MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[AndOne]

Does anyone know when Augustana will release their non conference basketball schedule?

According to Wash U.'s website, the Bears will visit the Carver Center on Monday Nov 22nd to face Augie.
If they play a similar slate to last year, the Vikes should be well seasoned for the CCIW wars.

IWU and Carthage have to be the favorites for the title.... with Augie close behind!

Here you go, Mike:

http://www.augustana.edu/x20050.xml

A "good" thing for Augie is that they get their likely toughest non conference opponents, Wash U, Anderson, St. Ambrose, Buena Vista, & Whitewater at home.
The "bad" is that their last 4 CCIW games are all on the road. 

[Titan Q]

Does anyone know when Augustana will release their non conference basketball schedule?

According to Wash U.'s website, the Bears will visit the Carver Center on Monday Nov 22nd to face Augie.
If they play a similar slate to last year, the Vikes should be well seasoned for the CCIW wars.

IWU and Carthage have to be the favorites for the title.... with Augie close behind!

Here you go, Mike:

http://www.augustana.edu/x20050.xml

A "good" thing for Augie is that they get their likely toughest non conference opponents, Wash U, Anderson, St. Ambrose, Buena Vista, & Whitewater at home.
The "bad" is that their last 4 CCIW games are all on the road.  

I believe that final conference game (Augie @ IWU), on the Tuesday of conference tournament week, was originally scheduled to be played @ Augie on the final Wednesday.  I had heard Augie did not want to play during finals week again this year (last year Coach G said his team "played in a fog" that night if everyone recalls) and approached IWU about the situation.  Looks like the two schools worked out a deal to play the game Tuesday, Feb 22, but in Bloomington.  I know IWU originally did not want to do this, as they felt playing 3 days before the conference tournament would be a competitive disadvantage...not quite sure how this went down.

[Viking Mike]

Thanks Dan!

Looks like a solid schedule once again.   This has to be one of the tougher DIV 3 schedules in the country.
The Vikings will have their work cut out for them.  I'm excited to see how they perform in the coming year.
Hopefully they will be road warriors at the end of the year with 4 games away from Carver.

My big concern for the coming year will be our guard play.  Will we have the experience and skill at the guard positions to compete at a high level.  Our bigs will good, but with the loss of Pelton, who will step up and play the shooting guard???
Any chance of moving Anderson to the #2, or is he a #3?  

[Viking Mike]

Titan Q,

I am guessing that you are partially correct with the reason for the changes in the Augie/IWU game.  Augie's schedule is the exact reciprocal of last years schedule.  The Viking's last four games last year were the same 4 they finish with this year, except they were all at home.  I think Augie is due to play in Bloomington at the end of this year's schedule, but they probably changed the game from Wed Feb 16th (finals week) to the next Tue on Feb 22nd.  Thanks IWU!!!  Anyone who was at that game in Rock Island last year could tell that the Vikings were sleepwalking through that game.  It was not a good showing for such a big game.

Can't believe I'm relieved that the Vikings get to play in Bloomington on the last day of the regular season!!!

[Titan Q]

My big concern for the coming year will be our guard play.  Will we have the experience and skill at the guard positions to compete at a high level.  Our bigs will good, but with the loss of Pelton, who will step up and play the shooting guard???
Any chance of moving Anderson to the #2, or is he a #3?  

The Vikings will be very good if they can find some consistent perimeter shooting.  Voiles will be back, right?  That should help.  I won't be 100% sold on the shooting at the 1 and 2 spots until I see who ends up in the mix though.  Maybe one of the freshmen guards will be the answer, or maybe returning players have improved.

I'm not sure if Chris Anderson can play the 2 (he seems like a 3/4 to me), but if he can it would make Augie one of the biggest D3 teams in the country:

G DeSimone, 6-2
G Anderson, 6-4
F Voiles, 6-9
F Kunz, 6-7
C Nelson, 6-9

That's bigger than most Missouri Valley teams.  Anderson was Augie's best 3-point shooter last season (26-60, .433).

Augie was 115-363 (.317) from beyond the arc in 2009-10.  If the Vikings can just shoot .350 or so, they'll be very tough with all that size (and depth) down low.

[CCIWFAN6]

IWU '09 grad Bennett Blakeman (now a full-time student at Loyola) has qualified for the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach...

http://www.iwusports.com/news/2010/6/7/MGOLF_0607101634.aspx

Very cool.

A little more on this...

http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/06/09/2253093/threesome-at-us-open-took-vastly.html

http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/usopen10/columns/story?columnist=sobel_jason&id=5215504

I guess 156 is better than not on the list at all.  Good Luck Bennett!

[Titan Q]

I wonder when the last time a CCIW alum competed in a professional golf major was?  I think this has to be extremely rare.

Best of luck to Bennett tomorrow at Pebble Beach!

[AndOne]

Former Elmhurst All American Chris Martin returning to the Bluejays as a part time assistant coach. Given the recent departures of assistants Baines & Doyle, plus Martin's part time status, it would seem EC would still looking for another assistant.

http://www.elmhurstbluejays.com/coaches.aspx?rc=158&path=mbball

[Mr. Ypsi]

If the U. S. Open is running on time, Bennett Blakeman teed off right about now.

Good luck, Bennett!

[Mr. Ypsi]

Bad news so far for Bennett Blakeman.  After nine holes, he is 8 over.

[Gregory Sager]

Former Elmhurst All American Chris Martin returning to the Bluejays as a part time assistant coach. Given the recent departures of assistants Baines & Doyle, plus Martin's part time status, it would seem EC would still looking for another assistant.

http://www.elmhurstbluejays.com/coaches.aspx?rc=158&path=mbball

That would be my guess as well, although there's always the possibility that Elmhurst could change its coaching structure for budgetary or other reasons. I noticed that Elmhurst does not have a listing on the d3hoops.com job board, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything.

[Titan Q]

Bad news so far for Bennett Blakeman.  After nine holes, he is 8 over.

A very tough start for Bennett today but a nice finish.  After playing the front in +8 - including a 4-putt double on the opening hole (that probably indicates the amount of nerves he had going) - he settled down and played the back in +2.  The scoring average for the field on the back was +3.  Bennett's 38 on the final 9 holes matched Tiger's back and was one better than Phil's.  I was really happy for him to see how well he played coming in.

I'm sure Bennett would like to have finished Round 1 in the cut picture but still, this must be the experience of a lifetime.  As an avid golfer myself, I can't even begin to imagine what this must be like.

Let's see if he can post a +5 or so tomorrow.  (He tees off at 9:12am PST.)

[Mr. Ypsi]

Bennett finished the day with an 81, tying two and beating only three.  But a good comeback - as Q beat me to saying, he was +8 for the front nine, but only +2 for the back nine.  While I would kill to shoot an 81 at Pebble Beach, it will take a miracle tomorrow for him to make the cut.

Still, a memory to cherish a lifetime.

[CCIWFAN6]

Bennett did have two more birdies today than Tiger and Phil combined.  I think that will be a memory he can take away from today.

[AndOne]

RECRUITING NEWS

Two more all state selections headed to North Central

1. Vince Kmiec a 6'4" IBEC All-State Special Mention SG from Orland Park Sandburg.
2. Porta Harris a 6'3" IBEC All-State Honorable Mention SG from Chicago Prosser

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Article on Kmiec posted by Joy Of The Game:

Don't "SLEEP" on these guys, or they will make you pay...

Vince Kmiec (6'4 senior, Bobcats, Sandburg HS): A 3-point marksman in every sense of the word. Put up some huge games from behind the arc throughout the league. His size gives him the ability to defend bigger guards. He scored a 28 on the ACT and has a G.P.A. of 3.85 on a 4.0 scale.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Article on Porta Harris:

http://neilski.typepad.com/wwwlanetechfancom_blog/2010/01/scouting-report-porta-harris-of-prosser.html

Sorry, I don't have stats on these players yet.