MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[iwu70]

CCIW goes 3-0, all teams to round of 32, barely.

(CCIW 4-0 if you count the Carthage women, winning over St. Norbert.  Kuzmanic 25).

Tougher games now.  If IWU doesn't shoot it better at home tomorrow night, they will be done.  Webster's zone was superb. 

Hope Sodemann OK, seemed to tweak an ankle or a ham string.

IWU70

[Gregory Sager]

I thought that the bad calls basically evened out down the stretch. I admit that I didn't get a good look at that last illegal-screen foul that was called on Webster that more or less decided the game. And I understand that Webster fans are naturally going to point the finger at the zebras, because that's just human nature after a painfully close tournament loss. But I don't think that the Gorloks lost because of the refs.

I'm just stunned at how passive IWU was tonight. The Titans settled for 22-footer after 22-footer, no matter what defense Webster was playing. I don't want to take anything away from Webster, who rallied magnificently, won the hustle aspect of the contest, outrebounded Wesleyan, and got a game down to the wire that everyone who was not a Gorloks fan thought would be a walk in the park for the Greenies. But I have to be honest; I thought that IWU gave Webster a hand up off the mat by making a lot of poor offensive decisions.

[toooldtohoop]

Nice win for the Thunder tonight.  Nice to be the only team in blue and orange at Devos tomorrow night.

[Gregory Sager]

Nice win for the Thunder tonight.  Nice to be the only team in blue and orange at Devos tomorrow night.

I wouldn't be too smug about Hope losing if I were you. I watched some of that overtime game, and PSUB looks legit.

[izzy stradlin]

I really like Mike Schauer and think he is great for the Wheaton program, but I really wish he would alter his archaic reaction to foul trouble.

When a Wheaton star gets a 2nd foul at any point in the first half of a game, it's automatic that they sit until the 2nd half. There was a extended period of time in the 2nd half with around 14 min left when Peters, Teuscher and Haynes were all left on the bench in foul trouble (only 3 fouls each) while RHIT got back in the game. None of these players fouled out, so in the end, the only thing that limited their minutes (ie Brayden Teuscher to 17 min for the game) was the coach. 

I know it's conventional wisdom to try to avoid foul trouble using the bench but it's wrong.  Coaches do it to varying extents and Mike is on the conservative end of the spectrum.  Any coach who does this is voluntarily imposing the penalty that he is trying to avoid, when there is no guarantee the penalty will otherwise need to be enforced. 

A good article on the control fallacy of benching players in foul trouble:

http://theoryclass.wordpress.com/2010/04/27/foul-trouble/

Or here is an ESPN blog that summarized it:

http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/11656/the-fallacy-of-foul-subs-explained

Some coaches have started to catch on to this and eventually I think they all will. 

[USee]

Nice win for the Thunder tonight.  Nice to be the only team in blue and orange at Devos tomorrow night.

I wouldn't be too smug about Hope losing if I were you. I watched some of that overtime game, and PSUB looks legit.

At least the Thunder get to host tomorrow night now! So much for a DeVos sell out.

[Gregory Sager]

Oh, I'm not discounting at all the "Phew!" factor that comes from not having to deal with 3000+ hostile fans in DeVos tomorrow. I'm just saying that, if you're a Wheaton fan who thinks that the road ahead has been nicely snowplowed for your benefit by PSUB, you might be in for a nasty case of be-careful-what-you-wish-for tomorrow night.

[Titan Q]

I'm just stunned at how passive IWU was tonight. The Titans settled for 22-footer after 22-footer, no matter what defense Webster was playing.

I agree.  Once up 18, the Titans just did not attack Webster's zone at all.  They just settled for 3-point shots. 

IWU got 4 huge free throws for their two captains.  Down 1 with 0:43 to play, Andrew Ziemnik went 2-2.  And of course down 1 with 0:09 to play, Dylan Overstreet went 2-2.

Webster was great tonight - the Gorloks have a ton of talent and just made some huge plays.

After the last two home games it will be interesting to see what the Titans do tomorrow night vs the #5 team in the country.

[USee]

Oh, I'm not discounting at all the "Phew!" factor that comes from not having to deal with 3000+ hostile fans in DeVos tomorrow. I'm just saying that, if you're a Wheaton fan who thinks that the road ahead has been nicely snowplowed for your benefit by PSUB, you might be in for a nasty case of be-careful-what-you-wish-for tomorrow night.

Looked to me like PSUB was the better team.   I am sure Wheaton took note.  They won't be surprised tomorrow night. 

[GoPerry]

Oh, I'm not discounting at all the "Phew!" factor that comes from not having to deal with 3000+ hostile fans in DeVos tomorrow. I'm just saying that, if you're a Wheaton fan who thinks that the road ahead has been nicely snowplowed for your benefit by PSUB, you might be in for a nasty case of be-careful-what-you-wish-for tomorrow night.

Looked to me like PSUB was the better team.   I am sure Wheaton took note.  They won't be surprised tomorrow night. 

I sure don't at all feel smug about facing PS-Behrend instead of Hope at home; mostly because I don't know a thing about PS-Behrend.  I'm hoping the Thunder coaching staff does or can do some good cramming with whatever they saw watching the game tonight.  In the 'better the devil you know' sense, Hope would've been easier to prepare for.  They should not feel any overconfidence in facing a 4 loss team about which they know very little except that they beat the Dutchmen on their own court.  WCs first point of strategy should be to make some free throws.

[iwu70]

I think without Vic Davis' strong second half, the Titans would have gone down to Webster.  He played tough, hit key FTs as well, and had a big trey at a key moment.   

Amazing to me that Webster could out-rebound IWU.   Shouldn't happen.

I agree the Titans looked very passive, even confused at times, against Webster's excellent zone.

Better sort it out fast, as St. Norbert is a very solid good team.  OWU gave them a pretty good fight, but St. Norbert the better teams at the end.  Ceroni looks very good, others too.

'70

[Gregory Sager]

I really like Mike Schauer and think he is great for the Wheaton program

It was a good night to be Mike Schauer. Not only did his Wheaton team win and advance, but Gordon picked up the first-ever win for the CCC tonight by beating Babson.

[iwumichigander]

I thought that the bad calls basically evened out down the stretch. I admit that I didn't get a good look at that last illegal-screen foul that was called on Webster that more or less decided the game. And I understand that Webster fans are naturally going to point the finger at the zebras, because that's just human nature after a painfully close tournament loss. But I don't think that the Gorloks lost because of the refs.

I'm just stunned at how passive IWU was tonight. The Titans settled for 22-footer after 22-footer, no matter what defense Webster was playing. I don't want to take anything away from Webster, who rallied magnificently, won the hustle aspect of the contest, outrebounded Wesleyan, and got a game down to the wire that everyone who was not a Gorloks fan thought would be a walk in the park for the Greenies. But I have to be honest; I thought that IWU gave Webster a hand up off the mat by making a lot of poor offensive decisions.

Greg - I thought the calls evened out although it seemed to me a little bit different (ticky-tack calls) the last eight minutes.  On the illegal screen foul, I thought Webster got too aggressive trying to clear out for #23 (I think) as it was pretty clear Webster put the ball in his hands and he was taking it to the hoop.

Webster played tough, never quit and played 40 minutes.  You look at the stat sheet, cover up the points and Webster won that game on paper.  Credit goes to the Titans for not getting rattled tonight.  The Titans just found a way to win at the end.

[iwumichigander]

Oh, I'm not discounting at all the "Phew!" factor that comes from not having to deal with 3000+ hostile fans in DeVos tomorrow. I'm just saying that, if you're a Wheaton fan who thinks that the road ahead has been nicely snowplowed for your benefit by PSUB, you might be in for a nasty case of be-careful-what-you-wish-for tomorrow night.

And I will attest - there is a lot of snow to clear out You might just be able to hear the ball bounce tomorrow night.

[Viking Mike]

Great win for Augie at Whitewater!

Vikings shot extremely well (69%) and played great defense again.  St Thomas was very, very good

Would take a FG% of only 60% tomorrow night against the Warhawks.  Should be a great matchup!

Congrats Thunder and Titans on great wins!