Looking Ahead To Today's NCAA Tournament Games For The MIAC Teams

Well, it's finally here and later today/tonight, both MIAC teams in the Big Dance - GAC and UST - have a chance to strut their stuff and (hopefully) move on to the next round.  So let's take a quick look at the two games involving the two MIAC teams today.


1.  GAC vs DePauw - When the pairings were being announced Monday afternoon, I knew their was a chance that the Gusties could get sent over to UW-Oshkosh but I held out slim hope that they might host.  Well, the UW-Oshkosh pod was indeed their destination but when I saw that they were paired up with DePauw (26-2; out of the North Coast Athletic Conference), I thought to myself, "Damn....Really?"  But sometimes those tough first round matchups - if you can find a way to survive and advance - can lead to great things.  And make no mistake about it - this is likely the best first round match-up in the entire Field of 64; a true marquee game.  The Tigers have been in this thing many times before and got the automatic bid by winning the NCAC Championship Game.  In fact, they've won the whole ball of wax TWICE which says a lot about this program.  This is a squad that knows how to play defense as they normally hold opponents to 50.8 points a game and normally outrebound opponents by an 11.8 margin.  They're opportunistic on defense as well as the force 13.6 turnovers a game.  The two primary leading scores on this team are sophomore guard Maya Howard (12.4 ppg) and senior guard Claire Ryan (10.7 ppg).  Size-wise, they appear to be pretty similar to the Gusties so the guess here is that you'll see some pretty good battles down low.  And, like the Gusties, the roster is primarily made up of sophomores and juniors so the future should be bright for both teams.  For GAC, I think the primary thing is to forget about what happened this last Sunday in the MIAC Championship Game and just get back to playing its brand of basketball.  Experience always helps in these settings and though they've had the two big games with UST and the semifinal win over Bethel, is it enough?  We'll see.  But if the Gusties can focus and play their brand of ball for forty minutes (maybe more), there's no reason that they can't move on to the second round, IMHO. But they're going to need production from junior forward Miranda Rice down low and a solid, all-around game from junior point guard Mikayla Miller to bolster their chances.


2.  UW-Superior vs UST - The Tommies are likely feeling pretty good about themselves right now and why shouldn't they be?  They're 27-0 and ranked number two in the country and look pretty unbeatable right now.  At the same time, even though they're heavy favorites in the nightcap tonight over at Schoenecker Arena, the LAST thing you ever want to do is to take a Don Mulhern-coached team lightly.  This is the second straight trip to the Dance for the Yellowjackets; champions of the UMAC and although their slate of wins and losses isn't that impressive, you can bet that Mulhern will have a few tricks up his sleeve for this contest.  And for UW-Superior, it's a beautiful position to be in because they've got essentially nothing to lose here.  Glancing at the Yellowjackets statistics on the season, their rebounding margin (listed at +10.6) is impressive enough.  UW-Superior's two primary scorers are junior guard Hailey Kontny (14.5 ppg) and sophomore forward Hannah Norlin (12.9 ppg). This is a team that has decent size and doesn't turn the ball over a lot.  I can see the Yellowjackets keeping this one reasonably close for a while before the bigger, more experienced Tommies begin to pull away in the second half.  I just don't think that they have anyone who can match-up with senior post Kaitlin Langer down low and even if they try to double-team her in situations, it STILL isn't enough to stop her plus UST has some great shooters out on the perimeter who can make you pay in spades.  I think UST moves on here comfotably enough which will almost likely set up a tasty second-round rematch with IIAC Champ Wartburg in the second round Saturday night.


So, just wanted to provide a bit of a synopsis here for tonight's games.  It's definitely a fun time of the year for sure!  Fire away with thoughts.