Last of the Exhibitions

Wisconsin-Madison 62 Wisconsin-Whitewater 47

Not to be outdone by the ‘Ville, Whitewater tried making some of their own magic with a win over the high and mighty Badgers. They actually gave the Badgers a run for their money. It was only a 3 point game at half, 28-25, and the Warhawks stuck with them until about 9 minutes left to go in the game. Goodwin, Vernon, and McKay all logged 33+ minutes and I expect them to carry the load all season. Nice way to start out for WW and they lived up to their high ranking.

Winona State 91 Superior 79

Jake Smith wanted to prove that his excellent season last season was no joke. He jumped out of the gates early by dropping 31 on the DII National Champs. Nothing too surprising in this one as Superior appeared to play uptempo through the whole game. The one glaring weakness in the Jackets game is a lack of a center. Ben Lindberg got the start, but only played 12 minutes. I expect the center position to be a revolving door all season.

Onto games that count!! Saturday is full of them. I’m hoping to make it over to see Stout take on Buena Vista.

There goes the bench.

Lax and StP rosters are up.

TJ Nereng and Andrew Haass are both on the roster even though they didn't appear in the box score against Winona State.

Point's bench just got a bit smaller: Drew Jackson, Scott Hoelzl, and Ross Rortvedt are all no longer on the team. In a way this might be good for Point because Semling will have a tighter rotation and the starters will get in better groves. I felt he played too many players last season. All three of those guys were terrific players and they will be missed, none the less. I thought Jackson had the potential to be an outstanding player, but he seemed to be buried at the end of bench at times. Probably in Semling's dog-house.

That leaves EC as the only team who has not posted a roster. Maybe Gibby is going to drop a few surprises on us; Sherm and Wallenfelz are coming back? You can get an idea of what EC is bringing to the table with the EC/GB box score.

Welcome to the 'Ville

Plt 84 Bradley 79

Their website has a new message for the WIAC, “Welcome to the ‘Ville”. The Ville went straight upset-city on the Bradley Braves this afternoon beating the D1 school, 84-79 on Bradley’s home floor. It’s not like this was some fluke either, the Ville took the lead midway through the first half and never looked back. Pre-season All-American Jeff Skemp lived up to the accolades with 20 pts and 8 boards on 9-11 shooting. Curt Hanson strutted his stuff, once again, going 6-9 from three for a total of 24 points on the game.

What a great way to start off the season for the Ville and for the WIAC.

Green Bay 92 EC 61

Not much to say about this one. Dan Beyer only played 6 minutes. Are his injury issues still lingering?

It looks like Jason Kalsow landed a nice gig!

Exhibition Play

Winona State 79 Lax 76

The Eagles gave Winona State a run for their money in the battle of the bluffs. This is not the same Winona State team who dominated D-2 for several years. John Smith and Jonte Flowers are gone and those two made the team what it was. With that said, it was a nice way for Lax to start off the year. It looks like Lax will be the Tony Mane show again this season. Mane dropped a measly 36. It will remain to be seen if guys like Austin Scott and Brandon Brown will be able to help Mane in the scoring column.

Lax has some new names in the box score (Kurt Kincaid, Andy Merklein, Trevor Stratton all started) and the only notable omissions were TJ Nereng and Andrew Haass.

Good luck to EC and Plt as they take on UW-Green Bay and Bradley today.