MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Titan Q]

IWU has a similar situation with power forwards Victor Davis and Andrew Ziemnik.  These are two of IWU's best players -- but they both play the 4.  In an effort to get them both on the floor I think Ron Rose will take a long look at Ziemnik at the 3...but his skill set is clearly more 4.  Although unlike Mitch Thompson, Ziemnik is a pretty dangerous 3-point shooter...making it easier to play him there.

[Gregory Sager]

Greg, thanks for watching over my numerous spelling and other errors of judgement.  I can always count on you.

You're welcome.

You also might have pointed out that I'm giving NCC their due this go 'round too, even though I had my doubts last year.  I don't recall all you gurus being right about Augie last year.

Augie was a different team after Luke Scarlata quit. Given the comparative modesty of his points, rebounds, and minutes relative to his universally-acknowledged status as Augie's most talented player, as well as the team's depth at the big-man spots, I figured that Grey Giovanine would be able to compensate for Scarlata's loss without missing a beat. But the Doggies never really seemed in sync without him, except for a couple of games in which they whomped Carthage and Wheaton. It's as though the whole rotation seemed to be thrown off; and, since the next-highest-scoring big man on the team, Brandon Kunz, only averaged 6.8 ppg, it was obvious that Scarlata's offensive production was missed more than the early stats seemed to indicate would happen.

Guess it would be easier if every name on the roster was Nick Anderson or that mediocre perimeter player named Jordan Zimmer.

Who called Jordan Zimmer a "mediocre perimeter player"?

Speaking of surprises, I'd be surprised if Bosko went with the lineup that Bob suggested. Bosko has always been the sort of coach who is very comfortable with three guards on the floor. Heck, he won a national title at North Park with a three-guard lineup in 1984-85. He'd easily prefer a three-guard lineup to a standard lineup in which the small forward's perimeter skills are borderline. Mitch Thompson is not only an iffy shooter from downtown, he's also neither a penetration-capable ballhandler nor a savvy defender of smaller, quicker players.  His strengths are offensive rebounding, shot-blocking, and midrange jumpers, which are power forward attributes.

I agree about Thompson not being a great fit at the small forward position, but Bosko did try him there for several games at the beginning of last season (when he was starting Thompson/Johnson/Pierce in the frontcourt).  Now, he did eventually move away from that later in the non-conference schedule, shifting Thompson to his natural power forward spot for the rest of the year.  But I just figure if Bosko tried it last year he could give it a another look this year, who knows.

True, he could. But it appeared to me that Carthage was sluggish defensively with the big lineup. The Red Men went 3-3 before Bosko shifted to the three-guard look, with one of the losses being the 30-point rout at the hands of Hope.

I also think Bosko might take a look at this because of the presence of the new guy from UW-Parkside.  If the transfer is good enough to start at the 5, and it's clear Johnson is the best bet at the 4, then what do you do with Thompson?  He could be a nice first post off the bench, but as a senior it seems like he'll start somewhere.

Bosko's never been shy about reducing the playing time of a senior if he deems it necessary (see: Tolo, Adam). There is something to be said for coaching to the strengths of your roster, which at first blush would seem to indicate a lineup that could put Thompson on the floor alongside two from the big-man quartet of Johnson, Jaskulske, Pierce, and/or Bauch. But that presupposes that Carthage won't be as deep at the guard spots, which may not be the case. Bosko certainly turned up a bunch of new perimeter players last year, and there's no reason to believe that he won't have a lot of them this year, too. Herth and Sykes certainly performed well enough to merit a promotion, if indeed they've continued to progress throughout the off-season.

I guess we'll see.

Yep. We're really just speculating in the dark at this point.

[AndOne]

More speculation relative to some recent postings re CCIW teams personnel and lineups:

Wesleyan

* I think we'll see Molinari open at PG. IWU70 likes Overstreet because he feels he is a better 3 point shooter. However, it must be remembered that the primary responsibility of the PG is to guide/direct the team. Also, the primary skills required from the PG in fulfilling that responsibility are getting the ball up court (ball handling) and then getting it to someone wearing the same color shirt (passing/assists) I don't believe Ron Rose will make to mistake of basing his choice for starting PG on who can shoot the 3 better.
* I think the biggest question is who starts at SG and SF. If its Zimmer at SG, it looks like Ziemninik at the 3. Although, I think IWU's stronger lineup might be to start ? at SG and Zimmer at SF. Bringing Ziemnik off the bench would create a huge matchup problem for most other teams as they would be hard pressed to find someone who can match Andrew's combination of strength/inside scoring ability plus his ability to go outside and shoot a better than average percentage on deep 2s and 3 balls. There is no question as to IWU's PF. Off his solid performance of last year, Reed is the starter over Anderson at the C/F position.   

Carthage

* I think we'll see Logan and Kelly at the PG and SG, Thompson and Johnson at the forwards, and Jaskulske at C/F.
* We'll no doubt see a 3 guard lineup from CC at times. However, I'm not sold on this being Bosko's primary configuration. He employed this set a great deal last year, but the ultimate result was a losing conference and season record, and the failure to even qualify for the conference tourney.
* I believe when the 3 guard lineup is employed, we'll see Tyler Pierce on the floor, and the 1st choice for the 3rd guard will be Reese Herth.

North Central

* Nobody needs to have to have their arm twisted to agree that the biggest question mark facing the Cardinals this year is finding a replacement at the PG position for the graduated Kevin Gillespie who directed NCC to the both the regular season and conference tourney championships. His failure to be included on the all-conference team was a travesty.
* The 2nd biggest question might be finding a good backup PG. Ideally, the Cards will be able to play the starter 25-27 minutes a game, and the backup 13-15 minutes. This will prevent last year's scenario where seemingly Gillespie was on the floor on a constant basis, and even though he'd never admit it, was in need of some relief toward the end of the season.
* At this current early juncture, there appear to be at least 5 candidates for the starting PG position.
* With returning all conference starters Landon Gamble (all-region), Derek Raridon (all-region), and Aaron Tiknis, backed up by Charlie Rosenberg and Jack Burchett, might the Cardinals not have one of the best front court corps in the nation? Rosenberg could start for a vast majority of D3 teams, and CCIW fans will remember Burchett, who sat out last season, as a starter as a freshman in 2010-11.

Question for all:
* If Aaron Tiknis wasn't the best all-around player in the CCIW last year, who do you think was?   



 

[AndOne]

Malcolm Kelly should be one of the best players in the CCIW in 2012-13.  He can play.

Hell yes he can play! Great player. 
But, at 26 1/2 years old as of the start of the 2012-2013 season, this should come as no surprise to anyone. Should it?
Kelly's cousin Malcom isn't bad either. 

[Titan Q]

Question for all:
* If Aaron Tiknis wasn't the best all-around player in the CCIW last year, who do you think was?   

For me, M.O.P. Tim McCrary was the best all-around player last year...

McCrary - 18.9 ppg, 9.6 rpg, 3.2 apg, .524
Tiknis - 12.6 ppg, 6.9 rpg, 3.4 apg, .608 FG

(CCIW-only stats)

[AndOne]

My crystal ball sees this year as:

1. North Central
2. Carthage
3. Wesleyan
4. Augie
5. Wheaton
6. Elmhurst
7. North Park
8. Millikin

Your guess is as good as mine----so lets see it.   

[Titan Q]

Wesleyan

* I think we'll see Molinari open at PG. IWU70 likes Overstreet because he feels he is a better 3 point shooter. However, it must be remembered that the primary responsibility of the PG is to guide/direct the team. Also, the primary skills required from the PG in fulfilling that responsibility are getting the ball up court (ball handling) and then getting it to someone wearing the same color shirt (passing/assists) I don't believe Ron Rose will make to mistake of basing his choice for starting PG on who can shoot the 3 better.
* I think the biggest question is who starts at SG and SF. If its Zimmer at SG, it looks like Ziemninik at the 3. Although, I think IWU's stronger lineup might be to start ? at SG and Zimmer at SF. Bringing Ziemnik off the bench would create a huge matchup problem for most other teams as they would be hard pressed to find someone who can match Andrew's combination of strength/inside scoring ability plus his ability to go outside and shoot a better than average percentage on deep 2s and 3 balls. There is no question as to IWU's PF. Off his solid performance of last year, Reed is the starter over Anderson at the C/F position.   

All good points.  A few thoughts...

I'm pretty sure the PG competition between 6-1 David Molinari and 6-3 Dylan Overstreet will be wide-open when practice starts.  These are two very different PGs, but each brings some good stuff to the floor.

• Molinari is the prototypical PG - good ball-handler, good passer.  He also has a really good pull-up 15-foot jumpshot that is very hard to stop.  Molinari is not really a "scorer", but I could see him averaging 10 points per game in IWU's up-tempo offense.  He is also an oustanding perimeter defender.   
  
  
• Overstreet is definitely a "combo guard", but can handle it well enough to play the 1.  He brings good size to the PG spot (a legit 6-3) and can score in a variety of ways, including being a very good 3-point shooter.  Overstreet is also known as an extremely hard worker off the floor and a great leader on it.

It could be until right before the first game (Nov 16) that Ron Rose sorts the PG spot out -- I think it's that tight going in.  I know that Rose likes both Molinari and Overstreet a lot and is optimistic about his PG options for 2012-13.

As far as the 2 and 3 spots go, I think Brady Zimmer will start at the 2 (backed up by the D2 transfer, Pat Sodemann), with Andrew Ziemnik given every chance to win the small forward starting job.  I'm a huge Ziemnik fan -- he is the ultimate blue collar/dirty work guy, but he also has a lot of offensive game.  He reminds me of former Titans Matt Hoder ('98) and John Camardella ('03) in a lot of ways, but he's more talented than both.  Ziemnik won't be able to defend every D3 3-man...but on the flip side, he is going to be a matchup problem for a lot of teams.  I just feel like Ziemnik has to be on the floor as much as possible for the Titans to be a great team this year.  He just seems to bring toughness and basketball savy to the Titans.

I'm really looking forward to watching it all play out as the season unfolds.  I think IWU has a lot of talent and a lot of depth at all 5 spots again.

[AndOne]

Question for all:
* If Aaron Tiknis wasn't the best all-around player in the CCIW last year, who do you think was?   

For me, M.O.P. Tim McCrary was the best all-around player last year...

McCrary - 18.9 ppg, 9.6 rpg, 3.2 apg, .524
Tiknis - 12.6 ppg, 6.9 rpg, 3.4 apg, .608 FG

(CCIW-only stats)

Also CCIW only stats).....

A/TO Ratio--Tiknis 1.30, McCrary 1.02
3 point shooting %---Tiknis .568, McCrary .000.
Despite taking 44 threes compared to only 1 for McCrary, Tiknis shot .608 from the field where McCrary's mark was .524
2 outstanding players to be sure.

[D-3 watcher]

If I get first pick, I'm taking McCrary, but I wouldn't be unhappy if Tiknis was around for my next pick.

[Gregory Sager]

That's pretty much my take as well.

[iwu70]

I'm in the McCrary over Tiknis camp for sure.

Q, good points about the IWU PG situation.  Both Molinari and Overstreet have their strengths and it should be a very good competition to see who gets the starting nod.  I agree on Molinari's 15 foot, pull-up game.  Very nice, could be very productive, esp. to get 10-12 points per game from him in that regard.  May come down to who Ron Rose thinks is the better perimeter defender, though with all the productive and tough bigs IWU has, the three ball will be there for the taking, so we gotta make those.  Several of IWU bigs are pretty good trey shooters -- Ziemnik, Musselman, Davis, and Heyen.  Sure hope Brady Zimmer is fully healthy and ready to make his mark on the IWU basketball tradition, slashing and from the trey line. 

What is your take on Sondemann and his skills, prospects for IWU these coming two years?  I have not seen him play at all, even tapes of him.  Sure is nice to have a strong rotation, deep players of quality at all positions.

PG  Overstreet-Molinari
SG  Zimmer-Sondemann-Oswald
SF  Zeimnik-Dortch-Heyen
PF  Davis-Zeimnik-Musselman-Wiggs
C  Reed-Anderson-Musselman

Agree that Zeimnik is going to be on the floor alot more this year.  He's looking bigger, stronger, with lots of hair this year!  And, feel that Nick Anderson will also be on the floor a bit more this year.  Lots of interesting combinations and rotations possible here.  Davis looks in outstanding shape. 

To me, key will be how well the various options at SG work out and how much improvement, esp. offensively, there will be in the rotation of bigs, esp. Dortch and Anderson.  IMHO.  Let's hope the injury bug doesn't bite this year.  The rotation could easily be 11-12 deep, without much loss of overall talent, all kinds of interesting combos depending on the opponent, situation and opportunity.  Again, IMHO.

IWU70

[Titan Q]

The rotation could easily be 11-12 deep, without much loss of overall talent, all kinds of interesting combos depending on the opponent, situation and opportunity.  Again, IMHO.

IWU70

But the rotation won't be 11-12 deep, 70...when games start Ron Rose will settle on a 9-10 man rotation as always.  Rotations of more than 10 just really don't seem to work.  And because of that reality, I'm confident you are listing some guys who have very little chance of seeing varsity time in 2012-13. 

[Titan Q]

What is your take on Sondemann and his skills, prospects for IWU these coming two years?  I have not seen him play at all, even tapes of him.  Sure is nice to have a strong rotation, deep players of quality at all positions.

You're off to a bad start spelling our new D2 transfer's name, 70...especially considering his brother was our grad assistant the last 2 seasons.

I watched Pat Sodemann play 3 high school games in 2009-10 when Ron Rose was originally recruiting him as a HS senior (and I was living in Columbia, Mo).  Sodemann is an extremely smart, solid, and steady combo guard - he played PG in HS but is probably more of a SG at the college level.  He's not flashy at all, but is just very fundamentally sound is every way.  Sodemann is from a basketball family -- dad was the head coach at Parkway West HS for a long time, older brother Chip played at D2 Truman State, and older brother Buddy played at D3 Westminster (and was just IWU's grad asst, and is now the Asst Coach at D3 Loras). 

I remember Sodemann being a good caretaker of the basketball and a pure FT shooter.  I can see him being on the floor down the stretch of close games for his ability to handle the ball and knock down big FT's.  I never saw him shoot the 3 enough to know how well he does from beyond the arc.

Think Stephen Rudnicki -- similar in many ways.  I don't see him starting (because I think Brady Zimmer is better), but he'll make a really solid backup guard.  I have to believe Pat Sodemann will be right in the middle of Ron Rose's perimeter rotation this year.

 
http://www.iwusports.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=2819&path=mbball

http://www.trumanbulldogs.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=862

http://gobulldogs.truman.edu/articles.asp?id=3249

[iwu70]

Thanks, Q, for the assessment of Sodemann.  Yes, I'll try to spell his name correctly as a courtesy, though he hasn't even played a single game for the Titans as yet.  I usually don't get the spelling right on these guys 'til they're at least seniors, right?  So, he gets a correct spelling, at least once, a year early.  Hope he turns out to be a good contributor, a la Rudnicki.  That would be terrific as a good back-up for Molinari and Overstreet.  Yes, I agree that the rotation will likely be smaller, but still nice to have the depth.  Of the ones I've mentioned, I'm high on all of them, but especially think Musselman will see some additional time backing up the other more experienced bigs, esp. when foul trouble or injury or other issues come into play . . . as they always seem to do each season.  Let's hope not, but I'm sure there will be something this year  . . . as there are most years.  Only one likely senior (Reed) in this entire rotation picture, right? 

It will be interesting to see the new freshmen group/JV group soon too and see what we have in the way of talent coming down the road. 

IWU70

[iwu70]

Hey, Ypsi, TITAN football @ Hope this weekend.  Hope you can make it there, raise the Titan flag.  Wish I could go.

Hope all goes well for you and the family.  New class newsletter out in a few days -- on Titanpride.org

IWU70