MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

Wash U edged Carroll up in suburban Milwaukee, 71-69. Nick Penny led the way for the Pios with 15, while Tyler Ingebrigtsen added 13.

[Gregory Sager]

And, finally, Wheaton (or "Illinois", as the announcer kept calling them), survived a pesky LeTourneau team, 89-87, as Aston Francis and LeTourneau's Billy West played a game of H-O-R-S-E down the stretch, matching each other's 35-to-40-footers. Francis finished with 42 and 8, while the cumbersomely-named Kobe Eichelberger had 14. Luke Peters pulled down seven rebounds.

[duckfan41]

Wasn't able to catch any of the Wheaton game, but was relieved to see that the Thunder pulled out the win after trailing by 5 at the half. Aston Francis paced the Thunder with 42 points on 15-31 shooting to tie Tom Dykstra for the program record of 5 40-point games. He also pulled down 8 rebounds.

Like I said, I wasn't able to watch and haven't had much time to look at the box, but this is a solid win for the Thunder in their first road challenge of the season. At 5-0, with wins over #2 Oshkosh, a tournament team from last year LeTourneau, and over typical power Calvin, I would expect the Thunder to vault themselves up towards the top of the ORV category. Not sure how other top 25 teams have done, and would imagine it's pretty difficult for a team to go from no votes in one poll straight to the top 25 in the next one. So, naturally, I'll stay modest (and logical) and hope for a significant increase (from zero) in votes for the Thunder.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Wasn't able to catch any of the Wheaton game, but was relieved to see that the Thunder pulled out the win after trailing by 5 at the half. Aston Francis paced the Thunder with 42 points on 15-31 shooting to tie Tom Dykstra for the program record of 5 40-point games. He also pulled down 8 rebounds.

Like I said, I wasn't able to watch and haven't had much time to look at the box, but this is a solid win for the Thunder in their first road challenge of the season. At 5-0, with wins over #2 Oshkosh, a tournament team from last year LeTourneau, and over typical power Calvin, I would expect the Thunder to vault themselves up towards the top of the ORV category. Not sure how other top 25 teams have done, and would imagine it's pretty difficult for a team to go from no votes in one poll straight to the top 25 in the next one. So, naturally, I'll stay modest (and logical) and hope for a significant increase (from zero) in votes for the Thunder.

Actually, this early in the season, it's not hard at all.  The voters themselves would be among the first to admit that a preseason poll is just educated guessing, based on ZERO current results.  I'll be surprised if Wheaton is not IN the next Top 25.     

I'm wondering if IWU's 6-0 start has been impressive enough to go up several slots - no ranked opponents, but several who are traditionally strong (including Chicago, Calvin, WashU, and Webster, who had just beaten WashU).

[kiko]

He's calling this game like a Sunday stroll, and it's very entertaining. I love the fact that pronouncing the name "Eichelberger", which you wouldn't think would faze anybody, represents some sort of insurmountable obstacle in his mind. He's mentioned a couple of times now that he's going to try his best to pronounce it correctly.

A few minutes ago, when Kobe Eichelberger was at the FT line, the announcer said, in that mellifluous East Texas drawl, "Ah-chel-burr-gurr. That's his name. Heh, heh, heh." Left me grinning from ear to ear.

Now I want to hear him pronounce mellifluous, and also use it in a sentence... 

[kiko]

North Central led Alma by 12 at the half, and then outscored the Scots 15-6 over the first seven-and-change in the second half to salt this one away.  It was more of a vice slowly gripping tighter than a concentrated burst, but got things to a place where Todd Raridon was able to empty the bench in the waning minutes.

Connor Raridon - 25 pts and 10 rebounds, including 20 pts in the first half
Matt Cappelletti - 18 and 6
Blaise Meredith - 17 and 6

For Alma:
Kevin Gamble with 14 and 8 was the top scorer and rebounder

Next for the Cardinals is Finlandia on Tuesday, so I assume they left immediately following tonight's game in order to make it to Hancock by tipoff.

[AndOne]

North Central led for all but 1:39 this afternoon in downing Alma by an 87-67 score in The Hangar in Naperville. The Scots had previously lost to Augie by 11, and IWU by only 5.

Defense was the name of the game today as the Cardinals held 4 of the 5 Alma starters under their early season averages. Kyle Woodruff, averaging 19 PPG, was held to 7. Steven Hardy who was at 10 PPG, also scored 7. Cole Kleiver, who came in averaging 14.5, and Ryan Stevens at 17.5, were both held to just 8. The only Alma starter to hit/exceed his average of 13 was Keven Gamble, Alma's high man with 14 points. The Alma bench outscored NCC's 23-21.

* Connor Raridon led the Cardinals with a double-double of 25 points and 10 rebounds. He also had 3 assists and 2 blocks.

* Matt Cappelletti, 18 points, 6 rebounds.

* Blaise Meredith, 17 points, 6 rebounds.

* Mike Pollck and Will Clausel off the beach with 9 and 6 points, respectively.

* The Cards committed just 9 turnovers, and had 3 blocks, and 6 steals.

The Cardinals reward for their 3-0 season start comes Monday when they board the bus for a (hopefully) 8 hour scenic excursion to Michigan's Upper Peninsula for their Tuesday game vs University of Siberia, otherwise known as Finlandia. 

[Titan Q]

Like I said, I wasn't able to watch and haven't had much time to look at the box, but this is a solid win for the Thunder in their first road challenge of the season. At 5-0, with wins over #2 Oshkosh, a tournament team from last year LeTourneau, and over typical power Calvin, I would expect the Thunder to vault themselves up towards the top of the ORV category. Not sure how other top 25 teams have done, and would imagine it's pretty difficult for a team to go from no votes in one poll straight to the top 25 in the next one. So, naturally, I'll stay modest (and logical) and hope for a significant increase (from zero) in votes for the Thunder.

I'm almost positive Wheaton will enter the Top 25 this week.  5-0 including the win over UW-Oshkosh should be plenty...add in LeTourneau for good measure.

I'll be shocked if the Thunder aren't in there.

[Gregory Sager]

North Central led for all but 1:39 this afternoon in downing Alma by an 87-67 score in The Hangar in Naperville. The Scots had previously lost to Augie by 11, and IWU by only 5.

... which doesn't necessarily mean anything, it needs to be said.

[Titan Q]

I assume weather related...
‏

@MillikinHoops
ATTENTION: Today's varsity game against Simpson College has been canceled. However the JV game vs. Kaskaskia College is still on at 3pm following the women's game vs. Illinois College at 1pm.  If you have time please come and support our young men and women competing today!

[duckfan41]

Like I said, I wasn't able to watch and haven't had much time to look at the box, but this is a solid win for the Thunder in their first road challenge of the season. At 5-0, with wins over #2 Oshkosh, a tournament team from last year LeTourneau, and over typical power Calvin, I would expect the Thunder to vault themselves up towards the top of the ORV category. Not sure how other top 25 teams have done, and would imagine it's pretty difficult for a team to go from no votes in one poll straight to the top 25 in the next one. So, naturally, I'll stay modest (and logical) and hope for a significant increase (from zero) in votes for the Thunder.

I'm almost positive Wheaton will enter the Top 25 this week.  5-0 including the win over UW-Oshkosh should be plenty...add in LeTourneau for good measure.

I'll be shocked if the Thunder aren't in there.

Well shoot... put em in the top 25 then! 😂

[lmitzel]

North Central led for all but 1:39 this afternoon in downing Alma by an 87-67 score in The Hangar in Naperville. The Scots had previously lost to Augie by 11, and IWU by only 5.

... which doesn't necessarily mean anything, it needs to be said.

I get the appeal of comparing results against common opponents, especially in conference. But I think North Central caught something of a break last night with an Alma team that came in shooting just under 36 percent from deep and left having hit just 4 of 20. Some credit needs to go to the Cardinals for sure, but there were open looks that just didn't fall.

[Gregory Sager]

Of course. It doesn't necessarily mean that it's an anomalous result -- for all we know at this point, NCC could turn out to be much better in comparison to Augustana and IWU than people had thought in the preseason -- but it doesn't mean that it's an accurate indicator of anything, either.

The transitive aspect of basketball scores is just not consistently reliable. As you indicated, too much can vary in a common opponent's performance from one night to the next in isolation from the effect of the team it's playing (e.g., the ability to hit open trey attempts).

[Greek Tragedy]

Wasn't able to catch any of the Wheaton game, but was relieved to see that the Thunder pulled out the win after trailing by 5 at the half. Aston Francis paced the Thunder with 42 points on 15-31 shooting to tie Tom Dykstra for the program record of 5 40-point games. He also pulled down 8 rebounds.

Like I said, I wasn't able to watch and haven't had much time to look at the box, but this is a solid win for the Thunder in their first road challenge of the season. At 5-0, with wins over #2 Oshkosh, a tournament team from last year LeTourneau, and over typical power Calvin, I would expect the Thunder to vault themselves up towards the top of the ORV category. Not sure how other top 25 teams have done, and would imagine it's pretty difficult for a team to go from no votes in one poll straight to the top 25 in the next one. So, naturally, I'll stay modest (and logical) and hope for a significant increase (from zero) in votes for the Thunder.

Thanks to the tremendous work Darryl Nester does over on the Top 25 board, it's very easy to find out how other teams have fared.

http://www.d3boards.com/index.php?topic=4097.11970

[duckfan41]

Wasn't able to catch any of the Wheaton game, but was relieved to see that the Thunder pulled out the win after trailing by 5 at the half. Aston Francis paced the Thunder with 42 points on 15-31 shooting to tie Tom Dykstra for the program record of 5 40-point games. He also pulled down 8 rebounds.

Like I said, I wasn't able to watch and haven't had much time to look at the box, but this is a solid win for the Thunder in their first road challenge of the season. At 5-0, with wins over #2 Oshkosh, a tournament team from last year LeTourneau, and over typical power Calvin, I would expect the Thunder to vault themselves up towards the top of the ORV category. Not sure how other top 25 teams have done, and would imagine it's pretty difficult for a team to go from no votes in one poll straight to the top 25 in the next one. So, naturally, I'll stay modest (and logical) and hope for a significant increase (from zero) in votes for the Thunder.

Thanks to the tremendous work Darryl Nester does over on the Top 25 board, it's very easy to find out how other teams have fared.

http://www.d3boards.com/index.php?topic=4097.11970

👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼 Stumbled upon that earlier today!