MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Titan Q]

Millikin...

* Matt Kruse, 6-9 PF (NCAA D2 McKendree/Monticello H.S. '13)

http://mckbearcats.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=5041&path=mbball


* Nathan Lovekamp, 6-3 SG (Cerro Gordo H.S.)

http://herald-review.com/high-school/bement/whole-lotta-lovekamp/article_21fbf57b-853b-5449-a560-2de1db182f44.html


* Thomas Williams, 6-2 SG (Byron Nelson H.S., Trophy Club, TX '14...formerly Kaneland H.S.)

[Titan Q]

I believe these are the names to hit the board so far...

Augustana
* Jake Asquini, 6-2 SG (St. Charles East H.S.)
* Jordan Bradshaw, 5-10 PG (Hinsdale Central H.S.)
* AJ Dollmeyer, 6-8/240 C (Sauk Valley CC, Polo H.S. '14)
* James Fox, 6-2 PG/SG (Edgerton H.S., Wisconsin)
* Jake Nowak, 6-3 G/F (Plainfield North H.S.)
* Pierson Wofford, 6-4 G/F (Springfield Lutheran H.S.)

Carthage
* Matt Acevedo, 6-3 SG (Maine West H.S.)
* Mike Canady, 5-10 PG (Jacobs H.S.)
* Chris Dolce, 6-2 SG (Conant H.S.)

Elmhurst
* Adam Braxton, 6-3 G/F (Leyden Township H.S.)
* Aaron Twist, 6-11 C (West Frankfort H.S.)

Illinois Wesleyan
* Danny Baker, 6-5 F (Vianney H.S., Missouri)
* Nick Coleman, 6-2 PG (St. Patrick H.S., Chicago)
* Mark Falotico, 6-1 PG (St. Viator H.S., Chicago)
* Jason Gregoire, 6-4 SG (Cary-Grove H.S.)
* Chasen Peez, 6-7 F/C (Batavia H.S.)
* Ben Sestak, 6-6 F (Sacred Heart-Griffin H.S., Springfield)

Millikin
* Matt Kruse, 6-9 PF (NCAA D2 McKendree/Monticello H.S. '13)
* Nathaniel Lackey, 6-8 F/C (Fairfield Community H.S.)
* Nathan Lovekamp, 6-3 SG (Cerro Gordo H.S.)
* Tyler Pygon, 5-11 PG (Providence Catholic H.S.)
* Jack Simpson, 5-11 PG/SG (Kickapoo H.S., Springfield, Mo)
* Thomas Williams, 6-2 SG (Byron Nelson H.S., Trophy Club, TX '14...formerly Kaneland H.S.)

North Central
* Jack Bronec, 6-8 C (St. Charles East H.S.)
* Aiden Chang, 6-2 PG/SG (Aquin H.S., Freeport)
* Tanner Gardon, 6-7 SF/PF (Larkin H.S.)
* Logan Ivy, 6-6 F/C (Plainfield Central H.S.)
* Josh Jandron, 5-10 SG (Woodstock North H.S.)
* Connor Raridon, 6-5 G/F (Neuqua Valley H.S.)
* Tommy Koth, 6-3 SF (West Aurora H.S.)

North Park

Wheaton
* Reagan Jones, 6-7 PF (Lake Braddock H.S., Burke, VA)
* Trae Masten, 6-6 SF (South Side H.S., Fort Wayne, IN)
* Mike Peters, 6-1 PG/SG (Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy, Stow, OH)

[Greek Tragedy]

Wow. Tall players must grow on trees in Illinois!

[Mr. Ypsi]

Wow. Tall players must grow on trees in Illinois!

It's all that Manito corn!

[izzy stradlin]

Wheaton
* Reagan Jones, 6-7 PF (Lake Braddock H.S., Burke, VA)
* Trae Masten, 6-6 SF (South Side H.S., Fort Wayne, IN)
* Mike Peters, 6-1 PG/SG (Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy, Stow, OH)

Luke Peters (Tyler's brother), 6-3 G/F also from CVCA is going to Wheaton.  I haven't heard anything about Mike (Tyler's cousin).  Although you may know something I don't. 

[GoPerry]

Wheaton
* Reagan Jones, 6-7 PF (Lake Braddock H.S., Burke, VA)
* Trae Masten, 6-6 SF (South Side H.S., Fort Wayne, IN)

Looks like primarily spot up 3 point shooters a la Michael Berg, Joel Smith, Mark Champion.  Not inside players.

[AndOne]

Wheaton
* Reagan Jones, 6-7 PF (Lake Braddock H.S., Burke, VA)
* Trae Masten, 6-6 SF (South Side H.S., Fort Wayne, IN)
* Mike Peters, 6-1 PG/SG (Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy, Stow, OH)

Luke Peters (Tyler's brother), 6-3 G/F also from CVCA is going to Wheaton.  I haven't heard anything about Mike (Tyler's cousin).  Although you may know something I don't.

Wonder if they will bring the Peters smirk 😏 with them? 

[Gregory Sager]

Just for the record, we don't know this at all. Just because someone says they are a fan of a team doesn't actually mean they are. Wouldn't be the first time someone on the Internet claimed to be something other than what they actually are.

True as far as it goes, Pat, but the evidence is pretty compelling that iiwwuu is a dissenting Titans fan. I wasn't even referring to the "we" that he used when describing the program (which AndOne pointed out in red type), although I did notice it earlier. I was referring more to the overall gist of his posting persona. He has never posted about anything other than Illinois Wesleyan men's basketball. No exceptions. It's all been about the Titans as far as his posting goes. And his posts have not only been exclusively about the Green Machine, they've been lengthy and thorough. He has issues with how Ron Rose is running the program, although he does not deny Rose's success, and he's clearly plugged into the various details regarding roster, playing time, recruiting, etc., that marks him as a more-than-casual Titans fan ... because, let's be honest, aside from a few lunatics like AndOne and myself ( ), there really isn't anybody who follows Illinois Wesleyan men's basketball that closely who isn't either a fan of the team or the coach of a rival.

(And, before I hear a word of self-regard from the precincts of Ypsilanti or Hong Kong, the fact of the matter is that Mark and I follow Millikin, Carthage, Augustana, Wheaton, Elmhurst, and each other's school that closely as well. )

The presence of a dissenting fan on d3boards.com is hardly new, Pat, as you well know. I'm sure that you can point to several other examples of posters who were disgruntled with one or more aspects of their preferred D3 program and who therefore used this forum to air their grievances. I've already cited precedent with a previous case of a Titans fan (OurHouse) whose shtick was to constantly complain about the way that Ron Rose was running things.

[Gregory Sager]

How many try out?  You don't have to "bring in" 23 recruits to have 35 players at an open tryout.  Odds are pretty good North Central has at least that many former HS players on campus.

True, but not every school has an open tryout for the men's basketball team.

I don't get the email thing. Said poster has an email address on his profile. Indeed, you cannot register without one. Assuming he didn't register before 2000, that is.

I don't see an e-mail address on his profile, either, Pat.

Appreciate the feedback men and for the gentle correction.   Having thought about it some more, it does make sense that coaches can't afford to sit around and wait for players to come to them if they hope to compete, especially in this league.   That would be true at Wheaton as well even with their different situation(much smaller pool, more targeted pool).  I think my initial suspicion still applies situationally (certain schools/certain sports) but less so with bigger team sports and certainly not in our league and location.

For the most part I can't speak to specifics for other schools in other sports, because I don't really follow the mechanics of how other CCIW programs work in, say, softball or volleyball or men's cross-country. I can only speak directly for North Park in terms of recruiting -- and, to a limited degree, to a few of the other schools in the other Big Four sports (football, men's soccer, and baseball). And I can speak indirectly towards some of the rest of the CCIW's various programs because of their success rate.

I can tell you that each and every NPU head coach is out there actively recruiting (i.e., making the contacts rather than waiting for the contacts to happen from the student-athlete's end) for his or her sport. The reason isn't just because he or she wants his or her program to succeed; it's because each NPU head coach has to operate with a recruitment quota imposed upon him or her by the administration. And that's because NPU is not a wealthy school; it is to a certain degree tuition-driven with regard to the annual operating budget. In other words, the school counts upon getting x number of new students every year because it needs their tuition money in order to pay the bills and fund the payroll, and it needs the athletic department to function as an adjunct of admissions in that regard.

I know that this is not just the case with North Park. Other CCIW schools have recruitment quotas as well; Carthage football may be the most notorious one in the entire league, given the brobdingnagian size of the Carthage roster every season; there's sometimes been as many as 150 enrollees who show up in the summer at the start of Carthage's preseason camp, and the late Tim Rucks never made any bones about telling people that he was compelled by the school's administration to recruit huge numbers like that. But the point is, for several CCIW schools at least, that coaches have to go out and recruit as a part of their job requirements rather than waiting for potential recruits to come to them. They not only need good players; they need a certain amount of recruited players of any type ... and by recruited players I exclude the D3 equivalent of walk-ons, the guys whom AO indicated as being former high school players who just show up unannounced at an open tryout in the fall. Since they enrolled without any prodding from the coach, he or she doesn't get credit for them as far as the school's administration is concerned.

The other part of that is that the CCIW is (cover your ears, WIAC and SLIAC and MWC and NACC fans ) one of the best all-around conferences in the entirety of D3. This league operates overall at a national level of competition in the vast majority of the 23 sports it sponsors. You can't do that unless your league's coaches are out there hustling for players, rather than sitting on their hands waiting for kids out there in Internet Land to fill out the recruitment interest form on the school's website. The CCIW didn't get to the place where it annually has multiple ranked teams in lower-profile sports such as softball, women's soccer, the running sports, etc., by not being proactive in recruiting for those sports.

[Pat Coleman]

The presence of a dissenting fan on d3boards.com is hardly new, Pat, as you well know. I'm sure that you can point to several other examples of posters who were disgruntled with one or more aspects of their preferred D3 program and who therefore used this forum to air their grievances. I've already cited precedent with a previous case of a Titans fan (OurHouse) whose shtick was to constantly complain about the way that Ron Rose was running things.

Right. The presence of a dissenting fan isn't new. But just because someone has been a dissenting fan before doesn't mean this person is one.

[Pat Coleman]

I don't see an e-mail address on his profile, either, Pat.

Sorry to have to draw from the tech support 101 playbook, but you are logged in when you look at his profile, right? I don't see any settings in his profile that would hide his email address from a logged-in user.

It's not particularly revealing, by the way -- just a yahoo address.

[Gregory Sager]

I believe these are the names to hit the board so far...

North Park has two verbal commitments from high-school seniors and another from a juco sophomore. However, I'm not disclosing names, because a verbal commitment is one thing and a tuition deposit is something else altogether. I never saw the movie Jerry Maguire, but I'm fully in tune with the phrase, "Show me the money!"

A continuing saga..................

Who says you can't go home again?

Many of you will remember the somewhat humorous story of former CCIW player Luke Johnson who, surprisingly, went from high school at straight arrow Wheaton Academy to party hardy Carthage in the fall of 2011. However, he left Carthage after a decent freshman year ridiculously telling Bosko something on the order of "I shouldn't be here. I'm a Division 1 player and future NBA player."
Of course we were all shocked, and had a good laugh, when he showed up the next season (2012-13) at the D3 version of the NBA Developmental League, Benedictine, only to disappear again following one year there. Nothing was heard of Mr. Johnson throughout the 2013-14 season or the majority of last season, during which he and his agent, otherwise known as his dad, presumably spent time exploring future NBA employment while begging any number of Division 1 institutions to accept him during the interim. Alas, all efforts evidently proved unsuccessful as of February 2014, at which time it seemed as though we had heard the last of Luke "NBA" Johnson.
However, unbeknown at least to be, and I suspect many other regular posters, Luke rather mysteriously reappeared again in February, 2014 at, of all places---------Benedictine!
He played in 3 of the Eagles last 5 games, scoring a total of 6 points, and was added to the roster, being listed as a junior. He is still listed on the BU roster. Accordingly, unless those 3 games and 6 points catapulted him to NBA level ability, it appears entirely possible that he will make some appearances on the CCIW circuit this year as Ben U plays NCC every year, and regularly plays IWU, Wheaton, and, I believe, Elmhurst.

You skipped over an entire chapter of the saga, Mark. Luke Johnson spent last fall playing for D2 St. Leo down in Florida:

http://basketball.dailyherald.com/article/20141209/sports/141208296/

http://www.saintleolions.com/sports/mbkb/2014-15/teams/saintleo?view=lineup

http://www.saintleolions.com/sports/mbkb/2014-15/bios/johnson_lucas_i3pf

[Titan Q]

Augie...

* Joe Kellen, 6-1 PG/SG (Rockford Lutheran H.S.) - AP 3A 1st Team all-state

http://highschoolcubenews.com/2015/03/20/associated-press-3a-4a-state-boys-basketball-teams/

http://www.ncsasports.org/mens-basketball-recruiting/il/rockford/rockford-lutheran-school/joe-kellen

[sac]

Millikin...

* Matt Kruse, 6-9 PF (NCAA D2 McKendree/Monticello H.S. '13)

http://mckbearcats.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=5041&path=mbball


* Nathan Lovekamp, 6-3 SG (Cerro Gordo H.S.)

http://herald-review.com/high-school/bement/whole-lotta-lovekamp/article_21fbf57b-853b-5449-a560-2de1db182f44.html


* Thomas Williams, 6-2 SG (Byron Nelson H.S., Trophy Club, TX '14...formerly Kaneland H.S.)

Must be tough to be on the golf team at that HS, no pressure there.

[Gregory Sager]

Right. The presence of a dissenting fan isn't new. But just because someone has been a dissenting fan before doesn't mean this person is one.

Sure. But I'm simply citing a precedent, not using it as proof.