MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

Other afternoon scores:

Carthage 82, Marian 74
Elmhurst 88, Buena Vista 60
Millikin 74, UW-Stout 60

[kiko]

North Central 87
Whitewater    86

NCC in a real down-to-the-wire, nail-biter in Wisconsin.

Matt Helwig 28 points
Ethan Helwig 20 points, 10 rebounds
Nick Smoldt 15 points

Carter Capstran had 19 for UWW, and Jameer Barker had 18

NCC shot 57.9% overall, and 63.2 from three.
UWW shot 47.8% overall, and 35.0 from three.

Still gonna go with 'pushing the pace' to describe the new North Central offense.

Couple of observations from this:

- The Cardinal offense is much less methodical than in the Raridon era, but an ancillary effect of this is that the defense is also not nearly as lock-down.

- This is the second game so far this year that North Central has had trouble with the press, which is surprising as I think their personnel really fits the style they are playing.  More or less everyone seeing minutes can handle the ball.

- The Brothers Helwig are doing most of the scoring but I like what the two newcomers are bringing in particular.  Nick Smoldt is already a solid contributor, and freshman Julian Triffo is playing meaningful minutes (not the endgame yet, though) and is going to grow into a really good CCIW player IMO.

- Setting aside the weirdly scheduled Marian contest at the close of the regular season that I assume was needed to fill a scheduling hole when the new coach took over, I like the level of competition the Sons of Warden are playing in their non-conference games.  The slate they are facing will help from an SOS standpoint should that become a factor.

- The main opportunities I have seen early are (1) too many turnovers, which was an issue today in particular, and (2) in their last two games, North Central has had teams down and let them back into the game rather than applying the dagger.  They led Aurora big early before losing there, and had 10- and 9-point leads today before needing a miss at the buzzer to hang on.

- Note to the overworked and underpaid NCC Sports Information department -- the uniform numbers posted on the website do not sync up well with what was worn on the floor today.

[Gregory Sager]

John Carroll 60
Wheaton 56

Aurora 81
Augustana 76

A bit of slippage, as the CCIW goes 4-4 for the day.

[GoPerry]

John Carroll 60
Wheaton 56

This was about as entertaining a low-scoring game one can ask for.  John Carroll is a pretty impressive talented and skilled team.  They certainly look like a top 25 team to me and should be receiving lots more votes in the poll.  They are going to beat lots of good teams.  The Blue Streaks Luke Frazier had his lefty floating jumper going that the Thunder couldn't stop.

Wheaton had plenty and numerous chances in this one but absolutely could not get shots to fall.  Unfortunately, Tyson Cruickshank had an ice cold night, not just from the three point stripe but couldn't even get some layups to go.  I believe the Thunder are also a legit top 25 team but today's performance showed a few cracks. 

No points and rebs since live stats froze up with 9 ½ mins left in the game (a lot of things didn't go right in Wheaton mens athletics today. . . )

[Next Man Up]

Aurora has now beaten both NCC and Augie of the CCIW. Few basketball teams that I've see can match their physicality. When they took the court the other night against NCC, my first thought was "these guys are certainly no strangers to the weight room." It looks like AU took their FB LB Corps and somehow stuffed them into basketball unis.
A large fraction of their offense seems to be just put your shoulder down and bull/drive your way to the basket. "Scored in the lane" is something that I'd guess is often an applicable description of a made AU basket.
Very surprising they lost to Eureka.

[Next Man Up]

North Central 87
Whitewater    86

NCC in a real down-to-the-wire, nail-biter in Wisconsin.

Matt Helwig 28 points
Ethan Helwig 20 points, 10 rebounds
Nick Smoldt 15 points

Carter Capstran had 19 for UWW, and Jameer Barker had 18

NCC shot 57.9% overall, and 63.2 from three.
UWW shot 47.8% overall, and 35.0 from three.

Still gonna go with 'pushing the pace' to describe the new North Central offense.

Couple of observations from this:

- 1 The Cardinal offense is much less methodical than in the Raridon era, but an ancillary effect of this is that the defense is also not nearly as lock-down.

- This is the second game so far this year that North Central has had trouble with the press, which is surprising as I think their personnel really fits the style they are playing.  More or less everyone seeing minutes can handle the ball.

- The Brothers Helwig are doing most of the scoring but I like what the two newcomers are bringing in particular.  2 Nick Smoldt is already a solid contributor, and 3 freshman Julian Triffo is playing meaningful minutes (not the endgame yet, though) and is going to grow into a really good CCIW player IMO.

- Setting aside 4the weirdly scheduled Marian contest at the close of the regular season that I assume was needed to fill a scheduling hole when the new coach took over, I like the level of competition the Sons of Warden are playing in their non-conference games.  The slate they are facing will help from an SOS standpoint should that become a factor.

- The main opportunities I have seen early are (1) 5 too many turnovers, which was an issue today in particular, and (2) in their last two games, North Central has had teams down and let them back into the game rather than applying the dagger.  They led Aurora big early before losing there, and had 10- and 9-point leads today before needing a miss at the buzzer to hang on.

- 6 Note to the overworked and underpaid NCC Sports Information department -- the uniform numbers posted on the website do not sync up well with what was worn on the floor today.

1. True. And true.

2. Nick Smoldt is doing a fine job for the Cardinals. He seems to have a knack for making "big" baskets-when the team needs them most. He is a junior transfer from St. Norbert for whom it seems surprising that he didn't see more minutes last year.

3. Julian Triffo is a freshman from Main South which has sent several good players to the CCIW. He was a Class 4A All-State player last year. At the beginning of last season he was recruited by numerous D3s from multiple Midwestern states. NCC identified him as a prime target after the first game we saw him play. Midway thru the season he narrowed his choices to Loras and NCC, before ultimately choosing the Cardinals during the Conference Tournament. However, after Todd Raridon's resignation, he withdrew his commitment, and reopened his recruitment. Among the teams he then talked to were Augie and Whitewater. However, he ultimately, and fortunately realized he made the right decision originally, and recommitted to NCC. Julian is still in the getting his feet wet at the next level stage, but no one should be surprised if he ultimately develops into an all-conference level performer.

4. When Todd Raridon resigned, he hadn't yet completed this season's schedule. Consequently, soon after coming aboard Anthony Figueroa discovered there were only 19 games scheduled, and he had to go into an immediate scramble mode. He got down to one game to go, and fortunately found Marian in the same situation. As both schedules were full, save a 25th game, the schools found it easier to schedule it as a regular season finale rather than try to find a mutual earlier open date.

5. Yes, too many TOs for sure. In MHO, this may stem from the fact that so far this year, the Cards have had multiple players (5?, 6?) bring the ball up and try to get the team into it's offensive flow. All are fairly capable, but I think they need to settle on a #1 and 1A. Maybe take a look at minutes played vs TOs to date to possibly pull out the 2 guys who are most solid in the ball handling/passing phases of the game.

6. There is a very good reason why the numbers listed on the roster did not "sync up" with the numbers worn tonight at Whitewater. That's because we got new unis with some new numbers this season. They were ordered some time ago, but for various supply side related reasons they did not arrive until the last day or so. Tonight was the first time they were broken out/ever worn. The numbers Sports Information has, and are consequently listed on the roster, are the numbers that correspond to the away uniforms worn Tuesday night at Aurora. Some of the new unis have numbers that NCC didn't previously have. With the basketball team in Wisconsin, and SI getting ready for today's playoff FB game, there wasn't time to change numbers. I think this will be remedied soon.

* We've now seen a set of new road unis. However, NCC has yet to play at home this year. The first home game is Tues vs neighboring Benedictine from 2.9 miles down the street in the annual Battle of Maple Ave for which a trophy goes to the winner. As I said NCC has new unis, both road and home. However, I've become aware of the possibly that Tues night might find the Cards attired not in traditional home white, but in a snazzy alternative 3rd set of threads. 

[iwu70]

Yes, IWU will struggle with truly quick teams and have some issues defending the periphery. This will have to be sorted out somehow.  They got it to OT with St. Joseph, but seemingly ran out of gas or something, losing the OT period 16-7, with the Final Score being 73-64.

St. Joe:
Martin 23
Sullivan 17
Mitchell 13
Samuels 9

Only 14 TOs

IWU:
Mitchell 22 and 16
Heflen 16 and 8, but only 1-10 from three
Roper 8 and 9

IWU had 24 TOs, but winning the glass 49-33.  IWU only 5-21 from trey.

Live and learn . . .  IWU now 2-2.  I think coach Rose has lots to think about on how he's going to construct and manage the rotation and what he does with teams that have fast guards and strong three point shooting.

No rest, UW Oshkosh in a week's time @Oshkosh.

'70

[voxelmhurst]

Elmhurst 88, Buena Vista 60

Another case of Elmhurst breaking the game open in the second half. Aside from some sloppy offensive possessions midway thru the second (they did finish with 16 turnovers, a handful of which were unforced errors) they were able to execute very well on both ends of the court, playing a quick up-tempo game.  Zapinski with 18 points and 17 rebounds, to go with 4 blocks and a steal. Hooker with 18 points, 8 rebounds and 4 steals. Ocean Johnson 14/6, Tagen Pearson with 20.

This should be an interesting season for Elmhurst, with Zapinski, Hooker, and Ocean Johnson now the leading the team. I may not expect a repeat performance of last year's run to the national title game, after graduating Rhode, Thomas, Militello, Genco, et al, but they are still a very experienced team and giving off the vibe they still have a lot to prove.

[Gotberg]

Hope 80
North Park 73

Kolden Vanlandingham: 23 pts, 4:1 a:to
Shamar Pumphrey: 17 pts, 3:1 a:to
Marquise Jackson: 14 pts

In a sense, I looked upon this ballgame as NPU's true opener, and I think that Sean Smith did, too. The Dutchmen represented the first example of what North Park will be seeing throughout CCIW play: smart, physically strong, disciplined halfcourt teams that can shoot. The question was: Can North Park's newly-adopted brand of "chaos ball" (as the Hope PBP broadcaster called it) work against that traditional style?

Loss or not, I think that the answer is "yes". The Dutch pushed out to an early 20-point lead at 37-17, as the spead-the-floor-and-isolate offense the Vikings were using exclusively became very predictable and was easily stopped by Hope's help D. But then Vanlandingham got hot from downtown, the Vikings started working motion offensively to good effect, and their quickness and high energy played havoc with Hope's ability to possess. By halftime they'd caught the Dutch, although the hosts did extend back out to a six-point lead at intermission.

The second half seesawed back and forth throughout the first two-thirds of the latter stanza, although the Vikings were unable to extend any leads past three points. But in the final seven minutes or so, the Vikings simply went ice-cold from the field, while Hope continued its superb shooting night (.556/.389/.920) and put the game away in the waning minutes. Too much steady nerves behind those shooting eyes on Hope's part for North Park to handle, and too many rebounds as well (39-25 in Hope's favor, although NPU actually had more offensive boards than did the Dutchmen). Hope also did a nice job defensively on Jalen Boyd, NPU's star scorer through the first two games of the year, essentially rendering him invisible today. Where North Park excelled was the ball-control game; the Vikings came close in the a:to department (9:12), while Hope had a whopping 28 turnovers (15 of 'em courtesy of North Park steals) and only half as many assists.

Obviously, the Vikings need to do a better job of finishing around the basket and knocking down bunnies, but I liked what I saw from them today. It's a loss, but it's the kind of loss that indicates that this style can work in the CCIW for Sean Smith. It won't work every night, but at least the Vikings will be a pain in the neck to have to play.

NPU looked pretty good.  My suggestions are for the bigs to rebound and distribute out on offensive plays and I couldn't believe Lance Nelson was fed when he had open 3's.  Feed the best shooter.

[Gregory Sager]

Illinois Tech knocked off Carroll at Van Male, 65-59. Carroll was up by one at the half, but IIT scored the opening bucket of the second stanza and then led the whole way home. Eckahelo Simpson had 14 and 12, with Paradisio Dante chipping in 11, for the Pioneers in the losing cause, while Josh Hudgens and Tyler Miller grabbed eight rebounds apiece.

After an underwater weekend, the CCIW now finds itself at 21-11 (.656).

Tuesday has an almost-full slate of eight non-con games:

UW-Platteville @ Augustana
Concordia (IL) @ Carroll
Rose-Hulman @ Carthage
Manchester @ Elmhurst
Millikin @ Washington (MO)
Benedictine @ North Central
North Park @ Marian
Wheaton @ Lake Forest

[CarrollBooster]

Some things to like in Waukesha tonight.

Carroll bounced out to a10-0 lead against IIT, lead at the half 32-30.

Rarely have seen a game where one team dominates the rebounding so completely and loses. Carroll out rebounded IIT 53-33 and it wasn't one of those times where it didn't feel like it.

Carroll shot 4-13 from the foul line and turned it over 19 times.

Also Carroll had an excellent defensive game plan. Just could not shoot, or make free throws in the second half.

Progress as this thing gets put back together it looks like to me.  The Pios play 3-0 Concordia of Chicago Tuesday at Van Male.

[lmitzel]

- 6 Note to the overworked and underpaid NCC Sports Information department -- the uniform numbers posted on the website do not sync up well with what was worn on the floor today.

6. There is a very good reason why the numbers listed on the roster did not "sync up" with the numbers worn tonight at Whitewater. That's because we got new unis with some new numbers this season. They were ordered some time ago, but for various supply side related reasons they did not arrive until the last day or so. Tonight was the first time they were broken out/ever worn. The numbers Sports Information has, and are consequently listed on the roster, are the numbers that correspond to the away uniforms worn Tuesday night at Aurora. Some of the new unis have numbers that NCC didn't previously have. With the basketball team in Wisconsin, and SI getting ready for today's playoff FB game, there wasn't time to change numbers. I think this will be remedied soon.

* We've now seen a set of new road unis. However, NCC has yet to play at home this year. The first home game is Tues vs neighboring Benedictine from 2.9 miles down the street in the annual Battle of Maple Ave for which a trophy goes to the winner. As I said NCC has new unis, both road and home. However, I've become aware of the possibly that Tues night might find the Cards attired not in traditional home white, but in a snazzy alternative 3rd set of threads. 

Well good news is that, at least as of this morning, Clark and crew have updated the roster on the website. Gonna be weird having way more odd numbers as well as #0 being worn by the home team at the hangar after years of going onto my legal pad the morning of a game, and just writing in 2, 4, 10, 11, 12, 22, 24, 30, 32, 34, 40, 42, 44, 50, 52, 54 automatically.

I am kinda giddy about this 3rd jersey. (I haven't seen anything yet, but Mark's teaser is working. )

[Greek Tragedy]

We headed to Whitewater to see them host CCIW foe North Central (IL). Those Helwig boys are the real deal with Matt scoring a game high 28 and Ethan chipping in with 20 and 10. It was a back and forth game. NCC seemed to get a jump on Whitewater, only for the hosts to battle back. NCC had a 10-point lead less than 5 minutes in, but the Warhawks battled back and actually took a 4-point lead going into the interval.

More of the same in the 2nd as the visitors seemingly pulled away only for Whitewater to regain their footing and make it a game. Like the Point/Edgewood game, the visitors nearly self-destructed. NCC had an 8 point lead with a little over a minute to go in the game, but Whitewater wouldn't go away. Whitewater cut it to one with less than 10 seconds to go. A turnover by NCC gave Whitewater a chance to win it. A missed shot and scrum under the basket resulted and the whistle blew just before the buzzer went off to end the game. A ref meeting concluded in a traveling call on NCC, giving Whitewater one last hope for the miracle win with .4 seconds to go. A nice inbounds play setup a wide open look for Miles Barnstable, but he air-balled his 3 giving NCC the road victory.

[Next Man Up]

- 6 Note to the overworked and underpaid NCC Sports Information department -- the uniform numbers posted on the website do not sync up well with what was worn on the floor today.

6. There is a very good reason why the numbers listed on the roster did not "sync up" with the numbers worn tonight at Whitewater. That's because we got new unis with some new numbers this season. They were ordered some time ago, but for various supply side related reasons they did not arrive until the last day or so. Tonight was the first time they were broken out/ever worn. The numbers Sports Information has, and are consequently listed on the roster, are the numbers that correspond to the away uniforms worn Tuesday night at Aurora. Some of the new unis have numbers that NCC didn't previously have. With the basketball team in Wisconsin, and SI getting ready for today's playoff FB game, there wasn't time to change numbers. I think this will be remedied soon.

* We've now seen a set of new road unis. However, NCC has yet to play at home this year. The first home game is Tues vs neighboring Benedictine from 2.9 miles down the street in the annual Battle of Maple Ave for which a trophy goes to the winner. As I said NCC has new unis, both road and home. However, I've become aware of the possibly that Tues night might find the Cards attired not in traditional home white, but in a snazzy alternative 3rd set of threads. 

Well good news is that, at least as of this morning, Clark and crew have updated the roster on the website. Gonna be weird having way more odd numbers as well as #0 being worn by the home team at the hangar after years of going onto my legal pad the morning of a game, and just writing in 2, 4, 10, 11, 12, 22, 24, 30, 32, 34, 40, 42, 44, 50, 52, 54 automatically.

I am kinda giddy about this 3rd jersey. (I haven't seen anything yet, but Mark's teaser is working. )

Several people supposedly in the know have been rather tight lipped, but digging a little deeper reveals that the previously referred to 3rd "alternative" unis may actually be just the Cardinals 2nd set of unis rather than the 3rd and may, in fact, be the Cards new home unis with the traditional home white unis being cast away, not to be worn again. With finances being what they are at many D3 institutions, paying for two new sets of unis instead of three certainly makes sense from a budgetary standpoint.

[kiko]

Several people supposedly in the know have been rather tight lipped, but digging a little deeper reveals that the previously referred to 3rd "alternative" unis may actually be just the Cardinals 2nd set of unis rather than the 3rd and may, in fact, be the Cards new home unis with the traditional home white unis being cast away, not to be worn again. With finances being what they are at many D3 institutions, paying for two new sets of unis instead of three certainly makes sense from a budgetary standpoint.

As long as they don't accidentally leave them in Bloomington while trekking to an away game, I'm sure they'll be great!