MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Mr. Ypsi]

Greg,

My sincerest sympathies to Jason Gordon - hope it is not as bad as it currently seems!

NPU and Millikin describe the CCIW this year.  Millikin beat Elmhurst AT Elmhurst, scared the daylights out of IWU in Decatur, beat NCC in Decatur, yet LOST at home to NPU?  (I now confidently predict that they will finish ... somewhere between 1st and 8th!)  Meanwhile, NPU loses to everyone else, including getting totally manhandled by a Wheaton squad that basically lost EVERYONE from last year? 

'Historical bias'  or 'this season's results', it doesn't matter - this is insane!

In other words, TYPICAL CCIW season!!

[Titan Q]

At the 7:36 mark of the IWU/Elmhurst game, Chris Martin had 6 points and his team had just given up a 9-point 2nd half lead and was down down 49-47.  Martin was on his way to another subpar performance vs Illinois Wesleyan, the Titans had all of the game's momentum, and the Bluejays were about to be dealt a severe blow in the race for the 2006 CCIW regular season title.

At the 4:33 mark, Martin had 15 points, his team was up 7, and Martin had finally gotten over the hump vs IWU.  Martin's 3 long - and I mean really long - 3's won the ballgame for Elmhurst tonight.  One of the best players in the country stepped up and won a game for his team and I'm not sure there is not much more that needs to be said about the IWU/Elmhurst game than that. 

Another great player, Adam Dauksas, did everything he could to keep his team in the game tonight, but he just didn't have enough help.  Dauksas tied the IWU single-game record for 3's, connecting on 8, but it wasn't enough.

 

[Titan Q]

I always talk about the "formula for winning the CCIW"...

* Win all your home games
* Beat the bottom 4 on the road

Assuming the best 4 teams in the CCIW are Illinois Wesleyan, Augustana, North Central, and Elmhurst, here is how the league's top 4 stacks up right now:

North Central +0 (won at IWU, but lost at Millikin)
Augustana +0 (has held serve so far)
IWU -1 (lost at home to North Central)
Elmhurst -1 (lost at home to Millikin)


This race is tight and it's going to be very fun to follow.

[bluejaybacker1]

Q- I know Titanhammer commented about Keelan being held what about ur thoughts on Keelan's 5 shots tonight? Yes Adam showed why he is so good tonight and that he is more than deserving on being an All-American while being surrounded by a lot of talent, and Chris Martin showed he can carry his team from 30 feet away and why he is also an AA.

[bluejaybacker1]

rpknupp- Burks did see limited action tonight in the Varsity game when Martin was in foul trouble, he is number 21. He did take two shots one three that was half way down and rattled out somehow and the other a poor one that ended up missing everything. I have no idea how many he had in the Jv game.

[Stat]

No need to compare Amel and Martin again. Amel2-5 in 40 minutes?  And only 3 assists?   Tough game for a #1.

Martin 9 rebounds and 15 pts., mostly in crunch time.

But only 24 minutes forC Jones, leading with 9 rebounds and 4-6 from the floor? His bro with 4 rebounds, only nine minutes of play. Yet both had 33% of teams' rebounds?  I liked their game at Carthage, and they BOTH NEED TO PLAY MORE.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch:  The disjointed Redmen continue their string of near misses. Can't close it out, just like the Cubs will find out with their staff. Up by 3 with less than a minute.  Is this another great effort?  I feel the comfort.

[Stat]

I took some guff for stating I was not impressed with their one point win in Kenosha.

Ever see a #1 drop so fast?

Not since that stoolie with concrete shoes was dropped in the Chicago River.

[Titan Q]

Another near miss for now 4-10 Carthage.  Last night the Red Men led by 1 with 1:16 to play vs a very good Augustana team but lost by 3.  On Wednesday they led by 4 at Elmhurst with 3:00 to play and found a way to lose.  And of course a few days before that they lost by 1 at home to Illinois Wesleyan.  Carthage is going to knock off one of the leagues top 4 before the season is over...I'm pretty confident of that.

I feel like the CCIW has four extremely legit Top 25-caliber teams -- Illinois Wesleyan, North Central, Augustana, and Elmhurst.  I hope the voters step back and look at who Elmhurst lost to (@ Hope, @ UW-Platteville, @ Albion, @ Augustana, vs Millikin) and how competitive every one of those games was.  Albion is going to get quite a few 1st place votes -- Elmhurst trailed 65-64 with 2:24 to play at Albion.  The Millikin loss at home was a head-scratcher at the time, but the Big Blue took IWU to OT Wednesday and then defeated North Central last night.

The CCIW is as strong as I can recall it.  Not only is there parity (I'm not really sure which team among those four is the best), but I believe the top four teams are all good enough to make deep playoff runs.  (They won't all make the tournament though obviously.)  Heck, the teams that will probably finish 5th and 6th - Carthage and Millikin - are dangerous teams.  North Park even got in the action by winning at Millikin (just after Millikin won at Elmhurst) and Wheaton, probably the 7th place team this year, was up 7 at Augustana with 3:00 to play Wednesday. 

From a Top 25 poll standpoint, the CCIW teams are going to beat each other up so bad they'll probably never be ranked quite right.  Kind of like what happens in the WIAC most years. 

[Titan Q]

The Pantagraph article on the IWU/EC game...

http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2006/01/15/sports/103800.txt

And here is an article from yesterday about what Chris Martin went through in the off-season...

http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2006/01/14/sports/103738.txt

The heading "playing with heart", a play on words based on what Martin went through, is especially applicable considering how he performed down the stretch last night.

[Titan Q]

"Q- I know Titanhammer commented about Keelan being held what about ur thoughts on Keelan's 5 shots tonight?"


backer, I honestly have no idea what happened with Keelan Amelianovich last night.  Keelan's been the focus of every team's defense for 3 years now - from where I sat, it didn't appear to me that Elmhurst was doing anything different than any other team has done with him for 3 years.  For whatever reason, the Titans were just not able to get him the ball in good spots.  I couldn't figure it out. 

Elmhurst did to Keelan Amelianovich last night what IWU did to Chris Martin in the previous 4 IWU/Elmhurst meetings - just completely took him out of the game.  (And actually, as I posted above, with 7:36 left it looked like Martin had been held in check yet again.)

Of note is that Elmhurst used guards to defend Amelianovich...I'm not sure Martin had him much at all.  The Fighting Illini did the same thing, using Dee Brown to guard Amelianovich for large stretches of the game at Assembly Hall.  Quite frankly, Amelianovich looked a heck of a lot better vs Division I 1st Team All-American Brown (and 6-9 freak athlete Brian Randle) than against Elmhurst.  Against Illinois Keelan was 5-10 from the field, scoring 13 points.  Bruce Weber's postgame quote was, "#32 is one heckuva player, regardless of level.  We had to be aware of his presence at all times on defense."  I'm sure the Elmhurst coaches would tell us that their gameplan was built around being aware of Amelianovich's presence too, but they took him out of things much better than the Illini did.

As for Titan Hammer's comments about Amelianovich being held by Elmhurst, I will defer to the gentlemen from the Class of 1991 on that.  A) My vantage point last night at EC was terrible - one of our worst broadcast perches in the league (too low), and B) If there is one expert on the grabbing of "arms, jerseys, tattoos...", it is Titan Hammer.  While I don't have a tattoo, I have been guared by him in the post before.

[Stat]

take Zach as the best big man in the league - not even a second thought.

They will miss Kalamatas dearly this season.


Someone posted earlier that Chris Martin is not returning to Elmhurst due to graduation

Anybody else think that IWU may surprise an overconfident Illini team at the Assembly Hall.

Some interesting past quotes:  True or False

[augiedad]

Stat, I've noticed that most of your posts seem to come after IWU loses or doesn't play well.  I guess that's why we don't hear from you here on the board all that often over the course of the full season. 

[augiedad]

I attended the IWU-Elmhurst game.  That was as hard fought a game as you will see.  Thoughts/questions --

1) Why does Trost have IWU standing around in that 2-3 zone?  IWU was more athletic/talented at almost every position - why play a defense that allows wide open shots? 

IWU's zone was effective when these guys were sophs because it was a surprise.  I was there for the game in Rock Island when IWU was up 30-3 or whatever it was on SENIOR NIGHT vs the Augie team unanimously picked to win the leauge - the zone caught everyone off guard.  Now everyone knows it and knows how to break it.  I thought IWU had transitioned back into a man to man team.  Why zone last night?

2) IWU did a terrible job getting shots for Amelianovich and Z. Freeman.

3) Chris Martin was pressing all night.  You could tell how badly he wanted to beat IWU, and he finally found a way to do just that late in the game.

4) Adam Dauksas is an amazing player.  One of the best I've ever seen in the CCIW.  I've never seen a player compete that hard, all of the time.

5) Scott Trost needs to settle down and have fun.  He looks like a guy with the weight of the world on his shoulders. 

6) I still think IWU is the league's best team.  My guess is they will get things turned around a be just fine.

[dansand]

augiedad,

I definitely agree with your first point. I posted earlier that I thought one of the big reasons Augie beat the Titans last year was the passive zone that Wesleyan played.

I would have to agree that anyone beating IWU this year would probably have to catch them on an off night. Not necessarily every player, of course, but as a team in general. They are unquestionably the most talented team in the league and probably the nation. But, that doesn't make them unbeatable. Last year when Augie beat them (the Titans' last CCIW loss) they were ranked #1 as well. In that game it was a combination of things, and not all of them had to do with Wesleyan playing poorly. They shot 58%, including 68% in the second half. In that respect Augie, obviously, didn't catch them on an off night. I think if I had to pick a couple of things that made the difference, one would be turnovers. The Titans had a lot of sloppy turnovers in that game, especially in the first half, which allowed Augie to stay in the game despite shooting 43%. The other thing that I think was a huge help to Augie was the passive zone that Wesleyan played for most of the game. It wasn't the aggressive half court trapping zone that Trost used the year before when they jumped all over Augie at Carver (28-3 to start the game--ugh). As a result, the Vikings had a lot of success by entering the ball to Travis Hoyt at the high post and having him kick it to the wing to Harrigan, Baumann, or Brusveen for three-pointers. Of course they still had to make the shots, which they did (10-25 3's for the game).
And, when they did miss, they grabbed 15 offensive rebounds, another huge key.

[martin]

I did not see anything posted about this - I apologize if I am repeating old news.

One of the all time good guys in Illinois high school basketball and IWU alumnus Luther Bedford passed away on January 8.  IWU has a story about him on its website.

Bob Sakamoto's story in the Tribune is at this link.

The Panatagraph story, with some Dennie Bridges remarks, is here.

In the movie Hoop Dreams, Bedford was one of the most impressive people.  In an extraordinarily difficult situation at Marshall High School, he cared and did all he could to try to improve the lives of the kids (not just the basketball players) at the school.

The world needs more people like Luther Bedford.