MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Mr. Ypsi]

Thanks, Greg.

So I guess this game wasn't very helpful in deciding the placement of Wheaton in the CCIW!  With their graduation and other losses, I figure they have to be in the bottom half.  With my respect for Bill Harris I cannot pick them dead last.  So I guess I'm still stuck on somewhere between 5th and 7th!

Fortunately, still a month to go before I have to commit.

[Gregory Sager]

Thanks, Greg.

So I guess this game wasn't very helpful in deciding the placement of Wheaton in the CCIW!  With their graduation and other losses, I figure they have to be in the bottom half.  With my respect for Bill Harris I cannot pick them dead last.  So I guess I'm still stuck on somewhere between 5th and 7th!

Fortunately, still a month to go before I have to commit.

Why are you even worrying about this "placement" stuff, Chuck? It's not important. You need to focus your laser-like gaze upon the pick'em pool, where it belongs. 

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Any posters who will be at the MIAA/CCIW challenge in Holland this weekend:

I think it might be fun to have a chance to meet one another.  How about right after the first game on Friday night.  The fieldhouse has large pictures representing each sport around the outside walls.  Let's meet under the photo for mens basketball.  I'll be the guy wearing orange shorts!

[Pioneerbacker]

Good write-up TitanQ about the UW-P/Elmhurst game.  Yeah, it was Chris Ihlenfeldt shooting the technical free throws near the end of the game, not Chris Martin.  Platteville never should have been in that situation, but hopefully the team learns a huge lesson.  The refs an no control of the game, so it was a good rugby "scrum" at times.  Martin is an all-around player, and knows what he can and cannot get away with.  If the refs aren't calling it, you can't fault him for what he does.  Is he dirty?  I think it could be easy for opposing fans to say he's "dirty", but you have to remember the webcast is a our student radio station (and they were probably making public what the rest of the paying fans saw!).  Not that it makes it right, but seriously, what do you expect listening to an opposing team's student radio station?

Platteville was just the better team last night, sure Elmhurst has an All-American on their team, but 31 points just wasn't enough.  It's not like Platteville didn't deserve to win because they methodically played good defense down the stretch and built a nice lead.  If two missed free throws when they were up by 6 went in, there probably would not have been such a story about the late heroics by Elmhurst, the technical, or the fouled three point attempt.  But, give credit to Elmhurst for fighting back and showing they are going to be a force come tournament time.  We're just happy for the win because a win is a win, if you win by 30 or 1.   

[augie22]

Guess nobody saw the Augie game last night...looks like that beat a pretty sound Ambrose team 69-56.  Looks like Harrigan had another great game with game high 24 pts.  McAdams-Thorton also provided 20 pts in the win.  Looks like a nice one two punch for the Vikings!

[platteville1985]

Im glad platteville won, but elmhurst is a heck of a team.  Its always fun for fans to rip on potential all-americans, but your right keep it out of the radio booth.  Elmhurst is a very physical team and should go far, although i have know idea who is good or bad in their conference.  But good luck i see you play the #8 team so go out and beat them.

[augie_superfan]

Augie22 -

I didnt see the game last night but listened to it.  I think the second half was a good effort by Augie but that first half was not even close to where this team needs to be to compete for the top few spots in the CCIW.  St. Ambrose is a decent team but they are not of Augie's caliber in my opinion. 

Last night's game made me worry a lot about a few things.  First, 6 assists to 17 TURNOVERS!!!  That is not going to cut it.  I know it is early in the season but that is definitely an area this team needs to work on but they know that.

The other thing that worries me is that they haven't found a signifcant performer off the bench yet.  It is early though.  That may be due to the fact the Grey loves to substitute and get a lot of players in the game and many different personnel mixes.  This year, he's got 6 guys off the bench all playing 10 or 11 minutes.  That could just be he is looking for one of those six to step up and play really well off the bench.  Overall though, not having seen the team in person and it being early, I can't really tell too much about the team

[augie22]

AUGIE -sSUPERFAN
I hear what you are saying about the turnovers.  Did you hear if Ambrose pressured us for the most part of the game or were they mostly careless turnovers?  Also, how does first year Kolzie look.  It sounds like we should be pretty solid at the G position if we have Harrigan and Wessels on the floor for 30 plus min.  On top of that we have an AA all state gaurd in Kolzie coming off the bench.  We will have to wait and see, conference is just around the corner.

[Titan Q]

One thing to keep in mind about St. Ambrose, Augie fans, is that the Bees had their best player in the lineup last night vs Augie.  Junior point-guard Chris Washington averaged 17.5 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists last year and was named 1st Team All-MCC.  He did not play in those home blowouts at the hands of Olivet Nazarene and St. Xavier.  Per their 2005-06 SAU preview, Washington suffered a broken arm in a preseason scrimmage.  The Augustana game was his second game of the season.

http://web.sau.edu/athletics/athletics/mbasketball/2005-06/05-06%20Stories/SeasonPreviewr.htm

The St. Ambrose team Augustana faced, and beat pretty convincingly, is much more representative of the team ranked #15 in the preseason NAIA D2 poll and picked by the MCC coaches to win that league than is the St. Ambrose team that SXU and ONU clobbered.  Those Chris Washington 2004-05 stats are impressive...you won't find a lot of point-guards with points/rebounds/assists averages better than those.  That was a good win for Augie. 

[augie_superfan]

I didn't realize that Washington sat out games at the beginning of the season.  That makes me feel really good about the score then.  I haven't seen a game so I dont know much about Kolze at all.  The turnovers sounded somewhat careless.  I sensed that in the beginning of the game last night, the team was moving TOO fast and just being a bit careless.  It sounded like there were a few times where we turned the ball over and then they had a fastbreak and turned it back over and we raced down the court on another fastbreak and messed it up somehow.  I think things like this are created by adrenaline and possibly the addition of the Swetallas might take a bit to get everyone thinking like eachother.  I think Augie will bring those turnovers down and it shouldn't be a problem.  Since I havent seen them play, its hard to be completely sure on what is taking place.  If they keep shooting the ball well and playing good defense lke they have been....there will be little to worry about.

[Titan Q]

My only concern with Augustana is their schedule.  Before St. Ambrose they played Clarke and Beloit.  The Vikings now have Simpson, Rockford, Coe, Concordia-River Forest, Rose-Hulman, and Marian.  I don't know a lot about the 2005-06 versions of those teams, but that slate seems pretty weak to me.  It looks to me like Augie's only decent game left before the CCIW schedule is the possible matchup vs UW-Stout on 12/29. 

Meanwhile, Elmhurst is out there playing Hope, UW-Platteville, Hanover, and Albion....IWU is playing a tough schedule as always...Carthage played 3 tough NAIA games in Hawaii and still has Calvin, Hope, Lawrence, and Gustavus Adolphus. 

I don't know why Augustana's schedule is this way - maybe they just couldn't find games - but I do feel like it will hurt them towards the start of conference play.  I guess on the bright side, the Vikings will be 10-1 or 11-0 and a virtual Pool C lock with a 9-5 or better conference season...hard to believe Augustana has not played in a NCAA tournament game since Steve Yount's national runner-up team in 1993 with superstar Kirk Anderson.

[dansand]

I'll preface my comments by saying I haven't seen Augie in person yet either. But, it seems like Coach G isn't spreading the minutes around quite as much as he has in the past, particularly earlier in the season. It seems like usually he'd have about 10 guys averaging between 15 and 25 minutes during the non-conference portion of the season and then as the CCIW rolled around the starters would play more minutes. Part of the reason, of course, could be that there are generally more blowouts in the non-conference, while league games are more competitive, but it seems like he's giving his starters more minutes early, with all of them averaging at least 25 a game through the first three games. It also looks like they're really concentrating on pounding it inside (Coach G has always been an inside first guy when it comes to offense). They've tried only 24 3-point attempts through 3 games and even though Rick Harrigan has almost half of those, he's still attempted less than a quarter of his shots from behind the arc. I'm looking forward to getting my first first-hand look at the Vikes Saturday against Simpson. As far as their schedule goes, I don't think it's a terrible schedule (no Principias, Indiana-Northwests, or StLCoPs), but it's certainly not the type of competition Wesleyan, Elmhurst and Carthage are facing.

[augie_superfan]

Yeah, it seems like Augie always has a similar non-conference schedule and we always seem to lose to at least one team we shouldn't...guess we will see what happens.

[Titan Q]

Nice story from Around the Nation...

Well, we were tipped off to a nice story about Welton from this season's opening weekend and felt it was one also worth sharing. Welton was named MVP of the Lee Pfund Classic after Aurora defeated host school Wheaton (Ill.) by a point in the championship game. The trophy was named after former Wheaton player Will Landry, who passed away this summer. Landry's family presented the trophy to Welton.

When Welton got back to campus, he was puzzled by something. He didn't understand why he had been awarded the MVP when it was clear that he had been outplayed by Wheaton's Tony Bollier (who scored 56 points in the tournament's two games). Welton was told that the trophy always goes to a player from the winning team. Welton still felt strongly that Bollier was more worthy, and after learning that Bollier had played with Landry, Welton decided to do what he viewed as the right thing. He sent the trophy back to Wheaton, with a note saying that it truly belonged to Bollier this year. The folks at Wheaton were quite touched by this gesture. As were we.

[iwumichigander]

Q - While i don't disagree about your view of the Auggie non-conference schedule, it is fairly consistant with the prior four years,

Not the kind of competition a team looking to get better plays against.  And, the opponents in their post Christmas tournament even lighter.