MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[iwu70]

Congrats to Jordan Zimmer on CCIW Player of the Week!  -- 2nd time this season.  Looking forward to the game with Wheaton tonight.

IWU70

P.S.  Feel sorry for Millikin tonight. 

P.S.S.  I'm stick'in with my pre-season picks/rankings, with IWU finishing ahead of Wheaton in the CCIW race.  Call it green-tinted glasses if you wish.  I think the Titans have come together pretty well and their depth is really going to play a useful part as the CCIW season grind goes on.   ms

[iwu70]

Yes, I will miss seeing Dave Lawrenz tonight as well. 

Campus coming back to life with classes beginning just today.  Let's hope there's no holiday "rust" on the Titans tonight.

IWU70

[AndOne]

Congrats to Jordan Zimmer on CCIW Player of the Week!  -- 2nd time this season.  Looking forward to the game with Wheaton tonight.

IWU70

P.S.  Feel sorry for Millikin tonight. 

P.S.S.  I'm stick'in with my pre-season picks/rankings, with IWU finishing ahead of Wheaton in the CCIW race.  Call it green-tinted glasses if you wish.  I think the Titans have come together pretty well and their depth is really going to play a useful part as the CCIW season grind goes on.   ms

No doubt Zimmer is "hot" right now. In fact, in the view of this "outsider," slowing him down a bit is one of the keys to tonight's Wheaton @ IWU clash, in which I'd rate IWU a 4 point favorite playing on their home court.

Keys to tonight's game?

1. As I said, WC must find a way to slow down Zimmer. I think WC does this with a combination of Garriott and their best defender off the bench.
2. Battle of the boards. IWU currently with a +10.1 rebound margin compared to WC's +0.3. WC must at least stay within 3-4 total rebounds to give themselves a good chance at a W.
3. WC's bench has been as deficiency in the past couple of years, but seems improved this season. However, I believe IWU's bench may be one of its major strengths. Bench points will go a long way toward determining tonight's winner.   

[AndOne]

D3 Basketball Index prediction for tonight...

- Carthage @ North Central (Carthage by 1)

https://sites.google.com/site/d3basketballindex/jan-4-2011-predictions

Keys to tonight's Carthage @ NCC game?

1. Perimeter defense. NCC must especially limit Kelly's 3 point shooting and hit their own outside shots. Carthage must limit NCC's Vince Kmiec who has been making deposits from downtown Naperville lately. Could the combined outside shooting of Raridon, Kmiec, Gillespie, & Goldthree be the difference in this phase of the game?
2. FT shooting. NCC has an edge here. If Derek Raridon and Kevin Gillespie can get to the line several times they can further exploit their advantage.
3. Interior wars. Who will win both the battle on the boards, and the point total in what can be expected to be a brutal interior battle featuring CC's Johnson, Thompson, Pierce, and Bauch vs NCC's Gamble, Tiknis, Rosenberg, and Raridon? The toughness factor will play a big role. 
4. Turnovers/Steals. Which team can throw the ball to someone with the same color shirt on most often, and which can prevent it from getting there? 

[iwu70]

AndOne, agree with all your points made about tonight's WC@IWU game.  Another might be how well the IWU bigs play, in defending WC's top scorer and also making sure the rebounding and interior defense is there.  This means Kevin Reed, Victor Davis, and Zeimnik and Anderson off the bench have to have strong, nasty games.  I would like to see more scoring, slashing by Kman, giving the Titans more offensive output from the 3.  I think you will also see Eric Dortch playing some important minutes, esp. making his defensive contributions which have been excellent so far this season.  He doesn't often show up on the score sheet, but he's playing some good, tough minutes to date.  Loose ball plays and steals, turnovers, playing a bigger role this year due to the Titans' improved defensive intensity and effort.  Not sure if Molinari is back now after his two games out over the Christmas holiday games due to an elbow in the head, concussion concerns earlier.  Oz and Overstreet are always at the ready.  Rudnicki has been getting the minutes off the bench when Eliud Gonzalez needs a short breather.   Surely hoping that Zimmer stays "hot" and stretches the Wheaton defense.  IWU bench strength, especially if foul troubles come into play, is a real advantage of the Titans this season.  Should be a real good one. . .

IWU70

[augie77]

IWU70

P.S.  Feel sorry for Millikin tonight. 

No way will Augie cover the 31 point spread aganst Millikin.  I have little doubt about a win, but the Vikings have a tendency to play down to their competition.  See Knox and Fontbonne games for reference.  I anticipate a 12 to 15 point margin of victory.

[AndOne]

AndOne, agree with all your points made about tonight's WC@IWU game.  Another might be how well the IWU bigs play, in defending WC's top scorer and also making sure the rebounding and interior defense is there.  This means Kevin Reed, Victor Davis, and Zeimnik and Anderson off the bench have to have strong, nasty games.  I would like to see more scoring, slashing by Kman, giving the Titans more offensive output from the 3.  I think you will also see Eric Dortch playing some important minutes, esp. making his defensive contributions which have been excellent so far this season.  He doesn't often show up on the score sheet, but he's playing some good, tough minutes to date.  Loose ball plays and steals, turnovers, playing a bigger role this year due to the Titans' improved defensive intensity and effort.  Not sure if Molinari is back now after his two games out over the Christmas holiday games due to an elbow in the head, concussion concerns earlier.  Oz and Overstreet are always at the ready.  Rudnicki has been getting the minutes off the bench when Eliud Gonzalez needs a short breather.   Surely hoping that Zimmer stays "hot" and stretches the Wheaton defense.  IWU bench strength, especially if foul troubles come into play, is a real advantage of the Titans this season.  Should be a real good one. . .

IWU70

IWU70--

All good points. I was just trying to highlight a few of what I feel are the most important points relative to the game. When I do this I try not to include everything under the sun, however valid the point may be.

One of my criticisms of Wesleyan the past few years was the defense, or lack thereof, from the starting guards. Johnson was a great shooter and often instant death to the opposition, and Rosenkranz was a good floor leader and assist man. However, both were below average defenders, and often played as if their feet were glued to the floor. Dwyer was a better defender. Wesleyan is definitely experiencing an upswing in terms of overall defense from its current guard corps.

[TitansIWU]

Wow, the IWU video looks pretty good and WJBC's call is just about synched up.

Pretty cool.

Go titans!

edit: I spoke too soon, its a 6 second delay between the two, but still cool.

[iwumichigander]

Very nice OT win by IWU over Wheaton 87-77!

[Titan Q]

Illinois Wesleyan 87
Wheaton 77 (OT)

* Jordan Zimmer: 26 pts, 3 reb (8-12 FG, 4-8 3-point)
* Stephen Rudnicki: 14 pts, 3 reb, 3 assists
* Eliud Gonzalez: 11 pts, 5 assists
* Kevin Reed: 8 pts, 12 reb

* Aaron Garriott: 20 pts, 6 reb, 3 assists
* Tim McCrary: 18 pts, 11 reb
* Spencer Schultze: 15 pts, 8 reb
* Nate Serenius: 14 pts

[Titan Q]

Here is the boxscore...

http://www.iwusports.com/custompages/MBB/MBB2012/HTML/iwmbb12.htm

It'd be hard to find two more evenly matched teams than IWU and Wheaton.  The individual matchups, season team stats, and non-conference results all pointed to this being a thriller, and it was.  2000 fans, and many in internet land like myself, saw a fantastic Division III basketball game.

I thought IWU's incredible depth was on display big-time tonight.  Stephen Rudnicki was really good tonight backing up Eliud Gonzalez, who suffered from severe cramps late, and could not finish the game.  Eric Dortch played well, as did Andrew Ziemnik.  6-9 Nick Anderson struggled offensively, but pulled down 7 rebounds.  The Titans just do not lose much when they go to the bench (with the exception of Jordan Zimmer's position).

It's really easy to root for this IWU team.  They are a very competitive group that just plays extremely hard at all times.  I'm proud of the Titans for grinding out a nice win over a terrific Wheaton team.  IWU protected homecourt, which is obviously a must if you're going to win the league.


Here is the On Demand replay of the game...

http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/iwu.portal#

[Titan Q]

Other finals...


@Elmhurst 79
North Park 67


Augustana 64
@Millikin 39


@North Central 73
Carthage 50

[Gregory Sager]

Elmhurst 79
North Park 67

James Robertson: 20 pts (4-8 trey)
D'Ante Foster: 17 pts (3-5 trey)
Zach Boyd: 12 pts, 6 rebs
Nick Sanford: 11 pts, 7 rebs

Mark Holmes: 23 pts (4-8 trey)
Mike Gabriel: 15 pts
Ro Russell: 11 pts, 5 asts

A few thoughts on a pretty desultory performance by NPU tonight:

* The Vikings simply ran out of gas. The game was tied at 47 with 12:20 to play, but the 'jays slowly pulled away from that point. It was still only a five-point game with four and a half minutes to go, but you just got the feeling that the Vikings didn't have one more push in them. They were having rebounds wrestled out of their hands and were a split second late in hitting the floor for loose balls, sure signs of a tired team. Elmhurst went up by double digits with three minutes and change left, and that was that. The Vikings may have played more players, but Elmhurst is definitely deeper, and it showed; the Vikings have a couple of freshmen in the rotation who are just plain overmatched on defense right now, and that puts added pressure on their teammates at that end of the floor.

* NPU's rebounding was brutal. EC outboarded the Vikes, 39-25, and that's a big indicator of why the Vikings lost. A lot of those rebounds were of the long variety after missed treys. Again, Elmhurst won the hustle battle on those. NPU's bigs were nonexistent on the boards. Anytime that diminutive point guards Ro Russell and Josh McNaughton are two of the three players who tie for team-high honors in rebounds, it's a very bad sign for the Park.

* Emanuel Crosby was MIA tonight. Three points, two rebounds, and three shots from the field just isn't going to cut it. There's no way in the world that he should score fewer points than non-shooters Josh McNaughton and Brett Peterson. Crosby needs to do a much better job of getting himself open in the post, and his teammates need to do a much better job of looking for him.

* Elmhurst has usually been a tough out on its home floor, even during its two-year downward spiral following the loss of the Ruch/Burks/Strzemp class, but the 'jays will be much tougher to beat at Faganel Hall this year than they were before. Don't be surprised if the CCIW title comes down to who manages to sweep Elmhurst and who manages to only split with the 'jays.

* Win or loss, I'm just glad that the two best players on the Elmhurst bench tonight were wearing ties and button-down shirts: Chris Martin and Nick Michael.

* NPU did some good things tonight. Mark Holmes was easily the best player on the floor. He still tries to do too much sometimes, but his talent is beginning to take over stretches of games, and his all-around abilities are certainly a pleasure for us Vikings fans to watch. North Park just has to do a much better job of supporting him. Mike Gabriel showed what a force he is by scoring 15 in only 17 minutes of action. He was limited tonight by foul trouble, as he was the recipient of a couple of atrocious calls by extremely unimpressive official Tom Turckes. Ro Russell had an up-and-down, but mostly good game. Brett Peterson followed up a good defensive game against Edgewood star Ben Wisniewski with a good defensive game against Elmhurst star Zach Boyd, as he did most of the work in holding Boyd under his season average. And Josh McNaughton had a terrific game: 5 assists to only one turnover, and his six points and five rebounds in only twelve minutes of action off the bench were totally unexpected contributions. This was easily the best game of his career, and if he can find a way to play at that level consistently it will go a long way towards allaying NPU"s offensive production problems.

Not a good game tonight for Vikings fans. This season continues to be a struggle. Nobody's gonna feel sorry for NPU, though; the Vikings just have to find a way to get it done on Saturday afternoon against Wesleyan.

[Titan Q]

The Pantragraph's article on the IWU/Wheaton game...

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/basketball/men/zimmer-clutch-as-iwu-men-top-wheaton-in-ot/article_9efca582-374f-11e1-86d0-0019bb2963f4.html


"I guess that's why we play the game of basketball, to have a little bit of fun," Zimmer said. "I love competing against those Wheaton guys. They're great guys. Two teams playing to the best of their ability is a lot of fun. I enjoyed it."
-----
"Of course, the loss stings a little bit, but I'm proud of both teams the way we competed," said Garriott, who paced Wheaton with 20 points. "Wesleyan is a great team, and Jordan is one of the best shooters I've ever played against."


Obviously a lot of mutual respect between these two programs.

[Titan Q]

Here is the On Demand replay of the game...

http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/iwu.portal#

In addition to the opening minutes of the game last night, when Jordan Zimmer came out looking for his 3-point shot, the play that made me realize how good he feels about his shot right now is the 3 that gave IWU a 50-47 lead (about 1:10:00 on the player).  Off the dribble, pull-up 3 from 4 feet behind the arc, well-defended, rainbow.


When I read Coach Schauer's quote from the Pantagraph (below), that is the first shot that came to mind.

"Tonight was Zimmer's night. He hit some shots there's not a whole lot you can do about," Wheaton coach Mike Schauer said. "I thought we defended him pretty well. He just hit some unbelievable shots."