MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

1) If there's anything worse than watching a 1-0 soccer game, it's reading a play-by-play account of it on the CCIW B'ball chat site.

There was a play-by-play account of a soccer game on CCIW Chat? I didn't see one. Lanny, you must be getting a special edition of CCIW Chat that I don't have. Pat, are you running a $19.99/month premium channel version of this room or something?

Come on Greg, you owe me some form of acknowledgment with regard to the outcome of that one!  As any regular poster knows, my 4 years of comments has shown that I possess only a bit of hoops knowledge compared with most, but soccer?  Well, I know that one fairly well!

Well, you did say that "the odds are in North Park's favor" ... but if you want prior credit for your soccer acumen rather than have me accuse you of sandbagging on Wheaton's behalf, you have to pick a final score ahead of time, man. C'mon, it's soccer ... how hard can it be?  

[True Basketball Fan]

Thanks TQ, I'm too lazy to look back.

Anyway, you wouldn't happen to know if anybody else in the league has scrimmaged lately?

[mactitan]

Thanks for posting those pictures.  I never found any good ones on any newspaper site.  Now I regret not making the trip.  That would have been a special thing to see.

[Jim Matson]

As this board really is the heart and soul of CCIW athletics...

Congrats to Augie and Wesleyan on their NCAA post-season bids in women's soccer.  This is the first time either school has made it to the post-season in womens soccer and the CCIW is one of only 2 conference in the nation to get 3 teams in the tourney (Wheaton got in off of the AQ).

And congrats as well to North Park men's soccer for the same reason - first time ever in the tourney!  Wheaton grabbed an at-large bid (love that bracket expansion).

This whole playoff expansion is going to fun for conferences like the CCIW, especially in basketball.  In most years, I think you'll see the top 3 teams in the tourney.

[robberki]

Wow! Rimshot by Coach Born, HI-larious.

[Jim Matson]

...cough, cough....

[Brick]

Mike Harrigan?  Would that be any relation to Augie's Rick Harrigan?  I'm sure I'll get  blasted for this but I just want to know

[Titan Q]

Mike Harrigan, one of the many Harrigan's to play for Brother Rice, is Rick's cousin.  He transfered to IWU midway through last season from D1 Loyola.  Like all Brother Rice Harrigans, Mike can shoot the 3.

[Titan Q]

Here's another good pic I received from the IWU/Illinois game.  It really captures the atmosphere of the game and the size of the crowd...

http://www.iwuhoops.com/illinitip.jpg

[Mr. Ypsi]

Q,

You couldn't post a pic with a sea of GREEN in the background?!

[augiefan]

I do not think IWU has to worry about their future success in the CCIW. Their underclassmen and junors will again be the CCIW favorite this time next year, although clearly not a highly ranked National team, until they prove themselves on the court.

I do know that in recent years Augie has never been able to out recruit Trost for a player both schools were interested in getting. Nussbaum is one of those players as was Amelianovich before him. Coach GG is a good recruiter, but Trost is the best in the CCIW. I for one think it is in no small part because of the loyal fan support the Titans get. The rest of us in the CCIW should be so fortunate.

[Jim Matson]

Nice write-up on the young Thunder on the front page.  It may be a long season, but it will be fun to see this team work hard and fight their way to a few victories.

[Gregory Sager]

North Park and Wisconsin-Whitewater had their annual scrimmage this afternoon in the crackerbox. Neither of the first two halves went NPU's way on the scoreboard, UWW winning the first, 45-35, and the second, 44-27. After a ten-minute or so interval in which NPU Coach Brenegan and UWW Coach Miller had the players play various close-score endgame simulations, the teams reconvened for a final half in which NPU's junior varsity surprisingly beat the Warhawks second string, 21-16.

Eric Allen led the Vikings in scoring with 14, followed by Devin Burnett with 10. Jay Alexander and Jason Gordon had nine apiece.

In spite of the lopsided scores, the Vikings were surprisingly upbeat about the scrimmage. Aside from a stretch of about eight minutes in the second half in which the Vikings showed no energy and absolutely sleepwalked up and down the court, the hosts stayed toe-to-toe with a very, very good Warhawks team.

The consensus was that the Vikings largely did themselves in with turnovers and transition. They turned the ball over 14 times in the first half, and at least that many times in the second half, completely unacceptable numbers. A great deal of them were of the unforced variety -- blase ballhandling that led to a slapaway, bad passes, defenders catching the ballhandler from behind while moving up the floor, etc. And too many Vikings on the perimeter got caught in no-man's-land when the Warhawks got the ball, leading to a whole bunch of fast breaks and easy transition baskets for UWW.

The reason why the Vikings didn't get discouraged by the scrimmage was that this is all correctable stuff. Failure to protect the ball, miscommunication, staying back to prevent fast breaks -- these aren't defects that can't be overcome by hard work and more familiarity with the system and with each other. It's important to remember that 2/3rds of the rotation consists of newbies. Last year you could spot specific problems early in the season and you knew that there was no way for the Park to correct them, because the personnel just wasn't there. This year's team is bigger, tougher (both mentally and physically), and more talented. But it's also very young. Now we'll get to see whether they have the work ethic and the teachability to make something of themselves.

[Gregory Sager]

Brenegan started a lineup that had a lot of size:

C - Jeremiah Sargent (6'7", 240)
F- Brett Mathisen (6'5", 210)
F - Jay Alexander (6'6", 175)
G - Eric Allen (6'3", 190)
G - Jason Gordon (6'3", 200)

It's been a long time since I've seen a North Park starting lineup that big.

I don't know how permanent this will be; Uriah Rice may still figure into the equation once his knee gets healthy. (Speaking of knees, the Vikings may have yet another setback in that department, as it appears that senior Mike Peterson has torn his ACL.) But right now this is a league dominated by small forwards, and this lineup may be constructed with that in mind. The lanky Alexander brings a lot of mobility and shooting touch to go with his 6'6" frame, and with the influx of big-man talent this year for the Park his future appears to be at the three spot.

Neither of the team's two expected big guns, Mathisen and Gordon, played all that well today, but Eric Allen had a terrific game. He could have himself a very nice career ahead of him at the Park. Backup center Glen Woodside had a good day as well, and backup PG Kevin Buckert was a pleasant surprise off the bench. Along with Eric Samuelson, Devin Burnett, and Ed Whitaker they constituted the back end of the Vikings rotation. It's going to be interesting to see how the lineup shakes out.

[mr_b]

Following up on Greg Sager's posting, I thought there were some positives to take away from the scrimmage with UWW.  The Vikes looked a little ragged defensively, especially in the first ten minutes, but afterwards they started to play better D.  Several players contributed some good shooting, especially Allen with three treys in the first period.  The Vikings fell into a funk midway through the second 20-minute period and the Warhawks pulled away with some great speed on breakaways and steals -- they are a very sharp team, as Greg mentioned.  There is a lot of talent on the North Park squad, and I hope they can bring it all together for a competitive, exciting 2005-2006 campaign.