Olson Repeats As All-WIAC First Team Basketball Selection
Senior guard Alex Olson earned first-team accolades for the second straight season to lead UW-Oshkosh's selections on the 2016 All-WIAC Men's Basketball Team.
Olson, who becomes the first Titan to acquire consecutive first-team laurels since D.J. Marsh in 2010, leads UW-Oshkosh this season with 333 points, 69 assists and 24 steals.
UW-Oshkosh also had sophomore guard Charlie Noone receive All-WIAC honorable mention recognition. Junior guard Kyle Bolger of the Titans was named to the league's All-Defensive Team honors.
Olson, who has scored in double figures 20 times this season, ranks 12th in the conference by averaging 11.2 points per game. He also ranks seventh in the league with 2.56 assists per contest.
Olson scored a season-high 27 points, including the 1,000th of his career, in a 67-42 win over UW-Stout on Jan. 23. He has now scored 1,139 career points in 105 games, including 81 as a starter. Olson owns career averages of 10.8 points, 3.5 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.4 steals per game.
Noone, who ranks second on the Titans and 14th in the WIAC by averaging 11.8 points per game, leads the league with 68 3-pointers. He also ranks third in the conference by making 42.8 percent (68-159) of his 3-point attempts. Noone has paced UW-Oshkosh in scoring nine times this season, including a 19-point performance during a 66-63 victory over UW-River Falls in the title game of the WIAC Championship on Feb. 28.
In two seasons at UW-Oshkosh, Noone has played in each of the Titans' 53 games, including the last 25 as a starter. He has averaged 7.7 points and 2.2 rebounds per contest while draining 41.1 percent (86-209) of his shots from 3-point range.
Bolger has recorded 23 steals while averaging 4.9 points per game this season. He has played in all 27 games this campaign, making 22 starts.
Bolger's three-year career totals include 71 steals in 80 contests (59 starts) and per game averages of 6.1 points, 2.1 rebounds and 2.1 assists.
The All-WIAC Men's Basketball Team was comprised of a 10-member first team and a nine-player honorable mention list. Five players were named to the All-Defensive Team.
Joining Olson on the All-WIAC First Team were George Diekelman from UW-Eau Claire, Jared Staege and Devin Yurk from UW-La Crosse, Boston Johnson from UW-Platteville, Jon Christensen and Garret Pearson from UW-River Falls, Sean McGann and Stephen Pelkofer from UW-Stevens Point, and Trinson White from UW-Whitewater.
Rounding out the honorable mention selections were Jack Martinek from UW-Eau Claire, Austin Fritz and Ben Meinholz from UW-La Crosse, Cary Vaasen from UW-Platteville, Grant Erickson from UW-River Falls, John Keefe from UW-Stout, and Cole Van Schyndel and Haki Stampley from UW-Whitewater.
The All-Defensive Team also included Pelkofer, Staege, Jared Schneidermann from UW-Eau Claire and Jack Herum from UW-River Falls.
Staege was named WIAC Player of the Year, while Ken Koelbl from UW-La Crosse was selected as the league's Coach of the Year.
With its 10-4 league record, UW-La Crosse won the WIAC's regular season title for the first time since 1965. The Eagles were followed in the league standings by UW-Eau Claire, UW-Oshkosh and UW-River Falls in a tie for second place with 9-5 marks, UW-Stevens Point and UW-Whitewater in a tie for fifth at 7-7, seventh-place UW-Platteville at 5-9 and eighth-place UW-Stout at 0-14.
Second-seeded UW-Oshkosh secured the WIAC's automatic berth into the 62-team NCAA Division III Championship by winning the league's postseason tournament for the first time since 2003.
The WIAC is home to four of the last six NCAA Division III champions, but UW-Oshkosh will be the league's lone representative in this year's national postseason tournament.
UW-Oshkosh (18-9) begins its first NCAA appearance since 2003 by taking on Elmhurst College (Ill.) on Friday (March 4) in St. Paul, Minn.