MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[mwunder]

The freshman in question is Luke Johnson. If you will remember there was a great deal of surprise when, given the degree of spirituality associated with the 2 high schools he attended, it was revealed that he had chosen Carthage.

As an alum, I'm thinking I should be a bit offended by this statement??  It's not like Carthage is a moral black hole with no spiritual or religious opportunities. 

[devildog29]

The freshman in question is Luke Johnson. If you will remember there was a great deal of surprise when, given the degree of spirituality associated with the 2 high schools he attended, it was revealed that he had chosen Carthage.

As an alum, I'm thinking I should be a bit offended by this statement??  It's not like Carthage is a moral black hole with no spiritual or religious opportunities.

I don't think AO meant that as a slight.  IWU certainly has spiritual and religious opportunities as well, but clearly there's a difference between offering spiritual and religious opportunities vs. having this as one of the fundamental missions of the college.  This is awfully a:) nitpicky or b:) thin-skinned to find offense in that statement.

[AndOne]

The freshman in question is Luke Johnson. If you will remember there was a great deal of surprise when, given the degree of spirituality associated with the 2 high schools he attended, it was revealed that he had chosen Carthage.

As an alum, I'm thinking I should be a bit offended by this statement??  It's not like Carthage is a moral black hole with no spiritual or religious opportunities.

I don't think AO meant that as a slight.  IWU certainly has spiritual and religious opportunities as well, but clearly there's a difference between offering spiritual and religious opportunities vs. having this as one of the fundamental missions of the college.  This is awfully a:) nitpicky or b:) thin-skinned to find offense in that statement.

You are absolutely correct devildog. No slight intended.

mwunder---

To provide you with little background, Aurora Christian and Wheaton Academy, the high schools Mr. Johnson attended for 2 years each, are pretty devout institutions. Accordingly, I'd venture that it would be, lets say, less surprising to have seen him enroll at Wheaton or possibly North Park as far as CCIW schools are concerned. That is not to say that the other 6 conference schools have no degree of religious orientation or any spiritual programs in place.

[AndOne]

And, is Schouten the Ed O'Callahan of the '11-12 season?  Didn't Schouten start at one point in the non-conference part of the season last year?

Dan Schouten is not on the 2011-12 roster...

http://www.iwusports.com/roster.aspx?path=mbball&

I wonder if past injuries (Dan has had surgery on both shoulders) finally caught up with Schouten, or if he just packed it in realizing he wasn't likely to see much floor time. He never seemed to be on of Rose's favorites. Despite starting a handful of games and putting up pretty good stats earlier in the year last season, Rose chose to go with a younger, less experienced player or players during Wesleyan's stretch drive to a conference tourney berth. Also, IWU gets Victor Davis back full time this year after his being injured for a time last year. This would have further limited Schouten's PT.

[Gregory Sager]

The freshman in question is Luke Johnson. If you will remember there was a great deal of surprise when, given the degree of spirituality associated with the 2 high schools he attended, it was revealed that he had chosen Carthage.

As an alum, I'm thinking I should be a bit offended by this statement??  It's not like Carthage is a moral black hole with no spiritual or religious opportunities.

I don't think AO meant that as a slight.  IWU certainly has spiritual and religious opportunities as well, but clearly there's a difference between offering spiritual and religious opportunities vs. having this as one of the fundamental missions of the college.  This is awfully a:) nitpicky or b:) thin-skinned to find offense in that statement.

You are absolutely correct devildog. No slight intended.

mwunder---

To provide you with little background, Aurora Christian and Wheaton Academy, the high schools Mr. Johnson attended for 2 years each, are pretty devout institutions. Accordingly, I'd venture that it would be, lets say, less surprising to have seen him enroll at Wheaton or possibly North Park as far as CCIW schools are concerned. That is not to say that the other 6 conference schools have no degree of religious orientation or any spiritual programs in place.

Wheaton would've made sense, because the Wheaton Academy head coach is none other than Paul Ferguson, former Wheaton College assistant coach.

NPU would've made sense, and not just because it's one of the two evangelical Christian schools in the CCIW. The kid's name is Johnson, which only seems to be the surname of half the students on the North Park campus. (Swedish-Americans are good people, but they aren't exactly bursting with imagination when it comes to last names. ) And he would've shared the name "Luke Johnson" with NPU's baseball coach. Speaking as someone who attended North Park with four Eric Johnsons, three Steve Petersons, and four Kris/Chris Johnsons, I have to say that I enjoy the potential for name-related comic mixups.

[iwu70]

Yes, I wonder about Schouten too?  And Connelly?  Seems we lost a couple of pretty good players in those two from the IWU roster this year.  Would be nice to have the depth, with the possibilities of injuries or illnesses. 

On another topic, I'm having trouble with the CCIW webpage.  Has anyone else had this trouble?  It seems to go dead, not respond, can't get in to various aspects of the page after the entry page loads.  Let me know.  Perhaps it's just the computer I'm using at IWU?  But, seems something wrong with the entire site.

Hope the Titans can take care of football business the rest of the way, get to the post-season.  But, we're now getting pretty close to basketball season as well.  Only about three weeks now before the opening tip-offs. 

Look forward to watching the Green/White scrimmage and then perhaps some exhibition scrimmages first, before the regular season begins.

IWU70

[Titan Q]

IWU's scrimmages are...

Nov 2 - vs Olivet Nazarene (Shirk Center) - 6:00pm
Nov 6 - Green/White game (Shirk Center) - 3:00pm
Nov 10 - @ Loras - 7:00pm

[iwu70]

Q, do you know the times for the IWU scrimmages, at Shirk with ONU, and the Green/White game?

All best,

IWU 70

[URockets]

Anyone know if a similar event will be held this year per below from last year?


The Illinois Wesleyan women's and men's basketball teams will be on public display during the "Titan Hoops Fan Fest", which will be staged in the Shirk Center on Saturday, Nov. 6 immediately following the IWU football game against Carthage that afternoon.

Both teams will scrimmage for 15 minute periods and there will be a poster autograph session for both squads.

There will also be a 3-point shooting contest for both genders with the winners competing against each other along with a dunk contest for the men's team. There will also be a "two-ball" contest where IWU players will team up with someone in the audience.

In addition to the Titan teams playing, there will be opportunities for fans to win prizes, including making a half-court shot for a television and other opportunities to win cash in the "Heartland Bank Shootout", a season athletics pass and a car wash.

Concessions will be available and many other free giveaways are planned.

[Dennis_Prikkel]

The freshman in question is Luke Johnson. If you will remember there was a great deal of surprise when, given the degree of spirituality associated with the 2 high schools he attended, it was revealed that he had chosen Carthage.

As an alum, I'm thinking I should be a bit offended by this statement??  It's not like Carthage is a moral black hole with no spiritual or religious opportunities.

I don't think AO meant that as a slight.  IWU certainly has spiritual and religious opportunities as well, but clearly there's a difference between offering spiritual and religious opportunities vs. having this as one of the fundamental missions of the college.  This is awfully a:) nitpicky or b:) thin-skinned to find offense in that statement.

You are absolutely correct devildog. No slight intended.

mwunder---

To provide you with little background, Aurora Christian and Wheaton Academy, the high schools Mr. Johnson attended for 2 years each, are pretty devout institutions. Accordingly, I'd venture that it would be, lets say, less surprising to have seen him enroll at Wheaton or possibly North Park as far as CCIW schools are concerned. That is not to say that the other 6 conference schools have no degree of religious orientation or any spiritual programs in place.

Wheaton would've made sense, because the Wheaton Academy head coach is none other than Paul Ferguson, former Wheaton College assistant coach.

NPU would've made sense, and not just because it's one of the two evangelical Christian schools in the CCIW. The kid's name is Johnson, which only seems to be the surname of half the students on the North Park campus. (Swedish-Americans are good people, but they aren't exactly bursting with imagination when it comes to last names. ) And he would've shared the name "Luke Johnson" with NPU's baseball coach. Speaking as someone who attended North Park with four Eric Johnsons, three Steve Petersons, and four Kris/Chris Johnsons, I have to say that I enjoy the potential for name-related comic mixups.

we had 62 Andersons in my freshman class

when LBJ was president, NPC's director of publicity, Phil Liljengren, got a big national story because North Park had four Linda Johnson's on the campus at once.

[iwu70]

Thanks for the times / edit -- Q.

Looking forward to seeing with my own eyes what the Titans roster really looks like for the coming year. 

IWU70

[Gregory Sager]

NPU's scrimmages will be: @ Dominican this coming Saturday afternoon, and two weeks from tonight (November 8) at home against Rockford.

Practices are going very well for the Vikings. My initial impression is that the regime change has done wonders for the team's discipline, morale, and work ethic. We'll see if it carries over into the season or is just the reflection of a brief honeymoon between the team and its new coach.

[petemcb]

Greg, I'm hearing similar things regarding the coaching change and the effect it's had on team energy, morale, and discipline.  That and a key player addition add up to cause for excitement at Foster and Kedzie this season.  Any word on start times for those two scrimmages?

[Titan Q]

Some stuff out of IWU's media day yesterday...

http://wjbc.com/illinois-wesleyan-men-women-seek-new-leaders-in-2011-12/

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/basketball/men/article_e7d711a8-0044-11e1-93e2-001cc4c03286.html


There is an audio interview with a very hoarse Ron Rose on the WJBC link.

Jordan Zimmer will serve as IWU's captain in 2011-12.

[AndOne]

It will be interesting to see if the Coaches' poll parallels the D3Hoops pol,l and results in the coaches voting:
1. Augie
2. Wheaton
3. IWU
4. NCC

There seems little doubt that these teams will be the choices for the top 4 spots in whatever order.

The CCIW head coaches will put a lot more weight on North Central's co-CCIW championship than the D3hoops.com Top 25 voters did.  I don't think there is much doubt at all that Augustana will be picked #1 and North Central #2.

I'm sure NCC was a difficult team for the Top 25 voters to assess.  On one hand the Cardinals finished 11-3 (and earned the #1-seed) in one of the nation's best leagues.  On the other, they went 4-7 in the non-conference and finished with 11 total losses (including the conference tournament loss).  Whereas those who follow the CCIW closely are apt to acknowledge all of the young players NCC was working into the rotation during the non-conference, and basically write off that 4-7 part of 2010-11, I'm sure 11 losses scared off most of the D3hoops pollsters.  The CCIW head coaches will only remember what happened last January and February.

My guess is that we will see the following from the coaches on Thursday:

1. Augustana
2. North Central
3. Wheaton
4. Illinois Wesleyan
5. North Park
6. Carthage
7. Elmhurst
8. Millikin

I think Bob nailed it here. I agree with everything he said, except that I suspect that the CCIW coaches might put Carthage ahead of NPU in the preseason poll.

Speaking of which, the poll will be released on Thursday following the third annual live chat on www.cciw.org with the league's eight head coaches at 10 am that morning.

2011 CCIW Men's Basketball Preseason Poll: 1. Augustana - 47 (5 first place votes); 2. North Central - 42 (2 first place votes); 3. Wheaton - 39 (1 first place vote); 4. Illinois Wesleyan - 28; 5. Carthage - 27; 6. North Park - 18; 7. Elmhurst - 16; 8. Millikin - 7.