MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[AndOne]

Too many guys looking about 25 who could ran fast, jump high, and shoot straight, and not enough (as in none) Connor Raridon spelled defeat for NCC this afternoon as the went up against NAIA Robert Morris. Then Cardinals were down by 17 with 6:28 remaining, when they staged a rally which brought the finsl score to a respectable 77-70.

Erwin Henry was both The Man and The  Show for NCC today as he continually went around, through, and over the opposition to total a game high 23 points, many of which came on twisting drives finished with sweeping baby hook type shots off the glass. Freshmen Nick Chambers and Matt Cappelletti continued their recent development and contribution, hitting 5 three pointers between them, and finishing with 11 and 10 points respectively.

Darius Paul looked to be a man among boys for RMU, tallying 20 points on 7-10 shooting, including 1-1 from three, and 5/6 from the line. He added 10 boards for a double double. He also somehow managed to frequently negotiate huge distances on the floor without having to take even one dribble.
However, I didn't see any wings.

Paul is an interesting story.

As a freshman in 2012-2013 he played at Western Michigan where he was the Mid American Conference Freshman of the Year, averaging 10.5 PPG and 5.7 RPG.
After the season he announced plans to transfer to Illinois.

2013-2014 -- Sat out season due to D1 transfer rules

2014-2015 -- In May he was suspended from Illinois for "multiple transgressions," including resisting an officer, attempting to obtain DMT, and 2 failed marijuana tests. Then, in August, 2014 he was dismissed from the Illinois team following his 5 AM arrest for breaking car windows while the team was on a trip to France. Accordingly, he played at Lamar State-Port Arthur Jr. College where he averaged 17.1 PPG and 9.1 RPG.

2015-2016 -- Like Daniel Simpson Day....................................whereabouts unknown.

2016-2017 -- NAIA Robert Morris.

Very interesting.

[4samuy]

Henry was definitely a man.  I also thought Bronec showed himself big today

[Gregory Sager]

Illinois Wesleyan beat Wash U, 73-72. Exciting finish of a game that IWU won at the free-throw line and, equally, Wash U lost at the stripe. The Bears, down three, inexplicably went for the layup in the final ten seconds when they really didn't have the time left afterward to foul and then bring the ball down the floor for a last shot.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Illinois Wesleyan beat Wash U, 73-72. Exciting finish of a game that IWU won at the free-throw line and, equally, Wash U lost at the stripe. The Bears, down three, inexplicably went for the layup in the final ten seconds when they really didn't have the time left afterward to foul and then bring the ball down the floor for a last shot.

IWU totally denied them a reasonable three, so they hoped they could get the foul call on the layup.  It often works, but IWU was super careful not to even give the appearance of a foul.

[iwu70]

Terrific road win for the Titans over Wash U.  Very hard-fought, close game, with Wash U roaring back from a 10 pt. halftime deficit, playing really great second half defense after a poor first half.  Titans hung tough, made the FTs, esp. two key ones by Bausch at the end. 

Seibring 17
Rose 14 -- too much dribbling
Stempel 14
Coleman, a strong game, 9

Titans really not getting much production from Beasley.  Perhaps Ron Rose thinks about starting Bausch in conference season.  Just a thought. 

Wash U a very disciplined, strong team, esp. in the second half.  They will go far in their league.  Agree with Greg, was surprised they didn't have something sketched out to get a good look at a trey at the end that would have tied the game, sent it to OT. 

Both teams played very well.  First half one of the better sequences of Titan play all year, shooting nearly 70%. 

More tough games to come -- next Chicago and two games out east on Long Island, including Middlebury.  Sure would like to see the Titans continue to play this way and come into the rest of the CCIW season play at 10-2. 

My hat is off to Wash U, they played well, almost came all the way back after being down 10 at the half.

Another great game in the IWU-Wash U rivalry.  Always good. 

IWU'70

[toooldtohoop]

Wheaton 87
Alma 97

The Thunder ran into a red hot shooting Alma team this afternoon and went down 97-87.  I thought Wheaton played ok most of the game but had a 3-4 minute lapse of attention late in the contest - the worst time to do so.  So not their cleanest effort of the season by any means.  Even with the Scots shooting as well as they did, it was a pretty tight game until 6 mins left.  Alma came into the game shooting 39% from 3pt and ended up shooting 16/28 for 57% and 58% (33/57) overall.

Wheaton led 71-65 with about 7 mins left but Alma went on a 25-5 run thanks to making 6 of their next 7 shots with 4 treys.  In this stretch, the Thunder showed a little of their 'young-ness' by losing some defensive composure leading to easy baskets that allowed Alma to extend.

A hot-early-but-cold-late Aston Francis led all scorers with 23 pts, 6 asts followed by Ricky Samuelson with 20pts, 6/13 3pt.  Luke Peters added 15 with 12 rebs, 4 asts.  Jay Spencer continues to impress off the bench with 12 pts, 3 rebs.  Kobe Eichelberger did not score and seemed to disappear for most of the game, likely due to the Scots playing predominantly a 2-3 zone most of the game.  Frosh FB player Spencer Peterson finally got onto the floor and will add needed size down low.

This Thunder team certainly plays hard, but I fear that as they go into conference play, the weaknesses will become more apparent.




As I said before, give Alma's freshmen a bit more floor time, and good things will start to happen for the Scots. Three of Alma's plebes scored in double figures today against Wheaton. If I was an MIAA coach, I would not take the Scots lightly, 2-5 record or no 2-5 record. That freshman class of theirs is solid.

Off for some home time before heading to . . . Vegas?




After summering in the Holy Lands, what better road trip could you choose?

Wheaton in Vegas ... a million jokes spring to mind, and I don't know which one to pick.

[Gregory Sager]

Illinois Wesleyan beat Wash U, 73-72. Exciting finish of a game that IWU won at the free-throw line and, equally, Wash U lost at the stripe. The Bears, down three, inexplicably went for the layup in the final ten seconds when they really didn't have the time left afterward to foul and then bring the ball down the floor for a last shot.

IWU totally denied them a reasonable three

The Bears gave up on it much too quickly.

, so they hoped they could get the foul call on the layup.  It often works, but IWU was super careful not to even give the appearance of a foul.

It rarely works, you mean, and for precisely the reason that you mentioned: The opponent always backs down and doesn't resist the layup attempt when there's so little time left on the scoreboard.

[iwumichigander]

Illinois Wesleyan beat Wash U, 73-72. Exciting finish of a game that IWU won at the free-throw line and, equally, Wash U lost at the stripe. The Bears, down three, inexplicably went for the layup in the final ten seconds when they really didn't have the time left afterward to foul and then bring the ball down the floor for a last shot.

IWU totally denied them a reasonable three

The Bears gave up on it much too quickly.

, so they hoped they could get the foul call on the layup.  It often works, but IWU was super careful not to even give the appearance of a foul.

It rarely works, you mean, and for precisely the reason that you mentioned: The opponent always backs down and doesn't resist the layup attempt when there's so little time left on the scoreboard.

Agree on both points Greg.  But, WashU is not a three point shooting team either.  Give credit to Coach Edwards who made his team adjust I the second half coming behind the three point arch to defend the three.  The Bears seemed to spend the first half behind the arch which gave the Titans a chance to shoot and make threes which was the big reason the Tirans had a ten point lead at the half.  I can not recall a game the Titans have won where they were held to zero threes I the second half.  Whew, give them credit for making free throws. And, the Bears made the mistake of putting IWU at the line way too often.  A heads up quick in bounds at the end which prevented WashU from calling a time out to set a defense.

[AndOne]

Henry was definitely a man. I also thought Bronec showed himself big today.

Yes, indeed, Jack Bronec certainly stepped up in a big way today, turning in his most productive outing of the season. Frequently going against the aforementioned Mr. Paul, Jack was NCC's leading rebounder with 3/6/9, and scored 8 points on 3/4 shooting with 2/2 from the line.
I had intended to mention his contribution in my initial post above, but was distracted by the Blackhawks game.
Hopefully Jack will let me off with a small fine. 🙏🏼

[iwu70]

Agree on the quick inbounds play at the end of the IWU-Wash U game. 

Though not scoring much, I thought Bausch had a good game, as did Nick Coleman, who is turning out to be a very able PG back up for Brady Rose.  He's had a number of strong games, contributing to the scoring and the trey shooting.  Very capable. 

Yes, Titan trey shooting in the first half and hanging tough, making FTs in the second, was the difference.  This game could have gone either way, so all the more a good win for the Titans on the road.

IWU'70

[Titan Q]

#21-Illinois Wesleyan 73
#17-Wash U 72

http://washubears.com/sports/mbkb/2016-17/files/washum9.htm

* Seibring: 17 pts, 5 rebounds, 3 assists
* Rose: 14 pts, 5 assists
* Stempel: 14 pts, 2 assists
* Coleman: 9 pts, 5 assists

IWU shot 69% (20-29) in the 1st half against a very sound and disciplined defensive Wash U team.  The Bears tried to take Seibring away and the Titans made them pay, knocking down 7-13 3-pointers.

In the 2nd half Wash U was forced to adjust, and did so incredibly well.  The Bears really extended their defense and held the Titans without a 3-pointer for the final 20 minutes of the game.  IWU struggled to enter the ball into the post, despite Wash U giving more space - a credit to Wash U's defense.

IWU led somewhat comfortably for the middle 20-22 minutes of the game, but it always felt to me like Wash U would make a run...and they did.  The Bears took a 65-64 lead at 7:06, and IWU countered to go back up 4 at 4:28.  The Bears fought back to a 70-69 lead with 1:29 to play, but the Titans hit 4 big FTs in the final minute - 2 by Brady Rose at 0:57 to put IWU up and then 2 by Alec Bausch to give IWU a 73-70 lead with 0:20 to go.

Wash U had trouble getting a decent 3-point look on the final possession and got a 2 with 5 seconds to play.  Per Bausch in the WJBC postgame, in the timeout before that play, IWU discussed that scenario (Wash U getting 2) and made plans to in-bound the ball as quickly as possible.  The Titans executed that well and ran out the clock.

This was a very big road win for the Titans.  7-2 IWU hosts 7-1 Chicago Tuesday in another big Central Region matchup.

[Gregory Sager]

Agree on both points Greg.  But, WashU is not a three point shooting team either.

That's true. But with the clock ticking down under ten seconds, your chances are infinitely better of hitting even a low-percentage trey attempt than they are of driving to the basket, making the layup, fouling on the inbounds pass, and then making what would at best be a half-court shot, or maybe a catch-and-shoot. Too many variables involved with too little time left in which to account for them all -- and, as IWU demonstrated with the quick inbound pass, there's no guarantee that you'll even be able to foul in time. I think Jake Knupp lost his head a little bit by giving up on the trey and driving to the bucket; the Bears had enough time left for one, maybe two passes from behind the arc before taking a final shot.

Give credit to Coach Edwards who made his team adjust I the second half coming behind the three point arch to defend the three.  The Bears seemed to spend the first half behind the arch which gave the Titans a chance to shoot and make threes which was the big reason the Tirans had a ten point lead at the half.  I can not recall a game the Titans have won where they were held to zero threes I the second half.  Whew, give them credit for making free throws. And, the Bears made the mistake of putting IWU at the line way too often.  A heads up quick in bounds at the end which prevented WashU from calling a time out to set a defense.

Good points as well, but, as I mentioned earlier, it needs to be said that Wash U lost the game at the line as much as IWU won it there. With the Bears down by one point, Matt Highsmith's miss of the front end of the one-and-one with 31 seconds remaining was perhaps the most pivotal moment in the final outcome.

[iwumichigander]

A win over UChgo to go with a win over WashU could be really important come tournament selection time.  And, no, I am not really looking beyond UChgo.

WashU is a really good team that has a higher ceiling.  Improve the perimeter defense and find one or two guys that can step up to hit threes --- could be a great team!

[iwumichigander]

Agree on both points Greg.  But, WashU is not a three point shooting team either.

That's true. But with the clock ticking down under ten seconds, your chances are infinitely better of hitting even a low-percentage trey attempt than they are of driving to the basket, making the layup, fouling on the inbounds pass, and then making what would at best be a half-court shot, or maybe a catch-and-shoot. Too many variables involved with too little time left in which to account for them all -- and, as IWU demonstrated with the quick inbound pass, there's no guarantee that you'll even be able to foul in time. I think Jake Knupp lost his head a little bit by giving up on the trey and driving to the bucket; the Bears had enough time left for one, maybe two passes from behind the arc before taking a final shot.

Give credit to Coach Edwards who made his team adjust I the second half coming behind the three point arch to defend the three.  The Bears seemed to spend the first half behind the arch which gave the Titans a chance to shoot and make threes which was the big reason the Tirans had a ten point lead at the half.  I can not recall a game the Titans have won where they were held to zero threes I the second half.  Whew, give them credit for making free throws. And, the Bears made the mistake of putting IWU at the line way too often.  A heads up quick in bounds at the end which prevented WashU from calling a time out to set a defense.

Good points as well, but, as I mentioned earlier, it needs to be said that Wash U lost the game at the line as much as IWU won it there. With the Bears down by one point, Matt Highsmith's miss of the front end of the one-and-one with 31 seconds remaining was perhaps the most pivotal moment in the final outcome.

The Bears did lose the game at the line.  Without looking a the play by play I know they missed at least two, if not three, front ends of one-and-ones.
And, another nice job by Jay Murray on the broadcast. Always enjoyable to hear Jay call a game.

[Titan Q]

Good points as well, but, as I mentioned earlier, it needs to be said that Wash U lost the game at the line as much as IWU won it there. With the Bears down by one point, Matt Highsmith's miss of the front end of the one-and-one with 31 seconds remaining was perhaps the most pivotal moment in the final outcome.

It was a big miss, but IWU did a whole bunch of things well over the course of 40 minutes to win that game tonight.