MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[mr_b]

Final from the Crackerbox: North Park 74, Millikin 67

Congratulations to the Vikings on their first CCIW win of the season!

[Dennis_Prikkel]

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.

first round, 89 to 82 at valparaiso

[Gregory Sager]

North Park 74, Millikin 67

* Nick Hoekstra: 16 pts (4-4 trey)
* Davone Robinson: 13 pts, 6 rebs
* Nick Williams: 12 pts
* Emmanuel Crosby: 10 pts, 5 rebs

* Joscar Demby: 23 pts, 12 rebs
* Charles Warren: 17 pts, 9 rebs

Vikings fans have to feel good about seeing their team finally snap that 15-game CCIW losing streak. Tonight's win was the first W in league play NPU has notched since beating Illinois Wesleyan on the last day of February, 2008.

North Park led throughout the last 33 minutes of the game, and built the lead up to 13 at a couple of points, but the Vikings could never pull away from the Big Blue. I'll tell you what: Millikin may only be 6-7, 1-1, and the Big Blue will almost certainly be a second-division team this year, but nobody's going to blow them out. They are quite simply one of the toughest defensive outfits that I've seen in years. They're just so offensively challenged that they are going to have a hard time scraping together enough points to win CCIW games; a lot of their offense came on Joscar Demby putbacks (he had eight offensive boards, as the NPU forwards did a terrible job of putting a body on him whenever MU launched a shot). But even though the Big Blue won't win a lot of CCIW games, they'll be in every one of them -- that defense of theirs is just too good to allow them to get blown out.

It doesn't look like it from the field goal stats -- NPU was 26-56 (46%) from the field and MU was 28-59 (48%) from the field -- but this was a well-played game by the two defenses. The decent shooting percentages reflect the fact that both teams shot a lot of layups, but those layups mostly seemed to come late in the shot clock or on putbacks. I can't remember the last time I saw a game in which so many possessions went down into single digits on the shot clock. That sort of slow-down game would seem to favor Millikin, but NPU did a great job with drive-and-kicks, and that was the difference. North Park can shoot treys (8-13 tonight for 62%, almost all of them on drive-and-kicks), and Millikin can't (0-7 from downtown). That, and a better job than usual from the FT line by the Park (14-19, 74%), really spelled the difference.

Great job tonight by the CCIW's leading trey shooter, Nick Hoekstra, who has the Midas touch from long range this season. Shaun Collins had the game's biggest trey, though, as a 9-1 run had brought Millikin back from a 10-point deficit with six minutes to go to only a 65-63 deficit with two and a half minutes remaining. After some great ball movement, Hoekstra found Shaun Collins at the elbow and the Vikings junior knocked down a huge triple to put the Park up five, and MU never got any closer than that again.

Rob and I gave our Charcoal Delights Player of the Game award on the air to Davone Robinson, though, who played a tremendous floor game, ran the offense well, rebounded the ball well from the guard position, and made some big drives to the hole.

Great to hear "Sweet Home Chicago" playing on the crackerbox P.A. after the win ... but now the Vikings have to start thinking about how they're going to stop Derek Raridon in the airplane hangar on Wednesday.

[Moser]

Wheaton beat North Central 67-64

Wheaton:

Ben Panner- 24 points
Tim McCrary- 20 points

NCC:

Derek Raridon- 19 points
David Twyman- 17 points
Jon Knapczyk- 11 points

[thunder38]

great game tonight at king despite some very very picky officiating. there were more fouls called in the two games then i've seen in a long time. wheaton did a good job limiting raridon. he finished with 19 but really seemed to be a nonfactor on offense with most of his damage coming from the free throw line. probably the thing thats going to be overlooked in this game was the defense of ben panner. panner was locked on to barringer all night and help him to seven points, ten below his season average. and played most of the second half without picking up his fourth foul.

mccrary is the real deal and could be a dark horse candidate for POY. but wheaton's gonna need more than mccrary and panner to put the ball in the basket if they want to make a run. eseke stepped up with a couple big three's tonight but schultze and shackelford need to bring more of a contribution off the bench than they did tonight.

[Gregory Sager]

Augustana beat Elmhurst, 64-50. Pelton had 16 and DeSimone had 11 for Augie, while Bainter had 11 and Boyd had ten for the 'jays.

Augie was in control the whole way, except for a 7-0 run by EC in the waning minutes that cut a 19-point lead down to 11. But Augie went on a mini-run of its own, scoring five quick points to pretty much wrap it up.

No surprise that Augie outrebounded Elmhurst by 13 in this one. The bigger surprise is that Elmhurst only went 1-11 from treyland.

[voxelmhurst]

Ill have to do some research and get some numbers up, but one pattern I've noticed is that it seems Elmhurst wins games when Chris Childs can get rolling a bit and their losses have come in games where he has really struggled.  Tonight he was scoreless.

Freshman Mike Jackson looked promising tonight with 8 points and 8 boards for the Jays.

[Titan Q]

IWU 79
Carthage 69

http://www.iwusports.com/custompages/MBB/MBB2010/HTML/iwmbb13.htm


The 4-hour drive each way was well worth it for a big day at the Shirk Center.  The 100-year celebration was well done, and both IWU teams played extremely well in wins over Carthage.

A few thoughts on the 79-69 win over the Red Men, and just some general thoughts after seeing the Titans for the first time since late November (vs Wash U)...

• Being a home game, this was one the Titans had to win if they want to get in position to contend in the CCIW this year.  They did a really nice job tonight in front of a charged up Shirk Center crowd of executing their game plan and holding serve at home.  

• The Titans did a tremendous job defensively on All-American Steve Djurickovic.  The point-guard duo of Travis Rosenkranz and Sean Dwyer shared the man-to-man assignment, and their teammates did a really good job of providing help.  What I was most impressed with was how well the Titans guarded Djurickovic, without fouling – Djurickovic shot just 5 FT's (half his per game average coming in) and I can't think of a single "no-call" that was disputed by anyone.  Rosenkranz and Dwyer both did a great job of moving their feet and just working really hard.  Djurickovic finished with 22 points, but half of those came in the final 3:33, when the game was basically over (IWU up 11).

• It seemed like Ron Rose won the battle of X's and O's tonight – the Titans had a really solid gameplan on both ends of the floor, and they made key adjustments throughout the game (after scoring 32 points in the 1st, IWU scored 47 in the 2nd).  Rose also threw a zone at Carthage for about 4 possessions in the 2nd half in a big spot in the game.  The zone seemed to confuse the heck out of Carthage.

• 6-7 junior Doug Sexauer has developed into a legitimate 1st Team All-CCIW candidate.  Carthage had no answer for him in the paint.  After going 11-12 from the field @ North Central Wednesday (23 points), Sexauer went 10-11 tonight and scored 24 points.  What's very encouraging is that the left-handed Sexauer is now going right, and looks great in doing so.

• Sean Johnson had a terrific game as well, finishing with 19 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 assists.  Johnson has developed into a complete offensive player - 5 of his 6 field goals were off dribble penetration, and he shot 8 FT's as well.  Johnson looks like a completely different player, on both ends of the floor, than the one who struggled at times as a sophomore last year.

• Travis Rosenkranz had a really good game at the point for IWU on offense.  This year, he just seems to have a different level of composure and comfort on the floor.  He does not look to score much, but knocked down a big 3 in the 2nd half when Carthage had cut the lead to 4.  Travis also looks so much more comfortable at the FT line this year.

• The Titans are a very balanced and very dangerous offensive team.  They shot 62.0% from the field @ NCC, and 62.5% tonight vs the Red Men.  The Titans really do not have a "go-to"-type player who can get his own shot, but at all times, they have 4 or 5 players on the floor who can put it in the basket.

• Defensively, the Titans are a different team this season – they've made huge strides since last season.

• This was my first look at 6-3 G Stephen Rudnicki and 6-5 F Dan Schouten since they have been inserted into the rotation.  I really like both - they both do a lot of things well on the floor.    

• Overall, I was thrilled with the effort and the intensity IWU played with today.  The Titans look like a team that is starting to play with a lot of confidence.  I'd be very surprised if they are not in the CCIW title race until the very end.  

[Titan Q]

I'm not sure what the exact count of former IWU players was at the Shirk Center tonight (honored at halftime), but I think was about 100.  It was really neat to see.  

It was also very nice to see former IWU head coach Scott Trost there.  Only the skipper for 5 years, Trost led IWU to 3 CCIW titles, 4 NCAA tournament appearances, a Final Four, and recruited 3 1st Team All-Americans (Dauksas, Amelianovich, Freeman...and all 3 were there tonight).  Those 5 years were an important part of the 100 being celebrated today.

It was a day and evening that Jack Horenberger would have been very proud of.

[Titan Q]

Carthage press release...

http://www.carthage.edu/athleticspages/mens/basketball/release.html


Quoting Coach Bosko Djurickovic on the Jan. 9 Illinois Wesleyan Game:  "I couldn't be more disappointed," said Carthage head coach Bosko Djurickovic.  "I really like our basketball team, and I think we can compete in this thing all the way to the end.  Give Illinois Wesleyan credit—they're a very well-balanced offensive basketball team.  We played short-handed without Max Cary.  Steve Djurickovic played a less-than-stellar game, and we were still in a position to win the game with about five minutes to go.  We shut down the people we wanted to shut down, but we didn't do as good a job in other areas.  We just didn't play very well.  I'm mostly unhappy about the lost opportunity."


When he says they shut down the people they wanted to shut down, I'm not exactly sure who those would be.  Jordan Zimmer for sure - Carthage clearly came in wanting to take him away.  And they did - the Red Men did a great job on Zimmer (but that did extend the Carthage defense and helped open the paint for Doug Sexauer).  But unless Bosko gameplanned to shut down Edmond O'Callaghan, I can't think of a 2nd player.

I also don't think Carthage had much chance to win with 5 minutes to go.  IWU led by 13 with 5:26 to play and 15 at the 4:21 mark.  The Rosenkranz 3-pointer at 8:39 seemed to be the dagger.

Malcolm Kelly, who started for Max Cary, had a very good game, by the way - 16 points (4-8 3-point).  He is pretty tough.

[Titan Q]

The Pantagraph article...

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/basketball/men/article_2242b5fe-fdae-11de-8c21-001cc4c03286.html


And the postgame interview with Ron Rose on WJBC...

http://www.wjbc.com/Tabid/7997/default.aspx?AID=12407

He talks about why he went to that zone for a few possessions.

[Gregory Sager]

Carthage press release...

http://www.carthage.edu/athleticspages/mens/basketball/release.html


Quoting Coach Bosko Djurickovic on the Jan. 9 Illinois Wesleyan Game:  "I couldn't be more disappointed," said Carthage head coach Bosko Djurickovic.  "I really like our basketball team, and I think we can compete in this thing all the way to the end.  Give Illinois Wesleyan credit—they're a very well-balanced offensive basketball team.  We played short-handed without Max Cary.  Steve Djurickovic played a less-than-stellar game, and we were still in a position to win the game with about five minutes to go.  We shut down the people we wanted to shut down, but we didn't do as good a job in other areas.  We just didn't play very well.  I'm mostly unhappy about the lost opportunity."

Cary didn't play? That leaves a very significant hole in the Carthage lineup. He's averaged 13.1 ppg to date and has excellent shooting numbers from the field, especially for a guard (55% FG, 39% trey). No matter how well Malcom Kelly played in his stead against Wesleyan, that's a downgrade in the Red Men rotation, since Bosko didn't have Kelly available on his bench as his sixth man.

The Carthage website merely says that Cary is "ill." Any idea what that illness is, Carthage fans? It's a significant point; a bout with the flu and a case of mononucleosis, for example, are two very different things in terms of recuperative periods. The Red Men host Elmhurst on Wednesday, so I doubt his absence will prove fatal in Carthage's next game, but I'm sure that Bosko's on pins and needles hoping that Cary isn't gone too long.

[usee]

It was great to have Coach Bill Harris honored at halftime of the Wheaton/NCC game for his 18 years at the helm of the Crusaders/Thunder. Many former players were in attendance. Although not a 100 year celebration, it was still great to see. Also very classy of Coach Schauer to keep his team on the bench during the halftime presentation so they could honor Coach Harris as well. It was interesting to see Harris sitting in the front row directly behind the Thunder bench during the first half. I can only wonder what was going through his mind as Wheaton built a 12 pt lead and led by 10 at the break.

On the game I was really impressed with McCrary. He is creating his shots despite constant double teams and is finishing with either hand. He has a much better understanding of what the defense is doing and where the matchups are. Wheaton seems to run more pick and roll to try and get defenders to switch to McCrary so he can post them up. McCrary does a good job seeing the double team coming and either spinning away or finding the open shooter. Wheaton will need more consistency from those spot up shooters down the road. McCrary also spent much of his night guarding Freshmand Derek Raridon. Raridon is 6'6" and a slim 190. He is a tough matchup for most teams. He is very quick and has a great touch. I don't envy the CCIW defenders drawing that assignment over the next 4 yrs.

I also thought Ben Panner was excellent. As usual he expends a lot of energy on the defensive end but he was very focused on offense and looking for his shot and finished with 24 pts. Besides McCrary, Panner is the only player on the Thunder who has a chance at creating his own shot. 

Spencer Shultze started in place of Jake Carwell, which was odd. Jake played and appeared fine. I wonder why the change?

[usee]

Also, Wheaton's website now has video of the 2 buzzer beaters from the 4 OT classice out in Pomona:

http://athletics.wheaton.edu/news/2010/1/8/MBB_BuzzerVideo.aspx?path=mbball

Spencer Shultze's shot is at the end of the 1st OT. (Pomona fouled Panner up 3 to keep from a 3 pt shot. Panner makes the first and misses the second, gets his own rebound, misses and schultze puts it back at the buzzer)

Panner's 3 pt shot at the end of the 3rd OT hits the rim 4 times and the backboard once.

[AndOne]

Perhaps a bit of oversimplification, but in the Wheaton/North Central game last night for North Central it was a case of too much Panner & McCrary, and too many missed free throws, too many failures to finish on easy layup opportunities, too little interior defense (of Panner's & McCrary's 48 points only 3 came from beyond the arc), and not enough contribution off the bench.

Wheaton did a nice job with their ceremony honoring Coach Harris.