MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[John Gleich]

That's meant as a witticism, of course, but it's not a statement of fact.  Even if Wheaton had, say, a magical wardrobe that transported people instantly to far off places  , Wheaton and Calvin are still more than 200 miles apart in the eyes of the NCAA. 

David, I wonder if you and I are the only non-Wheaties who understood this clever but extremely obscure reference of yours?

No, I got it, too, and I'm definitely a non-Wheatie.

I got it, but I'm FROM Wheaton originally... does that automatically disqualify me from being a non-Wheatie?

[David Collinge]

That's meant as a witticism, of course, but it's not a statement of fact.  Even if Wheaton had, say, a magical wardrobe that transported people instantly to far off places  , Wheaton and Calvin are still more than 200 miles apart in the eyes of the NCAA.

David, I wonder if you and I are the only non-Wheaties who understood this clever but extremely obscure reference of yours?

No, I got it, too, and I'm definitely a non-Wheatie.

I got it, but I'm FROM Wheaton originally... does that automatically disqualify me from being a non-Wheatie?

You don't say!  I was born in Wheaton myself.  As Mel Allen might say, how about that! 

BTW, it never occurred to me that Wheaton College's possession of the wardrobe that supposedly gave C.S. Lewis so much inspiration was an obscure fact.  It is, however, not an undisputed fact: Westmont College in Santa Barbara also claims it has possession of 'the' wardrobe.

[augiefan]

Elmhurst beat UW Oshkosh 55-52 on a Ryan Burk 3 pointer with 7 seconds to go. Nice win for the CCIW.

[veterancciwfan]

IWU wins 64-63. Z. Freeman with 25 points and 9 RBs. Nice game by Jordan Morris, the 6'3" soph. guard from Pekin HS, who was a 3rd team AA All-state player per IBCA. He does a lot of things well and will get better. Next is a Sat. matchup with Wash. U., only the 2nd game of the first 8 at Shirk. How can the school with 2nd best home attendance in D3 last season (2,470 per home game, 2nd to Hope @ 2,928) have a schedule so unfriendly to its fans? I can understand why no team wanted any part of IWU the last 2 years at Shirk. But in reality, the current schedule is very dependent on last year's schedule (home and away 2 year commitments).

[rknuppel]

Elmhurst beat UW Oshkosh 55-52 on a Ryan Burk 3 pointer with 7 seconds to go. Nice win for the CCIW.

NICE!!!! Way to go Burks!  That's a quality win for the Jays.  Burks led the way with 21 including 5-7 from 3 land.  Very low scoring game at 55-52.

[Titan Q]

I am in Columbia, Missouri and didn't see the IWU/ONU game, but here is the box...

http://web.olivet.edu/sports/Basketball/men/games/2006/mbb120506.htm

Sophomore guard Andrew Gilmore made two FT's with :11 to play to win the game.  Zach Freeman had another monster game - 25 & 9.

[Titan Q]

Final from Springfield...

Robert Morris-Springfield 94
Millikin 91

[Gregory Sager]

BTW, it never occurred to me that Wheaton College's possession of the wardrobe that supposedly gave C.S. Lewis so much inspiration was an obscure fact.  It is, however, not an undisputed fact: Westmont College in Santa Barbara also claims it has possession of 'the' wardrobe.

Wheaton and Westmont also each claim to have the Holy Grail in their archival collections. Unfortunately, all we have at NPU is a Grail-shaped beacon.

[AndOne]

Final from Springfield...

Robert Morris-Springfield 94
Millikin 91

Holy cow!
Another loss for the CCIW that I think the vast majority of us felt would be a Millikin win. Is it just me, or are some of you other guys at least a bit surprised at some of the CCIW losses so far?

[Gregory Sager]

Basketball is a funny game sometimes. Tonight I had the rare opportunity to watch two D3 squads that have D1-sized front lines -- and yet for much of the game the two best players on the floor were Pat Bacon and Brian Lee, two guys who are shorter than my own modest six-foot frame.

Lee and Bacon are quick, accomplished slashers, and for most of the first half and much of the second they were the key to Elmhurst's offense. UW-Oshkosh is not a bad team (although the Titans are ranked too highly at #14), but they are sloooow. Lee and Bacon sliced through them like a ginsu through meatloaf. Their drives mostly led to dish-offs that took advantage of the defense breaking down to stop them more than they did actual layups (although Lee had about four good drives to the basket that he converted), but it was clearly the secret to rattling UWO. In fact, Elmhurst leaned on Lee's driving to the basket as their main offensive weapon so heavily that towards the end of the game UWO packed in its 2-3 zone to present the 5'10 Bluejays PG with an impenetrable forest of black and gold -- and, with nine seconds left and the game tied at 52, it was this tightly-packed UWO zone that gave the uncontested 21-footer to (stop me if you've heard this one before, CCIW fans) some kid from Manito, IL named Ryan. Burks, that is.

A couple bat-aways on UWO inbound passes shaved the clock down to three seconds, which was not enough time for the Titans to get off a decent shot; reserve forward Jordan Johnson, who was most likely not Ted Van Dellen's first choice to take the potential game-tying shot, airballed it from 25 feet out and the Bluejays had won a very exciting game.

The battle of the bigs was slightly anticlimactic. The 7'1 monster for UWO, Kerry Gibson, did come on at the end of the game and do a nice job of asserting himself inside at the offensive end and swatting shots at the defensive end, but for most of the game he was a non-factor. Let's just say that for a guy that size he is a little lacking in the toughness department. UWO's best player is clearly 6'7, 240 forward Jim Capelle, who is an extremely versatile inside-outside scorer, but he didn't touch the ball enough to make as big a difference as he should've. Nick Michael was mostly invisible for Elmhurst, although he had three plays -- a block with the game tied at 48 with 4:39 left, a nice turnaround leaner that tied the game at 52 with 2:49 left, and the big defensive rebound with :45 left that set up Burks's game-winner -- that illustrate why it's so important for the senior to be on the floor in crunch time even when he's having an off-night. Brent Ruch was the best big man on the floor tonight for either team. He's gonna be a load for any CCIW opponent to handle this season.

I was mystified as to why Van Dellen didn't have his PG, 6'2, 195 senior Chad Doedens, take Lee down low and post him up. He did it once, with five minutes to go in the first half, and it was the easiest basket UWO got all night. Van Dellen could've called that play for forty minutes and it would've worked every time. But he never went back to it.

Mark Scherer had his own moments of mystery. His rotation continues to confuse me more than that of any other CCIW coach. I realize that Elmhurst's lineup is somewhat scrambled due to injury (Rob Strzemp is still out, and Jay Brizzolara was nowhere to be seen tonight), but down the stretch Scherer kept two clearly-overmatched freshmen, Matt Ryder and Chris Childs, in a game that was seesawing back and forth. Ryder stayed in right through Burks's winning shot. I was puzzled as to why he didn't turn to seniors Bacon and Mike Sayre in that situation; Ryder and Childs were defensive liabilities, and neither one even took a shot the whole game.

All's well that ends well, though. Burks makes the big shot, the 'jays defense stiffens when it has to, and Elmhurst grabs itself a nice prestige win at Faganel.

[Gregory Sager]

Final from Springfield...

Robert Morris-Springfield 94
Millikin 91

Holy cow!
Another loss for the CCIW that I think the vast majority of us felt would be a Millikin win. Is it just me, or are some of you other guys at least a bit surprised at some of the CCIW losses so far?

I had Millikin winning this one in the pick'em pool, but I'm not terribly surprised by the outcome. RMC-Springfield is not a bad team, and I'm not saying that just to be self-serving because the Eagles took North Park down to the wire. RMCS has a CCIW-quality center in 6'6 Corley Lee, an extremely athletic forward in Brian Price, and a serviceable platoon of guards. CCIW teams should beat the Eagles, but they shouldn't expect to whip them -- and if you don't come ready to play the Eagles, they can and will beat you. I would not be surprised if North Central has some difficulty handling them this Saturday down in the Greenville Classic, especially if one or more of the jaw jockeys in the RMCS lineup gets into Anthony Simmons' head (always a distinct possibility).

[John Gleich]

GS,

Defense has always been where this Oshkosh team hasn't been up to snuff.  I knew their preseason record was far too high last season for just this reason.  They don't seem to have either the footspeed or the desire to buckle down and win the big games when it comes down to it.

And you're right Capelle is UWO's best player.  In their last game, Cap scored 23 pts and scored quite a bit in the second half, but because the Titans couldn't stop Point's guard-oriented attack (Point only played two guys over 6'5", and they played a combined 9 minutes, grabbing one defensive rebound, shooting a collective 0/1 from the field and earning one foul) they lost to the Pointers by 13.  Just about the only category that Oshkosh led in was rebounds, 35-20.  Otherwise, they were out-everything-elsed by Point, who shot 52% from the floor (57% from 3) and had 15 Assists to 2 TO's.

I'm actually surprized that Oshkosh held Elmhurst to 55 pts.... I though Scherer said that the Blue Jays were going to be an up-tempo them this year...?

Oh, and another thing... I think sometimes Oshkosh simply likes to do things the hard way.  In the game against Point, largely on the shoulders of Kerry Gibson (who towered about 8-9 inches over Jon Krull who was guarding him), the Titans cut the lead from 13 to 5, but then they went away from Gibby and the lead crept back up to 10.  It almost seemed that certain Oshkosh players wanted to be the guy who took the shot (whether it was contested or not) rather than getting it to the open man who could score.

[buck14]

Ive been reading a lot on here and have been debating on whether to post on here. Obviously i decided to post. First off i would like to congradulate Ryan Burks for hitting what could be his biggest shot of his career. Elmhurst is my pick to click this year in the CCIW.

And now to my main point. I was reading that RMC Center Corley Lee might have CCIW abilities. I would hope he was capable of playing in the conference because he did play Division I for a year. Also, i would not lable him as a center; he might have the size of a D3 post player but he is a gaurd turned into a post player because of the lack of size on the RMC springfield team. He is the floor leader(not one of the jaw jockeys though). NCC beat RMC last year by 16 and 14, in my pick'ems i would go with NCC but would not be surprised if its a good game.

[Gregory Sager]

And now to my main point. I was reading that RMC Center Corley Lee might have CCIW abilities. I would hope he was capable of playing in the conference because he did play Division I for a year. Also, i would not lable him as a center; he might have the size of a D3 post player but he is a gaurd turned into a post player because of the lack of size on the RMC springfield team. He is the floor leader(not one of the jaw jockeys though). NCC beat RMC last year by 16 and 14, in my pick'ems i would go with NCC but would not be surprised if its a good game.

Being an ex-D1er doesn't necessarily make a player CCIW-capable. Believe me, I've seen plenty of stiffs in this league who had a D1 pedigree. However, Corley Lee is by no means a stiff. And I'm not at all surprised that he used to be a guard. He actually handled the ball in the open court in RMCS's game at NPU on a couple of occasions, and looked comfortable doing so. A typical D3 center handles the ball in the open floor with all the grace of a brontosaurus trying to get small animals off of its back. And the bread-and-butter play for the Eagles in that game was an isolation play in which Lee would face the basket from about fifteen feet out and beat the NPU man guarding him (either Stephano Jones or Mike Ventura) off the dribble. Most centers on this level don't have the capability to do these sorts of things with the basketball in their hands.

It's one of the reasons why I think he is a CCIW-capable big man. He's got some unique skills for the position.

I'm actually surprized that Oshkosh held Elmhurst to 55 pts.... I though Scherer said that the Blue Jays were going to be an up-tempo them this year...?

I had a feeling that that strategy would be abandoned, if indeed it actually ever was Scherer's strategy at all. It just didn't make any sense.

[BeastMaster]

Tough game for Millikin last night.  They played RMC at the Prairie Capital Convention Center in Springfield which I imagine was like playing in an empty airplane hanger last night.  I don't have any details on the game except that I expected this to be a close game.  RMC beat Millikin last year at the buzzer.  I think that MU has a lot there, but there is too much of an inconsistency factor by playing inexperienced players.  Especially defensively, they are giving up a lot of points early in the season.  I think that things will get better, but it is going to take time. 

Sounds like some good wins for IWU and Elmhurst last night.