MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Titan Q]

Here is a video of Keelan Amelianovich making a 3 in a recent game in Spain...

http://www.iwuhoops.com/Kee3.wmv

(Apparently the team media guy likes the Pussycat Dolls.)

Keelan has started the last two games, scoring 11 and 19 and making 4 of 5 3's.  He made the winning FT's in their last game.  It sounds like he is settling in nicely.

It looks like his team has a ton of size.  Keelan (back, left) is 6-6 and is dwarfed by some of the other guys in the back row of this photo...

http://basketballinspain.blogspot.com/

[ecdubb420]

word from the Elmhurst camp is that Scherer wants to play an up-tempo offense this season.  This sounds odd as they need to utilize their size, but then again Michael doesn't move like a normal 6'10" player.  That and Ruch keeps getting better from those knee surgeries he had in high school (hence the duel braces), so running wouldn't be out of the question.  Besides that, it looks like Burks is the starter at 2, with Bacon (coming off an ankle injury) as the only other experienced guard.  If strzemp play up to his potential this team could mirror NCC (except with an All-CCIW caliber player at point guard).
On a side note, Chris Martin is currently playing and staring in Luxembourg for the first place T71 team.  His 22.6ppg currently rank 8th in the league.  Not bad for a kid who was ready to start working in banking this fall.  Congrats to chris who is the first EC player to play overseas.
On another side note, Coach Scherer has tapped NCC alum Dan Doyle to be our assistant coach taking the place of departed Troy Forbes.  A coaching staff with IWU and NCC alums, that is hard to swallow, but if Doyle is anything like Baines and Scherer (or forbes), I look forward to seeing him on the sidelines.

[Gregory Sager]

Don't forget to join in the CCIW pick'ems contest this season. Check it out in the CCIW pick'ems room.

word from the Elmhurst camp is that Scherer wants to play an up-tempo offense this season.  This sounds odd as they need to utilize their size

It doesn't sound merely "odd". It sounds like madness. If you're a D3 coach and you've got a 6'10, 235 player and a 6'9, 250 player in your starting lineup, why in the world would you ever do anything other than play a strict halfcourt game and use all the time necessary on every possession to get the ball into the post? Running up and down the floor all night takes an asset that Elmhurst has that probably no other team on this level has -- two D1-sized bigs in the starting lineup, two legitimately talented and skilled D1-sized bigs who can do more than walk and chew gum at the same time -- and throws it out the window.

I can't believe that Mark Scherer, who is by no means a foolish man, would be so shortsighted as to squander his team's best advantage. I'll believe that Elmhurst is playing an uptempo game when I see it for myself.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

See, Sager, that is the kind of mentality that all of us East Coast people laugh at.  (For the sake of self-disclosure, in the past, it has also been the kind of mentality that we lose to in March.)

If your bigs can run, it only makes sense.  The downfall of a running team is when an opponent is skilled enough to make them slow down, with legitimate bigs, you cancel that advantage out completely.  Now if the guys are stiffs and slow, then it's stupid, but if they can move decently well, they make for great starts to the break and since there's two of them, they can trade off duty as the trail man and not get so tired.  I see a lot of possibilities here for a creative coach.

[ecdubb420]

i was also surprised to hear of elmhurst being a more uptempo team as it really goes away from the last ten years of a half-court motion offense that scherer has run.  but then again, i have to take this information seriously as it is coming from someone who rarely misreads the team. 
Then again, with Lee, Bacon, Strzemp, Michael and Ruch, this team could have the athleticism and versatility that could make this idea work.  should be exciting to watch if that is the case. 
any plans for the CCIW ingame updates to continue this season?  if so, great, if not, can someone provide links to where to listen to each teams games (just in case all are not included on d3hoops site).

[Mr. Ypsi]

I have no doubt that the CCIW in-game board will back in service this season (it's still there).  Even with internet 'streams', it is difficult to impossible to adequately track 4 (during conference season) or more games simultaneously!

Besides, for those who can't make it to the games themselves, how else can we commiserate (or celebrate) in real time with friends and/or 'virtual friends'!

[Gregory Sager]

See, Sager, that is the kind of mentality that all of us East Coast people laugh at.  (For the sake of self-disclosure, in the past, it has also been the kind of mentality that we lose to in March.)

If your bigs can run, it only makes sense.  The downfall of a running team is when an opponent is skilled enough to make them slow down, with legitimate bigs, you cancel that advantage out completely.  Now if the guys are stiffs and slow, then it's stupid, but if they can move decently well, they make for great starts to the break and since there's two of them, they can trade off duty as the trail man and not get so tired.  I see a lot of possibilities here for a creative coach.

"Run" is a relative term, HF. Michael is decently mobile for his size (Ruch certainly wasn't, but supposedly he is now -- I'm taking a wait-and-see attitude towards that declaration), but he's certainly no gazelle. Neither player is someone who is built to race back and forth 94 feet for 30 to 35 minutes a night. And we most assuredly aren't talking about someone who can handle the ball in the open court in either player's case; and having at least one big man who can do that is important if you're going to be a good uptempo team that runs for forty minutes a game, since not every break goes according to textbook form.

Last year I never saw Elmhurst do any secondary-break stuff in the post with either man the way that, say, Illinois Wesleyan did with Zach Freeman. Of course, Elmhurst had the most dangerous open-court player in the league last year in Mr. Coast-To-Coast (Chris Martin), so there wasn't much need for an Elmhurst big man to beat his opposite number down the floor and get a smaller defender on his hip down in the blocks.

If you've got Strzemp playing the four (which is his best position, not the three where he is actually likely to play), then Elmhurst is really set up to run from a physical standpoint. With Michael and Ruch in the game at the same time? Not so much. Mark Scherer is doing the rest of the league a favor if he tries to push the ball up the floor and quicken the pace with the two of them in the game.

As ECdubb420 mentions, the Bluejays have traditionally run a halfcourt motion offense. This is a perfect setup for Ruch and Michael to play in the same lineup, since you can run a double-post variation of the motion with the weak-side post flashing ball-side elbow or breaking weak-side elbow (depending upon how the ball-side post is defended), and it converts easily to a high-low set if the other team goes zone (and if I were Scherer, I'd expect to see a lot of zones played against my team).

[markerickson]

I hope to see NPU employ an up-tempo offense.  Having a skilled point guard pushing the ball forward while several players, e.g., Jay Alexander, Jason Gordon, and Glen Woodside, running the floor is a better avenue than trying to bang in the paint.  I'm looking forward to some highlight dunks (but don't hang on the rim!).

[Knightstalker]

Three years ago NJCU played Lycoming in the NCAA's and NJCU ran Lycos twin trees into the ground.  The "trees" as they were called could run some, but could not keep up with NJCU.  That year NJCU ran more than one opponent into the ground.  In the sweet sixteen Amherst was able to slow down NJCU's running game with bigs that could run.

[Gregory Sager]

Opening night is finally here! Best of luck to all seven CCIW teams that are playing this weekend, especially the Vikings of NPU as they tip off the 2006-07 season down in the city of Ocho Cinco.

[Titan Q]

Welcome to the 2006-07 season!  Here's to another exciting, competitive, and entertaining season in the College Conference of Illinois in Wisconsin and to another year of intelligent discussion (well, mostly intelligent) and spirited debate here on D3hoops.com. Best of luck to all CCIW players, coaches, and fans as we get things kicked off this weekend.

[Titan Q]

IWU opens with Clarke tonight at the UW-Whitewater Tip-Off Tourney.  Clarke won the now defunct NIIC last year with an 11-1 record.  In non-conference play, the Crusaders lost by 6 pts to Augustana, by 1 to Wheaton, and defeated UW-Stevens Point.  Clarke graduated its 4 and 5 players, but returns leading scorer DeMonte Bynum (18.0 ppg), a 5-10 point-guard.  The other game tonight has Whitewater hosting Martin Luther. 

I will be working with play-by-play man Eric Stock this season.  The WJBC pregame coverage starts at 4:45 for the 5:00pm tip. 


A few links, including today's Pantagraph article:

http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2006/11/16/sports/121009.txt

http://www.iwuhoops.com/notes07.htm

http://www.wjbc2.com/

[robberki]

Yes, good luck to all teams this season. Hopefully the NPU Vikings will be looking to "restore the order" on the CCIW landscape. I, for one, welcome our new Viking overlords and would like to take this time to remind them that I would be a perfect choice to select workers for their underground salt mines.

[augiefan]

Augie had very balanced scoring and virtually everybody played. Nate Swetalla was the only Viking in double figures with 12. It looks like a real team effort will have to do it this year.

By the way I must have dozed off during the offseason. Where did Mike Kolze end up, as I see he is not at Augie any longer. I thought he would have been a star in the CCIW by his junior year.

[Gotberg]

According to Mount St. Joseph's website, NPU lost 82-80, in OT.