MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[carthage guy]

Huge loss for Carthage!!  Very lackluster effort until the last 15 min or so.....  Carthage actually had the ball with 20sec left and should have held for 1 shot instead Kelly went to the basket maybe got fouled no call.... ball went out on Elmhurst called the other way..late foul on Red Men was questionable too..

tough one to swallow.. but cant sleep walk on the road through first 25 min..  Officiating is always going to be touch n go

Much play better Saturday to compete with IWU

[USee]

Wheaton 84
NPU 63

Holy coaching adjustments! NPU scored 46 pts in the first half and led 46-39 at the break at King Arena .  NPU then scored exactly 7 points in the scone half in the first 14 min and trailed 73-53 with 6 and change left. 

Peters had his usual subpar 19. Teuscher and Demoss had 19 also.  Henry had 19 and Weaver 11 for The Park.

[veterancciwfan]

Mayberger made great decisions and really carried IWU at the start of their 2nd half run. NCC played well in 1st half, shooting 55% from field and 57% on 3s and trailed by 1. But IWU's depth provided the 2nd half push at around the 9 minute mark. Evan Fendley was spectacular for NCC in the 2nd half after playing only 2 minutes in the 1st half.

[sac]

A first hand account of the technical foul on Carthage with :02 to play would be very helpful.

[iwu70]

Important, solid win for the Titans at home vs. NCC.

Titan scoring:  18, 14, 12, 11, 10 -- you get the picture. Balance and unselfish play.  Agree that Mike Mayberger the difference-maker tonight.  Sodemann and Vic Davis also very strong games, getting to the basket, shooting FTs, and rebounding.  Zman strong in the last 5-6 minutes especially when getting to the 18, as the Titans top scorer.  Zman, Marietti and others all over Gamble, around Gamble, in front of Gamble, holding him to 7.  Coach Rose had an excellent defensive plan tonight to limit, contain Gamble.

Titans now 15-2, 5-1 with a big big road game up at CC upcoming.  Gotta beat Gramps.  Surprised CC went down to EC, but good for John Baines and his young tenure and team.  Every night in the CCIW, you gotta come to play. 

Congrats to the Titans -- keep it rolling guys.  8 games to go, then some real fun. 

IWU70

[iwu70]

You won't see too too many games this year where IWU shoots 20% from downtown, making only 2 treys overall and wins going away.  It was one of those slow, grind-it-out kind of games for about 37 minutes.  I give the Titans a lot of credit tonight for having patience in dealing with the NCC game plan to slow everything, use all the game clock and hope their shots, esp. from beyond the arc, were falling. 

Mike Mayberger again the key off the bench.

Go Titans!  -- get a big away win up at Kenosha now! 

IWU70

[Titan Q]

A few thoughts after watching the NCC/IWU video stream from down here in Dallas...

* North Central had a great gameplan - the Cards just completely slowed the game down and turned it into a grind-it-out, low possession game.  I can't recall seeing a team take so many shots in the final 1-2 seconds of the shot clock.

* IWU's 41 FGA is their lowest total of the season...and I wonder when the last time the Titans had 41 or fewer FGAs.  I can't believe this has happened many times in the last 20 years.

* The execution of NCC's strategy was helped by the fact the Cards made a bunch of tough shots at the shot clock buzzer - I can think of shots by Vince Kmiec, Tyler Sutton, Landon Gamble, and Brandon Williams in particular.  So not only was NCC running 35 seconds on almost every possession, but they were making enough shots to keep the pressure on IWU to score.

* The Titans struggled from beyond the arc, going just 2-10...with the 2nd 3, by Andrew Ziemnik, coming with 14 seconds to play in the game.  IWU had a difficult time getting separation in this one in part because they weren't knocking down 3's (credit NCC's D for a lot of this).

* IWU did a fantastic job on NCC's inside game.  The Titans made it really hard on Landon Gamble to get the ball in the low post, and then to score once he did.  Gamble was 0-1 from the field in the 1st half in 17 minutes - that's hard for a defensive team to accomplish.  In the 2nd half Gamble was a bigger presence, but still, he made only 3 field goals and finished with just 7 points.

* 6th man Mike Mayberger - 14 points, all coming when the Titans really needed them, in 14 minutes - was IWU's MVP last night in my mind.  Mayberger is just a really smart and solid player who does good things on the floor.  As a 6-6 player who can really shoot the 3 (21-45, .467), but also take the ball to the basket, he is quite a weapon off the bench for Ron Rose. 

* IWU did a great job pounding the ball inside to forwards Andrew Ziemnik (18 pts, 5 reb) and Victor Davis (10 pts, 4 reb).  NCC had a tough time guarding these two.

* As much as anything, IWU won this game at the FT line, going 20-22.  The Titans were very aggressive taking the ball to the basket and dumping it into the low post, and they made their FTs (Mayberger 5-5, Sodemann 5-6, Davis 4-4).  When IWU finally got separation in this game, it started by getting to the FT line.

* IWU ended up scoring 72 points on just 42 FGA (60% FG, 91% FT) - I'd have to think about that some more, but that seems like a great level of offensive efficiency.

* That 72-57 final doesn't do this one justice.  This game was really a grind and very tight.


http://www.cciw.org/custompages/CCIW_Links/MBasketball/Stats/1314/14iwum17.htm

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/basketball/men/titans-break-away-after-wearing-down-patient-north-central/article_e7cdb720-83eb-11e3-8fb1-001a4bcf887a.html

http://www.wjbc.com/common/page.php?feed=31&pt=Illinois+Wesleyan+outlasts+North+Central+in+defensive+struggle&id=110414&is_corp=0

[Titan Q]

Updated standings, 1/22
1. Augustana, 5-1
1. Illinois Wesleyan, 5-1
3. Carthage, 4-2
3. Wheaton, 4-2
5. Elmhurst, 3-3
6. North Central, 2-4
7. Millikin, 1-5
8. North Park, 0-6


+/- standings, 1/22
Illinois Wesleyan, +3
Carthage, +2
Augustana, +1
Wheaton, +1
Elmhurst, +0
Millikin, -2
North Central, -2
North Park, -3

+1 for road win, -1 for home loss

[Titan Q]

Big result in Elmhurst last night.  That was the first win by a current bottom four team over a current top four team.  That's the kind of game you have to win if you're going to compete for the CCIW title. 

[Titan Q]

A first hand account of the technical foul on Carthage with :02 to play would be very helpful.

Video - http://new.livestream.com/elmhurstcollege/basketballmens

The final 2 minutes or so starts at about 1:48:00.


The camera was not on the Carthage bench at the time the T was called, but based on how crazy Bosko went on the play before that (with Malcom Kelly taking the ball to the basket), I think there is a very good chance he earned the T.  The officials seemed to give Bosko a ton of slack on the play before - he could have been T'd up at that point.

On the play Bosko got upset about - Kelly's drive to the basket with about :15 to go - I don't see an obvious foul at all.  Certainly no undercut...just kind of a glancing swipe by the Elmhurst defender.

Also worth noting, Kelly could have been called for an offensive foul on the shot he made with 0:27 to go.  Carthage may have gotten a break on that one.

[mwunder]

A first hand account of the technical foul on Carthage with :02 to play would be very helpful.

I think it was the play at the 17 second mark that led to the technical.  Carthage had applied a 3/4 court man to man press for most of the second half.  As the Elmhurst guard crossed half court, he dribbled toward the Elmhurst bench.  Kelly left his man and came up from behind the Elmhurst guard and stole the ball pretty much right at half court.  He took the ball to the basket and was undercut / fouled / whatever, right in front of the Carthage bench.  No Call.  Scramble for the ball, goes out of bounds off of Elmhurst, again, right in front of the Carthage bench.  Elmhurst ball.  Bosko went a little crazy.  So much so that Steve D tried to pull him back to the bench.  Elmhurst inbounds the ball, takes it to the hole...missed shot, offensive rebound...questionable foul called against Carthage....Bosko loses it.  T.

[Titan Q]

Elmhurst inbounds the ball, takes it to the hole...missed shot, offensive rebound...questionable foul called against Carthage....Bosko loses it.  T.

It doesn't seem like there was anything questionable about the call with 2.2 to play.  Taylor Baxter seemed to get fouled on his shot (officials "let them play")...but they had to call a foul on Will Nixon's shot after the offensive rebound.

[mwunder]

Elmhurst inbounds the ball, takes it to the hole...missed shot, offensive rebound...questionable foul called against Carthage....Bosko loses it.  T.

It doesn't seem like there was anything questionable about the call with 2.2 to play.  Taylor Baxter seemed to get fouled on his shot (officials "let them play")...but they had to call a foul on Will Nixon's shot after the offensive rebound.

If you're not going to call the foul when Kelly took the ball to the basket with 12 seconds to play, you can't call it on the other end with 2.2 left.

[Titan Q]

If you're not going to call the foul when Kelly took the ball to the basket with 12 seconds to play, you can't call it on the other end with 2.2 left.

Well they didn't.  There looked to be more contact on Taylor Baxter's drive than there was on Malcom Kelly's.  So they swallowed the whistle on both.

But the Will Nixon shot...from the video that looked to be a no-brainer foul call.

[mwunder]

If you're not going to call the foul when Kelly took the ball to the basket with 12 seconds to play, you can't call it on the other end with 2.2 left.

Well they didn't.  There looked to be more contact on Taylor Baxter's drive than there was on Malcom Kelly's.  So they swallowed the whistle on both.

But the Will Nixon shot...from the video that looked to be a no-brainer foul call.

To quote a famous Beatles song, "I'll see it my way, you'll see it your way"

I can't watch the video at work so I'll take your word for it.  Either way, it's over and done with.  Carthage shouldn't have let this one get away, but they did.  A few stupid shots at the end of the game really cost them.  They can either fold their tents or they can use this as a catalyst for the rest of the season.