MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Titan Q]

IWU hosts Maryville (Mo.) tomorrow at 3:00pm.  The Saints are 1-2 with a win over University of the Ozarks and losses to Nebraska Wesleyan and Drury.  Here is the story from the 3-pt loss @ Drury Friday night...

http://drurypanthers.com/news/2008/11/28/MBB_1128081849.aspx

Drury is ranked #21 in NCAA Division II.  Last season the Panthers finished 25-6 and 17-4 in the GLVC, and this season Drury is the preseason co-favorite in the GLVC West, along with Southern Indiana.

Last year Maryville finished 13-14 and 9-7 in the SLIAC.  It looks like their top players are a pair of junior guards - 6-2 Eric Gruenewald (17 pts, 5 reb @ Drury) and 6-1 Kyle Winters (20 pts, 6-9 3-pt @ Drury) and 6-6 senior forward Aaron Steinke.  This is the schools final year in Division III before moving to NCAA Division II next year.

Based on the result vs Drury, it looks like Maryville is capable of playing with good teams.  With the Titans kind of trying to figure out who they are as a basketball team right now, I'm interested to see how tomorrow's game plays out. 

http://www.maryville.edu/athletics-news3315.htm

http://www.maryville.edu/athletics-mens-basketball.htm

[dansand]

Last year Maryville finished 13-14 and 9-7 in the SLIAC.  It looks like their top players are a pair of junior guards - 6-2 Eric Gruenewald (17 pts, 5 reb @ Drury) and 6-1 Kyle Winters (20 pts, 6-9 3-pt @ Drury) and 6-6 senior forward Aaron Steinke.  This is the schools final year in Division III before moving to NCAA Division II next year.

Based on the result vs Drury, it looks like Maryville is capable of playing with good teams.  With the Titans kind of trying to figure out who they are as a basketball team right now, I'm interested to see how tomorrow's game plays out. 

http://www.maryville.edu/athletics-news3315.htm

http://www.maryville.edu/athletics-mens-basketball.htm

Gruenewald played his first two years at St. Norbert. He was their second leading scorer as a freshman, but his playing time dropped off drastically last year. Interesting that he ended up at Maryville, 'cause I think he's a Wisconsin kid.

[mr_b]

Final from Chicago: North Park 69, Illinois College 66

[mr_b]

The Vikings take their home opener in a contest that ended up much closer than anyone would have predicted after finishing up 37-28 at the half.  The Blueboys took advantage of several unforced turnovers to narrow the lead, but Clayton Cahill poured in 14 of his 16 points in the second half to keep the Vikings on top.  IC had a chance to tie the game in the waning seconds but couldn't hit the definitive trey.

Nick Williams paced the Vikings (3-2) with 18 and Roshawn Russell chipped in 13.  For Illinois College, Mark Gillingham scored 18, Brad Johnson 12, and Jacob Tucker and David Stewart added ten apiece.

[Dennis_Prikkel]

a win, is a win, is a win

amen, and amen

dgp

[markerickson]

A win is something of the past.  Future NPU V wins will be fewer than the losses if the young team does not learn how to protect a lead and play defense.  Wind the clock down, distribute the ball, and do not let the opponent shoot uncontested treys late in the contest when faced against a double digit lead!!  NPU lacked chemistry, e.g., Cahill and Russell do not appear to share between each other.  NP's 4th string C played approx. 38% of the game (Jones sat due to illness and the LU kid has a broken hand).  Williams was steady despite having to spend too much time defending the low post.  He had a groove, but did not get enough touches.  NPU guards chucked up too many poor shots with few seconds ticked off the shot clock.  Overall assessment:  too much inexperience.

[robberki]

glad NPU got the win, I was coming back from Nebraska and had planned on being at the game but got back too late. Sounds like this team needs to gel a bit, I'm sure Paul and Steve had some vastly different combinations in mind than they are playing right now because of injuries and players being out.

[Titan Q]

Here is an article from today's Pantagraph previewing the IWU/Maryville game...


http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2008/11/30/usports/doc493213c2b5092937742539.txt


The Titans will pay tribute to Kevin Bryant in a pregame ceremony.  Still hard to believe that happened...what a shame.

Ron Rose is going to start his third different starting lineup in 3 games today.  He'll go with:

G Travis Rosenkranz (So), 6-0
G Sean Johnson (So), 6-1
F John Koschnitzky (Fr), 6-6
F Doug Sexauer (So), 6-7
C Edmond O'Callaghan (So), 6-6

That makes the reserves:

(PG) Sean Dwyer (Jr), 5-10
(C) Brett Chamernik (Sr), 6-5
(PF) Duncan Lawson (So), 6-7
(G/F) Jordan Zimmer (Fr), 6-5
(G/F) Matt Schick (So), 6-4
(SG) Jordan Morris (Sr), 6-3


It's clear IWU's starting lineup and rotation is very much a fluid thing right now as Ron Rose experiments with different looks and tries to find the best combinations.

[Sakman 1111]

Nice win at Mt. St. Josephs for Elmhurst.....Ruchs,Burks,and Strzemp solid again for the Bluejays.....Tough week for them coming uo against the WIAC.

[hopefan]

Note Maryville played a close game at Drury on Friday night  -  as per usuual, Maryville Coach Matt Rogers plays EVERYONE - there is no such thing as finding your rhythm if playing for Maryville  -  they shot very well vs Drury, but still lost with a major factor being 30 turnovers.

[Gregory Sager]

Last night was one of those wins that felt like a loss. NPU led the entire way, except for three brief first-half ties, and at one point the Park boosted the lead up to 14. But the Vikings were unable to put away an Illinois College team that, even though it came into the game with a 3-0 record, looked pretty nondescript.

In spite of the low final score of 69-66, the problem was defensive rather than offensive. Some of that was due to the juggled lineup, as Stephano Jones and Lewis Wilson joined the ever-expanding crop of absentees; for large chunks of the game the Vikings had four freshmen and a sophomore or four freshmen and a junior on the floor. But the Vikings still had more than enough talent available to put the Blueboys away. The reasons why they didn't, and why they almost blew the 10-point lead they had with 3:12 left in the game, were an inability to take care of the ball (and not just against the press), poor FT shooting (16-26, including a couple of missed front ends of one-and-ones), and very poor rebounding at the defensive end. The second-chance opportunities IC got in crunch time got might've led someone to believe that the best weapon the Blueboys had was the virus that felled Stephano Jones, but rebounding is a team effort rather than an individual effort. North Park as a whole needs to box out and hit the defensive boards much, much better than it did last night.

It was a win, but not one that NPU is going to want to paste in the scrapbook. But at least the freshmen are getting good early experience, and I continue to be impressed by them. If Paul Brenegan can hold this class together, they are really going to be something by the time they're upperclassmen.

[Titan Q]

IWU leads Maryville 59-36 at halftime.  Sounds like the Titans are really playing well offensively.

I've mentioned IWU's depth several times here now.  I think the 1st half scoring from today's game is a good illustration:

Brett Chamernik: 11
Doug Sexauer: 10
John Koschnitzky: 7
Duncan Lawson: 7
Sean Johnson: 6
Travis Rosenkranz: 6
Ed O'Callaghan: 4
Jordan Zimmer: 3
Matt Schick: 3
Jordan Morris: 2

10 of the 11 players who've played have scored...and Sean Dwyer is the leading assist man with 4.

Starters scoring: 33
Bench scoring: 26


Maryville certainly isn't Wheaton or Augustana or Elmhurst, but I think today's 1st half is still a good indication of how many options the Titans have.

[Titan Q]

IWU 95
Maryville (Mo) 77

* Doug Sexauer: 19 pts, 10 reb
* Travis Rosenkranz: 16 pts, 3 reb, 3 assists
* Brett Chamernik: 13 pts, 6 reb
* Ed O'Callaghan: 10 pts, 7 reb

http://www.iwu.edu/~iwunews/sports/mbb2009/IWUMEN3.HTM


The Titans had trouble with the Saints in the 2nd half and the lead got down to 10 at one point.  IWU settled down and pushed it back to a 15-17 point margin the rest of the way.

Maryville will head to NCAA Division II next year, but for '08-09, this is an in-region win for IWU.

[Titan Q]

4-0 Millikin is at 2-1 Rose-Hulman tonight in a game tipping off at 6:00pm CST.  Live stats...

http://livestats.prestosports.com/rosehulman/

[Dennis_Prikkel]

A win is something of the past.  Future NPU V wins will be fewer than the losses if the young team does not learn how to protect a lead and play defense.  Wind the clock down, distribute the ball, and do not let the opponent shoot uncontested treys late in the contest when faced against a double digit lead!!  NPU lacked chemistry, e.g., Cahill and Russell do not appear to share between each other.  NP's 4th string C played approx. 38% of the game (Jones sat due to illness and the LU kid has a broken hand).  Williams was steady despite having to spend too much time defending the low post.  He had a groove, but did not get enough touches.  NPU guards chucked up too many poor shots with few seconds ticked off the shot clock.  Overall assessment:  too much inexperience.

oooooooooh

+K for you, i thought i was reading me,  good assessment.

seemed to me the vikings were playing with a 5 second shot clock much of the game.

dgp