MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[iwumichigander]

The NPU @ IWU box is here. Ro Russell must've looked pretty impressive once he did come into the game; he scored 19 points in about 15 minutes of action. McNamee had 12.

Just for kicks, here's the Carthage @ Wheaton box and the NCC @ Elmhurst box.

WJBC's broadcast team specifically commented on Russell's play along with a comment (paraphased) 'where's he been before now'

[Naperick]

Also a big game tonight at R.A. Faganal as the Bluejays host North Central College.  It may be early to call it a big game but these two teams could be fighting it out for the last spot of the CCIW tourney in about 4 weeks.

naperick,
I think these two teams are fighting for a lot more than the last spot of a conference tournament!  Lets be clear!  The race for the conference title is wide open!  It is not a two team race!  If you believe it is, you are sadly mistaken!

Dumb post by me!  It's way to early to be making statements like that.  Plenty of basketball remains in this exciting CCIW season.

[Viking Blue]

Thanks Dr. B....the request was  a little tongue-in-cheek, but a little good pub for Luke Johnson's boys can't hurt (by the way, after reading the North Park newsletter, it certainly doesn't appear as though the academic struggles of the hoops team have carried over to the diamond!  3.1 team GPA!  Outstanding!)

[usee]

I'm actually going off of thirdhand information with regard to that assessment (the NPU coaches told IWU assistant coach Dave Steinbrueck that Russell -- and possibly Cooper, too? -- was disciplined for missing the team bus deadline, Stein passed that on to Q over the phone, and then Q posted it here). I haven't spoken to the NPU coaches yet.

You think Q got the info from Coach Stein at halftime?

[Naperick]

It appears the NCC loss is attributed to their big two not showing up (Chris Drennan 7pts and 5 fouls and Mtt Rogers 9pt and 4 fouls) and ft shooting (11-19)!  That type of effort will not get it done in this conference on the road or at home for that matter.

boxscore: http://www.northcentralcollege.edu/athletics/stats/basketball_m/08-09/MBK16.HTM
[/quote]

NCC missed some free throws at crucial times.  Drennan fouling out seemed to really hurt the Cardinals as well.

[79jaybird]

Very sloppy ugly (at times) game at RAF last night.  This is/was a game that NC should have won, and Elmhurst is very lucky to have picked up the W.

Overall,  I think NC outhustled Elmhurst and plays a faster game. I like their ball movement.  Couple of things hurt NC late in the game.

Free Throws and lack of input (and eventual foul out) of Drennan.  Once Drennan was out, EC went inside to Ruch every time and the Jays were able to put the game away.

At times Elmhurst looked lethargic and I think it was Christmas in terms of their giveaways.  Yikes!    EC had 12 turnovers in the first half, after only 13 turnovers the entire game in Bloomington Sat.

Looking at Elmhurst the spark for EC was Childs who came alive in the second.  For EC to be successful he (along with Strzemp) need to be factors and involved.  They cannot rely on just Ruch and Burks

Another poor outing by the officials who were equally poor for both teams.  Both coaches were visibly upset with the officials for most of the night.

[Naperick]

I agree that the officials were bad but it did seem to equal out in the NCC-EC game last night.

[thunder38]

Last night's second half at King felt like de ja vu after watching Illinois' second half at Michigan State.  Wheaton really lost their offensive flow after halftime and consistently found themselves pushed out beyond the arc with little time remaining on the shot clock.  I had a lot of respect for last night's officiating crew for calling the foul on Wiele at the end of the game.  Very tough call to make against the home team in a one-point game with that little time left but it was the right call. 

[Dennis_Prikkel]

Last night's second half at King felt like de ja vu after watching Illinois' second half at Michigan State.  Wheaton really lost their offensive flow after halftime and consistently found themselves pushed out beyond the arc with little time remaining on the shot clock.  I had a lot of respect for last night's officiating crew for calling the foul on Wiele at the end of the game.  Very tough call to make against the home team in a one-point game with that little time left but it was the right call. 

Question for those who saw the Wheaton/Carthage game?

Obviously Wheaton played very focused D in the first half, holding the Redmen to just 16 points and Steve Dj to just two - do you think that all that emotional and physical output on the defensive end in the first half, took its toll on the offensive end, where no one stepped up in the final twenty minutes?

DGP

[andrewmp]

It seems like two teams lost last night in large part to the free throw shooting, especially down the stretch.  While Wheaton is without their best free throw shooter, that was still a very uncharaacteristic performance from them.  I don't think we would see that dismal a performance again this year.
NCC, though, has had a couple games now where they have stuggled at the line.  Can someone (AndOne?) inform us if this is more an odd occurance, or is this going to be a consistant problem for the team during the conference season?  

[Dennis_Prikkel]

Absolutely bizarre -- and very disappointing. I didn't think that NPU had a great shot at winning this game, but it would've been nice to see what would've happened if the Vikes had had Russell and Cooper there from the very beginning.

It's tough to say what would have happened, with IWU playing so many guys in the first half that haven't seen much action.

Perhaps, but Ron Rose has made it a point to play a very deep rotation this year -- and it didn't appear in the PBP that there were any unusual names cropping up on the IWU side of the ledger in the first half. Russell's absence, on the other hand, was catastrophic for the Vikings -- there's just nobody else on the NPU team besides Russell who can run the point except for Cahill, and Cahill sat out again with his thigh injury. NPU started a 5 (Schniedermeier), two 4s (Williams and Benson), a 3 (Greer) and a 2 (McNamee) tonight.

I personaly witnessed a former fellow Railsplitter play for the first time this year...it was the first time I witnessed the only Titan heavier than me play in the first half this year...and I think you'll find that most Titan starters played much less than they usually do.  That is what I intended by my previous statement (although I didn't spell it out as well).

Oh, yeah, Connolly played in the first half. 'Tis true.

I gotta get the postmortem from the NPU coaches on tonight's unusual punishment. I wonder if Russell and Cooper each had to sit out as many minutes as they made the bus late?

Yuck.  What a mess at North Park.  When does baseball season start?

The Brenegan era of North Park basketball - all apt descriptions:

absolutely bizarre
very disappointing
catastrophic
postmortem
unusal punishment
yuck
what a mess

very fitting words - and I didn't say any of them.

dgp

In twenty years of riding the bus to North Park away games I can remember only one player missing the bus, or showing up late.

[REDMENFAN]

Here's the article in the kenosha news about last nights Carthage/Wheaton game.  Having seen Steve play several times in HS, and now roughly 10 times at the college level, I find it mind boggling that he was held to just 2 points in a half.  Wish I could've been there to see that, what an impressive showing by Wheaton's defense.  Thankfully (for us Redmen faithful) he picked it up in the 2nd half and made big plays down the stretch.  This is going to be one crazy conference race. My guess is that with 2-3 conference games to go, there will still be 3-4 teams that have a chance to win it.

[REDMENFAN]

forgot to post article, sorry!

http://www.kenoshanews.com/sports/one_stunning_victory_4228880.html

[REDMENFAN]

I completely respect the game of Steve Djurickovic, but wouldn't he be more effective in a jersey smaller than the size of Theo Powell or Jim O? (see http://www.d3hoops.com/)

Funny!! That is actually a picture from last season, Carthage has new home uniforms this year (not sure about road uniforms, haven't seen a road game yet!) But, his jersey this year looks pretty large as well, as do all the Carthage players' jerseys. I guess long, baggy and comfy is just the players preference nowadays

[andrewmp]

Last night's second half at King felt like de ja vu after watching Illinois' second half at Michigan State.  Wheaton really lost their offensive flow after halftime and consistently found themselves pushed out beyond the arc with little time remaining on the shot clock.  I had a lot of respect for last night's officiating crew for calling the foul on Wiele at the end of the game.  Very tough call to make against the home team in a one-point game with that little time left but it was the right call. 

Question for those who saw the Wheaton/Carthage game?

Obviously Wheaton played very focused D in the first half, holding the Redmen to just 16 points and Steve Dj to just two - do you think that all that emotional and physical output on the defensive end in the first half, took its toll on the offensive end, where no one stepped up in the final twenty minutes?

DGP

I think it that it may very well had an effect on Panner.  His first two shots in the second half were misses, and the only points he scored were on one of two free throws.
I actually thought that Wiele really stepped up and took over.  An apparent Carthage fan in front of me kept saying 'don't let him shoot, just foul him.'  There were several times when we was fouled that he just missed getting the basket as well.  He stepped up and started being the go to guy, but just didn't hit his free throws.  The only other person who I thought was aggressive on the offensive end for Wheaton in the second half was Pflederer.  I liked how he pushed the ball on the fast break and created some opportunities.  He still makes some mistakes as a freshman, but I think right now he may be the best option to get Wheaton going on offense.  With Panner defensive duties, and also having to bring the ball up, I just don't think he had the energy to get open enough.  I think Wheaton also settled too much in letting Wiele be the offense.