MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Mr. Ypsi]

12:19 left in first half - IWU 20, VWU 15 (Adair has 10 of their 15 points).

Except for Adair, IWU is totally dominating so far.

[titanfan]

IWU leads 33-31.  Both teams shooting well.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Halftime, IWU by one (38-37?)

[Johnny Augie]

Good season by IWU...I'm sure they wanted to win the whole thing, but they should be proud of the run that they had in the tourney.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Great career for all those seniors.  Poetic justice would have dictated a win to reward the dedication, but it is not to be.

A nice win for VWU; they are a very good team with much of their talent returning next year.

Amherst-IWU for third place... triple digits anyone?

[Stat]

 Ton ton = Gibbs,  next 24 hrs. will be tough for the green.

[iwu70]

Tough loss.  Thought Keelan's shot was going down at the end.  Great games by all the Titans, but Va. Wesleyan is good.  Congrats to them. 

[Greek Tragedy]

They were not assholes. Actually, I'm glad they came. I just felt that the whining about the facility and how we ran a tournament was out of line. It was likely only a fan or two, but I got an earful from a few of them about issues that LU couldn't solve unless they lost a few games and didn't host. The size of the gym is the size of the gym. You know, the whole "I wanted to see the first game so I went to the back of the line for the game I wanted", that was the BS I was talking about.

ProudofLU,

I appreciate your response.  Thanks.  I didn't want to cause any major trouble, but I didn't know if it was a matter of LU fans just whining because they lost or if there was truly BS caused by the IWU fans!   Yeah, there were complaints about the size of the facility, the circumstances (clearing out the gym), the counterfeit tickets and the parking (which is a total joke!), but as even many IWU fans admitted, Lawrence DESERVED to host and they met the minimum standards to do so.  Thanks again.

For the record, I've rarely heard the BS chant at Shirk, and I'd never heard "You $uck" and "a$$hole" chanted at a college sporting event before the game at Whitewater.  It was really perplexing that the Whitewater fans kept chanting "you $uck" when they were down 20.  Finally, some of us starting chanting "scoreboard" and that quieted things for a bit.

I was shocked about the behavior of the Whitewater fans as well.  To be honest, they never have that many fans there to begin with and the maturity of the student section was just plain horrible.  I posted something regarding their behavior in the WIAC board after the game and uww4ever responded by saying, "what were we supposed to do, we were getting killed..." or something like that.  I respect uww4ever because he got me the tickets and everything, but that was a pretty bad response!   Once again, Hoosier Titan, it was nice to meet you and thanks for the tickets.

Anyway, no offense to Virginia Wes., because I've never seen them play, but I'm shocked that IWU didn't win the Big One this year.  They looked awesome the times I saw them play...and as LU_Nut asked, how in the world did you guys lose seven games this year?

[Hoosier Titan]

Anyway, no offense to Virginia Wes., because I've never seen them play, but I'm shocked that IWU didn't win the Big One this year.  They looked awesome the times I saw them play...and as LU_Nut asked, how in the world did you guys lose seven games this year?

As of Friday night, we're shocked too.  No disrespect meant to VWC.  They played a better game, kept better to their game plan, and simply outplayed the Titans by a very small margin.  This is exactly how the Titans lost seven games...by a rebound here, a missed opening there.  Keelan, Zach, and the Jones brothers were immense for the Titans.  Hopefully there will be a large IWU contingent there tomorrow for the Amherst game.

It hurts, but sometimes good teams lose.  It's time for thinking about gardening and hiking, and for appreciating the enjoyment these young people have given us.

[augiefan]

I've been stunned all season at how this super talented IWU team seemed to fall short at every critical juncture in the season. It's unimaginable that the Titans did not win the CCIW regular season title, did not win the CCIW conference tourney and now fall short in the National semis against Virg. Wesleyan. All year this Titan group fell just short of achieving the excellence we all expected. Still a FF appearance is what we all aspire to, so all in all a pretty darn good year for IWU and its great senior class.

[patcummings]

Some thoughts...

- IWU didn't shoot 75% in the second half like they did against Puget Sound, which is the whole reason they are in Salem to begin with. 

- Why did Virginia Wesleyan win the basketball game?  Two reasons in my analysis:

1.  Five turnovers...FIVE turnovers.  VaWes turned the ball over a whopping five times all game.  IWU just 9 times...but...WOW.

2.  All-American Adam Dauksas choked...plain and simple.  3 points, 4 turnovers, 39 minutes.  Was it ESPN, over-confidence, something else?  Worse game of his career came at a really bad time.

Frankly, the Salem Civic Center was shocked at the VaWes win.  They've done what alot of people thought they couldn't...

- provide IWU their first non-conference loss of the year
- win 27 in a row after a 2-3 November

Nothing anyone could say would make me think VaWes was better than IWU before today.  The Marlins didn't care and they proved it where it matters.

- Interesting flashback to the postgame interview with Scott Trost after IWU's win over Puget Sound...

Me: "Coach, your semifinals opponent will be Virginia Wesleyan, any thoughts about them?"

Trost: "I don't know anything about them, and I don't really care."

- Worse mistake made my Scott Trost came on one of the three opportunities IWU had in the final 16 seconds.  VWC only had 4 team fouls with 15.6 seconds left.  Knowing VWC will probably foul, our thought (Jared Rosenbaum and I) - was to have IWU pass inside right away and try to get up a shot as quickly as possible.  IWU inbounds and tries to setup offense..VWC fould with 11.2 left.  Same thing now, right?  NOPE - VWC fouls with 6.4 left.  Once again, IWU gets it in, doesn't get their best shot off, and will play the early game as a result.

[oldfish]

Congrats to IWU on a fine year.  I have heard nothing but great things about the IWU players.  That being said, i would like to point out a few things:

1.  It is V. W. C.  - Virginia Wesleyan COLLEGE!  We are not yet VWU.

2.  VWC has proven time and again that they can win the close ones.  Say whatever you want about the strength of the CCIW v. the ODAC but I will always take a great team from a good conf.  against a good team from a great conf.  There was a reason that VWC won 28 in a row before meeting up with IWU.  They had the composure and mental toughness to win the tight ones.  I think that was the difference maker tonight.    

Go Marlins

[Ralph Turner]

1.  It is V. W. C.  - Virginia Wesleyan COLLEGE!  We are not yet VWU.

Not to be confused with WVU!

[Greek Tragedy]

2.  All-American Adam Dauksas choked...plain and simple.  3 points, 4 turnovers, 39 minutes.  Was it ESPN, over-confidence, something else?  Worse game of his career came at a really bad time.

Choke?  I'm not sure.  I'm not going to argue for or against that.  I remember he having a major off-night in Appleton vs. Lawrence, 0-7 from 3-land and 4-13 (?) total.  Fortunately, IWU was able to pull out the win that night...obviously not tonight. 

2.  VWC has proven time and again that they can win the close ones.  Say whatever you want about the strength of the CCIW v. the ODAC but I will always take a great team from a good conf.  against a good team from a great conf.  There was a reason that VWC won 28 in a row before meeting up with IWU.  They had the composure and mental toughness to win the tight ones.  I think that was the difference maker tonight.   

Go Marlins

I don't think anyone was comparing the CCIW to the ODAC at all.  I also think IWU is a GREAT team from a GREAT conference.  Most might have underestimated Virginia Wesleyan.  We know that the ODAC is a tough conference with VWC, along with the usual suspects of Hampden-Syndey and Randolph-Macon. 

Congrats again to the VWC and good luck tomorrow night.

Anyone want to give me an estimate on the fan support there?  Was VWC representin'?  I looked at the boxscore and there were 2665.  Last year at Point's semifinal there were 2660 (according to the boxscore).  I thought there would be a lot more since IWU travel so well and VWC is nearby.  Plus, Wittenberg isn't too far away and of course Amherst was back.

Last year, it was York (Pa), Point, Calvin and Rochester.

[Knightstalker]

I think we have a very good final four this year and I think there might be a surprise or two come the end of the second game on friday.  I think we are going to have an Amherst VWU final.

Not all of us were surprised by VWC's win last night.  I talked to many people who saw NJCU play VWC last year in the NCAA's and from what they said, the little bit of video I was able to see and the fact they only lost a couple of seniors from last years squad made me think they could play with anyone.  That coupled with their win over WPU last weekend with a final score from the pre-shot clock era gave me confidence.  I will say that Lincoln was my choice in the Pick-ems to win it all.  The win over Lincoln also weighed them heavily in my mind.

I thought Amherst would win last night based mostly on their FF appearance two years ago, I thought that would push them over the top but oh well.

Lastly, maybe IWU did not come up a little bit short last night, maybe VWC came up big and are better than most thought