MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[augiefan]

Based on Augie's recent struggles, I think Elmhurst ends the Vikings undefeated season. Augie has been bailed out by rebounding superiority in their games against Oshkosh and Wheaton. They won't have that advantage against Elmhurst. I have felt all along that Augie will lose at least 3 conference games. At Elmhurst will be one of them, but it should be a good game to kick off the conference season.

[NC_baller]

North Park could be in for a long next 13 games based on last night .....Especially if Juwaan and Robinsun gonna pout all season....

NCC could definitely slide up there and grab that 2 spot with a few bounces in some road games ! Couple of birds gonna be in the top 2. Jays n Cards.
Sleeper CCIW POY pick, Kevin Honn.. 15 , 9 & 5 to start conference play is huge.
Although once Alex S(c)orenson puts some buckets on those Augie and Elmhurst big boys he may run away with the hardware.

[Gregory Sager]

North Central 76
North Park 64

Jordan Robinson: 26 pts, 9 rebs
Juwan Henry: 18 pts, 6 rebs
T.J. Cobbs: 8 rebs, 4 stls

Alex Sorenson: 24 pts, 14 rebs, 6 blks
Kevin Honn: 16 pts, 9 rebs, 5:1 a:to
Connor Raridon: 13 pts, 9 rebs, 6:3 a:to

Some of North Park's woes last night can be summed up with a "what can you do?" shrug of the shoulders, in the sense that Alex Sorenson (.263 from beyond the arc going into last night's game) and Connor Raridon (.250 in the same category until last night) exploded for a combined 7-9 from downtown. In the same vein, NPU's probably never going to be able to consistently rebound with any team to whom they're giving up as much size as they give up to the Cardinals. Nevertheless, most of the damage done to the Vikings last night was self-inflicted, with a healthy dose of NCC sticking to a successful bang-on-'em-and-mess-with-their-heads game plan for good measure.

NPU's shot selection last night was an absolute nightmare. GoPerry's already described the fateful missed jumper by Colin Lake at the 9:29 mark of the second half when the Park was down by a point, but Lake was far from the only Viking who took bad shots last night. Time and time again the Vikings came down the floor and threw up the very first quasi-decent look they had ... and some of them didn't even qualify as quasi-decent. Juwan Henry did not adjust his pullup J's in the lane to the fact that the NCC defense was packing it in to thwart his drives and raising up to block his shots; rather than pulling up a step earlier, he kept trying to get maximum penetration before pulling up, and as a result he padded Alex Sorenson's defensive highlight reel (as if the NCC center wasn't impressive enough on the offensive end last night). Michael Hutchinson and T.J. Cobbs took a lot of bad shots, too. Even Jordan Robinson did as well, except that his bad shots just seem to have a happy knack for going into the basket. The mental mistakes were evident at the defensive end, too; one player who shall remain nameless, whose sole purpose it is to play good perimeter defense while he is in the game, disregarded Tom Slyder's repeated orders in practice not to double down on Sorenson off of Jayme Moten not once but twice, and was rewarded for it with a pair of swished Moten treys.

Meanwhile, the Vikes compounded their size problem by not getting into good position on the boards. In a number of instances in the second half multiple Vikings got caught too far underneath the basket to get an effective chance at a rebound, allowing the taller Cardinals to play tip-drill until something went in. And, although the Vikings did manage to use their quickness to force a whole pile of NCC turnovers, which basically kept the Park in the game, it was the Cardinals who hustled to most of the loose balls and long caroms. Worse, NCC really beat up the Vikings, and the physicality of the Cardinals mentally wore down the Vikings. There was a lot of looking at the refs with pleading looks on their faces on the part of the frustrated visitors. They have to learn how to play through it when they aren't getting the calls. This is the CCIW, where you frequently either beat up your opponent or get beaten up, new rules be damned. And nobody's ever won themselves future calls from the refs by protesting a lack of fouls being called.

All in all, the Vikings just showed a complete lack of poise last night in multiple facets of the game. Although NPU was a definite underdog coming into the airplane hangar, I'd have to say that the lack of composure was the most disappointing aspect of the loss. NPU"s played in -- and won -- a lot of close games this season, while NCC has had a knack for losing close games. Last night the m.o. of both teams really seemed to flip down the stretch.

I'm not worried, though. I still have a lot of confidence in this North Park team. I'm pretty sure that they'll right the longship in quick order.

Jordan Robinson and Juwan Henry are superior talents no doubt.  But one wonders how much size can you give up and still be successful on such talent alone?  At 5'10", Juwan Henry will do as good a job of anyone in giving away 7 inches to guard Conor Raridon, but it's still 7 inches.  Similar matchup problems at all positions practically.

My world, and welcome to it.

[AndOne]

NCC needs to remember that much of their success to date has stemmed from playing good defense, which they need to do for a full 40 minutes. They also need to exploit their advantage in the middle, and their bench strength/depth.

NCC 76
NPU 64

That NCC advantage in the middle is none other than Alex Sorenson who last night posted an impressive double-double in putting up 24 points and pulling down 14 rebounds. Perhaps even more impressive than his points total was his efficiency. Alex was successful on 9 of the only 10 shots from the field that he needed to tally the 22 points he scored from the field. On half of his FG attempts, the 6'8" C/F stepped out beyond the arc from where he drained 4 of his 5 attempts. For added measure, he added 6 blocks on the defensive end of the floor.
The Cardinals bench strength was primarily manifested in the form of Kevin Honn, second high scorer last night with 16 points. Kevin just missed a double-double of his own with 9 boards. He was also the Cards 2nd high assist man with 5.
Freshman Connor Raridon had 13 points, 9 rebounds, and 6 assists.
Jagger Anderson handed out 7 assists to lead NCC in that category.
As GoPerry pointed out above, NCC absolutely dominated the boards by a whopping 51-27 advantage.

North Park was led, as might be expected, by Jordan Robinson with a game high 26 points on an impressive 9 of 15 shooting, including 4 of 5 from distance. He added 9 rebounds. An amusing sidelight to the game itself was Robinson exchanging trash talk with a couple members of the Cardinal bench on several trips up and down the floor. In fact, there was a higher than usual degree of verbal exchanges throughout the contest.
Juwan Henry was 2nd high man for NPU with 18. However, the defense played against him by the Card's Jayme Moten was one of the primary reasons for NCC's victory. While Henry's 18 points are an impressive total, Moten forced the NPU star into a very inefficient 7 for 22 night with the vast majority of the 15 misses being rebounded by the Cardinals. NPU's third high scorer, Colin Lake, was  pretty much of a non factor, going only 2 for 11, including 1 of 6 from beyond the arc.

It seems like most of the problems North Park might encounter the remainder of the season stem from the fact that they are very much a 2 person team. Jordan Robinson and Juwan Henry are two of the brightest stars in the conference, and possibly in all of D3. However, if one of the two has an off night, the Vikings chance of victory appears severely questionable. They also have little, if anything, in the middle. Lastly, they appear to have only a very slightly higher degree of bench strength.

As far as the Cardinals primary deficiencies, they absolutely MUST improve their FT shooting. Right now, they're at about the level of an average junior high team. Also, although at an acceptable percentage last night, they need to substantially improve their marksmanship from beyond the arc.

[AndOne]

Based on Augie's recent struggles, I think Elmhurst ends the Vikings undefeated season. Augie has been bailed out by rebounding superiority in their games against Oshkosh and Wheaton. They won't have that advantage against Elmhurst. I have felt all along that Augie will lose at least 3 conference games. At Elmhurst will be one of them, but it should be a good game to kick off the conference season.

Augiefan,

Are any, some, or most of Augie's close games lately due to playing a lesser degree of defense than we are used to seeing from an AC team?

[iwumichigander]

Thoughts-
Elmhurst - impressive particularly the improvement of the "bigs" since last season; pretty much a complete team; I've got them penciled into the NCAA tournament

IWU - better defense last night but a ways to go; still a lot of question marks; too much in love with the three -- get into the paint, a couple of long twos particularly when the three not dropping

NCC - good effort; only going to get better; opponents will need to box out if you want to win

NPU - Greg hit it on the mark - "lack of poise" just rushed shots early in the clock, the talent is there but you have to burn clock with good shots using your speed and quickness; Should have had NCC gasping for air

[AppletonRocks]

Based on Augie's recent struggles, I think Elmhurst ends the Vikings undefeated season. Augie has been bailed out by rebounding superiority in their games against Oshkosh and Wheaton. They won't have that advantage against Elmhurst. I have felt all along that Augie will lose at least 3 conference games. At Elmhurst will be one of them, but it should be a good game to kick off the conference season.

Augiefan,

Are any, some, or most of Augie's close games lately due to playing a lesser degree of defense than we are used to seeing from an AC team?

Augie played a 2 pt game vs. UW-Oshkosh, a top flight WIAC team.  That win will be more valuable as the season goes on.

[AndOne]

Thoughts-

NCC - good effort; only going to get better; opponents will need to box out if you want to win

NPU - Greg hit it on the mark - "lack of poise" just rushed shots early in the clock, the talent is there but you have to burn clock with good shots using your speed and quickness; Should have had NCC gasping for air

iwu-

Currently NCC is a better team than NPU. Not only did they shoot much better, have more than 3 times the number of assists, and also pulverize the Vikings on the boards, they were, in fact, good enough last night to overcome 18 turnovers to still beat NPU by 12 points. As such, please explain why you feel NPU "should have had NCC gasping for air."

[kiko]

It's tempting to read a lot into yesterday's results (either good or bad, depending on which flag you fly), but it is worth stepping back and looking at what happened using the Titan Q-patented modified standings.

+1 for a road win
0 for a road loss or home win
-1 for a home loss

Current standings:
Augustana 0
Carthage 0
Elmhurst 0
Illinois Wesleyan 0
Millikin 0
North Central 0
North Park 0
Wheaton 0

Said differently: everyone who was supposed to win yesterday did.  Some did so with more style points than others, but that's a currency that won't buy much at the NCAA's general store.  Net/net, we've got a long way and many plot twists to go over the coming seven weeks.

[AndOne]

Said differently, and well said, kiko. 

[GoPerry]

While I was at the NCC/NPU game, I was monitoring the Augie/Wheaton heartbreaker on livestats lastnight from my seat in the hangar.  Today, I went ahead and watched it for myself ( and why would I do such a thing?  I guess it's like viewing the occasional plane crash on YouTube, you can't not watch it).

The boxscore shows a solid performance by Augie overall- nothing great, nothing terrible.  The Thunder on the other hand shot lights out in the first half and ended up shooting a 47% from the field and 47% from beyond the arc- both of which are crucial for them to come out with any win especially against Augustana.  Offensively they played about as well as they could, not many turnovers either.  They also played pretty well defensively I thought.  It was nice to see Riley Teuscher make a few shots as he's been slumping horribly lately.  Murad Dillard had a nice game.

One factor that simply can't be overcome however is the outright bludgeoning on the glass.  Last night the rebounding was 23-40 in favor of Augie including 2-15 on the offensive boards.  -17 and -13 basically results in your opponent having substantially more shot attempts like last night (WC 47, AC 55) and/or free throws (WC 20, AC 27).  So the math simply becomes too much to overcome even if your team is productive offensively. 

Wheaton's problem in this regard is that they have only one player, Michael Berg, who seems to have any interest, desire, or ability to rebound consistently.  6'6" Joel Smith had a nice game offensively with 11 pts, 3/7 from the arc.  But he had zero rebounds in 27 mins of play and he's only averaging 2.4/game.  This is not helping the team where they really need it.  If Wheaton doesn't get this rectified, their only chance to win games will be those where they shoot the ball very well AND their opponent plays overall very badly all around.

[badgerwarhawk]

North Central 76
North Park 64

And nobody's ever won themselves future calls from the refs by protesting a lack of fouls being called.

I can agree with this as it relates to players, Greg.  However I don't think the same thing holds true when it comes to coaches.  I've seen numerous occasions where coaches will complain and then the next time the same thing happens they get the call.  Particularly if the number of fouls is significantly different. 

[Gregory Sager]

North Central 76
North Park 64

And nobody's ever won themselves future calls from the refs by protesting a lack of fouls being called.

I can agree with this as it relates to players, Greg.  However I don't think the same thing holds true when it comes to coaches.  I've seen numerous occasions where coaches will complain and then the next time the same thing happens they get the call.  Particularly if the number of fouls is significantly different.

I'd agree with that. I was specifically referring to the players in my post, as it was the NPU players who were begging for calls, not the NPU coaches (who were too busy telling the Vikes to settle down and stop taking dumb shots to work the refs all that much), but as a general rule coaches do have much more success than players when it comes to working the refs.

[Gregory Sager]

New d3hoops.com rankings:

    1. Augustana (still unanimous)
    5. Elmhurst (up from ##6)
    ORV: North Central (up from 4 points to 21)

Illinois Wesleyan went from an ORV with 29 points to being out of the poll completely.

Current Massey:

    1. Augustana
    7. Elmhurst
  11. North Central
  30. North Park
  68. Illinois Wesleyan
130. Carthage
132. Wheaton
162. Millikin

[Mr. Ypsi]

New d3hoops.com rankings:

    1. Augustana (still unanimous)
    5. Elmhurst (up from ##6)
    ORV: North Central (up from 4 points to 21)

Illinois Wesleyan went from an ORV with 29 points to being out of the poll completely.

Current Massey:

    1. Augustana
    7. Elmhurst
  11. North Central
  30. North Park
  68. Illinois Wesleyan
130. Carthage
132. Wheaton
162. Millikin

As I posted on the Top 25 board, I believe this is the first time in D3hoops poll history that the Titans didn't get a single vote in either the men's or women's poll.  The poll started in the 1999-00 season, and this is the first year since the early 90s that both team have been down at the same time - every other year one (or both) teams have been strong enough that they would probably have gotten votes (I gave up after a while, and didn't check ALL the weeks of the poll).

EDIT: I stand corrected.  I had previously checked 2006-07, when the men were way down, but the Titan women had already started their rise.  But 2001-02, after the men graduated the heart of a FF team, and the women had not yet begun their climb to national relevance, contained weeks with no votes for either team.