MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

Whitworth is solid. The Pirates have a decent lunch-bucket center in 6'7 Kevin Hasenfus, an athletic but somewhat erratic forward in 6'5 Ryan Symes, and a steady off-guard in Jon Young. With three seniors and two juniors in the starting lineup, and a smart tactician in Jack Hayford running things, I have no doubt that the Pirates will be a strong contender in the NWC. In CCIW terms, I'd say that they'd be middle-of-the-pack -- they could use a little more depth and another scorer.

All of this is to preface what I have to say about the Pirates' PG, Bryan Williams. He won the Will Landry Award as the Pfund's MVP, and the award was never more deserved. I take a backseat to no one in my admiration of Kent Raymond, but if Saturday's contest is any true indication of his abilities, Williams is better than Raymond. His stat line of 24 points, 8 assists, and 6 steals doesn't do justice to how well he played. He played smart, he played strong, and he was everywhere. I haven't seen a performance that impressive by a guard in many years -- and, believe me, I see a lot of D3 guards every season. Since he had 11 points and 12 assists in the opening-round win against Eastern, my guess is that he is that good. Enjoy watching Williams this season, Pineconefan. He is an amazing player. If he plays like this every time that Whitworth suits up, he has first-team All-American written all over him.

[Gregory Sager]

Wheaton is going to be a good team this season, but the Wheaties are not without their weaknesses. Several of us in the stands said afterwards that Wheaton would've won the game if they'd had John Mohan, and afterwards the Wheaton coaches to a man all said the same thing. PG is not Kent Raymond's strong suit -- in fact, he didn't even bring the ball up the floor most of the game; Panner and Standard slowly worked the ball up the floor with sideline-to-sideline passes against the zone press. Raymond spends most of his time in the halfcourt offense operating out of the wing. Standard is clearly more of a shooting guard than a small forward, and shooting guard is obviously Panner's true position as well -- so Wheaton has a sort of strange look with three different players playing the two simultaneously, with no real PG or SF. Mohan might've been able to contain Williams better than either Raymond (whose D is still lagging behind his O) or Panner (who was much too slow for Williams) were able to do.

Panner was something of a disappointment. It's only one game, so I'm not going to write him off, but at one point I turned to Pete McBride and said, "Why the heck did Texas want this guy as an invited walk-on?" He's only a freshman, though, and he deserves to be treated with as much patience as any other freshman on CCIW Chat gets, hype or no hype. Wheaton's bigs were erratic, although Wiele really did step up and work the boards hard in the second half. It's already been stated several times in this room how they have to be much more consistent from night to night for the Wheaties to have a top-three season. Soph Matt Ankeny was the most pleasant surprise of the night if you're a Wheaton fan. Raymond didn't shoot well and is still not 100% yet on the defensive end, but other than that he looked as though he'd never taken any time off. I can't imagine that there's a coach in D3 who won't design his game plan around stopping Raymond if Wheaton is the next team on the sked.

A fun night all around; the opener between Franklin and Eastern was fun to watch as well. Thanks as always to the Wheaton folks for their hospitality.

[Gregory Sager]

Hey everyone.  Long time since I've been on here.  Glad to see the games starting up again.  Looks like the Jays dropped their opener earlier tonight.  At Simpson with a 82-71 loss.  Sounds like Elmhurst struggled on defense with a couple of their guys.

On a positive note... Fellow Manito native Ryan Burks led the Jays in scoring in his first ever start, with 22 points.

Full article and boxscore here:  http://elmhurst.edu/athletics/news/?id=1151

Good to hear from you again, Ryan! Hope you're doing well.

I was taken aback when I saw the Elmhurst/Simpson score in the paper. I saw the Storm play at Elmhurst last season, and their four returning starters (Hittenmiller, Soppe, Parkinson, and Cermak) are all decent players, but I nevertheless did not think that they matched up well with the Bluejays. However, ECdubb's statement that the Bluejays were hobbled by injuries (and the fact that only eight Bluejays played in the game, only four of whom have extensive varsity experience) appears to be borne out by the results. It looks like it was a particularly tough night for Elmhurst junior Jay Brizzolara in his return after a year's hiatus -- zero points and zero rebounds in 24 minutes of tick. The only marks he registered in the scorebook were four fouls and a turnover. Ouch!

At least Ryan's homeboy Ryan Burks had an auspicious debut: 22 points, including 4-7 from long range.

NPU managed to recover nicely against Kalamazoo. Looks like a slash-and-defend game from the Vikings, which I think will be typical of their style -- the Hornets turned the ball over 29 times and were held to only 24% from long range, and the Vikings got to the line 37 times (although they only made 23 of their throws). More worrisome is the fact that the Park again turned the ball over too much; their 21 TOs gave them a total of 47 for the weekend, which is ridiculous. Anthony Lenoir, who had a 14 and 7 night to go with his 16 and 6 performance in the opener, made the All-Tourney team for NPU. Looks like freshmen Joe Capalbo and Nick Williams had impressive weekends all around as well.

I still have to get the scoop on the bizarre ending to Friday night's game, though.

[Gregory Sager]

Friday's results:
Augustana 78, St. Norbert 57
Illinois Wesleyan 86, Clarke 59
North Central 97, East-West 58
Mount St. Joseph 82, North Park 80 (OT)
Wheaton 81, Franklin 78

Saturday's results:
Simpson 82, Elmhurst 71
Illinois Wesleyan 69, UW-Whitewater 68 (OT)
Millikin 88, MacMurray 76
North Central 63, Bluffton 49
North Park 69, Kalamazoo 64
Whitworth 70, Wheaton 67

Tuesday's games:
Beloit (0-1) @ Augustana (1-0)
Carthage (0-0) @ Grinnell (0-0)
Elmhurst (0-1) @ St. Norbert (0-1)
Illinois College (0-0) @ Illinois Wesleyan (2-0)
Millikin (1-0) @ Indiana-Northwest (0-6)
North Park (1-1) @ Concordia IL (1-1)
Wheaton (1-1) @ Benedictine (1-1)

Friday's game:
Illinois Wesleyan vs. Ohio Wesleyan (2-0) *

Saturday's games:
Illinois Wesleyan @ DePauw (1-1) or vs. Judson (1-5) *
Franklin (1-1) @ North Central (2-0)
North Park @ Illinois College

* Mike Rokicki Community Versus Cancer Challenge, DePauw University

[petemcb]

[
Saturday's games:
Illinois Wesleyan @ DePauw (1-1) or vs. Judson (1-5) *
Franklin (1-1) @ North Central (2-0)
North Park @ Illinois College

* Mike Rokicki Community Versus Cancer Challenge, DePauw University

Greg, as followup to some of what we discussed on Saturday night after seeing Franklin at the Lee Pfund, I would guess that they are going to present a very interesting challenge to North Central on Saturday.  Franklin, with a team full of solid, disciplined, tenacious, prototypical Indiana-type guards versus a team with a solid front line (with Simmons?) but still sorting through some serious guard issues.  That could be the most interesting game of the weekend.

[CCRedMenFan]

Hi everyone!! I'm excited for another year of CCIW basketball to get started. Good luck to all of the teams as they continue playing. 

I've been reading for some time and decided that Carthage needed some representation. I'm not sure how we'll be this year, I didn't see either scrimmage, but I'm ready for the first game tomorrow down at Grinnell.  It'll be a long trip for the Red Men.  Hopefully they'll do well!

[Titan Q]

In case anyone isn't aware, the definition of "in-region" game was expanded effective this year.  In addition to the old rules...

1) Schools within your region.
2) Schools within 200 miles

Now we have...

3) Schools within your "membership region."

See page 15 of the Division III Championship Handbook.


CCIW schools are in the same membership region as basically the entire West region, so this really expands the in-region definition.  For example, the Wheaton vs Whitworth game was in-region -- whereas last year that game would not have hurt Wheaton (just like IWU's win over Puget Sound last December didn't help the Titans), it now does.

[John Gleich]

1) Schools within your region.
2) Schools within 200 miles

Now we have...

3) Schools within your "membership region."

See page 15 of the Division III Championship Handbook.

Thanks Q, I was just thinking about that... I couldn't remember exactly WHAT the new rules were just last night!  We must have some weird form of telekinesis that occurs when we're not aware of it...

[Titan Q]

Congratulations to IWU's Andrew Freeman, the CCIW Player of the Week for Week 1.  Andrew averaged 17.0 points and 8.5 rebounds this weekend and was a ton in the 2nd Half vs UW-Whitewater.  It's great to see Andrew finally getting his chance to shine.

http://www.cciw.org/winter_bball_m/pow06_1.php

[Gilbert McFinnegan]

2) the Pirates immediately went into a 1-2-2 zone, frequently extended into a three-quarters zone press, neither of which struck me as something a team would do as part of a game plan against Wheaton...[/quote]

I am coming from the NWC board, where I regularly post, after following GSager over here.  I have not read the entire board so if some of my comments have already been answered please forgive.

GSager, just to give you a little background on the NWC, where Whitworth is coming from, for the past 3 years it has been primarily a two horse race.  The University of Puget Sound (UPS) has won the conference the past 3 years, amassing a 44-4 record.  Each year it has been Whitworth in second or third place, finishing a few games behind UPS, or meeting them in the title game of the conference tourney (re-introduced last year).  As you probably know from UPS run ins with IWU and Augastana last year, UPS likes to run and press the entire game, looking to dictate tempo.  In the past 3 years the UPS "kryptonite" has been long 3-2, 1-2-2 zones as they were ousted in the sweet 16 two years in a row by Stevens Point when they won the titles and then in the elite 8 by IWU last year.  UPS could not crack the WSP zones, and had difficulty with the IWU zones even though they seemed to run a 2-3 at times.  Point being, it looks like Whitworth may again be gearing up to slow down UPS in adapting similar zones, and throwing in a 3/4 court press to slow the UPS running offense down.

My question for you/this board is: How did both IWU and Augustana fall out of the top 25?  I know they both lost critical seniors, but they both seemed like legit programs, especially IWU, that should receive national recognition regardless of such losses.

[Gregory Sager]

Greg, as followup to some of what we discussed on Saturday night after seeing Franklin at the Lee Pfund, I would guess that they are going to present a very interesting challenge to North Central on Saturday.  Franklin, with a team full of solid, disciplined, tenacious, prototypical Indiana-type guards versus a team with a solid front line (with Simmons?) but still sorting through some serious guard issues.  That could be the most interesting game of the weekend.

I actually just posted similar thoughts in the HCAC room. I always look forward to games in which the opposing teams either have contrasting styles or contrasting strengths and weaknesses. In the case of Franklin @ North Central, it's the latter. Franklin has a smallish and young front line, but as you mentioned their guards are terrifically sound; every Wheaton person to whom I spoke this past weekend, from Bill Harris on down, made it a point to mention how impressed they were with the guards for the Grizzlies.

This actually works out well for NCC, since it's a great early-season test for Raridon's inexperienced backcourt. This is the type of game that they need to prepare themselves for the rigors of January and February.

Incidentally, Simmons apparently served what amounted to a one-game suspension, since the Beast of Bolingbrook started on Saturday night for the Cards against Bluffton and logged a double-double.

Since my early guess is that I'm not going to be able to make it all the way down to Jacksonville, IL for the NPU @ Illinois College game on Saturday, I'll probably be sitting in the airplane hangar watching the Grizzlies and the Cardinals go at it.

[Gregory Sager]

GSager, just to give you a little background on the NWC, where Whitworth is coming from, for the past 3 years it has been primarily a two horse race. 

I know. I follow the NWC room's conversation, such as it is. I have a modest amount of insight into your league (a friend of mine is a member of the game crew at one of the NWC schools), but it doesn't extend into such details as knowing beforehand that Whitworth extensively utilizes a 1-2-2 zone or a 3/4ths zone press.

My question for you/this board is: How did both IWU and Augustana fall out of the top 25?  I know they both lost critical seniors, but they both seemed like legit programs, especially IWU, that should receive national recognition regardless of such losses.

Augie didn't fall out of the Top 25; they were the preseason #24 pick. Augie lost its two leading scorers from last year's team; Illinois Wesleyan lost almost its entire rotation from last year, with the exception of the Freeman brothers. They were, and still are, "legit programs" -- but you don't automatically get a high ranking from one year to the next in the D3hoops.com poll. Graduation losses have to be taken into account, and in the case of both programs the losses were significant (especially for Illinois Wesleyan).

[markerickson]

For example, the Wheaton vs Whitworth game was in-region -- whereas last year that game would not have hurt Wheaton (just like IWU's win over Puget Sound last December didn't help the Titans), it now does.

How was IWU harmed by beating Puget Sound? 

[cardinalpride]

For example, the Wheaton vs Whitworth game was in-region -- whereas last year that game would not have hurt Wheaton (just like IWU's win over Puget Sound last December didn't help the Titans), it now does.

How was IWU harmed by beating Puget Sound? 

Mark, where does it say in Q's post that IWU was harmed by beating PS?

[REDMENFAN]

Hello all, I've only posted on the Baseball Board, but have read the Basketball board over the past few years and am a big supporter of Carthage Basketball. Its obviously been rough the last 2 years, hopefully Carthage can get back on the winning track. I know Bosko and Dave Roehl are extremely excited about this group of freshman they brought in. Here's a link to their season preview in the Racine Journal Times today: http://www.journaltimes.com/articles/2006/11/21/local_sports/iq_4284053.txt