MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[ScrappyMcTavish]

ALL RIGHT!!!!! My first negative karma points! I am on the board!

Anybody have any thoughts on the IWU/Puget match-up next week? I saw Puget beat UC-Riverside ( I live in CA) and they were a solid pressure-defense team. Very well coached on the that end of the floor. They also take good shots on offense. It should be a great game. Too bad it is not an in-region game. That would be huge on the national radar.

[The Roop]

Sorry Scrappy, you're back to 0 now.

Riverside would likely be a middle of the pack team if they were in the CCIW, so I don't recommend hyping the upset too much. I'm glad to see it but the IWU match up will prove more about PS than the Riverside game did.

If it's still a game by halftime I'll be surprised. IWU could win by 30 or more in this one.

[Titan Q]

Obviously the key for IWU will be limiting turnovers.  Puget Sound forced 22 in the 2nd half alone last night and 36 in the game.  IWU is coming off it highest turnover total of the season...17 vs Hanover.  The Titans were sloppy with the basketball Tuesday - they can't afford that vs the Loggers.

IWU's biggest weapon vs PS is Adam Dauksas...one of the best small college point-guards in the nation.  It's hard to press IWU with Dauksas because he can dribble out of just about anything.

The battle of the Zach's in the post should be good...

* Zach Freeman (6-7/210, Jr) - 16.1 ppg, 7.6 rpg, 46-79 FG (.582)

* Zach McVey (6-6/215, Sr) - 14.3 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 42-63 FG (.667)

[Titan Q]

Stevens Point faced Puget Sound in the tournament in their national title seasons of 2004 and 2005.

Stevens Point led by 16 at halftime last year and won by 18...

http://www.uwsp.edu/athletics/mbb/04-05/sect02.htm

And in 2004 Stevens Point led by 20 at halftime and won by  21...

http://www.uwsp.edu/athletics/mbb/03-04/mbbgm-31.htm



The Pointers only turned it over 14 times in each game. 

[John Gleich]

Q,

One point I think I neglected to make when I analyzed UPS earlier was that their defensive style really forces EVERYONE to handle the ball.  Having Arnold back will help IWU if he's able to play lots, but UPS's defense will force everyone, from the point down to the center, to handle the ball on the press break.  Most big men aren't used to handling the ball in a fast-break type situation where they're NOT the guy recieving the ball and finishing strong (they may need to put the ball on the floor a time or two to draw the defense in 2 on 1 situations).

I haven't seen IWU play since I believe the 1996-1997 season, so I've got no idea what they look like, other than from what I've heard from play-by-play on the internet and what I've read here, but, especially with IWU running the up-tempo style, they may be ready for the fast speed that UPS wants to play at.  IWU does average 13 turnovers per game (to contrast, Point averaged 10 last season, and UPS forced 14) so IWU most probably will give the ball up more than they're used to.  To contrast this, the IWU defense must be up to the task to defend both the penetrating dribble AND get to shooters.  UPS has shot 137 MORE shots than their opponents.  To contrast, IWU's opponents have shot 37 MORE shots than the Titans, so I would expect UPS to shoot lots more... just make them shoot a poor percentage and make your "easy" buckets, and the Titans should pull out the W.

Either way, it should be a good matchup, I'd love to see it.

[The Roop]

IWU -21. Lay the points, don't worry, they will cover.

[joehakes]

TJC, etc.

It might be a touch misleading to say that North Park has always had one of the best soccer fields in the CCIW.  While technically not in the CCIW for soccer at the time, North Park's early years were spent practicing in a public park and playing "home games" from Hanson Stadium in Chicago to the Schwaben facility in Buffalo Grove.  The program was in its fourth year before it had its own field.  That field was okay but not great. 

Just a correction from an old fogy.

[dansand]

Augie beats Rose-Hulman tonight 65-59 in an ugly game. I'm beginning to think that ugly games are going to be the norm for the Vikings this year. Rick Harrigan battled through some health issues for 27 gritty points. He hit 6-of-15 field goals and 14-of-15 free throws. Remarkably, it was the first time in 12 games that he's made less than half his shots. Oliver Rorer scored 15 and looks like he's gaining some confidence offensively. Other than that, I didn't see too much to be particularly happy about. Drew Wessels had a very tough time with R-H point guard Munchie Muskeyvalley, who set up everything the Engineers did on offense. I was amazed that the box score credited him with no assists. The Viking defense was pretty bad in the first half and they gave up too many second shots. They played better defense in the second half and were able to stretch the lead to a dozen or so before the Engineers closed the gap with a couple of three's in the last 30 seconds against Augie's bench. By the way, I'm beginning to really dislike Augie's version of the motion offense. The Vikes head to Wisconsin now for the UW-Stout tournament and they'll have to play a lot better to come home still undefeated, although I see Stout has had a couple less than impressive wins recently as well.

[maddog]

Q, I agree with you , resuming the IWU/ISU basketball game would be a great fund raising event for a worthy cause. No doubt that Redbird Arena would be sold out every game. And with ISU being D1 and IWU being D3 now, I think most people would just enjoy the game and not get caught up with the rivalry thing. From talking to people at the Shirk, most of them if they don't root for ISU at least seem to hope they do well. I think it would be a great night of basketball for all fans in B/N. The baseball game has been tremendous the past couple of years and I believe that a basketball game would be too.

[augiefan]

Augie looked really lousy in winning a close one at home tonight against a weak R-H team before possibly 100 friends and family. The lacklustre effort has to be attributable in part to the absence of a crowd and thinking about getting home for Christmas. Many more games like this one and Augie will be challenged to finish in the top 4 in the CCIW.

Hopefully, Augie is a little like the UofI, which looked terrible against the likes of Coppin State and Tex Pan America but rose to the occasion in the big games like Oregon and Mizzou.

I agree with Dansand that Wessels looked really bad. No points and very few assists. Point guard is definitely a weakness.

This team is going to go down to any team that can shut down Rick Harrigan and to a lesser extent McAdams Thornton. Although Rorer looked good tonight, this team pretty much leaves all of the scoring to Harrigan and McAdams Thornton. aA third scoring threat and guy who can board are desperately needed. No one I spoke to was clear on when Dain Swetalla might return. It cannot happen soon enough.

It's hard to complain about an undefeated record, but Augie with an unbelievably weak schedule to date has not beaten any body of quality other than perhaps the road victory over a decent Coe team. Augie will get their first real test at UWStout, and hopefully they'll pass that test.

[markerickson]

NPU athletics, the abridged version.

Bosko no longer coaches baseball.  The team competes at the same venue.  The post-Bosko record reeks as NP has filled the position with young, inexperienced (read:  low salary) coaches.  Bosko no longer coaches basketball.  The team competes at the same venue.  The post-Bosko record sux.  I'd wager each of the three coaches succeeding Bosko earned a lower salary than Bosko.  Football has competed at the same venue for decades and they still, unfortunately, lose regularly.

NPU undoubtedly has the lowest athletic budget in the CCIW.  Probably always.  I know personally that the previous football coach complained about football monies.  Current Carthage head football coach, Tim Rucks, allegedly left North Park because the school would not hire more full-time staff members.

A DePaul assistant coach, the top recruit, declined to coach NP immediately after Bosko because NP wouldn't pay enough.  So we settled for less.

Complicating matters is the inexplicable rise in home prices on Chicago's north side.  How can you expect to recruit top talent into the religion, athletics or English departments if the employee can't purchase a house? 

[tjcummingsfan]

Thanks Joe,  I don't know what I was thinking when I wrote that (I actually had to go re-read my post to believe I wrote something so naive).  I meant since they started playing on the field they're on now, its been one of the best in the CCIW, sorry for the confusion. 

And my take on what Mark is saying...  It seems to me that North Park doesn't want to pay the coaches we need to get our programs where we want them, because they aren't winning, and we aren't going to win if we don't get the coaches there.  Its a vicious circle that I'm sad to say I think needs to be broken by a good young coach (Brenegan, or someone else).  If the Crackerbox starts filling up again, it could mean good things for the school. 

[markerickson]

I forgot to say that when Bosko coached the baseball and basketball teams they regularly qualified for post-season competition.

[Rose Basketball]

Augie looked really lousy in winning a close one at home tonight against a week R-H team before possibly 100 friends and family. The lacklustre effort has to be attributable in part to the absence of a crowd and thinking about getting home for Christmas. Many more games like this one and Augie will be challenged to finish in the top 4 in the CCIW.

While Rose-Hulman is indeed struggling a bit with a 4-7 overall record, I don't consider them to be a "weak" team. They are very good defensively, but are just having some problems putting the ball in the basket.

Augie may have played a little rough tonight, but let's give some kind of credit to an Engineer team who is 3 games below .500, but took the #13 ranked team in the country to a 6-point game on their home court. This was a very winnable game for Rose-Hulman. One that if they didn't decide to start throwing the ball away on about 6 consectutive possessions late in the 2nd half, it may have ended up different. The halftime score was 28-27.

But, all that being said, I also give alot of credit to Augustana for making the shots when they needed to and sealing the victory. They are certainly the best team we have played all season long, and this game helped to prepare us for SCAC Conference play. No one we play in the SCAC with the exception of Trinity and maybe Southwestern are as good as the Vikings.

Rose is a much different team now than they were to start the season.

[dansand]

I agree with Dansand that Wessels looked really bad. No points and very few assists. Point guard is definitely a weakness.

While Wessels played poorly last night, I don't think point guard is a weakness. I thought he played very well Monday night, creating havoc on defense against Lake Forest. I don't think you can really measure Augie's point guards by scoring. Wessels has never really been a scorer and I doubt ever will be. Mike Kolze and Jordan Delp, who hasn't played lately, were both big scorers in high school (20-25 ppg) but haven't been so far at Augie. Also, in the motion offense, assists tend to be spread around more than in other offenses, so their point guards don't generally pile up big numbers in that area. Jim Thomas, who was a pretty solid point guard, only averaged a little over three a game in his three years as a starter. I've already said I'm not a big fan of their motion offense. They just seem too intent on pounding it inside, quite often to players who aren't very good low post scorers. A good example in the R-H game was Nate Swetalla, who is definitely more comfortable on the perimeter. Several times he got the ball in the post against a much smaller defender and didn't even look to go to the hoop. I just don't think their motion offense plays to the strengths of some of their players. That's just my opinion.