WBB: American Rivers Conference

[doolittledog]

81 viewers right now for the Central webcast!!!

[doolittledog]

Dubuque downs Central 89-75 in Pella tonight.  

Mens teams were on the court for warm-ups within about 30 seconds of the final whistle!!!

[Alfredeneumann]

Wartburg beats Simpson 94-74
Wartburg whipped the press and SC had TO problems. It was the best I've seen Coach Amsberry team play here @ Wartburg.

http://www.go-knights.net/cms/Article.aspx?ID=4028

The junior duo of guard Samantha Harrington of Nashua and center Katie Zittergruen of Van Horne led the way during a 94-74 Wartburg win over Simpson Wednesday, Jan. 6. The victory, the first for the Knights in the series with the Storm since Feb. 27, 2004, was the seventh straight for head coach Bob Amsberry's 2009-10 team.

The Knights (8-4 overall, 2-1 Iowa Conference) trailed 16-12 in the opening portion of the first half. However, a 32-16 run from the 13:17 to 3:35 marks gave the home side a lead it wouldn't surrender. With a 49-37 advantage in tow at halftime, the Orange and Black built on their opportunity to as much as 23 points in the second frame.

[Klompen]

Dubuque up 46-33 @ the half at Central.

Just turned the Central video stream on.  I'm guessing the weather might have something to do with the crowd.  I count 8 people in the bleachers opposite of the camera

Central women don't get the crowd for basketball, particularly on a week night during a snowstorm while the students are on break.  Too bad the Dutch spotted Dubuque such a nice early lead, they made comebacks and played with them after the first few minutes, but could not overcome the hole that they dug for themselves.  I am actually impressed with the way they are playing teams, particularly given that their best player is out for the season. 

[doolittledog]

Dubuque up 46-33 @ the half at Central.

Just turned the Central video stream on.  I'm guessing the weather might have something to do with the crowd.  I count 8 people in the bleachers opposite of the camera

Central women don't get the crowd for basketball, particularly on a week night during a snowstorm while the students are on break.  Too bad the Dutch spotted Dubuque such a nice early lead, they made comebacks and played with them after the first few minutes, but could not overcome the hole that they dug for themselves.  I am actually impressed with the way they are playing teams, particularly given that their best player is out for the season. 

I wouldn't expect much of a crowd during a mid-week game...during a snow storm...during Christmas break.    

One thing I do notice though from watching other games is basketball attendance seems to be down from what I remember back in the late 80's to early 90's.  In that era I went to games at Dubuque, Loras, Wartburg, UIU, and Luther and crowds seemed to be big and rowdy.  Maybe not at the beginning of the womens game...but by half time the crowd would be getting bigger and as the 2nd half went on the stands would fill up.  I don't seem to see that anymore.  Not sure what is up with that. 

[Bird Dog]

Do we consider the Wartburg and Coe games as upsets?  Or is there a changing of the balance of power in the league?

[doolittledog]

Do we consider the Wartburg and Coe games as upsets?  Or is there a changing of the balance of power in the league?

I was thinking about that myself.  I don't know the league well enough to answer though.  Always nice to see different teams taking their turn at the top.  Or at least making things interesting as the season wears on.  Always nice to not know who the heck will win things going into the last week of the season. 

[Klompen]

One thing I do notice though from watching other games is basketball attendance seems to be down from what I remember back in the late 80's to early 90's.  In that era I went to games at Dubuque, Loras, Wartburg, UIU, and Luther and crowds seemed to be big and rowdy.  Maybe not at the beginning of the womens game...but by half time the crowd would be getting bigger and as the 2nd half went on the stands would fill up.  I don't seem to see that anymore.  Not sure what is up with that. 

Okay, now you are reaching back into the memories of an aging mind, so I'm not sure I remember exactly right.  Back then, particularly going back to the 80's were there many mid-week games and weren't Saturday games still played at night instead of in the afternoon?  I don't remember when things started to change and since I started watching basketball when Vern Den Herder played in the late 60's and early 70's, it could have been long ago.  But I remember big crowds when there were Friday night and Saturday night games.  I suppose the changes were made to help avoid hotel charges and get players back earlier, at least on Saturday nights.  Still don't see the advantages of mid-week games where the players have to travel over 4 hours to get to the game with men's games not ending until almost 10.  Those trips to Storm Lake have got to be miserable, even worse for BV for whom every trip has to be a long one. 

Anyway, my thought is that attendance is down because students, at least good students, have to hit the books on week night games and Saturday games that run through the dining hall hours, most students here eat between 5 and 6, make for fewer attendees.

[Klompen]

Do we consider the Wartburg and Coe games as upsets?  Or is there a changing of the balance of power in the league?

I was thinking about that myself.  I don't know the league well enough to answer though.  Always nice to see different teams taking their turn at the top.  Or at least making things interesting as the season wears on.  Always nice to not know who the heck will win things going into the last week of the season. 

As a Dutch fan, always nice to see any team beat Simpson.     I think Central's only league win was against Wartburg, so I'm not sure I see them being the team at the top, but what a victory it would be if that happened.  I do think Simpson may be down this year as I believe Central gave them a run for the money when they played earlier, though I was out of town at the time, so I could be wrong.

[doolittledog]

One thing I do notice though from watching other games is basketball attendance seems to be down from what I remember back in the late 80's to early 90's.  In that era I went to games at Dubuque, Loras, Wartburg, UIU, and Luther and crowds seemed to be big and rowdy.  Maybe not at the beginning of the womens game...but by half time the crowd would be getting bigger and as the 2nd half went on the stands would fill up.  I don't seem to see that anymore.  Not sure what is up with that. 

Okay, now you are reaching back into the memories of an aging mind, so I'm not sure I remember exactly right.  Back then, particularly going back to the 80's were there many mid-week games and weren't Saturday games still played at night instead of in the afternoon?  I don't remember when things started to change and since I started watching basketball when Vern Den Herder played in the late 60's and early 70's, it could have been long ago.  But I remember big crowds when there were Friday night and Saturday night games.  I suppose the changes were made to help avoid hotel charges and get players back earlier, at least on Saturday nights.  Still don't see the advantages of mid-week games where the players have to travel over 4 hours to get to the game with men's games not ending until almost 10.  Those trips to Storm Lake have got to be miserable, even worse for BV for whom every trip has to be a long one. 

Anyway, my thought is that attendance is down because students, at least good students, have to hit the books on week night games and Saturday games that run through the dining hall hours, most students here eat between 5 and 6, make for fewer attendees.

Nice insight there Klompen.  In the way back machine of the late 80's for me, those were still friday/saturday night games.  And that would make sense that those would get better attendance than week nights and saturday afternoon games.  Which is a shame, it was always fun to be a part of a packed gym.  And I would imagine the players would appreciated bigger crowds as well. 

For those night games, the game was our appetizer before going out for the night.  That wouldn't be the case for a week night game or a saturday afternoon game. 

[Bird Dog]

One thing I do notice though from watching other games is basketball attendance seems to be down from what I remember back in the late 80's to early 90's.  In that era I went to games at Dubuque, Loras, Wartburg, UIU, and Luther and crowds seemed to be big and rowdy.  Maybe not at the beginning of the womens game...but by half time the crowd would be getting bigger and as the 2nd half went on the stands would fill up.  I don't seem to see that anymore.  Not sure what is up with that. 

Okay, now you are reaching back into the memories of an aging mind, so I'm not sure I remember exactly right.  Back then, particularly going back to the 80's were there many mid-week games and weren't Saturday games still played at night instead of in the afternoon?  I don't remember when things started to change and since I started watching basketball when Vern Den Herder played in the late 60's and early 70's, it could have been long ago.  But I remember big crowds when there were Friday night and Saturday night games.  I suppose the changes were made to help avoid hotel charges and get players back earlier, at least on Saturday nights.  Still don't see the advantages of mid-week games where the players have to travel over 4 hours to get to the game with men's games not ending until almost 10.  Those trips to Storm Lake have got to be miserable, even worse for BV for whom every trip has to be a long one. 

Anyway, my thought is that attendance is down because students, at least good students, have to hit the books on week night games and Saturday games that run through the dining hall hours, most students here eat between 5 and 6, make for fewer attendees.

I wish I had coppied it for you but the CR Gazette had an article a while back about an Iowa Conference realignment that included a team from Colorado.  That would make the BV trip look more attractive.  The article said not to get excited these realignment talks are continually happening.

[doolittledog]

That article in the Gazette was actually about Cornell looking into the possibility of forming a new conference with members of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest.  They are an association of colleges with high academic standards that collaborate to different degrees with study abroad programs and in other areas.  They are Colorado College;  Coe, Cornell, and Luther from the IIAC; Carleton from the MIAC; and 5 schools from the Midwest Conference. 

Coe, Luther, Carleton and I think Colorado College weren't interested in forming an athletic conference out of that.  Cornell and the 5 Midwest Conference schools voted to study forming an athletic conference further. 

[Bird Dog]

These are the attendance figures from last year.  Women's games followed by Men's.  BV has the highest attendence.  Just an observation, the times I have been there they seem to have a following of more townies than the rest of the league.    

These figures are found in the IIAC women's and men's archives in season statistics.  They only go back to 2001.  It would be interesting to see what the attendance was in the 70's and 80's.  

ATTENDANCE
Team                 | HOME GAMES  Avg | AWAY GAMES  Avg | NEUT GAMES  Avg | ALL GAMES   Avg |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Buena Vista Univ.    | 12-6840     570 | 14-4824     345 |  1-65        65 | 27-11729    434 |
Central College      | 11-3850     350 | 12-4315     360 |  2-263      132 | 25-8428     337 |
Coe College          |  9-5045     561 | 14-4488     321 |  3-368      123 | 26-9901     381 |
Cornell College      | 11-3347     304 | 12-3676     306 |  1-56        56 | 24-7079     295 |
Dubuque, Univ. of    |  9-4088     454 | 12-4175     348 |  4-780      195 | 25-9043     362 |
Loras College        | 11-3959     360 | 16-6298     394 |  0-0          0 | 27-10257    380 |
Luther College       | 10-3458     346 | 11-4658     423 |  4-349       87 | 25-8465     339 |
Simpson College      | 11-3125     284 | 11-3775     343 |  6-709      118 | 28-7609     272 |
Wartburg College     | 15-6183     412 | 11-4944     449 |  1-100      100 | 27-11227    416 |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Totals               | 99-39895    403 | 113-41153    364 | 22-2690     122 | 162-51573    318 |
ATTENDANCE
Team                 | HOME GAMES  Avg | AWAY GAMES  Avg | NEUT GAMES  Avg | ALL GAMES   Avg |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Buena Vista Univ.    | 13-13175   1013 | 12-7044     587 |  1-202      202 | 26-20421    785 |
Central College      | 14-6220     444 | 12-6087     507 |  0-0          0 | 26-12307    473 |
Coe College          | 11-7650     695 | 13-8134     626 |  1-0          0 | 25-15784    631 |
Cornell College      | 14-11097    793 | 12-6302     525 |  2-103       52 | 28-17502    625 |
Dubuque, Univ. of    | 14-8789     628 | 12-8110     676 |  0-0          0 | 26-16899    650 |
Loras College        | 10-6378     638 | 14-8406     600 |  3-743      248 | 27-15527    575 |
Luther College       | 11-3888     353 | 11-6464     588 |  2-103       52 | 24-10455    436 |
Simpson College      | 11-3600     327 | 10-4763     476 |  4-300       75 | 25-8663     347 |
Wartburg College     | 12-8277     690 | 13-11473    883 |  3-210       70 | 28-19960    713 |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Totals               | 110-69074    628 | 109-66783    613 | 16-1661     104 | 163-87657    538 |

[Kohawk Krazy]

Nice come from behind win today for the Kohawks.  Sure looks nice having them sitting at 4-1 on the top of the league standings right now, even if it is early. I really hope that horrible loss at Cornell doesn't come back to haunt them.

[Bird Dog]

As you may have noticed my predictions in the past have been somewhat inaccurate.  I have not made any predictions lately but I am going to try again.
I predict that after Wed.'s games that only two teams will be at the top of the league. 

Now you say Bird Dog how can make such a bold prediction?  Its easy, they all play each other in an early season showdown.

Wartburg 3-1 @ Coe 4-1

Simpson 3-1 @ Buena Vista 3-1

I would like to hear your predictions on these games as well as:

Dubuque 2-3 @ Luther 1-3

Central 2-4 @ Cornell 1-3

Interesting matchup of the week is Central's Andrea Clarke vs. Cornell's Cammille
Marie-Lidd.  Andrea is coming off the injured list averaging 14.5 points per game and appears much improved over last year.  Cammille is the leading freshman scorer in the league averaging 16 pts. per game.  Both are bigs in the 6"1.5" range could be quite a showdown.

Good Luck to all.