MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[iwu70]

Great road win by the Titans @ WC, at King Arena . . . we'll "steal it" for sure.  Several good performances by the Titans tonight -- Davis, Zimmer and Reed.  I sure hope Ron Rose has them at Shirk tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. shooting free throws.  That was potentially disastrous after leading by 20.  Whew!  Great rebounding, but that was truly ugly from the charity stripe tonight. 

Nice to start the CCIW season with a great road win over a top tier opponent.  Q, a "signature" win?

Hope MU gets their win tonight.  I thought Carthage would play better.

IWU70

[Titan Q]

In a game involving two good teams, that's the most I have ever seen one team manhandle another physically.  IWU physically dominated the Thunder during the first 25 minutes or so (at which point that game was just about over).  In terms of the battle of strength, it almost looked like IWU was playing a bottom tier SLIAC team or something like that (one of those games where one team just doesn't have the horses to compete). It was shocking because Wheaton has some size and strength, even without Nathan Haynes.

Big road win for the Titans to start CCIW play.

[Gregory Sager]

Millikin 71, Carthage 59.

The streak is over!

[Titan Q]

IWU got a number of solid performances tonight...

* Brady Zimmer: 20 pts, 2 reb, 3 assists (6-8 FG, 1-1 3-point, 7-8 FT)
* Pat Sodemann: 18 pts, 4 reb
* Victor Davis: 13 pts, 8 reb
* Kevin Reed: 9 pts, 7 reb
* Dylan Overstreet: 8 pts, 7 reb, 3 assists
* Andrew Ziemnik: 7 pts, 8 reb


Having Brady Zimmer and Pat Sodemann healthy really makes IWU a different team.  The Titans played without both for a good part of the non-conference season.

[Gregory Sager]

The Big Blue had a 12-0 run over a 3 1/2 minute stretch early in the second half, and their lead never dipped below nine down the stretch. They led by as much as 16 in the second half, as four Millikinites -- Trent Windemuller (16), Tommy Pilackas (16), T.J. Griffin (10), and Jaylon Owens (10) -- hit double figures. Owens also had 13 boards. The Johnson-less Red Men had only one player in double figures -- Tyler Pierce (19) -- while Marlon Senior had ten boards.

I have two comments on this game: Congratulations! and Whew!

Congratulations! to Matt Nadelhoffer on his first CCIW win and for breaking that 34-game CCIW losing streak.

Whew! in that NPU, which faces Millikin on Saturday, won't be saddled with the ignominy of being the first team to lose to the Big Blue in CCIW play in two and a half years.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Great road win by the Titans @ WC, at King Arena . . . we'll "steal it" for sure.  Several good performances by the Titans tonight -- Davis, Zimmer and Reed.  I sure hope Ron Rose has them at Shirk tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. shooting free throws.  That was potentially disastrous after leading by 20.  Whew!  Great rebounding, but that was truly ugly from the charity stripe tonight. 

Nice to start the CCIW season with a great road win over a top tier opponent.  Q, a "signature" win?

Hope MU gets their win tonight.  I thought Carthage would play better.

IWU70

The livestats have gone away, and the box score is not yet up, but I believe IWU actually shot better from the line than Wheaton.   And the 'Hack-a-Shaq' on Reed backfired, as he went 5-6 from the line!

[Titan Q]

A lot of credit goes to IWU head coach Ron Rose on this one.  The Titans not only dominated the physical battle in the first 25 minutes or so, but I felt like they won the X's and O's matchup as well.  Rose guarded Tyler Peters with his big 3's (Andrew Ziemnik primarily, Mike Mayberger when Ziemnik went out), preventing Peters from getting easy post-up baskets on the blocks.  Peters had 1 point at halftime.  Rose's offense also looked extremely crisp in that first half, with the Titans getting easy basket after easy basket.  That's just not easy to do against Wheaton...ever.

I think Mike Schauer is a tremendous coach, so it's with the utmost respect that I say that I feel like Ron Rose won the head coach battle tonight too.

Just a great all-around effort by the Titans.

[Gregory Sager]

In his post-game comments, Mike Schauer said that several Wheaton players besides Haynes didn't practice all week because of the flu. But he did not hold that up as an excuse, although one of the WETN guys tried to run the illness thing up the flagpole in the interview. I heard Mike say three times during the interview, "We didn't deserve to win." Mike's a stand-up guy.

[CCIWchamps]

Wheaton shouldn't have been anywhere near the Titans in this one- missing size inside, having no legs, and getting a terrible whistle.  Their 2nd half to keep it close is all the more impressive.  Good adjustments at halftime, and if you take away either of the blown charge calls on Peters and you have a 3 point play which ties the game.  I hope they address some of the issues by Saturday and play NCC like their 2nd half today: a lot more hustle and composure.  IWU's experience really dictated the first 2.5 quarters on this one.

[Titan Q]

Wheaton shouldn't have been anywhere near the Titans in this one- missing size inside, having no legs, and getting a terrible whistle. 

I think IWU dominated the first 25 minutes too thoroughly to really use those excuses.  It was 57-34 with 15:00 to play in this game.

[CCIWchamps]

Rose guarded Tyler Peters with his big 3's (Andrew Ziemnik primarily, Mike Mayberger when Ziemnik went out), preventing Peters from getting easy post-up baskets on the blocks.  Peters had 1 point at halftime. 

They defended him really well in that first half, and that killed the Wheaton flow.  More of his points in the 2nd came from drives and slashes rather than post ups.  (I'm still shaking my head about his drive to the hoop where the defender took the charge from the end line I think...) If Teuscher hadn't started being aggressive in that first half, Wheaton would've been in even worse shape.

[Gregory Sager]

A lot of credit goes to IWU head coach Ron Rose on this one.  The Titans not only dominated the physical battle in the first 25 minutes or so, but I felt like they won the X's and O's matchup as well.  Rose guarded Tyler Peters with his big 3's (Andrew Ziemnik primarily, Mike Mayberger when Ziemnik went out), preventing Peters from getting easy post-up baskets on the blocks.  Peters had 1 point at halftime.  Rose's offense also looked extremely crisp in that first half, with the Titans getting easy basket after easy basket.  That's just not easy to do against Wheaton...ever.

I think Mike Schauer is a tremendous coach, so it's with the utmost respect that I say that I feel like Ron Rose won the head coach battle tonight too.

Come on, Bob. You're really reaching here. Tyler Peters finished the night with 26 points and 6 assists.

One of the marks of good coaching is, as CCIWchamps said, the ability to make great halftime adjustments.

[Titan Q]

A lot of credit goes to IWU head coach Ron Rose on this one.  The Titans not only dominated the physical battle in the first 25 minutes or so, but I felt like they won the X's and O's matchup as well.  Rose guarded Tyler Peters with his big 3's (Andrew Ziemnik primarily, Mike Mayberger when Ziemnik went out), preventing Peters from getting easy post-up baskets on the blocks.  Peters had 1 point at halftime.  Rose's offense also looked extremely crisp in that first half, with the Titans getting easy basket after easy basket.  That's just not easy to do against Wheaton...ever.

I think Mike Schauer is a tremendous coach, so it's with the utmost respect that I say that I feel like Ron Rose won the head coach battle tonight too.

Come on, Bob. You're really reaching here. Tyler Peters finished the night with 26 points and 6 assists.

One of the marks of good coaching is, as CCIWchamps said, the ability to make great halftime adjustments.

You don't think it was a significant deal that Tyler Peters had 1 point at halftime?  (At which point IWU had opened up a 19-point lead.)

[Gregory Sager]

You don't think it's a significant deal that he scored 25 in the second half?

[CCIWchamps]

Wheaton shouldn't have been anywhere near the Titans in this one- missing size inside, having no legs, and getting a terrible whistle. 

I think IWU dominated the first 25 minutes too thoroughly to really use those excuses.  It was 57-34 with 15:00 to play in this game.

Don't get me wrong- those aren't excuses.  Those are terrible things in addition to getting dominated.  At the rate they were all adding up, 10 minutes into the game it seemed like 95-50 was a legitimate final score possibility.