MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[CCIWchamps]

Dang!  Sean Johnson was almost the hero twice!

He made a 3 at the buzzer to send the game to OT, but missed one at the buzzer that would have won it - Thunder survives, 78-76.

His 3 at the end of regulation even sounded tremendous on the radio feed. 

[CCIWchamps]

Wondering, what are the tie breakers rules for the 4th spot in the basketball tournament, because it is not unreasonable that we are looking at 4 teams at 9-5 at the end of the season...

Carthage and Wheaton win both games.
IWU beats NC and both lose to Augustana.

Carthage, Wheaton, IWU and NC would all end 9-5.

Is the 1-4 seeding usually apparent by this time at the end of the season?  It seems like quite a logjam and that is never really an issue.  The top 4 seem to pull away and put distance in there.

[CCIWchamps]

"Like" - WETN guys praying for Travis, as he is down on the floor.  I also pray he is OK.

Thanks for adding this.  We tuned in on the radio as we were driving only to find sports highlights being played instead of the 2nd half feed on WETN radio.  We listened for a few minutes until they announced that "the game would return once medical personnel were done treating a player."  I'm not sure when the last time I had heard of a player being treated with an ambulance in a game.   Glad to hear he's improving as the worst thoughts were running through my head as we waited for the live feed to return. 

[matblake]

Here's the Wheaton recap of the game.  Click on the picture at the top with arrow in it with a recap from Mike Schauer.
http://athletics.wheaton.edu/news/2011/2/12/MBB_iwu2.aspx?path=mbball

[Titan Q]

Here's the Wheaton recap of the game.  Click on the picture at the top with arrow in it with a recap from Mike Schauer.
http://athletics.wheaton.edu/news/2011/2/12/MBB_iwu2.aspx?path=mbball

I'm sure I speak for every Illinois Wesleyan fan (and coach and player) in thanking Coach Schauer for his heartfelt well wishes for Travis Rosenkranz.  The comments he made in that video recap are very similar to what he said on the WETN postgame show.

IWU and Wheaton have had a great rivalry going since Coach Harris brought the program back in the '90s.  It has always been clear to me that it is a rivalry filled with mutual respect.

That was the scariest moment I can ever remember in watching a basketball game.  WETN had the camera on Travis for the first 10 minutes of that situation --  between the fact that you could tell he was not moving at all, and the obvious sense of urgency in those helping him (including his mom - which was hard to watch), it was just awful.  When Coach Bridges left the stands to join the huddle around Travis, I thought "Something is very wrong here."

I'm sure it was much worse being in the gym.

[Titan Q]

Wondering, what are the tie breakers rules for the 4th spot in the basketball tournament, because it is not unreasonable that we are looking at 4 teams at 9-5 at the end of the season...

Carthage and Wheaton win both games.
IWU beats NC and both lose to Augustana.

Carthage, Wheaton, IWU and NC would all end 9-5.

Spots 2-4 are just completely up for grabs between North Central, IWU, Wheaton, and Carthage after last night, and there are so many different scenarios with the tie-breakers right now that we almost have to wait until after the Wednesday games to figure it out. 

Let's just leave it at this for now -- there are very realistic possibilities that leave each of the 4 teams on the outside looking in.  North Central, IWU, Wheaton, and Carthage all need to very much feel in "must win" mode in remaining games.

[Titan Q]

A tip of the cap to IWU center Doug Sexauer, who was as good as I've ever seen him last night.

* 32 points
* 10 rebounds
* 11-17 FG
* 4-4 3-point
* 6-6 FT

He was a real force out there all night long.

[Gregory Sager]

There must be a proper Latin word for "getting off the bus with the best players."

That would be the argumentum ad recruitem.

[Gregory Sager]

Yesterday was the ridiculous and the sublime in the crackerbox. The first half was perhaps the worst basketball that I've ever seen two teams play simultaneously. I said at the top of the broadcast that NPU and Elmhurst were playing for sixth place, but at the end of the half I remarked that it looked more like the battle for eighth place. Elmhurst was super awful, and NPU was bonus jumbo-sized awful. The 'jays took a 33-27 lead into the locker room, having outshot NPU by only 38% to 32%, but it's not as if either team was playing any defense; the offenses were simply, well, offensive. Frankly, if NPU's forgotten man Christian Alsing hadn't come off the bench to score a shocking 12 points in the opening stanza, Rob and I might've just packed up the camera and microphones and gone home at halftime.

It was more of the same at the start of the second half. Zack Boyd finally got things going for the 'jays, and the visitors opened up an 11-point lead at 40-29. That's when, as Pete McBride remarked later, Paul Brenegan started turning in a very strong coaching job by identifying who was hot (Alsing, Ro Russell) and who was not (Clayton Cahill, Nick Hoekstra, and Shaun Collins) and adjusting the playing time accordingly. NPU caught fire, erased the double-digit deficit, and caught up to Elmhurst, with the boys in the home whites taking their first lead of the half at 58-57 with 4:47 to go. It seesawed back and forth from that point onward, with two Emanuel Crosby FTs with 26 seconds left eventually sending the game into overtime.

It was all North Park in the extra session, as the Vikings would've won even more convincingly if they hadn't clunked four free throws in a row. The Vikings prevailed, 80-74, and prevented what would've been an absolutely demoralizing sweep by Elmhurst.

Emanuel Crosby, who was simply unstoppable (10-12 from the field), had a career-high 23 points and a strong 8 rebounds. Ro Russell came off the bench -- came out of purgatory, really, as he didn't even get into Wednesday night's game at North Central -- to score 20 points and dish out 6 assists. Christian Alsing's career-high 16 points was a major source of encouragement, not least to himself. What he's needed more than anything else is a sense that the coaches have enough confidence in him to give him some lengthy stretches on the floor. D.A. Robinson had a very strong all-around game (7 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals), and Mike Gabriel added 7 rebounds as well. Boyd led Elmhurst with 22 points, a lot of them on remarkable mid-air circus shots; I'd hate to have to play a game of H-O-R-S-E against that guy. Erik Dornfeld, James Robertson, and Joe Acosta also hit double figures for the 'jays.

NPU really went from Phyllis Diller to winning thriller in this one, turning a cringingly ugly performance into an overall fairly solid one in eking out the overtime win; the Vikings doubled their efficiency in the second half, going from 32% from the field over the first twenty minutes to 64% from the field in the second twenty minutes. I realize that beating Elmhurst isn't going to make anyone ooh and aah, but it's heartening to see that the Vikings aren't packing it in and calling it a day yet. Now we'll see if they can play spoiler next week against Carthage and Illinois Wesleyan.

[Gregory Sager]

This room has seen a lot of coach-bashing lately, which doesn't really appeal to me, but I have to comment upon Mark Scherer's behavior yesterday. I've always been a big Scherer fan, but his stock plummeted in my book yesterday. He continuously and gratuitously made noises throughout the game whenever a Viking was in the process of releasing a free throw, particularly in the second half. Given the relative emptiness of the NPU gym, it was extremely conspicuous.

We've had this discussion before about Grey Giovanine doing the same thing, and the argument was made on his behalf that he was barking out legitimate instructions to his players; since that's what a coach is supposed to do, if it's necessary to do it while an opponent is in the middle of his FT release, so be it. I therefore gave Scherer the benefit of the doubt early on, particularly since I've never noticed him doing something like this before in all of the games I've seen him coach over the past decade-plus. But it got to the point where he'd just yell out a simple, un-useful, "Box out!" when a Viking was in the process of shooting the FT. The straw that broke the camel's back for me was when he simply whistled while a Viking was in mid-release. He didn't point, or gesture, or do anything that would lead anyone to believe that he was trying to draw the attention of one of his players. He simply whistled. It was really irritating to watch, and it made me feel sorry for the Elmhurst players and fans who had to watch their coach stoop to that level.

Criminy, Mark, leave that sort of stuff to the fans. That's bad sportsmanship, no two ways about it. I know how badly you want to win, but some things are just plain wrong for a coach to do.

[bopol]

Spots 2-4 are just completely up for grabs between North Central, IWU, Wheaton, and Carthage after last night, and there are so many different scenarios with the tie-breakers right now that we almost have to wait until after the Wednesday games to figure it out.  

Let's just leave it at this for now -- there are very realistic possibilities that leave each of the 4 teams on the outside looking in.  North Central, IWU, Wheaton, and Carthage all need to very much feel in "must win" mode in remaining games.

Well, even after Wednesday, we might know if we are looking at a possible 3-way or 4-way tie, but still, we are probably looking at a N+1 tie for the last N spots where N>2, unless Carthage or Wheaton get upset.  And from what I saw of both teams last night, they seemed singularly focused on taking care of business.

I assume this hasn't happened in recent history?

[Gregory Sager]

Pete McBride and I set a record that may not stand forever, but which represented something pretty fun: We became the first two people in league history to see ninety minutes of CCIW men's basketball in one day. Well, OK ... eighty-seven minutes of CCIW men's basketball.

After witnessing NPU's overtime win we trekked out into the western suburbs and arrived in King Arena three minutes into the IWU @ WC contest. It was tight throughout, a little dirty at times, extremely exciting, and for the most part very well-played. Bob, your dad had the best comment on the game afterwards: "Wheaton won this game four times." My reply was, "Yeah, and they gave it back three times, and almost gave it back a fourth."

Tim McCrary was absolutely exceptional (21 pts, 14 rebs, 7 asts). I'm starting to wonder if he's got a shot at stealing the MOP away from Steve Djurickovic. Although Andrew Jahns didn't have a conspicuously good night, his three backcourt associates Tyler Peters, Jeremy Pflederer, and Nate Serenius all hit big shots at one point or another down the stretch. For IWU, Doug Sexauer had a monster game. Ironically, as badly as he was abusing Spencer Schultze all night, it was Schultze's block of Sexauer's layup attempt with sixteen seconds left in OT that was the game's most crucial play. To be fair to Schultze, he was very strong at the offensive end.

Irony of ironies how Andrew Jahns, the hero of last year's last-second win by Wheaton at home over IWU, almost became the goat of a Wheaton home loss to IWU this year by his inability to foul, or check in any way, Sean Johnson with that buzzer-beater at the end of regulation. (To be fair to Wheaton, the refs put too much time back on the clock before that final play, allowing Johnson enough time to traverse the backcourt and get into shooting position.) Ironic, too, how Johnson sent the game into OT by hitting a wide-open trey attempt, but failed to win the game when he missed a wide-open trey attempt at the buzzer in OT.

The word I got on Travis Rosenkranz was that he got hit on the side of the head by Nathan Haynes's knee when Haynes went up in the air on a Rosenkranz shot-fake, and that he sustained a pretty serious concussion. I tend to agree with Bob that Rosenkranz's career is probably over. A real shame.

Great game. Fun to watch, especially for someone with no rooting interest. It's always interesting to be able to analyze a game from the angle of a disinterested observer.

[OurHouse]

This has happened way to many times to say it was an incredible coaching job - to rely on your best shooter to win basketball games in 10/100's of seconds? Mercy

Dang!  Sean Johnson was almost the hero twice!

He made a 3 at the buzzer to send the game to OT, but missed one at the buzzer that would have won it - Thunder survives, 78-76.

His 3 at the end of regulation even sounded tremendous on the radio feed. 

[A Lover of the Game]

I was sitting to the right of the student section where Travis was injured.  He slipped on the floor, hit his head on one the Wheaton player's knee, and somehow slid between the player's legs. As he was falling, his neck was bent to the side. Travis said something to the ref while he was falling but I could not hear what he said. After that he was flat on his back, unresponsive, and breathing rather rapidly. He appeared to be in and out of consciousness while those around him where talking to him.  Being that I work in Health Service for a school district, it was no surprise to me that they immediately immobilized his head as it did appear to be a possible neck injury.  He was blinking his eyes when they rolled him out on the gurney. The huddle that the Wheaton players went into while Travis was down was a very classy move.  I also loved the huddle that both teams did together after the game. As a mom of a D3 b-ball player, who has seen her share of rivalry games and injuries sustained during games, that really touched my heart.

What I and a few others sitting around me didn't understand was why didn't the refs stop the game and have the floor mopped.  That was like the second or third time one of IWU's players fell in that very spot.  I also didn't understand why the ref underneath IWU basket (2nd half) did not make the call when Wheaton's player looked like he was playing football instead of basketball and committed a foul. That was a nasty play and IWU's player could have gotten hurt.  He hit the pine hard.  The ref standing baseline to the right side of the play called the foul.  The same ref, who didn't make that call, sarcastically said to one of the other refs "Nice call," when the two Wheaton players went for the rebound and where actually struggling for possession of the ball and the one holding the ball travelled. 

I was told that the MRI revealed no neck or spinal injury was sustained and that he has a concussion. However, Travis was still being monitored and examined when I received this information.

[A Lover of the Game]

To be clear, I was sitting to the right of the Wheaton students' wearing the garbage cans.