MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[voxelmhurst]

Elmhurst 85
Millikin 56

Elmhurst shot a stellar 58.9% in this one, including 10-20 from downtown. Kenny Payonk led all scorers with 16 points, off the bench, on 7-8 shooting no less. Wuest and Nixon were both in double-figures for the Jays while Pat Coleman and Peyton Wyatt each had 9 and Crittenden had 8. Jalen Loving - who injured his shoulder against Augustana on Wednesday did not play in this one. Will probably have to wait until Coach Baines' video interview with Luke Tanaka on Tuesday to get an update on Loving.

[AndOne]

North Central 71
Wheaton.      67

First of all, Wheaton played a very good game giving the host Cardinals all they could handle. I have to believe that if they had played at the level at which they performed last night over the entire season to this point, that they would have 4-5 more wins. The score was tied at the half.

North Central

* Alex Sorenson: Double-Double with 19 points (8/16, 1/3, 2/2), and 11 rebounds. Also 4 blocks.

* Jagger Anderson: 14 points. NCC's 6'0" PG played the dual role of PG and PF. Most, if not all, of his 5 FGs (of 6 attempts) were scored underneath amidst the big boys. He also played big in pulling down 8 boards. In his primary role, he topped things off by dishing out 5 assists while committing a single TO.

* Kevin Honn: Off the bench with 12 points (4/8, 2/4, 2/2) in only 15 minutes.

Wheaton

* Michael Winowiecki: Burst out of the closet with 16 points, mainly on the basis of some very impressive shooting. At one point it seemed like none of the Cardinals would be able to contain him, with at least 3 members of the home team not having much luck in attempting to do at one point or another. On top of his box score stats, Winowiecki displayed a bit of an "edge," seemingly telling the
Cards that they couldn't stop him. The tide started to turn when the Cards finally began doing so.

* Jonathan Berntsen: 16 points, 5:1 A/TO, and a lot of sass*

* Michael Berg: 10 points (4/12, 0/2, 2/6), 9 rebounds.

+ Where has Mike Schauer been hiding Michael Winowiecki all year?? Perhaps he should have unleashed him earlier. Last night, Winowiecki took one and a half times more shots than he had so far all season, and scored twice as many points as he had before last night. And, as stated above, he displayed a edge that has traditionally seemed lacking from many recent Wheaton players/teams.

+ Jonathan Berntsen had a pretty nice game, and dished a good portion of sass on two fronts. First, in indicating his disagreement with officials calls on a couple of occasions, he was both very demonstrative and vocal to the point it was surprising the zebras didn't reward him with a T. Second, an interesting sidelight to the action on the court, was Berntsen's "interaction" with the NCC student section. At one point he made a play right in front of the NCC students and immediately pointed at them, and appeared to both say something and emphasize it with a fist-pump. From that point on, a lively interaction ensued over the remainder of the contest.

+ As many long term posters/lurkers here know, I have been a critic of Michael Berg over his years in a Wheaton uniform. Initially, I felt he failed to live up to what seemed too much hype based on his HS record, along with the fact that, especially over his first two years, he often failed to score many points, grab many rebounds, or both. This was especially true in many conference games. I indicated that I felt he seemed afraid of going anywhere near the basket for fear of being folded, spindled, and/or mutilated, preferring to stand in the corner and pop 3 pointers in his attempt to avoid any physical play and bodily harm. I maintain that much of my commentary reflected an accurate analysis.
However, I began to back off last year as I saw Mr. Berg begin to transform his game. Likely due to the departure of Wheaton's bigs from the previous couple of years, he seemed to be more willing to play closer to the basket, to score more of his baskets in traffic, and to more physically fight for rebounds.
I think that development has continued to the point where, this season, we find him among the conference leaders in both scoring and rebounding. To me, his game has come a long way. His stats prove it. Congrats are in order. When the all conference team is announced I feel we should see Mr. Berg's name listed among those comprising the 2nd team of all-conference players. 

[GoPerry]

North Central 71
Wheaton.      67

First of all, Wheaton played a very good game giving the host Cardinals all they could handle. I have to believe that if they had played at the level at which they performed last night over the entire season to this point, that they would have 4-5 more wins. The score was tied at the half.

I agree with this.  I've only seen NCC 3 or 4 times before but I wouldn't say that the game was close because they played horribly.  Rather, Wheaton played about as solid a game as they had played all year.  Only a -4 on the boards but were actually +5 on the offensive glass(big surprise).  Kept the turnovers to a mere 6(11 for NCC).  Their problem again was shooting only 37% from the field and truth be told, scoring has been hard to come by for this Thunder team all season.  They are dead last in field goal %.  Early in the 2nd over about a 2-3 minute stretch they got a little impatient taking some quick outside 3s unsuccessfully and that enabled NCC to go out to an 8 point lead.  When they resumed moving the ball with motion, they were able to play the Cardinals even.  It was frustrating to fall short again, but I give the Thunder credit for not going quietly(even if the NCTV announcers didn't).

* Michael Winowiecki: Burst out of the closet with 16 points, mainly on the basis of some very impressive shooting. At one point it seemed like none of the Cardinals would be able to contain him, with at least 3 members of the home team not having much luck in attempting to do at one point or another. On top of his box score stats, Winowiecki displayed a bit of an "edge," seemingly telling the
Cards that they couldn't stop him. The tide started to turn when the Cards finally began doing so.

No explanation for Mr Winowiecki except various players have stepped up at different times to have very good games this year.  Masten, Smith, Peters, Morrison and now Winowiecki.  But getting consistent performances from them have not been evident.  Berntsen, Samuelson, Berg and to some extent Dillard have been the only regular contributors.  One note on last night, Mike Schauer really shortened his bench to 6 players playing over 20 mins each with Peters, Morrison, Teuscher and Masten playing 6 or less.

+ As many long term posters/lurkers here know, I have been a critic of Michael Berg over his years in a Wheaton uniform. Initially, I felt he failed to live up to what seemed too much hype based on his HS record, along with the fact that, especially over his first two years, he often failed to score many points, grab many rebounds, or both. This was especially true in many conference games. I indicated that I felt he seemed afraid of going anywhere near the basket for fear of being folded, spindled, and/or mutilated, preferring to stand in the corner and pop 3 pointers in his attempt to avoid any physical play and bodily harm. I maintain that much of my commentary reflected an accurate analysis.
However, I began to back off last year as I saw Mr. Berg begin to transform his game. Likely due to the departure of Wheaton's bigs from the previous couple of years, he seemed to be more willing to play closer to the basket, to score more of his baskets in traffic, and to more physically fight for rebounds.
I think that development has continued to the point where, this season, we find him among the conference leaders in both scoring and rebounding. To me, his game has come a long way. His stats prove it. Congrats are in order. When the all conference team is announced I feel we should see Mr. Berg's name listed among those comprising the 2nd team of all-conference players. 

Fwiw, I never thought the Berg comments were unfair (although perhaps a bit snarky at times?).  In fact I agree with them.  Berg came in as a 6'6" freshman starter at the #4 forward and with juniors Nate Haynes and Tyler Peters on the roster for his first 2 years, he was not asked to do much inside(although I and many others would've liked him to).  So his offensive game was pretty much staying on the wing and taking outside shots.  Once those 2 graduated, I think he was forced(either by the coaches or the obvious situation) to stay inside and play the #5, a position that he was unfamiliar and uncomfortable with and I would say still not entirely natural for him.  So I give him all the credit in the world for doing what was necessary for his team.  Despite his notable improvements –dramatically so in rebounding, his inside game offensively still lacks some polish back to the basket and defensively he still has difficulty guarding the other #5s without fouling, especially when he is undersized giving up 2 inches and 30 lbs to a guy like Sorenson. 

With the season we're having, I'm not sure we get anybody onto the All conference team(only Brayden Teuscher last year). But he, and perhaps Jonathan Berntsen, would be deserving to squeeze in a 3rd team nod.

[AndOne]

I believe that historically each team gets at least one player on the all-conference team. I'm sure that one of our learned veterans can either confirm that or correct me if need be.

Right now my 1st team all-conference players would be (keeping in mind the voters don't necessarily follow a "regular" 2 guard, 2 forward, center lineup:

G - Henry, NPU
G - Hill, Augie
C/F - Sorenson, NCC
F - Robinson, NPU
F - Ryan, Augie

2nd team

G - Griffin, Millikin
G/F - Raridon, NCC
C - Nixon, Elmhurst
F - Seibring, IWU
F - Berg, Wheaton

3rd team has a multitude of possibilities. Not ready to make selections at this point, but in keeping with the at least one player per team, would include Kedrowski of Carthage.

I'm sure there will be disagreements. Instead of slamming me/my picks if you disagree, just give us yours. It would be interesting to see what people think. 

[Mr. Ypsi]

I believe that historically each team gets at least one player on the all-conference team. I'm sure that one of our learned veterans can either confirm that or correct me if need be.

Right now my 1st team all-conference players would be (keeping in mind the voters don't necessarily follow a "regular" 2 guard, 2 forward, center lineup:

G - Henry, NPU
G - Hill, Augie
C/F - Sorenson, NCC
F - Robinson, NPU
F - Ryan, Augie

2nd team

G - Griffin, Millikin
G/F - Raridon, NCC
C - Nixon, Elmhurst
F - Seibring, IWU
F - Berg, Wheaton

3rd team has a multitude of possibilities. Not ready to make selections at this point, but in keeping with the at least one player per team, would include Kedrowski of Carthage.

I'm sure there will be disagreements. Instead of slamming me/my picks if you disagree, just give us yours. It would be interesting to see what people think. 

Too many games to go for me to want to pick specific teams, but can't believe you couldn't find room for Kyle Wuest on either first or second team (I suspect he will be first team), and I believe Bryce Dolan will make at least second team.

[markerickson]

To project NPU at the top next year is absurd for a program that has never even qualified for the CCIW tourney, and may not do so this year.  In this connection, I note that NPU plays 2/5 games against teams currently below them in the standings whereas IWU plays 1/5 games with teams below them.  Where will be the upset/letdown?

[veterancciwfan]

Regarding the Demetrius Randle call with 2.2 seconds left: I think Randle is one of the better CCIW refs. If Straughter was in fact "run over," he made the courageous and correct call. A similar play occurred at Shirk on Mar. 7, 2014 in a 1st round D3 tourney game vs. Webster. IWU was up one after 2 FTs with 8 seconds left. Webster inbounded and their star dribbled down the court. His teammate set a hard pick on Brady Zimmer with 4 seconds left. Zimmer fell (flopped maybe) to the floor and the ref made the call and IWU escaped and made it to the Final 4. There were a lot of chat posts on that very controversial call. Grey is such a good coach and I'm sure he designed the play in order to have a chance for the call.

Regarding Michael Berg: Small detail, but the Wheaton PA guy still mispronounces Berg's hometown. You would think that Michael would have corrected him a few seasons ago. Maybe Michael is too nice to do so. For all the corn in MAN-uh- toe, not Man-EE-tow, home of the world famous Manito Popcorn festival on Labor Day weekend. One other item on Michael Berg: There is a fantastic column in the weekly Normal paper this week about Michael. He is a super young man and his sister is also playing b'ball for Wheaton. If you want to read the article, Google the Jan. 28, 2016 edition of the The Normalite, page 14. Haven't done that so don't know if you can access it. The author sent the article to the Wheaton AD. So Wheaton posters may want to contact the AD and obtain it in that manner. The article is well written. I'll include this paragraph, a quote from Michael regarding the prayer circle at center court at the conclusion of a game: "These are still the competitors we just finished beating up against, but praying lets us remember that it's just a game in the grand scheme of things. In short, we pray with other teams to help keep basketball in perspective." And this conclusion by the author: "As for Michael Berg, based on his prompt replies to me as well as the quality of his writing, I would say he seems to epitomize the true nature of the 'student athlete.'"  The article enforced my belief that all of us heavily invested in D3 athletics are indeed blessed by the true spirit of D3 where athletics take a back seat to academics. Too bad all NCAA divisions don't consistently employ that goal (think John Calapari).

 

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Regarding Michael Berg: Small detail, but the Wheaton PA guy still mispronounces Berg's hometown. You would think that Michael would have corrected him a few seasons ago. Maybe Michael is too nice to do so. For all the corn in MAN-uh- toe, not Man-EE-tow, home of the world famous Manito Popcorn festival on Labor Day weekend.

As a PA Announcer who has screwed up hometowns in the past... sometimes the players just don't care. I have actually been told by a player after apologizing for a similar mistake that they don't care ... and it was the visiting team. Secondly, it is hard to sometimes get the correct information. 99.9% of the time SIDs don't have these pronunciations and the same rate usually applies to whether the coaching staff - anyone on the staff - knows how to say the town correctly.

(modified by GS for formatting)

[Mr. Ypsi]

Regarding Michael Berg: Small detail, but the Wheaton PA guy still mispronounces Berg's hometown. You would think that Michael would have corrected him a few seasons ago. Maybe Michael is too nice to do so. For all the corn in MAN-uh- toe, not Man-EE-tow, home of the world famous Manito Popcorn festival on Labor Day weekend.

As a PA Announcer who has screwed up hometowns in the past... sometimes the players just don't care. I have actually been told by a player after apologizing for a similar mistake that they don't care ... and it was the visiting team. Secondly, it is hard to sometimes get the correct information. 99.9% of the time SIDs don't have these pronunciations and the same rate usually applies to whether the coaching staff - anyone on the staff - knows how to say the town correctly.

And don't forget that town residents are often divided on pronunciations.  (And, generally speaking, there is no 'official arbiter'.)  My adopted 'home town' is about evenly split between Ip-si-LAN-tee and Ip-sil-ANT-ee (spoken orally, a subtle difference, but noticeable).  (Maybe that's why most of us just say 'Ip-see'! )

(modified by GS for formatting)

[GoPerry]

Regarding Michael Berg:  He is a super young man and his sister is also playing b'ball for Wheaton. If you want to read the article, Google the Jan. 28, 2016 edition of the The Normalite, page 14. Haven't done that so don't know if you can access it. The author sent the article to the Wheaton AD. So Wheaton posters may want to contact the AD and obtain it in that manner. The article is well written. I'll include this paragraph, a quote from Michael regarding the prayer circle at center court at the conclusion of a game: "These are still the competitors we just finished beating up against, but praying lets us remember that it's just a game in the grand scheme of things. In short, we pray with other teams to help keep basketball in perspective." And this conclusion by the author: "As for Michael Berg, based on his prompt replies to me as well as the quality of his writing, I would say he seems to epitomize the true nature of the 'student athlete.'"  The article enforced my belief that all of us heavily invested in D3 athletics are indeed blessed by the true spirit of D3 where athletics take a back seat to academics. Too bad all NCAA divisions don't consistently employ that goal (think John Calapari).

Thanks the headsup on that article.  Unfortunately, doesn't look like it's posted on the Normalite website or anywhere in cyber.  Would love to read it if it ever gets posted.

[mwunder]

IWU 69
Carthage 60

http://www.iwusports.com/boxscore.aspx?id=3492&path=mbball

* Bryce Dolan: 14 pts, 3 reb, 4 assists
* Trevor Seibring: 12 pts, 4 reb
* Joel Pennington: 11 pts, 2 reb, 4 assists

* Tony Pierce Jr: 15 pts, 2 reb
* Kiston Lee: 12 pts, 16 reb
* Mike Stevenson: 11 pts, 2 reb


IWU controlled this one for the last 30 minutes.  The Titans present too many matchup problems for Carthage.

4-26 is the only stat you needed to see when looking at the box score for this game.  A small team cannot shoot 15% from behind the arc and hope to compete.  It's not like IWU had a hand in every shooter's face either...I'm pretty sure I remember at least 3 air balls on wide open looks.

Not sure what was up with Kedrowski's playing time in this game, but he played 4 minutes.  Dog house maybe?

Every time Carthage cut the lead to 7 or 8, IWU answered.

[robberki]

Regarding the Demetrius Randle call with 2.2 seconds left: I think Randle is one of the better CCIW refs. If Straughter was in fact "run over," he made the courageous and correct call. A similar play occurred at Shirk on Mar. 7, 2014 in a 1st round D3 tourney game vs. Webster. IWU was up one after 2 FTs with 8 seconds left. Webster inbounded and their star dribbled down the court. His teammate set a hard pick on Brady Zimmer with 4 seconds left. Zimmer fell (flopped maybe) to the floor and the ref made the call and IWU escaped and made it to the Final 4. There were a lot of chat posts on that very controversial call. Grey is such a good coach and I'm sure he designed the play in order to have a chance for the call.

With all due respect, that's not a similar call at all. That's a live ball foul, this was on an inbounds play dead-ball sitch. Every coach in the world tries to get this call, most time they set a pick on the inbound defender (if the inbound passer can run the baseline) and try to get him to run him over, it's usually so obvious a ploy that the refs don't call it. It's very unusual to get them to blow the whistle with two seconds left on an inbounds play. VERY unusual...like I said, oh well....

[CCIW >]

I believe that historically each team gets at least one player on the all-conference team. I'm sure that one of our learned veterans can either confirm that or correct me if need be.

Right now my 1st team all-conference players would be (keeping in mind the voters don't necessarily follow a "regular" 2 guard, 2 forward, center lineup:

G - Henry, NPU
G - Hill, Augie
C/F - Sorenson, NCC
F - Robinson, NPU
F - Ryan, Augie

2nd team

G - Griffin, Millikin
G/F - Raridon, NCC
C - Nixon, Elmhurst
F - Seibring, IWU
F - Berg, Wheaton

3rd team has a multitude of possibilities. Not ready to make selections at this point, but in keeping with the at least one player per team, would include Kedrowski of Carthage.

I'm sure there will be disagreements. Instead of slamming me/my picks if you disagree, just give us yours. It would be interesting to see what people think. 

Curious what the reasoning behind Ben Ryan being ahead of Raridon is?

[cardinalpride]

Regarding the Demetrius Randle call with 2.2 seconds left: I think Randle is one of the better CCIW refs. If Straughter was in fact "run over," he made the courageous and correct call. A similar play occurred at Shirk on Mar. 7, 2014 in a 1st round D3 tourney game vs. Webster. IWU was up one after 2 FTs with 8 seconds left. Webster inbounded and their star dribbled down the court. His teammate set a hard pick on Brady Zimmer with 4 seconds left. Zimmer fell (flopped maybe) to the floor and the ref made the call and IWU escaped and made it to the Final 4. There were a lot of chat posts on that very controversial call. Grey is such a good coach and I'm sure he designed the play in order to have a chance for the call.

With all due respect, that's not a similar call at all. That's a live ball foul, this was on an inbounds play dead-ball sitch. Every coach in the world tries to get this call, most time they set a pick on the inbound defender (if the inbound passer can run the baseline) and try to get him to run him over, it's usually so obvious a ploy that the refs don't call it. It's very unusual to get them to blow the whistle with two seconds left on an inbounds play. VERY unusual...like I said, oh well....

Rob,
Let me preference this by acknowledging I have not seen the foul in question.
My guess is it was an inbounds play underneath Angie's basket and straughter sets a back screen on Robinson. Straughter then reacts as if he was run over by a truck. Rob, did I summarize the "flopping foul" correctly? I've seen Augie, in particularly straughter, do this on a number of occasions this season in an attempt to pick up a cheap foul on the oppositions key player.

[badgerwarhawk]

Regarding the Demetrius Randle call with 2.2 seconds left: I think Randle is one of the better CCIW refs. If Straughter was in fact "run over," he made the courageous and correct call. A similar play occurred at Shirk on Mar. 7, 2014 in a 1st round D3 tourney game vs. Webster. IWU was up one after 2 FTs with 8 seconds left. Webster inbounded and their star dribbled down the court. His teammate set a hard pick on Brady Zimmer with 4 seconds left. Zimmer fell (flopped maybe) to the floor and the ref made the call and IWU escaped and made it to the Final 4. There were a lot of chat posts on that very controversial call. Grey is such a good coach and I'm sure he designed the play in order to have a chance for the call.

With all due respect, that's not a similar call at all. That's a live ball foul, this was on an inbounds play dead-ball sitch. Every coach in the world tries to get this call, most time they set a pick on the inbound defender (if the inbound passer can run the baseline) and try to get him to run him over, it's usually so obvious a ploy that the refs don't call it. It's very unusual to get them to blow the whistle with two seconds left on an inbounds play. VERY unusual...like I said, oh well....

Obviously I didn't see the foul but I wanted to clarify one thing regarding live ball/dead ball status.  On a throw-in the ball becomes live when it is at the disposal of the thrower-in even though the clock is not running.  There are a couple of situations in basketball (at least college and high school) in which the ball is live but the clock is not running.  In addition to the throw-in it's also a live ball when the ball is placed at the disposal of the shooter during a free throw.  This is rule six (Live Ball/Dead Ball) in the NCAA rule book.  Again I didn't see the foul but based on his description both occurred during a live ball by rule even though the clock was running in one case and stopped in the other.