MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[AndOne]

Looks like lots of great battles in the 'ol CCIW this season. Just based on tonight's games who knows what might happen from from one night to the next-------------

Just look at the ranked teams tonight:

Elmhurst (at home) beats #12 Augie
North Central (on the road) beats #16 Wheaton
Wesleyan (at home) beats #17 Carthage

Not sure which can be considered the biggest "upset,"
Maybe the North Central defeat of Wheaton based on the facts of the largest disparity in the rankings between the 2 teams and that its very tough to win on the road, especially against a ranked opponent.

At any rate, it should be a wild season. With NPU and Millikin also being able to knock off any other team on any given night, I don't think it would be very surprising for the eventual conference champ to have at least 4, quite possibly 5 conference losses by the time all the smoke clears.

[RedMan1]

Titan Q- Great review on the IWU/Carthage game, and also great job with the players on the team. Joe Higgins will be an All-Conference player. He looks to pass the ball and make others around him better, and that is the player that Carthage has missed the past couple of years. An Un-Selfish player!!! He can also shoot the ball if he has to.
I feel that if Brian Schelm brings his best game all the time he could be one of the best players in the conference. Yes, that might be a little homer by me, but I feel that he could be. The big guys for Carthage foul too much. If they can figure that out, this could possibly help them win a CCIW championship....

It is still too early to decide, but is this a possible preview of what we saw during the football season? This is going to be a crazy basketball season for every team in the CCIW.

What do you all think??? ( Happy New Year to all, yes it is late, but go Bears and go Bulls!!!)

[sports]

Looks like lots of great battles in the 'ol CCIW this season. Just based on tonight's games who knows what might happen from from one night to the next-------------

Just look at the ranked teams tonight:

Elmhurst (at home) beats #12 Augie
North Central (on the road) beats #16 Wheaton
Wesleyan (at home) beats #17 Carthage

Not sure which can be considered the biggest "upset,"
Maybe the North Central defeat of Wheaton based on the facts of the largest disparity in the rankings between the 2 teams and that its very tough to win on the road, especially against a ranked opponent.

At any rate, it should be a wild season. With NPU and Millikin also being able to knock off any other team on any given night, I don't think it would be very surprising for the eventual conference champ to have at least 4, quite possibly 5 conference losses by the time all the smoke clears.

Maybe none were "upsets" and the almighty D3 top 25 is A educated GUESS at it's best

[Titan Q]

In my opinion, there was only one upset in the CCIW last night.  IWU beating Carthage at the Shirk Center was really not an upset, and neither was Elmhurst knocking off Augustana at home.  I guess the North Central win at Wheaton was an upset, but only because NCC struggled quite a bit in the non-conference while Wheaton, overall, was good.  But going back to mid-November, we wouldn't have considered that an upset.  Afterall, the team picked to win the league in the preseason poll (the senior dominated, defending conference tournament champion North Central Cardinals) won @ the preseason #4 team.  On paper that certaininly is not an upset.  Without looking at the other board, I'm guessing most of the pick 'em participants took the 3 home teams last night.

We always talk about that formula for winning the league -- win all 7 home games and find a way to get 4 on the road.  11-3 usually does it.  IWU, Elmhurst, and North Park did nothing more last night than hold serve.  NCC is the team that stole one.

As Bosko said to me after the game, there is a chance the CCIW has 6 legitimate top 15-25 teams in Elmhurst, Augustana, Carthage, Wheaton, North Central, and Illinois Wesleyan. His thought was that these 6 might be dead-even.  He also pointed out that North Park and Millikin are much improved and will be very much be in the middle of things.  This is going to be a fun year.

[Titan Q]

In a game with local interest, Wash U blew out Chicago yesterday (at Chicago)...

http://bearsports.wustl.edu/mensbball/GAME11.HTM

53 of Wash U's 70 points were score by Troy Ruths and Sean Wallis.

[titanfan]

Not taking anything away from North Park or Millikin, both of whom could make the CCIW tourney, it is still hard to believe that at least two of Augie, Elmhurst, NCC, Wheaton, IWU, and Carthage will not make the CCIW tourney.  What a conference!

[ecdubb420]

Great win for the BlueJays.  Took care of business on the home court and staved off a valient Augie charge during the middle of the second half.

Ruch played a great game and had to be the MVP of this ballgame.  He did a great job shutting down Dain Swetella, and was all over the place.  His versatile play continues to surprise me and his vastly improved defense and stamina are the two major reasons.  In the post game interview with Scherer, he stated that Brent has sacrificed his personal numbers for the good of the team, but expect for him to become more active on the offensive end.  That was the case in the first half, but as Jaybird stated, he was invisible on the offensive end in the second half (and EC struggled).  However, thanks to the great play of Michael, EC was able to slide through.

Elmhurst has seemed to grab control of many games this season after making its first substitutions about 3-4 minutes in the game.  Aloisio, Hintzsche and Bacon are the perfect players to come off the bench.  Aloisio and Bacon play with a level energy that gives that boost a team needs to go on a nice little run.  Hintzsche's hard work on both the offensive and defensive end really puts a strain on opponents as he does a great job making fatigue an issue for other big men. 

Despite their great play, EC has for all intensive purposes run an 8 man rotation.  This is worrysome as we have not seen how they will adapt when getting in foul trouble.  Hopefully with the progress of Strzemp and Ryder, that rotation will work up to ten men.

As for Strzemp, I'm not getting a good vibe from the team as for his return. He wants to dress and practice with the team, but I have not received any timetable on his return (much like last year with Gershenzon).  I'm thinking he may be eligible for that medical redshirt as I do not envision seeing him play more than 8 games.

On the Augie side, this is a team that needs to find a scorer.  They were terrible on offense for all but 5-6 minutes last night.  This is largely to do with the fact that they do not have anyone who can or will carry them while the offense is struggling.  Delp, Wessels, Brunsveen and the Swetella's are all solid offensive players, but are not bail out guys that teams need when struggling to find the basket or better yet, when the shot clock is running down.  Until they find that man, they are going to scratch and claw for victories against some very formidable offensive teams.

EC meanwhile has 4 bail out guys led by Brian Lee who has to be the quickest player in the league.  He schredded Augie with 24 and 5-6 layups.  That is great news as foot speed has been something that CCIW point guards have historically lacked.  Making him more dangerous is the fact that whomever is guarding Burks cannot provide help D as leaving Ryan open is not suggested.

Another tough week is on the horizons for the BlueJays, but if they can take 2 out of 3 from Augie, Carthage and IWU, I'll be a very happy camper.

Quick Fact: Burks one missed shot was a 25-footer with the shot clock expiring.  Since his 2pt (1-6fg) performance against IIT he is 45-75 (60%) and 20-38 (52.6%) from beyond the arc)

[wheatonfanaddict]

yeah, I think the Massey rating for conferences about says it all:

http://www.mratings.com/rate.php?lg=cb&sub=III&mid=6#conf

oops, we slipped to number 2.

ya gotta love this conference!

[79jaybird]

Good points ECdubb420.  I talked with Coach Giovanine and some of the Augie players after the game.  Coach Giovanine mentioned that Augie is really going to miss Harrigan and McAdams-Thornton this year.  It is difficult to fill the shoes of an All-American in Harrigan, for any team... not just Augie.
You mention "tough week ahead".  I think that could be said for each and every school in the CCIW weekly.  There are no "easy" games this year which makes it really exciting for all fans.

[Titan Q]

Some great games coming up Wednesday...

Augustana @ Wheaton

Elmhurst @ Carthage

Millikin @ Illinois Wesleyan
 
North Park @ North Central


The way the league is this year, just about every Wednesday and Saturday will feature good games.

[veterancciwfan]

ECdubb420: Great post. Augie had the same problem last year when Harrigan was not on the floor-finding a guy who can score in critical points of a game. Titan Q's wrap-up of the IWU/Carthage game was correct in every aspect. I wondered how Carthage could be significantly better this year without Jeffery, but they are. Carthage is unselfish. Schlemm amazed me. He posted up Z. Freeman and scored at will in the first 10 minurtes of the 1st half. IWU switched to a 3-2 zone and forced Carthage to beat them with 3s instead of with easy post baskets from Schlemm. The zone forced the Redmen to fire up 30 3s. IWU has been a very good 2nd half team all year. I thought that the key was for IWU to keep it close up to the half with Z on the bench. They did and were up 2 at half. I thought the loser would be the team that lost either Z. Freeman or Schlemm, and it was Schlemm who fouled out. Even though IWU is woefully lacking in depth, 2 factors may be enough for them to be an 8-6 to 10-4 team in the league: Outstanding rebounding (IWU outrebounded Carthage 38-21-an amazing stat) and great shooting from their starting five. But IWU has to keep their  starters on the floor. Z. Freeman played the lowest minutes against Carthage with 29. The other 4 starters played 34, 34, 36, and 38 (A. Freeman) minutes. But when a team only plays 2 games a week, that's doable. Help is on the way as I expect Sean Dwyer, the freshman point guard, will return for the Elmhurst game on Saturday. With no great teams in the league, it's a wide open race to the conf. tournament.

[79jaybird]

VeteranCCIWfan-- "With no great teams in the league..." 
You can't be serious to think the CCIW is not loaded with GREAT talent this year?  I am sure you mean there is not that 1 team that "stands out" above the others.  I think the CCIW has a bunch of great players/teams in the league.

[79jaybird]

BTW VeteranCCIWFan,  how did you Karma get so low?  I gave you a K point but can't give you 17 all at once. 

[oldreporter]

Definitely an awesome showing from both IWU and Carthage. I agree that if Carthage can keep their big men out of foul trouble, they'll be landslide hard to stop... I enjoyed watching them with their arms up and all over the place on defense...

Thought I'd post this photo of Schlemm fouling out. Both Z. Freeman and Schlemm had 4 fouls. Schlemm got called for it.

[Titan Q]

Definitely a physical game in Bloomington last night.  Another pic of Z. Freeman and Schlemm going at it...

http://www.iwuhoops.com/schlemm.jpg

6-4 Darius Gant defending 6-7 Schlemm...

http://www.iwuhoops.com/Defense.jpg

And a good illustration of the perimeter defense Carthage plays.  Nav Thompson defending Kevin Bryant...

http://www.iwuhoops.com/kb5.jpg


Saturday at the Shirk Center the Freeman family accounted for 37 points, 17 rebounds, and all of the above photos.  (All taken by Andrew and Zach's father, Bob.)