MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Titan Q]

Pretty good league when you have 4 teams ranked in the Top 25, and another that takes the #5 team in NAIA II to OT on the road.

[Gregory Sager]

Final from the middle of the wrist in the mitten:

Albion 83
North Park 76

Ryan Hyrn: 23 pts (6-9 trey)
Mark Holmes: 19 pts, 8 rebs
Zach Cassita: 8 asts

[Gregory Sager]

The Vikings dug a deep hole for themselves this evening, and despite an uncanny effort late in the game were unable to climb out of it. Trailing by a dozen at the half, NPU was down by as much as 18 points in the second half (56-38 with 14:55 left), but a quick 9-0 flurry in less than two minutes got the Park back into the game for the first time since the very outset. They cut the Britons' lead to as little as three (67-64) on a Ryan Hyrn trey with 5:04 to go and got the ball back twelve seconds later on a turnover, but that was as close as the Vikings got. They did trim the Albion lead back down to four with a little over a minute to go, but a possession that resulted in three close-in misses came to naught, and Albion sealed the game at the free-throw line.

NPU didn't shoot well from the field, going only .409 while surrendering .537 to Albion. The three NPU mainstays -- Mark Holmes, Zach Cassita, and Aaron Weaver -- shot only 15-41 (.366) from the field between them. The Vikes did eventually do well from downtown as a team after a shaky start (.367), thanks mainly to Hyrn's hot hand in the second half, and their free-throw shooting (11-12, .917) was a season best. But they lost the game on the glass; Albion outrebounded NPU badly to the tune of 42-25, which more than made up for the fact that the Brits turned the ball over six more times than did North Park.

Brett Peterson didn't play tonight. Not sure why.

This is a very disappointing loss. Albion was no great shakes to begin with, and the Britons recently lost two key players from their roster for undisclosed reasons. As encouraging as the second-half comeback was, the fact of the matter is that the Vikings never should've been down by 18 to this team in the first place. They've gone backwards in their last two games, and since this was already a team with no size and a thin roster in terms of serviceable players it's not a team that can afford to go backwards.

[petemcb]

What happened to Carthage tonight?!?!

[Gregory Sager]

The Red Men had their lunch handed to them tonight by St. Thomas (FL), 88-51. Mitch Thompson had 14 and Luke Johnson added 10 for Carthage. The Red Men were down by as much as 40 late in the game, but at some point earlier than that it appeared that Bosko simply put in his scrubs out of either disgust or a concern that his rotation players might get hurt in a game that was already lost.

The Red Men turned the ball over 22 times tonight, and shot horribly (36% from the field, and only 2-19 from downtown).

[blue_jays]

The Red Men had their lunch handed to them tonight by St. Thomas (FL), 88-51. Mitch Thompson had 14 and Luke Johnson added 10 for Carthage. The Red Men were down by as much as 40 late in the game, but at some point earlier than that it appeared that Bosko simply put in his scrubs out of either disgust or a concern that his rotation players might get hurt in a game that was already lost.

The Red Men turned the ball over 22 times tonight, and shot horribly (36% from the field, and only 2-19 from downtown).

I feel like this kind of result shows that Carthage is not top 4 material in the CCIW this year. There's just no way I see NCC, Wheaton, IWU or Augie getting smoked like that against any opponent.

[AndOne]

Speaking of the Redmen.........

Well, this article from the Kenosha News should get things buzzing:

One piece missing.

The Red Men return a majority of last year's squad, but one noticeable absence is leading scorer Malcom Kelly (19.4 points per game). Calling it "paperwork eligibility issues" and "not a grade issue," Djurickovic said that the 26-year-old senior guard could rejoin the team for the second semester.

Kelly, a Reuther graduate, ranks 25th on Carthage's career scoring list with 1,045 points.

"The thing that Malcom provided for us was he was an excellent, excellent shooter and he was an excellent shooter in big games," Djurickovic said about the first-team All-CCIW performer.

Carthage is now past the end of the 1st semester without an appearance by Malcom Kelly so it appears the "paperwork eligibility issues" were Boskospeak for something more serious.
Kelly was formerly listed on the Carthage roster without a number, but now his name has been removed entirely.
What will Kelly's absence portend for Carthage in the conference race?

[Gregory Sager]

Carthage is now past the end of the 1st semester without an appearance by Malcom Kelly so it appears the "paperwork eligibility issues" were Boskospeak for something more serious.
Kelly was formerly listed on the Carthage roster without a number, but now his name has been removed entirely.
What will Kelly's absence portend for Carthage in the conference race?

Being taken off of the online roster is a pretty definitive step. I think it's now safe to say that Malcom Kelly will not be a Red Man, at least not this year.

The Red Men had their lunch handed to them tonight by St. Thomas (FL), 88-51. Mitch Thompson had 14 and Luke Johnson added 10 for Carthage. The Red Men were down by as much as 40 late in the game, but at some point earlier than that it appeared that Bosko simply put in his scrubs out of either disgust or a concern that his rotation players might get hurt in a game that was already lost.

The Red Men turned the ball over 22 times tonight, and shot horribly (36% from the field, and only 2-19 from downtown).

I feel like this kind of result shows that Carthage is not top 4 material in the CCIW this year. There's just no way I see NCC, Wheaton, IWU or Augie getting smoked like that against any opponent.

Kelly or no Kelly, I wouldn't be too hasty to write off Carthage just yet. Yeah, the Red Men were toxically bad last night, and their 4-6 record is certainly ugly. But there's still a chance that Bosko could pull off a Raridon and somehow manage to transmogrify a seemingly terrible November and December into a terrific January and February. The reason why I say that is twofold:

First, while I haven't seen more than bits and pieces of a couple of Carthage games online, I've seen enough to know that Bosko isn't just blowing smoke up our collective nether regions when he says that he has a good basketball team this year (which he insists upon saying in every Steve Marovich postgame writeup). Donte Logan, Reese Herth, Luke Johnson, Mitch Thompson, Tyler Pierce, Marlon Senior, Kevin Sykes -- that's a pretty good group of basketball players.

Second, as bad as the 4-6 record looks at first blush, it bears further examination. Carthage has beaten a fairly decent 6-3 Buena Vista team and a very good 7-2 Calvin team, with both wins coming at neutral sites. The Red Men lost by a single point to a 7-2 Carroll team in Carroll's Van Male Gym. They lost by five to #6 UW-Whitewater, a game in which the Red Men were down by two and had the ball in the final minute. And they lost in overtime to the #5 team in NAIA-2, Northwood (FL).

The Red Men have played a few stinkers, it's true. Last night's boot in the butt by NAIA-2 #18 St. Thomas (FL) is one example, and although Hope is a good team, the Red Men's 12-point loss to the Dutch really wasn't as close as the score indicated. And the loss at Coe by seven was not a good one, given the up-and-down season that the Kohawks have had thus far, even though les hommes rouge were without Luke Johnson's services that night.

I think a case can be made that Carthage has done OK against an extremely tough schedule, all things considered. Could it have been better, given the team's talent level? Sure. Could it have been worse? Yes, believe it or not; that kind of a schedule would've absolutely ground NPU, Elmhurst, or Millikin into a fine powder and left nothing for them to show for it.

I'm not saying that Carthage is going to make the top four. I'm just not ready at this point to call it an impossibility.

[bopol]

As a Carthage fan, I'd say without Kelly they are likely heading towards fourth or fifth in the CCIW, but Greg is right.  There has been some encouraging play (with a really tough schedule) and I'll add that the lose to Coe was without Luke Johnson as well.

The team just has no depth now.  Jaskulske (who would have added depths to the bigs) is out for the year.  That leaves Thompson, Pierce and Johnson as the three bigs.  Kelly seems to be gone, which means that they have Logan, Herth, Senior and Sykes, Jr. as their guards/small forwards.

That's 7 players.  Now, it looks like Kiston Lee and van Wyk will stay in the mix, and I like both as good 10-12 minute a game types as they play hard, but if any of the top 7 get hurt, Carthage will have real troubles.

For my expectations, I think Carthage can go 8-6 in the CCIW (they will play with the top teams in Kenosha as evidenced by hanging in there against Whitewater), but will have troubles on the road.  Donte Logan will be the key to any given night.  The kid is a very good player, but that's a lot of pressure on a sophomore.

[Hardwood]

Where did everyone go?

[AndOne]

Congrats to Derek Raridon of North Central, the current CCIW Player Of The Week.
Derek is the second NCC Cardinal to receive the honor this season, following Landon Gamble having rec'd the award for the week of 11/26.

http://www.cciw.org/news/2012/12/17/MBB_1217125817.aspx

[AndOne]

Looks like Elmhurst went to the Grinnell System to pummel Benedictine Thurs night. 

From the EC basketball web site: 

Morgunov with 113 points and four rebounds.   

[Titan Q]

IWU is in Orlando for a tournament at the RDV Sportsplex.  Schedule...

* Tonight vs Mississippi College, 7:00pm ET/6:00pm CT

* Tomorrow vs Hope, 3:00pm ET/2:00pm CT

Pantagraph article on the FL games - http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/illinois-wesleyan/iwu-to-play-a-pair-of-games-in-florida/article_f1c7273a-4b1f-11e2-962e-0019bb2963f4.html


Last night Mississippi College defeated Hope 82-73 - http://www.hope.edu/athletics/mbb/stats/1213/1220miss.htm.

Mississippi College (5-4) key players:

Starters
G - Turmonte Ragland, 6-0 Jr (12.3 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 2.6 apg)

G - Daryl Duncan, 6-1 Jr (7.7 ppg, 2.6, 1.6 apg)

G - Laquavius Cotton, 6-6 Jr (9.2 ppg, 3.9 rpg)

F - Lakin Ford, 6-5 Sr (8.4 ppg, 4.0 rpg)

F - Adam Smith, 6-5 Sr (6.7 ppg, 7.1 rpg)

Top Reserves
G - Brandon Blake, 6-3 Jr (15.0 ppg, 3.9 rpg)

F - Cameron Bounds, 6-7 Jr (5.8 ppg, 5.7 rpg)

F - Vic McLin, Jr - 6-6 Jr (4.0 ppg, 3.6 rpg)


IWU (6-2) will once again be without perimeter players Mike Mayberger (10.1 ppg) and Brady Zimmer (9.2 ppg).  Hard to know what the expect in this game considering that the Titans have been so inconsistent in the non-conference, and that these are two very differenct teams that just don't know much about each other.

The game can be heard on WJBC radio - http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/wjbc.portal#

[Gregory Sager]

Elmhurst defeated Benedictine pretty easily last night, 81-64. Nick Sanford had a 22 and 11 double-double, Taylor Baxter had 15 points and six assists, Bryant Ackerman had 14 points, and Alex Morgunov chipped in 13. D'Ante Foster also contributed five assists, while Kenny Payonk had a nice night on the boards, collecting eight caroms.

[Gregory Sager]

NPU hosts UW-LaCrosse tonight in an early 6 pm start. The Eagles are 8-1, with their lone loss coming at the hands of UW-Whitewater. Given what Tom Slyder has available to work with, and the desultory play of the Vikings in their two recent losses, I do not have high hopes for this game. I am completely open to the Vikings providing me with a nice Christmas surprise, of course , but NPU has to be seen as a significant underdog in tonight's contest.

UWL actually doesn't put a ton of size on the floor in terms of starters, which is a break for undersized NPU:

Lucas Morrissey	6'4, 220, Sr.	11.7 ppg, 8.0 rpg
Lucas Collum	6'5, 210, So.	8.6 ppg, 7.0 rpg
Luke Tweed	6'6, 195, Jr.	12.0 ppg, 2.6 rpg
Braden Tice	6'1, 175, Jr.	8.6 ppg, 1.8 rpg
Jeff Heiden	6'0, 165, Sr.	13.0 ppg, 2.1 rpg

Way too many guys named Luke on that team.

The key reserves are 6'3, 190 sophomore Connor DeBruin (2.4, 2.0), 6'4, 245 senior Brock McMullen (2.0, 4.0), 6'9, 190 sophomore Cale Zuiker (5.1, 1.8), 5'8, 165 sophomore Johnny Coenen (1.7, 0.4), and 6'3, 195 sophomore Trent Schmidt (0.7, 0.6). Zuiker is a transfer from Youngstown State, although I don't know if he was scholarship or walk-on for the Penguins; his playing time for YSU last season was pretty modest. Heiden didn't play at all in UWL's last game two weeks ago; Coenen started in his place.

Rob and I will be on the call for tonight's webcast. We're looking to call a nice big upset tonight.