MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[all blues]

Millikin holds off a late Carroll rally to eke out a 57-54 win at the Griz.

Millikin snatched victory from the jaws of victory, allowing Carroll to make up all but 2 points of a 21 point deficit from 10:21 to 1:58, then nursing a 2-5 point lead from there.  Joel Heesch was about the only Pioneer to have a night, with 14 points and 7 rebounds, fouling out with one tick left on the clock.  The Blue's leading scorer last season, Zach Fisher, came through with 19 points (7-10, 3-5, 2-2) including making more closing seconds FTs.  Rebounds and TO were about even; Carroll favorable by 4 and 2.  FGM were even, with 20 apiece, although the Pioneers took 12 more tries to do it.  Millikin made one more 3 in 5 less attempts, and 2 more FT in 4 more attempts; the difference...off to Fulton, MO for Westminster a week from tomorrow.  The Blue seem to be a team of runs so far this season, closing unsuccessfully on Wheaton and Elmhurst, successfully on Sarah Lawrence, Webster, and Rose-Hulman,
being run away from by UW-Platteville, and closed on tonight....

[Gregory Sager]

Millikin holds off a late Carroll rally to eke out a 57-54 win at the Griz.

Millikin snatched victory from the jaws of victory

Nice! I'm stealing that one.

[iwumichigander]

As good as Sorensen is, I thought O'Neil and Burdine defensively did a pretty decent job on him. 

Sorenson ate those guys up. He had a 15 and 14 double-double, and he shot 6-8 from the field. He also dished out four assists to only two turnovers.

The duo that pulled IWU's chestnuts out of the fire were Beasley and Bonnett.

O'Neill and Burdine did an outstanding job on Sorenson in the 1st half though -- 2 pts, 1-2 FG.  It was key in building that big 16-point lead.

2nd half Sorenson was great.

i agree with Q as to the first half on Sorenson.  You knew in the second half that Sorenson and Raridon would see more touches, they did and almost pulled out a win.  That IWU would be up by as much as 19 - first, you credit NCC for a great come back effort; second, how IWU built and blew the 19' point lead and still won the game --- with Brady Rose hitting 3 of 11 FGs, no 3s, 4-5 FT for 10 points --- was not just Beasley and Bonnett.  It was a total team effort with a little luck too!

[AndOne]

Wow, great game.  IWU wins over NCC at NC 68-66.

Bonnett with the winning layup as time expires.

Tale of two halves, IWU winning the first 39-23, NC the second 43-29.

Came down to the last possession the last shot, and a missed FT by Sorenson.

IWU'70

Fixed it for you. If Sorenson makes the 2nd FT, NCC just loses by 1 instead of 2.

[AndOne]

One of my biggest takeaways from the Titans this season is the offensive improvement of Jaylen Beasley. Last season shot a mild .250 from three (11/44) and this season is up to .441 (15/32). Very impressive on the glass as well.

And he gets every rebound in the vicinity.  His ability to elevate to grab a rebound is impressive.

He has had a great senior season so far.

The key is "so far." Up until this year Beasley has been a poor 3 point shooter. This year has seen a marked improvement in his long distance marksmanship. The question is,  can he keep it up/sustain it throughout the year?

As far as rebounding, Beasley has always been a superior rebounder to go along with his poor 3 point shooting. His great board work has cancelled out his poor shooting on anything beyond a few feet from the basket.
But he just plain has the hops. You could cut one of Jaylen Beasley's legs off and he'd still be a great rebounder.

[iwu70]

I stand by my comment about Sorenson.  Any time you hold an All-American, one of the key top scorers on the other team to 15 you've done a "decent" job.  Raridon played great, was harder to contain.  On the Sorenson FT, I take your point, though not sure IWU would have had the same possession, chance to win the game had he made it.  In any case, NC let the Titans back in on that one and Bonnett made them pay.  He's strong to the basket, hard to stop, even with good D, which that last play was not so great D.  When IWU got O'Neil, (teamed with Burdine) my hope was that he'd match up well (or well enough) with Sorenson and Augie's big men.  So far, he's doing pretty well, contributing enough though I'd love to see more rebounds and more consistent scoring from him.  IWU's offense is primarily a guard and perimeter- oriented offense with all the shooters and slashers they have playing the 1, 2, and 3.  Curry doing that several times tonight.  Even with Rose having an off night, IWU was able to win this tough battle vs. NC on the road. 

Beasley is indeed having a great senior year so far -- expect more good things from him as he's clearly finding his stroke, stretching the floor, still almost leading the league in rebounds.

'70 

[AndOne]

As good as Sorensen is, I thought O'Neil and Burdine defensively did a pretty decent job on him. 

Sorenson ate those guys up. He had a 15 and 14 double-double, and he shot 6-8 from the field. He also dished out four assists to only two turnovers.

This, naturally, wasn't broadcast before or during the game, but the fact is that Alex Sorenson played tonight with the flu. It forced him to miss a good chunk of practice this week. Despite this, he more than doubled both the combined points and rebounds of O'Neil & Burdine.

[AndOne]

Great first half by IWU.
Great second half comeback by NCC.
Great last play resulting in a 2 pt win by IWU.

We hope you enjoyed the action even if you didn't enjoy the final result. 

[AndOne]

Brutal officiating on both sides again tonight as in Rock Island on Wed.

After the game I talked to a college coach, not employed by either NCC OR IWU. His analysis is that between the games he has seen so far this year across the CCIW, the NACC, and the IIAC, we might just as well do away with the refs, and go to call-your-own-fouls play. About as much chance of getting the same number of calls right as with the refs, and much more cost efficient! 

Mostly tongue-in-cheek, but with a tinge of seriousness mixed in as well. 

[iwu70]

AO, either you can't count or you are one of those shills.  Perhaps both.  You 'd better be careful, Greg will come for you!  Sorry to hear about Sorenson's flu.  He played a good game and is a great player, probably a All-CCIW first teamer.  That wasn't my point. My point was that O'Neil and Burdine did decently against him, good enough to keep him from really going off and having a monster game, which he has done in the past. And, giving the TITANS a chance to win, which, as you have pointed out, they did.  Your boys are 1-2 in CCIW and 'dems da facts.  O'Neal has overall played pretty well in conference play so far.  Let's hope he continues and improves too over the next stretch of games.  He's new to IWU and to CCIW intensity of play.  We're hoping Beasley stays at this wonderful level of rebounding and shooting going forward too. 

Your friendly IWU shill.  I wear the title with pride.   

'70

[lmitzel]

Brutal officiating on both sides again tonight as in Rock Island on Wed.

After the game I talked to a college coach, not employed by either NCC OR IWU. His analysis is that between the games he has seen so far this year across the CCIW, the NACC, and the IIAC, we might just as well do away with the refs, and go to call-your-own-fouls play. About as much chance of getting the same number of calls right as with the refs, and much more cost efficient! 

Mostly tongue-in-cheek, but with a tinge of seriousness mixed in as well. 

I'd agree that there were definitely some missed calls both ways. The one that bugs me the most was Sorenson's fourth foul that was clearly on Henry. The officials put the right guy at the line, but somehow confused a 6'2" guard with a 6'8" forward. We even asked them to make sure. They insisted, even after a conference between the three.

Makes me wonder a bit that if they get that right, maybe Sorenson comes over to help on that final play. Or maybe that layup doesn't matter because NCC is able to get a little bit of a cushion. Alas, what's happened has happened.

[Titan Q]

The key is "so far." Up until this year Beasley has been a poor 3 point shooter. This year has seen a marked improvement in his long distance marksmanship. The question is,  can he keep it up/sustain it throughout the year?

I suspect most of it comes down to confidence.  As I have watched from afar (online), it's always looked like to me like in past seasons Beasley has been timid on the offensive end.  It seemed like if he made his first couple of shots, he would keep shooting and maybe have a big game (I remember he had a big game vs Chicago last year, for example).  But if he missed early, he'd defer to others the rest of the game.  Or he'd shoot, but not really look like he was stepping into it confidently.  That was always frustrating to see because Beasley has always been a very good pure shooter

This year, as a senior, he looks like a different player.  He is looking for his shot, and just looks very confident on the floor.  He's become a guy opponents have to account for.

[Gregory Sager]

I stand by my comment about Sorenson.  Any time you hold an All-American, one of the key top scorers on the other team to 15 you've done a "decent" job.

Strongly disagree. Sorenson actually exceeded his season scoring average last night, and he did it while only taking an economical eight FG attempts. His problem wasn't O'Neill and Burdine; it was the fact that he didn't get enough touches, even when he was out further on the floor. That was pretty obvious; notice Lucas's comment that even at the scorer's table they were saying that the Cardinals needed to look to Sorenson more than they were. And you've conveniently left out the fact that Sorenson pulled down 14 rebounds, which is yeoman's work by anybody's measure.

You guys can go with the glass-half-full business of focusing upon Sorenson's first-half stats all you like, but the bottom line is that the NCC senior center had a terrific game and you've overestimated the impact that IWU's two centers had in trying to stop him.

[Titan Q]

You guys can go with the glass-half-full business of focusing upon Sorenson's first-half stats all you like, but the bottom line is that the NCC senior center had a terrific game and you've overestimated the impact that IWU's two centers had in trying to stop him.

A 2nd Team All-American center had 1 basket in the first 20 minutes of the game (13 minutes played) -- a period of time in which the team that ended up winning opened up a 16-point lead...a margin that went a long way in determining the final score.  I would hope we can give a little credit to the two guys who guarded him during that time period of time.

You pointed out that Sorenson didn't get enough touches in the 1st half.  Wouldn't that have something to do with the guys guarding him?  Or is the thought that NCC simply didn't want to pass it to their stud post in the first half?  It's not OK to give any little credit there for the job done in the first half to make it really hard on Sorenson?

All that was originally said by iwu70, by the way, was that O'Neill and Burdine "did a pretty decent job on [Sorenson]".  That was it.  Not "great", not "shut him down", etc.  Just simply "did a pretty decent job on."  Considering the impact of the 1st half of the game, and the job done on Sorenson during that 1st half, I think it's pretty OK to say that.

[Gregory Sager]

You guys can go with the glass-half-full business of focusing upon Sorenson's first-half stats all you like, but the bottom line is that the NCC senior center had a terrific game and you've overestimated the impact that IWU's two centers had in trying to stop him.

A 2nd Team All-American center had 1 basket in the first 20 minutes of the game (13 minutes played) -- a period of time in which the team that ended up winning opened up a 16-point lead...a margin that went a long way in determining the final score.  I would hope we can give a little credit to the two guys who guarded him during that time period of time.

It's a forty-minute game, Bob, not a twenty-minute game. But, if you insist upon looking at the game piecemeal, let's look at that other twenty minutes, the twenty minutes in which NCC completely erased that 16-point lead and brought the game back to a tie. In that second twenty minutes, Sorenson shot 5-6, scored 13 points and pulled down eight boards, and did so in 15 minutes of floor time.

Using only one half upon which to base a conclusion about an entire game is a classic case of selection bias.

You pointed out that Sorenson didn't get enough touches in the 1st half.  Wouldn't that have something to do with the guys guarding him?  Or is the thought that NCC simply didn't want to pass it to their stud post?

You're conveniently ignoring the fact that Alex Sorenson is not Landon Gamble. He doesn't typically spend the entire offensive sequence with his back to the basket within arm's reach of the backboard. He goes out to the perimeter, sets screens, moves, cuts, and gets a lot of his touches out at the high post or even beyond the arc. O'Neill and Burdine weren't stopping him from touching the ball out on the floor. The other Cardinals were.

All that was originally said by iwu70, by the way, was that O'Neill and Burdine "did a pretty decent job on [Sorenson]".  That was it.  Not "great", not "shut him down", etc.  Just simply "did a pretty decent job on."  Considering the impact of the 1st half of the game, and the job done on Sorenson during that 1st half, I think that's real fair to say.

Again, I disagree. Sorenson topped his season scoring average, shot 6-8 from the field, dished out four assists with only two turnovers, and pulled down 14 rebounds (one less than his career high). I don't think that that qualifies as a "pretty decent job" on the part of his tag-team opponents.