MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Jim Matson]

Just where is this "Texas" of which you speak?

[Hoosier Titan]

My husband and I are off to the state of my birth to see the state boys' finals tomorrow.  We'll see Greg Oden before he heads off for his year (!) at OSU and then to the NBA.   I don't miss this kind of thing in DIII, but it should be interesting (and we don't seem to grow that many 7-footers in Indiana).

[Gregory Sager]

LOL - that WOULD be quite a name!  (I plead guilty to the missing 's'.)

If it makes you feel any better, Chuck, the NCAA announcer, former Duke great, and ex-76er and ex-Maverick spells his surname "Spanarkel," not "Spinarkle" (although Hoosier Titan's spelling is definitely funnier). Incidentally, Spanarkel's son, who is also named Jim, played hoops for a D3 team (The College of New Jersey) in recent seasons.

A tournament like that is more likely to be sanctioned by the sport's governing body than any of the various college athletic associations.

... particularly since Harold Washington College is a juco and a member of the NJCAA, not the NAIA.

I wonder if any of the paddles used in this tournament had Tom Hanks' picture on them?

4) As anyone can tell, I'm suffering from a severe case of D3 b'ball withdrawal and just waiting for the doubleheader in Wrigley Field in August when Kerry Wood and Mark Prior are the announced (but don't count on it) starters.

Fat chance, Lanny. Steel yourself for an afternoon of Rich Hill and John "Honky Tonk" Koronkadonk -- or for as long as they manage to last before they're told to hit the showers.

Just where is this "Texas" of which you speak?

You aren't still harboring bitterness over the departure of Kevin "Sun Tan" Blomstrom, I hope? 

[Hoosier Titan]

LOL - that WOULD be quite a name!  (I plead guilty to the missing 's'.)

If it makes you feel any better, Chuck, the NCAA announcer, former Duke great, and ex-76er and ex-Maverick spells his surname "Spanarkel," not "Spinarkle" (although Hoosier Titan's spelling is definitely funnier). Incidentally, Spanarkel's son, who is also named Jim, played hoops for a D3 team (The College of New Jersey) in recent seasons.

Oops, now I'm guilty.  I had never seen the name in print, and spelled it phonetically.  Now I can empathize with all those posters who have mangled "Amelianovich" for four years.

[Greek Tragedy]

Amos Zereoue, Chris Fuamatu Ma'afala, T.J. Houshmandzadah, Tuiasosopo, Roethlisberger, and Laveranues Coles are all names I've learned how to spell after running a fantasy football league for the last 10 years or so.  And sadly, no, I didn't have to look up how to spell any of those names...

Point had a guard name Kyle Grusczynski...and I had to look up his name several times before figuring out where to put the "s", "c" and "z".  I used to just call him K.G. and he has a brother playing named Kevin.  We did have a player in the past named Kalonji Kadima, otherwise we've had some pretty easy names come our way like John Krull and Shawn Lee. 

I guess that's why I just said, "Keelan" when referring to Mr. Amelianovich

[Gregory Sager]

Amos Zereoue, Chris Fuamatu Ma'afala, T.J. Houshmandzadah, Tuiasosopo, Roethlisberger, and Laveranues Coles are all names I've learned how to spell after running a fantasy football league for the last 10 years or so.  And sadly, no, I didn't have to look up how to spell any of those names...

When I was in a fantasy football league at work, the most difficult name to spell among the league members was also one of the shortest: Favre. You wouldn't believe how many people spell it phonetically as "Farve." Considering how often that name appeared in the newspaper, and the fact that most of the league's members were Bears fans, I have to think it was at least a semi-deliberate snub for some of them.

Oops, now I'm guilty.  I had never seen the name in print, and spelled it phonetically.  Now I can empathize with all those posters who have mangled "Amelianovich" for four years.

Don't feel bad. Chris Braier of Lawrence has practically owned the MWC over the past four years, and yet his surname was butchered on a daily basis in the MWC room.

"Djurickovic" is still the gold standard for orthographic intimidation in the CCIW. Just yesterday a poster in the MAC Freedom room was wondering how people ever managed to spell the Serbian Prince's surname correctly.

Once a name gets splashed all over the conference's record books and game programs, a la "Djurickovic" and "Gobczynski," it gets easier to spell simply through familiarity. One of the CCIW hoops names I always used to struggle with was that of Tom Grudzielanek, who played forward for Carthage in the late eighties. But after his little brother Mark became a major-league infielder, it suddenly didn't seem so difficult to spell the name (even though it was abbreviated in the box scores everyday).

One of my all-time favorite CCIW basketball names belonged to an Illinois Wesleyan reserve forward from the early nineties named Tom Jakstys. North Park fans used to call him "Eyechart."

[diehardfan]

Just where is this "Texas" of which you speak?

You aren't still harboring bitterness over the departure of Kevin "Sun Tan" Blomstrom, I hope? 

Kevin has to be the only 2 yr CCIW player who's still mentioned long, long after his departure.

Hey, uh, there are perfectly good reasons why I am not a huge fan of Biola or Westmont, despite the vaguely similar school philosophies and fact that both have good basketball teams. (cough)

Here's one:

Blomstrom + Kolmodin + Landry + Nielson + Trimiew + Steven + Bollier + etc. = National Championship
Instead, while were were clearly still great, we got snubbed for the Pool C that year.  http://www.d3hoops.com/salem/04/preview.htm

[Mr. Ypsi]

Lots of posters chickened out on Amelianovich and just called him Keelan.  And lots of posters consistently butchered Braier.  But I think the winner for most often misspelled last name goes to Adam Dauksas - perhaps most often mispronounced, too.  I only listened to two IWU games not broadcast by Q, but both insisted on calling him 'DAWK-sis'.  When broadcasters can't get an All-American's name right, that is a very sad sign!

[Jim Matson]

I watched the D2 championship game today.  Mankato State beat Virginia Union by 10 or so.  I thought Mankato State looked a lot like Illinois Wesleyan - similar style and good at the fundamentals.  They played a more disciplined style than did VU and beat them at the basics of the game, although VU was the more athletic of the two.  Mankato had some nice outside shooting but also had a strong inside presence - good balance.

[Jim Matson]

No worries about Blomstrom, Greg.  It just felt like we where spending too much time talking about a foreign power!

[budder]

It was Winona State, not Mankato State

[Ralph Turner]

Just where is this "Texas" of which you speak?

Raht here!

This little ditty will help you speak  Texan! 

Y'all have uh good naht!

[devildog29]

Ralph, being a resident of south Texas for the last year, I find a lot of humor in that article.  It is very true that west Texas accents are very different than east Texas accents, which are very different than south Texas accents.  Very similar to Illinois, which has 3 very different accents between Chicago, central IL, and southern IL.  Just last weekend I found myself in a moment of reflection and realized I have been down here too long when I asked my friends "are y'all fixin' to go get sumthin' tuh eet?"  Thankfully, I'll be back in IL over Easter week, so I'm hoping that will clean my lexicon system out.

[Pat Coleman]

I know some of you already know this, but just a reminder for the rest that there's a CCIW baseball board on the site now, too, to help with your offseason blahs.

http://www.d3sports.com/post/index.php?topic=4399.315

[veterancciwfan]

Texas is a lot different from central IL, but I love the Dallas area where my sister lives. One thing I noticed about terminology: At a party in Plano, someone will ask: "Can I have a Coke?" which is a generic term for any soft drink, just like we use "Kleenex" as the generic term for a tissue in IL. For any 5K runners, Ft. Worth has an amazing 5K on April 1, the "Hit the Bricks 5K." I guarantee a personal record as over 2 of the 3.1 miles are gently downhill with a south wind at your back. The race ends on the track of the old TCU football stadium. Fabulous course. See you there.

On a b'ball note, IWU is now 39-18 in D3 tourney play since entering D3 in the 83/84 seasons, a winning % of .684. Not too shabby. Don't know what the record is for most D3 tourney wins, but Wittenberg probably holds it.