MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[usee]

Back to back games are not the norm for most d3 teams and the ones with a strong bench usually have an advantage I would think. Strike one against wheaton. Wheaton did beat Loras earlier this year on Loras' floor(which is why I don't see Loras as a favorite) and this game is on a neutral court. I would think that is an advantage to wheaton. The big question for the thunder is whether they can get another great performance from wiele and panner (k-ray will show up) AND can someone else step up for the thunder?? (Carwell, jahns, denham?)

I agree w Q that wheaton may struggle to advance with their current lack of depth.

[petemcb]

John Mohan would be a nice and needed additional weapon for Wheaton right around now.  I don't know if I ever heard.  Is he still at Wheaton but not playing, or has he transferred?

[Titan Q]

Back to back games are not the norm for most d3 teams and the ones with a strong bench usually have an advantage I would think. Strike one against wheaton. Wheaton did beat Loras earlier this year on Loras' floor(which is why I don't see Loras as a favorite) and this game is on a neutral court. I would think that is an advantage to wheaton. The big question for the thunder is whether they can get another great performance from wiele and panner (k-ray will show up) AND can someone else step up for the thunder?? (Carwell, jahns, denham?)

I agree w Q that wheaton may struggle to advance with their current lack of depth.

Note that Loras wasn't especially deep either last night.  Here is the boxscore...

http://www.uwwsports.com/sports/mbball/2007/region2.htm

They got 82% of their scoring from starters Kyle White (33), Brian Centella (14), and Ricky Kolze (11).  77% of the field goal attempts came from those three.  Wheaton got 73% of its scoring from Andy Wiele (28), Kent Raymond (23), and Ben Panner (22), with 75% of the FGA coming from those 3.

Loras got just 6 points off the bench - Alex Brant (4) and Jason Abbuhl (2).  They played 5 guys off the bench, but 3 played less than 4 minutes total.  Basically, they went 7 deep vs UW-Whitewater.

On the season, Loras does have much better balance, with 5 players averaging 8 or more points per game:

Kyle White: 17.2 ppg
Ricky Kolze: 13.3 ppg
Brian Centella: 12.1 ppg
Luke Slater: 11.5 ppg
Jake Oeth: 8.3 ppg
Alex Brant: 4.0 ppg

Wheaton obviously has the big 3, then a huge dropoff:

Kent Raymond: 23.4 ppg
Andy Wiele: 15.5 ppg
Ben Panner: 13.6 ppg
Andrew Jahns: 5.8 ppg


Sometimes even deep teams turn fairly thin in the NCAA tournament.  Dennie Bridges seemed to just go with his top 7 or 8 come big ones.  The difference though was that his IWU teams always had really good players from 4 to 8...guys who could score.

[John Gleich]

Btw, there won't be a problem for tickets at Whitewater tonight for the Wheaton game as someone earlier asked... WW doesn't sell out games when they play there themselves, they certainly won't come out in droves when the Warhawks AREN'T playing.

[petemcb]

Back to back games are not the norm for most d3 teams and the ones with a strong bench usually have an advantage I would think. Strike one against wheaton. Wheaton did beat Loras earlier this year on Loras' floor(which is why I don't see Loras as a favorite) and this game is on a neutral court. I would think that is an advantage to wheaton. The big question for the thunder is whether they can get another great performance from wiele and panner (k-ray will show up) AND can someone else step up for the thunder?? (Carwell, jahns, denham?)

I agree w Q that wheaton may struggle to advance with their current lack of depth.

Note that Loras wasn't especially deep either last night.  Here is the boxscore...

http://www.uwwsports.com/sports/mbball/2007/region2.htm

They got 82% of their scoring from starters Kyle White (33), Brian Centella (14), and Ricky Kolze (11).  77% of the field goal attempts came from those three.  Wheaton got 73% of its scoring from Andy Wiele (28), Kent Raymond (23), and Ben Panner (22), with 75% of the FGA coming from those 3.

Loras got just 6 points off the bench - Alex Brant (4) and Jason Abbuhl (2).  They played 5 guys off the bench, but 3 played less than 4 minutes total.  Basically, they went 7 deep vs UW-Whitewater.

On the season, Loras does have much better balance, with 5 players averaging 8 or more points per game:

Kyle White: 17.2 ppg
Ricky Kolze: 13.3 ppg
Brian Centella: 12.1 ppg
Luke Slater: 11.5 ppg
Jake Oeth: 8.3 ppg
Alex Brant: 4.0 ppg

Wheaton obviously has the big 3, then a huge dropoff:

Kent Raymond: 23.4 ppg
Andy Wiele: 15.5 ppg
Ben Panner: 13.6 ppg
Andrew Jahns: 5.8 ppg


Sometimes even deep teams turn fairly thin in the NCAA tournament.  Dennie Bridges seemed to just go with his top 7 or 8 come big ones.  The difference though was that his IWU teams always had really good players from 4 to 8...guys who could score.

Another "where are they now?":  Ricky Kolze from Loras is the cousin of Mike Kolze who was at Augie for a year about a year or two ago.  Anybody know where Mike Kolze is now, and whether he's playing?

[usee]

What time is tipoff for both games?

Updates in cciw in game room would be appreciated

[Titan Q]

What time is tipoff for both games?

Updates in cciw in game room would be appreciated

7:00pm tonight.

[Titan Q]

Haltime...

Loras 40
Wheaton 37

Almost identical 1st half to yesterday -- Wheaton trailed the entire way, by as much as 10 I think, but finished the half on a big run.  Once again, the Thunder defense is not good - Loras shooting 55.2%.  Kent Raymond has 19 already.  Seems like this one is Raymond's to win or lose.

[Titan Q]

Halftime...

Wash U 35
Augustana 31

Augie trailed by 9 with about 4:00 left but finished the half well.  Viking D not doing its usual thing - Wash U shooting 56% from the field.  Brett Wessels has 8 for Augie.

[HopeConvert]

Well Titan, you were right. The Wheaton announcer is every bit as bad as Hope's. I don't have enough objectivity to compare, but there's a lot of whining going on!

[Titan Q]

Final:

Wheaton 76
Loras 73

Loras just about had this game won (I honestly thought it was over with Wheaton down, I believe, 9 with 4:00 to play), but Wheaton went on a ridiculous 16-0 run in what must have only been about 3 minutes.  Kent Raymond started the charge, but Ben Panner and freshman Andrew Jahns had some huge shots in that stretch.  Before that in the game, it was absolutely all Kent Raymond.  He was amazing -- he single-handedly kept Wheaton in the game.  Raymond finished with 36 points.

I wouldn't want to be any team that has to face Kent Raymond the rest of the way.  It is quite possible he is good enough to carry Wheaton to the Final Four.  He's amazing.

[shepherd]

Wheaton wins!!!  Wheaton wins!!!!
Wheaton 76   Loras 73

[shepherd]

Final:

Wheaton 76
Loras 73

Loras just about had this game won (I honestly thought it was over with Wheaton down, I believe, 9 with 4:00 to play), but Wheaton went on a ridiculous 16-0 run in what must have only been about 3 minutes.  Kent Raymond started the charge, but Ben Panner and freshman Andrew Jahns had some huge shots in that stretch.  Before that in the game, it was absolutely all Kent Raymond.  He was amazing -- he single-handedly kept Wheaton in the game.  Raymond finished with 36 points.

I wouldn't want to be any team that has to face Kent Raymond the rest of the way.  It is quite possible he is good enough to carry Wheaton to the Final Four.  He's amazing.

Andrew Jahns also played great defense and had 5 rebounds and 4-6 from beyond the arc.  He is Wheaton's forgotten player.  As a freshmen he has had bad games but when he has a good game he usually has made some game changing impact plays.

[Titan Q]

Wash U 70
Augustana 67 (OT)

A really disappointing loss by Augustana.  After fighting their way to overtime, they got to face Wash U in OT without Tyler Nading (probably Wash U's second best player).  On top of that, Wash U missed huge FT after huge FT at the end of regulation and in overtime.

Wash U is a great team, but with Augie being at home, this was disappointing.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Per Live Stats, Rukavina never played, and Bertrand took one shot (which he made) - what was up with these guys?