MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[iwu70]

Agree with Q, huge in region game tonight for IWU and Wash U.  Hope the Titans can improve, get closer to "putting all the pieces together."  Again, hope Victor wasn't seriously hurt last night in that ugly looking fall along the baseline in the second half.  Nick Anderson got clobbered in the jaw/face during the WW game too, so hope his teeth are OK and still well-settled.  Agree with Bob, too, on the need for Zimmer to be in the line-up, continue to add some shooting and slashing on the offensive side.  One positive last night was only three TOs in the second half, after that ragged 10 TO first half.  D is not the issue with these Titans, esp. when Dortch is on the floor, but overall offensive flow is surely lacking so far.  Wash U always has that, with their half court sets/flow.  They are usually really good.  Their bigman is really good.  Should be another knock-down, grind-it-out, tough game tonight. 

Go Titans . . . ugly or not, we'll take a win.

IWU70

[iwu70]

Zman playing well, so far, perhaps best of all Titans, along with the Mr Consistent, Kevin Reed.  I really like Zman's rugged game . . . I think it's his long hair look, breaking out from the normal Dennie Bridges IWU player image.     Not IWU70 for nothing.

Looking forward to a good game tonight @Wash U. 

Titan women at 2 p.m. -- vs. UChicago.  Lowering the banner at 1:50 p.m. -- and a huge 5-7 team track meet at the Shirk today too, so it's going to be a busy "banner" weekend of IWU sports on campus today.

We really have to count our blessings that we have a facility like the Shirk Center . . . many thanks to the Shirk family . . . it's probably one of the best DIII sports facilities in the entire country.  Keep eating those Beer Nuts, everyone, OK?

IWU70

[Flying Dutch Fan]

While we're on the topic of big in-region games......I know this comes up every year but is Hope an in-region game for either Carthage or Wheaton? Is it road miles or "as the crow flies"?

Of the 4 CCIW-MIAA games in the challenge, only Hope v Wheaton is in-region (it's driving miles that count)

[jaybird44]

I wanted to post the following response that I gave on the NESCAC board, regarding the flagrant foul situations last night in the Tufts/IWU and Wash-U/Wilmington games:

"As the play-by-announcer for yesterday's Tufts/Illinois Wesleyan game, our commentary was meant to illuminate a new point-of-emphasis for officials, regarding the contact made by swinging elbows.  It appears that any kind of real or perceived contact made by Player A on Opposing Player B around head level is going to be whistled for a flagrant foul.  In the incident involving Ferris, he was the unfortunate victim because (a) he didn't appear to have malicious intent, and (b) the amount or degree was not forceful enough IMOH to merit a falldown by Zimmer or a flagrant foul.  But, the POE prompted such a foul to be called, and Ferris had to leave the game with his 15 points.  A second flagrant foul a little bit later on Haladyna, with a similar questionable degree, resulted in Coach Sheldon getting 2 techs with 26 seconds left.  The first one on Ferris clearly and negatively affected Tufts' ability to hold onto its lead.

The quandary of "To be, or not to be, a flagrant foul" occurred in the 2nd game between Wash-U and Wilmington.  Wash-U's Chris Klimek took a very hard elbow to the face (not intentional by the Wilmington player), but a flagrant foul was NOT called in that instance.  My partner and I discussed the vexing problem that has now been tossed in the officials' laps by the NCAA rules committee.  Do officials call a flurry of flagrant fouls that will certainly have a direct effect on the outcome of games, or do they restrain themselves from making such calls--even if a flagrant foul should be called?  In the Klimek case, the non-call helped escalate tempers to the point where they nearly boiled over early in 2nd half.

I think officials have been put between a rock and a hard place.  Their abilities to evaluate each foul on its own merit have been taken away, with the unintended result of more inconsistency in calling such fouls.  Which, as I saw last night, outcomes of games could be unfairly determined, and potential injuries could develop due to an escalation of tempers.  The NCAA has overreacted with its POE, IMO."

The intent was not to belittle or disrespect Zimmer in particular, or IWU in general. I have immense respect for both.  But, this flagrant foul point-of-emphasis will be interesting to watch at all levels of NCAA basketball, to see what effect it will have on the outcome of games.  As I mentioned above, the officials have a very difficult fine line to walk.

[jaybird44]

And, my vantage point was on the 2nd level mezzanine, which obviously provides a different perspective than an official a few feet away from a foul.  Perhaps Zimmer was bumped hard enough to be knocked down, and I was not in an ideal vantage point to see that clearly.

[sac]

North Central 64 Trine 47

Tiknis 18, Gamble 16, Raridan 10.  NCC dominated the last 15 minutes of play, it was a 2 pt game with 15 to go.

[AndOne]

NCC with its 1st road win of the season with a 64-47 victory at Trine. They led by only 7 at the half.
The Cards were led by Aaron Tiknis who tallied a double-double with 18 points and 11 boards. A 2nd Cardinal double-double was posted by Landon Gamble with 16 and 10, and Derek Raridon just missed a third double x2 with 10 and 9.
North Central shot a nice 57.8 from the field, including 46.2 from 3, and held the opposition to 29.1 and 12.5 respectively.
Trine star Ian Jackson, who came in averaging 26, was "held" to 21, after having only 6 at the half. However, he was forced into a 7 for 17 afternoon in order to post those 21 points, which included 6 FTs. The next highest scorer for the home team was Scott Rogers with only 7. One of the Cards keys to the victory was Aaron Tiknis' defense on Rogers as the Cardinals successfully employed the philosophy of letting the star get his while cutting off everyone else.
NCC which should not often, if ever, lose the battle on the boards, out rebounded the hosts by a 38-21 margin.
The el stinko stat of the game for the Cards was their totally unacceptable 23 turnovers.   

The Cards can enjoy the win and relax on the bus during the hour and 45 minute ride to Kalamazoo (MI) where they will face the K-zoo Hornets tomorrow at 3:00, eastern.

[USee]

Wheaton 79
Hope 75

These kids can play! Wheaton was very impressive, outrebounding Hope 38-32. They led by as many as 15 in the second half and the final 4 pt spread was as close as it got.

Head Coach Mike Schauer said on the post game "If you told me we would be 6-0 I probably would have laughed at you".

The Thunder are making a statement early. Smith, Berg, Kvam....these young guys are good and are going to keep the Thunder in a lot of games. Turnovers were a factor, Wheaton had 18 and Hope clawed their way back into this game with great defense, creating the turnovers.

First time Coach Schauer has won vs Hope in his tenure. Congratulations to the Thunder

[iwu70]

Really nice wins by WC over Hope and NCC over Trine, esp. the WC win over ranked Hope.  CCIW is going to be tough.

NP over Ohio Northern 79-75
MU over Principia 79-69
(according to D3hoops.com scoreboard)

IWU's turn now.

Regarding "the system," Grinnell over Ripon today, 134-97.  To think one guy scored 138 earlier.   

A wild year ahead, especially the CCIW race.

IWU70

[AndOne]

Granted today's win was against what may be the nation's worst D3 team, but Millikin has already exceeded last year's win total. 

[iwu70]

Carthage over Calvin 74-63, so another win for the CCIW today.

IWU70

[iwu70]

Hey, hey, when you're coming from where MU has been, a "win is a win" no matter.  Hope they get a few more, even perhaps win 2-3 games in CCIW play.  Could happen. 

AO, isn't Faith or Moody Bible College the worst teams in DIII?

IWU up next, vs. Wash U at 8 p.m.

IWU70

[iwu70]

According to LiveStats from Wash U, starting lineup tonight vs. Wash U for the Titans:

Overstreet - PG
Zimmer - 2
Zman - 3
Reed - 4
Anderson -5

IWU70

[Gregory Sager]

North Park 79, Ohio Northern 75

Mark Holmes: 36 pts, 6 rebs
Aaron Weaver: 16 pts, 6 rebs
Zach Cassita: 14 pts, 5 asts
Brett Peterson: 8 rebs

This was a solid win for NPU. Ohio Northern (4-3) isn't a world-beater, but the Polar Bears are a better team than the Anderson squad that beat NPU in double overtime three days ago. The Vikings simply played better this afternoon than they did against Anderson, although it was really only a 20-minute effort. What I mean by that is that the Vikings played terrible defense in the first half, as the Polar Bears shot 61% from the field and went into the locker room up by nine. But in the second half, NPU held ONU to only 41% shooting. Part of that was a more concerted effort by the Vikings to fight through screens when they needed to, switch otherwise, and track their men through the entire possession. And part of it was that they upped the physicality; ONU simply got worn down by the Vikings, missing a number of open shots towards the end of the game out of sheer weariness. Brett Peterson and Chris Benjamin are turning into very hard, physical defenders, which is something that North Park badly needs.

A number of us at the scorer's table commented upon how quiet Mark Holmes's 36 points was tonight. He's not nearly as flashy as Aaron Weaver, but he has done a tremendous job of turning himself into an effective low-post scorer, even though he's a small forward by trade who's never had to learn how to play with his back to the basket. He's actually scoring quite a bit off the dribble drive, too, which is something he rarely did last year. He's always been a tremendous talent, but now we're starting to see his work ethic and his intelligence pay off for him as well.

Speaking of Weaver and flashiness, he had an absolutely sick move at the elbow in the game's final 90 seconds, juking his man left and then blowing by him and flying to the hoop for a thunderous one-handed dunk with 1:08 left. That culminated an 8-0 run by the Park over about a two-minute period that broke a tie and put NPU up 71-63. However, showing that this team still has a long way to go mentally, the excessive celebration of the dunk led to the Vikes not getting down the court fast enough, and ONU hit a quick trey to cut the lead to five. Throughout the last minute, the Vikes and Bears essentially traded layups for free throws, as the Vikings made just enough hay at the charity stripe to finish out the game on top.

NPU's still got a long ways to go to reach CCIW-level competence, but this was a strong step in the right direction today.

[Gregory Sager]

Granted today's win was against what may be the nation's worst D3 team, but Millikin has already exceeded last year's win total. 

The consensus in the "Undefeated and Winless" room over in the Multi-Regional Topics section is that Principia is probably not the worst team in D3 this year, based upon results to date.

AO, isn't Faith or Moody Bible College the worst teams in DIII?

Neither Faith Baptist Bible nor Moody is a member of either D3 specifically or of the NCAA in general. They're both exclusively NCCAA (National Christian College Athletic Association). If by "Faith" you mean the College of Faith that participated in NCC's tipoff tourney this season, that school doesn't appear to have any national affiliation at all, be it NCAA, NAIA, NCCAA, or USCAA.