MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

Elmhurst 74, North Central 63

Not too many tears shed in Naperville, I would imagine, as the Cards backed into the CCIW tourney field, anyway. Elmhurst, which led most of the game, got a fantastic night out of Ryan Burks: 28 points on 9-13 shooting (4-6 from beyond the arc) and 6-8 from the line. Chris Childs had 15 off the bench for EC, and Zach Boyd added 10. Brent Ruch was fairly well contained by the smaller Cardinals; he had 10 points as well, but on only 5-11 shooting from the field, and he didn't get to the line even once. Aaron Hintzsche led the 'jays with six boards.

North Central was led by Matt Rogers, who had 27 points, and Chris Drennan's 17 and 10 double-double. Shooting from the field and the line was very close: EC 49%, NCC 48% from the field, and both teams shot 75% from the charity stripe. The difference in the game was long-range shooting (EC 7-12 for 58%, NCC 1-7 for 18%) and rebounding (EC won there, 33-25, including 14-9 on the offensive glass).

[Gregory Sager]

Ryan Burks' scoring had been down a bit heading into tonight - 14.8 ppg in CCIW play (17.4 ppg last year and exactly the same his soph year, 17.4 ppg).  He came to play tonight in a huge game - 28 points on 9-13 FG (4-6 3-pt) and 5 rebounds.

After tonight, Burks is now averaging 15.8 ppg in CCIW play with one big game to play.

He's on a roll, though: 53 points in his last two games.

I would imagine that Cody Hilton will have the dubious duty of guarding him on Saturday night.

[augiefan]

No way does a 5th place finish help Augie make the NCAA tourney. 0-1 in the CCIW tourney will not do it either. A loss to Wheaton or Elmhurst in the CCIW championship game might do the trick though. The Vikings have to beat IWU first. Tonight's results did give Augie some hope of getting the third spot in the CCIW with a win Saturday and NCC having a tough final game on the road.

[titan2000]

Regional rankings are out:

http://d3blogs.com/d3hoops/2009/02/18/ncaa-regional-rankings-week-2-3/

4 CCIW teams in the midwest region again this week.  NCC moved up 2 spots to 5th, Elmhurst up a spot to 3rd, Wheaton remained at 2nd, and Augie dropped a spot to 7th.

I'm surprised Elmhurst moved up despite a 1-1 week.

It's called bias.

[Gregory Sager]

Wheaton 73, Carthage 69

Ben Panner, 30 pts
Kent Raymond, 15 pts
Andrew Jahns, 14 pts
Andy Wiele, 8 rebs
Tim McCrary, 7 rebs

Steve Djurickovic, 22 pts, 11 asts
Adam Tolo, 13 pts

Steve Marovich passed along this note: Wheaton's Ben Panner set a Carthage opponent game record with 10 three-pointers, breaking a mark of eight first set by Ray Wilson from UC-Santa Cruz on Jan. 9, 1989.

[Darryl Nester]

So there is a 12.5% chance that IWU will beat Augie and Carthage will beat Elmhurst.  Makes sense to me.

Augie is in pretty good shape as far as the CCIW tourney goes.

Those two outcomes (or any two particular outcomes) occur 25% of the time in my model (which treats both possible outcomes of any game as equally likely, even if one team would be heavily favored).  But as my program applies the tiebreaking procedure, Carthage gets into the tournament only if IWU beats Augie, Carthage beats Elmhurst, and North Central wins.  If Carthage, Augie, and NCC end in a three-way tie, Carthage gets dropped because they were 1-3 vs Augie and NCC.

[Titan Q]

It's called bias.

Patrick Abegg's computer formula must have that same nasty case of CCIW bias...

Reg Conf Rank Prior RPI    OWP    OOWP   School                    Natl Status      Reg Overall

MW  90   01   01    0.6436 0.5397 0.5424 Washington U.             001  A in        20-1 21-1
MW  71   02   02    0.6469 0.5914 0.5625 Wheaton (Ill.)            010  A w C       16-3 20-3
MW  72   03   03    0.6082 0.5533 0.5028 Transylvania              027  A w C       14-3 17-5
MW  71   04   05    0.6272 0.6068 0.5585 North Central             031  C 8         14-5 16-7
MW  71   05   04    0.6145 0.5825 0.5538 Elmhurst                  034  C 10        17-6 17-6
MW  74   06   06    0.5570 0.4602 0.4982 St. Norbert               051  A second    17-4 18-4
MW  71   07   07    0.5859 0.5407 0.5666 Augustana                 053  C 23        16-7 17-7
MW  74   08   nr    0.5491 0.4925 0.4971 Lawrence                  078              15-6 15-6
MW  71   09   10    0.5993 0.6266 0.5558 Carthage                  081              10-7 15-8
MW  74   10   11    0.5435 0.4804 0.4912 Grinnell                  083              135 16-6
MW  74   11   09    0.5521 0.5145 0.5127 Carroll                   089              147 14-7


http://www.d3boards.com/index.php?topic=4232.2025

It had 4 CCIW teams in its top 8 heading into tonight as well.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Q, don't bite the bait with T2K.

While more persistent than most trolls, he is a troll nonetheless.

[Gregory Sager]

No box is immediately forthcoming from Decatur, so:

Millikin 80, Illinois Wesleyan 57

Tunde Ogunleye, 18 pts, 7 rebs
Joscar Demby, 16 pts, 8 rebs

Jordan Zimmer, 14 pts
Brett Chamernik, 7 rebs
Travis Rosenkrantz, 6 asts

MU outshot IWU from the field, .596 to .396; from downtown, .538 to .389; and from the line, .714 to .571. Rebounds were even at 29, and the Titans turned the ball over 12 times to the Big Blue's 8.

This one was a seesaw affair throughout most of the first half, and it was tied a minute into the second half. At that point MU went on a 7-0 run, and after being interrupted by a Zimmer trey at 16:16 the Big Blue proceeded to further that run with an additional 12-0 run over the next three minutes that essentially decided the game. The Titans never got closer than 14 from that point onward, and the lead was in the twenties for the final nine and a half minutes.

The IWU starting backcourt of Rosenkrantz and Johnson went a combined 4-18 from the field and 2-9 from downtown. I think that we can expect a heavily bolded, italicized, and all-caps rant from OurHouse sometime in the near future.

Looks like Millikin can still rouse itself when the Titans come to town.

[Gregory Sager]

Q, don't bite the bait with T2K.

While more persistent than most trolls, he is a troll nonetheless.

You took the words right out of my mouth, Chuck. Or, should I say, the picture:

[Titan Q]

The IWU starting backcourt of Rosenkrantz and Johnson went a combined 4-18 from the field and 2-9 from downtown. I think that we can expect a heavily bolded, italicized, and all-caps rant from OurHouse sometime in the near future.

Of course, his boy Sean Dwyer had 7 turnovers...so not any better there either.

[Gregory Sager]

The IWU starting backcourt of Rosenkrantz and Johnson went a combined 4-18 from the field and 2-9 from downtown. I think that we can expect a heavily bolded, italicized, and all-caps rant from OurHouse sometime in the near future.

Of course, his boy Sean Dwyer had 7 turnovers.

You know why, Bob? Not enough HUSTLE and DESIRE and EFFORT and WORK ETHIC and FOCUS and TENACITY and POSITIVE THINKING and CLEAN LIVING and PURITY OF ESSENCE and HE DIDN'T EAT HIS WHEATIES FOR BREAKFAST THIS MORNING.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Looks like Millikin can still rouse itself when the Titans come to town.

My sense is that the rivalry has cooled considerably in B'town sometime after I left, but still lives hot as ever in Decatur.  IWU has apparently moved on to competitors rather than just neighbors - which occasionally will come back to bite your butt!

[Titan Q]

The IWU starting backcourt of Rosenkrantz and Johnson went a combined 4-18 from the field and 2-9 from downtown. I think that we can expect a heavily bolded, italicized, and all-caps rant from OurHouse sometime in the near future.

Of course, his boy Sean Dwyer had 7 turnovers.

You know why, Bob? Not enough HUSTLE and DESIRE and EFFORT and WORK ETHIC and FOCUS and TENACITY and POSITIVE THINKING and CLEAN LIVING and PURITY OF ESSENCE and HE DIDN'T EAT HIS WHEATIES FOR BREAKFAST THIS MORNING.

Now that is quite funny!

[Titan Q]

850 people at the Griswold tonight...

http://www.millikin.edu/athletics/mbasketball/mil-24.htm

Not bad (if accurate).  750 listed at North Central tonight and 1350 in Kenosha.