MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[robberki]

I'm not sure if Hoops Fan's post up there is suppose to be funny, but it made me laugh out loud at work...good stuff.

[The Roop]

Yeah, I'll bet Illinois will be favored now.

[rpknupp]

Well.. Here we go again. Another CCIW season.. I want to say goodluck to the Elmhurst Bluejays and Manito product, from my alma mater Midwest Central- Ryan Burks..

Also, I cannot wait to see the 05-06 Titans practice Monday!

[True Basketball Fan]

Titan Q,

Great preview on all of the teams (well, the ones that are going to make noise). 

However, the comment about David Gershenzon (Elmhurst) was way off.  Check some of the box scores from last season and you'll see that he led them in scoring or was second several times.  He also averaged 15 pts/game in conference play off the bench, that's hardly not doing anything, considering most of those games he didn't play much more than 20 minutes.  At that rate of scoring, If he would've played 30 some minutes, he quite possibly would have led the league in scoring.  It'll be interesting to see if he plays starter minutes this season, or just starts.  He also led the league in FT%, and shot quite a few by the way.  Sorry to sound like a Gershenzon fan, but the few times I saw him he was very good.

Also, I'd be surprised if Trey Bowens makes it this year.  He F'ed up the report card the first semester of last year.  That extremely poor academic showing tends to not go away so easily.  I saw this summer that they had Casanova Brown (Mt. Carmel High), he looks intriguing, barring academic eligibility also.

I think it is a 3 team race (well........actually a one team race with two teams Elmhurst and Augie, duking it out till the last regular season game, just like last year).  But what's the difference between 2 and 3 this year anyway.  Regardless of who finishes 2nd or 3rd, EC and Augie will still be playing eachother in Bloomington, for the right to suffer the madness of the FIRST CCIW TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONSHIP GAME.  I better get my tent ready.

[dansand]

I agree, excellent review Q. I'd probably have Elmhurst and Augie flip-flopped at 2 & 3, given that the Bluejays were the only team that swept the Vikings last year. I also agree with TBF on Gershenzon. I only saw him once last year, so I can't comment on the entire season (although his numbers looked pretty good), but he absolutely destroyed Augie in Rock Island last year. He burned 'em inside, outside and lived at the free throw line in the second half. It reminded me a little of what Drew Carstens used to do. I also agree that Carthage is a puzzling team. A bunch of physically impressive big guys who can step out and shoot threes and a bunch of athletic wing players and guards, but they didn't seem to play with any fire (again, I can only comment on the game against Augie). Bosko also seemed quite subdued, which is surprising since the Redmen were 4-1 in the conference at the time. I think the emergence of Hart in the middle could help them considerably. He could give them a legitimate post player, allowing Jeffrey, Schlemm and Morrison to roam outside, where they seem to prefer playing (which, on second thought, might not necessarily be a good thing).

[Titan Q]

IWU is obviously not going to beat the Illini with or without Cory Jones, but his absence will impact IWU's ability to compete in the Exhibition - whether "compete" means keeping it to 20 points or 40.

Cory is only 6-6 (pretty standard Division III center height), but he is a strong, strong kid - bench presses 335 pounds.  Losing that muscle inside vs guys like James Augustine (6-10/235), Marcus Arnold (6-8/245), Shaun Pruitt (6-10/240), and Warren Carter (6-9/215) obviously doesn't help.  In the end, it probably won't impact the final score all that much but it's probably a bigger loss than people realize.

IWU is a much better team with a healthy Cory Jones in the lineup - unfortunately for Titan fans, we haven't seen a healthy Cory Jones since the end of his sophomore season.  He broke his foot at about this same time last year, and then re-broke it @ Beloit.  He was never really healthy in 2004-05 - was used off the bench when he did return for conference play and the tournament.

For his sake, I hope Cory can come back and be that same player who looked so strong in the tournament at Hanover and at Wooster in 2004.  Like so many of the players in the CCIW, Cory is just a real likeable young man...the kind you pull for.  It sounds like he will be healthy and ready to go right around the time of the Wabash opening weekend tournament.

I watched the Titans practice a little this morning while at the Shirk Center working out and I can tell you this is a very big, strong, and athletic Division III team.  Zach Freeman (6-7/210), Chris Jones (6-5/210), Steve Schweer (6-6/220), Andrew Freeman (6-6/200), and Cory Jones (6-6/215) are all noticeably stronger.  Add in the fact that the small forward (Keelan Amelianovich) is 6-6/210 and this is without question the biggest IWU team I have seen in my 17 years around Titan basketball...and I've seen some IWU teams with horses. 

[Titan Q]

Gershenzon's 2004-05 numbers are definitely better than what I would have guessed.  I must have just seen a few games where he was very quiet.

[augiefan]

I see the board has a brief article on the untimely and all to premature death of Wheaton's Will Landry. There aren't many details, but my condolences to Will's family and friends. He was a real competitive player, that always seem to give it his all. A really sad occurrence.

[devildog29]

Q, for those of us no longer living in the area who won't be able to make it to the U of I game, will you be broadcasting the game and if so, will it be streamed?

[Titan Q]

Yes, the game will be carried by WJBC (AM-1230) with live streaming on WJBC.com.  Playing at Assembly Hall will be cool for Division III broadcasters too!

For anyone in need of tickets, they are starting to pop up on Stubhub.com as Illinois season ticket holders put them out there...

http://www.stubhub.com/?genre_id=9807

I've noticed that the available tickets disappear quickly though. 

[Titan Q]

Regarding Titan broadcasts I must sadly note that Art Kimball decided to hang up the headset after last season.  Just minutes before the Hanover tournament game he told me that he'd be retiring after the season.  As the final minutes of that game played out - with IWU clearly heading for a season-ending loss - I realized it was the final game of his 53+ year broadcasting career.  To think how many games he broadcast for different teams, in different cities, and different levels of athletics is just amazing.

This IWU alum would like to formally thank Art for all of his many years of dedication to Illinois Wesleyan athletics.  And this former broadcast partner would like to thank Art for his patience in working with me and his friendship.  I'll miss the drives up I-55 with the Hall of Famer this winter - by about the I-355 exit of each road trip we'd seem to have all of the world's problems figured out.

This season WJBC's Jim Williams will be doing play-by-play for the on-air games with me doing color.  Titan fans will like Jim - he is a hard worker and he's excited to cover the Titans and the CCIW.  I will do play-by-play for the internet-only games with a variety of color commentators.  (Jim is the in-studio host for Illinois State men's basketball broadcasts so he can't make the "internet games" when ISU and IWU are both playing.)  All Titan games can be heard on the internet of course - just a different link based on the on-air stream or the internet-only stream.

[devildog29]

For those folks who have not yet looked into it, single game tickets for the IWU-U of I game don't go on sale through the Illini ticket office until Nov. 1, yes only 2 days before the game.  I would guess with a national runner-up finish last year and Dee Brown coming back after all, getting through on the phone might be rough that day, so I'd guess internet purchases might be the route to take that day.  I didn't review that closely whether or not this info has already been posted, so I apologize if I'm repeating this.

[iwu70]

Q, delighted to hear you will still be doing webcasts this season so those of us very very far away can stay in close touch with the IWU games and the CCIW race.  I join you in thanking Art for all his many many contributions to IWU sports and sports broadcasting. 

Delighted to see IWU football upset Wheaton this weekend.  After such a tough and disappointing season, I'm sure this game will give them a much-needed boost and some reward for all their hard work all this year so far. 

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

ESPN Magazine ran an article in a recent issue about the chip on Dee Brown's shoulder, how his injury kept him from the NBA last year and alienated him from the rest of the team, etc.  It would be nice to see the "consensus top PG in college" get shut down by IWU.  Even if Augustine and the big men score all the points, shutting down the backcourt would indeed be a "victory" of sorts for the Titans.  I can imagine that Amelianovich could pose a matchup problem for some of the inexperienced guards/small forwards on the Illini squad.

[Titan Q]

Hoops Fan, I'd love to see the Titans stop Dee Brown, but like every other Division 3 team (and many Top 25 Division 1 teams for that matter) they just do not have the personnel to do it.  I think the Illini big guys - as big as they are relative to the Titan posts - pose less of a problem than little 6-0/185 Brown.  His unbelievable quickness is something the Titan perimeter guys just do not face vs D3 and NAIA competition.  If Titan fans thought William Paterson guard Horace Jenkins was a man among boys in Salem, wait until they see Brown out there vs Illinois Wesleyan.

I'd expect Scott Trost to play a lot of zone (which IWU plays almost half the time against D3 competition anyway) to try to cut down on Brown's ability to beat Titan defenders off the dribble and either score, or dish off for easy baskets.  The zone is obviously going to lead to good 3-point looks for the Illini, but Luther Head and Deron Williams are in the NBA now and maybe the new Illini perimeter threats will have an off night in their first start.  That's probably the formula that would lead to IWU being able to keep the game competitive for a while.

As big as Keelan Amelianovich is for his position in Division 3 - and at 6-6/210 Keelan is huge compared to the typical 6-3 or 6-4 D3 wing - his Illini counterpart, Brian Randle, is 6-8/215 with long arms and ridiculous athletic ability.  Randle is one of the best Illinois high school players I have ever seen play in person.  Obviously the problem for the Titans (and there are many in this game!) is that everywhere they typically have a big advantage vs a D3 team, Illinois has an answer - Randle on Amelianovich, Dee Brown on Titan point-guard Adam Dauksas, and James Augustine & Co. vs 6-7 Titan big man Zach Freeman.

I do believe Dauksas, Amelianovich, Freeman and the Titans will play well at Assembly Hall and impress some of folks in orange and blue.