MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Late nite]

What you see is what you get---Two years and counting of inconsistent and turnover plagued basketball---Will this be the year he finally gets it?---Collins was a stud last year but barely got a chance to show his skills---Shaun Rose had a good year at the 4, but Chandlor certainly could have given the Vikes some quality minutes at the 5 spot, especially against teams that played small (Carroll??) against Augie---He shared the 4 and rarely played the 5---Good to see that his time has finally come

Dain Swetalla probably should get more touches, but his problems are deeper than that. His season to date FG% is only 38 %, which is awful for a preseason All Conference candidate. He also leads the team in TOs.
No doubt some of his difficulties stem from the considerable fall of in talent at PG this year. As many perseptive observers on this board have pointed out Drew Wessels contributions to last year's Augie team went far beyond bare statistics. Matt Pelton simply does not yet possess the PG and leadership skills of DW.

Augie's success depends on Dain playing to expectations and Pelton  developing his PG skills by the time the CCIW conference season rolls around.

The positive for Augie has been the play of Wessels, Washington and Collins, who have been better than expected. If Dain has one quality game, he may get his confidence back and turn things around in short order.

All in all a lot of uncertainty and inconsistency  throughout the CCIW early in the season.

[Gregory Sager]

(Is North Park's Jay Alexander playing the low post?  From listening to the game last night, it sounded like he was playing more of the small forward?)

Jay Alexander (Sr), North Park (21 min/g) - 11.0 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 21-37 FG (.568)

Jay Alexander is a forward, not a center (the offense that NPU runs does not distinguish between the two forward positions, so "power forward" and "small forward" are relevant only for defensive purposes as far as the Vikings are concerned). He will post up a smaller player on occasion, since opposing coaches frequently assign a guard to cover him because of his speed and quickness. Same goes for Jason Gordon and Nick Williams.

NPU's starting center is Mike Ventura. As I've explained on CCIW Chat before, Ventura is a defensive specialist. He just doesn't seem very comfortable with the ball in his hands, but part of the problem is the fact that his teammates aren't seeking to make entry passes into him when he's in the game. Paul Brenegan has also used Jorge Gonzalez and Jon Chimino at that position. Gonzalez, who is a phenomenal athlete, has only one year of high school ball and one year of juco ball under his belt, so he's still learning the game. He missed Monday night's contest at Loras; I won't know why until tomorrow. Chimino is really a face-the-basket scorer, and like Gonzalez he is on the small side as far as CCIW centers go, but he did show against Cardinal Stritch that he knows what to do with his back to the basket. Both are really forwards rather than centers, and I'm not sure that either is a feasible long-term solution to the problem of North Park's doughnut halfcourt offense.

The two classic offensive-oriented low-post centers on the team are sophomore Glenn Woodside and freshman Phil Schniedermeier. Neither one has been deemed ready by the coaching staff to handle the freight with extended varsity minutes.

As everyone around the NPU program has been saying since the season started, the team dearly misses Stephano Jones. He was a reliable and proven presence in the low post at the offensive end of the floor; his teammates trusted him and fed him entry passes regularly, and opponents respected his scoring abilities and did not cheat off of him to double up on someone else or cut off driving lanes.

If NPU is underachieving because of selfish and individualistic play perhaps the fault lies with the head coach more than the players.

"Selfish and individualistic play" isn't the problem. NPU is fifth in the league in assists, ahead of Augustana, Carthage, and Millikin, and the Vikings are a lot closer to first than they are to eighth.

Defensively, they don't always communicate with each other, leading to breakdowns that are more team-oriented than individual-oriented. Offensively, the lack of a low-post game is glaring, and lots of things feed off of that; opponents can simply extend the defense and challenge the shooters, or, when the shooters are cold (as they were on Monday night) opponents can simply close off the driving lanes. The lack of a scoring center who can keep teams honest definitely makes that easier. Plus, the team hasn't rebounded well at either end of the floor -- which means that the Vikings need to step it up in that area in terms of their effort, desire, and their boxing out.

Finding a reliable scorer down low whom his teammates will trust enough to feed isn't the cure-all to every problem NPU has at this point, but it's the most important item on the agenda.

[Titan Q]

The Pantagraph's preview of the IWU/Illinois College game...

http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2007/12/05/sports/doc475610ac3b4fb617926234.txt


Things don't sound that great for junior guard Andrew Gilmore right now:

JACKSONVILLE — Illinois Wesleyan junior guard Andrew Gilmore will sit out the next two games, including today's 7:30 p.m. nonconference contest at Illinois College, to rest his sore knees.

"We're kind of shutting Gilly down for a while to see if his knees start feeling better. Then we'll reevaluate what we should do next," IWU coach Ron Rose said Tuesday. "We're uncertain where we're headed with his knees right now."

Gilmore started all 25 games and averaged 11.4 points while shooting 42 percent from 3-point range. He had offseason surgery to relieve tendinitis in both knees that caused him considerable pain during his sophomore year.

He played an average of 7.8 minutes off the bench and scored a total of 13 points over the Titans' first four games. Gilmore did not see action in Sunday's victory over Webster.

"I'm guessing he's out for a week or so," said Rose. "He's really sore now. We don't want to get to the point where he's in pain like he was last year. We're waiting to talk to his orthopedic surgeon to get some advice on what we should do."

[hoops2007]

Joscar Demby has not been playing because he is inelgible.... by one hour.. Very sad situation.. great kid.. definitely something you would think coaches should look into.  They didn't even realize it until after the season had already started...

[dlawrenz]

Final:  Wheaton 66
           IIT           47

Raymond with 28 pts.

[augiefan]

Augie 85 St. Ambrose 68 Final  Augie only pulled away at the end, but Dain Swetalla had a good night with 16 points.

[Jim Matson]

Time out for a second - check out the new member of the D3sports.com family, D3soccer.com - just launched tonight.

I've been on this board with you guys since the beginning and am thrilled to be able to be a part of helping the site grow.  On the other hand, am I becoming Greg Sager?     In any case, I'm still a Wheaton fan on D3hoops....

[Dennis_Prikkel]

North Park beats Tri-State 88-74 - Nick Williams with 27, Jason Gordon with 22

[tjcummingsfan]

And, absolutely the best dunk I have ever seen in a D3 gym, Antonio Stevens flying over 2 defenders for an alley-oop off an in-bounds pass, amazing!

[iwumichigander]

Time out for a second - check out the new member of the D3sports.com family, D3soccer.com - just launched tonight.

I've been on this board with you guys since the beginning and am thrilled to be able to be a part of helping the site grow.  On the other hand, am I becoming Greg Sager?     In any case, I'm still a Wheaton fan on D3hoops....

You becoming Sager?  No, you always write short version of the storyline!

[mr_b]

And, absolutely the best dunk I have ever seen in a D3 gym, Antonio Stevens flying over 2 defenders for an alley-oop off an in-bounds pass, amazing!

That was a sensational dunk! 

North Park led wire-to-wire, jumping out to a 7-0 advantage and going into the break up 48-35.  Tri-State fought back to pull to within 5 (I think that was the narrowest margin in the second half), but the Vikings regained momentum on plays like Stevens' acrobatic dunk and some big threes by Jason Gordon.  Gordon and Nick Williams were the dynamic tour-de-force for North Park tonight: Gordon finished with 6 treys (4 in the first half), and Williams poured in 27.  I also was encouraged by the strong free-throw shooting (21 of 27 as a team) and the balanced scoring (Durham, Stevens, and Jay Alexander each scored 11).  Tri-State was led by Tony Benford with 21, Wes Weir 14, and Bryan Dutton and Andre Patrick with 10 apiece.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Time out for a second - check out the new member of the D3sports.com family, D3soccer.com - just launched tonight.

I've been on this board with you guys since the beginning and am thrilled to be able to be a part of helping the site grow.  On the other hand, am I becoming Greg Sager?     In any case, I'm still a Wheaton fan on D3hoops....

Congratulations, Jim!  I hadn't noticed the change in layout 'til you mentioned it.  Since you're still listed as the moderator for both men's and women's, I take it you're the 'big cheese'?

And what's with this "am I becoming Greg Sager?" - what d3sports board does HE moderate?!   You've hit the REAL big time - you've joined Ralph Turner!

[David Collinge]

Time out for a second - check out the new member of the D3sports.com family, D3soccer.com - just launched tonight.

I've been on this board with you guys since the beginning and am thrilled to be able to be a part of helping the site grow.  On the other hand, am I becoming Greg Sager?     In any case, I'm still a Wheaton fan on D3hoops....

Congratulations, Jim and Pat, on the new site! 

[Gregory Sager]

Time out for a second - check out the new member of the D3sports.com family, D3soccer.com - just launched tonight.

I've been on this board with you guys since the beginning and am thrilled to be able to be a part of helping the site grow.  On the other hand, am I becoming Greg Sager?     In any case, I'm still a Wheaton fan on D3hoops....

Congratulations, Jim!  I hadn't noticed the change in layout 'til you mentioned it.  Since you're still listed as the moderator for both men's and women's, I take it you're the 'big cheese'?

And what's with this "am I becoming Greg Sager?" - what d3sports board does HE moderate?!   You've hit the REAL big time - you've joined Ralph Turner!

Let's see ... d3waterpolo.com? Naaah ... uh, d3badminton.com? Naw, not enough potential. Umm ... d3equestrian.com? Hmmm ... 

[sac]

Umm ... d3equestrian.com? Hmmm ... 

Albion and Otterbein are the only two D3's I'm aware that really have an equestrian team.