MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[fcnews]

Any word on the IWU v. Webster game today?

[Titan Q]

Sounds like junior guard Andrew Gilmore is out for today with lingering knee issues.  So the guys that will probably see the floor today are:

Travis Rosenkranz (6-0/175, Fr.)
Sean Johnson (6-1/175, Fr.)
Jordan Morris (6-3/195, Jr.)
Darius Gant (6-4/210, Sr.)
Brett Chamernik (6-5/230, Jr.)

Bench

Matt Schick (6-4/190, Fr.)
Doug Sexauer (6-7/210, Fr.)
Edmond O'Callagan (6-7/210, Fr.)
Josh Sutton (6-5/205, Fr.)
Duncan Lawson (6-8/225, Fr.)

7 freshmen...that's young.  Real young.

Some good news for the Titans - 6-6 senior Brian Nussbaum will dress today.  Sounds like Brian is finally healthy and ready to start working towards getting in the mix.  I haven't given up hope on Brian helping this team by CCIW time.

Point-guard Sean Dwyer is getting closer - maybe two weeks?

[fcnews]

This should be a great chance for Webster to get a good win on the road. Darrin Hoggatt should have a good day. Corey Kuhn needs to start performing like he is capable.

Will be listening Titan Q. Also, I might try and catch the IWU game in Pasadena.

[hopefan]

uhoh   looking at the live stats of Webster - IWU  Webster down by 9 after 10 minutes, but more important, no Darren Hoggett   -   where is he?

[Titan Q]

IWU 82
Webster 69

http://www.iwu.edu/~iwunews/sports/mbb2008/IWUBB5.HTM

Brett Chamernik: 27 pts, 5 reb (9-11 FG)
Doug Sexauer: 17 pts, 5 reb (7-9 FG)
Darius Gant: 11 pts, 7 reb
Josh Sutton: 9 pts, 4 reb (4-4 FG) - 17 min.


Poor FT shooting continues to plague the Titans, but overall, IWU played well today.  Brett Chamernik was too strong for the Gorlocks inside, and he had a career game.  On the season, Chamernik is now 23-31 from the field (.742).

Freshman Doug Sexauer was very good as well - 7-9 from the field and 17 points.  The most impressive thing was when he scored his points.  After Webster cut IWU's lead to 1 with 15:00 to play, Sexauer scored 8 points in the next 4 minutes as the Titans got control of the game again.

Another bright spot was 6-5 freshman wing Josh Sutton, who saw his first real action today.  In 17 minutes of play Sutton went 4-4 from the field and grab 5 rebounds.

IWU is a dreadful 80-145 (.552) from the FT line on the season now, due in large part to Darius Gant's 22-49 (.449) and Chamernik's 22-40 (.550).  It will be hard to win CCIW games if these two can't make FT's, so I hope they figure it out.

Overall, the Titans looked pretty good today.  40 points from freshmen, but the biggest story was the 27 from junior Chamernik.

[tjcummingsfan]

It was nice too to hear Brian Nussbaum get in the game, with an assist and a rebound it soudns like it was a pretty productive 2 minutes.  I hope he keeps getting stronger and can contribute solid minutes for the Titans this year, though it soudns like there's alot of talent and depth in those forward spots.  Competition for playing time could be a very good thing for this young team.

[Titan Q]

It was nice too to hear Brian Nussbaum get in the game, with an assist and a rebound it soudns like it was a pretty productive 2 minutes.  I hope he keeps getting stronger and can contribute solid minutes for the Titans this year, though it soudns like there's alot of talent and depth in those forward spots.  Competition for playing time could be a very good thing for this young team.

This was nice to see indeed.  Brian has had an incredible string of bad luck and has literally not been healthy at all the last two years.  Now that he is healthy, I hope he is able to prove himself in practice and earn his way into the rotation.  The Titans can use someone with his size, who can pass, shoot, and defend.

I applaud and appreciate his perseverance and am rooting for him. 

[Gregory Sager]

Millikin 82
MacMurray 59

http://www.millikin.edu/athletics/mbasketball/m-mil04_076.htm

The Big Blue apparently had their way with the Highlanders at the Griz today in a game that was rescheduled after a weather-related postponement yesterday. Mark Patrick led the Blue with 17, and was joined in double figures by Robert Rexroade with 14 and Tunde Ogunleye and Zach Ott with 10 apiece. Former Millikin player Wes Littrell scored 11 against his former team to co-lead MacMurray in scoring.

Millikin shot very well today; 54.2% from the field, 42.9% from downtown, and 90% from the charity stripe, while holding MacMurray to less than 38% from the field. Millikin led by 13 at the half. Although there's no play-by-play attached to the box score, the overall impression is that Marc Smith's crew didn't have a whole lot of trouble dispensing with the Highlanders.

[REDMENFAN]

Rough weekend for the Redmen. Sounds like their lack of size really hurt them, and they didn't shoot the ball very well. That will be the story of their season this year I think. If their guards are on from the perimeter, they can be in every game. But if they shoot in the 30% range, its going to be very tough, especially because there probably won't be many opportunities for second chance points with offensive rebounds. I saw both games at Carthage last year, and really thought/hoped they'd be able to take at least one victory out of Michigan with them.

[iwumichigander]

Poor FT shooting continues to plague the Titans, ... IWU is a dreadful 80-145 (.552) from the FT line on the season now, due in large part to Darius Gant's 22-49 (.449) and Chamernik's 22-40 (.550).  It will be hard to win CCIW games if these two can't make FT's, so I hope they figure it out.

Sexauer, Rosenkrantz and Morris are 21 -26 (.808) FT%.  While Gant and Chamernik standout due to their # of FTAs, the rest of the team is collectively 59-119 (.496) FT% and that's not going to win even JV contests. I'll go further than Q, it is hard to win any game with those FT numbers - particularly close contests. 
A very hard problem for a coaching staff to fix.  You can coach form but it really comes down to the individual player making extra work effort to practice, improve concentration and FT% made on a consistant basis over time.

[iwumichigander]

Rough weekend for the Redmen. Sounds like their lack of size really hurt them, and they didn't shoot the ball very well. That will be the story of their season this year I think. If their guards are on from the perimeter, they can be in every game. But if they shoot in the 30% range, its going to be very tough, especially because there probably won't be many opportunities for second chance points with offensive rebounds. I saw both games at Carthage last year, and really thought/hoped they'd be able to take at least one victory out of Michigan with them.

I think most of the posters would agree with you.

[Titan Q]

Congrats to Brett Chamernik on CCIW Player of the Week honors...

http://www.cciw.org/winter_bball_m/pow07_3.php


Illinois Wesleyan's Chamernik Named CCIW Men's Basketball Player of the Week


NAPERVILLE, Ill. -- Brett Chamernik of Illinois Wesleyan was named College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) Men's Basketball Player of the Week Monday after his performance during the previous week of competition.

Chamernik, a junior center from Naperville, Ill., and Benet Academy, poured in a career-high 27 points to lead Illinois Wesleyan to an 82-69 win over Webster on Dec. 2. Chamernik was nine-of-11 from the field (.818) and connected on nine-of-14 from the free throw line. He pulled down five rebounds and handed off three assists in 31 minutes of action. Chamernik, who has become a starter this season, scored a total of 37 points in 24 games last season.

2007-08 CCIW Men's Basketball Players of the Week:
Brett Chamernik - Illinois Wesleyan (12/3/07)
Brent Ruch - Elmhurst (11/26/07)
Steve Djurickovic - Carthage (11/19/07)

[Titan Q]

Final:

Loras 70
North Park 62

I listened to a lot of the game (via the Loras broadcast).  The Duhawks led from start to finish, I believe, and seemed to have an average lead of about 8 points throughout the game.  North Park made about 4-5 runs during the game to cut into the lead, one midway through the 2nd Half that got the Vikings within 2 points I think.  Loras responded each time though, pushing the lead back up to 5 or 6 and regaining control.

I obviously wasn't there, but it sounded like North Park fired up a ton of 3's early in the shot clock throughout the game.  It also sounded like the Vikings didn't have much in the way of a low post game - everything seemed to be a jumpshot.

Jay Alexander had a big game for North Park off the bench - 19 points.  At one point he was 7-7 from the field.  The broadcasters were very complimentary of freshman point-guard Bruce Durham, who had 9 points.  I believe Joe Capalbo made 4 3's and had 14.  Nick Williams had an off night offensively...just 5 points I think.

Loras dominated NPU on the boards...like 43-26 or something like that.  North Park shot 24 3's (making 9).

Loras was 21-7 last year and 15-1 in the IIAC (a league that hasn't done much nationally over the years).  They lost in Round 1 of the tournament in OT @ St. John's.  I believe the Duhawks returned all 5 starters.  Wheaton won there last week, 69-62, in a game the Thunder led by 6 at halftime and by as much as 18 in the 2nd half before Loras made it a game in the final minutes.

North Park beat Loras by 18 last year in Chicago. 

[tjcummingsfan]

I tuned in for the last 12-15 minutes or so.  19 for Alexander.  Boy Nick Williams is going to have to get going down low (though that's not really his game) for North Park to have any chance.  It didn't help anything that Antonio Stevens had 4 fouls midway through the 2nd half.  I don't like that we lost to this team that Wheaton beat by about the same margin.  I don't think the whole week +  off from competition was too helpful.  Hopefully we'll be able to take the next 2 games at home this week. 

[Gregory Sager]

NPU isn't ready for prime time yet; that's really the bottom line from this game. The fact that Wheaton came into the Loras gym and beat that same team by seven points two weeks ago tells me that Paul Brenegan and his staff have a lot of work to do to get the Vikings into a position where they can make some noise in the CCIW.

Two things jump out at me from this game. One is the huge rebounding disparity in the Duhawks' favor (43-26). Given how badly the Vikings shot from the field (37.5% for the game, only 26.7% in the first half), it means that there was an awful lot of one-and-dones for the Park. I have no idea why NPU's best rebounder, Jorge Gonzalez, didn't play tonight, but it's obvious that the team could've certainly used him.

The second is the low number of free throws attempted by NPU. The Vikings shot only 15 of them (making 11), while Loras had 26 attempts from the charity stripe and made 19 (thus, the final margin of eight points). NPU has a significant number of players who are excellent penetrators. The fact that the Vikings shot so few free throws tells me that the team settled for jumpshots rather than attacking the basket; and on a night when the team's shooting was as cold as the weather outside (Nick Williams went 2-13, Jason Gordon went 1-8, and Antonio Stevens went 2-7 -- all three of these guys are just as good or better at beating an opponent off of the dribble and getting to the cup as they are at hitting jumpers) that's a sure recipe for defeat.

The one bright spots tonight came from the bench, as Jay Alexander continued the upswing in his game with 19 points and Joe Capalbo finally started to find his range, sinking four treys en route to a 14-point performance.