MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Pat Coleman]

Those tours are aimed at prospective students and their families -- you might consider that you are not the target audience for the small portion of the tour which you occasionally overhear.

[Gregory Sager]

Those tours are aimed at prospective students and their families -- you might consider that you are not the target audience for the small portion of the tour which you occasionally overhear.

True, but in my experience campus tour commentaries for prospective students and their parents are usually scripted by the admissions department to one degree or another -- which means that this is more or less how the school deliberately chooses to present itself. I can't speak with 100% conviction about how tightly any given school controls this form of messaging, of course. I would imagine it's possible for a student tour guide in particular to stray off of the reservation, for example, while my guess is that actual full-time admissions employees acting as tour guides generally hew pretty faithfully to the script.

[Pat Coleman]

For sure -- and my daughter is a tour guide for prospective students at Gustavus Adolphus and yes, they're trained to say specific things, but not every question is scripted, either, and you may get something in an unscripted moment.

Even so, when talking about traditions and history specifically, it's possible that what is presented to an 18-year-old and their Gen X'er or younger parents during a small slice of time in the library may not be what iwu70 wants to hear, but that doesn't make it wrong. Who wants to hear about stuffy old traditions? You'll bore them.

[iwu70]

Pat, I take your point, though I've heard many tour talks and have yet to really hear one that I thought was very instructive or even appropriate.  I'm sure prospective students and current family members want to hear something different than what I might want to hear as a loyal and geezer alum, but these were just silly and inappropriate.  Part of it is of course differences in where we see the institution heading and what the future priorities of the place should be.  I even spoke to some of the Admissions staff about it all, what I'd heard during these tours through Ames . . . and they admitted that some of the tour guides are off the reservation. They even seemed to know which tour guides I was talking about . . .   Some improvements are needed.  IMHO.

IWU will likely survive, get through with its various strengths and offerings, but it needs a better "public face" in these tours, and surely needs a capital campaign (long overdue) and more investments in academic quality.  Shirk seems to get everything it needs . . . but the overall direction of the place is now much weaker and still in doubt in future.  It's endowment needs to be about 3 or 4 times larger than currently . . . and it's financial status almost always depends on the latest admissions cycle.  Many cuts and faculty reductions in recent years.  It is a much weaker academic institution than it was just 10-15 years ago.  Let's hope the new regime can address these problems, and soon.  None of these weaker liberal arts institutions are immune from the fate of MacMurry, Birmingham Southern or others we could mention.  I don't consider IWU out of the woods on this level as yet.

Just my opinion from being around the place and knowing it pretty well for over 60 years.  My family has been close to IWU and deeply involved here since 1936 -- parents, brother, sister-in-law and myself, obviously Class of 1970. 

IWU'70

[WUPHF]

And, Illinois Wesleyan rises to #3.  Glad to see IWU over Platteville now and also ahead of Wash U, who the Titans thumped bigtime earlier in the year.  Wash U rising about the most of any team in the poll.

Just checking in for a Bears update so obviously the first place to go is the CCIW thread.  No scores since the Chicago game, but a third reminder that they were thumped by IWU.  I'll be back next week for the fourth.    

[Gregory Sager]

And, Illinois Wesleyan rises to #3.  Glad to see IWU over Platteville now and also ahead of Wash U, who the Titans thumped bigtime earlier in the year.  Wash U rising about the most of any team in the poll.

Just checking in for a Bears update so obviously the first place to go is the CCIW thread.  No scores since the Chicago game, but a third reminder that they were thumped by IWU.  I'll be back next week for the fourth.    

Sounds like you need to arm yourself with a good meme, WUPHF. Here:



Use this for next week's iteration.

[Gregory Sager]

To reiterate:

North Park (13-5, 8-1) @ Augustana (10-8, 3-6)
Carroll (6-11, 2-6) @ Illinois Wesleyan (16-2, 8-1)
Elmhurst (8-10, 4-5) @ Wheaton (3-15, 0-9)
North Central (10-8, 3-6) @ Millikin (10-8, 4-5)

Carthage has the bye.

Here's how Ken Massey's algorithm sees it:

Augustana 75, North Park 72	AC 60%, NPU 40%
Illinois Wesleyan 81, Carroll 67	IWU 90%, CU 10%
Elmhurst 74, Wheaton 70	EU 61%, WC 39%
North Central 70, Millikin 69	NCC 53%, MU 47%

... and here's how Matt Snyder's algorithm sees it:

Augustana 74, North Park 71	AC 60%, NPU 40%
Illinois Wesleyan 83, Carroll 64	IWU 96%, CU 4%
Elmhurst 75, Wheaton 69	EU 70%, WC 30%
Millikin 66, North Central 65	MU 51%, NCC 49%

[markerickson]

Kudos to Rico Powell!  I looked at his former institution of higher learning, a place called Post University (CT), and Rico appeared in only three games.  Huh?  I have witnessed his confidence grow and grow since Head Coach McGhee's first career victory.  While he (like so many others) falls in love with the trey, Rico has the strength and hops to penetrate the paint and create any time he wishes.

[lmitzel]

NCC snaps a four game skid, never trailing in a 65-56 win over Millikin at the Griz.

Tyler Swierczek: 20 pts, 5 reb
Terrance Moncrief: 18 pts, 4 ast
Tyler DiSilvio: 6 reb

Lane Thomann: 21 pts, 6 reb
Chase Travis: 12 pts
Drake Stevenson: 8 pts, 7 reb

[iwu70]

IWU lucky to escape Carroll tonight.  The Titans played OK but got out rebounded and missed too many FTs.  The game went to OT, with IWU winning 81-78.  Yes, get to 78 and win the game, but need OT to do it.  If IWU is #3 in the country, Carroll must be in the top 10 tonight.  IWU lucky to escape.

For CU:

Victorson 20
Simpson 15
Wafford 12

For IWU:

Roper 27
Funk 12
Wilmsen 12

Lots of things to clean up for IWU in this one. 

But, a win is a win and we'll take it.

IWU to 17-2, 9-1  (NPU losing at Augie tonight). 

IWU'70

[Gregory Sager]

Final from Carver:

Augustana 78
North Park 70

Rico Powell: 19 pts, 10 rebs
TJ Gardner: 15 pts
Taijon Barry: 12 pts
Lance Nelson: 3 stls

Evan Ambrose: 20 pts
Tyler Knuth: 19 pts
Dani Romero: 10 pts, 10 rebs
Anthony Cooper: 4 stls

NPU fought back from a ten-point halftime deficit to tie the game at 62-all with three and a half minutes to go, but the Vikings then went cold, missing four shots in a row, while Augie got hot and made three shots in a row, and that was all she wrote.

It's a downer to lose a game to a middle-of-the-pack team when you're in a dogfight for the league title, but it's even worse when you're trying to keep pace with two teams rather than just one. Saturday's game against Carthage now crosses over into must-win territory for the Park.

[Gregory Sager]

North Central dropped Millikin at the Griz, 65-56. Tyler Swierczek scored 20 and Terrance Moncrief added 19 for the victors, while Lane Thomann put in 21 and Chase Travis chipped in 12 for the Big Blue, who were led in rebounds by Tionne Spates with 8 and Drake Stevenson with 7.

Elmhurst had an easy time of it with Wheaton at King, winning 72-55. Sebastian Blachut had a nice night with 16 and 10 and a 5:2 floor game, while Dom Trelenberg matched his 16 points. Tagen Pearson added 15 and Aidyn Boone had 10 for the 'jays. Wheaton was led by -- who else? -- Soren Richardson with 20, while emerging freshman star Kyan VanderWoude had a 13 and 11 double-double with a 6:3 floor game, Kyle Neibch contributed 13 points, and Devin Martin grabbed 8 rebounds.

Man, I can't believe that lowly Carroll, which was 6-11, 2-6 coming into tonight, was one Kobe Simpson free throw in the final minute of regulation away from beating Illinois Wesleyan at Shirk. The Pioneers would've done NPU a great big solid if they'd have pulled off that monumental upset. Just goes to show that you have to take care of your own business; you can't rely upon other teams to do it for you. The Vikings gotta show up on Saturday and bear down against a Firebirds team that's had all week to get ready to play them.

[GusD]

NCC snaps a four game skid, never trailing in a 65-56 win over Millikin at the Griz.

Tyler Swierczek: 20 pts, 5 reb
Terrance Moncrief: 18 pts, 4 ast
Tyler DiSilvio: 6 reb

Lane Thomann: 21 pts, 6 reb
Chase Travis: 12 pts
Drake Stevenson: 8 pts, 7 reb

Millikin played without 5th year PG Demarcus Bond who averages 7.9 PPG. NCC was missing freshman SG Alejandro Diaz who is currently at 8.9 PPG.

[Gregory Sager]

North Park 93
Carthage 82

Davante Robinson: 18 pts
TJ Gardner: 14 pts (6-6 FT)
Rico Powell: 12 pts, 10 rebs, 3 stls
Taijon Barry: 11 pts
Lance Nelson: 10 pts, 5:2 a:to
Kyren Gardner: 10 pts

Griffin Daun: 25 pts (9-12 FG, 6-6 FT), 8 rebs
Ryan Johnson: 19 pts, 9 rebs, 4 blks
AJ Williams: 12 pts
Riley Brooks: 10 pts

A great game between two really good basketball teams. It was back-and-forth in the first half, which went into intermission tied 38-38. NPU forged out in front early in the second half and gradually built the lead up to 15 with just under 10 minutes remaining in the contest, but I had a feeling in the back of my mind that Carthage would make a run -- and make a run they did. They closed to three at 84-81 with 3:18 left on a Griffin Daun jumper. That's when you really see the mettle of a good team, and the Vikings showed a packed house something by responding at both ends of the floor with a 9-1 run to close out the game.

Daun was amazing for Carthage. He's developed another gear that I don't think anybody at North Park knew he had since the meeting in Kenosha in early January. He was just blowing by people. Carthage needed that on a night when AJ Johnson (1-14 FG) was off his game. These Firebirds are a reflection of their coach; they're as smart as they are talented, and they're tough-minded to boot.

The Vikings were feeling the sting of Wednesday's debacle in Rock Island. They talked about it in the postgame show. I sense that their lessons were well-learned. They'll be a better team for it down the stretch here in the second round-robin.

[iwu70]

A pleasant trip to Elmhurst and two IWU wins.

Well, not quite to 78, but still a big win, a blowout actually.  It was 45-17 at the half.  Final from EU,  IWU 77 EU46.  Not a single Bluejay in double figures.

For IWU (playing so well in the first half):

Williams 16 4 assists, and no TOs
Roper 15
Funk 14 and 7
Anderson 9 rebounds

The Titans winning the TO line 6-11 and the rebounding line 45-29.  You get the picture.

IWU shooting 45%, 30% from three, and 59% from the FT Line.

EU shooting 34%, 25% from three, and 56% from the FT line.

The gym was very warm, with about 60-70% of the big crowd being IWU fans.  Coach Baines has a tough job this year.

IWU'70