MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

Both Carthage and Illinois Wesleyan lived up to their established reputations. The Firebirds knocked down treys left and right (10-25, 40%), but had significant stretches of lazy defense and had trouble defending the low post against a bigger team. The Titans dominated the boards, but couldn't knock down either treys or free throws with any consistency (32% and 42%), and couldn't stay in front of Bulatovic or Nesbitt on drives late in the game. In the end, after a severely sloppy stretch of FT shooting by both teams in the final 30 seconds (six misses in a row, four by Carthage and two by IWU), the Firebirds were finally able to start knocking down a few of 'em while the Titans kept coming up empty on hastily-released shots.

At Faganel, the Bluejays dominated the game most of the way, as Ocean Johnson (28 points) absolutely went off. But the Cardinals were able to hang around and then make a late push in the final four minutes, mostly because Matt Helwig put his team on his back and absolutely refused to surrender. He ended the night -- and his career* -- with 33 points. But in the final minute, Elmhurst was able to grab some key rebounds and stifle the NCC attempt to climb back into a tie or take the lead.

Friday's games might be just as exciting as tonight's were. Both CC vs. NPU and EU vs. WC were reverse splits this season.

*I'd like to see Helwig get an invite to put on his Cardinals uniform one more time and play in the D3 All-Star game in Fort Wayne on Championship Weekend.

[iwu70]

Well, Greg, the Titans lived up exactly to their narrative tonight.  Ahead by five when I checked, then losing again in the last 3-4 minutes.  The narrative out of Bloomington is the exact narrative the team has produced this season -- poor perimeter defense and tonight again poor FT shooting.   Sad.  12-14 for the year.  I'm sure Coach Rose is very disappointed.   Oh well, you all can celebrate now . . . IWU is done for this season.  Long live the Titans.  There's always next year.

Thanks to Heflen and Mitchell for their long, distinguished and All-CCIW careers at IWU. 

Good luck to Wheaton and North Park in the big dance.  Make some noise for the CCIW. 

IWU'70

[kiko]

At R.A. Faganel Hall, where we have recently remodeled our backboards:

Elmhurst 84, North Central 80

The tone for this one was set in the opening minute of each half.  North Central led 2-0 less than a minute into the game when Matt Helwig poked away an errant Blue Jay pass and coasted ahead of the field for what looked like an easy layup/dunk.  But Wes Hooker trailed the play and blocked the shot, foreshadowing that the Jays were going to contest everything in this one.  Elmhurst ran out to a seven point lead before the Cardinals made a late push to tie things up at the intermission.

North Central inbounded to start in the second half.  Six seconds later, Miles Thomas had a steal off of a lazy pass, and twenty-one seconds later, Jonathan Zapinski hit a jumper to give Elmhurst a lead it would not relinquish.  Elmhurst opened the second half with a 14-3 run in the first five-plus minutes, and Jonathan Zapinski had more blocks (2) during this run than the Sons of Warden did field goals.

Matt Helwig willed the Cardinals back to within two in the latter minutes, but the Jays took care of business at the end and move on to play Friday night at King Arena.  Elmhurst outshot North Central 56.7-43.8, and as noted above, contested everything, blocking nine shots.  From here in the cheap seats in the visitors' section, it felt like eleventy-nine shots.

Ocean Johnson was the scoring leader for Elmhurst, but Jonathan Zapinski was the difference maker in a myriad of ways as his stat line will attest.  He also held Mitch Lewis more or less in check despite his 18 points, which took away one of the two Cardinals who excel at creating their own shot.

Matt Helwig went down with guns blazing in his final game; he has been one of the more electric players to wear the red maroon burgundy Cardinal uniform in recent memory.  The Cardinals also will graduate Mitch Lewis, who makes sure you know he is on the court probably better than anyone I've witnessed at North Central in recent years, as well as Shea Cupples, who has been a steady, consistent contributor throughout his career, and Brian Johnson, who has an unusually feathery outside touch for a big man.  All will be missed, and all made the program stronger over the past 4-5 years.

Elmhurst
Ocean Johnson - 28 pts on 12-of-17 shooting and who seemed to hit everything from everywhere
Jonathan Zapinski - 17 points, 7 assists, 6 rebounds, 5 blocks... his first foul came in the waning minutes *after* the five blocks
Tagen Pearson - 14 points, 5-of-6 FT down the stretch
Wes Hooker - 10 points, 11 rebounds
John Ittounas - 9 points, 6 rebounds

North Central
Matt Helwig - 33 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals
Mitch Lewis - 19 points, 10 rebounds
Brian Johnson - 9 points

[Gregory Sager]

Oh well, you all can celebrate now . . . IWU is done for this season.

Honestly, Mark, I would've rather had my boys face off against Illinois Wesleyan on Friday than Carthage. The Firebirds make me more nervous than the Titans do, because I think that they match up better against NPU.

[kenoshamark]

Greg nailed the key points of the game tonight.  Clutch three point shooting for Carthage and some real poor FT shooting for IWU were key factors.   The large rebounding advantage for IWU just wasn't enough.

As we have seen by now, Steve has been going with a short bench, but tonight he only had Bernero in for 3 minutes and Lamb for 10 and that was it.  Nesbitt and Johnson played all 40 minutes. 

All but three points came from the starters too.   Nice to see all of them in double figures and balanced scoring with Johnson leading the way with 16, Campbell and Bulatovic with 15 each, Nesbitt with 14 and Sigel with 11.

Hope the starters have another good 40 minutes in them against NPU.   Campbell logged 37 minutes tonight which has to be the most he has played in one game this year.  He looked good though.   Just keeps getting better and didn't rush things tonight. 

Really think they are going to be the top two teams going into next season. 

[Greek Tragedy]

Tough ending for NCC and Matt Helwig tonight. When I heard Helwig was coming back, I was pretty excited for this team, thinking they were on the cusp of putting together a nice season. With Helwig returning and the teams above them losing a lot, I thought NCC could finish pretty high in the standings considering they were just a game out of a game out of 3rd and another out of 2nd last season. Inconsistency seemed to plague the team with TWO 3-game losing streaks. More lows than highs, for sure.

[Stertorous Thunder]

Tough ending for NCC and Matt Helwig tonight. When I heard Helwig was coming back, I was pretty excited for this team, thinking they were on the cusp of putting together a nice season. With Helwig returning and the teams above them losing a lot, I thought NCC could finish pretty high in the standings considering they were just a game out of a game out of 3rd and another out of 2nd last season. Inconsistency seemed to plague the team with TWO 3-game losing streaks. More lows than highs, for sure.

I can see why North Central's season feels like a disappointment, but I think you could argue that their individual performances were fairly close to expectations.  With Matt Helwig coming back, a team prediction of first or second place was very realistic (even with a new coach), but then Wheaton somehow managed to upgrade with transfers plus a healthy Andrew Williams and both North Park and Carthage came out of nowhere.  When those three teams exceeded expectations and Illinois Wesleyan fell short, it left North Central and Elmhurst fighting for fourth place.

I won't miss watching it happen to my team, but tonight it sure was fun to watch Matt go into what someone else called "enough-of-this mode" one last time.

[kiko]

I watched probably more than my share of Cardinal games this year, and while in some years the sum of the parts transcends into something greater, this year felt like that was missing.  The Sons of Warden often had trouble against teams with size and against teams with quickness (which undersells the experience that is playing North Park), and really only managed to fire on all cylinders against teams that were undermanned from an overall talent standpoint, or more challenged on the defensive front.

I've scratched my head many times at Carthage's success this year -- the Cardinals handled the Firebirds both times this year, and neither felt like an upset, so how is this the third-best team in the conference?  Well, they fit the profile of a team that the Cardinals matched up particularly well against, given their general indifference toward defense.

In the end, the Sons of Warden were still fun to watch.  Watching Erikas Gurskas slowly earn more playing time and not look out of place; seeing Jeffrey Hemmelgarn start to find his footing; realizing that Ethan Helwig typically gave up a few inches and a lot of pounds while taking on the unenviable task of guarding whatever Big the other team ran out; watching Shea Cupples coolly break a few dozen octogenarian hearts -- this was an easy team to root for.  And even with the two top scorers departing, there is some interesting clay to shape going forward.

But those were the supporting actors.  Probably the best compliment I can pay to Matt Helwig is that I never once yelled 'No!' at my screen when watching him throw up a shot from just this side of Manito, and there aren't many players I can say that for.  Watching he or Mitch Lewis go into predator mode and take over a game was something to see.

[Gotberg]

Oh well, you all can celebrate now . . . IWU is done for this season.

Honestly, Mark, I would've rather had my boys face off against Illinois Wesleyan on Friday than Carthage. The Firebirds make me more nervous than the Titans do, because I think that they match up better against NPU.

Fully agree!

[iwu70]

IWU 70 out, for the season.   

Good luck to NPU and Wheaton in the D3 dance.  Make some positive noise for the CCIW.

'70

[GoPerry]

The latest regional rankings still have Wheaton, WashU and NPU in that order.  I am beginning to think that NPU has a decent chance of hosting the first round (provided they put in a bid which I assume they did).  If they win the AQ this weekend, then a really good chance.  But even if they go 1-1, Wash U and NPU could flip #2 and #3.  Drew Pasteur has WashU and NPU practically tied as the #6 and #8 Pool Cs.

Also, I believe Wash U women, currently #2 Reg 8, get preference for hosting this year.

Hosting at both Wheaton and the Crackerbox would be quite the deal.

[lmitzel]

The latest regional rankings still have Wheaton, WashU and NPU in that order.  I am beginning to think that NPU has a decent chance of hosting the first round (provided they put in a bid which I assume they did).  If they win the AQ this weekend, then a really good chance.  But even if they go 1-1, Wash U and NPU could flip #2 and #3.  Drew Pasteur has WashU and NPU practically tied as the #6 and #8 Pool Cs.

Also, I believe Wash U women, currently #2 Reg 8, get preference for hosting this year.

Hosting at both Wheaton and the Crackerbox would be quite the deal.

It helped both, too, that NCC snuck into the rankings this week. Adds a pair of RRO wins to both resumes.

I watched probably more than my share of Cardinal games this year, and while in some years the sum of the parts transcends into something greater, this year felt like that was missing.  The Sons of Warden often had trouble against teams with size and against teams with quickness (which undersells the experience that is playing North Park), and really only managed to fire on all cylinders against teams that were undermanned from an overall talent standpoint, or more challenged on the defensive front.

I think that's a good synopsis of the Cardinals' season on the whole. I was optimistic at the halfway mark seeing a 5-3 Cardinal team that had more or less taken care of business (losses at home to NPU by a metric s-ton and by a few to Wheaton notwithstanding, plus a Matt Helwig trey at the buzzer away from stealing one at Shirk) only to get kind of frustrated by not being able to close out Augustana or Millikin (which, give credit to both of those teams for taking advantage and winning those games; I don't want to come across like I'm disrespecting either team, because both were good teams in their own rights).

End of the day, falling by four at Elmhurst in the conference quarters isn't a failure. I'm bummed, to be sure, but it'll be all right.

In the end, the Sons of Warden were still fun to watch.  Watching Erikas Gurskas slowly earn more playing time and not look out of place; seeing Jeffrey Hemmelgarn start to find his footing; realizing that Ethan Helwig typically gave up a few inches and a lot of pounds while taking on the unenviable task of guarding whatever Big the other team ran out; watching Shea Cupples coolly break a few dozen octogenarian hearts -- this was an easy team to root for.  And even with the two top scorers departing, there is some interesting clay to shape going forward.

To me, the Shea Cupples Game is still last year's tilt in the hangar against Elmhurst when we fell behind by 21 in the first half and he went bonkers in the second half. That said... I may or may not have played the final 4.2 seconds of regulation on a loop for the past week and a half (and because I was curious, pulled up the Eric Stock/Joel Swanson radio call and listened to their version of the final 4.2 seconds a few times as well).

But those were the supporting actors.  Probably the best compliment I can pay to Matt Helwig is that I never once yelled 'No!' at my screen when watching him throw up a shot from just this side of Manito, and there aren't many players I can say that for.  Watching he or Mitch Lewis go into predator mode and take over a game was something to see.

I have fond memories of watching Landon Gamble and Alex Sorenson work the post. But I don't ever remember reacting the way I did the first time I saw Mitch Lewis in person ("Oh my God" and "Holy s***" were uttered, thankfully mic off, a couple times that first game.)

I can only hope someone can take the career arc of a Matt Helwig in the hangar in the coming years. Watching him go from probably the fourth option on a team that I'd argue should have made the Final Four before the world went to crap to an All American capable of going into "Enough of this" mode and scoring at will from anywhere was awesome. I'm gonna miss him (and yes, I know fans of the other eight teams are not).

[Gregory Sager]

Well, Greg, the Titans lived up exactly to their narrative tonight.  Ahead by five when I checked, then losing again in the last 3-4 minutes.  The narrative out of Bloomington is the exact narrative the team has produced this season -- poor perimeter defense and tonight again poor FT shooting.

The issue isn't the narrative itself, Mark. The issue is only looking at basketball games from one side. There's more to the outcome of a game than what your team did or what your team didn't do. There's what the other team did or didn't do as well.

I was careful to point that out in my summary of the game last night. Yes, Illinois Wesleyan shot poorly again from beyond the arc and behind the stripe and made some bad decisions late, all of which fed into their undoing. But Carthage had something to do with that as well. Well aware of the fact that they're quicker than the Titans on the perimeter, the Firebirds attacked the basket fiercely in the game's latter stages, allowing them to get to the free-throw line -- where they were themselves pretty unsteady, but managed to make a few in the waning moments to create a margin of victory for themselves.

It takes two to tango ... and it takes two teams to play a basketball game.

[markerickson]

The national tourney has expanded over the years, correct?  I pay zero attention to Pool C banter on this board.  Why do you accuse me of missing the point?  Oh yeah, merely because I have a different perspective.

[Gregory Sager]

... and there's nothing wrong with that. But how would you feel if North Park fell short of getting a Pool C bid to the D3 tournament because the national committee felt that the Vikings had an insufficient strength of schedule?

It's happened before, you know. Not in men's basketball, but in men's soccer. The Vikings got shut out of a Pool C berth in 2018 despite a 16-3 overall record and a CCIW-champion 7-1 record in league play because of what the national committee deemed to be a subpar SOS. And you know as well as I do how many teams participate in the CCIW men's soccer tournament: Four. The CCIW tourney was of absolutely no help to the Vikings.

If you don't care about Pool C or getting CCIW teams into the men's basketball tournament, that's your business. I just wanted to make it clear that that's why the CCIW expanded from four teams to six for men's and women's basketball.