MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[petemcb]

Another question about tonight's game:  Is there a jv game, or is NPU too decimated?

[Gregory Sager]

Another question about tonight's game:  Is there a jv game, or is NPU too decimated?

No JV game. NPU's junior varsity won't be reactivated until enough members of the Lost Patrol are back in uniform, which will allow the freshmen to move down from the varsity. That probably won't be until the first CCIW game at Augie on January 3.

[petemcb]

Thanks, Greg.  I assume Charcoal Dlites is the preferred pre-game meal option versus the Golden Arches?

[Gregory Sager]

Thanks, Greg.  I assume Charcoal Dlites is the preferred pre-game meal option versus the Golden Arches?

Always!

[mr_b]

Final from the Crackerbox: the Vikings hold off Concordia Wisconsin, 70-67.

[mr_b]

In another closer-than-it-should-have-been game, North Park staved off a late rally by a scrappy Concordia Falcon team for a 3-point victory.  The Vikes led at the half, 33-27, due in large part to a passel of turnovers and steals by the aggressive Falcon defenders.  After the break, it looked like North Park had solved the Concordia defense and mounted a double-digit lead (reaching at least 15 at one point late in the game); Concordia whittled it down to a trey in the waning seconds, only to see the Vikings hang on for the win.  Clayton Cahill led the attack with 18 and Nick Williams added 17, with both players hitting four three-pointers.  Roshawn Russell and Sean McNamee each chipped in 8.  The Falcons were led by Edward Newton-Kemp (15) and Mitchell Schneider (13).

I just looked at the box score, and a couple numbers jump out: Concordia outshot North Park 73-43 but hit only a third of their shots; both teams attempted 12 free throws, but Concordia missed 7 while North Park missed only 4; North Park had 19 turnovers; Concordia had 14 steals.

North Park's next contest is against D-I foe Valparaiso on the 30th.  What a way to ring out the year!

[mr_b]

the NPU game is still on for tonight folks. Come one, come all to ye old crackerbox on foster and kedzie.

I was surprised by the turnout tonight -- I'm guessing between 110 and 125 fans in attendance, even a small but hardy group supporting Concordia made the trip from north of the Cheddar Curtain.  I'll wait and see what the Stat Crew folks put as the attendance.

[mr_b]

Thanks, Greg.  I assume Charcoal Dlites is the preferred pre-game meal option versus the Golden Arches?

If you don't choose Charcoal Delites for the pre-game meal, I think it's a technical foul, possibly a a flagrant foul or maybe even a double-technical.  I'll need a ruling on that from Greg, however.

[mr_b]

the NPU game is still on for tonight folks. Come one, come all to ye old crackerbox on foster and kedzie.

I was surprised by the turnout tonight -- I'm guessing between 110 and 125 fans in attendance, even a small but hardy group supporting Concordia made the trip from north of the Cheddar Curtain.  I'll wait and see what the Stat Crew folks put as the attendance.

Attendance listed on the box score: 107.  That's still a decent turnout considering the dire weather predictions!

[Ralph Turner]

How would you like to plan a trip to Vegas, only to find out they just received their biggest snowfall in 30 years.

http://www.lasvegasnow.com/global/story.asp?s=9533950

The flooding comes next.

McMurry (TX) got its flight routed to PHX and then took a bus towards Las Vegas up I-15.  About 15 miles outside of Vegas, traffic halted due to a jack-knifed 18-wheeler.

That made for a long delay.  Vegas is PST so the video of the game will start at 4pm CST tomorrow.

McMurry is a new team.  Coach Holmes got a new assistant after last season, and only three guys returned.  I like the shift that occurred and the team is finding itself.

I really like Robert Moreno, the point guard, who wants to return to the Valley and coach.  Robert is a leader of men, first generation college kid, husband and father.  This will be a good test for us, because we need to see post-play as they play it in the CCIW and the midwest, (which is stronger than what we see in the southwest, Trinity TX usually excepted).

Travel saely NCC.

[Gregory Sager]

Has there ever been a men's college basketball team not named Grinnell that attempted 73 field goals in a game ... and lost?

That was the question I was asking myself as I left the crackerbox tonight, as a turnover-plagued and non-rebounding NPU managed to hang on and beat Concordia (WI), 70-67, after blowing an 18-point second-half lead. It was 51-33 with fourteen and a half minutes to go, and as dicey as the Vikings looked I figured that there was no way they could blow a lead to a team as physically limited as the Falcons.

I was wrong.

North Park played slap-your-forehead bad basketball for the remainder of the game. They took the two things that they were continually doing wrong -- throwing ridiculously bad passes, and failing to pursue long rebounds at the defensive end of the floor -- and turned up the dial on the wrongness over that last fourteen and a half minutes. The more the lead dwindled, the more Paul Brenegan yelled at the Vikings to stop standing around and grab a rebound ... and the more bewildered and tight the Vikings looked. When the Falcons cut the lead to three with 2:50 left, it looked like the impossible loss might actually be possible. Fortunately, Clayton Cahill hit a trey in the deep corner off of a great dish from Roshawn Russell to push the lead back up to six. After a change of possessions (Nick Williams defensive rebound at one end, Nick Williams turnover at the other end), CUW hit a trey to cut it back down to three with a half-minute left, but they put the wrong guy on the line with the shot clock turned off and the Falcons in a must-foul situation. Russell calmly hit both throws, CUW got what appeared to be a meaningless bucket with 1.2 seconds left -- and then NPU threw the ball away one final time on the inbound. Lady Luck smiled on North Park, because that 1.2 wasn't long enough for CUW to get the ball behind the arc, let alone get off a useful shot at the buzzer.

CUW got an inexcusable 21 offensive rebounds, winning the overall rebounding battle, 39-32. North Park actually played fairly decent defense; Williams and Mike Ventura did an excellent job of taking the inside game away from the Falcons, and they didn't dare attempt to penetrate. But when you can't get the ball back because you aren't getting defensive rebounds, you end up having to play defense way too long per sequence to keep the opponent from getting a good look. There were times in the second half when the ball was at the far end of the gym for so long that we wondered if the two teams hadn't decided to change over to a half-court game format. Fortunately, CUW didn't hit enough of those open 22-footers to make a difference in the end --- and it didn't hurt NPU that the top scorer for the Falcons, Skip Newton-Kemp, is a chucker deluxe (15 points on 16 FGA).

The 19 turnovers NPU committed were what really made it a toothache of a game to watch, because the vast majority of them were simply badly-conceived passes thrown into traffic. When the Vikings weren't throwing the ball away, they actually looked pretty crisp on offense; they managed 19 assists (six by Sean McNamee, and five apiece for Cahill and Russell). The Falcons made it the focus of their game plan to take the ball out of Russell's hands by throwing a double team at him every time he had the ball between the rings, and the Vikings usually made CUW pay for it: NPU shot .581 from the field for the game, and .522 from downtown. That, coupled with CUW's paltry .356/.333 shooting, explains how the Park somehow pulled out a win in which the other team took thirty more attempts from the field than they did.

Nick Williams, the only Viking who looked as though he was aware that it is legal to grab the ball if the other team misses a shot, finished with a double-double (17 and 10), joining Cahill (18 pts) as the only Vikings to score in double figures.

Concordia (WI) is a doughty team that manages to get the most out of the limited talent it has, and the Falcons will probably do well in their league (they currently lead the North Division of the NAthCon with a 3-0 record, and they're coming off of a win over South Division leader Aurora). But there's no way that they should play a CCIW team close in the CCIW team's gym. Come the end of the season, this win will look a lot better for North Park than it did tonight. Tonight it was just plain painful to watch. The Vikings have a long, long way to go before they're ready for CCIW play.

[Gregory Sager]

Thanks, Greg.  I assume Charcoal Dlites is the preferred pre-game meal option versus the Golden Arches?

If you don't choose Charcoal Delites for the pre-game meal, I think it's a technical foul, possibly a a flagrant foul or maybe even a double-technical.  I'll need a ruling on that from Greg, however.

I'd call it a double tech and throw the bum out if he showed up in the crackerbox with a bag of Mickey D's rather than Charcoal Delights, but Viking Blue did exactly that tonight and he outranks both Mr. B and I in the scorer's table hierarchy -- so my powers are obviously pretty limited.

[AndOne]

How would you like to plan a trip to Vegas, only to find out they just received their biggest snowfall in 30 years.

http://www.lasvegasnow.com/global/story.asp?s=9533950

The flooding comes next.

McMurry (TX) got its flight routed to PHX and then took a bus towards Las Vegas up I-15.  About 15 miles outside of Vegas, traffic halted due to a jack-knifed 18-wheeler.

That made for a long delay.  Vegas is PST so the video of the game will start at 4pm CST tomorrow.

McMurry is a new team.  Coach Holmes got a new assistant after last season, and only three guys returned.  I like the shift that occurred and the team is finding itself.

I really like Robert Moreno, the point guard, who wants to return to the Valley and coach.  Robert is a leader of men, first generation college kid, husband and father.  This will be a good test for us, because we need to see post-play as they play it in the CCIW and the midwest, (which is stronger than what we see in the southwest, Trinity TX usually excepted).

Travel saely NCC.

Sounds like McMurry had quite a trip. Something a lot of midwestern (and eastern I'm sure) teams go through each season. NCC flew into Vegas on Wed 12/17. Upon their return from Vegas, they head to the Columbus, Ohio area on 12/26 by means of an approx 7 hour (weather permitting) bus trip during which they will hopefully not have to deal with any weather issues.

With regard to the tournament they are participating in during the next 2 days in Vegas, I was able to obtain the following info:

http://www.tripsports.com/hoopla_overview.aspx

http://www.tripsports.com/hoopla_schedule.aspx

[veterancciwfan]

I realize that the CCIW has a gaudy nonconference record, but to play devil's advocate: Augie has played 2 good teams and lost both (Wash. U. at home and LaCrosse on the road); IWU has played one good team and one above average team and lost both (@ Wash. U. and @ Olviet Nazerene), I'm not sure if Elhmurt has played more than one good team (they lost at home to Stevens Point). The most impressive win by a league team to date has to be Millikin's road victory at D2 SIU-E'ville. I'm sure the league is stornger than last year (it would have to be) and a 9-5 CCIW season record will be a significant accomplishment in 2009. But I have my doubts that the league will be as strong as it was in 2005/2006 when 4 teams were D3 tournament Final 16 caliber teams (and 2, IWU and Augie, actually were). At any rate, CCIW games should be competitive and a joy to watch come January. Can't wait.

[voxelmhurst]

I sure hope the weather does not jeopardize the Bluejay Classic.   Anyone know if the teams made the trip to Elmhurst today? If not, we might be in trouble.