MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[usee]

also in the wheaton/elmhurst game:

wheaton puts up 73 shots to elmhurst's 64
wiele put up 18 shots (as opposed to only 4 wednesday v IWU)
raymond was 12-30 from the field
burks was 2-14

[Mr. Ypsi]

robberki, let's get some perspective.  Scroll back just 6 more seconds - with 16 seconds on the clock, the Titan FT shooter (I forget who) MADE the first of a 1 and 1, and had it waved off; NPU ball!  Perhaps that last second excitement should never have happened because the game should have not been that close?

[NPC-Alum]

Gant was in the lane early.  What is your point here?

[Mr. Ypsi]

CCIW Standings (1-26-08):

Carthage 5-1
IWU      4-2
Augie    4-2
Wheaton 3-3
Elmhurst  3-3
NCC      2-4
NPU      2-4
Millikin   1-5

OR, by Bob's Home and Away scoring (+1 for road win, -1 for home loss, otherwise 0):

Carthage and IWU each +2
Wheaton    +1
Augie and NCC each   0
Elmhurst    -1
NPU and Millikin each -2

[Mr. Ypsi]

Gant was in the lane early.  What is your point here?

The hazards of listening to the radio rather than being there!   I knew that was the call, but I didn't know whether or not it was correct (just as I don't know the merits of the last second call).

[kenoshamark]

Here is the Carthage box score:

http://www.carthage.edu/athleticspages/mens/basketball/mu1.htm

[usee]

well the stats for the NPU/IWU game are about as even as you could imagine from shots, rebounds, fouls, fg% and score.....its all very close. clearly the story is in the last 10 seconds. Pat, please don't delete the posts of those debating this one! we may need a separate chat room for this game before its over.  

[NPC-Alum]

Fair enough.  That one was easy - so many others should have been but were not...  Good win for the Titans; tough to take as a loss in Chicago.  Congratulations to Titan Nation.

[mr_b]

I'm not even sure who the foul was called on because all hell broke loose and I never got what the call was, but it was offensive and apparently on the very guy who just hit what everyone in the gym thought was the game winner.

The foul was called on Nick Williams, before the ref waved off that final shot.  Two seconds were put back on the clock.

[mr_b]

Gant was in the lane early.  What is your point here?

The hazards of listening to the radio rather than being there!   I knew that was the call, but I didn't know whether or not it was correct (just as I don't know the merits of the last second call).

That's correct -- it was a lane violation that was whistled immediately.

[Gregory Sager]

I am far, far too angry at Mau Cason and what he did to NPU tonight to say anything about the end of tonight's game, because there is a very good chance that I could say something that I might later regret. Also, I'm the one who asked CCIW Chat to please stop dwelling upon the officiating, so I'm sorta bound by my own plea in that regard.

(If you think I'm angry, you should see the North Park coaching staff. The first thing that they did after the game was run downstairs to look at the tape of the last eight seconds, and they emerged from the tape room even angrier than they'd been when they went in there.)

In an important sense, what coaches tell their players -- never put yourselves in a position where the refs can decide the game at the end -- came back to haunt NPU tonight. After the two teams went into intermission tied 25-25, Wesleyan came out and really took it to North Park in the first five to seven minutes of the second half. The Titans pulled out to an eight-point lead, during which time the NPU offense went into one of its characteristic deep freezes while at the other end the Titans guards were driving to the rim with surprising ease. The Titans would never have a lead that big again, but that early stretch of the second half meant that the Vikes were climbing uphill the whole rest of the game. Kudos to Wesleyan for staving off every potential Vikings run until the very end of the game; the Titans showed a lot of gumption tonight. But a large part of the problem for NPU was that you have to expend much more energy playing from behind than you do playing from ahead. What Bobby Knight says about the first five minutes of the second half frequently being the most decisive stretch of the ballgame was proved true tonight.

Nick Williams shrugged off his poor performances in the three games before tonight and played very solid ball, including making what should've been the game-winning shot on a fadeaway from the corner with two seconds left. Jason Gordon was tough down the stretch, and I thought that Dan Oziminski was very steady as well. The Vikings just couldn't manage to make that one big shot that got them over the hump prior to that final sequence. Wesleyan's D had a lot to do with that, but North Park's shooting slump goes well beyond tonight's game. This was supposed to be a very good shooting NPU team this year, and they just haven't showed it since January rolled around. I think that it might say something about non-conference scheduling and pre-conference preparation; Joe Capalbo in particular has looked as though he's in a total funk since the CCIW slate began. He can't buy a good look, and it seems to be getting to him.

Wesleyan's best weapon in the second half was Doug Sexauer, and watching him operate was really frustrating as an NPU fan. Sexauer's going to be a very good CCIW player down the road, but right now (as NPC-Alum said) he has nothing but a left hand in the post. The North Park coaches kept hammering home in timeouts the instruction to the NPU forwards to make Sexauer use his right hand, but the Vikings forwards didn't do it. The only time they did, Sexauer clanked the shot. Other than that, he was money in the paint for Wesleyan.

Now that I have this all off of my chest, I'm probably going to take a break for a little while from this room (although I will handle tomorrow night's CCIW pick'em update). I'm so angry right now that I could break something. I've watched basketball my whole life, and the last time that I saw something like this happen was the '72 Olympics. As I said, if I go into what happened in that final sequence I might end up saying something that I later regret.

robberki, let's get some perspective.  Scroll back just 6 more seconds - with 16 seconds on the clock, the Titan FT shooter (I forget who) MADE the first of a 1 and 1, and had it waved off; NPU ball!  Perhaps that last second excitement should never have happened because the game should have not been that close?

Chuck, it was a lane violation, and I did not see Ron Rose or any other IWU coach argue the call.

[usee]

BTW, Stevie bosko had 20 tonight in decatur. kudos to millikin for holding him below his avg.... 8)

[Mr. Ypsi]

My original point about the waved-off FT with 16 seconds left was that the Titans should never have let the game get down to the final second call.  I got caught up in the officiating controversy and forgot that I was disappointed in Gant's over-eagerness, not the official's call - my bad for the confusion.

[NPC-Alum]

Understood Ypsi - that was one of the few calls (both ways) that were simple enough where they got it right.

[NPC-Alum]

Mau Cason should never ref another game in the North Park gym.  Enough is enough.