MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[mr_b]

Better than karma, I say!

Many thanks, Greg!  That's a nifty graphic. 

[Viking Blue]

It's always amazing to me that, apparently, some of you NEVER even take a week off when it comes to CCIW hoops.  Me, I have my own vices.  But I'm back (and apparently sharing the mike at NP this year....who knows why....). 

I've read the last couple of pages regarding Oziminski (big loss, I believe), Chimino (who?), and Durham (see Chimino).

It's great to see Steph-a-NO (believe it or not, that IS the correct pronunciation, according to his mother) Jones back in the fold.  He's a scoring threat that NP desperately needed down low.

What can you all tell me about the newcomers?  I'm interested....

By the way--you heard it hear first---North Park will be spurred on to a CCIW conference tournament birth this year as a result of the return of legendary assistant coach KEN MCCULLAH to the coaching staff.

It's good to be back.....

Karma -1, I presume......

[AndOne]

Chamernik's stress fracture is definitely a set back for the Titans, but they have some pretty good players that can help fill the void.  Sexauer (6-7) and Lawson (6-7) will both be good in the low post.  There could also be a couple of variables in O'Callaghan (6-7) McCullough (6-9) and Connelly (6-9). I have had a chance to see them all play together in open gyms this fall. They are going to be better down low this year than last. They will definitely be competing at the top of the CCIW.

Unless Ron Pose has completely made over Duncan Lawson's game, I doubt he will be much help in the low post. Let me say I followed Duncan pretty closely for the last few years, and think he is a fine player, and a good guy. However, he has little, if any low post experience, and has NEVER played with his back to the basket. This goes back to his high school days where his coach basically forbid him to even think of going anywhere near the low post, despite his height. The reason for this was that his high school team featured a 6'8"  Northwestern scholarship player and  a 6'4" 250-260 pound football player in a double low post set. His HS coach didn't want Duncan anywhere down low gumming up the offensive flow. According, his primary skills developed in the areas of becoming a great ball handler for a 6'7" player, superior passing talent, and very accurate marksmanship from beyond the arc. I would expect that these skills and talents continue to be his primary weapons. Lastly, again unless Rose has completely made over his game, I would expect the times you'll see Duncan close to the basket would primarily be as a result of his using his dribbling ability to drive the lane.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Q, from the team pic you posted, Ryan Connolly's nickname should perhaps be "Big Continent" - wow!  (Any chance Ron will share him with Norm? )

I'm looking forward to sometime seeing a pic of him next to Elmhurst recruit Wes Dukeman (6-8, 180).  No disrespect, but is Wes allowed outside on windy days?

On the other hand, I might regret seeing pics of him next to Doug Sexauer, Duncan Lawson, or Eric McCullough - suddenly they seem a bit 'frail'!

AndOne, since I would hate to leave the low post to freshmen (or undersized upperclassmen), I'm certainly hoping for Chamernik's full recovery by bball season, but it could give more development time to "Big Continent"!

Alas, Mr. Connolly apparently didn't go out for football, or they might be 6-0.

[AndOne]

Mr----

From all accounts available here, it appears there is an excellent chance Chamernilk will be ready to go around the time the season starts. My question would be will he be ready for game action at that time, or will he still need some additional rehab time beyond the initial 4 week projection?

If so, perhaps Coach Rose will use the first few games to get the 2 freshmen bigs some valuable game experience.

I see the Wesleyan roster lists Connolly's weight as 290! It appears he has already been tagged with nicknames of 'Big Country' and now 'Big Continent' per your reference above.
One might wonder about the ability of the 'The Student Body' to get up and down the floor. It sounds like he would be a rather immovable force under the basket, but do you know, as yet, anything about his ability to get there before the expiration of the majority of the shot clock?   

[Titan Q]

Checking in from the Grand Cayman International Airport.  A great week in Palm Coast, FL followed by a terrific visit to this beautiful little island in the Caribbean.  Time to get back to the real world!

Disappointed to hear about Brett Chamernik's injury and hope he recovers quickly.  Brett is certainly not the flashiest big guy in the CCIW but he is a real blue collar type who is probably the hardest worker on the team.  Last season he very quietly was one of the top 5's in the conference (10.8 ppg, 5.4 rpg, .588 FG) and was a huge reason IWU went into the final week of the season in contention for the league title.  I view a healthy Chamernik as a lock to start at the 5 for the Titans and a very safe bet for numbers similar to last season's...maybe better.

The Titans have so much depth now though, I they think have a lot of options if Chamernik does have to miss some games.  My guess is that 6-7/225 Doug Sexauer, who had a very good freshman year off the bench and is a lock to start this season, moves to the 5.  Doug is a natural 4 who likes to step away from the basket quite a bit and shoot from the perimeter, but he can play the 5.  He is about 20 pounds stronger than he was last year and he has some terrific low post moves.  So...

G Rosenkranz, 6-0 So
G Johnson, 6-1 So.
G/F  ?
F  ?
C Sexauer, 6-7 So.

IWU not only has a lot of depth, but they have a lot of versatile players.  On the perimeter, they could start Sean Dwyer again and go with 3 guards...freshman Jordan Zimmer could start at the 3...or Jordan Morris...or Matt Schick.  At the 4, 6-6 John Koschnitzky could easily win that battle (I've been projecting him to start at the 3)...or 6-7 Duncan Lawson...of 6-6 Edmond O'Callaghan.

The two 6-9 freshmen should get their chance to earn time.  I have not heard one person describe 6-9/290 Ryan Connolly as "overweight"...he is just a beast.  Also, word is that he runs the floor pretty well for his size.  The knock on Connolly right now is that he just does not have enough offensive polish.  Highly touted Eric McCullough is much more polished, but may be a little too thin right now...listed at 6-9/205. 

We'll see how it plays out, but IWU is very fortunate to have a lot of options (good options) to get through this.   

[Titan Q]

TQ did marry Ro on 10/11.  I hated to miss it, but pressing matters kept me in Bloomington/Normal.  He called me on Monday as he was waiting in the Miami airport to embark on his honeymoon.  Don't know if he has his laptop...didn't ask.

I'll say.  Congrats to Mike and Shelly on the arrival of Sean Mason Thomas on Oct 8!

[Titan Q]

Q - Best wishes to you and Rosemary!

Thanks...everything worked out great.  Got lucky with some perfect weather that weekend.

[Titan Q]

Looking at IWU's official 2008-09 roster posted recently...

http://www2.iwu.edu/menssports/basketball/0809_roster.shtml

* Duncan Lawson shrunk one inch in the off-sesaon to 6-7.

* Same with Edmond O'Callaghan...now 6-6.

* Doug Sexauer is listed 20 pounds heavier that last year...now 6-7/225.

* Freshman G/F Jordan Zimmer, who I felt last year as a senior at Delavan was taller than his listed 6-4 and then supposedly grew in the off-season, is listed at 6-5/185.  He needs to get a lot stronger, but Zimmer has nice height for a D3 perimeter player.

* As mentioned above, Ryan "Big Country" Connolly is 6-9 and a whopping 290.

* Freshman John Koschnitzky is listed at 6-6/195...another guy who probably needs to add 15 pounds of muscle along the way.


The roster Ron Rose inherited for the 2006-07 season had 2 healthy players listed at 6-6 or taller - 6-7 Zach Freeman and 6-6 Andrew Freeman (Brian Nussbaum was injured).  After two recruiting classes, Rose now has 6 players listed at 6-6 or taller and 4 at 6-5.

[Gregory Sager]

I see the Wesleyan roster lists Connolly's weight as 290! It appears he has already been tagged with nicknames of 'Big Country' and now 'Big Continent' per your reference above.

If the ref whistles him for moving his pivot foot in the post, I guess that we can call it "continental drift".

[Gregory Sager]

It's always amazing to me that, apparently, some of you NEVER even take a week off when it comes to CCIW hoops.  Me, I have my own vices.  But I'm back (and apparently sharing the mike at NP this year....who knows why....).

You apparently didn't get the NPU internal memo about the kickback that you're supposed to be giving to the Viking Club from your game pay.

I've read the last couple of pages regarding Oziminski (big loss, I believe), Chimino (who?), and Durham (see Chimino).

It's tough to lose someone with Oziminski's experience and steady demeanor on the court, but in the end it might prove to be addition by subtraction. There's some "ifs" involved in that, though. Chris Brown is much quicker than Oziminski, although not as physically strong or as good a shooter. If his decisionmaking continues to make the big strides forward that it made last season, he could turn out to be a very good CCIW point guard. And freshman Roshawn Russell from St. Rita has been getting nothing but raves from the coaching staff. They're convinced that they got an absolute steal in bringing Russell into the program, and he may push Brown for the starting job. I'm not happy about losing Oziminski, but as I said the other day, better to go into the first practice knowing who is committed to the team and who isn't than to have fissures appear in the team later on.

It's great to see Steph-a-NO (believe it or not, that IS the correct pronunciation, according to his mother) Jones back in the fold.  He's a scoring threat that NP desperately needed down low.

Exactly. NPU's strength is in its perimeter game, as I think that the Williams-Stevens-Cahill triumvirate is going to make a dynamite combination on the offensive end of the floor. But without a bona-fide scoring threat in the post last season NPU's perimeter strength was severely limited, because defenses didn't need to offer any help in the interior unless someone got beat off the dribble. And since NPU shot so poorly from outside, defenses could sag on the perimeter and pretty much sit on the Vikings in the intermediate area between the perimeter and the low post. The reappearance of Stephano Jones should help change that, but it'll take much better outside shooting from NPU this season than the Vikings provided in 2007-08 in order to make it all work.

By the way--you heard it hear first---North Park will be spurred on to a CCIW conference tournament birth this year as a result of the return of legendary assistant coach KEN MCCULLAH to the coaching staff.

Amundsen's loss is our gain, I guess.

It's good to be back.....

Good to have you back, VB.

TQ did marry Ro on 10/11.  I hated to miss it, but pressing matters kept me in Bloomington/Normal.  He called me on Monday as he was waiting in the Miami airport to embark on his honeymoon.  Don't know if he has his laptop...didn't ask.

I'll say.  Congrats to Mike and Shelly on the arrival of Sean Mason Thomas on Oct 8!

Congrats, Hammer!

[Dennis_Prikkel]

the absence of Dan Ozminski name on the NPU roster was explained in this email from the school's SID

"Yes, Dan Oziminski quit the team a few weeks ago."

THIS e-mail?       Did I miss something?   

my personal email with the North Park SID involved more than just discussing Dan Ozminski's non-presence on the Vikings roster.  The sentence in quotes was his response to my question.

If you put down your crayons I'll draw a better picture for you.

I never got the crayons out!

I was just responding to your statement indicating "in this e-mail." I think that by your use of the word "this" it was reasonable to expect an actual e-mail to be included in your post. Perhaps if you had used your crayons to draw a more accurate picture, I would not have had to pose the question. All you would have needed to do was to indicate that it was a personal e-mail. However, I don't believe that was at all apparent from your statement.

I was rather surprised by your lack of clarity as I am so very much used to your posts being so detailed and insightful.      

The ambiguity stems from the deictic reference of the demonstrative "this" as serving in either an anaphoric or cataphoric function.  That is, words such as "this," "that," "here," and "there" can point back to something previously mentioned, or point forward to something about to be mentioned.

Anaphoric (pointing backward):

I received an e-mail from Coach Thorp.  This e-mail informed me that...

Cataphoric (pointing forward):

This e-mail from Coach Thorp should interest you: he informed me that...

For the discourse analysis wonks who frequent D3boards, you can find more on the subject by consulting your copy of "A Concise Grammar of Contemporary English" by Quirk & Greenbaum (pp. 302-3).  The rest of us will merely return to CCIW Chat.

Oy - this they taught me not at PS 115, PS 85, Creston Junior High School, DeWitt Clinton High School, or North Park College.

DGP - illiterate am I.

[aceon2]

I agree Shemerdiak's best position is the 3. The problem I've observed with him is inconsistency. He can go off for 20 one night, and then go off the deep end the next.

Hey all... Its been a long summer with hurricanes, flooding, and even and economic boom, but now my favorite time of the year is at hand: the CCIW basketball season.  Can anybody tell me what if anything Carthage has done to shore up their inside game.  WE all know Steve can play.  Fendley can shoot.  Shemerdiak will be terribly inconsistent but have to play because he brings major upside.  But Im not sure if they have done anything to help those guys in the middle.  Who is going to be inside?  Adam Stuart? Richard Williams?  Kyle Jeffery?  Ive heard that Jeffery has back problems and may not even play when he is eligible in the second half.  Mark, do you know what they might do inside?   

[Mac Daddy]

I had the privelage to coach Ryan Connolly in an All-Star game last Spring.  He is a really nice kid who works very hard.  If he can get conditioned, he could be a nice CCIW player.  He has nice touch and definitely knows how to throw his weight around.  I will also remember him for mixing it up and not backing down from Jeremy Robinson of Eisenhower in last year's sectional at Mt. Zion. 

[kenoshamark]

Aceon2,

Still waiting for info to be posted on the website related to newbies but I will say there is a transfer who will help inside.   And yes, Stuart and Williams should be a strong part of the mix.  Haven't heard anything more about Jeffery so we will have to see how that plays out...and he wouldn't be eligible to second semester anyway.