MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[ball]

and everything is hot up in the most northern school in conference with Steve setting a school record, a lot of guys in double figures, and a boarder-line sweet half time show.

Dfresh of Carthage performed his freestyle soccer act. He is sponsored by Red Bull and Adidas for 2009 and just filmed a documentary for ESPN to be released later this year.

[Dennis_Prikkel]

Elmhurst 98, IWU 92

just a real fun game tonight - that wasn't decided until the final minute.

The titans made 10 of their first 11 shots and jumped out to a big lead in the first eight minutes, but then Chris Childs and Matt Bernier hit some big shots to ignite the Jays.  The rest of the half it was the Brent Ruch show as he laid the ball in repeatedly against whatever totem poles the Titans threw at him for 16 points by intermission.

The difference in the game was the first six minutes of the second half as the Titans came out determined to work the ball inside.  When they did they laid it in, but there were four other passes where the inside titan just dropped the ball out of bounds and the Jays turned into a lead they never relinquished.

Time and again the Titans laid it in against an uncharacteristically porous Jay defense.  Especially the guards.

Strzemp had a huge second half for the Jays and ignited the early rally with which they erasec a one-point half-time deficit and built their lead up to as many as nine points.

The final ten minutes of the game the Jays played with wreckless offensive abandon, time and again their guards taking some kind of running off balance shot with still 20 seconds on the shot clock.  This poor shot selection kept the Titans in the game as they worked the ball inside or their guards drove for layups.  Sean Johnson with a monster second half for IWU.

But when push came to shove - and there was lots, called and uncalled - the Jays were unconscious at the free-throw line making 29 of 32 freebies.

Five players scored in double figures for each team with Ruch leading the Jays with 31 points and 10 rebounds.

Fun game.

dgp

[kenoshamark]

Box Score from this evening:

http://www.carthage.edu/athleticspages/mens/basketball/npu2.htm

Steve sets a new Carthage one game record with 12 assists tonight.

[Late nite]

NCC remaining schedule:
Millikin---Decatur gets colder by the game---Win

Millikin over North Central, 79-73

I am officially retired from the prognostication business---I'm going to just sit back and watch the carnage twice a week

[kenoshamark]

Difference in the game tonight was the end of the first half when Carthage scored the last seven points and then opened the second half scoring the first eleven points.  That eighteen point swing happened to be the final margin.  Carthage shot the ball incredibily well tonight other than for a small stretch in the middle of the second half where NP got it back under ten.  After a timeout, Carthage started another run that pushed the lead back up to the high teens. 

I thought NP did a nice job of feeding the post for some stretches and as evidenced by Schniedermeier's numbers, it was an effective strategy.  Even when Crosby came in to spell Schniedermeier, they were able to score some points in the paint.  The problem for NP was the lack of other offensive options.  Williams had a fine first half with 15 points which helped NP stay close but he only scored 2 points in the second half.   Also, Greer and Cooper need to be more productive offensively for the types of minutes they are on the court. 

NP has some nice young players and if they can stay together, I think they might be okay.   There was a lack of consistency to the offense and they needed to do a much better job on defense (can't win many game letting up almost 90 points).   

Max Cary got the start tonight and had a real solid game with 13 points and 6 boards.   He can score from the outside but also penetrates well.  With him, Fendley and Steve on the perimeter, they really can be a nightmare for teams to defend.   Oh for a stud in the middle !!!   Frankly, I sure would like to have Schniedermeier, he could really develop into a terrific post presence.   He seems to have come a long way despite his limited action.   

[thunder38]

Standings through 1/31:

Elmhurst 6-2 (vs AC, @ MU, vs WC, @ NPU, @ NCC, vs CC)
Augustana 6-3 (@ EC, vs CC, @ MU, @ NCC, @ IWU)
Carthage 5-3 (@ IWU, @ AC, vs NCC, vs MU, vs WC, @ EC)
North Central 5-3 (@ NPU, vs IWU, @ CC, vs AC, vs EC, @ WC)
Wheaton 5-3 (vs MU, vs NPU, @ EC, @ IWU, @ CC, @ NCC)
Illinois Wesleyan 3-5 (vs CC, @ NCC, @ NPU, vs WC, @ MU, vs AC)
Millikin 3-5 (@ WC, vs EC, vs AC, @ CC, vs IWU, @ NPU)
North Park 0-9 (vs NCC, @ WC, vs IWU, vs EC, vs MU)


Still a long way to go and 7 teams in the mix for the conference tournament.

Big win for the Thunder in Rock Island tonight.  Even bigger for them is it looks like Wiele found his groove again with a huge performance that very well could've saved the season for the Orange Crush.  Big stretch coming up for Wheaton as the front runners hit the road and Wheaton stays at home for a two games before heading to a HUGE showdown at Elmhurst.  

[thunderstruck88]

As I look at the Wheaton-Augie box score, a few things stand out...

http://athletics.wheaton.edu/custompages/mbball/mbbstats/mwhe19.htm

First, it's interesting that all shots were put in as jumpers. Apparently whoever was working the Stat Crew software didn't realize that there is a key for layups and a key for jumpers. (Thus we have no idea how many points were scored in the paint).

Wheaton took 48 shots tonight, while Augie took 56. Wheaton got a lot of easy looks inside, and wound up shooting a sizzling 50%, while Augie shot 32% for the game and only 27.6% in the second half (8-29). I haven't checked, but I would imagine that Wheaton hasn't shot close to that well in a long time at the Rock.

Second, there were 5 ties and 12 lead changes, but it seemed like Wheaton controlled the game tempo for the most part, which helped keep things under control and helped keep the Augie crowd from getting too raucous. I would have loved to be in the house to see the entire crowd booing Ben Panner as he had the court to himself shooting those two FTs before halftime when Augie had left for the locker room.

Ben Panner hitting two FTs to end the first half and a three to open the second half was big... that extra cushion gave Wheaton some extra confidence and breathing room.

No points off the fast-break tonight, according to the box score. Something tells me this might be another statistician mistake, since you have to key in fast-break scores.

Wheaton made the same number of FTs as Augie, and only shot one more. It's not great, but free throws aren't a curse like they used to be. Wheaton still needs to do better than 3-14 from the three-point arc, in my mind.

Bertrand only played 4 minutes tonight, all in the first half. I wonder if he was trying to give it a go but realized quickly that he wasn't ready for competition.

Augie definitely goes much deeper than Wheaton, and I would say most teams in the CCIW. IWU uses a big rotation, but Augie gets l a lot of production from those guys.

[AndOne]

Injuries to key players hurt every team. Obviously Raymond was not back at full strength Wednesday night or he would haved played more than 20 minutes. NCC probably would have won anyway, but I think we all know that Wheaton would still be No. 1, if Wiele and Raymond had been injury free this season. It is no coincidence that Wheaton lost 3 games in a row while Raymond was injured or on the mend.

Augiefan----

After seeing Augie rip NCC earlier, watching Wheaton against NCC and Hope, and seeing Elmhurst vs both NCC and Wash. U., I have to say that your Vikings seem to be the strongest CCIW team when everyone is at full strength. In the game vs NCC, Augie looked big, quick, tough, and accurate. They executed very well. The night they beat NCC, I think they would have beaten a collection of CCIW all-stars. On top of everything else, I believe Augie is the deepest conference team. It seems they can play 10, perhaps 11, men with no appreciable drop off in talent level. Bertrand, while an important cog, is much more replaceable than Raynond. I expect an Augie victory tonight. We'll see.

Brick!
I'm joining LateNite on the prognostication bench.

[Sakman 1111]

Bluejays playing some great basketball with their big 4( Ruchs,Burks,Childs,and Strzemp) leading the way. When they get major contributions from all 4 they are hard to beat....Wednesday another big one against Augustana....

[AndOne]

Other scores:

Millikin over North Central, 79-73

The Cards stumbled tonight and lost a major opportunity to take a step toward the top of the league standings. 69 percent FG shooting for Millikin---Wow! Looks the the NCC defense, which has been the team's benchmark, took a vacation day night. Now its up to the Cards to show what they're made up and really step ip in their next battle.   

[CCIWchamps]

Way to go Wiele and Panner.  Great to see the leaders bounce back to form following the previous 3 game stretch.  Those guys showed some heart to go to Augie and come out with a W.  And the team's FT % was way higher than recent games.  This conference is cooking up to be a giant showdown!

[voxelmhurst]

Masterclass performance from Brent Ruch tonight.  You can talk about the 31 points all you want, let us also not forget he came up with two huge steals late in the second half, when Wesleyan was threatening.  An incredible performance.

Tonight was also the best offensive performance from Robert Stzremp that I can remember in a long time, who has mostly been doing it on defense and on the boards as of late.   

I think Wesleyan deserves a ton of credit and came out with an outstanding game plan.  I was really expecting this to go to OT until the final 30 seconds or so.

[usee]

Home win = 0
Home loss -1
Road win = +1
Road loss = 0

Through Saturday, Jan. 31...

Elmhurst +2
Carthage +1
North Central +1
Wheaton +1
Augustana +0
Illinois Wesleyan -1
Millikin -1
North Park -3


Wednesday
Augustana @ Elmhurst 
Carthage @ Ill. Wesleyan 
Millikin @ Wheaton 
North Central @ North Park

This is still such a great indicatior of how close this conference is. Wheaton won a big game last night and everyone else held serve. Augie, Carthage, Millikin and NCC can gain ground on Wednesday with a victory.

[usee]

In Wheaton's game against Carthage they held the Redmen to 23% shooting in the first half. Since then and up until tipoff last night their opponents fg% by half has been.

55% (2nd half Carthage)
63%(Elmhurst)
50%(Elmhurst)
55% (NCC)
57% (NCC)

Last night against Augie in Rock Island:

37%(1st half)
28%(2nd half)

[Viking Blue]

Did my eyes deceive me, or is there no post from Sager yet on the NP-CC game?  Dr. B?  Anyone?