MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[veterancciwfan]

Just to show what a tough league the CCIW is, IWU's 4 Final 4 teams have won once at Elmhurst.

Year      Winner      Score
1996    Elmhurst     86-72  EC hands IWU its 2nd loss of season
1997    IWU            80-71
2001    Elmhurst     89-87
2006    Elmhurst     72-64

Ouch! Will history repeat itself tonight?

[dansand]

Impressive win for Augie tonight. They played about as well defensively as I've seen. As was discussed earlier this week, Carthage was one of only two teams in the CCIW with a assist:turnover ratio over one. Tonight they had seven assists and 17 turnovers. Just a great defensive effort. They did a great job of rotating over on help and had a lot of success with their guards (usually Wessels) doubling down on the Carthage big men. Probably half a dozen of the Red Men turnovers were passes thrown out of bounds, without being touched, as they tried to move the ball around against Augie's defensive rotation.

Bosko went with a weird lineup. Scott Hood and Neb Franciskovic got their first starts of the year along with Schlemm, Bowens, and Higgins. Vukosavljevic didn't play. I don't know why. He looked fine in warm ups.

Offensively, the Vikes looked very good in the first half and not too good in the second, but the defense was so good a 12-point halftime lead never got below nine in the second half and grew steadily over the last 12 minutes.

Both of the Swetallas played very well as did Chandlor Collins and Wessels played a great floor game, also.

[rknuppel]

Wasn't at the game but sounds like Elmhurst won easily at home tonight against the Titans.  76-57 victory.

Ruch dominated with 21 pts. 7 rebs and 5 blocks!  Lee added 15 and Burks chipped in with 14.  Here is the boxscore.  http://elmhurst.edu/~athletic/Home/M-Basket/stats/2006-2007/melm14.htm

13 in a row for the Jays!!!!!!!!

[Gregory Sager]

Kent Raymond put Wheaton on his back and carried them to a 73-60 win over a listless NPU team that reverted back to the bad Vikings of the past few years -- unsound, unsmart, and individualistic.

Raymond scored 28, and while he only had two assists he had the entire Vikings team lunging at him, leading to one easy Wheaton basket after a back cut after another. He made Jason Gordon and Antonio Stevens look pretty bad on D, as I think both were taken by surprise at how fast Raymond is. They were looking at the back of his orange uni all night.

Wheaton ran out to an 11-point halftime lead, and at that point I think the NPU faithful were happy just to be that close. North Park showed terrible ball movement on offense; there were no cuts, no screens, the shot selection was bad, and there was no effort on the boards. It was one long series of one-on-one plays leading to off-balance shots, and Wheaton did such a good job of boxing out that the NPU possessions were inevitably one-and-dones.

The second half was more of the same until the last five minutes or so. Wheaton extended the lead to 19 at 61-42 before the Park finally awoke. Tonight, however, instead of showing the sparkling FT shooting they demonstrated on Wednesday in Naperville, the Vikings shot themselves in the foot at the charity stripe. They went 1-7 from the line over a two-minute stretch at the end of the game, essentially nullifying one important possession after another. And Wheaton made the hustle plays at the end of the game that they'd been making the entire game. Case in point: NPU is down ten, they force Wheaton into a bad backcourt pass that requires a Mohan circus save on the back side of the timeline (NPU had tipped it) with seven seconds left on the shot clock, Standard barely catches rim on a desperation 24-foot heave at the shot-clock buzzer -- and the Wheaties get the O-rebound. The Vikings freeze. Standard penetrates for a layup. And that's how it went.

Wheaton played with the energy of a desperate team that knows it can't afford another loss. NPU played with the energy of a team that was feeling a little smug after a big victory. Still, as imbalanced as the effort was tonight between the two teams, this score can definitely be reversed in February in the return engagement at King Arena. Taking the rosters in their entirety into consideration, the Vikings are the more talented squad. Give Wheaton credit for playing harder and playing smarter tonight, and -- well, for having Kent Raymond. He was the whole difference in this game. With the possible exception of Larry Welton, there isn't a player in all of D3 I'd rather have on my team than Kent Raymond.

Chalk this one up as an object lesson for the Vikes that you have to bring it every night. When they don't have their heads in the game, they don't play as a team rather than as five individuals, and they allow themselves to be outhustled, they will most certainly get beat. Bringing your B game doesn't cut it in this league. Especially not this year.

A shout-out to all the Crazies who took a few days off of their winter break and returned to campus early in order to cheer on the Park tonight.

[usee]

Kent Raymond put Wheaton on his back and carried them to a 73-60 win over a listless NPU team that reverted back to the bad Vikings of the past few years -- unsound, unsmart, and individualistic.

Raymond scored 28, and while he only had two assists he had the entire Vikings team lunging at him, leading to one easy Wheaton basket after a back cut after another. He made Jason Gordon and Antonio Stevens look pretty bad on D, as I think both were taken by surprise at how fast Raymond is. They were looking at the back of his orange uni all night.

Wheaton ran out to an 11-point halftime lead, and at that point I think the NPU faithful were happy just to be that close. North Park showed terrible ball movement on offense; there were no cuts, no screens, the shot selection was bad, and there was no effort on the boards. It was one long series of one-on-one plays leading to off-balance shots, and Wheaton did such a good job of boxing out that the NPU possessions were inevitably one-and-dones.

The second half was more of the same until the last five minutes or so. Wheaton extended the lead to 19 at 61-42 before the Park finally awoke. Tonight, however, instead of showing the sparkling FT shooting they demonstrated on Wednesday in Naperville, the Vikings shot themselves in the foot at the charity stripe. They went 1-7 from the line over a two-minute stretch at the end of the game, essentially nullifying one important possession after another. And Wheaton made the hustle plays at the end of the game that they'd been making the entire game. Case in point: NPU is down ten, they force Wheaton into a bad backcourt pass that requires a Mohan circus save on the back side of the timeline (NPU had tipped it) with seven seconds left on the shot clock, Standard barely catches rim on a desperation 24-foot heave at the shot-clock buzzer -- and the Wheaties get the O-rebound. The Vikings freeze. Standard penetrates for a layup. And that's how it went.

Wheaton played with the energy of a desperate team that knows it can't afford another loss. NPU played with the energy of a team that was feeling a little smug after a big victory. Still, as imbalanced as the effort was tonight between the two teams, this score can definitely be reversed in February in the return engagement at King Arena. Taking the rosters in their entirety into consideration, the Vikings are the more talented squad. Give Wheaton credit for playing harder and playing smarter tonight, and -- well, for having Kent Raymond. He was the whole difference in this game. With the possible exception of Larry Welton, there isn't a player in all of D3 I'd rather have on my team than Kent Raymond.

Chalk this one up as an object lesson for the Vikes that you have to bring it every night. When they don't have their heads in the game, they don't play as a team rather than as five individuals, and they allow themselves to be outhustled, they will most certainly get beat. Bringing your B game doesn't cut it in this league. Especially not this year.

A shout-out to all the Crazies who took a few days off of their winter break and returned to campus early in order to cheer on the Park tonight.

Greg,

thanks for your analysis. well done. the bolded words represent a pretty strong statement. can you elaborate on why you think this is true?

[Hoop Dreams]

Re: Elmhurst 76, IWU 57

Brian Lee made a ridiculous series of plays in the last two minutes of the first half of this game.  After EC jumped out to a 22-6 lead, IWU had battled back to a 30-24 deficit and had the ball.

Lee made a steal on the defensive end, then, with the ball in his hands and the shot clock winding down, dropped in a stepback three from the top of the circle.  On Elmhurst's next possession, Lee drove into the lane and threw up a runner that banked in to push the lead back to double digits.  In the final seconds, with IWU attempting to hold for the last shot of the half, Lee made another steal and threw in a buzzer-beater from around halfcourt. 

It was something to behold.  Almost literally by himself, the senior point guard extended the Bluejays' lead from 6 to 14 and nullified the Titans' efforts to get back in the game.  Elmhurst would lead by at least 9 points the entire second half.

[79jaybird]

A solid, CCIW win for Elmhurst, but a few things do have me thinking.
In the final 5 minutes of the game, when IWU still had a fighting chance,  the Titans owned the boards on both ends.  You need to be put the team away in the final segments of the half (if you're up) and and not give them any reason to feel like "they belong".  As HoopDreams mentions,  Brian Lee charismatically carried Elmhurst in that final 1-2 minutes of the first half, and helped the Jays lead by double digits at the half.
2) Today's game, similar to Carthage saw EC get a big lead, and then fail to really build up that lead, thus allowing their opponent to climb back into the game.  I talked to Coach Scherrer after the game and mentioned that this is what they are going to practice this week.
Overall, I think Elmhurst's big men inside (Ruch, Michael, Hintzsche, and Aloisio) are very good and swift inside.  Secondly,  the officials tonight were AWFUL for both teams!  They would start the half by calling everything, then all of a sudden they would let anything/everything go.  No consistency, no rhythm, and really were not very good. 
Last thing,  Zach Freeman gets my vote for All-American honors as he is a tremendous force on both sides of the ball.  For awhile him and Gant were a 2 man team.
13 wins in a row sets a Bluejays record for most consecutive wins!!    The old mark was 12 set by 2001's Sweet 16 team led by a certain #4. 

[AUGsportsFAN]

Re: Elmhurst 76, IWU 57

Brian Lee made a ridiculous series of plays in the last two minutes of the first half of this game.  After EC jumped out to a 22-6 lead, IWU had battled back to a 30-24 deficit and had the ball.

Lee made a steal on the defensive end, then, with the ball in his hands and the shot clock winding down, dropped in a stepback three from the top of the circle.  On Elmhurst's next possession, Lee drove into the lane and threw up a runner that banked in to push the lead back to double digits.  In the final seconds, with IWU attempting to hold for the last shot of the half, Lee made another steal and threw in a buzzer-beater from around halfcourt. 

It was something to behold.  Almost literally by himself, the senior point guard extended the Bluejays' lead from 6 to 14 and nullified the Titans' efforts to get back in the game.  Elmhurst would lead by at least 9 points the entire second half.

After watching the Elmhurst/Augie game on Jan 3, I have to agree Brian Lee is one of the best players in the conference this year.  It seems that wasn't just a one-game performance he had last Saturday, as from what I read played very well again tonight.  However, interesting note on how Augie couldn't contain Lee, but could contain Kent Raymond, another great player.  I guess that's the CCIW, and anything can happen any given night.  Can't wait to see Augie play next Saturday @ NCC.

[Titan Q]

Before this week I thought the CCIW had 6 pretty even teams and 2 (Millikin and North Park) good and very dangerous teams a notch below the other 6.   After this week's games and after seeing Elmhurst tonight, I am beginning to think that the Bluejays are clearly the best team in the CCIW and after that we have 7 fairly even teams.  In that pack of 7, there is certainly separation, but maybe the gap between 2 and 8 is smaller than the gap between 1 and 2.  In other words, we could see final standings like...

Elmhurst:  12-2
Team 2:  8-6
Team 3:  7-7
Team 4:  7-7
Team 5:  7-7
Team 6:  5-9
Team 7:  5-9
Team 8:  5-9

Elmhurst's size is just simply amazing for a Division III team, and senior point-guard Brian Lee has become a very good player.  Lee has become that take charge floor general type that every great team has.  Ryan Burks gives them a a nice perimeter threat and should keep getting better.

Elmhurst has pounded Augustana and Illinois Wesleyan at home and won convincingly at Carthage.  I may be wrong, but the team I saw tonight looked like one that could get to the Final Four.  I don't how how anyone is going to deal with Elmhurst's size and balance.

[79jaybird]

Keep in mind Elmhurst still has 11 very difficult games ahead of them.  The first one being this Wednesday at North Park.  I know the Park is not as good as they once were and are vastly improved, I can see North Park giving a huge favorite (i.e. Elmhurst) a fit, just because they play hard and have nothing to lose.    The point here is that even though they are 3-0, they have to be humble, and know that they need to play their best each and every night.  Because as soon as you let your guard down, that's when you get beat! 
Final Four caliber?  Hmm, I hesitate to give them that, only because they still have a tendency to get sloppy and have those "lapses" when you know they can play better.  Certainly I would say this is a playoff ready team that would win a couple of post-season games.  Their primary goal, I would say is to get win #4, then win #5, etc.

[79jaybird]

Just an FYI in case anybody was wondering (like I was before I was informed).  Nick Michael was still recovery from a cold earlier this week, which is why he didn't play his normal minutes.  Good depth shown by Elmhurst with Jared Hintzsche and Mark Aloisio filling his place.  Hope he is at full strength for NPU and Wheaton this week.

[Viking Blue]

This is in response to some talk about the famed "Carlson Crazies" at North Park.

There once was a time when North Park was a feared place to play.  That I am sure of.  Far before my time, national championships were won, and the "crackerbox" was a place to be reckoned with.

In the years I attended North Park ('96-'99), and a couple of years thereafter, THE North Park Gym was a phenomenal place to watch a game, and a pleasure to be a part of.  The noise in that place was unbelievable.  I can remember announcing an IWU-NP game there in 2000 and, during the starting line-ups, having the mike go out on me when announcing Rick Alspach because the noise was just too much to get over the 1500 screaming idiots in the gym.

After coming back last year, the feeling just is not the same.  And SHAME ON the NPU students!!  I looked up the numbers the other day, just for kicks.  North Park has the highest student population of any school!  For years, North Park athletes fought for the facilities that are currently available.  You've got 'em.  For years, we fought for respect.  You've got it.  Hey North Park students....STEP UP! 

Someone needs to get the ball rolling over there, and get the Carlson Crazies back to where they were in the late 90s........

Or else a great CCIW is going to step all over North Park again, as it has been doing for years and years....

[robberki]

wow...someone just got called out!

[Titan Q]

This is in response to some talk about the famed "Carlson Crazies" at North Park.

There once was a time when North Park was a feared place to play.  That I am sure of.  Far before my time, national championships were won, and the "crackerbox" was a place to be reckoned with.

In the years I attended North Park ('96-'99), and a couple of years thereafter, THE North Park Gym was a phenomenal place to watch a game, and a pleasure to be a part of.  The noise in that place was unbelievable.  I can remember announcing an IWU-NP game there in 2000 and, during the starting line-ups, having the mike go out on me when announcing Rick Alspach because the noise was just too much to get over the 1500 screaming idiots in the gym.

After coming back last year, the feeling just is not the same.  And SHAME ON the NPU students!!  I looked up the numbers the other day, just for kicks.  North Park has the highest student population of any school!  For years, North Park athletes fought for the facilities that are currently available.  You've got 'em.  For years, we fought for respect.  You've got it.  Hey North Park students....STEP UP! 

Someone needs to get the ball rolling over there, and get the Carlson Crazies back to where they were in the late 90s........

Or else a great CCIW is going to step all over North Park again, as it has been doing for years and years....

2001 - 4-10
2002 - 6-8
2003 - 2-12
2004 - 3-11
2005 - 0-14
2006 - 2-12



If you build it, they will come.

[BRLHSFAN]

Titan:

Do you know anything about how those two guys ended up at Elmhurst?  It is very unusual to have that much size in the post.

Gordon, I will get a few minor details wrong, but this should be close...
6-9/250 Brent Ruch went to high school about 30 minutes from IWU's campus and was coached by former IWU player Mike Pope, so I definitely remember him at Blue Ridge H.S..  Ruch was a well known Class A player (small school) in Illinois due to his size.  I believe he was his current height (or at least 6-8) as a junior, when he started to receive a lot of attention.  Division I Illinois State here in town started looking at him.  Somewhere along the way his junior year, Ruch tore his ACL for the second time (not sure if the same knee or if he's torn both) and I believe missed the second half of his junior year and a good chunk of his senior year.  When he returned his senior season, he played very well and made some all-state teams...

You were right, you'd have a few minor things wrong.  LOL  Brent graduated high school at 6'8".  He also did NOT miss his senior year of basketball.  He did have a broken nose his senior year.  He did NOT play his junior year at all.  Mike Pope was his coach his senior year but not the first 3.  Pope is still the coach there now, but only had Brent 1 year.  He was an amazing player anytime he got onto the court in high school.  He is one of those big guys that can do it all.  He can make a 3, dribbles very well, and can take control of the game if needed.  The best thing I can say about Brent though, is that he's so down to earth and really just a great kid all around.  I've known him pretty much all his life as he played baseball with my son beginning in minor league and continuing until my son graduated a year before Brent.  He's been to my house a number of times and is one of the most polite and nicest kids you will meet.  He also doesn't take all the credit and is willing to sacrifice his own stats for the better of the team.  Probably the best picture I have of him is at his graduation with my daughter, they share the same birthday but not the same height as she is only 5 foot tall, but he's always treated her with respect as he has anyone he comes in contact with.  Just an all around great kid and I'm sure an asset to the Elmhurst community.  Also, a great pitcher for the Blue Ridge baseball team.


(Quote formatting corrected by Titan Q)