MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Titan Q]

Sexauer injured and may not play vs. NC.  See Pantagraph article.  Hope it is not serious.

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/basketball/men/article_6ef67e04-187d-11e0-a5d7-001cc4c002e0.html

[Titan Q]

Future M.O.P.?  (At Duke?)

http://www.komonews.com/sports/heroes/111892554.html

[coebball70]

Titan Q,
For the life of me all I could think of was "here's the Second-Coming of Pete Maravich."  Thanks for sharing the video.

[dansand]

He's a poor man's Jashaun Agosto. 

[AndOne]

Sexauer injured and may not play vs. NC.  See Pantagraph article.  Hope it is not serious.

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/basketball/men/article_6ef67e04-187d-11e0-a5d7-001cc4c002e0.html

Somehow with it being the opening game of the conference part of the schedule, I sense we'll find Mr. Sexauer introduced in the starting lineup tonight. The question might be how long he can go.

I look for a wide open conference race. The consensus seems to put (in no particular order) Augie, Wesleyan, Wheaton, and Carthage in the top four at this juncture followed by (again in no particular order) North Central, North Park, Elmhurst, and Millikin.
I'm not confident of Millikin, but I sense NCC, NPU, and EC are all capable of  "upsetting" any of the suspected top 4 on any given night.
If I had to predict a 1st place finisher at this point, I'd have to put my money on Augie with its plethora of bigs and adequate guard play.
I think Carthage is the most ripe for picking.
Whats the deal with the seemingly high number of injuries to the Wesleyan crew? Or, do we just hear about them more through TQ's knowledge and frequent postings? With recent injuries to Kosch, Zimmer, and Sexauer its a credit to IWU's depth that they have more than adequate replacements.

[usee]

 I think Wheaton has had their fair share of injuries, known but not as well publicized. I am pretty sure 3 of the top 4 guards Mike Schauer was counting on this year are not in uniform (Garriot, Kvam, Pierotti) and he has relied on some unproven freshman thus far in the schedule. It is working so far but we will see who/how they handle Stevie D and friends this evening.

[robberki]

Hi everyone, just a reminder that the North Park - Augie tip will be broadcast tonight here: http://www.audiosportsonline.net/Winter/2010Basketball/NorthPark.htm

check out the audio/video and the amazing commentary by myself and Greg Sager. Who knows, we might even have a guest in the booth. Tune in for some fun times in this conference opener folks.

[Gregory Sager]

Thanks for the concern, everybody. While I do usually dial down my screen time on d3boards.com a bit during the holidays, this year it was more of a mental-health break than anything else.

My zealous support of NPU men's basketball over the years has put me in a position where I sometimes feel as though I'm living and dying by how the Vikings are playing ... and, since the Vikings have done little or nothing in recent years to encourage this attitude on my part, I've recognized the need to step back from all things NPU and CCIW and d3boards.com every now and then. (Even if the Vikings were in a successful phase right now, this sort of extreme fandom on my part is still not an attitude that I consider healthy; as the ancient Greek philosopher Democritus said, "Immoderate desire is the mark of a child, not a man.")

Since that great second half against MSOE that led me to believe that the Vikings were finally on their way to gelling as a team, the wheels have fallen off. NPU played two listless games and lost to two teams that the Vikings should've handled fairly easily on that debacle of an Iowa trip, and then compounded it with a second half against Williams in which they pretty much let the Ephs wipe their feet on them. I was getting so angry during that Iowa disaster that I recognized it was time to step back again and get away.

I'm back now, and I'll be on the call with Rob again tonight for the CCIW opener against Augie. No matter how badly things are going for the boys in royal blue and gold, you know that Rob and I will have some fun on the air, and we'll try to make it fun for those who are watching as well. At this point, though, I really don't expect anything at all out of NPU this season, aside from the extremely minimal achievement of not finishing lower than what appears to be a truly horrific Millikin squad. The Vikings, to put it bluntly, are a mess. The more I come to terms with that now, the easier it'll be to broadcast the games and post here over the next two months.

[coebball70]

Greg, really glad you are back!  I pray you are not a Cub fan, too.

[rvb909400]

Future M.O.P.?  (At Duke?)

http://www.komonews.com/sports/heroes/111892554.html

Not that anybody probably cares but I worked with his dad when they were up here in Appleton, WI.  The kid is amazing.  The youtube link has a few more videos going back to when he was 9:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Kautown5#p/u

[augiefan]

Augie wins tonight at NPU by a 62-49 score. It was close until the last 10 minutes. I see Elmhurst, Augie's next opponent, slaughtered Millikin tonight.

[augiefan]

NCC took IWU to OT. The Titans are up 65-64 with 2 and a half minutes to go in OT. Carthage was up 11 on Wheaton at half time in a low scoring affair (29-18).

[Mr. Ypsi]

Augie wins tonight at NPU by a 62-49 score. It was close until the last 10 minutes. I see Elmhurst, Augie's next opponent, slaughtered Millikin tonight.

I was all set to report a major upset when I saw your post.  I went back to re-check the livestats of the Augie/NPU game (NPU winning 58-49) and, checking the names of the players, saw that the 'men's livestats' were actually reporting the women's game!

[augiefan]

Sadly Augie's WBB team is to CCIW womens' basketball what Millikin is to CCIW mens' basketball, i.e. the conference doormat.

[Titan Q]

IWU 72
North Central 67 (OT)

* John Koschnitzky: 21 pts, 6 reb (10-10 FT)
* Jordan Zimmer: 18 pts (4-7 3-pt)

* Landon Gamble: 22 pts, 5 reb
* CJ Goldthree: 12 pts, 8 reb


NCC outrebounded IWU 45-30.

IWU led by 8 with about 4:00 to to, 60-52...and the Titans did not score again in regulation.  And IWU could not stop Landon Gamble at all.

NCC took a 1-point lead in OT when Jordan Zimmer hit the shot of the game for the Titans - a 3 to put IWU up 2.

I wasn't there, but this sounded like an awful showing by IWU in closing the game out.  IWU led by as much as 14, I think, early in the 2nd half but could not put it away.

The Titans were lucky to survive this one.