WIU - Week 4

[ST_Lawson]

Another week in the books and Western is now 5-1 after beating Trinity Christian at home (79-44) and the first loss of the season against a very good Creighton team at their place (97-67). I figured we'd have a tough time beating Creighton, but didn't quite expect that big of a margin.

We are currently ranked #18 in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major poll: http://www.collegeinsider.com/mens-mid-major-top-25.php
Kenpom.com (Ken Pomeroy's Rankings) have us listed at #178 out of the 351 Div. I teams: http://kenpom.com
Sagarin has us ranked #191: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/ncaab/sagarin/

This Week:


Tuesday, December 2nd vs the Silver Lake College Lakers (USCAA)
Silver Lake College is a four-year, Catholic liberal arts college located in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. They play in the United States Collegiate Athletic Association, an association of small colleges, junior colleges and community colleges. They're currently 3-11 on the season and we actually have a common opponent. They played our mid-week opponent from last week (Trinity Christian) on November 7th, losing by 6. I'm generally ok with scheduling some "easier" teams in between some of the tough matchups, but this seems a bit ridiculous. They lost by 50 points to a DII school (UW-Parkside). This one is going to be ugly, and I'm not sure what our team is going to get out of it. I honestly don't think they'd beat many of the top Chicago HS basketball teams. We might be best served by not even having the starters play, and just starting the backups. Tuesday night's game is also Educator Appreciation Day where people with faculty/staff IDs can get into the game for free.

The next game isn't until next Monday (against Iowa), so I'll try to get next week's games posted on Sunday. One quick note though, I don't think I've ever seen such a big swing in talent between opponents before...Iowa is 4-2 and just beat #20 Wichita State.

[Neckfansince71]

I am not going to say that I like this matchup all that well either, but these dates are usually agreed upon way in advance and I can't blame Coach Wright for being too conservative not knowing exactly what he would have on the floor this year. I would imagine as the Necks become more and more competitive at a higher level there will be less cupcakes on the schedule. Seems to me that Oakland during its last year with Keith Benson played an unbelievable non-conference schedule and started the year like 3-8. In the long run it was just what they needed to do to be competitive at tournament time although I think they got beat right off the bat. I am hoping UIC continues to appear on the schedule both home and away, along with EIU, SIU Ed, and maybe with a little help from Tommy Bell, SIU. Loyola and Chicago State should be returning to Western Hall in the near future. jc

[sealhall74]

The Silver Lake Coach, Derek Domino, played for them only a couple years back, was assistant for them last year after graduating, and is now head coach at only 23 years of age. He is actually younger than a couple of his players.

http://www.sl.edu/athletics/teams/mens- ... head-coach

From 27K feet, that is all.

[ST_Lawson]

I am not going to say that I like this matchup all that well either, but these dates are usually agreed upon way in advance and I can't blame Coach Wright for being too conservative not knowing exactly what he would have on the floor this year. I would imagine as the Necks become more and more competitive at a higher level there will be less cupcakes on the schedule. Seems to me that Oakland during its last year with Keith Benson played an unbelievable non-conference schedule and started the year like 3-8. In the long run it was just what they needed to do to be competitive at tournament time although I think they got beat right off the bat. I am hoping UIC continues to appear on the schedule both home and away, along with EIU, SIU Ed, and maybe with a little help from Tommy Bell, SIU. Loyola and Chicago State should be returning to Western Hall in the near future. jc

This is true. Much of the schedule was likely set up a few years ago and we are not very far removed from being not very good.

Oakland's 2010-11 schedule is the one you're thinking of: http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketb ... -grizzlies
They played against West Virginia, Purdue, Illinois, Michigan State, Tennessee, Michigan and Ohio State. They won the game against Tennessee, and the game against Michigan State was actually considered a home game for Oakland, although it was held at the Palace of Auburn Hills (regular home of the Pistons) which is only about 3 miles from Oakland's campus, but I'd imagine it was mostly MSU fans, since there's a lot of them in the Detroit suburbs area.

[wiu712]

Silver Lake College plays their home basketball games at the UW-Manitowoc Fieldhouse.

[wiu712]

COACH NIELSON WEDNESDAY NIGHT AT THE BB GAME!

Attend the WIU Men's Basketball game against Silver Lake College this Wednesday, December 2 and hear from WIU Football coach Bob Nielson at halftime!

The Missouri Valley Football Conference Coach of the Year will address the crowd at halftime, and then visit with supporters in the Leatherneck Club Hall of Fame Suite!

[sealhall74]

Silver Lake College is located in Manitowoc, WI
If you like trivia, you will love Manitowoc:

http://www.manitowoc.info/about/trivia/

[wiu2008]

Video board and advertisement boards are excellent additions.. Keep the in game improvements coming!!!

[sealhall74]

Tate with an illegal screen. Right up there with death and taxes.

[wiu2008]

Tate, Crawford, Garret, jabari, and JC need to play about 96 minutes in 3 days in SD... At the end of the day that's what needs To go down for a title... The rest of the guys are minor pieces .