MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[iwumichigander]

The Titans just barely escaped having a totally disastrous trip to Texas.  Doug Wallen had a game-winning layup with 2 seconds remaining to pull out a 1-point win over Sul Ross.

Only 723 posts below Sager!  Of course, if Sager cut his long posts into several posts Mr Ypsi would never catch up 

[GoPerry]

It really is sad, basically stopped once I became a member! And UST leaving in the upcoming yers will not be great for the outlook. With that said, St. Mary's has shown growth over the past with Coach Fano. Roster and recruit retainment used to be a real problem. Plus overall depth of decent d3 athletes. So far, Coach Fano has done a good job fixing both of those things. I know Cav-J is a SMU (MN) fan and somewhat regular poster and he has said all offseason this will be the year the Cardinals take the big leap, and they have done so thus far. A big game for them stepping outside the UMAC and into the CCIW to see if they can hang. Plus, it will be a homecoming for some of their players, as Chicago area is a main recruiting ground for Mary's for sometime, and now even more so with the coaches connections.

Eli Cave is one of the best players in the MIAC. An athletic 4-man that can hurt you many different ways, face-up, jumper, even a back to the basket scorer at times if the matchup is right. I may be off here, but is Adyom not a spectacular defender? Will be a good battle and one I am quite excited for.

Adom is a decent defender but the defensive strength of Wheaton is better characterized as solid team defense.  They will obviously have their hands full tonight with Cave as well as Raheem Anthonyand Kareem Anthony-Bello, all seemingly good scorers and rebounders.  If they can keep the Cardinals to 75 pts or less (4 below their average of 78.7), that might be a reasonable goal.  SMU(MN) is a very good 3 point shooting team at 38.7%.

[Mr. Ypsi]

The Titans just barely escaped having a totally disastrous trip to Texas.  Doug Wallen had a game-winning layup with 2 seconds remaining to pull out a 1-point win over Sul Ross.

Only 723 posts below Sager!  Of course, if Sager cut his long posts into several posts Mr Ypsi would never catch up 

I'll never catch up anyway.  Until a year of so ago I had always been ahead, but I just don't post all that often anymore.

[Greek Tragedy]

Those southern teams are obviously proving that they are good even though we don't hear much about them up in these parts.

Point also "just barely escaped having a totally disastrous trip to Texas" with a one-point loss and a two-point win. Platteville suffered their first loss of the season, a two-point loss to MHB.

[Gregory Sager]

The Titans just barely escaped having a totally disastrous trip to Texas.  Doug Wallen had a game-winning layup with 2 seconds remaining to pull out a 1-point win over Sul Ross.

Only 723 posts below Sager!  Of course, if Sager cut his long posts into several posts Mr Ypsi would never catch up 

If we were going by quality rather than quantity, he'd never catch up, anyway.

Those southern teams are obviously proving that they are good even though we don't hear much about them up in these parts.

Point also "just barely escaped having a totally disastrous trip to Texas" with a one-point loss and a two-point win. Platteville suffered their first loss of the season, a two-point loss to MHB.

Where's Ralph to put in a good word for Lone Star State basketball when we need him?

[Gregory Sager]

It's raining inside Faganel Hall. Well, it's a ceiling leak, but still ... it's holding up the game. Elmhurst certainly doesn't want this one to get wiped off of the books, as the 'jays are in the process of massacring Principia; EC is up by 21 early in the second half.

UPDATE: The leak stopped somehow, and the game has resumed.

[Titan Q]

IWU 82
Sul Ross State 81

https://www.iwusports.com/boxscore.aspx?id=7253&path=mbball

* Charlie Bair: 15 pts, 17 reb
* Keondre Schumacher: 22 pts, 3 reb
* Doug Wallen: 14 pts, 10 reb
* Luke Yoder: 10 pts, 5 reb, 2 assists

In a game IWU led the entire way, they almost gave it up at the end.  IWU led by 14 at the half and by 11 with 6:08 to play...but it got dicey from there.  Sul Ross State took its only lead of the game, 81-80, on a old fashioned 3-point play with 14 seconds to go.  On the next possession, IWU's Luke Yoder went to the basket and missed a tough shot...and Doug Wallen tipped it in with 1.7 to play.  The Lobos threw the ball away on the inbounds pass.

Charlie Bair is a beast on the boards -- 17 today.  He is a pleasure to watch.

It was nice to see Keondre Schumacher have a big offensive game.  He is going to be key for the Titans the rest of the way.

Doug Wallen played really well for the Titans - nice to see him playing strong and aggressive.

[Gregory Sager]

Elmhurst 88
Principia 64

[Titan Q]

IWU is still a good team, but the Titans really miss their leading scorer and starting PG Grant Wolfe (18.0 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 3.6 apg, .517 FG, .455 3-point, .867 FT, 3.6 A:TO).

As I see it, Wolfe is pretty clearly IWU's MVP (Charlie Bair second).  He is an outstanding ball-handler, he makes everything go in the offense, and he can score it.  He makes veteran plays in big moments.  Wolfe's season numbers are 1st Team All-CCIW type numbers.  Take him out of the rotation and obviously there is a big impact in production.

Freshman PG Luke Yoder is a very good player and a future CCIW 1st Teamer.  Overall, he's played really well for the Titans this season.  But he just does not have Wolfe's experience in IWU's offense yet. 

Another huge impact is how it changes the rotation:

* Ron Rose had been playing Wolfe and Yoder together in all big moments late in games - the Augustana game was a great example. They were great on the floor together.  Such a huge advantage to have two great ball-handlers on the floor in those situations.  The Titans don't have that option now.

* It also creates problems when Yoder leaves the floor.  With Wolfe, IWU had either Wolfe or Yoder on the floor at all times -- a really good PG for all 40 minutes.  When Yoder goes out, IWU doesn't really have a true PG on the floor.  The Titans are lucky to have some good ball-handling 2s and 3s (Pete Lambesis, Cory Noe, Keondre Schumacher), but those guys are not PGs and don't run the offense like PGs. Like today, Yoder played 32 minutes...for 8 the Titans didn't have a true PG on the floor.  Yesterday Yoder was out for 13 minutes due to foul trouble.


I think the Titans have plenty of talent and weapons to be right in the CCIW title race.  They have good players, nice balance, and they play extremely hard.  But losing Grant Wolfe is a big blow.  It changes things quite a bit.

I'm excited about the rest of the CCIW season though - I think the Titans will be a "tough out" for CCIW opponents almost every night out.

[Gregory Sager]

Wheaton 77
St. Mary's (MN) 67

[Titan Q]

Thank you to Todd Raridon for joining us at halftime today in Austin on our WEXG Radio broadcast.  Was nice to talk some CCIW with Coach Raridon.

[GoPerry]

Wheaton over St Mary's (MN)  77-67

Adom with 16 pts, 6 rebs and Cruickshank with 15 and 7.  A really big game for Cade Alioth with 15 pts, 13 rebs and some really big baskets.  Luke Anthony added 12 and Anajuwon Spencer with 8 pts, 4 rebs, 2 blks and great defense on Eli Cave.  Cave had 20 pts and 4 rebs and is a smooth and slick 6'7" wing type lefty player( a la Stacey Augmon).

The real story was both teams coming out very rusty after a 2 week break and especially the Cardinals who couldn't make a thing in the first 11 mins.  St Mary's didn't score their first points until 4 mins into the game and were stuck on that number until 8 mins left in the half going 1/16 from the field at that point.  By then Wheaton led 19-4 and never really relinquished.  If SMU had shot just poorly, this would've been a very competitive game.  The Cardinals were also without forward Kareem Anthony.

Great to hear Rusty Lindsey and Nate Stein on the call with students gone.

[devildog29]

 A few random/incoherent thoughts after seeing the Titans play 2 games in person for the first time in several years:

- With Wolfe out, if I'm any CCIW coach I'm playing high pressure press defense until the Titans show they can beat it.
- Charlie Bair is very athletic for his size, but I thought he played too passive in the post on offense.  I thought he had several opportunities to take the ball strong to the rim after receiving the ball down low and instead passed the ball back out to the perimeter.  This seemed to be a team wide issue.  Several times a player took the ball to the basket only to kick it out to a guard for a 3. 
- Peter Lambesis is more athletic than I realized and can certainly drive to the hoop more often than he does.
- Colin Cheaney looked very athletic with the ball.  What has been keeping him on the bench?  Defense?
- Luke Yoder has a little bit of (emphasis on little bit, I'm not trying to get over my ski tips) of Korey Coon in him and with experience is going to be an excellent CCIW point guard.  He had moments where he looked as good as anyone on the court and moments where he looked like a freshman.
- Titans looked strong on the boards.  Most of the offensive rebounds against them were long rebounds off of missed shots from the perimeter. 

As for how the game was called against CTX, if the refs are calling 3 and 4 T's a game, they've already lost control of the game.  That said, I mentioned to a few folks in the stands, it reminded me of the Final 4 semi-final 5 or 6 years ago where several players were in foul trouble early in the first half.  It seems (to overgeneralize) the game is often a bit more physical in the Midwest and the refs allow that type of game flow.  Get out of the Midwest and the game is called much tighter sometimes.  And while there were certainly a higher number of fouls truly happening, calling 50+ and 60+ fouls in a game is just beyond reasonable.  There is no flow for anyone and creates just awful basketball to watch.  However, the Titans didn't do themselves any favors missing 13 (IIRC) free throws and going 0-fer from beyond the arc in the 2nd half.

Q, i would've liked to say hello, but I was rushing to beat Austin traffic back to SATX, so I only got to give you quick nod and hello during your halftime commercial rush to the facilities on Sunday. 

[Titan Q]

A few random/incoherent thoughts after seeing the Titans play 2 games in person for the first time in several years:

- With Wolfe out, if I'm any CCIW coach I'm playing high pressure press defense until the Titans show they can beat it.
- Charlie Bair is very athletic for his size, but I thought he played too passive in the post on offense.  I thought he had several opportunities to take the ball strong to the rim after receiving the ball down low and instead passed the ball back out to the perimeter.  This seemed to be a team wide issue.  Several times a player took the ball to the basket only to kick it out to a guard for a 3. 
- Peter Lambesis is more athletic than I realized and can certainly drive to the hoop more often than he does.
- Colin Cheaney looked very athletic with the ball.  What has been keeping him on the bench?  Defense?
- Luke Yoder has a little bit of (emphasis on little bit, I'm not trying to get over my ski tips) of Korey Coon in him and with experience is going to be an excellent CCIW point guard.  He had moments where he looked as good as anyone on the court and moments where he looked like a freshman.
- Titans looked strong on the boards.  Most of the offensive rebounds against them were long rebounds off of missed shots from the perimeter. 

As for how the game was called against CTX, if the refs are calling 3 and 4 T's a game, they've already lost control of the game.  That said, I mentioned to a few folks in the stands, it reminded me of the Final 4 semi-final 5 or 6 years ago where several players were in foul trouble early in the first half.  It seems (to overgeneralize) the game is often a bit more physical in the Midwest and the refs allow that type of game flow.  Get out of the Midwest and the game is called much tighter sometimes.  And while there were certainly a higher number of fouls truly happening, calling 50+ and 60+ fouls in a game is just beyond reasonable.  There is no flow for anyone and creates just awful basketball to watch.  However, the Titans didn't do themselves any favors missing 13 (IIRC) free throws and going 0-fer from beyond the arc in the 2nd half.

Q, i would've liked to say hello, but I was rushing to beat Austin traffic back to SATX, so I only got to give you quick nod and hello during your halftime commercial rush to the facilities on Sunday.

Sorry to miss you, devildog...glad you made it out to see the Titans.

And yes, producer said in our ear we had 3 minutes until we were back on...I thought it was an impressive up and back to the restroom, headset back on in time performance!

[Titan Q]

A few random/incoherent thoughts after seeing the Titans play 2 games in person for the first time in several years:

- With Wolfe out, if I'm any CCIW coach I'm playing high pressure press defense until the Titans show they can beat it.

I agree with this, but the good thing is that it doesn't fit the personnel or desired style of many CCIW teams -- I think Carroll and Augustana can pull it off.  I don't think anyone else can really play that way too effectively (at least not for more than a few minutes at a time).

I think opponent A:TO ratio is always a very telling stat -- to me, it is a great indicator of how effectively a defense takes an opposing team out of its offense.  Teams that play that Eric Bridgeland type style (formerly Puget Sound, now Whitman) always have an amazing opponent A:TO ratio.  Concordia (TX) is a 0.67, which is outstanding.  Last year Whitman was 0.66 for the season. Against high pressure defenses like this, teams really don't get to run normal offense all that much -- it mostly becomes a matter of individual players making plays.  (You survive a trap, make a pass, and some guy goes to the basket.  A lot of baskets without assists.)

Here are 2019-20 opponent A:TO ratios for CCIW teams:

* Carroll = 0.55
* Augustana = 0.63
---------
* North Central = 0.80
* Wheaton = 0.88
* Illinois Wesleyan = 0.88
* Elmhurst = 0.91
* Carthage = 0.95
* North Park = 1.33
* Millikin = 1.50

Those Carroll and Augie numbers are pretty elite.  I think Carroll and Augie have the personnel to pressure the heck out of IWU the length of the floor if Grant Wolfe is not out there.  Fortunately, IWU had Grant Wolfe in Rock Island and the Titans only have one more left vs the Vikings.  Without Wolfe, I see a much different result in that one -- that game was the perfect example of what Wolfe does for the Titans. 

I don't think the rest of the league is really set up to play that way though.  NCC is always a great defensive team, but I think that is more because they are just so fundamentally sound in their halfcourt defense.  I don't see this Cardinals group being able to play the way a Concordia does.

I think Luke Yoder will keep getting better as the season goes on and be good against most opposing defenses. 

Currently for IWU, w/ one PG, the absolute worst matchup is a Concordia (TX) or Whitman type.  Teams in the CCIW just don't play that way though.