MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[iwumichigander]

Good points as well, but, as I mentioned earlier, it needs to be said that Wash U lost the game at the line as much as IWU won it there. With the Bears down by one point, Matt Highsmith's miss of the front end of the one-and-one with 31 seconds remaining was perhaps the most pivotal moment in the final outcome.

It was a big miss, but IWU did a whole bunch of things well over the course of 40 minutes to win that game tonight.

i had a couple of take always tonight - 1) did not get rattled when things went wrong or shots did not drop 2) a really strong bench contribution

[markerickson]

AndOne:  what is DMT?
Greg:  Once NPU knew which Carroll player was hot, why couldn't Cobbs be tabbed to smother that guy?

[Titan Q]

It should also be noted that Wash U is not a good FT shooting team - they are just .660 on the season.  The two guys who missed FTs in the final few minutes tonight are guys you want to send to the FT line - 6-5 F Sanders (.636) and 6-7 F Highsmith (.636).  In the final 1:29 Sanders went 1-2 and Highsmith 0-1, missing that big front end.  So significant misses, but as an IWU fan I felt OK heading into both of those FT sequences.  Neither guy seems like a reliable late game FT shooter.

On the flip side, IWU sent Rose (.909) and Bausch (.765) to the line.

[AndOne]

AndOne:  what is DMT?

DMT = Di-Methyl Tryptamine

DMT — which can be smoked, snorted or injected — induces intense hallucinations, causing users to become unaware of their surroundings, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The federal government classifies it as a Schedule 1 drug, meaning it has no accepted medical use for treatment of any kind in this country.

[Gregory Sager]

AndOne:  what is DMT?

It's an illegal drug.

Greg:  Once NPU knew which Carroll player was hot, why couldn't Cobbs be tabbed to smother that guy?

I answered that question six days ago, Mark.

The Bears did lose the game at the line.  Without looking a the play by play I know they missed at least two, if not three, front ends of one-and-ones.

Yep. Sanders and Bregman each missed a front end in the first half, and of course Highsmith missed the big one at the end of the game.

And, another nice job by Jay Murray on the broadcast. Always enjoyable to hear Jay call a game.

Truth!

Good points as well, but, as I mentioned earlier, it needs to be said that Wash U lost the game at the line as much as IWU won it there. With the Bears down by one point, Matt Highsmith's miss of the front end of the one-and-one with 31 seconds remaining was perhaps the most pivotal moment in the final outcome.

It was a big miss, but IWU did a whole bunch of things well over the course of 40 minutes to win that game tonight.

I didn't say otherwise. I simply said that the game was lost at the line by Wash U as much as it was won at the line by IWU.

[Titan Q]

Darius Paul looked to be a man among boys for RMU, tallying 20 points on 7-10 shooting, including 1-1 from three, and 5/6 from the line. He added 10 boards for a double double. He also somehow managed to frequently negotiate huge distances on the floor without having to take even one dribble.
However, I didn't see any wings.

Paul is an interesting story.

As a freshman in 2012-2013 he played at Western Michigan where he was the Mid American Conference Freshman of the Year, averaging 10.5 PPG and 5.7 RPG.
After the season he announced plans to transfer to Illinois.

2013-2014 -- Sat out season due to D1 transfer rules

2014-2015 -- In May he was suspended from Illinois for "multiple transgressions," including resisting an officer, attempting to obtain DMT, and 2 failed marijuana tests. Then, in August, 2014 he was dismissed from the Illinois team following his 5 AM arrest for breaking car windows while the team was on a trip to France. Accordingly, he played at Lamar State-Port Arthur Jr. College where he averaged 17.1 PPG and 9.1 RPG.

2015-2016 -- Like Daniel Simpson Day....................................whereabouts unknown.

2016-2017 -- NAIA Robert Morris.

Very interesting.

Robert Morris-Chicago has "interesting" players on their roster every year.  When you schedule the Eagles, you are usually signing up to play a couple former D1 guys who have had interesting journeys.

[Gregory Sager]

Interesting journeys that often seem to involve ankle bracelets.

[Gregory Sager]

The knee injury to Elmhurst freshman PG Jake Rhode was apparently a lot less serious than was initially reported. He not only played in this afternoon's contest against Buena Vista, he started and saw 31 minutes of action.

My favorite stat for the day: Jordan Robinson, who is leading the CCIW in three-point shooting percentage by a whopping 83 points, is 24-40 from long range. That's 60% -- and it's not as though he's just barely taking enough shots to meet the minimum of one make per game needed to qualify. In fact, he's averaging five trey attempts per game, which is right up there among the league leaders in that category.

That's just sick!

[AndOne]

Yep, you look at the RMU team on the floor and very few of their players seem to bear much facial resemblance to the 18-21 or 22 year old players on your team. Then you look at their roster and see something like 3/4s of the roster is on at least the 2nd college of their "academic" career journey. Lastly, you check a name or two that sounds familiar, and it seems there is a good chance you will find at least one previous escapade that can be associated with some type of felonious activity.       

NCC beat 'em at their place last year after being behind much of the game. Of course they then had the services of Connor Raridon and the graduated Kevin Honn and Jayme Moten.

[Gregory Sager]

I have nothing at all against people getting second chances in life. I'm not going to disparage RMUC for its methods, as long as those guys are getting their degrees and then go on to lead honest and productive lives.

[AndOne]

Indeed. More power to them. Also, nothing reported that isn't a matter of record that can't easily be verified in several different sites.
It just seems strange that there are some schools that always seem to attract more than their share of shall we say non traditional student athletes. Lots of schools are going to periodically have an out of the mainstream player or two, but to continually have a majority of your players who fit this description makes you wonder if academics or athletics are looked at in alphabetical order as far as what's more important.
Lots of times these type teams seem to be NAIA affiliated.

In second place in this conundrum are the schools who may have only one, possibly two players who are on their second, third, or even fourth school and/or might have had legal difficulties, but that seem to have such a player or players on a fairly consistent basis.  Unfortunately, this type of situation seems to frequently occur at NCAA affiliated schools.

[Gregory Sager]

Having multiple schools on your transcript is not the same thing as having a rap sheet, and I don't think that they should be equated or even addressed in the same sentence. One doesn't involve harm to other people or property, and the other one does.

[WUPHF]

IWU totally denied them a reasonable three, so they hoped they could get the foul call on the layup.  It often works, but IWU was super careful not to even give the appearance of a foul.

The degree to which this was great execution by the defense or poor execution by the offense likely depends on the Pantone shade of green you prefer.  Others may have seen a little of both, but I would point more towards poor execution and bad luck.

As much as I like Kevin Kucera as a point guard, he brought the ball down and set up as if he had 30 second to run the offense.  He passed it to Knupp and then stood there.  Highsmith set a few screens, but Knupp is not one to create space for his own shot as far as I have seen.

Jake Knupp is the last guy the Bears want driving in hopes of drawing contact.  He starts his shooting motion from the waist and never draws contact.  Nevertheless, Knupp made the right decision.  Brady Rose stepped aside as Knupp drove the lane. 

Had Knupp made the basket, the Bears would have had a chance to defend the inbounds play, but Highsmith fell on Knupp after scoring on the put-back (the bad luck part), leaving no one to guard Rose on the inbounds.  A time out needed to be called, but the bench was probably not fully aware of what had happened.

The Bears could have had 5-6 seconds to run one more play, but alas...

I think Highsmith fouled Rose before the pass but no zebra was even close to make the call.

In the end, free throws doom the Bears for a second straight game...otherwise a game worthy of an IWU-Washington University match-up.

[jaybird44]

Wash-U did try to gain a timeout immediately after the Highsmith tip-in with 2 seconds left, I discovered after the game.  Coach Edwards was on top of the situation, but either the officials didn't hear his pleas or chose not to grant the timeout.  The inbound pass may have been made so quick that the officials couldn't react to grant the timeout, I don't know.  I was following the ball and didn't get a chance to glimpse at the officials to see how they were reacting to the flurry of last-seconds activity.

Fun game to broadcast...and crisply played. Not a lot of timeouts or free-throws to slow down the game.  It's a shame that Wash-U couldn't get the win after doing so well to turn off the Titan 3-point faucet in the 2nd half and claw its way back into the game.  An empty possession here and a couple over there all add up on the negative side of the ledger, along with the missed front ends of 1-and-1 free throw opportunities.  That will have to be cleaned up before UAA play, to be sure.

BTW, many thanks for the compliments on the broadcast...they are very much appreciated!

[iwu70]

A game surely worthy of the IWU-WashU rivalry.  At many points in the evening, the ball could have bounced differently, leading to a different outcome.  Luck and persistence surely on the side of the TITANS in this one. 

WashU is, will be very very good.  I have no doubt.  Titans found a way, esp. the key FTs by Rose and Bausch.  Ice in the veins, nothing but net on all four.

Chicago will be another good challenge, but that one 's at home, @ The Shirk.  Then, a trip to The Big Apple, for two more games, before the CCIW race resumes.

Congrats to Coach Rose and the Titans on a great win on the road tonight.  The St. Louis area Titans must be very very happy. 

'70