MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Mr. Ypsi]

Well, saying something on Twitter is the same as making an official statement. It's not really that difficult if you know what you're not allowed to say. The medium doesn't matter.

True, but a whole lot of players and coaches can't seem to figure that out.  It is astounding the number of recent violations due to Twitter and Facebook!

[Titan Q]

#3 UW-Whitewater 71
#7 Illinois Wesleyan 65

* Victor Davis: 13 pts (just 17 min due to foul trouble)
* Brady Zimmer: 11 pts
* Parker Musselman: 10 pts
* Kevin Reed: 10 pts, 9 reb

* Darnell Harris: 32 pts, 6 reb, 3 assists
* Luke Knoble: 18 pts
* Quardell Young: 11 pts, 7 reb

A couple very simple keys...

- IWU could not begin to stop Whitewater stud Darnell Harris -- 32 points (11-19 FG, 6-8 3-point)

- The Titans were incredibly careless with the basketball, committing a really unheard of 24 turnovers.  Many of these were due to UWW pressure...others were just sloppy passes and bad decisions.  This basically neutralized IWU's impressive 34-21 rebounding edge over the Warhawks.


Whitewater is really, really good.  That said, the Titans killed their chances of winning by being sloppy with the basketball.

[Titan Q]

Darnell Harris, who torched the Titans tonight, is a transfer from Division I Cleveland State.  He must have redshirted there (after his year at prep school) because eligibility wise he is just a freshman at UWW...

http://clevelandstatehoops.blogspot.com/2011/09/darnell-harris-commits-to-cleveland.html

Darnell Harris, a 6-foot-8, 210-pound forward from La Jolla Prep (Calif.), has verbally committed to Cleveland State, according to his head coach, Bobby Bossman.

Bossman tweeted on his Twitter account:
"6'8 PF, Darnell Harris (Milwaukee, WI/La Jolla Prep) has just verbally committed to Cleveland State."
Harris also considered Wichita State, Saint Louis, Florida International and Utah.

He is a former teammate of CSU freshman point guard Charlie Lee, who both played together at Milwaukee Hamilton High School in 2009.

A three-star recruit by ESPN, Rivals.com and Scout.com, Harris is rated the 29th-best small forward in the class of 2011 by ESPN.com.

[Greek Tragedy]

You could almost say he came out of nowhere.  He started just one of Whitewater's first three games, averaging less than 16 minutes per game.  His "big game" thus far was a 13 pt, 8 reb. effort coming off the bench for 16 minutes in a rout of Aurora.  Some might have view that as garbage time points.  He played just 10 minutes vs. Carthage, but picked up 3 fouls.  In our current WIAC Fantasy League, the freshman didn't go until the 6th round.  Oops.

[Titan Q]

You could almost say he came out of nowhere.  He started just one of Whitewater's first three games, averaging less than 16 minutes per game.  His "big game" thus far was a 13 pt, 8 reb. effort coming off the bench for 16 minutes in a rout of Aurora.  Some might have view that as garbage time points.  He played just 10 minutes vs. Carthage, but picked up 3 fouls.  In our current WIAC Fantasy League, the freshman didn't go until the 6th round.  Oops.

Tonight he looked like a mid-major Division I player playing in Division III.  What a talent.

UW-Whitewater is going to be a D3 power consistently with the talent they are able to bring in (from high school and transfers).

[Mr. Ypsi]

Don't guarantee the accuracy of LiveStats for the game, but some minor differences from what Q posted: Davis had 13 (not 10), and Reed also had 10; also they have it as Knoble (not Noble) and with 18 rather than 16.  IWU spread the wealth nicely, but their top 4 had 44 points; UWW's top 2 combined for 50!  Relying on 'stars' is risky, but it can pay off quite nicely!

And, yes, Harris is a load!

[iwu70]

Yes, it is true that the Titans had no answer for Mssr. Harris tonight, and his out-of-his mind 32 points.  But, to be frank, honest, this is a game the Titans could of, should have won.  Guess you can say that WW is just a bit further along in putting all the pieces together this season and surely having better ball security.  The Titans just don't seem to value every possession as yet, and killed themselves tonight with TOs, errant and misguided plays, yes, some stupid plays.  Part was WW quickness and better D in the second half, but also some Titan lapses and slips in defensive intensity in the second half, and yet, the Titans only lost by 6 points.  Titans don't really have a "go to" guy as yet on offense, so they have to have better balance scoring, some better contributions from the perimeter.  I thought Reed had a good game tonight, and at times Zimmer played well.  Zman had a weaker outing tonight.  Overall, it was spotty and inconsistent.  Don't think Ron Rose got his full 40 minutes of good play by everyone tonight as he wished.  Titans got out to a nice lead, but then let WW back in by half-time, and quickly let WW have a nice 10-2 or so run at the beginning of the first half.  WW a hard team to play from behind, but the Titans did fight back, got back to a tie, then let is slip out to 6-7 again.  Very frustrating.  Poor possessions and very poor valuing of ball security.  Dolan got all the minutes tonight subbing for Overstreet as needed. 

Harris was awesome, no doubt, and no one could really defend him well, outside or inside.  He's clearly a player who has DI or DII skills, size.  But, I'm not all that discouraged by this game . . . as we played WW tough, played them close and basically shot ourselves in the foot with poor ball security and way too many TOs.  Gotta improve on that for sure . . . and surely have a better ethos about valuing every possession.

IMHO. 

Q, yes, Quardell Young is quick, but we did a pretty good job on him tonight and he was, at times, also tentative.  The big problem tonight was Darnell Harris and Titan self-inflicted wounds.

Some more tough games on the road in St. Louis this weekend.  There's no rest -- Tufts and perhaps Wash U upcoming. 

IWU70

[augiefan]

Augie beat previously undefeated UW Platteville 69-57 in Rock Island.

Kevin Schlitter had 19 pts in 20 minutes of play
Ben Ryan 12 pts and 7 rbs.
Brandon Thompson 11 pts.
Dan Jurgutis 10 pts.

Still no George Dexter. Continuing back issues?

[gordonmann]

I caught the final few minutes of the IWU-UWW game online and had the same reaction.  "Who the heck is No. 23 and where did he come from?"

[tomt4525]

Darnell Harris, who torched the Titans tonight, is a transfer from Division I Cleveland State.  He must have redshirted there (after his year at prep school) because eligibility wise he is just a freshman at UWW...

http://clevelandstatehoops.blogspot.com/2011/09/darnell-harris-commits-to-cleveland.html

Darnell Harris, a 6-foot-8, 210-pound forward from La Jolla Prep (Calif.), has verbally committed to Cleveland State, according to his head coach, Bobby Bossman.

Bossman tweeted on his Twitter account:
"6'8 PF, Darnell Harris (Milwaukee, WI/La Jolla Prep) has just verbally committed to Cleveland State."
Harris also considered Wichita State, Saint Louis, Florida International and Utah.

He is a former teammate of CSU freshman point guard Charlie Lee, who both played together at Milwaukee Hamilton High School in 2009.

A three-star recruit by ESPN, Rivals.com and Scout.com, Harris is rated the 29th-best small forward in the class of 2011 by ESPN.com.

If I remember correctly, he never made it to Cleveland St...this is his first year in college I believe.

[iwu70]

A good win for Augie tonight over Plattville.  Seems to me Augie is going to be pretty good this year . . . Wheaton too.

Should be a good, very tough CCIW race, as always.

IWU70

P.S.  Darnell Harris was something tonight, esp. out of his mind from treyland.  Thought several times we should just knock him down . . . or put Dortch on him to push him a bit out of his comfort zone.  He seemed in sync, in the right place, making the plays and the shots almost all night.  What a job by a freshman.  My hat is off to him.  But, Titans weren't all that far from winning this game . . . really killed ourselves with TOs, and lost, given away possessions.  ms

[iwu70]

North Central over Central (Iowa) tonight, 88-83.  I have no details.

IWU70

[Titan Q]

Darnell Harris is an interesting story.  Left his H.S. in Milwaukee after his JR year to attend prep school in Texas, where he committed to D1 Florida International...but ended up at prep school in LaJolla, CA where he committed to D1 Cleveland State...but never made it there and is now a FR at D3 UW-Whitewater.  Quite a path!

http://www.jsonline.com/sports/preps/101441709.html

Another of Jenkins' players, Hamilton standout Darnell Harris, will spend his senior year at Christian Life Center Academy in Humble, Texas. The 6-foot-8 Harris averaged 13.7 points and shot better than 40% from three-point range.

Jenkins said Harris is considering Florida International and Marquette, with Providence, Oklahoma State and Tulsa also interested.

---------
http://www.maxpreps.com/news/uYANYLPmEd-YiQAcxJSkrA/milwaukee-transfers-a-wake-up-call-in-wisconsin.htm

Hamilton (Milwaukee, Wis.) might have fielded one of the nation's top 25 basketball teams during the upcoming season – that is until two of its premier players transferred to out-of-state prep schools.

Veteran coach Tom Diener told MaxPreps that 6-foot-8 senior Darnell Harris is at Christian Life Center (Humble, Texas), while 5-8 senior point guard Charles Lee is attending Huntington Prep (Huntington, W.Va.).

Both would have been three-year starters. Last year they helped Hamilton post a 20-4 record, win the Milwaukee City Conference and reach the Division I state quarterfinals.

Harris, a slender 185-pounder, averaged 13.5 points, 8.1 rebounds, 2.6 assists and shot 45 percent from 3-point range. Lee averaged 12.5 points, 5.2 assists and 4.0 rebounds.

"Darnell has tremendous perimeter game skills: shooting, passing, pivoting," Diener said. "He can really shoot the three. As he gains strength he will become one of the premier recruits in the country. I think you will see him in the NBA some day.
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http://www.jsonline.com/sports/preps/103108109.html

Rather than hold out hope of an offer from Marquette, Darnell Harris committed to Florida International on Wednesday.
---------
http://clevelandstatehoops.blogspot.com/2011/09/darnell-harris-commits-to-cleveland.html

Darnell Harris, a 6-foot-8, 210-pound forward from La Jolla Prep (Calif.), has verbally committed to Cleveland State, according to his head coach, Bobby Bossman.

[AndOne]

North Central over Central (Iowa) tonight, 88-83.  I have no details.

IWU70

70----

You really need to check the source of that information. North Central didn't play anyone tonight, and they don't play Central IA anytime this year. 

[Greek Tragedy]

Don't guarantee the accuracy of LiveStats for the game, but some minor differences from what Q posted: Davis had 13 (not 10), and Reed also had 10; also they have it as Knoble (not Noble) and with 18 rather than 16.  IWU spread the wealth nicely, but their top 4 had 44 points; UWW's top 2 combined for 50!  Relying on 'stars' is risky, but it can pay off quite nicely!

And, yes, Harris is a load!

They are hardly a two-horse trick.  Luke Knoble was thought to be the go-to guy this year, but the senior has struggled in the early part of this season.  Soph guard Quardell Young has taken over and has led the team in scoring in two games.  Not to be outdone, returning guard Eric Bryson lead the team in scoring against Carthage.  Now, Harris has his coming out party.  They have all kinds of scorers and quickness.  To top that off, last year they started playing defense and partially rode that to a National Championship. It's easy to rely on "stars" when they are all stars!