MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Titan Q]

I'm afraid it's worse than an ankle for Koschinitsky. It looked like it could be a bone on the outside of his foot.

I'm not hearing anything that sounds good.  This would be a big blow.

[markerickson]

North Park should start Joe Gonzalez.  I remember him playing two years ago and I was impressed.  Joe plays above the rim, can create a shot, and with his ball handling skills, penetrate.

North Park's guards need to learn how to defend the perimeter.  I was appalled at the number of open treys Carroll had.  In this connection, Carroll PG Hoch has great floor vision and ball handling skills.  He just keeps dribbling, and North Park repeatly failed to get in front of the ball.

I think North Park has a talented group of mobile players 6'4" and taller.  Deploy four of them and one guard.  I reiterate that you have to give Joe much more PT.  I love Schniedermeier's intensity - he deserves interior passes.  North Park must force the ball to the interior instead of having numerous players chucking up treys.  Too many of last night's trey attempts were ugly.

I arrived late so I missed Williams' first two fouls.  The last three were simply awful, awful calls.  Hoch, like Stevie D, knows how to create space from the defender by using the arm w/o the ball.  Not once did the officials call Hoch for that type of foul, to my dismay.

Carroll deserved the victory.

[REDMENFAN]

Excited to see the Red Men in action for my first time this year tomorrow night against Wisconsin-Whitewater.  Hopefully some fans turnout and not all the students leave tomorrow for Thanksgiving break.  Carthage has off all of next week, but maybe some diehards will stick around and support Carthage against 2 solid WIAC teams over the weekend.

[John Gleich]

Excited to see the Red Men in action for my first time this year tomorrow night against Wisconsin-Whitewater.  Hopefully some fans turnout and not all the students leave tomorrow for Thanksgiving break.  Carthage has off all of next week, but maybe some diehards will stick around and support Carthage against 2 solid WIAC teams over the weekend.

Despite what the preseason rankings say, there are a lot of questions in the WIAC this year.  Last year the conference was loaded with top-notch seniors, many of whom had played extensive minutes for 3-4 years (for example, in 07-08, there were only 5 seniors in the 20 man all-conference and honorable mention AC teams... last year 11/20 were seniors, which is the highest ratio in eight years).  Of the NCAA qualifying teams (Stevens Point, Whitewater, and Platteville), all three lost 3 starters and at least 4 letter winners (UWP lost 4, WW 5, and Point 6) and they have these following percentages of points/rebs/assists returning (these may be a little lower, I didn't recalculate once the rosters were finally posted): WW- 28%   29%   33%, Platteville - 55%   46%   38%, Point - Point       52%   50%   42%.  This needs to be contrasted with teams like River Falls (92%) and La Crosse (85%).

Now, the wells aren't completely dry... Point has 2 seniors and 5 juniors, Platteville has 5 seniors and 4 juniors, WW has 3 seniors and 7 juniors.  So those guys have been part of the programs and have been "waiting in the wings" but they don't have a ton of experience.  It is for guys like these that a JV program would be great, but JV programs in the WIAC are very limited (I know Platteville plays some JV games, but that's all I know of).  But I digress.

Those guys that don't have a lot of experience are going to have a game-speed learning curve.  They also will be playing with guys they haven't necessarily practiced with for the past few years and they'll likely be going against guys with more game experience.

All of that is to say that we're going to find out a lot about the perenial top dogs in the WIAC this weekend.  #10 Point (picked #1 in the WIAC and reining conference champ) plays against #16 Whitworth (picked first in the NWC, won the conf tourney last year) and #18 Puget Sound (picked second and reining conference champ) in Tacoma, and #17 Platteville (picked 4th in the WIAC) and #14 Whitewater (picked second in the WIAC) play against ORV Carthage.  #24 Oshkosh (who was picked 3rd in the league) has already lost this week to St. Norbert, who was picked first in the MWC.

I have to be honest... I still am surprized with Whitewater's ranking and slot in the WIAC.  I think it's a testament to Coach Miller, who can flat out coach, but it's a snub to La Crosse and River Falls who return so much.  But, like I said, we'll find out a lot this weekend!

[REDMENFAN]

Thanks for all the info. PointSpecial. Looking forward to a great game tomorrow night in Kenosha

[iwu70]

I've had the great pleasure of seeing the Titan's first two wins at the Shirk and very much look forward to the two games this weekend, esp. with Wash U coming into town.  My impressions so far are that the starting line-up could well be something very different in a few weeks.  Given the performances to date, I just don't see how you keep Sean Dwyer and Ryan Connolly out of the starting line-up.  The Titans need rebouding and tougher perimeter defense and these guys have really shown they can provide this.  Connolly has been a superb addition and surprise in the first two games . . . with good passing, a nice touch, good floor vision, and strong FT shooting.  With Koschinitsky's injury now, looks like Zimmer would get the minutes.  He's a great shooter, but a poor defender so far.  If I were in Ron Rose's shoes, (which I'm not), I'd go with the three guards, Sexauer and Connolly.  O'Callaghan and Koschinitsky have not had strong games to date.  Sean Johnson is quick, smooth and can shoot lights out.  Sexauer is so good around the basket, strong with rebounding, but I do worry that he is really not enough of a bruiser when the big guys come to town, when the CCIW schedules really begins to bang in earnest.  I must admit that watching the JV squad made me think that a few of those guys are really able to contribute to the varsity now.  Several have truly CCIW style bodies and muscles and could help with rebounding and enforcing that may be needed.  I was especially impressed with Rudnicki, Schouten, Kevin Reed and especially Tyler Bontemps -- all solid, very skilled players.  The JV score last eve was 95-43.  You have to wonder if several of these bigtime bodies, strong rebounders may find their way up further and into the regular rotation.  They clearly looked stronger, more skilled to me than O'Callaghan and Koschinistsky to date.  Just my humble opinion.   Most impressed so far with Sexauer around the hoop, with the incredibly strong play of Connolly and his great upside.  I think a different mix will be on the court in the coming 3-4 weeks.  Really look forward to watching it all develop.  Great depth to be sure.  Schick and Lawson have both played consistently and well.  Second group clearly outplayed the starters last night. 

[Titan Q]

The Titans suffer a big blow as 6-6 sophomore starter John Koschnitzky will miss 6 weeks with a broken foot.  Fortunately IWU has a lot of depth, and 6-5 Jordan Zimmer is a very good player.  But Koschnitzky brought athleticism, defense, and rebounding to the floor for IWU.  Obviously, this also hurts the bench since Zimmer will now be a starter.

Maybe a bigger loss than most realize at this point just in terms of how it impacts the entire rotation.  And last year, Koschnitzky was right there in the discussion of best freshman in the CCIW with Tim McCrary...he was poised for a solid sophomore year.

Not sure if the Titans will just go with a 9-man rotation now, or if a new player be added to the mix.

[Titan Q]

Article on Koschnitzky...

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/illinois-wesleyan/article_bd77c072-d58c-11de-b298-001cc4c002e0.html

[REDMENFAN]

Here's the preview in the paper about Carthage's round robin tournament over the weekend featuring Wisconsin Whitewater, Wisconsin Plattville, and Aurora

http://www.kenoshanews.com/sports/red_men_take_on_top_talent_6786326.html

[mwunder]

Question for the board....I noticed on Carthage's schedule that they have a few 4:30pm Saturday starts.  Is this a new CCIW scheduling mandate or a 1 year quirk? 

I don't remember 4:30 Saturday starts last season.

[REDMENFAN]

From what I've heard, the CCIW this year will be playing Womens and Mens games back to back this year for conference games.  That may have something to do with it.

[Gregory Sager]

The Titans suffer a big blow as 6-6 sophomore starter John Koschnitzky will miss 6 weeks with a broken foot.  Fortunately IWU has a lot of depth, and 6-5 Jordan Zimmer is a very good player.  But Koschnitzky brought athleticism, defense, and rebounding to the floor for IWU.  Obviously, this also hurts the bench since Zimmer will now be a starter.

IWU will not only lose Koshnitzky's rebounding and defense -- he wasn't all that great a defender when I saw him last year, but he was certainly better than Zimmer -- it also loses some dynamism from the offense. Zimmer's a better shooter than Koshnitzky -- I think we're all agreed that Zimmer's an exemplary marksman, even though quite a few of us disagree with your assessment that he's "a very good player" by CCIW standards at this point -- but he doesn't put the ball on the floor and drive to the basket. Koshnitzky could, and did, do that, and he did it quite well for an underclassman player of his size. Since Johnson isn't a penetrator either, that leaves the two point guards as the only real threats for the Titans to take defenders off the dribble. An offense that has only one player on the floor who can penetrate is a pretty static one -- although if the other team doesn't play defense, one penetrator is sufficient (see: North Park vs. Carroll on Wednesday night).

It's not a good start to the year for small forwards, as NPU's Kendall Greer is likely to miss all of the Vikings' November games with his foot injury.

And last year, Koschnitzky was right there in the discussion of best freshman in the CCIW with Tim McCrary...he was poised for a solid sophomore year.

Roshawn Russell was a part of that conversation as well. It was easy to overlook him, given how terribly NPU performed as a team in CCIW play, but he had a pretty remarkable freshman season: 14.4 ppg in CCIW play (seventh in the league), 3.36 apg (fifth in the league), .905 ft% (best in the league), 1.6 a:to (fifth in the league), and he set the school record for single-season ft%, finishing with the same .905 percentage overall that he shot in CCIW play.

Question for the board....I noticed on Carthage's schedule that they have a few 4:30pm Saturday starts.  Is this a new CCIW scheduling mandate or a 1 year quirk? 

I don't remember 4:30 Saturday starts last season.

The CCIW is mandating Saturday women's/men's doubleheaders as a cost-cutting move; the men's and women's teams will be sharing buses on those Saturday road trips. Where long travel distances are involved (Augustana, Carthage, and Millikin in particular), Saturday women's games are more likely to be 2 pm starts and Saturday men's games are more likely to be 4:30 pm starts to make the travel hours more reasonable.

[Titan Q]

Since Johnson isn't a penetrator either, that leaves the two point guards as the only real threats for the Titans to take defenders off the dribble.

Greg, Sean Johnson has actually become a pretty good penetrator.  He's already shot 11 FT's on the season (in 2 games), and most of those attempts have come via dribble penetration.  Johnson's biggest strength is certainly his ability to shoot the basketball, but I think you'd be surprised to know how much he puts it on the floor.

[tjcummingsfan]

North Park wins 84-69 over Dominican. 

[Titan Q]

A quote from Bosko Djurickovic from the preseason online chat:

"the key word in our building is rebound, we have been killed on the boards the last couple of years ,these freshman are not tall but they are strong and wide and will be a major upgrade on the boards"

The Red Men were out-rebounded by 16 tonight in their loss to UW-Whitewater.