2nd in a row and 1st on the road in conference, 71-66, at Eau Claire. No moral wins, but at least they did play better this time around instead of their forgettable home loss to Oshkosh in mid-week. Point's MO is to have major scoring droughts and it happened again a few times tonight. Point trailed most of the 1st half and found themselves down 27-20 with just under 6 minutes to play. They responded with an impressive 11-0 run to take the lead 31-27 with about 2 1/2 minutes to go before intermission. The visitors went into one of their patented cold spells and failed to score the rest of the half, trailing 33-31.

It was close at 44-40, Eau Claire, with 16 minutes to play and then Point's cold shooting reared it's ugly head again. It was nearly 4 minutes before they scored again, failing behind 57-42. That's basically all she wrote, though Point got it down to 6 with a minute to go.

Josiah Butler bounced back in a big way from midweek, scoring 24. Abdul-Wahid and 12 and 8. Krohn had 10 and Carter Combs came off the bench going 4-4 from the field for 10 points. Point did forced 15 turnovers, but were out rebounded and let Eau Claire shoot 58%.

Point hosts Whitewater on Wednesday. The Warhawks knocked off Platteville in midweek and lost a close one to La Crosse tonight, so they are playing a lot better than the Pointers.


https://www.letsgopioneers.com/sports/mbkb/2024-25/releases/20250125wixobt

Platteville demolished Stout in Menomonie, 84-54. Stout, after starting out 3-0 in conference, have now dropped 4 straight.

https://uwlathletics.com/news/2025/1/25/uwl-earns-road-victory-at-uw-whitewater-to-extend-win-streak-to-five-all-five-starters-in-double-figures.aspx

La Crosse avoided the upset bug in Whitewater, surviving the Warhawks 80-75. Whitewater, trying to piggyback their impressive win at Platteville, has now alternated wins and losses the last 5 games.

https://uwoshkoshtitans.com/news/2025/1/25/mens-basketball-four-titans-score-double-digits-in-wire-to-wire-win-over-falcons.aspx

Oshkosh, winless in their first 5 conference games, have now won 2 in a row after a wire-to-wire in over River Falls, 81-68. The Falcons have now dropped four in a row.