MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[WUPHF]

I would be appalled if Wheaton didn't celebrate the win.

[lmitzel]

One note I'll add after watching the Wheaton @NCC game online. There was a decent crowd of Wheaton fans at the game which was surprising given the indications that few would be allowed to attend. And the NCC announcers were appalled when Wheaton celebrated the close game victory at the end. I'm not sure what they were expecting but for some reason they took serious offense to the high fives and animated celebration of the Wheaton team, repeating their disdain over the final minutes of the broadcast and suggesting the NCC players would "remember" this for a long time. Weird.

Wow. Now I really feel as though as I missed something by not seeing that game.

Since he was courtside, I'm interested in reading Lucas's perspective regarding the atmosphere at the end of Saturday's game in the hangar.

I'll admit first and foremost that I was surprised to see the sheer number of Wheaton folks that managed to get in, given what I understood to be a "pre-approved home fans only" policy. The Wheaton women still hanging around for a while made sense, and there were a few people tied to them allowed in as well (Kent Madsen's wife was there, and I'm pretty sure I saw Mike Swider as well though I'm not positive). But then around halftime more Wheaton-affiliated folks trickled in and it was a little more like old times again. Had a couple shirtless guys with painted numbers on their chests, the works.

Said guys pretty much right after the final horn almost immediately went to center court to pose for a picture (though we got the scoreboard shut off as the Thunder were heading to the locker room).

Going to watch the end of that game, I do think Alex and Ryan kind of overstated the "celebration" the Wheaton players made. I've seen bigger final buzzer celebrations from other visitors this season (more so on the women's side) this season, and felt that this was pretty tame by comparison. It was a quick group huddle just in front of their bench right before the handshake line, followed by a couple guys feeding off the Wheaton fans that were in attendance.

Watching opposing teams rush the floor after a win hurts to some degree as a fan because I hate to see other teams celebrate on my floor; I'm not one of those "do not desecrate our logo at center court" types, but Wheaton's celebration was nowhere near this. It was appropriate for what it was: a tough road win against a team ahead of you in the conference standings, in a building where you haven't had a whole lot of success in recent years (2-8 in their last ten including Saturday; the other win was "Aston Francis did Aston Francis things.") Mike Schauer was very gracious in victory afterwards too; Mark and I talked to him briefly, he acknowledged that fatigue had to have been a factor in the game, and he even apologized for "barking at" the table in the second half when we were working to fix a minor scoreboard error.

[USee]

Mike Swider's daughter, Hannah, is a senior starter on the women's team (and engaged to everyone's favorite gridiron namesake--River Shindledecker) so it makes sense he would have been there as I know he attends her games.

[Gregory Sager]

This is not true. St. Xavier is actually in Chicago. To be precise, it's in the Mount Greenwood neighborhood on the Far Southwest Side; Mount Greenwood is one of the 77 officially-recognized Chicago communities used for statistical and planning purposes. SXU has a Chicago street address, and it lies within the city limits. No "technically" qualifier changes that. You don't get closer to Chicago than being in Chicago. The Concordia campus is a little over a mile and a half west of the city limits. It's located in a suburb that doesn't even border the city, unless you count the southwest/northeast diagonal of the four municipalities located at the corner of North and Harlem to be a border -- and that's pretty far away from the Concordia campus as well.

You know what I mean.  Xavs is in Chicago but it may as well be in Beverly or Evergreen Park.  The Chicago zip code adds nothing to the student experience.  It is far more difficult to get the Chicago north side experience as well.

This isn't about "the student experience." It's about simple facts. After all, Wheaton and Elmhurst students are even closer to the train leading into the city than are Concordia students (you have to walk roughly a mile to get to the Green Line's Oak Park stop from Concordia, or else take the Harlem bus), and yet nobody at Wheaton College or Elmhurst University is touting their respective institutions as being "Chicago" schools.

St. Xavier's access to public transportation is another matter entirely. And I should add that the dearth of bus or el access from the SXU campus is well beyond the control of SXU and of the Mount Greenwood community in general, and it's part of a much larger narrative about how for generations this city's mayors and city council have refused to be responsive to the needs of South Siders, not just in public transportation but in so many other matters as well.

The North Side, and the experience thereof, is irrelevant to any discussion of SXU. It's a South Side school. Dedicated North Sider that I am, I'm not chauvinistic enough about my side of town to think that the center of city life for everybody whose zip code starts with "606" is located up here north of the river. And the North Side is thus not particularly relevant to IIT or the U of C, either, although it is easier to attend a Cubs game or a Lincoln Park street fair or to take a Beginner Mandolin class at the Old Town School of Folk Music if you attend one of those two schools than if you attend SXU.

The old saying that "Chicago is two cities linked by a common downtown" is really true. (West Siders hate that saying, but that's another kettle of fish altogether.)

And Oak Park and River Forest may as well be the same suburb for all the reasons that you well know.  They could merge tomorrow without losing anything that makes them unique.  The share a school district after all.

Since I lived for a time in the Galewood neighborhood on the Far West Side, which is quite close to both Oak Park and River Forest, I've come to know both suburbs fairly well. There are definitely differences between them. Oak Park is far more retail-oriented, far more arty and more touristy, and has a much more pronounced vibe of community activism and civic engagement. The village's population is almost one-third black or Latino, and the village's fair-housing movement of the late '60s and early '70s is rightfully held up as one of the civic models of the civil rights era. River Forest, by contrast, is a sleepier and more upscale suburb -- and a whiter one, too, as ethnic minorities constitute less than 20% of the village's population. The household income of River Forest is about $70,000 to $80,000 higher than that of Oak Park, and it shows.

Oak Park is sometimes described as being "Evanston without Northwestern," which strikes me as a more apt comparison than calling it River Forest's clone.

[Gregory Sager]

One note I'll add after watching the Wheaton @NCC game online. There was a decent crowd of Wheaton fans at the game which was surprising given the indications that few would be allowed to attend. And the NCC announcers were appalled when Wheaton celebrated the close game victory at the end. I'm not sure what they were expecting but for some reason they took serious offense to the high fives and animated celebration of the Wheaton team, repeating their disdain over the final minutes of the broadcast and suggesting the NCC players would "remember" this for a long time. Weird.

Wow. Now I really feel as though as I missed something by not seeing that game.

Since he was courtside, I'm interested in reading Lucas's perspective regarding the atmosphere at the end of Saturday's game in the hangar.

I'll admit first and foremost that I was surprised to see the sheer number of Wheaton folks that managed to get in, given what I understood to be a "pre-approved home fans only" policy. The Wheaton women still hanging around for a while made sense, and there were a few people tied to them allowed in as well (Kent Madsen's wife was there, and I'm pretty sure I saw Mike Swider as well though I'm not positive). But then around halftime more Wheaton-affiliated folks trickled in and it was a little more like old times again. Had a couple shirtless guys with painted numbers on their chests, the works.

Said guys pretty much right after the final horn almost immediately went to center court to pose for a picture (though we got the scoreboard shut off as the Thunder were heading to the locker room).

Ah, I suspected that the Little Brass Bell and those who vie for it every autumn might've been somewhere in the mix of this postgame contretemps, overblown though it may be.

Going to watch the end of that game, I do think Alex and Ryan kind of overstated the "celebration" the Wheaton players made. I've seen bigger final buzzer celebrations from other visitors this season (more so on the women's side) this season, and felt that this was pretty tame by comparison. It was a quick group huddle just in front of their bench right before the handshake line, followed by a couple guys feeding off the Wheaton fans that were in attendance.

Sounds pretty tame to me, too. The only controversial thing might be a perceived shift away from NCC's stated attendance policy regarding visitors, but the mere fact that there was a handshake line rather than the polite wave from one bench to the other at the game's conclusion that has become de rigueur in the Covid era (I haven't seen a handshake line in the crackerbox in two years) seems to speak volumes about how the attitude towards the pandemic may be changing at NCC.

Watching opposing teams rush the floor after a win hurts to some degree as a fan because I hate to see other teams celebrate on my floor; I'm not one of those "do not desecrate our logo at center court" types, but Wheaton's celebration was nowhere near this. It was appropriate for what it was: a tough road win against a team ahead of you in the conference standings, in a building where you haven't had a whole lot of success in recent years (2-8 in their last ten including Saturday; the other win was "Aston Francis did Aston Francis things.") Mike Schauer was very gracious in victory afterwards too; Mark and I talked to him briefly, he acknowledged that fatigue had to have been a factor in the game, and he even apologized for "barking at" the table in the second half when we were working to fix a minor scoreboard error.

You DuPagers are becoming much too civilized with regard to your rivalry.

[Gregory Sager]

Mike Swider's daughter, Hannah, is a senior starter on the women's team (and engaged to everyone's favorite gridiron namesake--River Shindledecker)

He was once the deserving holder of the title "Most Interesting Name of a CCIW Student-Athlete", but Carroll's Paradisio Dante has definitely, uh, ascended to that particular honor.

(Hat tip to NPU's Lalhnehpuia Chhakchhuak for holding the title "Most Frightening Name to a CCIW Broadcaster or Public-Address Announcer".)

[Pat Coleman]

Mike Swider's daughter, Hannah, is a senior starter on the women's team (and engaged to everyone's favorite gridiron namesake--River Shindledecker)

This explains an interesting email we received last fall.

[lmitzel]

Mike Swider's daughter, Hannah, is a senior starter on the women's team (and engaged to everyone's favorite gridiron namesake--River Shindledecker)

He was once the deserving holder of the title "Most Interesting Name of a CCIW Student-Athlete", but Carroll's Paradisio Dante has definitely, uh, ascended to that particular honor.

By the way, I'm now pissed that River Shindledecker was not a two-sport athlete. Come on, Wheaton.

(Hat tip to NPU's Lalhnehpuia Chhakchhuak for holding the title "Most Frightening Name to a CCIW Broadcaster or Public-Address Announcer".)

I spent six months relishing the challenge only to check the stat page last night and see that he hasn't gotten into a game and Greg confirmed this afternoon that I'm off the hook today.

[Gregory Sager]

Mike Swider's daughter, Hannah, is a senior starter on the women's team (and engaged to everyone's favorite gridiron namesake--River Shindledecker)

This explains an interesting email we received last fall.

Do tell, Patrick.

(Hat tip to NPU's Lalhnehpuia Chhakchhuak for holding the title "Most Frightening Name to a CCIW Broadcaster or Public-Address Announcer".)

I spent six months relishing the challenge only to check the stat page last night and see that he hasn't gotten into a game and Greg confirmed this afternoon that I'm off the hook today.

LOL!

[WUPHF]

By the way, I'm now pissed that River Shindledecker was not a two-sport athlete. Come on, Wheaton.

Riv-er-Shin-dle-deck-er for threeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

[North Central is already back on offense and scoring by the time you finish]

[Next Man Up]

Two points;

1. Names—As USee suggested, I think River Shindledecker still takes the cake for football names.
And, Paradisio Dante takes first on the basketball side.

2. The Wheaton "attendees." My investigator side coming out here. While a change in the NCC visitors attendance policy is on the horizon, I do not believe that any change(s) have officially gone into effect as yet. Gregory Arena attendees are still required to be on a pre-approved list. NCC coaches, players, cheerleaders, and dance team and pep band members get to submit 4 names each. Presumably each name is someone who the designator is sure is Covid free and is willing to properly wear a face mask—although the face mask part is a complete and utter farce. Visiting team fans are not allowed. So, technically, Mike Swider should not have been in the building Sat night. As far as the two bare-chested fans that very briefly wound up at center court after the final buzzer—-normal practice is for the students manning the attendance table in the lobby to leave at halftime. With no means of checking whether those entering after that are on the approved list and thus "eligible" under current policy, basically anyone is free just to walk in as they please. I think that's what happened Saturday. With the limited means of enforcement of the attendance policy removed, the Wheaties just waited until the opportune time and just walked in and assumed their seats, mixing in with the women's team members and whatever other WC community members that were there. How they managed to be able to remain throughout the remainder of the game once their affiliation became evident is a mystery that seemingly can only be explained by lax security.

[Next Man Up]

With regard to the recent commentary regarding Concordia-Chicago.........

One thing that's for certain is that if you go to Chicago looking for Concordia, you won't find it!

[Gregory Sager]

Yep, it moved to Cicero:





¡Qué triste! ¡Y yo tengo hambre!

[lmitzel]

NCC 90, NPU 59

Cardinals led almost the whole way, and had a chance to lead before the opening tip thanks to an administrative tech on North Park for not getting their starting five in the book on time. (Second time I've seen it happen here, which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it's happened twice.)

Blaise Meredith: 26 pts, 9 reb
Matt Helwig: 19 pts, 6 reb
Ethan Helwig: 16 pts

Gabe Johnson: 14 pts, 6 reb
Isaiah Sanders: 10 pts
Michael Osborne: 9 pts

And I got to practice some Norwegian/Swedish pronunciations. Good times.

[Gregory Sager]

North Central 90
North Park 59

Gabe Johnson: 14 pts (4-7 trey), 6 rebs
Izaiah Sanders: 10 pts

Blaise Meredith: 26 pts (3-5 trey), 10 rebs
Matt Helwig: 19 pts, 6 rebs
Ethan Helwig: 16 pts (4-6 trey)

Another brutal beating suffered by the Vikings, who can't seem to do anything right at either end of the floor. Credit to North Central, which shot an absolutely blistering .604 from the field and .571 from behind the arc, but, quite honestly, the Cardinals were taking open shots all night due to the total inability of North Park to play defense in any way, shape, or form. At the offensive end, the Vikings were predictable and easily stopped; I think I counted five instances in the second half alone in which a Vikings shooter was tied up for a jump ball because the NCC defense knew exactly what he was going to do.

It tears me up to post this, but I have serious doubts as to whether the Vikings can win another ballgame this season. Since New Year's Day they've gone 0-7 in CCIW play, with six of those seven defeats coming by double digits. In those seven losses they've been outscored by an average of 18 points, with their two most recent losses being their worst yet. This is harder to watch than the bad NPU teams of the past few seasons, because those teams were simply undertalented. By contrast, this Vikings team has good players; it's just plain fallen apart, for reasons that are hard to understand in light of their 3-0 start.