MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[AndOne]

Here's my shot at preseason preductions for the CCIW:

1. NCC
2. IWU
3. Augie
4. Wheaton
5. Elmhurst
6. Carthage
7. Millikin
8. NPU

After NCC I think the league is pretty balanced with IWU, Augie and Elmhurst losing some incredibly talented athletes from last season. I suggest we have another go at it once the nonconference season ends, since injuries to key players and surprising newcomers always seem to impact teams as the season progresses.

Augie---

I think you can leave out the "after NCC." The league seems pretty balanced as a whole. Don't forget, NCC lost Tiesing who was as fast with the ball as many players are without it and who really made the attack go, and Vicario who played very smart and always kept defenses honest with his ability to drop a 3 at any moment. Together, they also provided a lot of senior leadership and kept the Cardinals focused. These were big factors in last season's success. Now Walton, Krumtinger, & Simmons must assume the leadershio role as well as continue their stellar play.

[augiefan]

I think Millikin is better than in recent years, but it's kind of a stretch to pick them 2nd IMHO. Maybe the guy in Wisconsin doesn't follow any of the CCIW but Carthage that closely.

I think picking Wheaton 7th is way off base as well, and I think Augie is at least a 1st division team. Dansand and I will have a rough season on this board, if Augie is 5th and doesn't even make the conference tourney.

[BeastMaster]

Being a Millikin fan, I am somewhat biased, but also realistic.  I can honestly see the Big Blue finishing in the middle of the pack this season. I think that 3-6 is realistic because there is quite a bit of inexperience.  I think that NCC and Wheaton are the cream of the crop this season with Augie, Elmhurst, Millikin, and IWU interchangeable in the middle rounding out with NP and Carthage.  I think people are really underestimating Millikin and they have coming back, possibly the best guard in the conference and also two contributing seniors, Mike Gavic and Bryon Graven coming back from injury.  Millikin to me, is a dangerous team, hince last years wins against Elmhurst and Augie.  I think a lot will be played out in the upcoming weeks as to who is a contender and who is a pretender.  I LOVE THE CCIW!!!!

[BeastMaster]

On another note, Millikin beat Greenville by 40 in there last scrimmage on Friday night.  Very balanced scoring with 6 or 7 players in double figures.  The young kids looked good in the post and the guards played good as well.  MU travels to MacMurray on Saturday to open the season.

[tjcummingsfan]

with all due respect, I think you have to say Millikin "could be a dangerous team."  sure, they beat augie and elmhurst last year, but they also got swept by North Park...  i think with that in mind, it just adds to the evenness of this conference this year.  i would bet that the conference champ won't have better than a 9-5 record, with the bottome team being 4-10.  it'll make it real interesting to see if any CCIW teams make any noise in the tourney this year...

[cardinalpride]

with all due respect, I think you have to say Millikin "could be a dangerous team."  sure, they beat augie and elmhurst last year, but they also got swept North Park...  i think with that in mind, it just adds to the evenness of this conference this year.  i would bet that the conference champ won't have better than a 9-5 record, with the bottome team being 4-10.  it'll make it real interesting to see if any CCIW teams make any noise in the tourney this year...

TJ, I'll have to disagree with you about a 9-5 record winning the conference.  Since 1947, NO team has ever won the CCIW with 5 losses.  As a matter of fact, during the 14 game schedule era dating back to 1993, no team with more than 3 losses has ever won the league.  IMHO, I don't see that changing this year either.   

[Greek Tragedy]

Grossman sucks.  If the Bears want to win the Super Bowl this year, now would be the time to make a trade.

Trade deadline passed.  This isn't baseball where there is a trade deadline and then there are trades after the trade deadline (apparently, the nonwaiver trade deadline or whatever).  Grossman looked decent tonight.

[Mr. Ypsi]

with all due respect, I think you have to say Millikin "could be a dangerous team."  sure, they beat augie and elmhurst last year, but they also got swept North Park...  i think with that in mind, it just adds to the evenness of this conference this year.  i would bet that the conference champ won't have better than a 9-5 record, with the bottome team being 4-10.  it'll make it real interesting to see if any CCIW teams make any noise in the tourney this year...

TJ, I'll have to disagree with you about a 9-5 record winning the conference.  Since 1947, NO team has ever won the CCIW with 5 losses.  As a matter of fact, during the 14 game schedule era dating back to 1993, no team with more than 3 losses has ever won the league.  IMHO, I don't see that changing this year either.   

I'll have to agree with cp.  I recall that 3 years ago we felt the same way (though I think it was 10-4, not 9-5).  Then the 'baby Titans' (4 sophs [3 of whom were JV the year before] and a senior [who had never started before])  nearly ran the table (setting up the grandiose expectations that even last year's national 3rd place finish still didn't quite fulfill).

While I obviously hope that the Titans will be the breakout team, I'm withholding any predictions until after November and December.  But I WILL predict that someone will go 12-2 (perhaps even 13-1), while someone will 'crash and burn', going 2-12 (perhaps even 1-13).  The CCIW is VERY balanced, but mainly in the middle, though nearly every year a 'bottom dweller' bites a contender.

[cardinalpride]

NCC handles Beloit in friday's scrimmage 98-70.  NCC won the 1st half 43-31, they took the second half 53-35, and they won the third 20min. by double digits as well.  I didn't hear any information on individual stats to report.   

[veterancciwfan]

I know its too early to make sensible predictions, but I would be surprised if the CCIW regular season champ loses more than 3 league games, and my hunch is that the champ will be NCC. Raridon, in my opinion, is the best offensive coach in the league. He will figure out a way for NCC to average about 80-85 points game in league play. His teams remind me a lot of Bridges' coached IWU teams. They just outscore you, even if your team has a good shooting night. I see Wheaton as a strong contender. The middle is bunched with Elmhurst, Augie, IWU & Millikin, in no particuar order. The league can't be as strong as last year. A Final 4 appearance for the CCIW in March is unlikely.

I saw a little of the Blackburn scrimmage Friday. Their gym is almost as dark as Hampden-Sydney's and the rims were rock hard. It was not conducive to a good scoring effort. From what I was told, IWU won both the first and second 10 minute scrimmages and scored in the low 20s each time. I saw the next 10 minute scrimmage. Zach Freeman did not play in it nor did Andrew Gilmore. From the little I saw, I thought Andrew Freeman and Darius Gant played well and Tyler Smith did a lot of little things well like getting good defensive rebounding position and making smart passes. I also liked the energy of Jordan Morris. He  plays all out all of time, makes some good passes and moves well on defense. I think IWU has more potential than I originally imagined. The key will be keeping Z. Freeman and Andrew Gilmore healthy and getting some low post defensive and rebounding help for Z. Freeman so he doesn't get 3 fouls in the first half. I wouldn't be surprised if Andrew Freeman winds up playing some at post with Tyler Smith getting extra time at the 3. Let the season begin.

[hopefan]

Amusing, "dynasty22" tells a totally different story on the sliac page regarding the "winner" of the Blackburn - IWU scrimmage than veterancciwfan does above  -  who to believe?

[Gregory Sager]

You still write checks? Hey Greg, 1993 called and they want their method of payment back! ZING!

It's just easier than doing it online, because I always keep my checkbook in the drawer right next to my fountain pen and my abacus.

[Gregory Sager]

I was at Saturday's NPU vs. Dominican scrimmage on the McCarrell Court in the Helwig Center, and I was not pleased with what I saw. Dominican won both varsity halves, 35-29 and 37-35, while NPU breezed to victory in the JV half, 35-23. What made the results particularly discouraging was the fact that Dominican was missing two starters, SG Ivano Clay and C Mike Haiduk.

The two varsity halves were essentially even, as both were tied going into the final minute. NPU was victimized both times in the final minute by miscommunication and poor situational awareness, which the coaches will no doubt rectify. The scores themselves weren't so much the problem as was the fact that the Stars played the Vikings to a standstill in spite of the fact that they were understrength.

The key problem was with NPU's bigs. To put it bluntly, they played terribly. Haiduk's replacement, sophomore Dan Borys, stands only 6'4, 220 -- and yet he scored 27 points against the Vikings, and generally looked like a sawed-off Luke Moo in doing so. It was embarrassing to watch. If a 6'4 scrub from an NAC team manages to score 27 points in the blocks against NPU, how in the heck are the Vikings going to defend the likes of Simmons, Krumtinger, Swetalla, Freeman, Wiele, Ruch, Michael, etc? The closest to competent of NPU's 4s and 5s was Stephano Jones, who scored eight points, but he's the big man that worries me the most for the Park. He's strong, physical, athletic, and has a nice touch around the basket, but he's still only 6'4. Some years you can get away with a 6'4, 235 center, but this year he'll have to deal with giving up four to six inches to his opponent most nights in CCIW play -- and that's a serious problem for him at both ends of the floor.

The other problem was NPU's shooting. The Vikings connected on only 43% of their shots, 31% of their trey attempts, and an execrable 57% from the free-throw line. They weren't taking bad shots from the field, either; they simply missed on a lot of basic, often wide-open, looks. Over the past several seasons North Park has been an abysmal shooting team, and until they begin to rectify that the Vikings will remain stuck at the bottom of the CCIW.

Part of the problem was the absence of Mike Church. He didn't play in the varsity halves at all, and he saw a modest amount of time in the JV half. He's been hampered by an ankle injury, and it showed; he didn't look as though he was getting much push-off on his jumpshots, and he appeared to be a step slow on D. He does look like a hustler, though, which I liked; some shooters are so one-dimensional that they can be a liability if they aren't hitting their shots, and that doesn't appear to be the case with Church.

Paul Brenegan is still tinkering with the rotation at this point. He played thirteen different players in the varsity halves, and while NPU's ragged performance isn't really excusable it still must be stated that he left Jason Gordon, Sheldon Evans, and Jay Alexander on the bench for long stretches while he looked at other people, and that's not going to happen in a regular-season game situation. Indeed, for at least one stretch of the varsity action he had no fewer than four freshmen (Antonio Stevens, Joe Capalbo, Glen Woodside, and Nick Williams) on the floor at the same time.

Positives? Sheldon Evans, first and foremost. The guy is a player. He has what it takes to be a premier point guard on this level, and I'm excited about the fact that NPU will have him around for two years while all of the various freshmen guards mature a little more. He's fast, has tremendous instincts, and he is one of those scoring PGs who nevertheless doesn't appear to be selfish with the ball. He's a terrific defender, both on and off the ball, and he has the handles to go with his speed. He led the Vikings with 15 points in the scrimmage, and it was clear that Dominican had no one who could even come close to matching up with him.

Alexander (nine points) and Gordon (seven points) had mixed results, but they're proven veterans and I don't worry about them. If anything, Gordon's game should blossom now that he's playing his true position of SG and has a dynamic PG next to him to set him up. Alexander just needs to keep working hard on his perimeter shooting and his defense; he already has a high-level floor game and strong rebounding skills for a CCIW small forward.

Williams is someone who could very well end up having a superlative CCIW career. He's a rangy 6'5 small forward with great athleticism, instincts, and hustle. He was the most impressive freshman on the floor for NPU. Capalbo played quite a bit and had the quintessential bad-play-followed-by-good-play-followed-by-bad-play performance you'd expect to see from a freshman in a preseason scrimmage. He's got a good future, too, although I'd like to see him and Dan Oziminski both play JV and have a chance to get a little physically stronger. However, with Keith Willert out until January with a stress fracture in his leg, it appears that one or both of them might get some varsity tick in non-conference play. The coaches love Antonio Stevens, but he banged his head on the floor and missed much of the scrimmage and didn't have much of an impact.

It could be argued that NPU was overly complacent in playing a team from a lesser league, just as UW-Whitewater had been the week before against the Vikings. Fair enough, but the Vikings were in no position to assume a superior attitude going into Saturday's scrimmage. For one thing, the Stars dominated them in last year's scrimmage in River Forest. For another, no team coming off of a 4-21 season can justifiably assume a superior attitude against anybody.

The Vikings clearly have a lot more talent than they've had for the past few seasons. But this scrimmage raised more questions for me than were answered. They've got four more days to iron out the problems before the opener against Mt. St. Joseph in Cincy, but at this point it appears to me that the Vikes are going to be a work in progress far beyond this upcoming weekend.

[petemcb]

Greg, I saw no mention of Lenoir.  Was he around for the scrimmage, and how did he look?  I thought we might hear some big things about him.

[petemcb]

How about:

1) Augie
2) NCC
3) Elmhurst
4) Wheaton
5) IWU
6) Milliking
7)Carthage
8)NPU