MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[usee]

Also. That's Wheaton's first conference road win this season. Conference road wins are not easy to come by in this league and will likely determine the champion. The thunder have held serve at home and need to find a way to win 2 or 3 of their remaining road games. 

[Titan Q]

Steve Djurickovic, who makes his bread and butter driving to the basket and either finishing, getting fouled, or kicking it out to the open man if the defense collapses on him, went 8-10 from downtown tonight. Let me put that into perspective: Steve Djurickovic, a 36% shooter from downtown coming into tonight's game, tied a CCIW record for single-game trey percentage tonight. Along with Joe Guin of Millikin in a game against Wheaton in 1988, and Jack Ecker of North Park in a 1995 game against Carthage (the game in which Big Jack set the NPU single-game scoring record of 54), Steve Djurickovic is the only player in CCIW history to shoot .800 from downtown while launching at least ten trey attempts.

Had I not been able to actually watch the game last night (again, thanks to NPU for the streaming - a tremendous bonus for fans) I'd have a much different opinion of the 8-10 shooting performance.  Steve Djurickovic may have set the single-game 3-point % record last night, but I think there are a bunch of former CCIW players who could have made 8 of 10 vs that defense.  It's not like Djurickovic is a bad 3-point shooter.  Last season he shot 43.2% on the season as a whole (38-88) and 45.5% in CCIW play (25-55)...which is outstanding.  He came into the game last night shooting 36% from 3...which is good. 

I understand the theory of playing zone vs him, but you still have to guard him from the perimeter.  To me, "pick your poison" means, try to take away his dribble-drive but guard the heck out of him in the zone, wherever he ends up.  North Park did not do that.  He's too good to just let catch and shoot.

Malcom Kelly was shooting treys against that same zone -- and Kelly, a .419 trey shooter on the year coming into the game, went 5-13 (.385).

To me, allowing a 42% 3-point shooter to have 13 open 3-point attempts (of which he made right around his average - 39%) is not anything to hang your hat on here.

[OurHouse]

To me, allowing a 42% 3-point shooter to have 13 open 3-point attempts (of which he made right around his average - 39%) is not anything to hang your hat on here.
[/quote]

You are really jealous of Stevie - this kid is not selfish like some good shooters in the CCIW. He is a great kid that knows how to play the game. He is the best all-around player in the CCIW. Oh, he can also play defense like some other players you brag about don't. Everyone knows NPU does not play defense or educated on how to play defense. There are many many games that your favorite team has a good night shooting 3's - the reason for that, is no one is guarding them.

Mr.... you should for once, give credit where credit is due - Stevie is the best all around player in the CCIW.

[Titan Q]

You are really jealous of Stevie - this kid is not selfish like some good shooters in the CCIW. He is a great kid that knows how to play the game. He is the best all-around player in the CCIW. Oh, he can also play defense like some other players you brag about don't. Everyone knows NPU does not play defense or educated on how to play defense. There are many many games that your favorite team has a good night shooting 3's - the reason for that, is no one is guarding them.

Mr.... you should for once, give credit where credit is due - Stevie is the best all around player in the CCIW.

It's very difficult to compare players, and Djurickovic vs Wallis is the perfect example...

Steve Djurickovic, 6-3 Jr (Carthage)
27.6 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 6.4 apg, 2.3 A:TO
(.498 FG, .432 3-pt, .833 FT)

Sean Wallis, 6-3 Sr (Wash U)
11.1 ppg, 2.1 rpg, 8.1 apg, 3.0 A:TO
(.413 FG, .352 3-pt, .835 FG)


These guys both play the point, but they couldn't be more different.  The entire Carthage offense revolves around Djurickovic - he had 416 FGA attempts last year (17 per game).  Wallis is your protypical pass first, "floor general" type point-guard - he had "just" 252 FGA per game in 2008-09 (8 per game).

Having seen Wallis play so many times in his career (including in the Sectional and Final Four last year), I do think he is a no-brainer as the 1st Team PG.  Just a tremenous leader.

I also think Aaron Thompson has to be on that 1st Team.  He might be the best pure shooter in Division III - 96-205 (.468) from 3 last year, even with every team keying on him.  Thompson has evolved from a spot-up 3-point shooter to an all-around "scorer" as he's gotten older.  Great player.

I've never seen D.J. Marsh play, but I've heard he is great.  Still, I think Djurickovic is so good - I mean, those sophomore stats are crazy - that he has to be on that 1st Team (All-American).  I would have had 3 guards (Wallis, Thompson, Djurickovic)...and in real life, those 3 could easily start together.  Djurickovic can play the 1, 2, or 3, and Thompson the 2 or 3.  

http://www.d3boards.com/index.php?topic=4440.450

[REDMENFAN]

Article from the Carthage/NP game last night in the Kenosha News. Definitely did not expect to wake up and see Steve was 8-10 from 3 point land, that's just crazy.  Huge one Saturday night, good luck to both teams (mainly Carthage )

[REDMENFAN]

Oops, forgot the link

http://www.kenoshanews.com/sports/djurickovic_fuels_red_men_7227915.html

[Titan Q]

Brady Zimmer article...

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/high-school/basketball/boys/article_d4b7bb08-0ba5-11df-9096-001cc4c03286.html


"It has led to a recruiting battle for Zimmer, who lists his "main three" as Wesleyan, Augustana and Carthage."

[markerickson]

Some of the chants from NP's student section were not at all creative, and I think there were two or three inappropriate moments, but nothing like Duke fans trying to agitate Patrick Ewing.  Also, I heard no vulgarity.  The "Slimfast" chant might be considered derogatory to some.

Last year the Crazies chanted "Nickelback sucks" when StevieD shot FTs...I later learned that his Facebook page listed the band as a favorite.  That's ok.

I didn't know about the ex-girlfriend thing or understand the Crazies were chanting a female name.

[Gregory Sager]

The second-guessing has already started over Paul Brenegan's decision to use a zone tonight, I see.

And I think the second-guessing is fair.  I'm all for playing some zone when it makes sense (IWU played 4-5 possessions of zone vs Carthage at the Shirk Center to mix it up), but I just don't understand coming out in one and allowing the opponent so many open looks to start the game.  North Park has some terrific athletes – why would Paul Brenegan want to sit back in that passive zone and hope the other team misses shots instead of challenging his athletic team to go guard the opposing team aggressively one-on-one and see what happens?

Probably because we all know what would happen -- Djurickovic would be his usual slice-and-dice self, getting to the rim regularly, shooting plenty of and-ones and two-shot fouls, and dishing off assist after assist. (Seven of his ten assists came in the second half, after NPU had largely dispensed with the 2-3 zone.)

And North Park is coming off a game, at Illinois Wesleyan, where its zone was extremely ineffective.

Irrelevant. Different game, different opponent, different personnel.

IWU plays @ Carthage Saturday, and even if Djurickovic goes off for 40, I'd much rather know the Titans tried to compete man-to-man as opposed to playing a passive defense that allows Carthage to make 3-4 passes and then find a wide-open shooter most times down the floor. 

That's fine. Me, I focus upon what gives the Vikings the best chance to win. And what you've left out of this discussion is the fact that NPU went into the locker room down by three points after that first half. It was the second half, in which Carthage changed up its offense and NPU changed up its defense, that things went south for the Vikings.

Had I not been able to actually watch the game last night (again, thanks to NPU for the streaming - a tremendous bonus for fans) I'd have a much different opinion of the 8-10 shooting performance.  Steve Djurickovic may have set the single-game 3-point % record last night, but I think there are a bunch of former CCIW players who could have made 8 of 10 vs that defense.

I don't. Again, I emphasize that Djurickovic was not standing at the arc and releasing three-point attempts as though it was the pregame shootaround. Most of the first-half open looks he took were three or four feet behind the arc. The two long-range shots he took and made in the second half were both launched from right behind the arc against a man-to-man defense, and both were heavily contested.

The first couple that he made were from conventional three-point range. The problem with those was that NPU wasn't closing on him. Shooting is a confidence game; you hit one, you hit two, and suddenly the rim looks as wide as a kiddie pool. The Vikings did a poor job of setting the tone in terms of how they initially executed the zone.

But most of his shots were deep ones, and I've watched enough shooters in my life to know that they don't typically knock down eight out of every ten 24-footers that they attempt.

It's not like Djurickovic is a bad 3-point shooter.  Last season he shot 43.2% on the season as a whole (38-88) and 45.5% in CCIW play (25-55)...which is outstanding.  He came into the game last night shooting 36% from 3...which is good.

It's good, but it's not 8-for-10. It's not even within hailing distance of 8-for-10. Nothing that Steve Djurickovic had ever done in his life indicated that he was capable of a night like that. Ryan Knuppel? Maybe, on a really good night. Keelan Amelianovich? Sure, if the moon was right. Steve Djurickovic? No.

Brenegan and his staff made a calculated decision that Djurickovic was less likely to burn them if he hung around the perimeter and attempted very long treys rather than play his usual game. They lost the gamble. So it goes.

I understand the theory of playing zone vs him, but you still have to guard him from the perimeter.  To me, "pick your poison" means, try to take away his dribble-drive but guard the heck out of him in the zone, wherever he ends up.  North Park did not do that.  He's too good to just let catch and shoot.

Bob, again, he was catching and shooting most of them from 24 feet out on the floor. Jeez, I must've mentioned two or three times in the first half on last night's broadcast that he was launching them from "Shaun Collins country" (i.e., significantly farther out than you normally see someone take a shot). If you extend a zone out that far, you defeat its purpose. You basically make each zone defender a one-on-one defender, because he's too far out to get perimeter help. You eliminate the threat of traps. You open up the high post. You open up cuts across the lane. A 2-3 zone that extends that far out beyond the arc is worse than worthless.

You're conveniently ignoring the elephant in the room, which is this: If the defense that NPU was playing in the first half was so spectacularly ill-advised, then why did Bosko alter his offense at halftime? The second half began with Steve D. not hovering around the perimeter but instead cutting back and forth across the top of the key. On Carthage's second possession he worked the baseline. All told, he spent very little time behind the arc in the second half. As I said, he took two trey attempts in the second half. One was a shot from the elbow that he made with Davone Robinson's hand right in his face with 5:40 left, the other was the fallaway from the top of the key he took with two seconds left on the shot clock at 3:11, a shot that went through the net as his butt was hitting the floor. Rob and I looked at each other after that shot and I know that we were thinking the same thing: You could put a blindfold on Steve D. tonight and he'd still make his shots. It was just that kind of a night. You could attribute it just as much to the cold weather, or to John Weiser wearing his lucky socks, or to the Carlson Crazies chanting the name of Steve's ex-girlfriend, as you could to anything else.

The answer is this: Bosko knew that he had caught lightning in a bottle in the first half in terms of his son's shooting. It was a fluky twenty minutes that he wasn't going to duplicate, and, rather than use the same set and watch his team grow cold, he altered the game plan and went to a four-out motion in the second half -- which worked, incidentally, better than the swing-the-ball-around-the-perimeter-and-take-the-open-three concept worked in the first half.

Again, you're missing the forest for the trees, Bob.

Malcom Kelly was shooting treys against that same zone -- and Kelly, a .419 trey shooter on the year coming into the game, went 5-13 (.385).

To me, allowing a 42% 3-point shooter to have 13 open 3-point attempts (of which he made right around his average - 39%) is not anything to hang your hat on here.

What you conveniently leave out is the fact that Raul Guzman, Carthage's primary three-point shooter -- he has 89 attempts from downtown on the year, while nobody else on the team has more than 57 -- went 1-6 from long range for the game, 1-5 in the first half in which NPU was playing that zone. Also, Kelly went 2-6 from downtown in the first half against that zone. He took a lot of his long-range shots in the second half against man defense that simply didn't recover and close fast enough.

Everyone knows NPU does not play defense or educated on how to play defense.

NPU has given up a grand total of six more points than has IWU in CCIW play this season. NPU's field-goal defense is better than IWU's in CCIW play (.462 to .468), and NPU's trey defense is better than IWU's in CCIW play (.320 to .343). Physician, heal thyself.

[Titan Q]

Archived video of the IWU/Augie game last night...

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/4265866
(the tip is about 10:30 into the broadcast)

Watching this live, I was shocked at the pace throughout most of the 1st half.  Obviously IWU loves to get it and run, but I didn't expect Augie to do the same.  The Vikings pushed the tempo every bit as much as the Titans did to start the game...you'll notice both teams flying up and down the floor the first 10 minutes or so.

[AndOne]

With regard to the above discussion concerning the 3 point shooting of Steve D. and Raul Guzman of Carthage I'd say:
1. Steve does everything on the basketball court well. The one thing that he is not usually quite as good at is 3 point shooting. Before his 8 of 10 night, was his percentage that good? To beat Carthage, I think "forcing" him to shoot from beyond the arc usually provides an opponent with the best chance to win. What you don't want him to do is drive and get into his defender's body as he is all-world at doing. When this happens, he often makes the basket. If not, its 2 shots which are almost an automatic 2 points. And frequently, he both makes the basket, is fouled, and makes the and one.

2. If someone would actually guard Guzman, he 3 point percentage would be a lot lower. Notice I said guard--you know, get right up in his face with a hand up. He isn't quick enough to go around you, and his shot is basically a behind the head set shot as he only gets about an inch off the floor. But give him a lot of space, which teams must be doing, and he'll drain it.

[OurHouse]

Watching this live, I was shocked at the pace throughout most of the 1st half.  Obviously IWU loves to get it and run, but I didn't expect Augie to do the same.  The Vikings pushed the tempo every bit as much as the Titans did to start the game...you'll notice both teams flying up and down the floor the first 10 minutes or so.
[/quote]

With a 20 point lead, you don't keep a bunch of shooters in the game just to pad their ppg - this happens time and time again - the emphasis should shift to more of a defensive effort but the folks running this, have not figured it out quite yet - IWU would of lost had the vikings been better from the field down the stretch - player rotation once again, is close to biting the bitch.

MMW'ds

[Gregory Sager]

2. If someone would actually guard Guzman, he 3 point percentage would be a lot lower. Notice I said guard--you know, get right up in his face with a hand up. He isn't quick enough to go around you, and his shot is basically a behind the head set shot as he only gets about an inch off the floor.

A full inch? I think you're being generous.

[Titan Q]

With a 20 point lead, you don't keep a bunch of shooters in the game just to pad their ppg - this happens time and time again - the emphasis should shift to more of a defensive effort but the folks running this, have not figured it out quite yet - IWU would of lost had the vikings been better from the field down the stretch - player rotation once again, is close to biting the bitch.

MMW'ds

So when IWU was up 20 (67-47 with 6:22 to play), Ron Rose should have taken out the nucleus that held Augustana to 47 points through the first 34 minutes of the game - and 14 points in the first 14 minutes of the 2nd half - and replaced with the "defense team"?

Brilliant.

[AndOne]

Last night in Elmhurst, the visiting North Central Cardinals more closely resembled the Naperville Youth Pee-Wees during the 1st half of play. They handled the basketball like a hot potato, seemingly intent on establishing a new record for turnovers in a half. Additionally, they also appeared to be running in place on defense, being able to barely stay within the same zip code as their man as evidenced by the Blue Jays canning 53.6 percent of their shots including 43 percent of their 3 attempts. Fortunately, they were able to halt the TO total to 12, and to pull within 5 points on a Brian Evans layup with 4 seconds remaining in the 1st half.

However, it was more of the same defensively early in the 2nd period as the Jays built their 5 point halftime lead to a 14 point advantage at 57-43 with 13:32 remaining. At this point, with both frustration and embarrassment registering at peak levels, the Cardinals dug in and went on an amazing 19 point run that left the Jays wondering what hit them. Besides playing almost error less basketball during the stretch, the Cardinals employed a zone (yes, I said a zone) that was largely responsible for turning the 14 point deficit into a 7 point advantage. Elmhurst had no clue against the zone and went without a point from the 13:32 mark until 3:52. At that point, Dustin Bainter of EC canned 2 threes to slash the Cardinal lead to just 1 with 3 minutes to play. NCC pushed the lead back up to 5 with 1:47 left, but Bainter hit 4 straight from the line to again reduce the lead to 1 with 1 minute on the clock.
The Cards Brian Evans was fouled with 24 seconds left, but missed both of the ensuing free throws. Elmhurst then worked the ball to Zack Boyd who drove the left baseline to finish on a nice reverse scoop layup to give the Jays the lead with just 7.2 seconds left.

The Cardinals then called timeout and set up a play with an option of either getting the ball in to Evans or David Tywman with the pass receiver pushing the ball to half court and calling another timeout if he had neither a path to the basket nor a man open that he could get the ball to for a good shot. The inbound pass found Brian Evans foul line extended left, not far inside the side line. Sandwiched between 2 defenders, Evans drove down the sideline and past half court. Still on the dribble, he then cut right toward the basket at a 45 degree angle. At this point, I was looking for the open man as Evans was still tightly covered by 2 defenders. However, as he approached the top of the key, he drove down the left side of the lane, taking the ball strong all the way to the hoop and finishing despite being hammered as he released the ball. The clock read 1.2 seconds with NCC now up by 1. As he stepped to the line, it appeared Cardinal Coach Raridon instructed Evans to just hit the rim, but to miss the shot intentionally. Brian did exactly that. Elmhurst grabbed the ball, but the horn sounded just as they did so.

For the game, NCC freshman sensation Derek Raridon led all scorers with 27. With 10 rebounds, he also registered a double double. Evans game winning basket gave him a career high 18. His spectacular night (he played all 40 minutes) also included a game high 11 rebounds, giving the Cards a 2nd double double on the evening. Reid Barringer added another 18 points on 7 of 11 shooting, including 2/4 on threes.

Elmhurst was led by Bainter, who the Cards seemed to have no answer for, with 25, and Zack Boyd with 15.    

*I think NCC Assistant Coach Mitch Raridon owes Evans dinner. If you were at the game, you know why.