MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[lmitzel]

Note to other Sweet 16 teams: Do not let Chrishawn Orange touch the basketball with under 10 seconds to go in a tie game.

That is all.

[4samuy]

... and just as I hit "Post",  UWW hits a trey and Ebel travels after taking the inbounds. And Giovanine should've been T'ed up himself, as he stormed out to midcourt before the refs finally granted him a timeout.

My guess on the Miller T and Giovanine no T was a case of what was said versus what was done. Seems to me that Miller may have said the "Magic" word.

[Gregory Sager]

I suspect that Miller might have said three or four magic words ... and at about 110 decibels.

[iwu70]

Congrats to Augie on Sweet 16.  Just shows you gotta have great talent and some luck to get to Salem.  Hope they keep going -- with their talent and continued good luck.  Msrr. Orange is really something, no doubt.

Sorry about NCC, another very close exciting game.  Great season overcoming many adversities for the NCC crew.  They'll be very tough again next year.  Sorry they didn't make the Sweet 16 this time as well.

IWU'70

[Gregory Sager]

As I said earlier, UWW really got jobbed on some officiating negligence. Whichever one of the gentlemen in stripewear called the blocking foul on Drew Bryson with 2:33 left and Augie up, 66-62, should've known full well that it was only a one-and-one trip to the line for the visitors, because it was only the seventh team foul on the Warhawks. But it was signaled as a two-shot foul, and, since nobody went to rebound the dead ball after Ebel missed the first free throw, the game was therefore thrown off of what would've been its normal course, with a live-ball rebound attempt after the miss, by the officiating mistake. So they stopped play, decided to award Augie the ball via the possession arrow after the phantom dead-ball rebound, and Augie proceeded to get a trey out of Dylan Sortillo on that awarded possession at the 2:08 mark to make it 69-62.

No matter how badly his team had been ripped off by the officiating mistake, though, Pat Miller needed to keep his head at that point. He didn't. He let loose with a stream of invectives as one of the refs passed by while the Warhawks were bringing the ball up the floor following Sortillo's make. Miller got the T-bone, Orange made one of two tech FTs, and that made the game 70-62. Since it was a bench tech it didn't result in a kept possession for Augie following the Orange FTs, but that was one extra point on the scoreboard for the Rock Islanders thanks to Miller's inability to control his tongue ... and with the game going right down to the wire, every point ultimately mattered.

Giovanine really could've been T'ed up himself, as I said, at the 1:42 mark following the Chris Jones trey and the Ebel turnover against the UWW press. He was all the way to the midcourt stripe and was well out on the floor, screaming his head off. I think that the refs may just've backed away at that point, figuring that they'd already played too much of an intrusive role over the past minute. That, and Giovanine managed to get a timeout called before any of the refs could've rung him up. But he came close to duplicating Miller's mistake.

Augie almost did UWW the same favor that UST had done for Augie the night before. After Orange's tech-FT make gave Augie that 70-62 lead, the Warhawks scored eight straight points in the space of a minute and a half to force a 70-70 deadlock, setting the stage for Orange's heroics with three seconds remaining.

Great game to watch ... as I said, it was a real bruise-a-thon in the classic Augie manner, and it was close the whole way, as neither team was able to build a lead bigger than eight points. Dylan Sortillo, who couldn't seem to do anything right towards the end of the regular season for Augie, is suddenly the hot hand for the Grey Men -- he led all scorers with 28, and was 4-9 from downtown. The weekend's hero, Chrishawn Orange, finished with a dozen, as did Brett Benning, and Donovan Ferguson picked up seven boards off of the bench for Augie.

[4samuy]

Congrats to Augie on Sweet 16.  Just shows you gotta have great talent and some luck to get to Salem.  Hope they keep going -- with their talent and continued good luck.  Msrr. Orange is really something, no doubt.

Sorry about NCC, another very close exciting game.  Great season overcoming many adversities for the NCC crew.  They'll be very tough again next year.  Sorry they didn't make the Sweet 16 this time as well.

IWU'70

Totally agree on the luck statement.  You saw that in each game at whitewater this weekend. When the games are as close as they all were, the luck thing always magnifies itself.  That was a fun pod to watch and IMO Augustana beat a couple of really good teams that play two different styles. That can only help as they move forward.

[markerickson]

What was the final score in the Augie game, i.e., did Orange's shot lead Augie to a one or two or three point victory?   (I'm watching Gopher hockey right now instead of D3 bball.)

[Gregory Sager]

That was a fun pod to watch

Boy, I'll say. Two of the games weren't decided until the final buzzer went off, and the third wasn't decided until a turnover with one second remaining.

What was the final score in the Augie game, i.e., did Orange's shot lead Augie to a one or two or three point victory?   (I'm watching Gopher hockey right now instead of D3 bball.)

Augustana 72, UW-Whitewater 70

[augiefan]

One cannot deny that Augie was very lucky last night and tonight, but as an Augie fan it was pure joy to watch this inexperienced Viking team evolve over the season, including bounce backs from the loss of Wofford, the humiliating loss to IWU and the loss in the conference tourney. Beating two of the best DIII programs in recent years, including last year's champion and UWW on their home court is pretty impressive.

Credit to Titan Q for his preseason prediction that Augie would be very competitive despite losing 8 seniors including the team's top 6 scorers from last year's team. I was sure it would be a rebuilding year. He also predicted during Orange's freshman year the he would be an elite CCIW player. I should have known better than to challenge his reductions, as I think we all view Titan as one of if not the most informed and fair minded posters on this site.

Very sorry to see NCC lose. A narrow victory is so exhilarating, while a one point loss is so disappointing. I would have loved to see Augie and NCC match up for a final four trip next weekend.

Augie now faces Wartburg, who absolutely annihilated highly regarded Benedictine and UW River Falls. Wartburg was only 8-8 in their conference, but their only nonconference loss was in overtime to NCC. Looking at the season stats it seems Wartburg is an offensive power house. Amazing that there is no WIAC team in the Sweet 16.

[iwu70]

Wartburg playing in a very impressive way right now. 

'70

[4samuy]

Wartburg playing in a very impressive way right now. 

'70

Yes.  And they are deep with 10 players notching at least 14 minutes per game on the season.  Took a quick look at the stats from the NCC game over the holidays and one stat stuck out like a sore thumb.

Bench Scoring

Wartburg   51
NCC.          7

I understand that it was at a time when NCC was still trying to find its rotation after the loss of Raridon, but none the less awfully impressive.

[Greek Tragedy]

Wartburg playing in a very impressive way right now. 

'70

Yeah, they were the 6th seed in a not too awesome IIAC.

[USee]

Wartburg playing in a very impressive way right now. 

'70

Yes.  And they are deep with 10 players notching at least 14 minutes per game on the season.  Took a quick look at the stats from the NCC game over the holidays and one stat stuck out like a sore thumb.

Bench Scoring

Wartburg   51
NCC.          7

I understand that it was at a time when NCC was still trying to find its rotation after the loss of Raridon, but none the less awfully impressive.

10 players deep? Yikes, I better get started.

[USee]

Greg, I thought one reason GG didn't get the T is because he was yelling at his own player. On the video, when they gave him the timeout, he was at halfcourt in the face of his Pt Guard, who had just turned it over against the press. I could be wrong but that may have been the difference.

[Gregory Sager]

Credit to Titan Q for his preseason prediction that Augie would be very competitive despite losing 8 seniors including the team's top 6 scorers from last year's team. I was sure it would be a rebuilding year.

Actually, the credit for that should go to AndOne. Mark was the first one to posit, back on October 6 (and again on October 22) that Augustana could turn out to be very good this season.

He also predicted during Orange's freshman year the he would be an elite CCIW player.

Bob was indeed the first poster to tout Orange's game. He called him a "future All-CCIW first-teamer and All-American" on November 14, 2015 (yeah, I looked it up), so Bob deserves full credit for that one. In the interests of full disclosure, though, Bob's missed on a few of his predictions (specifically regarding future awards to be won by Pierson Wofford and Alex Sorenson, to name a couple of current players).

I should have known better than to challenge his reductions, as I think we all view Titan as one of if not the most informed and fair minded posters on this site.

If I'm Bob, I'm thinking to myself, "Is augiefan setting me up for something?"

Greg, I thought one reason GG didn't get the T is because he was yelling at his own player. On the video, when they gave him the timeout, he was at halfcourt in the face of his Pt Guard, who had just turned it over against the press. I could be wrong but that may have been the difference.

You could very well be right about that, although the no-no on Giovanine's part was really a matter of location rather than about the volume or the target of his yelling.