MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[AndOne]

Nice win on the road for the North Central Cardinals as they get their 1st CCIW conference win of the season by downing the Big Blue of Millikin by a 76-69 score in Decatur.

The Cards held a 41-33 halftime lead, and increased that to a 15 point advantage with 14:17 left. Millikin then began chipping away at the lead and pulled to within 4 points on several occasions. North Central tallied their final 5 points from the line to seal the victory.

Once again, NC was led in scoring by freshman Derek Raridon with 24. He was well supported by Reid Barringer with 19, and Jonny Knapczyk who posted a career high 18.

Millikin was led by freshman Colby Long with 13.

[tjcummingsfan]

In overtime NP over Wheaton 75-71!   

[usee]

NPU 75 Wheaton 72 in OT in Chicago

Ro Russell w 22 was big down the stretch. Shaun Collins w 16 for the vikes.

Wheaton shoots 45% and 29% from the arc. Mccrary w 26 and 11 w 6 assists.

[augiefan]

Congrats to NPU on a great and hard fought victory tonight over a fine Wheaton squad. I guess we no longer have to discuss whether NPU will be winning conference games this year. As of now they are right in the race for a CCIW tourney berth. Nice to see the Chicago Vikings turning their long dormant program around with some really fine team play, particularly  with Nick Williams having an off night.

[usee]

Schauer on the post game: NPU is as good as we are. We saw it on tape. He also spent a lot of time saying he has never in his career seen a team go 35 minutes without a foul called against NPU. He said that is next to impossible. In his 17 yrs as a coach and 4 yrs as a player he has never seen that. I wasn't there and would be interested in the view of those who were.

[usee]

In looking at the live stats in the first half NPU had a foul called at 11.32 of the 1st half and the next foul called on them was at 9.32 of the 2nd period. NPU had only 3 fouls called the 2nd half.

[augiefan]

NPU shot 24 foul shots to 9 for Wheaton. However, it looks like only 3 more fouls were called on Wheaton for the game (18-15). At Augie we would welcome not getting fouls called on the other team given our FT shooting percentage this year.

[Dennis_Prikkel]

congratulations to north park - my son was so excited on the phone after  the game he could hardly talk.

[markerickson]

Vulgarity.  Kids are skiing with the youth group in Iron River MI this weekend so the better half and I went on a date.  The date did not include a stop at Foster and Kedzie, unfortunately.  The meal was not exceptional and the service was average, at best.

This board's longtime posters have often read the gripes about refs.  Heck, I ride the refs every Viking home game I attend.  It is truly appalling to see how many calls get missed during a game at NP's gym.  You're courtside, and can see all except certain angles.  A majority of games do not have a single whistle for a lane violation, but camping happens too often for my liking.  This has harmed the smaller Vikings in recent years.

Board:  How long was Wheaton's win streak over NP?

[BlueJay21]

Congratulations to North Park on a HUGE victory tonite. Obviously it's still really early in the season, but I don't see why we can't start talking about NPU as a real contender for the tourney this year.

It's nice to see Nick Williams having success and playing on a winning team in his senior year. I have a lot of respect for him from playing against him for 3 years. He had to go through a lot of losses in his career, and it's nice that he is getting to enjoy some success this year. Having a solid North Park team is good for the CCIW. I hope they can keep it up.

[AndOne]

Congrats to North Central's Reid Barringer.

Barringer scored 19 points tonight against Millikin to give him an even 1,000 for his career. He is the 22nd North Central player to reach the 1,000 point plateau.

[Viking Blue]

This is one of those nights that makes me happy that I drive through city traffic and announce North Park's games for next-to-nothing (after you account for gas).

What an atmosphere.  As I had hoped, the Crazies certainly showed (the Ninja thing was awesome.  Wish North Park's assistant AD had had the stones to go tell them to put away the bagpipes himself, as opposed to making me announce it).

I will leave it to Sager to give the in-depth analysis, but any North Park fans out there who could not attend, I will leave you with this description of tonight's game:

In the 11 years that I have been watching and announcing NP's games, I can't think of a single one that was more exciting and intense that this one.

Let's not get carried away....we're only four games into the season here.  But to me, this is the biggest win North Park has had in a decade.  MUCH needed.

[Gregory Sager]

North Park 75, Wheaton 73 (OT)

* Ro Russell: 22 pts, 5 asts
* Shaun Collins: 16 pts (3-6 trey)
* Emmanuel Crosby: 11 pts, 5 reb
* Nick Williams: 9 reb

* Tim McCrary: 28 pts, 11 rebs, 6 asts
* Ben Panner: 16 pts (4-8 trey), 5 rebs
* Jake Carwell: 14 pts, 5 rebs
* Andrew Jahns: 6 rebs

Shooter would have loved this one. On the night when the annual alumni game was renamed the Rick Alspach Memorial Alumni Game in a brief ceremony prior to the night's main event, North Park pulled off a barnburner victory over the team in orange that makes every Parker see red, Wheaton College. It was played in front of at least 800 fans (don't know where the 550 figure in the box score came from), including a full student section and a howling pack of Carlson Crazies all dressed up for Ninja Night. Throw in a lot of NPU basketball alumni who played in the oldtimers affair earlier in the day, plus several even older Vikings alumni who sport national championship rings (shout out to my old roommate Wade Seifer!), and you're talking about a special night that really felt like a throwback to the way it used to be twenty years ago in the crackerbox.

This was about as even as a game can get. Both halves ended in ties. There were nine ties throughout the game and 22 lead changes. North Park never built a lead bigger than six (at various points early in the second half), but Wheaton's biggest lead of seven came at crucial moments -- 7:11, 6:05, and 4:02 of the second half, the first one spurred by back-to-back steals and fast-break layups by Jake Carwell -- who, for the record, was an absolute warrior for Wheaton tonight. With the visitors up, 58-51, with four minutes left in the game I wondered if this would be the point where North Park broke, just as the Vikes always seem to break down the stretch against Wheaton. Instead, NPU sucked it up, held it together, and went on an eight-point run to regain the lead and restore the see-saw. The Vikings actually should've won the game in regulation, as they were up, 62-60, with 2.9 seconds left and Ryan Beigie on the line shooting the one-and-one. But the NPU sophomore missed the shot, Carwell rebounded it and called timeout, and then David Eseke threw a length-of-the-court inbound pass to Tim McCrary that, in football parlance, Nick Williams should've tried to turn into an incompletion rather than an interception. But Williams committed, jumped, and missed, the ball sailed over his head to McCrary, and the Wheaton sophomore completed the layup to send the game into an extra session.

Wheaton scored the first bucket in overtime, but a Shaun Collins trey put NPU up for good at the 4:15 mark. Nick Williams, who rebounded well but mostly had a forgettable night in terms of offense, made the game's biggest shot with 35 seconds left and NPU nursing a 69-68 lead. Ro Russell drove the lane, kicked out to Williams in the corner near the North Park student section, and the Vikings senior canned a trey that made the place go nuts and gave the Vikings a four-point lead that Wheaton could not overcome.

Great games by Russell, Emmanuel Crosby, and Shaun Collins for the Vikings. For Wheaton, in addition to Carwell's heroics, Ben Panner made several huge shots from both corners in the second half, and of course McCrary was a monster. The question isn't if Tim McCrary will be an All-American; the question is when.

Just an all-around satisfying night. It's good to see the Park getting some props on CCIW Chat, but there's a lot of season left, and NPU still has a whole lot of things to prove to people. It's one thing to be a half-game out of first on January 16; it's another thing to still be in the thick of the CCIW race on February 16.

In looking at the live stats in the first half NPU had a foul called at 11.32 of the 1st half and the next foul called on them was at 9.32 of the 2nd period. NPU had only 3 fouls called the 2nd half.

North Park committed eight fouls in the second half, not three -- four in the second half proper, four more in overtime (which for team-foul purposes is considered to be part of the second half). Wheaton finally got into the bonus with 1:01 left in overtime on a Ro Russell reach-in, and Andrew Jahns knocked down both FTs. Nick Williams fouled Tim McCrary with :24 left in overtime, and McCrary missed the front end of the one-and-one -- a huge miss, since it came with the clock stopped and Wheaton trailing by four.

Gene Rayford, Fritz Larsen, and Dave Laning are a veteran team of refs; in fact, Glen Ellyn resident Dave Laning probably does more Wheaton games than any other ref in the league. I thought they did an OK job ... not great, not terrible. They were definitely in let-them-play mode tonight; the 18 fouls called on Wheaton is not a very high number for an overtime game, either. The Park got to the line a lot more than Wheaton did because of the contrasting styles of play of the two teams; NPU sought to penetrate on every possession, unless there was a quick opening for an entry pass into Crosby or Williams in the low post, whereas Wheaton's motion offense mostly led either to midrange jumpers or an entry pass into McCrary. Williams was careful not to foul as McCrary backed him in down on the left block on possession after possession (Williams ended the night with four fouls), as NPU relied upon double teams to try to stop the Wheaton superstar rather than bodying him up. That's why McCrary was able to rack up so many assists. The long streak without a foul called on North Park was a fluke, really; it wasn't at all as though Rayford, Larsen, and Laning were letting the Vikings get away with stuff.

Board:  How long was Wheaton's win streak over NP?

I undersold NPU's losing streak on my broadcast. I thought it was five years long, and said so on the air. Turns out it was longer than that: Wheaton had a twelve-game winning streak against the Park snapped tonight. NPU's last win over Wheaton came on February 8, 2003, a 76-73 triumph for the Vikings in the crackerbox in which Sneed Deaderick had a 23 and 13 double-double. To show you how long ago that was, Sneed played in the alumni game this afternoon and he's not even dunking anymore. (He says he needs to see the cash up front before he slams one down nowadays. )

Incidentally, this is the third North Park game that I've broadcast by myself in Rob's absence. And all three of my solo broadcasts have gone into overtime. The NPU coaching staff must dread not seeing Berki up in the broadcast booth.

I will leave it to Sager to give the in-depth analysis, but any North Park fans out there who could not attend, I will leave you with this description of tonight's game:

To any North Park fans who could not attend, I would add that you can still watch the game at your leisure once it's been archived (which usually takes about 24 to 48 hours after the game is played).

Let's not get carried away....we're only four games into the season here.  But to me, this is the biggest win North Park has had in a decade.

I wholeheartedly second that!

[thunder38]

North Park played a great game tonight and they definitely deserved to win tonight.  Coach Schauer was right, North Park was just as good as the Thunder tonight.  A couple of observations made from tonight:

North Park flat out outplayed the Thunder off the bench.

Tim McCrary had another great game and is really building strong case for POY but North Park made him take 22 shots in order to score his 26.

Jahns held to just four points with two of those coming on free throws in the final minute and a half of overtime.  Wheaton will not be successful if they continue to rely on McCrary and Panner.


I can't understand the officiating from tonight's game.  Especially how 20 minutes can pass without a foul being called against a team.  At one point McCrary got bend over backwards and no foul was called but yet twice Carwell was called for some very questionable foul calls.  Jahns got grabbed on a break and ended up getting turned around and there was a no-call. Even in the final seconds Pierotti had Russell in a bearhug and it took two seconds four a foul to finally be called.  I'm not at all saying that this was the reason for the Thunder losing but when you're looking at a two-point overtime game you can't say it wasn't a factor.

Credit the Swedes, they absolutely deserved to win that game tonight.

[Gregory Sager]

joe hakes was never north park's ad

Yeah, I meant "soccer coach." I was looking at the words "Millikin AD" when I typed that.

I've talked about NPU's athletics shortcomings at length on the CCIW football page, particularly the resources gap (finances and facilities) that exists between NPU and the rest of the league. To sum it up, North Park has very limited financial wherewithal, both in terms of endowment and access to mega-wealthy donors.

Greg,

I don't think a $60 million endowment is all that bad for a school the size of North Park, especially considering that it has only been a 4 year school for about 50 years.

I think U.S. News is off with that $60m mark, as that's what the endowment was at prior to the stock market crash.

I haven't seen it mentioned yet, but Carthage beat Augustana, 69-64, in Rock Island. Coupled with NCC's win over Millikin in Decatur, it means that the visiting teams won two of the three Saturday games. I'll be absolutely shocked if IWU doesn't make it a 3-for-4 weekend for CCIW road teams on Sunday afternoon in Elmhurst.

I want to say a few words on behalf of Wheaton head coach Mike Schauer. This evening before the game he asked me to point out Rick Alspach's dad in the stands. He then went over and introduced himself to Rick's dad and said a few words to him. I don't think a lot of coaches would've done something like that, especially right before a big game, and he certainly didn't have to do it. Mike Schauer is a class act and an outstanding role model for his players. It's great to have him back in the league.