MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[voxelmhurst]

Elmhurst turned a 16 point first half deficit around and ended up winning by 14. It was 47-31 North Central late in the first. Elmhurst outscored the Cardinals 60-30 the rest of the afternoon.

Yes Elmhurst hit a ridiculous amount of threes in the second half, but what impressed me the most was their aggressive defense. Jake Rhode was a bulldog on the defensive end all second half for Elmhurst and finished with 4 steals.

Maybe the best victory for Elmhurst since they graduated 9 seniors in 2016.

It seems that Elmhurst is a completely different team on their home hardwood. Tough matchup for every opponent traveling into the bird nest.

The Bluejays no doubt enjoyed having the home crowd behind them this afternoon, though Elmhurst (now 11-6, 4-4) actually has a slightly better away record than home. 6-3 away 5-3 home.

[iwumichigander]

Lucky?   Come on really?  Augustana does what they do.

what they did is almost blow a game that should have not been as close as it was.  If Colon Lake was not in a two game shooting slump, had it just hit his average ---- the other Vikings would have had a leg trip back to Rock Island.
Colin's arms must still be sore from jacking up 46 points against IWU

[iwu70]

As Greg has mentioned, it was a close game til the last 4 minutes.  You can't say AC over-powered NPU, as they didn't, and Lake had a poor shooting day.  If that's how the #10 team in the country is supposed to play, then I'm not terribly impressed. NPU is not exactly the powerhouse of the league this year, though they gave AC a pretty good game.   IMHO.

CC comes back to win in Decatur, in OT, 91-82.  I think MU ran out of gas. 

Here we go in round two of the league -- down the stretch we go. IWU will obviously have their hands full with EC at home.

'70

[iwumichigander]

As Greg has mentioned, it was a close game til the last 4 minutes.  You can't say AC over-powered NPU, as they didn't, and Lake had a poor shooting day.  If that's how the #10 team in the country is supposed to play, then I'm not terribly impressed. NPU is not exactly the powerhouse of the league this year, though they gave AC a pretty good game.   IMHO.

CC comes back to win in Decatur, in OT, 91-82.  I think MU ran out of gas.

Here we go in round two of the league -- down the stretch we go. IWU will obviously have their hands full with EC at home.

'70

Greg is right.  Both teams did a lot of running up and down the court.  Augustana kept themselves in the game with defense.

Millikin should have won the game in regulation.  Rarely does Bosko lose in an OT contest.  I think Millikin just does not yet have five guys used to playing together as opposed to running out of gas.  But watch out in the second half of the regular CCIW season as Millikin will get better.  There is some talent on Millikin.

[Yogao]

Augustana was + 23 on the boards in the game.  There was a 9-0 run on 3 consecutive 3 pointers from the 12:00 minute mark to the 10:30 mark that cut the lead to 1. Augie and North Park traded baskets until the 5 minute mark where North Park was shut out the rest of the game.  Anytime you hold a team on their home court to no points for a 5 minute span after they had gained momentum is impressive.

[iwu70]

I agree on MU -- when they get the group they want together, with better coaching and fitness, they have some real talent there in Decatur now.  Agree that MU should have won the game in regulation.  They had it in hand, let it slip away.

'70

[GoPerry]

Wheaton over IIT 76-55

Aston Francis      24 pts on 10-21, 6 rebs, 6 asst, 1 to
Kobe Eichelberger   20 pts, 9 rebs
Luke Peters      11 pts, 6 rebs
Jay Spencer      5 pts, 5 blks

Anthony Mosely Jr   21 pts
Jake Digiorgio      10 pts, 12 rebs
Max Hisatake      8 pts, 15 rebs

This game was pretty close at halftime with the Thunder leading by 1, 37-36.  But Wheaton really clamped down on the defense and was able to steadily pull away midway through the second.  The Scarlet Hawks put 6'-7" Joncus Parker on Francis which made it a little tougher for him to get his outside shot going.  However, he easily drove around him and was able to use his great passing ability to make some nice dishes to team mates.  Ricky Samuelson was a little off on his shot tonight which might have been a concern if not for outstanding all around play from Eichelberger who was aggressive early and never stopped.  His athleticism is very hard for opponents to match at the 4 position.

Peters had a very solid game even having to guard Mosely Jr, a terrific guard out of Whitney Young for IIT.  He got a lot of his points simply from one on one drives and pull ups. 

A non-con game but important for the Thunder to continue winning.  They did it as much with defense tonight vs just offense and that's a really good sign.  Big one coming on Wednesday to defend home court vs Augie at King Arena.

[iwu70]

For NCC's chances for the post-season, that loss in EC is pretty big, pretty damaging.

'70

[kenoshamark]

As Greg has mentioned, it was a close game til the last 4 minutes.  You can't say AC over-powered NPU, as they didn't, and Lake had a poor shooting day.  If that's how the #10 team in the country is supposed to play, then I'm not terribly impressed. NPU is not exactly the powerhouse of the league this year, though they gave AC a pretty good game.   IMHO.

CC comes back to win in Decatur, in OT, 91-82.  I think MU ran out of gas.

Here we go in round two of the league -- down the stretch we go. IWU will obviously have their hands full with EC at home.

'70

Greg is right.  Both teams did a lot of running up and down the court.  Augustana kept themselves in the game with defense.

Millikin should have won the game in regulation.  Rarely does Bosko lose in an OT contest.  I think Millikin just does not yet have five guys used to playing together as opposed to running out of gas.  But watch out in the second half of the regular CCIW season as Millikin will get better.  There is some talent on Millikin.

Happened twice this year already where Carthage lost in OT.  Calvin College and IIT.

[GoPerry]

For NCC's chances for the post-season, that loss in EC is pretty big, pretty damaging.

'70

I'm not so sure.  It's just a road loss. A win would have been better of course.  But they have 8 games left, 5 home, 3 away games (@ Carthage, @ Wheaton, @ IWU).  If they can go 6-2 the rest of the way, it's looking like 5 losses gets into the Conf tournament.

Rhode really hurt NCC during that critical 2nd half stretch when the 'Jays extended the lead.

[duckfan41]

Elmhurst turned a 16 point first half deficit around and ended up winning by 14. It was 47-31 North Central late in the first. Elmhurst outscored the Cardinals 60-30 the rest of the afternoon.

Yes Elmhurst hit a ridiculous amount of threes in the second half, but what impressed me the most was their aggressive defense. Jake Rhode was a bulldog on the defensive end all second half for Elmhurst and finished with 4 steals.

Maybe the best victory for Elmhurst since they graduated 9 seniors in 2016.

It seems that Elmhurst is a completely different team on their home hardwood. Tough matchup for every opponent traveling into the bird nest.

The Bluejays no doubt enjoyed having the home crowd behind them this afternoon, though Elmhurst (now 11-6, 4-4) actually has a slightly better away record than home. 6-3 away 5-3 home.

I didn't realize their Home/Away splits were that even. I just saw close games with Wheaton, Augie, and the big win over NCC. While the games against the Thunder and Vikings resulted in loses, they were very good and hard fought basketball games.

[Gregory Sager]

Lucky?   Come on really?  Augustana does what they do.

Yep. Very much so. Augie showed why it is a powerhouse; it's a veteran team that knows how to play under pressure and wins games at the defensive end of the floor (although Nolan Ebel was a playmaker par excellence tonight on offense.)

There was no luck involved tonight at all, just a really good final five minutes of basketball by Augie.

what they did is almost blow a game that should have not been as close as it was.

Disagree. As 4samuy said, Augie does what it does. Augie doesn't win many blowouts in CCIW play; it never really has under Grey Giovanine. He wants his players to expend as much or more energy on defense as they do on offense, which is the primary reason why he plays such a deep rotation and shuttles them in and out at a high frequency. I can't remember how many times over the years I've seen a bad NPU team hang around with Augie but never get over the hump. Tonight was another classic example. A good offense can have an off night, but a good defense is there every night, no matter what. And that's why Augie wins, year in and year out.

Colin's arms must still be sore from jacking up 46 points against IWU

He's pressing. He got to the rim quite a few times tonight and couldn't make a layup. And he's jacking up shots without having his feet set underneath him. The irony is that, even as he's feeling the heat to carry the team all by himself, he finally got the support tonight from his teammates (aside from his usual lone sidekick Billy Kirby) that he hasn't had all season. Jack Gurvey and Veggie Tangen had career highs tonight. Oh well, at least Colin led the team in rebounding for the first time in his career.

(Augie outrebounded NPU by a massive 48-25 total, including 16-7 on the offensive glass. The Park only made five two-point baskets the entire night.)

As Greg has mentioned, it was a close game til the last 4 minutes.  You can't say AC over-powered NPU, as they didn't, and Lake had a poor shooting day.  If that's how the #10 team in the country is supposed to play, then I'm not terribly impressed. NPU is not exactly the powerhouse of the league this year, though they gave AC a pretty good game.   IMHO.

Mark, you said that Augie was lucky to get out of town with a win, and you were wrong. Augie earned the victory. Deal with it.

[kenoshamark]

Greg,

Good comments about Baltimore being back in the lineup.  I haven't been able to attend a game yet, but I have watched some of the games on line (at least partial amounts).  Baltimore will have an impact and provides a real nice third scoring option (although he isn't shy about shooting so he might consider himself the first option now). 

Johnson is an interesting prospect...he seems very composed on the floor and is certainly getting rave reviews from Bosko.  In the Kenosha News on Sunday morning, Bosko was reiterating his previous comments about how smart he is, how hard he works, the sky is the limit and he will be a star some day.

What I wonder is how he will be used going forward this year and next.  As you stated, they have 40 minutes to use in the post with Perry and Johnson, but who is going to get the key minutes in the future?   Perry is probably a 25 minute player, but Johnson needs more minutes than 15.  You can't really play them together from what I can tell.   Maybe for a few minutes, but that experiment will probably be for the future as there isn't someone you are going to take out of the starting lineup down the stretch of a close game. 

With Perry being the reigning freshman of the year, how do you give him the right number of minutes too?  Bosko raved about him last year, but seems like it has switched to Johnson this year.  Its a great situation to have, but I think it will be interesting to see how it plays out. 

BTW, I can't believe Johnson didn't get some D2 looks....Now, maybe he did, but I would think there would be multiple teams at that level that could have used his size and shot blocking ability.  Just seems like he would have been a natural to be a scholarship player...might have taken him a year or two to round into a full time player at that level, but worth the risk.  Plus, he is supposed to be an outstanding student too and came from a top notch high school so he had to have been seen by bigger schools.  I'm not convinced he isn't taller than Perry and they have Perry at 6"11 and Johnson at 6"10....

Nonetheless, great get for Carthage....

Posted this a few days ago....I see that Johnson started tonight and logged 30 minutes and Perry came off the bench and played 15 minutes.  Not sure what this means for the remaining games in terms of who will be the starter.

[Red and black]

As Greg has mentioned, it was a close game til the last 4 minutes.  You can't say AC over-powered NPU, as they didn't, and Lake had a poor shooting day.  If that's how the #10 team in the country is supposed to play, then I'm not terribly impressed. NPU is not exactly the powerhouse of the league this year, though they gave AC a pretty good game.   IMHO.

CC comes back to win in Decatur, in OT, 91-82.  I think MU ran out of gas.

Here we go in round two of the league -- down the stretch we go. IWU will obviously have their hands full with EC at home.

'70

Greg is right.  Both teams did a lot of running up and down the court.  Augustana kept themselves in the game with defense.

Millikin should have won the game in regulation.  Rarely does Bosko lose in an OT contest.  I think Millikin just does not yet have five guys used to playing together as opposed to running out of gas.  But watch out in the second half of the regular CCIW season as Millikin will get better.  There is some talent on Millikin.

Happened twice this year already where Carthage lost in OT.  Calvin College and IIT.

Mark it's okay to say nice things about your home town team every once in awhile. People close with the program understand where your allegiances are but come on.

It was a very interesting game tonight. One carthage did not deserve to win, but I've learned that doesn't matter.  it's already been said on here tonight, a road win in this league is not easy!  Doesn't get any easier for the red men who have a night off Wednesday before heading to rock island.

[Red and black]

Greg,

Good comments about Baltimore being back in the lineup.  I haven't been able to attend a game yet, but I have watched some of the games on line (at least partial amounts).  Baltimore will have an impact and provides a real nice third scoring option (although he isn't shy about shooting so he might consider himself the first option now). 

Johnson is an interesting prospect...he seems very composed on the floor and is certainly getting rave reviews from Bosko.  In the Kenosha News on Sunday morning, Bosko was reiterating his previous comments about how smart he is, how hard he works, the sky is the limit and he will be a star some day.

What I wonder is how he will be used going forward this year and next.  As you stated, they have 40 minutes to use in the post with Perry and Johnson, but who is going to get the key minutes in the future?   Perry is probably a 25 minute player, but Johnson needs more minutes than 15.  You can't really play them together from what I can tell.   Maybe for a few minutes, but that experiment will probably be for the future as there isn't someone you are going to take out of the starting lineup down the stretch of a close game. 

With Perry being the reigning freshman of the year, how do you give him the right number of minutes too?  Bosko raved about him last year, but seems like it has switched to Johnson this year.  Its a great situation to have, but I think it will be interesting to see how it plays out. 

BTW, I can't believe Johnson didn't get some D2 looks....Now, maybe he did, but I would think there would be multiple teams at that level that could have used his size and shot blocking ability.  Just seems like he would have been a natural to be a scholarship player...might have taken him a year or two to round into a full time player at that level, but worth the risk.  Plus, he is supposed to be an outstanding student too and came from a top notch high school so he had to have been seen by bigger schools.  I'm not convinced he isn't taller than Perry and they have Perry at 6"11 and Johnson at 6"10....

Nonetheless, great get for Carthage....

Posted this a few days ago....I see that Johnson started tonight and logged 30 minutes and Perry came off the bench and played 15 minutes.  Not sure what this means for the remaining games in terms of who will be the starter.

I watched the live feed tonight and that is incorrect. Perry started the game.