MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[tuvwxyz]

While I fully expect IWU to get back to where the faithful expect them to be, in my opinion it is a different situation this time because of the rest of the league raising their level.  At least in the recent past, this year's IWU team would still have had enough talent to sweep the series with 2-3 CCIW teams.

Just remember, their coach is relatively new at recruiting, his worth is yet to be tested.

[tjcummingsfan]

I'm just curious Dennis is it something personal you have against Paul?

[79jaybird]

Dennis, I disagree with you on thinking that Wheaton doesn't have as much talent as the schools you listed.  I saw the Elmhurst/Wheaton game at King Arena earlier this year and saw a very good Thunder team give Elmhurst their first CCIW loss.  That takes some talent.  I think Wheaton's problem is consistency, similar to what Elmhurst is trying to maintain.

[usee]

I agree with Dennis' assesment of Wheaton's team. there are definately 2 and probably 4 teams in the league that have more talent than Wheaton. there aren't any that play harder or are better coached.

[79jaybird]

Usee,  my fault.  I did misinterpret what you were implying.  
I do think that the CCIW reps (hopefully 3) in the post-season will have a chance to win a few games in the big dance.  National Championship material?  Well, maybe.. but look at tonight's game in Miami, both teams had a load of talent and only 1 team can win.  There have been many teams at many levels that have great talent, and never won the big game.  ( 2 of the CBS pre game shows guys is a good example right there)

[robberki]

Dennis,
Is it your assuration that NPU is a poorly coached team, thus making Paul a poor coach? Let's see your cards...

[AndOne]

Excellent point tuvwxyz------------->  + 1 for you.

Speaking of Coach Rose. I have no doubt he can coach, but was anyone else surprised he got the job after the obvious first two choices turned it down or withdrew from consideration?

I thought EC Asst Coach Baines would be the best choice at that point. He, naturally,  has experience coaching at the DIII level where Coach Rose did not. More specifically, he was/is familiar specifically with the CCIW. Additionally, he had experience recruiting which is perhaps just as important as coaching ability. As tuvwxyz pointed out, Coach Rose also lacked this experience. As I have heard from several sources, Coach Baines is even seen out recruiting more than EC Head Coach Scherer. Lastly, Coach Baines is IWU "family" having played for the Titans where he was a member of their 1997 championship team. The opinion, and prob even moreso the $ of the local alums must have carried more weight in Dennie Bridges' decision.

After Coach Baines, I though Elmhurst York HS Coach Al Biancalana, who had DI experience at Bradley would have been an excellent candidate. 

[robberki]

I'm just curious Dennis is it something personal you have against Paul?

I have a feeling that DP won't be happy unless Dan McCarrell is back on the sidelines..but that's just my read on things and I could be way off.

[markerickson]

Thanks, Rob, for your post.  Grumblegrumble.

I posted "Colts 41 Bears 17."  Not bad, but if you talk to my co-workers about seven Bear points would come from Hester on a kick-off return, I might have more +k.  Or, Bear fans might get pissed and diss me.  My household is very happy tonite.

[AndOne]

I'm just curious Dennis is it something personal you have against Paul?

I have a feeling that DP won't be happy unless Dan McCarrell is back on the sidelines..but that's just my read on things and I could be way off.

So easy (NOT) a caveman could do it?      

[tjcummingsfan]

I'm guessing there's alot of Wheaton fans who quietly disagreed with me as my karma went down 7 points in 2 days... 

Usee, if you can't admit that a "star" gets more calls his way then you obviously haven't watched alot of basketball.  Fact is it happened last night, and it was frustrating, as a North Park fan, to watch.

You're right, generally people run fastest when their heads are down and they've lowered their shoulder, absolutely they know where they're going, and what they're doing with the ball at that point. 

[Gregory Sager]

The game can't be finished as the stadium collapses under the weight of my disinterest.

You gotta admit this was pretty darn funny, spoilsport or not! I know I'm going to get into trouble for saying this on an Illinois based board, but I actually wasn't aware that the Super Bowl hadn't taken place yet. Last week I saw something on it and was like, are you serious? That hasn't happened yet? So maybe that's why I find Hoops Fan's comments so funny. DIII purist here all the way, and darn proud of it. 

If the Redskins were in the Super Bowl, or the Orioles were in the World Series, you'd change your tune about that "D3 purist here all the way" jazz pretty darn quick, young missy!

[Gregory Sager]

I posted "Colts 41 Bears 17."  Not bad, but if you talk to my co-workers about seven Bear points would come from Hester on a kick-off return, I might have more +k.  Or, Bear fans might get pissed and diss me.  My household is very happy tonite.

Did I miss the memo that the Minnesota Vikings were going to be playing in this year's Super Bowl while wearing the uniforms of the Indianapolis Colts? 'Cause, Mark, last time I checked your Purple People Eaters finished 6-10 and out of the playoffs. Or is the cause for household celebration the fact that this year your Vikings managed to evade winning the only NFL championship that ever matters in the Twin Cities by losing to the Cincinnati Bengals in the all-important Arrest Bowl?

Sure, there's teams that I, too, openly root against [::cough::Cowboys::cough::], but I don't make a big deal and waggle a finger in someone's face if his or her team loses if I have no loyalty towards, or long-term emotional investment in, the other team. Maybe it's just me, but it doesn't seem right to publicly celebrate someone else's loss if your team wasn't the one who put it on the line and earned the win. Sure, I'll enjoy a moment of subdued schadenfreude with a friend or two under those circumstances, but I'll save the hooting and hollering for when it's actually my team that won the game. Of course, since my Bills have the same Super Bowl record as your Vikings, this is mostly theoretical on my part.

[Gregory Sager]

It was hard to know what to think of NPU as I left King Arena on Saturday night. On the one hand, the Vikings had perpetuated their second-half dry spell against Augie on Wednesday night by running it into Saturday's game for ten nightmarish minutes. The Vikings couldn't do anything right offensively; they must've missed about eight or nine open baseline shots, and their runners in the lane were consistently off-target because most of the Vikings have the speed to penetrate but lack the physical strength to hold their body straight when they make contact. (Kent Raymond, by contrast, is the antithesis of this; nobody talks about Raymond's physical strength, but he's the perfect example of a penetrator who is able to keep his feet under him when he draws contact while in the act of shooting.) To the credit of the Wheaton coaching staff, I think that they planned to gamble on giving Stephano Jones the open ten-footer from the baseline after seeing that he makes all of his shots from seven or eight feet on in. The gamble worked. NPU just looked awful on offense, and while Wheaton played pretty good defense there were plenty of uncontested Vikings shots that didn't go down as well. It was a flashback to some of the Gang-That-Couldn't-Shoot-Straight years under Rees Johnson.

After that ten minutes of misery that left NPU down twenty, they abandoned jumpers altogether and began attacking the basket with relish. This worked, but unfortunately it left the perimeter players trapped under the basket too often, which led to plenty of fast-break opportunities for Wheaton. That, coupled with the fact that the NPU coaching staff had decided to give Wheaton the outside shot and take away penetration -- a gamble that failed, badly -- led to ten minutes of extremely poor defense by NPU and a lot of opportunistic Wheaton points. This carried over into the second half, so that with twelve and a half minutes left in the game Wheaton was cruising with a 60-37 lead.

What got NPU back into the game -- and, contrary to what Usee said about Wheaton winning easily, NPU did get back into the game, as it was patently obvious that the Wheaton bench and the Wheaton fans were getting plenty nervous when the lead was whittled down to eight with a full seven minutes left on the clock -- was a trapping press that, as Usee said, used NPU's athleticism (as well as all those long arms) to good advantage. But there was a lot of heart there as well. The Vikings didn't fold, and they played with great spirit and confidence. Senior reserve Uriah Rice was a big part of that, but it was interesting that much of the impetus came from the three freshmen (Nick Williams, who ended the game with 25 points, Joe Capalbo, and Antoine Stevens).

Unfortunately, NPU coach Paul Brenegan took off the press at that point. He later explained that he has only five or six players that are capable of playing the press, and he'd used up their energy just getting the lead down to eight. Events seem to bear that out, as the Vikings then went on to commit three turnovers sandwiched around a lone free throw, two of the turnovers being unforced. It looked as though the Vikes had shot their bolt just getting as close as they did.

(I remember last year that, under somewhat similiar circumstances, Carthage had managed to come back on NPU in the second half of a game in which the Vikes had enjoyed a comfortable lead. I asked Bosko Djurickovic afterwards why he'd waited so long to employ the press, especially since the Park's lone ballhandler was a green freshman. His reply was that he had only five guys whom he could trust to man the press, and he could only use them for x number of minutes of 94-foot defense before they'd be used up -- and he thus had to very carefully pick the right moment to employ the press. It was a good lesson to me that the press is not a perfect panacea that any coach can employ at will to erase a big deficit.)

NPU did hang around gamely after that, bringing the lead down to eight on three more occasions, but by blunting the press-borne momentum Wheaton managed to weather the worst of the storm. John Mohan was the key to that; he played easily the best game I've ever seen him play, not only as a shooter but also as a ballhandler and decision-maker, and the 23-footer he hit with 2:48 left and Wheaton up ten was an absolute dagger. As well as Raymond and Johnnie Standard played, Mohan was clearly the hero. I don't think Wheaton would've been able to hold off the NPU onslaught without him.

North Park did all sorts of things wrong on Saturday night. They shot poorly -- again -- went through long stretches where the defense was nonexistent (they never did play decent weakside help throughout the game), and they once again got disappointing performances from the upperclassmen upon whom they rely. Most of all the Vikes dug themselves such a big hole that they made it impossible for themselves to crawl out of it by only using their natural resources of quickness, length, and energy -- their lack of a money shooter was crucial. Plus, they picked the wrong foe to have to come back against. While another team might've crumbled under that late onslaught, Wheaton is too tough-minded a team to cave under pressure like that. And in that respect, they are certainly a reflection of their coach.

But the Vikes did do one thing right -- they didn't give up. They believed in themselves and fought back, and if the big comeback only turned out to be 2/3rds of a big comeback, at least the effort and the self-confidence is something upon which they can build.

I would be remiss if I didn't give a shout-out to the Carlson Crazies, who trekked thirty miles in the cold in large numbers (biggest of the year, in fact) and were absolutely magnificent. What a contrast they were to the four-times-as-large Wheaton student section, which, aside from the usual twenty or so football players underneath the east basket, was absolutely comatose. Even when the Vikes were down by twenty and everything looked hopeless the Crazies were on their feet and making noise. I've been critical of their lack of numbers this season, but I still wouldn't trade them for any other school's student section.

[Gregory Sager]

While I fully expect IWU to get back to where the faithful expect them to be, in my opinion it is a different situation this time because of the rest of the league raising their level.  At least in the recent past, this year's IWU team would still have had enough talent to sweep the series with 2-3 CCIW teams.

When you look at the young talent around the league at Milliken, North Park, Elmhurst, and others it is just a lot tougher to "reload" at a level to compete for Championships than it has been.

No question about that.

It's not just tougher to reload, it's also tougher to rebuild. There's a lot of bottom-oriented gravity in a league this tough; it's much easier to tumble down in the standings and stay there than it is to work your way back up the ladder. Nobody is guaranteed success in the CCIW, and with all eight programs busting their tails to do everything possible in order to succeed in men's basketball -- something that can't be said of every CCIW sport -- even mediocrity is a hard-earned triumph of a sort.

That's why you'll see at least one, quite possibly two, CCIW teams finish this season with winning records but stuck in the league's second division and sitting in the stands at the CCIW tourney. Heck, Illinois Wesleyan and Millikin are just one win apiece from making this one of those years in which all eight teams finish in double digits in the win department -- and since they have one game left with each other, it'll just take one more upset for the eight-team double-digit scenario to play out.

Never take success for granted in this league. Trust me on this one, because as a long-time North Park fan I learned that lesson the hard way.