MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[AppletonRocks]

Watching now, where the hell are the fans 

[Iwufan]

How about Anderson, Marietti, Heyen and Overstreet?  Are their health issues "behind them?"  Can we expect full-out play from Overstreet and Anderson, some new contributions from Marietti backing up the 5 and Heyen getting any minutes?  An update please.

Good luck to the Titans vs. Franklin @The Shirk -- then the CCIW race opens @ EC -- and four straight road games for the Titans.  IWU vs. AC should be a real good one @AC.  An early test for the Titan road warriors at Carver.

Happy New Year -- already New Year's eve here in Asia.

IWU70

I think Overstreet and Anderson will be full strength on Thursday.  Marietti limited time.  Heyen not even practicing with varsity.  If he plays any this year it will be at the jv level or maybe redshirt again(?)

[middhoops]

Watching now, where the hell are the fans 

Must agree.  Hosting the #1 team in your barn?  New Years Eve must mean more in Illinois than it does in the frozen climes of northern New England.
Loving the game so far.  Go Cardinals!

[AppletonRocks]

Watching now, where the hell are the fans 

Must agree.  Hosting the #1 team in your barn?  New Years Eve must mean more in Illinois than it does in the frozen climes of northern New England.
Loving the game so far.  Go Cardinals!

Announcers appear knowledgeable,  no discussion about man to man pack defense yet. 

[middhoops]

Tillema for UWSP is as good as advertised.  Time for the Cardinals to pound the ball in to Gamble.  NC is down 2 but able to win this game.

[sac]

Wow, did Point ever get lucky with that defensive breakdown,  NCC got the absolute best look you could ask for in that situation.

[kiko]

Final from Bill Warden Court at Gregory Arena inside Merner Fieldhouse on the campus of North Central College in Naperville:

Point 66, North Central 64

Statlines:

Point
Tyler Tillema with 30, and he was as good as advertised
Trevor Hass with 20 pts on 8 of 11 from the field

North Central
Landon Gamble with 17
Jack Burchett with 15 and 11
Vince Kmiec with 14

North Central led for much of this, but struggled from the field in the final ten minutes as Point overtook them and then held on. 

Pat Roarke hit a trey with 10:54 left to give the Cardinals a 47-43 lead, but Point went on a 14-2 run over the next five minutes to take control.  The Cards whittled that eight-point deficit down and tied the game at 60, but Tyler Tillema hit a jumper with 2.7 seconds left to snap a tie, and then Tyler Sutton missed a wide-open three from the right baseline as the buzzer expired.

The Cards missed any number of bunnies and open looks in the last 12 minutes or so of this one, and closed the game by hitting only 3 of their last 12 shots (and missed 7 of 8 after Roarke's three).

North Central and Millikin both seem to have a whole bunch of variance from game to game in terms of their performance this year -- the Cards have some decent wins (Eastern Connecticut), some mystifying losses (Aurora, DePauw), and now this one where they didn't play particularly well, but still hung around with a very elite team and had a chance to win.  Point was probably a bit vulnerable coming into this one, but this wasn't the Cards playing over their heads to hang close.

My sense is the Cards will pull off a surprise or two once conference play begins, but will offset this with a faceplant or two in the other direction.

[AppletonRocks]

Final from Bill Warden Court at Gregory Arena inside Merner Fieldhouse on the campus of North Central College in Naperville:

I think you forgot to provide directional information--isn't it part of the Athletic Complex on the Southwest corner of the North Central Campus in Naperville, IL ?   

[iwu70]

Glad you NCC guys could find the location especially with the full name and details, but really too bad the Cards couldn't find the basket in the last 7-8 minutes.  They would have taken down the #1 team in D3.  Not sure if this means that SP isn't as good as we thought or that NCC is better than we thought?  Your thoughts?

Thanks for the updates on the health of various Titans.  Much appreciated -- save for the snide remarks.  Oh well, Happy New Year anyway.

IWU70

[veterancciwfan]

Observations on NCC/WSP game (shows the world how little I have to do-drive to N'ville in the snow): I've only seen Tyler Tillema (TILL i ma) play once, today.  He was hurt and did not play against IWU in the first game of the D3 tournament at Hope in 2012, a game IWU won by 8. He was a sophomore and was their best player then. Judging from one game, he is the leading candidate for D3 player of the year. His game is a lot like the other Tyler (the one from Wheaton), except he is quicker and has fantastic body control as he maneuvers in the lane to avoid charging fouls, which Peters occasionally is guilty of. Plus, he is a much better 3-point shooter with a soft touch. And just as good a passer as Peters. He made 2 no look passes driving the lane for layups. WSP plays great man to man defense, quickly switching and with practically no hand checking. It's obvious they have been very well coached on the new rule. WSP had a lot of fans and obnoxious one who yelled and screamed the entire game while NCC was at the line. He must have watched an Augie game at Shirk. WSP had no post game and didn't need it as Tillema provided post layups or got fouled trying for one. WSP is not a physical team but they are quick. Haven't seen the box but guess they got outrebounded. 6'3" senior guard Trevor Hass is also a very good player. Tillema and Hass account for 43 of their team average 83. Very deadly senior duo. Raridon was unusually cool and calm and spent most of the game seated. He drew up one of the best full-court game ending plays with only 2.6 seconds that gave NCC a great chance to win on a wide open corner 3 by Kevin Honn, soph. from Nequa Valley (coach's son I think). It wasn't close and I don't think he made a 3 the whole game. One more Tillema observation. He's a lefty but dribbles more with his right hand when setting up his drives to the lane. He's also is the leading rebounder with 5 per game. Too bad NCC couldn't finish as WSP appeared tired, especially during the first 10 minutes. The score was 12-12 with about 10 minutes left and NCC could have built a big lead. NCC did lead at half on a 50 foot banked shot by Pat Roarke who played well.

[iwu70]

Sounds like Point might have trouble vs. a big strong physical team with big post presence, like Augie or IWU.  And sounds like you have to find someone to slow down Tillema.  Is Point a deep team?  Other thoughts?

'70

[Titan Q]

I have watched a lot of UW-SP's last 3 games, and this Tyler Tillema kid is just amazing.  He's not only dominant from the guard spot throughout the game, but he seems to always make the big shot or big play down the stretch when needed.  I can't imagine there is a better player in Division III, all things considered, than Tyler Tillema.

Tillema was granted a medical redshirt for last season, when he got hurt.  He played in 9 games, which I would have guessed (without looking the rule up) was a game or two more than allowable for a medical redshirt.  Anyone know what the cutoff # is?  He had to have been right at.

If you haven't watched Stevens Point, do so sometime soon.  He's worth the time.

http://athletics.uwsp.edu/roster.aspx?rp_id=4348&path=mbball

[Titan Q]

IWU vs UW-Stevens Point would be a great matchup.  I don't see much separation at all there - not sure there is any. 

Two very different teams:

* IWU always seems to have 5 equal parts on the floor at any given time, with shots coming from basically any player at any time.  Stevens Point is led by two perimeter players - 6-3 PG Tyler Tillema (24.4 ppg) and 6-4 SG Trevor Hass (19.5 ppg, 38-69 3-point, .551).  Tillema has to be the best PG in D3, and Hass might be the best 3-point shooter.  That said, IWU has several players capable of getting hot and turning in a dominant performance...and Stevens Point always has 5 really good basketball players who can score on the floor at all times.

* IWU has much more inside presence than the Pointers.  Even though UWSP has 6-8/235 Clayton Heuer (6.7 ppg), a transfer from D1 UW-Green Bay, their offense doesn't revolve around getting him the ball.  The Pointers are not an "inside-out" team.  The Titans commit to getting the ball inside much more, and score a lot of traditional low post baskets between  6-10 Nick Anderson, 6-5 Victor Davis, and 6-5 Andrew Ziemnik.  Just very different offensive approaches.  I do think UWSP would have some trouble containing IWU down low over the course of a 40-minute game.  The Pointers do a really nice job of posting up Tillema on occasion - he is often bigger than his defender.  He has a nice post up game.


IWU and Stevens Point on a neutral court is a "pick 'em" for me.  Seems like we're on a collision course for this game at some point.

[Greek Tragedy]

Good to read some thoughts on the Pointers from you guys. I was trying to gage their win against NCC since they are a top tier team in the CCIW. But, I think most of you have the 4th behind IWU, Wheaton and Augie. Point was ripe for a letdown playing two tough games, one an overtime game, in Vegas, flying back and then having a long bus trip to NCC.

Yes, Point has always had trouble with post-dominated opponents since Kalsow/Maus days. We thought Heuer might be the answer, but he has really disappointed. Lots of focus on Tillema and Hass for good reason, but players like Ritchay, Richard and Ryf can step up as well.

[tomt4525]

I have watched a lot of UW-SP's last 3 games, and this Tyler Tillema kid is just amazing.  He's not only dominant from the guard spot throughout the game, but he seems to always make the big shot or big play down the stretch when needed.  I can't imagine there is a better player in Division III, all things considered, than Tyler Tillema.

Tillema was granted a medical redshirt for last season, when he got hurt.  He played in 9 games, which I would have guessed (without looking the rule up) was a game or two more than allowable for a medical redshirt.  Anyone know what the cutoff # is?  He had to have been right at.

If you haven't watched Stevens Point, do so sometime soon.  He's worth the time.

http://athletics.uwsp.edu/roster.aspx?rp_id=4348&path=mbball

The cutoff is 9...like you said, he played 9....so he was exactly at the cutoff.