MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[hopefan]

The somewhat negative tone of true basketball fan's critique on IWU's schedule is not shared by this veteran of D3Hoops.  It looks like an extremely solid schedule to me - at UWW, OWU on neutral, @ Depauw, @t St X, @ OlNaz, WashU, Albion, ChiU, @Hanover  -  not sure it could get any tougher unless they went "National".

Oh and by the way  -  WHAT, NO SLIAC TEAMS??

[Mr. Ypsi]

While the financial aspects are not a huge consideration, I'd guess there is a quite noticeable difference between a game at Shirk and a road game (especially with $3 gas, and especially if overnight lodging is involved).  I'd imagine that tickets and concessions for the average game must run several $thou (more if students are now charged - they weren't when I was there in the Middle Ages; are they still free?).

I recognize that most schools are probably going to insist on a home-and-away deal, but only 7 home dates over consecutive years seems strange.  Why doesn't Shirk host a tourney?

[diehardfan]

I was actually sorta enjoying the random NPU dominated board, it was an interesting experience... almost like it was the 80s or something.  8)

IWU did host an opening weekend tourney in Nov 2004. It was Aurora and Depauw, if I remember correctly. They haven't held one since, which is really too bad because the Shirk is a great place to go to on opening weekend. On the other hand, the Titans do tend to participate in pretty good opening weekend tourneys. The Whitewater tourney should be pretty decent, and the Chicago tourney where the still baby Titans competed in the brand new (but ugly) Ratner was excellent.

It's probably easier to guarantee a tough game opening weekend if you are a visitor, rather than hosting, due to the vast number of teams hosting tourneys and trying to find teams to fill them... it's probably not exactly like each school has dozens of teams begging to be a part of their tourney that they can pick from.  But then, neither have guarantees due to, you know, the general unpredictability of life.

[diehardfan]

Oh and by the way  -  WHAT, NO SLIAC TEAMS??

Hopefan, I've seen the light, and I'm planning on flying out from Cali to the Midwest just to watch a slew of SLIAC games next year... wanna meet up in St Louis again? i'll bring my secret recipe oatmeal cookies again and everything...

[cciwleader]

New to the forum.  Hello all.   I read up on the IWU guys that are playing overseas and found it very interesting.  I also found this on Chris Martin that I felt was also neat to see another CCIW player overseas.  Hope all is going well for the three of them and all the rest of the CCIW players still playing professional ball.

http://www.t71.lu/indexhtml.html

Click on new U.S. player halfway down and to the right.

[Titan Q]

While the financial aspects are not a huge consideration, I'd guess there is a quite noticeable difference between a game at Shirk and a road game (especially with $3 gas, and especially if overnight lodging is involved).  I'd imagine that tickets and concessions for the average game must run several $thou (more if students are now charged - they weren't when I was there in the Middle Ages; are they still free?).

I recognize that most schools are probably going to insist on a home-and-away deal, but only 7 home dates over consecutive years seems strange.  Why doesn't Shirk host a tourney?

IWU has only hosted 3 non-conference tournaments in 12 seasons at the Shirk Center (all "tipoff" tournaments):


2004-05 (Randolph-Macon, DePauw, Aurora)

1999-00 (Wittenberg, Roanoke, Wash U)

1995-96 (Nebraska Wesleyan, Wash U., DePauw)

[Mr. Ypsi]

While the financial aspects are not a huge consideration, I'd guess there is a quite noticeable difference between a game at Shirk and a road game (especially with $3 gas, and especially if overnight lodging is involved).  I'd imagine that tickets and concessions for the average game must run several $thou (more if students are now charged - they weren't when I was there in the Middle Ages; are they still free?).

I recognize that most schools are probably going to insist on a home-and-away deal, but only 7 home dates over consecutive years seems strange.  Why doesn't Shirk host a tourney?

IWU has only hosted 3 non-conference tournaments in 12 seasons at the Shirk Center (all "tipoff" tournaments):


2004-05 (Randolph-Macon, DePauw, Aurora)

1999-00 (Wittenberg, Roanoke, Wash U)

1995-96 (Nebraska Wesleyan, Wash U., DePauw)

IF IWU only played one (4-team) tourney a year, 3 in 12 years would seem reasonable.  But if this year is at all typical (2 tourneys), and being a larger than most arena, and a traditional power team, I'd think they should 'throw their weight around' and have a tourney at least every other year - maybe even every year.

I would imagine that it would be a swing of c.$40K+ a year.

[Plus at least that for the community from fans of the opposing schools.]

[Gregory Sager]

If Greg's statements about Lenoir's age and decisions are correct, I don't think Lenoir is eligible per NCAA regs.

He's eligible, Mark. His clock started in 2002-03.

That sounds like a typical Millikin pre-season schedule.

No, it sounds like a typical Millikin non-conference schedule.

(That one's just for you, April, since I'm going to get around to needling you, too, before I get to the end of this post.)

But there's nothing typical about the Millikin/Indiana-Northwest series, even by cupcake standards. Here's the results of their contests over the last seven years:

2006: MU 101, IUN 57
2005: MU 88, IUN 70
2004: MU 90, IUN 60
2003: MU 98, IUN 68
2002: MU 101, IUN 57
2001: MU 69, IUN 61 (someone must've dosed the Millikin Gatorade cooler with Nyquil)
2000: MU 103, IUN 61

That's an average spread of 31 ppg over seven years, even including the aberration in 2001 in which the Big Blue only won by eight. I'm sure that Tim Littrell has some sort of reason for scheduling this game every year (probably as a favor to the IUN coach), but such a lopsided series can't really be benefitting Jimmy Millikin at all. And there's no other ongoing series involving a CCIW program that's anywhere near that lopsided.

IF IWU only played one (4-team) tourney a year, 3 in 12 years would seem reasonable.  But if this year is at all typical (2 tourneys), and being a larger than most arena, and a traditional power team, I'd think they should 'throw their weight around' and have a tourney at least every other year - maybe even every year.

I would imagine that it would be a swing of c.$40K+ a year.

Chuck, you can't "throw your weight around" if nobody's willing to let you do so. Have you ever looked at the Open Dates rooms? Tournament hosts are practically begging for participants. There's a surfeit of tournaments out there. Pat's mentioned this in the past, and I've heard coaches say this as well. Filling them is a big challenge if you're hosting one.

New to the forum.  Hello all.   I read up on the IWU guys that are playing overseas and found it very interesting.  I also found this on Chris Martin that I felt was also neat to see another CCIW player overseas.  Hope all is going well for the three of them and all the rest of the CCIW players still playing professional ball.

http://www.t71.lu/indexhtml.html

Click on new U.S. player halfway down and to the right.

Welcome to the board, cciwleader. Thanks for the detective work on Martin, but I didn't see anything about him on that page -- and I'm afraid to look any further, because that page keeps throwing popups at me faster than I can kill them.  Can you just fill us in as to where the former Elmhurst star is playing this coming season?

I was actually sorta enjoying the random NPU dominated board, it was an interesting experience... almost like it was the 80s or something.  8)

I know that I didn't have a computer during that decade, but I'm still pretty sure that North Park didn't dominate CCIW Chat in the '80s. 

and the Chicago tourney where the still baby Titans competed in the brand new (but ugly) Ratner

Wheaton College really ought to think about making Architecture a required class. 

[Mr. Ypsi]

Greg,

Click on the US Player (or something like that) - I had no problem reading about Martin.

[Gregory Sager]

Got it, Chuck, thanks. It's basically just a portfolio of Martin-related press releases from Elmhurst SID Kevin Juday.

It's interesting that he's the second CCIW star in this decade to end up playing pro ball in Luxembourg. Perhaps Jason Wiertel can e-mail him a list of good restaurants.

[Ralph Turner]

The good news for the CCIW is that the NCAA just added the states of Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Texas, Colorado, California, Oregon and Washington to the venues of in-region games.  I imagine that the neutral site Cactus Jam in Arizona is in-region now, too.

Trinity and Southwestern definitely are in-region this year!

[Gregory Sager]

An annual rite of the end of summer for me is to stop by the initial open gym on the first day of classes at NPU. And, man, was it crowded on the crackerbox floor this evening. Even with a few of this year's players absent for one reason or another (including Anthony Lenoir, who was at a funeral), there was still something like 23 or 24 guys who turned out.

The Vikings have quite a crop of freshmen, and in addition to the ones already mentioned (Nick Williams, Antonio Stevens, Joe Capalbo, Dan Oziminski, Frank Theodorakakis, and Lukas Dahlstrom) there's a couple of others who look as though they have some nice long-term potential: 6'4 small forward Anthony Cruz of Maine South and 5'9 point guard Chris Brown of Rich East. Plus, there's another transfer who is a candidate to get a big chunk of playing time this year in junior center Stefano Jones. He transferred in from Lincoln Community College.

Mike Church is as advertised: A gunner with a sweet touch and no reluctance to put it in the air. Johnny Lauer looks like a player, too.

Several of the returnees looked as though they've added to their games from last year -- junior captain Jay Alexander stands out, for one, as someone who may be on the verge of a breakout season in 2006-07. Keith Willert and Mike Ventura looked improved as well. But the most satisfying sight was to see injury casualties Jason Gordon and Glen Woodside play at 100% on fully recovered knees. Both are going to have to play key roles, Gordon in particular, if the Vikings are to have any success this year. The third of last year's knee victims, Mike Peterson, still isn't quite there yet, although he did throw down a nice dunk at the end of the session.

It'll be a much deeper Vikings squad this year, and I'm not just talking about quantity depth. For the first time in awhile NPU will be able to bring in a sufficient number of guys who have some ability off of the bench, reserves who aren't prone to getting exposed by CCIW opponents. Talentwise, this Vikings team should go a long way towards closing the gap between them and the rest of the league. The big question is whether or not they can learn to play as a unit and develop a cohesive halfcourt offense.

[matblake]

This has little to do with CCIW ball, but yesterday the documentary "Hoop Dreams" was on television here in the Detroit area.  I hadn't seen it in several years and had forgotten what a good movie that was. 

Edit: It was actually on Sunday 8/27, not 8/28 as originally posted.

[True Basketball Fan]

The somewhat negative tone of true basketball fan's critique on IWU's schedule is not shared by this veteran of D3Hoops.  It looks like an extremely solid schedule to me - at UWW, OWU on neutral, @ Depauw, @t St X, @ OlNaz, WashU, Albion, ChiU, @Hanover  -  not sure it could get any tougher unless they went "National".

Oh and by the way  -  WHAT, NO SLIAC TEAMS??

I actually like IWU's schedule as far as who they are playing.  Including the "non-counting/meaningless" NAIA games, all of the opponents are quality.  I'm assuming that all of their home games should be wins and they most likely will be.  However, are they going to make the fans and coaches bite their finger nails off in the process like they did last year?

[True Basketball Fan]

This has little to do with CCIW ball, but yesterday the documentary "Hoop Dreams" was on television here in the Detroit area.  I hadn't seen it in several years and had forgotten what a good movie that was. 

Edit: It was actually on Sunday 8/27, not 8/28 as originally posted.

On the contrary, Blake.

Scott Trost, then the head coach at Elmhurst College, made a short appearance in the stands at Marshall High School during the movie.  He was recruiting Arthur Agee.  That's good enough to be included, I guess.