MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

NPU is still playing without Osborne and Sanders.

[iwu70]

So far, IWU blowing out Yeshiva in NYC . . . Titans on fire from three!  Pays to play a tough schedule and to be battle tested.

IWU'70

[GoPerry]

So far, IWU blowing out Yeshiva in NYC . . . Titans on fire from three!  Pays to play a tough schedule and to be battle tested.

IWU'70

C'mon Titans!  The greenies need to win the first 5 minutes of the second half and put this one away.

[Gregory Sager]

Elmhurst blew out Lake Forest at Faganel Hall, 93-74. Hunter Merritt led the way with 18 for the 'jays, while Dominic "the Consigliere" Genco added 16 and Jonathan Zapinski had 10 and 8.

Jake Rhode didn't play.

[iwu70]

A great day to be a Titan, and from the CCIW.  IWU 73 Yeshiva 59.  The Titans shooting a great percentage, esp. from three, and playing superb defense . . .  sure does pay to play a tough schedule and to be battle tested for road games like this one against #1 Yeshiva, clearly not the #1 team in the country.

Great job TITANS and all the coaching staff.  A BIG win!

Love it.

IWU'70

[Mr. Ypsi]

Anyone want to take a stab at where IWU will place in the (finally!) upcoming poll?  With a loss at #15 Wash U. and a decisive win at #1 Yeshiva, I'm gonna predict they will stay just about where they are, with a BIG rise for Wash U. and a fairly small descent by Yeshiva.

I haven't studied what other top teams have recently done (and reserve the right to change my prediction after Daryl Nester posts "How They Fared" on Sunday), but for now I'll go with Wash U 3, IWU 4, and Yeshiva 5.

[Gregory Sager]

Final from the Forest City:

Rockford 75
North Park 68

Gabe Johnson: 23 pts, 6 rebs
Jordan Boyd: 16 pts, 12 rebs
Jonathan Johansson: 11 pts
Jalen Boyd: 9 rebs
Nick Ramirez: 4 stls

This was a three-legged dog of a basketball game. It had no flow to it, as the two teams combined for 41 fouls. Rockford had 22 of them, but NPU still bore the brunt of the whistlefest; Jordan Boyd fouled out after only 17 minutes of action -- which makes his double-double all the more remarkable, yet all the more frustrating -- and another Viking pressed into the starting lineup, Adam Bulwa, fouled out as well.

The Regents led most of the way, although NPU did build up a seven-point lead at one juncture. I kept thinking that the Vikings would pull out another short-handed sneak-out-of-town win like the victory at Augie eleven days ago, but they just shot too poorly (22-57 FG for 38%, 2-17 trey for 12%, and 22-34 FT for 65%) to make it happen. It's galling when you shoot 21 more free throw attempts than your opponent, but still can't make enough of them to win the game.

Brandon Emerick, a kid from Indiana who hoops with my nephews in their backyard gym ("They said he's really good!" texted my sister), lit up the Vikings for 23 points tonight. He's only 5'8, but he'd be a useful addition to any CCIW team.

The Vikings (6-3) gotta get Osborne and Sanders back by Wednesday. That's an absolute must.

[Gregory Sager]

Wheaton  79
Edgewood  61

Tyson Cruickshank  33 pts 8 rebs  7 asst  4 stls
Nyameye Adom  19 pts
Cade Alioth    10 pts, 11 rebs

Jake Schroeckenthaler  22 pts, 7 rebs
Eli Hartjes   15 pts 11 rebs  8 asst

The Thunder put yesterday's hiccup behind them and had much better energy right from the start.  They led 42-31 at halftime when Cruickshank went all-out-Francis on the Eagles scoring the first 10 pts of the second half and Wheaton's first 16 to put the game out of reach. 

Next up is a trip downtown next Wednesday to take on the league leaders.  They'll need to prepare well for that matchup and more importantly, test negative (both teams let's hope).

"Downtown." 'burbies. I love how everything within the city limits is referred to as "downtown" when you live in the suburbs.

(For the record, the North Park campus is a 40-minute el ride from downtown Chicago ... and it's also 40 minutes by car if you're lucky and it isn't rush hour, although rush hour ain't what it used to be before the pandemic turned the Loop into a collection of half-empty skyscrapers.)

[Titan Q]

#4-Illinois Wesleyan 73
#1-Yeshiva 59

https://www.iwusports.com/boxscore.aspx?id=13660&path=mbball

-Matt Leritz: 14 pts, 25 reb, 5 assists
-Luke Yoder: 15 pts, 4 reb, 2 assists
-Pete Lambesis: 13 pts, 2 reb, 5 assists
-Cory Noe: 11 pts
-Cody Mitchell: 10 pts, 5 reb

-Ryan Turell: 22 pts, 5 reb
-Eitan Halpert: 16 pts, 4 reb, 4 assists


Really an impressive performance by the Titans last night in what was probably the loudest, most electric opposing gym I can remember in my 32 years watching IWU play.  The Titans played with incredible composure and poise right from the tip. 

Pete Lambesis is an incredible defender.  Pete and his teammates made everything so difficult for All-American Ryan Turell all evening.

Anyone who watched last night saw that IWU was by far the bigger, stronger, more physical, more aggressive team.  Yeshiva looked like a team that had not seen anything close to that style of basketball.  At one point IWU had a 30-10 rebound lead.  It finished 42-21.  The Titans physically dominated the Macs.

Matt Leritz broke IWU's single game rebounding record (25).  The previous record (24) was held by Jack Sikma and Don Davidson.

IWU PG Luke Yoder had an incredible game - 4-5 FG (3-4 3-point), 4-4 FT.  His shooting early was huge for the Titans, as was the job he did as a floor general.  He was awesome.

6-7 junior Cody Mitchell really bottled up Yeshiva's 6-6 All-American Gabe Leifer.  Cody is a lot bigger than Gabe and just really made it hard on him to do what he usually does.

Extremely proud of how the Titans played last night, and also how this group of young men carries themselves.  They are impressive.

Kudos to Yeshiva's players, coaches, and fans.  That is a special place with incredible people.  I have made lifetime friends with so many people I have interacted with surrounding this game.

This game will make Yeshiva better come March.
-----

Pete Lambesis, Matt Leritz postgame on MacsLive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suxaZcWdGaA

Article: https://forward.com/news/480240/yeshiva-winning-streak-broken-by-illinois-wesleyan/

Ron Rose, Matt Leritz, Pete Lambesis postgame on IWUsports.com: https://www.iwusports.com/watch/?Archive=194&type=Archive [1:57:15]

[Titan Q]

The Titans have played #1 13 times since the D3hoops.com poll started in 1999-00...and have won 7 of those.

01 vs Carthage, W
01 @ Chicago NCAA, W
02 vs Carthage, L
03 vs WashU, L
06 @ Lawrence NCAA, W
09 @ WashU, L
09 @ Wheaton, L
10 vs WashU, L
10 @ WashU NCAA, W
12 @ Hope NCAA, W
15 @ Augustana, W
16 @ Augustana, L/OT
22 @ Yeshiva, W

[iwu70]

A great win for the TITANS last night vs. Yeshiva.  The defensive effort and awesome rebounding by Matt Leritz the difference.  When the Titans are shooting a good percentage from three, it is very difficult to beat them. . . 

Now comes the CCIW gauntlet . . . many evenings with games as tough as, or tougher than the Yeshiva game. 

I was very impressed with the Yeshiva broadcast, interviews, and commentary.  Great job and congrats to all involved. 

Congrats to Coach Rose and his staff on a great achievement, organizing a wonderful NYC opportunity at Yeshiva for our guys.  It was a cultural exchange experience as well as a form of sporting inter-religious dialogue.   The Titans are to be commended for their demeanor and composure . . . and for a great sporting performance.

Yes, I agree with Q, the Yeshiva team will learn and likely be better come March. 

Happy New Year to all in the Titan Nation and to all the CCIW board chatsters.  May the New Year be good to us all . . . and that, hopefully, the pandemic will wane.  Here come the Tigers . . . in the New Year.  What could possibly go wrong, heh?

IWU'70

[Gregory Sager]

North Park's game at Eureka, which had originally been scheduled for this past Tuesday, has been rescheduled for Sunday afternoon at 3 pm.

I'm very happy to see that. In an environment in which games are being canceled right and left, it's good to see two schools work hard to make a game happen. The Vikings have already had two games blotted out from their schedule; it's nice to know that this one was reclaimed from the scrap heap.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

The Titans have played #1 13 times since the D3hoops.com poll started in 1999-00...and have won 7 of those.

01 vs Carthage, W
01 @ Chicago NCAA, W
02 vs Carthage, L
03 vs WashU, L
06 @ Lawrence NCAA, W
09 @ WashU, L
09 @ Wheaton, L
10 vs WashU, L
10 @ WashU NCAA, W
12 @ Hope NCAA, W/2OT
15 @ Augustana, W
16 @ Augustana, L/OT
22 @ Yeshiva, W

Fixed 2012 for you

[GoPerry]

My two cents watching IWU/YU:

The defense IWU was throwing at YU looked no different than what the Titans normally play vs Wash U, UWO, WC et al.  But the Macs seem to be utterly unprepared for it.  Clearly they are not used to that sort of close man to man and physical intensity from their regular opponents.

Offensively the Titans had a great shooting night on the road.  I was very impressed with their poise after a long layoff.  But they also regularly got numerous clean looks from the arc.  I was trying to figure out Yeshiva's defensive scheme.  But they seemed to double team indiscriminately which a skilled and disciplined team will shred.  This left Noe, Yoder, Lambesis wide open for relatively uncontested shots.

I liked the announcers who were clearly homers but not excessively so.  In fact, the color guy was very even in his praise for the visitors and criticism of the home team.  Good broadcast quality.

Excellent postgame interview by Lambesis and Leritz.  Very classy to praise the Macs and recognize the winning streak.  Ditto for Q's half time interview.

Maybe Yeshiva is better than they looked.  But if they had an off night I think IWU had a lot to do with that.  In any case, I'll be interested to see how the D3Hoops voters rank them.  I don't think they are top ten but I doubt they will drop that far.

[WUPHF]

North Park's game at Eureka, which had originally been scheduled for this past Tuesday, has been rescheduled for Sunday afternoon at 3 pm.

I'm very happy to see that. In an environment in which games are being canceled right and left, it's good to see two schools work hard to make a game happen. The Vikings have already had two games blotted out from their schedule; it's nice to know that this one was reclaimed from the scrap heap.

Eureka did not have the personnel to play UMSL (the claim made in the UMSL presser) today but they can play North Park tomorrow. Interesting.