MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Sakman 1111]

ECDubb no shot on Bacon or H. they have been terrific but I think we still need more scoring off the bench and Strzemp can fill that need. Phsically I am told he is fine he just needs to play more than 3 minutes a game to make a difference. It has been a great season and I believe it can only get better. Go Bluejays!!......

[79jaybird]

I agree with ECdubb420 that Elmhurst has to have their A game tonight.  NC knows that they have to start winning some big games, and would love to start tonight at EC. On that same note, I think EC knows that they need to get back on the winning track. They certainly don't want to head to R.I. on a 2 game skid.  I hope Michael is back to 100% health and the EC bigs can get production in the paint.

[OurHouse]

4 CCIW teams in the latest top 25

11. Elmhurst
12. Augie

20. Carthage
21. Kent Raymond

Great response to OurHouse on #21!  +k

Of course, if we start getting poll positions by players, somehow they missed:
3. Zach Freeman

BTW, to get this off my chest before someone else notices, this MAY turn out to be an historic year for "Green Weenie" haters.  In 60+ years of the CCIW, IWU has NEVER finished below fifth place - yes, NEVER.  Having already lost at the Shirk to NPU and Millikin, I honesty do not see a game remaining on the schedule where they will be a clear favorite.  (I DO NOT think they will lose them all, but can't pick out one where they should clearly win, either.)

IWU will not win anymore conference games this year - too many injuries and not enough depth on the team to help ZF.

You really wanted to post that but I understand because you've been crying for a looooong time         lmao   

[True Basketball Fan]

Seeing IWU at 8-8 and dwelling towards the bottom of the CCIW standings is definitely odd, but not overly surprising because of the major talent they lost last year (not just players, but coach too.....sorry Trost-haters, he was and still is a pretty darn good coach, he's already got Lewis headed in the right direction again).  Anyway, Zach Freeman, who is one of the best players not only in the CCIW but the entire nation, is throwing up some big numbers.  I know it's early but......One would think that he has a shot at the MOP or MVP of the league, and with those numbers, yes he should.  But seeing the trend of the last several seasons would suggest that he doesn't have a chance unless they win the league.  I hope we are not quick to forget the dominance that Chris Martin had over the league for the last few seasons, and he went MOP-less (and that's with Elmhurst finishing second in the CCIW in both his last two seasons).  In all, if IWU finishes in the middle somewhere or even towards the top, Freeman does not win the MOP no matter what his numbers end up.  Does anybody disagree? 

[tuvwxyz]

The incoming cupboard was left bare by the outgoing IWU coach. He simply refused to do alot of recruiting. If they didnt come to him, he had little interest in them.

[True Basketball Fan]

The incoming cupboard was left bare by the outgoing IWU coach. He simply refused to do alot of recruiting. If they didnt come to him, he had little interest in them.

Very true, "end of the alphabet guy", Trost did not recruit very well his last few years.  "very well" might be to kind of a phrase, it's probably more like "at all".  I believe I made that observation a while back, I think in the spring before he left for Lewis.  Anyway, it is now apparent to the people who thought the young players at IWU were just as good or better than everybody else's in the league.

[OurHouse]

The incoming cupboard was left bare by the outgoing IWU coach. He simply refused to do alot of recruiting. If they didnt come to him, he had little interest in them.

Very true, "end of the alphabet guy", Trost did not recruit very well his last few years.  "very well" might be to kind of a phrase, it's probably more like "at all".  I believe I made that observation a while back, I think in the spring before he left for Lewis.  Anyway, it is now apparent to the people who thought the young players at IWU were just as good or better than everybody else's in the league.

Well, he recuited but only when he heard "other" teams where highly interested in that specific player otherwise, he did not go outside the box in building blocks of the future....

Basically, he knew it was over after the 9 or 10 of that team last year graduated - if I was a student, who would want to go to Lewis anyway? Trost is short term there since he is using that as a springboard for his next move, imo

[mr_b]

Final from the Crackerbox: Carthage 64, North Park 62

[mr_b]

A barnburner all the way.  The teams went in at the half with Carthage up 32-31, and both teams duplicated these scores in the second half.  North Park had a shot to tie in the remaining seconds but couldn't inbound the ball in time.  Tough game for both sides.  In the past week the Vikings have come up short against two top-25 teams by a combined five points.

[OurHouse]

Augie wins on buzzer beater - IWU commits 25+ turnovers - its over!

[rknuppel]

Elmhurst won 98-84.  That's all I know at the moment!  Good win Jays.

[rknuppel]

More details after seeing the Elmhurst boxscore.

- Nice game by Ryan Burks!!!  24 points.  10-10 FT's.  Way to shoot it!

- 6 Elmhurst players in double figures!

- Solid game for the rknuppel fantasy squad!  Ruch with 14-11 and 4 steals.  Simmons with a quiet night.  But Brandon Smith coming up huge with 26 points!  Talk about a 5th round steal.

- Elmhurst was 29-31 from the FT line and outrebounded the Cardinals 31-22!

This team is legit.  They have all the tools to not only win the CCIW, but to make a deep run into the national tourney!

Here is the box:
http://elmhurst.edu/~athletic/Home/M-Basket/stats/2006-2007/melm17.htm

[knarocky22]

Great game in Rock Island tonight.  For the first 5 minutes of the game, it looked like Augie had never seen a zone before.  It kind of reminded me of the game a few years back when Amelianovich and company came into the Carver Center and put a hurtin on the Carstens-led Vikings.  They were simply passing the ball around the perimeter and not trying to attack the gaps at all.  The second half of the initial frame they finally started to click.  However, they came out the 2nd half and looked terrible again and let IWU build a lead.  

I thought the most interesting thing about the game tonight was how IWU built their leads early in both halves.  It was due in large part to their guards knocking down threes.  It will be interesting to see how many threes the Titans made tonight.  

Wessels was all over the place on defense tonight.  If he wasn't getting steals he was harassing IWU's guards all over the court.  When he went out of the game you could tell Gilmore took a deep breath and you could almost see the relief on his face.

I thought Dain did a good job on Freeman tonight.  I don't know how many points he had, but it definitely wasn't up in the 20s.  Delp almost single-handedly kept the Vikings in the game in the 2nd half hitting some huge shots, especially in the last 2 or 3 minutes.

Not a great game by the Vikings tonight, but one they really needed to win to keep pace with Elmhurst.  Huge game coming up on Saturday.  I can't wait.

p.s. Oliver really would have helped tonight.

[Dennis_Prikkel]

a very enjoyable game and well worth the 15-minute trip from Rolling Meadows.

With 6:30 to go the game was tied and Anthony Simmons returned to the game with four fouls after sitting out nearly 11:30.

Elmhurst scored to take the lead by two and on the ensuing possession Simmons received a pass underneath on an out-of-bounds play, tried to go up for a layup, but his shot was blocked for a jump ball.  Elmhurst got the ball on the alternating possession and quickly scored and the Cardinals quickly lost their composure.

The bottom line was/is that Simmons was a real defensive liability for the Cards when he was in the game as well - plus his blocked layup attempt was one of the few times he came within 15 feet of the basket on the offensive end.

Several times during the game the Bluejays flashed their post to the top of the key, and when the post again went down low, Simmons was slow to follow and the Jay guards used him to pick off their defender for easy jump shots or layups.  Very sad to see such a talented performer not able to use all his skills.

continued....

[Jim Matson]

Wheaton over Millikin 71-57 at Millikin.