MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Mr. Ypsi]

Mark, my favorite t-shirt, usable on both bball courts and soccer fields when I still played semi-competitive games, was "I'm over 50.  What's YOUR excuse?"

[iwu70]

Ypsi, I played into my early 50s, but then too much, two knee ops and a broken foot, so had to go preventive, and shift to biking, golf, and being an "active fan," yelling at the opposition and the refs.  I still get my exercise . . . or get "exercised!"  Hope the Titan women can come back, they are down 32-24 at half at WC, not playing very well so far.  Stay tuned.

IWU70

[Mr. Ypsi]

NCC 'escapes' in Kenosha, 77-74 in OT.

YIKES!  In Rock Island, Augie 98, Millikin 28!  (And this was definitely NOT a case of running up the score.  One Viking starter played 18 minutes, the other four either 12 or 14 minutes, while Millikin still had four starters on the floor at the end of the game.  The Augie BENCH was that much better than the Big Blue starting five!)

A close one (as expected) in Wheaton: with 13 minutes to go, Thunder by 2.

[Titan Q]

Wheaton 60
IWU 53

* Tim McCrary: 21 pts, 12 reb
* Spencer Schultze: 13 pts, 5 reb

* Kevin Reed: 15 pts, 5 reb
* Jordan Zimmer: 12 pts, 7 reb



From an IWU perspective, the Titans were just too sloppy with the basketball to have a chance to win this kind of road game.  IWU turned it over 17 times and just made a number of poor decisions with the basketball all evening long.

Another big problem for IWU was Kevin Reed's foul trouble.  When Reed would leave the game, IWU would get nothing out of Nick Anderson and Parker Musselman.

Wheaton played with a lot of intensity tonight.  I think it's fair to say this was a "must win" for Wheaton.  This was a game I considered a probable loss for IWU coming in (road game vs a contender, tough game, hostile environment, etc), but I'm disappointed with the way the Titans played tonight.  Quite frankly IWU was undisciplined and sloppy tonight and you just can win a CCIW championship playing that way.

IWU travels to Augie Tuesday in a huge game.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Actually, according to livestats, McCrary had 21 points and 12 rebounds (and FIVE blocked shots).  After that performance in a crucial game, yeah, he's almost a lock for MOP!

[CCIWchamps]

Actually, according to livestats, McCrary had 21 points and 12 rebounds (and FIVE blocked shots).  After that performance in a crucial game, yeah, he's almost a lock for MOP!

Hear hear!

[Titan Q]

Standings through 1/28
North Central: 7-1
Illinois Wesleyan: 6-2
Wheaton: 6-2
Augustana: 5-3
Elmhurst: 4-4
Carthage: 3-5
North Park: 1-7
Millikin: 0-8

+/- standings through 1/28
(+1 for road wins, -1 for home losses)

North Central: +3
Illinois Wesleyan: +2
Wheaton: +2
Augustana: +0
Elmhurst: +0
Carthage: -1
North Park: -3
Millikin: -3


North Central in the best shape, but there is a long, long way to go.  Lots of big games left.

[CCIWchamps]

Actually, according to livestats, McCrary had 21 points and 12 rebounds (and FIVE blocked shots).  After that performance in a crucial game, yeah, he's almost a lock for MOP!

One of those blocks being with 15 seconds left when he blocked Gonzalez with both hands while standing flat on the floor.  Fitting revenge on Gonzalez, who had been holding fouling obnoxious pesky throughout the 2nd half. 

[Titan Q]

I was watching the end of Carthage/North Central game.  Carthage up was up 2 with about :25 seconds to play in regulation.  After a timeout, they inbounded in front of their own bench.  Obviously they had to get it in and make FT's.  The Red Men turned it over on an awful looking inbounds play and NCC called timeout.  The Cards ran a play to get the ball to Derek Raridon  right in the middle of the lane, and he hit a huge shot from about 8 feet to tie the game.

In overtime the Red Men did more stuff to shoot themselves in the foot. 

NCC grinded out a huge win...a win they might look back on as the different between 1st and 2nd.

[74impala]

According to the geriatric IWU fan that was sitting across from me, the Titans never foul.  Well at least he complained about every call that went against them.

[Titan Q]

Standings through 1/28
North Central: 7-1
Illinois Wesleyan: 6-2
Wheaton: 6-2
Augustana: 5-3
Elmhurst: 4-4
Carthage: 3-5
North Park: 1-7
Millikin: 0-8

+/- standings through 1/28
(+1 for road wins, -1 for home losses)

North Central: +3
Illinois Wesleyan: +2
Wheaton: +2
Augustana: +0
Elmhurst: +0
Carthage: -1
North Park: -3
Millikin: -3

Top 4 vs Top 4 games remaining:

* North Central: vs Augie 2/4, @ IWU 2/7, vs Wheaton 2/11
* Illinois Wesleyan: @ Augie 1/31, vs NCC 2/7
* Wheaton: @ NCC 2/11, vs Augie 2/21
* Augustana: vs IWU 1/31, @ NCC 2/4, @ Wheaton 2/21

[bopol]

Carthage should have won but blew it.  Kind of like the Olivet Nazarene game.  Arg.  This team would be awful without Malcom Kelly who singlehandedly dragged them back into it.

[Mugsy]

Took in the Wheaton/IWU game tonight (daughter participated in "little" Thunderettes at half time).

Absolutely love watch to Wheaton & IWU go at it toe-to-toe.  The intensity was amazing.  Credit to both sides on a very hard fought game.  As a few others have pointed out, IWU had too many turnovers to win a tough game on the road, though some of that should go to the defense played by Wheaton.

I appreciate that the officials let the teams play in the first half, and fully expected that to change just a bit in the 2nd half.

Overall very entertaining game to watch.

[Titan Q]

According to the geriatric IWU fan that was sitting across from me, the Titans never foul.  Well at least he complained about every call that went against them.

And IWU fans in internet land had to put up with the WETN homers for a couple hours this evening, so let's call it even, 74.

[Titan Q]

though some of that should go to the defense played by Wheaton.

Absolutely