MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[dansand]

So 3 of the preseason top 4 have already lost key projected starters...

Wheaton (Garriott)
Augustana (Voiles)
IWU (Koschnitzky)

Although not injury-related, Carthage also lost Sean Fendley.

[AndOne]

For the 2nd time in as many games, the North Central Cardinals ventured into overtime.
Following Tuesday's 3 OT marathon against Aurora, which saw NCC emerge with a 119-118 victory, the Cardinals played another OT session on Sat night against the Illinois College Blue Boys in Naperville. And, they shot their way to victory again, this  time by a 92-86 score. In the Aurora game, the Cards blew a 12 point 1st half lead. Against Illinois College, they clawed their way all the way back after being down 29-8 at the 10 minute mark of the 1st half, and still trailing by 19 with only 4 minutes left. Two Reid Barringer threes enabled the Cards to cut the halftime deficit to 41-30.

The Cards continued their comeback in the 2nd half, finally drawing even on a Brian Evans basket at 13:43. However, the Blue Boys then went on a 9 point run. North Central refused to buckle, and again chipped away until a 3 pointer by Kyle Julius finally gave the Cardinals their first lead of the game with only 43 seconds left in regulation.
Evans then hit 1 of 2 free throws with 9 seconds remaining to increase the Cardinal lead to two, but IC forward David Stewart drove the lane and was fouled with only 1 second left. By canning both shots, he sent the game to OT where the Cardinals, while surrendering 16 points, exploded for 22 in the 5 minute session.  

Largely responsible in the Cards comeback was their 3/4 court press which resulted in the Blue Boys taking repeated unexpected and unsuccessful quick shots. NCC's vastly improved 2nd half defensive pressure, both on the interior and around the perimeter resulted in dropping the Blue Boys' overall shooting percentage from 57.1 in the 1st half to 43.5 in the second. Their 3 point percentage was correspondingly reduced from 42.9 in the opening half to 20 in the 2nd stanza.

Operating under a longer is better theory, North Central fired 32 from downtown, connecting on 10 while IC was 7 of 21 from beyond the arc.
The NCC scoring was led by Kyle Julius with 31 (after 24 at Aurora on Tues), Next was freshman Derek Raridon with 24 (following 27 at Aurora). David Twyman and Reid Barringer both added 12. All of Barringer's tallies came on threes. He now has 180 for his career which establishes a new North Central career record for 3 pointers made. Twyman turned in an outstanding all around game, registering a double-double with a game high 12 boards to go along with his 12 points. Many of his rebounds came while battling several taller Blue Boys. Twyman's strong game was further enhanced with 5 assists.
Jonny Knapczyk directed the offense, dished out 5 helpers of his own, and contributed 4 points including 2 huge free throws in the OT period.
Brian Evans, who hasn't missed a shot from the field since opening night, added 7 points and strong defense.    

[Titan Q]

The Pantagraph called Sean Johnson's game-winner 40 feet.  I guess he was near the center circle when he let it go...

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/basketball/men/article_eca24746-dd61-11de-8983-001cc4c03286.html

[Titan Q]

Through the first two weeks of the non-conference season, CCIW teams are 23-10 (.697).

[Hoosier Titan]

The Pantagraph called Sean Johnson's game-winner 40 feet.  I guess he was near the center circle when he let it go...

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/basketball/men/article_eca24746-dd61-11de-8983-001cc4c03286.html

It was taken from a few steps over the half-court line.  As you mentioned earlier, it was almost a carbon copy of Dauksas's shot to send a game against Elmhurst into overtime in 2006. 

[John Gleich]

The Pantagraph called Sean Johnson's game-winner 40 feet.  I guess he was near the center circle when he let it go...

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/basketball/men/article_eca24746-dd61-11de-8983-001cc4c03286.html

The reported crowd at the Shirk was 375.  We all know about IWU's usual attendance numbers...  is that a record low crowd?

[Titan Q]

The Pantagraph called Sean Johnson's game-winner 40 feet.  I guess he was near the center circle when he let it go...

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/basketball/men/article_eca24746-dd61-11de-8983-001cc4c03286.html

The reported crowd at the Shirk was 375.  We all know about IWU's usual attendance numbers...  is that a record low crowd?

It has to be a low in the history of the building (this is the 16th season).  IWU's attendance this season has been awful so far.  Bad timing of a few games has contributed to that to some degree (for whatever reason, no one ever comes to Sunday games, and there have been 3 so far).  But still, compared to similar type games/dates in past years, attendance is way down.  Most notably absent has been the students.  

I think the regular crowds will be back come CCIW time.

[Dennis_Prikkel]

NPU vs Spalding.

NPU can be very frustrating to watch - one minute there is athleticism galore and the next minute its like they need a primer in basketball fundamentals.

Team Defense:
North Park plays none - zero - some of the guys are better athletically then others, but overall its a goose egg.

Rebounding:
Athleticism versus knowing how to rebound - NPU player almost always have no clue how to get position or to block out their opponents.  More than anything else North Park's failure to protect its defensive board let Spalding back in the game.

Offense:
No one - other than the two post players, knows where there shot is supposed to come from.

Roshawn Russel looks lost.  He now has absolutely no shot at all.  The fall-off in offensive ability from his freshman to sophomore year is near-catastrophic.

Nick Williams gave us a brief tantalizing glimpse of the star player that we all thought he would become after his dazzling all-conference sophomore season.  For one brief shining moment as he flew to the hoop for a late-game layup he looked like the unstoppable player with all the tools we saw two years ago.

North Park missed at least a dozen layups in this game because the players don't know how to lay the ball in off the glass.

Team chemistry:
None - zero - how can there be with ten or eleven guys playing signifigant minutes.  No one knows their offensive role and whose supposed to be supporting who. 

This is a team without a clue - again.  Another long year looms in CCIW play.

dgp

[Hoosier Titan]

The Pantagraph called Sean Johnson's game-winner 40 feet.  I guess he was near the center circle when he let it go...

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/basketball/men/article_eca24746-dd61-11de-8983-001cc4c03286.html

The reported crowd at the Shirk was 375.  We all know about IWU's usual attendance numbers...  is that a record low crowd?

It has to be a low in the history of the building (this is the 16th season).  IWU's attendance this season has been awful so far.  Bad timing of a few games has contributed to that to some degree (for whatever reason, no one ever comes to Sunday games, and there have been 3 so far).  But still, compared to similar type games/dates in past years, attendance is way down.  Most notably absent has been the students. 

I think the regular crowds will be back come CCIW time.

The crowd didn't feel that much smaller than it was for the other Sunday games this season, and as Q notes there have been several.  I didn't do a head count, though. 

One thing that has detracted from the attendance slightly, and from the atmosphere significantly, has been the absence of the Titan band.  They are among the most vocal supporters, and of course they're a great band.

Definitely a different feel from the heydays of a few years ago.  I agree that attendance will pick up again for the CCIW season.

[Gregory Sager]

Nobody reported this yesterday, but Elmhurst erased a double-digit first-half deficit and beat Redlands on Sunday, 94-87, in the Bulldogs' gym out west in California's Inland Empire. Dustin Bainter and Aaron Schroeder led the 'jays with career highs of 26 and 16, respectively. Zach Boyd had a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds.

Wes Dukeman, the 6'9 sophomore who was to be Elmhurst's designated non-guard in the starting lineup, didn't even play. Instead, Schroeder -- a 6'3, 190 junior forward who has spent most of the past two seasons playing for the Elmhurst JV -- was the "center" for the 'jays. The two biggest players to see the floor for EC were 6'6, 200 freshman Christian Dillon (17 minutes) and 6'4, 190 freshman Baile Barnett (2 minutes).

Carthage beat Wisconsin Lutheran rather easily, 72-59, in the Wisconsin Classic held up at Carroll. As Bob noted, Steve Djurickovic had a triple-double with 23 points, 13 rebounds, and 10 assists. His backcourt mate Max Cary also had a memorable day: 20 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 steals. It appears that the Red Men coasted to the win despite the fact that the three freshmen who now constitute the starting front line for Carthage only combined for 16 points and 7 rebounds between them; it was clearly the Steve and Max Show at Van Male Gym yesterday.

When was the last "triple-double" by a CCIW player?  Today in a win over Wisconsin Lutheran, Steve Djurickovic had 23 pts, 13 reb, and 10 assists.  Wow.

The last triple-double by a CCIW player that I can recall was recorded by Mookie Tharpe of North Park against IIT back in the 1996-97 season. For several years there was a Chris Martin Triple-Double Watch on this board, as the Elmhurst superstar flirted with the rare feat numerous times over the course of the mid-'00s, but he never quite made it there. It's obviously a very difficult thing to achieve in college basketball, and it's a tribute to Steve D's abilities that he pulled it off yesterday. Congratulations to him.

[BlueJay21]

Elmhurst got a win over the University of Redlands last night in California. They lost to Chapman University the night before. Here is the box score of the Redlands game:

http://www.elmhurstbluejays.com/custompages/MBB/2009-2010/melm04.htm

Dustin Bainter scored a career high 26 and junior Aaron Schroeder scored a career high 16. Schroeder has apparently been playing very well and has gotten the start in the last 2 contests, while Dukeman has not even appeared in the last 2. Obviously Coach Scherer is still trying to figure out who he wants to play before the CCIW season starts. Glad to see Bainter scoring some points again. He was a really good offensive player in High School for the Macomb Bombers.

[Gregory Sager]

Steve Djurickovic and Kyle Julius were named CCIW Co-Players of the Week today. No offense to Julius, who had very strong performances in NCC's two overtime wins last week, but I think that being forced to share the award shortchanges Djurickovic's achievement. As I said earlier this afternoon, a triple-double is an extraordinarily rare accomplishment. It was the first one in Carthage history, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if there are other CCIW programs that have never recorded even one triple-double throughout their histories.

(North Park has had two, incidentally; the one recorded by Mookie Tharpe in '96-'97 that I mentioned earlier, which followed the traditional points-rebounds-assists format, and one that All-CCIW first-team center Lars Anderson notched in 1984-85 against Carroll that is, as far as I know, the last triple-double ever recorded in a CCIW game. Anderson got his through the unusual points-rebounds-blocks format.)

North Central fans may disagree with me on this, but I think that when a player achieves something as huge as a triple-double he deserves to have the Player of the Week award all to himself.

[AndOne]

So Julius' accomplishments should be minimized due to the fact they occurred in the same week that Djurickovic registered a triple double against a team that had given up an average of 96 points per game prior to their game against Carthage?

Julius rescued the Cardinals from likely defeat 3 times in the 3 OT Aurora game, and then gave North Central their first lead of the game with only 43 seconds remaining when they had trailed by as many as 21 against Illinois College. He scored a total of 55 points in the 2 games.

Djurickovic is an All-American, and his triple double is a extraordinary accomplishment.
His exceptional performance speaks for itself, and is in no way, shape, or form diminished by his sharing the award with another player whose own fabulous achievement also surely merits recognition.

[Dennis_Prikkel]

now back away and go into your neutral corners - 

[mwunder]

So Julius' accomplishments should be minimized due to the fact they occurred in the same week that Djurickovic registered a triple double against a team that had given up an average of 96 points per game prior to their game against Carthage?

Sharing the award doesn't diminish the triple-double accomplishment as much as the editorial comment that you threw in regarding Wisconsin Lutheran's defensive capabilities.   

You almost make it seem like anyone who goes up against them should put a triple-double on the board.