MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Mr. Ypsi]

I stand corrected.  I thought you still had a week or so before you left.

I know the pain of retiring from a sport.  I played soccer until 52; when the same game left me with a broken big toe (didn't realize it until the next day) and shattered glasses (5 minutes later; as I pointed out to my teammate, who did it on a free kick, it was my fault: I was well-off to the side - if I had stood in front of the goal, I would have been safe! ).  Since recovery each week was starting to take 4-5 days, I figured it was time to pack it in.  (Since I retired the same week as John Elway, you may have missed coverage of the event. )

[AndOne]

Carthage just lost in OT 93-88 to Albion. Steve D. had 36, but he cannot do it alone. A bad loss for the CCIW co-favorite and the conference in general.

NOT an in-region game, so all but irrelevant for pool C purposes.

It's still a bad loss in terms of how the league stacks up against its peers. The consensus in the MIAA room is that Albion (3-3) is down this season, and even if the Britons were their usual solid selves that's a game that the CCIW preseason favorite should win in its own gym.

Incidentally, Steve D. had 40 according to the box score, not 36, with six assists to boot. And Malcom Kelly had a nice game, scoring 24, while Tyler Pierce added a dozen points. But Mitch Thompson (2 pts, 1-4 FG), Max Cary (2 pts, 1-6 FG), and Raul Guzman (2 pts, 1-2 FG) were all AWOL, and the Red Men got outrebounded by 15. That's a team that's floundering, and if there's any consolation at all for Bosko & Co. it's that they're certainly not alone in terms of CCIW teams that really haven't found their footing yet.

http://athletics.carthage.edu/custompages/men%27s%20basketball/2011%20stats/albion.htm#GAME.BOX

http://northcentralcardinals.com/custompages/MBK/mbk1011/Mbk06.htm

In contrast to the Carthage home loss to Albion, North Central previously defeated Albion at NCC. In their loss, it appears Carthage had a total defensive meltdown, allowing Albion's J.C. Kruse to go off for 33 points and Kolin Kazen to hit for 20 as opposed to the 17 and 10 they scored against NCC. However, the most astonishing thing to me about the Redmen loss is the fact they were out rebounded by a 44-29 margin whereas NCC out rebounded the Britons 31-29.

In his above post, bopol states "Pierce and Guzman are not really in good shape."
That is perfectly understandable. Guzman is listed on the Carthage roster as weighing 280. At that weight, he could be an offensive machine, but it seems like the Michelin Man could probably get back on defense more quickly and guard someone. He has never been in real basketball shape going back to his high school days. As far as Pierce being 250, he looked every bit of that this summer in the Deerfield  league. Furthermore, his summer physique could accurately be described as fluid as opposed to solid. Perhaps he has firmed up his listed 250 since then. However, when you see he garnered a total of 3 rebounds against an Albion team that is short on bigs, you have to wonder what kind of shape his is in. Also, Mitch Thompson who built a nice reputation last season and made the All-Conference team primarily due to his league leading number of blocks did have 6 of those, but also had only 3 boards. Perhaps its easier to block a shot from behind than to mix it up underneath on the boards. Heck, Pierce and Thompson were both out rebounded by Stevie D. and Malcolm Kelly. I doubt that is part of Bosko's game plan. 

[Titan Q]

Looks like IWU staff has some free time on their hands...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmXfrb01xFc&feature=player_embedded

In all seriousness, actually pretty cool

And the tie to CCIW basketball is that the video is shot at IWU's Hanson Student Center...which used to be Memorial Gymnasium (home to the Titans from 1921 to 1961).

http://www.iwuhoops.com/memgym.jpg

[Titan Q]

Nice video.  President Wilson has some moves.  Nope, Chuck, I'm in Hong Kong and it is already Sunday noontime here.  That person to whom you refer is I think Steve Seibring from the Development office.  Oh I wish I was as young and thin and my old friend Steve still appears to be

I've always guessed that some type of internet video featuring Steve Seibring would surface.  This one is less damaging to IWU from a P.R. standpoint than what I originally feared.

PS  Calling Steve "young and thin" is an insult to both young and thin people everywhere.

[devildog29]

Q and anyone else for that matter,  The Pantagraph put the attendance at 375 for last night's game at the Shirk.  I believe students are still on campus, so what is going on in B-town?  What happened to all our fans?  We are ranked 10th in the nation for goodness sakes!  I know when I was there in the mid 90s and even through the middle part of this decade, I don't ever remember a game with less than 1200 or so people filling the stands (heck, even when school was on break the stands were decently filled).  I read an article in the Pantagraph earlier this week bemoaning the same.  Are our Titan alum so tight with their money these days that the lack of free admission has hurt attendance that much?  What gives?

[sac]

Carthage just lost in OT 93-88 to Albion. Steve D. had 36, but he cannot do it alone. A bad loss for the CCIW co-favorite and the conference in general.

NOT an in-region game, so all but irrelevant for pool C purposes.

It's still a bad loss in terms of how the league stacks up against its peers. The consensus in the MIAA room is that Albion (3-3) is down this season, and even if the Britons were their usual solid selves that's a game that the CCIW preseason favorite should win in its own gym.

Incidentally, Steve D. had 40 according to the box score, not 36, with six assists to boot. And Malcom Kelly had a nice game, scoring 24, while Tyler Pierce added a dozen points. But Mitch Thompson (2 pts, 1-4 FG), Max Cary (2 pts, 1-6 FG), and Raul Guzman (2 pts, 1-2 FG) were all AWOL, and the Red Men got outrebounded by 15. That's a team that's floundering, and if there's any consolation at all for Bosko & Co. it's that they're certainly not alone in terms of CCIW teams that really haven't found their footing yet.

http://athletics.carthage.edu/custompages/men%27s%20basketball/2011%20stats/albion.htm#GAME.BOX

http://northcentralcardinals.com/custompages/MBK/mbk1011/Mbk06.htm

In contrast to the Carthage home loss to Albion, North Central previously defeated Albion at NCC. In their loss, it appears Carthage had a total defensive meltdown, allowing Albion's J.C. Kruse to go off for 33 points and Kolin Kazen to hit for 20 as opposed to the 17 and 10 they scored against NCC. However, the most astonishing thing to me about the Redmen loss is the fact they were out rebounded by a 44-29 margin whereas NCC out rebounded the Britons 31-29.

I don't know how much of a difference he could have made vs NCC but 6-5 Mike Smith did not play vs NCC for Albion, he had 6 rebounds vs Carthage in 16 minutes and certainly adds at least another bigger body to an overall undersized Briton team. 

Albion also played NCC without guard Lawrence Ridgell....so thats two players that add alot of minutes to a team that was also not very deep.  The Albion Carthage played, may not be the same Albion North Central played.

[bopol]

Carthage just lost in OT 93-88 to Albion. Steve D. had 36, but he cannot do it alone. A bad loss for the CCIW co-favorite and the conference in general.

NOT an in-region game, so all but irrelevant for pool C purposes.

It's still a bad loss in terms of how the league stacks up against its peers. The consensus in the MIAA room is that Albion (3-3) is down this season, and even if the Britons were their usual solid selves that's a game that the CCIW preseason favorite should win in its own gym.

Incidentally, Steve D. had 40 according to the box score, not 36, with six assists to boot. And Malcom Kelly had a nice game, scoring 24, while Tyler Pierce added a dozen points. But Mitch Thompson (2 pts, 1-4 FG), Max Cary (2 pts, 1-6 FG), and Raul Guzman (2 pts, 1-2 FG) were all AWOL, and the Red Men got outrebounded by 15. That's a team that's floundering, and if there's any consolation at all for Bosko & Co. it's that they're certainly not alone in terms of CCIW teams that really haven't found their footing yet.

http://athletics.carthage.edu/custompages/men%27s%20basketball/2011%20stats/albion.htm#GAME.BOX

http://northcentralcardinals.com/custompages/MBK/mbk1011/Mbk06.htm

In contrast to the Carthage home loss to Albion, North Central previously defeated Albion at NCC. In their loss, it appears Carthage had a total defensive meltdown, allowing Albion's J.C. Kruse to go off for 33 points and Kolin Kazen to hit for 20 as opposed to the 17 and 10 they scored against NCC. However, the most astonishing thing to me about the Redmen loss is the fact they were out rebounded by a 44-29 margin whereas NCC out rebounded the Britons 31-29.

In his above post, bopol states "Pierce and Guzman are not really in good shape."
That is perfectly understandable. Guzman is listed on the Carthage roster as weighing 280. At that weight, he could be an offensive machine, but it seems like the Michelin Man could probably get back on defense more quickly and guard someone. He has never been in real basketball shape going back to his high school days. As far as Pierce being 250, he looked every bit of that this summer in the Deerfield  league. Furthermore, his summer physique could accurately be described as fluid as opposed to solid. Perhaps he has firmed up his listed 250 since then. However, when you see he garnered a total of 3 rebounds against an Albion team that is short on bigs, you have to wonder what kind of shape his is in. Also, Mitch Thompson who built a nice reputation last season and made the All-Conference team primarily due to his league leading number of blocks did have 6 of those, but also had only 3 boards. Perhaps its easier to block a shot from behind than to mix it up underneath on the boards. Heck, Pierce and Thompson were both out rebounded by Stevie D. and Malcolm Kelly. I doubt that is part of Bosko's game plan. 

I'll add that Bosko said that Cruse had a great game, but he doubts if they look at boxscores for the rest of the year, they'll see him getting 30 points a game. 

About Thompson:  His blocks are mostly in front of the shooter, not from behind.  The two things I've noticed that I don't like is that he'll go for a block and end up way out of position for any rebound or he'll slap the ball out of bounds.  It doesn't seem his effort is resulting in Carthage ending up with the ball often.  The other thing is that he doesn't do a great job of defending so that the player he is defending ends up with the ball too deep where there is little he can do.  Don't get me wrong; I like him; his offense is greatly improved this year and I think he'll be a force his junior and senior years, but there is still plenty of room for improvement.

About Pierce: I've doubt he's slimmed down since the summer.  He is clearly strong, but is carrying more than his ideal weight and given that he isn't a very good leaper to begin with; it effects his game. 

About Guzman: In one game I saw, he seemed gas after being on the floor 6 minutes.  He is useful and clearly good enough to be an effective D3 player, but he is out of game shape and has a lot of foul trouble.  Carthage needs more out of him given the lack of alternatives.

BTW, it isn't the first game that Malcom Kelly has led the team in rebounding.  He is clearly attacking boards.

I think Albion set the game plan for attacking Carthage and that, without adjustment, Carthage will have a lot of problems. 

[Hoosier Titan]

Q and anyone else for that matter,  The Pantagraph put the attendance at 375 for last night's game at the Shirk.  I believe students are still on campus, so what is going on in B-town?  What happened to all our fans?  We are ranked 10th in the nation for goodness sakes!  I know when I was there in the mid 90s and even through the middle part of this decade, I don't ever remember a game with less than 1200 or so people filling the stands (heck, even when school was on break the stands were decently filled).  I read an article in the Pantagraph earlier this week bemoaning the same.  Are our Titan alum so tight with their money these days that the lack of free admission has hurt attendance that much?  What gives?

Devildog,

Finals ended Friday, so most students have gone home.  I thought 375 was low for attendance, but I could have counted the number of IWU students on one hand.  The IWU faithful--the fan bus crowd--were well represented.  To be fair, the weather was awful all day; rain and sleet turning to freezing rain once the sun set. 

Attendance has definitely fallen somewhat since I arrived at IWU nine years ago; Shirk is generally full only once or twice a season now.  But there were legitimate reasons for the low attendance yesterday.

[devildog29]

I didn't realize students were already on break, but nonetheless, even when I've seen highlights from other games this season, the stands look pretty sparce.  This is very disappointing to me, as a packed Shirk is certainly a great recruiting tool for IWU to add to the tradition of Titan basketball.  I must be getting bitter as I age. 

[Mr. Ypsi]

I didn't realize students were already on break, but nonetheless, even when I've seen highlights from other games this season, the stands look pretty sparce.  This is very disappointing to me, as a packed Shirk is certainly a great recruiting tool for IWU to add to the tradition of Titan basketball.  I must be getting bitter as I age. 

Attendance was the main reason Shirk was needed in the first place.  In my day (late 60s) Fred Young Fieldhouse averaged several hundred above capacity (used to drive the fire marshal nuts )!

It is indeed disappointing if attendance is beginning to slump.

[iwu70]

Q, Steve Seibring is still young and (relatively) thin . . . it is all in the manner of your perspective.  Wait until you are at my august age and size and you will have a more admiring view of swelt Steve.  Still, the "mob dance" was pretty cool and President Wilson has some good moves there.  Must have been a fun Christmas event . . . on the hardwoods of Hansen Center (Memorial Gym), what we used to call the "girl's gym."  My Dad barely passed his swimming test in the little old pool in the basement there (where part of the bookstore and "Tommy's" are now) . . . back "in the day," when swimming was a requirement for graduation.  Times change, and even Steve Seibring will be rotund, more buoyant, one day. You, too, my friend. 

Good wins for the Titans -- men and women -- this past weekend.

Attendance is down at The Shirk.   I attended 3-4 men's games and one women's game during my time at IWU thru November . . . and it is noticeable, to be sure.  Students just don't come out much for good, bigtime DIII roundball these days.  Sad.  I do remember those over-capacity days at Fred Young . . . in the days of Fred Evans, Sheldon Thompson and Tommy Gramkow.  Exciting teams, over-heated temps and students sitting on top the walls and on top the ticket booth at the south end to see the game.  Good memories.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Ah, yes - those over-heated temps!   I used to wear several layers to go to games, be down to a t-shirt before halftime, then bundle back up to walk home!  If the 'powers-that-be' were smart, they probably shut off the heat in the fieldhouse once the crowds had arrived!

While I usually stuck to the bleachers, I went up to the weight-lifting area (above the north basket) a few times.  Good memories.

[Mr. Ypsi]

BTW, I also have fond memories of the Memorial Gym and the swimming pool.  The swimming requirement was never an issue (I taught swimming and lifesaving at a Boy Scout camp when I was in high school), but had good times there.

Less favorable memories are that that was also where you had to register for classes back in the day, with lines sometimes stretching most of the way across campus (too hot fall term, too cold winter term, and sometimes 2-3 hours either term)!  Whatever the downsides of technology may be, online registration beats the hell out of Memorial Gym!

[NPC-Alum]

Mr Ypsi,

I grew up swimming at the NPC pool, which went away a few years back (must have been because it wasn't grand enough for a University).  Way back when, that was just a great community tool.  Guess things do change.

Just wondering tonight (after getting home from the Bears game - ouch) if Greg's statement that NP is playing UW Milwaukee Monday is correct or is it Q's schedule that has that game happening 12/30?  My current plan for tomorrow involves no cold that is not unavoidable, but you never know.

xxx

Just realized that Q's sheet has the 12/30 game betweem two games much earlier than that, so let's call that one a typo and move on.

[Mr. Ypsi]

BTW, I also have fond memories of the Memorial Gym and the swimming pool.  The swimming requirement was never an issue (I taught swimming and lifesaving at a Boy Scout camp when I was in high school), but had good times there.

Less favorable memories are that that was also where you had to register for classes back in the day, with lines sometimes stretching most of the way across campus (too hot fall term, too cold winter term, and sometimes 2-3 hours either term)!  Whatever the downsides of technology may be, online registration beats the hell out of Memorial Gym!

When I went to U of Michigan for grad school, it was even worse (with 25 times as many students).  My wait the first semester outside Waterman Gym was over 5 hours!  When I first started teaching at Eastern Michigan, students waited 3-5 hours outside a dinky little building call Briggs Hall.  You young'uns with online registration don't know how lucky you are!