MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[GoPerry]

I don't believe this has been reported yet in this forum, but I just learned yesterday that Mark Krueger, longtime voice of Elmhurst and many other local sports broadcasts, passed away in August. There was a moment of silence in his honor before tipoff yesterday.

I think that I mentioned that here when I found out this summer. If I didn't, I apologize for not mentioning it right away. I never met Mark (although I subbed for him at Faganel that one memorable day last winter -- the Backboard Game, as we now call it), but I enjoyed his calls.

I am sorry to hear that as well.  He called a good game with the right amount of home enthusiasm for the 'Jays while still remaining overall objective.

[Gregory Sager]

North Park 85
Marian 68

Kolden Vanlandingham: 32 pts (14-20 FG), 7 rebs
Shamar Pumphrey: 10 pts, 11:1 a:to, 5 stls
Phil Holmes: 10 pts

As was the case on Wednesday at Lawrence, the Vikings roared out to a big halftime lead (51-31 today) and then lost the plot a bit in the second half. The game was never in the slightest bit of danger, but the Vikings seemed less dominant than one would've expected, especially against a team that is almost literally brand-new, as Marian HC Drake Diener has become a Sean Smith disciple and put together a new roster overnight of really talented guys who come from hither and yon. Right now the Sabres play like a bunch of guys who barely know each other's names, but they'll be a force in the NACC before long.

Great day for the stellar backcourt duo of the Vikes, as Kolden Vanlandingham fell two short of his career record of 34 points (despite playing less than 22 minutes today), and Shamar Pumphrey had an awesome floor game.

[WUPHF]

Late twenties head coach Sean Smith... in his second year as a head coach... has coaching disciples now?

[Gregory Sager]

In terms of roster construction ... why not? Success breeds imitators.

[Gregory Sager]

Carroll defeated Olivet, 83-70, in the Earlham tourney. The Pios were paced by Aaron Wafford, who had 18. Kobe Simpson contributed 14, and Dom Burns added 13.

The CCIW is now 13-3 (.813)

Come on, Greg. As much as you hate it, it's Concordia-Chicago.

I don't care what they call it, it's not in Chicago. It's perfectly reasonable to refer to it as Concordia (IL) ... as distinguished from Concordia (WI), Concordia (MI), Concordia (NE), Concordia (NY), etc.

[Greek Tragedy]

I imagine there's a few teams that aren't in the cities they are named for.

[WUPHF]

In terms of roster construction ... why not? Success breeds imitators.

Basketball is the family business for the Fond du Lac area Diener family.

Drake Diener has lots of of people to turn to for coaching advice including his brother and father.

I really appreciate your level of fandom, but this post is definitely worthy of a hyperbole alert.

Also, it is Concordia University Chicago.

[Gregory Sager]

In terms of roster construction ... why not? Success breeds imitators.

Basketball is the family business for the Fond du Lac area Diener family.

Drake Diener has lots of of people to turn to for coaching advice including his brother and father.

I really appreciate your level of fandom, but this post is definitely worthy of a hyperbole alert.

Of course it's hyperbole! Actually, it's better described as "tongue deeply embedded in cheek." I mean, come on, man. Everybody who follows midwestern college basketball is well aware of the Diener family legacy. Did you really think that I just fell off of the turnip truck?

Sean's the new kid on the block who came from out of nowhere a year ago, and he's the first to admit it. To quote George Harrison in A Hard Day's Night, it looms large in his legend.

So much for cracking wise with a straight face. I obviously have to go back to using emojis.

Also, it is Concordia University Chicago.

Concordia (IL) it is.

[WUPHF]

25,000 posts later... I am not convinced that you buy your own arguments.  You are too smart for that.

[USee]

I imagine there's a few teams that aren't in the cities they are named for.

E.G.:
NY Jets
NY Giants
San Francisco 49ers
Dallas Cowboys
And soon to be Chicago Bears!

[Gregory Sager]

25,000 posts later... I am not convinced that you buy your own arguments.  You are too smart for that.

Which argument am I not buying?

I need to know; I'm on a tight budget.

[Gregory Sager]

I imagine there's a few teams that aren't in the cities they are named for.

E.G.:
NY Jets
NY Giants
San Francisco 49ers
Dallas Cowboys
And soon to be Chicago Bears!

... none of which changed their name for promotional purposes from reflecting their suburban location to reflecting the city of which their suburb is a satellite. In most cases like this involving pro teams (the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins are other classic NFL examples), the team was originally headquartered and played their games within the city proper and then moved to a larger and newer location where land is cheaper (i.e., the suburbs). Nobody had a problem with it, because most of the team's constituency (ticketholders in particular) was located outside of the city by that point, and the team itself had no motivation to go through the expense of re-branding the franchise to reflect its new less-well-known residence. (The convoluted history of the MLB Los Angeles Angels includes a time when that franchise was an exception to this rule, but it now adheres to the trend of identifying itself with the larger founding city rather than the current suburban location.)

The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod school located in River Forest was located in Addison when it was founded, and it was called Addison Teachers Seminary. When it moved from Addison to River Forest in 1913 it dropped the "Addison" from its name and became Concordia Teachers College (i.e., it adopted a non-locational name). It stayed that until 1979 when, reflecting an expanded curriculum, it dropped the "Teachers" from its name ... and then in 1990 it became locationally-named again, being renamed Concordia University River Forest (or CURF, as we originally called it here on d3boards.com). It's easy to see why it became locationally-named again, given the need to distinguish it from the plethora of other LCMS institutions of higher learning that bear the moniker "Concordia". In other words, the school had always been accurately identified whenever it bore a locational name.

Then seventeen years ago, without moving the campus an inch, it jumped ship from River Forest and became Concordia University Chicago. I don't know this for sure, but I suspect that it was renamed in order to market the school to a non-LCMS constituency in greater Chicagoland that knows where Chicago is but has no idea where River Forest is. The village is only two and a half square miles in size and has fewer than 12,000 residents. I'll bet all the corn in Manito that if you stopped someone on a street corner in Andersonville or Pilsen or Hyde Park or Schaumburg or Downers Grove or Libertyville or Lynwood and asked them where River Forest was, they couldn't tell you -- and if they guessed, they'd be just as likely to misidentify it as Park Forest or River Grove.

Long story short: The comparison is apples and oranges.

[Wildcat]

I don't care where they are located. Concordia was impressive at Elmhurst. They shot the ball well, they attacked the basket really well. They are going to beat some good teams this season. Good luck to them. Elmhurst did start out a little rusty. But the veteran leadership came through in the end.

[augie77]

Concordia does appear to have adjusted their name for promotional reasons.  I have no problem with that.  Didn't North Park College re-brand to university for similar promotional reasons?  Both school's reasoning makes sense to me.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

As someone who has to access 70+ schedule pages each night of the season, I'm all for any school abbreviation that makes them easier to google.  CUC MBB or CUC WBB bring me to exactly the pages I need in very few keystrokes.  If only every school were that unique!