MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

Carthage almost ganked a 13-point second-half lead at the Griz, holding on to win a 70-67 victory over Millikin that the Big Blue came achingly close to stealing. Fillip Bulatovic led the way for the Firebirds with an 18 and 12 double-double, while Colton Sigel contributed 12 points and Anthony Bernero 7 rebounds in the winning effort. Jimmy Millikin was paced in the losing cause by Demarcus Bond's 16 points, Chase Travis's 11, and seven boards from Cole Laurence.

The WIAC has been crushing the CCIW head-to-head this season, but Carroll got a modicum of payback for our league tonight by beating UW-River Falls, 61-46, in a we'll-meet-you-halfway game in Wisconsin Dells. Nobody scored in double figures for the Pios, but the boards were controlled by the Simpsons, Kobe (9) and Eckahelo (8), for Carroll. CU used a 10-0 run that broke a 17-all tie in the latter part of the first half to gain separation from UWRF, and the Falcons never got it under a two-possession deficit the rest of the way.

[Gregory Sager]

Matt Helwig missed what would've been a game-winning trey for North Central at the buzzer, and Illinois Wesleyan survives with an 87-85 win at Shirk.

Wheaton and Elmhurst are in overtime at King.

[Gregory Sager]

Too much John Ittounas tonight for Wheaton's liking; his 30 points included a banked-in trey in the final second of regulation to send the game into OT (Mike Schauer fell on his sword in the postgame interview by admitting that Wheaton should've fouled to prevent EU from attempting a potential tying trey), but his assist in the waning second of the extra session was just as key, as Elmhurst downs Wheaton, 79-75.

[iwu70]

Sometimes better to be lucky than good . . . IWU tried numerous ways to lose this one in the last 3 minutes, finally coming away with a nail-bitter 87-85 win over NCC and the Helwig brothers.  IWU had good moments, but many stupid mistakes too, and trouble from the FT line all night. 

For NCC:
Johnson 17 (I believe all in the first half)
M. Hellwig 15
E. Hellwig 11
Cupples 11
Lewis 13

IWU:
Heflen 28
Mitchell, a monster second half, 22 and 12
Willams 12

I'm beginning to believe more in Hakim Williams as IWU PG of choice now . . .  IWU still banged up, Roper out, and five other guys in civies with various injuries, boots on feet etc.   Biggest loss there is Nathan Boldt . . . 

But, 3-0 to start CCIW play is AOK by me too.   Wheaton comes to town on Saturday next.

Time for exams week.

'70

p.s. Sometimes you can get to 78 and lose . . . and that almost happened tonight.  Scary. 

[Gregory Sager]

North Park has no time to bask in this win. Less than 24 hours after taking the floor against Augustana the Vikings will have to lace 'em up again. This time they'll be playing UW-Milwaukee (7-4) up in Brew City in a 2 pm tipoff in one of those D3 vs. D1 contests that is a mere exhibition for the D3 team but a game that counts for the D1 team. In sharp contrast to NPU, the Panthers haven't played a game since last Tuesday.

I'm under no illusions as to what the outcome of tomorrow's game is going to be. Massey has NPU as a 28-point underdog. I'm just hoping for a good North Park showing. Seeing the Vikings hang around well into the second half against the Panthers would be great. Beating the spread would be great, too. At the very least, the fact that it won't count for the Vikings means that they're playing with house money.

[petemcb]

North Park has no time to bask in this win. Less than 24 hours after taking the floor against Augustana the Vikings will have to lace 'em up again. This time they'll be playing UW-Milwaukee (7-4) up in Brew City in a 2 pm tipoff in one of those D3 vs. D1 contests that is a mere exhibition for the D3 team but a game that counts for the D1 team. In sharp contrast to NPU, the Panthers haven't played a game since last Tuesday.

I'm under no illusions as to what the outcome of tomorrow's game is going to be. Massey has NPU as a 28-point underdog. I'm just hoping for a good North Park showing. Seeing the Vikings hang around well into the second half against the Panthers would be great. Beating the spread would be great, too. At the very least, the fact that it won't count for the Vikings means that they're playing with house money.

Is there any talk of any streaming options for that game. I had actually thought about doing the drive when I first saw it as a 7 PM game.

[Gregory Sager]

It's on ESPN+.

https://www.espn.com/watch/player?id=f3ef7915-5d6b-4517-a2e0-651e6d858381

[Gregory Sager]

I'm using UWM's radio feed for audio. Their radio PBP broadcaster on WTMJ, Soctt Warras, is really good. And he's a D3 alumnus; he got his start in broadcasting calling games during his college days at Wisconsin Lutheran.

[RFMichigan]

North Park hanging tough at halftime, only down 1.

[Gotberg]

I'm using UWM's radio feed for audio. Their radio PBP broadcaster on WTMJ, Soctt Warras, is really good. And he's a D3 alumnus; he got his start in broadcasting calling games during his college days at Wisconsin Lutheran.

My guess is espn is using the radio audio feed

[Gregory Sager]

UW-Milwaukee 92
North Park 63

Jordan Boyd: 14 pts, 9 rebs
Jalen Boyd: 12 pts
Kolden Vanlandingham: 10 pts

A very Dickensian game; it was a tale of two halves.

The best of times was the first half, in which NPU jumped out to a quick 9-0 lead. The Panthers erased it pretty quickly, but the Vikes stayed pesky and hung around. They got the lead back a couple of times, once by three points, and led going into the final seconds of the half. But UWM drew a shooting foul on Jordan Boyd with one-tenth of a second to go, and the Panthers made both throws to take a 38-37 lead into the locker room.

The worst of times was the opening of the second half, in which UWM came out roaring on a 16-4 run to take a double-digit lead and never looked back. Jordan Boyd, who had been the Park's mainstay up to that point, picked up his third and fourth fouls during that string, which more or less brought his contributions to the fray to an end. Once the UWM lead got up into the twenties with about twelve minutes to go and with the energy of his regulars flagging, Sean Smith did the right thing and emptied his bench. This was likely the only time that a lot of his players will ever get a chance to play a D1 team in a D1 arena, and he gave nineteen different Vikings that opportunity. Jalen Boyd (26 minutes), Shamar Pumphrey (24 minutes), and Jordan Boyd (21 minutes) were the only Vikings who played more than a half's worth of game time.

Now it's time for the Vikes to take care of business during finals week, and then get ready to face Blackburn and Dominican in another back-to-back brace of games a week from Monday and Tuesday.

[iwu70]

New D3hoops poll out -- Wheaton dropping down to #16.  Elmhurst and IWU receiving votes.   Seemingly, North Park is also receiving a few votes now!      Four CCIW teams in the poll receiving votes.

'70

[Gregory Sager]

More precisely:

16. Wheaton 207 pts
ORV: Elmhurst 28 pts (#34)
ORV: Illinois Wesleyan 15 pts (#38)
ORV: North Park 8 pts (#43)

This week's progress for the Park was getting onto two ballots. Bob Quillman has NPU at #19, and Benedictine SID/broadcaster extraordinaire Tim Calderwood slotted the Vikings at #25. If I was more cynical, I'd say that he's probably setting up the Vikes for when they travel to the Rice Center on New Year's Eve to play his Bennies.

Seemingly, North Park is also receiving a few votes now!   

Dude, that joke would've been funny seven days ago when NPU first appeared as an ORV in the poll.

[iwu70]

IWU has a big game Saturday hosting #16 Wheaton.   A key, needed home court win in the CCIW early season schedule.  Another chance for the Titans to prove themselves vs. a ranked team.  Key will be stopping Cruickshank . . . chasing him everywhere.  Likely the task assigned to Sroka.  Ryan did a pretty good job on Hellvig vs. NCC last game, so I expect a similar assignment this time. 

Titans still pretty banged up, esp. the big men, so less margin of error now on the rotation.  Rose already down further into the rotation than he would have been at the beginning of the season.  Bazzell and Anderson getting minutes at guard . . . some new big men getting minutes now too.  Wilmsen seems to be off his minutes' restrictions, which is good news.   IWU bigs will have to dominate the boards vs. Wheaton for IWU to have a chance at this upset.

IWU'70

[Gregory Sager]

Saturday's slate:

All games at 4:15 pm
Augustana @ Carthage
Carroll @ Millikin
North Central @ Elmhurst
Wheaton @ Illinois Wesleyan

Massey sez:

Carthage 77, Augustana 75	CC 58%, AC 42%
Millikin 67, Carroll 62	MU 70%, CU 30%
North Central 79, Elmhurst 73	NCC 70%, EU 30%
Illinois Wesleyan 72, Wheaton 70	IWU 57%, WC 43%

IWU bigs will have to dominate the boards vs. Wheaton for IWU to have a chance at this upset.

As you can see above, the computer model has Illinois Wesleyan as a slight favorite on Saturday, not as an underdog. (To be fair, Matt Snyder's Slappytron FF isn't working at the moment, so Ken Massey's is the only online D3 men's basketball algorithmic matchup generator available.)

Of course, if Vegas were to start offering lines on CCIW men's basketball games, I'd be more than willing to post them here.