MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Titan Q]

IWU 6-7 sophomore Matt Leritz in the last 8 games:

at NPU: 28 pts, 11 reb, 12-22 FG
at Wheaton: 9 pts, 11 reb, 4-8 FG
vs Elm: 23 pts, 5 reb, 9-14 FG
vs Aug: 8 pts, 5 reb, 3-5 FG
at Mill: 21 pts, 5 reb, 9-14 FG
vs Carr: 12 pts, 7 reb, 4-6 FG
vs NCC: 17 pts, 8 reb, 6-8 FG
at Elm: 22 pts, 8 reb, 10-16 FG

17.5 ppg, 7.5 rpg, 57-93 (.613) FG over that span.

Matt missed the entire summer and preseason due to injury -- started practicing in December, and started playing 15+ minutes in mid-January.  He's developing into a really good CCIW low post guy.

[lmitzel]

Massey picks for today:

• @ Carroll 69, Millikin 56 (CRL 88%, MIL 12%)
• NCC 67, @ Wheaton 63 (NCC 62%, WHE 38%)
• @ Augie 83, North Park 58 (AUG 98%, NPU 2%)
• @ Carthage 82, IWU 80 (CAR 56%, IWU 44%)

And based on these numbers, seeding odds:

	NCC	Augie	Elmhurst	IWU	Wheaton	Carthage
#1	100%	-	-	-	-	-
#2	-	99.1%	-	0.9%	-	-
#3	-	0.9%	56.0%	43.1%	-	-
#4	-	-	44.0%	34.7%	21.3%	-
#5	-	-	-	21.3%	78.7%	-
#6	-	-	-	-	-	100%

[GoPerry]

Massey picks for today:

• NCC 67, @ Wheaton 63 (NCC 62%, WHE 38%)

The OT loss to NCC in Naperville last month was one that Wheaton could have and should have won if not for some untimely missed free throws and an extraordinary Connor Raridon performance that he hasn't matched since( and probably hasn't had to).  It definitely stung and set the team back a bit over the next couple weeks.  Wheaton could use a big significant win to finish off the season into next week.   NCC is playing better since then so hoping for a good one at King tonight (Aiden Chang's return).

[Gregory Sager]

Carroll 75
Millikin 47

The Pioneers finish in seventh place at 12-13, 5-11. Millikin finishes last at 4-21, 1-15.

[Titan Q]

The Titans will be without 6-7/220 starter Charlie Bair tonight due to injury. The Titans now without starters:

* Grant Wolfe: 18.0 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 3.6 apg
* Luke Yoder: 10.4 ppg, 2.6 rpg, 2.3 apg
* Charlie Bair: 9.0 ppg, 8.3 rpg

If you would have asked me in December who the MVPs of this IWU team are, I would have listed these 3 guys.

Need to find a way to win tonight.

[iwu70]

Hope Bair can recover for the CCIW tournament.  He did look out of sorts last game.

Gonna be tough against the Carthage huge bigs.

'70

[Gregory Sager]

Hope Bair can recover for the CCIW tournament.  He did look out of sorts last game.

How do you know he hurt it in the game?

He played 27 minutes against NPU, right around his season average.

[Titan Q]

Hope Bair can recover for the CCIW tournament.  He did look out of sorts last game.

How do you know he hurt it in the game?

He played 27 minutes against NPU, right around his season average.

He suffered a pretty severe groin injury in practice on Tuesday.  Tried to play at North Park Wednesday and could not move around very well.  On Thursday in Bloomington went to the hospital and ended up having emergency surgery that same day.

I could tell watching the NPU game something was very wrong with him.  Found out the next day what was up. 

[iwu70]

Thanks, Q, for the background.  Sounds pretty serious, likely season-ending.  Tough loss again for the TITANS.  I could tell in the NPU game that he was injured, or sick or out of sorts somehow.

Leritz really playing well, agreed.  Noe and Mitchell getting more minutes. 

Here comes the tournament.  No rest, no reprieve. 

'70

[Ultimate Titan Fan]

Emergency surgery?!  Sounds like he's out for post season play.

[Gregory Sager]

Why isn't Crishawn Cook playing for Carthage?

[iwu70]

Titans found a way in Kenosha, 91-81 over Carthage.

Great game, lots of players contributing.  Noe, Schumacher and Lertiz, coming up big.

On to the tournament.  Guess IWU gets a home game in the first round.

IWU'70

[Gregory Sager]

Augustana 96
North Park 73

Izaiah Sanders: 18 pts
Karl Polk, Jr.: 14 pts, 9 rebs
Toby Marek: 12 pts
Lawrence Pointer: 11 pts (3-5 trey)

Pierson Wofford: 24 pts, 3:1 a:to
Micah Martin: 16 pts (7-10 FG), 6 rebs
Donovan Ferguson: 7 rebs
Jack Jelen: 5:2 a:to
Matt Hanushewsky: 3:1 a:to

[Titan Q]

IWU 91
Carthage 81

https://athletics.carthage.edu/sidearmstats/mbball/summary

* Cory Noe (So.): 23 pts, 4 reb, 2 assists
* Keondre Schumacher (So.): 21 pts, 2 reb
* Matt Leritz (So.): 18 pts, 7 reb, 3 assists
* Pete Lambesis (So.): 11 pts, 6 reb, 6 asssists
* Cody Mitchell (Fr.): 10 reb

Really impressive effort by the Titans tonight.  After they got down double digits in the 1st half I thought they really played hard and smart.

All things considered this season, I will take that 11-5/3 seed.

[iwumichigander]

Why isn't Crishawn Cook playing for Carthage?

Thumb injury