MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Titan Q]

With NCC, Augustana, IWU, Carthage, Elmhurst, Wheaton, and Carroll, I'm pretty sure the CCIW is the strongest league this year.

[mwunder]

With NCC, Augustana, IWU, Carthage, Elmhurst, Wheaton, and Carroll, I'm pretty sure the CCIW is the strongest league this year.

31-14 so far this season.     0.6888 Winning Percentage.

[lmitzel]

Benedictine 56
North Central 49

The Bennies led almost all the way and made the crucial plays down the stretch to grab the upset on Save Lucas's Voice Night at Gregory Arena.

[lmitzel]

(I got a kick out of this though, Greg. +K )

There are two plays from last night that still haunt me this morning:

• Down 49-42, Blaise Meredith beat his man driving off the right wing and had a wide open layup. He missed it.
• Down 53-49 with about a minute to go, Matt Cappelletti blocked an Eric Grygo layup and the Cardinals had a chance to make it a one possession game. They proceeded to play some hot potato for most of the shot clock until whoever was in the corner in front of the Cardinal bench managed to fire a pass inside to a wide open Connor Raridon... who couldn't handle it and coughed it up.

I wasn't sure how legit Benedictine's 4-1 record was going into this game, but last night made me a believer. I still think an average shooting night that requires a little more yelling on my part or one/both of the above things going the Cardinals' way flips the outcome, but alas, it wasn't meant to be.

[Gregory Sager]

On the air towards the end of the game, Kevin Jackman referred back to another pivotal turning point, which came with 7:41 to go and the Cardinals only down 41-40. Will Clausel put up a trey attempt that swirled around the rim twice, rested for a moment at the left crotch of the rim, and then gently tumbled off as a miss. If that goes in, then the entire gym goes berserk, NCC has its first lead since the opening four minutes of the game, and who knows how the rest of the game plays out.

The headline on Benedictine's athletics page reads, "Stifling Defense Sends Men's Hoops to Upset", but that's not really accurate. North Central had all of the good looks at the basket that a team could want last night; the Cardinals were simply jinxed in one of those weird lid-on-the-basket games that happens every few years to even good offenses. One thing's for sure: NCC is not likely to go 15-53 (28%) from the field and 6-33 (18%) from downtown again anytime soon. The Cardinals were so hexed last night that Benedictine pulled off the upset in spite of the fact that the Bennies themselves shot well below their season averages from the field and from beyond the arc.

[lmitzel]

On the air towards the end of the game, Kevin Jackman referred back to another pivotal turning point, which came with 7:41 to go and the Cardinals only down 41-40. Will Clausel put up a trey attempt that swirled around the rim twice, rested for a moment at the left crotch of the rim, and then gently tumbled off as a miss. If that goes in, then the entire gym goes berserk, NCC has its first lead since the opening four minutes of the game, and who knows how the rest of the game plays out.

Our official scorer and I have a running joke about the baskets are Merner, in particular what I refer to as the "Demon Rim." Shortly before that three, someone on the Cardinals (I think Connor) hit a free throw that got a friendlier bounce. Our scorer joked something to the effect of "Don't tease me like that, Demon Rim." Then Will got absolutely robbed, I cursed the Demon Rim, and we saw what unfolded from that point.

[Gregory Sager]

Wheaton 86
Chicago 80

Wheaton played very well in this game.  The Thunder are a lot better than I thought they would be.

The oddities of the CCIW schedule (and mine) thus far have allowed me to watch all or part of every Wheaton game except one. I've been impressed by what I've seen. And I've observed a couple of things in particular.

One is that Cade Alioth, who was previously nothing more than a cipher for the Sonic Atmospheric Disturbance, has emerged as a legit CCIW big man. He's starting to give off a Nate Haynes vibe. That opens up a world of possibilities for Wheaton, because it means that Anajuwon Spencer is finally liberated to be the stretch-four that he was born to be. The better Alioth does underneath the basket, the more dangerous Spencer becomes, because defenses will have to play Alioth honestly and Spencer won't need to be tied down in the paint for an entire offensive sequence.

The second thing is that Nyameye Adom and Tyson Cruickshank have emerged as one of the Central Region's better backcourts. Whether it's because they're both now out from underneath the shadow of Aston Francis or because they've upped their games from last year to this year -- I think it's a combination of both -- they've both become very versatile and prolific scorers at one end of the floor and very tough defenders at the other end. It's hard to argue against last season's results, since after all Francis did lead them to the promised land (I love the idea that Fort Wayne, IN, of all places, can be metaphorically described as "the promised land" ). But there's a lot to be said for sharing the load, and having two regular and effective backcourt scorers means that opposing defenses need to account for more than one vector in terms of Wheaton's shot-taking; while Luke Anthony was a highly effective shooter in his own right last season, the remarkable thing about Wheaton's 2018-19 shot distribution was that Francis took more FG attempts than Anthony, Spencer, Adom, and Luke Peters combined. Mike Schauer is going to have a nice problem to solve when Wheaton's football season comes to an end and Anthony wears basketball livery again, because right now the Wheaton backcourt is doing just fine without him.

I still don't think that Wheaton is a Top 25 team yet, but it's not that far off. It's a team that could definitely be building towards something big.

[voxelmhurst]

Elmhurst 93
Lake Forest 91

The 'jays were the beneficiaries of some bad endgame play by the Foresters in an end-to-end thriller tonight up on the North Shore.

For my money, the story of this team continues to be the re-emergence of both Lavon Thomas (last nite 20 pts, 11 rebounds) and Jay Militello (16 points, 9 rebounds, and 5 steals).

Last season Elmhurst lost many road games in which they had a late lead. (Led by 3 @ Wheaton in CCIW Tournament with 4 and a half minutes to play). These two road wins early in the season are encouraging, as EC probably loses one of these last two if played in 2018.

[AndOne]

There are two plays from last night that still haunt me this morning:

• Down 49-42, Blaise Meredith beat his man driving off the right wing and had a wide open layup. He missed it.
• Down 53-49 with about a minute to go, Matt Cappelletti blocked an Eric Grygo layup and the Cardinals had a chance to make it a one possession game. They proceeded to play some hot potato for most of the shot clock until whoever was in the corner in front of the Cardinal bench managed to fire a pass inside to a wide open Connor Raridon... who couldn't handle it and coughed it up.

I wasn't sure how legit Benedictine's 4-1 record was going into this game, but last night made me a believer. I still think an average shooting night that requires a little more yelling on my part or one/both of the above things going the Cardinals' way flips the outcome, but alas, it wasn't meant to be.

The fact is there wasn't an opponent within 5 feet of Blaise who should have actually disdained the layup and dunked the 🏀. The high degree of probability being that the dunk would have gone through the basket rather than over it.

On the second haunting, Connor evidently didn't consider that a teammate might make the same kind of pass that he routinely completes with both eyes closed, and one hand tied behind his back. He appeared focused on the rim, ready for a possible offensive rebound. Consequently, what likely would have been a layup was fumbled out of bounds.

[AndOne]

On the air towards the end of the game, Kevin Jackman referred back to another pivotal turning point, which came with 7:41 to go and the Cardinals only down 41-40. Will Clausel put up a trey attempt that swirled around the rim twice, rested for a moment at the left crotch of the rim, and then gently tumbled off as a miss. If that goes in, then the entire gym goes berserk, NCC has its first lead since the opening four minutes of the game, and who knows how the rest of the game plays out.

The headline on Benedictine's athletics page reads, "Stifling Defense Sends Men's Hoops to Upset", but that's not really accurate. North Central had all of the good looks at the basket that a team could want last night; the Cardinals were simply jinxed in one of those weird lid-on-the-basket games that happens every few years to even good offenses. One thing's for sure: NCC is not likely to go 15-53 (28%) from the field and 6-33 (18%) from downtown again anytime soon. The Cardinals were so hexed last night that Benedictine pulled off the upset in spite of the fact that the Bennies themselves shot well below their season averages from the field and from beyond the arc.

Stifling defense? Not really close to accurate. The truth is that very shortly after the "contest" began, Keith Bunkenburg realized that the Cardinals were unwilling and/or unable to get the ball inside coupled with a fondness for launching bombs from downtown Naperville, few of which were falling within a mile or so of the target. Accordingly, the "stifling" defense consisted largely of the Eagles sagging back and basically daring the Cardinals to shoot wide open looks from beyond the arc. NCC played right into this trap. Of the 53 shots they took in the game, 33 were from distance. The Cardinals missed their first 13 three point attempts. They hit their 14th and 15th threes, but then missed their next two to finish the half 2 for 17 (11.8%). It was somewhat of a miracle that they only trailed 24-22 at the half. They were more than twice as successful in the second half, but still only hit 25% from three (4 for 16) as they kept playing right into Benedictine's "stifling" defensive plan.

Failing to even approach an acceptable percentage from three coupled with an inability or unwillingness to get the ball inside, the Cardinals should have put the ball on the floor and gone aggressively to the hoop. Their 86.7% success rate from the line attests to the fact that the foul line was where more shots should have been taken rather than from just outside the Lantern in downtown Naperville. This approach would have forced Bene big Eric Grygo to move a little more, and play more defense which would have resulted in a good chance of his fouling out, (he had 3 fouls w/o having to play much defense) thus removing the primary BU inside threat on offense, and further opening the BU defense to additional inside penetration.

Some may disagree, but I think that when you commit only 8 TOs and hold the other team to 56 points, you should win the game.

A little voice in my head is whispering that some members of the Cardinal roster who heretofore have been pretty inconspicuous, will be seeing increased PT in the near future. The Cardinals have a lot of work to do to live up to their high potential. Who will step into the current void, and get the necessary work done? The question begs an affirmative response.

[Skinny Lance]

On the air towards the end of the game, Kevin Jackman referred back to another pivotal turning point, which came with 7:41 to go and the Cardinals only down 41-40. Will Clausel put up a trey attempt that swirled around the rim twice, rested for a moment at the left crotch of the rim, and then gently tumbled off as a miss. If that goes in, then the entire gym goes berserk, NCC has its first lead since the opening four minutes of the game, and who knows how the rest of the game plays out.

The headline on Benedictine's athletics page reads, "Stifling Defense Sends Men's Hoops to Upset", but that's not really accurate. North Central had all of the good looks at the basket that a team could want last night; the Cardinals were simply jinxed in one of those weird lid-on-the-basket games that happens every few years to even good offenses. One thing's for sure: NCC is not likely to go 15-53 (28%) from the field and 6-33 (18%) from downtown again anytime soon. The Cardinals were so hexed last night that Benedictine pulled off the upset in spite of the fact that the Bennies themselves shot well below their season averages from the field and from beyond the arc.

Stifling defense? Not really close to accurate. The truth is that very shortly after the "contest" began, Keith Bunkenburg realized that the Cardinals were unwilling and/or unable to get the ball inside coupled with a fondness for launching bombs from downtown Naperville, few of which were falling within a mile or so of the target. Accordingly, the "stifling" defense consisted largely of the Eagles sagging back and basically daring the Cardinals to shoot wide open looks from beyond the arc. NCC played right into this trap. Of the 53 shots they took in the game, 33 were from distance. The Cardinals missed their first 13 three point attempts. They hit their 14th and 15th threes, but then missed their next two to finish the half 2 for 17 (11.8%). It was somewhat of a miracle that they only trailed 24-22 at the half. They were more than twice as successful in the second half, but still only hit 25% from three (4 for 16) as they kept playing right into Benedictine's "stifling" defensive plan.

Failing to even approach an acceptable percentage from three coupled with an inability or unwillingness to get the ball inside, the Cardinals should have put the ball on the floor and gone aggressively to the hoop. Their 86.7% success rate from the line attests to the fact that the foul line was where more shots should have been taken rather than from just outside the Lantern in downtown Naperville. This approach would have forced Bene big Eric Grygo to move a little more, and play more defense which would have resulted in a good chance of his fouling out, (he had 3 fouls w/o having to play much defense) thus removing the primary BU inside threat on offense, and further opening the BU defense to additional inside penetration.

Some may disagree, but I think that when you commit only 8 TOs and hold the other team to 56 points, you should win the game.

A little voice in my head is whispering that some members of the Cardinal roster who heretofore have been pretty inconspicuous, will be seeing increased PT in the near future. The Cardinals have a lot of work to do to live up to their high potential. Who will step into the current void, and get the necessary work done? The question begs an affirmative response.

Sounds like AndOne should be coaching the team...

This is a BenU team that's given up 49, 51, and 58 in their last three games. The reason the Cardinals didn't "put the ball on the floor and go aggressively to the hoop" is because outside of Raridon, they couldn't.

[Titan Q]

G - Grant Wolfe, 5-11/185 Jr.  16.8 ppg, 2.6 rpg, 3.6 apg

IWU will be without starting PG Grant Wolfe tonight due to injury.  Freshman Luke Yoder will get his first start.

[AndOne]

LOL. The Cardinals hardly need me. They have one of the nation's top coaches who has well over 500 victories. One, I might add, who could be heard imploring his troops to "get the ball inside" on more than one occasion last evening.

You don't know if NCC could have been successful driving the lane/going to the hoop because they rarely attempted to do so. Also, Connor often receives the ball after he sets up down pretty low to begin with. While he is aggressive, many of his moves are post-up in nature as opposed to drives from further out on the perimeter or wing.

Also, don't overlook the fact that there are games in which a winning team, even when giving up relatively few points, does so not because of tight defense, but rather more because the competition is rather inept generally, or performs in that manner on a particular evening—as NCC did last night. Don't get me wrong, BU played very well an got a well deserved win. They got off to a hot start behind Mike Boatright's three early treys, played smart defense by allowing, even daring, NCC to take long outside shots which weren't dropping, and then got some clutch baskets late by Nick Kosich to shut the door on any possible comeback. 
But, the Eagles did not win because of stifling defense that didn't allow NCC to attack off the dribble-drive, instead more so because the Cards kept insisting on off target bombing from distance, instead of attacking the interior either by entry passes or by taking the ball to the hoop from the perimeter or wing from where all the misguided long range missiles were launched.

[crusader_nation]

The oddities of the CCIW schedule (and mine) thus far have allowed me to watch all or part of every Wheaton game except one. I've been impressed by what I've seen. And I've observed a couple of things in particular.

One is that Cade Alioth, who was previously nothing more than a cipher for the Sonic Atmospheric Disturbance, has emerged as a legit CCIW big man. He's starting to give off a Nate Haynes vibe. That opens up a world of possibilities for Wheaton, because it means that Anajuwon Spencer is finally liberated to be the stretch-four that he was born to be. The better Alioth does underneath the basket, the more dangerous Spencer becomes, because defenses will have to play Alioth honestly and Spencer won't need to be tied down in the paint for an entire offensive sequence.

The second thing is that Nyameye Adom and Tyson Cruickshank have emerged as one of the Central Region's better backcourts. Whether it's because they're both now out from underneath the shadow of Aston Francis or because they've upped their games from last year to this year -- I think it's a combination of both -- they've both become very versatile and prolific scorers at one end of the floor and very tough defenders at the other end. It's hard to argue against last season's results, since after all Francis did lead them to the promised land (I love the idea that Fort Wayne, IN, of all places, can be metaphorically described as "the promised land" ). But there's a lot to be said for sharing the load, and having two regular and effective backcourt scorers means that opposing defenses need to account for more than one vector in terms of Wheaton's shot-taking; while Luke Anthony was a highly effective shooter in his own right last season, the remarkable thing about Wheaton's 2018-19 shot distribution was that Francis took more FG attempts than Anthony, Spencer, Adom, and Luke Peters combined. Mike Schauer is going to have a nice problem to solve when Wheaton's football season comes to an end and Anthony wears basketball livery again, because right now the Wheaton backcourt is doing just fine without him.

I still don't think that Wheaton is a Top 25 team yet, but it's not that far off. It's a team that could definitely be building towards something big.

I've been able to watch all of Wheaton's games thus far, including 3 in-person, and I'll echo a lot of what Greg has already noted.

Alioth has the potential to be a difference maker for Wheaton, especially as he gets comfortable being on the floor for long stretches. He's found himself in foul trouble on occasion, which has limited how effective he could be. But if he's able to find his groove, it opens up the floor for Wheaton.

It's also pleasantly surprising to see how well Adom and Cruickshank have stepped into their roles. Adom showed flashes of his ability last year but was limited because of Francis' game. Cruickshank was talked about by people around the program as having huge potential last year but played very limited minutes. He's coming into his own this year. His defensive game needs some improvement, but he's already proven that he can score.

It will be interesting to see what a starting five of Cruickshank, Adom, Luke Anthony, Alioth, and Jay Spencer is capable of doing. A lot of people, including Mike Schauer, were concerned about finding enough scoring on this team to be competitive, which is understandable with Francis' departure. But Wheaton has shown that it's more than capable of finding the scoring it's needed so far this season.

Keep an eye on freshman Eli Considine. He's going to make an impact this year. Another freshman to watch is Andrew Williams, whose energy and non-stop hustle has earned him some early season playing time.

I think Wheaton will exceed expectations this year. Where that lands them is yet to be seen, but there's more to this team than most people expected.

[GoPerry]

The oddities of the CCIW schedule (and mine) thus far have allowed me to watch all or part of every Wheaton game except one. I've been impressed by what I've seen. And I've observed a couple of things in particular.

One is that Cade Alioth, who was previously nothing more than a cipher for the Sonic Atmospheric Disturbance, has emerged as a legit CCIW big man. He's starting to give off a Nate Haynes vibe. That opens up a world of possibilities for Wheaton, because it means that Anajuwon Spencer is finally liberated to be the stretch-four that he was born to be. The better Alioth does underneath the basket, the more dangerous Spencer becomes, because defenses will have to play Alioth honestly and Spencer won't need to be tied down in the paint for an entire offensive sequence.

The second thing is that Nyameye Adom and Tyson Cruickshank have emerged as one of the Central Region's better backcourts. Whether it's because they're both now out from underneath the shadow of Aston Francis or because they've upped their games from last year to this year -- I think it's a combination of both -- they've both become very versatile and prolific scorers at one end of the floor and very tough defenders at the other end. It's hard to argue against last season's results, since after all Francis did lead them to the promised land (I love the idea that Fort Wayne, IN, of all places, can be metaphorically described as "the promised land" ). But there's a lot to be said for sharing the load, and having two regular and effective backcourt scorers means that opposing defenses need to account for more than one vector in terms of Wheaton's shot-taking; while Luke Anthony was a highly effective shooter in his own right last season, the remarkable thing about Wheaton's 2018-19 shot distribution was that Francis took more FG attempts than Anthony, Spencer, Adom, and Luke Peters combined. Mike Schauer is going to have a nice problem to solve when Wheaton's football season comes to an end and Anthony wears basketball livery again, because right now the Wheaton backcourt is doing just fine without him.

I still don't think that Wheaton is a Top 25 team yet, but it's not that far off. It's a team that could definitely be building towards something big.

I've been able to watch all of Wheaton's games thus far, including 3 in-person, and I'll echo a lot of what Greg has already noted.

Alioth has the potential to be a difference maker for Wheaton, especially as he gets comfortable being on the floor for long stretches. He's found himself in foul trouble on occasion, which has limited how effective he could be. But if he's able to find his groove, it opens up the floor for Wheaton.

It's also pleasantly surprising to see how well Adom and Cruickshank have stepped into their roles. Adom showed flashes of his ability last year but was limited because of Francis' game. Cruickshank was talked about by people around the program as having huge potential last year but played very limited minutes. He's coming into his own this year. His defensive game needs some improvement, but he's already proven that he can score.

It will be interesting to see what a starting five of Cruickshank, Adom, Luke Anthony, Alioth, and Jay Spencer is capable of doing. A lot of people, including Mike Schauer, were concerned about finding enough scoring on this team to be competitive, which is understandable with Francis' departure. But Wheaton has shown that it's more than capable of finding the scoring it's needed so far this season.

Keep an eye on freshman Eli Considine. He's going to make an impact this year. Another freshman to watch is Andrew Williams, whose energy and non-stop hustle has earned him some early season playing time.

I think Wheaton will exceed expectations this year. Where that lands them is yet to be seen, but there's more to this team than most people expected.

What's fun to see is that both Adom and Cruickshank are comfortable creating their own shot off the dribble for pull up jumpers or driving to the basket and drawing fouls.  Very difficult to guard.  Wheaton really hasn't had many players like that over recent years but more so open spot up shooters.  Besides Francis I'm thinking back to Brayden Teuscher, T Peters, McCrary and then all the way back to Raymond who had natural ability that way.

I recall both Nathan Haynes and Andy Wiele had size but were not effective post players their first couple years - not their natural game.  But they dedicated themselves to developing a back to the basket game and became key players as junior and seniors.  6'5" or 6'6" guys who stay outside and shoot treys are a dime a dozen these days.  The ones willing to develop a post game, bang and defend in the lane and be effective rebounders will see more and more minutes.  That looks to be Alioth's path who is already very good on the boards.  By contrast, if 6'7" Gavin Hawkins can't hit his threes more consistently to make up for his sketchy defense and rebounding then minutes will increasingly go elsewhere.