MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

touche.

[Titan Q]

Here is an article from today's Pantagraph about Deb Remmerde of Northwestern College in Iowa.  Remmerde made 133 FT's in a row before missing this week.

http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2006/02/10/sports/106242.txt

Randy Kindred interviewed former Titan Korey Coon for the piece.  Coon made 70 in a row between the end of his junior year and start of his senior campaign.  The line that struck me was:

These days, Coon's play is confined to a Caterpillar League, where he is a teammate of former Elmhurst star Ryan Knuppel.

Everyone realize how ridiculous that backcourt must be in the CAT league?  Coon was a CCIW M.O.P. in 1999 and 2000 and Knuppel in 2001.  Two of the best shooters, any level, you will ever see.  In Korey's career, he made 245-526 3-pointers (.466).  From the FT line over the course of 4 years he was 449-492 (.913), including 157-163 (.963) his senior year.  Knuppel was 79-176 (.449) from 3 as a senior and 105-115 (.913) from the FT line.  (I don't have his career stats).  I'm not sure if that CAT team has any other good players, but whoever they are, they must be open a lot.

[Titan Q]

Thought I'd check Keelan Amelianovich's 3-pt stats to see how they compare the Coon and Knuppel.  For his career, Keelan is 223-460 (.484) from beyond the arc through Wednesday.  48% from 3 with 460 attempts...that is just amazing.  This season so far, Keelan is 68-138 (.493).

IWU's all-time 3-point FG made list...

1. Korey Coon 245 (1996 - 2000)
2. Mark Edmundson 235 (1986 - 1990)
3. Keelan Amelianovich 223 (2002 - through Wed.)

The scary thing is, Keelan was a JV player as a freshman.  (He was 6-13 from 3 in varsity mop-up time in 2002-03.)  He's knocking on the door of two 4-year guys.


Not sure who all is on the short list of "best shooters" in the history of the CCIW, but Keelan Amelianovich, Korey Coon, and Ryan Knuppel sure are.

[robberki]

I'd nominate Rick Alspach as one of the CCIW's great shooters, and Dan Hill.

[Gregory Sager]

Dan Hill was a flat-out amazing shooter, especially since he had no mobility at all and every team North Park played knew that Hill was strictly in the game to spot up and shoot. For three years every trey attempt he took was made with a hand in his face. And it seemed as though he never missed.

Freddie Kruse, who was a Viking before the introduction of the three-point line in the mid-eighties, was Hill's only rival for accuracy among the long-range bombers I've seen at the Park. Kruse's successor at off guard, Adam Lazich, and his successor, 1988 CCIW MOP Mike Barach, were a couple of great shooters as well.

The best opposing shooter I can remember watching in the era before Coon, Knuppel, and Amelianovich was Kirk Anderson of Augustana back in the early nineties. It seemed like he was making twenty-foot layups every time that I saw him play. Scott Slocum of North Central and Brian Horst of Millikin used to kill the Vikings from behind the arc as well.

The CCIW's single-season mark for trey accuracy belongs to Rob Bady of North Park, which is funny because Bady wasn't a shooter per se. He was a 5'8" pass-first, penetrating PG who was a decent shooter but didn't take a lot of jumpers. But for one year -- 1990, his junior season -- he was unstoppable, canning 27 of 45 trey attempts in CCIW play for a .600 shooting percentage that will probably never be topped in this league. That added up to fewer than three trey attempts per game in the 16-game CCIW schedule that everyone played back then when Carroll was still in the league, but the league rules say that you need a minimum of 16 made treys to qualify for the season, and he easily did that. Bady picked his spots, and he picked them well.

Best trey-shooting big man I've ever seen? That would be CCIW Chat's own Rob Berki, who led the league in 2001 by knocking 'em down at a .514 clip. I think he snuck away and practiced his treys when the rest of the NPU big men were supposed to be doing their defensive drills. 

[dansand]

If we're not limiting it to the three-point era, I'll throw out a guy who probably none of you remember, except maybe Dennis. Glen Heiden (1976-79) from Augie shot 55% for his career (never below 54% in a season) and I don't think I remember him taking more than a handful of shots inside 15 feet in three years. He was about 6-5 and faded away on his jumper, so he was very difficult for smaller guards to defend. Comparing him to other Augie guys that most of you know (on shooting alone), I'd rank him ahead of Rick Harrigan or Kirk Anderson.

Continuing on Greg's big man theme, how about Augie's Josh Thompson. He never attempted a three-pointer until his junior year when he hit a school-record .574 (27-47). He shot .457 for his career from behind the arc.

[titanhammer]

I'd nominate Rick Alspach as one of the CCIW's great shooters, and Dan Hill.

Percentages aren't everything, but Hill's and Alspach's were .468 and .411.  The NP archives don't list the number of attempts.  Both of those are very good.

[Gregory Sager]

I'm sure that Alspach nosedived in the all-time NPU trey percentage standings as a result of the final game of his college career: An 0-13 effort from downtown against Elmhurst. It was his last game, and he was going head-to-head with a rival he really respected (Ryan Knuppel), and he just got a little too geeked up. He kept jacking 'em up waiting to get hot, as all shooters do, and he just fell flat on his face. Not that he lost the game for NPU or anything -- Knuppel basically put his team on his back down the stretch and pulled out the 60-56 win for the 'jays -- but it certainly wasn't the kind of night that's kind to someone's statistics.

[CardinalAlum]

Not sure who all is on the short list of "best shooters" in the history of the CCIW, but Keelan Amelianovich, Korey Coon, and Ryan Knuppel sure are.

Barach has to be extremely high on that list.  He was awesome!  I'd take any of these guys from NCC as well: Slocum, Lantz, Roy.

[diehardfan]

So when is the Hammer going to fall?  April has been conspicuously absent from the board.  I know she's probably not awake yet out there, but nothing even last night?  It's coming soon, I'm sure.

the hammer?   I think that name belongs to the new daddy in green...

Hoopsfan, I appreciate your concern. It's at least as funny as the fact that two of the official d3hoops.com people text messaged me on my phone while I was out at dinner before the game even ended just to tell me that Wheaton was going  to win.  

I was in arizona all week for a conference. A very, very frustrating one. So aside from the fact that I want to beat some idiots in the EPA who are trying to change a standard for ambient air quality that's going to seriously hurt tribes... not to mention everyone living in rural areas, it's been a nice week. Why? Cause my team knocked down the #3 team in the country.

I actually made a post that night, but it got deleted, and I was just too tired from a long day of work to try again. But I was really excited... just ask the dozen or more people I told about that don't care about d3basketball at all.

I am proud of the senior leadership of both Jordan Kemper and Tony Bollier, and I hope we get a shot at the conference tourney. I know that my favorite football memory comes from that time we stole an undefeated season from Augie on a last second QB draw by the young Chad Bradley, and Wheaton fans stormed the field. Did augie go on to the playoffs while we stayed home? Sure, but the momory is still very, very sweet, I am proud of my team, and glad the seniors get memories like this to take away with them after the year is over and their careers come to a close and they move on to more important things.

Go Wheaton! Conference tourney or bust!  

[augiefan]

Why does everyone's favorite memory seem to involve beating Augie, be it FB or BB? We actually are a pretty nice group as a whole. Maybe we party a little more than some of the other schools but that's not necessarily a bad thing. 

[augiefan]

I got to know Josh Thompson pretty well during that Final Four year. He was one big guy, but he had a real soft touch from the outside. Kirk Anderson's excellence has been noted frequently, and Aben Cooper was another great player on that team.

My favorite though on that team was reserve Lane Pitzer. He worked as hard as any kid I can remember to maximize his talent. He was a pretty good starter the following year, but Augie lost too much talent to contend for the title that year.

[David Collinge]

Coon was a CCIW M.O.P. in 1999 and 2000 and Knuppel in 2001.  Two of the best shooters, any level, you will ever see.  In Korey's career, he made 245-526 3-pointers (.466).  From the FT line over the course of 4 years he was 449-492 (.913), including 157-163 (.963) his senior year.  Knuppel was 79-176 (.449) from 3 as a senior and 105-115 (.913) from the FT line.  (I don't have his career stats). 

Apropos of nothing, but aware that many posters in here have a national interest, I thought I'd interject that Wooster is hitting .451 from the arc as a TEAM so far this year.  Arbitrarily limiting consideration to those players who have jacked up at least 50 attempts, we have three players hitting at a rate higher than the numbers posted for Coon and Knuppel above: Devin Fulk (46/86, .535), Andy Van Horn (27/55, .491) and James Cooper (44/90, .489).  None of the six players with at least 50 attempts is hitting less than 40% of those shots (and the remainder of the team is hitting .397 on treys, collectively 25 of 63.)

Fulk and Cooper are just sophomores; for their careers to date they are hitting .479 and .469, respectively.  Van Horn is a junior with a career percentage of .496.  Senior point guard Kyle Witucky has canned 194 treys in his career at a rate of .439. 

We've got more than our share of good three-point artists out east!

[79jaybird]

I'm surprised nobody put down John Camardella as a memorable shooter.  I can recall Camardella's 3 pointers in the clutch ( 2001 season)  really helping IWU win at the Shirk and at U of C in the Sweet 16.
Earlier somebody mentioned COY votes. I would vote for Bill Harris at Wheaton because he hasn't had the major horses to work with, and still has Wheaton playing at a respectable level.

[Stat]

Come to think of it, one of the best memories, is Antoine hitting the game winning shot at the mausoleum with no time.

And, speaking of Augie being a party school, I believe it.
It happens during every home game, in the dorms, frats and apts.  That is why the gym is kindly referred to as "The Masoleum!"