MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[usee]

From watching the Wheaton game wednesday they had Jahns on Steve D much of the game and Jahns is quick enough but Bosko then goes to either the post up option or the high pick and roll with a big and it looks exhausting to run through those big guy picks while trying to stay in front of Steve D. Jahns was probably pretty sore Thursday (imagine that feeling--my body aches and I gave up 44). SD is a tough matchup all the way around. It's clear his basketball intelligence makes him even more dangerous as he knows how to counter each defensive set and where to take/pass the ball.

[74impala]

I've only seen Stevie play twice this year so I can't claim to know how all the other teams have guarded him.  In playing Wheaton, Stevie was always guarding someone
who was not very likely to score (Jahns, Pierotti, Shackleford).  Why not run some plays where those players are having a bunch of picks set for them?  SD hardly had to work on defense.  Maybe if he had to, he wouldn't have quite so much left in the tank on the offensive side.  Also,  whatever happened to taking a good hard foul?  Nothing dirty, just one to let him know if he drives into the paint he might find a bit of resistance.

[Dennis_Prikkel]

from my lovely and talented daughter - a new word for the English language:

Favred (FAHrv'd), v. To bring one's team to the brink of victory through brilliant maneuver, but to lose by committing a colossal unforced blunder. Example: The Democrats favred their chances for health care reform when they lost the Massachusetts Senate seat.

[Pat Coleman]

Make that MOP.

Bosko = M.O.C.  (Most Outstanding Conceiver)

Does "conceiver" in this sentence refer to him having the idea of building the offense around SD and knowing it would work, or "conceiver" like he helped create SD along with his wife?

I am not referring to X's and O's.

How about X's and Y's?

[dansand]

Congratulations to Matt Pelton and Steve Djurickovic for earning ESPN the Magazine 1st team Academic All-District honors.

http://www.augustana.edu/x18404.xml

[coebball70]

It's been 36 hours since I attended the Carthage vs Wheaton game so it's my turn to comment on the ways to defend Stevie D.  This whole issue brings back memories of watching Pete Maravich (which I was lucky enough to do twice).  Obviously, someone who averages 44 points per game for his career was tough to stop.  Yet, it happened several times.  I left the Wheaton game really disappointed in the creativity of Wheaton's coaching efforts.  First, no attempt was made to press Carthage except for a possession or two at the end of the game.  The Redmen's ball-handling ability as a team was never challenged.  Second, Wheaton rarely, if ever, used a zone to force Carthage into a perimeter game.  Two options come immediately to mind.  First, why not a box and one, or better yet a tight diamond and one?  Guzman and Pierce are good sized but not particularly fast or for that matter, well-conditioned.  Guzman can shoot outside but I would take that risk vs Stevie D.  Finally, am I the only one who questions Wheaton's decision not to extend the game by intentionally fouling Carthage.  Several times in the last three minutes of the game, Wheaton, down by either 3 or 5 points, allowed Carthage to simply possess the ball while precious seconds elapsed without any attempt to stop the clock.  At the start of the season, I predicted Carthage to end on top of the league but I am confident there are ways to slow their progress.          

[Dennis_Prikkel]

It's been 36 hours since I attended the Carthage vs Wheaton game so it's my turn to comment on the ways to defend Stevie D.  This whole issue brings back memories of watching Pete Maravich (which I was lucky enough to do twice).  Obviously, someone who averages 44 points per game for his career was tough to stop.  Yet, it happened several times.  I left the Wheaton game really disappointed in the creativity of Wheaton's coaching efforts.  First, no attempt was made to press Carthage except for a possession or two at the end of the game.  The Redmen's ball-handling ability as a team was never challenged.  Second, Wheaton rarely, if ever, used a zone to force Carthage into a perimeter game.  Two options come immediately to mind.  First, why not a box and one, or better yet a tight diamond and one?  Guzman and Pierce are good sized but not particularly fast or for that matter, well-conditioned.  Guzman can shoot outside but I would take that risk vs Stevie D.  Finally, am I the only one who questions Wheaton's decision not to extend the game by intentionally fouling Carthage.  Several times in the last three minutes of the game, Wheaton, down by either 3 or 5 points, allowed Carthage to simply possess the ball while precious seconds elapsed without any attempt to stop the clock.  At the start of the season, I predicted Carthage to end on top of the league but I am confident there are ways to slow their progress.          

all good defensive ideas - however

1- North Park got blown out when they zoned Carthage
2- Wheaton has had trouble stopping opponents' guards penetrating all year.

[Titan Q]

Make that MOP.

Bosko = M.O.C.  (Most Outstanding Conceiver)

Does "conceiver" in this sentence refer to him having the idea of building the offense around SD and knowing it would work, or "conceiver" like he helped create SD along with his wife?

I am not referring to X's and O's.

How about X's and Y's?

Right.  I'm talking chromosomes here.

[CCIWchamps]

It's been 36 hours since I attended the Carthage vs Wheaton game so it's my turn to comment on the ways to defend Stevie D.  This whole issue brings back memories of watching Pete Maravich (which I was lucky enough to do twice).  Obviously, someone who averages 44 points per game for his career was tough to stop.  Yet, it happened several times.  I left the Wheaton game really disappointed in the creativity of Wheaton's coaching efforts.  First, no attempt was made to press Carthage except for a possession or two at the end of the game.  The Redmen's ball-handling ability as a team was never challenged.  Second, Wheaton rarely, if ever, used a zone to force Carthage into a perimeter game.  Two options come immediately to mind.  First, why not a box and one, or better yet a tight diamond and one?  Guzman and Pierce are good sized but not particularly fast or for that matter, well-conditioned.  Guzman can shoot outside but I would take that risk vs Stevie D.  Finally, am I the only one who questions Wheaton's decision not to extend the game by intentionally fouling Carthage.  Several times in the last three minutes of the game, Wheaton, down by either 3 or 5 points, allowed Carthage to simply possess the ball while precious seconds elapsed without any attempt to stop the clock.  At the start of the season, I predicted Carthage to end on top of the league but I am confident there are ways to slow their progress.          

First off, that's incredible about Maravich.  That's really, really cool that you shared the court with him!
Second in regards to your comments, that is what is frustrating about the Wheaton game: they were in it until the end in spite of SD's points, and with a few adjustmetns like you mentioned, it might have been a different game altogether.  Maybe we'd all be discussing how daring him to beat you is the way to go.  Instead they let Carthage dictate the tempo and a few mistakes by Wheaton finished off the game.  I appreciate your insights putting words to my emotions!

[tyler durden]

From today's Kenosha News ...

http://www.kenoshanews.com/sports/zampanti_stevie_d_delightful_7280141.html

[REDMENFAN]

Nice quotes from Wheaton's coach about Bosko and Steve, seems like a classy guy

[CCIWFAN3]

Never let the star player score the first basket...in first or second half!
Try to take away (best you can) his biggest strength (even if you give up something else).
As simple as it might sound...a star player cannot score if they don't have the ball in their hands:)

[wheels81]

You're right USEE NCC loss and all you hear is Crickets from +1

Impala 74 only posts on pages ending in 74   But at least he makes sense

[Gregory Sager]

Here was my post back on January 24. At the time Wheaton was 4-2 in conference and McCrary was consistently having monster games. Carthage was 5-1 back then

I know Stevie D is the obvious pick but Wheaton's Tim McCrary is making a case to be in the conversation for POY at this early stage. He is on track to be a hands down All American as a sophomore. I watched him play tonight at King Arena and he is as complete a player as I have seen in the CCIW. He is really hard to defend as he moves so well without the ball in Wheaton's motion offense.

Here are his numbers:

24.7 ppg, 10 reb, 4.76 assists, 1.17 steals, 1.33 blcks, 60.8% FG, 66.7% FT, A/T ratio 2.00

Stevie D for comparison:
21.8ppg, 4.8 reb, 8.33 assists, 1.17 steals, .33 blcks, 55.7% FG, 81.3% FT, A/T ratio 3.13

Since that post Carthage has gone 3-0 with wins @NPU v IWU and @ Wheaton. Stevie D  increased his numbers from his average scoring 32.6 pts and 7.66 assist over that span. Over the same time period McCrary's averages have come down as Wheaton went 1-2 winning at Millikin and losing consecuteve games @NCC and v Carthage. McCrary averaged 16.6 pts 9.3 reb and 3.6 assists over that span.

their current numbers look like this:

McCrary
22.0pts, 9.9 reb, 4.33 assists, 1.56 steals, 1.33 blcks, 54.6% FG, 67.7% FT, A/T ratio 1.50

Stevie D
25.4 ppg, 4.4 reb, 8.11 assists, 1.0 steals, .44 blocks, 55.2% FG, 87.8%FT, A/T ratio 3.32

USee, it's true that I did not speak up after this post of yours, but I strongly object to the insinuation that my accusation that promoting McCrary as an alternative to Djurickovic for MOP was nonsensical was "pure hindsight stupidity." While we can rehash that whole MOP vs. MVP debate thing again, the fact of the matter is that Djurickovic was and is the guy who makes Carthage go -- everything runs through him on that team, and to a large degree whatever chance that Carthage has to win a game against anybody in this league (including Elmhurst) is dependent upon Steve D.'s performance that night. McCrary, as terrific as he is and as impressive as his numbers have been, isn't that kind of a player. Ben Panner is a key component of Wheaton as well, and he presents a much more consistent complement at the offensive end of the floor than anything Steve D. has at Carthage -- especially since Panner, like Djurickovic, is a guard and is thus (along with Andrew Jahns) a primary ballhandler through whom the ball has to pass before it ever reaches McCrary.

Beyond that is the inescapable truth that this discussion really goes beyond numbers. McCrary is a special player -- but ask anyone in this league, coach or player, and he'll tell you that Steve Djurickovic is an absolute phenomenon, a force of nature, a once-per-decade kind of player. You game-plan for Wheaton in part based upon McCrary's presence; typically, that means stressing the need to double down on him whenever he gets the ball in the post, or, if you want to crawl out more on a limb, you double-team him whenever the ball is swung over to his side of the floor. But you do those sorts of things for other strong post players in this league, too (e.g., Doug Sexauer, Nick Williams, Kyle Nelson). By contrast, you don't game-plan for Carthage in the traditional sense -- you game-plan for Steve Djurickovic. See the difference?

Just yesterday Bob ran through all of the various ways that CCIW teams have tried to combat Djurickovic this season (to which I added Elmhurst's double-team-him-everywhere-he-goes tactic). CCIW coaches have done everything but throw junk defenses such as the triangle-and-two or the box-and-one at him. They will toss their entire defensive philosophies out the window in an effort to slow Djurickovic down. There's no more than two or three players in all of D3, at best, who can make the coach of a good opponent abandon the whole playbook like that. Djurickovic is just on a completely different level than is McCrary, and each and every coach in the league will readily tell you that. It's not an insult to McCrary to say it.

Never did I say that SD wasn't worthy of winning the MOP or that he wouldn't.  I just felt the wording of "nonsense" was a little hyberbole, whereas the assessment that "For 2010 and 2011, the award is Stevie D's to lose" carries the same message with a tone I can agree with.  I get it- the MOP is the highest scorer on the best team- [waiting for CCIW historians to correct this statement]

... and here comes the correction.

First of all, the link between scoring prowess and the MOP isn't that clear-cut -- only nine times in CCIW history has the league's leading scorer been named the MOP, and only once in the last decade (Joel Kolmodin of Wheaton in '03). In fact, twice within the last decade the league's leading scorer didn't even make the All-CCIW first team (Carthage's Kyle Jeffery in '06 and North Central's Yulie Wells in '01). Second, the highest scorer on the best team only won five of the last eleven MOP plaques that were handed out; in fact, in '02 it was given to the third-highest scorer on the best team (Carthage's Antoine McDaniel). In other words, there's a good likelihood that the highest scorer on the best team can win it, but to say that it's an automatic, done-deal sort of thing is just flat-out wrong.

- and SD just scored 44 in single coverage and his team is #1, so he's a shoe-in.  Fine.

Wrong again. One game doth not an MOP make.

I'm just saying that other players, such as Tim, put up very good all around numbers and deserve to be in the conversation.  Otherwise, you're right, they should've just given it out in the pre-season to SD or even last spring when Kent finished his game vs. Wash U.

Come on, that's not what I said at all. I never said that the 2009-10 MOP award should've been handed out in October or November or as far back as last March to Steve D. And, contrary to what Chuck is doing, I don't make predictions about who is going to win the award next year, or the year after that, or the year after that. There's too many unknowns for me to feel even reasonably comfortable with making those kinds of forecasts. What I said was that McCrary's name should not have been put forth as an alternate candidate, then or now.

 It's understood that he is the player to beat in the CCIW.  Tim is putting up 20 and 10 with almost 5 assists a game.  He'd get a vote even from someone "not wearing orange colored blinders" for those.

No, he wouldn't. Each and every CCIW coach will tell you that the best player in this league is Steve Djurickovic. And you know which coach would be the first to say it? Mike Schauer.

 That's all I'm saying.  Ease up on the throttle a bit fellas- you're the ones making the heavy handed statements here, not me.

Who are you trying to kid? On Wednesday night right after Wheaton lost to Carthage you made the most heavy-handed post I've seen here in months. You posted a diatribe slamming Steve D. that had so much whine in it that it should've come with a sommelier and a corkscrew.

[Gregory Sager]

Just a little Public Service Announcement here if it hasn't already been mentioned (I can't remember and am too lazy to page back):  Saturday's NPU @ Wheaton guys game starts at 5:00, with the women's game following.  Anyone else tempted to try pull off a doubleheader by whipping up to Kenosha for the game at Carthage following that? 

First of all, thanks for this PSA, Pete. I hope that everyone sees it -- especially any North Park fans who're planning to make the trek out to DuPage County for this game.

But I also have to ask: Why is Wheaton flip-flopping the men's and women's games? Anyone know?