MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[iwumichigander]

Better outing by IWU tonight in a win over Loras.  And IWU70, Coach Rose may experiment (a lot) with starting lineups but every lineup will start with Victor Davis on it!

[OurHouse]

Better outing by IWU tonight in a win over Loras.  And IWU70, Coach Rose may experiment (a lot) with starting lineups but every lineup will start with Victor Davis on it!

Dah

[iwu70]

Yes, Titans looked alot better today vs. Loras.  They played good D for the most part, much better than yesterday, and also made some shots.  Still a rather rough edition, a work in progress.  Pretty poor FT shooting.  Overstreet had a better game today.  Loras did stick around and gave the Titans on the perimeter some trouble.  Mike Mayberger is a big surprise . . . 18 points, making 4-5 from treyville.  Os hit two 3s as well, so there was much more from the perimeter today. 

IWUgentlepeoplecritiques, yes, I know Victor Davis will likely continue to start, though, to be very frank, he has played poorly both games, seems out of sorts, at times out of position and still forcing plays, forcing shots.  Just say'in.  If I were coaching (and I'm not, Ron Rose is!), I'd get him sorted out soon, or it would be better to give more minutes to others who are playing more consistently, passing better, scoring more and ending up mostly in the right places -- Zman, Reed, and Musselman at present.  I, too, hope that Victor gets his game together and replicates his excellent form of late in the season last year.

Nice to see the banner come down . . . honoring the national semis team of last year.  Eliud, Kman, Jordan Zimmer, and Rudnicki in the house, pulling the banner cord with Coach Stein, who was also honored for his 20+ years of coaching service to the Titan program -- the ceremony just before tipoff of the Titan/Loras game today.  The women's national championship banner will be unveiled on December 1st, just before the women's game with University of Chicago.

(Titan women won today, 80-67 over Muskingum, in Indiana).

Seemed alot more like good Titan basketball today, esp. with good ball movement, perimeter shooting . . . and again, excellent overall defense.

IWU70

[iwu70]

Agree with Greg, Millikin legitimately hung with Coe pretty well today . . . just too many TOs, and too much lose play at key moments.  Coe is too disciplined and solid fundamentally to let this one get away.  I think MU will be greatly improved . . . if not this season, certainly in the year or two to come.  These freshmen play hard, have alot of talent, even if some of it is pretty unpolished, unvarnished at the moment.  Expect a return to respectability in the coming years, if not months.

IWU70

[Titan Q]

Yes, Titans looked alot better today vs. Loras.  They played good D for the most part, much better than yesterday, and also made some shots. 

IWU held Coe to 51 points and 38% shooting.  Are you suggesting that the Titans played bad defense last night??

[Titan Q]

IWUgentlepeoplecritiques, yes, I know Victor Davis will likely continue to start, though, to be very frank, he has played poorly both games, seems out of sorts, at times out of position and still forcing plays, forcing shots.  Just say'in.  If I were coaching (and I'm not, Ron Rose is!), I'd get him sorted out soon, or it would be better to give more minutes to others who are playing more consistently, passing better, scoring more and ending up mostly in the right places -- Zman, Reed, and Musselman at present.  I, too, hope that Victor gets his game together and replicates his excellent form of late in the season last year.

You think Davis played "poorly" today??

You say some strange sh@t, 70.

[iwu70]

Q, to me the overall defensive effort was better today.  Yes, they played good D (as you and I both mentioned) vs. Coe.  Defensive effort or lots of defensive breakdowns have not been a problem. 

Re:  Victor, he's just not in the flow yet.  Yes, he scored 11 today, made a good trey, got some putbacks and made a FT or two, but honestly, he's just not playing smoothly and in the flow of the offense yet.  He has forced plays, forced shots, run over people, etc.  Yes, he's attracting more attention, being doubled at times.  I'm sure it will come right, but compared to Reed's line (and good footwork and court vision) -- 10, 5 assists, 8 RBs, well, I think Reed played better.  And, Dortch and Zman both got 7 and 8 rebounds respectively, outrebounding Victor today.  Musselman sees the floor, passes so much better than any of the other big men.  Yes, Victor contributed today, much much better than his odd day off, shooting blanks yesterday.  You may think I have an odd view, but I was there and saw the body language of all the players, and the frustration at certain plays on the faces of others and Coach Rose.  I'm sure it will all get in better sync as they play more together, get the timing right, and get into the flow of the various combinations, rotations of this talented team.  But, frankly, it's just not all put together yet . . . as so many others, including Coach Rose and others on the IWU staff, have mentioned.  I talked with Kman at the half and he, too, mentioned that it will take time for them all to get used to the new setup, rotations, and combinations.  There are just lots of moving parts out there right now with a rotation of 10, and they are not all clicking smoothly as yet.  Not terribly surprising this early in a new season with a pretty new cast of characters.  Time will tell.

IWU70

[Gregory Sager]

Wheaton 76
Alma 49

Tyler Peters: 18 pts, 6 stls
Brayden Teuscher: 17 pts
Nathan Haynes: 13 pts, 14 rebs
Peter Smith: 13 pts

It was 33-12 at the half.

[Titan Q]

Re:  Victor, he's just not in the flow yet.  Yes, he scored 11 today, made a good trey, got some putbacks and made a FT or two, but honestly, he's just not playing smoothly and in the flow of the offense yet.  He has forced plays, forced shots, run over people, etc.  Yes, he's attracting more attention, being doubled at times.  I'm sure it will come right, but compared to Reed's line (and good footwork and court vision) -- 10, 5 assists, 8 RBs, well, I think Reed played better.  And, Dortch and Zman both got 7 and 8 rebounds respectively, outrebounding Victor today.  Musselman sees the floor, passes so much better than any of the other big men.  Yes, Victor contributed today, much much better than his odd day off, shooting blanks yesterday.  You may think I have an odd view, but I was there and saw the body language of all the players, and the frustration at certain plays on the faces of others and Coach Rose.  I'm sure it will all get in better sync as they play more together, get the timing right, and get into the flow of the various combinations, rotations of this talented team.  But, frankly, it's just not all put together yet . . . as so many others, including Coach Rose and others on the IWU staff, have mentioned.  I talked with Kman at the half and he, too, mentioned that it will take time for them all to get used to the new setup, rotations, and combinations.  There are just lots of moving parts out there right now with a rotation of 10, and they are not all clicking smoothly as yet.  Not terribly surprising this early in a new season with a pretty new cast of characters.  Time will tell.

IWU70

But that doesn't mean Davis played "poorly" today, 70...which is what you said.  I watched the game online and Davis certainly did not play anywhere near poorly against Loras. 

[Gregory Sager]

Final from the airplane hangar:

NCC 60
Hope 49

Derek Raridon had 21 and Landon Gamble had 10 for NCC.

It was back-and-forth until the last five minutes or so, at which point Hope stopped scoring and the Cards slowly opened up the lead.

It was a real foulfest, too. All four NCC bigs finished with four fouls apiece. Hope's star inside player Nate Snuggerud, who had four fouls in the first half alone, fouled out while only playing about ten minutes all night, while 6'10 Nate VanArendonk and west suburban product Brock Benson had four fouls apiece for the Dutch.

[Gregory Sager]

The CCIW went 9-5 on Opening Weekend.

Full slate coming up on Tuesday:

Augustana @ St. Norbert
Carthage @ Lake Forest
Dubuque @ Elmhurst
Illinois C. @ Illinois Wesleyan
Millikin @ Blackburn
Aurora @ North Central
North Park @ Wisconsin Lutheran
Loras @ Wheaton

[Titan Q]

Very big in-region win for North Central.  I have to believe the Hope win is going to really help NCC in the seeding/selection process.

On the flip side, this loss will hurt Hope.

[KnightSlappy]

Very big in-region win for North Central.  I have to believe the Hope win is going to really help NCC in the seeding/selection process.

On the flip side, this loss will hurt Hope.

On the road against a team that will finish with a good record? It won't hurt them all that much. IWU fans of all people should recognize the benefit of SOS when it comes to NCAA selection.

[Titan Q]

Very big in-region win for North Central.  I have to believe the Hope win is going to really help NCC in the seeding/selection process.

On the flip side, this loss will hurt Hope.

On the road against a team that will finish with a good record? It won't hurt them all that much. IWU fans of all people should recognize the benefit of SOS when it comes to NCAA selection.

I don't mean in terms of getting in or not.  But as close geographically as North Central and Hope are, I think this loss could come back to bite Hope in terms of playing a game in Naperville vs in Holland.

It's so early in the year that it's hard to process the implications of various in-region results...but I'm confident the game tonight @ NCC will turn out to have big implications of some kind.

[Titan Q]

Video of the ceremony today at the Shirk Center honoring former assistant coach David Steinbrueck, and raising a new banner...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=AGGP2t-IRRg#!