MBB: American Rivers Conference

Started by sidelines, May 02, 2005, 09:03:57 PM

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doolittledog

Dubuque 84-64 over Nebraska Wesleyan  :o

I'm starting to believe this Spartan team is on a serious run. 
Coach Finstock - "There are three rules that I live by: never get less than twelve hours sleep; never play cards with a guy who has the same first name as a city; and never get involved with a woman with a tattoo of a dagger on her body. Now you stick to that and everything else is cream cheese."

SpartyBlue

UD 84 NWU 64  I think you're correct, Dolittle.   UD dominates the Prairie Wolves at home.  Sparty really used stifling defense and physicality to give NWU all sorts of problems scoring the basketball. 

This team has won seven in a row and has not lost since 12/19, a close neutral site loss to Baldwin Wallace.  In a strong position to the regular season conference title, 20+ win season, and have home court advantage in the ARC tourney.  All of Dubuque's losses come to top 100 Massey teams, four of them in the top 50, and they hold a win over #25 Roanoke (VA.).

BV 63 Luther 48  Beavers bounce back after tough home loss to NWU.  At 7-4 they need a huge upset at UD to stay in the conference race.

Coe 85 Central 59 7-4 Coe has a tough stretch of games to close out, will be difficult for them to win out.

Wartburg 81 Simpson 67  Knights in a horse race with UD--UD holds a one game lead and a more favorable schedule in my opinion. 

doolittledog

Dubuque wins @ Central 70-46 in a make up of a previously postponed game.  For the 1st time in awhile I followed along with some of the action.  Always fun to watch when the team you cheer for gets the win.  On to the next one for the Spartans. 
Coach Finstock - "There are three rules that I live by: never get less than twelve hours sleep; never play cards with a guy who has the same first name as a city; and never get involved with a woman with a tattoo of a dagger on her body. Now you stick to that and everything else is cream cheese."

SpartyBlue

Wild week in the ARC.  BV upsets UD on the road.  That same night was the real shocker--Luther 70 Wartburg 69.  Quick look at the conference race with two weeks left:

Standings
1. UD 9-2   Race is Sparty's to lose at this point.  Play Luther twice, @ Simpson.  Two big games home vs. Coe @ Loras.  Offense has been inconsistent, defensively UD has been locking teams down.  Projection: 13-3 Conference champs

2.  Wartburg 9-3  Losing to Luther obviously hurts, that is a very tough one to explain.  I do think Wartburg was a tad overrated early due to easy non-con schedule. Tough finish stretch for Knights @ BV @ Coe vs. Loras.  Proj:  12-4

3.  Coe 9-4  Riding a six game win streak mostly against bottom of ARC, but did pick off BV 65-62 on Saturday.  A senior-led team who you just can't count out at this time of year.  Want to be playing your best hoops in Feb, and the Kohawks just may be.  Huge game Wednesday @ UD.  If Kohawks pull upset, race is wide open to the finish.   Proj:  11-5

4.  BV 8-5  Such an up and down weird season for fifth year seniors Demers and Thompson.  Knocking off UD on the road gives them a breath of life and this is not a team you want to play in the conference tourney.  Proj:  10-6

5.  NWU 6-6  Young team, has shown lack of toughness at times in my eyes, just can't string together good defensive possessions and Wellman is playing a different offense than he had the luxury of playing with those tournament teams.  Watch out for NWU going forward, just not this year.  Proj: 8-8

6.  Loras 6-5  Really surprising mid-pack season for a Duhawks team returning four starters.  That said, with 5 games remaining they are not out out of it.  Sweep NWU then have to knock off Wartburg and UD, tough, but Loras does have an opportunity.  Proj: 8-8

7.  Luther 4-8  As much as I give the Norse a deserved hard time, they are not a complete cupcake.  See:  Luther 78 Loras 74, Luther 70 Wartburg 69.  Then they follow up the Wartburg win losing to Simpson 75-61.  Luther is capable of making threes and they believe they can play spoiler--watch out down the stretch.  Proj: 5-11

8.  Simpson 2-10 Proj 3-13

9. Central 1-11  Proj:  1-15

doolittledog

#4174
Dubuque leads Coe 47-30 at the half.  My daughter was upset because she missed a dunk while walking between the stands.  Kind of fun to see her in the crowd while I sit at home watching. 

Other games at the half...

Central 40-35 over Wartburg  :o
Loras 37-21 over Luther
BVU 56-38 over Simpson
Coach Finstock - "There are three rules that I live by: never get less than twelve hours sleep; never play cards with a guy who has the same first name as a city; and never get involved with a woman with a tattoo of a dagger on her body. Now you stick to that and everything else is cream cheese."

doolittledog

#4175
Final scores...

Dubuque 78-58 over Coe.  20 point wins are enjoyable!
BVU 106-81 over Simpson. 
Loras 61-41 @ Luther
Central 73-72 @ Wartburg.  What the?!?!
Coach Finstock - "There are three rules that I live by: never get less than twelve hours sleep; never play cards with a guy who has the same first name as a city; and never get involved with a woman with a tattoo of a dagger on her body. Now you stick to that and everything else is cream cheese."

SpartyBlue

Quote from: doolittledog on February 09, 2022, 10:02:56 PM
Final scores...

Dubuque 78-58 over Coe.  20 point wins are enjoyable!
BVU 106-81 over Simpson. 
Loras 61-41 @ Luther
Central 73-72 @ Wartburg.  What the?!?!

UD absolutely dismantled Coe.  UD's defense has now taken Coe totally out of rhythm for 80 minutes, very impressive.  Sam Kilburg ends up with 28 pts, including 5 threes in the first half.  This kid doesn't look like much physically, but when he's on he can really shoot it and routinely uses methodical footwork to score over, under, and around post players (often giving up 5, 6, 7 inches) and double teams on either block.  Very talented point guard.

Central over Wartburg is now the upset of the year in the ARC. I have no idea how this happened.  Central is a horrible offensive team, they were outrebounded by 10...none of the numbers indicate much. Sometimes the percentages fall your way, sometimes they don't.  Crazy. 


SpartyBlue

UD 90 Simpson 68   UD wins the ARC title outright with the Wartburg loss.  Back to back ARC titles, in the last calendar year UD has gone 31-6, 26-2 vs. conference teams.  Not too shabby.  Sparty has now won 11 out of last 12, huge matchup @ Loras on Wednesday.

BV 94 Wartburg 92  Wartburg skid continues, now lost 3 out of 4.  BV is dangerous, made 13 threes to pull off this upset. Beavers could end up the second seed in the conference tourney.

Loras 80 NWU 79  Duhawks avenge loss from last Monday.  Key City Clash II, Duhawks can complicate UD's NCAA picture with a win.

Central 70 Luther 51

Dave 'd-mac' McHugh

Host of Hoopsville. USBWA Executive Board member. Broadcast Director for D3sports.com. Broadcaster for NCAA.com & several colleges. PA Announcer for Gophers & Brigade. Follow me on Twitter: @davemchugh or @d3hoopsville.

doolittledog

Dubuque wins 92-91 @ Loras.  Whew.  Video kept breaking up, so I turned off and just hoped for the best. 
NWU 75-66 @ Simpson.  As expected
Coe 91-75 over Wartburg.  The Knights woes continue
BVU 73-69 @ Central.  As expected, but the Dutch kept it close. 
Coach Finstock - "There are three rules that I live by: never get less than twelve hours sleep; never play cards with a guy who has the same first name as a city; and never get involved with a woman with a tattoo of a dagger on her body. Now you stick to that and everything else is cream cheese."

SpartyBlue

Quote from: doolittledog on February 16, 2022, 11:28:40 PM
Dubuque wins 92-91 @ Loras.  Whew.  Video kept breaking up, so I turned off and just hoped for the best. 
NWU 75-66 @ Simpson.  As expected
Coe 91-75 over Wartburg.  The Knights woes continue
BVU 73-69 @ Central.  As expected, but the Dutch kept it close.

UD 92 Loras 91  Doolittle, you missed an instant classic.  Some numbers:  FG% UD 63.5 LC 57.6,  3PT FG% UD 52% LC 52.4%, Lead Changes 21. Huge road win in a rivalry game for Dubuque.  Their modus operandi all year has been defense as a calling card and slower, more deliberate possessions looking for mismatches to exploit on offense. 

This game was a high level shootout from the opening tip.  I'm biased, of course, but UD is playing their best ball right now, has won 12 out of their last 13 and to me looks like a team that deserves some top 25 consideration.  Conference tourney is next week, will be the favorites, but either way will be interesting, as I think they are deserving of a pool C bid, having watched a lot of the other teams that are at the top of that pool and believing that UD matches up well. 

doolittledog

Tonight, Dubuque and BVU will find out who they will get to play on Thursday. If the games go on as scheduled with this weather.

NWU @ Coe
Loras @ Wartburg

Hoping SpartyBlue can give a preview.  I saw virtually no basketball this year. 

Coach Finstock - "There are three rules that I live by: never get less than twelve hours sleep; never play cards with a guy who has the same first name as a city; and never get involved with a woman with a tattoo of a dagger on her body. Now you stick to that and everything else is cream cheese."

SpartyBlue

Quote from: doolittledog on February 22, 2022, 08:33:15 AM
Tonight, Dubuque and BVU will find out who they will get to play on Thursday. If the games go on as scheduled with this weather.

NWU @ Coe
Loras @ Wartburg

Hoping SpartyBlue can give a preview.  I saw virtually no basketball this year.

I can respond to the results. 

Loras 77 Wartburg 62  Wow, the Knights really faded down the stretch, lost their last five games. Bad shooting dooms a guard heavy team like Wartburg,  there is no plan B after making threes.  Last night they went 6-22 from three.  Credit must be given to Loras for dominating the boards, rebounding advantage was 45-33 translating directly in to 17 more shot attempts for the Duhawks.  Huge.

Coe 74 NWU 65  Kohawks pull off back to back victories over the Wolves.  Coe gets to 20 wins and sets up a battle with BV. 

Semis:

Loras @ UD  The cliche is it's tough to beat a team three times in a season.  UD has to do it to continue their stellar season.  It's hard to think both teams will shoot northward of 55% again as they did last week.  I have to think UD can tighten up the defense a bit and find a way to get this done at home.  That said, Stoltz should be rocking for this one, can't count the Duhawks out.  Can they keep shooting the lights out to keep up with what has become a dynamic UD offense late in the season?  UD should have been ranked higher in the NCAA regionals, have won 13 out of last 14.

I do think UD should legitimately be a tournament team even with an at-large.  There is no reason the ARC should not be a two bid conference at this point.  Massey has the ARC ranked 7th out of 48, ahead of the MIAC, MIAA, SCIAC, etc. That said, go win this thing and take the politics out of the equation.

Coe @ BV  I find it interesting that the NCAA regional rankings rank BV at 14-11 but not Coe at 20-6.  Season series was a chop, I guess this will be decided the gentlemanly old fashioned way: a duel on the court.  BV has been playing the better basketball down the stretch in my eyes, but consider that Coe has won 9 out of their last 10, including a 65-62 win over BV. 




doolittledog

Do those doing the rankings look at historical numbers?  I've wondered if the history BVU has carries any weight as a 14-11 team you would think would get less love than a 20 win Coe and a 19 win Dubuque.  That doesn't seem to be the case.
Coach Finstock - "There are three rules that I live by: never get less than twelve hours sleep; never play cards with a guy who has the same first name as a city; and never get involved with a woman with a tattoo of a dagger on her body. Now you stick to that and everything else is cream cheese."

Pat Coleman

Historical numbers are not considered. Here's a quick glance at the primary criteria:

Buena Vista: 14-11 vs. D-III as of Sunday, .568 SOS, 2-5 against regionally ranked opponents
Coe: 19-5 vs. D-III, .521 SOS, 1-3 against regionally ranked opponents

BVU's regionally ranked opponents are generally better as well, with a win against Stout and losses to La Crosse and St. John's, split with Dubuque. Coe is swept by Dubuque, split with BVU.

Neither BVU nor Coe is getting an at-large bid, so it doesn't really matter who is ranked ahead, frankly.
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