MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[petemcb]

I'm leaving for the 'burbs of Green Bay before lunch to witness a similar challenge for the CCIW tonight:  Carthage vs. #1-ranked UW-Platteville with their All-American big man.  Hopefully, I'll be able to sneak my daughter's laptop out of here to provide an eye-witness account on the board.  Good luck to the CCIW in what looks like a tougher week......although, who thought we'd only go .500 last week?! 

[Gregory Sager]

Here's the box from NCC's loss to Bald Wally last night:

http://www.cciw.org/winter_bball_m/GameHTML_0809/MBK11.HTM

Looks like the Cards had the lead going into the second stanza, but then went ice-cold: 9-30 (.300) from the field, 0-5 from downtown, after the intermission.

This will be the last full week of non-conference games for the CCIW, with only a pair of individual games (Trinity International @ Carthage next week, Millikin @ Knox on January 19) left to be counted towards the CCIW's ledger prior to D3 tournament play. This will also be by far the toughest week that the CCIW will face in non-conference play, aside from the tournament; the likes of Valparaiso, Northwood (FL), and UW-Platteville will rank among the most difficult tests any CCIW team will face this season, and even the contests against homestanding teams such as Anderson, Grinnell, and (possibly) St. Norbert shouldn't be seen as walkovers. Those will be tough games for the CCIW team to win, too.

Needless to say, in light of the CCIW's explosive start this season, it will be very interesting to see how the league fares this week.

[Gregory Sager]

Missouri Baptist is 5-7, but lost by just one to Robert Morris (Chicago) on 12/5.  So they must be pretty good.

That is a good loss, but I'm not convinced that it makes Missouri Baptist a good team. The Spartans also have losses to a pair of sub-.500 NAIA teams, Avila (neutral site) and Park (@ MoBap). And the Spartans have also played Missouri-St. Louis, about whom you said this in the UAA room after you had watched the Tritons play a preseason exhibition against Wash U:

First I should note that UMSL is not a very good D2 team.  They finished 10-17 last year, and 5-14 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference (one of the top D2 leagues).  They do not have a lot of size for a D2 team and they just don't have many "pure basketball players."  What they are is incredibly athletic though.  The Tritons would be a D3 Top 25 team - probably in the neighborhood of #15.  It's hard to even project how they compare to top D3 teams though because they are just not set up at all like a D3 team.

UMSL (currently 6-4, but only 1-4 against fellow D2 teams) beat Missouri Baptist by thirty points in one of those "winner dictates the final score" routs in which the margin was over 30 with almost six full minutes left in the game.

So ... who knows? MoBap may indeed be a good team by D3 standards, if the Robert Morris (Chicago) game is truly indicative of the Spartans' abilities. Then again, there's evidence out there that shows that they might not be very good after all. Based on the limited information we have, it's tough to say.

[Titan Q]

Final:

St. Xavier 74
IWU 72

Senior Rob Broughton, SXU's leading scorer, banked in a long 3-pointer at the buzzer to give SXU the 2-point win.  Doug Sexauer had scored just before that to give IWU a 72-71 lead with :06 to play.

IWU turned the ball over 22 times - the Titans had a lot of trouble with SXU's full court trap.  I know that St. Xavier's guards are bigger, quicker, and more athletic than IWU's and it sounds like that was a big factor today.

Brett Chamernik led IWU with 18, Travis Rosenkranz had 14, and John Koschnitzky 13.  Doug Sexauer was in foul trouble most of the game and played less minutes than usual.

Like almost every game they've played, the Titans had a couple bad stretches - one late in the 1st half to allow SXU back from 11 down, and then one midway through the 2nd to let the Cougars back from 9 down.  IWU just does not have that one "go to" guy right now and they seem vulnerable to these types of stretches where they struggle to score.

IWU just isn't quite where they'd like to be right now.  The Titans play very well for stretches but lack consistency - their non-conference performance is very similar to last year's actually.  In the overall CCIW picture, I'd say that #4 spot they're picked in is about right.

[Titan Q]

Live stats for Carthage vs UW-Platteville...

http://www.snc.edu/athletics/teamfiles/livestats/xlive.htm

Carthage trailed by 3 at the break, but is now down 16 with 9:38 to play.

[thundermike11]

Final:

Wheaton 80
MSJ 59

I caught the second half on WETN and it sounded like the Thunder was in control the whole way. Wheaton led 47-20 at halftime. Ben Panner was hot all night. Andy Wiele once again did not play for Wheaton.

http://www4.wittenberg.edu/news/athletics/mbasketball/kiwanis08/gamestory3.html

[buf]

UWP wins over Carthage, 74-48.  Big 2nd half for UWP

[Titan Q]

Here is the IWU/St. Xavier boxscore...

http://www.iwu.edu/~iwunews/sports/mbb2009/IWUMB9.HTM

Despite outrebounding the Cougars by 9, IWU took 19 less FGA attempts than St. Xavier! 

The guard trio of Travis Rosenkranz, Sean Dwyer, and Sean Johnson came into the game with 83 assists and 45 turnovers on the season (1.84 A:TO)...they've been very good.  Today those three combined for 7 assists and 14 turnovers.

If there is a silver lining, I guess, it's that I'm glad the Titans faced that kind of on-ball heat here in the late non-conference season.  Can't hurt in the development of this team.

[Titan Q]

The other final from the Northwood tourney...

Northwood 71
Missouri Baptist 70

IWU faces Mo. Baptist tomorrow at 4:00pm CST with the championship game at 6:00pm CST.

[Titan Q]

CCIW OVERALL:    62-14 (.816)

CCIW team heavy favorite
1 Wheaton vs Taylor (IN), 12/30 (@ Witt)
2 Augustana vs Coe, 12/30
3 Carthage vs St. Scholastica, 12/30
4 Wheaton @ Grinnell, 1/3
5 Illinois Wesleyan vs Illinois College, 1/3
6 Carthage vs Trinity International, 1/5
7 Millikin @ Knox, 1/19 - postponed from 12/18

CCIW team favorite
1 IWU vs Missouri Baptist, 12/30 (neutral)  IWU "favorite"?
2 Elmhurst @ Anderson, 1/3
3 Millikin vs York (NY), 1/3 (neutral)

CCIW team underdog
1 North Park @ Valparaiso, 12/30
2 Millikin @ Christopher Newport, 1/4


7-0 in the first group, 0-2 in the last, and 2-1 in the middle would be 71-17 (.807).

[Gregory Sager]

I'm not so sure that Millikin is the underdog to Christopher Newport, notwithstanding the fact that the game will be played in the CNU gym. The Captains (4-5) are not the formidable regional power that they used to be. They lost by 24 tonight to UW-Oshkosh out in Phoenix in the Cactus Jam; the Titans, although a good team, look like they're headed for the middle of the WIAC pack. And the Captains barely managed to eke out a four-point win at home over an Otterbein team that's only 3-8 and which was crushed by 17 in its own gym Saturday night by North Central. Otterbein blew a 14-point lead with six minutes to go in that game at CNU.

Not a good night for the CCIW tonight, although I can't say that I was terribly surprised. The IWU loss to SXU was disappointing, as I think many of us figured that this was the kind of down year for the Cougars that posed a great opportunity for one of our teams to beat them. The Carthage loss to UW-Platteville was entirely to be expected; I've spoken to one CCIW coach who says that UWP is the best D3 team he's seen all year, and he's also seen both Wheaton and Wash U.

According to the box score, the Pioneers held Steve Djurickovic to a season-low 23 points (mostly by minimizing his free throw attempts) -- and yet Steve D. still scored almost half of his team's points. The next highest Carthage scorers, Adam Tolo and Richard Williams, had a mere six points apiece, although it looks like they did a fairly decent job of covering UWP's star center Jeff Skemp at the defensive end of the floor. UWP outrebounded Carthage by 13 while only turning the ball over three more times than did the Red Men, and the Pioneers thoroughly outshot the Red Men from the field (.542 to .286 FG, .500 to .188 trey). Fendley, Hilton, and Shemerdiak went a combined 0-10 from downtown. Carthage had only six assists as well, which really makes it sound like one of those nights in which the other four guys stand around and watch Steve D. try to beat the other team all by himself.

Wheaton had a nice showing against Mount St. Joe, even without Wiele, but I don't think that anyone was expecting much of a game from MSJ. This was one occasion in which it was advisable to pick the Christians over the Lions.

Let's hope that tomorrow night goes better for the league.

[iwu70]

Greg, "Christians over the Lions"  . . . . . a great line. 

Happy New Year to all!!!

[thunderstruck88]

I was able to make it to the Wheaton game on my way up from Cincinnati, and it was a treat to see improvements in the Defense and many of the young Thunder players. The defense had the most solid game I've seen since the University of Chicago game early in the season (forcing 24 turnovers and holding MSJ below 35% from the field). Wheaton was on the fast-break early and often, scoring 25 points off turnovers to 4 for MSJ. Young Mr. Carr made the most of his time on the court with 3 steals and 6 points and showed some great athleticism on both ends of the court. Pflederer played almost 20 minutes off the bench and had a solid game, not necessarily statistically, but his speed created a lot of open looks for his teammates and himself.

In other news... Raymond was visibly frustrated throughout the game, shooting 0-6 from beyond the arc. Not sure which perpetuated which, but tonight it was Panner's turn to have the hot hand (23 points on 10-13 shooting).

The word on Wiele is that it is indeed a Stress Fracture to his left foot, but he is healing well and *hopes* to be back for conference play. This sounds relatively minor, since serious stress fractures for big men are pretty crippling and potentially season-ending, so I'm hoping he doesn't rush anything and risk aggravating the injury.

Should be a better matchup tonight between Wheaton and Taylor. It would be nice to be there!
 

[Dennis_Prikkel]

IWU (6-2) takes on NAIA DI St. Xavier (Chicago), 9-6, today at Northwood U. in West Palm Beach, Florida. 

just got back from West Palm Beach - went to the beach on Sunday (had to drive around for 20 minutes to find a place to park) - beach was crowded - sunny 75 degrees, water at 74 degrees, waves 3 to 4 feet - delightful.

dgp

[Titan Q]

The Titans try to bounce back from a tough loss at the buzzer as they face Missouri Baptist at 4:00pm today.  It looks like the Spartans are a very perimeter-oriented team, led by a star point-guard.  Key players are:


G Brandon Roberson (5-11 Jr., Rosharon, TX) - 19.3 ppg, 2.6 rpg, 3.3 apg
G Brandon Bishop (5-11 Jr., Wright City, MO) - 10.8 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 2.3 apg
G Dane Rawlins (6-5 So., Canaree Village, St. Kitts) - 12.5 ppg, 6.8 rpg, 2.3 apg
F Bret Wilson (6-5 Sr., Lees Summit, MO) - 10.0 ppg, 2.1 rpg
F Jason Crockum (6-5 Jr., Houston, TX) - 6.3 ppg, 4.8 rpg

F Jason Hicks (6-7 So., St. Louis, MO) - 6.8 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 2.2 apg
G Geoffry Grant, Jr. (6-4 Sr., Gary, IN) - 6.7 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 1.6 apg


IWU's starters are:

G Travis Rosenkranz (6-0/175, So. - Macon Meridian H.S.) - 11.3 ppg, 2.7 rpg, 4.2 apg
G Sean Johnson (6-1/185, So. - Washington H.S.) - 13.4 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 2.6 apg
F John Koschnitzky (6-6/195, Fr - Oak Forest H.S.) - 9.1 ppg, 4.3 rpg
F Doug Sexauer (6-7/225, So. - Lockport H.S.) - 12.0 ppg, 6.3 rpg
C Brett Chamernik (6-5/225, Sr. - Benet Academy) - 8.3 ppg, 3.5 rpg


Last night Missouri Baptist lost by 1 to host Northwood U., NAIA D2 #3.  Boxscore:

http://seahawks.gonorthwood.com/sharedmedia/HTML/Athletics/FL/Mens/Basketball/0809/game2.htm

The Spartans took 25 3's in that game (out of 59 total FGA)...it looks like all 5 starters step out and shoot the 3.  IWU is going to have to defend the perimeter today and, on the offensive end, take care of the basketball.  I'm sure Missouri Baptist watched as the Titans turned it over 22 times yesterday vs SXU.