MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Ralph Turner]

Note to Ralph Turner.  I am guessing that Trinity's OT win over Hanover in the regional semifinals was a closer game than the 6 point game over UT-D. 

Carl, thanks for reminding me of that game.  I had forgotten that Hanover and TU went to OT.

And congratulations to TU for their win over VWC!

[Titan Q]

The Pantagraph article on the IWU/Wabash game...

http://www.pantagraph.com/stories/112005/spo_20051120039.shtml

[Gregory Sager]

Greg,

Is that the same Alan Fudge that played at Robert Morris (Chicago) several years ago?

Yes, and he's bounced around quite a bit: RMC-Chicago in 2001-02, Prairie State College (juco) in 2002-03, and then Cardinal Stritch up in Milwaukee for the 2003-04 season before landing at Benedictine. IIRC he's a Crete-Monee HS grad. Fudge is apparently so new an addition to Keith Bunkenburg's squad that he isn't even listed on the roster posted on the BU website.

Looks like the MVP for the Pfund is now named after Will... it's a nice sentiment... Guys, please keep the Landry family and the Wheaton Community in your prayers, the memorial service for Will tomorrow is going to be hard on everyone. 

I completely agree with April. I told both Bill Harris and Paul Ferguson that I thought it was a great gesture on Wheaton's part to name the Pfund MVP after Will Landry. He always performed very well in that tournament, making the all-tourney team three times. I'm told that his parents were on hand to present the award after the Aurora/Wheaton game last night, but I had to leave the gym in a hurry so I missed the presentation.

I was going to go out to North Central last evening, but after finding out that there would be a women's game sandwiched in between the two men's games in the hangar I said "the heck with it" and went to King Arena instead. (Since NPU plays Concordia (WI) in two weeks, I figured the consolation game would give me a nice preview of the Falcons as well.) I made the right decision. The Aurora/Wheaton game was outstanding, if a little confusing. Aurora's guards have no conscience -- as soon as they're within NBA range they let fire (27 trey attempts), so a lot of their possessions didn't even last ten seconds. What's confusing about that is the fact that they have a preseason All-American who didn't even touch the ball on most of their possessions. In fact, even when Aurora showed the patience to go into a halfcourt offense, Larry Welton set up on the weakside block. As the ball moved around the perimeter, he'd shuttle across the lane to the spot opposite the ball. Welton only had 12 points and 8 boards on the night, but it wasn't because of Wheaton's defense. It's as if he was little more than a decoy most of the night.

Wheaton started out very hot from the floor, and Aurora played zero defense, as Wheaton ran out to an early 24-12 lead. After that the Spartans finally cracked down at the defensive end and started hitting some of their treys, erasing the hosts' bulge and taking a one-point halftime lead. It was nip-and-tuck throughout the second half. Down 73-70 with sixteen seconds left, Wheaton opted to go for the easy two and then foul Aurora's Jeremy Cartwright with six seconds left rather than work to set up a game-tying trey attempt. I'm not sure I would've done it that way. Even though Aurora was only in the 1-and-1, Welton's looming presence in the FT blocks made any clean Wheaton rebound problematic. Sure enough, Cartwright missed the shot, Welton's leaping ability kept the ball alive, and by the time it skittered out of bounds and into Wheaton's possession there were only 2.5 seconds left. Tony Bollier didn't have enough time to get close enough to launch a shot, and Aurora won.

Bollier was fantastic -- 30 points to follow his 26 on Friday. He is a completely different ballplayer this year. He knows he has to be the man for Wheaton, and he's responded by stepping up his game drastically. He's always been able to shoot, but now he drives to the hole with authority. And he's taken over Jon Nielson's role as the tough-as-nails floor leader -- he had a tooth knocked out in the first half, and it didn't slow him down a bit. He barked out instructions to his teammates in the second half through a mouthful of bloody cotton. If he plays at this level all season he's a cinch for at least second-team All-CCIW.

Johnnie Standard's going to give Wheaton a good scoring complement to Bollier, and although I still think Michael Fiddler's going to be buffeted around by beefier CCIW big men he's certainly capable of scoring inside when he gets the chance. John Mohan is improved as well. You have to respect a Bill Harris team -- no matter who he has on the floor, you're not going to outwork them. Wheaton's missing a lot of arrows from the quiver this year, but I don't think anybody in the CCIW is just going to walk all over them. 

Kudos (and various other chocolate bars) to Wheaton for being gracious enough to follow tournament convention and award a player from the championship team with the first-ever Landry Award. It was given to Welton, even though the player who clearly deserved it was Bollier. Kudos as well to Tubba52 and Petemcb for volunteering to help me beat the train to the College Ave. station after the game -- and foul curses to your McMurry Indians, Ralph, for almost causing me to miss that train by turning the consolation game into a two-hours-plus foulathon (68 fouls, 91 free throws). Bill Harris had the best line of the night regarding that; as the conso slogged on through whistle after whistle, Harris told one of the refs of the upcoming championship game to make sure that the game went quickly, as Wheaton College's strict Sunday blue laws would require that the lights be turned off and the gym cleared out at midnight.

[Warren Thompson]

Greg:

Wheaton has it's very own Sunday "Blue Law"? Wow!
What would happen if a game went into OT at , say, 11.58 pm?

[Gregory Sager]

Greg:

Wheaton has it's very own Sunday "Blue Law"? Wow!

Yep. Wheaton's athletic teams are not allowed to play on Sundays. NPU's are strongly and unofficially discouraged from doing so as well, but on rare occasions when circumstances allow no flexibility the Park has played a game on a Sunday. Conversely, I think it's an actual written rule at Wheaton.

Bill Harris's jocularity aside, I think that if a Wheaton basketball game went into OT at 11:58 pm it would be suspended. As I said, the rule is on the books at Wheaton, and several Wheaties I know have told me that they take the letter of the law very seriously when it comes to the Christian Sabbath. Of course, such a suspended-game scenario would be a lot more difficult to manage if the opponent was, say, McMurry rather than nearby Aurora. Wheaton might even be forced to take a forfeit in that case.

I wonder how many other D3 schools with strong religious leanings prohibit Sunday sporting contests?

[Warren Thompson]

Greg:

Messiah frowns on Sunday competition, but has played on the Sabbath at gun point (i.e., in NCAA playoffs), though I understand the Indianapolis suits no longer force them to do so. And I believe their athletic Web-sites aren't updated on Sundays.

[Titan Q]

Augie Superfan, Amelianovich just didn't look right out there.
Keelan came into Saturday with 55 career starts at IWU and a made field goal in each one (his previous low for field goals made was 3).  This while being a marked man every time he's taken the floor since midway through his sophomore season.  The most telling stat is probably FG attempts - this is a guy who averaged 13 attempts last year, and shot it 15 times the night before.  Yesterday he took 3 shots.

I do not want to take anything away from the Wabash defense, but I'd attritubute his performance mostly to his physical condition.  

[Gregory Sager]

Greg:

Messiah frowns on Sunday competition, but has played on the Sabbath at gun point (i.e., in NCAA playoffs), though I understand the Indianapolis suits no longer force them to do so. And I believe their athletic Web-sites aren't updated on Sundays.

Well, it's nice to see that the NCAA is becoming big-hearted enough to extend institutional consideration to someone other than people who are opposed to American Indian team nicknames.

[Jim Matson]

Actually Messiah won't schedule on a Sunday (NCAA or otherwise), but they will play on Sunday should weather or some other "act of God" require it .

Wheaton doesn't have this clause and just won't play on Sunday.  The women's tennis team has several players that frequently make the ITA Tennis Regional Championships and have had in the past to "walk away" from the final matches on Sundays.  Wheaton has also had one run-in with the NCAA in men's soccer on this subject when in 1997; a Saturday match was snowed out and Wheaton rescheduled for Monday - costing the NCAA some extra travel expenses for the Wash U squad.

Calvin doesn't schedule games on Sundays and I don't believe that Bethel in Minnesota does either.

[Warren Thompson]

Ok, then, Hiker: at some point in the recent past, I seem to remember that the Messiah field hockey team was prepared to play on a Sunday because of an "act of God" (aka the NCAA playoff rules). However -- again, if I remember correctly -- they didn't have to because of a first-round loss.

The rules have since been modified about Sunday play for certain institutions (the so-called "Messiah clause," as it's known in certain quarters).

[asdf]

It was interesting to see how many of you had North Central losing in either Saturday nights game, or both in CCIW pick em chat room, and once again how many of you were wrong.  North Central will once again have a great preseason record going into conference, they just have to do a better job this year once they get there.  I believe North Central will definately finish in the top 3 in the conference.  People need to stop doubting them because Anthony Simmons and Dan Walton are going to have an amazing year.

[asdf]

*Correction, non conference record

[Ralph Turner]

The private schools in the ASC try to avoid Sunday games.  There may be scheduling contingencies or postponements that present exceptions.

[Pat Coleman]

I have been told from an official source that Calvin would forfeit the NCAA title game if it were played on Sunday, and I think Messiah would do so as well -- the NCAA moved a field hockey final four up at Springfield a few years ago to Friday/Saturday to accomodate.

I have not heard any info on Wheaton that would contradict what the experts here have already put forth.

[Warren Thompson]

Pat:

What, we have "experts" in these rooms?