MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[dansand]

A big day at Millikin, as the Big Blue women host #1 (in the ESPN/USA Today poll) IWU and then the men face #1 Wheaton...

http://www.herald-review.com/articles/2009/01/17/sports/millikin/1038477.txt

How do you not mention Kent Raymond's injury in an article like this?  Looks like someone didn't do their homework.

It would have been one thing if they hadn't mentioned him at all, but to bring his name up and not mention the injury is not good.

...and I was joking on the over/under thing. 

[gordonmann]

The article cited by Thundermike also includes this tidbit on Raymond's current status.

"Raymond suffered a sprained ankle against Augustana that is expected to sideline him at least a week, but he should be ready for the Division III national tournament."

As discussed below, that's a pretty vague window - any amount of time between a week and and a month and a half.

[realist]

FWIW:  I suffered an ankle injury playing street volleyball years ago that sounds very similar to what happened to Kent Raymond.  No two people are alike, but it took 2 months to have complete strenght/mobility back.  I am sure Wheaton has a good therapy program so he may be back on the court in several weeks, but playing at full strenght is going to take 4-5 weeks so the answer in the areticle is about right.

[Thunder Dutch]

Does anyone know if Berntsen will be playing today? As far as I know he is almost ready, maybe completely good to go.

If he is, that will be very helpful for Wheaton. I know he is by no means Kent Raymond, but he's an experienced and solid player, who will allow Wheaton to not have to dig into its bench as deeply while Kent is gone. Any thoughts?

[Gregory Sager]

You are now my favorite poster "sac"
I'm in a fantasy hockey league in yahoo who's title is "Sydney (cindy) is a Crybaby"

Now back d3hoops ball

I knew there was something wrong with you but i just couldn't put my finger on now I understand

The Thunder, the CCIW's only team with a 3-0 conference  record besides the lower ranked North Central College travel to Milikin Saturday night.  I believe the keys to a vicotry in Decatur will be to maintain their defensive intensity, jump in the passing lanes (?), hit more than 58 percent of their free throws , play good perimeter defense (?) and especially not let Milikin win the battle of the boards by a wide margin....Oh yeah i almost forgot it would be nice that the Thunder score more points than the Big Blue. 
Sorry AO couldn't resist.

What's with the capitalized initials.
Come on never within 25 feet?     Did he get into bed before the room got dark after swithing off the the lights too?

Mrs. Bully needs to make her husband switch back to decaf.

A big day at Millikin, as the Big Blue women host #1 (in the ESPN/USA Today poll) IWU and then the men face #1 Wheaton...

http://www.herald-review.com/articles/2009/01/17/sports/millikin/1038477.txt

How do you not mention Kent Raymond's injury in an article like this?  Looks like someone didn't do their homework.

Par for the course. I seem to remember at least one Decatur Herald-Review piece about the CCIW linked here within the past couple of years that led me to send a scathing e-mail to the author.

Here's an article on Kent Raymond that talks about him sitting out his sophomore year,among other things.

http://www.indystar.com/article/20090117/SPORTS06/901170358/1004/SPORTS

This was my favorite line from the article (italics mine), which refers to his year away from basketball:

Raymond poured himself into Bible study and other spiritual pursuits at Wheaton, a Christian liberal arts college near Chicago whose motto is "For Christ and His Kingdom." He went on a mission trip to Mexico.
After that, he decided basketball was put in its proper place and coach Bill Harris allowed him to rejoin the team.

Uh-huh. "Bill Harris allowed him to rejoin the team." Reminds me of that famous Chicago Tribune article from the mid-90s that talked about how, after he had decided that he was through playing baseball and had sent that famous "I'm back" fax, Michael Jordan was allowed to rejoin the Bulls by a reluctant Phil Jackson, Jerry Krause, and Jerry Reinsdorf.

Did anyone else notice the comment at the bottom of the article from an Anderson fan complaining about how the Indianapolis Star sees fit to publish an article about a D3 player who is playing in another state, but totally neglects providing coverage of the locally-based, 23rd-ranked Ravens? That's one commenter who has my sympathies. Keep fighting the good fight, Ravens fan!

The article cited by Thundermike also includes this tidbit on Raymond's current status.

"Raymond suffered a sprained ankle against Augustana that is expected to sideline him at least a week, but he should be ready for the Division III national tournament."

As discussed below, that's a pretty vague window - any amount of time between a week and and a month and a half.

It's also premature in its implication that Wheaton is going to land a berth in the D3 tournament. There's a long way to go before that's decided.

[April]

A belated thanks to the people who clarified that the jokes about Augie putting their players at risk to get to Wheaton were, in fact, jokes. I obviously have no idea what the weather is like from over here in sunny SoCal where it's a gorgeous low humidity almost 80F day today.

Raymond going down made me paranoid he had a knee injury just cause it's a common basketball injury and that would have been the worst case scenario which tends to be what the mind jumps to. However, it was pretty obvious when they took off his shoe in the WETN video that it was an ankle thing. The trainers would only move someone that much if it was necessary to ascertain the injury. I am not really sure why people think Raymond thought he had a knee injury?

Obviously ankle sprains have a huge variety of severity. I've had ones in practice that I could play on a few hours later, all the way up to a ridiculous ankle sprain my junior year (fortunately after the bb season ended) where the tiny vibrations from the car on the way to the emergency room made me scream and almost my entire foot was blue for weeks and I had to be on crutches for over a month. It's funny how much everyone is speculating right now. There's no basis to do that with, unless you are privy to the convos between Kent and his doctors. What would be a better and more interesting debate, is how Wheaton handles things while he's gone based on talent present and how they match up with the teams they play, etc.

This was my favorite line from the article (italics mine), which refers to his year away from basketball:

Raymond poured himself into Bible study and other spiritual pursuits at Wheaton, a Christian liberal arts college near Chicago whose motto is "For Christ and His Kingdom." He went on a mission trip to Mexico.
After that, he decided basketball was put in its proper place and coach Bill Harris allowed him to rejoin the team.

Uh-huh. "Bill Harris allowed him to rejoin the team." Reminds me of that famous Chicago Tribune article from the mid-90s that talked about how, after he had decided that he was through playing baseball and had sent that famous "I'm back" fax, Michael Jordan was allowed to rejoin the Bulls by a reluctant Phil Jackson, Jerry Krause, and Jerry Reinsdorf.

I don't think that comment's fair. While you can't really argue with "God told me to quit", losing Kent was really hard on team dynamics. Wheaton definitely spent some time recovering from it in may facets, and I think there were some legitimate tensions there. As one who had to watch Wheaton get brutalized by Wittier and Redlands, I saw how floundering they looked early on in that season first hand.

There were very real questions when he came back that needed to be asked, and Kent was told he could only come back if he committed to finish his career and not quit again. He said "allowed" because it felt like they "allowed" him to come back because that actually is how it was. Just because someone is a star player, doesn't mean they have the ability or right to hurt the team as a whole. This is especially true in DIII where corporations don't have control and big names don't make programs more money. Good coaches are able to make hard decisions like this all the time.

With that said, that's all very much in the past. Right now all Wheaton fans are praying Raymond gets better fast enough help this team press on to where we all know they should be heading. At the same time we're all praying it happens without him causing harm to himself permanently by coming back too soon.

At the same time, I am eager to see how they step up to face Millikin later today. Raymond really put this team on his back with Wiele gone, and the other guys really stepped up as well. Who'd have thought we'd still be undefeated at this point with that kind of adversity? They did a great job pulling things together for the last 6.5 mins of the Augie game and keeping their lead. It will be fun to see how they face this latest challenge over the next several weeks.

[Gregory Sager]

I don't think that comment's fair. While you can't really argue with "God told me to quit", losing Kent was really hard on team dynamics. Wheaton definitely spent some time recovering from it in may facets, and I think there were some legitimate tensions there. As one who had to watch Wheaton get brutalized by Wittier and Redlands, I saw how floundering they looked early on in that season first hand.

There were very real questions when he came back that needed to be asked, and Kent was told he could only come back if he committed to finish his career and not quit again. He said "allowed" because it felt like they "allowed" him to come back because that actually is how it was. Just because someone is a star player, doesn't mean they have the ability or right to hurt the team as a whole. This is especially true in DIII where corporations don't have control and big names don't make programs more money. Good coaches are able to make hard decisions like this all the time.

Come on, April. "Hard decision"? Really? Restoring the best basketball player that Wheaton has had in half a century -- perhaps ever -- to the roster was a "hard decision"? Sorry, no sale.

I don't doubt for a moment that it was difficult for the Wheaton players and coaching staff to accept Raymond's decision to forego basketball his sophomore year. And it's only human nature to resent a decision like that which thwarts collective aspirations and team unity, and to question his motives and dedication when he announced that he wanted to return, even though the rest of the team was 100% in tune with his value system. And asking Raymond for a guarantee that he wouldn't leave the team again was perfectly reasonable, since any coach worth his salt wants to know whom he can count upon and whom he can't when he plans for the future. But I don't buy for a minute the idea that putting Raymond back on the roster was some sort of an agonizing process for Bill Harris or anyone else associated with Wheaton basketball.

[Jim Matson]

It wasn't...

[wheels81]

You are now my favorite poster "sac"
I'm in a fantasy hockey league in yahoo who's title is "Sydney (cindy) is a Crybaby"

Now back d3hoops ball

I knew there was something wrong with you but i just couldn't put my finger on now I understand

The Thunder, the CCIW's only team with a 3-0 conference  record besides the lower ranked North Central College travel to Milikin Saturday night.  I believe the keys to a vicotry in Decatur will be to maintain their defensive intensity, jump in the passing lanes (?), hit more than 58 percent of their free throws , play good perimeter defense (?) and especially not let Milikin win the battle of the boards by a wide margin....Oh yeah i almost forgot it would be nice that the Thunder score more points than the Big Blue. 
Sorry AO couldn't resist.

What's with the capitalized initials.
Come on never within 25 feet?     Did he get into bed before the room got dark after swithing off the the lights too?

Mrs. Bully needs to make her husband switch back to decaf.

A big day at Millikin, as the Big Blue women host #1 (in the ESPN/USA Today poll) IWU and then the men face #1 Wheaton...

http://www.herald-review.com/articles/2009/01/17/sports/millikin/1038477.txt

How do you not mention Kent Raymond's injury in an article like this?  Looks like someone didn't do their homework.

Par for the course. I seem to remember at least one Decatur Herald-Review piece about the CCIW linked here within the past couple of years that led me to send a scathing e-mail to the author.

Here's an article on Kent Raymond that talks about him sitting out his sophomore year,among other things.

http://www.indystar.com/article/20090117/SPORTS06/901170358/1004/SPORTS

This was my favorite line from the article (italics mine), which refers to his year away from basketball:

Raymond poured himself into Bible study and other spiritual pursuits at Wheaton, a Christian liberal arts college near Chicago whose motto is "For Christ and His Kingdom." He went on a mission trip to Mexico.
After that, he decided basketball was put in its proper place and coach Bill Harris allowed him to rejoin the team.

Uh-huh. "Bill Harris allowed him to rejoin the team." Reminds me of that famous Chicago Tribune article from the mid-90s that talked about how, after he had decided that he was through playing baseball and had sent that famous "I'm back" fax, Michael Jordan was allowed to rejoin the Bulls by a reluctant Phil Jackson, Jerry Krause, and Jerry Reinsdorf.

Did anyone else notice the comment at the bottom of the article from an Anderson fan complaining about how the Indianapolis Star sees fit to publish an article about a D3 player who is playing in another state, but totally neglects providing coverage of the locally-based, 23rd-ranked Ravens? That's one commenter who has my sympathies. Keep fighting the good fight, Ravens fan!

The article cited by Thundermike also includes this tidbit on Raymond's current status.

"Raymond suffered a sprained ankle against Augustana that is expected to sideline him at least a week, but he should be ready for the Division III national tournament."

As discussed below, that's a pretty vague window - any amount of time between a week and and a month and a half.

It's also premature in its implication that Wheaton is going to land a berth in the D3 tournament. There's a long way to go before that's decided.

So when I write "briefs" compared to your "disortations" (sp)  it's a cafeine issue.  At least I have someone to blame it on 
I know Harris really was upset about his leaving and to suggest that he didn't give it a second thought to allowing him to rejoin the team is hinting at the character of Harris.  That is one aspect of Harris that you apparently don't understand or don't see.

[Dennis_Prikkel]

Ah, BG ?!?

Do you hear that ringing sound in your ears?

That's the alarm going off in the HoF bat cave.

I gave you a +K because that's probably the last one you'll get for a while.

DGP aka dgp  aka MW

[wheels81]

Ah, BG ?!?

Do you hear that ringing sound in your ears?

That's the alarm going off in the HoF bat cave.

I gave you a +K because that's probably the last one you'll get for a while.

DGP aka dgp  aka MW

I adjusted my post my computer is 8 years old and kinda slow.
dgp "THere you go with all the negative waves
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuStsFW4EmQ

[Dennis_Prikkel]

Ah, BG ?!?

Do you hear that ringing sound in your ears?

That's the alarm going off in the HoF bat cave.

I gave you a +K because that's probably the last one you'll get for a while.

DGP aka dgp  aka MW

I adjusted my post my computer is 8 years old and kinda slow.
dgp "THere you go with all the negative waves
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuStsFW4EmQ

Yes, Donald Sutherland was cool in Kelly's Heroes.

I liked Carroll O'Connor's role the best.

He was so clueless.

[wheels81]

Milikikn with only 1 player in double figures w/less than minute to go.
Looks like we can thank NCC's suffocating defense and thrashing they gave the Big Blue Thursday night .  Thanks for softening them up for the Confernce co-leaders.
Wheaton wins 61-47.

Wiele 6 pt 8 reb in 16 min.
Good play from the two freshman and Panner provided the scoring with 18 pts.


Crap Game was the peak of Don Rickles acting career. 

[Titan Q]

The inconsistency continues for IWU as the Titans just get drilled at home by Elmhurst.  The Titans were never in this game, as Elmhurst led by as much as 22 in the 1st half.

I'm glad I didn't drive up to Bloomington to watch this debacle.

[Titan Q]

Elmhurst 90
IWU 72

* Brent Ruch: 25 pts, 9 reb
* Chris Childs: 22 pts (4-5 3-pt)


* Travis Rosenkranz: 19 pts, 3 reb, 3 assists
* Doug Sexauer: 15 pts, 4 reb 

Elmhurst 54% FG, 37-25 rebounding margin

http://www.iwu.edu/~iwunews/sports/mbb2009/IWUMB15.HTM