MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gotberg]

DePaul 74 - NP 63.

NP out rebounded DePaul 33-32, NP had fewer turnovers (16-18), and NP had 4 more steals (11-7).  The steals and turnovers were things I would have hoped NP would have been close on.  The rebound stat is exciting to me. 

Purely watching the gamecast (I had to talk too much in my meeting to sneak AirPods in during it), it seemed like NP kept it close-ish for much of the game. 

I'm encouraged, and looking forward to GS's recap of the game.

With the likely exception of next week's game at D1 SIU-Edwardsville, last night was the only time that NPU will be physically outmatched this season. The Vikings are longer and stronger than they were a year ago, and they haven't really sacrificed any team speed in the process (Kyren Gardner and Phil Holmes are rough equivalents, quickness-wise, for their graduated predecessors Marquise Jackson and Jordan Boyd). Granted, by Big East standards DePaul is not a powerhouse, but it's a tough proposition for a D3 team to play an opponent that has multiple players in the 6'5" to 6'8" range who are quick and can handle the ball in the halfcourt as well as the open floor.

As tjcf noted, North Park won the rebounding battle. That was simple aggressiveness on the part of the Vikings; of course, a big part of NPU's game is cued on the ability to hit the offensive boards hard, and the Park enjoyed a big 13-5 advantage on the offensive glass. The main problem for NPU last night was in simply dealing with the one-on-one play of the big, fast Blue Demons; they drew a massive number of fouls on the Vikings (23-12 foul disparity) and got to the line 26 times, hitting 21 of them. NPU, by comparison, only shot three FTs all night (making all three), and thus free throws were the deciding factor in the game.

DePaul led wire to wire, but the Blue Demons were only up by a basket ten minutes in, and by five points at the half. They pushed out the lead into the teens at several points in the second stanza, only to see NPU claw back into the game each time, but with six minutes and change to go DePaul extended the lead to 62-45 and it looked like the game was over. But then Kyren Gardner, who is an extraordinary physical specimen at 6'2", 185, drove hard on the right side and dunked over one of DePaul's 6'8" forwards, drawing a foul in the process and finishing the and-one. That electrified the crowd (NPU had about 50% of the 2,000-plus attendees, and the Vikings fans made a lot more noise) and started an 11-0 Vikings run that culminated in back-to-back Kolden Vanlandingham treys that brought NPU to within six at 62-56 with under three minutes remaining. At that point the Blue Demons clamped down and the comeback charge petered out, but DePaul walked off of the floor after the final buzzer knowing that it had been in a game. I sat at the scorer's table next to a member of the DePaul sports information staff who is a Millikin grad from the '80s, and we chatted a bit during the game about the old days of the CCIW (he goes back to the last great Big Blue era of Barnes, Horst, Bottorff, and Slapak in the late '80s). After the game was over, he said, "Good luck to you guys this season, although I don't think you're going to need it. Nobody's gonna stop #1 (Shamar Pumphrey) in the CCIW."

Pumphrey led the way for NPU with 13 points, six boards, three steals, and a sterling 5:2 a:to ratio. Vanlandingham, who was face-guarded all night -- imagine that, a D3 player who gets face-guarded by a Big East team -- wound up with an even dozen points, and Kyren Gardner had 11. Phil Holmes, the 6'9, 225 transfer who is going to come as an unpleasant surprise to the rest of the CCIW, played very well underneath the basket against multiple Blue Demons who could match his size and speed.

Not a win, but a highly-encouraging outing for North Park in its 2023-24 debut.

The dunk - worthy of a post:  https://twitter.com/kyrengardner1/status/1720283025622147421

[Gregory Sager]

I believe it made the SportsCenter Top Ten Plays last night.

[Gotberg]

I'm surprised neither Brooks or Kone didnt get a few minutes against depaul.  Do we know if they weren't available or if it was the coach's decision?

[Gregory Sager]

They didn't suit up, but they should be good to go at Lawrence next Wednesday evening.

[Gregory Sager]

Wake up, sleepyheads! Today is opening day!

Greenville (7-19) @ Carroll (7-18), 5 pm
Benedictine (12-14) @ Wheaton (25-5), 7 pm
Blackburn (8-17) @ Millikin (11-14), 7:30 pm
North Park (24-6) @ Lawrence (9-16), 7:30 pm

Let's hear your thoughts!

[Gregory Sager]

Here on Opening Day, this is how Massey sees the 2023-24 CCIW:

    8. Wheaton
  13. Elmhurst
  25. Illinois Wesleyan
  26. North Central
  53. Augustana
  58. North Park
  60. Carthage
  83. Millikin
122. Carroll

And this is why Massey Ratings should be ignored until at least January, by which time the data used by the algorithm will (I hope) no longer include games played when Nyameye Adom and Tyson Cruickshank were Wheaton's backcourt and Izaiah Sanders and Michael Osborne were North Park's.

[Greek Tragedy]

Low scoring game here in Waukesha. Greenville leads Carroll 60-57 at the break.

[Stertorous Thunder]

Wake up, sleepyheads! Today is opening day!

Greenville (7-19) @ Carroll (7-18), 5 pm
Benedictine (12-14) @ Wheaton (25-5), 7 pm
Blackburn (8-17) @ Millikin (11-14), 7:30 pm
North Park (24-6) @ Lawrence (9-16), 7:30 pm

Let's hear your thoughts!

Wheaton tipped off with a lineup of Connor Braun (grad student, 1.7 ppg last season), RJ Veliz (grad student, Western Oregon transfer), Noah Hedrick (junior, Hope College transfer), Steven Schultz (junior, 3 minutes last season), and Kyle Neibch (sophomore, 18 minutes last season).  Nick Schiavello and Nate Sock were reported as injured, which made for a starting lineup with a total of 7 career previous starts (1 for Braun and 6 for Veliz at his former school).  On top of the talent lost permanently to graduation and temporarily(?) to injury, Wheaton has a smaller coaching staff this year with a single assistant, Jon Panner.  I'm ready to watch reigning CCIW coach-of-the-year and simultaneous Wheaton College Athletics Director Mike Schauer work his magic.

Update: Wheaton played Benedictine close and fell at home 60-59.

Way Too Early Analysis:

Guard-heavy Wheaton looks like they're going to concede the paint and live by the deep ball. Tonight they heaved up 26 three-point attempts while only taking 10 free throws, 3 of which were awarded via a foul at the arc.

RJ Veliz scored 17 and looked great, and Coach Schauer rewarded him with a game-leading 35 minutes of playing time.  He's going to be a productive ball handler and distributor even on nights where he isn't scoring.

Connor Braun was game MVP with 13 points and 18 rebounds.  He was highly efficient and showed off more outside shooting talent than one would expect from a 6'9" tower, making 3 of 5 deep shots.

Freshman Soren Richardson came off the bench and contributed, shooting 3-for-6 from deep with 13 points.  In the postgame interview, Coach Schauer mentioned that his preseason practice time was limited by injury and he's not fully healthy, which makes his debut even more impressive.  I'm not a Wheaton basketball historian but I looked up several players of the past 15 years that saw playing time as a freshman and couldn't find a first game anywhere near this good.

I didn't like some of the fouls incurred by the Thunder newcomers.  For now I'll chalk it up to lack of experience and settling into the game speed at the college level.  Coach Schauer didn't like some things either and had a more negative than usual postgame interview, calling out his team for panicking and not following the plays that he had drawn up at the end.  A silver lining is that Coach Schauer suggested that Schiavello and Sock, his two returning starters from last year's Elite Eight game, would be able to return to the lineup at some point this year.

If you're going to watch your team go through a rebuilding year, which this likely will be, you at least want them to be fun to watch.  The performance on the floor tonight wasn't CCIW contender caliber, but it certainly wasn't bad.  The defense needs to tighten up before the conference schedule starts, but the plays and ball movement looked like a typical Wheaton team and shot selection was good, especially for a team learning to play together.  As the season progresses Veliz will hold his own against top guards, Braun will clean the glass, and Sorenson and Neibch will drain deep balls, especially if Schiavello and/or Sock can come back and draw the attention of the opponent's top defenders.

[lmitzel]

Coach Schauer didn't like some things either and had a more negative than usual postgame interview, calling out his team for panicking and not following the plays that he had drawn up at the end. 

Here's the postgame interview in (I think) its entirety. Which... yeesh.

[Gregory Sager]

North Park 84
Lawrence 57

Davante Robinson: 23 pts (7-12 trey)
Kolden Vanlandingham: 14 pts, 3 stls
TJ Gardner: 10 pts, 3:0 a:to
Kyren Gardner: 3 stls
Phil Holmes: 3 blks

It was 49-20 at the half, and early in the second half Sean Smith more or less called off the dogs by benching his starters. No NPU starter played more than 17 minutes, all 20 Vikings who got on the bus played, and 18 of them played at least six minutes. It was good sportsmanship on Sean's part, of course, but also prudence in light of NPU's task today and tomorrow: three hours to northern Wisconsin, play a game, travel three hours back, and then tomorrow travel four and a half hours in the opposite direction, play a D1 foe (SIU-Edwardsville), and then travel four and a half hours back.

If you don't guard Davante Robinson up to 28 feet or so from the basket, he'll pop treys on you from that distance without a second thought. He's the nastiest transcontinental bomber the CCIW has seen since Aston Francis.

The Vikings had 20 steals tonight, as well as 10 blocks and 13 offensive rebounds. These are the things that they need to do in order to dominate. Lawrence is not very good, so this wasn't much of a challenge. But it's important to do the things you need to do, and do them right, when you're on the floor no matter who you're playing.

[Gregory Sager]

Carroll 131
Greenville 113

It's every D3 big man's dream to play a System team, and today Christmas came early for Carroll center Jacob Naber in Van Male: 34 points on 15-15 shooting from the field in only 17 minutes of action. Eckahelo Simpson had similar numbers (11-13 FG) for 27 and 10, while Evan Bland (21 pts) did most of his damage from the charity stripe (12-16 FT). Erik Victorson (19 pts) and Paradisio Dante (12 pts) also took advantage of Panthers largesse.

Millikin 73
Blackburn 56

Nate Straughter led the way for Jimmy Millikin with 16, while Frazier Ott and JT Welch added 13 apiece and Walter Straugher chipped in 10. Chase Travis grabbed 11 caroms for the Big Blue.

[Gregory Sager]

Coach Schauer didn't like some things either and had a more negative than usual postgame interview, calling out his team for panicking and not following the plays that he had drawn up at the end. 

Here's the postgame interview in (I think) its entirety. Which... yeesh.

No one does a mic-drop exit from an interview like Mike Schauer.

[USee]

Absolutely love the end of this interview. #facts

[Greek Tragedy]

The Greenville v Carroll game was pretty entertaining. Admittedly, the talent level isn't the best, but it made for a frantic, fast-paced game. It was close throughout, actually. Carroll did build a pretty big lead midway through the 2nd half, but Greenville cut it to 6 or 7 and it looked like it was going to go down to the wire. Carroll answered with a 12 or 14-0 run that put the game away with about 4 minutes to go. System ball isn't for everyone and I know a few coaches that would never schedule them, but you can't fault the players for not trying. They go full speed, fighting for every ball, definitely leave everything on the court. I applaud them for that.

[tjcummingsfan]

I know this won't be for everyone, but as a NP fan I'm loving reading this sub stack from sports writer Gordon Edes. 

https://gordonedes.substack.com

It absolutely has a blue and gold tint to it, but it gives some really great background about an exciting coach and players who seem like they are ready for something big this year. 

Living almost 3,500 kilometres away (I live in Canada, we use km up here), this is the most I've been able to get to know a North Park basketball team since I was an undergrad.