MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Greek Tragedy]

At this point, the Bluejays better learn from this marginal effort or it will be a .500 year in the CCIW.  The 'Jays were out-played at every phase of the game tonight.  And the search for production and  leadership in the backcourt continues on, and on, and on.

I wasn't at the game, but that comment seems a little harsh considering you lost to the #6 team in the Nation, a team that just beat the #2 team in the Nation last week.  It's not like you lost to some "nobody" team that just got lucky.

You lose to Stevens Point, a team that is always in the running for the WIAC title...a league that is comparable to the CCIW and AAU as the top conferences in the nation and now you think they could be .500 in your conference. 

Stevens Point got blown out by Lawrence the Tuesday before they played #2 Whitewater, and then they beat the Warhawks...it's not the end of the world.

[John Gleich]

Here's a recap from part of my post over in the WIAC room.

Pretty big win for the Pointers over a good Elmhurst team tonight.

I was worried going in because Point has struggled going against teams with dominant big men.  I had never seen Ruch from Elmhurst College, but from what the CCIW fans said about him, he seemed like he was going to be a load.

Elmhurst took the lead at the beginning of the game, scoring pretty easily on a layup.  On Point's first three possessions, they got a turnover and there were two 17 footers from Wotachek that missed, and I thought that Point was going to be in for a long night.  Point did get on the board, though, with Rortvedt('s only...) jumper.  EC came down and scored after a couple of offensive rebounds (again, I though... could be a long night...), and they were pounding it inside to Ruch.  But Point rattled off the next 17 points, three 3's and a layup by El Amin and two layups by Beamish, and Point jumped to a 19-4 lead.  They extended the lead to 25-8, and it looked like the rout might be on... but Elmhurst scored the last 10 points of the half to make it 25-18.

A few things that I noticed early on.  Point was just blowing by the Elmhurst defenders off the dribble and getting wide open passes to layups or wide open 3's for the first 14 minutes of the half.  Elmhurst was pounding the ball inside to Ruchs, and Wotachek did an absolutely superb job keeping Ruch in front of him and making Ruch shoot over him.  He got lots of help from his teammates, though, not giving Ruch much room to work with.  Another key was that Jerome pushed Ruch away from a good posting spot on the floor.  He was either pushed too wide or too high... and this also meant that the other Pointer defenders were that much closer to choke down and influence his move, poke the ball away, or get the outright steal.

Elmhurst adjusted, though, with the close of the half.  They cut down on the driving lanes and Point turned the ball over 4 times in the last six minutes of the first half (they only had 8 TO's the whole game).  Point went 7 minutes without scoring from the end of the first half to the beginning of the second, and it was due to two factors.  First off, I think that they had been able to score a little too easily early on.  Thus, when it wasn't quite that easy, they weren't prepared for it.  But also, Elmhurst really turned up the defensive pressure and the intensity.  Point had been the hammer for the first 16 minutes, and Elmhurst got some momentum back and took advantage from the 5:26 mark, when Strzemp hit a 3.  That stopped the bleeding for the Bluejays... and caused a little purple blood to be spilled!

In the second half, Elmhurst kept their intensity up and Point seemed to be back on their heals a bit.  The ball movement that had created open looks was not there, and when the Pointers had an opportunity to drive, the Bluejay defense cut down the passing lanes and Point was forced to kick the ball out to a non-scoring option or to put up a tough shot.  Elmhurst cut the Point lead to 2 three times but couldn't ever tie it or take the lead.  I think getting back to that point took some of the energy out of Elmhurst and they were tired.  I also think that Point snapped to and realized they had a game on their hands and really started taking care of the ball and making possessions count... because from 14:37, the last time EC cut it to 2, Point drew 7 fouls over the next 4 minutes.  They also shot 8 ft's, making 7 of them, which was good because they didn't score a bucket in that stretch.  At the 10:45 mark, it was 41-38, and Point got 4 steals in the next 7 minutes, getting 7 points of TO's and bringing it back up to a 9 point game.  They made 9/12 free throws in the last 3 minutes to seal it.

A couple of random thoughts on the game...

Ruch only had 2 points in the first half and ended up with 14.  Point did great against him in the first half and enough against him in the second half to not let him take over the game.  Like I said, Wotachek did a great job on him in the first half.  I the second half, Ruch got better positioning in the post (in deeper, closer to the basket), and Elmhurst's guards spaced better.  That gave him some room to work with, because Point's defenders couldn't pinch as easily.  It kind of bothered me (as a big man) watching Ruch though... he didn't use the backboard on his shots inside.  He missed a few, especially early that I thought could (should?) have gone, but he banged it off the back of the rim.

Burks was a non-factor for Elmhurst.  He came in averaging 19 points per game and ended up with 7.

[NPC-Alum]

Berki - you really missed one tonight.

I've watched PG performances back to Mike Thomas and tonight's was one of the best ever at NP.

It's always hard to compare generations and all, but I cannot remember a more mistake free, domination game than the one Ro Russell put on tonight.

His one turneover (in 40 minutes) was a palming call.  That is pretty much the only mistake I saw in the entire game.  I looked at the Loras vs. Wheaton box and Wheaton handled them pretty easily, but Loras is a team that started 4 seniors and 1 junior and the only reason NP won tonight wore #2.

[April]

NPC Alum! Long time no see! Hi! What on earth are you doing with negative karma? If I had the ability to give karma I totally would, unfortunately, as you see by my 70something posts,  I am a noob at this whole posting thing. 

Looking at the season stats just now for Wheaton, I noticed that Andy Wiele's already not amazing FT% is down to .636 this season. That's really not cool when you think about how much he'll be getting to the line this season. It also sticks out like a sore thumb when everyone else is shooting over 80%. Andy, can you please shoot 500FTs after every practice between now and the conference season or something?

Elmhurst must be very disappointed with their performance this evening.  The game was effectively won in the first 9:53 when UW-SP went up 19-4.

As bad as that is, it's kinda silly to say a game is over when your team is only down 15 with 30 minutes of game to play. If I recall correctly, Wheaton once came back from a 15 pt deficit against Carthage with 3:45 to play.  8)

Greg, are you going to do your CCIW W-L stats anytime soon? I'm definitely very curious how things are playing out and whether we've been close to holding up the blazing start we had to the season.

[iwu70]

Looks to be 46-11 so far . . .  pretty amazing. 

[Gregory Sager]

Greg, are you going to do your CCIW W-L stats anytime soon? I'm definitely very curious how things are playing out and whether we've been close to holding up the blazing start we had to the season.

That's my first project for the day, before I'm off to teach confirmation class.

CCIW OVERALL:    46-11 (.807)

CCIW vs. D1	1-0
CCIW vs. NAIA-1	0-2
CCIW vs. NAIA-2:	2-1
CCIW vs. USCAA:	2-0
CCIW vs. D3:	41-8 (.837)
...	vs. D3 non-region:	7-0
...	vs. D3 region:	34-8 (.810)
...	...	vs. HCAC:	5-0
...	...	vs. IIAC:	6-0
...	...	vs. MIAA:	1-0	(4-0 overall)
...	...	vs. MIAC:	1-0
...	...	vs. MWC:	3-1
...	...	vs. NAthCon:	6-0
...	...	vs. SCIAC:	2-1
...	...	vs. SLIAC:	6-0
...	...	vs. UAA:	2-3	(3-3 overall)
...	...	vs. WIAC:	2-3

[Naperick]

Great recap of the ELM-UWSP game by PointerSpecial!!

Thank you!

[Titan Q]

CCIW OVERALL:    46-11 (.807)

So where will the league finish in terms of non-conference record?  Here is a breakdown of remaining games...

CCIW team heavy favorite
1 North Park @ Knox, 12/15
2 Augustana @ MacMurray, 12/16
3 North Park vs Concordia (WI), 12/18
4 Millikin @ Knox, 12/18
5 Augustana @ Beloit, 12/19
6 Illinois Wesleyan vs Chicago, 12/19
7 Elmhurst vs Benedictine, 12/19
8 Wheaton vs Mount St. Joseph, 12/29 (neutral)
9 Wheaton vs Wittenberg or Taylor, 12/30 (@ Witt)
10 Augustana vs Coe, 12/30
11 Wheaton @ Grinnell, 1/3
12 Illinois Wesleyan vs Illinois College, 1/3
13 Carthage vs Trinity International, 1/5

CCIW team favorite
1 North Central @ Benedictine, 12/15
2 Carthage vs Keene State, 12/16 (neutral)
3 Elmhurst @ Fontbonne, 12/16
4 Illinois Wesleyan @ Hanover, 12/17
5 Carthage vs Loras, 12/17 (neutral)
6 North Central vs McMurry, 12/18 (neutral)
7 North Central vs Mary Washington, 12/20 (neutral)
8 North Central @ Otterbein, 12/27
9 North Central vs Baldwin-Wallace or Thomas More, 12/28 (neutral)
10 Illinois Wesleyan vs St. Xavier, 12/29 (neutral)
11 Carthage vs St. Norbert or St. Scholastica, 12/30 (neutral)
12 Elmhurst @ Anderson, 1/3
13 Millikin vs York (NY), 1/3 (neutral)

CCIW team underdog
1 Elmhurst vs Wash U, 12/20
2 Carthage vs UW-Platteville, 12/29 (neutral)
3 IWU @ Northwood U., 12/30 (if IWU beats SXU)
4 North Park @ Valparaiso, 12/30
5 Millikin @ Christopher Newport, 1/4


13-0 in the first group, 0-5 in the last, and, say, 9-4 in the middle would be 68-20 (.773).

[coebball70]

I noticed Wheaton easily handled Wartburg without Andy Wiele in the lineup.  Does anyone know why Andy did not play?

[Viking Blue]

Roshawn Russell's performance was, indeed, very fun to watch.  He sure is a tough little guy.  You'll have to excuse the comparison, but he almost reminds me of a CCIW version of Derrick Rose.  Very calm, ability to control the tempo of a game, and a knack for finding himself at the free throw line by frustrating big men who are seemingly a foot taller than him.

That being said, I hope his NP teammates are ready to step up in CCIW play, because they are going to get their opportunities.  Much the same way opponents have started to attack the aforementioned Rose, I think we're going to see an awful lot more double teams hedging off of the high pick and rolls that are being set for him, thus requiring him to look for the obvious open man.

This could pay off in big ways for Cahill, Cooper, Beige, and Williams.

[Viking Blue]

Piggybacking off of Greg's comments, I have been pleasantly surprised with the resiliency of North Park this year.  It seems that every night I show up to do a game, it's a lottery to figure out which Vikings will not see the floor that particular night.

Where was Isaa Avery?  For God's sakes, what is this "virus" that is disabling Stephano Jones?

Final point (also brought up by Greg):  quite a job by (listed at 6-2) Beige tonight on the boards.  He really has a nose for the basketball.  That type of hustle could result in a lot more minutes for the freshman from Littleton, Colorado.

[Gregory Sager]

Piggybacking off of Greg's comments, I have been pleasantly surprised with the resiliency of North Park this year.  It seems that every night I show up to do a game, it's a lottery to figure out which Vikings will not see the floor that particular night.

Where was Isaa Avery?  For God's sakes, what is this "virus" that is disabling Stephano Jones?

Final point (also brought up by Greg):  quite a job by (listed at 6-2) Beige tonight on the boards.  He really has a nose for the basketball.  That type of hustle could result in a lot more minutes for the freshman from Littleton, Colorado.

Issa Avery got a DNP, probably because he isn't earning his playing time in practice. Same with Lewis Wilson, who only made a cameo appearance last night for NPU. I think that Paul Brenegan is sending the message that, no matter how reduced in numbers the roster happens to be, nobody gets playing time simply by default.

Jones's stomach illness has really wiped him out. He's missed a lot of school, although I think that he was back in class at the end of this week. I hope he's going to be able to stay on top of things.

Beigie got the start last night because NPU needs his toughness in the lineup. He has really impressed me thus far with his grit and his feel for the game, and I think that he's going to be a permanent presence on the varsity even when the members of the Lost Patrol return and most of the freshmen drop down to the JV team.

[Sakman 1111]

After being at the Elmhurst/Point game I came away confused.....The Bluejay approach to the game especially on offense I found confusing. As a Bluejay fan I certainly agree we were outplayed buy I think Point is a team we can and should beat. Burks was having a rough shooting night  and Strzemp hit 3 out of 4 jump shots the first half but for somr reason Strzemp was relegated to the bench for too long in the second half......Our guard play was fair but nobody was scoring and they had a difficult time guarding the ball.....Simply, Ruchs,Burks,and Strzemp can carry the major proportion of the scoring but all three need to be in the game to score and we need to run offense featuring those three to score.......In my opinion the Bluejays lost last nights game because they were outplayed and because the offensive game plan was simply an ineffective one.....

[thundermike11]

I noticed Wheaton easily handled Wartburg without Andy Wiele in the lineup.  Does anyone know why Andy did not play?

Andy twisted is his ankle a bit during the week. Nothing serious, but obviously Wheaton did want to risk anything further when the game was never in question.

[Greek Tragedy]

After being at the Elmhurst/Point game I came away confused.....The Bluejay approach to the game especially on offense I found confusing. As a Bluejay fan I certainly agree we were outplayed buy I think Point is a team we can and should beat.

In my opinion the Bluejays lost last nights game because they were outplayed and because the offensive game plan was simply an ineffective one.....

Complete opposite thinking than coebball70!  Of course, if everyone plays "their" game, they have a feeling they're going to win.