MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

Huge commitment for Carthage - 6-9 F/C Luke Johnson from Wheaton Academy (16.5 ppg, 10.0 rpg).

http://www.kcchronicle.com/2011/05/02/preps-247-wheaton-academys-johnson-commits-to-carthage/bx0nwkt/

His ESPN recruiting page says "considering Evansville Aces, Wichita State Shockers, Loyola (IL) Ramblers, UNLV Rebels, Northern Illinois Huskies."

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/recruiting/player/_/id/115708/luke-johnson



Now the next step is deciding where to go to continue his basketball career, as an ankle injury during the summer hurt Johnson's recruiting process. He is still hoping to receive a Division I offer in the near future, though heading to a prep school for a year to build up his value is not out of the question.

"I'm still deciding," added Johnson, who started playing basketball at the age of four. "During the summer, I had been talking to schools like NC State, Richmond, Evansville and Loyola among others. I sprained my ankle in July during the recruiting period and I missed a lot of time where colleges would have been able to look at me. And now a few of those schools have already given away their scholarships.

"I'm still working back from it (the ankle injury). And I'm looking at prep schools as well where maybe I could get back from this injury and get back to where I was."
[/b]
http://www.mysuburbanlife.com/centraldupagepreps/boysbasketball/x1707784300/Johnson-s-switch-justified

How are the rest of the teams doing on the recruiting front? I know Carthage and Wheaton have some good talent coming in next season with more to come. Have not heard much on the NCC recruits for next year, but last year's freshen were so talented, I'm sure they have filled some holes as well.

My gut feeling is that the best CCIW recruit "on the board" is Luke Johnson (6-9 F, Wheaton Academy, heading to Carthage).  A coach, whose opinion I value very much, recently told me (paraphrasing), "This is a 4-year starter and someone who will be a CCIW M.O.P. candidate as a JR and SR."

I'm confident some of the kids heading to IWU, Augustana, and Wheaton are going to be good players too.  After that, I don't have much/any information on who is coming to North Park, North Central, Elmhurst, and Millikin.  I'm sure those names will eventually hit the board.

While Johnson has the potential to be an upper echelon CCIW player, lets not rush to anoint him just yet.
* We recently heard a rumor that last year's best freshman is "shopping himself" to scholarship schools. True? Maybe, maybe not. His coaches and teammates say no. However, Mr, Johnson basically ignored the vast majority of, if not all, D3 courtship attempts during the season. Furthermore, if you were paying attention at all, you could have fairly easily detected a demeanor that said "I'm a D1 player." The current freshman referred to above exhibited no such behavior during his senior season.
* Is he now going the D3 route due to a slower than anticipated recovery from his ankle injury?
* As he stated in the above referenced article "I'm looking at prep schools as well as where maybe I could get back to where I was." Perhaps a stop at the D3 level until he is able to "get back to where I was"?
* Did he suddenly have an epiphany after meeting his future teammates and/or strolling the bucolic Carthage campus and enjoying the idyllic setting as the gentle winds off Lake Michigan wafted lightly across the campus?
* Perhaps he was wooed by Bosko's promise of "protection" in the form of 280 pound Raul Guzman and the likewise corpulent 290 pound Tyler Pierce.  
Wait--didn't a certain poster identify those players as embarrassments to the Carthage program during last season?
* In short, isn't it a bit premature to label a player who hasn't played even one college yet, let alone a CCIW conference game as a  MOP candidate in 3-4 years? Especially one who never seemed to want to be live in D3land in the first place??

Mr. Johnson could well stay at Carthage all 4 years and certainly has the potential to achieve stardom both in the short and long term. I just think that with so many variables at hand---in this case more than usual for an entering freshman--its a little early for such lofty accolades.
Maybe the mystery coach predicting such is the same one who initiated the rumor about last season's top freshman looking for higher level money and then allegedly asking the poster to remove the post. Maybe he is right about both!! Maybe not. We'll see.
But, maybe he ought to stick to coaching.

Excellent post, Mark. You're reading my mind on almost all of these points (except for the bit about Guzman and Pierce protecting Luke Johnson).

Also--(Wheaton fans help me out here)---Isn't it a bit strange that Johnson landed at Carthage given Wheaton Academy's close association with Wheaton College, including Academy head coach Paul Ferguson formerly being the top assistant at WC?

I don't think it's strange at all. The close institutional connection and the geographic proximity vis-a-vis Wheaton Academy and Wheaton College may be exactly why Luke Johnson didn't want to attend Wheaton College. I'm sure that Ferg probably tried to steer Johnson into wearing orange and blue, but if the kid's got his mind made up to leave home, he's gonna leave home.

What I find more interesting is the fact that he chose Carthage, of all schools. That's a pretty drastic shift in institutional ethos and campus lifestyle from Wheaton Academy.

[John Gleich]

I don't think it's strange at all. The close institutional connection and the geographic proximity vis-a-vis Wheaton Academy and Wheaton College may be exactly why Luke Johnson didn't want to attend Wheaton College. I'm sure that Ferg probably tried to steer Johnson into wearing orange and blue, but if the kid's got his mind made up to leave home, he's gonna leave home.

As a guy from Wheaton who also didn't go to Wheaton, this played a big part in my decision too (though I didn't go to WA... I went to WN).

[AndOne]

I don't think it's strange at all. The close institutional connection and the geographic proximity vis-a-vis Wheaton Academy and Wheaton College may be exactly why Luke Johnson didn't want to attend Wheaton College. I'm sure that Ferg probably tried to steer Johnson into wearing orange and blue, but if the kid's got his mind made up to leave home, he's gonna leave home.

As a guy from Wheaton who also didn't go to Wheaton, this played a big part in my decision too (though I didn't go to WA... I went to WN).

I also understand the desire to get away for school. It was a major factor in my going all the way out to Lincoln, NE from Glen Ellyn. I've also seen the same desire exhibited over the last few years by kids who were being recruited by various CCIW schools. Just last year a great guy and athlete from here in Naperville went to another conference school due, in large part, to his desire to experience life in different locale than the one in which he had lived all his life.
However, in the Johnson case, do we really know if he wound up at Carthage rather than Wheaton due to his desire to get away as surmised by Greg, or for some other reason?
By the way, the comment about his being offered "protection" was facetious.   

[Gregory Sager]

I don't think it's strange at all. The close institutional connection and the geographic proximity vis-a-vis Wheaton Academy and Wheaton College may be exactly why Luke Johnson didn't want to attend Wheaton College. I'm sure that Ferg probably tried to steer Johnson into wearing orange and blue, but if the kid's got his mind made up to leave home, he's gonna leave home.

As a guy from Wheaton who also didn't go to Wheaton, this played a big part in my decision too (though I didn't go to WA... I went to WN).

I also understand the desire to get away for school. It was a major factor in my going all the way out to Lincoln, NE from Glen Ellyn. I've also seen the same desire exhibited over the last few years by kids who were being recruited by various CCIW schools. Just last year a great guy and athlete from here in Naperville went to another conference school due, in large part, to his desire to experience life in different locale than the one in which he had lived all his life.
However, in the Johnson case, do we really know if he wound up at Carthage rather than Wheaton due to his desire to get away as surmised by Greg, or for some other reason?

No, we don't know, and, unless Luke Johnson wants to make his reasoning public, it's not likely that we'll ever know why he chose Carthage over Wheaton. And I'm OK with that, as it's his business and his business alone. I simply said that I don't think it's strange that he picked a school other than Wheaton, because the desire to leave home to go to school is so common. Count me among the same group of people influenced by that impulse; it's a long way from my hometown of Liverpool, NY to Chicago, IL, and when I was eighteen years old I thought that that distance was a very good thing, indeed.

Here's another thing to think about, though: Do we even know that Wheaton College was an available choice for Luke Johnson? While his family presumably has the means to send him there, given that he went to private high schools for four years and lives in a well-heeled suburb, we don't know if he had the grades and/or test scores to get into Wheaton. Loath as I am to give Wheaton College any pats on the back, the fact nevertheless remains that it is certainly within the realm of possibility that a kid could get into Carthage who couldn't get into Wheaton. (And let me circumvent the inevitable wrath of Carthaginians for saying that by adding that it's true of the other six CCIW schools as well, including NPU.)

Also, as I said before, I think that the more interesting fact here is that a kid who has spent four years in Christian high schools that have fairly rigid lifestyle codes is going to attend a college that ... well, let's just say that Carthage has a different slant on things in that area. I'm sure that he's not the first graduate of a Christian high school to attend Carthage, but it still makes me chuckle a bit to think about the culture shock he's in for.

By the way, the comment about his being offered "protection" was facetious.   

I know. I was just pre-emptively protecting myself from literal-minded readers.

[AndOne]

There are liberal-minded readers on D3Hoops?      

[sac]

There are liberal-minded readers on D3Hoops?      

I believe that might be a liberal interpretation of the word literal.

[AndOne]

Very true sac.
And when that damn AndOne guy learns to read he might somehow actually post something that makes sense.    

[URockets]

Bloomington Pantagraph article on last 3 IWU recruits.

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/basketball/men/article_5f12f556-81ac-11e0-9406-001cc4c002e0.html

[AndOne]

With the success of last year's recruiting class of 18 freshmen, 9 of which saw the court at one point or another including a 1st team all-conference member and another very likely future all-conference player, I look for this year's NCC recruiting class to number about 8-9.

Titan Q has already referenced 2 of the Cardinal newbies. However, the additional players remain somewhat mysteriously shrouded, likely purposely, at the behest of a certain member of the Cardinal staff who takes delight in playing his cards close to the vest. I have heard one is a 6'9" 260 pound "big" from north of the border. I'll attempt to pry some additional info from the NCC recruiting coordinator, James Bond.  

[Titan Q]

IBCA 1A/2A all-star squads - D3 commitments, updated with recent MacMurray recruit.



1A/2A NORTH SQUAD...Coach Rodney Kellar[Ridgeview]
Kyle Anderson-Newark
Dylan Overstreet-Paxton-Loda-Buckley Illinois Wesleyan
Codey Funk-El Paso-Gridley
Matt Krause-Deer Creek-Mackinaw  Wheaton (committed for baseball...I'm not sure if basketball too?)
Brayden Teuscher-Rockford Christian  Washington U.
Alex Koch-Illinois Valley Central
Jens Kennedy-Dwight
Demetrius Mobley-Immaculate Conception
Juis Jacob-Rock Falls
Jake Spietz-Brimfield
Michael Murry- Princeton
Brad Dunlap-Eastland
Josh Fenoglia-Midland
Alex Schwabb-Peru-St.Bede
Sam Ford-Oregon

1A/2A SOUTH SQUAD...Coach Rob Flanagan[East Richland-Olney]
Brad Hamilton-Pittsfield
Jerrod Gaston-Murphysboro
Nick Schumacher-Teutopolis
James Jenson-Effingham St.Anthony
Derek Thompson-Teutopolis
Conner Wheeler-DuQuoin  Illinois Wesleyan
Collin Mingo-Springfield Calvary
Dylan Guthrie-West Central  MacMurray
Corey Ayala-Massac County
Drake Vermillion-Beardstown
Hunter Sutton-North Macoupin  MacMurray
Zach Main-Camp point Central
Tylor Duckworth-Anna-Jonesboro
Josh Wiggs-Woodlawn Illinois Wesleyan
Sam Brown-Nashville

[markerickson]

Remember Sidd Finch?

[bopol]

Luke Johnson will be a very good fit at Carthage if he likes to rebound.  Whatever others say about the conditioning of the Carthage bigs last year, the biggest problem they had was rebounding and there lack of.  Pierce is a very good player in many respect, but his D is a touch slow and his rebounding isn't that good.  Thompson lets himself get out of position too much on D.  Johnson may be able to complement both of these guys and help out a lot.

The other speculation on why he chose Carthage over other schools and describing certain Carthage bigs as "embarassments" is in poor taste and people here should try to show more respect for the 18 to 22 year old kids they are talking about.

[AndOne]

Luke Johnson will be a very good fit at Carthage if he likes to rebound.  Whatever others say about the conditioning of the Carthage bigs last year, the biggest problem they had was rebounding and there lack of.  Pierce is a very good player in many respect, but his D is a touch slow and his rebounding isn't that good.  Thompson lets himself get out of position too much on D.  Johnson may be able to complement both of these guys and help out a lot.

The other speculation on why he chose Carthage over other schools and describing certain Carthage bigs as "embarassments" is in poor taste and people here should try to show more respect for the 18 to 22 year old kids they are talking about.

bopol---

1. If Luke Johnson doesn't "like" to rebound chances are high that Bosko won't "like" to play him very much.
2. You stated the biggest problem the Carthage bigs had last year "was rebounding and there (their?) lack of." Evidently you don't understand the fact that because two of the Carthage bigs each weigh 290 pounds, they a) aren't quick enough to get to many rebounds and b) can't jump high enough to control it. Accordingly, they are not able to rebound as well as you might expect.
3. Regarding Tyler Pierce you stated  "his D is a touch slow and his rebounding isn't that good." And the answer is---he weighs 290 pounds for God sake.
4. I believe it was Titan Q, he the originator of the term "assclown" to describe a poster whose opinion he disagreed with, who last year labeled Mr. Pierce an "embarrassment" to the Carthage program. Lord knows that he and I have had occasion to differ on both form and substance. However, in this case, I believe a majority of those, myself included, who have observed Red Men Mr. Pierce and Mr. Guzman would be in agreement with his description.   
5. As far as your assertion that "people here should try to show more respect for the 18 to 22 year old "kids" they are talking about." Perhaps some of those 18 to 22 year olds should show more respect to themselves.
6. While they may be "kids" especially compared to a fossil like me, in college its called MEN'S basketball, not BOY'S basketball. Upon graduation to the MEN'S league, these young men lose some of the protection rightfully afforded to them as boys.

[bopol]

Luke Johnson will be a very good fit at Carthage if he likes to rebound.  Whatever others say about the conditioning of the Carthage bigs last year, the biggest problem they had was rebounding and there lack of.  Pierce is a very good player in many respect, but his D is a touch slow and his rebounding isn't that good.  Thompson lets himself get out of position too much on D.  Johnson may be able to complement both of these guys and help out a lot.

The other speculation on why he chose Carthage over other schools and describing certain Carthage bigs as "embarassments" is in poor taste and people here should try to show more respect for the 18 to 22 year old kids they are talking about.

bopol---

1. If Luke Johnson doesn't "like" to rebound chances are high that Bosko won't "like" to play him very much.
2. You stated the biggest problem the Carthage bigs had last year "was rebounding and there (their?) lack of." Evidently you don't understand the fact that because two of the Carthage bigs each weigh 290 pounds, they a) aren't quick enough to get to many rebounds and b) can't jump high enough to control it. Accordingly, they are not able to rebound as well as you might expect.
3. Regarding Tyler Pierce you stated  "his D is a touch slow and his rebounding isn't that good." And the answer is---he weighs 290 pounds for God sake.
4. I believe it was Titan Q, he the originator of the term "assclown" to describe a poster whose opinion he disagreed with, who last year labeled Mr. Pierce an "embarrassment" to the Carthage program. Lord knows that he and I have had occasion to differ on both form and substance. However, in this case, I believe a majority of those, myself included, who have observed Red Men Mr. Pierce and Mr. Guzman would be in agreement with his description.   
5. As far as your assertion that "people here should try to show more respect for the 18 to 22 year old "kids" they are talking about." Perhaps some of those 18 to 22 year olds should show more respect to themselves.
6. While they may be "kids" especially compared to a fossil like me, in college its called MEN'S basketball, not BOY'S basketball. Upon graduation to the MEN'S league, these young men lose some of the protection rightfully afforded to them as boys.

Andone, agree on 1.  Bosko needs rebounding.

2-6, pretty much the bad taste I was talking about.  No reason to talk about student-athletes that way, but no sense in encouraging you.  For whatever reason, the other forums I read on college sports can handle that, but not here. 

Nice to know Cathage has a potentially very good player though.  Gives me something to look forward to next winter and hopefully he'll pan out and be a major contributor.   

[Titan Q]

4. I believe it was Titan Q, he the originator of the term "assclown" to describe a poster whose opinion he disagreed with

Hey, finally something we agree on -- I definitely called you an assclown.  Maybe we're breaking new ground.