MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Next Man Up]

From Rock Island

North Central 83
Augustana     69

NCC trailed by one at the half, but shot 60% after the break to outscore their hosts by 15 in the second stanza.

* Matt Helwig led the Cardinals both in scoring with 19, and in rebounding with 8.
* John Blumeyer and Nick Smoldt both had excellent outings with 16, and 12 points respectively. Both were especially effective in the second half.
* Shea Cupples dropped in 10 points, and had 3 assists without committing a TO.
* Ethan Helwig had 8 points, was second high in rebounds with 7, and a superlative A/TO Ratio with 7 assists and ZERO TOs.
* Mitch Lewis saw his points scored to minutes played ratio take a slight dip. 
Since joining the team 6 games ago, after tonight he is averaging 13 PPG while playing 15 minutes a game. 

Matt Hawkins was the only Viking in double figures. The game high point scorer had 22 points.
The Cards held Augie star Dan Carr to 7 points, and 6 rebounds.

The Cardinals face a distinct challenge in their next game a week from tonight as they go up against Wheaton, currently the nation's #12 ranked team.

[Stertorous Thunder]

I think the stat sheet tells a story of how Wheaton has really progressed as a top team this year.  Cruickshank and Askew have been the consistent and reliable scorers so far this season.  But over the last 5 or 6 games, the development of Eddie Scott, Nick Schiavello, Eli Considine, Andrew Williams into bigger scoring threats have really made the Thunder a very tough team.  North Park played great defense on Cruickshank who only scored 1 pt and took only 7 shots all night.  But the others really stepped up and, really, it was no surprise that they did.

I agree.  Although TJ Askew led the scoring column, this game felt like it was about showcasing everyone else.

For me, Eddie Scott has been the most surprising player on the team.  In previous seasons his ballhandling skills were obvious but his drives to the basket didn't seem to end in friendly shooter's rolls the way they did for the other guards in the rotation.  This year those contested layups are falling in, his defense is there, and he's a long-range shooting threat.  I don't have the stats to prove it but it seems like he gets a disproportionate amount of Wheaton's early game points.  When the other team starts their game with focus on Cruickshank and Askew (because well, they have to), Eddie seems to take special advantage of those opportunities, which forces the defense to pay attention to him, which then opens the lanes for Cruickshank and Askew to do their thing for the rest of the game.

Last year Nick Schiavello was in the starting rotation by the end of the season, but definitely played in the shadows of the all-conference guys.  This year he's playing with an aggression that wasn't there before; he just looks faster and more confident.

Eli Considine has always looked smooth on the court.  He strikes me as the kind of natural athlete that could coast at 90% effort and still see a decent amount of playing time at this level as a tall guard.  But instead, he's been willing to hustle at 100% and take on the unenviable task of hounding the other team's biggest forward.  Like Colin Uveges last year and Luke Peters before that, it seems like a Mike Schauer starting lineup has one guy in it whose job it is to fully invest themselves as a defensive disruptor.

If anyone wants to start an Andrew Williams fan club, feel free to send me an invoice for membership dues.  I've been all-in on him since he was throwing himself all over the court as a freshman.  If there were a statistic for jump-balls-to-minutes ratio, I think he could have set a school record in either of his first two seasons.  Speaking of fake statistics, I want to invent a new one called a "hustle hat trick" and track whenever a player 1.) dives on the floor, 2.) draws a charge, and 3.) gets tied up for a jump ball in a single game.  Williams is going to lead the nation.  Love that guy.

I'm going to add Micah Schnyders to your list above.  In the first games of the season he stood outside and hit some threes so I (incorrectly) pegged him as an off-ball shooting guard.  But he's been third or fourth on the team in free throws made and free throws attempted despite being seventh in minutes played, so he's getting to the rim at a high rate.  He has also flashed some defensive moves and been trusted with more ballhandling duties than I expected.  If he's your seventh or eighth man on your depth chart, you're a pretty good team.

This is going to be a fun CCIW season.  If you held a tournament today with Wheaton, North Park, North Central, Elmhurst, Illinois Wesleyan Western, and Carthage, you could make a case for just about any combination of outcomes.  Right now on a given day, anybody can beat anybody else in that group.

[Stertorous Thunder]

Carroll's victory over Carthage is the most improbable upset we've had in this league in quite a while. The Firebirds were leading all of D3 in FG percentage coming into the game, but tonight at Van Male they only shot a measly .406 from the field. Carthage's three best weapons, AJ Johnson, Fillip Bulatovic, and Colton Sigel, shot a combined 7-31.

It's more likely that it was just one of those games that happens, but I might put some blame on the residual effects of Carthage's New Year's Eve game at Greenville.  If you missed it, consider yourself lucky.  It was a highly undisciplined game that looked more like a bunch of guys playing in a rec league than two allegedly collegiate programs.  Carthage won 132-106 on cruise control against the completely inferior Greenville squad but while watching it online, I immediately thought to myself that I wouldn't want to be Steve D and have to get my team ready for real competition in a CCIW contest after that garbage fest.

[kiko]

From Rock Island

North Central 83
Augustana     69

NCC trailed by one at the half, but shot 60% after the break to outscore their hosts by 15 in the second stanza.

* Matt Helwig led the Cardinals both in scoring with 19, and in rebounding with 8.
* John Blumeyer and Nick Smoldt both had excellent outings with 16, and 12 points respectively. Both were especially effective in the second half.
* Shea Cupples dropped in 10 points, and had 3 assists without committing a TO.
* Ethan Helwig had 8 points, was second high in rebounds with 7, and a superlative A/TO Ratio with 7 assists and ZERO TOs.
* Mitch Lewis saw his points scored to minutes played ratio take a slight dip. 
Since joining the team 6 games ago, after tonight he is averaging 13 PPG while playing 15 minutes a game. 

Matt Hawkins was the only Viking in double figures. The game high point scorer had 22 points.
The Cards held Augie star Dan Carr to 7 points, and 6 rebounds.

The Cardinals face a distinct challenge in their next game a week from tonight as they go up against Wheaton, currently the nation's #12 ranked team.

Adding to this:

- From my POV, the Cardinals did not play especially well in the first half, though their counting stats would suggest otherwise.  Any flow in the offense came in fits and spurts, and I'm sure my read on this is in part colored by the Sons of Warden missing their first five shots from beyond the arc, and that during this span, the team collectively made just 3 of 8 free throws and twice missed both attempts following a shooting foul.  You could feel Augie separating a bit, and the Doggies eventually pulled out to a ten point lead with four and change to go.  But the Cardinals then went on a 13-2 run to take a very brief lead before going into the locker room down one.  I was pretty happy the game was that close at that point.

- North Central's offensive flow was much better in the second half, and the two teams were within a few points of one another until John Blumeyer converted a four point play when he was fouled while making a trey from the corner with 8:03 to go.  The sequence turned a three point Cardinal lead into a seven point edge, the Cardinals subsequently scored on their next three possessions, and Augie never recovered.

- The Vikings really struggled offensively in the second half.  Matt Hawkins had 16 of his 22 in the half, and while the team shot just 11-of-29 for the half (37%), the team sans Hawkins shot just 5-of-20 and missed more bunnies than Elmer Fudd.  They especially struggled when the Cardinals showed zone for a few sequences.  Augie has too much talent to be 3-10, but I don't watch them enough to have a POV more nuanced than 'there's a lot of talent there but something in the mix is off'.

- I am still getting used to the bigger rotation that Anthony Figueroa uses, but there's a nice mix of shooters, slashers, and guys with size in the mix.  One way the bigger rotation seems to work well is that he has a lot of options to try and exploit favorable matchups or disrupt things that might be working for the opposing team.  The eye test seems to suggest a fair amount of flux in minutes from game to game in the second half (non-Helwig division) that is not driven by managing the foul situation.  It's definitely different from Todd Raridon's approach, but seems to be serving the Cardinals well.  Because of when he was hired, I expect the recruiting process involved a fair bit of triage this past year, so I am curious to see how things evolve going forward as he has a full cycle to sell the program and shape the team.  Which is *not* to say I have already turned the page to next year... you can see this team's potential more and more each game, and they should be in the mix as this season unfolds.

[GoPerry]

I think the stat sheet tells a story of how Wheaton has really progressed as a top team this year.  Cruickshank and Askew have been the consistent and reliable scorers so far this season.  But over the last 5 or 6 games, the development of Eddie Scott, Nick Schiavello, Eli Considine, Andrew Williams into bigger scoring threats have really made the Thunder a very tough team.  North Park played great defense on Cruickshank who only scored 1 pt and took only 7 shots all night.  But the others really stepped up and, really, it was no surprise that they did.

I agree.  Although TJ Askew led the scoring column, this game felt like it was about showcasing everyone else.

For me, Eddie Scott has been the most surprising player on the team. 

Last year Nick Schiavello was in the starting rotation by the end of the season, but definitely played in the shadows of the all-conference guys.  This year he's playing with an aggression that wasn't there before; he just looks faster and more confident.

Eli Considine has always looked smooth on the court. 

Agree, agree, agree. All more confident in their ability to step up and contribute.

If anyone wants to start an Andrew Williams fan club, feel free to send me an invoice for membership dues.  I've been all-in on him since he was throwing himself all over the court as a freshman.  If there were a statistic for jump-balls-to-minutes ratio, I think he could have set a school record in either of his first two seasons.  Speaking of fake statistics, I want to invent a new one called a "hustle hat trick" and track whenever a player 1.) dives on the floor, 2.) draws a charge, and 3.) gets tied up for a jump ball in a single game.  Williams is going to lead the nation.  Love that guy.

I'm going to add Micah Schnyders to your list above.  In the first games of the season he stood outside and hit some threes so I (incorrectly) pegged him as an off-ball shooting guard.  But he's been third or fourth on the team in free throws made and free throws attempted despite being seventh in minutes played, so he's getting to the rim at a high rate.  He has also flashed some defensive moves and been trusted with more ballhandling duties than I expected.  If he's your seventh or eighth man on your depth chart, you're a pretty good team.

I would guess that the overall reaction to this thread is : who the heck is Andrew Williams?  But those who follow Wheaton more closely have known about Williams and what he brings for some time now.  I think Schauer on the post game compared him to Andrew Jahns (another past name) - that all purpose player doing all the little things that help his team win and an annoying presence to the opponent.

It seems like it took Schnyders a little time to get comfortable in Schauer's system and way of doing things.  He likes to shoot and in the early games he fired up a few that were a little soon in the offensive set.  He's definitely held back more lately.  And, yes, defensively he's been much better getting through the screens and staying with his man.

[Pat Coleman]

First of all, Nate Frank and Steve Thonn were awesome on the call. I turned the game on a little late and I could tell who it was immediately. It's so refreshing to have veteran guys who know the game and have great insights on the call. I am not sure why the school has turned to student announcers, especially without putting any resources toward them to train.

It's so important to train student announcers! Announcing a game well is not an easy job.

[WUPHF]

Thanks guys for the thoughts on the announcers.  I have long thought that the Wheaton student announcers were above average for students and I appreciate the opportunity it provides the students.  But Frank and Nate were awesome. 

[USee]

Thanks guys for the thoughts on the announcers.  I have long thought that the Wheaton student announcers were above average for students and I appreciate the opportunity it provides the students.  But Frank and Nate were awesome.

And so was Nate Frank (and Steve Thonn!) 

[Gregory Sager]

First of all, Nate Frank and Steve Thonn were awesome on the call. I turned the game on a little late and I could tell who it was immediately. It's so refreshing to have veteran guys who know the game and have great insights on the call. I am not sure why the school has turned to student announcers, especially without putting any resources toward them to train.

It's so important to train student announcers! Announcing a game well is not an easy job.

Don't I know it. Getting better at the craft is difficult without well-informed feedback, even when you're an adult with a lot of public-speaking experience. When you only have a four-year window to get better at it -- and, let's face it, I doubt that Wheaton's putting headsets on freshmen, so it's probably more like two or three years -- and nobody who knows anything about announcing is mentoring you, your chances of getting good at it in a sort of autodidactic way before graduation are not promising.

The best Wheaton student broadcasters over the years, guys like Paul Carr and Bryan Holmgren, were just plain good from the get-go. They'd either had the benefit of a high-school announcing gig or simply had a natural affinity for it.

I should add that it's not always easy to find people who are not undergraduates who can do it well, either. For the past two years I was spoiled in that North Park had a really gifted GA in the sports information department named Scot Gladstone. He arrived at NPU with a rare and exceptional background for on-air work, as he has both a trained voice (theater major at Colorado College) and prior announcing experience, and he also brought with him a strong sports background, having played football in high school, club soccer at Colorado College, and he's a serious baseball nerd as well. We plugged him in as my colorman in all nine NPU sports for which I do play-by-play (he would also handle the P.A. for player introductions before games, which he is very good at), and the quality of all of our broadcasts went up exponentially. He's back out west now, and I have no doubt that he'll have a long and successful career calling minor-league (or even MLB) baseball games on radio or TV, or perhaps doing stadium P.A. work, somewhere.

But mostly, it's potluck.

Wheaton's lucky to have Nate around. I have no idea why they don't use him all the time. He loves Wheaton basketball fiercely, and his winter evenings aren't tied down with the responsibilities of a family man. I understand the whole student-broadcasting-is-part-of-the-educational-experience angle behind Wheaton's policy of letting students do the on-air work, but if you're not actually teaching a student how to call a game or provide color, where's the education in it? Plus, as GoPerry has pointed out in the past, Wheaton puts its football broadcasts in the hands of experienced veterans such as USee and Rusty Lindsay, rather than let students do the announcing ... so why the different policy for Wheaton's other high-profile sports, soccer and basketball?

[WUPHF]

And so was Nate Frank (and Steve Thonn!) 

Oh my God!  I cannot be the first to do that...

[Gregory Sager]

And so was Nate Frank (and Steve Thonn!) 

Oh my God!  I cannot be the first to do that...

Next time I see Nate I'll ask him, because, frankly, you might be.

[WUPHF]

Then ask why he does not do more basketball games...

[iwu70]

Greg, your boys gave Wheaton a very good game last night, surely better than how IWU played them earlier.   Yes, NPU is one of the stronger teams in the CCIW this year . . .  of course, Elmhurst and IWU upcoming, so we'll see more.  They played Wheaton very well, could have won the game.  I was skipping back and forth from that game to the IWU-NPU women's game.   

A bit surprised that Carthage lost.

IWU'70

[Gregory Sager]

Greg, your boys gave Wheaton a very good game last night, surely better than how IWU played them earlier.   Yes, NPU is one of the stronger teams in the CCIW this year . . .  of course, Elmhurst and IWU upcoming, so we'll see more.  They played Wheaton very well, could have won the game.  I was skipping back and forth from that game to the IWU-NPU women's game.

I accept your gracious concession on this point, Mark. Of course, I'd rather have NPU win even if you remained a Vikings skeptic, but ours is not a perfect world. 

A bit surprised that Carthage lost.

Not half as surprised as Steve D., I'll wager.

[Pat Coleman]

Wheaton puts its football broadcasts in the hands of experienced veterans such as USee and Rusty Lindsay, rather than let students do the announcing ... so why the different policy for Wheaton's other high-profile sports, soccer and basketball?

That was not the case this past season, by the way.