MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Smitty Oom]

Like mentioned here, his projections are not his opinions, they are what all of the relevant numbers say. He uses past Pool c nomination data to predict what will happen this year on the limited season data we currently have. It's not perfect but it provides a good prediction of where we sit.

[AndOne]

Massey sez:

North Central 75, North Park 58 (NCC 94%, NPU 6%)

Mr. Defense sez:

The boys from Naperville need to remember that the same team put up 95 against them last time. 🚦

[Gregory Sager]

Aston Francis leads all of college basketball in ppg...

D3: Aston Francis (Wheaton) 33.1
D2: Amir Hinton (Shaw) 31.8
NAIA II: Justin Martin (Multnomah) 31.0
D1: Chris Clemons (Campbell) 29.0
NAIA I: Chasten King (Jarvis Christian) 25.0

Wow. It's really not even close, either.

The gap between Francis and the other members of D3's top five is even more striking:

rk	player	team	yr	ht	pos	g	fgm	3fgm	ftm	pts	ppg
1	Aston Francis	Wheaton (IL)	Sr.	6'1	G	19	197	95	140	629	33.1
2	Ty Nichols	Keene State	Sr.	6'2	F	19	179	41	120	519	27.3
3	Micah Paulson	Principia	Sr.	6'1	G	17	147	53	104	451	26.5
4	Will Carius	Monmouth	Jr.	6'7	F	18	156	18	133	463	25.7
5	Booker Coplin	Augsburg	Jr.	6'3	G	17	157	34	89	437	25.7

Only two players in CCIW history have ever led the league in scoring for three seasons. Bill Warden of North Central did it for three straight seasons from 1951-52 thru 1953-54, and Stevie D. led the league in all four seasons he played, 2007-08 thru 2010-11. Aston Francis will soon become the third member of that very exclusive group.

In case anyone's wondering, the top season scoring averages in CCIW history belong to Leon Gobczynski of Millikin, who averaged 35.5 ppg in CCIW play and 35.8 ppg overall in the 1973-74 season. Aston Francis is averaging 31.8 ppg in CCIW play in addition to his 33.1 ppg overall average. Gobo's records don't appear to be in danger, but you never know with Francis.

Massey sez:

North Central 75, North Park 58 (NCC 94%, NPU 6%)

Mr. Defense sez:

The boys from Naperville need to remember that the same team put up 95 against them last time. 🚦

Mr. Reality sez:

North Park is averaging 63.3 ppg and 67.6 ppg overall ... and both of those numbers include the aforementioned NPU @ NCC game.

Sager,

Don't forget. When sportcoats fly, so does money. 💸
Offer is still open.
$10.00 if your sportcoat makes it from your broadcast perch to the playing floor Sat. Night! 

Sager versus AndOne.  That would make for great halftime entertainment!

[Mr. Ypsi]

NebWes was defeated by Loras today, 84-76, so #1 in the poll is wide open for Augie if they don't totally lay an egg against Carroll!  (If Loras hadn't done it, there was virtually no chance for Augie to move up before the post-season, as Loras was the last reasonable threat to NebWes finishing undefeated.)

[augiefan]

Augie beat Carroll 68-56 in a pretty uninspired effort by everyone but Pierson Wofford. However they did not lay an egg.

[iwu70]

Q, I just thought you were planning ahead.    Our TITANS need every win they can get -- try to get some momentum going, should they make it into the CCIW tournament.  6 team field may save them this season.  The way they are playing seems the AQ is pretty unlikely, out of reach. 

If I were Coach Rose, I'd think about the future and start playing the underclassmen more, giving them more experience and playing time, sitting the seniors for rest and recreation.  That would mean Leritz and Lambesis getting more minutes, hoping that somehow O'Neil finds a way to get back to some better form.  I think Wallen has surely deserved his starts in recent days.  I love Jason Gregoire, but he has been pretty inconsistent this year, all things considered.  Can't win many games in the CCIW just relying on perimeter play and the scoring of Rose and Bonnett only. 

Augie looks on track for 16-0 in the CCIW.  And now with the NebWesleyan loss to Loras, a good shot at #1 national ranking, too.

IWU'70

[Titan Q]

NebWes was defeated by Loras today, 84-76, so #1 in the poll is wide open for Augie if they don't totally lay an egg against Carroll!  (If Loras hadn't done it, there was virtually no chance for Augie to move up before the post-season, as Loras was the last reasonable threat to NebWes finishing undefeated.)

Augustana will have my #1 vote for sure.  I was waiting for the NWU @ Loras game to make the switch.

[Gregory Sager]

north Central 80
North Park 60

Veggie Tangen: 16 pts
Matt Szuba: 13 pts, 8 rebs
Cardell Simmons: 11 pts
Kindrel Morris: 7:0 a:to
Toby Marek: 3:1 a:to

Connor Raridon: 20 pts, 7 rebs, 5:2 a:to
Mike Pollack: 14 pts
Tommy Koth: 12 pts, 5:1 a:to
Matt Cappelletti: 12 pts, 7 rebs

The Vikings managed to hang around for about nine minutes or so in the second half before they faded. They proved completely unable to handle NCC's motion as the second half wore on, while Pollack got hot from beyond the arc and played the major part in building the separation. Honestly, hanging around for 29 minutes against a team that is dramatically better than NPU (the upset in Napervegas last month notwithstanding) felt like a modicum of success in and of itself.

The dates are counting down towards the end of another unhappy season at Foster and Kedzie. We'll see how many people in NPU unis really want to be a part of the future, and how much they want it, as we go along. That's really the main attraction for watching this team now because, honestly, I just don't see the undermanned Vikings as having more than one more chance -- perhaps two, if I'm being more optimistic than I ought to be -- to secure a win this season.

[tomt4525]

Illinois Wesleyan secured a big commitment from John Hershey HS(IL) 6'3" sharpshooter, Ryan Verhulst.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fPDU3HEkiL4&feature=youtu.be

[kiko]

Elsewhere...

Elmhurst 74, Millikin 67 at Faganel

Wheaton 81, Carthage 64 North of the Cheddar curtain... Aston Francis with 19 was the Wheaties' second leading scorer (Anajuwon Spencer - 22)

Loras 108, Golden State 103... or at least that seems plausible given the Duhawks' giant-killing ways.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Elsewhere...

Elmhurst 74, Millikin 67 at Faganel

Wheaton 81, Carthage 64 North of the Cheddar curtain... Aston Francis with 19 was the Wheaties' second leading scorer (Anajuwon Spencer - 22)

Loras 108, Golden State 103... or at least that seems plausible given the Duhawks' giant-killing ways.

Since both current #1 NebWes and current #2 Augie each received their ONLY loss to Loras, I'm (tongue-in-cheek) lobbying for Loras to be the new #1!  At least Loras isn't gonna drop out of the Top 25, like it looked like earlier today.

[Gregory Sager]

The bright spot tonight for North Park was Veggie Tangen. He scored 16 on 6-8 shooting, rocked the rim with a big first-half slam that is the first dunk I've seen by a Viking this season other than Matt Szuba (and the first I've ever seen from Veggie), and pulled down four of the seven offensive rebounds that NPU managed to muster this evening. He had seen a grand total of 83 seconds of rest in the game when he seemed to cramp up so badly that he had to exit the game for good after making a trey with 6:21 to go. If that hadn't happened, and if the game had been even remotely within reach, I'm sure that he would've totaled 39 minutes of floor time and Szuba would've totaled 40. The ugly truth is that NPU has no forward depth whatsoever remaining; Simon Jacobson, the game but undersized 6'4, 190 freshman from Norway who is really a small forward but who had been allowing Tom Slyder to steal a minute here and a minute there of rest for Szuba and Tangen, suffered a stress fracture in practice this week and left Tom with nothing else but guards who are all about 6'3, 185 or smaller to fill in when Szuba or Tangen goes out of the ballgame.

Tangen is an impressive success story. It's ironic, given how many great Scandinavian student-athletes North Park has showcased (and is still showcasing, a la the men's soccer team) in various sports over the years, but Veggie is a guy that nobody would've ever pegged to be in that group. Nobody outside of the Vikings program really knows how far he's come, because people don't tend to watch JV games, but he is night and day as a basketball player from where he was when he first showed up as a freshman two years ago. He arrived with a great motor, but close to zero basketball skills; hoops just aren't much of a thing in Norway, so I doubt that he had much in the way of either instruction or good competition growing up there. (Jacobson's a little different; he looks as though he actually had someone back home teach him the rudiments pretty thoroughly, so his growth curve as a player hasn't had to be nearly as steep as Veggie's.) In JV games as a freshman Veggie just looked completely lost out on the floor.

But he turned himself into a gym rat; since he first came to NPU he's always been the first one in the gym for practice and the last to leave, and if I ever wander into Carlson Tower at almost any moment of the day, it seems, if I peek in the windows of the crackerbox I can see Veggie in there all by himself practicing his shooting. Last season, on a team that was certainly open to affording playing time to anybody with size who was willing to work hard in practice, he made the rotation, got a dozen starts, and, although his numbers were extremely unimpressive for the most part, his 13-29 (.448) shooting from beyond the arc indicated that he had at least mastered one basketball skill.

This season, though, with all the minutes he could stand to play available to him and then some, he's blossomed. He's averaging 10.6 ppg and 4 rpg, which aren't eye-popping numbers, and there are other forwards in the league who can top his .465/.350/.825 shooting line. But every single one of them grew up playing ball nonstop, had plenty of coaches and teachers to instruct them in skills development, and had all kinds of great competition to hone their game against, in the traditional iron-sharpens-iron fashion. Veggie really didn't have any of that. He's a self-made basketball player, and it's a tribute to him that he's come this far this fast. I'm wracking my brains trying to think of a Viking who has improved more over the course of his career than Veggie already has, and, outside of maybe Mike Barach and Dan Mulkerin from the '87 national championship team, I can't think of anyone. He's the ultimate dark horse made good.

He's a terrific young man, too, the kind of kid who conveys the right impression of a North Park student. I look forward to seeing him progress even more as a senior next year.

[WUPHF]

If I were Coach Rose, I'd think about the future and start playing the underclassmen more, giving them more experience and playing time, sitting the seniors for rest and recreation.  That would mean Leritz and Lambesis getting more minutes, hoping that somehow O'Neil finds a way to get back to some better form.

No way this happens.

[AndOne]

north Central 80
North Park 60

Veggie Tangen: 16 pts
Matt Szuba: 13 pts, 8 rebs
Cardell Simmons: 11 pts
Kindrel Morris: 7:0 a:to
Toby Marek: 3:1 a:to

Connor Raridon: 20 pts, 7 rebs, 5:2 a:to
Mike Pollack: 14 pts
Tommy Koth: 12 pts, 5:1 a:to
Matt Cappelletti: 12 pts, 7 rebs

The Vikings managed to hang around for about nine minutes or so in the second half before they faded. They proved completely unable to handle NCC's motion as the second half wore on, while Pollack got hot from beyond the arc and played the major part in building the separation. Honestly, hanging around for 29 minutes against a team that is dramatically better than NPU (the upset in Napervegas last month notwithstanding) felt like a modicum of success in and of itself.

The turning point in tonight's NPU/NCC game occurred with 13:56 remaining, and the score only 46-42 in North Central's favor. At that point, the Cardinals proceeded to blow the the doors off the Crackerbox and the game wide open by going on a 19-0 run over the next seven minutes. The NCC power surge was highlighted by 4 three pointers, one by Connor Raridon, and three by Mike Pollack with Pollack's three triples all coming within a 2 minute span.

A second major factor was holding NPU's best player, Matt Szuba scoreless in the second half. Szuba tallied 13 first half points on 5/9 shooting, including 3/5 from 3. In the second half he went 0/2, both from inside and beyond the arc.

NCC shot 55.9% overall for the game, and 43.5% from beyond the arc. NPU's stats were 38.9 overall, and 41.7% on threes.

[AndOne]

Sager,

Don't forget. When sportcoats fly, so does money. 💸
Offer is still open.
$10.00 if your sportcoat makes it from your broadcast perch to the playing floor Sat. Night! 

Sager versus AndOne.  That would make for great halftime entertainment!

I still had my $10.00 when I got home!