MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Wildcat]

The Millikan,Elmhurst game was a close defensive battle. Lane Thomann was on fire most of the second half, until late when the Big blue put up some questionable shots to cost them the game. The video was pretty sketchy, not very clear. Shot from long range away.Elmhursts leaders Trelenberg,Blachut and Pearson took over with help from Jaydon Malichi and two rising freshmen Jack Cherry and Vinnie Adjahoungbeta.North Park invades  Faganal Hall on Wednesday.

[iwu70]

IWU back in the top five, at #5, in the new D3hoops poll.

I'm still not entirely convinced.

IWU'70

[markerickson]

NCC gave up more than 89 points in consecutive games - to CC and NPU.  I attended the latter.  NCC does not know defense.  NPU drove the lane all night long for easy buckets and shot wide open treys as well.

[Gregory Sager]

Here's what's on tap for tomorrow night, as we close out the first round-robin:

Augustana (10-6, 3-4) @ Illinois Wesleyan (14-2, 6-1)
Carroll (6-10, 2-5) @ Carthage (12-4, 6-1)
North Park (11-5, 6-1) @ Elmhurst (7-9, 3-4)
Millikin (9-7, 3-4) @ Wheaton (3-13, 0-7)

Matt Snyder's computer predictions won't come out until tomorrow, but just for giggles I decided to see how Massey's HAL 9000 sees Wednesday's CCIW games:

Illinois Wesleyan 75, Augustana 67	IWU 77%, AC 23%
Carthage 78, Carroll 70	CC 77%, CU 23%
Elmhurst 78, North Park 73	EU 65%, NPU 35%
Wheaton 69, Millikin 66	WC 58%, MU 42%

This is the first time that I've looked at Massey all season. Ken's computer has North Park going 4-5 the rest of the way to finish at 15-10, 10-6. Massey also has Millikin finishing the season 1-8, with the Big Blue's home game against Wheaton on February 12 being the only one they'll win, to finish 10-15, 4-12.

As most of you already know, North Park went 11-14, 6-10 last season while Millikin went 9-16, 5-11. Those dismal records were the main reason why the Vikings and the Big Blue were picked by the coaches in the preseason poll to finish in a seventh-place tie in 2024-25.

As Massey sees it, Elmhurst is supposed to go 4-5 the rest of the way, finishing at 11-14, 7-9. In other words, the Massey formula is convinced that in late January and through February the Bluejays will outperform their overall record to date. Why? It's not as though the 'jays are trending dramatically upward; since the holidays they've gone 2-2. Well, look no further than last season, when Elmhurst finished the season 22-6 with a dramatically different roster than the current edition that doesn't have four starters (John Ittounas, Ocean Johnson, Jonathan Zapinski, and Quinn Pemberton) or three of the top five reserves (Matt Woloch, Kyran Mitchell, and Cole Hornbuckle) from that 22-6 CCIW tourney championship team. Of course, computer projections that use past-seasons data ignore personnel changes while doing so, which is one of the reasons why I've soured so much on Massey.

(I'm not indicting Matt Snyder as well here, because I don't know if any past-seasons data remains baked into his team-rating calculations at this point of the season.)

Needless to say, I'm even less impressed by Massey now than I was two years ago, when I discovered just how badly Massey's ratings from mid-January on were polluted by obsolete past-seasons data in the case of teams that had played more than enough games in the current season to conclusively demonstrate that they'd significantly improved or regressed from the previous season.

[Gregory Sager]

NCC gave up more than 89 points in consecutive games - to CC and NPU.  I attended the latter.  NCC does not know defense.  NPU drove the lane all night long for easy buckets and shot wide open treys as well.

In CCIW games North Central currently ranks sixth in points allowed, fifth in opponent FG %, ninth in opponent 3-point FG % (a demonstrable weakness; the Cardinals do not close out well on perimeter shooters, and that was true for NCC in non-conference play as well), fifth in defensive rebounds, fifth in combined opponent rebounds, fifth in steals, and eighth in blocks.

In other words, the Cardinals are an average defensive team by CCIW standards that had a really bad week -- a bad week that is completely understandable when you realize that overall North Central is a middle-of-the-pack team that had to play two of the top three teams in the league on the road last Wednesday and Saturday.

Now, if the Cardinals come back from their bye tomorrow night and perform badly at the defensive end of the floor against Elmhurst in the airplane hangar on Saturday and against Millikin in the Griz a week from tomorrow, then I think you've got a case.

[mwunder]

I'm calling the upset at Tarble tomorrow night. CU over CC, 72-68. Carroll has been a sore-spot in Carthage's side, winning 4 of the last 7 matchups.

[Gregory Sager]

Final from Faganel:

North Park 72
Elmhurst 61

Rico Powell: 25 pts, 8 rebs
DJ Wallace: 12 pts
Taijon Barry: 10 pts, 10 rebs
Lance Nelson: 5:1 a:to

Dom Trelenberg: 14 pts
Sebastian Blachut: 13 pts
Jaiden Malichi: 7 rebs

NPU came into the game leading the CCIW in trey percentage, but, boy, you'd never know it by tonight. The Vikings shot a frightening 7-36 (19%) from beyond the arc, and that's usually a recipe for the kind of loss that makes you pull out your hair. But the Vikings did everything else well on both ends of the floor in this game, including grabbing deep offensive rebounds off of their missed trey attempts, and if the bad outside shooting prevented them from turning tonight's game into a laugher rather than a mere comfortable win, does it really matter in the end?

It was only a three-point NPU lead at the half, and EU actually took a brief lead coming out of halftime before the Vikings went on a 20-2 run to go up by double digits, which is where they stayed for the rest of the game.

North Park improves to 12-5 overall and keeps pace with Carthage and Illinois Wesleyan, both of whom won tonight as well, at 7-1 in a three-way tie atop the league as we round the clubhouse turn.

[iwu70]

At The Shirk, IWU over Augie, 82-52.  A tale of two periods -- IWU grinding out only 29 points in the first half, but on a tear in the second, scoring 53 and pulling away easily.

For Augie:

Cooper 12
Ambrose 11
Top scorer Knuth held to 8, 0 rebounds and five fouls.  A frustrating night for him, guarded by Hakim Williams

Augie shooting 31%, 23% from three, and 74% from the line.


For IWU:

Roper 14 and 7
Wilmsen 11
Bazzell 10
Williams 10
Anderson 5 and 7

IWU winning points in the paint, 42-12.

IWU shooting 55%, 35% from three and 71% from the FT line.

Yes, get to 78 and win the game. 

I sure hope IWU plays the rest of the season like they did in the second half.  It was very high-quality basketball, with fast break points, points in the paint and great ball movement.  The first half truly mediocre. 

IWU'70

[Gregory Sager]

Wheaton didn't score for the first six minutes of the game at King Arena, allowing Millikin to jump out to a 12-0 lead that it parlayed into a wire-to-wire road victory ... but not without a scare from the hosts, who clawed back time and time again and had the lead down to one with 25 seconds left before falling, 76-73. Chase Travis paced the Big Blue with 16 while Lane Thomann and Drake Stevenson each poured in 15. Soren Richardson set what I believe is the CCIW's season high thus far with 32 in the losing cause, while Kyle Neibch went 5-9 from downtown for 19 points and WC freshman Kyan VanderWoude had an 11 and 11 double-double.

After a seesaw first half that saw Carthage trail by five at the intermission in Kenosha, the Firebirds got on their horse in the second stanza and ran away from Carroll for an 88-68 victory. The Red and Black were led by Riley Brooks (26 and 7), AJ Johnson (18 and 9), Griffin Daun (14 and 12), and AJ Williams (11 pts). For reasons unknown, Ryan Johnson only played 14 minutes and had a single bucket. He came out with three minutes and change left in the first half and never re-entered the game. Injury or illness? The rival Pioneers had Eric Victorson at the forefront, scoring 14, while Aaron Wafford and Kobe Simpson had 12 and 11, respectively, and Jacob Naber led on the glass with 7 caroms.

Illinois Wesleyan ran away and hid from Augustana at Shirk, winning easily by an 82-52 score. IWU dominated the boards by 14 and outshot Augie from the field by a whopping 25 percent. The Titans were led by Nick Roper with 14 and 7, while Harrison Wilmsen (11) and Hakim Williams and Trey Bazzell (10 each) also hit double figures. Anthony Cooper led the Doggies with a dozen points off the bench, while Evan Ambrose chipped in 11.

[iwu70]

By the way, #1 UW Platteville lost tonight to UW Whitewater. 

'70

[bopol]

Carthage: Ryan Johnson was hurt during the first half (he was holding his ribs).  That's why he didn't play in the 2nd half.  Steve D said he should be ready for Saturday on the post-game show.  Nemi Ostojic played most of the 2nd half and played well, ending the night with 9 points, 6 rebounds and some excellent hustle plays.

[GusD]

I'm calling the upset at Tarble tomorrow night. CU over CC, 72-68. Carroll has been a sore-spot in Carthage's side, winning 4 of the last 7 matchups.

Unfortunately, mwunder, it looks like you're going to have to repeat Upsets 101. It seems you failed to grasp the basic concepts of the course during the recently completed first semester. 

[GusD]

IWU back in the top five, at #5, in the new D3hoops poll.

I'm still not entirely convinced.

IWU'70

At The Shirk, IWU over Augie, 82-52. 

IWU winning points in the paint, 42-12.

IWU shooting 55%, 35% from three and 71% from the FT line.

IWU'70

82-52! Are you becoming more convinced?  

[GusD]

By the way, #1 UW Platteville lost tonight to UW Whitewater. 

'70

Looks like your Green Weenies might move up again in the next poll!

[iwu70]

GusD, if the Titans play like they did in the first half, they may not win the conference.  If they play with the energy and pace like they did in the second half, they will win the conference and go far in the D3 dance.  The ten-player rotation is a great strength, but they do have issues with consistency.  The game at Carthage will be key.

I agree they may move up in the poll this next week, with Platteville's loss to Whitewater.  That's a bad loss.

'70