Quote from: GusD on November 07, 2024, 06:55:55 PM

Quote from: lmitzel on November 05, 2024, 01:17:43 PMNCC roster is finally up (don't know how long it's been up, but I hadn't checked in a while).

Happy to see Ethan Helwig back for one more go around. Ten freshmen on the roster, and several unassigned numbers at this point, which tells me Vince Kmiec is still working on rounding out his varsity roster.

One name I'm sad to not see on here is John Blumeyer (mainly because I enjoyed getting the yells of "Bluuuuuuu!" when I introduced him the past couple years).

With NCC's first game listed as being next Tuesday, 11/12, it would seem we'll see a complete varsity roster posted no later than then. The Cardinals will be a really young team with 17 of the 22 players listed being either freshmen (10) or sophomores (7), and with only one of the sophs playing major minutes last year.

As of this morning, numbers are added. Seven freshmen will dress for opening night on Tuesday.

IWU gets off to a good start to the season, beating #24 Cal Lutheran 93-81, in the Sikma Hall of Fame Invitational.

Titans led 46-30 at the half, though CLU never gave up, closing within 9 in the late second half after the Titans had led by 20 earlier.  The Titans closed it out.

Hakim Williams 17 -- and a great defensive game.
Bazzell 14
Colak 13
Niego 12
Funk 11
Wilmsen 10 and 9
Roper 8
Marko Anderson 8 and 6

I was very impressed with Colak and Mason Funk tonight.  And, a great gritty new freshman point guard Josh Fridman.  He's going to be a very good CCIW player. 

Titans shooting 56%, 57% from three, 63% on FTs.  Need to clean that latter one up a bit.

IWU will play in the Tournament Championship game tomorrow night, Saturday at 7 p.m. 

A good start.  IWU is DEEP and can run a lot of quality players at you.  Ron Rose looks to be sticking with this 10 man rotation for now.  It will surely pay off in the longer term.

IWU'70

Wisconsin Lutheran knocked off Elmhurst, 84-74, up in Milwaukee in a very entertaining, if ragged, game to watch. The Bluejays were definitely the more athletic team, but WLC brought back its entire rotation from last year, including a starting lineup that consists of four grad students and a senior, and they have the sort of synergistic team play that you'd expect of a team that's played together in its entirety for two or three seasons.

The Warriors led most of the way, but the 'jays hung around and made a late run to tie the game up at 70-70 on a Dom Trelenberg layup with 3:08 to go. However, Tagen Pearson, who is clearly going to be EU's bell cow this season, was called for charging on the baseline underneath the basket 18 seconds later to foul out, and the 'jays just petered out from that point forward.

Elmhurst shot well (.510/.444/.700) and outrebounded the Warriors by eight, but had a bad case of butterfingeritis, turning the ball over 24 times. WLC does know how to pressure intelligently and with discipline, but this was mostly a case of Bluejay carelessness. I think that it cost the Bainesians the game, along with dumb fouling (28 personals and a tech on the 'jays, who lost Robert Roszkiewicz to a DQ as well as Pearson).

Pearson led the way with 20, as he was 4-5 from beyond the arc. Aidyn Boone, one of several Bluejays promoted from last season's Elmhurst JV team who are getting their chance to step forward this year, had a nice night with 16, and Trelenberg finished with 15 and 8.

Didn't watch the Carroll @ Lakeland game, but it looks like I didn't miss much. The Pioneers pulled away in the second half and dumped the hosts, 90-69. The Simpson brothers-from-different-mothers led the way for CU, as Eckahelo tallied 24 and 8 in only 26 minutes of tick (he was a perfect 10-10 from the field) and Kobe registered 23 points in 28 minutes on the floor. Big man Jacob Naber also did well with 14 and 9. Total domination by Carroll, especially in the second half, but I gotta think that Lakeland will end up being one of the weakest teams that any CCIW outfit faces this season. Still, it was a nice tuneup on the road for the Pios.

Looks like Logan Pearson hit a buzzer-beater as time expired, and UW Platteville escapes Calvin 82-81.   Seems Pearson single-handedly brought UW Platteville back from 7-8 down in the final few minutes.   He had 35 points.  Must be a heart-breaking loss for Calvin. 

So -- IWU vs. #2 UW Platteville tomorrow night at 7 p.m.   Cal Lutheran will play Calvin in the Consolation Game at 5 p.m. at The Shirk.

'70

Quote from: iwu70 on November 08, 2024, 10:24:25 PMLooks like Logan Pearson hit a buzzer-beater as time expired, and UW Platteville escapes Calvin 82-81.   Seems Pearson single-handedly brought UW Platteville back from 7-8 down in the final few minutes.   He had 35 points.  Must be a heart-breaking loss for Calvin. 

So -- IWU vs. #2 UW Platteville tomorrow night at 7 p.m.   Cal Lutheran will play Calvin in the Consolation Game at 5 p.m. at The Shirk.

'70

35 - all in the second half.

Pearson was on the line, down 1, with 3 seconds left... and missed them both, but still found a way. 

Quote from: iwu70 on November 08, 2024, 10:24:25 PMLooks like Logan Pearson hit a buzzer-beater as time expired, and UW Platteville escapes Calvin 82-81.   Seems Pearson single-handedly brought UW Platteville back from 7-8 down in the final few minutes.   He had 35 points.  Must be a heart-breaking loss for Calvin.

Gee, ya think?

Saturday, November 9
Millikin (9-16) @ Beloit (16-10), 2 pm
Wheaton (6-19) @ Benedictine (16-11), 3:30 pm
UW-Platteville (1-0) @ Illinois Wesleyan (1-0), 7 pm

I'm calling a football / women's basketball / men's soccer tripleheader at NPU tomorrow, so I won't see a minute of these games. It's a shame, as this is always a fun weekend to sit at the computer and get back into the CCIW men's hoops swing of things.

Figured WLC was gonna have a tight game against Elmhurst. Was wondering to myself how they were gonna handle the expectations after their NCAA Tournament season a year ago and they passed their first test tonight. Onto North Park Wednesday.

Greg, don't overdo it today.   You know you're not such a young man anymore.   

I only watched the first half of the Platteville-Calvin game and didn't think either team looked all that great, certainly not up to their high pre-season rankings. 

We'll see today how the deep Titans match up with Pearson and company.

'70

Quote from: lmitzel on November 08, 2024, 10:52:28 AM

Quote from: GusD on November 07, 2024, 06:55:55 PM

Quote from: lmitzel on November 05, 2024, 01:17:43 PMNCC roster is finally up (don't know how long it's been up, but I hadn't checked in a while).

Happy to see Ethan Helwig back for one more go around. Ten freshmen on the roster, and several unassigned numbers at this point, which tells me Vince Kmiec is still working on rounding out his varsity roster.

One name I'm sad to not see on here is John Blumeyer (mainly because I enjoyed getting the yells of "Bluuuuuuu!" when I introduced him the past couple years).

With NCC's first game listed as being next Tuesday, 11/12, it would seem we'll see a complete varsity roster posted no later than then. The Cardinals will be a really young team with 17 of the 22 players listed being either freshmen (10) or sophomores (7), and with only one of the sophs playing major minutes last year.

As of this morning, numbers are added. Seven freshmen will dress for opening night on Tuesday.

Word wafting across the air waves is that two of those freshmen may start. I guess we'll see soon.

Quote from: iwu70 on November 08, 2024, 09:40:24 PMIWU gets off to a good start to the season, beating #24 Cal Lutheran 93-81, in the Sikma Hall of Fame Invitational.

Titans led 46-30 at the half, though CLU never gave up, closing within 9 in the late second half after the Titans had led by 20 earlier.  The Titans closed it out.

Hakim Williams 17 -- and a great defensive game.
Bazzell 14
Colak 13
Niego 12
Funk 11
Wilmsen 10 and 9
Roper 8
Marko Anderson 8 and 6

I was very impressed with Colak and Mason Funk tonight.  And, a great gritty new freshman point guard Josh Fridman.  He's going to be a very good CCIW player. 

Titans shooting 56%, 57% from three, 63% on FTs.  Need to clean that latter one up a bit.

IWU will play in the Tournament Championship game tomorrow night, Saturday at 7 p.m. 

A good start.  IWU is DEEP and can run a lot of quality players at you.  Ron Rose looks to be sticking with this 10 man rotation for now.  It will surely pay off in the longer term.

IWU'70

I watched almost all of this game.

The good for IWU:

* 93 points! That'll win a lot of games no matter how many points you give up.
* Very lofty shooting percentages overall and from distance!
* Hakim Williams just seems to have an ingrained knack for being at the right place at the right time, and delivering a big play at BOTH ends of the floor when it's needed most.
* As IWU70 said, Wesleyan has very impressive depth. Bezzell, Anderson, and Colak all played like starters. I thought Colak was particularly impressive. I sense Bazzell's main role might be to shoot the three. Not stuffing off him to help on the perimeter might be a key to limiting his production.

Not so good:

* Nick Roper did not look like a 3rd team All-American. Rather than letting the game come to him, he appeared to be forcing things (0 assists/4 turnovers). He certainly did too much dribbling.
* 18 turnovers as a team. Gotta clean that up.
* 63% FT shooting is below what looks to be this team's capabilities, and could well spell the difference in games down the line.

The unknown:

* IWU70 says Freshman Josh Fridman is going to be a very good player. That may well be true. But it's too early to anoint him yet. in his first game he looked a bit tentative, and in 12 minutes was 0 of 3 overall, including 0 of 1 three, with 2 turnovers.

Quote from: Gregory Sager on November 08, 2024, 10:13:13 PMWisconsin Lutheran knocked off Elmhurst, 84-74, up in Milwaukee in a very entertaining, if ragged, game to watch. The Bluejays were definitely the more athletic team, but WLC brought back its entire rotation from last year, including a starting lineup that consists of four grad students and a senior, and they have the sort of synergistic team play that you'd expect of a team that's played together in its entirety for two or three seasons.

The Warriors led most of the way, but the 'jays hung around and made a late run to tie the game up at 70-70 on a Dom Trelenberg layup with 3:08 to go. However, Tagen Pearson, who is clearly going to be EU's bell cow this season, was called for charging on the baseline underneath the basket 18 seconds later to foul out, and the 'jays just petered out from that point forward.

Elmhurst shot well (.510/.444/.700) and outrebounded the Warriors by eight, but had a bad case of butterfingeritis, turning the ball over 24 times. WLC does know how to pressure intelligently and with discipline, but this was mostly a case of Bluejay carelessness. I think that it cost the Bainesians the game, along with dumb fouling (28 personals and a tech on the 'jays, who lost Robert Roszkiewicz to a DQ as well as Pearson).

Pearson led the way with 20, as he was 4-5 from beyond the arc. Aidyn Boone, one of several Bluejays promoted from last season's Elmhurst JV team who are getting their chance to step forward this year, had a nice night with 16, and Trelenberg finished with 15 and 8.

Turnovers combined with, as Gregory Sager said, dumb fouling, definitely cost Elmhurst this game. I thought the Bluejays looked very far removed from last year's very solid team. If they are indeed the CCIW's #3 team, the Conference may be in for a somewhat down year. It appears if you can effectively limit Pearson, your chances to defeat the 'Jays are significantly enhanced.

GusD, pretty much agree with all your assessment of last night's opening Titan game vs. Cal Lutheran.  Another tougher test tonight.  Can't wait to see Hakim Williams guarding Pearson. 

I think Roper will bounce back, get to a better place.  He's had his ups and downs, been inconsistent, pretty much his entire IWU career.  His upside is great and I'm sure he'll have some great games this season. 

IWU has such depth.  Glad to see Colak, Wilmsen (on rebouding) and Hakim Williams play so so well.

Yes, early days for Josh Fridman -- but I think the future is very bright for him in coming years.  He's being thrown in right away to hopefully improve and make his contribution as he gets used to the IWU system and the speed, intensity of CCIW play at this level.

It would be a great, early season win for IWU should they take down Platteville tonight. 

IWU'70

Quote from: iwu70 on November 09, 2024, 07:23:29 AMGreg, don't overdo it today.  You know you're not such a young man anymore. 

Tripleheaders keep me young at heart. 

Quote from: GusD on November 09, 2024, 10:26:51 AM* IWU70 says Freshman Josh Fridman is going to be a very good player. That may well be true. But it's too early to anoint him yet. in his first game he looked a bit tentative, and in 12 minutes was 0 of 3 overall, including 0 of 1 three, with 2 turnovers.

Don't you know that it's never too early to anoint the next D3 superstar when he or she wears green and attends college in Bloomington?

Titans fans are many things, but being allergic to hype isn't one of them.

Quote from: GusD on November 09, 2024, 10:49:16 AMTurnovers combined with, as Gregory Sager said, dumb fouling, definitely cost Elmhurst this game. I thought the Bluejays looked very far removed from last year's very solid team. If they are indeed the CCIW's #3 team, the Conference may be in for a somewhat down year. It appears if you can effectively limit Pearson, your chances to defeat the 'Jays are significantly enhanced.

Agreed, but, even though it's really too early for me to go out on a limb when I've only seen three CCIW teams thus far (and two of them only once), I'll inch my way far enough out onto the branch to say that I think it's unlikely that the 'jays will finish that high this season.

(I'm already wondering if I'm going to regret the preceding paragraph by the end of February.)

Beloit 70, Millikin 69
Benedictine 85, Wheaton 84
Illinois Wesleyan 86, UW-Platteville 66