MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Titan Q]

Thinking of our friend Dave Lawrenz ("Wheaton C") today...he would have loved this gameday.

[Kovo]

P.S.  On baseball, just seems to me that CCIW schools should not be playing baseball before "Spring break" -- and most of the schools don't start until much later.  Schools have choices -- and this early start clearly puts the emphasis on travel, on the athletics more than on the student-athlete.  One can compete and have a very reasonable schedule of a baseball season by starting in mid- March or early April -- playing through May.  Do these students really need to play a 40-45 games schedule plus possible post-season play?  It's too much.  IMHO.

If they want to get better, which most of them do, then yes it's a great thing. Baseball players get royally screwed by the weather living in the midwest or northeast and are so far behind the southern kids by April that they should jump at opportunities like this.

I don't think schools like Stanford, Oregon St, Cal or B10 schools have a problem with the travel and still getting their school work in so I see no reason to believe a CCIW school would either.

Far behind the Southern schools?  That goes back to years and years of extra games. 

I just returned home from coaching my 11-12 year old little league baseball team's practice in the 85 degree Florida heat.  And, yes our season starts in February and runs through July for All Stars.  Our Fall season is September through mid December.  Last year my son (at 10 years old) played 45 Little League games, but the number is so low because he plays All Stars but not travel.  The kids at 11/12 years old playing travel in Florida play 70-80 games a year since it is year round.

So is 40-45 games too much for a college kid?  I don't think so, and anything less----how can you compete?

[bbfan44]

SCHEDULE CHANGE

For any interested parties, Elmhurst has changed the start times of both the women's and men's games vs North Central this coming Sat., 2/22.

The games were originally scheduled for 5:00 and 7:00 respectively. However, at some point Elmhurst changed the start times to 2:00 for the women's game, and 4:00 for the men's as they are evidently entitled to do.

I printed out the Composite Schedule from the CCIW website back on 10/7/2013 and it shows the NC at Elmhurst game with a 4PM start time....fwiw.

An interesting sideline to the changes was the fact that Elmhurst apparently failed to advise anyone at North Central of said changes, which were luckily discovered by accident only late yesterday afternoon. It seems one of the NCC men's ass't coaches was on the phone with an Elmhurst ass't to discuss the possibility of a men's JV game prior to the women's/men's varsity games Sat. When a JV time of 2:00 was suggested, the EC response was along the lines of "we can't do that because the women's game is at 2:00 and the men's at 4:00." This came as quite a surprise to both of the NCC head coaches who were in at the time as neither had heard anything about any change being made to the original 5:00 and 7:00 start times, and who were prepared to show up in accordance with those times.

Whatever the cause of the Elmhurst miscommunication  , the new start times have now been confirmed for 2:00 for the women, and 4:00 for the men, and the two school's web sites have been adjusted to show the changes.

Seems like a double helping of good luck. Now, besides showing up at the newly scheduled times, any interested EC and NCC fans will be able to attend the IWU @ Wheaton battle @ 7:00. 

Elmhurst has been playing 2 and 4 pm Saturday doubleheaders for the past 2 seasons. The time of this game was never changed. All anyone at NCC had to do was pull up the ECBluejays website and check the schedule. Not sure how Elmhurst "miscommunicated" this information.

Earlier in the season I believe EC had a 7:00 start time posted on its site or in some other way communicated a 7:00 start. Otherwise, how did not only North Central, but also the CCIW and D3Hoops get the impression the game was at 7? All three websites listed the game as starting at 7:00. Additionally, the NCC woman's coaching staff was under the impression that their game was to begin at 5:00. 

[bbfan44]

oops...
I printed out the Composite Schedule from the CCIW website back on 10/7/2013 and it shows the NC at Elmhurst game with a 4PM start....fwiw.

[monsoon]

At the half:

IWU  44
Wheaton 35

[Mr. Ypsi]

At the half, IWU 44, Wheaton 35.  This game determines the location of the conference tourney.

Jordan Nelson is sinking threes that many NBA players would spurn.

[iwu70]

Really a great game at Wheaton.  Two such good teams.  I like the pace and the score favoring IWU so far.  Nelson and Davis had big first half performances.

IWU70

[iwu70]

What a great game, living up to all the expectations and hype.  I think one of the best quality D3 games I've seen in a long long time.

IWU wins 97-88, getting to 78 much easier than I expected.

Overstreet a monster game overall, 21
Davis, equally superb, perhaps his best game as a Titan, 19 and 10
Zman 16
Nelson 18

Tyler Peters, what can you say, a great performance at 27 and 8
Teuscher also superb, 19

Key to the game is the IWU depth, IMHO.  I'm pretty sure the Titans won the RB and TO battle, shot FTs pretty well, esp. in the first half gaining a 9 point lead.  Wheaton got within 3 but couldn't get over the hump, over the excellent tenacious IWU defense.

Warm congrats to Coach Rose and all the Titans on the consecutive outright CCIW championships.  Titans 22-3, 12-2 and hosting the CCIW tournament next weekend at The Shirk.  All good.

Great game -- thanks to both teams.

IWU70

[titanfan]

Go Titans!  What a great game.  Both teams played really well and made for a very exciting game.

[kiko]

Elsewhere:

At Foster and Kedzie:

Augustana 91, North Park 61


At Faganel:

North Central 80, Elmhurst 76


North of the Border:

Carthage 79, Millikin 64

[Titan Q]

Illinois Wesleyan 97
Wheaton 88

http://www.cciw.org/custompages/CCIW_Links/MBasketball/Stats/1314/mwhe25.htm

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/basketball/men/overstreet-titans-top-wheaton-for-outright-cciw-title/article_85052e1e-c0c3-5cfe-a7a1-5a1ceba14551.html

* Dylan Overstreet: 21 pts, 3 reb
* Victor Davis: 19 pts, 10 reb
* Jordan Nelson: 18 pts, 5 assists
* Andrew Ziemnik: 16 pts, 4 reb

* Tyler Peters: 27 pts, 8 reb, 6 assists
* Brayden Teuscher: 19 pts, 2 reb, 2 assists
* Caleb DeMoss: 15 pts, 6 reb, 2 assists
* Nate Haynes: 11 pts, 4 reb


Considering what was on the line and how hostile the environment was at King Arena, I thought the Titans were just outstanding this evening.  IWU controlled the game and played with a ton of composure when Wheaton made their run late in the game.  The Titans shot .547 on the road against a very good defensive team.

I thought Victor Davis was IWU's player of the game.  He was great in the low post, on the defensive boards, and went 8-8 from the FT line.  Davis played with a lot of poise and really looked like a veteran who had been there before.

Jordan Nelson's 11 points in the first half - including 3 very long 3-pointers - were key in establishing IWU's 9-point halftime lead.  He is a great weapon off the bench for IWU.

Dylan Overstreet was a great floor general as always, but once again provided a big offensive spark.  Andrew Ziemnik was a tough matchup for the Thunder and also played very well.

Fun game to watch - King Arena was jumping.

[bopol]

Good last game for Carthage beating Millikin by 15 and it really wasn't that close.

Balanced attack for the Redmen tonight, with Marlon Senior (19 pts; 4 rebounds), Malcom Kelly (18 pts, 6 rebounds), Kevin Sykes Jr (14 pts), Donte Logan (10 pts; 8 assists) and Reese Herth (10 pts) all in double figures.  Deavis Johnson (17 pts; 15 rebounds) played a really nice game for the Big Blue and looked like future All-CCIW material.  I was also impressed with Tives Gardner.  It wasn't the best season for the Big Blue, but there are some nice pieces to build on.

And I'll throw out some props for Senior Adam Lewis.  Adam has been on the squad for a few years, but really doesn't play and Bosko started him tonight.  He gave a great effort, with 2 pts, 3 rebounds and 2 assists in 9 minutes (doubling his season total in minutes) and gave the team nice energy. 

I'm looking forward to next week's action.  I know beating IWU again will be a challenge, but the Redmen have competed well all year.

[Titan Q]

Huge round of applause from this fan to this nucleus of Titans.  After a 13-1 season last year, they finished 12-2 this season.  They won the CCIW by 2 games in consecutive seasons.

In the last two years, this group has never been upset by a bottom 4 CCIW team, and they have never been blown out by a contender.  They show up absolutely every single night out, and play incredibly hard.  Their blue collar, team-oriented approach is fun to watch.

[Titan Q]

I guess all 3 won't make it, but I think IWU has 3 players who deserve to make the 1st Team All-CCIW on a 12-2 conference champion:

- Andrew Ziemnik: 11.9 ppg, 5.8 rpg
- Victor Davis: 11.8 ppg, 7.1 rpg
- Dylan Overstreet: 10.1 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 4.1 apg

These guys just make big plays in big moments.

Jordan Nelson should give the Titans 4 players on the group of 15 - 11.8 ppg, 34-78 3-point (.436).  Nelson is 1 point away from being IWU's leading scorer in CCIW play.

These 4 have been great for Ron Rose and the Titans.

[iwumichigander]

Congratulations to Coach Rose and the Titans.  Terrific team win tonight. Q has already noted the terrific effort by Davis, Overstreet and Nelson.  What stood out for me, IWU won this game with the shot clock off - 34 made free throws  .791%