MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[GoPerry]

Awesome atmosphere at Carver last night.  Over 2,100 SRO spectators 2,000 of them wearing blue and gold.  Wheaton is playing their best basketball at the best time.

Aston Francis 33 pts on 11-25, 7 rebs; Anajuwon Spencer 18 pts, Luke Anthony 15, Gavin Hawkins and Nyameye Adom 9 pts.  That's a really nice box score for Wheaton – a necessary winning formula against a great Augustana team.  The Thunder are a team playing with lots of confidence – even Hawkins comes in unintimidated by the moment and hits gigantic treys with no hesitation.  Kobe Eichelberger with extended minutes replacing injured Spencer Peterson had another excellent game rebounding, playing great defense on Wofford and Benning, and doing the grinding work to help his team win.

Unfortunately for Augustana, they lost Lucas Simon, their first guy off the bench 3 mins into the game. On the replay, it looks like he just came down badly on his left foot and was in crutches the 2nd half.  I'm not sure how much of a difference this made, but he's always been a key and steady reserve for the Vikings.  Wheaton's loss of  Peterson 8 minutes in maybe makes that a push net on net.  I was surprised to see Coach G go to the box and one as the Doggies didn't look that comfortable in playing it.  But that's a make-someone-else-beat-you strategy and the others did just that.  Chrishawn Orange almost single-handedly kept the Vikings in it, but it wasn't enough.  Holding them to 79 pts was a big accomplishment.

Mike Schauer's greatest task now will be not letting the emotional high of last night's win compromise their performance against Marietta tonight in an arena that will be nearly empty by comparison with dramatically less energy.  The Pioneers play a very aggressive defense and they have some very skilled big players.  Hoping that Peterson can go tonight.

[Titan Q]

I've been impressed that Francis is consistently scoring 10-15 points in the last ten minutes of games.  He really comes through when they need him most.

He sure made some huge shots last night during that stretch where Wheaton was up just a bit, but Augie was right there...just needing a stop. 

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Regarding the T / flagrant last night. The box score and the play by play and the officials signal all indicated a T. However, the penalty assessed was that of a flagrant foul - shots and the ball. Potential 7 point possession down 11 at that point in the game was pretty much the only miracle finish Auggue could hope for.

Looking forward to the Wheaton - Marietta game tonight. Should be fabulous with one of them making it to their first national semi-final.  Compelling enough that this Michigander will be DVRing UofM vs MSU and watching d3hoops instead.

[Titan Q]

The is Wheaton's second-ever Division III Elite 8 game.  The last was at Hope in 2008 - https://wheaton_ftp.sidearmsports.com/custompages/mbball/mbbarchivedstats/2008/sect2.htm.

[Gregory Sager]

and especially Gavin "The Viking Slayer" Hawkins

I'm going to stick with Gavin "DNP" Hawkins, thankyouverymuch. I don't like the extended implications of your nickname.

Hopefully Spencer Peterson is ok for tomorrow night. Wheaton could use his physicality against Marietta.

I think that Mike Swider might have his fingers crossed almost as much as Mike Schauer does, re: Spencer Peterson.

Regarding the T / flagrant last night. The box score and the play by play and the officials signal all indicated a T. However, the penalty assessed was that of a flagrant foul - shots and the ball. Potential 7 point possession down 11 at that point in the game was pretty much the only miracle finish Auggue could hope for.

Yeah, I was puzzled by that, too. Augie broadcast commentator Dan Sand mentioned the distinction between a technical and a flagrant on the air last night as well.

Looking forward to the Wheaton - Marietta game tonight. Should be fabulous with one of them making it to their first national semi-final.

Wheaton's actually been to two national semifinals before. The then-Crusaders won the first-ever NCAA Division II national championship (it was called NCAA College Division back then) in 1957, and then came back to the Final Four and finished fourth the following year. Coincidentally, both of those Final Fours in which Wheaton participated were also held in Indiana, as now-demolished Roberts Municipal Stadium in Evansville played host to the Final Four in the early years of the College Division.

You'll be especially happy to know that Wheaton's string of Final Four appearances was snapped in the 1959 College Division tournament by none other than -- drumroll, please -- Hope College, which knocked off its fellow orange and blue cagers by a score of 93-76 at Glenbard High School (there was only only "Glenbard" back then) in Glen Ellyn, IL, the suburb immediately to the east of Wheaton, in the second round of the regionals.

If Wheaton wins tonight, it will become the sixth of the nine CCIW men's basketball programs to reach the D3 Final Four. Carroll, Elmhurst, and Millikin are the other three schools that haven't yet made it to D3's ultimate weekend.

[Gregory Sager]

Not that it means anything at this point, but Wheaton and Marietta do have a common opponent this season: Elmhurst. The Bluejays defeated Marietta, 76-72, at a tourney in Phoenix in which the 'jays defeated two eventual D3 tourney teams on back-to-back nights (they beat UW-LaCrosse the night after beating Marietta). Wheaton defeated Elmhurst twice, 92-85 at Faganel Hall in Elmhurst and 58-55 at King Arena in Wheaton.

[Gregory Sager]

It's interesting to look back on all of the mid-season hullabaloo that was made here on CCIW Chat about Augustana possibly becoming the first team in 46 years to run the table in CCIW play. When all was said and done, three of Augie's four losses this season -- including the loss that ended the season for the Doggies -- came at the hands of fellow CCIW teams.

[UWPSUPERFAN77]

What is the condition of the Wheaton starting Forward who limped out after only playing 6 minutes?

[Greek Tragedy]

He'll be fine. I heard they are gonna use some of that soccer "magic spray". LOL 

[duckfan41]

Having been on the losing end of banging knees many times before, what Peterson had to deal with last night certainly wasn't fun. It's always amazing how one person in a collision like that is sidelined, while the other looks like nothing even happened. One of sport's oddest occurrences for sure.

[kiko]

It's interesting to look back on all of the mid-season hullabaloo that was made here on CCIW Chat about Augustana possibly becoming the first team in 46 years to run the table in CCIW play. When all was said and done, three of Augie's four losses this season -- including the loss that ended the season for the Doggies -- came at the hands of fellow CCIW teams.

True, but they came within about three minutes of running the table in the regular season, which is what the hullabaloo was about.

[Gregory Sager]

Actually, Augie was 11-0 in league play when it got knocked off by North Central, so it wasn't literally within three minutes of running the table.

If you want to argue that it took NCC moving ahead of Augie in the hangar with three minutes to go in that twelfth CCIW game in order to bring about an Augie defeat, then you have to look at that both ways. It took Nolan Ebel driving the length of the floor and making a layup with less than a second remaining for Augie to turn defeat into victory at home against Carthage in CCIW game #7. It took Aston Francis rimming out a trey attempt with eleven seconds left and Wheaton down by two to stave off a possible loss for Augie in King Arena in CCIW game #8. And it took Derek Dotlich getting called for charging into Pierson Wofford's left leg in the final seconds at Carver while driving for what would've been the winning layup for Elmhurst to fall short of hanging an L on Augie in CCIW game #10.

That's three games Augie came much closer to losing than it came closer to winning in the hangar. Augie was about thirteen or fourteen seconds away from sporting an 8-3 record when the team boarded the bus to Naperville for that twelfth game.

[kiko]

Actually, Augie was 11-0 in league play when it got knocked off by North Central, so it wasn't literally within three minutes of running the table.

If you want to argue that it took NCC moving ahead of Augie in the hangar with three minutes to go in that twelfth CCIW game in order to bring about an Augie defeat, then you have to look at that both ways. It took Nolan Ebel driving the length of the floor and making a layup with less than a second remaining for Augie to turn defeat into victory at home against Carthage in CCIW game #7. It took Aston Francis rimming out a trey attempt with eleven seconds left and Wheaton down by two to stave off a possible loss for Augie in King Arena in CCIW game #8. And it took Derek Dotlich getting called for charging into Pierson Wofford's left leg in the final seconds at Carver while driving for what would've been the winning layup for Elmhurst to fall short of hanging an L on Augie in CCIW game #10.

That's three games Augie came much closer to losing than it came closer to winning in the hangar. Augie was about thirteen or fourteen seconds away from sporting an 8-3 record when the team boarded the bus to Naperville for that twelfth game.

To be clear, this isn't intended as NCC chest-thumping.

Augie had already successfully navigated each of the potential derailers you mentioned, and after their defeat, nobody came within single digits of the Doggies.

Your original post seems to suggest it was silly for folks to speculate on the possibility of the Doggies going 16-0 in conference.  (Perhaps I'm reading something you didn't mean...)  in any event, the Vikings went 15-1 and led that 16th game with roughly three minutes to go.  Close calls aside, that seems... like they actually came pretty close to running the table.

[Gregory Sager]

Francis reached a thousand points for the year and passed Kent Raymond ... all within the first four minutes of the game.

[Gregory Sager]

Actually, Augie was 11-0 in league play when it got knocked off by North Central, so it wasn't literally within three minutes of running the table.

If you want to argue that it took NCC moving ahead of Augie in the hangar with three minutes to go in that twelfth CCIW game in order to bring about an Augie defeat, then you have to look at that both ways. It took Nolan Ebel driving the length of the floor and making a layup with less than a second remaining for Augie to turn defeat into victory at home against Carthage in CCIW game #7. It took Aston Francis rimming out a trey attempt with eleven seconds left and Wheaton down by two to stave off a possible loss for Augie in King Arena in CCIW game #8. And it took Derek Dotlich getting called for charging into Pierson Wofford's left leg in the final seconds at Carver while driving for what would've been the winning layup for Elmhurst to fall short of hanging an L on Augie in CCIW game #10.

That's three games Augie came much closer to losing than it came closer to winning in the hangar. Augie was about thirteen or fourteen seconds away from sporting an 8-3 record when the team boarded the bus to Naperville for that twelfth game.

To be clear, this isn't intended as NCC chest-thumping.

Augie had already successfully navigated each of the potential derailers you mentioned, and after their defeat, nobody came within single digits of the Doggies.

Your original post seems to suggest it was silly for folks to speculate on the possibility of the Doggies going 16-0 in conference.  (Perhaps I'm reading something you didn't mean...)  in any event, the Vikings went 15-1 and led that 16th game with roughly three minutes to go.  Close calls aside, that seems... like they actually came pretty close to running the table.

I wasn't really trying to suggest that. I thought that it was premature at the time, but I didn't think that it was silly. I just pointed out that three of Augie's four losses came to CCIW teams. Considering how narrowly Augie won some of its CCIW games, that shouldn't surprise anybody.

Again, though that wasn't the 16th game that Augie led with three minutes to go. It was the eleventh. The run-the-table speculation only lasted for ten games, not for fifteen.