MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Captain_Joe08]

Wisconsin Lutheran beats North Park 89-83. Aaron Weaver led the Vikings with a game high 25 points.

[bopol]

Wow... calling out a coach of a school of just hundreds... on an athletic budget of pennies... is bush league. Did it ever occur to you that in the world of Crossroads, knowing what that school does isn't a priority? In fact, they probably did know the system that school runs, but probably didn't know until last year that they like to take teams like Crossroads and use them mockingly in an attempt to break a record or get headlines... but once they did know that, which they did, they also realize they need the money so they still take the money that school paid them. By the way, when is the last time ANYONE heard of a Division III school paying another school to come play them that wasn't related to a tournament (i.e. to help offset hotel and transportation costs)? Division I schools pay other Division I's along with Division II and Division III schools to come to their arenas all the time - but do you see them use a lesser opponent in those cases to try and break records? In fact, most of the starters in those games are on the bench most of the game.

Blame the opposing coach... that takes some guts. It is about the student-athlete experience, even for a school that isn't in Division III... and that school decided to use that lack of experience and ability to humiliate them.

I'm calling out the whining.  If you are going to whine about it afterwards (which is what the AD did in the Doyle article), then you should have prepared for it beforehand or attempt to make an adjustment during the game.  They did neither.  If the Crossroads guys would just say, "Yeah, we knew they would play this way; we thought we could outscore them because we'd get a layup every time we got the ball and hope we had enough defensive rebounds to win, but it didn't work out that way," I'd be cool with that.

But, if you feel like the opposing team is trying to embarrass you, you, as a coach, have tools at your disposal to make that not happen.  If Taylor doesn't score 100, it's not a story.  So, stick someone to Taylor for the whole second half.  Play four on four on offense (19th century basketball).  Make him work to get the ball, much less take a shot. 

You see, the difference here is that I don't see it as Grinnell embarrassing lesser competition as you do.  Grinnell played their game. I see it more like Crossroads let it happen and then wanted to claim they were embarrassed by Grinnell afterwards.  That's what I'm poking fun at.

Or maybe Crossroads didn't see it that way, and it's just the media making it out to be that way.  The media seems really upset by this for some reason.  Like it really gets under their skin.  How unjust it was.  Simply the most evil thing in college sports ever.  I guess it gives everyone in the media a chance to act holier than thou, the pure saints of amateur athletics, passing judgement with lightning bolts and nasty messages on internet boards to those who don't recognize their wisdom on such matters and dare disagree with them.

By the way, nice rant. 

[WheatonFanChris]

The fact Loras lost to Rockford at home makes their win over the Wheaties even that much more remarkable.
According to the play by play, Tyler Peters turned the ball over with 35 seconds left and Wheaton up by 1.

The turnover by Peters was a charging foul that negated a basket. Like it was said above, the video wasn't good enough to have an opinion on if it was a good call or not.

[Titan Q]

Yikes, we already have NCC, Wheaton, and Augie with unexpected losses this season. 

I personally don't consider the Augustana loss too "unexpected."  That was preseason CCIW #3 @ preseason WIAC #3 -- going in, I saw Platteville as a 2-3 point favorite.  I was surprised Augie got down as much as they did early in the game, but the Vikings came all the way back to tie up up in the 2nd half and turned it into a very tight game.  While I think this is a game you win if you're ready to win the CCIW, I don't think the loss was unexpected.

The Wheaton loss @ Loras was definitely unexpected.  Loras was 8-17 last year, and 3-11 in the IIAC.  Loras was picked 3rd in the IIAC this year, and opened the season with a home loss to Rockford.  On paper, I figured Wheaton was a 15-20 point favorite.  IWU plays at Loras Saturday so we'll see how that plays out.

The North Central home loss to DePauw was also very unexpected.  The Tigers are picked 6th in the NCAC. 

The bottom line with these losses is that all 3 will hurt quite a bit come NCAA tournament selection/seeding time.

[John Gleich]

Looks like Wheaton got caught in the first game of a foul fest -- 5 WC players had 4 fouls.  Loras shot lots of FTs.

'70

It looks like that might be more of a product of Wheaton's shorter bench... Wheaton had 7 guys who played 17+ minutes while Loras had 9 that played 10+ minutes. That's extra guys to "spread the fouls around" but it also means that Loras was, on average, more fresh than Wheaton.

Interestingly, though the foul counts were high, they were pretty even. Loras had 24 and Wheaton had 23. Wheaton shot 29 FT's while Loras shot 23. Wheaton actually shot a better percentage from the field, but Loras got more shots, largely because of Wheaton's 18 turnovers (to just 10 for the Duhawks).

The turnovers were the really glaring discrepancy between the two teams when looking at the box score.

[iwu70]

Have to agree with Q on these early, rather unexpected losses.  Not a very strong start for the CCIW overall.

IWU70

[Iwufan]

Story on Loras-Wheaton game. 

http://www.duhawks.com/article/1099.php

[Titan Q]

6-8 C Kevin Schlitter did not play last night vs UW-Platteville...

http://athletics.uwplatt.edu/sports/mbkb/2013-14/Stats/uwpmbb03.htm

Wonder what the deal is there?

[jtsmith231]

Loras lost at home to Rockford a few days ago.

The fact Loras lost to Rockford at home makes their win over the Wheaties even that much more remarkable.

For the record, Loras' first game was a road loss to Rockford, not at home. Doesn't change the fact that last night's win was pretty unexpected, to say the least!

http://www.duhawks.com/schedule/0/1.php

[Titan Q]

Loras lost at home to Rockford a few days ago.

The fact Loras lost to Rockford at home makes their win over the Wheaties even that much more remarkable.

For the record, Loras' first game was a road loss to Rockford, not at home. Doesn't change the fact that last night's win was pretty unexpected, to say the least!

http://www.duhawks.com/schedule/0/1.php

Thanks...my bad.

[toooldtohoop]

Well it appears that we don't have to worry about the Thunder peaking too early this year.  Tough trip to Ohio this weekend.  and soon a tough trip to Michigan.  Hope they get some things figured out quickly.

[Titan Q]

Final moments of the Wheaton/Loras game...

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

That sequence starts with Wheaton up 1.

[toooldtohoop]

Final moments of the Wheaton/Loras game...

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

That sequence starts with Wheaton up 1.

Loras was solid from the line all night. 

Peters had two good chances.  The first a bit out of control, but the second appears to have beat the clock.   

[cciwrabblerouser]

Grinnell.  Not much else to say about the coach's attitude or approach, but I will say this.  After last year's debacle against a team from Faith (Christian/Baptist/whatever), I contacted the AD and the head coach at Grinnell.  Both defended the basketball program and said they have no problem in embarrassing an outmanned opponent. 

I say that Grinnell needs to re-read the principles that govern Division III.  Isn't there anything in there about respecting your opponent and displaying sportsmanship?  I guess maybe these principles don't apply any place where illiterate and/or insensitive people are running the circus.

The only alternative is for schools to not schedule Grinnell in hoops.

[Hardwood]

6-8 C Kevin Schlitter did not play last night vs UW-Platteville...

http://athletics.uwplatt.edu/sports/mbkb/2013-14/Stats/uwpmbb03.htm

Wonder what the deal is there?

.

Flu bug