MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Dennis_Prikkel]

Looking forward to some good basketball tonight at Tarble Arena.

Sounds like Augie had a good week of practice.
I feel Augie matches up best against the Red Men vs the other 2 teams.
If the Vikes can shoot a decent precentage and play great defense (as they are capable).... I like their chances.
I do not expect Carthage to shoot 15% in the second half of this game, however.

Beware if Augie gets by Carthage, as they will have something to prove against IWU or Wheaton.
The Vikings went 0-2 against both in 4 very competitive games.
Plus the Vikes appear to be deeper than the other 2 teams (esp Wheaton) and may have more strong  legs in the 2nd game in 2 nights.

GO AUGUSTANA....................... BEAT CARTHAGE!!!

OY

[Gregory Sager]

Greg are you attending the tourney?

Nope, although I may check in with the games from time to time tonight, depending upon whatever else I have going on. (I had planned to help conduct an interview this evening on behalf of a board of directors upon which I sit, but the candidate just phoned in sick, so my night may be more open than I had initially thought would be the case.)

[CCIWFAN3]

I can't tonight...I gotta game....but I might go tomorrow night...depending on what takes place.

[John Gleich]

Is the live video working for anybody yet?

[Sideline Fan]

Live video is working for me. It's actually a nice broadcast. 19-18 with 9:23 left in the first.

[John Gleich]

Hmm... can't get it to work.

[buf]

I can't get it either.  I get a timed out error.  Perhaps too many people are watching it?

[coebball70]

IWU 32
Wheaton 29

I had difficulty accessing but used the alternative sight Carthage suggested....accessed twice successfully.
Streaming quality acceptable.

[coebball70]

Spoke way too soon.  Now I can't find the video stream from Carthage.  


Found it.  IWU wins.

[Sideline Fan]

IWU-68
Wheaton-59

Congratulations to the Titans. A well-earned victory. I'll be curious to see how this affects the at-large selections. The feed cut out a couple of times, but IWU was able to respond to the Wheaton run in the second half. In the regular season matchups, Wheaton took control at that point. In this game, IWU responded and stayed in the game eventually taking control themselves. Fouls at the end increased the spread in what was a very good game.

[shepherd]

Congratulations to IWU.  The game was close for the most part, which was expected.  I thought both teams were a little edgy and didn't settle down until the second half.  Both coaches did a great job creating mismatches back and forth.  So now the Thunder wait to see if they can get another miracle bid. 
BTW- The steaming video from Carthage was very clear.

[usee]

Mike Schauer said on the postgame "This loss was my fault". He went on to explain he often does not rest Panner in the second half of close games. Tonight he chose to rest BP with the Thunder up 8 and just over 10 minutes to play. Carwell misses a dunk that would have put the Thunder up 10 and with Panner watching the Wheaton guards commit a foul, a turnover, miss an open 3 and a Carwell turnover mixed in leads to a 10-0 IWU run and before you could blink the Titans led by 2. During that stretch the Wheaton perimeter defense gave up two Zimmer 3's, the Pieroti foul led to 2 Rosenkrantz FT's and a Kotchnitzky layup (off a TO) and that was the difference. No question BP's absence was felt during that stretch and it was the difference.

In spite of that stretch, I believe IWU deserved the win. Their defense was outstanding as they held McCrary to 8pts, 5reb and 6 assists and BP to 10 pts. When Jake Carwell is your leading scorer at 13 pts you are in trouble. Congrats to the Titans who deserved to win.

[carthagealum]

Congrats to Carthage last night, and to Augustana for an incredibly tough game. Going into the game I had a feeling it would be a nailbiter, and for much of the game the momentum was with Augustana. Carthage managed to pull out a victory in the end.

I watched around the first 15 minutes of the game online, it was very cool, then the stream got choppy. In the end I ended up running the audio feed and the video feed separately. The video feed was in and out, but the audio stayed up. (Comment to whoever is running the cameras. Sometimes the shots are too tight in on the action.)

I fear that it will be audio-only tonight, as Carthage and IWU fans from around the country that can't make it in-person tune in online. I hope the video streaming holds up, but at least the audio is there as a backup and has been reliable. Worst case if the Carthage audio stream drops out I can (gasp) listen to the IWU feed. I'll have that open in a tab ready to go, just in case.

Any predictions where the next round of games will be depending on the outcome tonight?

[Titan Q]

IWU 68
Wheaton 59

http://www.iwusports.com/custompages/MBB/MBB2010/HTML/cciw1m.htm

* John Koschnitzky: 15 pts, 4 reb
* Doug Sexauer: 14 pts, 5 reb
* Sean Johnson: 12 pts
* Travis Rosenkranz: 8 pts, 5 reb, 6 assists

* Jake Carwell: 13 pts, 7 reb
* Andrew Jahns: 10 pts
* Ben Panner: 10 pts
* Tim McCrary: 8 pts, 5 reb, 6 assists


A few thoughts and observations...

* This was an extremely hard-fought basketball game...it certainly felt like an NCAA tournament game.

* Ron Rose made a change to his starting lineup that may have been the biggest reason IWU won the game.  After starting Edmond O'Callaghan alongside Doug Sexauer in the post for 24 games this season (Ryan Connolly started one game), Rose inserted 6-6 sophomore forward John Koschnitzky into the starting lineup last night at the 4.  This was Koschnitzky's first start since way back on November 18 vs Webster (the game he broke his foot in).  John responded by going 6-8 from the field, finishing with 15 points and 4 rebounds.  More importantly, he did a tremendous job on Wheaton superstar Tim McCrary.  McCrary had just 2 points at halftime, and finished with 8 (12 off his CCIW average this year).  Obviously you don't guard a player like McCrary with just one guy - IWU's overall team defensive scheme to contain him was solid, and it was executed very well.

* IWU also did a great job on Ben Panner, guarding him with the point-guard duo of Travis Rosenkranz and Sean Dwyer.  Panner finished with 10 (8 less than his conference scoring average).  Panner was never able to get into any type of consistent offensive flow, like he did in Bloomington for a couple stretches.

* USee referred to a play that almost everyone I talked to after the game pointed to as one of the biggest.  Wheaton seized control of the game in the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half, and had a 47-39 lead, with the ball at the 10:14 mark.  Jake Carwell broke free from his defender and had a wide open gimmie...but he missed the dunk.  It would have put Wheaton up 10, IWU would have probably called timeout, and I'm honestly not sure if the game would have turned out the way it did.  As it turned out, after the missed dunk, IWU went on a 10-0 run capped by 2 Jordan Zimmer 3-pointers.  

* The game was as close as it gets down the stretch.  IWU led 61-59 when Sean Johnson delivered what turned out to be the biggest field goal of the season for the Titans.  After a Ron Rose timeout, Johnson took the ball hard to the basket from the left wing and scored on a really impressive left handed layup with 1:02 to play.  Johnson is definitely IWU's big shot guy - no question about that.

* IWU point-guard Travis Rosenkranz had a really good game.  He finished with 8 points, 5 rebounds, and 6 assists, and just did a great job controlling the tempo for the Titans.  Travis was 8-8 from the FT line, with 6 of those makes coming in the final 3:00, with the game on the line.

* Doug Sexauer was his usual reliable self - 14 points on 7-10 from the field.  He has become quite a player.


I'm glad I made the trip up here...last night's game was what Division III/CCIW basketball is all about.  Two good games, and an incredible level of intensity.

[WESNSports]

Any predictions where the next round of games will be depending on the outcome tonight?

I'm not the expert that so many of the other guys posting on here are, but if Carthage wins they do have at least an opportunity at hosting.  I think pretty clearly in the general area of the CCIW, Wash U will be hosting, and most likely one of the WIAC schools, whoever wins their conference tournament also has an excellent shot for hosting.  I'm not sure how many schools in this area need to find places to play next weekend, but if its more than 8 then Carthage with a win would certainly be one of the top choices.