MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[mr_b]

Congratulations to the entire North Park team on a huge victory against another quality opponent!

[titanfan]

Tough loss for the Titans but great win for NPU.  The Vikings are definitely a force to be reckoned with in the CCIW!

[shepherd]

So its North Park at North Central for the fourth tournament spot?

[Titan Q]

So its North Park at North Central for the fourth tournament spot?

Yes.

[GoPerry]

Way to go 'Park!  One of those where I guess you'd call it an upset, but probably few of us (including IWU posters) are really that surprised - even after the bad showing (or no-show) at Elmhurst on Wednesday.  It'll be interesting which NPU team we'll see a week from tonight?  If they can pull it off and squeeze into the 4th spot, they'll be very dangerous in the conference tournament - a team nobody will want to play in a one and done situation.

Wheaton playing w/o injured Murad Dillard tonight lose at Tarble, 78-66.  Badly outrebounded 45-26, (-13 offensive glass) basically the story.  First losing season since '04-05 season when Kent Raymond took his season off.  Hoping for a nice finale vs Augie in a week.

Speaking of which, hasn't Augie basically clinched the #1 seed and hosting the CCIW tourney in Rock Island?  Even if they go down at King Arena, don't they still have the tie-breaker over Elmhurst(twice beaten) and IWU(who has already lost to EC once)?

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

FYI - Regionally rankings will come out on Thursday next week due to the planned stat computer outage (upgrade) at the NCAA headquarters this weekend. Thus all committee calls pushed back a day and as a result rankings will be posted Thursday this week. Game info still through Sunday's games.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Way to go 'Park!  One of those where I guess you'd call it an upset, but probably few of us (including IWU posters) are really that surprised - even after the bad showing (or no-show) at Elmhurst on Wednesday.  It'll be interesting which NPU team we'll see a week from tonight?  If they can pull it off and squeeze into the 4th spot, they'll be very dangerous in the conference tournament - a team nobody will want to play in a one and done situation.

Wheaton playing w/o injured Murad Dillard tonight lose at Tarble, 78-66.  Badly outrebounded 45-26, (-13 offensive glass) basically the story.  First losing season since '04-05 season when Kent Raymond took his season off.  Hoping for a nice finale vs Augie in a week.

Speaking of which, hasn't Augie basically clinched the #1 seed and hosting the CCIW tourney in Rock Island?  Even if they go down at King Arena, don't they still have the tie-breaker over Elmhurst(twice beaten) and IWU(who has already lost to EC once)?

Yes, the conference tourney will be in Rock Island.

NPU's biggest problem in recent years has been retention of players.  If they can keep these guys (and especially if they can recruit a 'big' or two), I could easily envision a conference title in their not-too-distant future.

[Gregory Sager]

First things first. Since I was still on the air and didn't get a chance to thank her personally, thanks to the always-classy Hoosier Titan for the postgame congratulatory note.

[Gregory Sager]

A few bookkeeping notes:

* This is the third Saturday out of the last four in which NPU has beaten a ranked opponent.

* Sophomore sensation Juwan Henry's two free throws with :43 remaining vaulted him into the Thousand Points Club. He now has 1,001 points in his college career, which spans only 48 games. I can't begin to say what a pleasure it is having him wear royal blue and gold; he's just an absolutely dynamic player, the kind of player for whom every team North Park faces has to game-plan.

* As Bob said, next Saturday's showdown in the airplane hangar between North Park and North Central is a de facto play-in game to the CCIW tourney. In essence, the postseason starts one game early for the Vikings and Cardinals; the winner survives to play in Rock Island six nights later, the loser turns in its unis for the season. Should be fun. North Park hasn't played a meaningful game this late in the season in a very long time.

[Gregory Sager]

It was very appropriate on Valentine's Day that North Park won this game with heart. How else do you explain 5'10 T.J. Cobbs slipping inside against a bunch of 6'6 and 6'8 guys and coming away with nine rebounds, three more than any single Titan got? How else do you explain guts-of-a-burglar Colin Lake making one big play after another down the stretch, including the steal with 1.2 seconds left that sealed the win? How else do you explain the forgotten and seemingly disposable Trent Kucera, yet another one of the under-six-feet-tall crew, getting his farewell poster on Senior Night and then playing 15 really solid minutes off of the bench? Or Jordan Robinson, 6'3 and 185 soaking wet, dominating down low against any tree that Ron Rose could throw at him -- and then stepping out and popping five treys for good measure?

This is one of my all-time favorite North Park teams, an accolade I don't make lightly. These guys aren't even in the same ballpark abilitywise as some of the powerhouse Park teams of the '70s/'80s golden era, but they completely max out everything that they have. I love overachievers, and this team's got its picture in the dictionary next to the word "overachiever." I'm biased, so it's not my call, but this strikes me as the sort of win-against-the-odds team that a lot of outside fans could grow to like.

Life is fun again in the crackerbox, and it wasn't fun for a very, very long time. This is what I've been waiting for. I'm ecstatic that North Park basketball is back!

[Greek Tragedy]

IWU and North Central both at 17-7 now. Could the CCIW get just two teams in now (Elmhurst at 19-5, Augie at 20-4).

IWU's NCAA tourney life is on the line against Elmhurst while North Central hosts North Park. If IWU loses and falls to 17-8 and then loses in the conference tourney, would 18-9 or 17-9 get them in? That's tough. If North Central loses, they'll finish 17-8 without a conference bid, correct? Both are at home, so that helps, but both will probably playing for the NCAA tourney lives.

[iiwwuu]

Interesting to see what is happening to this team.  Over the course of the conference season, offense goes missing and match ups with other teams strengths are not properly managed.  IWU's is short on big men and way, way, way too deep on guards.  In fact we are so deep on guards, one has to question whether we are not playing players who need to play and who need to be developed.  Another question which increasingly needs to be answered, why is Brady Rose playing so many minutes - and not producing on a points per minute stat - and Stemple is not playing.  Stemple is in a few games ago and scores 11 in a very short span.  Stemple plays last year and produces, yet now it's all Brady Rose.  What is driving the playing time decisions?  What impact does Ron Rose's decision to play his son so much have on the psyche and opinion of the other players on the team?  This team has now underperformed in two key games in a row.  I know that Ron is beloved by the IWU community, but suddenly the decision making appears to be biased, and not in the best interests of the team.  The judgement related to his own son, and motivation of players, and game strategy, now all seem to be sliding downwards.  Why are we so incredibly deep in guards for the class of '16, '17, '18?  Where are the big men to replace Victor and Z?  Why so many guards (1's, 2's, 3's) and no big men?  How can we develop this many guards and maintain a leading D3 team?  I'm not seeing it, and the beginning of a slide may be at hand.  Welcome the thoughts of others, but the awful loss to Augie at home and NPU on the road in key contests suggests otherwise. 

[iiwwuu]

Totally agree with you AO on choosing the school based on your comfort with all aspects aside from basketball, in case things don't work out.  I do however (since I still believe PT is a major factor) believe that more kids than not do their research on where they will fit.  I think AAU, the Internet (youtube) has allowed most "high level" CCIW candidates to be much more precise in their choice of school and when/where they will fit in the rotations.
This gets me back to my thoughts on the importance of PT and recruitment. I offer the following regarding the top 3 teams in the conference this year with a possible connection to the 4th place Cards.

I believe the void in talent recruited the year behind a 3 year varsity starter and/or exceptional "loaded class" of players is pretty evident in today's environment.

A.  Augustana

We can all agree that Hunter Hill is pretty special.  Name the Sophomore point guard at Augie right now who takes over in 2017?  In fact, I think the "loaded" West Viking Junior class is precisely the reason why Augie's Sophomore class has just about "0" rotation minutes this Y-T-D.  With all his minutes, I think point guards were scared to come last year knowing the first time they'd get to compete for PT would be senior year.

B. IWU

I've already documented that the 2015 class was void of bigs.  Q gave a much needed "refresher" on what happened to 2 of them....They both quit at different stages/times.  While we don't have confirmation, they weren't going to be starting ahead of Ziemnik and Davis.  I think this fact and their short careers are at least in some part linked.  No 13 is a Junior and a great shooter.  Is he a lock to start at PG next year when the Overstreet era ends?  We have as good a test as I can think of coming up.  Will Rose get a quality 1/2 guard in next year's class since he's gonna play/start his kid for the next 3 years?

C.  Elmhurst

Juniors Wuest and Coleman have started most if not all of the Blue Jays games the last 2 years.  The Sophomore guards recruited behind them I think are #24 (played nice early, hasn't played much lately) and #14 who doesn't play.  If you were looking at enrolling at Elmhurst this year you would've had to have seen the scarcity of available minutes behind Wuest and Coleman.

That leads me to the Cards.  Where would they be without the return/transfer of Rosenberg and Moten this year?  They account for 46% of NCC's points this year, easily the most of any duo on the top 4 CCIW squads.  AO, is it possible that because Kmiec/Gamble were so good and commanded so many minutes early in their careers (as well as Raridon's class) that potential 2015 players found other options?  Although Jack Burchett has really turned himself into a force and has had some fantastic games.

I promise this will be the last mention of this if you think it's become tiresome.

Interest post.  Regarding IWU, a very clear issues:  1) Ron Rose has already cast aside recruits to be replaced by his son, regardless fo their skills or commitment.  2) IWU is dearly lacking bigs.  A huge deficit!  And on that will not change in the next 4 years.  3) Ron's reputation is that as a coach who 'hoards' players.  Case in point, his roster of 29 players is far larger than any other CCIW school from what I see.  Carthage, NPU, NCC... all have around 19-20 players on roster.  Hoarding will begin to affect recruitment.  Why would a recruit go to IWU when they see other very good players get shoved down the depth chart or off the playing time list completely.  A growing issue for IWU...

[iwu70]

Congrats to NPU on their big win tonight over the TITANS.  They played hard, deserved to win, esp. shooting the FTs down the stretch when the Titans got close, within one possession several times in the last minute or so.  Good luck to them vs. NCC next weekend.

It's easy to second guess Coach Rose as he does have a lot of quality players vying for PT.  It's a nice, it's a difficult problem to have.  I think most Coaches would rather have this problem than WC's problem this time of year.  Yes, one can say that Stempel should be getting more time over Rose.  I believe that, but I'm not coaching IWU, not seeing the practice time, knowing the game plan.  I also think Pennington should be getting more time over Rose.  But, just IMHO.  IWU bigs have played pretty well this year -- we all knew they needed to grow and mature fast.  I think they will only get better and better with all the IWU bigs returning next year, improving in the off-season. I happen to believe that Bausch should be starting over Coyle, but then again, it's not my call.

IWU has to beat EC and really play well in the CCIW tourney.  Yes, increasingly it looks like a Pool C bid is fading from the Titans, so winning the tournament may be needed.   Not an easy road, @ Carver.  But, one never says never.  I have faith in the TITANS and feel that overall they've had an excellent season.  Gotta get Overstreet more on track, Nelson and Sodemann too.  Bryce Dolan was superb tonight.  Maybe he should be getting more PT too?  A dime and a cup of coffee and anyone can speculate and guesstimate all they wish, second guess Coach Rose.  The Titans have to get it done on the floor, with whatever personnel Coach Rose puts out there. 

Again, enjoyed and appreciated Greg's call of the game, his knowledge of both teams and his enthusiasm for his Vikings.  It was a wonderful evening of very competitive and high quality D3 hoops.  Just wish we'd got Bryce Dolan one more good look.  Greg was kind to "tip his hat" to Dolan during the broadcast.  A class way of calling the game. 

Sure looks to me like Juwan Henry has a pretty darn good shot at MOP in the CCIW.  Given their young and talented players, I agree NPU likely in the top tier of the CCIW in the coming few seasons. 

IWU70

[Viking Blue]

OK North Park faithful, I'll leave it up to you. 20 years of following these guys, 15 years of announcing. I take this year off, and the only game I attend they lose by 40.

Am I allowed to drive to Naperville on Saturday?

Furthermore, am I ever permitted to attend another game?