MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Hardwood]

Halftime:

Augustana 32
St. Ambrose 31

Here is the video link...

http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/stam.portal#


This is the first time I have had a chance to see Augie this year.  Holy cow are they big. 

St. Ambrose lost by 29 to St. Xavier and 12 to Trinity Christian, so this is not a very good Bees team.

Actually, Ambrose was rated preseason #13 in NAIA Division II.  They are picked to win their conference and have the conference player of the year returning in Mike Kennedy.  They were plagued by injuries early on including Chris Donnelly and Justin Blondell.  Donnelly is a returning Senior who was a first team all conference player, Blondell is a junior who has started for 3 years.  They also feature Nicolas Frazier from Proviso West who will probably be the 'Freshmen of the year in the conference'  -- They're not bad at all.  They would certainly be top tier in the CCIW.

[bopol]

On the Carthage loss...

My immediate thought is that they should have never lost this game, as they outplayed ONU by 10 points.  But they did loss, so what went wrong?

1) Free Throw Shooting: Carthage was 10-20 and missed 2 front ends of a 1 and 1.  A couple of times they could have buried ONU and they didn't get it done at the line.

2) Poor shooting for most of the first half.  Really, Carthage couldn't buy a basket.  They did get it together in the 2nd half and OT.

3) Lack of offensive flow.  Towards the end of the game and into OT, there seemed to be a lack of cohesion on the team on offense.  Malcom Kelly clearly is the go-to guy and wanted the ball, which is great, but he wasn't making the players around him better; he was just going it alone.  This will be a key to me going forward.  I expect some of this after 4 years of running the offense through Steve D, but Malcom will need to be a more complete guard without Steve D.  He's not quite there yet.

4) Reffing.  Sorry, it was awful.  One thing I dislike about D3 basketball is the poor quality of reffing and the lack few minutes of this game were prime examples.

5) Mitch Thompson with 4 fouls.  He got burned a couple of times in OT and I wonder if it was because he was holding back either expecting help or because he didn't want to pick up the 5th.  Either way, Bosko had Johnson on the bench and he probably should have been in the game and/or Thompson should have been told to go all out and don't worry about the 5th foul.

General Thoughts.
1) Mitch Thompson was mostly in the 3 on offense and that seemed to suit him.  He moves better outside the paint with and without the basketball.

2) Carthage was overplaying the passing lanes and that seemed to work.  They seemed a notch faster than ONU and generally used that to their advantage.

3) Luke Johnson looked a bit like deer in the headlights.  The game was moving a little too fast for him at times and he seemed to lose confidence when he was missing shots in the first half.  I like what I saw, but growth will be needed to reach his full potential.

4) Carthage's rebounding seemed better than last year.

I'll be especially looking for offensive flow in the future games, as that is likely the key to their success this year.

[mwunder]

On the Carthage loss...
1) Free Throw Shooting: Carthage was 10-20 and missed 2 front ends of a 1 and 1.  A couple of times they could have buried ONU and they didn't get it done at the line.

4) Reffing.  Sorry, it was awful.  One thing I dislike about D3 basketball is the poor quality of reffing and the lack few minutes of this game were prime examples.

DING and DING!  Hit this one right on the head bopol.

[Titan Q]

3 video streams tonight...


IWU @ (#24) UW-Whitewater (7:00pm) - http://uwwwarhawks.nmtvsports.com/

Millikin @ Franklin (7:00pm) - http://hometownsportsindiana.blogspot.com/

(#13) Wheaton vs Chicago (8:00pm) - http://www2.wheaton.edu/learnres/mediares/WETN/wetn_livewindow/WETN-TV.htm

[iwu70]

Gonzales to be back in the IWU starting line-up tonight, after missing two games.

Good challenge for the Titans tonight at UWWW.

IWU70

[devildog29]

I'm very impressed with these students doing the UWW-IWU game.  They do well to sound like UWW's home announcing team without sounding obnoxiously "homer-ish."  They sound very well prepared and have a lot of nice background information.  Not a lot of umms and uhs and dead air. They follow the flow well. Very, very well done.  Kudos.

[iwu70]

Titans go down by about 12.  All you have to say is 24 turnovers.   WW vs. Augie should be a very good match-up, grinding type of Defense.

IWU70

[iwu70]

Final WW over IWU 65-53.  Titans hung with them, within 2-4 points, 'til the last 4 minutes, then WW went on a 10-0 run, no Titans answer.  Disappointing loss.

IWU70

[Titan Q]

UW-Whitewater 65
IWU 53


IWU will need to get a lot better to finish 4th in the CCIW this year. 

[iwu70]

Franklin up big on Millikin in second half.  Wheaton up 13 over U of Chicago at halftime.

IWU70

[Mugsy]

Final in Wheaton:  Wheaton 76, Chicago 54

Tim McCrary 24 pts, 9 reb, 1 assist, 2 steals
Tyler Peters 15 pts, 4 assists
Aaron Garrott 18 pts, 3 reb, 2 assists

Wheaton shot 45% from the field, Chicago 40%
Chicago 18 turnovers, Wheaton 7
Wheaton 36 rebounds, Chicago 32
Wheaton 9 steals, Chicago 2
Wheaton 6 blocks, Chicago 1

[MoEv27]

Titans struggled again tonight...8 assists/24 TO's.  Only 1 player reached double figures, Kevin Reed w/ 10 pts. 

Zimmer, Koz, and Victor must step up and provide consistent offensive production if this team is going to be a factor in the CCIW race.  Tonight, this trio combined for 20 pts...and only 1 FT attempt.

[Gregory Sager]

Congrats to Augie on their #1 ranking.  Wheaton does look mighty fine so far and NCC is amazingly disappointing so far.  Could it be a two or three team race?

IWU70

NCC is amazingly dissappointing based on what evidence?  The 3-1 start this year after 4 games with the defeat coming on the road?

I agree with you, cp. It's just not true that NCC has been "amazingly disappointing". The Cardinals have laid one egg in four games. That's neither amazing nor disappointing.

It's far too early to pronounce any sort of judgment upon North Central, although I said last week that I thought Wheaton might emerge as a stronger challenger to Augustana. After tuning in to the WETN web feed and watching Wheaton dismantle Chicago tonight, I'm sticking with that assessment -- but not because I'm down on North Central. It's because Wheaton looks very, very strong this year.

[Gregory Sager]

Franklin 67
Millikin 56

The Big Blue fall to 0-5 on the year. They've now lost 25 straight games, and 34 of their last 35.

Still no sign of the big kid with the Dutch name who transferred in to play for MU this season. He's still on the roster, but he has yet to play. I'd ask if he's hurt, but I'm sure that this is all I'd get in reply.

[Gregory Sager]

Albion 61, North Central 60

The Brits hit a three-pointer with less than three seconds left to pull out the win on their home floor against NCC. Kevin Gillespie didn't make the trip to Michigan due to illness.

Found out more about Brock Van Nordeck, the missing transfer for Millikin. He's been out due to a high ankle sprain, but is expected to make his debut for the Big Blue next week.