MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

Advoice, you're underestimating the importance that Bosko had as Dan McCarrell's assistant during the North Park threepeat national championships in terms of recruiting, game prep, practice management, and bench coaching. If you don't believe me, then I suggest that you seek out McCarrell's brother Dave the next time you attend a Wheaton game, and ask him about it.

Also, I believe that Bosko deserves even more credit for that '85 team than for the '87 team. Yes, the '85 team consisted of players that he didn't bring in as head coach (except for Hubbard). But he had to coach that team much harder, and work the X's and O's in game situations under much more pressure, then he ever had to do in '87. The fact that the '85 team was significantly less talented than the '87 team meant that he had much less of a margin with which to work in big games.

The '85 team had one of the toughest roads ever to the walnut and bronze; after a 40-point blowout of Monmouth in the first round, the Vikings had to go to overtime to beat defending national champion UW-Whitewater by two. Then they barely squeaked by #1-ranked Wittenberg by a single point. In the national semis they had a relative breather, beating Nebraska Wesleyan (where Todd Raridon was then the assistant coach to Jerry Schmutte) by a whopping five points. And the national championship game went right down to the wire, with the Park eking out a 72-71 victory over Potsdam State.

Those last four games were decided by a total of nine points, and each of those teams was at least North Park's virtual equal, each with a superstar player who could carry his team on his back: Mark Linde of UW-Whitewater, Steve Iannarino of Wittenberg, Dana Janssen of NWU, and the three-headed monster of Brendan Mitchell, Barry Stanton, and Pony Bullock of Potsdam State.

Bosko coached his butt off in guiding the Park to that national title. By comparison, '87 was a cakewalk.

Your Steve Yount analogy is way off. Steve Yount got to one national championship game; Bosko won two of them, with two almost completely different teams (the only player who saw significant playing time on both of Bosko's title teams was PG Sonny Parker). Perhaps more importantly, Steve Yount never showed up on a campus whose basketball team had been the laughingstock of the CCIW for almost twenty years and built up a program from scratch that would win the CCIW four years after he arrived and would reach the Final Four after six.

And those who persist in knocking Bosko should take note of the fact that three of his former Carthage starters have appeared on this board over the past two days to defend him. He enjoys a strong amount of loyalty from his players past and present, both NPU and Carthage.

[carthageking]

With all your convincing information Greg I'll just bow to you and say you are right.  You are a joke Greg.  I would be willing to bet that you never scored a basket in high school let alone in the cciw.  You are a joke and I find it extremely pathetic that people hold you in any regard as a person of any knowledge in basketball.  You are the type of guy that players make fun of because you are one of the guys that talks about something you have no idea about.  You are a grade A joke.

[79jaybird]

Now now, c'mon let's keep it down the earth hear.  Nobody knows all and is divine.  I personally think the Bosko bashing marathon is so blown out of proportion, it's getting tidious to sit hear and read this. It's like a Jerry Springer show on the board.
I still think Elmhurst has to play very well to beat Wheaton this weekend.  Wheaton always plays us tough as Die Hard Fan can attest to.  I can recall just a few years back when Elmhurst was still one of the top 2 teams and Nathan Collard almost single handedly beat us at EC.

[Mr. Ypsi]

With all your convincing information Greg I'll just bow to you and say you are right.  You are a joke Greg.  I would be willing to bet that you never scored a basket in high school let alone in the cciw.  You are a joke and I find it extremely pathetic that people hold you in any regard as a person of any knowledge in basketball.  You are the type of guy that players make fun of because you are one of the guys that talks about something you have no idea about.  You are a grade A joke.

If you can't keep it civil, or HUMOROUSLY insulting, please go away.

You have already shown that you know VERY little about CCIW bball.  You are now beginning to act the total fool.

[titanhammer]

If Titan fans chime in too much, "it's all about us".  If we don't chime in enough, we've dwindled in numbers.  Can someone give us a quota to make it "just right".

I can't say that I know Bosko, but he's always been cordial to me and I think his record is very impressive.  As for Coach Yount, I know him and played for him.  Anyone that questions him as a coach or a man doesn't know much about either subject or is making an uninformed guess.

Good luck to the Titans this weekend at Foster and Kedzie.  I would love to be there, but my travel visa has been confiscated for a few weeks.

[titanhammer]

At the risk of exposing myself to the "green tinted glasses" charge, I would like to ask the opinion of some other posters.  I have discussed this with some Titan fans and fans of other teams.  It's understandable that teams will get "geeked up" (as the kids say) to play the (then) number one team in the nation...or in front of the biggest crowd they will see all year.  However, it seems like the CCIW teams that the Titans have played had their best game of the year on top of that.  Do the followers of NCC, Carthage, Millikin, Elmhurst, and Wheaton see it that way?  I would be interested in your thoughts.

Regardless, I think the rest of the CCIW will see the results from the Titans that were expected in weeks gone by.

Q, is there any truth to the rumor that the Titans will start five players with only three total different last names?  It's not five guards, but....

[dansand]

Glad to see someone stick up for Steve Yount. As an Augie fan who suffered through the Jim Leix years, I appreciate what he accomplished. Leix was to the Augie head coaching position as Jimmy Carter was to the American Presidency. Big time malaise. The last four of Leix's six seasons were especially miserable. His last team lost a school record 19 games. Yount came in the next year and his first team went 19-7 and averaged a school-record 90.1 points a game. In his third year he took them to a runner-up finish in the tournament (with a group of seniors, including Kirk Anderson, Josh Thompson and Aben Cooper, who were sitting on the bench while Leix's Vikes were going 7-19 ). Having said that, I can't disagree that his interest seemed to wane towards the end (I think even he suggested as much when he resigned). But overall his stint was a tremendous positive and the '92-93 season was a heck of a lot of fun.

[cardinalpride]

Advoice
Im not understanding how you are coming to this conclusion of Augie losing at home to NC.  First off...the gaurd play by Drew Wessels is alone is like a one man press.  After that you have great athletes down low you will be able to keep Simmons in somewhat of a check.  With this said i don't think any gaurd on the floor will be able to stop Rick Harrigan (nobody really has yet).  And for that matter i think that Augie is a better defensive team then NC.  I also think you are underestimating the size and athletic ability of Daine Swetela.  ( the kid is a speciment).  On top of all this it is so tough to win on the road in the CCIW, but as we all no anything can happen in this league on any given night...

Ot' Coatle moight skeet

Augie22, it's quite obvious you haven't seen NCC play.  Let me run something by you.  Drew Wessels is a good on ball defender, but he will not be able to press Adam Teising.  He's too fast from end to end.  Secondly, Augie's front line is not more athletic or better than IWU's frontline defensively.  Simmons got 29 against them.  Last but not least,  Harrigan will score some points tomorrow, but he won't get any easy looks.  NCC held a better team offensively in IWU to 40% shooting in their own gym.  Augie doesn't have as many offensive weapons as IWU.  Furthermore, statistically NCC is a better defensive team than Augie.  FG % defense NCC .400-- Augie .422.  3pt FG% defense NCC .269--Augie .326.  Plus NCC is a better rebounding team(NCC 38.1--Augie 33.2).  The only important defensive category that augie gets the edge is scoring defense.  Augie gives up 61.2pts and NCC gives up 62.9pts.  However, that category is somewhat meaningless because NCC is outscoring augie by 10 pts a game.  NCC scores 82.1pts and Augie scores 72.1.  Now, after analyzing statistical facts between the two teams, Augie22 who do feel is the better defensive team now?

[cardinalpride]

It's understandable that teams will get "geeked up" (as the kids say) to play the (then) number one team in the nation...or in front of the biggest crowd they will see all year.  However, it seems like the CCIW teams that the Titans have played had their best game of the year on top of that.  Do the followers of NCC, Carthage, Millikin, Elmhurst, and Wheaton see it that way?  I would be interested in your thoughts.

NCC didn't play very well at all.  They just outplayed IWU that night.  I will elaborate if you want TH. 

[petemcb]

Titanhammer, I am an unaligned CCIW fan who has seen Elmhurst play twice this year  -  once at home vs. Hanover and once at home vs. IWU.  At the time, I believe Hanover was ranked, and I saw an impressive, but not overwhelming Elmhurst team.  The Elmhurst team I saw vs. IWU appeared to be the definition of "geeked up".  If that performance was any indication of the intensity that the Titans face game in and game out, then I'd say your justified in your view, and not simply fooled by your "green tinted glasses".  

[cardinalpride]

1. Post play. NC gets consistent offensive production in the post from a multitude of players. Rairdon's players have bought into and flourished in the transition quick hitters and triangle type offense.

I have been skeptical of Rairdon to this point mostly because he worked for a man at a previous institution that is not very well respected in the athletic world. After seeing his team play, this man can coach.

Augie can win, but if both teams play their best, NC wins.

Advoice, I like your style but the NCC coach spells his name Raridon.   

[titanhammer]

Cardinal Pride, you don't need to explain your opinion.  However, if NCC "didn't play very well", I'm going to give Vegas a call and see what the line is on the Cardinals to win it all.

Pete, I appreciate your comments.

[Johnny Augie]

TH,

I agree that teams probably get more "geeked up" to play the #1 team.  In the CCIW you should be up for every game or else you're gonna lose.  Even though some of the other teams have played their best ball, it doesn't seem like IWU has been playing up to their usual standards.  They're having a rough time now, but at the end of the year I'm sure they will be at a championship level.

[Johnny Augie]

No i haven't seen NC play this year. 

CardinalPride,

I think Augie22 already stated that he hasn't seen NCC play.

Stats are great and all, but each team has had different opponents so far.  I think both teams are great and I look forward to watching the game tomorrow.  Should be a great one. 

Last but not least,  Harrigan will score some points tomorrow, but he won't get any easy looks. 

I don't think the teams have been leaving Harrigan wide open...teams are defending him and he is creating a lot of looks on his own.

[Jim Matson]

I think that any team in the CCIW in any sport gets "geeked up" to play the traditional or reigning champ.  Wheaton plays up for Augie in football, North Park plays up for Wheaton in soccer (and wins), and everyone loves to beat Millikin in women's hoops, and so on...

Wheaton's performance in the Shirk THIS year was the one that I'd say was not a big push, but simply a young team that came in loose and assumed nothing - and had fun.