MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[iwu70]

LOL OurHouse.  Yes, I bet Ron Rose is happy Zman got a haircut too -- as Zman's style was not exactly in the mold of grooming etiquette of the Dennie Bridges' era and teams.  Maybe the Titans are all waiting to get on a big, big run and then get a little of that Red Sox furry face thing going. 

Gee, I thought that dead horse that Greg's moving pictorial was beating was named "Luke Johbson."

Off to The Shirk soon to actually watch some actual official season games of basketball that count.   Ripon-Aurora first, then Titans-Manchester. 

Pgraph piece today reports that Zimmer will dress, practice regularly all next week, but will not play this weekend.  Rossi is a go, today.

Oh joy.

IWU70

[unanimous22]

Oh man, Manchester looks like IWU should beat them by about 50 or so.

Gonna get ugly at The Shirk tonight.

[Iwufan]

Half Aurora up 42-31 over Ripon.  Aurora dominating inside.  Ripon did make a run late in half

[Iwufan]

Final aurora over ripon 83-75. Aurora too much underneath.  Ripon another run late but too far to come back

[Iwufan]

At half IWU 50-26 over Manchester.  Slow start by IWU but huge run.  Sodeman great half!  Rossi at least 4 three pointers.  Quick release.  Vic strong underneath.  Anderson much better at taking ball to rim. Overstreet good job at point leader on floor.  Z not much offense but huge in defense.  IWU depth is going to be a huge factor in games. Especially when zimmer and Nelson are playing. Much better defense with fewer fouls. 

[Iwufan]

Final IWU wins over Manchester  89-60 mostly jv team last part of half.

[Viking Mike]

Augustana looking strong in a 76-56 passing of U of Chicago.   

[Titan Q]

IWU 89
Manchester 60

http://www.iwusports.com/boxscore.aspx?id=2471&path=mbball

* Alex Rossi: 15 pts (5-6 FG, 4-4 3-pt)
* Pat Sodemann: 15 pts, 3 assists (3-6 3-pt, 4-4 FT)
* Nick Anderson: 11 pts, 6 reb (17 min)
* Victor Davis: 9 pts, 7 reb


I was at the Shirk Center tonight - nice to see the Titans play.  Takeaways from the IWU opener:

* The Titans are incredibly big and strong.  This is my 24th year of watching IWU basketball, and this is the strongest, most physical Titan team I have seen.  IWU will win some games this year simply because the opponent cannot physically compete with them.  There has been some serious weight room time put in by this group of IWU players...it's impressive.

* It was a great debut for transfer Alex Rossi.  In 15 minutes he scored 15 points, including 4-4 from 3.  As impressive as he looked shooting the ball, his defense turned a lot of heads tonight.  Rossi is 6-5 with a long wingspan, and is extremely quick laterally - he is a fantastic perimeter defender.  I'm sure there will be some ups and downs for Rossi as he settles in, but he is a huge addition for the Titans -- he is a big-time difference maker.

* 6-10 Nick Anderson looks ready to take a big step up this year.  Physically he looks great -- one of the guys who is just really big and strong out there.  He looks more confident and aggressive this year.  He could have a really nice year at the 5 for the Titans.

* Pat Sodemann looks more comfortable than he did last year.  He is a real steady, solid perimeter player for the Titans. 


Aurora, picked to win the NathCon, looked good vs Ripon.  I'm interested to see how the Titans do vs the Spartans tomorrow - AU is much better than the Manchester team IWU played tonight.

My first impression of the 2013-14 Titans is that their #2 ranking is very legit.  And that is without Brady Zimmer and D1 transfer Jordan Nelson.  IWU has a chance to have a big year.

[iwumichigander]

Made the trip from Michigan to see the Titans tonight at the Shirk.  Q has already posted a good summary. 

As impressive as Rossi was tonight, I would guess he still is not quite in basketball shape yet.  He has a very quick shot release and consistently stays squared up to the basket ready for a shot.  I'll stick my neck out a little bit, Mr Rossi is going to push somebody for a starting job by the time the CCIW schedule gets underway.

Very nice jobs by Bryce Dolan and Brian Nelms tonight.  Both valued and handled the ball well, did a nice job of distributing and give IWU some needed ball handling guard depth.

[Gregory Sager]

Augustana 76, Chicago 56

So much for the new rules cramping Augustana's style. Augie pastes what should be a pretty good Chicago team at Carver, as the Doggies had a lead in the twenties for most of the second half. Kevin Schlitter, back from a year lost to a knee injury, had 17 and 11 for the hosts, while Ben Ryan added 15 and 11 and Danielius Jurgutis chipped in 10.

Westminster (MO) 70, Elmhurst 56

The John Baines era gets off to a rocky start down in the Show Me State, as Westmo coughed up a pair of well-separated double-digit leads in the second half but still hung on to win. Nick Sanford sparked the 'jays with 17 and 10, Kyle Wuest added 14, and Kenny Payonk had a nice night with 13 and 6.

Millikin 89, Greenville 78

The Big Blue won the other half of the CCIW/SLIAC Challenge's first round, as sophomore T.J. Griffin turned himself into the front-runner for the inaugural CCIW Player of the Week award; he scored 34 points on 11-17 shooting from the field, including 6-9 from downtown. Tommy Pilackas added 16 for MU, while Tives Gardner contributed 10 points and Jaylon Owens added 10 boards.

North Central 100, Valor Christian 72

The Cards celebrated their annual first-round walkover in their tipoff tourney in high style, smashing Valor Christian on the boards to the tune of 47-29. Vince Kmiec had 29 and 9 with four steals, Jack Burchett had 20 and 7, Landon Gamble flew in from Luxembourg in time to garner 13 and 5, and new starter Kevin Honn had 11 and 6, while Brandon Williams dished out a gaudy 8 assists to only one turnover. North Central will have to play a real team tomorrow, though, as DePauw -- which won an equally-uncontested 85-39 game against Trinity International -- will be NCC's foe in the tourney championship game.

Wheaton 78, Blackburn 46

Wheaton smothered the Beavers defensively, holding them to less than 32% from the field for the night in the Pfund Tourney opener. Tyler Peters had 12 points and Michael Berg had a 10 and 11 double-double, as Mike Schauer somehow found enough time on the clock to squeeze 17 Wheaton players onto the court and into the box score, with 13 of them scoring. Wheaton will face a much stiffer challenge tomorrow as the Sonic Atmospheric Disturbance will take on what should be a pretty good Wittenberg outfit in the Pfund title game.

[Titan Q]

The Pantagraph's article on the IWU game last night...

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/basketball/men/titans-overcome-slow-start-to-roll-in-opener/article_591af0e4-4e83-11e3-b04b-0019bb2963f4.html

[Titan Q]

IWU faces Aurora tonight at 7:00pm.  I was impressed last night with the Spartans, who are picked to win the NACC.  Last year Aurora was 22-6, 14-2 in the NACC.  Aurora has several very talented players, led by (at least in my opinion) 6-5 Kalmon Stokes.  He looks like a star in the making.

Aurora, as always under Jim Lancaster, is a very up-tempo team.  They get it and go.  Tonight's game should be a very fast-paced affair between two very different teams.  IWU can run, and likes to run, but the Titans are more of a halfcourt, inside-out team than AU.  The Titans should have a big advantage inside over the course of 40 minutes.  IWU is a much more physical team than the Spartans.

Lancaster, very quietly, is one of the best D3 coaches around and will have his team ready to go tonight.  I'm interested to see how the Titans play tonight against a much better opponent.

(stats from last night)

Illinois Wesleyan (1-0)
G - Dylan Overstreet, 6-3 Jr (5 pts, 5 assists)
G - Pat Sodemann, 6-3 Jr (15 pts, 3 assists)
F - Andrew Ziemnik, 6-5 Sr (4 pts, 3 assists)
F - Victor Davis - 6-5 Sr (9 pts, 7 reb)
C - Nick Anderson - 6-10 Sr (11 pts, 6 reb)

G - Alex Rossi, 6-5 Jr (15 pts)
F - Mike Mayberger, 6-6 Sr (1 pt, 4 reb, 2 assists)
G - Bryce Dolan, 6-0 So (6 pts)
F - Eric Dorth, 6-4 Sr (3 pts, 3 reb)

Aurora (1-0)
G - Tyler Hall, 6-3 So (18 pts, 7 reb, 9 assists)
G - Nick Kladas, 6-0 So (5 pts)
G - Brandon Smith, 6-1 Jr (11 pts, 4 reb, 6 assists)
G - Kalmon Stokes, 6-5 So (18 pts, 4 reb)
C - Kyle Pilmer, 6-8 Sr (7 pts, 7 reb)

F - Scott Laskowski, 6-6 Sr (18 pts, 4 reb)
G - Sean Gant, 6-0 Jr (2 pts, 6 reb)
G - Gavin Walker, 5-11 Jr (2 pts)


I will be at the Nebraska/Michigan St football game today in Lincoln, and watching IWU vs Aurora on the stream...rooting for both Spartans to go down.


Video - http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/iwu.portal#

WJBC radio - http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/wjbc.portal#

[hopefan]

Correction to Greg Sager's scores... Westminster 70 - Elmhurst 66.....    somehow Greg's score said 70-56

[monsoon]

I was impressed with the renovations North Central did on the Hanger.  They did a good job with it and it looks/feels really nice.

[iwu70]

Thanks to all for reports on last night's play -- esp. the games at The Shirk. Great to see Q in the house and many other old friends and Titan alums/fans.  (Thanks to all who asked after my parents --IWU class of '40 and '43 -- who attended IWU games for 4+ decades, rode the fan bus to away games for years, travelled to Salem three times -- now 95 years old and in assisted living in Minneapolis, near my brother, IWU'64 -- I'm sure my Dad was watching the game on video streaming if he could, cheering the Titans on as usual!).

It was a great atmosphere for opening night of the season with a pretty good, loud crowd of about 1200.  Would love to see more students attending.  This exciting IWU team is going to be a good draw this season I would bet, esp. for the big games -- Wash U and against top CCIW teams.   Would love to see some games with 2600 again, and folks standing along the rail with all seats filled. 

My impressions:  Just IMHO:

Aurora is a good team and tonight's game will be a better, stiffer test for the Titans.  I was impressed with AC PG Tyler Hall -- who will be an interesting match-up tonight against Overstreet.  And, AC has a very good spot-up shooter at the 2, #22 Brandon Smith.  Several of AC's big men played pretty well, and Ripon had no size to answer.  Ripon is way down from teams we've seen up in Cheesehead land in earlier years.  Way down.  I was impressed with their effort twice, trying to get back in the game, getting the game back to single digits, but not having the horses to really get over the top vs. AC.  Very impressive overall performance by Ripon's guard #4, Kyle Loughrin.  If he plays like this tonight, he'll be on the All-tournament team.  Stay tuned.  I'd expect Manchester to win tonight over Ripon, though it could be a pretty close game.

On our Titans:

Love the new UNIs.  They look good -- and the team was excited and truly ready to play last night.  As Coach Rose put it to me after the game, "one down and 24 to go!"  Guess he has high expectations!

Rossi is "lights out," the real deal.  Was also impressed with his defensive effort, quickness out away from the basket, getting deflections, diving for balls, getting in passing lanes.  He's a match-up nightmare in D3 at the 2 or at the 3.  Gonna be really something when Zimmer is back, and Nelson is there playing as well --at the PG or 2. 

Yes, some difference in the officiating, but the Titans seemed to have adjusted to it all pretty well -- I think good coaching and preparation on this front.  Only player that has, had some trouble there is Eric Dortch, as he loves his aggressive style of D and will need to adjust further, keeping his hands off the offensive player. 

Good strong initial games by Vic Davis (great to see) and Nick Anderson (also great to see).  Congrats to Nick on winning the starting 5 spot.  Very happy for him as he has worked so so hard.  As Q has mentioned, these guys are STRONG and had several Manchester defenders just bouncing off them like ping pong balls.  Vic is so strong down low -- very awesome to see.  Nick played well, went to the rim, blocked shots (something the Titans have historically been very poor in doing), and got to the line.  If Nick each night plays aggressively, plays like this -- getting close to or over 10 and 10, the Titans are going to be tough.  Anderson is very different than Kevin Reed in passing and court vision, but he's so strong anchoring the bottom of the paint, defending the rim.   Zman and Overstreet had relatively quiet games on O but played well defensively and had few TOs.  Overstreet is the guy who stirs the pot.

Lots of guys off the bench played well -- got time -- all the way down to the end of the pine.  Felt Dolan and Nelms played particularly well, steadily, as has been mentioned.  Everyone on the floor for the Titans scored.

To me, the most solid, important performance last night was Pat Sodemann in the first half, getting the Titans going offensively and playing particularly well spotting up, running the floor, entering the ball to the post area etc.  I know it will be hard to keep Rossi out of the starting line-up at some point, but you gotta ask who do you dislodge?  Seems to me Ron Rose just keeps using this deep rotation with all these excellent guys coming off the bench, and mixes and matches them according to the opponent, the need at the time (for D or O), and rides who is hot, who is feeling it, who is energetic and healthy on the night. What a great situation to be in as a coach -- esp. with the selfless ethos that this team seems to have, by all accounts. 

Looking forward to seeing more of this team tonight, against a much tougher opponent.

Sounds like the CCIW did well last night, save for the EC loss.  Augie is going to be a lot better than many in this room think.  Again, IMHO.  Glad to hear Gamble's flight was not delayed by the snow in Luxembourg.   Guess if you are pre-season All-American, you'd better show up and play in the League where you were designated. 

Football, then more basketball today around the Shirk Athletic Complex, at The Shirk Center for Athletics and Wellness and Tucci Stadium at Wilder Field, plus soccer too at nearby Neis Field -- a truly nice day -- in the wind and rain. 

GO TITANS -- of all sorts and sports.

Q, great to see you @The Shirk last night.  If we get to Salem this year, I'll consider flying back from Hong Kong!   

IWU70