MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Pat Coleman]

I'm fascinated by Augie's situation at the moment. Not so much last night's loss, as I don't think it's a terrible loss. As sac noted, the Dutch were a second-round D3 tourney team last season. Plus, Central was 3-0 going into the contest and was playing at home, and that seems like a good scenario for a possible upset.

But what fascinates me is Grey Giovanine's quote in Josh Smith's Around the Region column today on d3hoops.com:

"We're not the same team we were two weeks ago," Augustana head coach Grey Giovanine said, prior to Wednesday's 89-78 loss at Central. "We lost our best, most experienced front line player for the season. So the team that was ranked No. 1 in the country, well, that team isn't here anymore.

"Losing Kevin Schlitter for the year is a major blow, so we're really kind of having to redefine our team."

C'mon, Grey. Kevin Schlitter is your best front-line player? Is that why you weren't starting him and why you were only giving him fewer than 13 minutes of playing time per game this season? Heck, in his final game Schlitter got a whopping six minutes off of the bench in a 22-point thrashing of Rust. Who are you trying to kid, Grey? Everybody and his uncle knows that your best front-line players are your starters: PF Ben Ryan, SF Tayvian Johnson, and C Nick Hoepfner. Two years ago you had to play without Schlitter, and Augie finished 19-8 with what was basically a sophomore-dominated team that is almost identical in roster makeup to this season's senior-dominated team.

I'm not saying that Schlitter is chopped liver. He's a good player, and any CCIW team would be happy to have him. But Grey Giovanine hardly has to "redefine" his team in Schlitter's absence, since, as I said, the Doggies played almost the entire season two years ago with Schlitter out for the season. The Augie coach will almost certainly do the same thing that he did in 2012-13, which is to plug Alex Dziagwa and/or Brandon Motzel right into Schlitter's spot in the rotation and continue on as though nothing had happened.

I'm not trying to pile on Giovanine here, given the constant coat-throwing gibes that are starting to get a little redundant. But this really seems to me to be a less-than-honest response to the media regarding the as-yet-unexplained loss of Kevin Schlitter for the year. Perhaps some Augustana fan can point out what it is that I seem to be missing in Giovanine's comments, but it reads to me as a case of truth-bending poor-mouth on his part.

If we need to recast this, let me know ...

[iwumichigander]

Final from Pella, IA...

Central 89
#1-Augustana 78

Does this Augie loss bring the western Vikings down to the level of the Green Team, and put the 2 clubs on equal footing as far as the battle for CCIW supremacy goes?

I'd say we'll know what to make of IWU after the next two games - vs Chicago and @ Wash U.

We will know a lot more about IWU after those two games.  And, after Dec  10 when Augie goes up against UWW, we will know a little bit more about them.  I don't see getting too excited about Augie losing a road game against a good team which shot the lights out with threes.

[Gregory Sager]

If we need to recast this, let me know ...

That's yours or Josh's call to make, Pat. But it might not hurt to insert a point about Schlitter's reserve status and lack of playing time this season, as well as the fact that a much younger Augie team was good enough to make it to the CCIW tourney championship game two years ago with Schlitter out for all but the first six games of the season due to a torn ACL. I suppose that it depends upon how you feel about calling out a coach on his own words.

[Gregory Sager]

Final from the south side...

Wheaton 62
#17-Chicago 51

Wheaton getting it done with almost no help whatsoever from the bench, which accounted for only 3 points. 

That's not necessarily a big deal. I've seen Wheaton teams do plenty of damage over the years with little or no bench contribution. The conditioning that both Bill Harris and Mike Schauer have always demanded of their players has usually guaranteed that the Sonic Atmospheric Disturbance can outlast opponents if it has to. And Joel Smith, who had 24 of Wheaton's 46 bench minutes last night and went scoreless, has never been a guy who puts the ball in the bucket, anyway.

Wheaton can still score even if one of the double-figures guys has foul trouble or an off night. The only thing that a Wheaton fan needs to worry about when looking at that box score is whether or not Mike Schauer has an unproven player who can step up and score consistently if one of the main men gets hurt.

The important thing is that Wheaton got an impressive win last night at Ratner.

Meanwhile, nobody on CCIW Chat is talking about Elmhurst. Last night the 'jays cruised to a 90-71 victory over Loras in Dubuque. That makes the 'jays 6-0 on the year, and I'm starting to wonder how long it's going to take before someone who owns a d3hoops.com poll ballot takes notice of them. I know of one D3 coach who has seen this year's 'jays who raves about them.

EC plays Albion @ Albion on Saturday. That'll be an interesting game to watch, given the penchant of the Brits for mucking up high-powered offenses, and it should be a good barometer for Elmhurst.

[AppletonRocks]

Wow, opposing coaches getting spoken to by the pundits like they are grade schoolers.  Not a lot of manners in the CCIW I guess. 

[Greek Tragedy]

Central, Ia. won the IIAC and made the tournament last year at 21-8, beat a good St. Olaf team in round one and lost to Stevens Point by 5 in round 2.

[GoPerry]

Final from the south side...

Wheaton 62
#17-Chicago 51

Wheaton getting it done with almost no help whatsoever from the bench, which accounted for only 3 points. 

Meanwhile, nobody on CCIW Chat is talking about Elmhurst. Last night the 'jays cruised to a 90-71 victory over Loras in Dubuque. That makes the 'jays 6-0 on the year, and I'm starting to wonder how long it's going to take before someone who owns a d3hoops.com poll ballot takes notice of them. I know of one D3 coach who has seen this year's 'jays who raves about them.

EC plays Albion @ Albion on Saturday. That'll be an interesting game to watch, given the penchant of the Brits for mucking up high-powered offenses, and it should be a good barometer for Elmhurst.

Massey (4 CCIW teams in the top 12) rates the 'Jays an impressive #24, although a #301 SOS (games played) suggests the competition has been less than stellar.  But then EC has been beating them all rather handily- 20+ pt margins.  So all in all, agreed that they are definitely worth watching.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Final from the south side...

Wheaton 62
#17-Chicago 51

Wheaton getting it done with almost no help whatsoever from the bench, which accounted for only 3 points. 

Meanwhile, nobody on CCIW Chat is talking about Elmhurst. Last night the 'jays cruised to a 90-71 victory over Loras in Dubuque. That makes the 'jays 6-0 on the year, and I'm starting to wonder how long it's going to take before someone who owns a d3hoops.com poll ballot takes notice of them. I know of one D3 coach who has seen this year's 'jays who raves about them.

EC plays Albion @ Albion on Saturday. That'll be an interesting game to watch, given the penchant of the Brits for mucking up high-powered offenses, and it should be a good barometer for Elmhurst.

Massey (4 CCIW teams in the top 12) rates the 'Jays an impressive #24, although a #301 SOS (games played) suggests the competition has been less than stellar.  But then EC has been beating them all rather handily- 20+ pt margins.  So all in all, agreed that they are definitely worth watching.

WOW!  I would assume that Augie, IWU, and Wheaton are three of the 4, but who is the 4th if not Elmhurst?

[GoPerry]

Final from the south side...

Wheaton 62
#17-Chicago 51

Wheaton getting it done with almost no help whatsoever from the bench, which accounted for only 3 points. 

Meanwhile, nobody on CCIW Chat is talking about Elmhurst. Last night the 'jays cruised to a 90-71 victory over Loras in Dubuque. That makes the 'jays 6-0 on the year, and I'm starting to wonder how long it's going to take before someone who owns a d3hoops.com poll ballot takes notice of them. I know of one D3 coach who has seen this year's 'jays who raves about them.

EC plays Albion @ Albion on Saturday. That'll be an interesting game to watch, given the penchant of the Brits for mucking up high-powered offenses, and it should be a good barometer for Elmhurst.

Massey (4 CCIW teams in the top 12) rates the 'Jays an impressive #24, although a #301 SOS (games played) suggests the competition has been less than stellar.  But then EC has been beating them all rather handily- 20+ pt margins.  So all in all, agreed that they are definitely worth watching.

WOW!  I would assume that Augie, IWU, and Wheaton are three of the 4, but who is the 4th if not Elmhurst?

IWU #5, North Central #6, Augie #8, Wheaton #12

[iwumichigander]

Final from the south side...

Wheaton 62
#17-Chicago 51

Wheaton getting it done with almost no help whatsoever from the bench, which accounted for only 3 points. 

Meanwhile, nobody on CCIW Chat is talking about Elmhurst. Last night the 'jays cruised to a 90-71 victory over Loras in Dubuque. That makes the 'jays 6-0 on the year, and I'm starting to wonder how long it's going to take before someone who owns a d3hoops.com poll ballot takes notice of them. I know of one D3 coach who has seen this year's 'jays who raves about them.

EC plays Albion @ Albion on Saturday. That'll be an interesting game to watch, given the penchant of the Brits for mucking up high-powered offenses, and it should be a good barometer for Elmhurst.

Massey (4 CCIW teams in the top 12) rates the 'Jays an impressive #24, although a #301 SOS (games played) suggests the competition has been less than stellar.  But then EC has been beating them all rather handily- 20+ pt margins.  So all in all, agreed that they are definitely worth watching.

WOW!  I would assume that Augie, IWU, and Wheaton are three of the 4, but who is the 4th if not Elmhurst?

IWU #5, North Central #6, Augie #8, Wheaton #12

Mr. Ypsi could find that info on d3hoops.com but the euphoria of over 20,006 posts seems to have slowed him down.

[Klompen]

Central, Ia. won the IIAC and made the tournament last year at 21-8, beat a good St. Olaf team in round one and lost to Stevens by 5 in round 2.

But was a very senior-dominated team and was picked fifth in an eight-team league this year.

Central was a very senior dominated team last year and we were picked to finish 5th in the league.  Of course two years ago we finished in last place in the conference and were picked to stay down there and we won the conference title outright.  And Central started the year by setting a record for the most points ever scored by a Central men's basketball team in the first game of the season.  Coach Douma has done an excellent job of recruiting and coaching, may he stay at Central for many, many years. 

Augustana has a very talented team.  I thought they played a great game last night, Central just happened to play in the zone almost all night, as they did in that first game of the season.  Central happens to be a team on the rise and the fact that there are so many young players on the team that all have legitimate shots at playing time speaks very well for the future. 

Good luck to Augustana the rest of the way. 

[kiko]

Waaaaaaay too early in the season to rely on Massey.  The sample size will be robust enough later to provide something useful, but certainly not in early December.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

I'm fascinated by Augie's situation at the moment. Not so much last night's loss, as I don't think it's a terrible loss. As sac noted, the Dutch were a second-round D3 tourney team last season. Plus, Central was 3-0 going into the contest and was playing at home, and that seems like a good scenario for a possible upset.

But what fascinates me is Grey Giovanine's quote in Josh Smith's Around the Region column today on d3hoops.com:

"We're not the same team we were two weeks ago," Augustana head coach Grey Giovanine said, prior to Wednesday's 89-78 loss at Central. "We lost our best, most experienced front line player for the season. So the team that was ranked No. 1 in the country, well, that team isn't here anymore.

"Losing Kevin Schlitter for the year is a major blow, so we're really kind of having to redefine our team."

C'mon, Grey. Kevin Schlitter is your best front-line player? Is that why you weren't starting him and why you were only giving him fewer than 13 minutes of playing time per game this season? Heck, in his final game Schlitter got a whopping six minutes off of the bench in a 22-point thrashing of Rust. Who are you trying to kid, Grey? Everybody and his uncle knows that your best front-line players are your starters: PF Ben Ryan, SF Tayvian Johnson, and C Nick Hoepfner. Two years ago you had to play without Schlitter, and Augie finished 19-8 with what was basically a sophomore-dominated team that is almost identical in roster makeup to this season's senior-dominated team.

I'm not saying that Schlitter is chopped liver. He's a good player, and any CCIW team would be happy to have him. But Grey Giovanine hardly has to "redefine" his team in Schlitter's absence, since, as I said, the Doggies played almost the entire season two years ago with Schlitter out for the season. The Augie coach will almost certainly do the same thing that he did in 2012-13, which is to plug Alex Dziagwa and/or Brandon Motzel right into Schlitter's spot in the rotation and continue on as though nothing had happened.

I'm not trying to pile on Giovanine here, given the constant coat-throwing gibes that are starting to get a little redundant. But this really seems to me to be a less-than-honest response to the media regarding the as-yet-unexplained loss of Kevin Schlitter for the year. Perhaps some Augustana fan can point out what it is that I seem to be missing in Giovanine's comments, but it reads to me as a case of truth-bending poor-mouth on his part.

You might want to listen to what Coach Giovanine had to say about Schlitter on Hoopsville tonight. He was talking about him with me off air before we got on air... but he did indicate they have to look to maybe "redefine" their team that despite being a reserve player on the stat sheet, he was a key player on their team.

[USee]

The problem with that is he didn't say "...key player" he said "...best, most experienced" frontline player. I agree with Greg, that's just not credible given his role.

[USee]

Final from Pella, IA...

Central 89
#1-Augustana 78

Does this Augie loss bring the western Vikings down to the level of the Green Team, and put the 2 clubs on equal footing as far as the battle for CCIW supremacy goes?

I'd say we'll know what to make of IWU after the next two games - vs Chicago and @ Wash U.

Q,

Wheaton lost close at home to Wash U and beat U Chicago handily on the road. What do you make of them?