MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

As disheartening as the loss was, the Park nevertheless played a pretty sound game from a technical standpoint. They stanched the constant hemorrhage of turnovers that had been killing them in every game they've played until tonight, and the offense at times moved the ball very crisply. Whitaker and Alexander had very good games, as did energy-guy Devin Burnett. And the injury list finally began to thin out: Glen Woodside and Uriah Rice made their NPU debuts tonight, and Eric Samuelson came back from a bum knee as well to spark the Vikes with nine points off of the bench.

The Park played good D for most of the game, but offensive rebounds in the second half killed them. They'd play 25 seconds of great D, and then LFC would throw up an off-balance shot, miss, and get an offensive rebound from their beast of a center, Franklin Beckford. It was hugely frustrating -- stop after stop became wasted efforts.

Next year Conger will be starting over with a completely new rotation of Foresters, and NPU will be the team with all the experience. The shoe will be on the other foot when these two teams meet on the North Shore in '06-'07.

[Gregory Sager]

North Central 87, Illinois Tech 59

Dan Walton, 22 pts
Ray Vicario, 18 pts
Adam Teising, 8 pts, 5 steals, 10 assists
Adam Krumtinger, 8 pts, 8 rebs

This went about as I expected. IIT is now 1-10, which tells you everything you need to know about the Scarlet Hawks. The big question of the night, though, is: Where is Anthony Simmons? The big man did not appear in the box score. Cardinal Alum or cardinalpride or any other North Central follower, any word on why Simmons didn't play?

[True Basketball Fan]

To an earlier post about Carthage.....

The future is bright?  Let's see if they can go to class and stay awake long enough to pass, especially Bowens, before one starts mentioning the future.

[cardinalpride]

North Central 87, Illinois Tech 59

Dan Walton, 22 pts
Ray Vicario, 18 pts
Adam Teising, 8 pts, 5 steals, 10 assists
Adam Krumtinger, 8 pts, 8 rebs

This went about as I expected. IIT is now 1-10, which tells you everything you need to know about the Scarlet Hawks. The big question of the night, though, is: Where is Anthony Simmons? The big man did not appear in the box score. Cardinal Alum or cardinalpride or any other North Central follower, any word on why Simmons didn't play?

Good question Greg.  I had a feeling it would probably be lopsided so I decided to skip the game.   However, I'll try to get some insight on Simmons.

[CardinalAlum]

Football guy got the scoop!!  I hear that Mr. Simmons is ineligible.

[iwumichigander]

With 3 CCIW teams in the Top 25, the conference is off to a good start.http://www.d3hoops.com/top25/  I think equally if not more impressive; our top 4 team's overall record through 12/6 is a combined 18 - 1 and; every team with at least 1 in the  W column!

Interesting games coming up tonight.  Good luck to Augustana, Carthage, Elmhurst and Wheaton tonight!

[iwumichigander]

Cardinal Alum - Ouch!  With Simmons ineligible, afraid Cardinals will hurt going into the conference season in particular with your schedule.  Cardinals needed the big guy early in the schedule.

[kenoshamark]

TBF,  What connection do you have with the Carthage program that you felt so compelled to offer those uncalled for comments?  You made some broad stroked comments about not only one particular player but would could be alluded to as a number of players. 

Trying sticking with some comments that have to do with what takes place on the court and maybe your monikor would be more applicable. 

[augiefan]

I'll second the thought that Augie will be fortunate to win tonight in Cedar Rapids. Coe's only loss was to UWOshkosh on the road, and they had a nice road win over UWEauClaire. The fact that this is a road game is big problem for Augie as well. Just ask Iowa and IU how they liked last night's road venues against supposedly inferior opponents. I picked Coe to win this one in the pickem, but I'd love for the Augie team that showed up for the ist half at Rockford to give us 40 minutes worth of that effort tonight.

[Titan Q]

I was just looking at Augie's stats and senior Rick Harrigan is off to one heck of a start...

25.6 ppg
4.2 rpg
3.2 steals pg
44-73 FG (.603)
11-17 3-pt (.647)

I'm especially impressed at the fact that 77% of Harrigan's field goal attempts are from inside the arc.  Last year that number was 58% and his sophomore season only 32% of his FGA were 2's.

When Rick Harrigan commited to Augustana it was a big deal.  He had an unbelievable career at Brother Rice H.S. and had a ton of D1's looking at him.  Harrigan was a more heralded high school player than IWU All-Americans Adam Dauksas and Keelan Amelianovich.  The Chicago Tribune and Sun Times both ran feature stories on Harrigan as his senior season came to a close...both along the lines of "How does this kid not have a full-ride somewhere?"  In the end, a number of D1's asked him to walk-on, but no rides.  He was perceived to be too one dimensional and too slow for that level.  (I believe Gonzaga waned him to walk-on.)

I remember posting here that summer (I think he waited until July or August to commit to Augie) that Harrigan was the same type of player and would be as good as Ryan Knuppel (2001 CCIW M.O.P.).  Harrigan seemed to prove me wrong for a couple years.  I say this as a complete outsider, but it seems to me that it took Rick two full seasons to accept the fact that he was a Division III player.  I watched him play in a JV game at the Shirk Center his freshman year and he must have been 15 pounds overweight.  He didn't look much more into things his sophomore season.

Last season it was obvious to me that Harrigan the starter cared about basketball again...or at least that he was starting to look like the kid who starred at my high school alma mater.  But this season it looks to me like Rick Harrigan is becoming the player I thought he was going to when he decided to attend Augustana.  If he is going to have a CCIW M.O.P. type year, Augie is going to be awfully good.


(By the way, that JV game Harrigan's freshman year...pretty good talent on the floor.  Harrigan, Keelan Amelianovich, Cory Jones, Chris Jones, Jason Fisher, Steve Schweer, and others.)

[Titan Q]

Some familiar names on these old recruiting pieces from the spring of 2002, when the current CCIW seniors were seniors in high school...

"Perfect Player - Shooting"

David Gershenzon (Elmhurst)
Mike McGraw (IWU)
Rick Harrigan (Augustana)
Keelan Amelianovich (IWU)

"Perfect Player - Scoring"

Harrigan
Adam Dauksas (IWU)

"Perfect Player - Dribbling"

Dauksas
Adam Teising (North Central)

"Perfect Player - Passing"

Dauksas

"Perfect Player - Leadership"

Dauksas

[CardinalAlum]

Football guy got the scoop!!  I hear that Mr. Simmons is ineligible.

Also hearing he may be out of school. 

[Elmhurst_Mom]

Elmhurst won at Kalamazoo....2 overtimes....i think the final was 88-78.....

what's the deal with Simmons?  Ineligible?

[augiedad]

How did it take 2OT for Elmhurst to defeat Kalamazoo??  Here were K-zoo's 4 losses to date:

L @ Wooster 66-84
L vs St. Thomas 47-70
L @ Aquinas 59-64
L @ Benedictine 43-62


Benedictine is horrible - lost by 26 to North Central! 

Sounds like the same ole Elmhurst - never know what you're going to get.

[Elmhurst_Mom]

big lapse in defense in the first half....second half a bit better...i wasn't able to get there....had some family in MI that went and kept me on the cell...sounds like lee was fairly solid, martin strong in 2nd half and strempf (fr) all did well....ihlenfeldt struggled, michael wrestling with a slump...don't think there was much in the way of size with Kalamzoo....they'll get it together...gotta keep the faith!