MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Titan Q]

Final...

North Central 84
#25 Manchester 73

http://www.manchester.edu/Athletics/basketballm/stats/stats2011/10mg3ncc.htm

Derek Raridon broke out of his early season funk, scoring 23 pts to lead the Cardinals.  Per the boxscore, looks like NCC had several players step up with big games.

Manchester beat Wheaton by 19 on the same floor on Nov. 16...since then Wheaton has blown out UW-Whitewater and Loras.  

Coming into this game North Central was 0-4, with home losses to Bluffton, Edgewood, and Aurora, and road loss yesterday to Illinois College.

Go figure.

[Mugsy]

Final...

North Central 84
#25 Manchester 73

http://www.manchester.edu/Athletics/basketballm/stats/stats2011/10mg3ncc.htm

Derek Raridon broke out of his early season funk, scoring 23 pts to lead the Cardinals.  Per the boxscore, looks like NCC had several players step up with big games.

Manchester beat Wheaton by 19 on the same floor on Nov. 16...since then Wheaton has blown out UW-Whitewater and Loras.  

Coming into this game North Central was 0-4, with home losses to Bluffton, Edgewood, and Aurora, and road loss yesterday to Illinois College.

Go figure.

Well... your updated projection could still be correct if North Central, Millikin and Elmhurst go winless.

Above I projected the final CCIW in-region non-conference record.  Unfortunately, I came up with 32-32 (.500).  I have North Central, Elmhurst, and Millikin combining to go 1-15 the rest of the way, and 1-24 overall.

[Titan Q]

Projected starters for IWU @ Webster tomorrow (Game Day Notes)...

http://www.iwuhoops.com/


Webster has a very intriguing transfer - 5-9 JR point-guard Willie Trimble from Riverside CC in California.  Trimble was the SLIAC Player of the Week in his first week as a Gorlok.  He averaged 20.0 ppg, 5.0 rpg, and 3.5 apg in two games:

http://www.websterathletics.com/news/2010/11/23/MBB_1123100924.aspx

Not sure how a guy from Upland, California and Riverside CC ends up all the way in St. Louis, and at Webster, but it looks like they've found a good one.

http://www.branchwest.com/california.html

[Titan Q]

Well... your updated projection could still be correct if North Central, Millikin and Elmhurst go winless.

Obviously the 1 win I projected was NCC @ Manchester.  Still on pace.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Well... your updated projection could still be correct if North Central, Millikin and Elmhurst go winless.

Obviously the 1 win I projected was NCC @ Manchester.  Still on pace.

Nice try!

[AndOne]

Still waiting for stats from NPU's win over Fontbonne. Doesn't sound like a great game by the Vikings, but at this point North Park is still in "a win's a win" territory, particularly since it came on the other team's floor on an overnight road trip. We can start to quibble about style points once the Vikings have figured out the basics.

The North Central/Illinois College boxscore...

http://northcentralcardinals.com/custompages/MBK/mbk1011/Ncc1127.htm


Through 4 games, preseason all-American Derek Raridon is 13-51 (.255) from the field and 1-13 (.077) from 3.  He is averaging just 8.3 points per game.  Last season Raridon averaged 21.3 ppg and shot .445 from the field and .430 (43-100) from 3.

From what I've been told by people who have watched North Central play, opponents are constantly double-teaming Raridon and daring somebody else to step up and beat them. Thus far, nobody's done so. That seems like a sound strategy, considering that NCC's two other experienced players (Brian Evans and Kevin Gillespie) are both blue-collar types who aren't really the kind of player who is a potentially lethal scorer. The strategy is apparently working. One observer told me that Raridon is going to have to learn how to improve as a passer, a la Tim McCrary, and stop forcing shots against double teams. Once his assist totals start going up, the Cardinals will start to be a more effective team.

Then again, I haven't seen the Cardinals play yet, so perhaps AndOne has a different point of view on NCC"s struggles.

Actually, the situation referred to above by Greg is one part of the story.
Yes, Derek is being doubled a high percentage of the time he touches the ball. And yes, like almost any player, there are facets of his game he could improve on, one certainly being passing out of the double team.
However, NCC's 0-4 start can be attributed to some other factors that only compound Derek's slow start.
* We all know how difficult it is to win with freshmen. We also know that 10 of the 16 members of NCC's varsity roster are freshmen. Additionally, as the coaching staff has substituted liberally so far this year, many (perhaps all after today's game) have seen at least some PT. With the roster being so young, experience is at a premium. Many of the NCC newbies have yet to fully acclimate themselves to the speed of the college game as compared to High school. This is always one of the most difficult adjustments for incoming freshmen. Accordingly, I often observed over the first 3 losses (I was in Wis this weekend and did not accompany the team on its trip) that many of the new NCC players spent a considerable amount of their PT basically standing around, not moving either with or without the ball. Not moving without the ball does not put them in a position to receive a pass from Derek if he should attempt to pass out of a double. Not moving with the ball gums up the offensive flow and results in poor shot selection. However, many of the new Cards have been guilty of these shortcomings. They often act afraid to make a mistake, no doubt worried if they do so, their butt will quickly be back on the bench given the coaching staff being so liberal with their substitutions over the early part of the schedule. As a result, they are thinking rather than reacting. Wondering what to do with the ball after receiving it rather than either knowing what they want to do before getting a pass or reacting to a changing situation. This will only come with experience with is something NCC is very short on at this early point in the season and with a roster so heavily laden with freshmen.   

[AndOne]

Another thing I feel Derek Raridon can do to help lift himself out of his early season funk is to put the ball on the floor and go hard to the hoop. Such action will often result in an opponent's foul, sending Derek to the line where he, of course, will  be shooting uncontested as opposed to shooting against a possible double team.
Last season Derek hit at an 82% rate from the line from where he scored 155 points. If he can increase his scoring from the line, I think it will help his confidence and only serve to also boost his FG percentage and scoring.
*As further evidence on this, it should be noted that in today's win against #25 Manchester, Derek shot only 2 less FTs than he had in the first 4 games combined.
He hit 6 of 7 FTs as well as 8 of 13 from the field.   

[AndOne]

Final...

North Central 84
#25 Manchester 73

http://www.manchester.edu/Athletics/basketballm/stats/stats2011/10mg3ncc.htm

Derek Raridon broke out of his early season funk, scoring 23 pts to lead the Cardinals.  Per the boxscore, looks like NCC had several players step up with big games.

Manchester beat Wheaton by 19 on the same floor on Nov. 16...since then Wheaton has blown out UW-Whitewater and Loras.  

Coming into this game North Central was 0-4, with home losses to Bluffton, Edgewood, and Aurora, and road loss yesterday to Illinois College.

Go figure.

*Nice balanced scoring from the starters. Derek Raridon emerging from his funk to the tune of 23 points was aptly supported by freshman forward Vince Kimec and junior PG Kevin Gillespie with 13 each. Brian Evans added 12 points and hauled down 9 boards. Fifth starter and freshman Jack Burchett scored 7 points, and was the game's leading rebounder with 10. Burchett also added 3 assists and 4 blocks.
*Good floor leadership from PG Kevin Gillespie with 4 assists and NO TOs.
*NCC winning the Battle of the Boards 35-26
*Good shooting percentages of 50% from the field, including 41% from beyond the arc, and 80% on FTs.
*The Cards hitting 22 of 23 FTs in the 2nd half including making their last 11 points of the game all on FTs (a perfect 11 of 11).

[coebball70]

I'm with TQ on the Manchester vs North Central game, but the surprise upset of the weekend for me was Loras vs UW-Platteville.  I also thought of the Aurora vs IWU near miss!

Take 2:16 and check this video out ... turn the volume up to really enjoy the message:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkBOI4lNfYs

I guess that's why they play the game!

[Titan Q]

For anyone who missed it on the scoreboard, Wash U lost its third straight yesterday (@ UW-Platteville, @ Augustana, @ Hanover).  Dylan Richter started and played 35 minutes...

http://bearsports.wustl.edu/Stats/TeamStats/basketball-mens/2010-2011/game5.htm

The Bears play @ Wheaton (12/11) and vs IWU (12/18).

[dansand]

Kyle Nelson and Sean Johnson co-Players of the Week for week two. Congrats to both.

http://www.cciw.org/news/2010/11/29/MBB_1129104835.aspx

[markerickson]

Based on seeing Raridon one time - at NPU - I think he needs to learn how to drive to the hoop ala Stevie D if he wants to elevate his game.  Getting to the FT stripe is key to racking up the point total.

[hopefan]

I'll be the first to post IWU 84  Webster  80.....   Sean Johnson squashes an amazing Webster comeback from down 21 at half by nailing 4 clutch free throws in the last minute....

I love to watch IWU, the great fans, the solid players, playing the game like it should be... though someone needs to shake Ryan Connelly by the shoulders and tell him to play and quit worrying about everything else....  When you're ranked high, there's a big target... the Websters of the world look at it as their biggest non conference game of the year... IWU did what it needed to to win.....

[Mr. Ypsi]

WOW!  Webster came awfully close to whupping IWU (80-84).

If anyone actually saw the game, I'd be interested in knowing if the Titans played poorly or the Gorlocks played great.  On paper, this should not have been less than a 20 point game.

EDIT: saw hopefan's post just before I hit 'post'.  Anyone else (or any more details from hopefan)?

[hopefan]

ypsi... a few more on the SLIAC page.....  another big factor in the game was the perimeter shooting of Duncan Lawson...  4 threes and a duece