MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[hopefan]

and how about CMS over Whitworth....  what a night.....  Greg, hope you're getting as big of a kick out of this as I am..

[iwu70]

#2 Whitworth also lost.

'70

[Gregory Sager]

biggest upset ever... a challenger is finishing... Bethany Lutheran over St John's

No, the Wash U upset is the biggest. But the Bethany Lutheran flush of the Johnnies is definitely top five.

It means that we're going to get to see Brady Rose play tomorrow night ... Brady Rose of Bethany Lutheran, that is, the 6'2 senior forward who had a 16 and 9 night for BLC in the huge upset.

and how about CMS over Whitworth....  what a night.....  Greg, hope you're getting as big of a kick out of this as I am..

This is the most entertaining opening night in D3 tourney history. Just one fantastic game after another.

[Dutchfan]

I am dead serious.

Biggest. Tourney. Upset. Ever.

And if Augie doesn't get its act together, it could be challenging that dubious Wash U achievement.

The biggest tourny upset ever was in the 1995 men's tournament. No. 1 in the country Hope College was the only team in the country, men or women and in any division, to go undefeated in the regular season. In the first round Hope College lost to Baldwin Wallace by one point. B.W. came into the game with a 16-8? Record.

[Gregory Sager]

Augustana, which didn't even lead in this game until there was 8:11 left, outlasts Greenville, 123-111.

Augie opened the door by playing a lot of boneheaded basketball, especially in the first half, but full credit goes to Greenville for stepping through that door and giving Augie everything it could handle. I was hugely impressed by the Panthers tonight.

I think that Dan Sand was right about Augie making some good halftime adjustments. The hosts still attempted too many treys (although it's hard to argue with an 8-20 performance), but they stopped shooting midrange shots and got a lot more aggressive in terms of attacking the basket.

[Gregory Sager]

I am dead serious.

Biggest. Tourney. Upset. Ever.

And if Augie doesn't get its act together, it could be challenging that dubious Wash U achievement.

The biggest tourny upset ever was in the 1995 men's tournament. No. 1 in the country Hope College was the only team in the country, men or women and in any division, to go undefeated in the regular season. In the first round Hope College lost to Baldwin Wallace by one point. B.W. came into the game with a 16-8? Record.

Nope. This one was bigger. In '95 Baldwin Wallace was the second-place team from a power conference, and the Yellow Jackets proved their mettle by knocking off 21-game-winner Wittenberg the night after beating Hope.

Aurora? The Spartans rep a league that has never earned any respect, aside from two terrific tourney runs by Benedictine in '91 and '16. Aurora came into tonight sporting an all-time D3 tourney record of 1-9, with that win coming all the way back in '03 (a one-point victory over Trinity TX). Meanwhile, senior-laden Wash U was on everybody's short list as a possible national champion this season ... and the Spartans beat the Bears on their own floor.

Also, Bald Wally beat Hope by three (72-69), not by one, and the Yellow Jackets came into the Hope game with a 17-8 record.

[Mr. Ypsi]

USee, fortunately for you, Augie pulled off the comeback.  Earlier I thought you had jinxed them by naming Nolan (Cain and) Ebel (Abel didn't come out so well from that interaction ), but since he led all scorers, I guess you are off the hook!

[Mr. Ypsi]

Augie gives up 67 points in the first half, trails Greenville 54-67.  Even the Titan women are now only up by 5 with 2+ to go.  The CCIW is at some risk of going 0-5 on day one (though I believe it will eventually be 2-3).

And they do finish the day at 2-3.  Not great, but coulda been a whole lot worse!

[Gregory Sager]

The only thing that matters on this page is 1-2, Chuck. It wasn't a pretty 1-2, either, but, as you said, it could've been a lot worse.

[BobbyO]

It was good to see the huge crowd at Carver. Carver Crazies came back early from break.  Finally they are helping with the home court advantage.  Now Ryan had picked Wash U for championship over Augie. Now does this mean he now picks Augie?  Time will only tell. "The System" is interesting but I don't think you can win a championship with it. Too much needed on the three pointers.  Hope Vikings get a good rest they will need to beat Hope. I wanted Augie and IWU in the round of 16.  Maybe next year, they (IWU) are so hard to beat.  Congrats on a great season.  GO AUGUSTANA!

[Gregory Sager]

And now, the $64,000 question: Is the Friday game against a System team going to affect Augie's legs when it faces Hope on Saturday night?

[iwu70]

Congrats to Augie on the D3 tournament win.  Now they have to carry the CCIW flag the rest of the way. 

Good season for NCC and IWU, but just not enough around their stars and sometimes their stars not coming through either. 

IWU has a lot coming back, only losing Beasley from the starters and Burdine off the bench.  O'Neill will continue to improve, Bonnett, Gregoire, Wolf, Knobloach and, of course, Rose, all still there firing up treys.  Key will be improvement of Baker and more from the newbies amongst IWU's bigs off the JV. 

Thanks to all the seniors for their contributions to the program, representing IWU well.

Good luck to Augie the rest of the way.  A first round full of surprises, esp. Wash U, Whitman, and Jonnies going down. 

'70

[hopefan]

Augie-GC

2 critical points...

Johari Dix fouls out at 8:44, the game tied at 93-93... he's the guy that makes GC go... Augie outscores them 30-18 from there..

GC from 3's first half 11/18, 61%.....   GC from 3's second half 4/20, 20%.....  the high % just couldn't continue.....


IMHO... how can Hope stay with Augie's big men... maybe Hope has an edge at guard, but Augie should beat them on the boards, at the basket, better depth....I don't think it will be close....

[Titan Q]

Brady Rose's 21.4 points per game average in 2017-18 was IWU's 3rd highest single season average in the last 20 years, and 6th highest in the last 40 years. He's the first Ron Rose-recruited IWU player to average 20.0+ ppg in a season.

Last 20 seasons
-Korey Coon (22.0 ppg), 1999-00
-Zach Freeman (21.6 ppg), 2006-07
-Brady Rose (21.4 ppg), 2017-18
-Brent Niebrugge (20.0 ppg), 1997-98

Last 40 seasons
-Blaise Bugajaski (26.4 ppg), 1983-84
-Jeff Kuehl (25.0 ppg), 1987-88
-Bryan Crabtree (22.6 ppg), 1996-97
-Korey Coon (22.0 ppg), 1999-00
-Zach Freeman (21.6 ppg), 2006-07
-Brady Rose (21.4 ppg), 2017-18
-David Caldwell (20.9 ppg), 1990-91
-Jeff Kuehl (20.8 ppg), 1989-90
-Blaise Bugajaski (20.5 ppg), 1982-83
-Greg Yess (20.5 ppg), 1980-81
-Brent Niebrugge (20.0 ppg), 1997-98
-Chris Simich (20.0 ppg), 1994-95

[Titan Q]

I watched a good chunk of the Augustana/Greenville game.  Pretty fascinating Xs and Os going on there.

I've always been in the camp that The System is a gimmick (still am), but last night its merits were on full display.

#1 - It forces the opponent to scrap almost everything they normally do and play a completely different style.
#2 - It puts the opponent in awkward/different positions than their used to.
#3 - It forces the opponent to use different personnel and combinations than normal.

It's incredibly hard to simulate The System in practice.  You can play 6 on 5 or whatever, but it's just simply different when you play a team that does it night in and night out.  The first half last night was a good illustration of that.  Augie had practiced all week for The System, and yet for 20 minutes they looked completely lost against it.

Greenville played great.  I've watched a lot of System games and I think Greenville was about as quick and athletic as any I've seen.  They came out of the locker room poised and ready to take the fight to Augie...and most importantly, they started knocking down shots right from the tip.  Greenville has some really skilled, talented players.

I think it's really hard to be the heavy favorite in an NCAA tournament game when an opponent that has nothing to lose (meaning no one expects them to win; heavy underdog) is shooting free and easy and making shots. It creates pressure, and that starts to snowball. Then add The System pace to that and the pressure and snowballing is multiplied by like 4, because things are happening so fast and you almost don't have time to think.

Xs and Os wise, I thought Augie fell into The System trap of taking the shots Greeville wanted them too -- too many jumpshots. Augie took 9 3-pointers in the first 20 minutes and many other 10-15 foot shots.  The Vikings didn't do a good job attacking the rim.  Against The System you can get a shot right at the basket on every possession if you are patient and commit to it...or you can shoot that jumpshot they want you to.

In the end, the better basketball team won.  I've still never seen The System lead to a win against a significantly better team. But, The System is what made last night's matchup so good for so long (31+ minutes) -- if those teams play "normal" basketball, it would have been a blowout.