MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Titan Q]

North Park is definitely better than IWU and that showed tonight.  Unfortunately IWU didn't shoot it well (38.1% FG, 20% 3-point), which is what the Titans needed to do to compete at NPU.

IWU plays at Wheaton Wednesday - a must win if the Titans want to challenge for that 4th spot.  Still a lot of games left.

[hopefan]

Greg... I'm still saying, talk to your SID... INFLUENCE

Illinois Wesleyan        North Park        5:00 PM   • *   LS V         D3hoops scoreboard, 6:55 AM, no score reported

[Gregory Sager]

Greg... I'm still saying, talk to your SID... INFLUENCE

Illinois Wesleyan        North Park        5:00 PM   • *   LS V         D3hoops scoreboard, 6:55 AM, no score reported

I did talk to him. He said that he had taken care of the problem.

[Titan Q]

2016 will be the 43rd consecutive season without an undefeated CCIW MBB champion (Augustana 1973).  The CCIW has had 6 national champions and 10 other Final Four teams in those 43 years...none went unscathed.

[Gregory Sager]

Yeah, as soon as I saw the EC @ NCC final on live stats last night, my first thought was that the '73 Augie guys were popping the champagne corks again.

[AppletonRocks]

I watched (but didn't listen to the audio) of some of the NPU game last night. Never been there.  Is that a junior high gym you rent or is it on campus?  Maybe its just the camera angle.    Just wondering as it appears they could make the tournament if the CCIW gets the excessive bids that they feel they deserve. Would the NCAA allow them to host there?   

Just north, the WIAC is beating itself up this year which opens up the argument from these same CCIW zealots that they deserve all the WIAC bids to the tourney as well.

Discuss. I'll come back in 90 minutes to read the 5 posts that will argue the CCIW 3 or 4 bid case. I'll be at church in the interim.

[AndOne]

#25 North Central 80
#2 Elmhurst 62

Before a crowd of 2,100 in The Hangar in beautiful downtown NaPPerville last night, #2 ranked Elmhurst's Kyle Wuest slipped inside to score the game's opening bucket. It was the only lead the Bluejsys would hold all night. The Cardinals quickly authored a 10 point response which Elmhurst answered with a 10-2 reply to tie things at 12. Subsequent back and forth exchanges found a pair of 22s showing on the scoreboard. NCC then realed off a 13-4 run to take a nine point (35-26) advantage into the half.

Exploding out of the locker room, the Cardinals quickly took complete control with a 15-4 blast over the opening 3:30 of the second stanza. The resulting 50-30 deficit was one that the visitors would not recover from. Elmhurst did slice the lead to 13 with just over 14 minutes remaining, but the Cards responded with another 10-0 run, after which the Bluejays would come no closer than 16 points for the remainder of the contest.

All 5 of the NCC starters were in double figures.
* The Cardinals were led in scoring by their PG, Jagger Anderson with 20 points. Jag was just short (keep practicing those FTs) of fabulous, often slicing through the entire Bluejay defense to finish with a spinning, twisting layup. Hitting on 7 of 11 from the field, he also grabbed 4 rebounds, handed out 5 assists, and made 4 steals.
* Next in the scoring column for the Cards was Alex Sorenson with 19 points (3 threes), 9 rebounds, 3 assists, and 4 blocks.
* Connor Raridon was next with yet another in a growing series of quality starts. He tallied 15 points, pulled down 8 boards, and handed out a game-high 7 assists.
* Jayme Moten had 12 points and added 4 rebounds and 3 helpers. However, his nice offensive game was overshadowed, yet again, by his outstanding defensive effort.
* Erwin Henry, who was largely responsible for the Cardinals quick start, rounded out the NCC double digit scoring effort with 10 points.

While the Cardinals hit on 52% of their FG attempts, including 37.5% from distance in defeating the #2 team in the country by 18 points, this victory was primarily earned on the defensive end of the floor where the Cards held the Bluejays to 34.8% FG shooting. While the overall defensive effort was outstanding, two specific achievements stood out. Connor Raridon took EC's fine player Erik Crittenden completely out of the game, holding him to a 1 for 7 shooting performance, 3 points, and ONE rebound. And Jayme Moten was especially effective, providing Elmhurst's all-conference Kyle Wuest with a large dose of frustration. While Wuest did score 15 points, he needed 19 shots (6/19, 2/7) to get those 15 points. So complete was Wuest's frustration that, upon fouling out of the game, he sulked to the end of the bench where he delivered one of his finest plays of the evening in squarely landing a kick to a certain object.

* An interesting sidelight to the game was EC Coach John Baines, no doubt in an attempt to fire up his troops, appearing to deliberately draw a T. Baines spent a sizeable chunk of game time way out of the coach's box screaming at the refs. In fact, he was often almost directly in front of me up at the mid court line. However, the refs, possibly knowing his intent, ignored him. Or maybe, with 2 of the 3 (Ken Faulkner & Ron Olesiak) being holdovers from the dinosaur age, they just didn't hear him!
At one point, Olesiak called a violation out of a scrum underneath, but forgot he had to let everyone else, especially the official scorer, know who the foul was on. Consequently, everyone just froze for several seconds staring at the ref, who appeared to be wondering why everyone was looking at him.

* Post game discussion identified that the feeling from the NCC perspective was that EC made 2 major tactical errors in 1) not getting Will Nixon more touches, and 2) not giving Jalen Loving, who appeared to be EC's most effective defender, more minutes.

* NCC's 6'8" Alex Sorenson currently tops the CCIW stats in the very unusual combination of 3 point FG percentage and blocked shots.

[Naperick]

#25 North Central 80
#2 Elmhurst 62

Before a crowd of 2,100 in The Hangar in beautiful downtown NaPPerville last night, #2 ranked Elmhurst's Kyle Wuest slipped inside to score the game's opening bucket. It was the only lead the Bluejsys would hold all night. The Cardinals quickly authored a 10 point response which Elmhurst answered with a 10-2 reply to tie things at 12. Subsequent back and forth exchanges found a pair of 22s showing on the scoreboard. NCC then realed off a 13-4 run to take a nine point (35-26) advantage into the half.

Exploding out of the locker room, the Cardinals quickly took complete control with a 15-4 blast over the opening 3:30 of the second stanza. The resulting 50-30 deficit was one that the visitors would not recover from. Elmhurst did slice the lead to 13 with just over 14 minutes remaining, but the Cards responded with another 10-0 run, after which the Bluejays would come no closer than 16 points for the remainder of the contest.

All 5 of the NCC starters were in double figures.
* The Cardinals were led in scoring by their PG, Jagger Anderson with 20 points. Jag was just short (keep practicing those FTs) of fabulous, often slicing through the entire Bluejay defense to finish with a spinning, twisting layup. Hitting on 7 of 11 from the field, he also grabbed 4 rebounds, handed out 5 assists, and made 4 steals.
* Next in the scoring column for the Cards was Alex Sorenson with 19 points (3 threes), 9 rebounds, 3 assists, and 4 blocks.
* Connor Raridon was next with yet another in a growing series of quality starts. He tallied 15 points, pulled down 8 boards, and handed out a game-high 7 assists.
* Jayme Moten had 12 points and added 4 rebounds and 3 helpers. However, his nice offensive game was overshadowed, yet again, by his outstanding defensive effort.
* Erwin Henry, who was largely responsible for the Cardinals quick start, rounded out the NCC double digit scoring effort with 10 points.

While the Cardinals hit on 52% of their FG attempts, including 37.5% from distance in defeating the #2 team in the country by 18 points, this victory was primarily earned on the defensive end of the floor where the Cards held the Bluejays to 34.8% FG shooting. While the overall defensive effort was outstanding, two specific achievements stood out. Connor Raridon took EC's fine player Erik Crittenden completely out of the game, holding him to a 1 for 7 shooting performance, 3 points, and ONE rebound. And Jayme Moten was especially effective, providing Elmhurst's all-conference Kyle Wuest with a large dose of frustration. While Wuest did score 15 points, he needed 19 shots (6/19, 2/7) to get those 15 points. So complete was Wuest's frustration that, upon fouling out of the game, he sulked to the end of the bench where he delivered one of his finest plays of the evening in squarely landing a kick to a certain object.

* An interesting sidelight to the game was EC Coach John Baines, no doubt in an attempt to fire up his troops, appearing to deliberately draw a T. Baines spent a sizeable chunk of game time way out of the coach's box screaming at the refs. In fact, he was often almost directly in front of me up at the mid court line. However, the refs, possibly knowing his intent, ignored him. Or maybe, with 2 of the 3 (Ken Faulkner & Ron Olesiak) being holdovers from the dinosaur age, they just didn't hear him!
At one point, Olesiak called a violation out of a scrum underneath, but forgot he had to let everyone else, especially the official scorer, know who the foul was on. Consequently, everyone just froze for several seconds staring at the ref, who appeared to be wondering why everyone was looking at him.

* Post game discussion identified that the feeling from the NCC perspective was that EC made 2 major tactical errors in 1) not getting Will Nixon more touches, and 2) not giving Jalen Loving, who appeared to be EC's most effective defender, more minutes.

* NCC's 6'8" Alex Sorenson currently tops the CCIW stats in the very unusual combination of 3 point FG percentage and blocked shots.

I agree with everything you wrote.  Elmhurst did not shoot very well but the NCC defense was the main reason for that.  NCC is very talented and deep and are playing well right now.

[79jaybird]

Flat out and no denying it,  North Central smoked us.  Losing by 18 points and pretty much being out of the game at the start of the 2nd half,  IMO you should not, cannot,  blame the officials.  Elmhurst was embarrassed and sure did NOT look like a #2 Saturday.   North Park has a claim to blame a questionable call (which BTW in hindsight, I think the NPU guy was fouled). 

I hope Elmhurst can bounce back with a solid showing at Augie Wednesday.   It's a long season and there will be days like EC had Saturday where the opposition is shooting lights out,  playing a stifling defense, and such. 

[gordonmann]

2016 will be the 43rd consecutive season without an undefeated CCIW MBB champion (Augustana 1973).  The CCIW has had 6 national champions and 10 other Final Four teams in those 43 years...none went unscathed.

That's a cool stat. Maybe I'll add that to the conference guidebook for next year -- last time a team was undefeated in regular season conference play. I could add last time a team was winless, but that seems cruel.

[badgerwarhawk]

At one point, Olesiak called a violation out of a scrum underneath, but forgot he had to let everyone else, especially the official scorer, know who the foul was on. Consequently, everyone just froze for several seconds staring at the ref, who appeared to be wondering why everyone was looking at him.

I assume you meant he called a foul and forgot.  There would be no reason to let the official scorer know who committed a violation. 

[Pat Coleman]

At one point, Olesiak called a violation out of a scrum underneath, but forgot he had to let everyone else, especially the official scorer, know who the foul was on. Consequently, everyone just froze for several seconds staring at the ref, who appeared to be wondering why everyone was looking at him.

I assume you meant he called a foul and forgot.  There would be no reason to let the official scorer know who committed a violation. 

Considering he said "who the foul was on" I think he meant a foul.

[AndOne]

At one point, Olesiak called a violation out of a scrum underneath, but forgot he had to let everyone else, especially the official scorer, know who the foul was on. Consequently, everyone just froze for several seconds staring at the ref, who appeared to be wondering why everyone was looking at him.

I assume you meant he called a foul and forgot.  There would be no reason to let the official scorer know who committed a violation. 

Considering he said "who the foul was on" I think he meant a foul.

Indeed I did.
And, consider that a foul IS a violation of the rules of basketball which prohibit things like blocking, charging, moving screens, etc. 

[79jaybird]

Sure it wasn't fowl  as in the "bird bowl"  of the two teams battling on the hardwood? 

[bbfan44]

At the half way point in the Conference, it's exciting that there are three teams with 6-1 records.  Someone probably knows how often that has happened in the past.  It may seem silly to some or not, but from what I saw on Saturday night, if North Central plays to that level here on out, they're going to win the whole salami.  They were downright good in that game.

I liked And One's description of Falkner and Olesiak as dinosaurs.  Did you ever notice that those two ex NBA ref's also may be the most grumpy ref's in the Conference?  What an attitude they display at times.  Not surprising that Olesiak forgot something....he did that once before with his income.  You can look it up.