MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Stertorous Thunder]

This was never a game, but there's no shame in losing to the Lions -- they're a good team that took a real run at D1 Coastal Carolina in the preseason and played national power Emory really tough five days ago.

I sure hope that Piedmont turns out to be a good team, because it felt like they pulled off a steal or a blocked shot on every other possession and every single time the Thunder put together a run, the Lions answered with more. There were multiple stretches where Wheaton looked outplayed and rather than calling out instructions or jawing at the refs, Coach Schauer just looked calm and resigned, like he knew that there was nothing he could do to stop what was about to happen.

I also watched the Alma / Heidelberg undercard game and Piedmont looks like they will cruise to victory against Alma this evening, which raises a question. Isn't it a time honored tradition for a team hosting a four team tournament to schedule the first game against the weakest team, or at least the team that looks like their most favorable matchup?  Maybe it's not always easy to determine the relative rankings, especially early in a season, and Alma or Heidelberg certainly could have achieved the same result, but scheduling Piedmont for Friday night looks like a mistake by the Thunder.

[Gregory Sager]

Coe 86
North Park 66

Right now the Vikings look exactly like the same sort of frustrated victim that they try to create in opponents by their aggressive style. This weekend they were the team that lost its head in the face of adversity, thereby causing even more mistakes to pile up. This doesn't look at all like the team that battled DePaul into the final three minutes a couple of weeks ago. The Vikings spent too much time and energy arguing calls/non-calls, and you could tell just by looking at their postures that they were wound up too tight. They played two excellent teams in Jacksonville that they couldn't just sweep aside, and both of those opponents, Wabash and Coe, demonstrated that a huge part of winning basketball games is keeping your wits about you when you make some mistakes and/or the other team goes on a run.

Sean and his coaching staff have to sort this out and get this team back into its proper headspace. There are some X's and O's stuff to figure out as well, but the big problem with this team right now is mental.

[Gregory Sager]

Routine 73-56 win for the CCIW's last undefeated team, Elmhurst, at winless Mount St. Joseph. Good balanced attack for the 'jays, as Ocean Johnson (16), Tagen Pearson (12), Jonathan Zapinski (12), Matt Woloch (10), and Quinn Pemberton (10) all reached double figures.

[Gregory Sager]

Carthage was in a battle with Marian all the way until the final minute or so up in Fondue Lack, but the Sabres went into chucker mode and paid the price for it with a bunch of empty end-of-game possessions, while the Firebirds sealed the deal with 9-10 FT shooting in the final 64 seconds to prevail, 75-67. AJ Williams led Carthage with 21 (including 5-9 trey shooting), and was complemented in a big way by Fillip Bulatovic's 20 and 12 with five steals. Tanner Lamb also had 15 for Carthage.

[Gregory Sager]

Carroll handled Concordia (WI) in overtime at Van Male today, 91-86. Kobe Simpson and Tyler Miller led the charge for the Pioneers with 20 apiece, with Miller grabbing seven caroms as well, while Aaron Wafford chipped in with 16 and a great 7:1 floor game. In addition, Lamar Smith scored 11 for Carroll, and the Pioneers got big rebounding days from two others besides Miller: Eckahelo Simpson (8) and Jacob Naber (7).

[Gregory Sager]

North Central (MN) 69
Augustana 62

Augie led this game for over 32 minutes, and had that lead up to 17 at one point ... and blew it.

Augustana has lost back-to-back to a pair of UMAC teams ... and we're by no means talking about the caliber of UMAC teams that Northwestern fielded when it was winning first-round D3 tourney upsets a few years ago. Not even close.

Things are really looking bad right now for Augie.

[Gregory Sager]

Concordia (IL) walloped Millikin, 104-70, in a game that wasn't as close as the final score makes it appear. The Cougars were up by 41 at one point, as the Big Blue were throughly humbled on their own floor. The MU defense was AWOL tonight, as the Cougars shot an absurd .609/.600/.727 line. Chase Travis, Landon Hullinger, and Jaden McClain did manage to hit double figures for the Big Blue with 14, 12, and 10, respectively.

[Gregory Sager]

Marietta edged Illinois Wesleyan, 67-63, in a low-scoring but exciting contest played in Springfield, OH at the Great Lakes Invitational. The Pioneers led throughout the second half after going on a huge run to take a double-digit lead at the half, but the Titans refused to go away. Solid end-of-game FT shooting by 'etta, and the difficulty the Titans have with scoring on demand sealed the deal in the narrow loss for IWU. Ryan Sroka (15 and 6) and Luke Yoder (12 and 9) led the way for Ron Rose's boys, with Harrison Wilmsen (11) and Nick Roper (10) also hitting double figures. Hakim Williams grabbed eight boards in the losing cause for IWU.

[Gregory Sager]

Heidelberg expanded a seven-point lead down the stretch with an explosive 16-2 run to down Wheaton, 78-60, in the consolation game of the Pfund. Connor Braun had 17, Kyle Neibch had 14 (including 4-8 from range), and RJ Veliz had 11 for Wheaton, which had difficulty all night in stopping the Student Princes from getting to the rim.

[Gregory Sager]

Exciting game tonight in the hangar, where in a back-and-forth affair Anderson managed to squeeze out a 68-66 win over North Central. The Cardinals had a chance to win or tie as they inbounded the ball in their offensive end with five seconds left, but Ken Thomas missed an open layup at the buzzer. Thomas did have a 10 and 6 night for the Cardinals, joining Ethan Helwig (17 and &) in double figures for NCC.

[Gregory Sager]

The CCIW falls to 19-16 (.543).

I can't remember the last time that the CCIW had three teams go 0-2 in the same weekend.

[lmitzel]

Exciting game tonight in the hangar, where in a back-and-forth affair Anderson managed to squeeze out a 68-66 win over North Central. The Cardinals had a chance to win or tie as they inbounded the ball in their offensive end with five seconds left, but Ken Thomas missed an open layup at the buzzer. Thomas did have a 10 and 6 night for the Cardinals, joining Ethan Helwig (17 and &) in double figures for NCC.

I am going to have nightmares.

All told though, this was a great game.

[AO]

North Central (MN) 69
Augustana 62

Augie led this game for over 32 minutes, and had that lead up to 17 at one point ... and blew it.

Augustana has lost back-to-back to a pair of UMAC teams ... and we're by no means talking about the caliber of UMAC teams that Northwestern fielded when it was winning first-round D3 tourney upsets a few years ago. Not even close.

Things are really looking bad right now for Augie.

I appreciate the compliment to my squad, but the UMAC has a bit more balance than you might expect.  Crown and North Central didn't make the UMAC tournament last year but they weren't far off and Crown was missing their star (Cade Carroll) for a good bit of the year. All of that to say, yeah, this probably isn't a great Augustana team.

[Gregory Sager]

I watched quite a bit of both of Augustana's games this weekend. Crown and North Central (MN) are most definitely not teams that should be able to beat any CCIW team worth its salt. That's not to say that CCIW teams should be considered immune to losing to a UMAC team; they're not. I'm simply saying that UMAC teams that beat CCIW teams should be much closer on the UMAC spectrum to those strong past Northwestern teams I mentioned rather than to the two teams that beat Augie this weekend.

[Gotberg]

Coe 86
North Park 66

Right now the Vikings look exactly like the same sort of frustrated victim that they try to create in opponents by their aggressive style. This weekend they were the team that lost its head in the face of adversity, thereby causing even more mistakes to pile up. This doesn't look at all like the team that battled DePaul into the final three minutes a couple of weeks ago. The Vikings spent too much time and energy arguing calls/non-calls, and you could tell just by looking at their postures that they were wound up too tight. They played two excellent teams in Jacksonville that they couldn't just sweep aside, and both of those opponents, Wabash and Coe, demonstrated that a huge part of winning basketball games is keeping your wits about you when you make some mistakes and/or the other team goes on a run.

Sean and his coaching staff have to sort this out and get this team back into its proper headspace. There are some X's and O's stuff to figure out as well, but the big problem with this team right now is mental.

During the first half of the game against DePaul, Dave Corzine commented that North Park doesn't have offensive structure and the person that brought the ball up tends to shoot.  He said that made sense, because if they pass it, they will never get to take a shot themselves.

I watched the Wabash game and the second half of the Coe game.  I didn't see much passing in these 2 games - lots of 1 v multiple.