MBB: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Mr. Downtown]

I love doing these things, it really open's the door to what people think in the WIAC, and leaves room to debate.

All-WIAC
Matt Miller, Oshkosh
DJ Marsh, Oshkosh
Ryan Shea, Eau Claire
Rob Perry, Whitewater
Jeff Skemp, Platteville

All-WIAC 6th Man

Mike Shaw, Platteville

Mid-Year POY
This is tough, I mean, real tough.
DJ Marsh, Oshkosh. I would even make the case that he is the most feared player in the WIAC, along with Jeff Skemp.

Mid-Year ROY
I have yet to see Jake Smith play, but his numbers are really good. But, it's hard to overlook Ryan Shea's performance too, and I've seen Shea play.
Ryan Shea, Eau Claire

Mid-Year COY
Can we have Co-Mid-Year COY's?
Terry Gibbons, Eau Claire

Best Game of the Year
Non-Conference : Oshkosh over Elmhurst
Conference: Point over Platteville

And to throw one more category out there, cause I think he deserves some credit:

Mid-Year DOY (Defensive Player of the Year)
Jordan Johnson, Oshkosh

[titansrus]

All WIAC:
DJ Marsh
Rob Perry
Dwight Hill
Matt Miller
Dan Beyer

Reasoning for Miller over Skemp: with no really other "big guys" in the WIAC, I would have thought Skemp would have dominated, but there are games when he's quiet-Point comes to mind. Plus Miller is probably the biggest 3 point threat in conference and we all know the 3 ball can be the equalizer. And he plays more minutes and averages more points than Skemp. His transformation from the last 2 years has been fun to watch.

Hard to keep Skemp, Shea, and Jake Smith off.

6th man:
Mike Shaw

POY:
Since this is Player of the Year and not MVP, I have to go with Dan Beyer.
Consideration to Marsh and Perry.

If it's MVP, I would have to go with Dwight Hill and Rob Perry, because I think EC can survive w/o Beyer for periods of time (I saw it against Oshkosh) and we'll see how WW does w/o Perry. Hill has proved vital to Superior's success this season, and he's only a sophomore. There are a lot of very good undergrads which should shape up for some great basketball in years to come.

POY:
Ryan Shea. Makes less mistakes than Mane and is a better defender, but both are very good players. Tough to keep Smith off, but he hurt himself with a poor showing against Point.

COY:
Buchanan: I agree with Cubs. Gibbons is doing a great job with EC, as is TVD, but I haven't seen Superior in the tournament in my 4 years at Oshkosh. Plus they were picked to finish last. Things are turning up in Canada.

Game of the year:
Platteville over River Falls. Obviously the Point-Platteville game was great as all acounts say, but when was the last time you saw a team overcome a ten point deficit in the last minute and take the lead before the end of regulation?

[Greek Tragedy]

I love doing these things too.  It gets the board involved because, even during the season, it can get pretty bland.

I love doing these things, it really open's the door to what people think in the WIAC, and leaves room to debate.

All-WIAC
Matt Miller, Oshkosh
DJ Marsh, Oshkosh
Ryan Shea, Eau Claire
Rob Perry, Whitewater
Jeff Skemp, Platteville

Mid-Year POY
This is tough, I mean, real tough.
DJ Marsh, Oshkosh. I would even make the case that he is the most feared player in the WIAC, along with Jeff Skemp.

And to throw one more category out there, cause I think he deserves some credit:

Mid-Year DOY (Defensive Player of the Year)
Jordan Johnson, Oshkosh

Let the debating begin. 

1.)  No Dan Beyer?  Wow.  I realize you're an Oshkosh fan, but seriously.  I think Matt Miller has been really good, but you can't put him in front of Beyer.  I'm not going to look at the numbers and argue from that, but I guess it is YOUR choice! lol...

2.)  At least you didn't put an Oshkosh player down for 6th man of the mid-year! lol...

3.)  As a tongue-in-cheek comment, I think you just added that last category so you could stick another Oshkosh player in there.  Ironically, the women's side does have an "All Defense" team, at least in the past they have.

4.)  I'll eat a little crow and say that DJ Marsh has been more than impressive.  Not to say I thought he was going to be a piece of wood when the season started, but he has impressed me and I've said countless times that he's basically unstoppable.  There, I said it.

[badgerwarhawk]

Nobody has Matt Goodwin in their starting five?  You guys are missing the boat.  

Perry will be hard to replace obviously and some guys like Vernon, Kolinske, King and Dustin Mitchell need to step it up a notch.  Kolinske and Vernon both scored in double figures last night.  Voice thought Kolinske played his best game of the season.  Vernon has been playing pretty well since being inserted into the starting lineup a few weeks ago.  Mitchell led the team with 8 rebounds and added nine points.   McKay added a few extra points as well.  Plus the team had 29 assists on 34 baskets made and was 11 of 18 from beyond the arch.  

We aren't the same team without Rob and we'll have to go about things a little bit differently.  But with the exception of Platteville no one has a strong inside presence so that doesn't put us in any different boat than others.  

[Brian Carroll]

This morning's La Crosse Tribune reports that last year's POY, Joe Werner, has arrived in Australia.He will be playing for the Club Kilsyth Cobras of the South East Australian Basketball League. The Cobras' "club director of coaching" is Rodd Popp, who coached Ken Koelbl at Viterbo University in La Crosse. Good luck to a great player and an outstanding young man.

[badgerwarhawk]

Good luck, Joe.   

[cubs]

Nobody has Matt Goodwin in their starting five?  You guys are missing the boat.  

Well give us "your" starting five then, so we can se who you would omit from your list...

[Greek Tragedy]

The league is very balanced this year with only a handful of "sure bets", IMO.  We have a starting 5, yet the league has 10(?) 1st team all-conference players.  There are 9 conference teams, so it's hard to come up with just five.  Obviously, some players are going to be left out of "our starting five" but will be on the 1st team when it comes out at the end of the year. 

Mr. DT asked for our starting 5, not our starting 10! lol 

[badgerwarhawk]

Well give us "your" starting five then, so we can se who you would omit from your list...

Normally I don't bother with this at the midpoint of the season when I haven't even seen all the teams play.  But since you've asked.

Skemp, Perry, Marsh, Goodwin and Beyer.

[Mr. Downtown]

No Dan Beyer?  Wow.

Yes, he has had some good games this year, but I think he totally benefits having Geoff Probst down in the low blocks with him.

I saw Jordan Johnson shut him down, and Dane Seckar-Anderson score at will against EC, while having big troubles with Jeff Skemp, and Rob Perry even had a better game against Osh, than Beyer.

Out of all the front court players, I would rank them as in order I would want to have:
1) Perry
2) Skemp
3) DSA
4) Jake Smith
5) Dan Beyer

Plus, Matt Miller has been quite good this year, and was the hardest player to put in between Matt Goodwin and him. Goodwin is on fire, and if I went with the recent hot hand, I would go with Goodwin, so it's a toss up between the two.

I know for Women's Volleyball, they have an all-defensive team, which is kinda weird when Basketball doesn't have a All-WIAC Defensive team, while Volleyball does.

[Greek Tragedy]

I know for Women's Volleyball, they have an all-defensive team, which is kinda weird when Basketball doesn't have a All-WIAC Defensive team, while Volleyball does.

Women's basketball has an All-Defensive team, but not the men's...now that's what's weird.

Normally I don't bother with this at the midpoint of the season when I haven't even seen all the teams play.  But since you've asked.

Skemp, Perry, Marsh, Goodwin and Beyer.

I think you're taking this a little too seriously, BW.  It's for fun.  I haven't seen everyone play either, but I think we can all use our educated guesses and realize who should be AC and who shouldn't.  If I didn't see DJ Marsh yet, I'm pretty sure I'd pick him to be on the team.  Relax! lol.  I haven't seen Rob Perry yet, so does that disqualify him from my list?

I am surprised about Jake Smith.  I know we sometimes criticize (or observe) that Point really doesn't have that much of an inside presence, though it's improved with the play of Wotachek and even Beamish, and Hurd filling in the middle.  I really thought Smith would put up some big numbers, but Point really played solid interior team defense on Jake.  Of course, Hill kind of killed us in the first half!

It's not surprising not to see any Point players make the list and in fact, not sure how many would make the top 10.  They spread the ball out so well that no one player is head and shoulders above the rest.  Pete Rortvedt has been in a big slump probably the last half dozen or more games and Hicklin's scoring has been down.  Beamish seems to have come on strong lately, but we get so much from our bench that I could see no one making 1st team all conference by having 6 or 8 guys make honorable mention.  And you know what, that wouldn't bother me one bit.  We're still winning!

Oh yeah, after doing some "research" for the next poll, I'm going to have to reluctantly take Ryan Shea out of my starting 5 and put in Dwight Hill...he won't feel too bad because he still gets Rookie of the Year (of course, rookie doesn't necessarily mean freshman, does it?  Rookie could be like "newcomer").

[badgerwarhawk]

I'm not taking it seriously at all, OS.   That was just my disclaimer.

[Greek Tragedy]

POLL

Ryan Shea's stat line is:

v PL:  19 pts, 6 rebs, 5 asts, 6 stls and 2 blks...

Not sure why it didn't register.

[John Gleich]

Wow, noone has ANYBODY from Stevens Point?  Interesting...

I think that Beamish might get a look... he's been an absolute stud the last few games.

[JJcronus]

This morning's La Crosse Tribune reports that last year's POY, Joe Werner, has arrived in Australia.He will be playing for the Club Kilsyth Cobras of the South East Australian Basketball League. The Cobras' "club director of coaching" is Rodd Popp, who coached Ken Koelbl at Viterbo University in La Crosse. Good luck to a great player and an outstanding young man.

[Wow, if it's the same Rod Popp, he coached High School BB and Baseball in 1970's  - Iola, Wi.  I Know, as I played baseball for him in 1972.