MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Mr. Ypsi]

And with #20, #21, #23, and #24 all losing today, I like the chances of #25 IWU getting a pretty firm foothold in the Top 25!  Of course, that will be brief if they don't beat NCC.

[iwu70]

Ah yes, Q, it is indeed "Connor Wheeler."  You are again so correct, though he's one of the JV guys, remember?, not the 7:30 p.m. crowd.  Thanks for the spell-check.  I might even try "Koschnitzky" one of these days (though I much prefer Kman).  You must have been an English major at IWU.  No wonder your name is Quill-man. 

A wholly enjoyable evening at the Shirk tonight, especially the big win 70-69 by the Titan women, on a trey to win with about 2 seconds to go.  Two of the best DIII teams and individual women going head-to-head, Lett vs. Jacklin.  I was most impressed with the Carthage women. 

On the men's game, you have given the key points.  Nick Anderson had his break-out offensive night that I was hoping for, predicting earlier. He got 18, including several dunks, drawing fouls, and hitting 6-6 FTs.  Zimmer had a quiet 12, and was hounded pretty well, blocked numerous times by the tight Carthage defenders.  But, as usual, he hit some big treys in the latter part of the second half to stretch the lead to 5-7 points.  As you mentioned, the IWU bench was very big, with Coach Rose again going with who seemed to be hot, who was having a good game.  Tonight, that was Kevin Reed, Andrew Ziemnik and Nick Anderson.  Rose used Oz for some minutes off the bench tonight too.  My warm congrats to the Titans on 4-0 to start the conference.  Delighted to see Nick Anderson have such a strong game, a break-out game for him and for his confidence I'm sure. 

Now we see if these Titans are a good road team, big game next week at NCC.  They are in a big struggle with WC right now.  WC down 3 with one minute to go. 

IWU70

[iwu70]

WC and NCC in overtime. 

IWU70

[iwu70]

WC up two, one minute to go in OT.

IWU70

[iwu70]

WC up two with 3.5 seconds, in OT, timeout.  NCC has the possession.

[magicman]

This isn't basktball related but as I sit here reading and posting on D3hoops my wife is watching the Miss America pageant. It's getting down to crunch time to select the winner and I noticed during the talent competition that Miss Wisconsin went to or graduated from Carthage College. They just reduced the field from 10 down to the final five and she is one of them. They will be announcing the winner in a matter of minutes. The Redmen (or Red Ladys) just might win this National Championship.   It's on ABC.

Update: Down to the final two and she's still alive. Here we go the New Miss America is Miss Wisconsin: Carthage wins,  Carthage Wins.

[iwu70]

WC and NCC, to double OT.

[iwu70]

Go Ms. Lady Red America! 

IWU70

[bopol]

Generally impressed with Carthage today though.  After the fiasco at NCC and the crappy loss in Cali, I was really worried that the CCIW play would be miserable, but their ability to hang in there against a tough IWU team on the road is a positive.  I was happy with the play of Logan (who seemed to shoot when he should have shot instead of being a pass always point guard along with showing plus defense) and Kelly (who kept Carthage in the game with some plus shooting and good d as well).  Johnson and Thompson did a good job on D as well and Johnson showed some agressive offense of working towards the basket instead of settling for jump shots.

Not suprisingly, Carthage's press was less effective against IWU and they seemed to use Thompson less in the press than they had NP and Millikin.  Also, the passing wasn't creating the shots against IWU that it had the last two games and most of their offense was players creating their own opportunities.  I'll give IWU credit for plus D there.  Even with the loss, I was mostly happy with what I saw today.

[magicman]

Wheaton wins over North Central in double OT 66-64.

[Titan Q]

Elmhurst 56
Augustana 55

[magicman]

Elmhurst over Augie 56-55. The pre-season favorites are now 1-3 in the conference. Wow! Who'd a thunk it.

[Titan Q]

Standings Through 1/14
llinois Wesleyan: 4-0
North Central: 3-1
Wheaton: 3-1
Carthage: 2-2
Elmhurst: 2-2
Augustana: 1-3
North Park: 1-3
Millikin: 0-4

Tuesday...

IWU @ North Central
North Park @ Augustana
Elmhurst @ Millikin
Carthage @ Wheaton


What a huge finish tonight at Wheaton.  North Central was almost 4-0, with wins @ Augie and @ Wheaton...that would have been huge.

[augie_superfan]

Elmhurst 56
Augustana 55

Just another terrible night shooting for Augie.  6-26 (23%) from 3-pt. and 20-56 (36%) overall.  9-16 FT.  One thing that was extremely disappointing was the rebounding, yes, the rebounding.  Augie gets outrebounded 48-30...just crazy for this team.  Even worse, they gave up 23 offensive rebounds to the Bluejays. I really don't know what is wrong with Voiles other than teams just keying on him since there are few other offensive weapons on the team.  He was only 4-14 overall on the night including 1-8 from 3-pt land.  Just not good enough for this team to be competitive.

Only bright spot was a good night shooting from freshman Mark Roth who continues to get more playing time as the season progresses.  He was 5-10 overall and 4-9 from 3-pt land for a team-high 15 points.  Hopefully he can keep up the shooting because no one else on this team is making much outside of 5 feet right now.  When Augie pounded the ball inside, they had fairly decent success but the poor outside shooting and the terrible rebounding were just too much to overcome.  Just a disappointing turn to such a promising season.  It's not quite over yet but a few more conference losses and it'll be conference tourney champs or broke for the 2011-12 Vikings.

[Titan Q]

One thing that was extremely disappointing was the rebounding, yes, the rebounding.  Augie gets outrebounded 48-30...just crazy for this team. 

How is that possible?