MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[AndOne]

North Central roster and schedule are up:

http://northcentralcardinals.com/roster.aspx?path=mbball

http://northcentralcardinals.com/schedule.aspx?path=mbball

The Cardinal "Road Warriors" will be gone just about the entire month of December. First is the annual "small trip" with a game at Wilberforce, OH on 12/11, and continuing on to the Bridgewater, VA College tournament on 12/13 & 14. After a few days back home in IL, they then head out on the annual "big/warm weather trip" to a tournament in Orlando 12/20 & 21. After returning home and breakinfg for Christmas, they conclude the month by taking on #4 Wisconsin-Stevens Point in a New Year's Eve-afternoon battle.

[Gotberg]

Looking forward to hearing some news about NPU.  Hopefully the roster is up before the weekend at least.

[Viking Mike]

Attended the exhibition game b/w Augie and Univ of Iowa.  Exciting to watch the Vikes play in such a large venue and in front of 13-14,000 Hawkeye fans.  Augie was clearly the aggressor and out-hustled the Hawks in every aspect of the game.  While Augustana eventually succumbed to the taller, longer and quicker Hawkeyes,  I came away feeling that this team is headed for a lot of great things this year.  Seems they left a lofty impression on the Iowa coach and team as well.........


http://www.whbf.com/Global/category.asp?C=190186&clipId=9486588&topVideoCatNo=149118&autoStart=true

http://qctimes.com/sports/basketball/college/big-10/iowa/hawkeyes-hold-off-energized-augie/article_49001be4-ea40-53c2-b6a7-b3ac0192f551.html

http://qconline.com/archives/qco/display.php?id=658353

[bopol]

FWIW, the Carthage roster has been updated.

Malcom Kelly is back on it (YEA!), which I suppose is known based on the CCIW press conference.

Bad news though, Kiston Lee is listed as injured and will not play this year.  Kiston was a back-up forward last year, averaging 9 minutes/game with 2.9 points and 1.7 rebounds a game.  Given the probable lack of depth in the frontcourt for the Red Men, this could be a more serious loss than the stats indicated.  He's a good player and definitely helped the team last year.

No freshmen are listed still.

[AndOne]

If I remember correctly, only one freshman recruit was ever reported here on the board over the spring and summer months. Perhaps he decided to go elsewhere, or not go out for the team. Still hard to believe there will be no freshman on the CC roster this season.
Carthage obviously lacks size, but one thing they will be is very athletic and extremely quick as evidenced by their summer league play.

[AndOne]

Naperville Sun article on the seating renovation and other upgrades in North Central's Gregory Arena/Merner Fieldhouse, affectionally known around the CCIW as the "Hangar."

http://napervillesun.suntimes.com/sports/ncc_arena-NAP-11062013:article

[iwu70]

Gregory Arena inside Merner Fieldhouse . . . is that two places?     Where should I show up for the games?


Improvements look nice.

'70

[bopol]

If I remember correctly, only one freshman recruit was ever reported here on the board over the spring and summer months. Perhaps he decided to go elsewhere, or not go out for the team. Still hard to believe there will be no freshman on the CC roster this season.
Carthage obviously lacks size, but one thing they will be is very athletic and extremely quick as evidenced by their summer league play.

My thinking is that the freshman aren't listed yet.  Maybe the person responsible for the site (Steve Marovich?) didn't want to post the roster until player pages have been made (like they are in women's bb).  I can't believe there'll be no freshman as surely a walk-on or few will be there.
'
Or Bosko will go four guards and Marlon Senior and press and press and press.  I suppose that'll work against some, but I can't imagine that working against the top of the CCIW.

[Denny McKinney]

Glad to see Bryce Dolan got 19 minutes. Disturbed with the 1-5 3pt shooting. He is a heck of a lot better shooter then that. One of the Best HS 3pt shooters I've seen in a while. Pressing, poor selection, hurried ........ Gotta figure it out. He could be a big asset. Pulling for ya Kid.

[AndOne]

Gregory Arena inside Merner Fieldhouse . . . is that two places?     Where should I show up for the games?


Improvements look nice.

'70

With the intelligence required to earn a degree from such an esteemed (green) institution, I'm sure you'll be able to find the correct location. Think of it as a treasure hunt. But, if you have problems after arriving in NaPPerville, just ask anyone to point you toward "The Hangar." 

[AndOne]

If I remember correctly, only one freshman recruit was ever reported here on the board over the spring and summer months. Perhaps he decided to go elsewhere, or not go out for the team. Still hard to believe there will be no freshman on the CC roster this season.
Carthage obviously lacks size, but one thing they will be is very athletic and extremely quick as evidenced by their summer league play.

My thinking is that the freshman aren't listed yet.  Maybe the person responsible for the site (Steve Marovich?) didn't want to post the roster until player pages have been made (like they are in women's bb).  I can't believe there'll be no freshman as surely a walk-on or few will be there.
'
Or Bosko will go four guards and Marlon Senior and press and press and press.  I suppose that'll work against some, but I can't imagine that working against the top of the CCIW.

bopol--

I'll certainly buy some of what you're selling. As I said previously, its hard to imagine there won't be any freshmen on the Redmen roster.
As far as lack of size, Bosko shouldn't have let future NBA player Luke Johnson escape to Benedictine. 

[Mr. Ypsi]

Gregory Arena inside Merner Fieldhouse . . . is that two places?     Where should I show up for the games?


Improvements look nice.

'70

With the intelligence required to earn a degree from such an esteemed (green) institution, I'm sure you'll be able to find the correct location. Think of it as a treasure hunt. But, if you have problems after arriving in NaPPerville, just ask anyone to point you toward "The Hangar." 

I'm sure Mark would have the intelligence to find the game.  Alas, pretty sure he will back in Hong Kong by the time IWU plays at Gregory Arena inside Merner Fieldhouse (so we may never know).

If you were able to make it to Tucci Stadium @ Wilder Field last Saturday, I imagine you enjoyed the game a whole lot more than we did.   (Or did you go to the wrong location and miss it all? )

[iwu70]

Oh, you mean "The Hanger."   Of course I know where that is!   

Ypsi, you are right -- I'll be back in Hong Kong most of this roundball season -- through the Spring term, back teaching at CUHK.  If the Titans make it to the Final Four, I'll consider making a special trip back in March.  Is it Salem this year?  Otherwise, I'll be watching games -- wherever they are held, Shirk or elsewhere -- via the streaming video, so in the a.m. hours for me in Asia.  It's something like "Breakfast at Wimbledon," but in my case, "Dumplings at CCIW basketball." 

Should be a great season ahead, with three top CCIW teams in the top 6 in the country and several others probably much better than we initially expect (Augie and MU me thinks). 

The season only about a week away now.  Two more football games, then we all go inside for the CCIW basketball season.

But, for me, "when the snow flies, I fly" -- back to tropical climes, along the South China coast.

GO TITANS!!

IWU70

[Gregory Sager]

North Park beat Dominican in a scrimmage at DU's Igini Sports Forum last night, 86-77. The win would've been much, much bigger for the Vikings if NPU hadn't been vapor-locked at the line; by my count, NPU shot an astonishing 10-27 last night at the charity stripe. What's worse is that all six times that the Vikes were shooting the front end of a one-and-one, they missed.

NPU did look superb from behind the arc, as the Vikes made six of their first seven trey attempts and ended up shooting over 50% as a team from out there. Even Aaron Weaver, not previously known as a shooter -- he was 7-27 (.259) from downtown last season -- made all three of his trey attempts, which was great to see. Weaver led the Vikings with 24 points, while Reggie McGee had 14 (the reigning CCIW trey champ, he went 4-4 from downtown) and freshman Juwan Henry added 11 and had a couple of spectacular blocks.

The Vikings should be a better team than they were last year -- it's hard to imagine them being any worse -- but the 2013-14 season will nevertheless be a real struggle for NPU. Aside from the important fact that the CCIW appears to be absolutely stacked this year, the Vikings are incredibly young. As you can see from the NPU roster, Weaver is the only senior, and there will be at least four freshmen either starting or in the rotation. Given that, I expect to see lots of headless-chicken offense, especially in the early part of the season. I'm pointing that out in order to give fair warning to Mark Erickson and Dennis Prikkel, because I know how much they love to harp on the subject whenever NPU appears disorganized offensively. It is what it is, so those of us who follow the royal blue and gold should just learn to deal with the specter of repeated offensive glitches and accept the growing pains.

Mike Gabriel quit the team two weeks ago. No use in putting off announcing that news any longer. He told Tom Slyder that he had "lost the passion" for the game. So be it. There's no denying the fact that it's a crushing blow to NPU. He was going to be the cornerstone of this year's team as well as the primary big man. But it's better to deal with the distraction of his departure at the start of preseason and come to grips with it now rather than later. What makes it worse, though, is that Austin Wood got homesick and left school two weeks into the semester. Thus, the Vikings are going to have to mimic Carthage by being a doughnut team this season. Unlike the Red Men, the Vikings do have genuine big men -- but they're either not ready for prime time, or not equipped to be scorers, or both. We'll see a lot of big-man-by-committee games that include 6'7, 245 junior Nate Rummel, 6'4, 210 sophomore Michael Hutchinson, and 6'6, 250 freshman Matt McNamara. Weaver will see most of the minutes at power forward, which isn't his best position, but the Vikes will play four-out-one-in almost exclusively, so it shouldn't matter as much.

The upside for this team is that it's extremely athletic. They'll run circles around anybody. (Unfortunately, you don't get any points for that in basketball.) They also have a ton of enthusiasm and they're very supportive of each other. They really seem to enjoy each other's company, and there's a sense of eagerness to them. My fear is that a lot of losing -- losing that will include a lot of January and February games in which they'll get absolutely horse-whipped -- will take that enthusiasm and eagerness right out of them. The biggest danger in a lengthy streak of losing seasons (and I'm pretty sure that this is going to be another one of them for North Park) is that it hampers recruiting -- but the second-biggest danger is that it makes it harder to retain the good players that you already have. I dearly hope that these freshmen can survive the rough ride upon which they're about to embark, because some of them -- Juwan Henry, Jay'Quan Lee, and Byron Burt in particular, but others as well -- have some serious long-term potential as solid CCIW players.

[Gregory Sager]

Based upon what I saw last night at Igini, I can confirm firsthand that college basketball is going to be a very different animal this year. The whistles were non-stop, and it had nothing to do with the competence (or lack thereof) of either team. Perimeter contact that would've been normal in years past -- not just hand-checks, but chest rides as well -- were called fouls, and anyone who tries to draw a charge this year is embarking upon a fool's errand.