It's Week Two of conference play and there were some doozies in the weekday portion of the schedule, we'll get to that in a minute.
But first, I must put in a blog disclaimer as an issue has already arose. When my job takes precedence, it's going to be tough for me to put out blogs on time, especially if that problem arises on Saturday's, when all three conferences are going at full tilt.
Well, one of these situations has already arisen, since I have to go to St. Thomas on Saturday to cover the UW-Oshkosh Titans football team. The game is right during all of the games so I won't be able to watch any of them (unless I can get archived footage on Sunday. Crossing my fingers on that one).
I will still put out a weekend blog, don't worry. It just might not be as in-depth as the last one was. And hopefully this will be the last time that me working on Saturday's will be an issue for awhile.
With that, lets get to the midweek blog.
One Big Thing
I think my time in DIII basketball has made me realize that most program's success is cyclical. Meaning that teams rise and fall throughout their program's history. You can go one year from conference champions to fighting just to make the conference tournament.
There are very few instances where that doesn't occur, such as the UW-Stevens Point's of the world. But even they have their down years where they don't live up to the high expectations.
With that, I want to take a look at three teams: UW-River Falls, Lake Forest and Edgewood. All three of these teams are coming off either a regular season conference title or conference tournament title from last year.
But this year has been a struggle for them to this point, as all three have lost a ton of talent from those clubs a year ago.
We'll start with River Falls, who won the WIAC tournament title last year. This season has been a struggle to this point for the Falcons, who are just 3-4 overall this season and 0-1 in the WIAC after a throttling by Platteville 74-48 at Karges.
It's one thing to lose to a solid team like that on the road. But for a team looking still to make it to the conference tournament, to lose like that a home looks really bad.
It may not be completely awful and they still should make the conference tourney. But for a team that has made the NCAA postseason two years in a row, missing out may feel like they've underachieved.
Next up is Lake Forest, who won the regular season MWC crown last year with a 16-2 record.
They were picked fourth this season in the MWC, but lost a brunt of their scoring from last year and it has showed already this season.
The Foresters have gone 1-3 to start out the MWC season and 1-5 overall. Those three MWC losses came to Carroll (A blow out loss at home to a superior team), to Illinois College (A team the Foresters should have beat, but were down big until finding some miracle way to come back and still lose on the road) and St. Norbert (On the road, trailed by ten for most of the second half against one of the conference favorites).
Jeff Beck has led an admirably charged attack but their is still something missing and they haven't looked great all season, notably against Carroll in their MWC home opener.
Lastly, we'll look at Edgewood. Edgewood won the NAC's first NCAA tournament game last season after winning the conference tournament.
However, they lost their top two scorers from last season and it has showed, as they are 0-2 in the NAC and 1-5 overall.
Albeit their two losses have been to the top two teams in conference in Lakeland and Aurora. But things still don't look greatly promising from the Eagles, and their run near the top of the conference seems to be over, in my opinion.
Even those these teams maybe having their down years, (it's still early, we'll have a better look near the middle of the season) it's all a cycle and they will return to the top when it's their turn. They needn't worry.
Two Small Things
-Is Marian as good as they were picked?
This is a tough one to figure out. Both of their losses in the NAC came by one point -- a 59-58 loss to Concordia-Wisconsin at home (who proved how good they were by taking Lakeland to the wire) and a 65-64 loss to Dominican on the road (always a tough gym to play in and Stars look better than advertised).
They are games that teams who are looking to make a jump this year win and a game against CUW that they need to win if they want a shot in the North division this year.
The Sabres were able to grind out a tough win on the road at MSOE on Tuesday, 55-51, but again another team that the Sabres should have put away much easier than that.
But maybe that's what they needed. Maybe this MSOE win can get them on a role.
But if not, it's fair to wonder how good they will be this year.
-Is the MWC going to be wide open all year?
It appears that the Midwest Conference may be the most competitive of the three conferences that I will cover. There have already been numerous close games and surprises coming out of the conference that have made me say, "What?"
The first is last weekend's loss by St. Norbert to Cornell, the MWC newcomer this year on the road. What makes that loss even more surprising is that Cornell turned around and lost to Knox on Tuesday. Knox was picked last in conference this year, while Cornell was picked to the bottom tier as well.
But Norbert's was picked to be the favorite of the conference. Surprising, right? This is just the beginning.
Some other surprises were Lawrence taking Carroll to the wire on the road, after Carroll had started out the season strong, Beloit taking down Ripon, who took down Lawrence and Grinnell barely hanging on against Monmouth.
It has been a wild and wacky start to conference and if this continues, who knows who will come out on top.
3 Performances of the Week
Tyler Tillema, UW-Stevens Point (against UW-Superior)
Our first repeat winner, Tillema went off for 34 points on 11-of-16 shooting and 11-of-12 from the line in a comeback win against the Yellowjackets.
Steve McAfee, Beloit (against Monmouth)
McAfee showed off his skill set against Monmouth, scoring 24 points and grabbing 5 rebounds in the Buccaneers 78-64 win on Saturday. He shot 7-of-11 from the field, 3-of-4 from deep and 7-of-8 from the line in the win.
Justin Ward, Lakeland (against Benedictine)
Ward went off against the Eagles, dropping in 32 points and grabbing six boards in the victory for the Muskies.
4 Power Teams in Two Words
WIAC
1. UW-Whitewater (6-0, 2-0 WIAC) Words: Number one
2. UW-Stevens Point (6-0, 2-0 WIAC) Words: As advertised
3. UW-Platteville (7-1, 2-0 WIAC) Words: Big, Bigger
4. UW-La Crosse (6-1, 1-1 WIAC) Words: Regrouping mode
MWC
1. Carroll (5-1, 2-0 MWC) Words: Most consistent
2. Grinnell (6-1, 3-0 MWC) Words: Most volatile
3. St. Norbert (3-2, 2-1 MWC) Words: Most enigmatic
4. Lawrence (3-3, 2-2 MWC) Words: Most sleepy (I mean that as in a sleeper pick)
NAC
1. Lakeland (5-0, 3-0 NAC) Words: Too good
2. Aurora (4-3, 3-0 NAC) Words: Eat glass
3. Concordia-Wisconsin (2-3, 1-1 NAC) Words: Challenged Lakeland
4. MSOE (4-3, 2-1 NAC) Words: Soft schedule
5 Worth the Price of Admission
1. MWC, Grinnell at St. Norbert, 3 p.m. Price I would pay: $8
This one should be a doozy as the undefeated Pioneers take their record into the preseason favorite's home gym.
Grinnell has looked solid in league play to this point, even coming back against Monmouth on Tuesday to steal win on the road after being down.
St. Norbert has had an up and down start to the season, with a questionable loss to Cornell on Saturday, before coming back with a strong home win against Lake Forest.
This should be a good barometer as to how good these teams actually are, and more importantly for the teams, it's a chance to get a leg up on the competition early in the season.
2. Non-conference, Augustana (Ill.) at UW-Stevens Point, 7 p.m. Price I would pay: $8
Probably one of the better non-conference match ups of the season and the toughest test of the Pointers season to this point.
Augie has been the surprise of the CCIW to this point in the season and already has a wins under their belt against blog teams St. Norbert and Aurora this season, who seem to be pretty solid teams and Augie wasn't expected to do THAT much damage in conference this year. (This is a relative statement, as Augie has always had a solid program)
So it's fitting that the No. 7 Pointers get a nice challenge from a legit foe just as they begin to enter the conference season from a team that is garnering votes in the D3hoops.com poll.
It'll be interesting to see how the Pointers play and if Tyler Tillema can keep his string of unbelievably strong play going against the Vikings.
3. NAC, Lakeland at Marian, 4:15 p.m. Price I would pay: $6
It's time for the dark horse to pay the piper. Or something like that. It's time to see how good the Sabres actually are.
They get that chance with a red-hot Lakeland team coming to town. The Muskies are just lethal on offense and lead the NAC in scoring by a lot, thanks to their inside duo of Justin Ward and Jake Schwarz, who have been just lighting up scoreboards.
The Sabres come into the contest at 1-2 but with two close losses on the resume, including one to CUW, who took Lakeland to the wire on Tuesday.
If the Sabres can ugly the game up, like they have in their first three games of conference play, and keep Lakeland close, they have a shot to pull off the upset and show people what they are capable of this season.
4. WIAC, UW-Stout at UW-Platteville, 4 p.m. Price I would pay: $5
The Pioneers have been the most consistent team outside of UW-Stevens Point to start the year in the WIAC (I say this relatively to UW-Whitewater, who in my mind is still better, but have played slightly inconsistently at times).
They've done that by doing what they do best, feeding the ball inside. Their big man Chas Cross leads the team averaging 12.6 points per game this year.
They will take on a UW-Stout team that may surprise people this season. They nearly hung on at home to beat UW-Whitewater and have some scoring punch with Alex Oman, Chris Hortman and Jarvis Ragland all averaging double figures this year.
If the Blue Devils can go into Platteville and grab a win, we could be talking about a serious sleeper team. If Platteville wins by double digits, we can clearly call them one of the favorites in the WIAC.
5. WIAC, UW-Eau Claire at UW-Whitewater, 3 p.m. Price I would pay: $2
This could be the proverbial trap game for the Warhawks.
The Warhawks will be coming off a solid win on the road against a very good UW-La Crosse team on Wednesday night. Coming up next Wednesday is the first showdown with Stevens Point.
Sandwiched in between is this game with a sneaky dangerous Blugolds squad, who played Platteville tough on Wednesday night.
If UW-Whitewater is not careful and UW-Eau Claire gets hot from deep, this could be an upset in the making.
Thanks for taking a look at the blog once again. You can always follow my hoop thoughts (and other thoughts) at @turkdigg40 on Twitter.
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