MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[AndOne]

Failure to communicate?     

[dansand]

Well Augie, not surprisingly, got a good test up at Platteville last night. The Pioneers won both halves, 37-32 and 37-31.

The Vikings went with the starting lineup that I predicted to one of the parents earlier this week:

1. Brian DeSimone
2. Matt Pelton
3. Troy Rorer
4. George Dexter
5. Kyle Nelson

The offense is ahead of the defense at this point. I thought, for the most part, they executed the offense pretty well, getting the opportunities they wanted. Unfortunately they missed several layups in the first half and 10 free throws in the two halves combined. But, they shot 48% (only 1-for-8 from 3, though), got to the line 28 times, only turned it over 11 times and won the rebounding battle, 28-24.

Individually, Kyle Nelson had 15 and, like others on here have predicted, looks like he's going to have a big year. Troy Rorer had 13 and Matt Pelton had 10.

There's work to do defensively. UWP, who's very good and very experienced on the perimeter, was really efficient on offense, especially in the second half. UWP's Mike Shaw really lit it up in the first half with 17 points. He finished with 25. Curt Hanson and Nick Allen are very good also and were in double figures. With the loss of Jeff Skemp, the Pioneers don't have the post presence they had last year, but Eric Wall did a nice job inside for them. I think he had about a dozen points and nine boards. I think the Pioneers got all their points from six players.

All-in-all a great test. The youngsters looked great at times and like youngsters at others. No surprise there.

Dan, do you know what happened to Jon Demoss?   I noticed he was removed from Augie's roster page in the last week or so.

Izzy---

Great observation, and very good question. Hopefully Dan or one of the other Augie fans will have an answer for us. Very interesting.

AndOne, I just heard that Demoss left the team and school after one week of practice.

That's correct. Sorry I didn't respond yesterday. I was tied up at football and soccer all day. Like Izzy said, Jon lasted about a week. I'm not sure whether he wants to continue playing hoops or not. I've heard speculation he may be headed to Iowa.

[Titan Q]

Looking at CCIW non-conference schedules, and trying to evaluate who has the toughest and who the weakeast.  

Everyone plays at least 4 "weak teams."  In an effort to rank the schedules, I threw out what I considered to be each team's worst 4 and evaluated based on the toughest 7 non-conference games.  Note, I did not do any research on these non-conference opponents, but just ranked based on what I know about each...I certainly could be off.  (I also had to make a few guesses with tournament pairings.)  But I came up with...

Wheaton (#1)
1 Wash U
2 Cal Lutheran
3 Ohio Northern or McMurry
4 Calvin
5 Hope
6 Loras
7 Chicago

(Trine, Grinnell, Hamline, Pomona-Pitzer)

Augustana (#2)
1 Gonzaga
2 Wash U
3 UW-Whitewater
4 Buena Vista
5 Chicago
6 Anderson
7 Simpson

(Beloit, MacMurray, Knox, Monmouth)

Carthage (#3)
1 UW-Platteville
2 UW-Whitewater
3 Calvin
4 Hope
5 Transylvania
6 Wilkes
7 Concordia (WI)

(Wisconsin Lutheran, Indiana-Northwest, Calumet Coll of St. Joseph, King's)

Illinois Wesleyan (#4)
1 Wash U
2 Trinity (Tx)
3 Manchester
4 Chicago
5 Southwestern
6 Benedictine
7 Webster

(Johnson & Wales, Monmouth, MacMurray, Illinois College)

Elmhurst (#5)
1 UW-Stevens Point
2 UW-LaCrosse
3 Chapman
4 St. Norbert
5 Aurora
6 Westminster
7 Fontbonne

(Hamline, Redlands, Kalamazoo, Simpson)

Millikin (#6)
1 Missouri Baptist
2 Mary Hardin-Baylor
3 Maryville (Mo)*
3 Maryville (Mo)*
5 Franklin
6 Aurora
7 Rose-Hulman
* will probably play twice

(Eureka, Adrian, Webster, TBD)

North Central (#7)
1 Mississippi College
2 Albion
3 Benedictine
4 Franklin
5 Aurora
6 Lake Forest
7 Illinois College

(Oberlin, Indiana Institute of Technology, Rockford, Adrian)

North Park (#8)
1 UW-Superior
2 Carroll
3 Milwaukee School of Engineering
4 Trine
5 Dominican
6 Trinity International
7 Spalding

(Concordia-IL, East-West, Cal Tech, Whittier)

[Titan Q]

Each season I prepare a season preview for IWUhoops.com  Here is the 2009-10 version...

http://www.iwuhoops.com/prev10.htm

[Titan Q]

Illinois College beat SIU-Edwardsville last night...

http://www.siuecougars.com/sports/m-baskbl/recaps/110709aaa.html

I know SIU-E isn't very good, but wow.

[kenoshamark]

Carthage scrimmaged tonight at home against a Lithuatian travel squad.  Final score was Carthage 89 and Lithuania 66.   Halftime score was 32 to 30 Carthage.   Carthage started Steve, Cody Hilton, Max Cary, Tyler Pierce and Raul Guzman.   Fendley was not dressed so not sure about his availability.   Obviously he would probably slip in where Hilton played so going in the season opener next week, I think it is now evident who would start this year.   

The first two subs for Carthage were Adam Tolo and freshman, Malcom Kelly.  Those seven played until the last two minutes of the half when senior, Richard Williams came in along with two other freshmen, Mitch Thompson and Ben Potter. 

The second half continued with the same seven man rotation until late in the game when Bosko cleared the bench.

Key observations:
1)   The two freshmen big men can play.   Guzman doesn't look like your prototypical ball player but once the game went on, you can see he is really a good basketball player.  He can put the ball on the floor, shoot with nice range out to twenty feet and made a couple of nice passes.  Pierce is very strong and well built for a freshman.   He is not afraid to attack the rim but also can knock down the free throw line jumper.  They both had a few mistakes you would expect....plays that were perhaps easy to finish in high school that now require an adjustment to the college speed. 
2)   Max Cary is really coming on as a player.  He led the team in scoring in the first half and knocked down three treys along with two nice drives to the hoop.  This on top of some nice rebounds and all around hustle.
3)   Steve was pretty quiet in the first twenty minutes choosing to be more of a facilitator.  He came on nicely in the second half with his quickness getting to the rim and drawing the foul.   As is evidenced by the disparity in the score between halves, once Steve starting scoring, it seemed like it opened it up for the rest of the team too.  Still, it was nice to see the team move the ball around tonight without everything running through Steve like it did so much of last year.
4)   Malcom Kelly is going to be a nice role player this year and could really be something down the road.   He wasn't on the radar as far as some of the other recruits but he is extremely well built and can explode by people unlike any other freshman guard they have recruited in the past five plus years (Steve being the exception).   Also, Mitch Thompson looked very good in limited minutes.
5)   I know, everyone would like to hear about the competition.   Little hard to gauge as they only suited up eight players.   You could tell a couple of them were some ex-college players who had been out for a couple years.   I would say they had three CCIW starting caliber players with one being a first/second team type all-conference level player.   He was quite good and with a better cast, maybe real good.  I did talk to what appeared to be some parents from the team but without a translator, didn't make much progress getting info.   It did sound like one of the players was actually a high school player.    Nonetheless, they played hard and were fairly proficient at hitting shots when they were open.

What I would take from this scrimmage is the quality of ball players that Bosko was able to bring in this year is as good as it has been since the Wiertel, McDaniel and Garnes era.   Nobody that is as good as anyone of them but as a group (of which five of them played in the first ten man rotation) they will provide Carthage with a very bright future if they stay the four years. 

[Gregory Sager]

4)   Malcom Kelly is going to be a nice role player this year and could really be something down the road.   He wasn't on the radar as far as some of the other recruits but he is extremely well built and can explode by people unlike any other freshman guard they have recruited in the past five plus years (Steve being the exception).

Kelly's bio says that he's 23 years old and spent three years in the military, so I would expect him to be at a different level physically than the typical 18-year-old plebe.

[kenoshamark]

Greg,

No question those extra years would make a difference but he is much stronger looking than your typical senior guard.  I'd say he is built along the lines of Sean Dwyer and maybe an inch or two taller.   

Just another note on Kelly, since the Lithuanian team appeared to have gotten to the gym a bit later than what was expected, Carthage spent some extra time in a layup line which turned into a dunking contest.   Although there were some impressive dunks by the big men, if someone wanted to bet and give me Kelly against the field, I'm all in.

[Titan Q]

Greg,

No question those extra years would make a difference but he is much stronger looking than your typical senior guard.  I'd say he is built along the lines of Sean Dwyer and maybe an inch or two taller.   

Just another note on Kelly, since the Lithuanian team appeared to have gotten to the gym a bit later than what was expected, Carthage spent some extra time in a layup line which turned into a dunking contest.   Although there were some impressive dunks by the big men, if someone wanted to bet and give me Kelly against the field, I'm all in.

Mark, a dunk only counts two points.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Greg,

No question those extra years would make a difference but he is much stronger looking than your typical senior guard.  I'd say he is built along the lines of Sean Dwyer and maybe an inch or two taller.   

Just another note on Kelly, since the Lithuanian team appeared to have gotten to the gym a bit later than what was expected, Carthage spent some extra time in a layup line which turned into a dunking contest.   Although there were some impressive dunks by the big men, if someone wanted to bet and give me Kelly against the field, I'm all in.

Mark, a dunk only counts two points.

Will Denny charge you royalties for that one?

[kenoshamark]

Bob,

Well played...

[Titan Q]

IWU has its final preseason scrimmage this evening - 7:00pm @ Aurora.  (I believe the two teams are scheduled to do some halfcourt stuff starting at 6:45, with the 1st half of the scrimmage at 7:00.)

The Titans have a busy first week...

Sun, Nov 15 - vs Benedictine
Wed, Nov 18 - vs Webster
Sat, Nov 21 - vs Johnson & Wales
Sun, Nov 22 - vs Wash U or Ohio Wesleyan

[Titan Q]

Olivet Nazarene won @ NAIA I #11 Union last night...

http://www.uu.edu/athletics/events/stats.cfm?ID=2930

Interested to see what they do @ Eastern Illinois tonight.  Seems like Ralph Hodge has a powerhouse this year.  This will be the first time in 15+ years IWU and ONU don't play.

[OurHouse]

IWU has its final preseason scrimmage this evening - 7:00pm @ Aurora.  (I believe the two teams are scheduled to do some halfcourt stuff starting at 6:45, with the 1st half of the scrimmage at 7:00.)

The Titans have a busy first week...

Sun, Nov 15 - vs Benedictine
Wed, Nov 18 - vs Webster
Sat, Nov 21 - vs Johnson & Wales
Sun, Nov 22 - vs Wash U or Ohio Wesleyan

All CRAP teams except for the last one
MMW

[John Gleich]

IWU has its final preseason scrimmage this evening - 7:00pm @ Aurora.  (I believe the two teams are scheduled to do some halfcourt stuff starting at 6:45, with the 1st half of the scrimmage at 7:00.)

The Titans have a busy first week...

Sun, Nov 15 - vs Benedictine
Wed, Nov 18 - vs Webster
Sat, Nov 21 - vs Johnson & Wales
Sun, Nov 22 - vs Wash U or Ohio Wesleyan

All CRAP teams except for the last one
MMW

Great cannon fodder to get the kinks out.