MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[iwu70]

Q's summary is good.  Leritz, Noe and Lambesis all played great today.  The Titans had their lull moments, especially when the newbies were out there . . . most of whom will find their way and improve game by game.  I'm totally convinced that Cory Mitchell belongs in the starting line-up . . . 

A good start, if slightly ragged at points. 

The Lake Forest point guard (Espinosa)  is a terrific player, pretty much getting to wherever he wants to go on the court.  Lambesis did well, made him work hard, and Yoder tried to chase him, but he still pretty much went where he wished, and often finished at the rim.  A terrific talent . . . just not enough around him, especially on the boards, to pose a serious challenge to the Titans today.

A nice crowd and a good atmosphere, with the best Pep Band in all of D3.  Next weekend, with Big Jack in the house, should be special . . . and all those great teams, great programs, too.  Looking forward.

IWU'70

[SpringSt7]

With 6-7 Matt Leritz and 6-7 Cody Mitchell on the floor together, I'm not sure there is another Division III low post duo that is as big and physical as the Titans.  26 rebounds between these two.

Yeshiva?

Gabe Leifer is great but physicality is not one of his superlatives. Great rebounder but mainly because of good positioning and the fact that they don't ask most of the guards to crash.

[Titan Q]

With 6-7 Matt Leritz and 6-7 Cody Mitchell on the floor together, I'm not sure there is another Division III low post duo that is as big and physical as the Titans.  26 rebounds between these two.

Yeshiva?

No...not close.

[Greek Tragedy]

Q's summary is good.  Leritz, Noe and Lambesis all played great today.  The Titans had their lull moments, especially when the newbies were out there . . . most of whom will find their way and improve game by game.  I'm totally convinced that Cory Mitchell belongs in the starting line-up . . . 

A good start, if slightly ragged at points. 

The Lake Forest point guard (Espinosa)  is a terrific player, pretty much getting to wherever he wants to go on the court.  Lambesis did well, made him work hard, and Yoder tried to chase him, but he still pretty much went where he wished, and often finished at the rim.  A terrific talent . . . just not enough around him, especially on the boards, to pose a serious challenge to the Titans today.

A nice crowd and a good atmosphere, with the best Pep Band in all of D3.  Next weekend, with Big Jack in the house, should be special . . . and all those great teams, great programs, too.  Looking forward.

IWU'70

The John Carroll pep band made the trip?

[Gregory Sager]

[iwu70]

Greek, good try! 

'70

[Titan Q]

My conversation with Mike Schauer, MBB National Committee Chair, about the selection process...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMpILST1VyQ

0:00 Feeling good about 2021-22
3:40 Regional realignment (8 regions to 10)
6:15 Primary selection criteria
10:55 Average historical data for Pool C selections
13:26 Handling of non-D3 games
14:07 Balance of the primary criteria; secondary criteria
16:03 The importance of playing a strong non-conf schedule
20:00 Allocation of teams in 2021-22 tournament field
21:27 Regional rankings; alphabetical 1st ranking trial
35:00 Transparency in the process
39:08 D3 bracketing
45:30 COVID impacts on the 2021-22 tournament
46:45 Improvements in the D3 selection process over the years

[iwu70]

Just a first-look impression, after the IWU-Lake Forest game.  Of course, the seniors and Yoder played very well, looking their parts early on, making very positive impressions.  I think Cody Mitchell really comes into his own soon.  He rebounded very well, will find his shots in close and at distance too.  The Leritz-Mitchell combo is going to be a very potent one.  Of the others, my first-look impression was very positive about the play, the confidence and comfortableness of Lucas Heflen and Grant Hardy, both playing well, knowing their roles early on.  The other newbies will find their place and time, in time, I'm sure, as the rotation settles, gets more comfortable . . . and it better do so fast this weekend, given the level of competition to come -- vs. Hope on Friday, 7 p.m. and either Oshkosh or St. Thomas (MSP) on Saturday.  Big Jack in the house, along with many former Titan Academic All-Americans, and surely many other former Titan players, for this special weekend of D3 and Titan basketball, the inaugural Sikma Hall of Fame Invitational . . . a real treat for IWU basketball fans and loyalists. 

Games are Friday 5 and 7 p.m., then Saturday, 4 and 6 p.m.  Should be a great show of high-level D3 hoops.

IWU'70

[Gregory Sager]

North Park 75
Lake Forest 63

Jalen Boyd: 20 pts, 11 rebs, 3 stls
Michael Osborne: 11 pts, 5:2 a:to
Jonathan Johansson: 11 pts
Gabe Johnson: 10 pts, 7 rebs, 3:1 a:to
Jordan Boyd: 9 rebs, 3 blks

Oddly enough for opening night, the Vikings looked much better at the outset of the game than they looked for the rest of it. NPU pulled out to an early 15-point lead, and with Lake Forest's best player, PG Sean Espinosa, cooling his heels on the bench with three fouls, it appeared that the Vikings were going to run away with it.

The opposite happened. Sans Espinosa, the Foresters reeled off nine straight points late in the half to trail by a mere six at intermission, and at a couple of points in the first seven minutes of the second stanza they actually took a one-point lead. But NPU did a great job of crashing the boards at the offensive end, went back to feeding the Boyd brothers down low, and gradually managed to earn themselves some separation down the stretch.

It wasn't pretty, but the Vikings faithful will certainly take it.

NPU next hosts Cal Lutheran this Sunday. The Kingsmen should make for an interesting foe, as the CLU program has been badly broken in recent years -- and yet they upset North Central tonight in the airplane hangar.

[Gregory Sager]

Wash U must've hit a trey at the buzzer, or close to it, to stave off what would've been the upset of the year. I looked at live stats, and with 00:06 left Millikin was up by a point. Next time I looked, Wash U had won, 52-51.

Wheaton didn't exactly have an inspired opener at King Arena, as the Sonic Atmospheric Disturbance trailed Benedictine most of the night before squeaking out an 82-80 win.

As I mentioned, North Central fell to Cal Lutheran, 80-79.

[lmitzel]

Tough one in Naperville tonight as Cal Lutheran's Mason Johnson hit a pair of free throws with 5.3 seconds left to give the Kingsmen an 80-79 win over North Central. The Kingsmen scored 32 points off 21 Cardinal turnovers and NCC went just 15-24 at the free throw line.

Matt Helwig led the Cardinals with 21 points, Blaise Meredith had 17 (including getting fouled on a made three with a minute and a half to go, but missed the free throw), and Ethan Helwig notched 10 in his Cardinal debut.

Johnson scored 21 to pace the Kingsmen, Jacob Alonzo put up 16, and Jake Martin added four threes ; all three guys came off the bench.

Was great to hear the hangar that loud again, just wish the outcome was different.

[PauldingLightUP]

Fairly clear live with the naked eye and the replay confirms that there should've been .5 or .6 left for Millkin after the Nolan 3. That's pretty bad for the officials not to notice. I feel bad for the Big Blue.

[kiko]

I don't know what to make of the result this evening in the hangar.  Cal Lutheran pressed for much of the game and, excepting a few sequences, the Cardinals had a really difficult time handling this.  North Central shot over 50% in part because of the layups they got when they broke the press, and also due to some success running backdoor cuts, but were underwhelming from three (23%) and at the line (62%).  The Sons of Warden seemed to have things in control early in the second half when they led by as many as 13, but a 19-5 CLU run erased that margin in a span of fourish minutes.

As Gregory mentioned, CLU has not been a strong program of late -- 4-21 in 2019-20, including a pair of losses to Caltech, and they did not play last year.  Tonight they got 69 of their 80 points from the bench.

The Cardinals have a fair bit of talent this year but there is a lot to work on and clean up in the coming weeks.

[lmitzel]

Fairly clear live with the naked eye and the replay confirms that there should've been .5 or .6 left for Millkin after the Nolan 3. That's pretty bad for the officials not to notice. I feel bad for the Big Blue.

I watched the replay; sure looked like it from the baseline angle.

[WUPHF]

Absolutely, there should have been .5 or .6 (and possibly more) on the clock for Millikin, but as I was told two years ago when Nolan was clearly fouled behind the three-point line with the Bears trailing by two, that is basketball.