MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Mr. Ypsi]

Chariots of Fire is one of my all-time favorite movies.

Pat, I did misunderstand the d3 red-shirting rule.  But, while I have no doubt that Kent Raymond is clean, do they have any enforcement policy in place to see that other year-off players have in fact not practiced with the team?

[True Basketball Fan]

All of the non-Wheaton fans are hoping that Raymond's second coming is NOT like Chris Martin's.   

[Jim Matson]

Raymond's talent is so fundamentally strong and centered that I think he stands a good chance of playing better than he did 2 years ago.  Yeah, this sounds crazy, but Kent's style reminds me of a D3 Larry Bird.

[Pat Coleman]

Chariots of Fire is one of my all-time favorite movies.

Pat, I did misunderstand the d3 red-shirting rule.  But, while I have no doubt that Kent Raymond is clean, do they have any enforcement policy in place to see that other year-off players have in fact not practiced with the team?

Good question. And I don't know the answer, sorry.

[Jim Matson]

Maybe someone already mentioned this, but this new player for Wheaton, Ben Panner, may see some playing time as a back-up for Raymond.  He is a 6-3 shooting guard who played well in 5A ball in Texas, winning his region's MVP.  He was ranked as the 75th best HS player in Texas in 2005, his senior year.

Of course, we have all had our experiences with transfers and we all know that rarely do they make the expected  impact in this league.  Yet since he didn't play ball his freshman year at UT-Austin, he shouldn't really be considered a transfer (??).

[Gregory Sager]

Raymond's talent is so fundamentally strong and centered that I think he stands a good chance of playing better than he did 2 years ago.  Yeah, this sounds crazy, but Kent's style reminds me of a D3 Larry Bird.

Raymond is a guard, not a forward. I'd say that Raymond is more like a D3 Jerry West -- except that I'm not old enough to really remember Jerry West as a player. 

Since he's an Indiana kid, perhaps we should just consider him a D3 Steve Alford. 

Of course, we have all had our experiences with transfers and we all know that rarely do they make the expected impact in this league.  Yet since he didn't play ball his freshman year at UT-Austin, he shouldn't really be considered a transfer (??).

That doesn't necessarily matter. He'll be a freshman in terms of eligibility, but he's still a transfer student. NPU has had a couple of those in recent years, Erik Shiplov and Eric Samuelson. Both came to NPU without ever having played a game at their original schools, so they were freshmen -- but the fact that they began college somewhere else also made them transfers. I guess that what I'm saying is that you can be both a freshman and a transfer. If the CCIW gave out a Newcomer of the Year Award, Panner might be doubly eligible to win it. 

Ed Whitaker came to NPU last year without ever having played at his original school (Northern Illinois), either, but since he spent two years as a student at NIU he had sophomore eligibility last season.

[dansand]

Since the discussion has returned to hoops (great news for Wheaton BTW), here's the recruiting list:

Augustana:
Brandon Carleton, 6-6 Moline
Brian Larson, 6-1 Pleasant Valley (IA)
Kyle Waller, 6-4 DeKalb
Curt Steckel, 6-7 Central City (IA)
Brett Spenner, 6-7 Hoffman Estates
Josh Doetch, 5-11 North Boone
Matt Pelton, 6-1 Bloomington Central Catholic
Terrence Green, 6-9 Chicago King

Carthage:
Eric Moore, 6-4 Neuqua Valley
Steve Ideran, 6-3 Batavia

Elmhurst:
Aaron Hintzsche, 6-5 Kirkland Hiawatha
Mitch Blair, 6-1 St. Joseph-Ogden
Chris Childs, 5-11 Barrington
Matt Duntemann, 6-5 Rolling Meadows
Dustin Bainter, 6-2 Macomb

Illinois Wesleyan:
Sean Dwyer, 5-11 Hersey
Elias Washington, 6-2 Grayslake
Matthew Wittig, Astoria

Millikin:
Robert Rexroade, 6-8 Seneca
Zach Ott, 6-7 East Peoria
Robert Burton, 6-5 Homewood-Flossmoor
Heath Houser, 6-5 Macon-Meridian
Joscar Demby, 6-6 Romeoville

North Central:
Ryan Ambrose, 5-11 Twin Lakes Badger (WI)
Reid Barringer, 6-0 Sycamore
Kyle Fiedorowicz, 6-8 Johnsburg
Dan Grendel, 6-5 Independence (OH)
Adam Hamilton, 5-11 Beardstown
Pat Morris, 6-4 Hinsdale Central
Alex Newlin, 6-5 Decatur Eisenhower
Brandon Smith, 6-1 Plainfield Central
David Twyman, 6-2 Bolingbrook

North Park:
Joe Capalbo, 5-10 Crystal Lake Central
Nick Williams, 6-5 Niles North
Cyrus Shelton, 6-2 Moline/Southeastern CC
Dan Oziminski, 5-11 Johnsburg
Lukas Dahlstrom, 6-1 Hanover, NH
Frank Theodorakakis, 6-6 Niles West

Wheaton:
Jesse Viars, 6-1 Ridgeville Christian (OH)
John Pietkiewicz, 6-2 Winter Park (FL)
Marcus Sun, 6-3 Santa Fe Christian School (CA)
David Eseke, 6-4 Laguna Blanca (CA)
Drew Olson, 6-1 Wheaton Warrenville South
Brad Smith, 6-5 Holdrege (NE)
Stephen Young, 6-3 Pulaski Academy (AR)
Ben Panner, 6-3 Austin Bowie (TX)

If anyone has any info, feel free to add (or subtract).

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

yessssssssssssssssss

Best response ever.

Just to chime in on Raymond's hiatus, to me it may not be a totally religious thing.  I've seen plenty of players who left the team to get their life back in control (too stressed, family problems, grades, etc) and expected never again to play.  However, with a year of time, they got their discipline and schedule together and were able to come back and play.  If basketball had taken over too much of Raymond's life, it's not unlikely that he got things back together in a year.  Whether you get the religion part of it or not, I think we should all be able to understand that.

[Titan Q]

Guess that makes the 2007 1st Team...


Zach Freeman (IWU)
Nick Michael (Elmhurst)
Kent Raymond (Wheaton)
Anthony Simmons (North Central)
Daniel Walton (North Central)

[markerickson]

Rus Bradburd, a guard on three NPC championship teams, served as an assistant coach at DI New Mexico State for both Don Haskins and Lou "Doo" Henson.  Bradburd then worked as a head coach in the professional Irish League where his team went from worst to first ala the 1991 MN Twins.  Coach Bradburd has written a book about his Irish coaching days. 

Available at Amazon is Paddy on the Hardwood:  A Journey in Irish Hoops

[oldknight]

Raymond's talent is so fundamentally strong and centered that I think he stands a good chance of playing better than he did 2 years ago.  Yeah, this sounds crazy, but Kent's style reminds me of a D3 Larry Bird.

I wouldn't say you sound crazy, though I would say the comparison is a bit misguided. I saw Raymond play against Calvin when they squeaked by the Thunder on the road (literally and figuratively) to the Knight's 2005 Final Four tournament run to Salem, and I came away very impressed. Raymond struck me as both very talented and very mature for a college freshman (though by that game he had already played about 25 times for Wheaton) and is the type of player I would like to have on my team anytime. If you are going to use an NBA player as a point of comparison I would suggest that Raymond is really very similar to Richard Hamilton in style, although Greg Sager's choice of Steve Alford is rather apt too. All of these players move(d) well without the ball.

[Mugsy]

Interesting article with an example of how D3 athletes can impact professional sports - the NBA Finals in this case.

http://www.wheaton.edu/Athletics/

Click on the "Wheaton and the NBA Finals" link.

[diehardfan]

Interesting article with an example of how D3 athletes can impact professional sports - the NBA Finals in this case.

It's actually a pretty fun story. But what would be even more fun, is if we could get ahold of some of those throwback jerseys those guys are wearing in their pics and make this years guys wear them.

I love that you still have that as your signature, incidentally.

Raymond struck me as both very talented and very mature for a college freshman.. and is the type of player I would like to have on my team anytime

Yeah, no doubt. I think Wheaton fans are pretty stinking lucky year in and year out to get guys like him. I love that Raymond's so disciplined and is totally not about the showboating. He's completely unassuming, there's no selfish bravado, and only gets attention because his game demands it. The second part of your statement is how I always felt about Amelianovich, and for the same reasons too.

It's really fun to have him back.  8)

Best response ever.

Yeah, well...  That's a product of all the nervous energy that built up when someone was kind enough to tell me about it in exchange for sitting on it until it was publicized.

It was ever harder than sitting on the fact that IWU's Jimmy Lehan was finally going to start (that @ Augie game halfway through his senior year), after months and months and months of me campaigning for it, and all you people repeatedly calling me an idiot about it.  And that's saying a lot, let me tell you! 

I'm glad you enjoyed my youthful exuberance. 

[Mugsy]

It's actually a pretty fun story. But what would be even more fun, is if we could get ahold of some of those throwback jerseys those guys are wearing in their pics and make this years guys wear them.

I don't think the jerseys would be the problem.  It's the shorts - emphasis on "SHORT".  Definitely before the "baggy" shorts era.

[Titan Q]

If I had to compare Kent Raymond to an NBA player, I think I'd go with Kirk Hinrich of the Bulls.  Very similar styles.  Both quick and really active...great shooters...very intelligent on the floor.

During Raymond's freshman year I compared his game to Korey Coon's.  I posted here that Raymond had a chance to be every bit as good as the 2000 Josten's winner/D3hoops.com 1st Team All-American.  He has a chance to be a 3-time All-American...I think he is that good.