MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Hardwood]

     Augustana's victory last night at Wheaton was impressive.  The Vikings finished 35-61 from the field for 57% while recording 21 assists. On the defensive side of things, Augie held the Thunder to 33% on 19 of 57 shooting. Hunter Hill keyed the hot start for the Vikings and finished with 18, and Brandon Motzel and Tayvian Johnson seemed to contest the majority of shots in the paint.
     Congratulations to the Vikings on winning the CCIW Conference title!

[Gregory Sager]

North Central 82, North Park 72

Juwan Henry: 34 pts (15-22 FG), 3 stls
Jordan Robinson: 6 rebs
T.J. Cobbs: 5:0 a:to

Jack Burchett: 21 pts, 14 rebs
Kevin Honn: 20 pts, 7 rebs
Brandon White: 11 pts
David Fuller: 11 pts
Charlie Rosenberg: 7 rebs, 4 blks

As several posters have already said, NPU simply ran out of gas last night. It has happened a time or two this season, but never like it did last night. Usually when North Park has lost it's been because the Vikings haven't executed well, or because they came out without any energy from the get-go, or because they were simply overwhelmed by an opponent's talent. But last night the Vikings were just plain exhausted going down the stretch of a close game, to the point where they really weren't able to keep it close enough to remain within striking distance over the course of the last couple of minutes.

It's no secret that the Vikings really don't have much in the way of depth, and that the heavy minutes played by Juwan Henry, Colin Lake, and Jordan Robinson have seriously added up over the course of the season. I think that the accumulated wear-and-tear might've finally caught up with them. But the other problem was that they didn't pace themselves. Those who have watched the Vikings more than once this year know that there are always large stretches in the first twelve to fifteen minutes of the second half in which North Park will hold the ball up top on every possession, or employ a weave, until there are about ten seconds left on the shot clock. This is where they conserve their energy for the stretch run late in the second half. It disrupts their flow, and it makes them dependent upon the creativity of (usually) Juwan Henry to make something happen with the shot clock running down, but it has almost always saved their legs for the end of the game.

Last night, however, they didn't do this. I only remember one possession in the second half in which they held the ball; in fact, part of their problem was injudicious shot selection in which they shot the ball so early in the possession that they didn't have time to take a breather even if that had been the plan. That, more than anything, is what I think wore them down.

The other side to that, of course, is that North Central goes deeper than does North Park, and the Cardinals were able to take advantage of that. Todd Raridon went nine deep to Tom Slyder's seven, and the Cards favored a more deliberate halfcourt pace that allowed them to use their size advantage to grind down the Vikings. One of the misconceptions people have about basketball is that in order to wear out an opponent you have to make them run up and down the floor. That's not necessarily true. You can wear them out even more with body contact, especially if you're a bigger team, and that's what the Cardinals did. And once they saw that the Vikings were starting to lose their legs, with about eight or nine minutes to go, the Cardinals started kicking the ball out more -- from that point onward NPU was noticeably late closing out, and the Cards' perimeter shooters made them pay for it -- and they started using Burchett and Rosenberg off of the dribble more. While it took a lot out of the Vikings physically to defend the much bigger NCC posts when they were stationary down low, it was even harder to handle the body contact late in the game when those bigger bodies were moving at them. Raridon employed a very good game plan last night.

The other big problem for North Park was the lack of scoring distribution. It wasn't Juwan Henry's fault, either. While he was making the crowd ooh and ahh over his uncanny Allen Iverson imitation -- the NCC student section booed lustily every time that he touched the ball, which is the best compliment I've seen a CCIW student section give to an opposing player in decades -- he was clearly looking to pass the ball off in the second half whenever the defense collapsed upon him. But the other Vikings just weren't able to get anything going. He'd stop his dribble when surrounded, shovel a pass to an open player underneath, and that teammate would be a heartbeat slow in getting the shot off, allowing North Central to either block or redirect the shot. Jordan Robinson had a really poor night, in large part because the NCC bigs did a great job of bottling him up, but also because I think that he was letting his frustration get the better of him. (The fact that he took a major shot to the groin in the first half that had him doubled over for several minutes didn't help matters, I'm sure.) But neither Colin Lake nor T.J. Cobbs were able to help bail out Juwan, either, although Cobbs did play a really solid floor game and defended well. Plus, the free-throw shooting, as Mark Erickson pointed out, was absymal for the Vikes (9-20, 45%). These things all put together are why it pretty much devolved into The Juwan Henry Show for NPU, while by contrast NCC really spread around its scoring well.

An accumulated season of wear-and-tear; a lack of depth; some impatience and straying away from the game plan; and an inability to get more than one player to step up offensively -- it all caught up with the Park in what was, alas, the biggest game that the program has played in two decades. North Central was better able to capitalize upon North Park's disadvantages than NPU was able to capitalize upon NCC's, and NCC clearly earned the win. But, honestly, I'd be a lot more broken up about it if this was the swan song for more than just Trent Kucera and Michael Wilson. This game just felt like the end of chapter one, that's all.

[Gregory Sager]

Juwan Henry was absolutely amazing tonight, but he couldn't do it ALL by himself, and seemed to finally run out of gas in the last couple of minutes.  He had 34 points on the night (15 of 20 until the very end), but missed his last two 3s and his last FTs.

Sophomores have to be either utterly beyond the crowd and/or play for the winning team, so I doubt Juwan has any chance at MOP THIS year - but he is my early front-runner for the next two years!  (Greg, are you holding out any hope that he can pull an Ernie Banks and win MVP from a non-contending team?)

Are you serious, Chuck?

I wasn't all-in on the idea of Juwan Henry winning the MOP earlier this year, but I don't think that there's any doubt about it now. His sophomore status and the fact that his team only finished fifth shouldn't matter at all. There is no player in this league who was more outstanding this year than Juwan Henry; not simply because he won the scoring title by a full three points per game over Brayden Teuscher (the biggest gap between #1 and #2 since 2010-11, Stevie D.'s final year), but because there was nobody else in the league who could and would single-handedly take over a game on a regular basis the way that he did -- not just with scoring but with steals, blocks, rebounds, assists, the whole deal.

Look, I respect Dylan Overstreet as much as the next guy who doesn't have a closet filled with green-colored clothing. He had a very fine senior CCIW season, and his team finished higher in the standings than did Juwan Henry's. But the sophomore from Bogan High is the most outstanding player in the CCIW, bar none, so the coaches ought to give him the title and the trophy that goes along with it.

[augiefan]

I was kind of stunned by Augie's domination of Wheaton last night. After all the Thunder only lost by 4 at Augie, and that game was in doubt in the final minute of play. Wheaton has always been a tough venue for visiting teams.

Certainly this was an unusually poor year for Wheaton, which has been pretty much a fixture in the top 4 in the CCIW for many years. Wheaton loses starters Teuscher, DeMoss and Smith to graduation, so you have to wonder what the future holds for Wheaton with Millikin and North Park getting very competitive game in game out.

Augie won 6 of its 7 road games this year. How often does that happen for any team in this tough conference? With the Augie students on Spring break, the home court advantage may be minimized. Any of the 4 teams has the ability to win two games next Weekend, and Augie lost to two of them in R I and were very fortunate to beat Elmhurst at Carver. However, if the Augie team that showed up last night makes a reappearance next weekend, I like their chances.

As someone said a really "weird" season in the CCIW.

[Gregory Sager]

Wow, first North Central home game I've watched in a long time.

Kudos for having figured out such good video!

Amazingly nice!

North Central farms out the video coverage to a local Naperville cable station, and it shows. It's very professional. Elmhurst still has the best-looking video around these parts (I still can't get over the fact that EC has replays in its video while the game is in progress), and Carthage's production is top-notch as well, but NCC"s is right up there, too.

On the other hand ...

Congrats to North Central, beat North Park 82-72. Withstood 34 from Henry, who needed a bit more help than he was able to get. NPU just 5/22 from deep and no other players in double figures.

The North Central broadcasters were pretty hard to listen to. I understand rooting for the home team... it's the home team broadcast, but these guys were broadcasting like they had their chests painted red and they were sitting under the basket.

So I hit post on my note just above this as you did on yours.  Suffice it to say, I strongly disagree with the comments on the broadcast team.  They spent the better part of the first 25 minutes of game time absolutely gushing over Juwan Henry.  (Who deserved every bit of it.)  Then they gave the Cards their due during what was a 23-8 run starting around the 11:30 minute mark.  Which, given the circumstances, was entirely appropriate.

Let me reiterate that I found it pretty difficult to listen to. Particularly the commentary when the play was stopped and towards the end of the game. The play by play was pretty well done.

I've watched/listened to NC broadcasts in past years over the last decade and they generally are very good, some of the best I've heard. But the additional commentary wasn't up to par with the play by play.

... I'm relieved that I was in the airplane hangar last night rather than watching a computer and dealing with that sort of thing. A bit of homer commentary is to be expected (although, ideally, the colorman should be more objective in his analysis than the PBP guy, who ought to get the audience excited with some partisan verve in terms of how he calls the action). To be fair, since I didn't watch the video, I can't judge last night's performance for myself.

I'll bet that the NCC guys have to go a long way to top the Millikin broadcasters, though, whose partisanship is really over the top. Their tendency to whine on the air when the calls aren't going MU's way is really annoying. I've watched more than one game from the Griz in which they drove me to distraction with their complaining about the refs. They come off poorly when compared to people such as Tim Calderwood for Elmhurst, John Weiser for Carthage, and the Chris Ford / Dan Sand team for Augustana, who are totally professional, well-prepared, and give an honest call. Those guys are a real pleasure to hear call a game, and among other local broadcasters I'd add Jay Murry of Wash U to that list.

I think that Wheaton's student broadcasters have averaged out a little better than North Central's over the years. I still say that to this day the two best student broacasters I've ever heard were Wheaton's Paul Carr and Bryan Holmgren, who represented two different eras of WETN broadcasting back in the Oughts.

[Gregory Sager]

So the above statement by Bosko, surmising he can't finish 7th because its never happened before, wasn't, among other things, "outlandish" as I termed it??

Do you really think that Bosko surmised that his team couldn't finish 7th because it had never happened to him before?  That because he's the great and mighty Bosko that he couldn't POSSIBLY finish in 7th place?  That A always follows B?  Or do you think that Bosko thought, AT THE TIME HE MADE THE STATEMENT, that his team was better than a 7th place team?  It's certainly not outlandish for a coach to think he's has a squad that is better than 7th place, is it?

Guess who was right....yeah, the guy with 503 victories.

You saved me the trouble of posting this, mwunder.

This season might've been one of Bosko's best performances ever as a head coach in terms of teaching, game prep, and game management, certainly his best in a long time. How he got that team of his to double-digit wins and a sixth-place finish in the CCIW is a mystery; let's face it, we all knew going in that the Red Men wouldn't be a juggernaut this season even back when they still had Reese Herth and Mike Castel in red, white, and black livery. You have to tip your cap to him, because the list of head coaches who could've done that much with so little is not very long.

Following the OT win last night in Decatur: 

"This game does not get played like this in most NCAA Division III conferences," said Carthage coach Bosko Djurickovic. "This was two teams playing for pride, and it was as competitive and as physical a game as you can imagine. We're thrilled to win this one. We're proud to be a part of this league, and I'm proud of how our guys finished the season. It was weird season, and there was no way to predict what the league scores were going to be, night in and night out. The league was really good this year, top to bottom. We have some good players, and I know we'll be significantly better next year. There's no guarantee of that unless we do a better job of recruiting. We were just under-manned this year, and that's on me. We have to have an exceptional recruiting class this year, and I have no doubt that we will."

That's a pretty honest and succinct summary.

[toooldtohoop]

I was kind of stunned by Augie's domination of Wheaton last night. After all the Thunder only lost by 4 at Augie, and that game was in doubt in the final minute of play. Wheaton has always been a tough venue for visiting teams.

Certainly this was an unusually poor year for Wheaton, which has been pretty much a fixture in the top 4 in the CCIW for many years. Wheaton loses starters Teuscher, DeMoss and Smith to graduation, so you have to wonder what the future holds for Wheaton with Millikin and North Park getting very competitive game in game out.

Augie won 6 of its 7 road games this year. How often does that happen for any team in this tough conference? With the Augie students on Spring break, the home court advantage may be minimized. Any of the 4 teams has the ability to win two games next Weekend, and Augie lost to two of them in R I and were very fortunate to beat Elmhurst at Carver. However, if the Augie team that showed up last night makes a reappearance next weekend, I like their chances.

As someone said a really "weird" season in the CCIW.

Watching the game, it felt like our trip to Millikin.  Opponents hitting almost every shot, and before you know it, Wheaton is down 20.  Augie obviously shot well for the night, but the first ten or so minutes were amazing.  They hit from outside and ran their plays effectively enough to get some easy shots for the bigs.  And the bigs definitely were more effective than they were when we played at Augie.  I realize that like many teams, Augie has had some off nights and has some curious losses.  But last night, they were easily the best team that I have seen this year.

If your guys play next week like they did last night, there is nobody in this conference that will beat them. 

[toooldtohoop]

I was kind of stunned by Augie's domination of Wheaton last night. After all the Thunder only lost by 4 at Augie, and that game was in doubt in the final minute of play. Wheaton has always been a tough venue for visiting teams.

Certainly this was an unusually poor year for Wheaton, which has been pretty much a fixture in the top 4 in the CCIW for many years. Wheaton loses starters Teuscher, DeMoss and Smith to graduation, so you have to wonder what the future holds for Wheaton with Millikin and North Park getting very competitive game in game out.

Augie won 6 of its 7 road games this year. How often does that happen for any team in this tough conference? With the Augie students on Spring break, the home court advantage may be minimized. Any of the 4 teams has the ability to win two games next Weekend, and Augie lost to two of them in R I and were very fortunate to beat Elmhurst at Carver. However, if the Augie team that showed up last night makes a reappearance next weekend, I like their chances.

As someone said a really "weird" season in the CCIW.

Watching the game, it felt like our trip to Millikin.  Opponents hitting almost every shot, and before you know it, Wheaton is down 20.  Augie obviously shot well for the night, but the first ten or so minutes were amazing.  They hit from outside and ran their plays effectively enough to get some easy shots for the bigs.  And the bigs definitely were more effective than they were when we played at Augie.  I realize that like many teams, Augie has had some off nights and has some curious losses.  But last night, they were easily the best team that I have seen this year.

If your guys play next week like they did last night, there is nobody in this conference that will beat them.

And now I can see how Coach G believes that they could handle 150 D1 teams as well!

[kenoshamark]

So the above statement by Bosko, surmising he can't finish 7th because its never happened before, wasn't, among other things, "outlandish" as I termed it??

Do you really think that Bosko surmised that his team couldn't finish 7th because it had never happened to him before?  That because he's the great and mighty Bosko that he couldn't POSSIBLY finish in 7th place?  That A always follows B?  Or do you think that Bosko thought, AT THE TIME HE MADE THE STATEMENT, that his team was better than a 7th place team?  It's certainly not outlandish for a coach to think he's has a squad that is better than 7th place, is it?

Guess who was right....yeah, the guy with 503 victories.

You saved me the trouble of posting this, mwunder.

This season might've been one of Bosko's best performances ever as a head coach in terms of teaching, game prep, and game management, certainly his best in a long time. How he got that team of his to double-digit wins and a sixth-place finish in the CCIW is a mystery; let's face it, we all knew going in that the Red Men wouldn't be a juggernaut this season even back when they still had Reese Herth and Mike Castel in red, white, and black livery. You have to tip your cap to him, because the list of head coaches who could've done that much with so little is not very long.

Following the OT win last night in Decatur: 

"This game does not get played like this in most NCAA Division III conferences," said Carthage coach Bosko Djurickovic. "This was two teams playing for pride, and it was as competitive and as physical a game as you can imagine. We're thrilled to win this one. We're proud to be a part of this league, and I'm proud of how our guys finished the season. It was weird season, and there was no way to predict what the league scores were going to be, night in and night out. The league was really good this year, top to bottom. We have some good players, and I know we'll be significantly better next year. There's no guarantee of that unless we do a better job of recruiting. We were just under-manned this year, and that's on me. We have to have an exceptional recruiting class this year, and I have no doubt that we will."

That's a pretty honest and succinct summary.

[kenoshamark]

Hit send a bit too quick.  I have a hard time believing they will be "significantly" better next year.  They lose three players (seniors) that played their butts off this year to get them to the 10 wins. Those three were the top three rebounders on the team that lacked size in the first place and they have one player coming back that played in the post - his numbers were less than a point or a rebound per game.  Logan was a good point guard and the backup there averaged 2.3 points per game (best game of his career last night).

The rest of the returners are primarily wing players...will they get better, sure.  But not having any size or a point guard that I feel would be better than Logan was this year leads me to believe they won't be better.   

Bosko of course goes on to say there is no guarantee unless they get a strong recruiting class.  Seems like he should have led with that statement before his comment that they would be better.

Bosko, to his credit, always takes the responsiblity for the team not performing.   Nonetheless, he has been saying the same thing for a number of years as it relates to recruiting and yet I'm not seeing it.  I have talked about the disappointing class this year (numbers) so I will reserve judgement on what they will be able to bring in next year 

Even if it is a great class, they will be freshmen (unless he's going the transfer route).  So, again, to state they will be better...time will tell.

[Gregory Sager]

That's why I qualified my statement about Bosko's coaching job this year to the categories of teaching, game prep, and game management. As I said, I think that he did more with what he had than just about anybody else could've ... but it naturally makes one call into question why, the departures of Herth and Castel notwithstanding, the situation was that dire to begin with. Recruiting is part of coaching, too -- a very, very big part -- and Bosko rightly accepts the blame for Carthage's thin larder.

We've talked a lot about recruiting on CCIW Chat over the past few weeks, and I don't think that there's any doubt that some programs in this league are harder to recruit for than others. Carthage has great facilities (the best gym in the league, if you ask me), solid in-house media and production tools, and the lure of playing for one of the most legendary coaches and teachers of the game in all of small-college basketball. But right now I don't think that Carthage is an easy sell for kids on either side of the cheddar curtain. I'm convinced that Bosko and his staff have to work harder than most of their peers to knock the ball out of the park with high-school prospects ... and I think that they know that, too. We'll see if they can rise to the challenge.

(I also know that none of the other coaches in this league are going to feel sorry for Bosko, especially those at some of the other schools that have recruiting challenges of their own.)

[GoPerry]

I was kind of stunned by Augie's domination of Wheaton last night. After all the Thunder only lost by 4 at Augie, and that game was in doubt in the final minute of play. Wheaton has always been a tough venue for visiting teams.

Certainly this was an unusually poor year for Wheaton, which has been pretty much a fixture in the top 4 in the CCIW for many years. Wheaton loses starters Teuscher, DeMoss and Smith to graduation, so you have to wonder what the future holds for Wheaton with Millikin and North Park getting very competitive game in game out.

Augie won 6 of its 7 road games this year. How often does that happen for any team in this tough conference? With the Augie students on Spring break, the home court advantage may be minimized. Any of the 4 teams has the ability to win two games next Weekend, and Augie lost to two of them in R I and were very fortunate to beat Elmhurst at Carver. However, if the Augie team that showed up last night makes a reappearance next weekend, I like their chances.

As someone said a really "weird" season in the CCIW.

Watching the game, it felt like our trip to Millikin.  Opponents hitting almost every shot, and before you know it, Wheaton is down 20.  Augie obviously shot well for the night, but the first ten or so minutes were amazing.  They hit from outside and ran their plays effectively enough to get some easy shots for the bigs.  And the bigs definitely were more effective than they were when we played at Augie.  I realize that like many teams, Augie has had some off nights and has some curious losses.  But last night, they were easily the best team that I have seen this year.

If your guys play next week like they did last night, there is nobody in this conference that will beat them.

Congratulations to Augie for their conference championship and thorough beat down of Wheaton last night.  I agree that the Vikes played an awesome game, came out hot and ready from the get go and shot the ball lights out in the first half (22/33 from the field, 5/9 from the 3pt arc).  It didn't help that the Thunder started very poorly but they might've been simply shell-shocked also; 19-2 after only 5 mins.  Wheaton defense was really awful at times, especially bad defending (or not) simple basic screen and roll plays?

After the home loss to NCC, it looks like Augie has really hit their stride at the right time as they've been pretty good these last 4 games.  If they play close to the level they played last night, they'll make a very deep run in my opinion.

Regarding Wheaton next year, I'm not as pessimistic as others.  I basically see them as I saw them coming into this season before their injuries hit them: about the middle of the pack, vying for that 4th spot.

I wasn't all-in on the idea of Juwan Henry winning the MOP earlier this year, but I don't think that there's any doubt about it now. His sophomore status and the fact that his team only finished fifth shouldn't matter at all. There is no player in this league who was more outstanding this year than Juwan Henry; not simply because he won the scoring title by a full three points per game over Brayden Teuscher (the biggest gap between #1 and #2 since 2010-11, Stevie D.'s final year), but because there was nobody else in the league who could and would single-handedly take over a game on a regular basis the way that he did -- not just with scoring but with steals, blocks, rebounds, assists, the whole deal.

Look, I respect Dylan Overstreet as much as the next guy who doesn't have a closet filled with green-colored clothing. He had a very fine senior CCIW season, and his team finished higher in the standings than did Juwan Henry's. But the sophomore from Bogan High is the most outstanding player in the CCIW, bar none, so the coaches ought to give him the title and the trophy that goes along with it.

Those are pretty bold statements considering the high level of talent in this league.  And as you saw, and called, more NPU games than anyone else on this board, I can respect your opinion.

I don't think Juwan Henry is a runaway MOP.  I think Hunter Hill has a pretty strong case as does Dylan Overstreet and Charlie Rosenberg, all players on deeper and more talented teams where it's more difficult and indeed not as necessary to stand out.  (Even TJ Sims is pretty impressive on a last place Millikin team but he's not really in the conversation).

Juwan Henry is an excellent player, he meant a lot to his team and yes, he did lead the league in scoring( but he also shot the ball much more than anyone else in the league).  He may very well win it and if he does he would be deserving and I'd have no problem with it.  But in my opinion, I think it'll be a tougher coaches vote to call. 

[kenoshamark]

Greg,

It's fair to state that Carthage has its obsatacles with recruiting, but then Bosko shouldn't have made the comment he did - "we have to have an exceptional recruting class this year and I have no doubt we will." 

I get it, what else is going to say...still, a bold statement after what he did this past year.

[Gregory Sager]

Since North Park's season is done, I think it's time for me to summarize my thoughts about the 2014-15 Vikings and then step aside to let the discourse about the CCIW tourney begin.

This was a very special year for North Park basketball. On the face of it, the season really doesn't seem very special at all. A 15-10 overall record is nice, but it's not earth-shaking. No D3 program that has any aspirations of big-time success should ever be satisfied with 15-10. And a 6-8 league record is nothing more than mediocre. So anyone looking at NPU's season in the abstract isn't likely to be impressed by it.

But seasons don't simply exist by themselves. They exist within the larger context of the program. And North Park's men's basketball program was seriously broken. It lost its footing 21 years ago when Bosko Djurickovic was let go, fell down completely under Keith Peterson, and never really regained its footing under Rees Johnson. For all his good qualities, Paul Brenegan couldn't keep North Park basketball from sliding even further backwards, and the one-year interregnum of Dylan Howard only served to give the impression that the program was floundering. Tom Slyder inherited a mess: Two good players in Mark Holmes and Mike Gabriel and not much else, and Gabriel went down to a season-ending injury a couple of days into Tom's first preseason as NPU's coach. Needless to say, his first two seasons at Foster & Kedzie were more of the same-old, same-old, as Tom and his staff struggled to get a feel for the league and for the school and tried to figure out what it was going to take to turn things around.

Which brings us back to this year, which I don't really consider to be a turnaround at all. I consider it to be the start of a turnaround. Earlier today, I posted that I felt as though last night's loss was the end of chapter one. NPU reached the point this year in which the rest of the CCIW finally had to take the Vikings seriously, for the first time since the likewise-mediocre '09-'10 team of Nick Williams, Ro Russell, and Emanuel Crosby. Beating everybody in the league except Elmhurst, including three ranked teams, earned that kind of respect. But there's a difference between being taken seriously and being an actual contender -- and North Park's not at that latter point yet. So I'm not posting about a finished product. There's still a ways to go.

But the raw material -- or most of it -- is there. NPU has an absolutely electrifying player who deserves All-American consideration in sophomore Juwan Henry, and another very solid 5'10 sophomore in T.J. Cobbs who is equal parts talent and tenacity. Jordan Robinson is one of the most talented freshmen that this league has seen in a while, and his fellow plebe Colin Lake is a heady, dynamic player who did a lot of great things this year while facing the difficulty of revamping his high-school game. Those four underclassmen are a very solid core, and they all still have plenty of upside. Other guys who filled in around the edges, in particular blue-collar forward Michael Hutchinson, contributed their fair share as well, but it was those four guys who opened some eyes in November and December with that 9-2 non-conference start, and then opened some more after the Vikings picked themselves up off the mat following their 0-6 CCIW start by winning six of their last eight games.

Their handicaps -- youth, lack of size, lack of CCIW-level depth -- were pretty apparent. But they played with surprising poise, great energy, and a lot of heart. After awhile, instead of moaning that Corey Griffin was out for the year with an injury and Mike Gabriel was over in the library (or wherever he's spent his last winter as a North Park undergraduate), I just learned to accept the team for what it was, and I grew to appreciate it. They don't really pass the eye test in the layup line, but when the opening jump gets tossed up they really earn your admiration.

This winter's been great fun for me, thanks to these guys, and it feels like it's only the beginning of something really special. So I want to thank each and every member of the 2014-15 Vikings for bringing me along on a great ride.

[sac]

North Park and Alma had similar seasons, and have similar background stories (minus the 5 NCAA titles up North)

They played a heck of a game earlier this year that North Park won 72-71, pretty interesting.
http://miaa.org/mbb/stats/1415/1203npam.htm