MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[AndOne]

Nice to start the year off with a road win.  IWU's center platoon did a lot of damage...

Doug Sexauer: 23 pts (11-12 FG)
Ryan Connolly: 10 pts (4-6 FG)

Dan Schouten had 9 big 2nd half points.  Sean Johnson finished with 12, Jordan Zimmer had 10 & 5, and Sean Dwyer dished out 9 assists.  Travis Rosenkranz (9 pts, 3 assists) quietly had a nice game...made 2 FT's and a basket in the final minutes to help close it out.

Sounds like IWU just had too much size and depth for NCC.  Although, it sounded like there were some tough matchups on the defensive end of the floor for the Titans, with NCC being so much smaller and quicker.  Interestingly, IWU shot the ball 10 less times from the field and 10 less times from the FT line...and still led the final 35 minutes or so (and fairly comfortably most of the way).

Wow does Derek Raridon sound good...34 points in his first career CCIW game.  David Twyman had a big game too - 24 points.  Reid Barringer finished with just 5 points.

Unfortunately I have to go shovel to driveway now (although I can't complain since it's the first time I've had to shovel in 2 years in Columbia, Mo.).

Somehow I doubt the 25th ranked team in the country anticipated winning by only a 5 point margin over the team picked to finish 7th in conference. And, while the Titans were taller, deeper, and more experienced that the Cardinals in the middle, the Titan center platoon was not the primary reason for their victory last night in Naperville. If the Cards shoot just 4 of 13 on 3 pointers, Wesleyan loses.

The Cardinal game plan foresaw Doug Sexauer getting about the number of points he garnered. The hope was that he would have to take a few more shots to do so. Also, Ryan Connolly, who I think has an impressively nice touch around the basket to go with his size, was also virtually unstopable. However, Connolly, in scoring right at about his average, was also not part of one of the primary reasons for the Titan victory.
Rather, the 2 main reasons the Wesleyan 5 emerged victorious were.
1. Dan Schouten. While almost all the Titans besides Sexauer, again whose output was expected, scored at or below their averages, Schouten scored 5 points above his average, and 5 points was the difference in the game.
2. An off night shooting for the NCC guards. And, no, the poor shooting wasn't really due to superior defense, but rather a failure to either get, or try to get, to the basket, and just plain poor marksmanship.   

The much taller Titans collected only 3 more rebounds that their vertically challenged hosts, and the smaller, quicker Cardinals were able to force 17 TOs, including 5 by Sean Johnson who appeared quite frustrated in only being able to get off two 3 point shots, neither successfully. The Cardinals received superlative efforts from Derek Raridon, David Twyman, and Brian Evans, all 3 of whom had career high scoring games with 34, 24. and 16 points respectively. For Raridon. it was the 7th game in a row where he has scored more than 20 points. Evans, at only 6'3", going against the Wesleyan sequoias, also had a game high 8 rebounds. Again, these 3 unfortunately got little or no support.

   

1) The NCC coach is not good and, 2) Sexauer took his son to school

MMW's

Our--

Mars is a long way away so I can understand where your vision of reality might be a little obscured from such a distance. And only someone from Mars could make such an, as petemcb aptly put it, inane statement.

Lets look a little closer at the 2 parts of your statement:
1. "The NCC coach (Todd Raridon) is not good." Nope, among other accomplishments, he has only been to the national tournament 8 times in his career, the final four 4 times, and the national championship game once. Additionally, he haa only been to the CCIW conference tourney 3 of the 4 years it has been in existence, and has only won it once. Piss poor for sure.
2. "Sexauer took his son to school." Derek Raridon did not cover Sexauer AT ALL in the game Wed night. Derek's primary defensive assignment was Edmond (6 points) O'Callaghan. Derek was primarily guarded by Jordan Zimmer. Not only did Derek take HIM to school, but did so with such ease that it appeared Zimmer's feet were glued to the floor. When Zimmer was "resting" the defensive assignment on Derek fell to Stephen Rudnicki who was sent into the game with the instructions that he had 5 fouls to use. In other words Rudnicki's main purpose in the game was to foul Derek in an attempt to slow him down. Rudnicki  played his role to the fullest hacking Raridon the allotted 5 times in only 11 minutes.
Those, son, are the facts. Live with it.  

[Titan Q]

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/illinois-wesleyan/article_51b2b3ac-fcc8-11de-9012-001cc4c002e0.html


"Derek Raridon was awfully good the other night, and I've experienced how good Steve Djurickovic is first hand," Wesleyan coach Ron Rose said. "We need to get some older coaches in the league whose sons are in their 30s."

[Mr. Ypsi]

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/illinois-wesleyan/article_51b2b3ac-fcc8-11de-9012-001cc4c002e0.html


"Derek Raridon was awfully good the other night, and I've experienced how good Steve Djurickovic is first hand," Wesleyan coach Ron Rose said. "We need to get some older coaches in the league whose sons are in their 30s."

Nice line!

BTW, does Coach Rose have any sons?

[Or daughters - I've become quite a fan of the Titan women, too! ]

[mr_b]

top four that i've seen in person

2- Jim VanDeCastele's second-round buzzer beater versus Glenville State in the 2nd round of the NAIA Tournament in 1972 (or was it 1974?)

This website shows a second-round score of Augustana 76, Glenville State 75 in 1972.

[AndOne]

Is Augie freshman Luke Scarlata injured?  I recently heard he was out for the season, but I have no idea how credible the info is.

Stress fracture in his foot. 4-6 weeks.

Any word on whether Brandon Kunz from Lake Zurich will get any of his minutes?  The couple of times I saw him in high school, he looked like he could be a CCIW stud at some point.

Here is Augie's 4/5 rotation vs North Park...

Starters:
Kyle Nelson (6-9 Jr) - 28 min
Terrence Green (6-10 Sr) - 10 min

Reserves:
George Dexter (6-7 Fr) - 14 min
Kameron Norton (6-6 Fr) - 18 min
Brandon Kunz (6-7 Fr) - 11 min

http://www.augustana.edu/athletics/mbasketball/stats/2009-10/10mbb12.htm

No doubt Brandon Kunz is getting a good education at Augie, but from a basketball standpoint, he is one of those kids who should have gone with his 2nd choice, where he could have also gotten a good education and played a lot more sooner rather than later.

[AndOne]

Looking at the stats, I'd agree with And One on his NCC analysis.  As a Titan fan, any time you can walk out of the Hangar with a "W" it's a good evening.

NCC may not finish the CCIW in the top two or three but it will be in the mix.  I would not be all that surprised to see NCC in the conference tournament. This current Cardinals team just seems to lack a little depth but the potential seems to be there.

Thanks IWU. And, just for anyone who read my original post and thought I might not know what I was talking about (I know that often includes a multitude of posters), let me say the North Central coaching staff is in complete agreement with what I said.

[titanhammer]

Someone sent me an audio file today of the final moments of the final game between Illinois Wesleyan and Illinois State (January of 1970).  This article by an IWU student helps frame all of the emotion leading up to the game...  

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

And that WJBC audio of the final seconds...

http://www.iwuhoops.com/iwuisu.mp3


As IWU looks back at 100 years of men's basketball, I have to believe this moment was near the top.  I wasn't born when this game was played, but kind of feel like I was one of the 7000 at Horton Fieldhouse that day...I've heard so many various stories about it.  Tom Gramkow became an instant IWU legend.

Young Mr. Tom played with us at noon today.  I was quite impressed with his performance of getting up and down the court...along with his accuracy from medium and long range.

Dennis, great memory of that poster in Fred Young of "the shot".

[Titan Q]

Saw some photos from the IWU/NCC game and it struck me how much stronger 6-7 Doug Sexauer is since his freshman year...

Doug Sexauer - freshman year (7.6 ppg, 3.1 rpg)

Doug Sexauer - junior year (15.7 ppg, 6.2 rpg)........Photo 2



I think these paint a pretty good picture of why it's so hard for freshman low-post players to make an impact.  So few come in strong enough to bang down down.

[bigz61550]

Someone sent me an audio file today of the final moments of the final game between Illinois Wesleyan and Illinois State (January of 1970).  This article by an IWU student helps frame all of the emotion leading up to the game...  

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

And that WJBC audio of the final seconds...

http://www.iwuhoops.com/iwuisu.mp3


As IWU looks back at 100 years of men's basketball, I have to believe this moment was near the top.  I wasn't born when this game was played, but kind of feel like I was one of the 7000 at Horton Fieldhouse that day...I've heard so many various stories about it.  Tom Gramkow became an instant IWU legend.

I was finishing a graduate degree at ISU in 1970 and attended this game along with several other math grad assistants at ISU.  They were all over me because I had graduated from Wheaton a year before and the other grad assistants told me IWU had no chance.  This was the one of few times I really cheered for IWU.  Later, my two daughters graduated from IWU and I enjoyed the great IWU teams of the 90's..  It was a lot of fun to rub IWU's win in my co-workers faces for about a week. 

At that time, ISU was moving toward the big time with coach Will Robinson and Doug Collins... losing to IWU didn't help ISU recruiting much and that's the primary reason they dropped the game.  It is much the same today with Illinois not scheduling most of the nearby "mid-majors" for the same reason.  Bradley made their season in a Las Vegas tournament this year when they were able to play and beat Illinois.  So far, that is the highlight of their season.

The previous year ISU played in the small school NCCA championship in Evansville and lost to Evansville... this the same tournament that CCIW schools would have been part of at that time if they were NCCA members.

[AndOne]

Saw some photos from the IWU/NCC game and it struck me how much stronger 6-7 Doug Sexauer is since his freshman year...

Doug Sexauer - freshman year (7.6 ppg, 3.1 rpg)

Doug Sexauer - junior year (15.7 ppg, 6.2 rpg)........Photo 2



I think these paint a pretty good picture of why it's so hard for freshman low-post players to make an impact.  So few come in strong enough to bang down down.

No doubt Sexauer's improved performance stems, in part, from his increased strength. He appears to have also refined his footwork thus enhancing his mobility. Doug came to Wesleyan as one of the few high school players who was good with his back to the basket, unlike many HS bigs who need to be facing up to be at their most efficient level of play. With his increased strength and moves, Doug is certainly a load. He especially presents a very decided advantage over less experienced defenders. This summer, I predicted 1st team all conference status for Doug, and I hold to that prediction.

Also, as long as I'm on the subject of player analysis, I wouldn't be surprised to see Dan Scouten eventually replace Edmond O'Callaghan in the Titan lineup. Scouten is a much better overall player. He can both put it on the floor a little, and go outside and hit his shot, including threes. Additionally, I doubt Dan Scouten is even at full strength as far as his overall basketball conditioning and just plain physical strength is concerned as he just returned to the lineup this season following nearly 2 years of inactivity following surgeries to both of his shoulders. O'Callaghan is a decent rebounder, but thats about all he can do. He doesn't handle the ball well, has trouble making a basket beyond 5 feet away, and is a poor defender. Ron Rose may continue to start him as he might like how he fits with the other Wesleyan starters, but I wouldn't be surprised if Scouten sees more minutes per game from here on out even if O'Callaghan continues in a starting role.

[petemcb]

Does anybody know what has happened to the Saturday JV games so far?  Will any of today's Chicagoland games feature a JV game before the women's game?  I'm just wondering what the possibility of attending my first triple-header on one campus would be....

[robberki]

Just a reminder to check out the North Park basketball game this afternoon. I will be making my dramatic return to the mic today...check us out at 4:30 http://www.audiosportsonline.net/NorthPark/2009Basketball.htm

Be there or be a trapezoid!

[Gregory Sager]

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/illinois-wesleyan/article_51b2b3ac-fcc8-11de-9012-001cc4c002e0.html


"Derek Raridon was awfully good the other night, and I've experienced how good Steve Djurickovic is first hand," Wesleyan coach Ron Rose said. "We need to get some older coaches in the league whose sons are in their 30s."

Oddly enough, Bosko's either 57 or 58 years old and is the oldest coach in the league.

[Gregory Sager]

The previous year ISU played in the small school NCCA championship in Evansville and lost to Evansville... this the same tournament that CCIW schools would have been part of at that time if they were NCCA members.

That '69 Illinois State team beat CCIW champion North Park in the second round of the NCAA College Division tournament.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Final in Bloomington: IWU 79, Carthage 69.

A Sean Dwyer buzzer-beater gave IWU the halftime lead, 32-31.  The Titans never trailed in the second half, going up by as much as 15.  Doug Sexauer led the way wwith 24 points on 10 of 11 shooting (Sean Johnson added 19).  Steve Djurickovic was off most of the game (at one point shooting 3 of 14); he finally came alive, making 5 of his last 7 shots for 22 points, but it was too little, too late.