MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[pcarr]

Looks like the NCAA isn't allowing WETN to stream video, but their audio is available.

[Scrub023]

If Thompson keeps shooting like this, and if Wheaton keep letting him shoot, its going to be a tough game.

[Marty Peretz]

This is just a quality basketball game.

[Marty Peretz]

A great college basketball game. Wheaton was a classy bunch. Should have been a final four game. No one deserved to lose.

[iwu70]

Congrats to Wheaton on a great season, to Kent Raymond on a fabulous career.  Should be one fantastic game tomorrow night Wash U vs. #1 in the country.  

Wash U women also in the Sectional final Saturday night vs. IWU in Bloomington.

[usee]

Congratulations to WashU. They were a better team. great team defense. stats were dead even but WashU shoots 50% and get the win. Great game and the best, more experienced team won tonight.

[usee]

Raymond 22pts
Panner 20 pts
carwel, wiele, jahns, pfledere, mcrary, smith 10 pts

thats the story.

[WahooThunder]

Congratulations to WashU. They were a better team. great team defense. stats were dead even but WashU shoots 50% and get the win. Great game and the best team won tonight.

Wash U. was definitely the best team tonight, but I'm not convinced they were the better team. Wheaton had a lot of missed opportunities down the stretch and could have been in a much better position if a couple more shots had gone down in the first half. That said, credit to Wash U. for 40 minutes of great defense. They are a great team and I wish them the best going forward.

[usee]

Congratulations to WashU. They were a better team. great team defense. stats were dead even but WashU shoots 50% and get the win. Great game and the best team won tonight.

Wash U. was definitely the best team tonight, but I'm not convinced they were the better team. Wheaton had a lot of missed opportunities down the stretch and could have been in a much better position if a couple more shots had gone down in the first half. That said, credit to Wash U. for 40 minutes of great defense. They are a great team and I wish them the best going forward.

Wheaton just scored 52 pts in their own gym. That's not good enough to win a national championship. This washu team has been to salem and their defense and experience won tonight. They were definitely better.

[WahooThunder]

Experience and composure was definitely key for Wash U. as well and I felt like they came out more ready to play in the first ten minutes as well. I wouldn't be surprised to see that advantage pay dividends for them tomorrow night as well.

[WahooThunder]

Congratulations to WashU. They were a better team. great team defense. stats were dead even but WashU shoots 50% and get the win. Great game and the best team won tonight.

Wash U. was definitely the best team tonight, but I'm not convinced they were the better team. Wheaton had a lot of missed opportunities down the stretch and could have been in a much better position if a couple more shots had gone down in the first half. That said, credit to Wash U. for 40 minutes of great defense. They are a great team and I wish them the best going forward.

Wheaton just scored 52 pts in their own gym. That's not good enough to win a national championship. This washu team has been to salem and their defense and experience won tonight. They were definitely better.

No argument here except for the last sentence. I think Wheaton wins at least 5 out of 10 against them, it just didn't happen for them tonight.

[fcnews]

Wow. Not the Wheaton team I saw last weekend. Wiele just didn't get enough looks. Quite a few forced shots.

The same Wash U game I've seen to many times. Take advantage of every mistake. Slip backdoor. You don't get back, lay up at the other end. Wash U never looks rattled.

Great Game. Good call by Pat and Q.

[shepherd]

Tough loss for Wheaton.  A poor shooting night for Wheaton.  They tried to force up bad shots and seemed out of sorts.  Wash U defense was OK but not spectacular for CCIW standards.  Wash U is one of the most technical teams Wheaton has faced this year.  They dictated a slower game and took better shots.  Their screens are the best I've seen in D3 this year and really forced Wheaton defenders to expend a lot of energy getting around them.  There probably are other teams in D3 that are just as or more talented than Wash U, but not many of them are as well coached and technically sound.  Tomorrow's game with ST Thomas should be a great matchup.

Thanks for another great season.  Good luck to all the seniors.

[paularmerding]

Pretty tough to watch the Thunder tonight--great defensive effort, but they were incredibly tight offensively.  Some of that goes to Wash U's defense, but I think what we saw was summed up in the first half when McCrary had 2 free throws and was so tense that he barely reached the front of the rim with both of them. (I assume it was a technical foul or flagrant foul but I was just tuning in)  The Thunder's young players tonight exhibited the fruit of one of the negative sides of Bill Harris' coaching philosophy, which applies to all but his star players. It is fear-of-failure/fear of punishment based, and although I don't believe that fear is ever a good motivator to allow one to freely play their best, this especially applies to big games.   Offensively Wheaton stunk up their own gym tonight.  They have relied all season on their standout freshmen to make big contributions, and tonight they were not given "permission" to work through a few moments of tightness into a point where they could contribute.  Wheaton was thus reduced to essentially a 6 man rotation, and that just doesn't cut it with a team of Wash U's quality.  It is interesting that his other team that had National Champion potential (in '95 or '96, a one loss team that had my nephew by marriage, Aaron Messner playing for it) had a similar performance in a second round game--they all tensed up and had a horrendous shooting night, I suspect for similar reasons.  I'm sure all the CCIW experts remember who they were playing, but was it Wash U then as well?

[74impala]

Congrats to the Wheaton men for a great season.  Its too bad it had to end tonight.