MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[mwunder]

Final in Kenosha: Carthage 75, Coe 61.

http://athletics.carthage.edu/news/2011/12/11/Mens_Basketball_1211110632.aspx

Carthage was all over Coe tonight at Tarble.  Coe could not handle the pressure that Carthage placed on them in the zone and had several lay-ups at the other end after fine work on defense.

The refs were once again bad in a DIII game.  At one point in the first half, the fouls were 7-1 in favor of the home team and more than a few of the Coe faithful were vocal about pointing that out to the zebras.

Wilson at the PG spot is going to be a player.  Very quick first step and got by whomever Coe put in front of him.  Love Johnson's wing span and his knack for not leaving his feet on ball fakes.  His shot selection is that of a freshman however.  Late in the game with Carthage up 18-20 or so, he was guilty of jacking up a three ball with 15-20 seconds on the shot clock.  No need to take that shot in that situation.

D looked good and very aggressive.  3/4 pressure the entire game.  I came away impressed by the game they played last night.

[Red.Men1]

Final in Kenosha: Carthage 75, Coe 61.

http://athletics.carthage.edu/news/2011/12/11/Mens_Basketball_1211110632.aspx

Carthage was all over Coe tonight at Tarble.  Coe could not handle the pressure that Carthage placed on them in the zone and had several lay-ups at the other end after fine work on defense.

The refs were once again bad in a DIII game.  At one point in the first half, the fouls were 7-1 in favor of the home team and more than a few of the Coe faithful were vocal about pointing that out to the zebras.

Wilson at the PG spot is going to be a player.  Very quick first step and got by whomever Coe put in front of him.  Love Johnson's wing span and his knack for not leaving his feet on ball fakes.  His shot selection is that of a freshman however.  Late in the game with Carthage up 18-20 or so, he was guilty of jacking up a three ball with 15-20 seconds on the shot clock.  No need to take that shot in that situation.

D looked good and very aggressive.  3/4 pressure the entire game.  I came away impressed by the game they played last night.

I think you're referring to Donte Logan. But yes, yes he is.

[iwu70]

Nice win by the Titans on Saturday at UC.  Pretty thorough.  Titans have lots of weapons when they play well.  Who would have thought that the leading scorer 8 games into the season would be Kevin Reed?  As I thought earlier from watching scrimmages and early games, Eliud Gonzales is playing with alot of confidence, at a very high level, distirbuting the ball well and proving to be the best on-ball defender the Titans have.  Nice to see such balanced scoring and quality minutes from the rotation:  esp. Zeimnick, Anderson, Dortch, Rudnicki and Molinari.  Game with Wash U will be a great test, at home, of how far this group has gelled now, and how they can play well, consistently vs. the stronger teams on their schedule.  Bethany out east will also be a good challenge.  I think they are currently undefeated.  Good luck to the Titans this Saturday, 3 p.m. vs. Wash U @ The Shirk.

Women's game will follow, including the hanging of the 4th place DIII tournament banner in the rafters of Shirk, honoring the finest squad in IWU women's basketball history.  Just before the women's game at 5 p.m., I believe.

Let's hope a big turnout for the Wash U game and the women's celebration and game vs. St. Francis to follow at 5 p.m.

IWU70

[Titan Q]

Congratulations to IWU PG Eliud Gonzalez on CCIW Player of the Week honors...

http://www.cciw.org/news/2011/12/12/MBB_1212112804.aspx

[Titan Q]

http://www.iwuhoops.com/gs.JPG

Caption: "Posting legend Greg Sager looks on as IWU's Kevin Reed and Chicago's Steve Stefanou battle for the opening tip"

[mwunder]

I think you're referring to Donte Logan. But yes, yes he is.

You are correct sir!

[Gregory Sager]

The refs were once again bad in a DIII game.  At one point in the first half, the fouls were 7-1 in favor of the home team and more than a few of the Coe faithful were vocal about pointing that out to the zebras.

Interesting observation. Jacobson, Scherzinger, and Maziarka are a veteran officiating crew, all of whom typically perform good service. In fact, Ken Maziarka is the CCIW's head of men's basketball officiating.

I disagree with the idea that a lopsided team-foul count is somehow an indictment of the officiating. It negates the possibility that the team-foul count might be lopsided because one team is committing lots of fouls and the other team isn't. That does happen, and it happens pretty frequently. I know that coaches constantly use lopsided team-foul counts as leverage to try to get refs to swing some calls their way, but a good official should simply shrug it off. If one team's committing all the fouls, then one team's committing all the fouls. Simple as that. Expecting team-foul totals to be balanced out for the sake of fairness shows a misguided concept of what fairness really is. The fairest thing that a ref can do is to call a foul when there is a foul, or to not call one when there isn't one.

http://www.iwuhoops.com/gs.JPG

Caption: "Posting legend Greg Sager looks on as IWU's Kevin Reed and Chicago's Steve Stefanou battle for the opening tip"

I'm flattered by the description, Bob, but somewhat dismayed that the picture shows just how poor attendance at the Ratner Center tends to be. A friend of mine has a daughter who is a current student at the U of C, and she told me that not only has she never set foot in the gym for a basketball game (men or women), she doesn't know any other students who have.

[iwu70]

Congrats to Eliud Gonzales for CCIW Player of the Week!  Two weeks in a row for the Titans.  Keep it going!

Greg, you are so right about attendance at Ratner and UC.  I have a good friend, high school friend of my son, who attended UC recently for four years.  I asked him once if he knew anything about the UC athletic program and traditions, about Ratner etc. and I drew a totally blank face!  Seems supporting the Maroons, even knowing about them, is well below the august academic levels of most UC students. 

To be honest, the crowds at the Shirk seem down, rather sparse this year, too.  I've been to a few men's games and now to two of the women's games, and the crowds are 250-900.  Scheduling and exam weeks have something to do with it, as very few women's home games this year, and all three during or after exam week completed.  Unfortunate.  Let's hope things pick up for the CCIW race home games January - February, and that both the men and women's teams are right there in the CCIW race throughout the season. 

An excellent double-header this Saturday, with the men playing Wash U at 3 p.m. and the women raising their banner and then playing USFrancis at 5 p.m.  A really good Saturday of basketball at The Shirk.

Happy Holidays to all the CCIW Chatsters, from legends to beginners. 

IWU70

[iwu70]

Congratulations to IWU SID Stew Salowitz on being elected into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame, Media Division!  Well deserved.

Congrats to Stew and thanks for all the good work over the years for IWU Athletics, sports information. 

IWU70

[markerickson]

Regarding disinterest or apathy, my first cousin's son graduated with distinction from NPU several years ago without having ever attended a men's basketball game.  Uff da!

[Gregory Sager]

Final from the far side of the Lombardi-Halas Line:

UW-Platteville 71
North Central 51

Derek Raridon had 16 and Landon Gamble 14 to lead the Cardinals, who were pretty thoroughly outplayed. They only shot 32% from the field while the Pioneers shot a torrid 60%. Weird fact of the game: UWP outrebounded NCC, 32-26, yet the Pioneers didn't register a single offensive rebound all evening. Don't think I've ever seen that before.

Todd Raridon got T'ed up towards the end of the game, and even the UWP announcers couldn't really figure out why. The refs weren't all that kind to NCC tonight, not that it really made any difference in the outcome.

[augie_superfan]

Final from the far side of the Lombardi-Halas Line:

UW-Platteville 71
North Central 51

Derek Raridon had 16 and Landon Gamble 14 to lead the Cardinals, who were pretty thoroughly outplayed. They only shot 32% from the field while the Pioneers shot a torrid 60%. Weird fact of the game: UWP outrebounded NCC, 32-26, yet the Pioneers didn't register a single offensive rebound all evening. Don't think I've ever seen that before.

Todd Raridon got T'ed up towards the end of the game, and even the UWP announcers couldn't really figure out why. The refs weren't all that kind to NCC tonight, not that it really made any difference in the outcome.

What is going on with NCC?  Their play just doesn't match up with the talent on that roster.

[Gregory Sager]

What is going on with NCC?  Their play just doesn't match up with the talent on that roster.

To be fair to the Cardinals, I think that there's more than one CCIW team that deserves that indictment.

[Titan Q]

What is going on with NCC?  Their play just doesn't match up with the talent on that roster.

To be fair to the Cardinals, I think that there's more than one CCIW team that deserves that indictment.

But I do think North Central's non-conference performance has to be considered the most puzzling.  The Cardinals returned 3 starters (including 2 studs in 1st Team All-CCIW Landon Gamble and 2nd teamer Derek Raridon, along with veteran PG Kevin Gillespie) and promising reserve CJ Goldthree (20 min/game) from a team that tied for the CCIW championship last year, and hosted the conference tournament.  And it is not like NCC is losing to Top 25 teams.  They have lost to Aurora, Albion, Simpson, and UW-Platteville.

Not knowing anything about what NCC's issues are, it seems they miss all of those little things Brian Evans (6.3 ppg, 6.9 rpg, 3.7 apg) did for them last year and his extremely strong leadership presence.  Reminds me a little of 2008-09 when IWU returned Sexauer/Johnson/Rosenkranz as sophomores from a surprisingly good team (2nd place)...but they did not have Darius Gant, who had a 1st Team All-CCIW senior season in 2007-08.  That IWU sophomore nucleus really struggled without Gant - Sexauer/Rosenkranz/Johnson had to figure out how to be "the guys" and to be leaders.

[mwunder]

The refs were once again bad in a DIII game.  At one point in the first half, the fouls were 7-1 in favor of the home team and more than a few of the Coe faithful were vocal about pointing that out to the zebras.

Interesting observation. Jacobson, Scherzinger, and Maziarka are a veteran officiating crew, all of whom typically perform good service. In fact, Ken Maziarka is the CCIW's head of men's basketball officiating.

I disagree with the idea that a lopsided team-foul count is somehow an indictment of the officiating. It negates the possibility that the team-foul count might be lopsided because one team is committing lots of fouls and the other team isn't. That does happen, and it happens pretty frequently. I know that coaches constantly use lopsided team-foul counts as leverage to try to get refs to swing some calls their way, but a good official should simply shrug it off. If one team's committing all the fouls, then one team's committing all the fouls. Simple as that. Expecting team-foul totals to be balanced out for the sake of fairness shows a misguided concept of what fairness really is. The fairest thing that a ref can do is to call a foul when there is a foul, or to not call one when there isn't one.

It's funny you should say this, because the 1 Carthage foul to that point was a ticky-tack call on Malcolm in the back-court on a hand check. 

I only used those numbers for the Coe fans who were sniping the refs quite often about reaches, hand-checks, and various other no-calls.  Were there a few fouls that Carthage committed that SHOULD have been called in the first 10 minutes?  You betcha! 

But, to their credit, Carthage played a much more aggressive and ball-hawking style than Coe did, especially at the guard position and continued to play that way after the refs let them.  Had they played a second game in the same style, I could just as easily see them have to dial down the pressure a notch or two because the refs wouldn't let them get away with some of the things that they did get away with.