WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[iwu70]

Go Thunder, get over it.  Both teams good teams and that was a great game.  Very typical Titan defense, scrappy and intense.  It was one of the ways IWU could beat WC, as just playing half court with the taller Thunder, esp. Frazier down low against Merritt or others, was not going to cut it.  Frazier still got 25.  I always said IWU had to push the pace, get something out of their defensive pressure and get the score in the high 60s or 70s. They won the TO and steals battle tonight, and shot a more usual percentage than in the two previous encounters.  That's why they won.  Great defensive pressure in the 4Q though they almost gave it away with several bad, stupid TOs in the last 2-3 minutes when WC brought their own pressure, when IWU were up 6.  And, IWU's FT percentage will not cut it going forward in similarly close games vs. quality opponents.  Either team could have won tonight, basically down to one possession, one shot.  I like both teams' chances in the tournament to perhaps win 1-2 games, after that, I'm not sure either team can go further.  For the sake of the league, I hope both are able to go further this year.  Both are battle-tested, but the level of competition goes way up after round one. 

Frazier is a great player.  I'm sure she'll have more incredible games in future.

Tonight, it's the TITANS' night.  And a happy ride home on the bus with the AQ in hand.  Congrats again to Coach Smith, all the staff and trainers, and to all the Titan players. Well-done, well-done!

(by the way, the worst "smash and bump" of the night was the tackle, leveling of Lansford by Williams in the last minute or so.  I'm surprised Lansford got back up and was able to make one of two FTs.  Hope she's OK.).

IWU'70

[GoPerry]

Hannah Frazier is the best player in the league, but someone has to ask: What was going through her head in the final few seconds? Her team was down by three, she had the ball in the lane, and she ... chose to drive to the basket and hit a meaningless deuce rather than kick it out to a teammate for a last-chance attempt at a trey that would've sent the game into overtime if it went in.

Lack of situational awareness which was demonstrated several times tonight.  Walking the ball up the court when you're down by 4 with just over a minute left?  Dribbling and passing the ball not realizing there's only seconds left in the third quarter? 

[duckfan41]

Story tonight was turnovers for Wheaton in the second half. Wheaton had very little trouble in the first half against the full court pressure, but let it get to them consistently after the half time buzzer. I'm less inclined to pin everything on the officials because they were pretty brutal going both ways. Two of the refs on the court tonight had no business being within a 10 mile radius of King Arena, but so is life. Bad officiating is part of the game sometimes and unfortunately it reared it's ugly head tonight.

Regarding the final possession, that was a classic case of a brain fart leading to forgetting what the score was. 9 times out of 10, Frazier sees Hannah Swider standing on the perimeter wide open for a 3 that had potential to tie the game, but this was the one time it didn't happen. Wheaton looked a little lost out there in the 4th quarter and turned it over way too much to win this basketball game.

Fortunately, Wheaton is almost certainly a lock for Pool C, just a bummer that this loss most likely takes them out of consideration for hosting the first weekend. The Thunder just need to regroup and amp up for the tournament. This is a very tall, experienced, and athletic basketball team and I have a feeling they'll make some serious noise here in a couple weeks.

Hats off to IWU for playing a solid game and taking home the AQ for the CCIW. Something about that third game when you've already beaten a team twice.... (hey Greg, 😉). Time for the dancing to begin.

[Titan Q]

Illinois Wesleyan coach had a strategy to smash and bump into the Wheaton players.  That's not basketball. 
If you watch good women's basketball it doesn't look like the SPASZZ FEST this game was.

You don't see University of Connecticut women's players purposely smashing into players as a strategy.
This did not look like an athletic event.

Someone needs to get the Wheaton football players under control as they were riding the one bad ref that looked like FREDO from the godfather.  He was not calling an even game like the other refs were.  Look at his facial expression and body language on this guy he is one wound up person.
Illinois Wesleyan won this spazz fest.

Anyone who thinks that was a great game is nuts.  Championship teams do not play like that.

You can do better than this.

[GoPerry]

Illinois Wesleyan coach had a strategy to smash and bump into the Wheaton players.  That's not basketball. 
If you watch good women's basketball it doesn't look like the SPASZZ FEST this game was.

You don't see University of Connecticut women's players purposely smashing into players as a strategy.
This did not look like an athletic event.

Someone needs to get the Wheaton football players under control as they were riding the one bad ref that looked like FREDO from the godfather.  He was not calling an even game like the other refs were.  Look at his facial expression and body language on this guy he is one wound up person.
Illinois Wesleyan won this spazz fest.

Anyone who thinks that was a great game is nuts.  Championship teams do not play like that.

Disagree with this post in its entirety. 

[duckfan41]

Illinois Wesleyan coach had a strategy to smash and bump into the Wheaton players.  That's not basketball. 
If you watch good women's basketball it doesn't look like the SPASZZ FEST this game was.

You don't see University of Connecticut women's players purposely smashing into players as a strategy.
This did not look like an athletic event.

Someone needs to get the Wheaton football players under control as they were riding the one bad ref that looked like FREDO from the godfather.  He was not calling an even game like the other refs were.  Look at his facial expression and body language on this guy he is one wound up person.
Illinois Wesleyan won this spazz fest.

Anyone who thinks that was a great game is nuts.  Championship teams do not play like that.

Disagree with this post in its entirety.

Yep

[duckfan41]

WOW, just WOW!  Talk about sour grapes!!

Wheaton was called for MORE fouls than IWU, and that was NOT due to poor officiating.  You need to get a new prescription for your orange lenses.

And it WAS a great game.

I mean to be fair, the fact that Wheaton was whistled for more fouls given the style of play that took place tonight would more or less help him to prove his point even though I couldn't disagree with him more.

[GoPerry]

WOW, just WOW!  Talk about sour grapes!!

Wheaton was called for MORE fouls than IWU, and that was NOT due to poor officiating.  You need to get a new prescription for your orange lenses.

And it WAS a great game.

I mean to be fair, the fact that Wheaton was whistled for more fouls given the style of play that took place tonight would more or less help him to prove his point even though I couldn't disagree with him more.

I thought there were several legitimate blocked shots by Wheaton tonight that got whistled.  Not why they lost.

[duckfan41]

Perry-

100% agree, but turnovers were the back breaker tonight.

[Gregory Sager]

Illinois Wesleyan coach had a strategy to smash and bump into the Wheaton players.  That's not basketball. 
If you watch good women's basketball it doesn't look like the SPASZZ FEST this game was.

You don't see University of Connecticut women's players purposely smashing into players as a strategy.
This did not look like an athletic event.

Someone needs to get the Wheaton football players under control as they were riding the one bad ref that looked like FREDO from the godfather.  He was not calling an even game like the other refs were.  Look at his facial expression and body language on this guy he is one wound up person.
Illinois Wesleyan won this spazz fest.

Anyone who thinks that was a great game is nuts.  Championship teams do not play like that.

You can do better than this.

No, he can't. More's the pity.

[GoPerry]

Perry-

100% agree, but turnovers were the back breaker tonight.

No question Duck.  I would only slightly disagree with you in that I didn't think we handled the pressure that well in the first half either.  The Thunder first 3 possessions were all turnovers off the press and I believe that can put a team on its heels for the rest of the night.  After that, Wheaton was content/relieved to just break the press and get into the front court as opposed to exploiting it for easy baskets.  I can only think of once when that happened tonight whereas in the previous games, the Thunder got lots of layups such that IWU had to back off the press.  Tonight, they pressed all 40 minutes.

[Gregory Sager]

Something about that third game when you've already beaten a team twice.... (hey Greg, 😉).

I'm fine with the cliché when it includes the word "good" between the words "a" and "team". In that case, it's not inaccurate at all; it's merely an obvious truism. (After all, it's hard to beat a good team once, let alone three times.)

Otherwise, it's nonsense.

[duckfan41]

Something about that third game when you've already beaten a team twice.... (hey Greg, 😉).

I'm fine with the cliché when it includes the word "good" between the words "a" and "team". In that case, it's not inaccurate at all; it's merely an obvious truism. (After all, it's hard to beat a good team once, let alone three times.)

Otherwise, it's nonsense.

Just poking some fun already knowing how you feel. Generally,I agree

[duckfan41]

Women's bracket now out: https://d3hoops.com/playoffs/women/2019/womens-bracket-announced (learned my lesson!)

Seems like IWU got the short end of the stick being placed in a pod with St. Thomas and Wisconsin Lutheran both boasting only one loss. Wheaton will be shipped off to Wartburg and face #10 Hope on day one.

Both IWU and Wheaton are certainly battle tested, now to see how well both can prepare for Win or Go Home time.

[gordonmann]

Wisconsin Lutheran is good, particularly its All-American forward Jen Dowden. But they weren't regionally ranked so that's a relatively nice draw for IWU.

Could be worse. The Titans could've had Trine's draw.