MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

The other way of looking at it is this: If North Central can weather the storm of their road-heavy first round-robin, their second round-robin through the league will be almost all home games. They would have the confidence, the momentum, and most likely the fan support that would make them extremely dangerous and tough to beat in February.

That's a pretty big "if", though.

Wheaton lost last night in the Whittier tourney title game, 76-72. Tony Bollier paced the Sonic Atmospheric Disturbance with 18 points, followed by Andy Wiele with 13 and John Mohan with 12. The Poets outrebounded Wheaton, 29-22, and outshot them from the field by a 53%-50% pace.

Whittier only led by two at the half, 27-25, but they blew the game open early in the second stanza to take a 45-28 lead at the 15:15 mark. Wheaton nibbled at that big lead and actually got to within two at 64-62 with four and a half minutes left, but that was as close as they got.

Wheaton drops to 4-7 on the year, which is as bad a non-conference record as I can remember them having even during their down years back in the Helm and Harbeck eras. Whittier is now 6-5, but they're a very hollow 6-5; they own two wins over LaSierra (a team that gives Caltech, Principia, and Maine-Presque Isle a run for the money as the worst in all of D3) and a win apiece over NCCAA hoops nonentities Southwestern (AZ) and West Coast Baptist.

This wasn't a good loss for Wheaton.

I've never been able to decide whether Whittier (the Poets) or NYU (the Violets) has the wimpiest nickname in all of D3.

In other news, there's been a change to the CCIW schedule. NPU will now make the annual gas-mask journey into that seventh circle of hell we all like to call Decatur to face Millikin on Monday night, rather than Saturday night.

[Titan Q]

The Pantagraph's piece on the IWU/Carthage game...

http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2006/01/07/sports/103083.txt

The IWU broadcast will be on the regular WJBC live stream tonight - http://www.wjbc.com/. 

WRJN's broadcast with John Weiser can also be heard online -

http://www.broadcastmonsters.com/carthage_broadcast_page.htm

[petemcb]

Regarding Wheaton's woes (and I don't believe there's any truth to the rumor that "woes" is on the ballot to replace "Thunder" as the descriptor portion of the Wheaton moniker), I saw a question posted as to the status of Johnny Standard, but no answer.  Does anyone know anything about his whereabouts/situation?  I was seeing him as one of the potential surprise helpers for Wheaton this year.

[Titan Q]

Here is a piece called "CCIW Notes" from Friday's Pantagraph.  It wasn't published on the web for some reason, but the author of the piece, Randy Reinhardt, sent the text to me and asked me to share if the board would be interested...
-----
By Randy Reinhardt

rreinhardt@pantagraph.com

Wednesday's opening night of the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin basketball season produced two upsets and heightened expectations for a competitive race to the championship.

While North Central upending No. 1-ranked Illinois Wesleyan at Shirk Center turned heads, so did Millikin knocking off No. 16 Elmhurst at Elmhurst.

"I don't know what that means exactly other than you're not going to have any nights off," said Augustana coach Grey Giovanine, who had to be pleased two other likely contenders were saddled with early losses.

Millikin got 37 points from freshman guard Drew Gensler in its 82-75 win over Elmhurst.

"He's an awfully good player," Big Blue coach Tim Littrell said Thursday. "He still learns every time out, but he's a willing learner. The ball is in his hands a lot. He's just a solid all-around player."

Gensler is averaging 17.7 points to help Millikin to an 8-4 overall record and is shooting 53 percent from the field and 50 percent from 3-point range.

"Millikin played extremely well and was hungry. Elmhurst came out soft," Bluejays' coach Mark Scherer said. "With the Internet these days, kids have a tendency to pay too much attention to what they read and not enough about boxing out and grabbing the ball sometimes. If you look too far ahead, athletics has a way of humbling you, and that's what happened."

Elmhurst (8-4) plays at No. 13 Augustana (11-1, 1-0) Saturday.

North Central (10-0) answered questions about a less than rugged pre-conference schedule by toppling Wesleyan.

"Any win on the road in this conference is huge," Cardinals' coach Todd Raridon said. "I don't care who it is."

Martin climbs ladder

Elmhurst senior Chris Martin, a Eureka High School graduate, moved into fourth place on the Bluejays' career scoring list in the Millikin game.

Martin ranks second in the CCIW in scoring at 22.6 points per game, fourth in rebounding at 7.0 and first in steals at 2.9.

Blue Ridge product Brent Ruch, a 6-foot-9 freshman, is contributing 6.2 points and 3.3 rebounds per game off the bench.

"Brent is doing well. We expected him to contribute this year. We thought he was a fine high school player but was overlooked because of injuries his sophomore and junior year," said Scherer. "He's played well in some games and in other games had a hard time adjusting to the speed of the game. We're very pleased with him overall."

Harrigan filling it up

Augustana senior guard Rick Harrigan is leading the CCIW with an average of 24.1 points. He is second to Wesleyan's Keelan Amelianovich with 31 3-pointers.

"This is the first year he's really been healthy. He's in a good frame of mind," Giovanine said. "He's been very balanced. He's made threes, gotten to the free throw line and gotten to the basket."

The Vikings have used six different starting fives thus far. Joe Caricato, a 6-9 junior, is out for the season with a knee injury, while 6-9 sophomore Dain Swetalla and 6-5 junior Shaun Rose have battled ankle injuries.

"As a result, we've been very inconsistent. We're not as cohesive as I would like to see us," said Giovanine. "But we've battled and hung in there and been able to win."

Carthage departures

Veteran Carthage coach Bosko Djurickovic has had a tough week.

First, his leading scorer, sophomore guard Trey Bowens at 16.1 points, was declared academically ineligible for the second semester.

Then, 6-9 junior center Mike Hart left school for personal reasons. Hart, who scored 23 points against IWU in the Titans' 76-68 win at Kenosha, Wis., last season, was averaging 7.7 points and 3.7 rebounds.

Wesleyan (10-1, 0-1) plays at Carthage (4-7, 0-0) Saturday in a 7:30 p.m. game.

Long rebounds

Millikin's Korte Long, a 6-6 junior, is averaging 10.9 rebounds, 3.1 more than any other player in the CCIW.

"The thing with Korte is his activity," said Littrell. "He's not overly polished as a player, but when he's active he's hard to get a body on. He moves around the basket on the offensive glass. He's really had a better focus this year on what he needs to do."

North Central's wacky schedule

Balance is not a word to describe North Central's schedule.

The Cardinals play seven straight and eight of nine January games on the road. Two of those games are non-CCIW tilts.

North Central then plays six of seven February contests at home.

[Titan Q]

Something to remember about NCC's schedule (7 of final 9 games at home) is the tie-breaker implications.  For determining the regular season champs - obviously now the team that hosts the conference tournament - the tie-breaker formula is:

1. Head-to-head.
2. Record against next highest team and down the line.
3. Best road record in CCIW games.
4. Best record in final 9 games of season (conference or non-conference games).
5. Head to head point totals.

A lot of times, 1, 2, and 3 are going to be a push.  #4 could come into play and playing 7 of the final 9 at home would certainly help.

[Gregory Sager]

Pete, here's your answer from back on December 10:

On the post-game show last night with Bill Harris, he said that Johnny Standard was injured in the Benedictine game and will be out for 3-6 weeks. 

If that timetable is correct, Standard should be back in uniform sometime within the next two weeks.

I did notice that junior guard David McAlpine, who has been sidelined all season (presumably with the same chronic back trouble that has kept him off the floor for his entire stint as a Wheaton student to date), is now seeing some time for Wheaton. From what I've heard of his abilities -- and from what we've seen of Wheaton thus far -- Bill Harris can certainly use McAlpine.

[Gregory Sager]

Mark Scherer's quote about his players paying too much attention to the Internet and not enough attention to boxing out really cracked me up. If he's angling to take Rees Johnson's place as the CCIW coach most likely to grouse about this message board, the position is wide open. 

Seriously, I don't think that Elmhurst is the team most likely to lose perspective due to being stroked too much by CCIW Chat comments. Those of us who have commented upon the 'jays at length, such as Bluejaybacker and myself, have not praised the 'jays unequivocally. I don't think any Elmhurst player would be likely to get a big head from reading CCIW Chat, with the possible exception of Chris Martin -- and if there's one guy in this league who strikes me as being immune to outside comments, whether good or bad, it's Chris Martin.

[petemcb]

Thanks, Greg.  I'm glad that comment wasn't posted during your self-imposed two and a half week hiatus, or that answer might never have been excavated.

[veterancciwfan]

Raridon's problems at NE Wesleyan apparently began when Ira Zeff became the AD at NWU. Mr. Zeff has taken some criticism on this site as he was, maybe still is, the charirman of the D3 b'ball (tournament?) committee. Apparently Mr. Zeff is lacking in his ability to recognize coaching ability. Rairidon was out of a job and needed one. Dennie Bridges was a very high opinion of Todd Raridon, the losing coach in the D3 title game in 1997. Todd is a class act, a great coach, and a clever quipster. He alluded to his apparent lack of recruiting success at NWU by commenting that he "was doing better with Benjy's players that the current NWU coach (don't remember his name) was doing with his." Funny stuff. Apparently NWU is struggling this season.

[Pat Coleman]

Zeff has been out as national chair for a couple years.

Always found it odd that as the tournament selections turned more and more towards the criteria under his tenure, that his basketball teams played excessively few in-region games.

[diehardfan]

Well, I guess no one has noticed this yet, so I'll be the one to post about it. There is an article by Jonathan Steven in the current "Around the Nation" describing his life overseas playing basketball in Europe. It's actually quite funny, you guys should definitely check it out.

Jon mentioned to me at a game last year that he had a shot at playing in Europe, and it was one of my greatest hopes for him that it would come to fruition. (Either that or his budding music career, since, as any wheaton student could attest, he is at least equally talented in that venue).  Anyhow, he was way, way, way to talented of a basktball player to have only really found himself in those last few games in his college career. Jon was one of the last people to leave the gym after that Calvin playoff loss. (I know this because I was doing something like standing with my mouth open looking at the vistors basket.)  I knew he wasn't ready to give it up yet, so I'm glad to know he is doing so well in his new home - from the article, he's apparently leading his league in scoring!

Random other interesting tidbits about departed Wheaton players - Matt Ankeny's parents were at the game lat night, and mentioned that Matt took a semester at Seattle Pacific, and should be back next semester (year?) Aaron Overlein was at the game (remeber him Hiker Jim?) and he is currently playing at Biola.

Pete: Last night I went up to Johnnie after the game and said... please, please, please, PLEASE, PUULEASE, get better soon!  He just gave me a hug and thanked me for the cookies.  The best possible scenario was for Standard to be better by the Augie game. He should be ready not too long after that. Possibly even the next game.

[cardinalpride]

Well, I guess no one has noticed this yet, so I'll be the one to post about it. There is an article by Jonathan Steven in the current "Around the Nation" describing his life overseas playing basketball in Europe. It's actually quite funny, you guys should definitely check it out.

Jon mentioned to me at a game last year that he had a shot at playing in Europe, and it was one of my greatest hopes for him that it would come to fruition. (Either that or his budding music career, since, as any wheaton student could attest, he is at least equally talented in that venue).  Anyhow, he was way, way, way to talented of a basktball player to have only really found himself in those last few games in his college career. Jon was one of the last people to leave the gym after that Calvin playoff loss. (I know this because I was doing something like standing with my mouth open looking at the vistors basket.)  I knew he wasn't ready to give it up yet, so I'm glad to know he is doing so well in his new home - from the article, he's apparently leading his league in scoring!

Random other interesting tidbits about departed Wheaton players - Matt Ankeny's parents were at the game lat night, and mentioned that Matt took a semester at Seattle Pacific, and should be back next semester (year?) Aaron Overlein was at the game (remeber him Hiker Jim?) and he is currently playing at Biola.

Pete: Last night I went up to Johnnie after the game and said... please, please, please, PLEASE, PUULEASE, get better soon!  He just gave me a hug and thanked me for the cookies.  The best possible scenario was for Standard to be better by the Augie game. He should be ready not too long after that. Possibly even the next game.

Diehardfan, I did read the article about Jonathan's pro career in Ireland.  It was a nice read.  If you talk to him, tell him to keep defending himself against strangers and stay away from small animals.    Looks like he's representing div. III basketball, the CCIW, and Wheaton College quite nicely!  I wish him nothing but the best!   

[iwu70]

Q, you should be doing the play-by-play too. 

Carthage 3 pt. shooting is crazy.  IWU needs some perimeter D, just as Trost mentioned in pre-game.

[titanhammer]

IWU70 - I would love to see/hear both!

[iwu70]

IWU wins by one,  but play very badly