MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

Millikin actually has two seniors, . But, yeah, these are some impressively-sized freshman classes. For a league that consists of pricey private schools that are fighting to draw students in the midst of a long-term economic downturn, that's some pretty good recruiting on the part of those eight coaching staffs.

Disheartened at Millikin's recruiting class, especially compared to its' peers, I embarked on a journey of discovery, to see if perhaps Coach Smith's roster held some hidden nuggets.  After unearthing the tidbit below right off the bat (Damion Boyd), I believe that I will just cease and desist and go away quietly...*sigh*

http://www.badjocks.com/blog/labels/locker%20room.html 3rd item on page

Before anyone else says it, I guess "steals per game" is not always a desireable statistic, although you have to like FTA/FTM ratio of 80% (felony thefts attempted (5) and made (4)

The subject matter isn't funny, but I have to admit that those were some pretty clever quips, All Blues.

I am all for giving a young man a second chance, and that there is always two sides to a story, but I cannot imagine that this is the type of image/player that Millikin U can be proud of

I feel that Damion Boyd and Sean Fendley are in the same boat. The opportunity to get a second chance in life is important, especially for young people. Most of us, if we're honest, can think of any number of stupid things that we did when we were young and hadn't fully developed our judgment skills and impulse control. That's not to condone what either one of them did --- I'm not one to overlook the kind of behavior that gets you handcuffed and put into the back of a squad car -- but as long as the offense wasn't serious enough to warrant extended jail time I think it's important for a young person to get a chance to start afresh, with what I would hope would be a wiser and more considerate outlook.

[AndOne]

North Central 2010-2011 initial roster:

2010-2011 Men's Basketball Roster

#   Full Name   Pos.   Ht.   Wt.   Year   Hometown / Highschool   Previous School
4    Zach Pettit    G   6-1   165   So.    Huntley, Ill. / Huntley   
10    Kevin Gillespie    G   5-11   175   Jr.    Geneseo, Ill. / Geneseo   
24    Mike Winans    G   6-2   190   Sr.    Mt. Prospect, Ill / Prospect   
30    Travis Anderson    G   6-1   155   Jr.    Sandwich, Ill. / Sandwich    
32    Brian Evans    G   6-3   190   Sr.    Carol Stream, Ill / Glenbard North   
34    Derek Raridon    G/F   6-6   190   So.    Plainfield, Ill. / Neuqua Valley   
40    Tyler Bantz    G   5-10   175   Jr.    Sandwich, Ill. / Sandwich   
44    Garrett Olsen    G   6-0   195   So.    Ingleside, Ill. / Grant Community   
   Ryan Broyles    F   6-6   195   Jr.    Naperville, Ill. / Naperville North---Coll. of DuPage
   Jack Burchett    F   6-6   205   Fr.    Mokena, Ill. / Providence Catholic   
   John Colao    G   6-3   160   Fr.    Libertyville, Ill. / Libertyville   
   Mathew Dickinson    F   6-8   200   Fr.    Gurnee, Ill. / Warren Township   
   Jordan Elliott    G   5-10   180   So.    Chicago, Ill. / Gordon Tech   
   Juan Fields    G   5-10   165   So.    Louisville, Ky. / Western Hills---Joliet JC
   Mortell Flowers    G/F   6-4   185   Fr.    Bellwood, Ill. / Oak Park-River Forest   
   Landon Gamble    F   6-6   240   Fr.    Joliet, Ill. / Lockport Township   
   CJ Goldthree    G   6-0   155   Fr.    Fairview Heights, Ill. / Belleville East   
   Sylvain Habersaat    G   6-4   190   Jr.    Geneva, Switzerland/ International---North Platte CC                                                                                             
   Brad Hallstein    F   6-8   215   Fr.    Normal, Ill. / Normal West   
   Porta Harris    G   6-2   165   Fr.    Chicago, Ill. / Prosser   
   Malcom Ivy    G   6-0   165   So.    Roswell, Ga. / Roswell   
   Vince Kmiec    G/F   6-4   170   Fr.    Palos Park, Ill. / Sandburg   
   Adam LeTourneau    G   6-4   170   Fr.    Batavia, Ill. / Batavia   
   Sam Mampe    G   6-0   195   Fr.    New Lenox, Ill. / Lincoln-Way Central   
   Eric Miller    G   5-11   150   Fr.    Villa Park, Ill. / Willowbrook   
   Kyle Pembrook    G   6-2   185   Fr.    Naperville, Ill. / Neuqua Valley   
   Charlie Rosenberg    F   6-5   230   Fr.    Palatine, Ill. / Fremd   
   Pat Rourke    G   6-3   155   Fr.    DeKalb, Ill. / DeKalb   
   Tyler Smeltzly    G   5-10   165   Fr.    Port Byron, Ill. / Riverdale   
   Chris Smith    G   6-0   160   Fr.    Chicago Heights, Ill. / Rich Central   
   Aaron Tiknis    F   6-6   200   So.    Chicago, Ill. / Grand River Academy---Wheeling Jesuit Univ.                                                                                                       
   Joe Wichert    G   5-10   165   Fr.    Seneca, Ill. / Seneca   

The number of freshmen is down to 18 with the recent departure of 2 players.

7 current players stand 6'6" or taller as opposed to last season when the Cardinals had 2, including one no longer in school.

(Sorry I wasn't able to transfer the web link for some reason)

[Titan Q]

Roster totals by class (complete now with NCC)...


Augustana (22)
FR - 7
SO - 5
JR - 7
SR - 3

Carthage (28)
FR - 15
SO - 8
JR - 3
SR - 2

Elmhurst (24)
FR - 6
SO - 8
JR - 6
SR - 4

Illinois Wesleyan (26)
FR - 10
SO - 4
JR - 6
SR - 6

Millikin (17)
FR - 11
SO - 3
JR - 1
SR - 2

North Central (32)
FR - 18
SO - 7
JR - 5
SR - 2

North Park (28)
FR - 15
SO - 3
JR - 8
SR - 2

Wheaton (18)
FR - 9
SO - 2
JR - 3
SR - 4


CCIW (193)
FR - 91
SO - 40
JR - 39
SR - 23


I feel like we need to add two new schools and have an expansion draft.

[Red.Men1]

Apologies for the lack of formatting brilliance that some of you seem to possess.
Here' the Carthage stats story.

Minutes
Last year total:  6,025
Returning:          4,863
                           80.7%
Cody Hilton averaged 22.3 minutes in 29 contests.
Six of the top seven return.

Scoring
Last year total:  2,241
Returning:          2,043
                          91.2%
Top six scoring threats (Djurickovic, Pierce, Cary, Kelly, Guzman & Thompson) return
That is 71.6 points per game out of the 74.7 team points per game.

Rebounding
Last year total:  952
Returning:          746
                        78.4%
Top six rebounders are returning.

Assists
Last year total:  433
Returning:          395
                         91.2%
Assist to Turnover ratio of those returning is 1.45 (395/273)

Blocks
Last year total:  136
Returning:          126
                         2.6%
Mitch Thompson with 62 last year.

Steals
Last year total:  135
Returning:          175
                          77%
Cody Hilton has 26 (tied for second on team)...15% of total.

[Titan Q]

IWU scrimmaged @ Olivet Nazarene this morning.  In the 3 varsity periods (20 min/20 min/10 min), IWU came out ahead by 5 points overall.  John Koschnitzky was IWU's best player on the day from what I heard.

In the JV vs JV game, I guess 6-9 freshman center Nick Anderson was a ton, finishing with 20+ points and 10+ rebounds.  Anderson is turning a lot of heads early from what it sounds like.  He'll be the starting center on the JV team.

IWU and ONU conducted things today almost like a joint practice vs a true scrimmage.  The Titans will be more in "real game" mode next weekend when they scrimmage St. Norbert at Elgin Community College (Saturday, 1:00pm).  I'll be interested to see how that turns out since St. Norbert will probably enter the year in the upper half of the preseason Top 25 poll.

[Gregory Sager]

Last night I attended the first of two intrasquad scrimmages that North Park will hold prior to the first official scrimmage against Lake Forest a week and a half from now. I like the idea of two intrasquad scrimmages a week apart, since they'll provide a useful barometer as to how the Vikings are progressing.

It was a very spirited and fast-paced scrimmage. One of the benefits of having a roster that's not only deep but talented is that it promotes a useful sense of insecurity among the players. Every player knows that he has to bust his tail at all times or he'll slide down the depth chart. And there's no better way to showcase your ability at this early phase of the preseason than by playing in game conditions against the teammate or teammates who share your position.

Experience is not an automatic selling point for starter status or for playing time for the Vikings, either. Of the twelve NPU players on the current roster who've seen varsity tick at one point or another in their careers, nine of them have started at least seven games and logged 300 varsity minutes. What's more, seven of those nine have made at least ten starts -- and that group of nine players does not include Jorge Gonzalez, the dynamic forward who seems poised to have a breakout season in 2010-11. This will be the most experienced team that NPU has fielded in two decades ... and yet, amazingly, there's only two seniors on the squad. In other words, extensive varsity experience does not guarantee a slot in the rotation, to say nothing of a starting role. At this point I can say in all honesty that if I was a betting man there's only two Vikings that right now I'd bet on to start the opener against Concordia (IL) on November 17.

I walked into the gym not quite sure what to expect last night. I walked out with a big smile on my face. Nevertheless, I am going to try to resist the urge to hype this team. I'm content to let others on this page trumpet the potential of their respective CCIW squads, while tamping down my public enthusiasm for the 2010-11 edition of the Park as much as possible. I think it's pretty obvious why: Nobody is going to give NPU any respect right now, and I'd kind of like for it to stay that way. Conversation about the CCIW both inside and outside of CCIW Chat is going to be all about Illinois Wesleyan and Carthage both being picked in the preseason top ten (if not the top five), and if anyone discusses anything else it'll most likely be Augie's Goliath brigade of a front line. I fully expect NPU to be picked possibly fourth, but more likely fifth, in the preseason poll by the CCIW coaches. And every last bit of hype of last year's first-division teams by d3hoops.com posters, Top 25 pollsters, and various coaches will add more fuel to NPU's fire. The more the Vikings feel snubbed, the better. Why should I ruin a good thing by touting the team prematurely?

[Gregory Sager]

Speaking of the coaches poll, it'll be posted publicly on Thursday. The second annual CCIW coaches chat will be held Thursday morning, with the women's coaches online at 8 am and the men's coaches online at 11 am. Following the chat, the preseason polls will be posted on the league website.

[Titan Q]

Was hoping for more analysis on who might get tick for the Vikings, Greg!

Jon DeMoss would seem to be a likely candidate, given that he's a year removed from high school, but as always we know little or nothing about Wheaton's recruits, and it's thus hard to project which ones will get immediate varsity tick and which ones won't. If Almen's not ready to back up McCrary and Schultze at the two big-man spots, then it could be one of the three big men that Schauer and his staff brought in (Mickey DeVries, Phil James, and Nathan Haynes) who sees immediate varsity time.

Even the fringe players who managed to get a few minutes of varsity tick here and there have abandoned the Big Blue ship. Unsurprisingly, Clark, Taylor, Thompson, and Wooten are the only four players listed on the Big Blue roster who have numbers assigned to them.

There will be heated competition just to get junior varsity tick this year around the CCIW.

Experience is not an automatic selling point for starter status or for playing time for the Vikings, either. Of the twelve NPU players on the current roster who've seen varsity tick at one point or another in their careers, nine of them have started at least seven games and logged 300 varsity minutes.

[Mr. Ypsi]

You're just missing one element in your Lou Holtz impression, Greg - he knew not to directly tip his hand on what he was doing!

[kenoshamark]

Greg, 

Speaking of scrimmages, there will be an intriguing one this Sunday at Carthage.   Stevens Point is making the trek to Kenosha for an early evening contest.   Quite a lengthy bus ride for the Pointers but I'm sure they look at this (as does Carthage) as a chance to truly identify any early season weaknesses. 

Looking forward to attending as long as my plans don't change.

[Titan Q]

Greg, 

Speaking of scrimmages, there will be an intriguing one this Sunday at Carthage.   Stevens Point is making the trek to Kenosha for an early evening contest.   Quite a lengthy bus ride for the Pointers but I'm sure they look at this (as does Carthage) as a chance to truly identify any early season weaknesses. 

Looking forward to attending as long as my plans don't change.

Nice.  Two great scrimmages this weekend:

* UW-Stevens Point @ Carthage (Sunday)

* IWU vs St. Norbert (Saturday, Elgin Community college)

All 4 are potential preseason Top 10 teams.

[Gregory Sager]

Was hoping for more analysis on who might get tick for the Vikings, Greg!

So sue me, Bob. Using the word "minutes" over and over gets repetitive, and "tick" is three fewer keystrokes.

You're just missing one element in your Lou Holtz impression, Greg - he knew not to directly tip his hand on what he was doing!

It's only a Lou Holtz impression if the "Holtzer" is sandbagging on behalf of an obvious favorite, Chuck. That's the whole point of it; whenever a cupcake was due to visit South Bend, ol' Lou would talk up the opponent to the point where it sounded like the greatest assemblage of college football players in the history of the gridiron. Among other things, it thereby insulated Notre Dame from the carping of the naysayers after the inevitable Irish romp over said cupcake. I'm not doing any of that, because NPU is, as I said, going to be picked to finish in the middle of the pack in the CCIW this season. In other words, I don't need to sandbag on NPU's behalf, since the Vikings are not going to be favorites; quite the contrary, they're going to be lightly regarded by everyone, comparatively speaking.

Greg, 

Speaking of scrimmages, there will be an intriguing one this Sunday at Carthage.   Stevens Point is making the trek to Kenosha for an early evening contest.   Quite a lengthy bus ride for the Pointers but I'm sure they look at this (as does Carthage) as a chance to truly identify any early season weaknesses. 

Looking forward to attending as long as my plans don't change.

Scrimmage or not, that almost sounds like it'd be worth the price of a Metra ticket to Kenosha.

[Titan Q]

I walked into the gym not quite sure what to expect last night. I walked out with a big smile on my face. Nevertheless, I am going to try to resist the urge to hype this team. I'm content to let others on this page trumpet the potential of their respective CCIW squads, while tamping down my public enthusiasm for the 2010-11 edition of the Park as much as possible. I think it's pretty obvious why: Nobody is going to give NPU any respect right now, and I'd kind of like for it to stay that way. Conversation about the CCIW both inside and outside of CCIW Chat is going to be all about Illinois Wesleyan and Carthage both being picked in the preseason top ten (if not the top five), and if anyone discusses anything else it'll most likely be Augie's Goliath brigade of a front line. I fully expect NPU to be picked possibly fourth, but more likely fifth, in the preseason poll by the CCIW coaches. And every last bit of hype of last year's first-division teams by d3hoops.com posters, Top 25 pollsters, and various coaches will add more fuel to NPU's fire. The more the Vikings feel snubbed, the better. Why should I ruin a good thing by touting the team prematurely?

I don't think it's really fair to say "nobody is going to give NPU any respect right now", Greg.  I don't see a lot of evidence of that.  Sure, there have not been a lot of posts about North Park's prospects for the upcoming season, but there haven't really been any about Carthage or Augustana or Wheaton either.  In terms of the 2010-11 season, there has only been detailed talk about IWU as far as I can remember...and that is because one poster (me) attended a few practices and posted observations.

Despite the fact that North Park has not finished in the CCIW's upper half in 16 years, I have recently posted that I personally think it's pretty obvious that North Park should be the preseason #4 this year.  I think the Vikings return a very talented and deep nucleus.  I have North Park behind the team that won the league last year at 12-2 (and returns all but a role player starter), the team that went to the Elite 8 (and returns all 5 starters), and the team that finished 4th last year (and returns 4 of 5 starters), 2 games better than NPU.  I certainly don't view that as a lack of respect...and again, that is about all that has been put out there regarding NPU.  Now if the coaches vote Wheaton #4 and North Park #5 that might be something to get a little fired up about, but Wheaton does have a potential 1st Team All-American and several other solid players, and Wheaton has played in the conference tournament in each of the last 4 seasons.    

In terms of talk about IWU and Carthage (or "hype" as you put it), having followed this board since its inception, I believe every season that teams have returned as much talent as the 2010-11 Carthage and IWU teams do this year (from very good teams), they have been talked about quite a bit...and rightly so.  I don't see how it can be construed as disrespect to other teams in the league when people talk about the logical favorites on paper, or talk about certain teams as Top 25 candidates or whatever.  I certainly don't think it is any disrespect to Ripon or Lawrence to talk about St. Norbert as a potential Top 10 team this season.

The bottom line, I guess, is that if North Park's players feel disrespected ("snubbed"), and if that causes them to play better basketball this season, then it's significant.  But I don't see how it is logical right now for North Park's players to feel disrespected.

[usee]

As long as NPU doesn't use last years IWU/NCC football game as motivation I am fine with them feeling a little "snubbed".   

[Titan Q]

As long as NPU doesn't use last years IWU/NCC football game as motivation I am fine with them feeling a little "snubbed".  

Now if they can find a way to use that game for motivation, I will be really impressed!