MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[markerickson]

Well, then I participated in the rumor mill.  Sorry, folks.

[Dennis_Prikkel]

Well, then I participated in the rumor mill.  Sorry, folks.

Mark - that's not to say that there might have been discussions with a DePaul assistant coach before the personal interviews began - there might have been - wasn't their an IWU grad on the DePaul staff at that time?

The only knowledge I have is of the personal interviews.  I know everyone in the room was impressed with the four candidates and in particular Tim Platt (he was my top choice) - but the school could not offer him enough money.

dgp

[Titan Q]

Mark - that's not to say that there might have been discussions with a DePaul assistant coach before the personal interviews began - there might have been - wasn't their an IWU grad on the DePaul staff at that time?

I think Jim Molinari (current head coach at Western Illinois) was already the head coach at DI Bradley at that time.

[Titan Q]

Phew.

IWU 75
Millikin 71


IWU led by 1 with the ball and about 30 seconds left.  At the shot clock buzzer Sean Johnson hit some kind of really tough 3 with about 5 seconds left in the game to put IWU up 4 and basically win the game.

IWU was up 9 fairly late and coughed it up - Jordan Zimmer with a couple costly turnovers.

Wow.

[Gregory Sager]

Final from Bloomvegas:

Illinois Wesleyan 75
Millikin 71

The Titans escaped a major upset at home.

[Titan Q]

Leaders in the IWU win over Millikin...

* Travis Rosenkranz: 15 pts, 3 assists
* Sean Johnson: 14 pts
* Jordan Zimmer: 14 pts, 8 reb
* Sean Dwyer: 10 pts
* Doug Sexauer: 10 pts

Millikin was led by the freshman transfer I posted about a couple days ago, Colby Long.  Long had 21 points and was 5-5 from 3.  He appears to be a big-time game-changer for the Big Blue.  I remember how hard he was recruited last year, as a senior at Mt. Zion, and if he had committed to MU right out of H.S. it would have been big recruiting news.

I was watching the Wheaton/Augie game and clicked on the IWU live stats late to find a barn-burner...had to switch over to the WJBC audio for the finish.  Wasn't planning on having to do that at 7:30!

[Gregory Sager]

Final from Naperville:

North Park 75
North Central 70

[tjcummingsfan]

North Park over NCC 75-70.  Nick Williams and Shaun Collins drain huge free throws to ice the game.  Nice road win for the Park.

[tjcummingsfan]

Does anyone else find the North Central live stats page kind of annoying with terms like "rain maker" and "cleans up the glass" and "dials up a three from long distance" to name a few? 

[Dennis_Prikkel]

Final from Naperville:

North Park 75
North Central 70

congrats to the vikings 2nd cciw win in a row - i didnt think theyd win one this year.

[Gregory Sager]

Does anyone else find the North Central live stats page kind of annoying with terms like "rain maker" and "cleans up the glass" and "dials up a three from long distance" to name a few?  

That's a quirk of Sidearmstats, the live-stats software used by NCC, Wheaton, IWU, and lots of other schools. And, yeah, it is annoying.

The two other finals:

Wheaton 69, Augustana 63

Carthage 79, Elmhurst 52

[Gregory Sager]

Oddity of the night: Steve D. was held scoreless for the entire first half, and didn't even attempt a shot. He had six assists, though. He finished with only eight points, a career low. Without having seen or heard the game, I'm guessing that Scherer put on a box-and-one or a triangle-and-two, or some other gimmick defense. Didn't matter, though: Steve D. dished out 13 assists, Guzman had 28 (8-12 from downtown), Pierce had 18, and Thompson had 10, and Carthage crushed Elmhurst. That's a million times more important to Steve, Bosko, and the rest of the Red Men than Steve's points.

[usee]

wheaton led Augie by 2 with under 5 minutes to play when Ben Panner hit 3 three point fg's on succesive trips to extend the lead to 8 and effectively ice the game. McCrary with 22pts, 12 rebounds, 4 assists. Panner had 2pts at half and finished with 17. Wheaton out rebounded the Vikings 28-26 for the game

[Mr. Ypsi]

This is shaping up as a VERY interesting year!  NPU wins their second in a row.  Millikin gets a transfer who puts in 21 to scare IWU in B'town.  Unless Elmhurst and/or NCC falls apart, this may be the season where it is really true that 'on any given night'.

We've always said that, of course, but realistically there was always one or two teams a contender could count on beating with only their C+ game.  Seemingly that is NOT the case this year.  Should be fun!

[Gregory Sager]

North Park 75, North Central 70

* Ro Russell: 18 pts (4-4 trey)
* Emmanuel Crosby: 16 pts, 8 rebs, 4 asts
* Nick Williams: 14 pts, 7 rebs
* Nick Hoekstra: 8 rebs

* David Twyman: 27 pts, 13 rebs
* Reid Barringer: 12 pts
* Brian Evans: 11pts, 12 rebs, 6 asts
* Derek Raridon: 10 pts (4-14 FG)

NCC outshot NPU from the field, 52% (30-58) to 46% (29-63), and from the FT line, 62% (8-13) to 56% (9-16). North Park, which has become a pretty good shooting team from the perimeter, won the game from beyond the arc and on the boards; the Vikings were 38% (8-21) in treys, including some massive ones down the stretch by Ro Russell and Ryan Beigie, while the Cards were 17% (2-12) from downtown. NPU also won the rebounding battle decisively, 39-33, with the visitors enjoying the offensive boards edge, 16-9. Both teams were good in the assists-to-turnovers category (NPU 18:11, NCC 16:12)

Wish I could've seen this one; unfortunately, I had a late-afternoon meeting that kept me from making the trip to Naperville. It was close almost the entire way. North Central scored the game's first six points, North Park scored the next eight, and from then on it was basically basket-trading for the rest of the half, with the two teams heading into the locker room knotted up at 26.

NCC led for most of the second half but never by much, with the Cards' biggest lead, 61-54, coming at 6:10 left. It was at that point that the St. Rita connection took over, as high-school classmates Ro Russell and Emmanuel Crosby scored the next 12 points for NPU. A Russell trey at 2:25 put North Park up, 68-66, another Russell trey with 59 seconds left broke a 68-all tie, and after David Twyman's layup with 43 seconds left cut the NPU lead to one, Nick Williams was fouled by Twyman with 16 seconds left. In spite of NPU's woes at the line, Williams knocked down both FTs. Reid Barringer missed a potential game-tying trey with five seconds left, Shaun Collins grabbed the rebound and was fouled, and with two seconds left he sealed the win by making both FTs.

Derek Raridon came into the game averaging 22.5 ppg (26.5 ppg in NCC's first two CCIW games). Aside from the opening-night rout over Oberlin, in which he only played 26 minutes, the freshman phenom hadn't scored less than 16 points in a game this season. Question for AndOne: Did Raridon just miss a lot of open shots, or did the Vikings play great defense against him? Who guarded him -- Williams? Hoekstra?

Solid road win for the Park. Just wish I could've seen it!