MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[tjcummingsfan]

38-24 NP at the half.

[dlawrenz]

Wheaton holds off Loras, 69-62.  The Thunder was led in scoring by Kent Raymond with 27 points.

[Titan Q]

Olivet Nazarene 97
IWU 79

http://www.iwu.edu/~iwunews/sports/mbb2008/iwubb3.htm

IWU was beaten by a much bigger, stronger, basketball team tonight.  Certainly a tremendous test vs a team that would be right in the thick of the CCIW title picture.  ONU big man Phil French is a great player -- very similar to IWU grad Zach Freeman.

The Titans just aren't ready to compete against this type of team.  Hopefully they got a little better tonight.

A few positives for the Titans...

* Freshman guard Travis Rosenkranz, who missed the entire practice season, played 29 minutes and looked very good - 13 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists.  Travis started the 2nd half and my guess will take over the starting PG job Saturday vs Dominican.

* Freshman guard Sean Johnson had 10 points and 7 assists.

* Freshman forward Matt Schick had 8 points on 3-5 shooting.

* Brett Chamernik played well - 16 pts, 5 reb (7-8 FG)

* IWU shot 52% from the field...the Titans just can't stop anybody.


Wish I could snap my finger and put 20 pounds of muscle on freshmen Doug Sexauer and Edmond O'Callaghan.  Tonight's game and the last vs Albion demonstrated the difference in the learning curve between perimeter players and post players.  IWU's young perimeter guys (Rosenkranz, Johnson, Schick) can compete.  It's just hard, however, for freshmen big guys to get out there and battle successfully against the type of size/strength ONU has.

[tjcummingsfan]

Final from the Crackerbox 73-48 North Park

[augiefan]

Augie wins over Simpson 80-65.

[tjcummingsfan]

I wasn't there, hopefully someone will be able to give some thoughts.

[mr_b]

Final from the Crackerbox 73-48 North Park

A few observations about the game:

* North Park led at the half, 38-24.  The Vikings jumped out to an early 6-0 advantage, but the lead changed hands several times until the home team pulled away at the break.  I'm not sure how many turnovers there were, but it seemed like a lot.  Jason Gordon had a nice inside dunk late in the game to spark the crowd.

* The Vikings took charge in the second half to finish up by 25 points.  Nick Williams followed up his 20-point game against Eureka on Saturday with a 14-point effort, while Jason Gordon and Bruce Durham each chipped in 12.  Matt McComb led the Red Devils with 11, and Brady Wildenradt and Michael Zasada each scored 9.

* The Vikings ended up 11 of 23 from the charity stripe.

[Titan Q]

Elmhurst beat MacMurray 74-51. 

The CCIW went a perfect 6-0 in "in-region" games the last two nights and the league is now 11-1 in-region on the young season.  The only loss was MSOE over North Park.  Pretty solid start.

[coebball70]

Q...nice call on the Thunder, Loras loses at home by 7, 69-62.  Raymond and Wiele for double-doubles!  I agree with you about Loras last year in their non-conference schedule.  I saw them get routed by Aurora and also lose at home to a very weak Mt. Mercy team.  Looks like more of the same this year.  I guess winning at their new $18 million Lillis Court is proving to be a challenge.  There really is a measureable difference in the strength of the CCIW over the IIAC.

[Titan Q]

Wheaton/Loras boxscore...

http://depts.loras.edu/sports/mens/basketball/g02-whe.html

Per the running play-by-play, Wheaton controlled the entire game and was up big in the 2nd half - it wasn't all that close.

Kent Raymond took 28 shots - more than half of the Wheaton total FGA.  19 & 10 for Wiele.

If Wiele has turned the corner (which it appears he has), I'm starting to think Wheaton is right up there w/ Augie and Elmhurst in terms of a favorite. 

[cardinalfanrochelle]

 Titan Q,
            Correction "THE CARDINALS" had another big game, Rogers just happened to score the most tonight. The Cards played big when it counted , it's not fair to single out one guy. Everyone had a role on the floor and they got it done.So many things happened it's hard to pick 10 things because you could just double that.I like what I see  8) 8) 8)if you want to get the real scoop AndOne is the man   take it away AndOne

[Dennis_Prikkel]

The last ten minutes of this game were like playing pinocle for three hours and getting nothing but mis-deals.  Ugly would be a compliment.

Eureka had only two basketball players of merit on the floor and they were out-athleticized and ooh-ahhed by North Park's quickness and rebounding.

If the Vikings could have made some free throws or wide open jump shots they could have won by forty or fifty.  Stick-backs and breakaways accounted for much of North Park's margin of victory.

Newcomers Jon Chimino and Gorge Gonzalez did a lot of damage on the boards for the Vikings.

There was way too much shake-and-bake thirty feet from the basket and trying to penetrate on the dribble one against four-or-five.  And when the Vikings were patient in the first half and worked the ball in the big men fumbled it away.  There must have been enough turnovers for a bakery.

Most disturbing, however, for this Viking fan is the lack of offensive continuity.  There's so much meaningless motion, without any semblance of offense, the players rarely if ever find themselves in the same spot twice on consecutive trips down the floor.  It's tough to develop any kind of offensive rhythym if you don't know if you'll be posting up, shooting a ten-footer, driving, or shooting a trey anytime down the court.

Freshman Bruce Durham had a nice game at point-guard for NPU, handled the ball well and for the most part showed good floor sense in a game where that was not always in evidence by his teammates.

Well the Vikings, 2-1, have shown they can beat Eugekea - once in football, twice in basketball - now we'll see if, unlike the football team, they can beat someone else.

DoS

[cardinalpride]

North Central defeated Aurora 78-70...

http://www.aurora.edu/scoreboard/stats/bball-m/auncc1.htm

Transfer Matt Rogers had another big game - 19 & 8.  A real nice win for the Cardinals.

Titan Q,
            Correction "THE CARDINALS" had another big game, Rogers just happened to score the most tonight. The Cards played big when it counted , it's not fair to single out one guy. Everyone had a role on the floor and they got it done.So many things happened it's hard to pick 10 things because you could just double that.I like what I see  8) 8) 8)if you want to get the real scoop AndOne is the man   take it away AndOne

Cardinalfan, I know you were just joking but TQ did mention in his post "A real nice win for the Cardinals".  Give him some slack  

Big early season win for the Cardinals!  I know AU was shorthanded being with out their starting PG but a sweet road win nonetheless.  Besides, according to the boxscore, Starwood more than made up for the absence of Dusty Magee.  He had 23pts and 7 assists in the game.  Just from reading the stat sheet, it appears AU went cold from the 3pt line in the second half (7/8 from 3 in 1st half and 1/8 from 3 in the second half).  Was the poor shooting due to good defense by the Cards or just poor shooting?  Andone.....?

[Dennis_Prikkel]

North Park made everyone, students, faculty, staff and fans get a paper ticket to get into the gym.  In 43 years the only time I've seen that at a North Park game was for the NCAA tournament games.

I asked the ticket-taker and he said in all seriousness "that if North Park could show that it had good attendance at its home basketball games, then perhaps it could move to Division Two."

Well I don't know if a crowd of 500 is going to help a lowly D3 team move up to D2, but it's an interesting idea.  Certainly worth talking about with my North Park administrative fiends on Saturday.

DoS

More to come, I'm sure....

I wonder if the rest of the CCIW knows that North Park is thinking of skedaddling?

[pgkevin]

I also was at the North Park game tonight, and actually asked the same exact question, more of less getting the same response.  I thought the guy was kidding, because there was a smile on his face.

Seems like a bit of a stretch to me