|
|
Post by wsu97 on Jan 15, 2006 12:29:17 GMT -5
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 15, 2006 21:37:11 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by GBFanJ on Jan 15, 2006 23:05:04 GMT -5
"Evanochko tonight, in my opinion, was the best player in the league," UWM coach Rob Jeter said.
That was the exact quote from the Press-Gazette.
Go ahead and debate who is better, Evanochko or Wood. We'll let them decide it on Thursday.
|
|
|
|
Post by wsu97 on Jan 17, 2006 7:09:55 GMT -5
Raiders head to Wisconsin undefeated Dairy State hasn't been kind to WSU in past seasons By Marc Katz Dayton Daily News FAIRBORN | Seldom has a Wright State basketball team been in this position. Actually, the Raiders have never been in this particular position, standing 4-0 in the Horizon League with a chance to strike down two of its biggest nemesis, the twin Wisconsins — Green Bay and Milwaukee. Wright State — the lone undefeated team in league play — is at Green Bay on Thursday and Milwaukee on Saturday. Since the Horizon League was formed in 2001-02, the Raiders have won only once in the Dairy State — at Green Bay, by a point, in 2002. Wright State's losing streak at Milwaukee extends to the old Midwestern Collegiate Conference, seven games. But Wright State has never entered Wisconsin 4-0 in league play. Its overall record is just 8-6, not much different than Green Bay's 8-9. Two years ago, the Raiders were 2-1 in league play, then ran off a five-game league winning streak to go 7-1. Eventually, they finished 10-6, dropping four of their last five games. "If you get cocky and lose the rest of your games, no one's going to remember you went 4-0," said co-captain Drew Burleson. "I know what the ultimate goal is and we haven't achieved that." "You approach this game (Green Bay) like any other. Right now, our main goal is to go 5-0 in the league." Wright State nearly pulled a double victory at the Wisconsin schools last season, losing at Green Bay 73-71 in overtime and 71-66 at Milwaukee after leading by 11 with five minutes to play. "Those were different teams with different players," Burleson said. "(Ed) McCants isn't at Milwaukee anymore and Zach (Williams) isn't here anymore. "It's all unchartered water right now for us. We're just trying to play the way we want to play." In that regard, WSU coach Paul Biancardi is happy, especially since his team started the season 0-4. "We've clearly gotten better," Biancardi said. "It's plain, old-fashioned effort. The focus on our task is better. The concentration has been better. Those things are words we throw around as coaches, but they're true. "We're close to the way I'd like to play." The Raiders are 4-0 playing this way, and could be 6-0 if they sweep in Wisconsin. "I don't go home thinking what it would feel like (to be 6-0)," Biancardi said. "I just want to win the next game. I look at what's ahead of me. I don't look ahead at 'What ifs'. (as in what if WSU wins). I look ahead and say, 'What if they play zone, what if they play man?' " Also, what exactly are the Raiders going to find in Wisconsin? Milwaukee, the defending champion and favorite again, was 12-3 and 5-0 in the league before playing at 7-9 and 1-3 Green Bay on Saturday. The Phoenix, having lost most of their top players from a year ago, were supposed to be in a rebuilding mode. Yet, Green Bay beat Milwaukee 84-77 to win its second straight game and end Milwaukee's eight-game winning streak. Milwaukee plays at Detroit on Wednesday. "These next two games will be tough on the road," sophomore forward Jordan Pleiman said. "I wouldn't say they're the most difficult, but they're more difficult than most." Contact Marc Katz at (937) 225-2157 www.daytondailynews.com/sports/content/sports/wsu/daily/0117wsubb.html |
|
|
|
Post by wsu97 on Jan 19, 2006 7:07:40 GMT -5
WSU, Green Bay both showing confidence By Marc Katz Dayton Daily News GREEN BAY, WIS. | There seems to be no lack of confidence entering tonight's Horizon League game featuring Wright State and Wisconsin-Green Bay. Wright State enters as the only team undefeated in league play at 4-0. On Saturday, Green Bay beat the only other undefeated team, Wisconsin-Milwaukee — still considered the best team in the league. "I think it shows we're getting better," Green Bay coach Tod Kowalczyk said. "That's what we've been all about this year, trying to get better. We've got the fourth-youngest team in the country and the second-youngest starting lineup in the country. "Did I think we could play with Milwaukee (after losing to the Panthers by 20 points on Dec. 17)? Absolutely. That's not arrogance. This league is so good, on any given night anybody can beat anybody. We were picked to finish seventh in the league. I don't think we're a seventh-place team." DaShaun Wood, co-captain and junior point guard for the Raiders, feels much the same way. "Everyone on the team feels like we're pretty good," Wood said, citing a four-game winning streak. "Without question we feel like we can play with those guys (Green Bay and Milwaukee). "We've got the best record since we've been here. Confidence is the biggest thing in basketball." Redshirt freshman William Graham, also a point guard in the starting lineup, said, "We like to think the way our coach (Paul Biancardi) thinks. This is the championship game, as is the next one." Contact Marc Katz at 225-2157. www.daytondailynews.com/sports/content/sports/wsu/daily/0119wsubb.html |
|
|
|
Post by wsu97 on Jan 19, 2006 7:10:04 GMT -5
WSU NOTES Horizon coaches: League is tougher By Marc Katz Dayton Daily News GREEN BAY, WIS. | This week's college basketball Ratings Percentage Index ranks Wright State No. 156 and Wisconsin-Green Bay No. 161, so tonight's game has no clear favorite. It's that way throughout the league, say the coaches. "In this league (in the past), there have been one, two, three teams that aren't very good," Green Bay's Tod Kowalczyk said. "I don't think there are any bad teams this year." Said Wright State coach Paul Biancardi, "I think every team in this league is quality. Some leagues are top-heavy. You don't want to play the top four. Then there are a few teams that are OK and some bad teams. We don't have any bad teams." Well, the RPI says Milwaukee is best with a No. 18 rank, followed by Illinois-Chicago (98), Butler (101), Loyola-Chicago (126), WSU (156), Green Bay (161), Detroit (195), Cleveland State (247) and Youngstown State (312). Young team How could a team as young as Green Bay (six of the 11 players are freshmen, three in the starting lineup) beat Milwaukee 84-77 less than a month after losing at Milwaukee 80-60? "I don't think we played very well in Milwaukee," Green Bay coach Tod Kowalczyk said. "Our game with Milwaukee is always a big game. As a coach, as much as you don't want to put any more emphasis on any one game, I'd be pretty naive to think that my players don't look at it as a different game, because they do. "I don't think it makes our season breaks our season. I think it just shows we're getting better." Five of Green Bay's top seven scorers that split with Wright State last year are gone. The roster has no seniors, although junior-college transfer Aswan Minatee provides some experience. Yet with that roster, Kowalczyk scheduled games with Washington, Miami (Fla.), Wisconsin and Michigan State, among others. He lost to all those teams by at least 20 points, yet has no regrets. "I'm a little surprised I was that stupid, too," Kowalczyk said when it was suggested he might have over-scheduled. "I wanted our guys to have the experience playing those teams. This was going to be the year we had to play our best basketball at the end of the season. It wasn't going to be about wins and losses." Raider views • A year ago, starting Wright State forward Jordan Pleiman was a freshman reserve, scoring 10 points and grabbing nine rebounds in a 73-71 overtime loss at Green Bay. "Last year is done with and you can't change it," Pleiman said. "You've got to remember and try to learn from that. You should get fired up and ready to go no matter what happens." Asked what it would mean if the Raiders beat Green Bay, then Milwaukee on Saturday, he said, "If we were to get these next two games, it would put us at the next level. We'd be in real good shape. It would be great." • Point guard DaShaun Wood knows at the end of the week, there will be more than half the Horizon League schedule to play (10 games). He wants to remain where he is for those games, in first place. "At the beginning of the year, we set our goal," Wood said. "Our goal was to win the league. We don't want to play catch-up." Contact Marc Katz at 225-2157. www.daytondailynews.com/sports/content/sports/wsu/daily/0119wsunotes.html |
|
Green Bay Press Gazette
Guest
|
Post by Green Bay Press Gazette on Jan 19, 2006 8:20:18 GMT -5
www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060119/GPG020101/601190463/1229Posted January 19, 2006 Men's basketball: Evanochko thrives on hard work By Rob Demovsky rdemovsk@greenbaypressgazette.com Ryan Evanochko is a self-made basketball player. His jump shot isn't out of a textbook. He takes what sometimes appear to be bad shots and after a rough stretch at the start of his career, he's on the verge of becoming a bona fide star for the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (8-9 overall, 2-3 Horizon League). In his last two games, the junior guard has done something only Tony Bennett and Jeff Nordgaard — perhaps the best two players ever to play for the Phoenix — have done: Flirt with back-to-back 30-point games. He became the first Phoenix player in nearly a decade to put up 30 points when he did so in an overtime win against Illinois-Chicago on Jan. 11. He followed that with a 29-point showing in Saturday's win over UW-Milwaukee. He missed out on back-to-back 30-point games, because he missed a free throw with 11 seconds left and went just 6-of-10 from the line. So, at the end of practice on Wednesday, there was Evanochko standing on the free-throw line while the rest of his teammates were stretching. "The thing I really like about him is he's just a hard worker," said John Miller, Evanochko's high school coach in Beaver Falls, Pa. "When he came to me in ninth grade, he just worked, worked, worked until he got to where he is now." Miller has an idea where Evanochko developed that. "For many years, it was just him and his mom," Miller said. "She really did a great job raising him." Evanochko's mother, Lori, was 19-years old when her son was born. She was a single mother who worked long hours as a cook in a local diner to support her son. "I worked a lot, and I don't know if he just picked up on that and kind of learned that (work ethic) on his own," she said. "I worked there from the time I had him, and it was just a way to survive." Then, when Evanochko was in eighth grade, his mother met Greek immigrant Dennis Panagitsas, whom she married a few years later. "I'm not saying Ryan came from a bad background, but what I'm saying is he didn't have your regular old family," Miller said. "His mom is white, and his real father, who Ryan never met, is black. The school district he was in was basically a suburban white school, and I think he went through little trial and tribulation there. Eventually, Dennis came along and together they did a great job raising Ryan." If he learned how to work hard from his mother, he found a workout partner in his step-father. "Basically, he just kept my head on my shoulders," Evanochko said. "He'd never let me get too high on myself. He was always there for me and would always go down to the gym with me whenever I wanted to shoot or work out." By his senior year at Blackhawk High School, Evanochko developed into one of the best players in Western Pennsylvania. He was named the Pittsburgh-area player of the year by several newspapers. When Evanochko came to Green Bay, things didn't go as planned. He got into some off-the-court trouble during his first semester and was suspended for the first exhibition game. He also was stuck behind a trio of junior guards, Javier Mendiburu, Brandon Morris and Matt Rohde. The 6-foot-2 Evanochko played sparingly as a freshman. "When he went to Green Bay, for the first time his life, he was on his own," Miller said. "He was in a new environment, and thought he didn't have to listen to anybody and could do what he wanted to do. I talked to him when he was going through that and though he didn't seem to be acting like he had problems, I know he had some difficulties starting out." Things began to turn around last year, when he hit a game-winning shot against tonight's opponent, Wright State. He played a key backup role and averaged 6.2 points per game for a team that finished 17-11. But few people could have seen this coming. After an inconsistent first month of the season, Evanochko has grown into the point guard role and has flourished. He's had six games with at least 22 points and has scored in double figures in all but four of UWGB's games. Early in the season, he often settled for an off-balanced, fade-away jumper that was inconsistent. Lately, he's found a way to get himself on balance and has made a high percentage of those tough shots in traffic. He shot isn't a natural shooter's motion with a high arc. It's more of a line-drive push shot. UWGB coach Tod Kowalczyk didn't try to change it but helped Evanochko find ways to get it off faster. Now, he's got easily the quickest release on the team. "It's not that pretty, but I think he's just worked on at it so much," UWGB junior Josh Lawrence said. "He's had that rhythm and that shot for so long, I think it just comes natural to him." Heading into tonight's game against first-place Wright State (8-6, 4-0), Evanochko ranks fifth in the Horizon League in scoring at 16.1 points per game. In UWGB's five conference games, he's averaging 18.8 points a game while shooting 50.7 percent, including 47.4 percent from 3-point range. "Fabulous, just fabulous," was how Wright State coach Paul Biancardi described Evanochko's play after watching a tape of the UWM game. "He's under control. He's playing with composure, and he's obviously got the ability to get his own shot. He's really grown in that program."
|
|
Green Bay Press Gazette
Guest
|
Post by Green Bay Press Gazette on Jan 19, 2006 8:21:05 GMT -5
www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060119/GPG020101/601190466/1229Posted January 19, 2006 Men's basketball: UWGB-Wright State preview Who: University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (8-9 overall, 2-3 Horizon League) vs. Wright State (8-6, 4-0) When: 7:05 p.m., today. Where: Resch Center (9,729); Ashwaubenon Radio: WDUZ (107.5 FM); Internet broadcast on www.uwgb.edu/athletics Internet streaming video: www.uwgb.edu/ athletics/mbb/gameday Coaches: UWGB — Tod Kowalczyk (52-51, fourth season); Wright State — Paul Biancardi (37-35, third season) Series: The Phoenix leads the all-time series 18-12 and split the two meetings last year. Wright State last won in Green Bay on Feb. 17, 2002. Probable starters: UWGB — F, Josh Lawrence (6-7, jr.) 9.2 ppg, 4.2 rpg; Mike Schachtner (6-9, fr.) 9.8 ppg, 4.1 rpg; Ryan Tillema (6-8, fr.) 8.1 ppg, 4.0 rpg; G, Terry Evans (6-5, fr.) 8.6 ppg, 5.7 rpg; Ryan Evanochko (6-2, jr.) 16.1 ppg, 4.7 apg. WSU — F, Drew Burleson (6-6, jr.) 12.4 ppg, 5.1 rpg; Jordan Pleiman (6-8, so.) 9.0 ppg, 6.3 rpg; G, DaShaun Wood (5-11, jr.) 16.6 ppg, 4.6 rpg; Jaron Taylor (6-1, sr.) 4.6 ppg, 1.9 rpg; William Graham (6-3, so.) 2.7 ppg, 1.4 rpg. UWGB update: Following wins over Illinois-Chicago and UW-Milwaukee, the Phoenix is looking for its first three game winning streak of the season and is trying to get back to the .500 mark for the first time since it was 1-1. … UWGB hasn't lost this season when leading or tied at the half. It is 3-0 when leading at halftime and 2-0 when tied. Under Kowalczyk, UWGB is 46-7 when leading or tied at the break. Saturday's win over UWM was just the third time in 12 games this season that the Phoenix won when trailing at the break. UWM led 46-38 at halftime. The Phoenix is 16-44 under Kowalczyk when trailing at halftime. … UWGB's coaches and administrators spent this week cleaning out their offices because of the renovations to the Phoenix Sports Center. The athletic offices will be moved across campus to Rose Hall for the remainder of the season. The new Kress Events Center is scheduled to open in the fall of 2007. WSU update: The Raiders' current four-game winning streak is the longest active streak in the Horizon League, and they are the only conference team without a league loss. After an 0-4 start to the regular season, the Raiders have won eight of their last 10. They haven't played since last Thursday's 64-60 win at Youngstown State. Their other conference victories came at home against Detroit and Loyola and at Cleveland State. … The Raiders played the first four games without Scott, who was suspended for violating team rules. "The difference for us has been now we've got all our guys back, and we're getting four or five guys scoring for us now," Biancardi said. … Pleiman killed the Phoenix last season as a freshman. He had 10 points and nine rebounds in WSU's 73-71 overtime loss at the Resch Center and 21 points and nine rebounds in a 94-80 win in Dayton, Ohio. — Rob Demovsky, rdemovsk@greenbaypressgazette.com
|
|
|
|
Post by GBFanJ on Jan 19, 2006 12:59:44 GMT -5
Most of the predictors are favoring UWGB today. Here are the ones I found:
Sagarin predictor: UWGB by 1.31
Sportsbook.com: UWGB by 1.5
Pomeroy: UWGB by 2
Mejia: UWGB by 4
It goes along with what most people are thinking, I think. This is going to be a very close game tonight. This won't be as big for UWGB, but they'll still have a good crowd on their size. It may be only around 3500 tonight, but those 3500 can still make the Resch Center pretty loud.
Also, don't be alarmed by a late tip tonight. The game is scheduled to tip at 7:05 p.m., but the UWGB women play UIC at 5:00 p.m. as the first game of a doubleheader. So, the men will tip probably 30 minutes after the women finish.
|
|
|
|
Post by raider fan on Jan 19, 2006 16:43:43 GMT -5
GBfan, thanks for the heads up on the start time.
As a WSU fan I'm hoping for a split this on our Wisconsin trip. Both games will be difficulf as our all road games. It sounds like a battle of point guards even though I suspect that Jaron Taylor will be guarding Evanochko.
|
|
|
|
Post by wsu97 on Jan 19, 2006 17:43:37 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by Wolf on Jan 19, 2006 21:56:58 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by Big D on Jan 19, 2006 21:59:47 GMT -5
When WSU plays a full 40 minutes of basketball and controls the tempo of the game, we do well. When we allow teams to get us into a shootout, we loose. I think that pretty much summed up the game for WSU. We didn't show up for the second half and let UWGB get us into a shootout. |
|
|
|
Post by observer on Jan 19, 2006 22:10:50 GMT -5
I'm not sure WSU really played much worse in the second half. I think the first half was really GB playing badly in the first half.
WSU's offense sucked both halves.
Evanachsko pretty much scored at will.
|
|
|
|
Post by wsu97 on Jan 19, 2006 22:13:39 GMT -5
I don't know what game you were watching. WSU played very tight defense the whole first half and didn't defend the three point shot at all in the second half.
|
|
