MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

Very strong game tonight for the Park. The shooting was much, much better than it was on Monday night -- Jason Gordon was seriously on fire -- and the Vikings did a much better job of attacking the boards. While the Vikings did lead by double figures for half the game, there was a worrisome stretch in the middle of the second half in which Tri-State made a game of it. The Vikings defense stagnated a bit during that stretch, as Tri-State caught fire from long range and NPU didn't do a good job of rotating to the shooter. And the offense simultaneously went into a mid-period funk in which the team would work the ball around for 25 seconds a possession without ever getting a good look, which was to the credit of the Thunder defense. As Mr. B mentioned, the Thunder did use that run to cut what had been an 18-point NPU lead down to five (63-58) at the 11:45 mark.

But the Vikings hung tough and staved off the run, and built the lead back up to as much as 16 with three minutes left. Down the stretch, North Park did a good job of taking the air out of the ball by running motion and taking the clock down on every possession, so the game really wasn't in doubt over the last four minutes or so.

Nick Williams had what I'm pretty sure is a career high with 27, and he also led the team in rebounds with 9. He stayed around the basket all night rather than look for treys, and Tri-State had no one underneath the basket who could match his quickness in the low post. It was great to see Jason Gordon light it up, and of course Antonio Stevens' electrifying alley-oop off a Bruce Durham inbounds pass -- over two Thunder players, no less -- is one of the best highlights I've seen in the crackerbox in ages. Durham and Dan Oziminski both did a good job of finding the open man and protecting the ball (9 assists and 3 TOs between them), and Jay Alexander had his third strong game in a row.

Tri-State is nothing special. The Thunder have a phenomenal player in Tony Benford, who not only could start for any CCIW team but would be a candidate for first- or second-team All-CCIW. He's the sort of star player who can do it all and who makes everyone around him better; he's a bit like a shorter, stockier Chris Martin in that regard. But the Thunder as a whole are pretty average. This was a good win for the Park, not a great one. What I'd like to see is if a night spent chasing Benford around the floor will help the Vikings deal with Judson's superstar Rocky Robinson (23.4 ppg, 8.0 rpg) on Friday night.

[Titan Q]

IWU 88
Illinois College 75

http://www.iwu.edu/~iwunews/sports/mbb2008/IWU12-5.HTM

http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2007/12/05/sports/doc475782eb165cb102776107.txt


* Darius Gant: 26 pts, 8 reb
* Travis Rosenkranz: 20 pts, 3 reb, 3 assists
* Jordan Morris: 18 pts, 5 reb
* Brett Chamernik: 10 pts, 4 reb


The Titans led by 9 at the half, but Illinois College battled back to take a 1 point lead with 15:59 to play.  At that point, senior Darius Gant really took the game over to give IWU control again.  Gant scored 8 points in 5 minutes as the Titans pushed the lead back to 9 and took care of business from there.  Gant scored 18 pts in the final 12 minutes of the game.

Freshman point-guard Travis Rosenkranz had his best collegiate game, scoring 20 points.  Junior guard Jordan Morris had a terrific night as well, shooting 8-10 from the field, scoring 18 points.

I thought Illinois College was a pretty good team - interested in see how they do in the MWC this year.  It was a pretty nice in-region road win for the Titans tonight.....it's on to Wash U.

[Titan Q]

I heard today that North Central's Chris Drennan (18.8 ppg, 8.0 rpg) suffered a broken hand in practice yesterday and is out 8 weeks.  Any confirmation NCC fans?

NCC lost 67-58 at Lake Forest tonight without Drennan...

http://www.northcentralcollege.edu/athletics/stats/basketball_m/07-08/md0507nc.htm

[Gregory Sager]

Couple of surprising losses for the CCIW tonight. North Central went down to defeat at Lake Forest, 67-58, and Carthage fell to Trinity International, 82-64, in the Trojans' gym in Deerfield. The Foresters, whom I saw in the Midway Classic last month and didn't terribly impress me, were only 2-4 coming into the game; Trinity International was only 2-10 coming into tonight's game against the Red Men. Of course, losing Chris Drennan probably helped equalize that NCC @ LFC game quite a bit.

http://www.northcentralcollege.edu/athletics/stats/basketball_m/07-08/md0507nc.htm

http://www.carthage.edu/athleticspages/mens/basketball/tiu.edu

http://www.augustana.edu/athletics/MBasketball/stats/2007-08/08mbb06.htm

http://www.northpark.edu/athletics/mBasketball/Stats/2008stats/12-5mbb.htm

No Wheaton box score available yet.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Q,

Something struck me for IWU in the boxscore - the team had only 7 assists to 15 turnovers (with Travis at 3 and 4).  Is that anything to be concerned about, or just a reflection of the style they play?

[Titan Q]

Q,

Something struck me for IWU in the boxscore - the team had only 7 assists to 15 turnovers (with Travis at 3 and 4).  Is that anything to be concerned about, or just a reflection of the style they play?

For now, I'd say it is more a reflection of a new group of guys playing together and trying to figure it out...and a lot of freshmen on the floor.  I think everyone will settle in as time goes on this year.

[Titan Q]

Carthage must have really struggled defensively last night.  Trinity International (2-10 coming in) shot 32-48 (.667) from the field, including 4-7 from 3.  Carthage was outrebounded 36-26.

Trinity International played just 7 players and got just 2 field attempts off the bench.  All 5 starters scored in double figures:

Levi Arnold, G (6-1/170, Sr): 19 pts (7-10)
Chris Schmidt, C (6-8/250, Sr): 18 pts (8-13)
Derrius Shavers, F (6-2/160, So): 18 pts (7-11)
Ignus Verbas, F (6-9/200, Fr): 13 pts (6-9)
Chad Reilly, G (5-9/170, Sr): 10 pts (2-4)

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

[Titan Q]

A "green weenies" reference in Sean Wallis's most recent blog entry...

Illinois Wesleyan is coming here on Saturday which should be fun and a good match-up. One of my best friends from high school goes to IWU and lives with a bunch of basketball guys. In the fall I visited him, and got to hang out with Andrew Gilmore, Jordan Morris, Brian Nussbaum, Elias Washington, and others so I look forward to seeing them Saturday and catching up. Last time the "green weenies" (as some people at WU may call them) were down here they were number one in the country with by far the most talented Division III team I've ever seen—and, man did they put a good licking on us. That IWU team from two years ago definitely painted us a picture of what it took to be one of the best in the country and I think it helped motivate us to get where we got last year.


http://www.d3hoops.com/dailydose/2007/12/06/insider-recovery-and-adjusting

[David Collinge]

Time out for a second - check out the new member of the D3sports.com family, D3soccer.com - just launched tonight.

I've been on this board with you guys since the beginning and am thrilled to be able to be a part of helping the site grow.  On the other hand, am I becoming Greg Sager?     In any case, I'm still a Wheaton fan on D3hoops....

Congratulations, Jim!  I hadn't noticed the change in layout 'til you mentioned it.  Since you're still listed as the moderator for both men's and women's, I take it you're the 'big cheese'?

And what's with this "am I becoming Greg Sager?" - what d3sports board does HE moderate?!   You've hit the REAL big time - you've joined Ralph Turner!

Let's see ... d3waterpolo.com? Naaah ... uh, d3badminton.com? Naw, not enough potential. Umm ... d3equestrian.com? Hmmm ... 

I was thinking more like d3juniorvarsityhoops.com or d3summerleaguehoops.com...

[wheels81]

PLEASE NOTE: Due to technical difficulty complete statistics and a box score are not currently available from this game. More information from this game will be posted here on the website when it becomes available.

This is from the Wheaton bb webpage.  Kind of ironic that they would have this kind of trouble for a game played at IIT.   Or maybe it should have been expected?

[dansand]

PLEASE NOTE: Due to technical difficulty complete statistics and a box score are not currently available from this game. More information from this game will be posted here on the website when it becomes available.

This is from the Wheaton bb webpage.  Kind of ironic that they would have this kind of trouble for a game played at IIT.   Or maybe it should have been expected?

http://www.ccacsports.com/stats/2007-08/MIBKB/iitg13.htm

Wow! That is an ugly line for IIT. 32 turnovers and 35 field goal attempts? They didn't attempt a 3-pointer? Only 14 minutes off the bench for Andy Wiele. I wonder if they were just being cautious with him against an awful opponent.

[wheels81]

PLEASE NOTE: Due to technical difficulty complete statistics and a box score are not currently available from this game. More information from this game will be posted here on the website when it becomes available.

This is from the Wheaton bb webpage.  Kind of ironic that they would have this kind of trouble for a game played at IIT.   Or maybe it should have been expected?

http://www.ccacsports.com/stats/2007-08/MIBKB/iitg13.htm

Wow! That is an ugly line for IIT. 32 turnovers and 35 field goal attempts? They didn't attempt a 3-pointer? Only 14 minutes off the bench for Andy Wiele. I wonder if they were just being cautious with him against an awful opponent.

Couldn't have been too cautious as Wiele almost had double double in those 14 minutes.

[wheels81]

Raymond also almost had a double double in least likely category as had 9 steals.
(then I guess if we're talking bout KR then maybe not least likely)

[Scream]

And, absolutely the best dunk I have ever seen in a D3 gym, Antonio Stevens flying over 2 defenders for an alley-oop off an in-bounds pass, amazing!

Agreed, that was nasty!!!  (The ironic thing was I'm pretty sure Park allowed a little run right after that)

[petemcb]

It is difficult to describe how bad a loss that was for Carthage last night.  I am familiar with TIU's team because one of my buddies' kids has played there for a couple of years.  There are some great kids on that team, but not many, if any, likely CCIW starters.  My friend's kid tells me that TIU's 6'8", 250 lb. center, Chris Schmidt, is one of the most quality kids you'll ever meet.  But I've seen him play several times and I can't think of one CCIW team that he would start for.  He might not even get many minutes off the bench.  He had 18 points on 8-13 shooting, with a nice number of rebounds to go with that.  Typically, he's a pass first/shoot second kind of player.  They do not look to him for any offensive production.  If that's what is going to happen to Carthage in the paint this year, then they might have serious difficulties during the conference season.  

Did any Carthage posters make it to this game?  I would really like to get their perspective on this game.