MBB: Midwest Conference

[titan2000]

Roop is right and just.  Give him your karma.  Give til it hurts.  It's my next move.

[titan2000]

Roop, you now have positive karma.  You're welcome. 

[falco1610]

Roop,
     You act like Beliot is a frequent NCAA tournament team.   You would love to be a CC Pioneer right now.   Sorry no room on the bandwagon for you.

T2K-  I hope you aren't planning on bring any youngsters into the what will be a PG-13 rated environment when LU comes to the Pio Dome.  Maybe you and roop can have a romantic evening together instead.


     

[Greek Tragedy]

as a carroll fan, i would love to play grinnell in the first round of the tournament for a few specific reasons:

- "the system" is hoops101 for pussies, it is not the tough, physical style that REAL teams (ie carroll) play.  i have no respect for "the system", no fear of "the system", and if i say "the system" one more time i'm gonna puke!  "puke, that's a funny word...jerry...can i use that?"

I can't wait for jeffp's rebuttal.

[dahammer]

Mr. Wallace as a fellow CC follower settle down, there are still games to be played before the MWC tourney.  Way too early for any trash talk!!?

[Gregory Sager]

Now I'd just like to see LU run the table and see how far they can go in the NCAA tourney...They really have an opportunity to put the MWC on the map for good as an very good/elite conference....a lot of pressure is going to be on LU for the tourney as being the possible #1 team in the country...WOW what a year they are having, so they will definitely have to perform...

Another deep tourney run by Lawrence isn't going to put the MWC on the map as an elite conference. Other conferences that have no reputation as elite circuits, either in their own backyard or on the national scene, have had teams get into the Final Four: The Little Eight (Southern Maine in '89, UMass-Dartmouth in '93), the Penn AC (Alvernia in '97), and the CAC (Catholic in '01 and York of PA last season) all leap to mind. Heck, Catholic even won the whole kit and kaboodle that year, and I didn't hear anyone touting the CAC as one of the top circuits afterwards.

What the MWC has to do is: 1) sustain this kind of tournament success on an annual or semi-annual basis; and 2) get other programs besides Tharp's to start whomping regularly on the elites in non-conference play, both early in the regular season and in the post-season. The excellence of a league is measured by its depth as much as, if not more than, by the achievements of its champion.

[hjmphelp]

Sager-
Semi-annual? You mean we have to do it twice a year? I knew some of you had incredible bias against the MWC but this is rediculous!

Old School-
What rebuttal is needed here? Just some little boy learning how to self stimulate.

[titan2000]

Falco:

You may recall that I reported on the Outagamie County Sheriff's increase in staffing every time CC comes to Alexander;  we expect even more boorish and offensive behavior from CC at home. 

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Hey, I just noticed something.  If you hit a karma button (positive or negative) and then hit the other one right away, you can reverse your previous karma and add one on the other side.  In other words, you can knock someone back and forth from 6 to 4 and back to 6 over and over again.  That's kind of fun.

[viking68]

Calm down viking...I don't think it's even remotely a slight to LU, so don't act like it is one.

Okay, okay... So maybe I jumped the gun a bit and got a little defensive - sue me - I played on the Viking football team for 4 years and am so excited to see an LU team being successful... I had to defend my football team for years (still do), so I can get a little defensive when it seems like people aren't respecting the Vikings...

My bad, I'm sorry
LU still champs in 06
Vikings to Salem

[hjmphelp]

viking68 and others-
It has been interesting to see how everyone feels about possible tourney matchups that cause someone to play Grinnell on Friday night. My own personal theory revolves around NOT wanting to get tired out against GC the night before, or even worse(better), getting smoked by a suddenly hot shooting squad. Any more thoughts on this? Does anyone have the time to check regular season performance in back-to-backs when a team plays GC on Friday? Mr Ypsi, that should be right up your alley.

[jeffdc]

Best of luck to GC (the real Pioneers!) in their matchup with IC.

And perhaps they'll get to play spoiler at the tourney - watch out, CC and LU!

[scottie]

Best of luck to GC (the real Pioneers!) in their matchup with IC.

And perhaps they'll get to play spoiler at the tourney - watch out, CC and LU!

Why sell Grinnell short?  There have been questions about whether they would want to play CC or LU first, and now that they might be a spoiler...  How about just having the attitude that they are going to the MWC tournament with the plan to win two games, regardless of who they play and in what order?

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Just going down the standings for this year:

Lawrence played Grinnell at home on a friday then had Lake Forrest the next day.  Most of the LU team seemed ready to go; Braier only had 5 points on 5 shots, but had 12 assists and they won easily.  Looks like no repurcussions there.

Carroll played at GC on a friday and then went to IC the next day.  CC started slow (according to coach Schultz), but finished just fine. 

Beloit had to go to GC on a friday night, then over to Monmouth the next day back in December.  Hinz had a double-double in the first half, rebounded and shot the ball well in a win.  They played better in the second half than the first, so the legs were still there.  Maybe this could be similar to CC's slow start the day after a Grinnell game.

Ripon hosted Grinnell on a Friday and then Monmouth the next day.  The RC guys played very well, although again improving in the second half.  Monmouth came out very strong, perhaps a sign of a sluggish RC defense in the first few minutes??

So in recap:  teams seem to start slowly and improve the day after.  It is also interesting that the schedule makers never gave teams GC on friday twice during the season and always gave teams a non-playoff squad the next day.  Very interesting, although it probably means nothing.

[Gregory Sager]

Semi-annual? You mean we have to do it twice a year? I knew some of you had incredible bias against the MWC but this is rediculous!

D'oh! I meant "-ennial" instead of "-annual", as in "biennial" or "triennial".

And in thinking more about it, I'd have to say that this (getting a team deep into the tourney) isn't necessarily a thing that can be depended upon for clockwork regularity. The CCIW went to the Final Four in back-to-back seasons, 2001 and 2002, and hasn't gotten past the Sweet Sixteen since. The WIAC was in the Final Four for three straight tournaments, missed it for the next three, and then got back there for the latest two. Let's just say that for the MWC to be a power conference it should be making a regular occurrence out of getting to the Elite Eight, and leave it at that.