MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[mab]

The Appleton Post Crescent this morning has quotes from Steve Larson, the chairman of the NCAA D3 championship committee, who was at the Lawrence/St. Thomas game last.  He said Lawrence has a "very good" chance of hosting their sectional.  It also says there have been talks about clearing the gym out between semi-final games to allow more fans to attend.  Here is the link:

http://www.postcrescent.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060305/APC0201/603050576/1892/APCsports

[titanhammer]

Q, it turned out not to be an issue, but what was the deal with the refs taking a foul off for one of the WW players?

[Titan Q]

The Sectional will be at Lawrence per Pat Coleman.

[augie_superfan]

Well that stinks...even if I could get a ticket, I don't know if the 9 and 1/2 hour drive is going to work too easily.

[Titan Q]

This is the right decision - Lawrence is the undisputed highest seed.  Despite the fact their facility is small, the bottom line is it meets the NCAA requirement for Sectional hosting.  It just wouldn't have been right to take the hosting rights away from LU.

IWU lost the opportunity to go Shirk Center to Salem by losing home games to North Central and Augustana and a road game to Wheaton.  (The same goes for Augie and their losses at Wheaton and Millikin.)  With those W's, IWU might be the highest seed and then there'd be a real debate.  As is, no one got cheated here. 

The Titans have a chance to dig themselves out of the hole they created this conference season when they face the #1 team in the nation on its own floor - the Sectional final would be a neutral court game, just like IWU vs Wash U @ Roanoke College in 1996, after the Titans knocked off host Roanoke Friday night.  I like IWU's chances - the Titans looked outstanding this weekend.

It should be a great Sectional in Appleton.  Here is hotel info...

http://www.lawrence.edu/admissions/visit/accommodations.shtml

[Johnny Augie]

What days are the games and what time?

[Pat Coleman]

They may choose to split the session, too, as with last year's sectional at Albion.

[Titan Q]

Yes, I had heard last night that a split session format was almost certain.  I'd like to know more about how that works, but on the surface I don't like it at all.  There are people coming to town for the Sectional - Augie fans, for example - that want to see IWU vs Lawrence.  I just don't like the fact they won't be able to.

Pat, do you know how the tickets work with a split session.  Like for IWU vs Lawrence, how do they split the 1100? 2/3 vs 1/3?

I think IWU had about 400 fans at UW-Whitewater...Lawrence is a much longer trip than this past weekend (5 hrs vs 3), but certainly not like Randolph-Macon in 2003 which just wasn't doable for most Titan fans.

[voice]

Man, what a start for Illinois Wesleyan last night against WW.  IWU opened the game hitting 9 of its first 11 shots, and 12 of its first 15.  I thought that if WW could stay within 10 points at halftime, they still would have the opportunity to come back and win.  Instead IWU led by 20 at the break.  Ending the half hitting 15 of 22 from the field for 68.2% including 8 of 12 from outside the arc. While WW hit just 12 of 33 for 36.4%.

WW played much better the second half outscoring IWU 44-38. The Hawks actually cut the lead to 9 points with five minutes left, and had the ball with the opportunity to cut the lead to 7 (or 6 with a trey). They couldn't convert and that was the final time the lead was 10 points or less. 

IWU ended the game by shooting 60% from the field.  Despite the convincing victory over a very good team last night, the one negative statistic is that they turned the ball over 24 times.  Similar high turnover games cost IWU multiple games during the regular season.  I don't think they can afford to play that sloppy in the sectional round or at the final four in two weeks in Salem.  In my mind, they certainly have the talent to be this year's national champion.

From a Whitewater fan, you guys were extremely impressive and now go on and win this "shooting match!"

[dansand]

This is the right decision - Lawrence is the undisputed highest seed.  Despite the fact their facility is small, the bottom line is it meets the NCAA requirement for Sectional hosting.  It just wouldn't have been right to take the hosting rights away from LU.

Q, I definitely agree. As I said earlier, I'd love to see a couple more games at Carver, but Lawrence earned the right to host over the course of the season.

Also, thanks for the take on UPS. Pretty much what I expected. A couple of points: Augie actually forces 15.5 turnovers a game and I think their relatively poor assist to turnover ratio is more a reflection of a low assist total (11.8 per game) than excessive turnovers (14 a game--about average for a college game). I think Augie's big guys, for the most part, handle it pretty well. Jay gets in trouble when he tries to do too much, but certainly puts it on the floor better than most 4's. Both of the Swetallas are better than average ball handlers for players their size. Oliver Rorer is definitely not a good ball handler though. Also, although they've turned it over 35 times in their two NCAA tournament games, their turnovers dropped from 16.7 a game (bad) in the non-conference regular season to a pretty solid 12.7 in CCIW play, including their bad loss to IWU in the CCIW tournament.

While I'm sure the Loggers are going to force a fair amount of TO's by Augie, I think the Vikes have to limit the dumb, unforced turnovers like they had in the Buena Vista game.

[maddog]

Now that Lawrence has been awarded the sectional, and I agree they should have based on being undefeated and ranked #1, let's move the focus away from the facilities and on to the games themselves. IWU is playing really well right now and I am sure they are looking forward to the challenge of playing the #1 team on it's home floor. It's a huge challenge for the Titans, but they have started to look like the team we saw before Christmas. If the Titans can continue to play at their current level, they will have a good chance to get the win over Lawrence. And I mean no disrepect to the Lawrencwe team, they have had a great season and I expect it will a great D3 basketball game.

[John Gleich]

IWU and Augie fans planning to make the trip to Appleton... if the hotel accomedations in Appleton don't meet your needs, take a look at Oshkosh.  Oshkosh is only about 5 miles South of Appleton, and it is all part of one metro area.

[maddog]

As for the Augie/UPS game, I have to think Augie will take the victory in this one, setting up the 4th game this year between IWU and Augie. I believe the Vikings will be able to handle the pressure defense of UPS and limit their turnovers while scoring regularly.  It should be a great weekend of D3 basketball in Appleton next weekend.

[JUSTINTYEM]

Oshkosh is about 30min. From Alex. But you can look at hotels in Kaukauna,Neenah,JUST CONTACT the FoxCities Chamber of Commerce.There is more than enough hotels in the area.

[The Roop]

Or if you don't mind being an hour and a half away, I've got a spare room in exchange for a ticket. Tickets to both sessions and I'll sleep on the couch. FYI, if you're allergic to cats forget it.