MBB Prevew: Stout travels to Platteville for battle of one-loss teams

THIS WEEK'S GAMES: Following a 69-54 road win at Superior on Wednesday, UW-Stout (7-1, 1-1 WIAC) will stay on the road this weekend, traveling to UW-Platteville (7-1, 2-0 WIAC), Saturday, Dec. 12 for a 4 p.m. tip-off. While neither team is ranked, Stout and Platteville each received votes in the most recent D3hoops.com Top 25 poll.

EDDIE ANDRIST INTERVIEWS: Throughout the season, Jimmie Kaska of Sports Radio 1400 AM will speak with men's basketball head coach Eddie Andrist. Listed are each of the interviews throughout the season.  

WEBCASTS:  All of Stout's home games will be available in a Live Video stream by Blue Devil Video, with Adam "Big Country" Lehnertz on the call.  WMEQ 880 AM radio, with either Jason Kenyon, Rob Silvers, Dan Schultz, Jimmie Kaska or Jake Bostrom, will broadcast the away conference games, as well as all Saturday conference games.  Check the Blue Devil webcast schedule for the streaming schedule.  Links to other team's streaming options will be available. Live Stats will be available for all Stout home games and many road games (check schedule details).
 

THIS WEEK BY THE NUMBERS
262	Current number of assists Erik Olson has, making him Stout's all-time career assists leader.
115	All-time victories Stout has over Superior (including Wednesday's win), more than any other school.
-35	Stout's rebounding margin against Platteville in past six meetings (1-5 in those games).
2	20-point games by Chris Hortman, first player with two such games off the bench since 2003 (Andy Bray, 20 at Transylvania, Nov. 24; 22 vs. Superior, Dec. 3).
0-8	Stout's combined record against this week's opponents in the past two seasons.

THE BLUE DEVILS (7-1, 1-1 WIAC): The Blue Devils got back to their winning ways on Wednesday with a stress-free road victory over UW-Superior. They are off to their best start to a season since 2005-06, when they began 11-1. Stout has won three of their games by at least 30, and their average margin of victory is 18 points. One key to Stout's hot start has been their dominant post play. Their rebounding margin of +10.5 is second best in the WIAC (first in defensive, second in offensive boards), and their 33 blocked shots rank first. Much credit is due to 6-8 center Josh Kosloske, who has made his post presence known all season. Kosloske kickstarted his season with a 16-point, 12-rebound performance in the opener, and has been mopping up down low ever since. He grabbed a game-high 10 against Whitewater and is now averaging a team-high eight rebounds per game. Additionally, he is shooting an outstanding 73 percent from the field (29-of-40) and leads the team with 11 blocks after he added two more on Wednesday. Alex Oman is back atop the scoring leaders on Stout's roster after a 20-point performance in Superior on Wednesday. It was Oman's second 20-point game of the season and he now averages nearly 14 points per game. He is first on the team in steals, and second in both blocks and rebounds, as he seemingly returns to his "team work horse" caliber from last year. Chris Hortman did not impress in his first start of the season against Superior, going just 1-of-8 from the field, and 0-for-3 from three point land. He has now made just two of his last 14 shot attempts and has been limited to 16 and 15 minutes in his past two games, his two lowest totals of the season. Despite the cold streak, Hortman is second on the team in scoring (11.8 ppg) and has already shown he can be a dangerous scoring option if he turns it back on. Jarvis Ragland adds 11.6 points into the mix each game, shooting a .423 clip from the field. Oman, Hortman, and Ragland, combined, have taken 57 percent of Stout's field goal attempts thus far, and are shooting a combined .408 clip from the field (111-of-272). Aaron Jenny, who was replaced in the starting lineup by Hortman on Wednesday, is averaging 7.3 points and 4.6 rebounds per game. Newly-crowned Stout career assist leader Erik Olson has directed the offense from the point guard position. After six assists on Wednesday, Olson has 46 on the year and 362 in his career, which is a new school record.

A PLACE IN THE RECORD BOOKS: Erik Olson has been climbing the Stout leaderboard in assists all year, and the inevitable happened against Superior on Wednesday, as Olson passed Jeremy Leibfried's record total of 358, making him the all-time career assists leader in the Stout record books. Olson broke the record with his third assist of the game, in which he ended with six, 362 for his career.

REBOUNDING THIS WEEK: Lately, rebounding has not come easy for Stout against this week's opponents. Over the past two seasons, Stout is being out-rebounded by Superior and Platteville by a combined margin of 59 rebounds. In the eight games combined, Stout has won the rebounding margin only twice, with one of those being a slim one-rebound advantage. Superior holds a +31 margin over Stout, while Platteville owns a +28 advantage, the two largest margins by any team over Stout in that two-year window. However, Stout was able to reverse the trend on Wednesday, out-rebounding Superior, 39-33. They will face a tougher task against Platteville, who currently leads the WIAC with a +10.9 rebounding margin.

STOUT'S LAST TIME OUT: Wednesday night, Erik Olson became UW-Stout's all-time assist leader as the Blue Devils defeated  the UW-Superior Yellow Jackets, 69-54. Stout led nearly the whole game, after four lead changes in the first two minutes. Superior kept it close initially, but with the score tied 9-9 about four minutes in, Stout would go on a 12-2 run that put them up for good. Superior was able to put together a run late in the half, but the Blue Devils held off the charge, never letting them closer than five points. At the half the score was 32-21, Stout. Turnovers would prove to play a huge role in the game, as Stout was able to force the Yellow Jackets into 15, including 10 steals. The Blue Devils turned the ball over only six times in comparison. The Blue Devils also outrebounded the Yellow Jackets, 39-33 overall and 12-6 on the offensive end. In the second half, Stout came out firing, never letting the Yellow Jackets come closer than six points. An11-1 run about midway through the half gave Stout a 16 point advantage that Superior would cut to single digits just once more all game. Oman led four Blue Devils in double digits, with a game-high 20 points on 9-16 shooting, including 2-6 from beyond the arc. He also pulled down five boards and came away with a pair of steals. Thomas Scholle-Malone went 6-8 from the field, scoring 12 points off the bench for the Blue Devils. Josh Kosloske had 11 on 4-8 shooting and Jarvis Ragland added 10 on 4-10 shooting. Kosloske also tied for the team lead in rebounding, grabbing six including three on the offensive end. |
 

PLAYERS TO WATCH
Stout
#14 - Alex Oman, F, 6-4, 205	13.9 ppg, 5 rpg, 16 steals
#34 - Josh Kosloske, C, 6-8, 240	8.5 ppg, 8 rpg, 11 blocks
Platteville
#53 - Chas Cross, C, 6-8, 232	12.6 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 11 blocks
#34 - Jake Manning, F, 6-6, 216	8.4 ppg, 5.4 rpg

SCOUTING UW-PLATTEVILLE (7-1, 2-0 WIAC): UW-Platteville is off to a hot start and is perhaps the only WIAC club who could conceivably bully Stout around down low. 6-8 Chas Cross and 6-6 Jake Manning combine for 450 pounds of body that are largely to thank for Platteville's conference-best rebounding margin. Cross leads the way, scoring 12.6 points per game in addition to 5.5 boards per contest. Manning follows with 5.4 boards and 8.4 points per game. Three other Pioneers average over eight points per game and four, including Cross and Manning, are shooting over 50 percent from the field. Platteville's only loss of the season came at Augustana, but aside from that, they have been nearly perfect. Their closest game was their most recent, an eight-point, 56-48 victory over UW-Eau Claire. 

PLATTEVILLE'S LAST TIME OUT: The Pioneers defeated UW-Eau Claire, 56-48, Wednesday night at home. Eric Gerber and Chas Cross combined for 33 points, scoring 17 and 16, respectively. Cross and Eau Claire's Andy Kleist each pulled down a game-high nine rebounds. Platteville jumped out to a 17-3 lead, but Eau Claire stormed back and tied it, 25-25, at halftime. The Pioneers built up another lead after halftime, and this time never looked back. Despite the valiant comeback effort, Eau Claire was never able to grab a lead of their own, and fell to 0-2 in WIAC play.

THE SERIES: Platteville leads the series, 76-46. The Pioneers have won 10 of the past 12 and are 4-1 in the past five meetings.

LAST TIME THEY MET (Feb. 4, 2012): In their second meeting of the 2011-12 season, UW-Stout had a pair of players in double figures, but UW-Platteville had four players scoring more than 10 points en route to a 70-59 win over Stout at Bo Ryan Court. The Pioneers were led by senior Brett Stangel, who scored 20 points to pace UW-Platteville. He was joined in double digits by freshman Jake Manning and sophomore Chas Cross, who each scored 14 and junior Rob Stallion added 10. Stallion also had a game-high nine rebounds in the win. The Blue Devils were led by Jarvis Ragland and Erik Olson, who scored 15 and 12 points, respectively. After a hot-shooting first half, where the Pioneers shot 50 percent from the field, they held just a two-point lead at the half. To lead the attack for the Pioneers was Manning, who had 12 of his first 14 in the first 20 minutes. The Blue Devils started the second half with a 7-2 spurt to take a 34-31 lead with 16:17 left to play. The contest remained close and back and forth until the fourth tie of the game when Stallion put the Pioneers ahead 44-42 with 11:38 to go and for rest of the contest.  UW-Stout came back to cut the deficit to two, again, 47-45 with 7:10 to go. Then, the Pioneers answered with an 11-2 run that ended any chances for a UW-Stout comeback. UW-Platteville spread the scoring around as Eric Gerber made a layup, Brett Stangel hit his third 3 pointer of the game, Rob Stallion made two free throws and Matt Weik knocked down a jumper. Later in the half, the Pioneers stretched the lead to as much as 15 to close out the contest. 

THE COACHES:  UW-Stout:  Eddie Andrist (157-157 at Stout, 405-348 overall) is in his 13th year as the coach of the Blue Devils, and his 23rd overall in the collegiate ranks.  Andrist led the Blue Devils to their first NCAA Division III appearance five seasons ago when Stout advanced to the second round. Andrist coached at Mount Senario for 11 seasons and won three national championships. Andrist spent two stints coaching international basketball, working with the country of Qatar. | UW-Platteville: Jeff Gard is in his fourth year as UW-Platteville's head men's basketball coach. Since taking over in 2009, Gard has led his squad to the WIAC Tournament every year. Prior to assuming the head coaching job, Gard spent six seasons as an assistant coach with the Pioneers and two seasons as an assistant at Lakeland College in Sheboygan.

CONFERENCES: Stout and UW-Platteville are both members of the nine-team Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) along with UW-Eau Claire, UW-La Crosse, UW-Oshkosh, UW-River Falls, UW-Stevens Point, UW-Superior, and UW-Whitewater.

UP NEXT: Next week, Stout returns to Johnson Fieldhouse for their final home game of the calendar year, a 7 p.m. matchup with UW-River Falls.  They will round out 2012 in Wisconsin Dells with games against Loras College and Concordia-Wisconsin, Dec. 29 and 30.