MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[CCIWchamps]

By the way, I've really enjoyed listening to the Thunder broadcast this afternoon since I couldn't make it back up to Kenosha today.  The announcers have done a really nice job, but I hope under their Christmas tree this year they find a thesaurus with the word "phenomenal" and its alternatives highlighted and the page dog-eared. 

Zing!

[usee]

From the millikin website:

The Millikin men's basketball team lost on the road at Aurora University 89-51 on Dec. 4.  Millikin struggled shooting hitting only 27 percent of its shots including going 3-12 from three point range.  Aurora shot 48 percent on the game including 43 percent from three point range.  Aurora dominated the glass out rebounding Millikin 55-29.
           
Millikin's top scorer was Matt Merrigan with 14 points.  Justin Thompson had 13.
           
The Big Blue are off until Dec. 18 when they will travel to Adrian College in Michigan.

[HopeConvert]

... and the Hope consensus is that Bunn's their best player. He led the Dutch in scoring last year by a wide margin, averaging 16.0 ppg. If he was playing last night, there's no question as to which Hope player would've had the ball in his hands during those last confused eight seconds of the game. I'm not all that familiar with Hope, but I'm guessing that a David Krombeen fadeaway jumper from eighteen feet out is not Coach Neil's ideal scenario for a game-deciding shot.

Greg:

I think that is the consensus. Peter Bunn is sort of in the same mode as Stephen Cramer: a very smooth player with great body control and tremendous leaping ability who has to ability to take over a game when he wants to. Peter definitely became the go-to guy last year and I think all of us were excited by the prospects that he could lead the team this year to a deep run. I would have liked Hope's chances with 8 seconds left with Peter on the floor. He's virtually unstoppable one-on-one and could have exploited a collapsing defense. Alas.

[usee]

I have been a little pre occupied on the football boards but came over to read the summaries on here and the MIAA board. I actually had to go to the box scores because after reading the miaa board you would have thought they went 4-0 this weekend against Carthage and Wheaton.  

[augiefan]

Elmhurst picked their first win today, 67-61 over Westminster, MO on the road.

[Gregory Sager]

I have been a little pre occupied on the football boards but came over to read the summaries on here and the MIAA board. I actually had to go to the box scores because after reading the miaa board you would have thought they went 4-0 this weekend against Carthage and Wheaton.  

Unfortunately, of the four games played in the CCIW/MIAA Classic, the Michiganders won the only one that counts in the primary criteria. And that's probably why a 1-3 showing by the MIAA doesn't seem all that bad to some of the folks over on the other side of the lake -- particularly the ones who own orange apparel.

[Gregory Sager]

Very discouraging loss by North Park last night. The Vikings blew several substantial leads by giving up big runs, the worst a four-minute stretch in the middle of the second half that saw Trine pull away very quickly with a 15-0 run that wiped out a 56-54 NPU lead and put Trine in control for good. Most of that was Trine sophomore Ian Jackson's doing. He's a tremendous talent, easily the best guard I've seen all year whose last name isn't Serbian. He had 33 points, all coming on a wide variety of shots: Mid-range pullups, treys from the top of the key, circus-acrobatic floaters from the baseline, blow-by-your-man layups, etc. He's a tremendous player.

Trine is a pretty good team that's definitely earned its 6-1 record, but the Thunder were still beatable. NPU just can't get it together. One game it's turnovers that plague them, the next game it's rebounds. Tonight it was transition defense -- the Vikings did not get back at all early in the second half, and fast breaks allowed the Thunder to stay even at a point where the Vikings were really clicking on offense. The bigger problem, though, was NPU's halfcourt offense. It came up empty time after time because the Vikings showed very little patience and discipline. They'd take one look into the post, see that Emanuel Crosby wasn't ready for a pass yet, and then simply bomb away from behind the arc with 18 seconds left on the shot clock. If those shots drop, the way that, say, Wheaton's did on Friday night, then nobody's complaining. But there will be nights when the Vikings aren't hitting those long ones, and last night was one of them. There will never be nights, however, when Crosby is missing layup after layup in the low post, and that's why the refusal of the Vikings to take some time off the shot clock and allow him to get a seal on his man was so discouraging.

One former Viking said to me last night that he sees this team as an outfit that plays not to lose rather than to win, and I think that there's some of that, too. The confidence just isn't there. I think that they're all pretty aware that the high expectations on campus for this team this season are not being fulfilled, and it's getting to them a little.

NPU is stuck in neutral. The Vikings have to get it together. They can't count on last year's scenario, in which they stunk up the joint in November and December and then caught fire early in the CCIW season, to come true yet again.

On the plus side, I got a chance to call a game with Pat Coleman as my special guest analyst, which was a tremendous amount of fun. We even needled Rob Berki a bit on the air by giving Nebraska updates from the Big 12 championship game (which I'm sure Rob was watching rather than our broadcast). Thanks again for filling in, Pat.

[Pat Coleman]

If someone has an idea for a new poll question for the front, shout out -- it's something I haven't been able to devote any time to in a while here, obviously.

Greg -- lots of fun, sir and thanks for the tour.

[Viking Blue]

Very discouraging loss by North Park last night. The Vikings blew several substantial leads by giving up big runs, the worst a four-minute stretch in the middle of the second half that saw Trine pull away very quickly with a 15-0 run that wiped out a 56-54 NPU lead and put Trine in control for good. Most of that was Trine sophomore Ian Jackson's doing. He's a tremendous talent, easily the best guard I've seen all year whose last name isn't Serbian. He had 33 points, all coming on a wide variety of shots: Mid-range pullups, treys from the top of the key, circus-acrobatic floaters from the baseline, blow-by-your-man layups, etc. He's a tremendous player.

Trine is a pretty good team that's definitely earned its 6-1 record, but the Thunder were still beatable. NPU just can't get it together. One game it's turnovers that plague them, the next game it's rebounds. Tonight it was transition defense -- the Vikings did not get back at all early in the second half, and fast breaks allowed the Thunder to stay even at a point where the Vikings were really clicking on offense. The bigger problem, though, was NPU's halfcourt offense. It came up empty time after time because the Vikings showed very little patience and discipline. They'd take one look into the post, see that Emanuel Crosby wasn't ready for a pass yet, and then simply bomb away from behind the arc with 18 seconds left on the shot clock. If those shots drop, the way that, say, Wheaton's did on Friday night, then nobody's complaining. But there will be nights when the Vikings aren't hitting those long ones, and last night was one of them. There will never be nights, however, when Crosby is missing layup after layup in the low post, and that's why the refusal of the Vikings to take some time off the shot clock and allow him to get a seal on his man was so discouraging.

One former Viking said to me last night that he sees this team as an outfit that plays not to lose rather than to win, and I think that there's some of that, too. The confidence just isn't there. I think that they're all pretty aware that the high expectations on campus for this team this season are not being fulfilled, and it's getting to them a little.

NPU is stuck in neutral. The Vikings have to get it together. They can't count on last year's scenario, in which they stunk up the joint in November and December and then caught fire early in the CCIW season, to come true yet again.

On the plus side, I got a chance to call a game with Pat Coleman as my special guest analyst, which was a tremendous amount of fun. We even needled Rob Berki a bit on the air by giving Nebraska updates from the Big 12 championship game (which I'm sure Rob was watching rather than our broadcast). Thanks again for filling in, Pat.

Greg, I didn't come away as discouraged as you did.  If you were in the gym on Saturday night, or had the chance to watch on line, you know that the performance Ian Jackson put on cannot simply be defined by his 33 points (as impressive a number as that is).  There was a stretch of about 8 minutes there (during which NP pretty much lost the game) that Jackson was absolutely unstoppable.  I do not think it was a matter of lacking defense....Jackson was just unconcious.  I actually enjoyed watching it, even though it was at my own team's expense.  Easily one of the best individual performances I have seen in the North Park gym in a long time.

As a side note, kudos to the Trine fans.  Impressive road turnout for a team that's not right down the road.

Wish I could say the same for North Park's student body.  If you take out the 30 football players that were there, it was a pathetic showing for a Saturday night game.

[Gregory Sager]

As a side note, kudos to the Trine fans.  Impressive road turnout for a team that's not right down the road.

Wish I could say the same for North Park's student body.  If you take out the 30 football players that were there, it was a pathetic showing for a Saturday night game.

Agreed, TD. I'll join you in calling out the NPU student body for not showing up on Saturday night. Where were all the students? I know that they weren't out on dates ... it's North Park, after all. And the annual NPU Sankta Lucia festival was over long before the game started, not that I think there's a lot of overlap there in terms of student interest.

[Viking Blue]

As a side note, kudos to the Trine fans.  Impressive road turnout for a team that's not right down the road.

Wish I could say the same for North Park's student body.  If you take out the 30 football players that were there, it was a pathetic showing for a Saturday night game.

Agreed, TD. I'll join you in calling out the NPU student body for not showing up on Saturday night. Where were all the students? I know that they weren't out on dates ... it's North Park, after all. And the annual NPU Sankta Lucia festival was over long before the game started, not that I think there's a lot of overlap there in terms of student interest.

Oh, I'd have to disagree.  I never missed a Sankta Lucia festival.  I'd do anything to have a candle on my head.

[AndOne]

As a side note, kudos to the Trine fans.  Impressive road turnout for a team that's not right down the road.

Wish I could say the same for North Park's student body.  If you take out the 30 football players that were there, it was a pathetic showing for a Saturday night game.

Agreed, TD. I'll join you in calling out the NPU student body for not showing up on Saturday night. Where were all the students? I know that they weren't out on dates ... it's North Park, after all. And the annual NPU Sankta Lucia festival was over long before the game started, not that I think there's a lot of overlap there in terms of student interest.

Lots to do in the big city on a Sat night! 

[Gregory Sager]

As a side note, kudos to the Trine fans.  Impressive road turnout for a team that's not right down the road.

Wish I could say the same for North Park's student body.  If you take out the 30 football players that were there, it was a pathetic showing for a Saturday night game.

Agreed, TD. I'll join you in calling out the NPU student body for not showing up on Saturday night. Where were all the students? I know that they weren't out on dates ... it's North Park, after all. And the annual NPU Sankta Lucia festival was over long before the game started, not that I think there's a lot of overlap there in terms of student interest.

Lots to do in the big city on a Sat night!  

True enough. But you'd figure that cold weather and free admission would do the trick in getting the casual-fan NPU student into the gym to watch the Vikings. The big city is also very expensive for someone on a college student's budget, and it's mighty cold at night this close to the lake when the wind is blowing in off of it.

[Gregory Sager]

In other news today ... the sun rose this morning in the east, the sky is blue, water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit, and Steve Djurickovic was named the CCIW Player of the Week.

[Mr. Ypsi]

In other news today ... the sun rose this morning in the east, the sky is blue, water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit, and Steve Djurickovic was named the CCIW Player of the Week.

Who?!

Our sky this morning was grey, so can't confirm where the sun rose, and water freezes at 32 degrees only if it is freshwater and near sea level.  Steve D. as CCIW POW may be MORE certain than the others!