MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[kenoshamark]

Vet,

Schlemm is out with an ankle injury....didn't make the trip to Hawaii. 

[augiedad]

St. Xavier beat the NAIA powerhouse Huntington team today without Jabari Saunders.  Coming off this win and the win over Illinois-Chicago (who won by 22 @ Georgia Tech yesterday), this sets up one heck of a game at IWU's Shirk Center Monday.

https://www.sxu.edu/athletics/mbb/news/mbb11_26_05.asp

[Gregory Sager]

Things went from bad to worse -- no, make that from worse to even worse -- for NPU as the Vikings fell to lowly St. Norbert by a 70-55 score up in northern Wisconsin. Horrific shooting night for the Vikes, as they made only 35% as a team from the floor. Brett Mathisen (14 pts) and Jason Gordon (12 pts), despite leading the Vikings in scoring, went a combined 11-30 from the field. And Gordon turned the ball over six times. Ed Whitaker added 10 off the bench for NPU, and Mathisen, Gordon, and Devin Burnett each had eight rebounds. The Park actually outrebounded SNC by six, but 20 turnovers and putrid shooting will do you in every time.

I was at the Simpson @ Elmhurst game today. A spirited but ragged affair -- lots of energy, lots of end-to-end action and fast play, but not a lot of consistent defense. The vast majority of the shots that both teams missed were uncontested. Elmhurst looks really strong, and they've very deep -- but they didn't defend well at all today. They spent much of the game playing defense with their arms rather than their feet. The Franchise got 40 today, as Bluejaybacker1 noted, but what he didn't mention was that a large percentage of those points came out of transition. This doesn't surprise me, really; Chris Martin is one of the best finishers I've ever seen on this level. He's just an amazing player, and that's all there is to it. Andrew Mohney really impressed me as well; he pulled down 10 rebounds and was one of the few Bluejays who really played well defensively. If he performs this strongly in the blue-collar role in the CCIW part of the season, it'll make Martin and Nick Michael that much more effective. The big 6'9" freshman, Brent Ruch, looks like he's going to be a good player in this league as well. He got a lot of time today because of Michael's foul trouble. The other freshman whom I was looking forward to seeing, Robert Strzemp, only made a cameo appearance.

Even through the early-season raggedness, you can tell that the 'jays are going to be good this year. (Carthage, too; beating Concordia (CA) by 14 points is quite an achievement.)

[John Gleich]

Oh, by the way, Jabari Saunders wasn't the only player limping his way around the Shannon center in a boot.......John Paxson's son, Ryan, from Lake Forest High School, is a freshman at Olivet..........in a boot...

Wow... I worked a basketball camp he attended years ago when he would have been in middle school.  It wasn't hard to figure out who he was... come on, John Paxson was watching him play, and came over and said "Good game, son" (and it wasn't the generic "son" that the old-timer calls a young boy, either).

This is one of the first times I've ever felt old... "I remember, a long time ago, when you were young..." 

Geez, and I'm only 24!

It looks like the IWU/SXU game will be a good one...  I assume it will be on the radio... but will it be on the main stream or the internet-only one?  And what time does the game start?

[iwu70]

I think the IWU game with SXU is on the main stream of WJBC.  Check out Q's site at iwuhoops.com under "schedules and results" to be sure.

Should be a reall good one.

[iwu70]

Q and other IWU fans, when does Coach Trost go with Cory Jones over Chris and when does he consider starting McGraw over Fisher?  Looking at the output so far, seems to me he must be thinking along these lines at some point, especially for Cory to start again.  Your thoughts please?

[Titan Q]

Point, the IWU/St. Xavier game will be an "on-air" game.  It starts at 7:30pm, with the pregame coverage starting at 7:15.

http://www.iwuhoops.com/SCH05-06.HTM

This certainly looks like it will be a great game, even without big Jabari Saunders in there for the Cougars.  SXU now starts...

G Matt Marino (6-1/175, So., St. Patrick H.S.) - 3.6 ppg, 2.9 apg
G Jason Reiter (6-3/195, Sr., Lemont H.S.) - 15.3 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 17-33 3-pt (.515)
G Jason Genova (6-5.205, Fr., St. Patrick H.S.) - 15.6 ppg, 31-58 3-pt (.534)
F Dan Bolger (6-7/215, So., St. Patrick H.S.) - 12.6 ppg, 8.4, .545 FG%
F Adam Gregoriou (6-6/215, Fr., Brother Rice H.S.) - 4.9 ppg, 2.1 rpg, .667 FG%

Genova had 20 vs Illinois-Chicago and Reiter 19.  Yesterday in the big win over Huntington, Reiter had 30, Bolger 21, and Genova 20.  Freshman Adam Gregoriou, Saunders' replacement, was 5-5 from the field and 6-6 from the FT line for 17 points.  (IWU and Augustana both recruited Gregoriou, as well as a bunch of other D3's I'm sure.)

I think it is fair to say that St. Xavier is an NCAA Division III Final Four caliber team...looking forward to seeing how Illinois Wesleyan responds.

[Titan Q]

IWU70, personally I like Jason Fisher as a starter and Mike McGraw coming off the bench.  Fisher is a much better athlete and he brings a lot to the table - especially as a rebounder.  Jason just had a rough shooting start at Wabash - 1-8 from 3 in IWU's first two games.  He looked good against Olivet Nazarene though, connecting on 2 of his 3 attempts...and last year he made 39% of his 3's.  I like Mike McGraw in the role he is in, coming off the bench.  He provides a really nice spark...he's looked confident out there so far and if Mike plays with confidence, he'll really help this team.  As far as what the guy who matter wants to do, Scott Trost, I do not think he is even considering making that switch.

The Cory Jones/Chris Jones switch is the one that's more likely to happen - remember, Cory was the starter as a sophomore and only lost his starting job last year due to all of the injuries.  In looking at IWU's season boxscore, Cory is averaging 23 minutes per game and Chris 12...I'm not sure it really matters who starts and who comes off the bench.  I'm sure one could argue that there is benefit to bringing Cory off the bench vs starting him.  Either way, the good news for IWU fans is that Cory has been great - 8.3 ppg, 10.0 rpg, 50% from the field.  He is exactly the player IWU needs to compliment the 3 stars - someone to defend, rebound, and do all of the little things.

[iwu70]

Thanks, Q.  Wish I could be there for the SXU game.  Sounds like a great match-up. 

[The Roop]

Sager,

I think I know what North Park needs...............

They need to host a Holiday Tournament around Christmas with Loras, Bethel and Beloit. The last time they did that the following year they went on a run of 3 straight National Championships.

[Gregory Sager]

Interesting idea, Roop. If the people in the NPU athletic department were superstitious types, perhaps they'd consider it. Thing is, though, those Christmas tournaments that the Park used to host every year until the late eighties were played every December in an empty gym. Unless you're a program that has a townie following, such as Hope and Illinois Wesleyan and some of the WIAC schools, you're going to wind up scheduling games that won't have the advantage of a homecourt crowd if you schedule them over Christmas break -- particularly at a school such as NPU that has a predominantly out-of-state population of resident undergraduates.

It's bad enough that the new conference tournament that the CCIW has just instituted for this year has pushed forward the conference schedule and forced North Park to play four conference games (two home, two away) before the students return for the first day of spring semester on Tuesday, January 17. Why add two more games to the schedule that the students wouldn't get a chance to see?

[tjcummingsfan]

Greg, even in those years when NP was a National power they didn't have a local Chicago following?  Thats unfortunate.  I would've thought people would jump on that bandwagon left and right, kind of like the White Sox this year, or the Bulls last year.

[escalade07]

Does anyone know anything about augie?

[iwumichigander]

IWU70, like Q, I would stay with Fischer over McGraw as a starter with slightly differnet rationale - 1) With Arnold out, McGraw is both the primary backup point guard and backup two spot. I don't risk McGraw getting into foul trouble or getting tired Arnold playing on a regular basis. Plus, Jason plays much bigger (than his size) and stronger under the basket than McGraw.

2) I stay with Chris Jones as starter for now.  Chris just needs to relax and play within himself. Plus, with Andrew Freeman out, I want to be able to go to Cory if Chris or Zack gets tired or in foul trouble or need a bigger lineup late in the game. I can also rotate Chris, with better shooting range and ball handling than Cory, to the 3 or 4 to give Keelan or Zack rest.  Cory is more of a true post player.  However, if I start Cory then my first option to relieve him is limited - its either Chris, Schweer or move Zack into the post giving me a problem at the 4 spot.  And, I like Schweer more in his role as an "energizer" when I need boards, a banger, a stop or more intensity later in the game.

Again, when I get Arnold back (and Andrew) I have more options.

[augie_superfan]

I know a bit about Augie, but not as much now that I have graduated from there though.  There are a few other Augie posters on here who know quite a bit also.  Do you have a specific question or are you just looking for a general idea on how the team wll be?