MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Mugsy]

Interesting that some (outhouse) view Wheaton as Raymond + "garbage", yet they are 12-5.

Of their 5 losses:
3 pt. loss to #7 Whitworth (70-67)
4 pt. loss to #27 U of. Chicago (81-77)
2 pt. loss to D-1 Northwestern (41-39)
5 pt. loss to pre-season favorite North Central (52-47) *- Raymond hurt, I believe
6 pt. loss to #12 Augustana (75-69) * Raymond still hurting...

A couple of big wins:
3 pt. win over #9 Hope (73-70)
3 pt. win over #12 Elmhurst (77-74)

Not bad for one excellent player and a bunch of "no name, busters".

[Dennis_Prikkel]

The Cards held a 34-31 lead at halftime thanks to yeoman work by Walton and his teammates back-dooring the Jays for easy layups.  The cards shot 71 percent in the 1st half, 52% in the 2nd and 60% for the game.

The Jays physicalness just wore on the Cardinals in the end.  The entire Cardinal front-court fouled out and the Jays made an astonishing 29 of 31 free throws for the game.

Cardinal coach Todd Raridon, who got a lot of officiating breaks in the opening 20 minutes, was short-changed in the 2nd.  Simmons 4th foul, while blocking out from the low position on a free throw attempt with 17:50 to play in the game was especially tacky, had a total melt-down with ten seconds to play in the game and stormed the court going after the official who had called Simmons fourth foul (Simmons also got a technical foul during a timeout from another official after he had fouled out of the game) and Raridon was asked to leave and Burks made a four free throws for the final margin.

MW

[Dennis_Prikkel]

Scott Trost was at the NC / EC game tonight in bluejayland.

MW

[dansand]

Augie was very fortunate to come away with a win tonight. Pat Brusveen drains a three with 0:03 left to win it. Nothing wrong with their effort, they just couldn't buy a 3 until about the last five minutes of the game. The Titans zoned them the whole game and Augie could never hit enough outside shots to bring them out of it.

With the exception of 14 first-half turnovers, I thought  IWU played well. They only turned it over three times in the second half and had more success isolating both of the Freemans for good looks. They also hurt Augie on their (IWU's) offensive glass in the second half (usually Gant).

For Augie, Dain had another good game (18 pts/4 reb), going toe-to-toe with Zach (17/6). I have to mention the huge dunk that he had over him on a fast break in the first half. The best I've seen for Augie since the early '80s days of Rapier, Brittnum, Price, etc. Wessels had a lousy shooting night, but had five steals, 10 assists and just one turnover. Delp caught fire in the second half and pretty much got them back in it after they went down by eight with five minutes left.

Coach G's teams continue their amazing success in tight games. I believe they're 10-2 over the last two years in games decided by 3 points or less or in OT. Pretty impressive.

[knarocky22]

I'm with DS.  Dain's dunk was a monster.

Here is the boxscore from the Augie-IWU game.  

http://www.augustana.edu/athletics/mbasketball/stats/2006-07/07mbb18.htm

Augie

D. Swetalla 18 pts.
Delp            15 pts.  3-10 from beyond the arc
Wessels      9 pts.   10 assists  5 steals  1 turnover

IWU

Z. Freeman  17 pts. 6 rebounds 2 blocks
Gilmore        15 pts. (3-5 from beyond the arc) 1 assist  3 turnovers
A. Freeman  11 pts.  8 rebounds

IWU has 17 turnovers to Augie's 10

[augiefan]

I was a bit surprised at how tough this game was for Augie, particularly since it was a home game, but Dansand was there and said their was no lack of effort. From the stats it looks like IWU kept it close by dominating the boards (36-27) and shooting nearly 50% from the field to Augie's 39%. Although they had a nice advantage in the turnovers category, Augie appears to have won this game with late in the game heroics and by hitting 83% of their FTS (15-18). A real nice effort on that score.

For Dansand or anyone else who was there, how was the Augie fab turnout? As usual even a below average IWU team turns out the biggest crowd of the season. Hopefully, the Augie students will be out in decent numbers for Saturday's crucial game.

[tjcummingsfan]

Joe Capalbo, our star the last few games didn't score a basket all night, and we made more mental errors than in the past few home games.  This game was very winnable for North Park, they just couldn't take it over the way they needed to.  THe brigh spot was the intensity of Nick Williams.  He was one of few who looked like he was playing to win, like he was hungry to send this Red Men team home with their 4th CCIW loss.  

I'm not loving losing games by a basket.  Hopefully we can get back to .500 out in Decatur, and bring some momentum into the game against the Rock Island version of the Vikings.

[79jaybird]

Scott Trost was at the Elmhurst/NC game, however he was wearing a RED SHIRT!!
NC came out of the gates ready to play and gave the Bluejays some fits early.  Dan Walton was nailing some baseline jumpers/hooks and NC was moving the ball well.  Simmons got into foul trouble which really opened the floodgates.  Once Simmons was on the bench EC just took control with Ruch and Michael inside.  Really, NC didn't stop EC in the paint all night.  On this note, the only team I have seen be able to "handle" EC inside was Wheaton on Sat.  
I thought Sayre had a few clutch shots that I think if anything, "surprised" NC because they left him open at the top of the key.  Brent Ruch continued to be dynamite inside and making his FT's.
OK,  Showdown Saturday at Augie.  This was a good win for EC to get back to their form and have some momentum heading into R.I.  As IWU showed this evening, Augie can be neutralized at home.  Keep the hustle, limit your fouls, and play smart.

BTW,  Mr/Mrs. Krumtinger great to meet you after the game.  

[knarocky22]

The student turnout was very good (about what you would see at an IWU game), but just not as many non-students.  As has been discussed on the football board, there just doesn't seem to be as much community support for the Vikings.  Also, IWU didn't travel nearly as many this year as they have in the past.  I actually didn't see one single IWU student there.

[augiefan]

Dansand, don't forget to mention Maxwell Artis, who had to get the ball to Rapier, Price et al. on those 80s teams. Those guys broke a few hearts, including this Beloit alum's, at the old Beloit College Fieldhouse, the year those guys beat the Bucs, who were briefly ranked #1 in DIII in what was Coach Knapton's best year at Beloit. Fortunately, with two children who are Augie grads I have now changed my allegiance and don't suffer so much when the once mighty Bucs lose on a regular basis.

[markerickson]

Carthage clearly does not deserve a top 25 ranking.  I saw nothing special about that team except Schlemm's propensity for fouls and ability to score.  He had four fouls in tonite's game, and I do admit the fourth was highly questionable.  However, he clearly had several fouls within a few seconds at the end of the game that did not get called.  Enough whining.  NP will not enter the top four of the CCIW without a PG running the show, i.e., penetration and assists are absolutely necessary.  I mentioned last year that an effective offensive scheme is not four guys hanging out at the trey line with one guy down low, which is what I observed much too frequently tonite.

NP had this game won, but two extremely poor TOs in the last minute blew the lead.

[coebball70]

Todd Raridon's meltdown tonight displayed a significant lack of class and character.  It is apparent that the road atmosphere of the CCIW is something he is going to have to adjust to over time.  North Central didn't lose tonight because of the officiating, they lost because their defense was poor.  I hope the Cardinals filmed the game so Raridon can see the example he set before several key high school coaches and possible senior recruits that attended the game.

[bluejaybacker1]

Regarding Raridon's outburst near the end of the game. I was within an earshots distance of the incident. I clearly overheard the ref say something that was unprofessional to him. After hearing what he said, I can see why Raridon would go off on him. 

[Gregory Sager]

NPU snatched defeat from the jaws of victory tonight. Up by four points with two minutes left, the Vikings turned the ball over on their last four possessions -- two of them unforced. Carthage, meanwhile, stayed calm, cool, and collected, and converted three straight possessions to walk out of the crackerbox with a win that everyone on the NPU side of the gym felt was the Park's for the taking.

It was an extremely narrow game; NPU's biggest lead was five and Carthage's was seven, and both of those leads were in the first half. As tightly as the game was played, it was a study in contrasts at the two ends of the floor. Carthage had very limited success in the post with Brian Schlemm (13 points, but on 14 FG attempts) and Neb Franciskovic, but great success with penetration kickouts that resulted in open treys; I'm pretty sure that eight of the nine Carthage bombs from beyond the arc (all but the one by Higgins) were off of kickouts in which the NPU defense did not recover in time to contest the shot. North Park, on the other hand, had a very difficult time getting any jumpshots (midrange or trey) to go down, even though the shot selection was good. NPU's biggest success came in the post, where Anthony Lenoir and Stephano Jones really had their way tonight against their Red Men counterparts.

NPU dominated the game statistically, a lot of it due to great hustle on the boards. The Vikings outrebounded Carthage, 38-22, with a 13-6 edge on the offensive glass. NPU outshot Carthage from the field, 47.4% to 43.1%, and took six more shots from the field than the visitors. The big problem for the Vikings was turnovers -- 19 for the game, none bigger than those four in the last two minutes. But it was the nature of the turnovers that was really bothersome -- two five-second calls (one from a non-advancing ballhandler, the other in the game's last ten seconds when Nick Williams failed to inbound the ball), a carrying call, and any number of travels. It was a real shoot-yourself-in-the-foot performance.

NPU has to learn how to close out games. Over the past two Wednesdays they've played two ranked teams absolutely even-steven, and have nothing to show for it because they don't know how to finish in crunch time. They turn the ball over too much with the game on the line, and the offense turns into four-man stand-around. I'm chalking it up to inexperience, but the Vikes are going to have to get mentally tougher if they want to get over the hump and become a Top 25 caliber team. Carthage, on the other hand, showed great patience and alertness at the end of the game tonight. If I was a Red Men fan, I'd feel good about my team's chances in a tight one at the end. That's new for them, because over the past few years Bosko's teams haven't really been all there mentally.

Jason Gordon came off the bench and out of his slump to score 16 tonight for the Park. Lenoir had 15 and 8, while Jones and Williams each had 12. Schlemm, who made the winning layup in spite of not having a good game, was Carthage's stats leader with 13 and 7, while Nav Thompson and Trey Bowens were the primary recipients of all those kickouts, each scoring 11 and knocking down three treys.

There's two ways to look at this if you're a North Park fan. On the one hand, the Vikes are competitive to the point where they're going nose-to-nose with ranked teams for 40 minutes without blinking. On the other hand, they're losing heartbreakers in the final seconds. The Vikings have to learn how to hone their killer instinct -- and how to be smart about it.

NP will not enter the top four of the CCIW without a PG running the show, i.e., penetration and assists are absolutely necessary. 

NPU's point guard play tonight was fine. Joe Capalbo spent most of the game on the bench, but that's because he was not quick enough to handle Carthage's guards. Keith Willert, on the other hand, came off of the bench and in his first varsity game of the year did a superb job. He contained Joe Higgins and Nav Thompson when he was asked to guard either one, and he turned in three assists without turning the ball over once. I don't worry about NPU's point guard situation. I do worry that the offense goes completely static when the game is on the line, but that's not necessarily the PG's problem. NPU needs more mental discipline and better judgment with the ball in their hands -- and, as I said, I think it comes from being a young team.

Now they're a little behind the 8-ball. They're really gonna have to get after it in Decatur on Saturday night. NPU can't afford any more endgame slipups.

[Gregory Sager]

Really, NC didn't stop EC in the paint all night.  On this note, the only team I have seen be able to "handle" EC inside was Wheaton on Sat.

NPU outscored Elmhurst in the paint last Wednesday, 79jaybird, and the big men for the Vikings outscored the big men for Elmhurst overall, 36-35.