MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Titan Q]

Wilmington, IWU's first round opponent at the Hope tournament, beat D1 Miami (Ohio) today...

http://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2013/11/wilmington-knocks-off-d1-miami

This was the first win by a D3 team over a D1 in 3 years.

[Titan Q]

Final from Aurora:

Aurora 91
North Central 82

[Titan Q]

Final from Kenosha:

Dubuque 93
Carthage 89 (OT)

http://athletics.carthage.edu/boxscore.aspx?id=2886&path=mbball

Carthage led by 17 at halftime.

[Titan Q]

Final from Wooster, OH:

#8 Wooster 77
#5 Wheaton 73

[rollthunder]

Wooster 77
Wheaton 73

Tough, tough loss for the thunder. Turnovers were costly for the Thunder. Wooster is a solid team that played very well.

[titanfan]

Rough night for the CCIW so far.  Let's hope the titans get us a win!

[Mugsy]

Final from Wooster, OH:

#8 Wooster 77
#5 Wheaton 73

Wooster with 22 more shot attempts (82-60) and Wheaton with 10 more turnovers (18-8).  Seems to have been the primary difference in the outcome. 

Wheaton with too many turnovers per game thus far.

[Titan Q]

Wheaton/Wooster boxscore - http://wooster.prestosports.com/sports/mbkb/2013-14/boxscores/20131123_9e3k.xml

Wheaton basically just plays two guys off the bench - guards Tad Fisher and Michael Kvam.  Wheaton is so thin at the 4/5 spots that Nate Haynes had to play 39 minutes.

Michael Berg quiet again from the 4 spot - 2 pts, 2 reb.

[AppletonRocks]

Elmhurst pounds Lawrence on the boards and shoots the lights out 96-81

http://blogs.lawrence.edu/highlights/2013/11/vikings-fall-to-hot-shooting-ackerman-elmhurst.html

[USee]

Wheaton/Wooster boxscore - http://wooster.prestosports.com/sports/mbkb/2013-14/boxscores/20131123_9e3k.xml

Wheaton basically just plays two guys off the bench - guards Tad Fisher and Michael Kvam.  Wheaton is so thin at the 4/5 spots that Nate Haynes had to play 39 minutes.

Michael Berg quiet again from the 4 spot - 2 pts, 2 reb.

If Wheaton doesn't get consistent production from the 3 and 4 spot they are going to struggle against the top teams on their schedule. If Berg goes on 3-4 game stretches of 2pts 2 rebounds, the Thunder aren't going to be successful against IWU, Augie, and quite likely NCC, Millikin and Augie. They don't even need the scoring help from Berg/Peters as much as they need the rebounding and defensive pressure. Someone else is going to have to step up on that roster besides the main 3.

[iwu70]

Good for Elmhurst.  Yes, a rough night, really a rough season so far for most of the CCIW.  Not a very good result so far.  Millikin is looking better and better to me.

IWU70

[AppletonRocks]

Elmhurst not too imaginative on offense, just chucked it in at a high % from deep and had a great rebounding night.  The latter is on Lawrence. 

[Gregory Sager]

Elmhurst not too imaginative on offense, just chucked it in at a high % from deep and had a great rebounding night.  The latter is on Lawrence. 

Quite a day for Bryant Ackerman -- 29 points on 10-15 shooting, including 7-10 from downtown. That topped even the 28 he dropped on NPU in that triple-OT game in the crackerbox last year.

[bopol]

Final from Kenosha:

Dubuque 93
Carthage 89 (OT)

http://athletics.carthage.edu/boxscore.aspx?id=2886&path=mbball

Carthage led by 17 at halftime.

I went to the game.  Dubuque was stone cold in the first half.  They came out after the break, played great to get back into the game.  Then the refs took over; calling every ticky-tack call that totally knocked both teams out of anything resembling basketball.  I'll tirade below, but Dubuque eventually took the lead by 2 and Carthage, with 0.2 seconds, shot a wild three (Reese Herth) and a foul was called.  Herth hit 2 of 3 and it went to overtime with Carthage losing by 4.

Quick thoughts on Carthage (especially the new ones):

* Mike Kastel is a legit CCIW  big (15 points; 13 rebounds).  Good moves on offense and he's is a fighter on the boards.  I saw him get one hand grabbed and took the rebound with the other.  I really liked what I saw.

* Jason Scott played a lot of shooting guard/small forward (lot of three guard action for Carthage).  What I saw was solid.  He seems to have a nice shot and isn't afraid to take it (10 points).  Defense was a bit sketchy and sometimes he seemed out of synch on offense, but it was a good game for the freshman.

* Freshman Scott McNellis seems a touch undersized for a big in the CCIW, but will probably be in the rotation.  His offense looked solid, but he was slow on defense (especially rotations).  Don't get me wrong, both Scott and McNellis looked promising and made good contributions, but I think both will be more role-players this year.

* The returners were solid, but the defensive play in the second half was all fouled up because of the reffing.  I was generally happy with Reese Herth's shot selection even though the result wasn't great (4 for 14 from the field).  Donte Logan did a good job overall, passing when he should have and shooting when he should have.  Kevin Sykes, Jr. had a nice game offensively, though his shot looks really goofy and I don't remember it looking that odd last year.  Senior showed some nice moves, but had a bit of a bad game in my opinion (some trouble handling the ball).

* My thinking is Carthage will be looking at starting  Kastal, Senior, Sykes, Jr., Herth and Logan with McInnis, Scott and Van Wyk coming off the bench.  I don't know if they'll be going much deeper than that.  The offense really needs Logan as a field general - Olson had trouble running it. 

Now for the negative.  Holy poop, the reffing was the most brutally awful affair that I can ever remember.  In the end, there were 54 fouls called and four players fouled out.  I would have liked to seen these two teams play a basketball game, because there was a lot of talent on both sides and a lot of grit, too, but the refs wouldn't have it and what I got was a bulls**t exhibition of free throw shooting with neither team playing strong defense for fear of a whistle.   With about 12 minutes left in the second half (and Carthage still leading 50-43), the refs went off.  In the first 28 minutes of the game, they called it from what seemed reasonable based on the new rules (28 fouls), but in the last 11:34, they called 20 fouls; mostly touch fouls, but then they would ignore muggings (Kevin Sykes, Jr got killed once).  The game dragged to a halt, both teams lost all rhythm and it was horrible to watch.  Now, I won't say it cost Carthage the game.  Pretty much the reffing was equally bad for both sides and either team that lost could point at the reffing as a strong contributing factor if they had lost. 

If the NCAA thinks that this is going to make the games more fun to watch, then they should see the tape of this fiasco.  I hope not to see a repeat of this crap in CCIW play.

[Titan Q]

Final from Dubuque:

Loras 80
#2 IWU 75