MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[markerickson]

Once Chet Holmgren (the nation's #1 HS recruit who attends my alma mater, which was founded by the same denomination as North Park) commits to North Park, and his former teammate, starting Gonzaga freshman PG Jalen Suggs, transfers to North Park*, then I will not only join the Polar Bear club, I will also jump into Lake Superior thru a large ice fishing hole.  I will then down an entire can of surstromming before I writhe about in a 110 gallon container of pickled herring and then cover up.  Sager will follow my lead.

I missed the victory over the nation's #2 team, but celebrated by watching the last few minutes (full game on YT) of North Park's victory over #4 Augustana in 2015.  Great call, Greg.

No worn clichés in this post.

*I guarantee another three-peat.

[Gregory Sager]

Once Chet Holmgren (the nation's #1 HS recruit who attends my alma mater, which was founded by the same denomination as North Park) commits to North Park, and his former teammate, starting Gonzaga freshman PG Jalen Suggs, transfers to North Park*, then I will not only join the Polar Bear club, I will also jump into Lake Superior thru a large ice fishing hole.  I will then down an entire can of surstromming before I writhe about in a 110 gallon container of pickled herring and then cover up.  Sager will follow my lead.

I'm willing to do all that -- even the jumping-into-Lake-Superior-through-a-hole-in-the-ice part -- but count me out when it comes to eating surströmming. Heck, I don't even want to be in the same zip code as an opened can of that stuff. Have you ever smelled surströmming, Mark? I have. A mutual friend of ours opened a can of it once as a joke, and after one whiff I immediately wanted to punch his lights out. It's the most vile odor I've ever experienced in my entire life. It's like an entire landfill's worth of soiled diapers, rancid butter, sour milk, and used cat litter all jammed into one hockey-puck-sized can. If the Swedish Army ever weaponized surströmming, they could revive the seventeenth-century Swedish Empire by re-conquering all of northern Europe.

There's a reason why YouTube is full of videos of people opening cans of surströmming on a lark and then gagging and vomiting.

I missed the victory over the nation's #2 team, but celebrated by watching the last few minutes (full game on YT) of North Park's victory over #4 Augustana in 2015.  Great call, Greg.

Thanks, Mark. I was wracking my brain on Saturday, trying to remember the last time that NPU beat an opponent ranked as high as #2. I was pretty sure (without actually checking d3hoops.com) that Augie wasn't ranked quite as high as that back in 2015.

[Titan Q]

#8-Illinois Wesleyan (5-1) vs North Park (3-10), 2:00pm Saturday...

#8-Illinois Wesleyan (5-0)
G - Luke Yoder, 6-0/170 So.
G - Keondre Schumacher 5-11/175 Jr.
G - Pete Lambesis, 6-4/195 Jr.
F - Doug Wallen, 6-5/210 Sr.
F - Matt Leritz, 6-7/235 Jr.

North Park (3-10)
G - Isaiah Sanders, 5-11/170 Sr.
G - Toby Marek, 6-0/190 Sr.
G - Mike Osborne, 6-2/175 Fr.
F - Jalen Boyd, 6-4/180 Jr.
F - Jordan Boyd, 6-7/215 Jr.


IWU Game Notes - https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sites/iwusports.com/documents/2021/3/5/Game07_NorthPark_MBBquarters.pdf

Video - https://www.iwusports.com/watch/?Live=122&type=Live

Live Stats - https://www.iwusports.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary

[USee]

Wheaton and IWU win easily.

Carthage @ Augie is OT at Carver.

Elmhurst/Carroll tonight.

[iwu70]

IWU over NPU, 75 - 55

The Matt Leritz show.  Charlie Bair making two treys!   

On to the next round. 

'70

[GoPerry]

Wheaton over Millikin easily 81-53

Nyameye Adom had 19 first half points and Wheaton got a double digit lead after 8 minutes and never looked back.  Adom led all scorers with 27 while Tyson Cruickshank added 19.   Calvin Fisher led the Big Blue with 13 pts, 9 rebs.

After a 9 day layoff and some missed practices the Thunder looked hungry to get back to business.  Coach Schauer postgame: "No one is guaranteed another game . . .  just as important as playing well is to test negative . . ."  Kind of sums up a strange season.

[Gregory Sager]

Illinois Wesleyan 75
North Park 55

Jalen Boyd: 15 pts, 9 rebs
Jordan Boyd: 7 rebs

Matt Leritz: 23 pts, 16 rebs
Peter Lambesis: 13 pts
Charlie Bair: 11 pts, 12 rebs, 4 blks
Luke Yoder: 11 pts, 6:3 a:to
Cory Noe: 3:1 a:to

It was probably asking too much for the Vikings to catch lightning in a bottle twice in eight days, but it's a little disappointing to see them fade as badly as they appear to have faded in the second half. But at least Jalen Boyd had a solid quarterfinal game; I think that much of what would help the Vikings to progress as a team next year rests upon the lesser-celebrated Boyd twin stepping up to have games like this.

Sincere and strong thanks to each of the Vikings seniors -- especially four-year man Toby Marek, but also to Izaiah Sanders, Lawrence Pointer, Aquil Spates, and Simon Jacobsen -- for all of their hard work and dedication while they wore the North Park uniform. It's always bittersweet to see North Park student-athletes move on and graduate, but I'll have good memories of each of those guys.

[Gregory Sager]

Carthage and Augie are in triple overtime.

[Gregory Sager]

Augie wins, 109-107.

I watched the third overtime. Instant classic.

The people who read this board are probably sick of me saying it, but Fillip Bulatovic is a beast. He had 35 points and 20 rebounds for the Firebirds today in a losing cause.

[Titan Q]

I thought IWU played great defense today against North Park.  Made everything very hard for the Vikings.

IWU 6-7 junior Matt Leritz is really a great player.  Averaging 16.9 ppg, 9.7 rpg; shooting .635 FG, 12-19 3-point (.632).  He is a skilled back-to-the-basket player, with wonderful touch with both hands.  Can step out and shoot the heck out of it...and is good off the dribble.  I don't think there are many 5s in D3 better than Matt.

IWU has a strong perimeter defensive duo in sophomore Luke Yoder and junior Pete Lambesis.  They both make it difficult on opposing perimeter scorers.

The Titans host Elmhurst Tuesday.

[Titan Q]

IWU played without starting 4-man Doug Wallen today (sprained ankle). 

Doug is averaging 11.7 ppg, 4.2 rpg, shooting .725 FG.  Hopefully he can return Tuesday for the Elmhurst game.

[Ultimate Titan Fan]

What Q said.

A spate of ill-advised passes, but the Titan D turned it up a notch. Vikings shut down the 3 ball (from the guards, at least) but that freed them up the drive the rim. Great game. You'd never know NP was 3 and 11. They play with a confidence that could beat any team in D3.

[markerickson]

Crusaders, gone.  Redmen, gone.  Chicago Mayor placed the statue of Leif Erikson on a list of 41, which includes Abraham Lincoln (there are numerous) for his oversight of the death penalty by hanging of 38 Dakota and policy of relocation of Native Americans, as possibly ripe for removal.  Given the secretive meeting, the public does not know the removal criteria/justifications.  Why Leif?  His settlement in Newfoundland, which is in CANADA, did not last.  L'Anse aux Meadows is nowhere near Maine.

Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass asks about Lincoln, Erikson, and President Ulysses S. Grant in today's article. Vikings, gone, due to today's "cancel culture?"

The best team won yesterday's 2pm tipoff.

[Titan Q]

#8-Illinois Wesleyan (6-1) vs Elmhurst (7-2), 7:00pm Tuesday 3/9...

#8-Illinois Wesleyan (6-1)
G - Luke Yoder, 6-0/170 So.
G - Cory Noe, 6-2/175 Jr.
G - Pete Lambesis, 6-4/195 Jr.
F - Charlie Bair, 6-7/220 Sr.
F - Matt Leritz, 6-7/235 Jr.

Elmhurst (7-2)
G - Ocean Johnson, 6-2 So.
G - Dominic Genco, 6-3 Sr.
F - Jay Militello, 6-4 Sr.
F - Lavon Thomas, 6-5 Sr.
F - Jonathan Zapinski, 6-6 So.

IWU Game Notes - https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sites/iwusports.com/documents/2021/3/8/Game08_Elmhurst_MBBsemis.pdf

Video - https://www.iwusports.com/watch/?Live=122&type=Live

Live Stats - https://www.iwusports.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary

[GU1999]

Mark:  Interesting post.  I'll take the bait.

The choices by Carthage and Wheaton were theirs to make, driven by their own decisions of what is best for their intuitions.  I am sure that this has been well hashed out in this forum over the years.   I view this similarly to the way that Wheaton chose to take Denny Hastert's name off of the School of Public Policy.  It was just not worth it to keep it up there.  Earlier today UT - Austin's leadership determined that their school song "has no racist intent" so they will keep it.  Institutions are free to do it either way.       

As for statues on public lands, it's a pretty straight forward matter between the elected and their constituents whether to keep the venerating monuments up or not.  Certain historical figures whose commitments are so great that we as a community want to venerate them despite their warts should and will do so.  Your example about Lincoln certainly fits the bill of one of these conflicted persons.  He was a wonderful president and also a white supremacist.  I think that leaving all the Lincoln stuff up provides the potential for educational context to the Lincoln teaching which may be even more helpful then a wholesale removal.  A Lincoln history taught in a way that discusses that breadth of the "great emancipators" thinking about race would be helpful to understand both the man, the time he lived and the political climate in the North?  Some of his orations on this subject are really hard to reconcile for even the most ardent Lincoln fan (of which I am one).  For example, see the excerpt from the 4th Douglas debate which I copied below.   The truth is that Lincoln did evolve somewhat over time and his quote below (pre-election) may not have represented what he truly felt when he died.  By the end he may have been OK with blacks being citizens and he was certainly OK with them fighting and dying in the war.   The truth is he was sadly ahead of many of his contemporaries whose progeny latter decided to don white robes, foster the rise of the Jim Crow south, and clearly exist to this day. 

I don't share your concern about "cancel culture," but I do think that it gives all of us an opportunity to seek greater understanding about very complex matters.

Lincoln Douglas 4th Debate, Part 1: 

"While I was at the hotel to—day, an elderly gentleman called upon me to know whether I was really in favor of producing a perfect equality between the negroes and white people. [Great Laughter.] While I had not proposed to myself on this occasion to say much on that subject, yet as the question was asked me I thought I would occupy perhaps five minutes in saying something in regard to it. I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, [applause]—that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied every thing. I do not understand that because I do not want a negro woman for a slave I must necessarily want her for a wife. [Cheers and laughter.] My understanding is that I can just let her alone. I am now in my fiftieth year, and I certainly never have had a black woman for either a slave or a wife. So it seems to me quite possible for us to get along without making either slaves or wives of negroes. I will add to this that I have never seen, to my knowledge, a man, woman or child who was in favor of producing a perfect equality, social and political, between negroes and white men. I recollect of but one distinguished instance that I ever heard of so frequently as to be entirely satisfied of its correctness—and that is the case of Judge Douglas's old friend Col. Richard M. Johnson. [Laughter.] I will also add to the remarks I have made (for I am not going to enter at large upon this subject), that I have never had the least apprehension that I or my friends would marry negroes if there was no law to keep them from it, [laughter] but as Judge Douglas and his friends seem to be in great apprehension that they might, if there were no law to keep them from it, [roars of laughter] I give him the most solemn pledge that I will to the very last stand by the law of this State, which forbids the marrying of white people with negroes."