MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[martin]

Pete,

He is Andy's son.   Andy played at DePaul with Corzine - pre-Agguire.  I posted about him on the UAA board.

[Jim Matson]

Pistol Pete?  Wow, it has been a while!

[Gregory Sager]

We'll have to compare sources there Sager.

Mine were CNN, the Baltimore Sun, and Baseball America. You aren't going to make me look them all up again and post the URLs, are you? 

To add to it, they also mentioned a story about how he used to set guy's hats on fire. He's spray lighter fluid on them and light them up. One such occurrance happened to coincide with a close play at the plate and a stadium filled with fans were horrified as one of the Royals came running out of the dugout to celebrate with foot-tall flames coming out of the top of his head.

Moe was never without his lighter and a book of matches. There was one reporter from the Sun who got hotfooted by Drabowsky so many times that he always conducted every interview in the ballpark while looking down at his feet. Undaunted, Drabowsky snuck up behind the reporter while he was giving an interview and looking down -- and set the guy's notepad on fire.

Hey, Pistol! Long time, no read! Welcome back! As Robert Goulet said, Maroons fans should be very happy with Jake Pancratz. He's a very solid recruit for this level.

[usee]

aplogies if this has been mentioned but there is a significant D3 hoops representation in this years NBA Finals between the Heat and the Mavs.

Randy Pfund is the General Manager for the Heat and Donnie Nelson is the GM for the Mavs. both are wheaton college basketball alums and were great CCIW players. Hasn't been much PR around this fact but wanted to throw it out there as a wheaton alum grudge match of sorts.   

[Gregory Sager]

NPU has a new president, David Parkyn. He was elected to the position yesterday afternoon at the Covenant Annual Meeting in Grand Rapids.

http://www.covchurch.org/cov/news/item4958.html

I haven't met the guy yet, and I don't know anything about his feelings with regard to intercollegiate sports, North Park's in particular. He was a long-time administrator at Messiah, though, and Messiah is a D3 men's soccer powerhouse with four national titles in this decade alone ... so if nothing else he should at least be comfortable at a school where men's soccer is the preeminent sport (which, sadly, describes NPU).

In other CCIW news, North Central has another pair of recruits listed on the www.chicagohoops.com site: Brandon Smith of Plainfield Central and David Twyman of Bolingbrook.

[matblake]

Here is North Park's new president's curriculum vitae.  http://www.northpark.edu/presidentialsearch/pdfs/Parkyn_Package_032906.pdf
Its not clear as for his feelings on sports, but a solid administrative and professorial background.  Looks to be a good choice from here.

[Titan Q]

Pete, good to hear from you.  Pancratz may be the highest profile recruit Chicago has landed since Derek Reich.  Since Chicago recruits nationally and I have no idea how "high profile" guys like Clay Carmody were coming out of high school, I may be off here...but I suspect Mike McGrath has landed a 4-year starter and future UAA star.

For anyone who has seen both play, I am curious how Pancratz compares to IWU point-guard recruit Sean Dwyer of Hersey H.S..  (I haven't seen either play.)

[dansand]

Here are some more "enlightened" comments about Division III coming out of the Birmingham-Southern situation. While I definitely feel empathy for kids who are having next year's season cancelled, I don't think Bucky McMillan has a very good idea about the D3 level of play. I don't recall any D3 teams losing games by 100 points to D1's recently.

Also, his comments about education vs. athletics wouldn't have surprised me if they had come from a future NBA pick at a D1 power; but coming from a kid playing at a 1400-student liberal arts college, they were a little surprising (at least to me).

http://www.al.com/bsc/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/sports/1150449882313530.xml&coll=2

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

He's three credits away from graduating.  This is exactly where that new proposal would come in to play.  He could take his class this summer, graduate and then play next year somewhere else for graduate work.

We've been looking for a situation where it might apply and we found one.

[Pistol Pete]

Bob, great to hear from you too.  My reaction to the team writeup was the same as yours -- possibly the best hoop news on the Midway since Reich.  And this is exactly the kind of guy that UC goes head to head against IWU in the recruiting wars nearly every year, with less success than I'd like!

Besides Pancratz, this fellow (from the writeup on the team website) sounds like a useful guy to have in the paint:

"Marek Kowalewski (Burbank, Ill./ Reavis) was a two-time all-conference selection for Reavis High School. The 6'6" Kowalewski averaged 14.5 points and 8.0 rebounds per game as a senior. A three-time letterwinner, Kowalewski graduated fifth in his class."

Any word on him?

[Titan Q]

Bob, great to hear from you too.  My reaction to the team writeup was the same as yours -- possibly the best hoop news on the Midway since Reich.  And this is exactly the kind of guy that UC goes head to head against IWU in the recruiting wars nearly every year, with less success than I'd like!

Besides Pancratz, this fellow (from the writeup on the team website) sounds like a useful guy to have in the paint:

"Marek Kowalewski (Burbank, Ill./ Reavis) was a two-time all-conference selection for Reavis High School. The 6'6" Kowalewski averaged 14.5 points and 8.0 rebounds per game as a senior. A three-time letterwinner, Kowalewski graduated fifth in his class."

Any word on him?

Pete, IWU and Chicago certainly do go head to head often on Chicago area kids with good grades/test scores.  It seems to me that IWU competes with Chicago, Wash U, and lately the Patriot League as much or more than any other CCIW school.  In the last 5 years or so, Lawrence has crept into the picture as well.  LU recruited Chris and Cory Jones and Brian Nussbaum.

I'm interested to see how the careers of Pancratz and Dwyer go, because IWU did not recruit the kid Chicago got and Chicago did not recruit the kid IWU got.  Both schools got their point-guard.

Unfortunately I do not know anything about the new Maroon from Reavis.

[petemcb]

Q, as an MSL fan, my vote would go to Dwyer over Pancratz.  I see Dwyer as stronger-minded/willed and probably a better team leader.  While both players come from good bloodlines with older brothers having noteworthy high school careers themselves, I feel that Dwyer may have earned his rep himself more than Pancratz, who benefitted from a brother and father who many people were aware played at the D1 level.  I think Dwyer is probably physically stronger as well.  Having said all this, Pancratz would be a great pickup for any CCIW team as well and I don't mean to minimize his abilities.  I'm just trying to draw a comparison between these two solid players and the differences I refer to are not great. 

[emeritusprof]

Happy Father's Day!

On that note, there are 29 players in MLB who followed Dad into the majors.  Can anyone out there name five?

[Ralph Turner]

Angel (Bing) Aragon and Jack Aragon
Barry Bonds and Bobby Bonds
Dolf Camilli and Doug Camilli
Herm Doscher and Jack Doscher
Jim Eschen and Larry Eschen

[Knightstalker]

Gus Bell, Buddy Bell and I can't remember the kids name.
Sandy Alomar Sr., Sandy Alomar Jr., Roberto Alomar.
Ray Boone (I think Ray), Bob Boone, Aaron Bleeping Boone, Bret Boone.
Ken Griffey, Ken Griffey Jr.
Tony Perez, Eduardo Perez.
Hal McRae, Bryan McRae
Jeff Burroughs, Sean Burroughs

I decided to add the two three generation families that I knew off the top of my head.