MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

For those of you planning to watch the North Park @ Elmhurst game tomorrow on Bluejay TV, don't be alarmed if you hear my voice instead of Mark Krueger's. Mark is unavailable, so I'll be calling both the women's and men's contests between North Park and Elmhurst at Faganel Hall tomorrow afternoon.

[Gotberg]

For those of you planning to watch the North Park @ Elmhurst game tomorrow on Bluejay TV, don't be alarmed if you hear my voice instead of Mark Krueger's. Mark is unavailable, so I'll be calling both the women's and men's contests between North Park and Elmhurst at Faganel Hall tomorrow afternoon.

Greg, that's respect....well deserved and congrats!

[Stertorous Thunder]

Congrats to Tyson Cruickshank on the weekly honor . . . again..   He's having a monster year.  Likely the MOP of the year.

IWU'70

During the two games where he earned his third CCIW and second D3hoops.com weekly honors, he shot 65% from the floor, 50% from the three point line, and 86% from the free throw line.  And then for the following week, he went out and put on the 33-point encore against NCC.  At the beginning of the season I would have ranked the chances of Matt Helwig, Daniel Carr, and Filip Bulatovic above his, but I think Tyson Cruickshank just wrapped up the 2023 Fred Young Most Outstanding Student-Athlete Award.

Tyson Cruickshank now sits in tenth place in career scoring on the all-time Wheaton list.  Before you put an asterisk on his 1,640-and-counting points because he's taken advantage of the special fifth year of eligibility and played in the modern era with its focus on three-pointers, it should be noted that he has given up a substantial amount of playing time and offensive touches in his career to teammates.  In his freshman year he only averaged 2.6 points and played less than nine minutes per game in a backcourt rotation filled with Aston Francis, Luke Peters, Luke Anthony, and Nyameye Adom.  That's right - in the 2018-19 Final Four season, Wheaton had a roster where Tyson Cruickshank was only their FIFTH best guard.

Cruickshank has spent much of his career in the shadow of some other all-time players, so it's been nice to see him thrive in his year in the limelight.  I look forward to seeing some future online photo of an older-looking Francis, Adom, and Cruickshank together, perhaps at an alumni game, with a caption noting that the former teammates were all unanimous all-conference selections in their final seasons.

- Stertorous "Tor" Thunder

[mr_b]

Now in double OT at Faganel, Elmhurst and North Park tied at 80.

[mr_b]

... and 15 seconds into double OT, Ocean Johnson dunks a ball and shatters the backboard.  So the game is temporarily on hold.

[Stertorous Thunder]

Now in double OT at Faganel, Elmhurst and North Park tied at 80.

And Ocean Johnson just shattered the backboard. Seriously.

[mr_b]

Now in double OT at Faganel, Elmhurst and North Park tied at 80.

And Ocean Johnson just shattered the backboard. Seriously.

Greg is certainly earning his paycheck tonight!

[Gregory Sager]

Now in double OT at Faganel, Elmhurst and North Park tied at 80.

And Ocean Johnson just shattered the backboard. Seriously.

Greg is certainly earning his paycheck tonight!

Let's just say that I'm having an interesting day.

[iwu70]

Great job, Greg . . . great game.   A long night. 

'70

[Gregory Sager]

Hurrah! The crane operator is in the house! Now we can finally swap out the old backboard for the new one!

[Stertorous Thunder]

Hurrah! The crane operator is in the house! Now we can finally swap out the old backboard for the new one!

I don't know what the rules are for D3 athletes and gifts, but I sure hope it's legal to give Ocean Johnson the rim from the broken board. What a great trophy.

[mr_b]

It took two OTs and three backboards, but North Park finally prevailed against Elmhurst, 93-90.  I hope Greg did not have dinner reservations after calling this game.  Van Landingham led the Vikings with 32 points, and Zapinski had a phenomenal game for Elmhurst with 25 points, 12 rebounds, and 11-12 at the charity stripe.

[iwu70]

Looks like an evening of OTs.   NCC and IWU tied at 69-69 in regulation, going to OT.  Cupples hits a trey with no time left to take the game to another 5 minutes.  Looked like the Titans had the game won.    IWU missing key FTs. 

So here we go. . .

[iwu70]

IWU goes down in OT, at NCC, 85-78.  Some days you get to 78 and still lose.  IWU again found ways to miss FTs, foul a three point shooter at an inopportune moment, and turn the ball over in the last two minutes of OT.  Seems no one could guard M. Hellwig tonight.

For IWU:
Heflen 19
Williams 14
Sroka 12 and 8
Mitchell in foul trouble early

For NCC
Hellwig 38
Cupples the tying trey that sent the game to OT, at the buzzer in regulation, 14

A very disappointing loss, final few minutes performance in regulation and in OT.  The Titans just struggling all year with closing out games they should have won.

IWU'70

[kiko]

On Senior Night in the Hangar:

North Central 85, Illinois Wesleyan 78 (OT)

A microcosm of this one in two deadball moments:

Probably about 4ish minutes into the second half, there was some moisture on the floor as one of the players hit the deck on the Titans' end.  The broom guy wanders over and swabs an area that is somewhere in the range of five feet away from where his work was needed.  This was on-brand for North Central to that point in the game, as the Cardinals were out-sized, out-hustled, out-shot, out-rebounded, and generally out-everythinged for the first 23 minutes of the game.  Illinois Wesleyan led by 14 at the half, stretched the advantage to 50-32 in the opening possessions of the second half, and looked untroubled by the Sons of Warden on both ends of the floor.  I missed Wednesday's game, and at the intermission it looked like this was also not must-see TV.

With around 5 minutes left, there was again moisture on that half of the court.  This time, Shea Cupples grabbed the broom and took care of the issue himself.  At this point, North Central had crawled back from the dead, playing much more intense defense, and riding Matt Helwig's 21 second half points to crawl out of a giant hole and take the lead.  The Cardinals were unrecognizable from their first half effort.  The Titans regrouped, took a five point lead, and led by three after a North Central foul with :04 on the clock.  But Ryan Sroka missed the free throw, and Cupples hit a deep desperation three to force OT.

After that dagger, the OT was somewhat anticlimactic as the Cardinals took care of the ball and closed out an improbable and critical win.

Both teams had fleeting moments showing why they were picked first and second in the conference prior to the season, and both also had stretches where they showed where they couldn't convert that into on-court success.  But from North Central's standpoint, this was a badly needed win and a tremendous show of tenacity after watching several games slip away this year.

North Central
Matt Helwig - 38 and 5
Shea Cupples - 14 and 5
Mitch Lewis - 9 pts, 8 rebounds, 5 assists
Jeffrey Hemmelgarn - 2 points and 15 meaningful minutes of being a large human being who played strong defense

Illinois Wesleyan
Lucas Heflin - 19, 5, and 5
Hakim Williams - 14 and 10
Ryan Sroka - 12 and 8