MBB: Midwest Conference

[The Roop]

It won't do any good as far as this weekend is concerned, unless somebody is really good with a floor sander, but it did seem possible to me that the court could be moved at Alex to allow seating in both end zones. They might want to consider that in the future. 

For now I'll just ponder taking a half day Friday, if I don't do that I can still get there around 4:00 and take my chances.

[Greek Tragedy]

It is disappointing regarding the ticket policy and I would hope they'd come up with a different system if and when they get an NCAA tourney game.  In fact, I would think the NCAA has some kind of uniform ticket policy.

Because I'm not an actual fan of any of the teams involved, that doesn't mean this is disturbing.  I can't believe there were no tickets set aside from traveling supporters of Carroll, Grinnell or Knox.  You're gonna tell me that a Grinnell fan is gonna travel x-amount of hours and won't even be guaranteed a ticket??? 

[hjmphelp]

Congratulations to Lawrence University for your achievement to date! Keep 'er rollin' after GC beats you in the Conference final, eh?

Congrats as well to Carroll for your great season! I'm sure you will get a pool 'c' bid after the loss this coming Friday.

These two schools have done our conference proud, and I hope it continues to the Final Four! CC and LU have made us all look good and have the chance to make us look even better. Hope the ticket thing gets straightened out.

[Dolph Stanley]

A question for those not in this years tournament.  Who has the best chance at being there next year?  I know its early and recruiting will play a huge roll but I'm curious as to which teams people view as "on the rise"

Looking at this years rosters, Carroll and Grinnell appear to be givens.  A very strong case can be made for Lawrence as well (although major changes in the program could raise questions) so it appears that 1-2 newcomers may round out the field at this time next season (or perhaps Knox is back?)

Who will it (they) be?  Right now I would give the edge to Ripon with Monmouth and IC both dark horses.

[schwanman]

Without recruits, Monmouth's starting five for 2006-07 would be Blaise Rogers, Raun Singleton, Andy Moore (or Kyle Cook), Joe Terwelp and David Price ... certainly a solid group, but admittedly there are question marks.

Terwelp, likely the best of the group, might have gotten more league-wide recognition for his shooting accuracy had it not been for Schmitting.

Price had a very solid 10-game or so stretch with several double-doubles, Singleton and Rogers were streaky and Moore is very athletic and could be lights out if he develops a consistent jumper.

Leadership is always an issue, and there will be no four-year seniors in the top group. Price and Singleton are transfers, Terwelp, Rogers and Moore will be juniors and Cook will be a sophomore.

The Scots will certainly look to improve on this year's MWC finish (which could have been so much higher had it not been for four OT losses). Whether they can improve enough to be a playoff squad remains to be seen. 

[hjmphelp]

Schwannman-
Sheesh! I thought all those guys were gonna graduate!?!!
MC isn't gonna pull a 'Petefish' on the MWC are they?

[LU_nut]

I must really be missing something on the ticket furor. 
As I stated in an earlier post, the GC/Carroll game is first.  The process, if biased in any way, is towards the GC/Carroll fans.  If they were wanting to bias it towards LU, they would open the ticket window at 8am in the morning.

Sam, no reason to be embarassed on behalf on LU in my view.  Quit beating up yourself.  Seems like a logical approach to me.

[systemfan86]

Regarding the ticket distribution memo from Larry, I think we need to address the most important issue which is outlined in the last sentence:

Lawrence University wants to remind all fans to not bring basketballs into the gym.

WHAT?! What kind of world do we live in where honest American basketball fans can't bring their own orb into a conference tournament?!  


Is this a big problem in Appleton? Do we have Larry fans who want to get close to the Bopper and figure if they bring their own ball to the game, they might get a chance to sneak down on the floor during warm ups? Or are they planning on pelting the opposing bench with balls should they take a lead on the Vikes? Maybe we're aiming at the oafs. (And who could blame them, right? )

Why is this in the announcement?

[Maverick]

Without recruits, Monmouth's starting five for 2006-07 would be Blaise Rogers, Raun Singleton, Andy Moore (or Kyle Cook), Joe Terwelp and David Price ... certainly a solid group, but admittedly there are question marks.

Terwelp, likely the best of the group, might have gotten more league-wide recognition for his shooting accuracy had it not been for Schmitting.

Price had a very solid 10-game or so stretch with several double-doubles, Singleton and Rogers were streaky and Moore is very athletic and could be lights out if he develops a consistent jumper.

Leadership is always an issue, and there will be no four-year seniors in the top group. Price and Singleton are transfers, Terwelp, Rogers and Moore will be juniors and Cook will be a sophomore.

The Scots will certainly look to improve on this year's MWC finish (which could have been so much higher had it not been for four OT losses). Whether they can improve enough to be a playoff squad remains to be seen. 

schwanman - That certainly would be a very solid starting five for next season, with all of them gaining significant playing time and several of them playing very important roles this year.  I really hope the Scots just pound the ball down low consistently (not just occasionally, as was the case this year) to Terwelp and Price rather than just settle for putting up about 25 three-balls per game.  We all saw how well that worked for MC recently: sometimes bailed them out and helped win games, other times it was the main source for losing games.  One of your other points, the issue of leadership: there were some fourth-year players on this year's team and IMO their leadership (or lack of quality in that department) contributed to this disappointing season.  (Again, that's my opinion--I'm sure others probably won't agree with that.)  It doesn't always matter whether your leaders are fourth-year seniors or not--just that whoever your leaders are, that they're people of high character and know how to push the rest of the team or know when to carry the rest of the team in certain situations. Maybe next year's returning players can learn how to lead by seeing examples of how not to lead from this year (make sense?).

[schwanman]

The only "fishy" thing about that lineup is Price ... next year will be his fifth. He played a couple games in what would have been his normal junior year. Then came the dreaded ankle and dental issues.

On a different note, I had the pleasure of watching a great individual performance last night in a girls supersectional (Sweet Sixteen) game at Monmouth. Cleveland State recruit Kailey Klein scored 34 points and pulled down 23 rebounds, and she's not some towering post. She had 16 points and 15 boards at halftime!

Just saw Maverick's post ... true, the leadership could come from other classes. I'm sure Terwelp leads by example, but not sure about his other intangibles. Maybe he or Rogers can take the reins in that category.

Heard a great story yesterday about Braier ... just how his leadership ranks right up there with his talent. It doesn't show up in the box score, but it's a huge, huge factor.

[LU_nut]

league in general should be very balanced next year.  Lu loses a lot, but returns talent.  Carroll returns a lot, but do not underestimate the impact of Sheppler graduating.  Ripon returns virtually everybody, but has to figure out how to win.  Monmouth and StN. both seem on the cusp of significant improvement.  Knox returns their best player.  Grinnell returns virtually everyone as does IC I believe.  Lake Forest has their best player back, but loses their guards.

I think it will be very hard to pick favorites next year.  Coaches this year had LU and Carroll one/two and were dead on.  They overrated Ripon.

To summarize, I  do not think there are too many givens.  

I think Freshman will play a big role again next year.  They did this year with GC and to a lessor, but still important extent LU and Carroll.



Nut

[Old Fighting Scot]

Next year's MC team needs a point guard.  Someone who can penetrate and/or Knows that it is his job to get the ball inside rather than settle for 8 thirty footers a night.  Rogers can be a very good player, but he is no point.  I havent seen singleton play but i am going to assume he is more in the shooter mold (MC has never had a shortage of these) than a playmaker.  MC hasnt been a "pump it inside" team in a very long time.  But someone once said if you have a horse (two in this case) you ride it...

[mwc4life]

Lu Nut~

Very good break down.

LU - Will compete for the conference championship, but the loss of Braier, Bradley, and MacGillis will be too much for the young guys to overcome that first year.  But because of the great work ethic and coaching (assuming Tharp is still there) they will have as good as any chance to win it for a FORTH year in a row!

CC - Is my favorite along with Ripon.  They'll return one of the best if not the best players/guards in Drury.  That kid was really impressive, especially at home. Toscher will still be a force and they had another Freshman guard who can play.  They do lose their starting Big in Scheper and Johnson at PG so there could be some problems early.

RC - I don't think the coaches over-rated Ripon's talent.  Ripon just extremely underachieved and for what reason I'll never know.  They have the best big in the Conference in Schmitting returning and a solid outside/inside threat in Johnson.  Soph. Paul Wise has gotten better every year and is extremely athletic.  The wild card is McMullen.  He is a solid defender, but he needs to step up in the leadership role...pound the ball down low.  All those guys need to improve their outside shooting.  YOU CANNOT REPLACE EXPERIENCE and Ripon will have the most returning.  Vehantre Brown will be a soph. guard next year and could take tremendous steps into becoming a tough match-up for any (quite frankly his hops are better then Butrym's...pretty unbelievable).  He is extremely raw.

GC- Grinnell rounds out my top 4 for next year.  With the great Grotberg returning, they can only get better from an impressive season so far.  They will hurt from the loss of Nordlund...his leadership ability.  Other then that, we know what to expect....hack hack hack just playing Jeff

LFC - it doesn't look good for these guys.  They lose Beckford, maybe Klos, and Browning from a team that was bad this year.

SNC - With a coaching, that can only be a good thing for those guys.  I heard a lot of complaints about Denoble...kids quitting etc.  They have too good of a sports program up there to be this bad for consecutive years.

KC -  If Zick and Maclin are returning, then they will compete with Grinnell for the 4th spot.  Both players are two of the best this conference has returning.  I can see Knox really being tough to beat.

IC - egh...

MC- With all the things SchwannMan and Maverick said, I don't think there is really much to say.  I totally agree with shooting less three's.  MC shoots too many...against Grinnell they shoot close to 20 which is a cardinal sin.  They should be a very solid team and compete for along with Knox and Grinnell.

BC - sorry guys, doesn't look good with Hinz graduating...maybe its a good thing???

FYI- Schmitting played with a partial tear in his knee the whole year.  The injury occured when he abused whatever big who was guarding him against UW-GB.  With a year to get healthy, he could be even more a dominant force then we expect.

[Dolph Stanley]

Does Zick have a year left?  He is listed as a Senior but with the transfer I am unsure.  If he does then Knox becomes a very real threat.  Without him they will still be good.

I really like what I see happening at Carroll.  Losing their big will hurt but their coach seems to be well conected to many of the larger high schools in the suburban Milwaukee area which can really help them to re-load.

[Maverick]

Next year's MC team needs a point guard. Someone who can penetrate and/or Knows that it is his job to get the ball inside rather than settle for 8 thirty footers a night. Rogers can be a very good player, but he is no point. I havent seen singleton play but i am going to assume he is more in the shooter mold (MC has never had a shortage of these) than a playmaker. MC hasnt been a "pump it inside" team in a very long time. But someone once said if you have a horse (two in this case) you ride it...

Old Fighting Scot - Good call on the need for a true point guard who does more than shoot 3's next year.  Looking at this year's roster, I'd guess maybe Scholten or L. Reschke for next season if Rogers doesn't move to the point full-time.  He did a decent job of running the point in spurts this season (when needed) from what I recall.  Singleton won't be a point for sure, he's definitely a shooter.  I realize that MC hasn't been a "pump it inside" team in awhile--but with the 2 horses they'll have for next year, I'm hoping they ride them as much as possible...even though it scares me that they won't have the patience to do so since it hasn't been that way in such a long time.

mwc4life - Good breakdowns for next season.  I especially enjoyed the in-depth look at IC "egh..."