MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Naperick]

What would be the alternative?  Just eliminate the CCIW tourney and play 25 regular season games?  I really like the current setup of 14 CCIW games in 7 weeks.  Could the CCIW slate be pushed back a week if the CCIW tourney was eliminated and lengthen the non conference timeframe by a week?

[Titan Q]

What would be the alternative?  Just eliminate the CCIW tourney and play 25 regular season games?

Just go back to the way things were as recently as 2004-05, and the way things currently are in the UAA (25 games, no conference tournament).

Here is a sample pre-conference tournament schedule...

http://www.iwuhoops.com/SCH03-04.HTM

[Naperick]

Just go back to the way things were as recently as 2004-05, and the way things currently are in the UAA (25 games, no conference tournament).

I think that would be best.  The conference tourney is exciting but it hurts more than it helps.

[Naperick]

Thanks for that link to the 2003-2004 IWU season.  It looks like the non-conference and conference schedule started about a week later than they do now.

That was a good Titan team that finished the season strong!

[titanhammer]

A 3-year Titan varsity player (after transferring in from D1 Tennessee Tech) and it took noon ball for "Titan Hammer" to get some pub in the Pantagraph.

I hope Olivia didn't go for the fake-the-pass-over-the-opponents-head/wait-till-opponent-looks-backwards/drive-by-for-layup move.  It's always been bush league.

----------
Lett refined that game over the summer playing "noon ball" with a group of former Titan men's players that included Bryan Crabtree, Mike Thomas and Mark Aubry.


http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/basketball/women/senior-s-transition-from-transfer-to-top-iwu-women-s/article_9a18a352-4afc-11e1-b14e-0019bb2963f4.html

Alas, I was only at IWU for 2 years and was a part of two teams that compiled a conference record of 29 - 3.  Loved having Olivia playing with us this summer...she could push and shove with the best of them. 

Any good non-CCIW games of interest, tonight?

[petemcb]

Yeah, but you'll have to check every other basketball board on d3hoops.com to find them. We have a rule against that kind of idle chatter on this board.   

[Naperick]

Just go back to the way things were as recently as 2004-05, and the way things currently are in the UAA (25 games, no conference tournament).

I'm sure the CCIW coaches have examined this.  I wonder if this would be a good question for the CCIW chat in November?

[Gregory Sager]

Rob and I will be back on the air tonight at 7 pm, as NPU hosts Elmhurst:

http://athletics.northpark.edu/index.aspx?path=mbball&tab=basketball

For those of you in the Chicago area who want to stop by earlier than that for a fun afternoon, check out North Park's Rick Alspach Memorial Alumni Game that will be held in the crackerbox at 1 pm. There will be plenty of vintage Vikings on hand to show us what they've still got, or what they think they still have but they've lost. It's the perfect opportunity to see the Berki Theory put to the test. The Berki Theory is that slow-moving big men get better with age on the basketball court, because everyone whose game was predicated upon speed and/or quickness when they were younger slows down, while slow-moving big men can't possibly get any slower than they already were.

except when he shuffled his feet, berki was the slowest of them all - can only think of a couple of "near-Berki" slower Viking starters: center Rich Swanson in 1970 and guard Dan Hill.

Dan "the Thrill" Hill was a forward, not a guard. That's his semi-excuse.

Hill, who was 6'3, 190 back in the day, is the slowest player I've ever seen in a North Park uniform -- he made Berki look like a gazelle -- but he's also the only North Park player that I've ever seen dominate a game to the point where the opposing coach made his team play a box-and-one defense just to stop him. Hill dropped 43 points on Rust that day back in '91, I think, and the fact that a player who was slower than molasses flowing downhill in January had a lightning-quick opponent trailing him everywhere he went, plus a double-team from the player in whichever zone he happened to be sauntering through, was absolutely hilarious. It shows you, though, what kind of a shooter he was. I've never seen a better one, and there's been some great shooters that've come through this league over the years.

Just go back to the way things were as recently as 2004-05, and the way things currently are in the UAA (25 games, no conference tournament).

I'm sure the CCIW coaches have examined this.  I wonder if this would be a good question for the CCIW chat in November?

Most CCIW coaches over the years have supported the tournament. They're much more concerned with the every-team-gets-another-chance angle than they are with the three-teams-get-another-loss-and-hurt-their-Pool-C-chances angle.

[bopol]

Bopol, this boxscore says Goldthree had 17pts.  He must have had one helluva defensive game!   

http://athletics.carthage.edu/custompages/men%27s%20basketball/2012%20stats/ncc2.htm

He kept blocking shots into the basket at the far end of the floor?!

No, I had it backwards.  I wasn't overly impressed with Goldthree on D, but he was great on offense.  Landon was great on both ends of the court.

[Naperick]

Most CCIW coaches over the years have supported the tournament. They're much more concerned with the every-team-gets-another-chance angle than they are with the three-teams-get-another-loss-and-hurt-their-Pool-C-chances angle.

I do understand the value in that.  For an example, lets take a look at my alma mater, Elmhurst.  I don't think they are a top 4 CCIW team.  In fact, I would rank them 6th right now.  But they still have a chance to qualify for the CCIW tourney.  I know the 4-4 record is not great and they have some very tough games to play in the final 3 weeks.  But the team still has something to play for.  Prior to 2005-2006, the season would pretty much be a 'playing out the string' scenario.

I know the odds of the Bluejays making the CCIW tourney are slim.  They would need a few big surprises in their final 6 games.  I'm sure Augie is looking for some payback when EC travels to Rock Island on February 11th.

[Gregory Sager]

Congrats to Landon Gamble on being named CCIW POW!  McCrary's MOP award ceremony may have to be postponed until further notice! 

http://www.cciw.org/news/2012/1/30/MBB_0130122901.aspx

No, the race is over. It's been over for awhile now, even in the wake of McCrary's bad game at Augie.

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!)

It was 53-11 at halftime. Rob and I saw that score on live stats while we were calling the EC @ NPU game, and it drew a "Holy cow!" out of the both of us. It, and the final score, seemed pretty astonishing, but Millikin was a very bad team even with its big man, 6'9 center Brock Von Nordeck. Now, without him, it's beyond bad. In other words, it surprised me, but it didn't surprise me ... if that makes any sense.

Most CCIW coaches over the years have supported the tournament. They're much more concerned with the every-team-gets-another-chance angle than they are with the three-teams-get-another-loss-and-hurt-their-Pool-C-chances angle.

I do understand the value in that.  For an example, lets take a look at my alma mater, Elmhurst.  I don't think they are a top 4 CCIW team.  In fact, I would rank them 6th right now.  But they still have a chance to qualify for the CCIW tourney.  I know the 4-4 record is not great and they have some very tough games to play in the final 3 weeks.  But the team still has something to play for.  Prior to 2005-2006, the season would pretty much be a 'playing out the string' scenario.

I know the odds of the Bluejays making the CCIW tourney are slim.  They would need a few big surprises in their final 6 games.  I'm sure Augie is looking for some payback when EC travels to Rock Island on February 11th.

I've always been in agreement with Bob that the tourney is a bad idea. I would support it if it: a) raised some money for the league and/or the host; b) drew some media coverage that might help the league's programs; or c) both. But it doesn't.

[Gregory Sager]

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.

This isn't news, though. One of a couple of ongoing jokes regarding IWU that've circulated around the CCIW for a long time is that Illinois Wesleyan has fans who have somehow managed to follow the Titans for eighty years without ever seeing them commit a foul. The other joke, which a former Titans player who shall remain nameless once shared with me, is that IWU is the only school in all of college basketball whose fan bus doesn't have a keg in the back ... it has a defibrillator.

[iwu70]

Greg, your stories are about right, truly.  IWU aged fan base is pretty amazingly loyal.  I know of 80+ somethings who made trips by bus and by car to Salem for Final Four appearances.  My parents, both now 93, were riding the fan bus well into their late 80s, and still, when they can make it over to The Shirk with their walkers, make it to games, especially my elderly Mother just loves watching Olivia Lett and the Titan women.  For her, it is a blow for gender equity that she felt for so many of her decades related to IWU was denied . . . she graduated in 1940.  She still comments acidly and appropriately about gender discrimination and delights when articles about the Titan women make the front page of the Pantagraph Sports section.  Like today.   She loved the article today about Olivia Lett . . . and she's in a rehab unit just now recovering from a broken hip and a hip replacement operation.   And, as to the keg vs. defibrillator story, I know of one of the elderly fans who worked out at Shirk well into his 80s, too, a dear family friend, and he actually died during a workout on one of the pieces of equipment there in workout/weight rooms in Shirk.  I believe it was part of his bequest, his estate, that provided the money for defibrillators now in Shirk and perhaps in the bus too!  Not sure about the bus, but am sure about the ones now in various places around The Shirk.  I know alot of other CCIW fans like to make these jokes, (and they are indeed funny!), but wouldn't you wish to have such loyal and long-serving, long-attending and long-donating fans!?!?!?  I know I would.  I'm getting pretty old myself as my "IWU70" indicates, but I'm a spring chicken compared to all these loyal fan bus Titan fans.  And, there are many many more of these grayed and bent Titan fans at Shirk each week who don't go on the fan bus regularly or at all. 

I do believe my Mother and Father are at least two of those folks you mentioned who have been following the Titans for at least seven+ decades and still haven't seen a Titan player commit a legitimate foul.  How would it be possible?   To them, Coach Horenberger was an early player hero and Coach Bridges was a player  about midway in their long long memory and experience of Titan teams and players. 

Congrats to Landon Gamble on POW. 

Big game for our saintly Titans this Tuesday at Carver.  I think Kman will still be out.  If I were Ron Rose, which I'm not, I'd consider starting Andrew Ziemnik in his place, not Eric Dortch.  Just say'in, given the giant Doggies, big rebounders we face on Tuesday upcoming.

IWU70 -- a young Titan fan. 

[Gregory Sager]

Elmhurst attempted 19 more free throws than the home team, North Park, and made 10 more, which was the margin of victory.  The Blue Jays also shot very well from beyond the arc.  (I attended a concert where my kid played and was not available to attend the loss.)  Did the home team suck defending the trey?

Elmhurst's outside shooting on Saturday was more a case of the 'jays taking advantage of a successful inside game (esp. by Nick Sanford, who had 14 and 10) and playing inside-out than it was a matter of NPU playing poor outside D. The other two factors there were Elmhurst's dominance on the offensive boards (the 'jays had thirteen) leading to NPU having to play defense for minutes at a time, and the 'jays hitting some well-defensed treys just as the shot clock was winding down.

NPU was competitive on Saturday, but the Vikings -- stop me if you've heard this one before -- just didn't have enough firepower to hang. The Vikings shot less than 41% from the field and less than 27% from downtown. The Vikings seemed to trail by anywhere from five to ten throughout the second half, but just never got over the hump. Mark Holmes had an off game, but Mike Gabriel (12 pts) was strong, while Kendell Greer and Ro Russell (13 pts and 12 pts, respectively) had much stronger offensive games than they've had of late.

Poor rebounding, poor shooting ... it's just the same old story for the Park this year.

[Mr. Ypsi]

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.

This isn't news, though. One of a couple of ongoing jokes regarding IWU that've circulated around the CCIW for a long time is that Illinois Wesleyan has fans who have somehow managed to follow the Titans for eighty years without ever seeing them commit a foul. The other joke, which a former Titans player who shall remain nameless once shared with me, is that IWU is the only school in all of college basketball whose fan bus doesn't have a keg in the back ... it has a defibrillator.

I thoroughly enjoy the 'geriatric fan' jokes about IWU, except that Mark and I are rapidly approaching the targeted age!  We ALL (if we survive ) are gonna get old, so maybe the emphasis should be on their loyalty, not their age!

The defibrillator joke brings bitter memories to mind.  After Wes Leonard's death, his family is trying to get EVERY high school in Michigan to have a defibrillator on the bench at every game.  They can be for 16-year-old star athletes, not just the geriatric set.

OK, off the soapbox - but all you kids get off my front lawn!