MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Titan Q]

Per Twitter, IWU has landed Brother Rice PG Jim Barista.

Barista is a little guy (5-9), but he is very tough and can really play.  He had a scholarship offer to NAIA St. Xavier, D2 interest, and a bunch of D3s that recruited him very hard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGTadSqQdFk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZNW8LAOLcM

http://www.thereporteronline.net/atf.php?sid=32703&current_edition=2013-03-14


Obviously I'm trilled to have a Crusader aboard.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Per Twitter, IWU has landed Brother Rice PG Jim Barista.

Barista is a little guy (5-9), but he is very tough and can really play.  He had a scholarship offer to NAIA St. Xavier, D2 interest, and a bunch of D3s that recruited him very hard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGTadSqQdFk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZNW8LAOLcM


Obviously I'm trilled to have a Crusader aboard.

The obvious question: can he make a great cup of coffee?

I'm certainly not going to judge him by his height, since arguably the second best player in Eastern Michigan U's history (nobody EMU can recruit is ever gonna touch George Gervin) Earl Boykins is 5'5" (officially; he majored in my department, though I never taught him, but those who did say 5'3" is more realistic).

He had a 13 year NBA career, including 5 straight seasons of double-digit scoring.  If Barista (4-6 inches taller) can be 1/3 as good, all is well!

[AndOne]

A veritable cornucopia of guards in Turner, Amann, and now Barista. With both Wesleyan starters at guard being only sophomores this season, and backup Bryce Dolan just a freshman, are they now stockpiling guards in Bloomington the way they do bigs in Rock Island?   

[Mr. Ypsi]

A veritable cornucopia of guards in Turner, Amann, and now Barista. With both Wesleyan starters at guard being only sophomores this season, and backup Bryce Dolan just a freshman, are they now stockpiling guards in Bloomington the way they do bigs in Rock Island?   

Hey, it's that fabled five-guard offense!

You've been warned for years - now we're gonna actually do it!

[iwu70]

Always good to have a few extra shooters, ball-handlers, quick guys around, being developed.  Mayber a fuller JV program next season.  Brian Nelms is back too.  Barrista looks quick, good court vision . . .and, from the clip, enjoys chatting up, chiding the zebras a bit.  Cheeky?

IWU70

[Titan Q]

Twitter...

Gavin Sullivan ‏@PeoriaIrish 9h
2013 Wing 6'4 Jacob Johnston (Erie) has committed to Augustana. He becomes the 3rd member of our program to commit to them this year! #IRISH

Jacob Johnston, a 6-3 G/F, averaged 24 ppg, 8.7 rpg, 4.7 apg as a senior.  In Erie's last three wins he scored 37, 49, and 40 points.

Obviously it's important to put production from Class A kids into perspective.   For comparison, here is what the Zimmers did at Delavan as seniors:
* Jordan ('08) - 23.1 ppg, 4.1 rpg, 3.1 apg
* Brady ('10) - 29.1 ppg, 8.7 rpg, 2.4 apg

I'm guessing Jacob Johnston will be a very good player at Augustana.


http://clintonherald.com/sports/x1340801796/Eries-Johnston-is-Heralds-Player-of-the-Year

http://qctimes.com/sports/high-school/basketball/boys/erie-standout-will-get-shot-to-see-if-augie-is/article_3dcb41de-9508-11e2-a75e-0019bb2963f4.html

[Titan Q]

My annual reminder on Division III recruiting -- just because a HS senior has chosen a given school doesn't necessarily mean that school has recruited him hard.  Fortunately in Division III, kids make their decisions based on a lot more than basketball.

Some recruits are kids the coaching staff pursued aggressively for a long period of time...others kind of recruit themselves.

[Titan Q]

A veritable cornucopia of guards in Turner, Amann, and now Barista. With both Wesleyan starters at guard being only sophomores this season, and backup Bryce Dolan just a freshman, are they now stockpiling guards in Bloomington the way they do bigs in Rock Island?   

This is just my take, but with this group of guards I think 5-9 Jim Barista is considered the only true PG.  Despite being tiny - and he really is little - I think he has a chance to be a very good CCIW PG.  He is really quick, is a great ball-handler, shoots it really well, and has a lot of nice intangibles -- just seems really tough on the floor.

6-3 Jordan Turner from Woodstock seems to be a 2/3-type player.   A well respected Illinois HS talent evaluator wrote the following about him: "Very solid division 3 prospect with some athleticism and offensive ability. He's not exceptionally quick, but he is a strong athlete. Gets to the rim and finishes, can take some body contact and score through defenders at the rim. Aggressive. Can shoot it, but needs to add consistency."  I can see him being a slasher-type 3 at IWU, or a 2.    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tOYOE7zr4Y

6-1 Austin Amann seems to be more of an undersized SG to me than a PG.  Sounds like he can really shoot it .  Again, just going off what I can find online - I haven't seen any of them in person.

Also a reminder that IWU's first commit in this class was 6-2 SG Spencer Seibring from Normal West.  He averaged 12.7 ppg, 3.2 rpg, and 3.2 apg this year and made the Pantagraph all-area 1st Team.

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/high-school/basketball/boys/west-s-seibring-to-play-basketball-at-illinois-wesleyan/article_473b9468-5b91-11e2-b284-001a4bcf887a.html

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/scoreboard/leaders_and_polls/pantagraph---all-area-boys-basketball/article_4f8d680e-9740-11e2-8efd-001a4bcf887a.html

[ICUI4CU]

A veritable cornucopia of guards in Turner, Amann, and now Barista. With both Wesleyan starters at guard being only sophomores this season, and backup Bryce Dolan just a freshman, are they now stockpiling guards in Bloomington the way they do bigs in Rock Island?   

6-3 Jordan Turner from Woodstock seems to be a 2/3-type player.   A well respected Illinois HS talent evaluator wrote the following about him: "Very solid division 3 prospect with some athleticism and offensive ability. He's not exceptionally quick, but he is a strong athlete. Gets to the rim and finishes, can take some body contact and score through defenders at the rim. Aggressive. Can shoot it, but needs to add consistency."  I can see him being a slasher-type 3 at IWU, or a 2.    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tOYOE7zr4Y

I also found these links on Youtube. One showing his athleticism and the other a game winning shot against a team that was recieving votes in the 4A rankings:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCUeCDsyLPM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdTdPaF3eZc

[Titan Q]

Per Twitter, Ron Rose has won a tough recruiting battle for a local big man.  6-8/235 C Trevor Seibring from Normal Community H.S. has committed to Illinois Wesleyan.  Seibring, who has all kinds of IWU family ties, was pursued heavily by D3 powers Wash U and Hope.  His decision came down to the Titans and Hope, where he visited last week.

Trevor (cousin of 6-2 IWU commit Spencer) averaged 13.5 ppg and 7.2 rpg this year.  He was a unanimous all-Big 12 selection and a member of the Pantagraph all-area team.

A big addition to the IWU recruiting class.


http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/scoreboard/leaders_and_polls/pantagraph---all-area-boys-basketball/article_4f8d680e-9740-11e2-8efd-001a4bcf887a.html

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/high-school/basketball/boys/kindred-want-to-win-this-family-can-help-you/article_47a6c2a2-50f7-11e0-b508-001cc4c002e0.html

[titanfan]

Sounds like a good recruiting class so far for the Titans!

[Titan Q]

Per Twitter, IWU has landed 6-3 wing Andy Stempel from 4A runner-up Stevenson.  Stempel averaged 11 points and 5 rebounds this season and made 40% of his 3-pointers.

Stempel was pursued the most aggressively by D1 Chicago State (had a scholarship offer), D2 UW-Parkside, as well as several D3s.  From what I'm able to gather, Stempel is a great leader and really a knock-down 3-point shooter.

https://www.dailyherald.com/article/20130307/sports/703079929/

http://basketball.dailyherald.com/story/print/?id=464553

http://buffalogrove.suntimes.com/sports/17270508-419/patriots-place-their-trust-in-stempel.html

[cardinalpride]

I guess there were just too many voters who think a second place finish is automatically #2 in the poll.  IMO, it should have been NCC #2, UMHB #3.  NCC's overall season was much superior, they each beat some outstanding teams in the tourney, and each lost ONLY to Amherst, with UMHB's loss by more than twice as much as the Cards'.

Oh well, congratulations on #3 (even if I think it should've been #2 )!

My loyalties on this board are well-known, but if we're using this logic, I still place the Sons of Warden third, and slot the Tommies ahead of them.  They did lose to Mary Hardin Baylor but I would judge their season superior to all but Amherst's based on the full body of work.  So I have no issue with the third place ranking.

Congrats to the Cardinals on a stellar season, and to seniors Derek Raridon and Aaron Tiknis for outstanding careers.

Prior to this season, I would have said the three most important players in the program's history are Bill Warden (as a player), Tony Jordan, and Robert Brown.  All helped pull the program to a higher level over the course of their careers.  I'll add Derek Raridon's name to that list based on the Cardinals' progress over the past four years.  Just don't ask me to rank them. 

The task now:  transform what was an outstanding season into an outstanding beginning for the returning players and coaches.

Kiko,
A Mount Rushmore of NCCs most important basketball players should not exclude Mike McFadden.
Here is the list of NCC basketball players that are in the NCC sports hall of fame:
1. Bill Warden
2. Mike McFadden

That's it! That's the list!

During the early 80s, McFadden was the key player that helped bring NCC basketball back to the top half of the conference after some horrid years in the 70s.

[Dennis_Prikkel]

I guess there were just too many voters who think a second place finish is automatically #2 in the poll.  IMO, it should have been NCC #2, UMHB #3.  NCC's overall season was much superior, they each beat some outstanding teams in the tourney, and each lost ONLY to Amherst, with UMHB's loss by more than twice as much as the Cards'.

Oh well, congratulations on #3 (even if I think it should've been #2 )!

My loyalties on this board are well-known, but if we're using this logic, I still place the Sons of Warden third, and slot the Tommies ahead of them.  They did lose to Mary Hardin Baylor but I would judge their season superior to all but Amherst's based on the full body of work.  So I have no issue with the third place ranking.

Congrats to the Cardinals on a stellar season, and to seniors Derek Raridon and Aaron Tiknis for outstanding careers.

Prior to this season, I would have said the three most important players in the program's history are Bill Warden (as a player), Tony Jordan, and Robert Brown.  All helped pull the program to a higher level over the course of their careers.  I'll add Derek Raridon's name to that list based on the Cardinals' progress over the past four years.  Just don't ask me to rank them. 

The task now:  transform what was an outstanding season into an outstanding beginning for the returning players and coaches.

Kiko,
A Mount Rushmore of NCCs most important basketball players should not exclude Mike McFadden.
Here is the list of NCC basketball players that are in the NCC sports hall of fame:
1. Bill Warden
2. Mike McFadden

That's it! That's the list!

During the early 80s, McFadden was the key player that helped bring NCC basketball back to the top half of the conference after some horrid years in the 70s.

Wow - that is a short list.  Four players that I saw for the Cards were good CCIW players: Tony Jordan, Robert Brown, Alonzo Alexander and Curtis Hudson.

dgp

[Gregory Sager]

I guess there were just too many voters who think a second place finish is automatically #2 in the poll.  IMO, it should have been NCC #2, UMHB #3.  NCC's overall season was much superior, they each beat some outstanding teams in the tourney, and each lost ONLY to Amherst, with UMHB's loss by more than twice as much as the Cards'.

Oh well, congratulations on #3 (even if I think it should've been #2 )!

My loyalties on this board are well-known, but if we're using this logic, I still place the Sons of Warden third, and slot the Tommies ahead of them.  They did lose to Mary Hardin Baylor but I would judge their season superior to all but Amherst's based on the full body of work.  So I have no issue with the third place ranking.

Congrats to the Cardinals on a stellar season, and to seniors Derek Raridon and Aaron Tiknis for outstanding careers.

Prior to this season, I would have said the three most important players in the program's history are Bill Warden (as a player), Tony Jordan, and Robert Brown.  All helped pull the program to a higher level over the course of their careers.  I'll add Derek Raridon's name to that list based on the Cardinals' progress over the past four years.  Just don't ask me to rank them. 

The task now:  transform what was an outstanding season into an outstanding beginning for the returning players and coaches.

Kiko,
A Mount Rushmore of NCCs most important basketball players should not exclude Mike McFadden.
Here is the list of NCC basketball players that are in the NCC sports hall of fame:
1. Bill Warden
2. Mike McFadden

That's it! That's the list!

During the early 80s, McFadden was the key player that helped bring NCC basketball back to the top half of the conference after some horrid years in the 70s.

McFadden didn't do it all by himself. John Giannini was a very good player on those same '82 and '83 NCC teams that brought the Cardinals back from the depths of the CCIW standings.

Wow - that is a short list.  Four players that I saw for the Cards were good CCIW players: Tony Jordan, Robert Brown, Alonzo Alexander and Curtis Hudson.

Mike Bohannon should be on that list, too. Mike Patterson should've been on it, but he messed up in the classroom. And Pete Rochford might've gone on to be one of the greats in North Central basketball history if he hadn't blown out his knee as an underclassman in a game at North Park.

Drew Hunter and Jamon Lomax were pretty good Warden-era NCC players, too. Not in the same league as McFadden, Jordan, Brown, Alexander, Hudson, and Bohannon, but pretty good.