MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

NPU 76, Augie 69

Juwan Henry: 23 pts, 7 rebs, 3:1 a:to
Colin Lake: 11 pts, 6 rebs, 3:0 a:to
Michael Hutchinson: 11 pts, 5 rebs
T.J. Cobbs: 10 pts, 6 rebs
Jordan Robinson: 10 pts, 6 rebs

Ben Ryan: 18 pts, 12 rebs
Nic Hoepfner: 15 pts, 3 blks
Tayvian Johnson: 13 pts, 5 rebs
Jawon Straughter: 6 rebs, 3:1 a:to
Brandon Motzel: 3 blks

The Little Engine That Could rolled on tonight, as NPU simply outworked Augie. As Mr. B said, the Park's collection of 5'7 and 5'10 guys outrebounded the biggest, baddest, roughest, toughest outfit in the league tonight to the tune of 41-37, including 17-10 on the offensive glass. Some of that was simply quickness (and sheer effort) in getting to long rebounds out on the floor, but make no mistake -- NPU's pack of relative midgets went inside and stole rebounds right under the noses of  6'6, 220 Nic Hoepfner, 6'7, 207 Brandon Motzel, 6'5, 209 Ben Ryan, and 6'6, 201 Tayvian Johnson underneath the basket. About the second or third time tiny Colin Lake came out of the navy-blue forest with the ball in his hands I looked over at Grey Giovanine, and I swear that he was two seconds away from going full-on Scanners right in front of the Augie bench.

The Park led by as many as 11 at three different points in the first half and once again early in the second half, but you knew that Augie was not going to simply roll over and let NPU get away with that. Augie cut the lead to two at the 8:07 mark of the first half and again a minute later, and again at the 7:35 mark of the second half. Augie also had the lead down to three numerous times, including as late as 00:22. But each time North Park had an answer, and the Doggies never got over the hump.

Augie's game plan was to pound it inside, and it clearly worked in terms of Ryan and Hoepfner, who were a combined 14-23  from the field -- although Hoepfner was stymied in the low post by Matt McNamara on his most important shot of the game, which came with 6:39 remaining and Augie only trailing by a deuce. But I'm not sure that Augustana can function in top form when the team is that single-minded in terms of offensive flow; the Augie guards suffered in terms of their shooting, and Hunter Hill may have had the worst game of his collegiate career tonight, fouling out with six points after only taking four shots.

Juwan Henry was Juwan Henry -- a little too much volume tonight in terms of shooting (9-27, as a whole bunch of his shots got swatted away in close), but the pressure he put on the Augie defense took its toll on the visitors as the night wore on. Jordan Robinson fouled out with 6:50 to go after a relatively quiet night (by his standards), which makes the win even more remarkable. But the heroes of the night were Colin Lake and T.J. Cobbs, both of whom were tremendous and made one key play after another down the stretch at both ends of the floor. I don't think that Lake's going to be on Hunter Hill's Christmas card list this year. Michael Hutchinson and Matt McNamara had valuable blue-collar contributions, Trevor Pye and Trent Kucera did a good job of eating up some minutes off the bench, and the much-maligned Joe Biko -- who had been languishing in JV limbo for the better part of January -- came into the game after Hutchinson, McNamara, and Robinson had started piling up fouls and proceeded to knock down three treys in four attempts.

Right now this very young North Park team feels like it could take on the world, and why not? They've played themselves into a position where, if they can keep this up, they can play their way right into the conference tournament picture.

[Titan Q]

And wonder why Moten only played 10 mins?

He left with some type of lower body injury early in the game (ankle maybe?).  He tweeted the following a few minutes ago...

Jaymeson Moten ‏@sneakym0tives 
Be back in less than 3 weeks. Squad will cover for me until then! Be scared when we make playoffs! #keepmovingforward

[Gregory Sager]

Congrats to NPU on the big win.  But what's nice about it (I think) is that while it is definitely an upset, I doubt many of us are that surprised right?  I didn't expect it necessarily but I'm certainly not shocked. 

The other side of the WC loss/ NCC win is that it really gives the Cardinals the inside track for #4 and it'd be really nice to see Millikin or NPU make their debut in the conference tourney.  It can still happen but I think they'd have to get to 7-7 (at least) and hope for the tie-breaker which means 4-1 the rest of the way and they still play each other again.  But this year who the heck knows?

This is exactly why, once again, I was rooting for Wheaton tonight. And so, in my week as a Wheaton fan, the Sonic Atmospheric Disturbance lost a game in overtime on Wednesday and lost a one-point contest on Saturday.

It will no doubt delight you Wheaton fans to know that I will not be rooting for your team this coming Wednesday in the crackerbox.

[Gregory Sager]

One last thought for tonight:

NPU's got The Belt^TM.

[veterancciwfan]

Back from a white knuckle trip from Kenosha. Hey, it's time to kick North Park out of the league like the CCI did in the mid-50s to Wheaton. At Kensosha, IWU hit practically every shot in the first 4:54 and led 19-5. Sodemann hit his first 4 shots including the initial 3 that started the scoring.  IWU had the score tripled at 36-12 with 7:00 left in 1st half. A prior poster said : "Not a pretty win." Wrong. IWU couldn't have played much better in the 1st half, 10/17 on 3s (59%) and 16/31 overall (52%) and led at half 43-21. Nelson was 3/4 on 1st half 3s. As Bob said, he is such an elite shooter. And his defense on Logan was also very good. 5 games left.  IWU still has a chance to finish 20-5, but many snares possible in this super unpredictable league.

[iwu70]

I agree Vet -- IWU play in an outstanding way for the first 12 minutes or so in Kenosha.  Superb three point shooting, ball movement in the first half, basically finishing off CC early on.

IWU70

[Titan Q]

QC Online article on Augie/North Park...

http://www.qconline.com/sports/college_sports/after--point-loss-north-park-shocks-augustana/article_202c1828-cd6a-5458-9a8c-d6cae6697153.html

"Our front line was solid,'' said Giovanine, "but our back-court guys just didn't get it done. Teams are getting to where they aren't guarding us on the perimeter and somebody needs to step up and make a shot. Tonight, nobody did that.''

[Titan Q]

Standings Through 1/31
Augustana: 7-2
Illinois Wesleyan: 7-2
Elmhurst: 6-3
North Central: 5-4
North Park: 3-6
Millikin: 3-6
Carthage: 3-6
Wheaton: 2-7

+/- Standings Through 1/31
Augustana: +3
Illinois Wesleyan: +3
Elmhurst: +1
North Central: +0
Millikin: -1
Carthage: -2
North Park: -2
Wheaton: -2

Road win = +1; Road loss = +0; Home win = +0; Home loss = -1

Remaining games
Augustana: vs NCC, vs Carthage, @ IWU, vs Millikin, @ Wheaton
Illinois Wesleyan: @ Millikin, vs NCC, vs Augustana, @ North Park, vs Elmhurst
Elmhurst: @ Carthage, @ Wheaton, vs North Park, vs NCC, @ IWU
North Central: @ Augustana, @ IWU, vs Carthage, @ Elmhurst, vs North Park
North Park: vs Wheaton, @ Millikin, @ Elmhurst, vs IWU, @ NCC
Millikin: vs IWU, vs North Park, @ Wheaton, @ Augustana, vs Carthage
Carthage: vs Elmhurst, @ Augustana, @ NCC, vs Wheaton, @ Millikin
Wheaton: @ North Park, vs Elmhurst, vs Millikin, @ Carthage, vs Augustana

[Titan Q]

In terms of the CCIW tournament race, and that 4th spot, the ending in Naperville last night was huge for NCC.

[Gregory Sager]

QC Online article on Augie/North Park...

http://www.qconline.com/sports/college_sports/after--point-loss-north-park-shocks-augustana/article_202c1828-cd6a-5458-9a8c-d6cae6697153.html

"Our front line was solid,'' said Giovanine, "but our back-court guys just didn't get it done. Teams are getting to where they aren't guarding us on the perimeter and somebody needs to step up and make a shot. Tonight, nobody did that.''

Dante had his version of hell. Milton had his. My version of hell is three hours on a bus in a snowstorm with a fuming Grey Giovanine after you've lost a game to a program that he doesn't respect.

I pity Augie's next opponent.

In terms of the CCIW tournament race, and that 4th spot, the ending in Naperville last night was huge for NCC.

As I said here last night, I blame myself for this.

[WUPHF]

My version of hell is three hours on a bus in a snowstorm with a fuming Grey Giovanine after you've lost a game to a program that he doesn't respect.

I very much enjoyed the parts of the live stream that I watched, but I might have paid money for a second camera focused entirely on Giovanine. 

[iwu70]

The quality of the Carthage stream, coverage and commentary is superb.  It was coming through so clearly in Hong Kong and I truly enjoyed the coverage -- as well as the Titan win in Kenosha, esp. the first 9-10 minutes of the game when the Titans almost couldn't miss.  Sodemann really got the Titans off to a great start.  Pennington his best game so far and Overstreet being Overstreet.   Some of the bombs that Nelson makes just make you shake your head. 

Off to Decatur and the need for another road win now at the Griz. 

Keep it going Green.  Again, THANK YOU North Park University. 

IWU70

[Titan Q]

The quality of the Carthage stream, coverage and commentary is superb. 

The Carthage and Elmhurst streams are both outstanding.  Both are way more than just video stream...they have some really nice production to them.  EC even has replays.  Kudos to both schools.

IWU's stream is honestly kind of embarrassing.  Right now it's just marginal quality video with no broadcast of any sort -- not even any sound in the last game.  Either find a way to connect the WJBC audio in (not hard to coordinate really), or find two eager students who are willing to give broadcasting a shot -- there are plenty of kids on campus who'd love to do it.  It just seems like there is very little effort being put into this now and that kind of bugs me.  Oh well.

[joehakes]

I've been the PA guy at North Park's games for close to 20 years.  Decided to take this year (and possibly several more) off for a myriad of reasons.  I now work with a member of the 85 and 87 national championship teams.  This win will certainly bring a smile to his face.  I hope the marketing campaign I saw on the NP site led to some actual fannies in seats.  The environment in the Crackerbox has been lacking for sure, to say the least.

Great win, fellas.  Nice to have something to post about again.

As the guy that did the PA for several really good years in the Crackerbox, there was no better atmosphere to be on the mike.  The crowd was very responsive with what I was doing and it was always jampacked.  I started doing PA just so I could get a seat without getting there before the JV game.  I continued to do PA after I left NP.  I was the AD at Moody Bible and was probably the only visiting AD to do PA when the Archers played NP somewhere around the '87-88 season.  That was interesting. 

[toooldtohoop]

Wow, same story.  Just not able to hit that big shot or, now, the key free throws to grab a win.  I was not able to see the game but agonized through LiveStats.  Does anyone know if NCC has "On Demand" capability so I can re-live the gut wrenching?  Or should I simply shove toothpicks under my fingernails and be done with it?

For anyone who watched, was the DeMoss shot at the end of the game a good look or a contested desperation sort of thing?

And wonder why Moten only played 10 mins?


It looked like the Thunder ran a play that was going to Joel Smith, but was not there.  The ball then got to Caleb as time was running out.  It appeared that he had a pretty clean look, and the shot looked good in the air.  But another one that didn't fall.

I did not see what happened to Moten, but he was limping during time outs and clearly was not able to go on it.