MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[kenoshamark]

Here is the Box Score from the IWU - Elmhurst game:


http://elmhurst.edu/~athletic/Home/M-Basket/stats/2005-2006/melm15.htm

[augie_superfan]

I highly doubt he played.  The box score said 0-1 in 0 minutes so they probably accidently typed in the wrong number when someone else missed a shot tonight

[sac]

Mr. Y----I need an update on the percentages of IWU going unbeaten in the CCIW.  


By the way, your all gonna love the first ever CCIW tournament.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Mr. Y----I need an update on the percentages of IWU going unbeaten in the CCIW. 

I'd say REAL, REAL close to zero.

But the probability of still pulling out the title: >50%.  I haven't thrown in the towel just yet!

[rpknupp]

How did the Elmhurst/IWU JV game go??

[bluejaybacker1]

The JV game I got a real good one for ya!

Elmhurst brought 6 players to the game and two fouled out in the last few mins. They played 4 on 5 and Ryan Burks hit the game winner for Elmhurst to win it!

[kenoshamark]

Besides the outstanding game by Kyle Jeffery tonight (29 points) there were two other players who great efforts.

Nav Thompson had 10 points, 8 assists and 5 boards (only 5'8" tall) He did a great job of pushing the ball tonight and getting to the basket for a couple of nice layups. 

Nav reminds me somewhat of Brett Nishibayashi who played back on the 2000 and 2001 teams.  Nav can provide on the ball pressure, getting the running game going, and even better than Brett, break down his defender and get to the rim. 

Bosko has been searching for someone to run the team and I really think Nav shoot get the keys to the car. 

The other person to recognize is Evan Guay.  Evan is starting to see some major minutes since the defection of all the players.  Evan is a strong defender and can handle either a shooting guard as he did tonight against Harrigan or a small forward as he did last week against Amelianovich.  Harrigan hit some shots before Evan got in tonight but was only 2-7 in the second half when Evan was in the game.

Evan also reminds me of a player from that same team that Brett played on, that being Todd Brinks.  Bosko would send him in the game to be the defensive stopper but never expected to get big offensive production from him.

Nice job by both players in a tough, tough loss.

[79jaybird]

Great exciting game at Elmhurst tonight.  I must say that Dauksas was the MVP even in the loss. He single handedly kept IWU in the game.  Great to see the Jays play a full game limiting the turnovers!!
I was also impressed with how the Jays kept Keelan quiet.
This year ( as in most years and sports) the CCIW is as cutthroat and parity stricken as ever.  That makes each and every game exciting.  If I were to pick 4 teams for the Tournament right now it would be 1) Augustana 2) IWU 3) NC/Mill 4) Elmhurst  and that's as far as I go because anybody can beat anybody.

[Jim Matson]

Some balanced performance from the young guys in Wheaton's win tonight against North Park.

Sophomore John Mohan......14 points/5 boards
Junior Michael Fiddler...14 points/7 boards
Freshman Andy Wiele........14 points/7 boards

I wonder what Mohan and Wiele will think about their first trip to the Shirk next week?!  Not a good time for a young team to be playing an angry Titan team, me thinks.

[rpknupp]

The JV game I got a real good one for ya!

Elmhurst brought 6 players to the game and two fouled out in the last few mins. They played 4 on 5 and Ryan Burks hit the game winner for Elmhurst to win it!

What! Are you kidding me? Bluejays beat the Titans with 4 guys?
Ryan Burks is the man. How many pts did he end up with in that game? My guess is alot. I never want to question the coaching staff at Elmhurst, they are a great group, but, I think I'd play Ryan Burks in the Varsity..

[Mr. Ypsi]

In reading the Elmhurst-IWU stat sheet, I was struck by the revelation that Chris Martin had NO points except from beyond the arc!!  Do we have a new top #2 in the league?!

Was Keelan shut down, or did he just have a horrible game.  SEVEN shots attempted in 40 minutes?!

Kinda makes stats' post #2121 comparing Martin and Amelianovich look a bit silly!

[veterancciwfan]

For IWU, forget about the in in invincible. What a tough league. 10-3 wins it outright and 10-4 probably gets you a 1st place tie. I thought the difference for Elmhurst was Michaels and the 2 freshmen, Ruch & Strzemp. Martin took over in crunch time with 2 long 3s to give the Jays a 6 point lead. The 2nd 3 was a 30 ft. set shot. No way to guard those.

[redmen1]

Hey everyone, First time poster here. I was at the Carthage game tonight and like alot of people have said, Kyle Jeffries carried the team again tonight. He is a great outside threat and can also go down low.

I was very impressed with Thompson's play tonight.
I was very disappointed with Schlem's play tonight. It seemed like he didn't even want to play tonight. I really didn't like how they tried hitting a 3 with about 40 seconds left. Get the quick two and foul.

Overall this team isn't going to quit, and you never know maybe they could hit a hot streak and win some games and be right back in it. This conference is going to go down to the wire and I'm excited to see how is plays out!!

[Gregory Sager]

Wheaton 73, North Park 52

NPU looked like they had some other pressing engagement this evening other than to be at King Arena to play a basketball game, as Wheaton blew them out of the gym. But that's not even close to being the worst news of the night.

I don't have the definitive word yet, but Jason Gordon most likely tore his ACL and will miss the rest of the season.

Crap. Just ... crap.

The Vikings took a humongous step backwards tonight, even if you discount the loss of their top scorer and most dynamic player. Wheaton seriously outworked them at both ends of the floor. The Vikings acted as though boxing out was illegal, allowing Wheaton to get innumerable offensive rebounds, and they were a step slow to every loose ball. The NPU forwards in particular were terrible, making Michael Fiddler and Andy Wiele -- two guys who hadn't really impressed me at all before tonight -- look like All-CCIW first-teamers. The Vikings overplayed the ball on every Wheaton possession, and the Wheaties simply were patient enough to let the Vikings sell out before taking it to the hole for easy buckets.

Wheaton jumped out to an early 17-4 lead, as NPU appeared to be trying to chip all of the paint off of the rim at the eastern end of King Arena. Then the Vikings briefly caught fire and ran off 14 straight points to take the lead. After a series of lead changes, Wheaton went up 26-25 and promptly shut the Park down for the rest of the half, going into the locker room with a 35-25 lead.

NPU came out and scored the first four points of the second half before Wheaton began to reassert itself. About a third of the way through the second half, Wheaton was up by a score of 46-38, and although NPU was playing terribly the game was still well within reach. That's when Gordon drove the right baseline and launched himself at the basket. Jordan Kemper gave him a hard foul, knocking him to the ground, and Gordon clutched his right knee in agony. But he was already grabbing at the knee while he was airborne, so it appears that he blew it out on takeoff, not after Kemper hit him.

His injury sucked all of the oxygen out of the gym as far as North Park was concerned. The Vikings went through the motions for the rest of the game, and Wheaton pulled away easily. So now Gordon will spend the rest of the season in warmups sitting in the stands next to two other players projected to be in this season's rotation who are instead nursing injured knees, Mike Peterson and Glen Woodside. NPU's orthopedist is certainly working overtime.

Bjorn Berg, who was the only Viking who really had his head in this game, scored 14 points and Ed Whitaker chipped in 13. The Vikings were lapped in rebounds, 42-21, and of those 42 Wheatie boards a ridiculous 16 of them were at the offensive end.

This stinks in more ways than I can count.

Oh, and for the record, it was absolutely criminal of the league to schedule this game to be played while NPU is still on winter break. It's just wrong for the NPU students to have to miss something that has been a school tradition for three and a half decades, the annual road trip to Wheaton. If the CCIW commissioner was on my Christmas card list, I'd take him off of it for this. 

[titanhammer]

First of all, let me say that Elmhurt played an exceptional game tonight.  Second of all, please don't read this as sour grapes.  I will just make two big points that I thought had and IMPACT on the game tonight (IMPACT meaning that it had something to do with the game, but would not necessarily change the outcome).  Elmhurst played solid defense.  However, that was added by the fact that the refs allowed them to hold IWU all night:  arms, jerseys, tattoos, it didn't matter.  That was one of the reasons you didn't hear much from Keelan:  he was held so many times tonight, it was sick.  I have never seen that much jersey holding in a game that didn't get called.  Also, I'm sure that Zach will have bruses from tonight, other than the ones from the "hard foul" that Martin gave to him.  Second, they allowed the Elmhurst big guys to take far more than three seconds in the lane.  Again, please don't let that sound like sour grapes, I just thought it affected the outcome.

I was at the opposite end of the court for Martin's three bombs in the second half, but you could have been in Indianapolis and still been able to tell that they were deep.  Elmhurst made the shots they needed to win this game.

Lastly, I wish the CCIW would get rid of the ref that was the middle of the three height wise.  He rarely is brave enough to blow the whistle, and when he does the call is a travesty (both ways).  This is at least the fifth game that he has performed that way that I have witnessed (out of five).

As "dim" as it looks for the Titans, I still have the confidence that they will come back and play as they did in those first ten games.