MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Titan Q]

Final:

St. Xavier 74
Illinois-Chicago 73

Boxscore


SXU led by 1 with 0:47 to play and UIC countered with a hoop.  Then SXU scored to go back up 1 with :22 to play...UIC missed a shot at the buzzer to win it. 

SXU played the entire 2nd Half without their All-American post player Jabari Saunders who suffered some sort of foot injury at the end of the 1st Half and still won the game.  The broadcasters were not sure of Saunders' status.

Always great to see a small college team take down a D1.  Should be a great game to see when the Titans host the Cougars Monday night.

[petemcb]

Bob, that St. Xavier report is great news for small college basketball, particularly without Saunders for the second half.  Maybe that'll get your karma out of the red......

[Gregory Sager]

Drake: When Joe Hakes brought up Winston Churchill I immediately thought of the "fight them on the beaches" speech. But yours is even more apropos to the current NPU situation. Well played, sir!

Pete: Thanks for that word about CURF. It's not much consolation, but it is something. We Parkers appreciate the thought.

Does anyone know if there was a reason Eric Samuelson didn't get into last night's NPU game other than just 'coaches decision'?

It was a straight DNP-CD as far as I know. I didn't hear anything about his being sick or hurt, and he was in uniform last night. The coaches have been trying to light a fire under Samuelson to get him to step up his effort level. It's the reason why freshman Mike Ventura started at the 4 instead of Samuelson on Friday night in Mathisen's absence. My guess is that not playing him last night is part of Brenegan's attempt to get Samuelson's attention.

I'm pretty sure even if we tried to board up the gym, we wouldn't get the permits approved for a good 2 years.

Heh. 

Never mind, it's just not worth it.

Exactly. But at least those other alums who have decided to stop coming in from the suburbs to support the Vikings have the decency not to post about them on CCIW Chat.

Rob and Erik, I see that silver lining as well. As I said last night, there is genuine talent on this NPU team. They just have to keep working hard and gain experience playing together as a team (which is hard to do with Rice, Woodside, etc., still out hurt). As I said, it's not a given that a young team will improve, but the possibility certainly exists that this team will get better and better as the season goes along.

BTW, Rob, I saw the kangaroo, and it is hilarious. It's close to the Rally Toad in terms of sheer comedic genius. But I think it's a female kangaroo -- check out the long eyelashes. Which makes that off-color dance it performed even funnier.

[martin]

The sports segment of the news (I think it was channel 5) reported the UIC/SXU score - saying that it was an upset.  SXU is ranked around 15 in the NAIA.  UIC is a low D1 program without much talent.  Jabari Saunders is better than anyone on UIC's roster.  UIC barely beat Robert Morris 74-71 in a preseason exhibition.  RM is in SXU's conference - and is expected to finish below SXU.  UIC lost to St. Joe's (NCAA D2) 74-73 in another exhibition.  It had just returned from Alaska.  The only reason the game was close was because of the injury to Saunders.  Not an upset.  But this would require that sports anchors actually know something about college basketball.

[Gregory Sager]

Concordia (CA) 78
Carthage 75

Trey Bowens - 15 pts
Mark Morrison -14 pts
Mike Hart - 12 pts

The 2-1 Eagles (#12, NAIA-1) were up by as much as 11 points in the late going, but they failed to put Carthage away -- mostly because they went an anemic 3-9 from the line down the stretch. A baseline violation actually gave the Red Men the ball with one second left and a chance to tie the game, but they couldn't get a shot off. The Red Men played without Brian Schlemm, who is out with a sprained ankle.

[True Basketball Fan]

Nevertheless,  UIC has given us a glimpse of the future this season.......It is going to be a tough one.

Here's something to think about........If St. X beats IWU, which of the wins (UIC or IWU, hypothetically) is better?

[True Basketball Fan]

BJ Backer,

I saw the Hope game on Saturday, and Brian Lee was awesome.  He made Immink (most likely an MIAA 1st teamer this year) look like a fool several times.  I didn't see the Norbert game, but the box score showed 8 points and 5 assists.  He may be the missing piece at the point if he continues to play well.  Watch out for the jays, if he keeps it going!

I didn't see Gershenzon in the box score.  What's going on? Is he hurt or what?

[augie_superfan]

The sports segment of the news (I think it was channel 5) reported the UIC/SXU score - saying that it was an upset.  SXU is ranked around 15 in the NAIA.  UIC is a low D1 program without much talent.  Jabari Saunders is better than anyone on UIC's roster.  UIC barely beat Robert Morris 74-71 in a preseason exhibition.  RM is in SXU's conference - and is expected to finish below SXU.  UIC lost to St. Joe's (NCAA D2) 74-73 in another exhibition.  It had just returned from Alaska.  The only reason the game was close was because of the injury to Saunders.  Not an upset.  But this would require that sports anchors actually know something about college basketball.

Martin, before you go ripping on news sports anchors, I think you should first look a little deeper at the teams that played.  I personally do believe that this was an upset.  Here are some of my reasons why:

First off, UIC lost (in Alaska) to Denver by 4 in OT....this Denver team is the reigning Sun Belt Conference champions and are returning 3 starters including SBC Player of the Year, Yemi Nicholson.  To me, sounds like a fairly decent team to lose to in overtime by only 2 buckets.

Secondly....SXU lost to San Diego State (albeit an exibition) this year by 10 while UIC beat San Diego State by 3 only 2 weeks later.

Also, this San Diego State team that UIC defeated may not have had a great year last year but are returning the top 2 all-conference vote getters from last year and also have this coach with a really familiar name of...something like...Steve Fisher (does that ring a bell?)

Thirdly, it must not be of any importance that UIC beat Montana State by 5 points, right?  I mean, Montana State has only been picked to finish first by both the coaches and media in the Big Sky Conference this year according to their preseason conference poll...but you know it all so much better, right?

I dont want to sit here and call SXU a bad team, because they are NOT....they are a good team, but it is an upset when they beat a DI team that came away with a winning record last year.  Maybe if you could give me a few more facts in your statements, I may be persuaded to agree with them.  I don't have a problem with you stating your opinion that this was an upset, that is your opinion and completely welcomed here, I just don't like your attitude towards these sportscasters on the news whom you think you know more than.  You very well may, but if you were well informed, (as you say these sportscasters should be), then you would've looked up all of UIC opponents and looked at what they have done.  Please, share your opinions but please do not hate on others who are just doing their job, maybe even with more effort than you think.  Thanks.


Jim

[bluejaybacker1]

True basketball fan,

He was not in the box score because he was out due to food poisoning/flu. Yea, as you stated Brian Lee did score 8 points and dished out 5 assists. He played very well again vs. St. Norbert. I sure hope he continues to play this way thoroughout the season, as it would certainly benefit the Jays. I must say, Devos is quite impressive, I wish the Jays had backing from the community like that. 

[augiedad]

The St. X/UIC boxscore lists the attendance at 1966.  Since SXU and IWU have not played in recent years as best I can remember, those St. Xavier kids probably have no idea there will be more people than 1966 waiting for them down at the Shirk Center and that IWU, overall as a basketball team, is better than the Flames.

Wish I could see the IWU/SXU game!!

[augiedad]

By the way, ESPN "Bottom Lines" had "Chicago 74 Illinois-Chicago 73" all night after the game.  I thought the Maroons, and not the Cougards, had pulled off the upset!

[augiedad]

There is a good chance St. Xavier will lose a game before playing at IWU.  On Saturday they host Huntington of Indiana.  Huntington has an exhibition win over IU-PU-FW and a 24 point win over NAIA I #5 Georgetown (Ky).

http://www.huntington.edu/athletics/mbasketball/0506/0506schedule.htm

[martin]

Jim -

I thought I did a pretty good job of describing the current state of the UIC team.  I did not refer to the past reputations of their opponents - just what had happened this year.  SDSU did beat SXU by 10 in an exhibition game - at SDSU.  At a neutral site, UIC beat SDSU by 3.  To me, that would be an indication that UIC/SXU would be close.  THE UIC/RM score was a good indication of how SXU would do against UIC.  UIC was undoubtedly tired after the Alaska trip.  UIC has had some talent in the past few years.  They do not have much this year.  SXU has a lot of talent on its squad.  The sports anchor simply saw a D1 school losing to an NAIA school and automatically said it was an upset.  If a bookie had set a line on this game, I think UIC would have been favored - but only by a couple of points at best.

I saw Jabari Saunders play in high school.  He was a horse back then and undoubtedly even stronger now.  If he is healthy, I would not be surprised if SXU beats IWU - even at the Shirk.

[augie_superfan]

Martin, I understand your arguement.  I was just looking for something tangible, some stats to go by and all I found were things to say that UIC was the favorite.  You make good points though and obviously know more about the current UIC team than I do.  Just out of curiosity, do you know what places SXU and RM were voted to in the preseason poll?  You said that SXU was supposed to finish higher than RM yet from me just checking out the teams' websites and such, I would've figured RM to finish higher.  Just curious if you know that or could direct me to the preseason poll...Im too lazy and haven't looked myself yet.

Jim 

[augiefan]

I'm not sure Elmhurst's win over St. Norbert is that significant. St. N. was picked to finish 9th out of 10 in the MWC and was pretty bad last year. Other than Lawrence and possibly Carroll anf Ripon, the MWC is generally not that strong. In fact even lowly NPU has a chance to make their supporters proud with a win over Norbie this weekend.