MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[veterancciwfan]

It's a beautiful summer evening in central IL. So what am I doing with it? Watching an Insight Cable "Sports Classic" game on TV. It's a 2000 CCIW game at Shirk against North Park with a 10-2 overall record and a 1-0 league record against IWU with a 9-3 overall record and a 1-0 league record. The Vikings have some good talent including Jason Collins, Rick Alspach, Kerry Pates, Michael Watkins. Just to show that things never change at Shirk, NPU had a 3 point lead with 2 minutes left in the first half, IWU has a fast break, Alspach gets laid out with an arm to his jaw, he falls in the floor in pain while his man, Adam Osborn, buries a 3 to tie the game, Alspach, holding his jaw is vehemently arguing with a ref, gets T'd up, and Korey Coon buries the 2 technical foul shots to put IWU up by 2 while Rees Johnson throws up his hands in disbelief and frustration. Sound familiar? The score at half is 45-39 in favor of IWU which plays little defense but still is up 6 and (to end the suspense) wins the game 85-78 before 2,400 (Jan. 10, 2000).

This was not a great IWU team. It went 9-5 in the league and NPU finished at 7-7. NPU later beat IWU by 2 in Chicago that year.

Hey, I've got only 2 choices tonight for sports on TV-the Cubs vs. Rockies or IWU vs NPU (or maybe it was still NPC then). That's a no brainer!

[John Gleich]

Hey, I used to post in between my classes every now and then!  My posts tended to be so long, though, that I'd start them at about noon, add a little about 2:30, and then not be able to finish them until roughly 1:25 a.m.!

[Greek Tragedy]

Well, I dust about every two weeks too, I'm pretty sure.... hah. The differences between guys and girls are so funny. Sometimes guy apartments are so scary!

Dust?  What's that? 

Old School: I think the real question is if PS has EVER posts during normal awake hours.

Hey, I used to post in between my classes every now and then!  My posts tended to be so long, though, that I'd start them at about noon, add a little about 2:30, and then not be able to finish them until roughly 1:25 a.m.!

At least he starts during normal awake hours. 

[Gregory Sager]

Hey, I've got only 2 choices tonight for sports on TV-the Cubs vs. Rockies or IWU vs NPU (or maybe it was still NPC then). That's a no brainer!

NPC became NPU in '95 or thereabouts. Oh, and it's Micah Watkins, not Michael Watkins. Gotta give props to one of my favorite Old Testament prophets. 

[True Basketball Fan]

Rees Johnson throws up his hands in disbelief and frustration. Sound familiar?

Very!  I miss those days, it was enjoyable (I wasn't an NPU fan) to see Rees go ape poop on the sideline.  I wonder if he still rants?  If he does, it's most likely directed towards the cruddy 4-some in front slowing the pace.   

[Gregory Sager]

Rees Johnson throws up his hands in disbelief and frustration. Sound familiar?

Very!  I miss those days, it was enjoyable (I wasn't an NPU fan) to see Rees go ape poop on the sideline.  I wonder if he still rants?  If he does, it's most likely directed towards the cruddy 4-some in front slowing the pace.   

In a retirement community in Arkansas, every foursome is a "cruddy foursome in front slowing the pace".

[diehardfan]

Dust?  What's that? 

(makes mental note never to go to Tom's house)

At least he starts during normal awake hours. 

(pretends like John can't see her talking about him) Yeah for some reason that doesn't make me feel better! I'm just wondering how long it takes him to write one post... 6 hours? I guess that explains why he only has the number of posts he has though... 

Speaking of ranting... Is anyone going to miss Trost ranting in that totally amusingly absurd way? At least we still have Coach G... what would this league be like if we didn't have at least one coach who liked to stomp his feet a whole lot??? 

[Gregory Sager]

I can think of a whole bunch of CCIW head coaches who surpassed Rees Johnson and Scott Trost in the rant 'n' rave department. And while Grey Giovanine is definitely in the all-time top ten, I'm not sure that he'd garner the top spot as the most choleric sideline personality in CCIW men's basketball history. I'd have to rate both former Carroll mentor Dave Fink and Grey's distant predecessor at Augie, Jim "Jack In The Box" Borcherding, ahead of him on that list. Fink used to get so livid that you could see the veins throbbing in his forehead as he screamed. I seriously worried about the guy having some sort of cardiovascular catastrophe during a game. Borcherding was a hugely successful coach, but his antics on the sideline were the stuff of legend. We Parkers gave him his nickname for his amazing tendency to leap straight up out of his chair in the blink of an eye.

I'd have to give Grey the gold medal for boorish behavior, though (yelling out instructions while the other team is shooting FTs, talking to opposing players while the game is in progress, etc.).

[matblake]

All this talk about going beserk reminded me of the strangest thing I had ever seen in basketball.  I was on the 8th grade team at my junior high.  It had been a pretty uneventful first half and my team was winning.  As time sounded the opposing coach asked the ref a question about an earlier call.  I was standing right by their bench it went something like this, "Sir, was number 5 or number 8 in the lane too long when you called 3 seconds?"  The ref says, "That's it, technical foul on the coach."  Our coach then made the fatal error and said, "Sir, what was that technical foul about?"  The ref went "T" crazy.  He T'd up our coach, T'd up our team for not getting off the court fast enough, T'd me up for making one of those jr. high type sighs.  As an assistant coach got all of us into the locker room, apparently things got even crazier.  The ref then T'd up our fans, tried to get into the stands after a parent and then went after our coach.  Then, after an expletive filled tirade, just up and left.  The coaches got together and determined that we should play the second half with an assistant coach doing the refereeing.  Later on, the league determined that my team needed to forfeit the game.  Eighteen years later and I am still mystified at what happened.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I bet that would have been a fantastic thing to watch for a neutral observer.


Incidently, stories like this are why I still advocate the fans totally ripping the refs when deserved.  I think the more you can save the coach from having to do it, the better off you are. 

[hopefan]

oh ouch  -  sorry guys, this is an opportunity to tell my best all time coaching vs refereeing situation.  I was coaching a pretty good group of suburban 9th graders in an innercity summer league - against an innercity group of kids with two innercity referees.  It was a good game we're down three in the last minute and a half, we foul, team B gets the ball back, and loses it.  So we have the ball with 15 seconds, and make a 3 pointer to tie the game.
Team B turns it over again, and fouls us in the act of shooting.  We're shooting foul shots that will win the game!!!  BUT, the buzzer blows, the ref goes over to the scorers table, and they tell him that the last foul we committed (90 seconds ago on the clock) should have resulted in a one and one. The ref rules that everything that had transpired is gone, and the one and one will be shot.  I wasn't sure how the rule worked, so I said let's get the league director (who was in the hallway at the ticket table) to make a decision, because I believed the ref was incorrect - nope, says the ref that's it, and coach sit down or else.  I chose "or else" and forfeited the game....

[matblake]

I bet that would have been a fantastic thing to watch for a neutral observer.

That why those shows like "America's Most Dangerous Driver's" and such keep showing up.  There was a kid videotaping the game from the stage in the gym, but he had hightailed it to the concession stand so you could see the other coach get T'd but only audio was available from the ensuing mayhem.  The only reason we had that because he was more interested in getting his candy bar than saving the camera's batteries.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I had a ref threaten to clear the gym of spectators if I didn't shut up one time, but I called that bluff and he didn't have the guts.  Besides, he was having a really off night.  I ride them hard, but I'm equally vocal when they do well and I'm not impartial, for my team or against my team, good officiating is good officiating.  In fact I may enjoy following the officiating more than the game itself at times.  That probably makes me the ultimate sports nerd.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Longtime NPC fans will remember the JV game at Aurora when Bosko drew three technical fouls in under a second right before halftime - it sounded like the referee was trilling his whistle.

You gotta fill in the details - WHAT could possibly lead even a goofy ref to give three (essentially simultaneous) Ts?!  And how is that even possible - aren't you ejected after 2 Ts?  (Or am I mixing up my rules with a different league?)

[True Basketball Fan]

Longtime NPC fans will remember the JV game at Aurora when Bosko drew three technical fouls in under a second right before halftime - it sounded like the referee was trilling his whistle.

It was a CCIW JV game with JV officials.  Anybody who has witnessed a JV game understands how a coach could get a few technicals, especially when they moronically explain their bogus call that the coach was originally upset at.

Here's a good rule of thumb to remember about officiating:  Good refs don't give T's, mainly because they are hardly ever FORCED to.