Well, the first weekend of conference play is over for the WIAC, MWC and NAC. And it ended up being a pretty solid one with some solid basketball and tight finishes throughout.
With that finish, it's now on to my first post-weekend analysis blog. How I'm going to do it is I'm going to analyze six games -- three I watched extensively and three I took peaks at here and there to get a feel for the game.
The three I watched extensively will get a recap and three points about the game, while the ones that I peaked at will get a recap and one point about the game.
Ready? So am I.
WIAC
Game I watched: UW-La Crosse 84, UW-Eau Claire 69. Top scorer UWL: Braden Tice (24). Top scorer UWEC: Lewis Mau (23).
The Skinny: A really well-played ball game from start to finish and much closer than the final score indicated.
The Blugolds would take a lead into halftime after coming back from being down early in the game. The Blugolds would keep that lead until there was nine minutes left to go in the game.
La Crosse and Eau Claire would trade buckets until the Eagles would go on a 23-9 run the last 7:09 of the game to take the win on the road.
Both teams would shoot exceptional from deep, with UWL going 13-23 (including 10-13 in the second half) and UWEC going 10-23.
Point 1: Execute, Execute, Execute
This is how UW-La Crosse won the game. By executing the best down the stretch.
Both teams didn't play great in the half court leading up to the end of the game, with a lot of buckets coming off of transition or secondary breaks.
But when they needed to, the Eagles did just that, running their sets and getting Braden Tice and Jeff Heiden open looks from deep to turn the tide.
They also executed on the defensive end as well, forcing the Blugolds into contested shots and finishing plays off with rebounds.
Both teams were evenly matched. And everyone will tell you, in a game where two teams are that even, it comes down to execution.
Point 2: The Importance of Being Luke Tweed
Even though Tice was UWL's leading scorer on the afternoon, the biggest statement award would have to be given to the Eagles' Luke Tweed.
Tweed finished with 23 points on the game and none more important than a stretch early in the second half.
The Blugolds were firing on all cylinders coming out of the halftime break and were looking for an early burst to get them up double digits.
Only Tweed wouldn't allow that to happen, scoring 16 of his 23 in a six minutes span early in the second half, accounting for two-thirds of the Eagles points during that time and actually cutting the UWEC lead to one.
What was most impressive was how he did it. He's a versatile player and he put that on display. The 6'6" guard made 3s. He posted up. He took guys off the dribble. He did it all.
Being a junior this year, he needed to step up and fill more of a scoring role this season. And with his skill set, especially being able to post up smaller guards, he could be very dangerous for the Eagles once they get into the heart of conference season
Note: I found myself rooting a bit for Tweed. After all he was representing my old high school conference (Western Cloverbelt). Good job, Luke, from all of us older Cloverbelters.
Point 3: Transitioning to something new
UWEC might want to try opening up the throttle a little bit more on offense.
The Blugolds looked exceptional in transition and especially on secondary looks off the initial outlet break.
You could just see it in how the first half went.
UWL opened up a lead in the beginning due to Eau Claire becoming stagnant in the half court and not getting open jumpers (their bread and butter).
But when UW-Eau Claire started coming back in the first half is when they started making things happen on the break. Their 3s suddenly became wide open because UWL was late closing to shooters, which often happened after the initial break was stopped.
But this in turn made their half court sets better since it wore down UWL and slowed them down so the Blugolds could attack the basket and create.
If I'm Eau Claire in my next game, I'm running coming out of the gate.
Game I peeked at: UW-Platteville 74, UW-River Falls 48. Top scorer UWP: Chas Cross (21). Top scorer UWRF: Ollie White (12).
The Skinny: The game was tight until late in the first half when Platteville went on a 17-5 run to close the half to open up a 33-19 lead.
That would continue in the second half when the Pioneers would extend that lead out to 21 by the 15 minute mark of the second half.
Platteville would hold the Falcons at bay the rest of the way, using a 46-23 rebounding margin, which included 17 offensive rebounds, to down UWRF.
Point 1: It's a Big, Big, BIg World
It was no secret coming into the season that the Pioneers were going to be one of the better inside teams in the WIAC.
This game showcased why all those big bodies could be dangerous for all those other WIAC teams.
Chas Cross just looked like a man amongst boys down low against River Falls on Saturday. He wend 8-of-12 from the field and pulled down seven rebounds.
Rob Stallion looked equally impressive, going 5-of-10 from the floor and grabbing nine boards.
Sure, Platteville has outside guys who are solid. Jim Stocki and Trevor Wittwer each hit double figures for the Pioneers tonight.
But it all starts with what happens down low for Platteville. If they can continue to feed the post like they did today and rebound like they did, things could be looking the Pioneers way for the remainder of the season.
MWC
Game I watched: Grinnell 134, Ripon 97. Top scorer GRIN: Jack Taylor (39). Top scorer RIP: Taylor Koth (31).
The Skinny: The System worked to perfection against the Redhawks, as Grinnell raced out to a double-digit lead and never looked back.
They did so by forcing 28 Ripon turnovers and getting a hot shooting night from Jack Taylor, who went 9-of-15 from deep in only 14 minutes of playing time as five Pioneers hit double figures on the night.
Ripon looked discombobulated for most of the night, befuddled by the press and tempo and couldn't get anything going early, when they needed it most.
Point 1: Fast start
I'm convinced after taking a look at my first ever Grinnell game that this system is at it's best with a lead of about five or eight early in the game.
At that point, the team that is behind is scared of falling too far behind the Pioneers that they can't catch up to them.
That's when the trap defense becomes even more effective. Passes are now being thrown to more risky areas to try and get something going. The opposing team starts to panic a little bit and suddenly that lead is now 20 in a blink of an eye.
That's exactly what happened to Ripon. They fell prey to that five or eight point lead early in the contest and before you knew it Grinnell had opened up a huge lead that became insurmountable.
If Grinnell can start that fast against every team and get them into that way of thinking, they'll be in for a good season.
Point 2: A little bit of defense?
Grinnell held Ripon to just 42 points in the first half, which is pretty solid by their standards.
And they actually did it by playing a solid half court defense that Ripon couldn't seem to figure out right away.
They prevented a lot of easy passes in the half court to the paint and made the Redhawks move the ball around quite a bit before taking a shot.
It was interesting to see how difficult Grinnell made it in the half court for Ripon and contributed to the large halftime lead. If they can somehow do that every once and awhile and still put up as many points as they did, they are going to be real tough.
Point 3: Bunnies
No, I'm not talking about the furry creatures that eat carrots. I'm referring to the baskets in basketball that are considered easy.
To beat Grinnell, you have to be able to convert those easy opportunities any chance you get.
Ripon failed to do that early in the game against the Pioneers. Ripon had plenty of chance to convert inside the paint on semi-contested post touches/layups and failed to convert on most of them.
Pair that with the turnovers and they dug themselves a pretty big hole that they couldn't recover from.
Now, if your Ripon you need to get this game out of your mind as quickly as possible and look at the fact that they took down a very solid Lawrence team earlier in the week. They need to focus on that win and not this loss.
Game I peeked at: Illinois College 74, Lake Forest 73. Top scorer IC: Brandon Berry (21). Top scorer LF: Jeff Beck (29).
The Skinny: Illinois College was in control for much of this game, having a 68-55 lead with 5:26 left to go in the game at home in Jacksonville.
But that's when all Hell broke loose, as the Foresters came charging back to cut the lead to 74-73 with 30 second left on a Jeff Beck 3-pointer.
Beck and Lake Forest had one more shot at it but his jumper was blocked by IC's Isaac Grapperhaus to secure the win for the Blueboys.
Point 1: Wow. What a hole!
That's what the Foresters are probably think now that they are 0-2 in the MWC with losses to Carroll (understandable) and now Illinois College (a team they should have beat).
Last year's MWC regular-season champions did lose quite a bit from last year's squad but were still picked to be in the top four of conference this season.
They've looked anything but these past two games and especially against IC, where it took a miraculous come back to almost pull of the victory. They just haven't played like that team from last year.
Things are going to have to turn around quickly for the Foresters, especially if they want to fight back into that top four come season's end in the top-heavy MWC.
NAC
Game I watched: Aurora 87, Edgewood 73. Top scorer AU: Jordan Hester (21). Top scorer EC: Brett Meinecke (16).
The Skinny: The Spartans used a late first-half run sparked by Hester to take a 13-point lead into halftime.
Edgewood would hang around for awhile, cutting the Aurora lead to six a couple of times.
But every time Edgewood would try to make a run, Aurora would exploded back with a couple of buckets to push the lead back out.
Eventually, the Eagles would run out of time and Aurora would knock down free throws to hang on for the big cross NAC win.
Point 1: Eating glass
There is a difference between grabbing rebounds and OWNING rebounds.
The Spartans owned the Eagles on the glass on Saturday, outrebounding Edgewood 42-31 and 17-10 on the offensive glass.
And I couldn't find the exact stats, but many of those offensive rebounds for the Spartans went back up for points.
Aurora definitely will be looking to continue that margin all season and they have one of the best rebounders in the NAC in Scott Laskowski.
Trust me, I know. I played against him as a freshman and he grabbed a ton of rebounds then. He's as good as they come on the glass.
If they continue rebounding like this and converting like they did today, the Spartans will be tough to beat in the South.
Point 2: Length is a good thing
Thats what Aurora has a lot of. Length. And they put it to good use against the Eagles.
The Spartans aren't the greatest of defensive teams, but when a shot goes up anywhere on the court, they contest it and it looks harder than it is because of how long they are.
This also helps in gap control on penetrations and passing lanes as they use the length to clog both of those up.
Against the Eagles, Aurora was able to force a lot of late shot clock situations on Edgewood because of that and often that shot was a poor shot.
If they continue to use their length the way the did, they can do good things against teams that can't match that length.
Point 3: It's just not the same without you around
Gone from Edgewood are last year's leading scoring options in Kent Faurote and Ben Wisniewski. Both were ample and volume scorers for the Eagles.
You can see just how much not having those two around hurts point guard Cashton Craig this season.
Last year, Craig was able to defer and create for those two guys and let his points come to him from within the offense.
This season, without them, he's had to become more of a scorer instead of facilitator, which is a role that his game just doesn't seem to fit into.
He put up plenty of poor shots against Aurora and failed to get kind of rhythm going within the offense.
It's a problem that's going to have to change for Edgewood if they even want to think about being as good as they were last season.
Game I peeked at: Lakeland 87, Benedictine 80. Top scorer LAKE: Justin Ward (32). Top scorer BEN: Michael Woolf (29).
The Skinny: Benedictine hung around with Lakeland for quite some time, even cutting the Muskie lead to one in the second half.
But Lakeland's scoring punch would come back and they would go on a run in the middle of the half to take control of the game and hold the Eagles at bay the rest of the way.
Lakeland would actually only shoot a little bit better than Benedictine from the floor, but 19 Eagles turnovers hurt them in this one.
Point 1: If you can't outscore them, you're not going to beat them
It's is just unbelievable what kind of scoring punch the Muskies have this season.
It all starts with their two big guys, Jake Schwarz and Justin Ward, who scored 21 and 32 on the day, respectively, for Lakeland.
But what's most impressive about these two is that even though they are big guys, they play anything but, which is especially true for the 6'9" Ward.
These guys were out on the perimeter half the time playing like guards, driving to the hoop or shooting the three (Schwarz went 4-of-8, Ward went 1-of-2).
This makes them a hassle for any teams to guard them when these guys are equally capable of playing outside on the wing or inside on the block.
Pair that with the shooting prowess of a Joey Burris and the rest of the Muskie crew, it's just a lethal combination.
Benedictine tried their hardest to stay with them and actually did a pretty good job. But in the end the versatility and offensive talent was just to much for the Eagles.
It's going to take an extraordinary offensive effort to take down Lakeland this year.
That's it for this weeks look. Be sure to stay tuned to the blog for my midweek look and you can always follow me on Twitter for random bits and pieces at @turkdigg40.
You can find second chance points on the Play Analysis tab on the box score. For the AU-EC game, it was 19-9 in favor of Aurora.
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