|
|
|
March 12, 2000
Knights impressGFW's Muth calls it quitsNEW ULM -- The Martin Luther College Knights returned to New Ulm Friday night following a 93-82 loss to Midamerica Nazarene in the NAIA National Tournament in Branson, Miss. And they return with many memories of MLC's first-ever national tournament participation, one of those was being the Cinderella team of the fans at the game. "It seemed that when the game started, that they (Midamerica) had just a huge following of fans," said Knight head coach Jim Unke, "and we just had eight moms and dads that were there. But as the game wore on and we hung close, towards the end of the game, everytime that we touched the ball or hit a shot, the whole place just erupted. "I think that we kind of won the crowd over. That was pretty neat because I don't think that anyone there could believe that we were pushing the top-ranked NAIA team in the nation to the limit. So I think that we gained some respect from the crowd." Unke said that his team went into the game "pretty relaxed. We were a little nervous with the whole situation with the tournament but our guys were pretty loose. We felt that the pressure was on them being the number-one seed. No one figured that we could beat them; everyone from our hotel clerk pretty much had written us off." But the Knights played "a quality basketball game. We made very few mistakes and we handled their pressure defense. They were a lot bigger than we were but we have played teams bigger than we are all year long." Unke said that players like Aaron Bauer "played a great game, as did Dave Meyer. The whole team worked hard." The Knights had a second half lead of five points at 71-66 with 9:15 left in the game. "But there were two things that really hurt us in the final two minutes of the game," commented Unke. "Justin Walz went down with a severely sprained right ankle with 1:53 left in the game; at that point we were down by two points at 85-83. Then, at the 1:13 mark, Aaron Bauer fouled out. At that point we trailed by five and we had to start fouling." Following the game, the Nazarene coach told Unke that "he did not expect this type of game from us. He was very complimentary; he said that he was glad that his team did not have to play us again because we gave him as much as he wanted. They were sweating." Unke said that his players were "disappointed that the season was over. We have five seniors who ended their career, and they went out with a nice finish. While it was disappointing to lose, it was a nice consolation prize to take the nation's top team right down to the wire. "As we left the court following the game, they got compliments from everyone. There were people from all over the place, from other teams waiting to congratulate us on the game that we played. I don't think that anyone could believe the way that we played." MUTH RETIRES: Lyle Muth, who has been the nead basketball coach and Athletic Director at Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop High School, retired Tuesday night. Muth has been head basketball coach at GFW since the merger 13 years ago and for 13 years prior to that at Winthrop High School. He has been the Athletic Director at GFW for 10 years. Muth compiled a 456-261 coaching record. "I have had some good teams and have a lot of memories," said Muth. "One of those was in 1975 at Winthrop when we won our first conference (basketball) title; that was special as we went 19-4. Then we won it again next year." At GFW, the team that Muth felt really started the good fortunes was the team of 1990-91. "They went 25-3 and went to the state and then returned to the state next year with a 28-2 mark. We won 43 straight Tomahawk Conference ballgames. We also won six straight conference titles and for seven years we won 20 games of more. "I have been really lucky with kids; we have had seven 1,000-point scorers (Scott Sprenger, Steve Gillis, Bob Southworth, John Simonsen, Jim Alexander, Ryan Rubischko and Brian Lindstrand)." Muth feels that Gillis may have been one of the best players at GFW with 1,769 points (all-time leader), along with Jim Alexander ("one of the best pure shooters"), Ryan Rubischko ("a money player"). Muth,who began his coaching career in 1963 in Franklin, S.D. says that the game has changed. "It is more physical now, It was more a finesse game but now you better get into the weight room. Teams press a lot more and run more. When I started, it was pretty much walk-it-up, half-court. Now it is playing a 94-foot floor. Kids are more offensive-orientated -- they want to go more one-on-one. Muth, whose philosophy is "defense and team before the individual," is perhaps the most respected coach, along with former MVL head coach Jim Bauer, in the Tomahawk Conference. Both Craig Morgan at MVL and Dan Wolfe at Cathedral speak with respect and admiration of Muth as not only a great coach but a gentleman. "It will be strange looking down the GFW bench next year and not seeing Lyle there," said Wolfe. One of my favorite stories about Lyle was a couple of years ago when his team was playing another conference team away. The T-Birds trailed by a bunch of points before the opposing coach pulled his starters. Late in the game, he returned his starters to the game and beat GFW by 50 points. After the game, both coaches shook hands and the opposing coach said that he didn't mean to pour it on, he wanted to try some different offense. Ten days later, the same two teams met in Fairfax and GFW won. Muth is a class act and a genuine gentleman. No replacement has been named but Muth is hoping that freshman coach Rich Busse, who played for Muth in the 90's, has applied for the job. CHARGERS FALL SHORT: MVL head coach Craig Morgan said that turnovers late in the game spelled defeat for the Chargers against LeCenter. "We had higher expectations," he said, "but we had turnovers and may have lost momentum. "Maybe, I should have done things different late in the game. We had a 10-point lead late in the game and let us keep going, maybe we score some more points instead of running time of off the clock. "I have to hand it to LeCenter; they played well." Foul trouble hurt the Chargers, with Jesse Pfeifer, Dan Unke, and Jon Beilke all having two fouls in the second quarter. "That changes your gameplan and rotation plans a lot," commented Morgan. "Now, we had to shake up the rotation. When you have your top three rebounders in foul trouble, that hurts a lot." Morgan, who loses only three seniors from this team and brings in a 22-0 B-squad for next year, feels losing players like Jay Wendland and Jon Ross will hurt. "We have a lot back and we need to fill that point guard spot (Wendland). Right now, it could be Aaron Madson from the B-squad, or do we move Justin Ohm there or Danny Liggett there. This year the challenge was the kids learning with a new coach, and next year it will be how to keep all the players playing." EAGLES HURT ON DEFENSE: New Ulm coach Pat Burmeister said that turnovers in the second half and the inability to stop Bryan Wolle (37 points) were key in the season-ending loss to Mankato East Friday. "In the fourth quarter, we gave up some key three-point shots and Wolle hurt us. Late in the first quater, Doug Espenson hit some threes and we were down until halftime when we tied it up." East shot 57 percent from the field for the game. Burmeister felt that Evan Jacobs and Matt Schmidt played well, as did freshman Eric Austvold who came off of the bench. Brent Farasyn also had 10 rebounds and scored 14 points. SEND IN NOMINATIONS: Wrestling coaches, along with boy's and girl's basketball coaches, are reminded to send in their nominations for the All-Journal Area teams. Career and season stats are requested along with coaches comments. An athlete will NOT be selected without a nomination from his or her coach. NEW CLOCK ITEM: Watching the Illinois Boy's High School Basketball Tournament this week, the officials have a new item to help them. A transmitter is placed on their whistles and when they blow the whistle for a stoppage of play, a signal is automatically sent to the clock, which stops immediately. Right now, it is experimental.
|