MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Titan Q]

PS First thing Bosko says to me that day, "Q, you look awfully tan...you been cheatin' somewhere?" (Cheating = tanning bed)

Q: "Hey pot, kettle here...and no, I was in Florida.  This is legit."

Bosko: (rolls eyes...still not sure)

[CCIWFAN3]

Also...Q...the High School talent pool (at least in Central Illinois) is way down from previous years.  This was one of the topics of discussion at the State Farm Holiday Classic among coaches.  It's difficult to recruit at the level needed if the talent pool is down.

[tyler durden]

From today's Kenosha News ...


BY ANDREW HORSCHAK
ahorschak@kenoshanews.com
With four freshmen and one sophomore among its top seven players, the most surprising aspect of the Carthage men's basketball team this season has been its success away from Tarble Arena.
Ranked No. 23 in the latest D3hoops.com poll, the Red Men are 7-1 on the road (2-2 on neutral floors) after going 24-31 in the previous five seasons.
That sparkling road record will be tested when first-place Carthage (15-4, 7-1 CCIW) puts its six-game winning streak on the line against Wheaton (13-6, 5-3) 7:30 tonight at King Arena. The game will be broadcast on WRJN-AM 1400 and over the Internet at http://www.carthage.edu/ais/webcast/
"I wish I had a button to push so I could just say, 'Do it this way,' and it would work every time," Carthage coach Bosko Djurickovic said. "I really don't know. I don't know if the matchups have been good or whether we have just played well on those particular nights.
"We're playing pretty well right now everywhere. I think it does carry over. We're playing with more and more confidence."
After limiting talented 6-foot-7 forward Doug Sexauer to nine points in a convincing victory over Illinois Wesleyan on Saturday, Carthage will have to contend with another quality big man tonight in Tim McCrary.
The 6-foot-6 sophomore has emerged as the top challenger to Carthage junior Steve Djurickovic for the CCIW's Most Outstanding Player award.
"He is as athletic of a big guy as you're going to run into in our league," the Carthage coach said. "He is quick. He is fast. He is a great finisher. What makes him a little bit different is he is a great passer. He can't go down and double him unless you are 100 percent sure you can get the ball out of his hands."
In eight league games, McCrary ranks second in scoring (22.3), first in rebounding (10.0), second in assists (4.1), fourth in blocked shots (1.5), fifth in steals (1.3) and ninth in field-goal percentage (.556).
Djurickovic is first in scoring (23.1) and assists (8.8), third in free-throw percentage (.859), sixth in 3-point percentage (.444), ninth in blocked shots (0.50) 11th in field-goal percentage (.541) and 14th in rebounding (4.6) and steals (0.88).
In the CCIW opener on Jan. 6 at Tarble Arena, McCrary scored 29 points on 10-of-19 shooting and added seven rebounds and four assists, but Carthage came away with a 75-62 victory as Djurickovic scored 29 points on 11-of-15 shooting and chipped in seven assists and five rebounds.
Carthage senior guard Cody Hilton was one of the unsung stars of the game after helping hold Wheaton sharp-shooter Ben Panner (15.7 ppg) to eight points – his second-lowest total of the season -- on 2-of-10 shooting.
"Panner is an excellent player," Bosko Djurickovic said. "He does a lot of things well. He's an exceptional shooter and plays with a lot of confidence."

[bigz61550]

I can assure all you gentlemen that China has very little interest in all the corn in Manito.  (Soybeans for sure . . . ).   They have all the money from 'Merica already, so who cares about Manito mealie pop.  Glad to see it was made clear that the "censorship" being done this time was by Pat, not by the "Great Fire Wall" of China. 

You may be missing what they want from Manito...the melons (cantaloupe).  They are great!

[Gregory Sager]

G.S.....come on...Out of Control!

"Come on"? I strongly suspect that you're the only person who reads this room who sees the initials "OC" and immediately thinks, "Oh, that must stand for 'out of control'!"

(Bosko and I also discussed Greg Sager's new career as a broadcaster...that was equally as entertaining of a 5 minutes!)

Well, Bosko can certainly be entertaining for five minutes on almost any topic that you hand him, but I can't believe that you two actually managed to draw five minutes' worth of conversation out of that rather threadbare topic. And, no, I don't want a transcript of it.

So this is literally the first time I've logged in here in over 2 years I think.  It's been a while.  Some thoughts...

1) Great to see a lot of the same faces following d3hoops.  Wish I have kept up with it better but time just hasn't allowed.

2) What in THE WORLD is wrong with Elmhurst?  No wins in conference?  Seriously?  Did they quit recruiting for 2-3 years or something?  To see them shooting like 15% from 3 pointers just makes me mad!

3) Consider this post some karma for the Bluejays getting a win tonight.  I'll take all the credit later tonight after they come away with the "W"!  lol...

So what else is new?

Good to hear from you again, Ryan. Is it merely a coincidence that you chime in again on CCIW Chat just as the phrase "all the corn in Manito" is making a revival around here?

With regard to Elmhurst, I strongly suspect that there's a lot of truth to what USee, VikingBlue, and Q have said about the economic pinch really starting to kick in and affect CCIW recruiting. Perhaps Elmhurst is simply the first program to go into talent free-fall for those reasons. If that's true, then the league as a whole might soon find itself in Elmhurst's boat -- although, of course, somebody's gotta win the league every season.

But I think that a more direct cause is that Elmhurst has had some problems keeping kids in the program lately. I can't help but think that this year's Bluejays team would look a lot different if it had an actual big man playing in the middle rather than a 6'3, 190 converted small forward, but 6'8, 230 veteran Aaron Hintzsche declined to return to the team for his senior year. The sophomore who was supposed to step up and take his place, 6'9 Wes Dukeman, apparently left the team after two games. That has left EC with one of the two or three most size-challenged CCIW lineups of the last thirty years. The 'jays have neither height nor bulk. I've seen the four remaining Elmhurst players who are 6'6 or taller -- they're all freshmen who are playing JV -- and I can affirm that none of them are close to being CCIW-level varsity players at this point. Mark Scherer is playing his best players right now, and none of them are bigger than the aforementioned 6'3, 190 Aaron Schroeder.

What that doesn't explain is Elmhurst's atrocious three-point shooting. Even teams with no inside game should be able to create open shots with good ball movement and/or penetration, and EC is getting its fair share of good looks from deep. I thus can't figure out why the previously reliable Chris Childs, for instance, is only 19-55 (.345) from downtown -- he was a career 70-161 (.435) from long range prior to this season. His fellow Bluejays mainstays Dustin Bainter (16-56, .286), Zack Boyd (4-17, .235), Mike McCurdy (12-42, .286), and Matt Bernier (10-41, .244) have been absolutely atrocious from behind the arc. Their best shooter has been freshman James Robertson, and he's not setting the world ablaze either (10-29, .345).

The Bluejays don't appear to have given up on themselves. They work hard on defense, they rebound surprisingly well given their size limitations, and they have a budding star in sophomore Zack Boyd, who is averaging 15.2 ppg and 5.6 rpg while playing out of position as a 6'3 forward. But the combination of their lack of size and their baffling inability to knock down long-distance shots has really put them up against it this season.

[Gregory Sager]

Just a reminder to tune in and watch tonight's Augie @ NPU game via this link. As I said on Facebook today, since the league's two Swedish-American schools will be squaring off, Rob and I will be breaking out all of our Sven and Ole jokes on the air tonight.

[AndOne]

Any Wesleyan posters going to the game tonight----

Meet by the desk in the Shirk lobby at 7:10-7:15?

[Titan Q]

Any Wesleyan posters going to the game tonight----

Meet by the desk in the Shirk lobby at 7:10-7:15?

I think the only regular/fairly regular IWU posters on this site live out of town -- Missouri (Titan Q), Michigan (Mr. Ypsi, IWUmich), and Hong Kong (iwu70).

[Gregory Sager]

Any Wesleyan posters going to the game tonight----

Meet by the desk in the Shirk lobby at 7:10-7:15?

I think the only regular/fairly regular IWU posters on this site live out of town -- Missouri (Titan Q), Michigan (Mr. Ypsi, IWUmich), and Hong Kong (iwu70).

I think he's hoping that OurHouse will save him a seat.

[Titan Q]

Any Wesleyan posters going to the game tonight----

Meet by the desk in the Shirk lobby at 7:10-7:15?

I think the only regular/fairly regular IWU posters on this site live out of town -- Missouri (Titan Q), Michigan (Mr. Ypsi, IWUmich), and Hong Kong (iwu70).

I think he's hoping that OurHouse will save him a seat.

True.  They can both cheer when North Central scores.

[Titan Q]

First regional rankings...

http://d3blogs.com/d3hoops/2010/02/03/mens-regional-rankings-feb-3rd/


Midwest Region
1. Washington-St. Louis 13-2 16-2
2. Carthage 11-2 15-4
3. St. Norbert 15-1 16-1
4. Illinois Wesleyan 14-4 15-4
5. Anderson (Indiana) 15-2 17-2
6. Wheaton (Illinois) 12-6 13-6
7. Augustana (Illinois) 12-6 12-7
8. Westminster (Missouri) 12-1 15-4

[Gregory Sager]

Any Wesleyan posters going to the game tonight----

Meet by the desk in the Shirk lobby at 7:10-7:15?

I think the only regular/fairly regular IWU posters on this site live out of town -- Missouri (Titan Q), Michigan (Mr. Ypsi, IWUmich), and Hong Kong (iwu70).

I think he's hoping that OurHouse will save him a seat.

True.  They can both cheer when North Central scores.

... unless Sean Dwyer is in the game.

[usee]

I did a little research and I have narrowed the identity of OurHouse to the following choices:

A. Sean Dwyer's Dad
B. Scott Trost
C. Titan Q's alterego
D. Bosko

I am convinced the answer lies within.

MMW's

[Gregory Sager]

I did a little research and I have narrowed the identity of OurHouse to the following choices:

C. Titan Q's alterego

Wait a minute ... you mean OurHouse is the Green Lantern?



Color me impressed!

[usee]

I said its a possiblity, albeit a strong one.

There is an argument for each of these choices.