MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[AndOne]

Fun fact of the day: We're only three games into the CCIW season, but, nevertheless, NPU's Kindrel Morris -- all 5'5, 135 of him -- is on the CCIW leaderboard of the league's leading rebounders.

* Last night NCC "held" Morris to just 3 rebounds.
* NCC played perimeter defense.
* NCC committed only 3 turnovers in the entire game. Fabulous.
* NCC had 5 players in double figures.
* NCC stole the ball 6 times.
* NCC shot a good 47.5% from the field, and a very good 85.2% from the line.
None of the above mattered because;
* NPU marksmen succeeded from the outside even when well defended. They were zeroed in all night shooting 52% in the first half, and an over the moon 68% in the second—59% for the evening. Plus, they matched NCC's FT percentage.
* NPU out rebounded NCC 32-24.
* NPU continually found ways to split the NCC defense. Driving the lane like it was a Sunday afternoon ride and rendering the NCC interior defense basically non-existent. I believe the primary offenders were Marek, Morris, and Sanders. They continually drove around and through defenders to finish with twisting up and unders and reverse layups. And just about every time they didn't finish they drew a foul.

* One aspect of the NPU attack that opponents better get used to, and which I don't believe has been commented much about here yet this season is NPU's overall team speed. Their fleet contains several small, regional jets fitted with some very powerful afterburners. And their bigger guys, while not jet fueled, are no slouches either. And really even moreso than speed, they possess quickness which they can put to very efficient use to counteract opponent's size advantage. While last night's radar controlled shooting may not always be there, the speed/guickness factor will be.

[kiko]

For me, the differences in last night's game at the Hangar were rebounding and interior defense.  North Central played well enough in some facets of the game, but as AndOne suggests, the Vikings were able to attack the basket fairly consistently all night, and were very effective at getting to the line with this approach in the final minutes.

North Central's opponents to date are a combined 14-40 on the year, and this includes a 4-25 mark from their non-conference foes.  (This will improve as they play the likes of Albion and Husson this month.)  6-1 is great, but it's going to get a lot harder in the weeks to come.

[4samuy]

Great game last night at Augustana.  Great environment.  I will say this, in the first 8 minutes of the game, Augustana missed 5-7 bunnies.  Shots were missed that quite frankly and IMO are difficult to miss, which gave IWU the lead at half.  Missed uncontested drives to the rim, tip dunks and good shots within the restricted area.  I wouldn't say it's a trend, but it's also what happened in the game against Rockford.

Mid range and three point shots come and go for every team,  but to miss the simple ones can cost you and did for Augustana in the first half vs IWU.

[duckfan41]

Aston Francis back on the CCIW Player of the Week throne after a one-week hiatus. His scoring output was down from the other two weeks he won the award, but he dealt out high assist totals which I think is ultimately going to be more important for him to do in order for this Thunder team to succeed. Especially given how well his supporting cast has been performing as of late.

[Mr. Ypsi]

New poll:  Augie still #3, IWU falls to #15 (better than I feared), NCC falls out and Wheaton goes only from 16 points to 31 (still WAY short of #25).  Usually, I think I do a pretty good job of psyching out poll voters, but sometimes they are a total mystery to me - Wabash beat #15 Wooster by two points at home and jumped from zero points to #22 (a gain of 110 points); Wheaton beat #8 IWU on the road by two points and gained 15 points.  Pollsters, does Pat need to institute drug-testing?

[Pat Coleman]

Pollsters, does Pat need to institute drug-testing?

Preferred your other posts on the subject to this one.

There are probably some people who look at the two overall losses and aren't ready to move Wheaton back up.

[USee]

It shouldn't be a surprise that Wheaton's inconsistent results yields some inconsistent voting results in response.

[duckfan41]

It shouldn't be a surprise that Wheaton's inconsistent results yields some inconsistent voting results in response.

Agreed 👍🏼 Though I  would think that coming out of this week with 2 wins would help to eliminate both notions of inconsistency!

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

New poll:  Augie still #3, IWU falls to #15 (better than I feared), NCC falls out and Wheaton goes only from 16 points to 31 (still WAY short of #25).  Usually, I think I do a pretty good job of psyching out poll voters, but sometimes they are a total mystery to me - Wabash beat #15 Wooster by two points at home and jumped from zero points to #22 (a gain of 110 points); Wheaton beat #8 IWU on the road by two points and gained 15 points.  Pollsters, does Pat need to institute drug-testing?

Does Wheaton get to count the points IWU lost as some moral victory?

I wasn't voting for Wheaton or Wabash last week; I voted for both this week.  I even had Wheaton higher.

[mwunder]

New poll:  IWU falls to #15 (better than I feared)

I hesitate to post this because I know that after I do IWU will go on a 15 game win streak or something similar, but here goes.  Is it possible that IWU isn't as good as everyone "thinks" they are?  They've won games this season against teams that are a combined 24-27.  They struggled against an underwhelming Carthage team at home to open the CCIW.  They then choked away a win against Wheaton at home with a senior laden line-up that is supposed to get games like that.  A loss to Augie on the road is certainly excusable. 

I'm sure I'm in the minority, but I believe that this team has underachieved through the first third of it's schedule.  I don't see them being in the top 2 in conference when the dust clears.  It's quite possible that they don't make it to the conference tournament if they continue to play like they are playing in December.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I'm not sure IWU is as good as their ranking, but I don't think they're in danger of missing the conference tournament.  I do think they're under-performing potential, for sure.  I see a lot of bad decisions and mistakes out there.  Rose might be pressing a little - once he trusts the rest of the guys a little more, they may have better results.

[BobbyO]

IWU is still putting it all together.  Augie needs consistency and a killer attitude.  Wheaton needs to work around defenses that shut Francis down.  North Central still hasn't shown me that they can win the big one. North Park scares the hell out of me.  Elmhurst are they for real? Millikin still can upset.  Cathage, Bosko needs to kick some Butt! I don't want to play Carroll at their home late in the season.  Welcome to the CCiW.  Anybody have a thought on who is going to pull this one out?

[Greek Tragedy]

I'm not sure IWU is as good as their ranking, but I don't think they're in danger of missing the conference tournament.  I do think they're under-performing potential, for sure.  I see a lot of bad decisions and mistakes out there.  Rose might be pressing a little - once he trusts the rest of the guys a little more, they may have better results.

How long does it take to trust a guy? Gregoire, Bonnett and O'Neill were all starters last year.

[GoPerry]

New poll:  IWU falls to #15 (better than I feared)

I hesitate to post this because I know that after I do IWU will go on a 15 game win streak or something similar, but here goes.  Is it possible that IWU isn't as good as everyone "thinks" they are?  They've won games this season against teams that are a combined 24-27.  They struggled against an underwhelming Carthage team at home to open the CCIW.  They then choked away a win against Wheaton at home with a senior laden line-up that is supposed to get games like that.  A loss to Augie on the road is certainly excusable. 

I'm sure I'm in the minority, but I believe that this team has underachieved through the first third of it's schedule.  I don't see them being in the top 2 in conference when the dust clears.  It's quite possible that they don't make it to the conference tournament if they continue to play like they are playing in December.

IWU stats from the Wheaton game:   FG 27-56 48.2%, 3PT 14-22 63.6%, Ft 20-24 83.3% , Rebs 31-31 even

I'm not a Titan fan or defender.  But that line doesn't strike me as underachieving (or choking for that matter).  That performance beats most top 25 teams on any night.  Wheaton shot 54% and 48%. 

Both teams played so well that a single mistake at the wrong time was magnified and enabled a game winning shot at the buzzer by the country's scoring leader.

[Greek Tragedy]

New poll:  IWU falls to #15 (better than I feared)

I hesitate to post this because I know that after I do IWU will go on a 15 game win streak or something similar, but here goes.  Is it possible that IWU isn't as good as everyone "thinks" they are?  They've won games this season against teams that are a combined 24-27.  They struggled against an underwhelming Carthage team at home to open the CCIW.  They then choked away a win against Wheaton at home with a senior laden line-up that is supposed to get games like that.  A loss to Augie on the road is certainly excusable. 

I'm sure I'm in the minority, but I believe that this team has underachieved through the first third of it's schedule.  I don't see them being in the top 2 in conference when the dust clears.  It's quite possible that they don't make it to the conference tournament if they continue to play like they are playing in December.

IWU line from the Wheaton game:   FG 27-56 48.2%, 3PT 14-22 63.6%, Ft 20-24 83.3% , Rebs 31-31 even

I'm not a Titan fan or defender.  But that line doesn't strike me as underachieving (or choking for that matter).  That performance beats most top 25 teams on any night.  Wheaton shot 54% and 48%. 

Both teams played so well that a single mistake at the wrong time was magnified and enabled a game winning shot at the buzzer by the country's scoring leader.

Is that our cue to talk about the end of the game again?