MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[iwu70]

IWU JV won 112-80, and looked terrific.  6 freshmen, one sophomore.  This blowout was against ONU JV.  I'll give comments, assessments tomorrow.

As Q has reported, Varsity took down Benedictine 99-70, with both the first and the second halves starting with Kman steals and dunks.  Good stuff.  Five players in double figures, including both Nick Anderson and Kevin Reed.  I swear Jordan Zimmer, whenever his feet and shoulders are squared up, the ball is going up no matter where he is on the floor.  Amazing.  Victor Davis played, well, beast-like, actually carrying defensive players up with him as he put the ball in the basketball.  Great stuff.  Nice to see Kevin Reed play well, relaxed, with a good smile on his face.  Eliud stirs the pot -- 9 assists and really pushes the ball well.  This Titan team is deep, fast, shoots well, and has a new interest in defensive intensity.  Solid night for Molinari -- he's learning fast, playing within himself.  Dan Oswald came in for about 3 minutes, and immediately scored 8-9 points.  I'm very optimistic about the year.  A good start to be sure, but we need more fans at the Shirk.  Only about 700-800 there, by eyeball estimation.

More on the JV/newbies tomorrow . . .

IWU70

[titanfan]

I'm really excited about the development of Victor Davis!   Looking at the box score it also looks like Molinari played a lot of minutes.   I hope he continues to play a big role this season.  Great first win, Titans!

[sac]

I was texted by one of the coaches after the game tonight. Sounds like everything that could've gone wrong did go wrong -- missed FTs, defensive breakdowns, turnovers.

How in the world does anybody lose to Eureka, let alone a CCIW team?

I'm not sure I agree with you, Greg.  Without having seen the game, or the opponent, how can any loss on the road be deemed "beyond embarrassing"? 

Did you see the line for Mark Holmes?  Definitely something to look forward to....

I think Greg is basing his thoughts on Eureka being not very good a year ago and on how North Park has handled Eureka in the past.  I don't know what the SLIAC record is vs the CCIW but its not good.....not good at all.  Maybe  Eureka will end up good, but I can certainly understand his frustrations with such a result.

Eureka 2011  4-21   ........ JC transfers or not this year, that's not a good record.

[Titan Q]

The Pantagraph's article on the IWU/Benedictine game and the boxscore...

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/basketball/men/iwu-men-get-great-start-with--point-opening-win/article_a32b4cb6-10db-11e1-9b03-001cc4c03286.html

http://www.iwusports.com/custompages/MBB/MBB2012/HTML/iwumen1.htm

I think Randy Reinhardt captured the strengths of the 2011-12 Titans in saying: "IWU exhibited seemingly limitless energy, diverse offensive production and a cavernous bench..."


* Energy - when I interviewed Ron Rose recently for the IWUhoops.com season preview, he mentioned several times how hard this team works.  And every time I have spoken with him since practice began, he has mentioned how much he enjoys coaching this group of guys because of how competitive they are and how much they are committed to getting better.  I think these things translate to the floor in the form of "energy."  Everyone I have spoken to that has seen a practice or scrimmage kind of says the same thing - basically that this IWU team is very rough around the edges, but that they really get after it.

* Diverse offensive production - IWU had 5 double-digit scorers last night, and I think this is something we'll see several times this year.  While Jordan Zimmer is clearly IWU's best scorer, the Titans have several other guys capable of being scorers -  I think we will see a lot of different players scoring 8-10 points per game.

* Cavernous bench - Ron Rose has a talented backup at each position (PG David Molinari, SG Stephen Rudnicki & Dan Oswald, SF Eric Dortch, PF Andrew Ziemnik, C Nick Anderson) and I'm pretty sure he will play 10 or 11 guys all season. 


Benedictine is certainly not an upper half CCIW team, but I'm encouraged by IWU's blowout win nonetheless.  The Titans trotted a completely new team out there last night - 6 of the top 10 were really not factors in 2010-11 (freshman Molinari, JV players Dortch, Davis, Ziemnik, and Anderson, and Reed who did not even play the 2nd semester).  Even two of the returnees are in different roles - Zimmer playing the 2 and Koschnitzky the 3.  I would not have been surprised if the Titans looked discombobulated for most of the opener.

The Titans now go to the Illinois College tournament this weekend where they'll face MacMurray (SLIAC) Friday @ 5:30pm, and then either Illinois College (MWC) or Manchester (HCAC) Saturday at either 2:00pm or 4:00pm.

I'm encouraged by what I'm hearing about the character of this IWU team and look forward to seeing how they develop during the non-conference.

[Titan Q]

IWU's 6-8/245 freshman center Parker Musselman had 31 points in the JV's 112-point outburst vs Olivet Nazarene last night.  He is a guy to keep an eye on...probably won't crack it this year, but sounds like he has a chance to be a player down the road.

Three Titans had 18 points in that JV game - 6-7 F Brandon Heyen, 6-3 G Dylan Overstreet, and 6-8 F Josh Wiggs.

[Randy Reinhardt]

Hello CCIW chatters,
Covering Illinois Wesleyan for these past many years at the Bloomington Pantagraph, I have lurked on this board and enjoyed the passion and exchange of ideas presented here. I also long ago learned to respect the level of basketball played in the CCIW. I wanted to let everyone know that I have joined the Twitter revolution and will be tweeting score updates and random observations from all IWU home games and some road games, including Friday's game against MacMurray in Jacksonville. I'm also responsible for coverage of Illinois State football and Illinois State women's basketball so that has cut into my ability to hit the road with the Titans. Anyone interested in following me on Twitter may do so at twitter.com/Pg_Reinhardt
Thanks,
Randy

[bopol]

I was texted by one of the coaches after the game tonight. Sounds like everything that could've gone wrong did go wrong -- missed FTs, defensive breakdowns, turnovers.

How in the world does anybody lose to Eureka, let alone a CCIW team?

Maybe North Park isn't as good this year as you think they are?

[iwu70]

Great start for the Titans last night.  Varsity played very well, shot it well, defended, and seemed to be running very smoothly deep into the rotation.  I like the vibe, too, Q, -- seems to be coming together earlier than one would expect.

On the JV, I watched the 112--85 explosion . . . and what can you say? . . these guys have learned the up-speed, get out and run system mighty fast.  Obviously, some work on defense may be in order.  The JV is:  Overstreet, Azuogu, Heyen, Wheeler, Musselman, Mayberger, and Wiggs.  All freshmen, save Mayberger.  This is a very talented group of players.  As Q mentioned, Musselman was most impressive -- scoring 31.  He's a deceptively fast big man, light on his feet for 6-8, 245, with an excellent shooting range.  His body type is more like Ziemnik.   He hit at least 5 treys, with relaxed ease, and playing with a gentle smile, even a smirk on his face.  Great fun.  But, he also had assists, with an excellent ability providing good entry passes to Heyen and Wiggs.  Yes, Musselman has a great future with the Titan program.  He's a ton down low, rebouding well, blocking out, blocking shots, taking charges, but also has this shooting range where he can move far away from the basket and score.  Both Heyen and Wiggs had strong games as well, good movement, slashing, strong finishing.  Heyen reminds me of Chris Bosch, very quick, and long long body type, long arms beyond belief.  He got many tips, blocks, quick moves to the hoop, scored about 18.  Wiggs, is just a fundamentally solid player, strong, with good court sense, offensive rebounding, excellent passing and vision on the court -- at 6-8, 200.  Will get stronger, better.  This JV front court is strong.  Mayberger had a good game, used his smarts and vision to make excellent contributions, though he's still struggling with the knees and has more trouble on defense.  Hope his knees get better as, at times, he didn't look very comfortable physically, especially on defense.  Still, he played well.  The two guards, Wheeler and Overstreet, are little motors, pushing the ball, defending well, with very few mis-judgements, mistakes or turnovers.  Both have great potential to be very worthy successors to Eliud Gonzales. Similar styles of play, perhaps even better ball handlers.   Both played very well.  Azuogu had his moments, but also seemed the least familiar with the IWU system and with the speed of the CCIW game, even at the JV level.  He made a few shots, worked very hard during his minutes, but didn't look entirely like he was in total game shape as yet.  Stay tuned.  All the JV Titans got lots of minutes in many different rotational combinations.  This is a very strong, talented group of players -- I'm especially impressed by Musselman, Wiggs, Heyen and Overstreet. 

If Ron Rose has to go deeper than his already deep 11-12 player rotation, I wouldn't be at all surprised for him to call on these talented freshmen at points in the latter part of the season.  We can see how freshman Molinari is fitting into the Varsity rotation very well already, but these JV guys are just as talented in many ways.   Should the Titans have trouble with illness or injuries down the road (knock on wood!), these JV guys are very well suited to fit into the Varsity scheme of things quite well, quite soon.  IMHO.

Enjoyed the game greatly -- not often you see any Titan team score 112.  But, there you have it. 

On the Varsity game, we got pretty much what we knew, what we expected from Zimmer, Davis, Kman, Eliud, the entire cast of characters.  Best outcomes, in my view, were the contributions, strengths of the role players.  Great to see Kevin Reed play so well, so confidently making a good contribution.  Also, Nick Anderson, had an excellent game during his minutes.  He just needs to, for wont of a better word, "uncoil" himself and truly utilize all his size and potential athleticism.  Perhaps watch some tapes of John Lipic, or Zach Freeman.  A thought.  And, gotta love Dan Oswald, coming in for just a few minutes, making shots, playing his heart out, hitting two quick treys, with all the bench cheering him on.  Seems the box score keepers surely don't catch everything, as Nick Anderson had several good blocks, played hard -- with a key block of Green on the final possession of the first half to finish off that nice 17-5 run the Titans had to basically put the game out of reach before the intermission. 

A very good start.  Good to see.  This team is very exciting to watch, so I hope more fans from the Titan nation will come out to Shirk and to road games and give them loud support.  Given the new defensive intensity, I think this team could really well feed off of good fan support. 

Good luck to the football Titans this weekend vs. Air Monmouth.  Will be tough to top the win against Wabash in OT two years ago. 

IWU70

[Gregory Sager]

How in the world does anybody lose to Eureka, let alone a CCIW team?

This is beyond embarrassing.

See comments by me in SLIAC Room  Eureka Coach Chip Wilde had a trick (or 3) up his sleeve....

I don't care if he's Houdini. There is no way that NPU should've lost that game. It was a catastrophe, plain and simple.

Fortunately, it's only the first game of the season. I hope that the Vikings can chalk it up to a learning experience and go from there.

I'm not sure I agree with you, Greg.  Without having seen the game, or the opponent, how can any loss on the road be deemed "beyond embarrassing"? 

Did you see the line for Mark Holmes?  Definitely something to look forward to....

It's beyond embarrassing when you lose to a SLIAC team that's coming off of a 4-21 season. The fact that the Red Devils added three juco players to their roster should not make a bit of a difference. If you're going to be considered a good CCIW team, you need to whip any SLIAC foes that you face ... no matter where you face them.

Yeah, Mark Holmes had a strong debut for the Park. As I've said, he's definitely going to be a lot of fun for Vikings fans to watch for the next couple of years.  But I've seen plenty of good individual performances by Vikings in recent seasons. They really don't mean a hill of beans to me anymore. I'm a lot more interested in what the team does. If the nine guys in the rotation each score eight points in a game, and the Vikings win 72-71, then I'll definitely walk out of the gym calling it a good night.

[iwu70]

From what I saw of the IWU JV, you could have a night when you walk out of the gym with five guys scoring 18 or more.  Now that would be a good night! 

Greg, sorry about your misery.  Hope NPU can pull it together more as the season progresses.  I basically agree with you about Eureka and any CCIW team facing the SLIAC. 

IWU70

[AndOne]

Regarding NCC (AO, you are probably the best one to answer this) - How are they going to replace the two quality players that they lost? Do they have freshmen/transfers that you expect to step in and be able to contribute?

robert---

By "the 2 quality players that they lost," I assume you mean 3rd team All Conference Brian Evans who graduated, and Jack Burchett who chose not to play this year after starting as a freshman last season.
Very frankly, one of the toughest tasks facing the NCC Cardinals this season will be replacing their combined 315 rebounds and 135 assists.
Evans finished 2nd in the conference last year in overall rebounding, and 3rd in assists. Burchett was 11th in rebounding.

In my view, I'm looking at a quartet of Cardinals being largely responsible to make up the deficit on the glass, with the primary burden falling on 6'6" junior Aaron Tiknis who will start at PF, and 6'5" 230 pound soph Charlie Rosenberg likely the 1st "big" in off the bench, and who will see a considerable amount of PT. Tiknis missed 8 games in the middle of last season, but came on strong down the stretch to help propel the Cards to the conference co-championship. Rosenberg was forced to retire for the remainder of the campaign after playing in only 6 games. These two, especially, must dedicate themselves to winning battles on the boards. They should be able to count on a fair amoiunt of support from both Landon Gamble who was 9th in rebounding last season, pulling down 131, and Derek Raridon who was 15th with 113, and who has added 10 pounds of muscle since last season. However, the bulk of the board work needs to be completed by Tiknis and Rosenberg so as Gamble and Raridon, NCC's leading 2 scorers, and 6th and 8th respectively in the conference, aren't forced to subordinate their scoring too much.       

As far as picking up the lost assists, the logical leader in that area is Kevin Gillespie, who started at the point last season, and is expected to do so again in 2011-12. Kevin dished out 3.15 apg last year and finished 10th in the nation with an assist/TO ration of 2.93.   
Freshman Mike Boyd from Lake Zurich will see meaningful court time early, and should also help recover some of the missing assists.

[titanfan]

IWU's 6-8/245 freshman center Parker Musselman had 31 points in the JV's 112-point outburst vs Olivet Nazarene last night.  He is a guy to keep an eye on...probably won't crack it this year, but sounds like he has a chance to be a player down the road.

Three Titans had 18 points in that JV game - 6-7 F Brandon Heyen, 6-3 G Dylan Overstreet, and 6-8 F Josh Wiggs.

Is Drew Blumenshine hurt?  I didn't see him in the varsity box score or mentioned in the JV game. 

[Titan Q]

Is Drew Blumenshine hurt?  I didn't see him in the varsity box score or mentioned in the JV game.

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/basketball/men/davis-iwu-men-ride-strong-start-into-tourney/article_247bad14-118c-11e1-a4ee-001cc4c002e0.html

Rose said he has granted IWU freshman Drew Blumenshine a few days away from the team to ponder his athletic future. The Wesleyan coach is hoping Blumenshine will return next week.

As I understand it, Blumenshine asked to take a "leave" from basketball to focus on his academic transition to college.  I know they are hoping he comes back, as they think the 6-8 PF has a bright future.

[iwu70]

Blumenshine was very evident in the JV game, scoring 31 and playing well overall.  He did not get into the Varsity game vs. Benedictine.  Sure hope he can make the transition to academic life at IWU as it is very clear he's made the basketball transition, at least to CCIW JV level play extremely well.  Seems, too, like he really enjoys the game, making his teammates better.  It was an odd sentence at the end of that Pgraph article about the varsity, about Victor Davis and the Titans season opener. 

On to Jacksonville . . .

Good luck to the football Titans tomorrow in grounding Air Monmouth.

IWU70

[Titan Q]

Blumenshine was very evident in the JV game, scoring 31 and playing well overall. 

Drew Blumenshine did not play in the JV game Wednesday (before the varsity game with Benedictine). 

Parker Musselman is who scored 31 points.