MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[MIHills]

Not to beat a dead horse, but regarding the Arnold situation at IWU...they mentioned an unnamed "employee" of the University....I saw an article a few months back on the IWU webpage regarding an admissions dean or counselor (Pope) who left the university....I knew him and I knew that he was a long time employee and well liked by many (at least I think) so his departure was disturbing - is it possible that this was the employee or the one who took the fall....any Titans out there with info would be appreciated.  Just curious as to why Pope would leave after so many years and how it was kinda of hush hush and without a reason.

Regards

[RedmenFB44]

No talk about Carthage on here. Do they have any shot in the CCIW or are they just a step ahead of North Park? How do you think Carthage will do against the free shooting Grinnell?

[diehardfan]

Lawrence beat Goucher 92-39 in a game where 19 Lawrence players scored (think about that for a second...19).   

My first thought was, "wow, they traveled 19 players?"

That was my first thought too.  Looking at the box score, they actually played 20 (one didn't score).

My first thought was to wonder if Lawrence has been having good recruiting and retention due to their national successes of late, but okay 

Personally, I like that they did this. I can personally attest to how beautiful California is,  and I'd bet money that trips like this are major highlights in a student-athlete's college career. It's one of the small consolations a talented young player would get, paying his dues and waiting for the older more experienced players to graduate. Or for the "grunts" who work hard in practice to make their teammates better, even if it means that they will never see game time... I definitely think they earn this. Maybe it costs the program some cash to bring them along, but if it helps them in the long run, and adds to the student's scope of experience and capacity of their worldview, I'm firmly all for it. Especially when it involves kids from the midwest who may never have even seen the ocean or real mountains before! 

...  but how bad is Goucher?? ...

My first thought...Great topic for Hoopsville!

Raaalph! Like we need to give Dave encouragement to talk about Goucher on hoopsville?   

Jeez...I wish I'd know Lawrence was out here. And it looks like they had a good game too, beating Vanguard U. by 5 (after hammering Goucher.) It's tough to keep track of local games when nobody in the local media cares about small college hoops (either D3 or NAIA).

This is probably my fault. Since the MWC is one of my favorite conference by far, I actually knew that Lawrence was coming out. Sorry, David. I guess now I REALLY need to bring cookies to Whittier, huh?

And now, in closing, I would like to offer my profound gratitude to whoever in the Wheaton administration made the decision for Wheaton to come out to So Cal for their snowbird trip this year so that I could see them.  I'm not really sure how much playing teams in the SCIAC will really help me ascertain just how good or bad Wheaton really is this year, but it still makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside to see my guys play. 

[Greek Tragedy]

My first thought was, "wow, they traveled 19 players?"

Since we all seem to have "first thoughts,"  Mine was, it was played in southern California, right?  So, WHY NOT?! 

I probably wouldn't have cared if I didn't even play, it's better than a winter (albeit, a mild one) in Wisconsin.

[Greek Tragedy]

Personally, I like that they did this. I can personally attest to how beautiful California is,  and I'd bet money that trips like this are major highlights in a student-athlete's college career. It's one of the small consolations a talented young player would get, paying his dues and waiting for the older more experienced players to graduate. Or for the "grunts" who work hard in practice to make their teammates better, even if it means that they will never see game time... I definitely think they earn this. Maybe it costs the program some cash to bring them along, but if it helps them in the long run, and adds to the student's scope of experience and capacity of their worldview, I'm firmly all for it. Especially when it involves kids from the midwest who may never have even seen the ocean or real mountains before! 

Amen!

It was funny you mention this April...my friend Dave and I were discussing a topic like this on our way down to Dubuque, Iowa for the Pointer men's game in the Clarke College Holiday tourney.

Let's see...Oshkosh goes to Las Vegas for the 2nd year in a row, the Pointer women go to Florida to play two teams from New York, I believe (how does that work?) and numerous other teams go to California, like Lawrence. 

What do the Pointer men get?  Congratulations, you've won an all-expense paid trip to sunny Dubuque!  Talking about an experience the players will never forget! lol. 

By the way, hasn't Platteville ever heard of building a gas station at least remotely close to the highway?  What a joke!

[heatherfeather24]

Personally, I like that they did this. I can personally attest to how beautiful California is,  and I'd bet money that trips like this are major highlights in a student-athlete's college career. It's one of the small consolations a talented young player would get, paying his dues and waiting for the older more experienced players to graduate. Or for the "grunts" who work hard in practice to make their teammates better, even if it means that they will never see game time... I definitely think they earn this. Maybe it costs the program some cash to bring them along, but if it helps them in the long run, and adds to the student's scope of experience and capacity of their worldview, I'm firmly all for it. Especially when it involves kids from the midwest who may never have even seen the ocean or real mountains before! 

I completely agree.   My favorite part of IWU athletics was our annual swimming trip to Florida -- yup, the powerhouse that was IWU women's swimming in the mid-nineties (NOT) took an annual training trip to Florida.  Might not have helped our standings in the conference, but it was definitely a great team-building event and provided the kind of extra experiences one gets from DIII in general.

[cardinalpride]

Like dd said, this is just an opinion.  We'll see what happens on Wednesday night.  Will you be there?  What year was it that Carthage was upset in the first game or two of the year when they were the heavy favorites.  It can also go the other way:  I think in '91 the Titans started off 3 - 4, but still had a 15 - 1 CCIW record.  As many have said, that's why they play 'em.

TH, it should be a great game tomorrow night.   I believe we can get it done.   We'll see in about 18hrs.  Yes, I will be in the house.  Not sure of the year Carthage was upset.  Might have been '01 or '02.     

[John Gleich]

My first thought was to wonder if Lawrence has been having good recruiting and retention due to their national successes of late, but okay 

I just find it interesting that they would dress that many.  It's been clearly documented that Grinnell has dress upwards of 23 players since running "the system", but, for NCAA tournament contests, the roster limit is 15 players.  I know that UWSP has four sets of uniforms... and they have 15 uni's for each set.  They CAN'T dress more than 15.  There have definitely been situations (like this year, and last) where there were more kids using eligibility than there were uniforms (so they had to be rotated, or kids just didn't have to opportunity to dress unless there were injuries).

Oshkosh goes Vegas, Pointer women go to Florida, Lawrence goes to Cali...

Every other year, or so, Point goes on a trip.  This was their year... and, I think because of the coaching trade-over, Dubuque it was... but two seasons ago, Point went to Vegas (fun trip, and warm), and four seasons ago, Point went to Pittsburgh (again, not exactly tropical, but it was still a fun trip).

For the Vegas trip, players had to pay some to offset the cost of the plane ticket.  For Pitt, it was a bus trip so it was less expensive...

But my point is, I guess the programs that take these trips either must hand more of the financial burden of the trips to the players, or they must have more of a budget.  If the latter is the case... well, then we're gonna have to start talking about the public vs. private debate again, and who gets more perks!

[Mr. Ypsi]

In Dennis Bridges' book (A Dunk Only Counts Two Points) he reports that IWU financed their trips (Florida, Hawaii, etc.) off the guarantees for playing d1 teams.

[devildog29]

MIHills, when the news on Arnold first broke, I asked that exact same question on this board.  I was politely encouraged for the better of all involved to not ask speculative questions. 

[Titan Q]

FYI, Jerry Pope is the Director of Admissions at St. Olaf College...

http://fusion.stolaf.edu/news/index.cfm?fuseaction=NewsDetails&id=3090

[veterancciwfan]

Q: Thanks for posting the Santa Barbara paper's column on the sad state of Big West (D1 in name only) b'ball. Wouldn't the few fans of UC-Riverside (avg. attendance of 539) and UCSB (avg. of 1621) have been amazed at the size of the Hanover-IWU game on Dec. 20 with the students absent?

Observations about the 2 games in CA: 1) Chris Jones deserved to be on the 6-member all-tourney team. He played only 25 minutes in game 1 and 24 vs. Westmont. His line for both games: 12/16 FGs; 4/4 FTs: 16 RBs; 5 Blocks; 2 steals. And there was some very good talent in the tourney. 2) I think both PSU and Westmont would be odds-on favorites to finish in the top 4 in the CCIW this year. 3) A long-time Westmont fan told me that A'ovich's performance vs. Westmont was the best he could remember by any opponent player. Keelan was truly amazing. He also asked me what kind of basketball talent IL has to allow a player like Keelan to not  go the D1 scholarship route. 4) While IWU has a fantastic staring lineup, these 2 games showed that IWU's bench players usually contribute to a big run when the other team has their stars on the bench. Schweer, Chris Jones,  Arnold, and McGraw were instrumental in both wins.

According to the IWU progam for the IWU/NCC game, IWU has won 29 of the last 32 games against NCC, dating back to the final 2 games of the 89/90 season (the year NCC won the league but IWU beat NCC in Naperville in the 2nd league game and in the D3 tourney). Another mind-blowing stat from the program: Steve Schweer's season FG% is a measly .857. Many D3 players couldn't shoot that well in pre-game layup drills!

[Titan Q]

Halftime @ Redlands....

Redlands 60
Wheaton 58

Redlands runs the Grinnell system...I think they led the nation in scoring last year.  Having just seen the madness that is Puget Sound's defense (which is similiar to "The System" full-court trap), I think Wheaton could be in some trouble only up 2.  Thunder players are going to start getting really tired in the 2nd half.

Wheaton's very good S.I.D. Brett Marhanka on the WETN color...

http://www.wheaton.edu/wetn/index.htm

[Pat Coleman]

You can't say enough about how good Brett Marhanka is.

Though I have to wonder, what does a color analyst do in a System game?

[diehardfan]

lol... down two actually, not that it is any better...

I'm pretty sure this is the first game I've ever seen where a Harris team actually may look tired at the end.

Of note... Standard is still not dressing. No matter what the outcome, Wheaton really could have used the extra body tonight with our super short roster this year. And we're going to need our second leading scorer even more when the conference starts.