MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[CCIWFAN3]

I would think that 8.4 points in 11.6 minutes would warrant a little more pt.
Yea Carthage penetrates but they also have 2 huge thick bigs in the middle.  BC can handle them.

[CCIWFAN3]

G.S., if you're low on warm & fuzzy thought this year and in the past towards Wheaton...you will down right hate them next year:)

[iwumichigander]

I would think that 8.4 points in 11.6 minutes would warrant a little more pt.
Yea Carthage penetrates but they also have 2 huge thick bigs in the middle.  BC can handle them.

I think BC would do much better in situations against teams where aggressive perimeter not required; or, where your opponent is not trying to get you into a horse race.  You note Carthage.  I'm thinking more like an Augustana whom just does not seem to have a perimeter game this season. 

[CCIWFAN3]

Yea...I see your point.   Pretty good numbers for only 11.6 minutes a game though.  I thought Augie was suppose to have one of the best point guards in the league. How can they be so weak on the perimeter if that's the case.

[iwumichigander]

Yea...I see your point.   Pretty good numbers for only 11.6 minutes a game though. 

I thought Augie was suppose to have one of the best point guards in the league. How can they be so weak on the perimeter if that's the case.

We probably need a Viking fan to weigh in on what might be going on at Auggie.  The Vikings are a little off their overall FG% compared to last (full) season but fairly significantly off the comparative prior season 3FGM as is their FTM. 

The talent is there.  It just could be the treys are not dropping.  It could be the Gonzaga game messed their rhythm up a little bit too.  But you can bet Coach G is going to be relentless until he finds the answer.

[Gregory Sager]

G.S., if you're low on warm & fuzzy thought this year and in the past towards Wheaton...you will down right hate them next year:)

Yea...I see your point.   Pretty good numbers for only 11.6 minutes a game though.  I thought Augie was suppose to have one of the best point guards in the league. How can they be so weak on the perimeter if that's the case.

Matt Pelton's not a point guard anymore. Brian DeSimone is the PG, Pelton's the off guard ("shooting guard" is probably a bit of a misnomer for Augie this year).

It's not correct to say that Augie is "weak on the perimeter," as it implies that Augie's perimeter players are weak at both the offensive and defensive ends of the floor, and Augie's perimeter players are anything but weak defensively.

Augie's perimeter players can put the ball on the floor and take it to the rack (the ones that are allowed to shoot, anyway, as reserve guards Eric Safranski and Drew Croegaert average a shot and a half or less per game). With the notable exception of Chris Anderson, however, what Augie's perimeter players can't do is shoot the three with any reliability:

Chris Anderson	15-31 (.484)
Matt Pelton	20-65 (.308)
Brian DeSimone	9-37 (.243)
Mike Avallone	4-17 (.235)
Troy Rorer	4-27 (.148)

Croegaert and Safranski are a combined 1-8 (.125).

This room has had a running commentary upon Augie's shooting woes for months now. As augiefan and others have repeatedly stated, Augustana cannot hit outside shots at all. The Doggies are currently shooting .309 from downtown on the season; the last time a CCIW team was that poor from the outside was all the way back in 1999-00, when Carthage had a .280 mark from long range. The only thing keeping Augie from hitting bottom in this category is the fact that Millikin is even worse this year (.277) -- but the difference is that the three-point shot is not a part of the Big Blue's arsenal (or at least it wasn't until Colby Long showed up at semester break). Millikin has attempted only 119 treys this season; Wheaton is the next-lowest in trey attempts at 188, and Augie's third-lowest at 196. Everyone else is well over 200. So Millikin's misfiring has been less of a problem for the Big Blue than Augie's has been for the Navy Blue and Gold, because Augie relies upon knocking down triples a lot more than does Jimmy Millikin.

We're only three games into the CCIW portion of the season, but thus far some of these trends have held up in league play. Augie's doing much better from downtown in those three games -- .361 -- but that's still a distant sixth in the league. (Millikin's shooting a sparkling .400, good for third behind NPU and IWU, but that's a statistical anomaly, since MU's only attempted 25 treys while the other seven teams have attempted anywhere from 35 to 70 of them.) NCC and Elmhurst are shooting far worse from downtown than Augie thus far in CCIW play (.194 and .188), but those two teams are dealing with depth issues and size issues that impinge upon their ability to get open outside shots and to knock them down when they get them.

[Viking Blue]

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow night's matchup between North Park and the Crusading Thunder.  I think the rest of the conference ought to pay close attention, as well.  If the Vikings are able to handle Wheaton, in my opinion, that makes this conference even more evenly-matched than we all think it may be.

Besides, these are the types of games that make CCIW basketball so much fun.  A packed Crackerhouse is a tremendous setting for a  game.  I hope the Crazies are ready to rock.

[augiefan]

What's wrong with Augie? The answers to Augie's problems are simple. They lost 4 of their 5 starters from last year and 6 of their top 8. Only Pelton and Nelson are experienced and talented returning players from last year. The new guys are talented, but freshmen are seldom difference makers in the CCIW, and none of the talented new guys are guards. The one top guard recruit from St. Charles North quit the team before the season started for reasons not specified. Perhaps Dansand knows.

In short Augie is inexperienced, weak at the guard position and terrible FT shooters. If Coach G picks up some guards in next year'srecruiting class, the team will be fine. There are some really talented big men in the freshman class. As IWU has shown it takes a couple of years for a talented recruiting class to start dominating in the CCIW. Despite all of their problems Augie is still 2-1 and can stay in the race with a win tomorrow night against Carthage, which along with IWU is probably one of the the top team in the conference.

[markerickson]

I'll make a shout-out to someone who perhaps could rally students to attend the NP/WC game.  Increasing participation, even as lackluster as it has been, may be difficult.  A college friend of mine, a NH resident, watched an NP game on line and noted the lack of energy in the stands.  It has been a very long time since the NP student quadrant has been filled regularly.

[Viking Blue]

I'll make a shout-out to someone who perhaps could rally students to attend the NP/WC game.  Increasing participation, even as lackluster as it has been, may be difficult.  A college friend of mine, a NH resident, watched an NP game on line and noted the lack of energy in the stands.  It has been a very long time since the NP student quadrant has been filled regularly.

It hasn't been THAT long, but I agree.  Interesting note:  as the North Park campus improves, and athletic facilities improve, and student enrollment multiplies, it appears as though the enthusiasm surrounding THE NP gym decreases. 

Maybe if I introduce them as the North Park College Vikings tomorrow night things will change....

[petemcb]

Greg, or any other NPU fans, what do they do for the alumni game?  Is it alumni versus alumni, alumni versus JV, versus varsity, or what?  And what time?

[Gregory Sager]

I'll make a shout-out to someone who perhaps could rally students to attend the NP/WC game.  Increasing participation, even as lackluster as it has been, may be difficult.  A college friend of mine, a NH resident, watched an NP game on line and noted the lack of energy in the stands.  It has been a very long time since the NP student quadrant has been filled regularly.

It hasn't been THAT long, but I agree.  Interesting note:  as the North Park campus improves, and athletic facilities improve, and student enrollment multiplies, it appears as though the enthusiasm surrounding THE NP gym decreases. 

Maybe if I introduce them as the North Park College Vikings tomorrow night things will change....

I've talked about NPU's athletics shortcomings at length on the CCIW football page, particularly the resources gap (finances and facilities) that exists between NPU and the rest of the league. To sum it up, North Park has very limited financial wherewithal, both in terms of endowment and access to mega-wealthy donors. It has always been the CCIW's most acute "make do with what you have" school. NPU did add some important pieces to the athletics facilities puzzle a few years ago with the construction of Helwig Rec Center -- a valuable tool for varsity sports that is, nevertheless, designed for and caters to students at large rather than to varsity student-athletes -- and the facelift of Holmgren Athletic Complex, the school's outdoor multi-sport stadium.

The problem is that this meant that athletics has just had its turn at the top of the list. Now there's a long parade of other departments at North Park that will get their turn to move to the front of the line before it comes around to athletics again. And in light of the fact that the athletics department doesn't have a separate base of big-ticket donors -- most of us who have given to the Viking Club in the past are nickel-and-dimers by necessity -- it's not likely that someone's going to come along and plunk down the millions that it would take to secure a piece of land in NPU's pricey North Side neighborhood that's big enough for the footprint of a new gym and then build it. There are no Shirks or Tarbles in the Viking Club.

Millikin AD Joe Hakes and I were talking about this last Saturday in the crackerbox, as Joe was North Park's AD back when it was NPC rather than NPU. We agreed that the crackerbox presents a tremendous homecourt advantage when the student population is fired up and the place is continually packed -- I strongly believe that it played into North Park's 62-game home winning streak that stood for two decades as a D3 record -- but that it's a woefully inadequate facility when the place is not full and student support is lackluster. Under those circumstances, the words of occasional CCIW Chat poster Omaha (who is a former member of NPU's Board of Trustees) -- that the gym was outdated from the moment it was built in the late '50s -- are never truer. It's a poor atmosphere for a game, and it's a worse atmosphere for recruiting.

Unfortunately, the Vikings program brought this upon itself in a lot of ways by faltering in the post-Bosko era and then settling into years of CCIW doormat status. I give NPU students a lot of credit for hanging tough and staying with the program for many bleak years, but eventually a program's inertia will turn off even the students who are most eager to see the basketball team catch a spark.

Bottom line: NPU is just gonna have to figure out a way to win in the crackerbox for now -- and the program will have to earn back the trust of the students by becoming competitive again.

[Gregory Sager]

Greg, or any other NPU fans, what do they do for the alumni game?  Is it alumni versus alumni, alumni versus JV, versus varsity, or what?  And what time?

It's alumni versus alumni. Unfortunately, the school website doesn't list a time for the game, or even an announcement about it. (It is mentioned in the game program / media guide, both in the NPU schedule on the back and on the page dedicated to Rick Alspach.) Since the women's game is at 5 pm, I think it's safe to say that the alumni game will be held today at 2:30 pm or thereabouts.

Incidentally, as usual North Park will be broadcasting tonight's game on the Internet. You can watch all the action by clicking on this link. I'll be wearing both the play-by-play and commentator hats tonight, as Rob's out of town. I'll also be featuring an interview with NPU women's basketball head coach Amanda Reese at halftime.

[Dennis_Prikkel]

joe hakes was never north park's ad

[Gotberg]

I've talked about NPU's athletics shortcomings at length on the CCIW football page, particularly the resources gap (finances and facilities) that exists between NPU and the rest of the league. To sum it up, North Park has very limited financial wherewithal, both in terms of endowment and access to mega-wealthy donors.

Greg,

I don't think a $60 million endowment is all that bad for a school the size of North Park, especially considering that it has only been a 4 year school for about 50 years.