MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[dansand]

24 points (4-of-4 from 3 and 6-of-6 at the line) for Millikin's Justin Thompson (6-2 So., Homewood-Flossmoor) who came in averaging 1.2 per game and is listed as a JV only player on the Millikin website roster!

[sac]

Wow. Millikin outscored SIUE 46-26 in the second half...crazy. Congrats to the Big Blue. Actually, looking at the rest of their non-conference schedule (Blackburn, Eureka, Knox and 1-7 York, NY) they also have a reasonable chance to start the CCIW portion of the schedule undefeated as well.

SIUE already beat Blackburn 106-53, as well as a win over MAC West favorite Western Michigan.

[thundermike11]

Just want to join in with everyone in congratulating Millikin for their huge win tonight. Way to represent the CCIW and all of D3 well!

[aceon2]

Just got back from the Millikin-SIUE game.  A couple of things that I saw tonight:

This is not the same Millikin team/teams that I have seen in the past.  It has been a couple of years since I have seen Millikin play but tonight I was awfully impressed.  Millikin trailed 41-29 with about 15 minutes to play in the second half when they went on a 22-2 run to take the lead 51-43 with about 8:30 left in the game.  From that point on the game never got closer than 4 or 5 points.  Millikin shot the ball very well from behind the arc and at the free throw line in the second half.  I was impressed with the play of #34 Justin Thompson and #20 Corey Mitchell.  Thompson shot it in from everywhere and Mitchell looked to be an athletic play maker on the court.   Ogunleye didn't have his best game tonight but he made a big 3 with about 3 minutes to go to put the game at a comfortable margin.  #30 Charles Warren didn't do a whole lot in the second half but scored about 3 baskets in a row to keep the Big Blue within striking distance in the first half.  I was very unimpressed with SIUE, and think that they will have a hard time in the transition to Division 1.  Despite that, I kept thinking to myself if this team is picked to finish 8th in the CCIW, then how good is our conference??   Overall, I think that Millikin played a heckuva basketball game tonight and I give my congrats to all the Big Blue players and Fans.  I look at this win in two different ways:  1) We should all be proud of the CCIW and 2) Teams should know that when they play Millikin this year, it wont be the same Millikin team we've seen the last 4-5 years.  I'm not saying Millikin will compete for the conference crown this year, but I dont think it would be a stretch to say they could with 5-7 games this year in the league.   

[petemcb]

Congrats to Millikin specifically and to the CCIW in general.  When I saw Millikin play at Aurora earlier this season, I thought they looked like the 8th place team they were predicted by the coaches and most others to be.  It's still hard to figure out who they would finish ahead of this season.........but it's also hard to believe they just beat SIU-E!  What a conference season this is likely to be!  Has any conference ever gotten every member into the NCAA tournament?

[dansand]

Wow. Millikin outscored SIUE 46-26 in the second half...crazy. Congrats to the Big Blue. Actually, looking at the rest of their non-conference schedule (Blackburn, Eureka, Knox and 1-7 York, NY) they have a reasonable chance to start the CCIW portion of the schedule undefeated as well.

I missed a game on the Big Blue's non-conference schedule. A probable matchup with Christopher Newport in their tournament. Looks like that would be the toughest test, but winnable.

The CCIW is now 31-7 with four of those losses coming to D3 #1 Washington (2), D3 #2 UW-Whitewater, and NAIA D2 #7 Mt. Vernon Nazarene. Pretty impressive.

[iwu70]

Wow, nice job Big Blue.  Congrats to the Millikin team and coaching staff.  Looks to be one heck of a CCIW season.  No easy nights in the league . . . as if there were too many easy nights in previous seasons.  Non-conference winning percentage and record is pretty impressive.  Let's keep in going.  Hope my Titans can surprise Wash U this weekend. 

[thundermike11]

any chance Millikin runs the table in the CCIW? 

[Mr. Ypsi]

any chance Millikin runs the table in the CCIW? 

No.

But a reasonable chance that they don't finish #8.

[April]

Congrats to Millikin... now that's some good stuff. The CCIW is really putting together an impressive non-conference season.

[Gregory Sager]

Again, though, were there really only 285 people on hand to watch this game? That tells me that the Maroons faithful must be abandoning the ship already, and that Wheaton is continuing its long-standing tradition of not traveling well.

yeah, wheaton didn't travel well... there were maybe 10 or so students. and u chicago is only 45ish minutes away! a couple alumni and parents were there too... but other than that, not a whole lot of wheaton support.

but yes it does seem that chicago fans are abandoning ship because there really were very few fans. by my estimation, i'd be surprised if there were more than 100-150 chicago students there. and not very vocal at that. it could have been a neutral-site game for all intents and purposes

I was one of the 10 Wheaton students there. Here are some things to consider about the low attendance (for Wheaton, not UC). First is the unpredictable traffic. I can see why students wouldn't want to drive down to UC during heavy traffic hours. Add to that the weather last night and the roads were not exactly in best condition. Another factor is that with only a week and a half left in the semester, I lot of people are walking around with that "I have not time to do anything but write papers and take exams" mentality. This is not necessarily meant to excuse the poor attendance, but just provide some possible explanations for it.

Sorry, but none of those reasons wash, Mike. Wheaton doesn't travel well under any circumstances for basketball, no matter how good the team may be, and that's especially true of the students. They haven't followed the team on the road at all throughout every single one of the thirty years that I've followed this league. Soccer? Yes. Football? OK. Basketball? No. One of the reasons why April became such a notorious fan during her student days (besides the freshly-baked cookies, of course ) was because, as a Wheaton student who actually attended road games, she was looked upon by the CCIW faithful as the bleacher equivalent of a unicorn.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again -- it's a shame, because Wheaton's men's basketball program certainly deserves much, much better. And Wheaton students are missing out on one of the great joys of college days, which is following an excellent basketball team that they can call their own.

If we could put your program together with NPU's student fan support, we'd really have something. It's too bizarre to imagine, of course, but it'd still really be something.

As gar as the UC students go, it is far to early to abandon ship. The Wheaton players were commenting on their surprise at the lack of hostility at the Ratner Center. 

And I think the fans not showing up is starting to wear on the team. One of the Chicago players picked a up a ridiculous technical foul late in the game. He obviously flopped trying to draw an offensive foul on Ben Panner around midcourt, and then mouthed off to the official to pick up the T. I think it is far to early for this team to raise the white flag. Especially when you consider how the UAA season went last season.

I agree with that, but I doubt that the lack of fan support is uppermost in the minds of either Mike McGrath or his players. They have bigger things to worry about. Chicago usually tends to draw about 400-500 spectators per game, which is not all that bad on a campus in which intercollegiate athletics are less than an afterthought. And the Maroons faithful are never what I'd call rabid, either -- not by the standards of an NPU crowd or an IWU crowd or a (non-J-term) Carthage crowd.

[Gregory Sager]

Now, Dan, play fair!

Can you really blame me for envisioning the 2005-06 IWU team going undefeated, being unanimously #1 in the poll and having Adam and Keelan being first-team AAs that year (and Zach the next)?   I try to imagine the Titans winning every year, but that's the only time I ever even speculated about being undefeated.

Fixed that for you, Chuck.

[Gregory Sager]

All this fuss, and no boxscore posted? Must I do everything around here?

http://www.siue.edu/ATHLETIC/MBB/20082009/SIUE8.HTM

24 points (4-of-4 from 3 and 6-of-6 at the line) for Millikin's Justin Thompson (6-2 So., Homewood-Flossmoor) who came in averaging 1.2 per game and is listed as a JV only player on the Millikin website roster!

I think that longtime CCIW Chat poster and proud H-F alumnus tjcummingsfan is now likely to change his moniker to justinthompsonfan ... especially since I just Googled T.J. Cummings in order to find out if he was still in the NBA Developmental League and discovered to my horror that there is a male porn star by the same name. Be a good Covie and change your name, EH!

Big props to Marc Smith & Co. for what might be the most electrifying upset involving a D3 team this year (although Carleton, which just defeated Chaminade in Honolulu this week, might take umbrage at that). Millikin has every right to be excited about, and proud of, this achievement. It's been quite a while since a CCIW team upended a D1 opponent. In fact, aside from Illinois Wesleyan's 67-64 win over Arizona in 1982-83 and North Park's 79-69 win over Jacksonville in 1978-79, I don't recall any CCIW wins over D1 opponents. Perhaps Dennis P. can think of some others.

This is indeed a momentous occasion. And far be it from me to be the wet blanket of the party, so I'm ever-so-happy that Pete has taken on that responsibility for me:

Congrats to Millikin specifically and to the CCIW in general.  When I saw Millikin play at Aurora earlier this season, I thought they looked like the 8th place team they were predicted by the coaches and most others to be.  It's still hard to figure out who they would finish ahead of this season.........but it's also hard to believe they just beat SIU-E!

Thanks, Pete. Seriously, I saw Millikin struggle to beat Concordia (IL) by a dozen two weeks ago during the River Forest Classic, and I drew much the same conclusion as Pete about the Big Blue. There was obviously some playing down to the level of the opponent by SIUE, and some fired-up, David-vs-Goliath intensity from the Big Blue that helps explain tonight's outcome. But aceon2 is right about the fact that SIUE looks every bit like a team that is in its first transitional season from D2 to D1; the Cougars start two juniors, a sophomore, and two freshmen (and the two freshmen, Mark Yelovich and Aaron Garriott, were the only two Cougars to score in double figures against Millikin), and two of the four players who came off the bench tonight are freshmen as well. Let's not forget that this same SIUE team lost a preseason scrimmage to Westminster (MO) of the lowly SLIAC last month. Yeah, it was only a scrimmage, but in retrospect it highlighted the fact that this isn't exactly Duke that we're talking about. Aside from the mystifying win over Western Michigan and the romp over Blackburn, SIUE has performed exactly like a very young team that is way in over its head at the D1 level should be expected to perform (e.g., a 30-point loss to Wisconsin, and a 31-point loss to Evansville).

OK, that's enough wet-blankethood for one evening. No matter where SIUE falls on the college basketball spectrum, this was still a very big win for the Big Blue and the CCIW. No asterisks for Jimmy Millikin, just lots of kudos from me.

[iwu70]

Well put, Greg.  Jimmy Millikin gets the gold gong tonight.  Kudos all 'round for them in beating SIUE.  (though Carleton's win is pretty amazing, given the sporting history and strength up there in Northfield -- "cows, colleges and contentment" notwithstanding).  Perhaps the year of Davids over Goliaths. 

[petemcb]

All this fuss, and no boxscore posted? Must I do everything around here?

http://www.siue.edu/ATHLETIC/MBB/20082009/SIUE8.HTM

24 points (4-of-4 from 3 and 6-of-6 at the line) for Millikin's Justin Thompson (6-2 So., Homewood-Flossmoor) who came in averaging 1.2 per game and is listed as a JV only player on the Millikin website roster!

I think that longtime CCIW Chat poster and proud H-F alumnus tjcummingsfan is now likely to change his moniker to justinthompsonfan ... especially since I just Googled T.J. Cummings in order to find out if he was still in the NBA Developmental League and discovered to my horror that there is a male porn star by the same name. Be a good Covie and change your name, EH!

Big props to Marc Smith & Co. for what might be the most electrifying upset involving a D3 team this year (although Carleton, which just defeated Chaminade in Honolulu this week, might take umbrage at that). Millikin has every right to be excited about, and proud of, this achievement. It's been quite a while since a CCIW team upended a D1 opponent. In fact, aside from Illinois Wesleyan's 67-64 win over Arizona in 1982-83 and North Park's 79-69 win over Jacksonville in 1978-79, I don't recall any CCIW wins over D1 opponents. Perhaps Dennis P. can think of some others.

This is indeed a momentous occasion. And far be it from me to be the wet blanket of the party, so I'm ever-so-happy that Pete has taken on that responsibility for me:

Congrats to Millikin specifically and to the CCIW in general.  When I saw Millikin play at Aurora earlier this season, I thought they looked like the 8th place team they were predicted by the coaches and most others to be.  It's still hard to figure out who they would finish ahead of this season.........but it's also hard to believe they just beat SIU-E!

Thanks, Pete. Seriously, I saw Millikin struggle to beat Concordia (IL) by a dozen two weeks ago during the River Forest Classic, and I drew much the same conclusion as Pete about the Big Blue. There was obviously some playing down to the level of the opponent by SIUE, and some fired-up, David-vs-Goliath intensity from the Big Blue that helps explain tonight's outcome. But aceon2 is right about the fact that SIUE looks every bit like a team that is in its first transitional season from D2 to D1; the Cougars start two juniors, a sophomore, and two freshmen (and the two freshmen, Mark Yelovich and Aaron Garriott, were the only two Cougars to score in double figures against Millikin), and two of the four players who came off the bench tonight are freshmen as well. Let's not forget that this same SIUE team lost a preseason scrimmage to Westminster (MO) of the lowly SLIAC last month. Yeah, it was only a scrimmage, but in retrospect it highlighted the fact that this isn't exactly Duke that we're talking about. Aside from the mystifying win over Western Michigan and the romp over Blackburn, SIUE has performed exactly like a very young team that is way in over its head at the D1 level should be expected to perform (e.g., a 30-point loss to Wisconsin, and a 31-point loss to Evansville).

OK, that's enough wet-blankethood for one evening. No matter where SIUE falls on the college basketball spectrum, this was still a very big win for the Big Blue and the CCIW. No asterisks for Jimmy Millikin, just lots of kudos from me.

Just to clarify (which often gets you in more trouble than if you just left it alone):  I did not intend my comments as a slam on Millikin.  This was legitimately a great win for them and the CCIW.  My reference to it being hard to figure out who they would finish ahead of this season was that it was difficult to imagine NPU or North Central finishing in last place.  It was more of a comment on the apparent strength of the entire conference at this point of the season.