MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[GoPerry]

Wheaton  79
IWU  58

Nick Schiavello   21 pts, 5 reb
Tyson Cruickshank  14 pts, 5 rebs
TJ Askew   14 pts, 10 rebs
Andrew Williams,  14 pts, 6 rebs, tons of hustle plays

Cody Mitchell   17 pts, 6 rebs

A very impressive win for the Thunder bouncing back from the tough Elmhurst loss.  You don't really figure to go into Shirk ever and win by 20.  Wheaton's defense continues to shut down opponents.  They really made it tough on the Titans all afternoon.

[Gregory Sager]

Don't look now, ladies and gentlemen, but your undefeated co-leaders of the CCIW going into January play are North Park (picked seventh in the CCIW preseason poll) and Carthage (picked eighth).

Happy holidays, CCIW head coaches.

[petemcb]

Final from the Griz:

Millikin 74
Carroll 73

J.T. Welch hit a trey with 21 seconds left to pull the Big Blue's chestnuts out of the open fire.

I might have to boost your karma every day for a week or so for that gem.

[Greek Tragedy]

In case you don't read the Wisconsin D3 Basketball Challenge board...I went to the Carthage v Augustana game yesterday.

Gym #13 sent me to Kenosha to see the Carthage Redmen Firebirds take on the Augustana Vikings. Carthage came out firing and was up 15-2 in no time. Augie cut it to 3 with about 5 minutes to go, but the hosts headed into the locker room up 11. Carthage got the lead up to 20 a couple times midway through the 2nd half, but Augustana wouldn't go away, chipping at the lead and got it down to single digits a few times, but the visitors ran out of gas and time. Carthage is a pretty good team. Bulatovic probably gets all the pub, but AJ Johnson is a real good, athletic player. Bulatovic fouled out with about 5 minutes to go and Carthage was up 10, so I thought that may be a real test for Carthage to hold that lead...and they did.

Tarble is a great gym. I've been to at least one Carthage game in the past when I did my 3-games in 3-cities in 1 day tour, but maybe that was before Tarble was built in 2009. I don't remember it being that nice. The setup is real nice with plenty of bleachers, walkways, bathrooms etc. I'm sure it gets a little dark in the two upper levels, but unless it's a huge crowd, they probably don't use those bleachers much. The side with the player benches were all seats (not bleachers), so that's a nice option for fans. Somehow I got in for free. The website said it was $8.00, but there wasn't anyone at the door to collect money and there wasn't even a table setup for anyone not to be there. So, not sure if it was purposely a free game. The prices at the concession stand were good but they were completely out of water before halftime. A nice sized bag of popcorn was $2, but again, they had one can of Coke Zero left, some Mountain Dew bottles and some other "flavored" soda. I asked if there was a vending machine nearby and the kid at the counter said I had to go to another building to get sometime. I find it hard to believe the whole building that housed Tarble Arena didn't have a vending machine, but I wasn't going to find out myself. The scoreboard was big and informative and they had a nice video screen that showed amusing clips from movies. Students must be on break because there were literally no college-aged kids there. The crowd was pretty non-existent, aside from some early noise from the visiting Augie fans. There was very little reaction from the Carthage fans.

I will have to say that the person responsible for the music during timeouts, stoppages in play, etc. should get a huge raise. The music was really good. Nowadays, the music that some of these kids listen to is cringeworthy and usually played so loud that it's distorted. I thoroughly enjoyed the change of pace in the music selection.

Tarble jumps to the front of the line as the best gym I've visited this season. The game and fans...not so much.

[Gregory Sager]

Tarble is a great gym. I've been to at least one Carthage game in the past when I did my 3-games in 3-cities in 1 day tour, but maybe that was before Tarble was built in 2009.

Tarble wasn't actually built in 2009. It's the same gym that Carthage has had since time immemorial. The Tarble family of Snap-On Tools fame gave Carthage a truckload of money to upgrade its athletics facilities, and a huge chunk of it went into giving the existing gym a massive facelift and expansion ... so the updated facility was named Tarble Arena.

[Greek Tragedy]

That makes sense. Maybe the gutted the inside?

[Gregory Sager]

I'm not sure about all of the particulars, but one thing that all of us old-timers know is that Carthage upgraded the lighting -- drastically -- even before Tarble got its full facelift. Back in the day, Carthage's gym was known as "the dungeon" in CCIW circles. We would joke that a coach had to have one of his assistants shine a flashlight on the whiteboard when the coach would diagram a play at a timeout. I recall Kenosha Mark referring to the gym as having "cocktail lounge lighting" in the old days.

[Gregory Sager]

This week's games:

Monday
Augustana (2-8) @ Knox (2-9)
Blackburn (4-5) @ North Park (7-1)

Tuesday
Carthage (7-1) vs. New England College (2-8) (@ Ft. Lauderdale, FL)
Elmhurst (7-3) vs. Christopher Newport (9-2) (@ Charlotte, NC)
Illinois Wesleyan (5-4) @ Chicago (6-3)
Coe (5-5) @ Millikin (7-4)
North Park @ Dominican (5-6)

Wednesday
Carthage vs. Mass-Dartmouth (3-5) (@ Ft. Lauderdale, FL)
Elmhurst vs. Lynchburg (3-6) (@ Charlotte, NC)
North Central (5-5) @ Hope (6-3)

Thursday
UW-LaCrosse (9-2) @ Augustana

Given the ugliness of Thursday's forecast for the QC, I'd say that the odds of the UWL @ AC game getting postponed or canceled are fairly high.

[Gregory Sager]

Massey sez:

Monday

Augustana 78, Knox 65	(AC 86%, Knox 14%)
North Park 80, Blackburn 69	(NPU 81%, Blackburn 19%)

Tuesday

Carthage 87, New England College 71	(CC 88%, New England C. 12%)
Christopher Newport 76, Elmhurst 75	(Christopher Newport 52%, EU 48%)
Illinois Wesleyan 69, Chicago 65	(IWU 64%, Chicago 36%)
Millikin 68, Coe 66	(MU 54%, Coe 46%)
North Park 77, Dominican 66	(NPU 83%, Dominican 17%)

Wednesday

Carthage 80, Mass-Dartmouth 77	(CC 57%, Mass-Dartmouth 43%)
Elmhurst 82, Lynchburg 72	(EU 78%, Lynchburg 22%)
North Central 75, Hope 74	(NCC 51%, Hope 49%)

Thursday

UW-LaCrosse 76, Augustana 72

(UW-LaCrosse 63%, AC 37%)

Matt Snyder's Slappytron FF has a bit more confidence in today's CCIW participants:

Augustana 82, Knox 68
North Park 93, Blackburn 71

[USee]

Bob Qillman has his top 25 on Twitter:

Carthage #16
NPU #18
Wheaton #20

I am a fan of NPU (haven't seen Carthage). Wheaton, at 8-2 has wins over 7-1 Calvin, 6-3 Hanover and 6-3 Chicago along with a dominating win @IWU. Their losses are to #11 JCU by 4 and by 4 in OT to Elmhurst at home. If those two teams are above Wheaton and anyone believes Elmhurst and IWU (and NCC) will be in the mix, the CCIW race is going to be very entertaining.

[Gregory Sager]

I differ slightly from Bob in that I'd put Carthage third on that list. But it's a pretty narrow gap at the moment, IMO, and the beauty of it is that none of the three CCIW teams on his ballot have played each other yet.

Then there's Elmhurst, an undisputably talented team that nobody (including John Baines) seems to be able to figure out, a North Central team that looks a lot more dangerous now with Mitch Lewis in the fold, and an Illinois Wesleyan team that nobody will take lightly.

I agree. It's going to be a very entertaining January and February.

[Next Man Up]

I differ slightly from Bob in that I'd put Carthage third on that list. But it's a pretty narrow gap at the moment, IMO, and the beauty of it is that none of the three CCIW teams on his ballot have played each other yet.

Then there's Elmhurst, an undisputably talented team that nobody (including John Baines) seems to be able to figure out, a North Central team that looks a lot more dangerous now with Mitch Lewis in the fold, and an Illinois Wesleyan team that nobody will take lightly.

I agree. It's going to be a very entertaining January and February.

* I haven't seen either Wheaton or Carthage in person yet, but fromwhat I've seen on video, read, and heard, I sense Wheaton is a bit better than Carthage.

* Mitch Lewis gives North Central the one thing everybody knew it needed the most, and does indeed make them more dangerous on both ends of the floor.

* If anyone takes IWU lightly it's only due to ignorance. If nothing else, they have too much height to ignore.

* When NPU played NCC, Lewis was not yet active for the Cardinals. Had he been, they likely wouldn't have gotten monkey stomped. However, the distinct likelihood is that the Parkers still would have won by a pretty fair margin as it's doubtful any one guy could have produced a different outcome that evening as NPU was hitting a high note in all phases of the game.

* I doubt NPU can play every game as well as they did against NCC. But if they can even come close, a conference championship is definitely well within their reach.

* Everyone remembers former Augie coach Grey Giovanine for both his great coaching ability and success, and also for his...........let's say outlandish exuberance and wild gyrations. When your team plays NPU, keep an eye on their new head coach. While his behavior may not be directed at the officials as often, his overall "energy" level, (at least on the night I saw him in person)—-racing up and down the sideline, gesturing, and screaming (mostly at his players), surely rivals Coach G. 

[Gregory Sager]

North Park 99
Blackburn 82

Shamar Pumphrey: 21 pts (5-8 trey), 11:4 a:to
Kolden Vanlandingham: 21 pts, 7 rebs, 3 stls, 3 blks
Jalen Boyd: 18 pts
Jordan Boyd: 10 pts, 3:0 a:to
Karl Polk, Jr.: 10 pts
Quillin Dixon: 7 rebs

This one went according to form, but how it got there was pretty interesting. Aside from a 2-2 tie in the first minute, the Vikings led from wire to wire, and they held a double-digit lead for the entire second half. But, despite getting the lead up to 23 at one point, they weren't really able to put the Beavers away until late in the game, due to a lot of what I call "moving-too-fast" misses at the rim by the Vikes at one end of the floor and an amazing performance by Blackburn's Chanz Aldridge at the other end. Aldridge, who had a 40-point game last week and who came into tonight averaging over 23 ppg, was absolutely electric -- 35 points on 12-22 shooting from the field, 7-12 from downtown, and 4-4 from the line. The fact that he shoots better on the move, and he moves fast, made him that much harder to guard. There isn't a team in D3 that couldn't use him. It would've been interesting to see if the Vikings could've slowed him down a bit by putting Marquise Jackson on him, but Sean Smith had Jackson sit out the game due to a hip bruise Marquise suffered in the UW-Milwaukee exhibition eight days ago. (He could've played if needed.) But the Vikings were never in any real danger. The problem is that their failure to put away the Beavers early meant more minutes for the starters, and NPU has a game tomorrow afternoon at Dominican to deal with.

Shamar Pumphrey had a phenomenal night. I think that he gets overlooked a bit, but he's been a tremendous pickup for the Vikes this year. His shooting line of .488/.444/.750 this season is serious business for a guy who is typically the third or fourth shooting option, and he's leading the CCIW in a:to ratio while trailing only Tyson Cruickshank of Wheaton in assists per game.

[Gregory Sager]

Augustana held off a late rally from Knox to down the Prairie Fire, 65-59, in Galesburg. Dan Carr had 22 and 12, Evan Ambrose scored a dozen and had a 5:1 floor night with three steals to boot, and Chase Larsen added eight boards.

[Gregory Sager]

* Everyone remembers former Augie coach Grey Giovanine for both his great coaching ability and success, and also for his...........let's say outlandish exuberance and wild gyrations. When your team plays NPU, keep an eye on their new head coach. While his behavior may not be directed at the officials as often, his overall "energy" level, (at least on the night I saw him in person)—-racing up and down the sideline, gesturing, and screaming (mostly at his players), surely rivals Coach G. 

Big, big difference there between Giovanine and Sean Smith, Mark. Giovanine's energy was consistently negative. When he was yelling and gesticulating and dancing, it was because he was mad about something, or at somebody. Sean is definitely a high-energy guy as well -- I'd love to see a sideline Fitbit contest between Sean and Mike Schauer -- but an awful lot of his yelling is positive encouragment. When it comes to the refs, he's definitely a draw-them-in-close-and-calmly-politick-them type, in the vein of Bosko. Sean's a relentlessly positive person, which is one of the reasons why he's received so much buy-in from his team. The easiest thing in the world to happen to a team loaded with new transfers is to have the situation blow up through selfishness and grumbling and a general mercenary attitude. The opposite is happening with the 2022-23 Vikings. Every time that I have one of them on for a postgame interview, like Shamar Pumphrey this evening, it's always "the team" this or "the guys" that, or there's about three times the use of "we" as there is "I". That could all be written off as customary jockspeak, except that the Vikings are putting their money where their mouth is; they're leading the league in assists per game by a healthy margin.

The more I watch this Vikings team, the more impressed I am by Sean Smith. It's becoming more and more apparent to me that, Sean's youth and comparatively skimpy résumé notwithstanding, hiring him was a genius move by John Born.