MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Titan Q]

No sign of Victor Davis

Out 4 weeks with mono.

[Titan Q]

Sounds like Rosenkranz is out 4 weeks.

[OurHouse]

IWU by 20 over EC.  Most outstanding game in a long long time by Sean Johnson and a very solid, good game by Doug Sexauer.  Good to see.  Tough to lose Travis, but Eliud and Rudnicki seemed to have done a good job filling in.  Reliable hands of Matt Schick playing well.  No sign of Victor Davis, little of Lawson and Schouten.  Looks like Coach Rose is settling the rotation down for the stretch run.  We need more consistent production from Kman and JZim.  Sean and Doug will not be doing 28 and 18 every night. 

[/quote]

These last two games where easy - I was at the Millikan game and it looked worse than two high school teams playing in fact, it was worse. Elmhurst is a garbage team and I'm sure this was the same. These wins prove nothing in fact, who is really pushing these players to do anything? Pathetic!!

[Mr. Ypsi]

Though the games were probably not AS pathetic as reading a post from OuTHouse.

[pg04]

Though the games were probably not AS pathetic as reading a post from OuTHouse.

I thought you might be exaggerating until I actually went back and read some of his prior posts.  And he's about 1 for 37 using the quote function correctly.   

[Titan Q]

Home win = +0
Road win = +1
Home loss = -1
Road loss = +0


+/- Standings through 1/15
Augustana +2
Illinois Wesleyan +1
North Central +1
Carthage +0
Wheaton +0
Elmhurst -1
Millikin -1
North Park -2

(Usually takes +4 to win the title)


Wednesday, 1/19
North Central @ Carthage
North Park @ Elmhurst
Wheaton @ Illinois Wesleyan
Millikin @ Augustana

[Titan Q]

The boxscore and Pantagraph article from the IWU/Elmhurst game in Bloomington...

http://www.iwusports.com/custompages/MBB/MBB2011/HTML/iwmbb15.htm

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/basketball/men/article_aa3adb18-2129-11e0-afe5-001cc4c03286.html


Sean Johnson had a huge game - 28 pts, 6 reb, 7 assists (11-14 FG).  Doug Sexauer added 18 & 5.  The Titans shot 63% from the field (29-46), including 47% from 3 (7-15).  Elmhurst shot just 35% (20-57).

Good too see Johnson and Sexauer get back on track.  The Titans need these two to lead the way, and need John Koschnitzky and Jordan Zimmer to have big contributions each night out, as IWU tries to push Augie for the title.  

The play of IWU's new PG duo of Eliud Gonzalez and Stephen Rudnicki will obviously be very important moving forward.

[Titan Q]

Sean Johnson moved into the top 15 of IWU's career scoring list last night...

1. 2272         Jack Sikma (107 games) - 1973-77
2. 2062         Blaise Bugajski (103 games) - 1979-80,81-84
3. 1871         Bryan Crabtree (114 games) - 1993-97
4. 1848         Luke Kasten (109 games) - 1999-03
5. 1833         Greg Yess (107 games) - 1978-82
6. 1782         Korey Coon (109 games) - 1996-00
7. 1688         Zach Freeman (107 games) - 2003-07
8. 1590         Keelan Amelianovich (104 games) - 2002-06
9. 1573         Jeff Kuehl (89 games) - 1986-90
1573         Sheldon Thompson (101 games) - 1967-71
11. 1475         Adam Dauksas (114 games) - 2002-06
12. 1430         Steve Kuehl (111 games) - 1989-93
13. 1418         Tom Gramkow (93 games) - 1966-70
14. 1384         Sean Johnson (97 games) - 2007-11
15. 1375         John Gibson (97 games) - 1968-72


He is now #4 in 3-pointers made...

1. 252         Keelan Amelianovich (104 games) - 2002-06
2. 245         Korey Coon (109 games) - 1996-00
3. 235         Mark Edmundson (113 games) - 1986-90
4. 215         Sean Johnson (97 games) - 2007-11
5. 208         Adam Dauksas (114 games) - 2002-06
6. 179         Bryan Crabtree (114 games) - 1993-97
7. 136         Adam Osborn (90 games) - 1997-01
8. 135         Mark Aubry (71 games) - 1992-95
9. 121         Jordan Zimmer (62 games) - 2008-11
10. 117         Chris Silagi (87 games) - 1999-03

And 12th in assists...

1. 584         Adam Dauksas - 2002-06
2. 524         Brian Martin - 1989-93
3. 449         Chad Hutson - 1991-95
4. 407         Brad Gregurich - 1979-83
5. 377         Paul Petersen - 1984-88
6. 374         Travis Rosenkranz - 2007-11
7. 356         Ron Rose - 1984-88
8. 348         Eric Bridges - 1983-87
9. 335         Nathan Hubbard - 1995-99
10. 326         David Kunka - 1988-91,92-93
11. 316         Keith Luechtefeld - 1983-87
12. 284         Sean Johnson - 2007-11


Sean has really been a good player for Ron Rose and the Titans.

[augiefan]

A pretty impressive array of DIII talent on Titan's stat lists, including Ron Rose in the #7 slot in assissts.

Really sorry to see TR go down for a few weeks. I think we all prefer to see our teams compete at full strength, so that the games are decided on talent rather than bad breaks. IWU certainly has had more than their share of injuries this season to key players.

[Gregory Sager]

In my book there's no such thing as a moral victory, but if there was, the Vikings would've had one last night. After a first half in which NPU was down by seventeen at one point, and in which they went into the locker room trailing 37-22, the Park erupted for 54 points in the second half and came within a bounce here or there of pulling off what would've been a major upset of Wheaton. Fifty-four points in one half! When's the last time anybody did that to Wheaton? Given the premium that both Mike Schauer and Bill Harris have put on defense at Wheaton, I've gotta think that you have to go back to the Bill Harbeck era, if not further, to find a Wheaton team that coughed up that many opponent points in one half.

NPU basically went with the same defense that Augie used so successfully against Wheaton the other night -- double McCrary in the low post, then use good rotation and recovery to stop the outside shot when McCrary kicked it out. It didn't work, especially in the first half, because Jahns and Pflederer did a good job of spacing themselves and thus keeping themselves out of the reach of lunging NPU perimeter defenders, and both were lights-out every time that they got an open look. Wheaton knocked down seven treys in twelve attempts in the first half -- interestingly, all of which came against the double-team defense, while the 2-3 zone NPU used on occasion to cross up the Wheaton offense actually worked, more or less -- and the Vikings were their typical bogged-down, too-much-one-on-five-play selves to get anything going in the first half.

In the second half, everything was different. The Vikings controlled the boards at both ends (NPU outrebounded Wheaton, 33-25, on the night), and, while they didn't really slow down Wheaton's torrid shooting, they did force Wheaton to get a lot more of its points from the FT line (where the Sonic Atmospheric Disturbance went 17-20 on the night, the stat that best explains why the hosts won the game). At the offensive end, NPU was spectacular. Jorge Gonzalez, Issa Avery, and Emanuel Crosby completely took Wheaton apart around the basket, and Ro Russell came on late when the Wheaton D was tired, as he drove right around the Wheaton perimeter defenders at will.

The Vikings would chop away at the lead and then fall back a little. They got it down to seven, then fell back. They got it down to six, then fell back. They got it down to three, then fell back. They got it down to one, 68-67, and that's where it stood with under two minutes to go. After McCrary converted one of two FT attempts, one of the game's two biggest plays took place with 1:20 left and NPU with the ball. The Vikings got the ball into the low post to Crosby, who was being guarded by McCrary -- and McCrary had four fouls on him at that point. It was the ideal situation for NPU to either take the lead or tie it. Alas, Crosby was on the left block -- and he works much better from the right. He crossed into the lane, put up a layup attempt that missed, Avery failed to scored on the putback, Gonzalez failed yet another putback, and he was thrown to the ground by McCrary while trying to recover the offensive rebound. No foul was called, Pflederer picked up the loose ball and was fouled by Collins, and went to the line to sink two FTs.

The other big play came on Wheaton's last FG, with 2:44 left and Wheaton nursing a two-point lead. With one second left on the shot clock, Avery got caught too deep on a kickout by Schultze to Pflederer in the extreme left corner, and the Wheaton junior buried a trey that really made the game feel as though the boulder had rolled down the hill and the Vikings had to start all over again rolling it back up.

With starting PG D.A. Robinson an injury scratch, Ro Russell had the chance to salvage what had been turning into a lost season for him, and he did so with aplomb, scoring 19 points. Jorge Gonzalez, who played the game knowing that his grandmother had just been taken to the hospital in Florida following a heart attack, snapped out of his extended slump with a 15 and 8 game, with five of his eight rebounds coming at the offensive end. Emanuel Crosby added ten points, and Issa Avery played his best game in recent memory, scoring 10, grabbing six boards, and blocking a whole passel of shots (the box score lists three, but I know that he had more than that). Jahns and Pflederer, the two Wheaties who burned the Vikings all night from downtown, had 24 and 14, and, while Tim McCrary had a strong statistical night (12 and 12, with eight assists), he had to work for every point he got and still scored five points below his average. While he had a lot of double-team help, the lion's share of the credit for holding down McCrary's scoring goes to Kendell Greer.

The Vikings showed little or no emotional investment in Wednesday's embarrassment against NCC, but they played with passion last night and were crushed when the final buzzer went off. For the first time since the MSOE game they showed that they can play with both their heads and their hearts in the game. I've said this before, but if they could only bring that sort of effort on a nightly basis, they'd really start showing people in this league what they're capable of doing. Alas, I've had to learn to take a wait-and-see attitude with this particular group of Vikings.

[Gregory Sager]

Don't be baffled by how close Millikin managed to get to North Central last night in the airplane hangar. While under normal circumstances any CCIW team playing at home that beats Millikin by a mere dozen would appear to be in real trouble, the truth is that NCC had a lead in the mid-20s with about six minutes remaining when Todd Raridon began inserting JV players into the game, one by one. With four minutes and change left, all five Cardinals on the floor against the Big Blue were junior varsity mainstays, three of whom were making their varsity debuts in NCC uniforms -- and the Big Blue scored the last twelve points of the game against them, cutting a 24-point lead down to twelve when the final buzzer went off.

Keeping that in mind ...

IWU by 20 over EC.  Most outstanding game in a long long time by Sean Johnson and a very solid, good game by Doug Sexauer.  Good to see.  Tough to lose Travis, but Eliud and Rudnicki seemed to have done a good job filling in.  Reliable hands of Matt Schick playing well.  No sign of Victor Davis, little of Lawson and Schouten.  Looks like Coach Rose is settling the rotation down for the stretch run.  We need more consistent production from Kman and JZim.  Sean and Doug will not be doing 28 and 18 every night.  

These last two games where easy - I was at the Millikan game and it looked worse than two high school teams playing in fact, it was worse. Elmhurst is a garbage team and I'm sure this was the same. These wins prove nothing in fact, who is really pushing these players to do anything? Pathetic!!

Slam OurHouse all you want, but this time at least there is a point behind his usual relentless criticism of the Rose regime. Millikin, as I've said before, is epically bad; beating the Big Blue by 19 is nothing more than what should be expected of any other CCIW team. And Elmhurst, while scrappy as usual, is a badly undermanned team that should normally pose nothing more than a limited upset threat to any CCIW team playing in its own building (unless that building is the Griswold Center and you wear blue and white uniforms). It's therefore not really a week to brag about if you're a Titans fan. IWU did what it was supposed to do, and that's about it. Beating Wheaton next Wednesday would be a different matter. This is not as good a Wheaton team as CCIW fans have gotten used to seeing over the past few seasons, but it's still a dangerous opponent that's more than capable of pulling off an upset in the Shirk Center.

Carthage undoubtedly feels let down for its own sake, but I think that the rest of the league probably feels as though the Red Men let them down, too. By beating the preseason favorite in its own gym, Augie has more than put itself in that proverbial driver's seat that everyone keeps talking about -- it's put itself in the driver's seat, put the key in the ignition, and has its hand on the shift.

Augie apparently did a good job on Steve D. last night, but he still managed to move ahead of Kent Raymond on the all-time CCIW scoring list. He now has 2,321 points, fourth all-time in this league. Next up is Wheaton's all-time-leading scorer, Mel Peterson (the star of the team that went undefeated in league play four straight years in the late 1950s and won the NCAA College Division national championship in '57). Peterson scored 2,542 points, so at his current pace it'd take Steve D. until the last game of the regular season to surpass him. Unless he starts to elevate that 23 ppg CCIW scoring average of his, Steve D. probably won't catch #2 (Dave Shaw of the mid-'70s Carroll teams, 2,563 points) or #1 (Leon Gobczynski of the early-'70s Millikin teams, 2,635 points) unless Carthage makes the CCIW tourney and he gets to play more than 25 games this season.

[Mr. Ypsi]

I haven't seen any Titan rooters 'bragging about' the week - as you say (and we knew) this was the easy week (I'm pretty sure IWU was the unanimous pick for both games on CCIW Pickems).  Posters were simply relieved that Sean and Doug seem to be back on track.

OuTHouse had simply become too obnoxious to ignore.  (USUALLY I follow the advice to ignore trolls and they will go away; OuTHouse refuses to go away - or, better yet, start posting something worth posting.)

[Gregory Sager]

I haven't seen any Titan rooters 'bragging about' the week - as you say (and we knew) this was the easy week (I'm pretty sure IWU was the unanimous pick for both games on CCIW Pickems).  Posters were simply relieved that Sean and Doug seem to be back on track.

That's a subjective observation on your part, Chuck, and I would venture to say that it stems from both your wearing green-colored glasses and your dislike of OurHouse (whose always-caustic commentary, it needs to be said, is considered to be obnoxious even by many of us who don't like your alma mater).

The post by iwu70 had some pretty strong kudos towards the Titans:

Most outstanding game in a long long time by Sean Johnson

and a very solid, good game by Doug Sexauer.  Good to see.

That's more than simple relief that the two Titans stars are "back on track" -- you don't use the word "outstanding" in connection to re-established competence. And both comments absolutely beg for context, given that the opponent was Elmhurst and the game was in the Shirk Center.

He also handed out some milder pats on the back for the role players:

Tough to lose Travis, but Eliud and Rudnicki seemed to have done a good job filling in.  Reliable hands of Matt Schick playing well.

It's iwu70's right to tout his favorite team all he likes, of course, but OurHouse, for all his rash hyperbole and distorted animus towards Ron Rose, made an incisive rebuttal this time. The post by iwu70 did not take IWU's opponents of last week into context, and his praise of the Titans warranted someone pointing that out. It's just too bad that the guy who did the pointing-out is someone with such limited credibility and such an obvious anti-Rose agenda.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Greg, cut my classmate iwu70 some slack - he's posting from Hong Kong!  I shudder to think at what time of the day or night he even watches the games!

And note he did not 'brag about' the Titans' wins; was just extremely pleased with the players' performances.  C'mon, we're 'arrogant' Titans - we don't 'brag about' wins until Salem!   [OOPS, There goes all my karma! ]

[Gregory Sager]

I simply said that it wasn't a week to brag about if you're a Titans fan. That covers the team as a whole, the individual players, the coach, pretty much everything. I didn't say anything about iwu70 or anybody else doing an online victory dance over either of the two wins.

And you don't have to watch any games to have a pretty comprehensive picture of what Millikin and Elmhurst are like this year if you read the room regularly, which iwu70 does. The fact that he's half a world away is irrelevant.

(And I don't want this to sound as though I'm trying to pick on iwu70. I'm not. It's more a matter of my saying that, in OurHouse's case, even a broken clock is right twice a day.)