MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Cardsfan4life]

augiedad he hasn't submitted an application so it should be easy for him to pull it.

[Jim Matson]

Now that Trost is gone, maybe he can throw his hat in the ring...oh, wait a minute...

[Gregory Sager]

No offense taken Sager. The other factor regarding trustworthyness (is that a word) is a persons history of being correct or not. If you look back, I was correct in who interviewed for the position at Lewis and I was correct in the way it all played out.  I choose to remain anonymous and I realize that does effect credibility however that is my choice. I am careful that my posts only contain "truths" rather than "rumors" .

But no matter how good your sources are, without documentation or attestation from a named source, what your sources tell you will technically remain rumor until somebody with an office in a school somewhere and a fancy title in front of his or her name makes an announcement to the general public to confirm the rumor as fact.

I think that we see eye to eye on this one, Advoice. I completely agree with you about trustworthiness. A good track record for disclosing what is later revealed to be accurate information goes a long way to establishing a poster's credibility -- and I'm glad that you agree with me that using a pseudonym does mitigate that credibility somewhat. This conversation is making me want to rent All The President's Men so that I can recall all of those Jason Robards lines about anonymous sources. 

And now comes the fun part: Two anonymous posters, Augiedad and Cardsfan4life, directly contradicting each other with their insider info. I love this cloak-and-dagger stuff. 

Cardsfan4life, who are the two new guards Raridon has hiding somewhere who will replace Teising and Vicario (or, roughly translated, about 90% of last year's minutes at the guard position)?  Obviously Simmons is an asset.  In fact, their front line is nice.  But who are the guards that will make it "easy" for Raridon to win the CCIW next year?

I definitely agree with you on this one, Pete. I think that North Central goes into the preseason as a bona-fide contender for the 2006-07 CCIW title. But I see no evidence that winning the regular-season CCIW title will be "easy" for Raridon, or for that matter that any other coach in the league will have an easy time of it. I think that Raridon has some choices available to him in terms of his backcourt, but replacing the minutes, production, and leadership of Teising and Vicario isn't just a snap-your-fingers-and-make-it-happen sort of thing.

I'm a little surprised to see the consensus forming on Zach Kelly here. I work at one of the high schools in the Central Suburban League that he is in, and have seen him several times a year, in conference and in summer leagues - primarily because he's had the good fortune to be a teammate of Jon Scheyer. IMHO, Kelly could have played and played well in the CCIW. I have seen him play tougher in the paint than he has been portrayed on these pages. I don't consider him to be a perimeter player, as was suggested a few pages ago. He has a nice touch from 10 feet in, seems to have a good and developing sense of how to use space in the paint, and has become a tougher rebounder each of the three years I have watched him. While he might not have become a Zach Freeman-type player, he could have contributed, and would be within a year or two of perhaps making a reasonably significant contribution on teams like Millikin, North Park, Wheaton, and Carthage, all of whom have been lacking in the middle for a couple of years or more. I believe he will become a valuable player for Wash U, and is an unfortunate miss for the CCIW.

I'm just going by the two or three games I saw of him on television. You've seen more of him than I have, so I give your opinion of Zach Kelly some weight. I'm just saying that what I saw of him was not that impressive, that's all. One thing to keep in mind is that it's sometimes hard to evaluate a player who has a teammate who so completely dominates games in all phases the way that Jon Scheyer did.

[Gregory Sager]

BJ5,

I didn't know that there were many kids looking to exit Elmhurst, but ended up staying because of the greatness of an assistant.  That would suggest that Coach Scherer is not doing very well, if all these guys want to leave.  Since he is and has been doing well, then maybe the players looking to leave were a tad on the wimpy and flighty side, as I've heard that Coach Scherer can be awful tough to play for.  It sounds to me, you might've been one of those guys that wanted to jump ship when it got a little tough, and Coach Baines came to the rescue and saved the day.

You obviously weren't watching much Elmhurst basketball when Justin Carley played for the Bluejays, TBF. You wouldn't have posted that last sentence, even with the "might've" in the middle of it, if you had. He struck me as being the exact opposite of a quitter.

BTW, great post about why D3 players sometimes put basketball aside in mid-career, Hoops Fan.

And I will definitely hate myself for saying this publicly, but I chuckled a little at Dennis' rewrite of "Green". Blame it on the fact that my little brother had The Sesame Street Book & Record when I was a kid, so I could hear Kermit's voice in my head singing those new lyrics. Dennis may have found a new calling as the CCIW's answer to Weird Al Yankovic.

[Mac Attack]

Are there any summer basketball leagues for D3 players in the central Illinois area? And if so, what's the process for landing a spot on one of the teams?

[Greek Tragedy]

And now comes the fun part: Two anonymous posters, Augiedad and Cardsfan4life,...

Isn't that an oxymoron?  You say they are "anonymous" and then you name them...was that the fun part? 

*of course, sometimes posters' actual identities aren't known, so maybe that's what you meant

[True Basketball Fan]

GS,

I saw Carley and the jays several times.  I didn't realize it was him until he revealed that he started with three freshman and played at two schools, then I knew it could only be one guy.  He was a good player on some good teams and by no means was he a quitter (which I didn't totally imply anyway).  I apologize for rattling your cage.  If I'm not mistaken Martin was the only freshman out of the 11 that Carley referred to that played out his career.  What happened to the other 10?  They fell through the cracks for various reasons. 

However, as Hoops Fan pointed out about the many reasons DIII athletes don't finish their careers (good reasons by the way), I don't think that applies to most as he would imply.  For every 15 players that "quit", 14 of them were not playing as much as they would like.  And of the 14, half probably had good reasons anyway, they just needed a push in that direction.  The other half probably weren't good enough anyway, so it was hard to justify all of the time and effort.  Nevertheless, the playing time and success of these "quitters" are more of a deciding factor.  Yes, Kent Raymond hung it up for good reasons, but nobody talks about the other dozen or more that also hung it up last season, mainly because "basketball-wise" they were not significant enough to get noticed.  

[bluejay5]

I don't like to get into the reasons of why these most of these guys left...5-6 left for reasons that were talked about earlier, wanted to enjoy school, do other things, take care of school, get jobs, But in the two years I was there and after there were numerous players that left for basketball reasons.  I personally loved playing for Coach Scherer he was a good coach.  He is difficult to play for though and if you are not 100% willing to dedicate yourself to what he says than you will want out of his program. and a lot of good players did...Evan Arnold, Reuben Slock, Ryan Voss, Nick Larson, Joel Searby and that is during the two years I was there. I was roomates with two of these guys and I can say most of these guys were dedicated....Don't forget that even Chris Martin left the program for a year.  I'm don't want to lay blame anywhere but that is a lot of talent to walk out of one program in two years at any program

[iwumichigander]

Latest (April 20) Pantagraph interview with IWU's Dennie Bridges

http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2006/04/20/sports/112136.txt

[TitanRailer]

Since we are talking assistance coaches for the IWU job, IWU has two current assistant coaches who might be in the picture.  Chad Hutson is a former player in the mid 90's who is on the staff.  David Steinbrueck has been on the staff for 20-something years.  Any rumors on either of these two coaches in the hunt?

[proudofLU]

 Denny Bridges--was he ever on TV--maybe as McCloud.....?

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

BTW, great post about why D3 players sometimes put basketball aside in mid-career, Hoops Fan.

Thanks for the praise, Sager.  It's nice to know the Hall of Famers agree with something I put out there.

I have to admit, I'm a convert to that thought though.  As a huge fan, I was appalled the first time a top player gave up varsity sports after Sophomore year.  It took me a little time and a really good op-ed in the student newspaper to understand that there is more to life than sports.  It's changed a lot of the way I view pro sports now as well.

[veterancciwfan]

If Raridon gets the IWU job, he won't have to worry about the guard positions with Dwyer, Andrew Gilmore, and Jordan Morris on the team. Most IWU observers think Gilmore is going to be an impact player in the league next year. And most reports on Dwyer are gushy.

[True Basketball Fan]

Agreed, BJ5, it is a lot of talent to walk out of any program in two years.  One thing to realize at DIII, coaches seek the best players they can get.  In this case, they were the best, but they were also probably a bad combination.  In another situation, things could've been different for everybody (coach and players).  Unfortunately, compatiblity often gets tossed aside in the recruitment at the DIII level, thus resulting in odd combinations.  Who's to blame?  Probably no one, just chalk it up as a negative of small college basketball.

[True Basketball Fan]

Vet fan,

If he does get the job, that's exactly the position he will be worried about.  They are good players, but Morris and Gilmore are unproven JVer's and Dwyer is a high schooler getting ready to compete in a man's league.  Most would be worried.