Who ended up winning the Deerfield League?

MU men's basketball - the problem wasn't the coaching - rather, the lack of commitment from the administration.

Well, the effect of the Littrell firing is just starting to be felt.  When you fire a quality coach and person like Tim, you have started the dominoes falling in the wrong direction.  Not only does the firing cause MU to lose Gensler, Littrell was in on several good 2007 players from around the state, at least two of whom will be suiting up for IWU this season.  If Lori Kerans' goal was to eliminate any internal competition to her women's team at MU, then mission accomplished.  From any other perspective, it is a sad time to an MU alum.

Obviously, I am not a Titan fan.  And do opponents still call them the Green Weenies?  But, I digress.

I have had a lot of opportunities over the last few years to watch two of IWU's new recruits, Duncan Lawson and Danny Schouten.  First, both are great kids from good families.  I'm confident that they will represent IWU quite well.  Second, both are also good players who, at least early in the season, were getting looks from lower level D-1s and D-2s.  At Glenbard West, the 6-8 Duncan played mostly on the perimeter.  I think that was mostly out of necessity as GW's perimeter players needed help and Duncan is a decent ball-handler who can also shoot the 3.  GW also had 6-7 Junior John Shurna who is a beast inside.  If Downers Grove South had to play this past year without Schouten, they would not have won 5 games.  Danny is a versatile, athletic 6-5 player who loves to compete.  He can also step out and hit the 3, although he is at his best in the 12-15 foot range.  I expect him to be a very nice CCIW player.

So, yes, IWU fans have a lot to look forward to.  Man, I hate saying that.

..."and I seriously doubt many recruits would not go to Millikin just because Littrell is not there."

Then you would be mistaken.  Several of the recruits mentioned in the last 3-4 pages of CCIW threads had Millikin at the top of their list until Littrell was let go.  When he was fired, they went and are continuing to go elsewhere.  From everything I have heard, Mark Smith, who was Littrell's assistant for four years, is a good man who could be a good coach.  However, don't expect him to be able to land any significant recruits this year under the circumstances.  As I have mentioned before, whoever made the decision to let Littrell go made a big mistake.

Before the Littrell decision, Millikin was in on several good players from Central Illinois, the metro East area and the Chicago area.  The main reason those prospects had Millikin on their short lists was Littrell.  The prospects (and their families) knew that Littrell was everything you could possibly want from a D3 coach.  In any event, put all or even some of those prospects in the mix with MU's last two recruiting classes, especially last year's bigs, and Millikin was set for several years to be in contention for CCIW championship runs.  The Littrell decision by MU was wrong for any number of reasons, but the most immediate impact is the loss of what promised to be the best recruiting class in many years.  Littrell is an outstanding person and coach who was a great representative of the university for over 30 years.

Two other recruits of note:

Eric Moore of Nequa Valley to Carthage

Ryan Phillips of Richwoods to Augustana