MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Titan Q]

Q, I thought you were Bloomington.  Did you get "farmed" out?

I left Bloomington about 4 1/2 years ago for a State Farm position in Columbia, Mo...and then a little less than 2 years ago my wife and I moved to Lincoln, NE with the Farm.

We've been fortunate that we've really liked every place we've been -- Lincoln, NE is a great place to live.  Definitely on a D3 island though, so thank goodness for internet radio, video, etc...and of course D3hoops.com. 

[AndOne]

NCC plays former CCIW member Carroll today at 3:00 in Naperville. Carroll comes in at 3-0, and is a team the Cardinals will have to play well to beat as they most often do not beat themselves. Carroll will probably start:

F--6'5" Sr Dan Kratz--8.0 ppg
C--6'7" Jr Alec Molter--10.7 ppg, 6.7 rpg (rebounding avg leader)
G--5'9" Fr Rudy Bentley--8.7 ppg, 2.7 apg (assist avg leader)
G--6'1" Jr Kevin Hurd--8.3 ppg
G--6'2" Sr Jake Bast--11.7 ppg

[Titan Q]

I will get to see my first in-person D3 action of the season today.  #21 Wash U plays Austin College (TX) here at Nebraska Wesleyan's tournament.  It looks like Mark Edwards has a really good team this year, starting...

G - Alan Aboona, 6-1 Jr - 13.3 ppg, 4.0 apg
G - Tim Cooney, 6-3 Jr - 6.7 ppg, 3.7 apg
F - Matt Palucki, 6-6 So - 8.7 ppg, 7.0 rpg
F - Chris Klimek, 6-5 Jr - 13.3 ppg, 6.0 rpg
C - Robert Burnett, 6-7 Sr - 12.0 ppg, 8.0 rpg

http://bearsports.wustl.edu/Sports/BasketballMen/Pages/default.aspx

Imagine if they still had Wheaton's Brayden Teuscher (16.3 ppg) at the SG spot.

I did in fact watch Wash U play yesterday.  Here is the boxscore from their win over D3 Austin College...

http://bearsports.wustl.edu/Stats/TeamStats/basketball-mens/2012-2013/game4.htm

Austin College is a really bad team, but I'm still convinced that I saw a Wash U team that is underrated at #21 and a legitimate national championship contender this season.  (The Bears are picked to win the UAA.)

The Bears are huge, with that frontline of 6-6/6-5/6-7.  They are not terribly athletic at those positions but they're very skilled.  6-6 SF/PF Matt Palucki is very long and has nice shooting touch from 15 feet and around the basket.  6-5 PF Chris Klimek scored 31 pts yesterday on 14-17 shooting --  he scored layup after layup on the same set play that got him the ball on the block, in position to turn and score.  Austin College just didn't have anyone who could guard him.  6-7 Robert Burnett is a big body who can beat you if you don't pay attention to him.  Led by this frontline, Wash U out-rebounded AC 47-23.  Through 4 games, the Bears have a per game rebounding margin of +20, which is crazy.

Wash U's starting guards are not great, but they're very solid.  Alan Aboona does a good job handling the ball at the point and Tim Cooney does a lot of things well on the floor.  Neither is what you would call a "pure shooter" but I suspect both are capable of getting hot from 3-point range on any particular night.  If Wash U still had Wheaton's Brayden Teuscher at the SG spot...wow.

The Bears are also really deep at the perimeter spots.  They bring PG Ben Hoener and combo guard Kevin Bischoff off the bench - these two would start for a lot of good D3 teams.  Last night I didn't see a lot from their backup posts, but it was only one game. 

Finally, Wash U is extremely well coached as always.  Mark Edwards is one of the best in the business and here in the very early going he has him team playing like it's late-January.

Again, Austin College was really bad, but I'm pretty sure Wash U is going to have an outstanding season.  I believe the Bears are every bit as good as #6 North Central.  In terms of where they stack up vs #8 IWU, Wash U is a better team than the Titans have been through 3 games.  Personnel wise, IWU vs Wash U is a push, but Wash U has things all meshed together already while the Titans seem to be putting the pieces together still.

I really hope IWU and Wash U face each other at the Lopata Classic next weekend.  I'm pretty sure IWU's strength and athleticism would give the Bears a much better test than they've had so far.  Some great frontline matchups: Andrew Ziemnik vs Matt Palucki, Victor Davis vs Chris Klimek, and Kevin Reed vs Robert Burnett.

[Titan Q]

IWU (3-0) travels to Crawfordsville, Indiana today to face Wabash College at 2:00pm Central (3:00pm Eastern)...

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/illinois-wesleyan/iwu-men-are---but-coach-rose-ready-for/article_7223a086-35e3-11e2-b960-001a4bcf887a.html

Wabash is 1-1 with a loss to Manchester (54-59) and a win over Albion (53-51).  Probable starters are:

G - Evan Johnson, 5-11/166 Sr - 9.0 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 2.0 apg
G - Austin Hawn, 6-1/185 So - 7.5 ppg, 1.5 rpg, 2.0 apg
G - Ross Sponsler, 6-2 Fr - 9.5 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 2.5 apg
F - Daniel Purvlicis, 6-7/198 Fr - 10.5 ppg, 9.5 rpg
C - Pete Nicksic, 6-7/235 Jr - 5.5 ppg, 4.0 rpg

Wabash season preview:

http://sports.wabash.edu/news/2012/11/16/MBB_1116124209.aspx?path=mbball


Wabash will not have video today.  Links to WJBC radio and live stats...

http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/wjbc.portal#

http://www.sidearmstats.com/wabash/mbball/scoreboard.aspx

[Titan Q]

Some intriguing games this afternoon in the CCIW...

- IWU @ Wabash, 2:00pm
   http://www.sidearmstats.com/wabash/mbball/scoreboard.aspx
   http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/wjbc.portal#

- North Central vs Carroll, 3:00pm
   http://www.sidearmstats.com/ncc/mbball/scoreboard.aspx

- Augustana @ Chicago, 3:00pm
   http://athletics.uchicago.edu/livestats/xlive.htm
   http://www.ustream.tv/channel/maroon-tv

- Carthage vs #3 UW-Whitewater, 4:00 pm
   http://www.carthage.edu/athleticspages/livestats/mb/xlive.htm
   http://www.carthage.edu/library/webcast/


Carthage beat Iowa Wesleyan last night...

http://athletics.carthage.edu/news/2012/11/23/Mens_Basketball_1123122920.aspx

[iwu70]

Yes, some very good games today.  Looks like Wheaton is playing very well so far this year. 

Good luck to the Titans at Wabash.  Bring home a W!  Hope Victor Davis gets "untracked" and plays well in Indiana today.  Go TITANS!

Off to the Shirk now for the women's Tip Off event with four top 25 teams -- IWU vs. Coe and Wash U vs. Depauw today. 

IWU70

[Titan Q]

IWU 62
Wabash 56

* Brady Zimmer: 12 pts, 4 reb, 3 assists
* Kevin Reed: 12 pts, 10 reb
* Victor Davis: 10 pts, 9 reb


Brady Zimmer was huge for IWU down the stretch, hitting 2 3-pointers in big moments and knocking down 2 FTs to seal the game -- plays his older brother made last year in big situations.  He played 25 minutes today.

IWU held Wabash to 38% shooting and outrebounded the Little Giants 46-36.  And they needed to because the Titans were awful from the FT line again, 13-25.

Sounded like an ugly, grind-it-out road win.  The Titans very much trying to put all the pieces together - hasn't been pretty so far. 

#3 UW-Whitewater, the defending national champs, comes to Bloomington Tuesday.

[Titan Q]

Final from Chicago...

Augustana 70
Chicago 52

Augie really pounded the Maroons, with Kevin Schlitter leading the way with 16 points and a number of players adding 5-8 points.The Vikings held Chicago's leading scorer Jordan Smith (18 ppg coming in) scoreless.

Augie looks really good early with their young nucleus.  Looks much more like reload than rebuild in Rock Island.

[toooldtohoop]

Final from Chicago...

Augustana 70
Chicago 52

Augie really pounded the Maroons, with Kevin Schlitter leading the way with 16 points and a number of players adding 5-8 points.The Vikings held Chicago's leading scorer Jordan Smith (18 ppg coming in) scoreless.

Augie looks really good early with their young nucleus.  Looks much more like reload than rebuild in Rock Island.

augie looked good, but maybe because the maroons looked so bad.  saw most of the game, and augie seemed to have their way inside. 
chicago wil certainly struggle against the inside game of wash u come conference time.  the chicago guards do not appear to be at a place where they can compensate for team weaknesses.  the time may come....

not sold on the augie guards at this stage...and the bigs looked good, but not sure how they will look against our green friends and in naperville.

[iwu70]

Another grind-it-out, pretty ugly win for the Titans, shooting a low percentage and shooting FTS poorly.  Glad to see Davis have a pretty good game today, Reed as well.

Reed 12 and 10
David 10 and 9
Zimmer, very big, as Q has mentioned.
Mayberger 9

Another, much bigger challenge with WI-WW coming in now.  Hope our Titans can pull it all together and have everyone have a good game Tuesday night.  A real test, early character game.

IWU70

[Titan Q]

Another grind-it-out, pretty ugly win for the Titans, shooting a low percentage and shooting FTS poorly.  Glad to see Davis have a pretty good game today, Reed as well.

Reed 12 and 10
David 10 and 9
Zimmer, very big, as Q has mentioned.
Mayberger 9

Another, much bigger challenge with WI-WW coming in now.  Hope our Titans can pull it all together and have everyone have a good game Tuesday night.  A real test, early character game.

IWU70

I think IWU fans will have to get used to the fact that this is a "winnin' ugly"/"grind-it-out" type of nucleus.  This is not the kind of finesse, extremely skilled, sharp-shooting team the Titans have had over the years.  This is a rough, physical group that is not going to look "pretty" very often.  This is just a really different type of Illinois Wesleyan team. 

That said, I do think this team will get a lot better offensive flow and rhythm going as Brady Zimmer settles into the rotation and as the other perimeter guys keep getting better.  And I don't think IWU will shoot FTs this poorly all season long.

[iwu70]

Agreed, Q, this Titan team is a bang-on-you, grind-it-out, pound away type of team, at least so far.  Hope Zimmer continues to improve, contribute and that we continue to get a bit more from Nelms, Dolan and Mayberger, perhaps Oswald, too, from the arc area.  I'm pretty positive on Overstreet.  Our bigs love to mix it up and sometimes it's not very pretty, surely not a finese type of team, at least not yet.  Will be interesting to see how they mix it up with WI-WW on Tuesday.  Sure hope the FT shooting improves . . .

Nice games @Shirk today on the women's side.  Our Titans played very very well, and pulled away from a very good Coe team in the last 4-5 minutes of the game.  Katy Seibring is the real deal and will make a significant contribution to the Titans this year.  Getting Kasey Reaber healthy will also help at the PG and 2, helping to give Lexi Baltes some moments to rest. 

ISU almost beat Northwestern tonight, in OT, in Texas.  The Redbirds have a really nice looking team this year.  U of I basketball looking up too, thankfully, after the truly woeful football season.  ND just went final of USC, so the Irish are in the national championship game vs. ??. 

IWU70

[AndOne]

I will get to see my first in-person D3 action of the season today.  #21 Wash U plays Austin College (TX) here at Nebraska Wesleyan's tournament. 

Speaking of the Nebraska Wesleyan tournament, came across this news flash on D3Hoops Friday Wrap:

Simpson hit a buzzer beater to send the game into overtime, but Nebraska Wesleyan survived to beat the Storm 78-77. Jonah Bradley hit a three-pointer with one second left for the Plainsmen.

As a NWU grad and former player, who admittedly is not always a fan of political correctness, I wish the NWU teams were still known as the Plainsmen. However, way back in 2000, NWU sadly became the Prairie Wolves

[Titan Q]

#3 UW-Whitewater 74
Carthage 69

http://athletics.carthage.edu/news/2012/11/24/Mens_Basketball_1124124156.aspx


I watched a lot of this game online.  Carthage was on the verge of getting blown out of their own gym, trailing by 15 at halftime.  But the Red Men played very well in the 2nd half and almost came all the way back.  Carthage cut it to 2 with :58 left and then got a quick steal, so the Red Men had the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead.  I think Carthage would like to have that offensive possession back, however. Instead of attacking the basket and getting a good look at a 2 to tie the game, PG Donte Logan shot a fairly quick (early in the shot clock) 3-pointer from the left wing, which ended up being an airball.  Then after a Carthage offensive rebound and a scramble for the ball Logan ended up with the ball again with the shot clock winding down.  He shot another airball from the deep right wing area.  UW-Whitewater closed the game out at the FT line.

[Titan Q]

When Bosko says (in the press release) that Whitewater "plays a man's game" he is not kidding.  The Warhawks look like a Division I team on the floor.  Key players are:

PG - Quardell Young, 6-0 So (17.3 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 2.7 apg) - http://www.uwwsports.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=7439&path=mbball
G - Eric Bryson, 6-2 Jr (13.3 ppg, 2.7 rpg) - http://www.uwwsports.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=7444&path=mbball
G - K.J. Evans, 6-3 So (11.7 ppg, 4.0 rpg) - http://www.uwwsports.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=7449&path=mbball
G - Cody Odegaard, 6-2 Jr (10.7 ppg) - http://www.uwwsports.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=7440&path=mbball
F/C - Luke Noble, 6-6 Sr (9.3 ppg, 5.7 rpg) - http://www.uwwsports.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=7443&path=mbball
F - Darnell Harris, 6-7 Fr (8.3 ppg, 4.7 rpg) - http://www.uwwsports.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=7445&path=mbball
F - Reggie Hearn, 6-6 Jr (6.7 ppg, 2.3 rpg) - http://www.uwwsports.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=7451&path=mbball


Quardell Young has to be in the discussion of best PG in Division III.  He is lightning fast - on offense he can easily get by his defender and get into the lane, and on defense he really harasses the opposing PG.  He's also a very good decision maker and floor general.  He is one of many really good guards.

The Warhawks are big and athletic in the frontcourt.  They don't really have that 6-7 or 6-8 All-American-type low post stud you worry about when you think of a great WIAC team, but they do have a number of very good forwards.

Like many teams, UW-Whitewater is still putting its new pieces together. It looks like they have played a little inconsistently in the early going, only beating Beloit by 7, pounding Aurora by 39, and then giving up the big lead yesterday at Carthage yesterday.  I'm guessing the Warhawks will keep getting better and really be outstanding sometime in January.

The #8 IWU/#3 Whitewater game will be really interesting.  UWW is best where IWU is still trying to figure things out (the perimeter).  IWU has a better low post game than the Warhawks.  Both teams are incredibly physical.  I think IWU might be a better overall defensive team than UWW and better rebounders as well.  IWU's inexperienced PGs (Dylan Overstreet, Bryce Dolan) will be really be tested by Quardell Young - that's the matchup I am the most concerned with going in.  The Titans can win this game if they play well, which I have a feeling they will.   I see this as a "pick 'em" type line.