MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

Marginally preferable to Augie, I suppose, given how many ways they can beat you.

Honestly, I'd rather play Augie. It's more normal basketball.  When a guy hits step back, crazy ass 3s on you all night it's just extra painful.

You also get to be on Grey Giovanine Jacket Watch, which brings a layer of fun to your night. Going, "Oh crap," every time #1 in navy and orange pulls from deep and knowing you have to turn your mic on to say, "Aston Francis for three" for the umpteenth time is on a separate circle of hell.

Look on the bright side, Lucas. If Aston Francis wore Cardinals red, you'd be reduced to using sign language to announce games by mid-December.

[lmitzel]

Marginally preferable to Augie, I suppose, given how many ways they can beat you.

Honestly, I'd rather play Augie. It's more normal basketball.  When a guy hits step back, crazy ass 3s on you all night it's just extra painful.

You also get to be on Grey Giovanine Jacket Watch, which brings a layer of fun to your night. Going, "Oh crap," every time #1 in navy and orange pulls from deep and knowing you have to turn your mic on to say, "Aston Francis for three" for the umpteenth time is on a separate circle of hell.

Look on the bright side, Lucas. If Aston Francis wore Cardinals red, you'd be reduced to using sign language to announce games by mid-December.

That's assuming they aren't cleaning pieces of me from the rafters by then.

[kiko]

Marginally preferable to Augie, I suppose, given how many ways they can beat you.

Honestly, I'd rather play Augie. It's more normal basketball.  When a guy hits step back, crazy ass 3s on you all night it's just extra painful.

I liken playing Wheaton with #1 in the lineup to playing Jordan-era Bulls teams from his first couple of years.  (The part of the era when he had hair and the rest of the lineup was the Jordanaires.)   I'd rather play that team than a Bird/McHale/Parish Celtics team.

[voxelmhurst]

Great game at The Shirk.  IWU 79 EC 76.

Elmhurst has lost road games to Augustana, Wheaton, and Wesleyan by a combined 11 points. If not for the charging and Baines' double technical at the very end of the loss to Augie, these 3 losses were by a combined 7 points.

Just that sort of year for the Jays.

[iwu70]

voxel, feel your pain.  IWU has also lost a ton of close games this season, where they just couldn't close it out, had a late TO or miscue.  Last two games, they've finally had some success, or good luck. 

That was a great D3 game IWU vs. EC at the Shirk. 

'70

[Gregory Sager]

Marginally preferable to Augie, I suppose, given how many ways they can beat you.

Honestly, I'd rather play Augie. It's more normal basketball.  When a guy hits step back, crazy ass 3s on you all night it's just extra painful.

I liken playing Wheaton with #1 in the lineup to playing Jordan-era Bulls teams from his first couple of years.  (The part of the era when he had hair and the rest of the lineup was the Jordanaires.)   I'd rather play that team than a Bird/McHale/Parish Celtics team.

I've thought about that analogy from time to time as well, as it seems to be a perennial fallback option to describe an otherwise ordinary basketball team with an out-of-this-world superstar who can almost singlehandedly carry his team to victory or near-victory against what appears to be a much better team.

Like most analogies, though, it breaks down a bit if you look at it too closely. The "Jordanaires" moniker was always a bit unfair. Wheaton would dearly love someone who could offer the kind of interior defense and rebounding that Charles Oakley supplied, not to mention a good second scoring option like Orlando Woolridge was for that 1985-86 Bulls team.

Don't get me wrong; Wheaton's got some nice parts on the roster. The defensive prowess of Luke Peters alone is one of the best assets that any coach has in this league. But Aston Francis does more heavy lifting for his team by comparison than Michael Jordan ever did for the mid-'80s Bulls. It still boggles my mind that Francis went out and scored sixty percent of his team's points against the #13 team in the country in the most crucial game of the year for Wheaton -- and led them to victory as a result. (And this time he only had to take 45% of his team's shots in order to do it, silencing for at least one night the criticism that he isn't efficient.)

[Titan Q]

IWU 79
Elmhurst 76

* Doug Wallen: 18 pts, 3 reb
* Jason Gregoire: 14 pts, 5 reb, 5 assists
* Brady Rose: 12 pts, 7 assists

* Jeremy Ireland: 21 pts, 8 reb
* Derek Dotlich: 20 pts, 4 reb
* Jake Rhode: 12 pts, 5 reb

https://www.iwusports.com/boxscore.aspx?id=6767&path=mbball

https://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/basketball/men/iwu-rallies-for-senior-night-win-over-elmhurst/article_3582d369-cc49-54f4-85b6-25630b9221e2.html


In a season where the Titans have struggled to close out close games, they've found a way to turn things around in the last week.  In road games at Carthage and North Central, and last night's home game vs Elmhurst, the Titans made numerous big plays late to secure victory.

Sophomore Doug Wallen had a big game at North Central Wednesday (14 pts, 12 reb), and had another one last night (18 pts, 3 reb).  Down 2 with 1:13 to play, Wallen hit a 3 to put IWU up 1.  Then on IWU's next possession he scored with 0:35 to play to put IWU up 3. Wallen is developing into a very good player.

Senior Jason Gregoire was also very good for the Titans last night.  Down 5 with 1:50 to go, he hit a huge 3 to to make the comeback possible. 

IWU vs Elmhurst III should be another good one.

[John Gleich]

Big game in Naperville tonight in terms of Pool C positioning.

* North Central: .818 WP, .523 SOS, 2-1 RRO
* Wheaton: .695 WP, .571 SOS, 1-4 RRO

1st Central Region Ranking
1. Augustana
2. UW-Oshkosh
3. North Central
4. Wheaton
5. UW-La Crosse
6. UW-Stevens Point
7. UW-Whitewater
8. Chicago

(Both teams lost after this ranking came out.)

I'd think if Wheaton loses, they're done as a realistic Pool C candidate.  The best WP the Thunder could finish with, as a Pool C, is .679.

If NCC loses, they move from the end of the bubble to the wrong side of the bubble.  But they'd still be very much in the bubble picture. With a loss tonight, NCC could finish with a .778 WP. That would probably put the Cardinals in the conversation for one of the final Pool C spots...but not better than that.

So a real big game.

Crazy that the Central may have just one or two Pool C bids this year.

NC lost twice. Wheaton lost once. LaX lost twice. Point lost once. Whitewater lost once. Perhaps the only saving grace may be that your next team up will be in the board for a looking time! The NCAA committee may throw them a bone because they're tired of looking at them (that's one of those rarely discussed tertiary criteria...) 

[mwunder]

Two numbers that haven't been mentioned after the Carthage / NPU game last night.

999 - Points in Kienan Baltimore's career.  1 more to enter the 1000 point club.

57 - Number of Wins both teams have against each other.  Carthage sweep of North Park evens the overall record against the Vikings at 57 wins and 57 losses.

[thunder38]

Last night's game in Naperville felt like two heavyweights trading haymakers all night. The crowd was electric from the start and then Aston Francis happened immediately, hitting four threes in the first three minutes, each one with an increasing degree of difficulty. North Central answered with a 21-7 run to take the lead and then back and forth we went. Wheaton felt pretty good sitting down three but couldn't get the rebound at the end of the half and Aaron Jones nailed a three at the buzzer to put the lead at six.

North Central built the lead to nine and it felt like Wheaton was reliving so many previous trips to the Hangar but Luke Anthony stepped up with a couple big shots to lead an 8-0 Wheaton run. Back and forth we went again until Aston picked up his fourth foul and Matt Cappelletti went on a 7-0 run to give the Cardinals a 67-64 lead and it felt like the outcome had been decided. But then Aston Francis happened. One to tie it at 67, another to give Wheaton the lead, and one more for good measure before Luke Anthony's three landed the knockout blow with two minutes left.

Obviously it's not a difference maker but I found a late sequence by Todd Raridon to be a little odd. NCC called timeout with 3+ to play after the third Francis three gave Wheaton a four-point lead. Coach Schauer was pulling Aston for offense-defense subs and Anthony's three also came with Francis still on the floor. NCC then called another timeout. Both timeouts allowed for Schauer to get Aston off the floor.

As was mentioned earlier, Francis coming back in with four fouls also completely took North Central out of their offensive rhythm that had worked so well for them. Koth and Meredith took turns trying to foul him out in isolation sets which in turn led to Koth fouling out. Aston seems to foul more in help defense situations than he does in on-ball defense and he wisely kept giving ground when he got close to anything that could be called on him. Most notably on the lay-up Lucas mentioned earlier where Meredith attacked and looked like he expected contact but Francis provided the matador defense and just got out of the way before Meredith missed it wildly.

Overlooked in the craziness of Aston's night was the decision by the Wheaton staff to switch their match-ups at halftime and move Luke Peters onto Aaron Jones in the second half. Jones had just five points after halftime and three came when Peters made the mistake of going under a screen and Jones popped a free one. The NCC broadcasters were remarking down the stretch that the Cardinals had been going away from Jones but there's also a reason for that. I also really liked the matchup of Anajuwon Spencer on Connor Raridon. Spencer's length seemed to bother Raridon's post-up game and other than falling for the pump fake once or twice, he did a nice job staying in position with Raridon's post moves and countermoves. Kobe Eichelberger was a defensive monster down the stretch. He didn't take a shot but had nine rebounds in just ten minutes of play and felt like he was flying in out of nowhere to grab rebounds in the closing sequence.

Looking at the big picture, I would think tonight's win probably secured Wheaton's Pool C bid, provided the Thunder don't have a letdown against Millikin on Wednesday or Carroll the following Tuesday. Platteville holding on to beat Oshkosh on Wednesday night would've helped Wheaton tremendously to possibly keep the Pioneers in the regional rankings, but after the week they had, I wouldn't be surprised to see IWU creep into the eighth spot. If IWU can land itself in the Regional Rankings it obviously helps both Wheaton and NCC but might also catapult Wheaton into the third spot in the region as they would then be 4-4 vs RRO with an additional SOS boost coming from playing at NCC. It's very possible that a potential CCIW semifinal game between Wheaton and NCC is a must-win for the Cardinals.

[GoPerry]

Big game in Naperville tonight in terms of Pool C positioning.

* North Central: .818 WP, .523 SOS, 2-1 RRO
* Wheaton: .695 WP, .571 SOS, 1-4 RRO

1st Central Region Ranking
1. Augustana
2. UW-Oshkosh
3. North Central
4. Wheaton
5. UW-La Crosse
6. UW-Stevens Point
7. UW-Whitewater
8. Chicago

(Both teams lost after this ranking came out.)

I'd think if Wheaton loses, they're done as a realistic Pool C candidate.  The best WP the Thunder could finish with, as a Pool C, is .679.

If NCC loses, they move from the end of the bubble to the wrong side of the bubble.  But they'd still be very much in the bubble picture. With a loss tonight, NCC could finish with a .778 WP. That would probably put the Cardinals in the conversation for one of the final Pool C spots...but not better than that.

So a real big game.

Crazy that the Central may have just one or two Pool C bids this year.

NC lost twice. Wheaton lost once. LaX lost twice. Point lost once. Whitewater lost once. Perhaps the only saving grace may be that your next team up will be in the board for a looking time! The NCAA committee may throw them a bone because they're tired of looking at them (that's one of those rarely discussed tertiary criteria...) 

Yes.  Provided that WC beats Millikin on Wednesday (their last reg season game) and wins their 1st rd game in the CCIW tourney, WC will finish with at least a .704 % with a very strong SOS.  I would hope this can keep them #3 in the RR and will get them on the board early.  They will still be on the bubble for sure so they need to be in the conversation early on I'm thinking...

Will be interested in f50 and Knightslappy's breakdown.

First things first though.  Have to win Wednesday.

[Titan Q]

@D3Bubble (aka Fantastic 50) has Wheaton "Bubble-In" and NCC "Fringe Contender."

http://www.fantastic50.net/d3h_men.html

That seems accurate at this point.

[kenoshamark]

Two numbers that haven't been mentioned after the Carthage / NPU game last night.

999 - Points in Kienan Baltimore's career.  1 more to enter the 1000 point club.

57 - Number of Wins both teams have against each other.  Carthage sweep of North Park evens the overall record against the Vikings at 57 wins and 57 losses.

Mwunder,

Ironic you mentioned Baltimore's point total as I had been thinking about that as I watched the game last night.  I thought he was well over 1,000, but in the Carthage record book it didn't have him listed.  Then I recalled he missed a number of games last year (went back and looked and it was 13 games).  Based on a couple good outings to finish this year, he might crack the top 25 and if he keeps up his scoring avg next year around 20 a game, he will end up just outside of the top 10 all time scorers.  If you could factor in the 13 games he missed at around 20 points a game, he could have potentially end up as a top 5 scorer all time.  Pretty amazing for someone who doesn't get talked about much.

He is the model of consistency and a stat sheet filler...points, boards assists, steals, he does it all.  He isn't flashy, but he will go down as one of the better players at Carthage and certainly one of the best in the last 15 years.

[voxelmhurst]

voxel, feel your pain.  IWU has also lost a ton of close games this season, where they just couldn't close it out, had a late TO or miscue.  Last two games, they've finally had some success, or good luck. 

That was a great D3 game IWU vs. EC at the Shirk. 

'70

It's an complex feeling. Elmhurst has managed to live up to the league's expectations for them this season (Ranked #5 preseason, and they are currently #5), but they've also had great opportunities to exceed expectations and have not been able to. I'm sure that after his two years at Elmhurst, many Bluejay fans wish they didn't have to say goodbye to Ireland after this season. If he had another year left, Elmhurst is probably a contender next year. At any rate, I'm glad the tournament has expanded to 6 because Elmhurst deserves one more shot against the top half of the CCIW.

[tomt4525]

St Charles North Wing, Lucas Hellen, has committed to play basketball at Illinois Wesleyan.  IWU is putting together a fantastic recruiting class thus far.