MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

In the key game of the night, Wheaton held serve at home and beat Elmhurst, 78-69. Kent Raymond led the way with 37 for the victors, while Ben Panner had 14 and Andy Wiele added 11. Ryan Burks had 21, Brent Ruch added 20, Chris Childs contributed 12, and Jared Hintzsche chipped in 10 for the 'jays.

Wheaton thus dodges the bullet of having to play Augie on its home court on Friday night. That ominous task instead belongs to Elmhurst.

Carthage whomped Millikin, 90-68. Trey Bowens finished his Carthage career with a flourish, scoring 24 points. Steve Djurickovic had 16 points and 9 rebounds, but he falls four free throws short of setting the school record for FTs made in a season. I have a feeling that he'll break it in one of his three remaining seasons. Dana Givens had 16 and John Harmsen 13 for Jimmy Millikin.

[usee]

Wheaton wins 78-69 at King arena

Raymond 37 pts
Panner 14
Wiele 11 and 6

Ruch 21
Burks 20pts
Childs 12

Rebounds were 23-23 after wheaton was outrebounded at elmhurst by almost 20 boards. wheaton led by 20 pts in 2nd half. credit Elmhurst's toughness as they cut it to 6 with a couple minutes left but wheaton hung on. Wheaton gave up 5 fouls in first 4.5 minutes of second half and elmhurst was in the double bonus midway through the second half, which is a big reason they were able to come back. Holding elmhurst to 69 pts is a big victory. perhaps the best news for Thunder fans is jacob Carwell played well again scoring 12 pts and holding Ruch to 4 total rebounds. He has played well since the IWU game and if wheaton is going to make a run they need him to show up big next friday against IWU.

[Gregory Sager]

Boxes:

http://www.iwu.edu/~iwunews/sports/mbb2008/IWMBB25.HTM

http://www.carthage.edu/athleticspages/mens/basketball/mu2.htm

http://www.northcentralcollege.edu/athletics/stats/basketball_m/07-08/NCCM-AUG.HTM

http://athletics.wheaton.edu/sports/mbball/mbbstats/mwhe25.htm

[shepherd]

Thanks to everybody providing updates.  Fyi: WETN said they would be broadcasting both games Friday.  What are the chances of two teams for the cciw?

[Mr. Ypsi]

Darius Gant had an absolutely phenomenal game for IWU, which, thanks to him, won the rebounding battle, 50-42. He made up in large part for Wesleyan's backcourt trio of Dwyer, Rosenkrantz, and Johnson, who went a collective 4-35 from the field (2-24 from downtown). I'll be interested in hearing from the Titans fans how much of that was due to the NPU perimeter defense.

A great, great win for the Park, exacting some sweet revenge for that controversial loss that they suffered to the green and white in Chicago last month. It's great to see the team led by the two sophs, too, as it's a promising portent for next season for NPU.

Since I only heard part of the game, I too would like to hear if the Titan guards (add in Jordan Morris and the stats don't get much better: 5 of 41 and 3 of 30) all went cold together or if the Viking defense was really THAT good - I suppose probably some of each.

I'd also like to be reminded by someone who was there - how in the world did the Park hold Gant to 6 and 6 in the Chicago game?!  Was he on crutches that night?

[Mr. Ypsi]

Thanks to everybody providing updates.  Fyi: WETN said they would be broadcasting both games Friday.  What are the chances of two teams for the cciw?

If someone other than Augie wins, extremely good.

If Augie wins, extremely poor!

[Gregory Sager]

I'd also like to be reminded by someone who was there - how in the world did the Park hold Gant to 6 and 6 in the Chicago game?!  Was he on crutches that night?

Gant's m.o. has always been that he disappears ... sometimes for stretches of the game, sometimes for entire games. In the IWU @ NPU game, he was fairly invisible for all forty minutes. It was very much in keeping with the sort of player that he's been throughout his career.

Down the stretch this season, he's apparently been much more consistent in terms of his effort and his impact.

[usee]

Bill Harris was asked on the postgame show what it will take to beat IWU next week. He said they played great defense in second half last Saturday and it will take that kind of focused effort for 40minutes. That and they have to shoot better than 57% from the line and 12% from the 3pt arc.

[Gregory Sager]

Two things tonight that, if you'd told me back in November would happen, I'd have told you that you were nuts:

1) Joe Capalbo takes only one shot, and he missed it ... and the Vikings still won. I really thought that he'd be a big cog in whatever success NPU managed to muster this season.

2) North Park dishes out more assists than does Illinois Wesleyan in a head-to-head matchup between the Vikings and Titans ... especially this particular Vikings team, which is very much predicated upon penetration and getting to the rim and has very little in the way of points via cuts to the basket or via the low post -- traditionally, two big ways in which assists are doled out.

Also, if the casual observer who knew nothing about the 2007-08 North Park squad looked at tonight's box score and saw that the guy with the "f" next to his name had an 18 and 12 double-double, and that the guy with the "c" next to his name had a 17 and 11 double-double, he'd probably figure that the NPU "big men" were 6'5, 210 and 6'7, 220. Little would he realize that the "forward" is actually a shooting guard who is listed at 6'3, 189 but is really more like 6'1, 180, while the "center" is far more suited to play small forward and actually stands at about 6'4, 190 rather than the 6'5, 205 at which he's listed.

Bill Harris was asked on the postgame show what it will take to beat IWU next week. He said they played great defense in second half last Saturday and it will take that kind of focused effort for 40minutes. That and they have to shoot better than 57% from the line and 12% from the 3pt arc.

I think that that last sentence by Bill Harris wins him the "CCIW Master of the Obvious Award" for the week.

[martin]

School CCIW Overall
Augustana 11-3 20-5
Ill. Wesleyan  9-5 15-10
Wheaton 9-5 19-6
Elmhurst 8-6 18-7

My view of the NCAA tournament possibilities:
Augie is in - will get a Pool C if it does not get the AQ
IWU - needs to get the AQ.  North Park probably killed its Pool C shot
Wheaton - can get a Pool C slot with a win over IWU even if it loses in the final.  They would be 16-7 (.696) in region.  Losing to IWU would leave them 15-7 (.682)
Elmhurst - have to get the AQ.  Right now, 17-7 in region.  A first round loss to Augie would make them 17-8.  Beating Augie and losing in the final would make them 18-8 (.692)

There are only 17 Pool C slots.  I know all CCIW fans will be cheering for the Maroons to win the UAA.  But most think that Rochester, Brandeis and Wash U are already tournament locks.  If Chicago wins out, all three will be in Pool C, leaving only 14 slots.

[Gregory Sager]

My congratulations to Augustana and head coach Grey Giovanine upon winning a third straight undisputed CCIW title. That's a very difficult feat to achieve (it's happened only seven times in CCIW history, one of which eventually turned into a four-year undisputed-title streak), and the only previous occasion in which three-peaters wore Augie navy blue and gold featured the '72-'73-'74 editions under Jim Borcherding.

You gotta give Giovanine a lot of credit. People talk about how he keeps losing the recruiting wars, and he lost his best shooter and team leader to a torn Achilles tendon at the beginning of this season ... and yet here we are at the end of February talking about Augustana's third straight CCIW title. The man can coach.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Greg, re: point #2:

Since IWU only made 20 FGs, and 12 were by Darius (many of which I suspect were unassisted off offensive rebounds), there wasn't much opportunity for assists!  The best passes in the world won't get you an assist if the shooter blows it.  I don't know if the Titans passed well or poorly, but if the ball doesn't go in the hoop, it doesn't show on the scoring sheet.

At the outset of the season if someone could guarantee me that IWU would finish second, I would have been thrilled.  But, for now, I'm bummed.

[kenoshamark]

After a dissapointing season tonights game ended on a good note.   Good in the sense that Carthage played well and the seniors went out with a win.  Congrats to Neb Franciskovic, Dave Mikolaitas, Billy Jacklin and Trey Bowens.  It was great to see them all walk off the floor with big smiles on their faces.  Jacklin had 9 points and 8 boards, Neb had 8 points and 9 boards, and Mik had his usual strong effort and got in the books with 2 points.  Trey had a real outstanding game with 24 points.  Not many better players in this league when it comes to catching and shooting.  That was very evident again tonight.  It would be a real shame for Trey not to get chosen at least as a third team selection.  He made the third team last year and certainly stepped up his game this year.  After the issues he had over the first couple of years, and to persevere through that along with some very lofty expectations, it has been a credit to him and how good a player he has made himself.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Martin,

With due respect to local allegiances, if any of us had any real hope of a pool C we'd be rooting hard for Chicago to NOT get the pool A!

But unless there are pollyannaish Thunder fans still around, we all (aside from Augie loyalists) know it is AQ or go home - so UC may as well win it!

[usee]

Bill Harris was asked on the postgame show what it will take to beat IWU next week. He said they played great defense in second half last Saturday and it will take that kind of focused effort for 40minutes. That and they have to shoot better than 57% from the line and 12% from the 3pt arc.

Harris also said it would be great for the conference to get 2 teams in the playoffs. He said Augie will go and they, along with any of the other three teams could easily make a deep run in the playoffs. He cited Augie's victory at WashU and Elmhurst's win over Hope (saying "Hope is one of the best teams I have seen this year") as indicators the CCIW is as good as any other team. Q has been saying this very thing all season long.