MBB: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Greek Tragedy]

I was sure they were on Mondays.  In addition, Wednesday's wouldn't make any sense since there are games on that day! 

[John Gleich]

I was sure they were on Mondays.  In addition, Wednesday's wouldn't make any sense since there are games on that day! 

Yep, exactly.  Maybe I'll just check with one of my inside sources...

[John Gleich]

Point losing to Lawrence 36-29 at the half.  No Pete Rortvedt... he apparently got a concussion last night in practice.  Also still no Louis Hurd, though Jared Jenkins has gotten a few minutes.

Speaking of Lou...  He's got a blog over at NCAA.com:

http://www.ncaa.com/blog/louis-hurd-blog.html

Only two posts thusfar


Lawrence is shooting like they did in the first half of the Elite 8 game in 200443... they're 5/7 from 3 (they were 8/10 in Tacoma Washington in '04).  Neither of these teams is as good as those two that tied it up several years ago... Point even less-so shorthanded.  I've only caught a bit of it, but it's being webcasted via Penn Atlantic (must register, but it's free).

Point has only shot about 30%, and Larry U has shot about 60%... we'll see what happens in the second half.

Btw, UWW up to #2 in the country, UW Platte up to #5, Point down to #7.

47-32 Lawrence in the second half 16:05 to go.  Ouch.

[buf]

UWEC over Finlandia, 74-66.  Gibbons wins 200th game.

[John Gleich]

Point loses 75-59.  It really wasn't all that close... El Amin hit two FT's and got a steal and a 3 in the last few seconds.

[buf]

Superior wins 86-49.

[BanditUWSP]

A hard game for Pointer fans to watch at Lawrence tonight.  After taking a 1 point lead at 26-25, it was all Vikings after that.  It was one of those games where it seemed like LU had more rebounds, 3 pointers and a bigger scoring margin than the final stats showed.  Playing without Pete Rortvedt and Louis Hurd really seemed to take it's toll tonight.  LU looked great; blocking shots, hitting 3's, really going after rebounds and loose balls and forcing Point into taking shots as the clock ran down.  A lot of work to do as Whitewater comes to town on Saturday.  As usual, nice visiting with Old School and Swampgoon again.

[phoenix_rising]

I had to leave the Superior game at halftime: didn't look like the team needed my help and there were a couple of obnoxious kids in the stands. The snappiest comeback to anything was, "Oh, really?!" After you've heard that 20 or 30 times, it gets old. When a team like Northland is getting smacked around like it has the last couple of games, it doesn't make much sense for the stand-fans to go after them. Anyway, lots of Soups got in--may have been everybody but Ostendorf, who's nursing a (possible?) concussion from UMD game. He should be back on the court Saturday. It isn't hard to look good against the weaker teams, so I can't say much more than the game was never in danger. It took almost two minutes into the game before Nland got the ball past midcourt. I figured then the win was pretty secure.

On the up side, there were quite a few people in the stands. Large group from Ashland, I suspect, including what most likely was the Ashland boys basketball team. I was sort of hoping they'd take care of the Oh, Really guy. I suppose that would have been unsportsmanlike and against WIAC policy.

[Greek Tragedy]

Vikings Pillage Pointers 75-59...

Man, not much to say.  It was an ugly game.  Point never looked like they were going to get back in it in the 2nd half.  They had no energy, no rebounding, no shooting.  Credit LU with a great defensive effort.  The Journal Sentinel said that Point had won 18 in a row in the series.  Guess it was time!

Oh yeah, Brian Beamish-zero rebounds.  Ouch.

[AndOne]

WEATHER REPORT for any UWL and/or UWW fans planning on attending games in Elmhurst and Naperville this evening.................

Right now its mostly cloudy and 38. Streets in the area are completely clear.
Supposed to begin raining at about 2 PM and start turning to snow around 4 PM.
Total accumulation expected to be 2-3 inches by very late night-early morning. By the time the games end we should probably only be approaching the 2 inch mark. I see the estimate for Whitewater is 4 inches. Hopefully, by time to head back north, the plows will have had time to make things manageable.
Charge up those cell phones and throw some extra coats, gloves, and a shovel in the trunk as an added precaution. Safe trips to all.     

[John Gleich]

Vikings Pillage Pointers 75-59...

Man, not much to say.  It was an ugly game.  Point never looked like they were going to get back in it in the 2nd half.  They had no energy, no rebounding, no shooting.  Credit LU with a great defensive effort.  The Journal Sentinel said that Point had won 18 in a row in the series.  Guess it was time!

Oh yeah, Brian Beamish-zero rebounds.  Ouch.

... Since 1955!  LU broke a 53 year losing streak!

I think it is safe to say (not to downplay what the Vikes did last night...)  that Point is not a top 10 team without Rortvedt and Hurd.  That said, I think Coach Semling might have said that Hurd could be back for Saturday... though to what extent is questionable.  And I may have misheard him.

I am wondering about the accuracy of the stat sheet to be honest... the radio guys said that Point had 5 TOs in the first half... and they ended with 6.  I did not watch the whole game, though I listened to most of it, and it seemed like Point had more TOs than that...

But none the less, even if Point DID have just 6 TOs, it just underscores how poorly Point shot the basketball.  Look at the stat sheet... Point took 12 more shots and made 7 fewer.  Yikes.  Now, some of those extras were bunnies that were missed that were rebounded and missed again...

Point actually had an advantage in rebounding in the first half... but that clearly went away in the second half.  Other than the clear offensive presence, this is another place where Point missed Rortvedt... he is actually leading the conference in defensive rebounds at 6.25 per game.  And I think Rortvedts hustle was missed as well... times when Pete throws his body around (ultimately, what as caused the injuries that have kept him off the floor as well) have lit a fire under his teammates rears and caused them to dig deeper.  This was missing last night.  And I do not know how Point will compete on Saturday without heart, without hustle.  Perhaps they won't.

I think that without Pete and Lou, someone needs to step up and BE the go to guy.  Moses and El Amin have shown that they can score and score lots... each have poured in 26 points in two of the first five games.  Now, perhaps they were able to do this because there was another major scoring threat that allowed them to score against the individual they were put up against (I think of Jon Krull in in the final four against John Carroll going for 25 on 10/14 shooting and 22 against Rochester on 8/12 shooting... if you take away the main threats, someone else will step up and destroy you).

One of the problems last night was that Point was almost completely one dimensional on individual plays.  They got tunnel vision... and didn't react when they needed to.  Beamish had several sweeping layups that were missed... but by the time that Beamer got that deep, he didn't have any other options and had to take a tough shot.  Now, truly, he usually makes that shot more often than not... and if he misses, he is there for his rebound.  however, without a legitimate deep threat, the defense sagged and made everything even tougher and so when he missed, there was no offensive rebound.

I think Larry U made some adjustments at halftime to cut down on Points offensive rebounds.  And the stat sheet shows this... Point only got 4 of their 15 offensive rebounds (15, in and of itself being a fairly healthy number), two of which were team boards, likely balls bouncing off a Vike and heading out of bounds.  I do not think the stat sheet is accurate in the number of second chance points for the game... it states that Point was ahead in that regard 8-3.

But Lawrence also started cutting down Points inside while capitalizing on there own.  LU had 18 second half points in the paint to SP's 4 after LU had a lead of 14-10 in the first half.  Notably, two of LUs last three baskets were in the paint (in addition to a late 3 that really thrust a dagger into Points heart going into the half)... meaning that at the 3:45 mark the teams were basically even (Points last bucket of the half was in the paint as well).

Oh well.  It it the third of December.  No championship was ever won or lost in December.  This team has a long ways to go (in health as well as play) but I think that they do have a chance to compete for the conference championship and get back to the NCAA tournament.

[frodotwo]

Saw the SP/LU game first hand and this was one of the worst shooting nights I've seen by the Pointers EVER. No one was hitting jumpers consistently other than Matt Moses and there was absolutely no inside game to speak of. Beamish almost refuses to try an outside shot even though they are available. If he would take a couple long ones early in games it would open up his lanes to the basket on drives, but LU just sat back and waited for him to drive, drive, drive. He can hit the shot from the outside and that in turn softens up the inside. Conversely I'm just sick & tired of seeing Wotachek shooting 16-20 foot jump shots. If he  would get under the basket and in the lane where he belongs instead of out on the floor he would get better looks and more rebounds. At 6'8" and 245 lbs he should play inside. Why Brezinski didn't play in the second half I can't even guess. He missed his shots but at least they were mostly within 10 feet of the basket where a big guy should be. Enough rants. LU played better than Point and certainly deserved the win. And it wasn't as close as the final score indicates.

[WisconsionBall]

Where is Lou? Is he hurt or what?

[Hoops Junkie]

Man is it just me or does it seem like point has taken a big turn to the south. 

Platteville and Whitewater have to be the favs

[badgerwarhawk]

The WARHAWKS lead North Central (Ill) 31-25 at the half.  Eight players have scored led by Kevin Koski with 6 points.  The lead had been as great as 10 points but turnovers (10) are hurting the WARHAWKS.  Three-point shooting has been good, 4-7, and scoring defense (37%) are helping maintain the lead. 

The WARHAWKS finished with a 62-54 victory.  After expanding the lead to 10 points, 50-40, with less than 10 minutes remaining the WARHAWKS went cold and failed to score for over 7 minutes as North Central whittled the lead down to 3 points with two minutes remaining.  The teams exchanged baskets until a personal foul and technical foul was called on North Central and the WARHAWKS made all four free throws to lead 58-51.  North Central made three free throws but the WARHAWKS went 4-4 with a pair by Tyson Kingsby and Myles McKay to finish the game and secure the win.

McKay led the WARHAWKS with 15 points and Billy Kolinski added 11.   The WARHAWKS out rebounded North Central 35-20 led by Kori Vernon, Kolinski and McKay with 7 apiece.  Turnovers were an issue as the WARHAWKS had 18 to only 10 for North Central.  However scoring defense was solid as North Central finished with only 35% from the floor despite 11 additional shots.