MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[matblake]

MB, you forgot to mention that Bill Harris is going in with him.

Just a small oversight    Seriously though, Harris was the catalyst to really improve the Wheaton program. 

[Gregory Sager]

I looked up Millikin's non-conference schedule today:

11/16/2012, 6 p.m.	vs. Loras* (7-18)
11/17/2012, 2 p.m.	vs. Coe* (19-8)
11/20/2012, 8 p.m.	@ Blackburn (7-18)
11/28/2012, 7 p.m.	FRANKLIN (11-14)
12/1/2012, 3 p.m.	PRINCIPIA (0-25)
12/4/2012, 7 p.m.	FONTBONNE (4-20)
12/7/2012, 6 p.m.	vs. Missouri Baptist# (18-13)
12/8/2012, 3 p.m.	vs. Mid-Continent# (12-20)
12/12/2012, 6:30 p.m. CT	@ Rose-Hulman (20-9)
12/15/2012, 4:15 p.m.	@ Aurora University (13-13)
12/29/2012, 3 p.m.	@ Rockford College (12-14)

* CCIW/IIAC Classic, Bloomington, IL
# Greenville College Tournament, Greenville, IL

Without really knowing what Millikin has in the way of incoming talent, and fully aware that Matt Nadelhoffer is going to have an extremely young team, I still think that the Big Blue's got at least three wins in them prior to CCIW play, based upon this schedule. Four or even five wins by MU wouldn't surprise me.

[hopefan]

I looked up Millikin's non-conference schedule today:

11/16/2012, 6 p.m.	vs. Loras* (7-18)
11/17/2012, 2 p.m.	vs. Coe* (19-8)
11/20/2012, 8 p.m.	@ Blackburn (7-18)
11/28/2012, 7 p.m.	FRANKLIN (11-14)
12/1/2012, 3 p.m.	PRINCIPIA (0-25)
12/4/2012, 7 p.m.	FONTBONNE (4-20)
12/7/2012, 6 p.m.	vs. Missouri Baptist# (18-13)
12/8/2012, 3 p.m.	vs. Mid-Continent# (12-20)
12/12/2012, 6:30 p.m. CT	@ Rose-Hulman (20-9)
12/15/2012, 4:15 p.m.	@ Aurora University (13-13)
12/29/2012, 3 p.m.	@ Rockford College (12-14)

* CCIW/IIAC Classic, Bloomington, IL
# Greenville College Tournament, Greenville, IL

Without really knowing what Millikin has in the way of incoming talent, and fully aware that Matt Nadelhoffer is going to have an extremely young team, I still think that the Big Blue's got at least three wins in them prior to CCIW play, based upon this schedule. Four or even five wins by MU wouldn't surprise me.

I'm guessing the 3 games vs SLIAC opponents may be figuring into your Calculation....    WATCH OUT FOR MY BOYS!!!!  and Greg, let's not forget Eureka - North Park last year!!!!   
Must admit, Millikin has scheduled well picking the 7,8,9 teams from the SLIAC, but Fontbonne and Blackburn are both pretty high on their incoming recruits.....

[USee]

Some good stuff on D3  and CCIW BBall in Joe Henricksen's Hoops Report this week.

http://blogs.suntimes.com/hoopsreport/2012/09/small_college_basketball_musin.html

[iwu70]

Yes, some good reports on Augie's recruitment class.  I saw Tayvian Johnson play in that all-star game at the Shirk, and he is, IMHO, the real deal.  Very quick and versatile, runs the floor very well.  Seems Augie might have the top recruiting class.  They need some recovery talent after last years underperformance.   Am anxious to see the IWU newbies show their stuff in coming weeks.  And, looking forward to last year's JV group "moving on up."  Have high hopes for Overstreet, Musselman, Wiggs, Heyen and more . . . and, of course, all the returnees who made such key contributions getting the Titans to the Final Four last year.  To think most of those key players are only juniors this year.  Only Reed a senior, right?  Should be two more excellent years of Titan roundball.  Hoping Brady Zimmer is healthy and can provide some of the perimeter three-ball shooting so exemplified by the elder Zimmer just departed.  Of course, need to find a key PG and also some tough perimeter D a la Eliud.  The corp of bigs coming back is very very strong -- Zeimnik, Davis, Reed, Anderson, Dortch . . . and more.  Kman will be missed, no doubt.   A new mix, but alot of proven talent and experience. 

More later.  Happy football season all.  IWU got off to an excellent pigskin start -- 49-13 over Aurora -- with continued excellence on D (with alot of new faces) and a more powerful, exploisive and experienced offense.  These Titans are going to score ALOT of points -- running and passing.  Great to see Gallik healthy and also T.J. Stinde back again.  Looks like a mighty fine season upcoming.  We'll see.  Again, IMHO.

IWU70

[dansand]

Bryant Voiles gets a free agent tryout with the Orlando Magic:

http://www.augustana.edu/x46617.xml

http://www.qconline.com/archives/qco/display.php?id=607239

[iwu70]

Q, and others, am I seeing straight or is there something I don't know about recent IWU grads and their continued eligibility for 2012-13 ?  I just pulled up the IWU basketball roster for 2012-13 to check on the names of the newbies, the freshmen . . . and there listed is Kman, Eliud Gonzalez and Stephen Rudnicki as "Gr." but listed on the roster . . . and also Connor Wheeler, who I thought had departed the IWU program.  All the other expected and usual suspects are there, along with the full list of the newbies, the new recruits.  Is there something here we don't all know, that Kman, Rudnicki, and/or Gonzalez still have eligibility and still expect to play this coming year?  Could someone let me know . . . ?  Seems very odd.  Just say'in.

IWU70 

[AndOne]

iwu70---

Something seems amiss here.
Unless Koschnitzky, Gonzalez, or Rudnicki were able to play only 1/3 or less of their freshman, soph, or junior season due to season ending injury within that 1st one third of the season, they would not have been able to petition for a medical "redshirt" which would allow another season of eligibility. I do seem to remember Gonzalez being hurt for a substantial portion of a season early in his career, but I don't know exactly how many games he missed that year, or whether all the games he missed were due to injury or dnp-cd.
Additionally, if the players graduated, the gig is up as I believe that if a player is going to use his extra year in grad school, that extra year must be spent in the grad school division of the same institution from which he rec'd his undergrad degree. My understanding is that Wesleyan does not offer graduate degrees.
Of course, I could be mistaken. Why would the players be listed is there is no possibility of their playing?
Appears we need the "inside" story here.   

[Mr. Ypsi]

iwu70---

Something seems amiss here.
Unless Koschnitzky, Gonzalez, or Rudnicki were able to play only 1/3 or less of their freshman, soph, or junior season due to season ending injury within that 1st one third of the season, they would not have been able to petition for a medical "redshirt" which would allow another season of eligibility. I do seem to remember Gonzalez being hurt for a substantial portion of a season early in his career, but I don't know exactly how many games he missed that year, or whether all the games he missed were due to injury or dnp-cd.
Additionally, if the players graduated, the gig is up as I believe that if a player is going to use his extra year in grad school, that extra year must be spent in the grad school division of the same institution from which he rec'd his undergrad degree. My understanding is that Wesleyan does not offer graduate degrees.
Of course, I could be mistaken. Why would the players be listed is there is no possibility of their playing?
Appears we need the "inside" story here.   

I have no insider information, but think the inclusion of them was just an error.  Everyone assumed last season they were done. 

If I'm not mistaken, I believe that IWU does now have a graduate program in nursing.

[iwu70]

Still needs some explanation on this version of the IWU "roster" for '12-13.  I had surely assumed that the three mentioned -- Kman, Gonzalez and Rudnicki -- had departed, but . . . 

Inquiring minds wish to know . . .

Great win today for the pigskin Titans, at 53-7 over Alma.  Football Titans are tough, talented and deep this year, with a varied and exploisive offense.  Could go far.  Time will tell.

One very neat thing today was a halftime ceremony to present all the lady roundball Titans with their national championship rings -- and all of the victorious Titans were there to receive their rings personally from Dennie Bridges.  Coach Smith and all the group.  Coach Smith looks wonderful and is seemingly back to full health, thank God!  What a wonderful team effort and wonderful coaching job . . . with the appreciative and large Titan crowd giving them all their just kudos and applause.  Guess Olivia Lett is headed off for her pro-contract and professional roundball career in Spain in the coming few weeks. 


IWU70

[Titan Q]

Still needs some explanation on this version of the IWU "roster" for '12-13.  I had surely assumed that the three mentioned -- Kman, Gonzalez and Rudnicki -- had departed, but . . . 

Inquiring minds wish to know . . .

70, I have a very hard time believing you'd start and keep this conversation going.  Obviously John Koschnitzky, Eliud Gonzalez, and Stephen Rudnicki graduated and are off in the "real world" now -- whoever entered this initial version of IWU's online 2012-13 roster made some type of mistake, or some type of strange decision to keep those 3 on the roster for now under "Gr." 

Most importantly, they are all out of eligibility from their JV/Varsity play over the course of the last 4 seasons.  A very simple check of the stats archive (on the IWU site) shows that John Koschnitzky, for example, has played for the Titans the last 4 years:

http://www.iwusports.com/sports/2009/1/26/MBB_0126095816.aspx?path=mbball

2011-12 - 27 games played
2010-11 - 22 games played
2009-10 - 18 games played
2008-09 - 25 games played

And I think we all know you only get to play for 4 years.

Sorry, but I seems kind of unreasonable to me that you wouldn't take the 2 minutes to check the stats archive before throwing this on the board.

[Titan Q]

Basketball practice starts in about 5 weeks - it will be here before we know it.  IWU will have a lot to sort out in the preseason in replacing 4 very important players --  (PG) Eliud Gonzalez, (SG) Jordan Zimmer, (SF) John Koschnitzky, and (backup PG) Stephen Rudnicki.  While several returning players made big contributions last year, those 4 seniors were basically the heart and soul of the 2011-12 Titans.  They were all huge in IWU's NCAA tournament run to Salem, VA.

At this very early stage, I see IWU's rotation situation as follows:

PG - David Molinari (6-1 So) or Dylan Overstreet (6-3 So)
SG - Brady Zimmer (6-4 Jr) or Pat Sodemann (6-3 Jr)
SF - Brady Zimmer (6-4 Jr) or Andrew Ziemnik (6-4 Jr) or Eric Dortch (6-3 Jr)
PF - Victor Davis (6-5 Jr)
F/C - Kevin Reed (6-7 Sr) or Nick Anderson (6-9 Jr)


I think the only position with no battle in the preseason is the PF spot -- Victor Davis is positioned to be a star player for Ron Rose's team in 2012-13.  I've heard from several people that Davis once again worked his tail off in the off-season and showed up to campus in tremendous shape.  He is up to about 235 pounds, and that's all muscle. 

There should be intense battles at the other 4 positions between some very talented options.  In my opinion the most significant is that at the PG spot, for obvious reasons (it might be the most important position on the floor).  The Titans have two guys fighting for the job there that weren't in the varsity rotation last year. 

While a ton of stuff to figure out from mid-October to mid-November, I think the Titans will be very good this year.  They should be very talented, balanced, and deep again.

[Pat Coleman]

Still needs some explanation on this version of the IWU "roster" for '12-13.  I had surely assumed that the three mentioned -- Kman, Gonzalez and Rudnicki -- had departed, but . . . 

Inquiring minds wish to know . . .

Great win today for the pigskin Titans, at 53-7 over Alma.  Football Titans are tough, talented and deep this year, with a varied and exploisive offense.  Could go far.  Time will tell.

One very neat thing today was a halftime ceremony to present all the lady roundball Titans with their national championship rings -- and all of the victorious Titans were there to receive their rings personally from Dennie Bridges.  Coach Smith and all the group.  Coach Smith looks wonderful and is seemingly back to full health, thank God!  What a wonderful team effort and wonderful coaching job . . . with the appreciative and large Titan crowd giving them all their just kudos and applause.  Guess Olivia Lett is headed off for her pro-contract and professional roundball career in Spain in the coming few weeks. 


IWU70

I believe Sidearm and PrestoSports each have a function in their website management that allows for the creation of a roster by simply taking last year's roster and aging everyone a year. I suspect it was probably applied here without realizing that doing so would also age seniors rather than taking them off, or perhaps taking them off is a function that they just weren't familiar with. I'm sure it's an oversight.

[D-3 watcher]

They are done. Eluid is working in the city (Chicago), John and Stephen are finishing their student teaching at Normal Community High School.

[iwu70]

Sorry, Q, but I didn't put them up on the roster that was officially placed on the IWU website.   It's a reasonable question, though it seemed to me, too, that they had graduated and were done.  But, frankly, I saw Rudnicki here on campus, in Ames, a few days ago, so he's not gone gone, it would appear.  Stranger things have happened if, in fact, one or more of them still had eligibility due to injuries, which they all had at one point or another.   Wheeler is still listed there too.  Perhaps all these names should be deleted, and the roster corrected.

Q, I share you assessment of the current likely players for the coming year . . . Victor Davis is stronger and more fit it would appear.  Hope the PG situation becomes more clear as that will be key to the Titans' upcoming season.

IWU70