MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Titan Q]

Albion defeated Rochester 85-40 last night and looked pretty good in doing so.  I think the Titans can play with the Britons though.  The big differences from last night vs Tri-State will be that Albion is much better in the low post and they run a much more structured offense.

Tri-State was making 3's at a crazy clip last night.  They knocked down 16 3-pointers, and several were deep w/ a hand in the face.  Others were due to IWU defensive breakdowns.  The Thunder got back in the game (after being down 49-30 to the Titans late in the 1st half) via the 3.

Darius Gant and Jordan Morris were both good last night (except Gant's free throw struggles - 3-11).  IWU's rookies really played well too - the freshmen had 39 points, 24 rebounds, and 13 assists.  Matt Schick had the type of overall solid game he had regularly at Lincoln H.S. (6 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists).  His final assist was the biggest of game -- a perfect bounce pass to Doug Sexauer in traffic for an easy basket to put the Titans up 84-80 with 2:00 to play in OT.

Ron Rose received good news earlier in the day when freshman point-guard Travis Rosenkranz was officially cleared to play by doctors.  Travis had been able to practice a little this past week...his first practice time of the season.  Ron threw him into the fire early - about 5 minutes into the game.  Travis played 16 minutes and was on the floor for most of the big moments down the stretch.  He makes such a difference out there for the Titans as a true "floor general" type point-guard.  Having him out there to play the point also allows Sean Johnson to play his natural 2, where he is going to be a very good player.

6-7 freshman Doug Sexauer was probably the most impressive Titan rookie.  I think Doug has a chance to be an All-CCIW caliber big man as early as his sophomore year.  He is very talented.

IWU @ Albion is at 3:00pm CST today.  Some links...

Live stats: http://www.albion.edu/sports/stats/xlive.htm
WJBC broadcast*: http://www.wjbc2.com/

* We will be joined in progress after the conclusion of Normal Community vs Joliet Catholic (probably sometime late in the 1st half) -- what a great playoff game that should be.

[Dennis_Prikkel]

I think the jury is still out as to whether or not North Park's program has been rejuvenated.  It certainly is giving the appearances of moving in the correct direction.  But I think we all realize NPU needs to show it on the court as IWU needs to show improvement to overcome its current struggle.

North Park improved by nine games last year. When the 2006-07 D3 stats come online on the NCAA site, I'm sure that that nine-game improvement will either be tops in the division or close to it. That's a rejuvenation.

NPU also improved by three games in the CCIW, the biggest improvement within league play last season. Only four times in CCIW play, and five times all season, were the Vikings not in a position to win the game in the last minute of play.

The word "rejuvenation" is a valid description of North Park's 2006-07 season. As tonight's loss to MSOE demonstrated, however, the Vikings are still very much a work in progress and have a long way to go.

More of the same from both North Park and GS.  How's that thumb, GS?

DoS

[martin]

High school basketball in Illinois is underway for 2007-8.  Girls are already playing - boys start soon.  Unfortunately, the IHSA has decided to go to 4 classes.  Reading the Tribune, it seems the driving force is to make a small class that will be won by a downstate school.  I think there is a racial element here - there was resentment when Leo and Hales won Class A in recent years.  Even as far back as 1979 with New Lenox Providence (with Walter Downing) and 1985 with Providence St. Mel (with Lowell Hamilton), there was hostility to Chicago area teams with black players in Class A.

The big push to two classes was a result of the emerging dominance of Chicago area teams that were predominately African American.  Without two classes, championships for rural downstate teams would be few and far between. Note saying rural means I am not including Peoria Manual in that group.  BTW, Manual will be in 2A.

Chicago teams will probably win the three larger classes (2A, 3A and 4A).  Does anyone think this is a good idea?  We have had some discussion of this issue here - I think most, if not all, thought this was a bad idea.  I think two classes was great.  Indiana mourned losing the one class system but I think their mistake was going to four rather than two.

Recent Simeon grad Derrick Rose is having a big impact at Memphis.  He has started all four games, averaging 19.8 points and 5.5 boards.  Do 6-3 guards go to the NBA after one year?  He might spend two years at Memphis.

[cardinalpride]

High school basketball in Illinois is underway for 2007-8.  Girls are already playing - boys start soon.  Unfortunately, the IHSA has decided to go to 4 classes.  Reading the Tribune, it seems the driving force is to make a small class that will be won by a downstate school.  I think there is a racial element here - there was resentment when Leo and Hales won Class A in recent years.  Even as far back as 1979 with New Lenox Providence (with Walter Downing) and 1985 with Providence St. Mel (with Lowell Hamilton), there was hostility to Chicago area teams with black players in Class A.

The big push to two classes was a result of the emerging dominance of Chicago area teams that were predominately African American.  Without two classes, championships for rural downstate teams would be few and far between. Note saying rural means I am not including Peoria Manual in that group.  BTW, Manual will be in 2A.

Chicago teams will probably win the three larger classes (2A, 3A and 4A).  Does anyone think this is a good idea?  We have had some discussion of this issue here - I think most, if not all, thought this was a bad idea.  I think two classes was great.  Indiana mourned losing the one class system but I think their mistake was going to four rather than two.

Recent Simeon grad Derrick Rose is having a big impact at Memphis.  He has started all four games, averaging 19.8 points and 5.5 boards.  Do 6-3 guards go to the NBA after one year?  He might spend two years at Memphis.

Bad idea for the basketball purest...Good idea for the money makers!  Derrick Rose is one and done!  Reports are he may be a top five pick in the '08 draft!

[Mr. Ypsi]

I wasn't able to tune in until Q was doing the post-game interview with Ron Rose, but IWU fell to Albion 75-55.  Sounded like what one has to live with with a talented but VERY young team - they led by 9 late in the first half, made only 11 of 28 free throws, and lost the turnover battle by 5.

[MilkMan25]

The Jays win by 14, although they were up by as much as 19 at one point.  Sounds like they had a little trouble with TO's, not so much because of the defense of the Simpson, but because they are very unselfish and try to make too many passes when someone should just be a little more selfish and score!  Burks had 27 and 8, Ruch had 19 and 9, and Ryder ended with 13.  The Jays shot 61% from 3!!!  That was the same as non conference last year, where they dominated from 3 but then took a little dive when conference started, hopefully they can keep up that high percentage!

[kenoshamark]

Carthage defeated Bluffton today by a score of 69 to 63....

[kenoshamark]

Box Score from the Carthage win today....Bowens and Djurickovic were all-tournament with Bowens picking up the MVP award...


http://www.carthage.edu/athleticspages/mens/basketball/bluffton.htm

[kenoshamark]

Quite a debut for Steve Djurickovic......after two games he has racked up a total of 9 assists, 6 steals, 10 rebounds and a scoring average of 23.5 ppg.   

[mr_b]

According to the UW-Whitewater website, North Park defeated Eureka, 80-67.  The two teams square off again Tuesday night in Chicago.

[REDMENFAN]

Here's the link about yesterday's Carthage game in the paper today:

http://ksn.kenoshanews.com/view_article.php?articleNum=2108782

congrats to the redmen on both victories, keep it up!!

[usee]

Wheaton wins the Pfund Classic by defeating Benedictine 73-57. Wheaton led by 4 at the break and pulled away in the second half. Raymond w 21 but Andy Wiele led the Thunder w 23. Panner added 15.

[Jim Matson]

No surprise here - Raymond was awarded the Tourney MVP.

[mwunder]

Quite a debut for Steve Djurickovic......after two games he has racked up a total of 9 assists, 6 steals, 10 rebounds and a scoring average of 23.5 ppg.   

Can't argue that K-Mark!!

Here is one other number I like so far this young season.  And one that will be key to the success of this team as the year goes on.

76.5 %  --  FT % after two games (making more than the other team attempted in both games)

If they can get to the line as much as they have in the first two games and shoot 75%, that will keep them in games where the outside shot isn't falling (see Bluffton box as evidence of that with a sub 30% FG% and a sub 25% 3 PT%).

[Titan Q]

The boxscore and Pantagraph article from the IWU/Albion game...

http://www.iwu.edu/~iwunews/sports/mbb2008/iwubb2.htm

http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2007/11/18/sports/doc473f88373f3da866894248.txt


A Duncan Lawson jumper with 5:57 to play in the 1st half, made it 24-15 Titans -- IWU controlled the entrie game up until that point.  Then the wheels just feel completely off for the Titans.  Albion went on a 14-2 run to finish the half, taking a 29-26 lead into the locker room.  The Britons just completely dominated the Titans in the second half, opening up a large lead quickly and building on it.  It was ugly.

When things starting going wrong, the Titans just couldn't figure out how to respond.  They were playing hard, but it just seemed like no one really knew what to do.  They started forcing shots, turning the ball over, breaking down defensively, making all kinds of mistakes, and couldn't make a free throw to save their lives.

Albion is pretty good, but certainly not great.  My guess is that they'd be about a 4th place CCIW team.  The talent gap between the Titans and Britons definitely isn't what this game would lead one to believe -- IWU just was not good this afternoon.  Titan fans will have to be patient and realize that this is going to happen every now and then as this group develops.  A game like today's will only help them as they try to figure things out.

NAIA Division I #18-ranked Olivet Nazarene visits the Shirk Center Tuesday.  That one should be interesting...I have no idea what to expect.