MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[iwu70]

AO, very very sorry to hear about the loss of your nephew.  My condolences to you and all your family. 

IWU70

[iwu70]

EC over Webster 73-53 with about 10 minutes to go.  So looks like EC will get their first win.

Nick Sanford looks like an All-CCIW player to me.

IWU70

[iwu70]

Trine 70 NPU 57 FINAL

In that Elmhurst game, Sanford had something like 25 and 10, with EC winning big.

IWU70

[Titan Q]

I watched the 2nd half of Grinnell's 105-94 win @ MWC favorite St. Norbert.  It's the third time I've watched a pretty good chunk of a Grinnell game (not counting the scam record game).  I tell you what, Grinnell is a pretty darn good basketball team.  They run their system this year better than I've ever seen it run.  On offense they don't just chuck bad 3s...they seem to get a lot of great looks, both inside and out.  And on defense, they don't give up a lot of wide-open layups after their initial fullcourt pressure.  They seem to recover really well and make the opponent execute in the halfcourt offense.

While Jack Taylor's 138-point effort was a contrived scam, that kid is a legitimate Division III All-American-caliber player.  He likes to get the ball beyond the arc and dribble back and forth between his right and left hand, looking for the defender to commit in some way.  From there he likes to pull up quickly for a 3 off the dribble (where he's a really good shooter), or penetrate for a little 15 footer.  Any D3 team in the country would love to have Jack Taylor.  Today he had 36 points in 18 minutes (9-18 FG, 6-13 3-point, 12-13 FT).

If I'm a D3 tournament team that can't put 4 guys on the floor at all times who can handle the ball, I wouldn't want to get paired up with this Grinnell team in March.

[Gregory Sager]

So sorry to hear about your family's loss, Mark.

[Gregory Sager]

Trine 70
North Park 57

Mark Holmes: 17 pts, 14 rebs
Aaron Weaver: 15 pts

This was a very poorly-played game by NPU. The Vikings coughed up the ball 16 times, didn't shoot the ball well (42% from the field, only 22% from downtown), and were beat off the dribble consistently all day, with nary any help D coming over from the weak side. Apart from Mark Holmes, everybody in a white uniform basically went through the motions today. The Vikings simply don't have either the talent or the depth to get away with anything less than a full effort from everybody, unless they're playing a second-division SLIAC team. And Trine isn't a SLIAC team, although it's no juggernaut, either. The Thunder were beatable, but in NPU's situation it's gotta be all hands on deck if the Vikes want to beat a team of Trine's caliber or better. The Vikings took a step backwards today.

I'll give Trine credit, though; the Thunder's ballhandling is superb. They only turned it over seven times today (a couple of times in the last two and a half minutes when the game was basically in the bag), and that's no accident. The Thunder average less than eight TOs a game, while their opponents average about 17. That's a formula for winning ballgames.

Ian Jackson went off for 31 points today for Trine. Two years ago in the crackerbox he scored 33 against the Park. Looks like he picked the wrong school.

Unfortunately i can hear Jay-Z and Kanye West really well...Greg Sager not so much.  No trouble with the crowd mic, that's for sure.

How was it when the P.A. wasn't playing music, though?

[Gregory Sager]

Scores from last night that never got mentioned:

Missouri Baptist 81, Millikin 77
Coe 70, Carthage 63

Scores from today thus far:

Trine 70, NPU 57
Elmhurst 87, Webster 70
Mid-Continent 78, Millikin 72 (OT)

[Titan Q]

How was it when the P.A. wasn't playing music, though?

When the P.A. was not playing music I could hear you, Greg, but the sound of the basketball bouncing or a shoe squeaking, or the ref's whistle blowing would drown you out.  Literally nothing you said in the pregame was audible and most play-by-play during the game was challenging to hear.

It was almost as if you had a crowd mic with the level jacked way up and at the same time had your headset level way too low, or even at zero.  Maybe the camera has a mic that was picking up all that in-the-gym noise?

Either way, I appreciated the chance to watch another CCIW team play today.

[Gregory Sager]

How was it when the P.A. wasn't playing music, though?

When the P.A. was not playing music I could hear you, Greg, but the sound of the basketball bouncing or a shoe squeaking, or the ref's whistle blowing would drown you out.  Literally nothing you said in the pregame was audible and most play-by-play during the game was challenging to hear.

It was almost as if you had a crowd mic with the level jacked way up and at the same time had your headset level way too low, or even at zero.  Maybe the camera has a mic that was picking up all that in-the-gym noise?

Either way, I appreciated the chance to watch another CCIW team play today.

I'll look into it. We're using a brand-new service (Livestream), and we had new equipment today as well. Thanks for the feedback.

[74impala]

AndOne...so sorry to read about your nephew.  Your family will be in my prayer.

[iwu70]

Looks like SP beats Augie.

[Gregory Sager]

UWSP 67, Augie 59

Brandon Kunz: 13 pts
Mark Roth: 12 pts
Ben Ryan: 11 pts, 10 rebs
Danielis Jurgutis: 10 pts

Augie had a nine-rebound advantage, but turned the ball over 17 times to UWSP's 7.

Kevin Schlitter didn't play for Augie.

[Gregory Sager]

North Central beats Simpson in a walk, 65-46.

[Gregory Sager]

Timeout, Wheaton. WC has the ball with three seconds left. Still tied at 64.

[Gregory Sager]

Tyler Peters drops in a fadeaway 18-footer at the buzzer, and Wheaton wins, 66-64.

Fun game to watch.