MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

Because of weather conditions, the Elmhurst @ UW-LaCrosse game was moved up two hours and is currently underway. Here's the live stats link:

http://www.uwlax.edu/athletics/mbasketball/livestats/xlive.htm

[John Gleich]

LaX beats Elmhurst 76-66

[Gregory Sager]

CCIW overall: 46-28 (.622)

...	vs. D1	0-1
...	vs. D2	1-0
...	vs. NAIA-1	0-1
...	vs. NAIA-2	3-1
...	vs. other	1-0
...	vs. D3	41-25 (.621)
...	... ... ...	vs. non-region* D3	1-0
...	... ... ...	vs. in-region indies	0-1
...	... ... ...	vs. ASC	1-1
...	... ... ...	vs. HCAC	5-1
...	... ... ...	vs. IIAC	2-0
...	... ... ...	vs. MIAA	5-4
...	... ... ...	vs. MIAC	1-0
...	... ... ...	vs. MWC	8-2
...	... ... ...	vs. NAthC	5-5
...	... ... ...	vs. NCAC	1-0
...	... ... ...	vs. SCIAC	3-0
...	... ... ...	vs. SLIAC	6-3
...	... ... ...	vs. UAA	2-4
...	... ... ...	vs. WIAC	1-4

* not including MIAA and NCAC

[petemcb]

I'll second the motion. He even provided post game analysis.

Most impressive:  post-game analysis of games he didn't even attend!  Now that's worthy of some kind of award.

[Titan Q]

Final from San Antonio...

IWU 96
Trinity (Tx) 67

•   Jordan Zimmer: 28 points (10-14 FG, 5-9 3-point)
•   Sean Johnson: 15 points, 3 assists
•   Ryan Connolly: 11 points, 11 rebounds
•   Dan Schouten: 6 points, 10 rebounds

After 12 days off, the Titans returned to action with a win in opening round of the Trinity/Southwestern Holiday Classic, vs the host Tigers of Trinity.  After some travel difficulties, the Titans did not get into San Antonio until about 10:00pm last night.

Trinity led 24-22 at the 9:06 mark of the 1st half, but the Titans closed the half on a huge 34-9 run to take firm command of the game.  The Titans led 56-33 at the half and the 2nd was never close (I believe 17 was IWU's smallest lead).  

Sophomore Jordan Zimmer broke out of his shooting/scoring funk of late by registering a career high 28 points.  Good to see.  Sophomores Ryan Connolly and Dan Schouten also had big games for the Titans off the bench.

The Titans dominated the boards today, out-rebounding Trinity 42-25.  IWU shot 61.0% (36-59) from the field and 47.8% from 3 (11-23).

Trinity, a perennial Top 25 program, is in rebuilding mode this year.  Pat Cunningham's teams have won 20+ 4 years in a row now, but are struggling so far in 2009-10.  

IWU will face 8-1 Southwestern tomorrow at 2:00pm (Central).  Southwestern defeated Dominican 79-54 in the early game today, and the Pirates beat Trinity by 22 earlier in the season.

[Gregory Sager]

Illinois Wesleyan blew the doors off of Trinity TX (2-6) this afternoon, 96-67, in San Antonio. Jordan Zimmer had a big day with 28 points, while Sean Johnson added 15 and Ryan Connolly had an 11 and 11 double-double.

It's hard to believe that Trinity TX has floundered so badly. I don't think Pat Cunningham has ever had a bad team since he took over that program, and the Tigers are usually up there in or near the 20-win category. What's more, he's starting four seniors. Yet, if they hadn't played and beaten winless Schreiner twice, the Tigers would be winless themselves.

No looking a gift horse in the mouth, though. It's just great to see the CCIW win a game for a change.

[Titan Q]

It's hard to believe that Trinity TX has floundered so badly. I don't think Pat Cunningham has ever had a bad team since he took over that program, and the Tigers are usually up there in or near the 20-win category. What's more, he's starting four seniors. Yet, if they hadn't played and beaten winless Schreiner twice, the Tigers would be winless themselves.

They have also played some good teams...

vs Midwestern State (NCAA D2 #9, 12-0 currently)
vs Texas A&M-Commerce (NCAA D2, 9-2 currently)
@ Mary Hardin-Baylor (D3 5-2 currently, 19 wins last year)
vs Southwestern (D3, 8-1)
vs Illinois Wesleyan (D3, 8-2)


It doesn't sound like Trinity is very good this year, but Pat Cunninham could probably have another good record if he had replaced those good teams with cupcakes.

[Gregory Sager]

It's hard to believe that Trinity TX has floundered so badly. I don't think Pat Cunningham has ever had a bad team since he took over that program, and the Tigers are usually up there in or near the 20-win category. What's more, he's starting four seniors. Yet, if they hadn't played and beaten winless Schreiner twice, the Tigers would be winless themselves.

They have also played some good teams...

vs Midwestern State (NCAA D2 #9, 12-0 currently)
vs Texas A&M-Commerce (NCAA D2, 9-2 currently)
@ Mary Hardin-Baylor (D3 5-2 currently, 19 wins last year)
vs Southwestern (D3, 8-1)
vs Illinois Wesleyan (D3, 8-2)


It doesn't sound like Trinity is very good this year, but Pat Cunninham could probably have another good record if he had replaced those good teams with cupcakes.

Maybe, maybe not. I noticed that in their previous game the Tigers were beaten by nine by Concordia TX, which is 3-6.

Texas small-college basketball is really a self-contained world that's hard for outsiders to gauge in terms of comparisons. That's why we need Ralph Turner to tell us who's good and who isn't.

[Titan Q]

The IWU/Trinity box...

http://www.iwusports.com/custompages/MBB/MBB2010/HTML/iwumbb10.htm

[y_jack_lok]

IWU will face 8-1 Southwestern tomorrow at 2:00pm (Central).  Southwestern defeated Dominican 79-54 in the early game today, and the Pirates beat Trinity by 22 earlier in the season.

Southwestern is my wife's alma mater. Their only loss is to Rose-Hulman by 6 on 11/21, a team that Fontbonne beat by 25 on 12/15. I can't imagine IWU will have any problems tomorrow afternoon.

[Titan Q]

Southwestern is my wife's alma mater. Their only loss is to Rose-Hulman by 6 on 11/21, a team that Fontbonne beat by 25 on 12/15. I can't imagine IWU will have any problems tomorrow afternoon.

I certainly was not at the Southwestern/Rose-Hulman game, but I think it's always a little dangerous to make too much of one game.  Each season, we see examples of comparative scores that just don't add up.  For example, Wheaton got blasted at Hope...but took #1 Wash U to the final seconds. 

Wheaton shot 35% in that Hope game...was Hope's defense outstanding, or was Wheaton not knocking down shots they normally make?  Southwestern shot 7-28 from 3 vs Rose-Hulman...just a terrible shooting night for Southwestern, or is Rose just a better team? 

Each season, almost every team will have at least one game where they just flat out stink (and at least one where they play out of their mind on the good side).  I try to keep that in mind throughout the year as I vote in the D3hoops.com Top 25 poll.

I know heading into the tournament at Trinity, IWU's coaching staff felt like the Titans would face a tough test vs Southwestern based on what they saw on video.  And after seeing them today vs Dominican, the IWU fans I talked to on the trip feel like the Titans will have their hands full tomorrow vs the smaller, quicker Pirates. 

We'll see.

[Titan Q]

Definitely some interesting matchups in that IWU/Southwestern game tomorrow...

IWU (8-2)
G - Travis Rosenkranz (6-0/175, Jr.) - 7.8 ppg, 2.7 rpg, 3.4 apg
G - Sean Johnson (6-1/185, Jr.) - 15.9 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 3.4 apg
G - Jordan Zimmer (6-5/190, So.) - 10.9 ppg, 3.3 rpg
F - Doug Sexauer (6-7/225, Jr.) - 14.9 ppg, 6.0 rpg
C - Edmond O'Callaghan (6-6/200, Jr.) - 4.8 ppg, 6.0 rpg

Southwestern (8-1)
G - Anthony Cox (5-5/160, Sr.) - 8.3 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 3.6 apg
G - Nick Caputo (6-1/175, Jr.) - 12.6 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 1.3 apg
G - Travis Barber (6-1/185, Sr.) - 8.2 ppg, 4.8 rpg
G - Zach Bergstrom (6-2/175, Sr.) - 12.7 ppg, 5.7 rpg
F - Jonathan Brown (6-6/200, Jr.) - 16.2 ppg, 5.0 rpg


Style wise, I've heard Southwestern compares to previous IWU opponents U. of Chicago and Manchester.  I think the recent addition of 6-5 Dan Schouten to the rotation really helps the Titans vs teams like this (with a lot of interchangeable parts and a lot of guys who shoot the 3).  Illinois College was similar too.

I was at the last meeting of these two schoools (12/30/04 in Georgetown, TX), and the Dauksas/Amelianovich/Freeman Titans (who went on to win the CCIW at 12-2) had to go to the final minutes to knock off a Southwestern team that ended up 10-4 (2nd place) in the SCAC...

http://www.iwu.edu/~iwunews/sports/mbb2005/miwu10.htm

I have no idea how this Southwestern team compares to that one.

[Ralph Turner]

I saw that IWU had no trouble with Trinity tonight.

I think that the pecking order in this part of the country (ASC East & West, SCAC West and UDallas) is as follows:

1st tier -- Mississippi College  Solid game at North Central.  Will live by the 3FG.

Close 2nd tier -- McMurry.  (McMurry 2 road losses:  The Wheaton loss, well, let's leave it at that.  Mississippi College hit 9 of 12 3FG's in the first half. McMurry clawed back to within 6 points with 2 minutes left.  The Miss College game was the second on the road trip,  800 miles into the trip.  McMurry also beat UTD in the second game of the road trip, 800 miles into it.  McMurry had three wins that week -- Crosstown HSU at home and Ozarks and UT-Dallas on the road.  The only reason I put them here is that they swept the UOzarks/UTD road trip and UMHB lost 2.


A Close 3rd tier -- UT-Dallas/UMHB/Southwestern  (UT-Dallas has a hard loss to Austin College, and a tough home loss to McMurry after a 15-day break.  They beat UMHB at home earlier this month.  They still can put together a 20-3 South Region season, but they need to go 11-1 in the ASC-East. The Comets play at D1 UT-Arlington on Jan 2nd.)

UMHB lost to UT-D and UOzarks on that road trip but will catch Mississippi College at home.  That might even things in the West.  That road trip is only 40 miles shorter (one way) for UMHB than McMurry.  UMHB hosts Millikin this week.  I think that we get a better idea of what UMHB is like with that game.)


Southwestern may be the cream of the SCAC-West, but I think that IWU wins by at least 12 on a neutral floor.  Southwestern will play more of a midwestern-style game.  IWU should pick up a quality in-region win.  If Southwestern can beat DePauw or Centre on the road this year, then IWU might have a good in-region win, come "bracket-time".

I think that the SCAC-West is a half step behind the ASC in that Trinity got a Pool C bid last season and hosted the first round.  They edged Maryville 68-64 and then were soundly beaten 54-70 by UTD (which had the bye).  I really thought that there were 3-4 other ASC teams that were stronger than Trinity, but TU had the better OWP/OOWP, etc., and the ASC had beaten itself up.

Trinity had lost to an 18-10 Southwestern in the SCAC semi's.  Centre won the SCAC Pool A and lost to Averett at home in the first round.

[Gregory Sager]

UMHB lost to UT-D and UOzarks on that road trip but will catch Mississippi College at home.  That might even things in the West.  That road trip is only 40 miles shorter (one way) for UMHB than McMurry.  UMHB hosts Millikin this week.  I think that we get a better idea of what UMHB is like with that game.)

I wouldn't call Millikin @ Mary Hardin-Baylor a marquee matchup. Nothing that Millikin (4-5) has done thus far this season has seemed to inspire any confidence in people that the Big Blue are a force, which is why they're a unanimous choice to lose tomorrow night's game to UMHB among the fifteen participants in the CCIW pick'em contest. Then again, as I said earlier today, Texas teams are a big ol' mystery to us, which is why I'm glad we have you around!

Millikin can play defense -- the Big Blue are allowing barely 60 ppg thus far this season -- but it's a team that can't put the ball in the basket. The Big Blue averages less than 62 ppg, almost five points per game worse than the league's seventh-ranked offense, and they're also the worst in the league in each of the three shooting categories (.435 FG%, .270 3FG%, .639 FT%). Their offense is predicated upon beating opponents off the dribble and getting to the rim, so even if you're not a quick team you can sag off of them and use help defense to close down lanes and disrupt their game. They've only attempted about half as many treys as the league average, so they aren't going to focus upon making you pay if you dare them to shoot the outside shot -- and they're not really a big and strong team that'll kill you with the post-up game.

The Crusaders are averaging about 80 ppg, so if Millikin can keep the score in the 50s or low 60s, I think the Big Blue has a chance. Otherwise, it looks to me like a UMHB win.

[devildog29]

Got to see the Titans blowout win over Trinity yesterday.  Tough to judge the team on this game as Trinity was just not very good.  One thing I would add to the game that doesn't make the box or the papers, Sean Dwyer had an outstanding game.  Didn't check the stats, but he had several steals and breakaway attempts.  I don't get to see the Titans that often, but every time I have seen them over the last 4 years, Dwyer always impresses me.  He doesn't have the stats that Zimmer or Johnson had yesterday, but his defense is one of the few bright spots on that end of the court for the Titans.