MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[ecdubb420]

Solid win for the BlueJays last night.  Never really much of a game after EC held IIT to 4 points in a 12 minute span during the first half.  The reason this wasn't a 20 point win for the men of EC is that IIT inexplicably began fouling EC every possession from 2:15 in (explaining the amount of points and free throw attempts in the second half).  The game dipped below double digits once in the second half and that was with less than a minute to play.  Simply put, this game was never in doubt, just took way to long to finish.
Good news for EC:
1) Pat Bacon returned and was everywhere, he looked more poised than ever, but for the first time in his career isn't fighting for minutes and having to impress Scherer.  Was more controlled with the ball and was hands down the most aggressive player on the court.
2) EC bench.  The rotation of Aloisio, Sayre, Hintzsche, Bacon and Michael/Ryder played the majority of the second half.  This was not because the game was a blowout and Scherer wanted to see this rotation, but simply put they outplayed the starters.  They were more aggressive and looked like they were all fighting for playing time, which instead of leading to a bunch of pressing players, led to a very solid and cohesive unit.  12 players saw playing time, something seen in the past few years by Scherer in the past, but instead of garbage time they played extended minutes during the majority of the second half.
3) Freshman contributions.  Childs and Ryder played very well and each showed nice touch from beyond the arc.  EC was 5-9 from three point range and did all that with Ryan Burks being held to 2 points.
4) Inside scoring.  For some inexplicable reason, Ruch and Michael were left man-to-man all night.  The result 36 points.  EC did show they could shoot the mid-range/outside jumper, but when a team doubles down on mark aloisio each time he got an inside touch but not michael or ruch, you know the scouting and in game adjustments were not being made.

Room for improvement
1) Streaky Rebounding.  EC was getting killed off the glass in strectches and this led to a few IIT runs.  Aloisio and Bacon really helped clear the glass, and Michael took over in the last five minutes, but they gave up seven offensive boards in the first half.
2) Backcourt play comes back to earth.  Burks and Lee sat on the bench for virtually the whole second half and were 25 points under their scoring average.  At times in the huddle you could see that Burks was dying to come in, but was not given the call.  Got six great looks in the first half, but tonight was just not his night.  Lee just had an off night, he never really got into the flow of the game and was rushing some outside shots.  Made some very suspect passes in the first half, but hell, everyone has some bad games.  This game was more in the EC mold anyway with dominating play by the frontcourt.

Big game vs. Osh-Kosh on Tuesday.  First real test of the season for EC, but they have been historically really tough at home this early in the season.

[Cardsfan4life]

I wonder if North Central will be able to beat Lincoln when the teams meet up in Orlando. What are some of your thoughts?

[sac]

Lincoln can't take any of those 201 point with them.

My guess is a North Central intramural squad could play better than OSU-Marion.  Interesting matchup though.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Greg,

Thanks for the post on 'worst championship records' - like I said, SOMEONE will probably break through and go 12-2 or 11-3, but I wouldn't be at all surprised to see the 14-game 'record' broken this year.  Based on the (very) early results, having 1-3 teams win with 4 losses (5 IS a stretch!) would not be a surprise.

BTW, I did not TOTALLY write off NPU - I said 'essentially' no chance for the title for NPU and Millikin!  (And also said even they would spoil some seasons.)  I think the chances of either one winning the regular season title are very slim, though I wouldn't rul out one or both making the tourney, in which case who knows on the AQ?! 

If NPU can really go from worst to first, more power to them!!  (As long as the Titans make the national tourney, of course!)

[cardinalpride]

I wonder if North Central will be able to beat Lincoln when the teams meet up in Orlando. What are some of your thoughts?

If NCC can defend the 3pt shot, rebound long misses, and keep turnovers down, they'll win easily!

[ac_fan]

I had heard a rumor that Oliver had broken a hand.

dansand,

Oliver is out with a broken pinky finger and not a broken hand. He is expected to miss 3-4 weeks. Let's pray for a speedy recovery because his role is pretty significant for Augie this year. It looks like Chandler Collins will be seeing a lot more time now. Hopefully he can step up.

[Pat Coleman]

So a game against Calvin is an "out of region" game and a game against Whitworth is an "in region" game??

And this happens as a result of a change in the regional criteria?

was this supposed to be an improvement in the selection criteria??

I think whenever you draw lines on a map some things aren't going to be perfect. I mean, why is Beloit in Wisconsin and South Beloit in Illinois? They're so close together!

[AndOne]

I wonder if North Central will be able to beat Lincoln when the teams meet up in Orlando. What are some of your thoughts?

If NCC can defend the 3pt shot, rebound long misses, and keep turnovers down, they'll win easily!

If you ask Coach Raridon, I think he'd tell you it will take a little more to beat Lincoln.

[Gregory Sager]

Solid win for the BlueJays last night.

I'm not saying this to pick on you or the Bluejays, ECdubb, but IIT is a bad program that isn't exactly showing signs of turning it around this season, or at least the 2-6 Red Hawks haven't to this point. How solid a win could this be?

I'm looking forward to seeing Tuesday's Elmhurst game against UWO at Faganel. Now that would be a solid win, hands-down, no questions asked. 

Greg, I am not writing the CCIW off at all and certainly not overlooking the depth of this year's teams.  Just simply conveying my opinion that league probably does not have a team as good as those top 4 were last year.  I think there is a chance that 4 of the top 15 teams in the country last year were in this conference.

As the season plays out, we may find that the CCIW has four Top 25-caliber teams again this year.  My guess is that they are more in that 15-25 range though, as opposed to 1-15.  We'll see, maybe someone will emerge as a Top 5 type team.   

What happened this weekend in Kenosha really says it all about the CCIW -- this a tough league.

I don't want to belabor this. I understand what you're saying, and I think that you and I are largely in agreement about the overall state of the CCIW this year. My objection is to your use of rhetorical shorthand, inasmuch as when you said that the league is down you were using "league" to mean the top four teams from last year -- or, perhaps, any emergent top team (whoever it may turn out to be) from the CCIW in 2006-07. One complaint I have is that that's a confusing metonym (a figure of speech in which the word for a part is used as a substitute for the whole or, as in this case, the whole is used as a substitute for a part). The other is that any summary statements about the league (i.e., that it's "down") should take the league in its entirety into consideration.

I freely admit that part of my beef derives from the fact that NPU was one of the four teams that I thought were getting short shrift in your comments about the relative strength of the 2006-07 CCIW. But the bigger problem I have comes from the fact that I have always believed the strength of a league is measured from top to bottom rather than merely by the topmost tier. The reason why leagues such as the CCIW and the WIAC deserve respect, in my opinion, has as much to do with the gaudy non-conference records the leagues as a whole rack up -- signifying that even teams at the bottom can handle non-conference opponents on a regular basis and are above-average for D3 -- as it does with how the leagues perform in the big dance. Heck, if all we really cared about was the teams at the top, we'd be anointing the NCAC as a power conference. After all, few circuits in D3 can match the formidable 1-2 punch of Wittenberg and Wooster year in and year out.

BTW, I did not TOTALLY write off NPU - I said 'essentially' no chance for the title for NPU and Millikin!  (And also said even they would spoil some seasons.)  I think the chances of either one winning the regular season title are very slim, though I wouldn't rul out one or both making the tourney, in which case who knows on the AQ?!

I'm sure that your faint praise has touched the hearts of everyone in the Vikings locker room, Chuck.  It's like a Christmas gift that'll just keep on giving for weeks afterward.

I think whenever you draw lines on a map some things aren't going to be perfect. I mean, why is Beloit in Wisconsin and South Beloit in Illinois? They're so close together!

Speaking as someone who has had a lot more fun in South Beloit than he's ever had in Beloit, I've wondered the same thing myself -- but in different terms. I mostly wonder why South Beloit ever chose to reference itself to the burg across the border in much the same way that the Illinois bedroom communities of South Barrington, Barrington Hills, Lake Barrington, etc., all tried to glom onto the cachet of Chicago's tony NW suburb of Barrington. I mean, this is Beloit that we're talking about. It'd be like a town deciding that it wanted to call itself South Decatur. 

[dansand]

What about East Dubuque, IL?

[Gregory Sager]

What about East Dubuque, IL?

Another classic example.

Maybe the thing with East Dubuque and South Beloit is that they think connecting their town with one across the border means that Illinoisians might not get wise to the dubious implications of being linked to a down-at-the-heels Rust Belt dump.

I mean, if I was one of the town fathers, I'd be pushing to have East Dubuque renamed West Galena. And South Beloit should rename itself Holidome City. 

[David Collinge]

After all, few circuits in D3 can match the formidable 1-2 punch of Wittenberg and Wooster year in and year out.

Ahem, that's a formidable 2-1 punch. 

[Rock Chalk DuHawk]

North Park looked good on saturday night, blowing out Loras.  They have a post player that might be pretty tough to stop from Evanston and point guard who can really push it.  They are long and really seem to understand concepts.  Brenegan did a great job on saturday night.  Look for them to possibly surprise some teams this year.

[AndOne]

What about East Dubuque, IL?

As Mr. Sager has had a lot more fun in South Beloit than Beloit, I'm sure many people have had a lot more fun in East Dubuque than in Dubuque! 
Possibly, yourself included Dan? 

[REDMENFAN]

I know Carthage is playing two games in Las Vegas this year, and have gone to California and Hawaii in the recent past.  I'm curious to know where some of the other schools take a trip to in order to play some games and get in some warm weather for a a few days