MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[AndOne]

I'd rather not see a kid dragged through the mud either.

Not what I had planned, but will just keep to myself.
I'll just say he is clearly not himself. As I said, I had Nick as a likely 1st all conference teamer. I hope he regains his form soon.

[iwumichigander]

I'd rather not see a kid dragged through the mud either.

Agree.  No justification for that on this site.

[markerickson]

This appears on the NCAA's homepage today:

"Question of the day:

Would you believe a college basketball team that is 0-11 this season had a combined 38-14 record and two NCAA Tournament appearances in the previous two years?"

We know the school...

[Titan Q]

This appears on the NCAA's homepage today:

"Question of the day:

Would you believe a college basketball team that is 0-11 this season had a combined 38-14 record and two NCAA Tournament appearances in the previous two years?"

We know the school...

http://www.doubleazone.com/2009/01/university_of_chicago_mens_basketball_uaa_division_iii_winless_11_losses.php

[79jaybird]

First- I was not at the game last night, but did listen to it's entirety.

Couple of thoughts about the game.  First of all, this one really hurts because Elmhurst had this all signed, sealed, and couldn't deliver the game to the P.O. box.

Turnovers killed the Bluejays in the final 2:00 as they only needed 1 more basket to make it a 3 possession game and (for all practical purposes) win the game.

Now, Augie showed great discipline late in the game to be able to make their comeback.  It wasn't so much their defense, as it was grabbing offensive rebounds because they had 2-3 cracks at the bucket in the midst of their 10-0 run.

Anybody who thinks this is going to be just an Augie & Wheaton brawl, well they're wrong as I think IWU and Elmhurst showed that they are just as capable as the other two.

Looking ahead,  Elmhurst better start taking care of the ball and executing when the game's on the line against Millikin and especially against the upper eschilon teams in the conference.

All in all, this was an exciting night of basketball.

[augiefan]

I think it was Titan Q who suggested it's a race betwee Augie and Wheaton. Let's face it TQ was just trying to steal my Lou Holtz "whoa is me" mantra. Augie and Wheaton were both fortunate to win home games. Elmhurst and IWU were the teams that proved they are contenders last night by almost pulling off huge road upsets over the 2 preseason conference favorites. I still can't figure out how Augie won..

Elmhurst in particular is every bit the equal of Augie and Wheaton on their home court, and IWU will only get better as the season progresses. My guess is that one of the other 4 teams probably Carthage will determine this race by getting a win or two over the apparent top 4 teams. I'm still betting the CCIW tourney will be in Wheaton this year, but they did look vulnerable last night as did Augie.

The race is wide open until a contender loses a home game or two.                                                         

[usee]

I think it was Titan Q who suggested it's a race betwee Augie and Wheaton. Let's face it TQ was just trying to steal my Lou Holtz "whoa is me" mantra. Augie and Wheaton were both fortunate to win home games. Elmhurst and IWU were the teams that proved they are contenders last night by almost pulling off huge road upsets over the 2 preseason conference favorites. I still can't figure out how Augie won..

Elmhurst in particular is every bit the equal of Augie and Wheaton on their home court, and IWU will only get better as the season progresses. My guess is that one of the other 4 teams probably Carthage will determine this race by getting a win or two over the apparent top 4 teams. I'm still betting the CCIW tourney will be in Wheaton this year, but they did look vulnerable last night as did Augie.

The race is wide open until a contender loses a home game or two.                                                         

I have no idea what this means. There are so many contradictions in here I wouldn't know where to begin. How do figure Augie and Wheaton were "fortunate to win..."? They both made the plays at the end of the game they needed to do to win. Augie has been winning games just like that for several years running now. Wheaton played better and deserved to win. No one was "fortunate".

"The race is wide open until a contender loses a home game or two. "

what in the world does that mean???

[Viking Mike]

WOW.... What a game in Rock Island last night!

Here are a few things I noticed in Carver during the course of the night...................

1) Elmhurst is a great team that plays outstanding team defense
2) Elmhurst is capable of winning the CCIW and making the Final Four.
3) Augie won a game last night where they shot 38%, missed more free throws than they made, and got outrebounded   
                                                                      by 4.
4)Augie won a game last night on the strength of outstanding team defense in the last 3:00
5)Matt Pelton is a savior, always saving his big shots for the end of BIG games
6)The newly renovated Carver Center is a beautiful venue for Division III basketball
7)The Quad City community is beginning to embrace these Vikings based on the large crowd last night. (the students are 
                                                                                                                                                                               on break)
8)Both Elmhurst and Augustana are deserving of their top 10 rankings.

[Titan Q]

I think it was Titan Q who suggested it's a race betwee Augie and Wheaton. Let's face it TQ was just trying to steal my Lou Holtz "whoa is me" mantra.                                                     

I'm not going Lou Holtz, I promise.  I think IWU is a very good basketball team - a Top 25 team.  But the simple fact is that the Titans are extremely young and this is a season with a ton of great seniors in the CCIW (and 3 great teams, led by seniors).

IWU's current 8-man varsity rotation consists of:

1 senior (Chamernik)
1 junior (Dwyer)
4 sophomores (Rosenkranz, Johnson, Sexauer, O'Callaghan)
2 freshmen (Koschnitzky, Zimmer)

Chamernik averages 9.7 ppg.  The rest of the offensive production comes from guys in their first or second year of varsity play (Dwyer missed his freshman yr with injury).  That's young.

Typical of many young teams, I've noticed the follow trends with the 2008-09 Titans:

1) They are terribly inconsistent within games.  I posted this after the SXU loss:

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.

I saw a couple of those same stretches while watching the Wheaton game stream Wednesday.


2) They do not value every single possession yet.  In the first half vs Wheaton I saw some careless turnovers, as well as a few that resulted from passes that were just too riskly.  You can't turn it over 17 times in a CCIW game and hope to win.


I think to some degree "fixing" both of these things is just a matter of time experience - going through tough games like the one at Wheaton and experiencing the consequences of turning the ball over, for example.  Also with more games will come the continued development of each player.  IWU has plenty of candidates to be that "go to" guy...they just aren't quite there yet.

I expect IWU to be in every CCIW game - I'd be shocked if anyone blows them out.  I'd also be shocked if they blow any CCIW team out.  The Titans do need to get better though to be able to actually win the league, as opposed to just being a really tough team to beat.

After 14 games I just think Kent Raymond's Thunder and the 3-time defending CCIW champion Vikings will end up 1 and 2 in some order.  Elmhurst has a great team, but I just don't see Elmhurst finishing 11-3 (the record usually needed to get it done).

[Titan Q]

"The race is wide open until a contender loses a home game or two. "

what in the world does that mean???

I think he is referring to theory that, on paper, the way you win the league is to:

* Go 7-0 at home
* Find a way to grind out 4 wins on the road

So Wednesday, Wheaton and Augie did not "gain ground" - they just protected homecourt.  It is not until a "contender" loses at home that things start to shake up.

[usee]

"The race is wide open until a contender loses a home game or two. "

what in the world does that mean???

I think he is referring to theory that, on paper, the way you win the league is to:

* Go 7-0 at home
* Find a way to grind out 4 wins on the road

So Wednesday, Wheaton and Augie did not "gain ground" - they just protected homecourt.  It is not until a "contender" loses at home that things start to shake up.

That's what I would have thought he meant but then the race isn't "wide open UNTIL that happens" he says the race is currently "wide open" until a contender loses.....does that mean it becomes less wide open if Augie, Wheaton, Elmhurst lose a road game? I guess if Augie beats Wheaton in King arena next wednesday the race becomes an Augie chase unless the Thunder can reciprocate or someone else beats Augie in Rock Island?

too many double negatives for me. I am confused.

[Titan Q]

"The race is wide open until a contender loses a home game or two. "

what in the world does that mean???

I think he is referring to theory that, on paper, the way you win the league is to:

* Go 7-0 at home
* Find a way to grind out 4 wins on the road

So Wednesday, Wheaton and Augie did not "gain ground" - they just protected homecourt.  It is not until a "contender" loses at home that things start to shake up.

That's what I would have thought he meant but then the race isn't "wide open UNTIL that happens" he says the race is currently "wide open" until a contender loses.....does that mean it becomes less wide open if Augie, Wheaton, Elmhurst lose a road game? I guess if Augie beats Wheaton in King arena next wednesday the race becomes an Augie chase unless the Thunder can reciprocate or someone else beats Augie in Rock Island?

too many double negatives for me. I am confused.

Right.  It's just too early to really put things in those terms anyway.  I'm not sure we really know who the "contenders" are anyway.  Maybe North Central is a top four team...maybe Carthage is...who knows.

[Dennis_Prikkel]

"The race is wide open until a contender loses a home game or two. "

what in the world does that mean???

I think he is referring to theory that, on paper, the way you win the league is to:

* Go 7-0 at home
* Find a way to grind out 4 wins on the road

So Wednesday, Wheaton and Augie did not "gain ground" - they just protected homecourt.  It is not until a "contender" loses at home that things start to shake up.

makes perfect sense to me - and has almost always been a CCIW truism.

the combined home records of the CCIW champions over the league's 60+ years history has to be way over 90%

dgp

[dansand]

First chance to comment on Wednesday's game. An amazing comeback by Augie. As others have pointed out, the Vikings were down nine, 55-46 with less than two-and-a-half minutes left. They scored the game's last 10 points on a Jordan Delp 3-pointer, an old-fashioned 3-point play by Matt Pelton, a circus shot by Alex Washington, and Pelton's two free throws with eight seconds left.

Dustin Bainter drove the length of the court and got a great look from about the free throw line, but it just bounced out. As Augie tried to grab the rebound, which was perilously close to basket interference, the ball ended up going out of bounds. With just two seconds left, the Bluejays didn't get a very good look on the last shot.

Pelton's five points and steal in the last minute were huge, but no one has mentioned the tremendous game that Justin Bertrand gave the Vikes. He went toe-to-toe with Brent Ruch all night and did a great job. Much like the first game at Carver last season, Augie didn't run double-teams at Ruch, leaving Justin to fend for himself. As a result Augie was able to guard the arc pretty effectively (4-16 Bluejay 3's) and hold Ryan Burks to just 10 points (0 in the second half). Bertrand was also the most productive Viking offensively for the majority of the game.

Despite the two turnovers in the final minute, I thought Elmhurst's often questioned guards played very well. The Bluejays only turned it over 13 times, which is pretty good against a team that pressures the way that Augie does. The real key was, not surprisingly, Augie's defense. They did a great job on Elmhurst's big three. Ruch had 15 but only got off 10 shots and only went to the free throw line once. All of Burks points came in a five-minute stretch late in the first half and I was worried he was starting to go off, but Augie did a great job shutting him out in the second half. They (primarily Chandlor Collins) also held Robert Strzemp to just two points.

As Usee mentioned, Augie has been amazingly successful in tight games recently. They're 25-9 over the last three-and-a-half seasons in games decided by five points or less, or in overtime. Vikes hit the road for the next two games to face maybe the two best guards in D3. Fun, fun, fun.

[augiefan]

Although my comment about the race being wide open did not contain any double negatives, I appreciate Titan clarifying my thoghts for Usee.  The conference title is decided by key road wins. And yes if Augie is "fortunate" enough to win at Wheaton nect week, they will be in a good spot early in the season.