MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Titan Q]

Shorter Titan Nation: "It's okay because it's one of our guys doing it.  We can't possibly know what his motivation is for celebrating the successful completion of an activity that is done a half-dozen times in practically every D3 game played across the country each season, but I can assure you that this is lighthearted, jocular fun.  He's not embarrassing his institution by doing something that is more or less absent from the D3 game.  He's not showing disrespect for our proud basketball heritage, or its legacy of a-dunk-only-counts-as-two-points by not acting like he's been there before.  In fact, you're piling on him by calling him out for a long track record of this sort of thing.  You should only discuss unsportsmanlike behavior if it involves a rival coach chucking his sportcoat a few minutes into the game."

Informative, hard-hitting, and eye opening post, Kiko.  Obviously no one on these boards ever defends their own, so "Titan Nation" coming to the defense of the evil, all-about-himself, 3 Goggles wearing Railsplitter/Titan broke new ground.  Thanks to you we can all recognize that, deal with it, and find a way to move on...somehow.

Thank you.

[veterancciwfan]

Can't wait to see the new (this year) IWU motion offense in Memphis action. I've seen a lot of D3 b'ball over a long period of time, but IWU's offense is a thing of beauty. It may be somewhat difficult to detect if watching online. The interior passing (much of it bounce passing after a pick & roll) in the last 10 minutes of the Buena Vista game and last 2 games vs. Illinois College and MOSE was (can I overhype?)was very impressive.  :-*7 TOs & 21 assits (IC game) & 26 assists (MOSE game) indicates an offense that is functioning at a high level. Give Rone Rose credit. His results speak for themselves. This current IWU team can be very special.

[kiko]

Shorter Titan Nation: "It's okay because it's one of our guys doing it.  We can't possibly know what his motivation is for celebrating the successful completion of an activity that is done a half-dozen times in practically every D3 game played across the country each season, but I can assure you that this is lighthearted, jocular fun.  He's not embarrassing his institution by doing something that is more or less absent from the D3 game.  He's not showing disrespect for our proud basketball heritage, or its legacy of a-dunk-only-counts-as-two-points by not acting like he's been there before.  In fact, you're piling on him by calling him out for a long track record of this sort of thing.  You should only discuss unsportsmanlike behavior if it involves a rival coach chucking his sportcoat a few minutes into the game."

Informative, hard-hitting, and eye opening post, Kiko.  Obviously no one on these boards ever defends their own, so "Titan Nation" coming to the defense of the evil, all-about-himself, 3 Goggles wearing Railsplitter/Titan broke new ground.  Thanks to you we can all recognize that, deal with it, and find a way to move on...somehow.

Thank you.

Good to know that the guy who was second-on-the-pile when this topic flared up feels he is a good arbiter of what does and does not advance the conversation (whatever that means).  News flash, Bob: I couldn't care less whether what I post gives you the vapors because it is critical of one of your players.  If you wander over to the football board, you will see that I am equally willing to offer criticism of guys who wear Red and White.

It is intellectually dishonest for you to paint the comments on this topic as laddering up to "evil" -- the only poster who has offered up this adjective is you.  And if you think my comments are as narrow as stating your player is "all-about-himself", then you are missing the broader point.

I happen to think Illinois Wesleyan basketball is a truly special brand, with a legacy of tradition unlike that of 98% of the D3 community.

I can't speak for everyone, but much as I want to see the Sons of Warden take the Titans to the woodshed any time they play in basketball or any other sport, rather than 'no love lost', I have a tremendous respect (and envy) for their men's basketball tradition.  Some of their supporters will occasionally push the wrong button just as I'm sure North Central's do.  But I have a healthy admiration for the wonderful connection to the local community that they have, with the caravan of blue-hairs trekking across the state in support of the team, the high-fives for the kids as the team comes out for warmups, the sold-out atmosphere more often than not, and (most importantly), the rafters full of banners. 

Even with their recent success on the hardcourt, North Central is a johnny-come-lately when compared to the Titans' tradition.  I would love to see the Cards get to a similar place as time progresses.

I also happen to think that, while this sort of gesticulation may be ever-present in venues outside of D3, it is at odds with much of what makes IWU basketball special. 

You are of course welcome to defend/look past/rationalize it as you see fit.  (And others can take issue with it as they see fit -- see how that works?)  But if you see this only as dragging a kid through the mud, then you're ignoring the broader context.

[sac]

honestly, who the frick cares

[Hoosier Titan]

Note to anyone trying to follow IWU's game with Austin College:  The scoring is reversed on the live stats.  With 4:15 to go, IWU is leading 79-54. 

[Titan Q]

Final from Memphis:

IWU 85
Austin College 57

* Bryce Dolan: 21 points (7-12 3-point)
* Andy Stempel: 12 points (4-7 3-point)
* Dylan Overstreet: 10 pts, 6 reb, 6 assists
* Ryan Coyle: 11 pts, 4 reb
* Trevor Seibring: 10 pts, 7 reb
* Joel Pennington: 6 pts, 4 reb, 6 assists

* IWU: 24 assists, 18 3-pointers

http://iwusports.com/boxscore.aspx?id=2890&path=mbball

Bryce Dolan finished one 3-pointer short of IWU's single game school record (Mark Aubry, Korey Coon, Adam Dauksas), and the Titans finished one short of the all-time school record of 19.  As a team, IWU was 18-38 from beyond the arc.

IWU played without 6-8 C Mike Marietti (thumb) and guard Jordan Nelson (strep throat).

Good to see the Titans in person.  IWU's offense is really fun to watch -- just such great ball movement and so many shooters.

IWU plays Centenary tomorrow.

[Naperick]

Will Robert Parrish play for Centenary in that game?

[Gregory Sager]

North Park 90
Illinois C. 66

Juwan Henry: 23 pts, 12:2 a:to
Colin Lake: 15 pts, 5 stls
Michael Hutchinson: 15 pts
Jordan Robinson: 13 pts, 13 rebs
Garrett Gatz: 10 pts

NPU ran the Blueboys out of the gym today. Juwan Henry was fantastic. It's been a very long time since I've seen a Viking notch double digits in the assist column. He picked up many of them in transition, but he also did a great job of seeing the floor and showing good judgment in the halfcourt. The two freshmen stars, Colin Lake and Jordan Robinson, were very solid today as well, and the Vikes got good minutes out of role players such as Michael Hutchinson, Garrett Gatz, and Trevor Pye. The only damper for the game was the ugly 10-20 FT shooting by the Park.

IC's not really much more than a speed bump for CCIW teams, but the Vikings took care of business and beat them authoritatively this afternoon.

[sac]

Note to anyone trying to follow IWU's game with Austin College:  The scoring is reversed on the live stats. 

. . . probably Jordan Nelson's fault  . . .

  I see what you did there.

[mr_b]

North Park 90
Illinois C. 66

NPU ran the Blueboys out of the gym today.

I listened to the entire game this evening -- it sounds like the Vikings bring a lot of quickness and are playing better defense than they have in the past.

[iwu70]

Congrats to the Titans on another awesome offensive display, trey shooting exercise.  The Titan O really coming into focus fast.  So much talent to throw out there on the floor.  Perhaps Nelson can just rest until the CCIW season comes along!?    We would want his gestualations to upset anyone here on the board. 

Looking forward to some great games in the CCIW season.

IWU70

[Gregory Sager]

I should've thought about it some more before posting that I haven't seen a Viking dish out double-digit dimes in a long time. Zach Cassita doled out 11 of them (10 in regulation) in the overtime win over UW-LaCrosse two seasons ago.

I should've said that I can't remember the last time I saw a Viking come up with a dozen assists in a game. I'll have to look that one up.

The best thing about Juwan Henry's floor game tonight, as far as I'm concerned, is the fact that he only turned the ball over twice while still serving up a dozen assists. A couple of years ago I stopped listing mere assists in game reports and changed it to assists:turnover ratio. To me, that's a much better indication of what sort of a floor game a player had than merely listing assists; sometimes a player can come up with a gaudy number of assists in a game but still turn the ball over a lot, and I don't think that that's the kind of performance that's worth acknowledging.

I listened to the entire game this evening -- it sounds like the Vikings bring a lot of quickness and are playing better defense than they have in the past.

The Vikings certainly have some extremely quick players. The defense is getting better, but there's still plenty of room for improvement in that department. But, hey, if you can score 90 points in spite of only making half of your free throws, it's not as though you've got to play an A+ game on defense in order to win.

I also love the fact that the Vikings outrebounded the significantly bigger Blueboys by five tonight, and had four more offensive rebounds than did IC. A lot of that was Jordan Robinson's doing. That kid is a dynamite talent.

[AndOne]

Final from WI:

North Central 63
Stevens Point 56

In Stevens Point, the Cardinals led virtually the entire game, building a 19 point lead just before halftime to take down the 11th ranked Pointers by a 63-56 score. Charlie Rosenberg led the Cardinals with a double-double of 17 points and 10 rebounds. Jayme Moten was next high with 12 followed by Kevin Honn with 9 points and 8 rebounds. Jack Burchett, Evan Fendley, and Erwin Henry all tallied 6 points. NCC won the battle on the boards by a whopping 43 to 25 total, and shot 53.5% from the field compared to 32.3% for UWSP who had only 15 points at the half. The 4 hour bus ride home will be a happy one.

[Gregory Sager]

That's a nice win over UWSP by the Cardinals.

Augustana trounced Knox, to no one's great surprise, 86-61. Hunter Hill had 19, Nick Hoepfner had 17 and 9, and Danielius Jurgutis contributed 14 for Augie. Ben Ryan started but didn't score a single point while going 0-2 from the field, which makes me wonder if it's an injury issue or a doghouse issue for him.

Carthage had to hold off a scrappy Banana Slugs team, as the Red Men took down the hosts of the UCSC tourney in overtime, 54-53, in that tourney's consolation game. Reese Herth led Carthage with 14.

[Gregory Sager]

The CCIW now sits at 28-9 (.757) on the season.