MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[titanhammer]

I love D3 stories about players like Michael and Caldwell who just will themselves with hard work and determination to get significantly better. I doubt if Michael will win the MOP award this year unless Elmhurst wins the league, but he certainly has a very good chance to be the MOP next year. He still has a lot of upside potential as a junior and that's scary because he is close to dominating right now.

Lanny, did you know this article was going to be in "Pages Past" today:
1991: Senior center David Caldwell, who scored 54 points and grabbed 27 rebounds in three Illinois Wesleyan victories this past week, was named CCIW Player of the Week. He had 18 points and eight rebounds against North Central, 21 points and seven rebounds against Carroll and 15 points and 12 rebounds against Millikin.

David is one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet.  I spoke to him last year and he has been battling back trouble...something I can empathize with.

Good win for the Titans, tonight.  With the way North Park usually defends their home turf against the Titans, it means:
A. North Park is as bad as billed by Sager and others.
B. IWU Played very well.
C. North Park played very poorly.
D. B and C

Looking forward to Wednesday night...hoping the Doc gives me clearance to attend the game.

Q, if I can't make the game, who will be your color for the Augie game?

[augie_superfan]

Updated standings:


Augie          6-0
IWU            4-2
Elmhurst      4-2
NCC            3-2
Millikin         2-4
Wheaton     1-3
Carthage     1-4
NPU            1-5

[titanhammer]

Looks like Carthage was rewarded for their longest conference bus ride of the season.  Surprising to see them get the W with only 16.7% shooting from three point range (the press release didn't give the attempts number).

In watching the replay of the IWU/Wheaton game, they really moved the ball well.  I would have guessed they would play the other CCIW teams a little better.

[Gregory Sager]

Illinois Wesleyan 78
North Park 57

Brett Mathisen, 17 pts, 10 rebs
Bjorn Berg, 16 pts

37.3% FG, 31.3 3FG, 61.5% FT

Keelan Amelianovich, 17 pts
Matt Arnold, 13 pts
Cory Jones, 11 pts
Chris Jones, 11 pts
Adam Dauksas, only 3 pts but 11 asts

60.8% FG, 44.4% 3FG, 72.7% FT

This one went according to form. And, since I said that I would be able to live with a 20-point loss if I saw some moral victories, here they are:

1) Scott Trost put in his JV right about when I expected him to do so, with about 5 minutes remaining and Wesleyan up by about 30. But a minute later he took them out and put his seniors back in after NPU had quickly eaten into the lead and got it down to about 20. As the NPU coaches were saying after the game, the lesson that the Vikings needed to take away from that was that for about a minute there they played next year's Wesleyan top-line players -- Gant, Smith, Manus, Harrigan, and Gilmore -- and they handled them. The only Viking in at the time who won't be wearing royal blue and gold next season was Brett Mathisen.

2) The Park never quit. They played hard for forty minutes, badly overmatched though they were, and never got down on themselves. They didn't play all that smart, but they played hard. I was really proud of them.

3) Considering all the size NPU was giving away, they did OK on the boards. Wesleyan won the rebound battle, 32-29, but the Vikings pulled down 16 offensive boards to Wesleyan's 8. That was sheer hustle on the part of the Park.

4) Paul Brenegan wore a more stylish suit than Scott Trost's.

Seriously, though, this one went exactly as I expected. Cory Jones knocked down a couple of open jumpers in the first couple of minutes, as Wesleyan scored the first ten points of the game, and I knew that the Park was in for it. There was just too much for them to have to defend, and Cory Jones was well down the list. It wasn't just Wesleyan's size that made this one a cakewalk, it was their experience. They play much smarter than does NPU. All night long they made the extra pass on offense and used their screens to perfection, and as a result they made the game a layup drill. NPU, on the other hand, showed terrible shot selection. They passed up plenty of open looks, only to take a much tougher shot five or six seconds later. NPU had lots of open jumpers, but didn't convert all that many -- for as hard and as tough as Mathisen played tonight, he missed a ton of midrange shots.

When the Vikings doubled down low, Arnold and Amelianovich made them pay from the perimeter. When they came out and guarded the arc, Dauksas fed entry passes into the Titan big men and invariably got two points against the overmatched forwards of the Vikings.

Bjorn Berg had a terrific game for NPU. He has evolved into a really heady player, and he was absolutely fearless in going in among the trees to pick up a lot of his 16 points. The Vikings will definitely miss his court savvy next season.

It was a learning experience for the Park. I think that they gained something from tonight. I certainly walked out of the gym feeling as though they showed a lot of heart. They really didn't have a prayer coming into the game, but they never played as if that mattered.

[titanhammer]

1) Scott Trost put in his JV right about when I expected him to do so, with about 5 minutes remaining and Wesleyan up by about 30. But a minute later he took them out and put his seniors back in after NPU had quickly eaten into the lead and got it down to about 20. As the NPU coaches were saying after the game, the lesson that the Vikings needed to take away from that was that for about a minute there they played next year's Wesleyan top-line players -- Gant, Smith, Manus, Harrigan, and Gilmore -- and they handled them. The only Viking in at the time who won't be wearing royal blue and gold next season was Brett Mathisen.

Greg, the Titans will have two other players next year...and they both have the same last name.  I'm sure you knew that, but thought I would throw it out there.

[Gregory Sager]

Hammer, I'd say it was A and B from your multiple-choice pop quiz.  Wesleyan really played the way that I expected them to play at both ends of the floor, but apparently haven't in conference up until tonight. I think that any team in the league would've had a really tough time beating them tonight. And NPU is just too young and too undermanned to compete most nights, particularly against a team of Wesleyan's ability and experience. Check out the starters: One senior (Mathisen), one sophomore with a year's varsity experience (Jay Alexander), one sophomore who hadn't played college ball until this season (Ed Whitaker), and two freshmen (Keith Willert and Mike Ventura). Meanwhile, sitting within five feet of me in the southwest stands behind the NPU bench were Mike Peterson, Glen Woodside, and Jason Gordon -- three big pieces of the puzzle who're out for the year with knee injuries. Given NPU's youth and relative rawness in a lot of areas, this wasn't going to be a first-division CCIW team even if healthy. But without those guys, it's infinitely harder to make headway in this league.

Any report yet from Wheaton/Elmhurst?

The interesting thing about the Augie line score, Augie Superfan, is the inefficiency of Augie's two superstars. One wouldn't expect Harrigan to require 24 shots in order to score 29 points, nor McAdams-Thornton 11 shots to score 15 points. But the win's all that matters, and it sounds like Augie won the game at the defensive end of the court.

Dan, NPU has a Quad Cities kid who transferred in at the break who will play for the Park next season. I'm hoping that lightning strikes again; NPU has gotten a great career thus far out of East Moline United grad Shandrel Young on the women's basketball team.

Greg, the Titans will have two other players next year...and they both have the same last name.  I'm sure you knew that, but thought I would throw it out there.

Yup, true enough. But you have to allow some poetic license for moral victories. 

[dansand]

"The Mausoleum"  in Iowa.

The only saving factor of that crypt was Mc Daniel's buzzer beater.

[Gregory Sager]

Elmhurst blew Wheaton right out of Faganel tonight, 87-61. Elmhurst led by 25 at the half after shooting a blistering 73.1% from the floor (19-26). And it sounds like they coasted in, building the lead to 33 points before Scherer called off the dogs in garbage time.

Pat Bacon had 15 points, mostly from the charity stripe; Evan Patchett had 14, Nick Michael had 13, Brian Lee had 12, Chris Ihlenfeldt and Robert Strzemp had nine apiece, and Chris Martin had an 8-7-6 stat line. Brent Ruch led the 'jays with nine boards. Elmhurst matched Wesleyan's performance tonight shot-for-shot, going 31-51 for 60.8%. Tony Bollier had 28 and Michael Fiddler had 13 for Wheaton.

Carthage finally won a nailbiter, and on the road, too. Down 61-60 after a Drew Gensler jumper with 21 seconds left, Mark Morrison put back his own miss with four seconds left to give the Red Men the 62-61 win. Sounds like it was a great game; although Millikin led most of the way, neither team ever had a double-digit lead. Keena Johnson had 13 and Kyle Jeffery had 12 for Carthage, and Morrison had 10 points and 7 rebounds off the bench. Gensler had 17 and Lance Brooks had 15 for the Big Blue.

[dansand]

Another big win for Augie tonight against an outstanding North Central team. Excellent effort by just about everyone and they needed every bit of it. Harrigan struggled a little in the first half, but had 18 (5-10, 3-5 3-pointers, 5-6 at the line) in the second and, much like the Wheaton game, pretty much took over down the stretch. Rorer, Brusveen, and Rose with great contributions off the bench. Oliver had a huge block towards the end of the first half and a monster follow dunk in the second. McAdams-Thornton with his usual blue collar effort--15 points, 6 boards, scrapping on defense against bigger players. While they've still just "held serve," this was a very big win and hopefully they can maintain the momentum going into another huge one in Bloomington on Wednesday.

[John Gleich]

The CCIW has had some great IHSA Class A players over the years -- Chris Martin (Eureka H.S.), Ryan Knuppel (Midwest Central H.S.), Luke Kasten (Hillsboro H.S.), and Brent Niebrugge (Teutopolis H.S.) come to mind from the last decade.  It's gotta be a little more difficult for coaches to evaluate them though.

Speaking of recent D-3 players who played IHSA Class A ball... Last year's D-3 POY Jason Kalsow played at Huntley, IL in one of the last seasons they were in the smaller division before heading north to UWSP.  Ironically, Coach Bennett saw Kalsow play during a summer team camp while watching Hutley to see Pat Kalamatas (a name CCIWer's know well), who, going into their senior seasons, was the more highly touted player.  Bennett saw the Huntley Redskins (also the last season, I believe, that they retained this moniker) against "bigger" Wisconsin high schools so he had more of a barometer.

I think Bennett liked his choice... Kalsow started every game of his college career and is UWSP's all-time leading scorer, rebounder, and is third on the assists ledger.

[titanhammer]

I only saw Kaslow in Salem, but that was enough to impress me.  It was funny for me to watch Kaslow's Coach Bennett, as it reminded me of "the other" Coach Bennett I was lucky enough to meet and spend time with as a senior in high school.

[augiefan]

Just back from RI and Augie's narrow victory over NCC. This was huge win for Augie over possibly the best NCC team in the history of their program. Harrigan was the main man for Augie as usual, despite constant double teams by NCC. Harrigan is close to being as great a player as Drew Carstens in his senior year. Rick is, long with McAdams-Thornton, pretty much carrying this team on his back.

Kudos to Augie for actually generating a respectable turnout for this game. It had to be by far the biggest attendance of the year for Augie by almost twofold. It definitely helped in Augie's second half comeback.

[augiefan]

As a resident of Huntley I would have to say Jason Kalsow was by far a better high school player than Pat Kalamatas. In fact other than Jason's dad. Tom. I would say Jason was the best player ever at Huntley HS. I tried my best to persuade his family to consider Augie, but it was a losing battle.

By the way what happened to Kalamatas at Carthage? Shouldn't he be a senior now for the Redmen? I know Jason's younger brother, who was no where near as talented as Jason dropped out of the UWSP program this year, but I never heard the story on Kalamatas, whose brother is a lousy Huntley team's best player this year.

[cardinalpride]

Just back from RI and Augie's narrow victory over NCC. This was huge win for Augie over the best possibly the best NCC team in the history of their program. Harrigan was the main man for Augie as usual, despite constant double teams by NCC. Harrigan is close to being as great a player as Drew Carstens in his senior year. Rick is, long with McAdams-Thornton, pretty much carrying this team on his back.

Kudos to Augie for actually generating a respectable turnout for this game. It had to be by far the biggest attendance of the year for Augie by almost twofold. It definitely helped in Augie's second half comeback.

Congrats to Augie.  From what I understand, they outplayed NCC down the stretch to win the game.  However, Augiefan lets not get carried away.  This is not the best team in NCC's history.  Remember NCC does have a couple of conference titles and one of them being a 15-1 team.  This current NCC team has yet to win anything.  Also, I don't remember the radio broadcast mentioning any harrigan double teams.  I'll give Harrigan credit he's a solid ballplayer.  He's the best 2nd guard in the league and probably the country.  Augie did what they had to do.  NCC gets a tough elmhurst team on wednesday.  A huge game for NCC.

[Titan Q]

"As the NPU coaches were saying after the game, the lesson that the Vikings needed to take away from that was that for about a minute there they played next year's Wesleyan top-line players -- Gant, Smith, Manus, Harrigan, and Gilmore -- and they handled them."


Oh my goodness.  Talk about the reach of all-time for a moral victory. 

The North Park coaching staff must have done a lot of evaluating during that one minute Mike Harrigan, Tyler Smith, and Andrew Gilmore played and the "0+" by Steve Manus.  All I can remember from that minute is wondering whether or not Charcoal Delights would be open at 9:30pm on a Saturday.

http://campus.northpark.edu/athletics/mbasketball/stats/2006stats/m01-21.htm

IWU fans will be disappointed to know that Zach Freeman, Andrew Freeman, Jordan Morris, Brett Chamernik, Brian Nussbaum, and others are not considered "top-line" players by the NPU coaching staff.