MBB: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Greek Tragedy]

WIAC TOURNEY POOL-STARTS MONDAY!!!!

Stats for last day of regular season will be up later.

Monday, February 25
Quarterfinals
UW-Stout (#8) at UW-Whitewater (#1), 7 p.m.
UW-Superior (#5) at UW-Oshkosh (#4), 7 p.m.
UW-La Crosse (#6) at UW-Stevens Point (#3), 7 p.m.
UW-Eau Claire (#7) at UW-Platteville (#2), 7 p.m.

TOO KEEP CONSISTENT WITH THE CONFIDENCE POOL:

Unlike previous years where the four 1st round games were 5 pts, semis were 10 pts and the final was 20 pts, this is how it's going to work.

There are SEVEN total games, so you will use points 1-7 for the games...4 1st round games, 2 semi-final games and the final.  As usual, you must pick THE WINNERS FOR ALL SEVEN GAMES RIGHT AWAY.

example:

Quarter #1:  7 pts
Quarter #2:  6 pts
Quarter #3:  5 pts
Quarter #4:  1 pt

Semi #1:  4 pts
Semi #2:  2 pts

Final:  3 pts

[Greek Tragedy]

EDIT #1: I guess TVD and I are on the same page. From today's local newspaper:
"Offensively, I don't know what (Marsh's) deal is," Van Dellen said. "He has not done well in the last two or three ball games. I don't know if he is not getting enough touches or what the situation is, but he needs to find ways to get himself the ball and assert himself."

If this isn't throwing your star player under the bus, I don't know what is.  Ouch!

[cubs]

EDIT #1: I guess TVD and I are on the same page. From today's local newspaper:
"Offensively, I don't know what (Marsh's) deal is," Van Dellen said. "He has not done well in the last two or three ball games. I don't know if he is not getting enough touches or what the situation is, but he needs to find ways to get himself the ball and assert himself."

If this isn't throwing your star player under the bus, I don't know what is.  Ouch!

I guess I don't see TVD's comments as being too negative.  Maybe I just have thicker skin, I don't know.....  He implies that part of the problem is that he may need more touches.  What's wrong with that?

[Mr. Downtown]

This quote reminds me about what hoopshead brought up last week, stating that this team had more fire, determination, and passion then last year's.

To me, I think TVD is challenging Marsh's fire right now, and the coach knows when you have an outstanding player (Dworak) they can take a team, throw it on his shoulders, and lead them to great things.

Capelle couldn't do that, and now it's Marsh's turn. Everyone knows that Marsh is the biggest difference maker on the team. He needs to take over, and he hasn't.

Hopefully today, is the day.

[phoenix_rising]

I can't see Superior pulling off another upset--of course I wouldn't see it because I'll be 300+ miles away--for many reasons. One, Oshkosh is going to be steaming for a win to prove it is a contending team. Two, Oshkosh has more experience in post-season play (actually, I didn't look at any statistics, so I could be wrong; however, with more upper-classmen getting more playing time, at least they have more experience); Superior players will be drained just from driving up and down the state for three days. I'm assuming they came home Saturday night. If I had been Buchanan, I would have been making phone calls from Oshkosh right after Saturday's game, begging for the opportunity to stay put.

If it's hunger that will win this, though, I'd say Superior could make it a game. If they can overcome the bus-legs, the jitters, the expectations out there that they can't win, they could put up a good fight. And, just perhaps, maybe Saturday and Wednesday weren't upsets. Maybe they were the logical conclusion to a team that's peaking at the right time. I can only hope.

I don't know if it will be a pretty game, though. I would like to think both teams will respect each other for what they can do/have done and play hard and clean.

I will be cheering for Superior. I'll be huddled up next to the computer, likely watching live stats rather than listening. I suspect the UWS radio crew won't be down there, although men's hockey is over and no one cares that the women's hockey team is doing well.

But I blather on.  Time to get on with Monday.

[Mr. Downtown]

Seeing today is the 1st conference tournament, it's time to look at the history books to see if anything should repeat itself.

1) No surprise, the #1 seed has been the most successful, winning the conference tournament 5 times, while never losing the Championship game (reason why later).

2) What is somewhat of a surprise, is that the #2 has appeared in more Conference Championship games then the #1 seed, which is at 6. The #2 seed has won the conference tournament, twice, in 2004 and 2005

3) The #4 seed also have been very successful, appearing in the conference championship game 4 times, winning in 2001 and 2003.

4) This may be bad news for Point fans, but the #3 seed has been nothing for bad luck for teams.

  A) Since the first tournament in 1999, the #6 seed has won the majority of the first round contests with #3, holding the advantage 5-4.

  B) The #6 seed has been to the conference championship game twice, in 1999 and 2001.

  C) The #3 seed has only been to the conference championship game once, in 2002.

5) Oshkosh had the best conference tournament record from 1999-2003, when the accumulated a record of 10-3.

6) Oshkosh has been 3-4 since 2004.

7) Stevens Point has won the most conference tournaments, with 4.
   Second is  Oshkosh with 2, then Whitewater, Platteville, and Eau Claire with 1

8. Whitewater has never beaten Oshkosh in the conference tournament. Two of the games were in Whitewater.

9) Superior only has one conference tournament win, in 2000, as the #5 seed.

10) Last nugget: The home team in the conference championship game is 8-1. The lone loss?
2002: Oshkosh @ Whitewater

[UWRF]

The RF/WW game is now my vote for WIAC game of the year.  There was atleast 10 second half lead changes.  Both teams shooting lights out in a great atmosphere was awesome.

Halftime score: 40-40
10 mins left: 60-60
5 mins left: 69-69

For those of you who weren't there or maybe even were there but did notice: McKay's foul of Wright with under a min to go was genius! WW was up 3 and Wright had a wide open drive to the hoop when McKay fouled him, Wright missed the front end of the one and one and RF couldnt recover. 

WW has hands down the best facilities in the WIAC, however the lighting is kinda crappy in Kachel.  Why not light the bleachers??

[stormy]

[

WW has hands down the best facilities in the WIAC, however the lighting is kinda crappy in Kachel.  Why not light the bleachers??




[/quote]

YOU MIGHT NOT WANT TO SEE WHO YOU ARE SITTING NEXT TO 

[badgerwarhawk]

CHAMPIONS

[Pioneer Hoops Fan]

Point Special, Old School, other Point fans/posters:

Sorry for the tardiness of the post, but the weekend was pretty hectic and I haven't had a chance until now.

I will say that I was very impressed with the Point contingent of fans at the game on Saturday.  I can't remember seeing a visitor's crowd so large in WFH before.

The game was exciting to watch.  With the way Platteville was playing, and shooting for that matter it would've been tough to beat them.  But since it seems everyone feels they're playing 5 on 8 in WFH, I'm sure it would be tough to beat the Pioneers there 

Starting with your comments on Coach Combs' radio interview.  Having played for him only 1 year, but being around him since.  His team, including the coaches and players, put a ton of time into preparing themselves for games, as well as with recruiting.  Every team in the conference does, so when Platteville plays whoever, they know it is the same situation on the other bench so I think they obviously can relate to the other team and there is that respect factor.  I think that when you add also that it was Point on Saturday and you're earned success over the years, there is maybe added respect for the program, and feeling pretty good when beating a quality team and program. 

The officiating was unusual, I will give you that.  But in that second half to start, Point came out with a little more pep in their step than Platteville I think, which led to the barrage of fouls to start for Platteville.  Pioneers seemed a step slow at first, but also were calm enough to "weather the storm".  You said that Point seemed a step slow on the perimeter, causing the break down on defense and the fouls called.  I don't know if I've seen the fouls called in such a streak before, but I can't truly imagine the crowd was the deciding factor on getting the refs to blow the whistles.  Maybe if that particular crew has that stigma, I guess it's possible but highly doubt it.

As far as the carrying violations are concerned, if Langenfeld had played more, I'm sure it would've been 3-3.  He does it quite a bit, and usually is the quilty party of the violation.

Jeff standing in the lane has been a constant gripe with opponents, and I'll be the first to tell you that yes, he is camping in there.  He was called for it twice, and Eric Wall once on Saturday.  Here is where I respond to this:

Seems like someone said some of these same words after UWW played at Platteville and the response was that the UWW players should learn how to be better basketball players to avoid the fouls  mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Point players were not constantly getting fouls for leaning on Jeff.  At this point, Jeff camps out, but hasn't been called for it consistently.  If you can get away with leaning, camping, or other particular aspects of the game even if they are "illegal" by definition why change your game.  But if you are getting called for the same fouls, many 3 seconds in the lane...MAKE THE ADJUSTMENT!  Play straight up, don't lean.  Camping too much, giving your team too many missed opprotunities because you're standing there...get your rear end out of the lane.  I'm sure that if Jeff gets called for multiple violations, he's going to not stand in the lane as much and get in and out.

[John Gleich]

Jeff standing in the lane has been a constant gripe with opponents, and I'll be the first to tell you that yes, he is camping in there.  He was called for it twice, and Eric Wall once on Saturday.  Here is where I respond to this:

Actually, my initial post was due to his DEFENSIVE presence in the lane...  He didn't block any shots, but he ate up a ton of space and changed some shots that were then missed.  Point's usually pretty good at getting around defenders and having some space to work in that 12-17 foot space, but with Skemp's long arms, the passing lanes to players cutting around the basket was less than it has been much of the rest of the year.


Should be another great battle if both teams make it to Wednesday!

and re: the Point contingent... it would have been more if Platteville hadn't been so stinking far away!  I personally asked like 10 people to come to the game, but they didn't want to spend 6+ hours in the car!

[mab]

It looks like Ted Van Dellen doesn't agree with some of the posters here who think UWO's season has been disappointing.  Today's Oshkosh Daily Northwestern says:

Van Dellen said regardless of what happens in the tournament, his team has much to be proud about.  "They've come a long way," Van Dellen said.

[Just Bill]

I personally asked like 10 people to come to the game, but they didn't want to spend 6+ hours in the car!

Perhaps you should consider an underarm deodorant of some kind.

[Greek Tragedy]

EDIT #1: I guess TVD and I are on the same page. From today's local newspaper:
"Offensively, I don't know what (Marsh's) deal is," Van Dellen said. "He has not done well in the last two or three ball games. I don't know if he is not getting enough touches or what the situation is, but he needs to find ways to get himself the ball and assert himself."

Possibly a better way to put it?


Offensively, I don't know what (Marsh's) struggles are.  He has not done well in the last two or three ball games.  I don't know if we're not getting him enough touches or what the situation is.  Maybe I need to find more ways to get him the ball so he can assert himself.

In the first paragraph, it's all about Marsh, he, he, he, he (and I'm not laughing!), himself etc.  There is no hint of TVD taking any responsibility for his team.  Maybe say, as a coaching staff, they need to find more ways to get him the ball, run some plays tailored to him.  Maybe he's getting tired out, sub him earlier in the game so he's fresh at the end...etc.  There are ways to say, "Hey, Marsh has to put this team on his shoulders etc" without putting all the blame on him, and the way he did it wasn't one of them, IMO.

[John Gleich]

I personally asked like 10 people to come to the game, but they didn't want to spend 6+ hours in the car!

Perhaps you should consider an underarm deodorant of some kind.

... Touche!  One of them was my wife, though.... if b.o. was a problem, then she would have said something a LONG time ago....!