MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Mr. Ypsi]

My favorite along those lines is Earl Boykins, who shrunk from 5'8" to 5'7" to 5'5" in his first two years at EMU (and later played several years in the NBA).  His coach explained it (paraphrased, can't find the exact quote): "You think I'm gonna risk my job before he proves how good he is by admitting I recruited a midget."

He was never in one of my classes, but colleagues said the actual truth was closer to 5'3".

[izzy stradlin]

Through 6 CCIW games, Doug Sexauer is 51-65 (.785) from the field.  The single-season CCIW record for FG% is (minimum 100 attempts)...

Brent Niebrugge (IWU '98): 103-150 (.687)


I gotta believe Doug is going to make a real run at that record.

I watched the IWU-Wheaton game on the internet and Sexauer sure looked like a beast down low.  The last time I saw him play live was two years ago, so I actually didn't recognize him at first on my grainy computer screen. If I were the Titans, I would feed him the ball more often.   

[augiefan]

As an observer with no stake in the NPU-IWU discussion I would have to say today's effort by the NP Vikings was impressive and validates their position as one of the contenders for the CCIW tourney, a huge improvement over recent years. Losing by 6 on the road to one of the two favorites in the CCIW is a solid effort. Let's see how IWU's visit to Chicago goes. It should be a great game.

What we seem to have learned six games into the conference season is that IWU and Carthage appear to be the pick of the litter, Wheaton, NPU and Augie appear to be battling for the other two tourney spots and the remaining 3 have the role of spoilers. Augie now has 3 road wins but none against the other 4 contenders. Howeever, the home win over NPU in the conference opener looks a little more meaningful now.

[izzy stradlin]

What we seem to have learned six games into the conference season is that IWU and Carthage appear to be the pick of the litter, Wheaton, NPU and Augie appear to be battling for the other two tourney spots and the remaining 3 have the role of spoilers. Augie now has 3 road wins but none against the other 4 contenders. Howeever, the home win over NPU in the conference opener looks a little more meaningful now.

I agree with this assessment.   Although I hope I later have reason to change my mind, I just don't see Wheaton as being there with IWU and Carthage right now.   

On WETN, right after Wheaton squeaked by IWU, Coach Schauer opened by stating: 

"What people need realize is that we have a moderately talented team right now.  We are not last year's team, nor are we where I hope to be in a year or two."   

My memory is not good enough for that to be word for word, but it's close.  He definitely used the phrase "moderately talented".  He then went on talk indirectly about not having Jeremy Pflederer, Phil Carr, Aaron Garriott and instead having "career JV players" on the court.   I should note that he said all this in the context of trying to highlight the great effort and determination his players have shown is grinding out several wins.  Nonetheless, you can get a pretty good glimpse of what he thinks of his squad.   

With Pflederer and Garriott, the preseason coaches selection to win the conference might have been a good one.   However with this team, my guess is that Wheaton will fight to get in the CCIW tourney, and then hope that McCrary can carry them with a couple hot outside shooters to an NCAA berth. 
                     

[John Gleich]

One thing that should be noted about the IWU/NPU rebounding disparity today is the fact that North Park played a lot of zone in the first half.  Zones are notoriously difficult to rebound out of (you're not guarding a man, you're guarding who ever comes in your space... thus you may have two guys in that area, or none at all).  Seeing as they played it in the first half, that likely set the tone... and it also provided IWU with the lead.  North Park was able to make a run and cut it to 2 in the second half, but the damage may have already been done.

If you look at the rebounding stats, this shows, too.  NPU was outrebounded 24-11 in the first half, and the final rebounding total was 43-29.  IWU's rebounding edge in the second half was 19-18.

[Titan Q]

The next 4 for the contenders...

Carthage (5-1)
@ North Park
vs Illinois Wesleyan
@ Wheaton
vs Augustana

Illinois Wesleyan (5-1)
vs Augustana
@ Carthage
vs North Central
vs Elmhurst

Augustana (4-2)
@ Illinois Wesleyan
vs Elmhurst
@ North Park
@ Carthage

North Park (4-2)
vs Carthage
@ Millikin
vs Augustana
@ Wheaton

Wheaton (4-2)
@ Millikin
@ North Central
vs Carthage
vs North Park

[REDMENFAN]

Article about the big week in the CCIW this week in today's Kenosha News. Some good quotes from Bosko, Steve, and Tyler Pierce.

http://www.kenoshanews.com/sports/big_week_in_front_of_firstplace_red_men_7205744.html

[cciwrabblerouser]

Based on the schedule for the next two weeks, I'll be a little surprised if Wheaton isn't 8-2 after Super Bowl Sunday.  Their biggest test will be the home game vs. Carthage.

As for the other four...

Augie and North Park, at best, will be 6-4.
Carthage is looking at 7-3.
And IWU should be at 8-2.

[usee]

What we seem to have learned six games into the conference season is that IWU and Carthage appear to be the pick of the litter, Wheaton, NPU and Augie appear to be battling for the other two tourney spots and the remaining 3 have the role of spoilers. Augie now has 3 road wins but none against the other 4 contenders. Howeever, the home win over NPU in the conference opener looks a little more meaningful now.

I agree with this assessment.   Although I hope I later have reason to change my mind, I just don't see Wheaton as being there with IWU and Carthage right now.   

On WETN, right after Wheaton squeaked by IWU, Coach Schauer opened by stating: 

"What people need realize is that we have a moderately talented team right now.  We are not last year's team, nor are we where I hope to be in a year or two."   

My memory is not good enough for that to be word for word, but it's close.  He definitely used the phrase "moderately talented".  He then went on talk indirectly about not having Jeremy Pflederer, Phil Carr, Aaron Garriott and instead having "career JV players" on the court.   I should note that he said all this in the context of trying to highlight the great effort and determination his players have shown is grinding out several wins.  Nonetheless, you can get a pretty good glimpse of what he thinks of his squad.   

With Pflederer and Garriott, the preseason coaches selection to win the conference might have been a good one.   However with this team, my guess is that Wheaton will fight to get in the CCIW tourney, and then hope that McCrary can carry them with a couple hot outside shooters to an NCAA berth. 
                     

I don't see how Carthage or IWU have separated themselves from anyone else so far in the conference schedule. Carthage has the only impressive win @Augie and none of the other contenders has a road win over the other contenders. Augie is 3-1 on the road and Wheaton is 0-2 but I think the race is very wide open with no clear favorites (maybe an arguement for Carthage)

[Viking Blue]

Based on the schedule for the next two weeks, I'll be a little surprised if Wheaton isn't 8-2 after Super Bowl Sunday.  Their biggest test will be the home game vs. Carthage.

As for the other four...

Augie and North Park, at best, will be 6-4.
Carthage is looking at 7-3.
And IWU should be at 8-2.

I disagree.  I think it is very feasible that North Park is sitting at 7-3.  To say they will, at best, win two of those four is selling the Vikings far too short.

[Gregory Sager]

What we seem to have learned six games into the conference season is that IWU and Carthage appear to be the pick of the litter, Wheaton, NPU and Augie appear to be battling for the other two tourney spots and the remaining 3 have the role of spoilers. Augie now has 3 road wins but none against the other 4 contenders. Howeever, the home win over NPU in the conference opener looks a little more meaningful now.

I agree with this assessment.   Although I hope I later have reason to change my mind, I just don't see Wheaton as being there with IWU and Carthage right now.   

On WETN, right after Wheaton squeaked by IWU, Coach Schauer opened by stating: 

"What people need realize is that we have a moderately talented team right now.  We are not last year's team, nor are we where I hope to be in a year or two."   

My memory is not good enough for that to be word for word, but it's close.  He definitely used the phrase "moderately talented".  He then went on talk indirectly about not having Jeremy Pflederer, Phil Carr, Aaron Garriott and instead having "career JV players" on the court.   I should note that he said all this in the context of trying to highlight the great effort and determination his players have shown is grinding out several wins.  Nonetheless, you can get a pretty good glimpse of what he thinks of his squad.   

With Pflederer and Garriott, the preseason coaches selection to win the conference might have been a good one.   However with this team, my guess is that Wheaton will fight to get in the CCIW tourney, and then hope that McCrary can carry them with a couple hot outside shooters to an NCAA berth. 
                     

I don't see how Carthage or IWU have separated themselves from anyone else so far in the conference schedule. Carthage has the only impressive win @Augie and none of the other contenders has a road win over the other contenders. Augie is 3-1 on the road and Wheaton is 0-2 but I think the race is very wide open with no clear favorites (maybe an arguement for Carthage)

Exactly. You have to look at this race in terms of which teams among the top five have gained road wins at the expense of other members of the top five, and, likewise, in terms of looking ahead to the second round-robin, you have to view it as a matter of where the top five teams will be playing each other.

Carthage has the slight advantage right now, because: a) the Red Men own the only road win among the top five; and b) the Red Men will only have one road game in the second round-robin against a top five team (@ Wheaton). Illinois Wesleyan will have the most road games against top five teams in the second round-robin, three (@ Carthage, @ North Park, @ Augustana), while the other three teams will each have two (NPU: @ Wheaton, @ Carthage ... AC: @ North Park, @ Carthage ... WC: @ Augie, @ Illinois Wesleyan).

Of course, any talk about the second round-robin is slightly premature at this point, because there's one more night remaining in the first round-robin, and it will feature two marquee games between top five teams: Carthage @ NPU and Augie @ IWU. Once Wednesday evening's games are in the books and the first round-robin has concluded, we can reassess how the second half of the CCIW season looks as we round the clubhouse turn.

There isn't enough separation to go declaring anyone to be "the pick of the litter" at this point.

Based on the schedule for the next two weeks, I'll be a little surprised if Wheaton isn't 8-2 after Super Bowl Sunday.  Their biggest test will be the home game vs. Carthage.

As for the other four...

Augie and North Park, at best, will be 6-4.
Carthage is looking at 7-3.
And IWU should be at 8-2.

I disagree.  I think it is very feasible that North Park is sitting at 7-3.  To say they will, at best, win two of those four is selling the Vikings far too short.

I wouldn't pay much heed to our trollish new friend, TD. Remember, this is the guy who declared last week that Wesleyan was going to beat NPU by twenty points.

[Gregory Sager]

Article about the big week in the CCIW this week in today's Kenosha News. Some good quotes from Bosko, Steve, and Tyler Pierce.

http://www.kenoshanews.com/sports/big_week_in_front_of_firstplace_red_men_7205744.html

Bosko continues his curious progression away from coachspeak with this quote:

"North Park is having a breakout season," Carthage coach Bosko Djurickovic said on WRJN-AM 1400 after Saturday's 68-55 victory over Millikin. "They think they're pretty good and I expect a great game."

"They think they're pretty good"? That's borderline bulletin-board material, Bosk.

[Viking Blue]

Article about the big week in the CCIW this week in today's Kenosha News. Some good quotes from Bosko, Steve, and Tyler Pierce.

http://www.kenoshanews.com/sports/big_week_in_front_of_firstplace_red_men_7205744.html

Bosko continues his curious progression away from coachspeak with this quote:

“North Park is having a breakout season,” Carthage coach Bosko Djurickovic said on WRJN-AM 1400 after Saturday’s 68-55 victory over Millikin. “They think they’re pretty good and I expect a great game.”

"They think they're pretty good"? That's borderline bulletin-board material, Bosk.

I was kind of wondering if anyone else read that the same way I did....interesting.  I don't think North Park needs any bulletin board material, though.  0-14 should probably be motivating enough.

[cciwrabblerouser]

VB:  When I say that NPU will be 6-4 at best, this is the rationale:

NPU will beat Millikin, in Decatur.
NPU will lose at Wheaton.

With Carthage and Augie as opponents in the Crackerbox, I say that NPU will win one, but not both, of those contests.  Thus, 6-4.

[Mugsy]

VB:  When I say that NPU will be 6-4 at best, this is the rationale:

NPU will beat Millikin, in Decatur.
NPU will lose at Wheaton.

With Carthage and Augie as opponents in the Crackerbox, I say that NPU will win one, but not both, of those contests.  Thus, 6-4.

So let it be written... so let it be done.