MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Titan Q]

Concordia 67
North Park 64

I watched Greg and Rob on the video stream broadcast – 3 nights of the season and I've been able to watch 3 different CCIW teams.

This was a really, really ragged affair.  So much so that I left the video stream not sure what the heck to make of North Park, or Concordia for that matter.

When you're just watching a video stream it's hard to get a feel for player heights.  But I do know that North Park's 6-7 center Emmanuel Crosby looked like a giant on the floor relative to Concordia's players.  And it appeared that NPU was much taller at spots 3-5, no matter who was in the game for the Vikings.  I believe it's accurate to say NPU had a huge size advantage tonight.

North Park came out of the gate on fire.  They stormed out to a 12-2 lead and I said to myself, "Wow, they look really good."  But from that point on, the rest of the game, the Vikings just looked very rough.  If you would have told me at 12-2 that NPU would lose this game I wouldn't have believed it.

The bright spot for the Vikings, to me, was Crosby.  Coming off an all-CCIW sophomore year, he looks poised for a huge season.  He is a big, wide body and has great touch around the basket.

Outside of Crosby though, I don't think NPU had another player that had a "good" game tonight.  I guess Clayton Cahill scored some points, but I think he also took some bad shots.

One of NPU's problems in the 2nd half was shot selection.  They had the biggest player on the floor and instead of making sure everything flowed through him, the Vikes settled for bad perimeter shots.  I guess I shouldn't say all were bad – Nick Hoekstra missed a few open 3's that he probably normally makes.  But still, I want the ball to go into Crosby every time.

Another big problem for the Vikings was handling Concordia's full-court pressure.  North Park turned it over a number of times, and several times when they did break it they did not finish offensively.

And another really big issue for North Park was rebounding.  Concordia grabbed big offensive rebound after offensive rebound.

Concordia only lost to D1 Chicago State by 2 last week, but I still can't say they looked like a team that an upper half CCIW team should lose to.  I'll say this – they were scrappy.  They played very hard and kept coming at NPU.  There was a large, hostile crowd at NPU tonight and Concordia did not play scared at all.

A pretty bad loss for NPU, and for the league.

[Titan Q]

Other misc thoughts on the game and on NPU...

* The Vikings definitely have depth.  Paul Brenegan seems to have solid backups at each position and a lot of interchangeable parts.

* The 6-11 freshman (Wali?) looked like an NBA prospect in the pregame layup line.  Much more of an athletic, "basketball" build than I expected.  But he only got in for a few minutes in the 1st half and it's obvious he's really raw.  He did not look comfortable posting up Concordia players who were 6-7 inches shorter, and he did not seem to run the floor well.  He has a chance to be a big factor, but I'm not sure I see that happening this season.  I'll put it this way - as a freshman I think he's behind where IWU's Ryan Connolly was as a sophomore.  

* Jorge Gonzalez was in foul trouble most of the evening and overall, looked out of sorts when he was in there.  At the end of the season, NPU fans may look back on this as his worst game of the year...he is very talented.

* NPU's defense looked great in the 1st half - they did not have to double the post, so they could really get out on Concordia's perimeter players and cause problems.  In the 2nd, when Concordia applied full-court pressure and changed the pace of the game, making it much less of a halfcourt game, NPU struggled on transition defense.  

* Just based on seeing one game on video, I do think North Park has the talent to be a dangerous team...but some stuff is really going to have to come together for that to happen.  I know I'd start by making sure the offense goes through Emmanuel Crosby, just as IWU does with Doug Sexauer and Augie does with Kyle Nelson.  Crosby is not far behind those guys at all.

[Dennis_Prikkel]

Tonight's game was living proof that if you play without enthusiasm like you are brain dead zombie that chances are very good that you are not going to play a very good game.

[Titan Q]

A video preview on the Titans from WEEK news...

http://www.centralillinoisnewscenter.com/sports/college/IWU-Preview-108531859.html


I can tell the interviews were done PRRBH*


* pre-Ron Rose bad haircut

[Dennis_Prikkel]

if tonight's game is any indication north park's much ballyhooed depth is all smoke and mirrors - the team's inability to shoot and the presence on the court of at least two players playing quality minutes without any clue of basketball fundamentals - does not lead to a lot of confidence in any future outcomes.

On the positive side it was nice to see the football team out in force to root for the basketball team - unfortunately the basketball team played like the football team.

[markerickson]

TQ is spot on in many respects.

Once Concordia deployed the full-court press and had success, shouldn't the coach respond with a different scheme?  In-game changes are absolutely critical.  Greg's NPC colleague, a former CC runner, commented to me after the loss that NP probably gave up 12 points off the press.  Very disheartening.  I thought Concordia would not have the depth to continue the press, but their guys got the victory, and deserved it.

I thought the Vikings focused too much on getting the ball inside via bounce pass, which is completely contrary to my posts over the last couple of years that the offensive scheme relied primarily on four guys hanging around the trey line.  Like the Bears, people want a better ratio.  In this connection, I will be interested to see how few treys NP attempted.

[markerickson]

No doubt the Vikings were taller across the board.  I sensed hesitation after Gonzalez got called for two and then a third offensive foul and Wali got stuck with two defensive fouls for nothing.  I believe 4/5 occurred in the first half.

[augiefan]

Not a good start to the season for the CCIW, but it's still the first week. Plenty of time to right the ship. At least the 3 teams picked to finish at the top of the conference came through, albeit against lightly regarded opponents.

[hopefan]

Tonight's game was living proof that if you play without enthusiasm like you are brain dead zombie that chances are very good that you are not going to play a very good game.

Not ever having met Dennis over the years, statements like this is why I gotta love him... somewhere on the D3 road, Dennis, we have to meet....  Maybe you'll come down to STL for NP vs Fontbonne?  We'll leave Greg up north to do the ladies game...

[Just Bill]

* The 6-11 freshman (Wali?) looked like an NBA prospect in the pregame layup line.  

Dude, nobody ever looked better in a pregame layup line than I did back in the day. I had it down. Not to fast (where it looks like you're crazy intense and wasting energy) and not to slow (where it looks like you don't care).  Catch, dribble, dribble, lay up, touch the glass, confident jog back to the top, wink at the cheerleaders, repeat.  By far the best part of my game.

[Viking Blue]

I, too, was disappointed with North Park's ability to adjust to the press.  To say that it was the difference in the game is without question.

Titan Q-you were right on with your assessment of the way the game seemed to be going after the score jumped up to 12-2.  I was looking forward to getting an opportunity to see some minutes for several of NP's bench players.  And then....

....it turned into quite the ugly game.  FAR too many fouls.  With 14 minutes left in the second half, there had been 36 fouls called in the game.  Slow, boring, brutal to watch.  I shouldn't be getting in my car at 9:45 after a 7:30 tip to a non-conference game.

I am looking forward to watching Mouzaui.  His two fouls were deserved (he probably could have picked up a couple more, as well, which is tough to do in one minute of playing time).  He does seem to be highly energetic, though, which at the very least could be quite entertaining.

Another thing to consider....Phil Schniedermeier is still on his way back.  It seemed to me that Paul was trying to limit his minutes a bit to ensure that he can ease back into more regular playing time.  Once he is back closer to 100%, he and Crosby will certainly pose some match-up questions in CCIW play.

[Dennis_Prikkel]

north park can have all the size and threat of a tremendous inside game it wants - the rest of the team can NOT shoot.

It's ooh=ahh basketball at its worst.  Any kid who comes to North Park and displays any kind of ability to shoot from the outside - leaves because the coach only plays kid who ooh-ahh.

[RFMichigan]

In-game changes are absolutely critical.  Greg's NPC colleague, a former CC runner, commented to me after the loss that NP probably gave up 12 points off the press.  Very disheartening. I thought Concordia would not have the depth to continue the press, but their guys got the victory, and deserved it.

Concordia played 13 guys in the first half alone.

I watched Greg and Rob on the video stream broadcast – 3 nights of the season and I've been able to watch 3 different CCIW teams.

North Park came out of the gate on fire.  They stormed out to a 12-2 lead and I said to myself, "Wow, they look really good."  But from that point on, the rest of the game, the Vikings just looked very rough.  If you would have told me at 12-2 that NPU would lose this game I wouldn't have believed it.

They played very hard and kept coming at NPU.  There was a large, hostile crowd at NPU tonight and Concordia did not play scared at all.

Of the 14 that saw game action, eight were seniors. There's nothing like experience to head off impending panic.

Frankly, I was wondering what CUC was going to do with all those seniors that are on their roster. (There are three other seniors on the roster who did not see action.) Apparently, Tyler Jones is going to play 'em.

[Gregory Sager]

Soft, scared, and stupid. Those were the three words that I heard bandied about by people close to the program (including coaches) after the game last night, and I agree with each one of the three.

Soft: Size and reach advantage certainly help in rebounding, but the most crucial ingredients to rebounding are positioning and desire. NPU apparently felt last night that size alone would suffice in the Vikings' securing the glass. And as a result they got beat on the boards at the east end of the building in the second half by a ridiculous margin; Concordia grabbed thirteen offensive rebounds in the second half. Thirteen! How is that even possible? Concordia missed 24 second-half shots (deadball rebounds excepted), and grabbed more than half of the resulting caroms. That's the ballgame right there, and in a thousand different ways it's inexcusable. Soft perfectly describes a team that lets a smaller opponent dictate who wins the battle of the boards.

Scared: I noted during the broadcast last night that the Cougars had eight seniors on the roster, including all five starters, so they were not going to be fazed by either their slow start or the prospect of having to beat a bigger and deeper CCIW opponent in its own gym. They never cracked, regardless of the fact that they only scored four points in the game's first eight minutes and were down by double digits with fifteen minutes left in the game. The Vikings, on the other hand, radiated frustration and doubt in their facial expressions and body language once things started to turn against them deep into the second half. It told me that, for all of their cockiness, they did not have the mental toughness required to get the job done. Somebody in that locker room needs to kick each varsity player in the tail, and if it's a player he needs to kick his own tail as well. You can have all of the talent and depth in the world, but if you don't know how to reach down inside yourself and keep your composure when things around you are falling apart, you are going to be a losing basketball team. And NPU played scared in the second half.

Stupid: A lot of press break is common sense. You don't stand at the end line three feet away from the inbounder and expect a pass, and you don't pass it to that guy when there's two defenders lurking about ready to trap him against the end line. NPU did that not once, but twice. Lots of those second-half turnovers against the press were just plain dumb passes that resulted from panic or foolishness. And Gonzalez's three charges? Each one was of the I'll-just-drive-right-into-that-wall-of-three-defenders variety. Stupid is probably too strong a word to use to describe the way NPU played last night, but the Vikings did not play smart.

The awful press-break turnovers (eleven points off of turnovers in the second half for CUC, compared to four for NPU) and the ridiculous inability of the Vikings to keep the Cougars off of the offensive glass explain the loss. But there were other factors at work as well. The Vikings had an extreme hiccup in terms of some of their better shooters. Clayton Cahill did, as Bob indicated, take several bad shots (shot selection is the biggest weakness of the otherwise offensively-accomplished NPU junior guard). But Nick Hoekstra went 0-5 from beyond the arc last night, and he's a .484 career three-point shooter. Ro Russell, who has one of the most accurate jumpshots on the team, went 0-6 from the field, and five of those misses were jumpers. On almost all of those ten shots, Hoekstra and Russell were wide open. That's just freakishly bad shooting by two good shooters that isn't likely to ever happen again, in terms of their both being cold simultaneously. But, still, that's no excuse; good teams find ways to overcome bad shooting to win, regardless of who is doing the bad shooting.

Another factor I'd cite is one Bob pointed out; the Vikings went away from Emanuel Crosby when it was clear that James Morgan (who is a pretty good D3 center) just didn't have the strength to keep Crosby at bay in the low post.

The last factor is the way that the Vikings got burned in transition several times, including the fatal layup with thirty seconds left following Cahill's missed trey and the ensuing long rebound, a layup that gave CUC what would turn out to be an insurmountable four-point lead. Too many times the Vikings' guards found themselves too far upcourt after a miss, and they need to get it drilled into their heads that they have to rotate over in order to cover themselves against a runout by the opponent.

Bob's right; CUC is decent, but that's a team that an aspiring first-division CCIW needs to beat, especially a first-division CCIW team this season. The fact that NPU had CUC down and didn't put the Cougars away, and exposed a whole raft of their own weaknesses in their failure to do so, is extremely distressing, as distressing as the loss itself. This team has regressed over the past two weeks, and I doubt that any of the other seven teams in the league have moved backwards. NPU needs to get on the stick, pronto. They Vikings need to practice harder and play smarter. For a team that has the aspirations that the Vikings have this year, last night was completely, absolutely unacceptable.

[Titan Q]

Some "in-region game" analysis.  Remember, in Division III, in-region games are the only ones that count in the selection/seeding process  Out-of-region games are basically non-factors.


Augustana (10)
11/16, @ Simpson  W
11/22, vs Washington U
11/27, vs Anderson
12/1, @ Monmouth
12/11, vs Buena Vista
12/15, vs UW-Whitewater
12/20, @ MacMurray
12/29, vs UW-Stout, at St. Norbert
12/30, @ St. Norbert or vs Lakeland, at St. Norbert
1/2, vs Chicago

Out of region:
12/8, vs St. Ambrose

Carthage (4)
11/19, vs Bethany Lutheran
11/24, vs Whitworth (in Hawaii)
11/26, vs Pacific (in Hawaii)
1,2, @ Transylvania

Out of region:
11,16, vs Calumet-St. Joseph
11/20, vs John Carroll or IU-Northwest
12,3 vs Hope
12/4, vs Calvin
12/7, vs Silver Lake
12/11, vs Albion
12/12, vs Cardinal Stritch

Elmhurst (11)
11/16, @ Cornell  L
11/20, vs Hamline
11/23, @ St. Norbert
12/1, @ Olivet
12/5, @ Westminster (Mo)
12/9, vs Kalamazoo
12/11, vs Loras
12/20, vs Aurora, in Las Vegas
12/21, vs UW-Oshkosh, in Las Vegas
12/29, vs DePauw
12/30, vs Calvin or Benedictine

Illinois Wesleyan (9 or 10)
11/15, @ Benedictine  W
11/19, vs Aurora
11/20, vs Ripon or Buena Vista
11/23, @ Monmouth
11/27, vs Dominican
11/29, @ Webster
12/4, vs Chicago
12/11, vs MacMurray
12/18, @ Washington U
(12/30, @ Cal Lutheran)

Out of region:

12/29, vs Gettysburg, at Cal Lutheran
(12/30, vs Hobart, at Cal Lutheran)

Millikin (6 or 7)
11/19, vs Nebraska Wesleyan, at Webster
11/23, vs Franklin
11/28, @ Rose-Hulman
12/4, @ Aurora
12/20, @ Transyvania
12/29, @ St. Mary's (MN)
(12/30, @ Illinois College)

Out of region:
12/1, vs Robert Morris-Springfield
12/8, @ Indianapolis
12/18, @ Adrian
12/21, vs Piedmont (GA) or Westminster (PA), at Transylvania
(12/30, vs Clarke at Illinois College)

North Central (7 or 8)
11/19, vs Bluffton
(11/20 vs Edgewood)
11/23, vs Aurora
11/27, @ Illinois College
11/28, @ Manchester
12/7, vs Lake Forest
12/22, @ Benedictine
12/27, @ Rockford

Out of region:
(11/20, vs Valley City State)
12/1, vs Albion
12/17, @ Hawaii-Hilo
12/30, @ Adrian

North Park (9)
11/17, vs Concordia  L
11/23, vs Edgewood
11/27, @ Fontbonne
11/30, @ Carroll
12/4, vs Trine
12/11, @ Spalding
12/30, vs Milwaukee Engineering
12/19, @ Coe
12/20, @ Loras

Out of region:
12/28, vs Williams, at Salem State
12/29, vs Regis, at Salem State

Wheaton (6)
11/16, vs Manchester  L
11/19, vs UW-Whitewater or Defiance
11,23, vs Loras
12/1, vs Chicago
12/4, vs Hope
12/11, vs Washington U

Out of region:
11/19, vs Covenant
12/3, vs Calvin
12/9, vs Trinity Intl
12/30, vs Messiah, in Phoenix
12/31, vs Husson, in Phoenix


CCIW non-conference totals (88 games)
In-region games: 65 (74%)
Out-of-region games: 23 (26%)

(Assumes the 3 TBD games end up in-region)


CCIW conference game givens
Regular season: 56-56 (8 teams play 14 games)
Conf Tournament: 3-3
Total: 59-59


CCIW final cumulative in-region winning % based on various in-region, non-conf possibilities
.601 ("very good") = 51-14 non-conf + 59-59 = 110-73

.551 ("good") = 42-23 non-conf + 59-59 conf = 101-82

.502 ("decent") = 33-32 non-conf + 59-59 conf = 92-91

.453 ("poor") = 24-41 non-conf + 59-59 conf = 83-100

(subjective descriptors in quotes are mine, based on historical Pool C OWP analysis)


Current in-region, non-conf record (through 11/18)
2-3