February 16, 2023: Excitement in the WIAC, John Carroll springs the upset
Sitting down to write this up now, and thinking back on the thrilling action of last night. This season has delivered in a special way, with all of its upsets, unpredictability, and down-to-the-wire finishes. I can’t believe we’re in the last week of the regular season, but here we are. Man, the next couple weeks are going to be a whole lot of fun. You can also expect a few more updates each week from me here as there will be a lot to cover in such a short amount of time. I can’t wait to watch the postseason action unfold!
Starting off by getting straight to the point! Here are some of the games that caught my eye as I watched last night’s action unfold.
I’ve got no choice but to lead off with the WIAC…last night was a ton of fun in what I consider to be the deepest league in the nation. Starting off at the top, UW-Stout clinched a share of the WIAC title for the first time since 2007 with a massive 63-45 win over UW-Eau Claire. Stout completely flipped the script there. In the first meeting between the two, UWEC had gone on a tear in the third quarter, running away with a double-digit victory. In this one, it was Stout who went on a third quarter run, outscoring the Blugolds 23-9 in those 10 minutes. UWEC just had no answer, and that was pretty much the story of the game. Stout led by 11 at halftime, and further widened that gap in the second half. The Stout defense keyed in on Jessie Ruden, holding one of UWEC’s most reliable scorers to just 4 points on a 2/16 shooting night. For as good as UWEC has been offensively all year, the Blugolds converted on just 25.7% of their shots. Stout’s defense won that game, and along with Whitewater’s loss, tied them atop the league standings. Stout enters the WIAC Tournament as the #2, UWEC will be the #3 seed. (Complete WIAC Tournament schedule below)
Wait…Whitewater lost? Yep! To UW-Platteville. And that may have been one of the more exciting games of the night. UWP was literally playing for its season, also needing UW-River Falls and UW-Stevens Point to lose, in order to punch a ticket into the WIAC Tournament. On their home court, the Pioneers of UWP found the path to victory, defeating the league’s top team, the nation’s #16 squad, for the second time this year, 61-52. That’s the WIAC for you….the league simply never disappoints! I went through and looked to see what UWP did so well against WW in those two regular season victories. Interestingly, there weren’t many similarities, besides WW’s poor free throw shooting in both (the Warhawks were below 50% from the line in both losses). Rebounding also played a key role, though WW definitely rebounded better this time around. UWP won the battle on the boards by +22 in the first meeting, but won by just +4 last night. Still, it led to 17 second-chance points, which helped, and getting to the paint was also critical. UWP had at least 8 more points in the paint in both victories. I wouldn’t count UWP out! They battle UWEC in Tuesday’s quarterfinal, which should be a must-see matchup for those of you following these tournaments across the country. 8 pm EST tip-off in that one.
WIAC Tournament schedule:
Alright, getting to some of the other leagues now! I watched a good portion of another huge upset a little further to the east last night, as John Carroll (who has been having an off year compared to the standards of previous season) upset #12 Baldwin Wallace in a rivalry showdown. You could just feel the excitement and emotion through the livestream, both teams battling it out in a cross-town duel. JCU was by far the better team, though, and while BW had a tremendous second half, cutting the deficit down to 3 points a number of times in the final minute or so, the Blue Streaks’ lead was too much to overcome. JCU led 50-32 at halftime after shooting 65% in the first half. That’s what you call firing on all cylinders! I hadn’t watched JCU a whole lot in OAC play, but they certainly looked like an improved team from when I saw them last in a non-conference matchup against Transylvania in December.
In a game I anticipated might be somewhat competitive for four quarters, #1 Christopher Newport just ran away with it in a 74-49 rout of Mary Washington. CNU is playing to the level of a #1 team right now, and though Mary Washington isn’t a Top 25 team, they’re in the national conversation. In fact, MW LED 16-15 after the first quarter. But CNU proceeded to outscore MW by 9 in both the second and third quarters, benefited by a ton of turnovers. MW turned the ball over 30 times leading to 42 of CNU’s points. If you want to have a chance at beating CNU, you’ve got to take care of the basketball.
I thought Marietta’s defense looked incredibly sharp, probably the best I’ve seen it all year, in last night’s 60-35 win over Capital. Marietta could be a dark horse in the OAC Tournament…the Pioneers defended the perimeter especially well (Capital was 2/16 from the 3pt line) and sticking to their style of play, absolutely dominated on the glass, outrebounding Capital 55-29. That’s Marietta’s key to success right there. Capital had just 5 offensive rebounds.
DePauw and Ohio Wesleyan went into OT in NCAC action, with DePauw prevailing in a 69-61 win. I said this one Twitter, but I really feel like OWU is 1 year away from greatness. They have a roster of mostly underclassmen…a few juniors, some talented freshmen and sophomores, but no seniors. Next year, I think they’ll be a force to be reckoned with. DePauw played well at the same time, with their bench coming up with 18 points, in addition to a +13 rebounding margin. We’ll see how the NCAC Tourney turns out…DePauw and Wittenberg are the obvious favorites, and I’m not sure the NCAC will end up with a Pool C. So those tournament games will be huge for all involved.
Regional rankings
On other topic, the first numbered regional rankings came out yesterday afternoon! You can find them here on D3hoops.com. I thought the committee did a good job of balancing win percentage and SOS. It’s a tough task that those RACs have and the national committee also has a great responsibility, which they handle very well. I know there are some frustrations that I’ve seen on Twitter in regards to certainly teams being unranked or others “not being high enough” in their respective regions. This is why Scott Peterson and I are putting together the livestream on Sunday. Those newer to D3 aren’t always aware of the factors that go into these regional rankings, particularly when a higher win percentage team is put below a lower win percentage team when the lower WP team has a higher SOS and/or RRO resume.
Top 16 reveal
As Dave McHugh has been promoting on Twitter, Hoopsville will be the home of the Top 16 reveal by the national committee tonight. Should be a great broadcast and give us some insight into how the committee is viewing things. Watch it here: https://www.d3hoops.com/hoopsville/index
Hope you have a great rest of your day. I’ll probably put up something short up here tomorrow on the Top 16 reveal, so stay tuned. As always, feel free to reach out with any questions, comments, feedback. Email is rileyzayas@gmail.com, and also on Twitter, (@ZayasRiley).