WBB: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[The Champ]

Absolutely, the real team is the one with the turn over problem and the seven losses.

And it is the players, not the coach, that committed the turnovers.

Yes, the last two years UWEC has been at the bottom of the barrel as far as Turnover Margin.

But 2 years before that, they were right in the middle of the WIAC.

And the year before that - they were the best in the WIAC in Turnover Margin.

The HC is the same person - the players have changed.

For those who have been on this board - isn't it ironic that I am defending Tonya....

[Out_Of_My_Kitchen]

Conference Tournament Seeds (Through Jan 23):

1. Stevens Point
2. Whitewater
3. La Crosse
4. River Falls
5. Eau Claire
6. Oshkosh

SP and WW earn the byes.  Even through all their struggles to this point, EC looks like a pretty dangerous team in the tournament.  I would expect LC to break through and win a game in the conference tournament if this is the set-up, but then be out after that game. 

But, still a month left in the season.  Lot can happen. 

[badgerwarhawk]

For those who have been on this board - isn't it ironic that I am defending Tonya

I've said this before but I'll repeat it.  Who are you and what have you done with Champ? 

[The Champ]

Who are you and what have you done with Champ? 

It's me...

[JMM]

Disagree with Champ.

When a team has two years of turn over problems, it is the leader, the decison maker, the coach who needs to deal with it. As I said several days back, the coach up until the LAX game did nothing to deal with it. EC is not a team of fundamentals - that is the coaching. Fundamentals are: the ball is precious - protect it and don't be haphazard with it; don't throw the ball unless the player is open; don't be a guard who takes the ball in the back court and dribbles into the defense without setting up the offense and working the ball around; don't have forwards who are not your best ball handlers bring the ball up and get trapped. Christension and Olson have absolutley no problems with the press. Others do not handle the ball pressure well and get trapped.

The main fundamental is deliberate passes, this is more of a keeping your mind in the game thing with some but as coach, you need to deal with these things. Especially, when you have good talent, size and great gaurds and these things are stopping you from winning. 1 point with Hanover, WW, RF - these one point games are the season difference - turnovers, turnovers, turnovers - team fell apart with Hanover. The coach should have seen it coming and instilled confidence and promoted ball control.

If the issue is the players as you imply, - guess what - the coach has to fix it. When I look at WW and SP, it is extremely rare when they have the issues EC does. Why, it is the coaches - they demand fundamentals. It is obvious. Watch them play.

Finally, from a statisical point, EC seems OK with the 3 pt stats-wise.. It is obvious if you watch the games, the WIAC teams and the other teams who do their homework, know that EC does not attempt to put a hand in the face of someone shooting the 3 pt shoot. In the LAX game on Saturday, that changed. It was obvious LAX wanted to use the 3 pt shoot, last saturday EC took that away by waving a hand or stepping toward the player.

Englund does many things better than most - community building, strategic game plan , DEFENSE. I am not calling for her removal - at all - simply put - she needs to deal with two years of no fundamentals. I think this was done in the LAX game. If it is continued, with the exception of SP, EC could take the NCAA berth. the adjustments made against LAX are indicative of how this team can do. More importantly, everyone but Messick returns next year. if you don't deal with the fundamentals now and wait until you recruit players who were taught fundamentals at an early age, you're further wasting great talent for at least 1-2 more years. This is a young team. That said, they had last year to deal with the jitters and fundamentals - obvioulsy they did not.

[billys]

If the issue is the players as you imply, - guess what - the coach has to fix it. When I look at WW and SP, it is extremely rare when they have the issues EC does. Why, it is the coaches - they demand fundamentals. It is obvious. Watch them play.

Whitewater turns it over just as much as Eau Claire does.

What level did you coach at where you were magically able to turn around deficiencies in two-hours?

If you don't think PLAYERS at this level have major deficiencies in their games (that can be improved but likely not fixed) ... you're delusional. If they were perfect they wouldn't be playing at UWEC or the WIAC or DIII. Every team is good at something and bad at others. UWEC is really good defensively and rebounding ... those are two great things to be good at.

Point is not a great rebounding team ... Egner must not spend enough time working on that in practice.

I have a really hard time agreeing with any of your posts.

[Just Bill]

Point is not a great rebounding team ... Egner must not spend enough time working on that in practice.

She should really spend two hours and fix that.

[PRF2009A]

Just realized that WW and Point play tonight.  For UWL's sake....(and I know this is a pipe dream) I hope the following scenario plays out.

Point over WW tonight and UWL runs the table.  This would leave WW and UWL each w/ 3 losses and then hopefully a tiebreaker win for UWL to get the #2 seed.  For the record I don't see this scenario happening, but a person can dream right?

Now here's hoping UWL holds their own vs. Stout tonight.  This team needs to put together a complete performance to start rebuild some confidence. It's too late in the season to be putting out efforts like they did vs. EC.

[The Champ]

If the issue is the players as you imply, - guess what - the coach has to fix it.

The New York Yankees - with a virtually unlimited budget - can't fix every problem.  But they assemble the best team that money can buy and hope for the best.

This is DIII BB with no budget to "buy" players.  Tonya is doing what she can with what she has.

If you can do better - maybe you should apply for the next HC position that opens up.

My guess is you wouldn't even get a phone interview.

[billys]

Woah ... Stout ... Meet the back-end of a HUGE boot from UW-L. Down 39 w/10 min left in the 2nd half. Yikes- Looks like those of us who questioned their talent at the start of the year were probably hearing right.

Point up 10 mid-way through the 2nd half and has had a nice cushion most of the night.

EC up 6 on Oshkosh with 8 min left ... and EC only has SIX TO's! But it does appear that EC must not be putting their hands up against 3-point shooters. See I can make rash judgments without actually watching the game too.

[The Champ]

Woah ... Stout ... Meet the back-end of a HUGE boot from UW-L. Down 39 w/10 min left in the 2nd half. Yikes- Looks like those of us who questioned their talent at the start of the year were probably hearing right.

Yeah - been kind of a rough season so far...

I think LC is making up for last Saturday...

[JMM]

Champ, a two year starter for EC only played 15 minutes against oshkosh, usually plays 30 + minutes, why, two bad turnovers in  a row and to the bench. Last two games Tonja is focused on the turnover issue. Tonight only 9 turnovers. Players are getting the message from the coach, turn it over get the bench. This is the first issue that EC needs to deal with, looks like Englund is finally dealing with it. Oshkosh played very well and beat the Blugolds on defense and high shooting percentage. Good that EC turnovers way down. Champ, you may be right about EC talent. They have no speed.

[buf]

As billys mentioned, EC was leading UWO 45-39 with 7min left.  However, from there on out UWO dominated and ended up winning, 62-53.  EC has only 1 home win (Stout) in 6 conference games this season.  Very dissapointing!

UWL crushes Stout, 82-36.  Who is this Kassie Robinson?  She goes 11-11 from the field, including 1-1 on 3s.  She also goes 3-3 from the line and pulls down 9 boards.

Point now in the conference driver's seat with a big win over UWW, 66-47.

[buf]

They have no speed.

This is why I think EC NEEDS to play zone.  Its been a constant theme.....the opponents post players get the ball away from the basket forcing EC posts to come out to defend and then they drive it to the basket.  Plus, person to person defense just kills Plendl.  Everytime they play man, she ends up playing 10-15 minutes due to foul trouble.  In addition, she gets pulled out of the lane...now there is no shot blocker underneath the basket.

I'm sure Englund wants to play man, but I just don't think she has the players to do that for the majority of the game.  Sitting in a zone keeps Plendl out on the court longer and keeps her underneath the basket.  Now the downside is that you may give the other team open shots from 3-land.  But at this point EC may have to take those chances.

I'm not trying to play coach, but just throwing in my 2-cents

[The Champ]

Champ, a two year starter for EC only played 15 minutes against oshkosh, usually plays 30 + minutes, why, two bad turnovers in  a row and to the bench. Last two games Tonja is focused on the turnover issue. Tonight only 9 turnovers. Players are getting the message from the coach, turn it over get the bench. This is the first issue that EC needs to deal with, looks like Englund is finally dealing with it. Oshkosh played very well and beat the Blugolds on defense and high shooting percentage. Good that EC turnovers way down.

Is Englund playing "mind games" with her players?  

Seems to me that's what you said about another WIAC HC that did the exact same thing last year (and has done it this year, and will again next year too).

Last week it was the HC that was the problem.  This week it's the players.  Maybe next week it's the fans....

Champ, you may be right...

Thank you...