MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Titan Q]

Massey has the top 6 as:

- Elmhurst (#8)
- Wheaton (#13)
- Illinois Wesleyan (#19)
- North Central (#25)
- Augustana (#26)
- Carthage (#28)

https://www.masseyratings.com/cb2020/ncaa-d3/ratings

[Gregory Sager]

Knox 74
North Park 61

Matt Szuba: 15 pts
Izaiah Sanders: 11 pts, 7 rebs
Jacquan Binion: 11 pts
Jalen Wilmington: 10 pts

[Mr. Ypsi]

New poll finally up.

16 Elmhurst - down from 12
18 Carthage - up from 22
23 IWU - up from ORV (7 pts) and replaces Augie at 23
25 NCC - up from ORV (33pts)

Wheaton 12 pts. (up from 9 pts)
Augie 6 pts. (down from 94 pts)

6 out of 9 teams getting votes for the Top 25 - not too shabby!

[markerickson]

Knox went 1-24 last year while being winless in the MWC (0-18).  Under their new coach the Prairie Fire are 3-4, and now at .500 after defeating NPU by 13 last night.

I am not a hoops guru, but I will contribute my .02.  I believe a full court press would have aided the Vikings.  Their offense is simply terrible.  Weaving for the sake of weaving is not a legitimate offensive scheme, especially when you are down double digits in the last half of the second half.   Seems like the entire team is allergic to the paint, which stems from a former CCIW coach of the year who just stands there.  Really odd.

I have no idea why the Vikes' leading scorer for the game (Szuba), who is also their best defensive player and overall floor leader, did not enter the second half until 11 minutes were left in the game.  Really odd. 

The scouting report on this team is very simple:  let them shoot.  Their trey average this year is .296 and last night they went 5/24.  Inside the arc the Vikings shoot .388.

[AndOne]

Congrats to North Central Graduate Assistant Coach Tommy Koth who registered the first victory of his career last evening.
With Head Assistant Vince Kmiec, who usually coaches the NCC JV squad, out on the recruiting circuit, Koth assumed the position and led the Cardinal JVees to a win over their counterparts from Aurora.   
Lounging on the bench lending Koth an as yet undetermined and likely negligible level of assistance was All Conference senior forward Matt Cappelletti.     

[Gregory Sager]

Another JV post. WUPHF, get ready for some off-loading to your board.

[Mr. Ypsi]

I think Augie and IWU probably traded knock-out punches today.  The Titan women were ranked #22; the west Vikings beat 'em.  The Augie men were #23, the Titans beat 'em.  I suspect both teams have fallen to ORV this week.

Not sure it was that good a game (awfully sloppy by both teams from time to time), but you couldn't ask for a much more exciting game!

Very slow in posting this follow-up, but I nailed it.  Augie men lost all but 6 points (with IWU men replacing them at #23).  Titan women lost all but 15 points.  So neither completely forgotten, but severely chastised!

[WUPHF]

Another JV post. WUPHF, get ready for some off-loading to your board.

Oh, good, because I was about to post about NYU and their big win over 1-8 Hunter College, so on-topic. 

[iwu70]

Ypsi, way to go.  You and Greg are really "nailing it."  Let's hope our women TITANS can beat Mary Hardin-Baylor and rise back up into the poll in coming days.

That IWU-Wash U match-up should be a good one.  A great opportunity for the TITANS.   I'll be watching.  Basketball and breakfast, as usual, here in Hongkiland. 

Just to let you know that Dawn Upshaw, the leading soprano in the world today . . . and, I might mention, an IWU graduate, just performed here in Hong Kong.  She is a divine performer, representing IWU so so well on the world stage.

OK, back to JV basketball . . .

Ypsi, I hope you are making plans for our 50th reunion back at ye'ole alma mater -- October 9-11, 2020. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all. 

'70

[Pat Coleman]

Lounging on the bench lending Koth an as yet undetermined and likely negligible level of assistance was All Conference senior forward Matt Cappelletti.     

This reminds me of my year as an assistant coach for my grade school's 5th/6th grade team. I was a 10th grader. Probably wasn't of much help aside from being a tall body in practice and a guy to keep track of fouls and timeouts, but when our head coach got sick for CYO playoffs, I was in charge and the guy who had coached me on the 9th grade team in high school officiated the game. Fun times!

Also had to occasionally keep our subs from running directly into the game, rather than going to the scorer's table. 

[mwunder]

Carthage moved to 8-1 with a 73-65 win over Albright (5-4) in Puerto Rico yesterday.

Stolen from the Carthage website:

Carthage shot 25-of-47 (53%) from the floor marking the sixth game this season the Red Men shot over 50%.
Four Red Men tallied double-figures in points: Jordon Kedrowski (18), Crishawn Cook (17), Kienan Baltimore (13) and Fillip Bulatovic (13).
Sean Johnson narrowly missed a double-double on the day concluding with 12 rebounds and eight points.

The Red Men have the day off before taking on Birmingham Southern tomorrow.

[lmitzel]

Lounging on the bench lending Koth an as yet undetermined and likely negligible level of assistance was All Conference senior forward Matt Cappelletti.     

This reminds me of my year as an assistant coach for my grade school's 5th/6th grade team. I was a 10th grader. Probably wasn't of much help aside from being a tall body in practice and a guy to keep track of fouls and timeouts, but when our head coach got sick for CYO playoffs, I was in charge and the guy who had coached me on the 9th grade team in high school officiated the game. Fun times!

Also had to occasionally keep our subs from running directly into the game, rather than going to the scorer's table. 

I got to coach Luke Johnson, who was on Benedictine's national runner up team a few years back, when he was an eighth grader and I was a senior in high school. And by "coach" I mean basically just kind of be there during practices, do a minimal amount of help during away games, and get relegated to scoreboard duty for home games because they didn't have anybody who knew how to use it.

My coaching highlights were actually getting to be an assistant coach against the 7th-8th grade team I played for years before, coached by my old coach, who never really changed his out of bounds plays, so I was able to warn my team about corner threes I knew were coming; and the one practice I ran where a bunch of 13-14 year olds had little respect for 17-year-old me, so I made them run suicides. It's much more fun on that side of the practice whistle.

[79jaybird]

Elmhurst up 45-26 halftime vs.  La Verne. (45-26)

[Gregory Sager]

The 'jays ended up crushing LaVerne, 97-64

[Gregory Sager]

Rockford 71
North Park 69

Karl Polk, Jr.: 23 pts, 11 rebs
Jacquan Binion: 13 pts
Lawrence Pointer: 13 pts
Izaiah Sanders: 9 rebs
Toby Marek: 6:3 a:to