MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[iwumichigander]

It has been made official on the IWU web page that Coach Steinbrueck has resigned.  Coach Stein has been a significant part of the IWU program for decades.  He always had a smile and a handshake for us bothersome fans.  My favorite memories of Titan basketball will include Coach Stein's many JV teams.  Often more entertaining than the varsity game.  Thanks for everything Coach, and we hope to see you soon.

Very happy for Coach Dave Steinbrueck!  As Q noted, Coach Stein contributed heavily to not just IWU basketball program's success but also the on and off court success of his players. 

[NCF]

Looks like the bball recruiting is going well with every team. 12-13 should be another exciting year in the CCIW.

[dansand]

To Millikin:

Nate Bennett, 6-1, Pekin 3.5 ppg, 2.0 rpg and 2.0 apg

[Dennis_Prikkel]

Not to disparage NPU in any way because I think it would be applicable to the vast majority of D3 schools, but I'm always a little leary when a D1 coach takes a D3 position, even if its a head coaching post. Every individual of course has his own reasons, and some may legitimately desire a less frenetic pace than is likely usually required in a D1 position. However, even at the D3 level a head coach doesn't just work during the actual season and then basically take the rest of the year off. Recruiting is a required year round task, coupled with ongoing administrative work.

... As for the inaccuracy, you've characterized Howard as "a D1 coach", which is misleading. He was a D3 head coach at Hardin-Simmons before he was a D1 assistant at MVSU -- and he was at HSU a lot longer than he was at MVSU.

I laughed out loud when I read this in the original post. Clearly someone making an assumption despite not having followed anything but his little corner of D-III.

Kinda Cabonney-like.

WOW!  Hold a grudge, much?!

I have NO clue what this would be referring to.  (Cabonney could be quite an asshat, but Mr. Ypsi doesn't recall ever being quite that provincial.  Perhaps there are benefits to senility! )

Can't see those green-tinted glasses, eh?

It's so easy being green....

[matblake]

asshat

Hadn't heard this term since Jr. High.  Scary when a "colloquialism" makes you smile.  This one was favorite of a Little League coach.

[Gregory Sager]

Not to disparage NPU in any way because I think it would be applicable to the vast majority of D3 schools, but I'm always a little leary when a D1 coach takes a D3 position, even if its a head coaching post. Every individual of course has his own reasons, and some may legitimately desire a less frenetic pace than is likely usually required in a D1 position. However, even at the D3 level a head coach doesn't just work during the actual season and then basically take the rest of the year off. Recruiting is a required year round task, coupled with ongoing administrative work.

... As for the inaccuracy, you've characterized Howard as "a D1 coach", which is misleading. He was a D3 head coach at Hardin-Simmons before he was a D1 assistant at MVSU -- and he was at HSU a lot longer than he was at MVSU.

I laughed out loud when I read this in the original post. Clearly someone making an assumption despite not having followed anything but his little corner of D-III.

Kinda Cabonney-like.

WOW!  Hold a grudge, much?!

I have NO clue what this would be referring to.  (Cabonney could be quite an asshat, but Mr. Ypsi doesn't recall ever being quite that provincial.  Perhaps there are benefits to senility! )

Sort of a silver lining for gray hair, eh?

asshat

Hadn't heard this term since Jr. High.  Scary when a "colloquialism" makes you smile.  This one was favorite of a Little League coach.

Was your Little League coach this guy, MB?

[matblake]

asshat

Hadn't heard this term since Jr. High.  Scary when a "colloquialism" makes you smile.  This one was favorite of a Little League coach.

Was your Little League coach this guy, MB?

Not too far off actually.  You would just have to subtract the beer swilling but throw in extreme shouting and always playing his child at 2nd base, good for several errors per game.  Not surprisingly most people have had a coach like this at one time or another.

[Titan Q]

Coach Stein and I are going to begin work on a book...

"On the Road with the Titans"


We'll need to consult with our attorney first though - there is some potentially controversial/sensitive material to cover.  Could get dicey.  Stay tuned.

[Gregory Sager]

asshat

Hadn't heard this term since Jr. High.  Scary when a "colloquialism" makes you smile.  This one was favorite of a Little League coach.

Was your Little League coach this guy, MB?

Not too far off actually.  You would just have to subtract the beer swilling but throw in extreme shouting and always playing his child at 2nd base, good for several errors per game.  Not surprisingly most people have had a coach like this at one time or another.

The best antidote to a Little League coach who looks and sounds like Walter Matthau is to get him an assistant who looks and sounds like Jack Lemmon.

[Gregory Sager]

Looks like the bball recruiting is going well with every team.

[Dennis_Prikkel]

asshat

Hadn't heard this term since Jr. High.  Scary when a "colloquialism" makes you smile.  This one was favorite of a Little League coach.

Was your Little League coach this guy, MB?

Not too far off actually.  You would just have to subtract the beer swilling but throw in extreme shouting and always playing his child at 2nd base, good for several errors per game.  Not surprisingly most people have had a coach like this at one time or another.

My son played in a little league where you stayed in the same franchise all the way through and each level was two years long.  So twice he got stock with a dad/coach who thought the sun rose and set on only his son and his son's four friends.  They batted one through five in every game and never came out.  The corker and finale for the coach was when he held batting practice and only allowed those five kids to hit and then called off the rest of the practice.  All the parents pulled their kids from the league and went elsewhere.

[D-3 watcher]

Q, about that book, what goes on the road with the Titans, should definitely stay on the road. Don't forget, I have attorneys on retainer.

[iwu70]

All thanks to Coach Stein for all the years, all the work.

Greg, thanks for all the background on the NPU coaching situation.  Sure sounds like a very disruptive set of events, decisions.  Guess we just need to give NP more time to approach the level of MU futility.

As to MU players, let's face it, pretty much any new recruit with decent stats will surely be an improvement on what MU put on the floor the last few seasons.  That has been pretty sad.

Just spent two weeks in the Denver area, attending the graduations, proms, festivities of my God-daughter, and also the children of several of my IWU classmates.  News here all filled with the current futility of the Rockies, and also all the hopes and aspirations of Broncos fans with savior Peyton Manning now on the scene, with previous savior and blessed one Tim Tebow now ascended to Gotham.  Denver is such a wonderful place, area, and the clean mountain air, warm sunshine each day has been absolutely wonderful, a glorious lift to the spirits.

I'm back to IWU and the more hot and humid climes of central Illinois tomorrow.  IWU May Term ends tomorrow, the academic year fully over.  Only the TITAN women at the national track/field events in Claremont, CA. yet to go, then all Titan sports activities for the academic year are in the books.  It's been a grand and great year for Titan athletics.  Thanks to all the coaches and especially to all the hard-working, high-achieving Titan athletes.

Q, we await that book, though I would clear it with Stew before you go to press. 

To the golf course . . .

IWU70

[Gregory Sager]

Greg, thanks for all the background on the NPU coaching situation.  Sure sounds like a very disruptive set of events, decisions.  Guess we just need to give NP more time to approach the level of MU futility.

No, we don't. I'll get my hands on some industrial-grade explosives and blow up the crackerbox myself before NPU loses 37 straight conference games.

But the whole point is that it won't come to that. And this is why I say that you need to look at the big picture, history-wise. The CCIW has been a basketball league since 1946-47, with sixty-six full seasons now in the books. Until this current Millikin losing streak, the longest losing streak through which any program had ever suffered in CCIW play was the 26-game streak of NCC's from 1979-81. That's less than two full seasons' worth of losses by current standards, and not much more than a season and a half by the 16-game conference schedule used by the CCIW at the time (since Carroll was still in the league at that point). Millikin has lost every single CCIW game it's played over the past two seasons, as well as the latter two-thirds of the CCIW season before that. Given the narrow 14-game-per-season parameter with which we're working, that is a truly astonishing streak.

One of our resident number-crunchers such as augie_superfan or KnightSlappy could probably do a better job of putting this into statistical language than I can, but breaking a 26-game streak, be it winning or losing, in a series of 14-game college basketball seasons, and then going on to set a new record that stands at 36 (and counting!) is akin to someone going out and running a three-minute mile, or a major leaguer hitting safely in 75 straight games. In other words, MU not only broke a record that had stood for a very, very long time, it did so within a very constrained parameter regarding season length (i.e., there were two off-seasons for the team to get better and thus be strong enough to win at least one league game), and it broke the record and kept going by an extension of over 38% of the old record! And it hasn't ended yet!

Do you see now why neither NPU nor anybody else is going to break that 36-game losing streak record?

As to MU players, let's face it, pretty much any new recruit with decent stats will surely be an improvement on what MU put on the floor the last few seasons.  That has been pretty sad.

Well, yeah. That's blindingly obvious, really. But you used different language than that in your previous post:

just as the Big Blue find some footing with, apparently, some pretty good recruits?

The language you're using now is that of an interior comparative: Millikin's players in 2012-13 will be better than were Millikin's players in 2011-12. But in your previous post from yesterday you used exterior comparatives: Millikin's players in 2012-13 will improve Millikin's standing in the league, because they're "pretty good recruits." Leaving aside the question of how you can know whether they're "pretty good" or not, how else can one interpret the words "find some footing" unless one takes them as a reference to climbing the CCIW standings ladder? The footing analogy is pretty clearly an indication that you're talking about MU's status relative to the rest of the league, not to whether or not the Big Blue's second Nadelhoffer edition will be better than the first in purely in-house terms.

[toooldtohoop]

matblake and others....what is really astonishing, is that after all of these years, and after MANY movies have been made depicting the lunacy of some coaching fathers, these beasts keep showing their ugly heads!  Just finished a season with a guy whose kid couldn't catch a cold, and couldn't pass, dribble or shoot.  Needless to say he was the starting point guard and many other kids on the team played less than 2 minutes per game.  Worst part is even his kid knows, and is an emotional wreck in the midst of a game that Ray Charles could navigate more effectively.  Junior AAU.  Ugh!!