MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[usee]

As noted, the technology for d3 is awesome now compared to where we were a few years ago. I was listening to the NCC announcers for the wheaton game and had live stats up for every other cciw game at the same time. following the entire cciw at the same time. It doesn't get this good even at the espn zone.

btw, someone please tell the the ncc announcers Wiele's  name is not pronounced "Wheel". 

[NPC-Alum]

Thanks for the honesty, Ypsi.  I did have some good time fishing the UP many moons ago. (what were once ponds are likely now "fisheries".

[titanhammer]

I'm trying to figure out the more amazing stat of the night:

1.  All four games were decided by two points or less.
2.  Fritz Larsen was a ref in both the IWU/Carthage and Augie/Elmhurst games (according to the live stat pages).

[Mr. Ypsi]

I'm trying to figure out the more amazing stat of the night:

1.  All four games were decided by two points or less.
2.  Fritz Larsen was a ref in both the IWU/Carthage and Augie/Elmhurst games (according to the live stat pages).

Hasn't it been a staple of CCIW Chat forever that many of the refs are not 'all there'?

[robberki]

Yeah pretty crazy, I knew I'd get some response on that one. What I saw from North Park this week was a very athletic team that has go to players and leadership. I didn't see that from Augie. When they needed 2 points who are they going to? I saw a bunch of guys chucking up shots from 3 feet behind the arc and no one rebounding....

Augustana had a tough shooting night on the road.  It happens. 

North Park lost to MSOE, Loras, and Robert Morris-Springfield (by 17)...and just a few days before the big Augie win played a barnburner vs Knox.  All accounts seem to suggest that NPU has very little inside presence, so they have plenty of issues too.

I'm sure NPU is good.  I'm not, however, ready to pass the torch from Augustana to North Park based on one head-to-head game.  Coach G and co. have been awfully good in the CCIW for a number of years now...NPU still has a lot of proving to do.

It's real early.

yeah it is, we shall see I suppose....could be wrong and NPU could go lay an egg this weekend....but we'll see.

Tell us how you would like your eggs - scrambled, basted or sunny side up?

Wow! that prediction backfired completely...

[Titan Q]

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

http://www.iwu.edu/~iwunews/sports/mbb2008/CRT-MEN.HTM

http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2008/01/13/usports/doc4789937d373ae318632516.txt


After falling behind 20-6 out of the gate (12:10 mark), IWU fought back and got the margin down to 5 at the break, 36-31.  In the second half, IWU's top three freshmen really played well.  The Titans got 31 2nd half points from Sean Johnson (16), Doug Sexauer (10), and Travis Rosenkranz (5) to help put IWU in position to win the game.

The Titans led 68-65 with 2:59 to play, but just couldn't close it out.  There were a number of tough breaks and calls that didn't go their way and the Titans could never get that basket to make it a two possession game.  With the game tied at 68, Carthage had the ball with :28 to play, in a hold- for-one-shot situation.  The Titans really did a great job on Steve Djurickovic, forcing him to give up the ball...Trey Bowens missed an off-balance shot at the buzzer.

In OT, the game was once again tied (at 79) with :20 to play.  Again, the Titans defended Djurickovic well, but he made a 15 foot, fall away jumpshot to win the game.  It was a great shot by a great player, capping off a great college basketball game.

Darius Gant was a horse for the Titans on the boards - he had 17 rebounds to go along with his 12 points.  Freshman Sean Johnson led the Titans in scoring with 16 and freshman Doug Sexauer finished with 14 on 5-8 from the field.  Sean Dwyer continues to settle in and really provided some great minutes off the bench, including some very good defense on the Carthage superstar freshman.  Freshman Matt Schick also played well vs the Red Men.

Bosko told the Pantagraph, "Wesleyan was better the last 30 minutes. They had a couple of bad bounces and we were able to come out ahead...We should have won the other night (blowing a 16-point second half lead to Wheaton) and we didn't. We probably shouldn't have won tonight and we did."

This was a tough one because IWU was right there in position to win a CCIW road game (which no one has done yet).  I suspect there are a bunch of teams that think they should be 2-0 right now and the Titans are certainly one of those.

IWU plays at Millikin Wednesday.

[Titan Q]

IWU fans on the L.A. trip might be interested to know that Claremont-Mudd-Scripps beat Occidental tonight 55-42 (@ CMS).

[augiefan]

I just had to give applause to Titan Q for staying up until 2:00 a.m. to post the result of the Occidental vs. Claremont Mudd Scripps game. That is real DIII dedication.

[usee]

here is the link to the box for wheaton/ncc game.

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

raymond goes for 37, wiele 14 and 11, panner 14 pts w 3-4 from beyond the arc as wheaton shoots 47%

the story of the game though is NCC's 60% fg pct and their outscoring wheaton in the paint 38-10. you can't win a CCIW road game with that kind of defense.

Rogers had 30 and drennan 23 for the cards.

[Dennis_Prikkel]

a fun night in Kenosha for Tim and I and a real fun game to watch - either team could have won - it was that close - there were big momentum swings in the final five minutes of regulation and in overtime - but neither team could close the deal.

Illinois Wesleyan freshmen were the real deal: Rosenkranz, Johnson, Sexauer - all contributed mightily.  During one five minute strech in the 2nd half the Titans had four freshman and a sophomore on the court.  

But what was the zone that IWU started the game with - to go down 20-6 just eight minutes into the game - ugh!

Carthage Stevie DJ is quite a player.  The last second jumper to the contrary - he's a scorer and not a shooter.  He would much rather take his man to the hole and work on layups and short jumpers, and forsook several wide open trey attempts last night.

Red Men had few answers inside for the IWU frontcourt - several of the Carthage frontcourt giving great imitations of stationary cigar store indians when it came to rebounding and inside defense.

If the Titans would have stayed with Sexauer in the overtime and worked the ball into him in the low post the outcome might have been different.

Fun game.

DoS

1 and 1 after eight game questions = until the recent league alignment there were few seasons where teams played just 14 games in league action - i don't think you can have every team with 1 and 1 records if their are an odd number of teams in the league.  So that would leave 53 - 59 (IWU was undefeated one year in there and Wheaton was undefeated four times) - and 1963 (when Lake Forest was in the league for the last time and North Park had just joined).  I'll check and let the board know.

[Titan Q]

Illinois Wesleyan freshmen were the real deal: Rosenkranz, Johnson, Sexauer - all contributed mightily.  During one five minute strech in the 2nd half the Titans had four freshman and a sophomore on the court. 

And the sophomore has played less games at IWU than the freshmen...Sean Dwyer missed all of last season and the first 7 this year with injury.  It was great to see that inexperienced group of Rosenkranz, Johnson, Sexauer, Schick, and Dwyer play so well in IWU's 2nd half comeback...unfortunately they just couldn't close the deal.

Last night in Kenosha, freshmen accounted for 66 points...

Steve Djurickovic: 25

Sean Johnson: 16
Doug Sexauer: 14
Travis Rosenkranz: 7
Matt Schick: 4

I would imagine that ranks pretty high in terms of freshmen scoring in a single CCIW game.  I'm trying to think of a game I've seen in the 18 years I've been around the league that would eclipse this and, while I'm probably missing one, I can't come up with anything.  I checked the two 1999-00 IWU/Carthage games involving Antoine McDaniel, Rob Garnes, and Bart Fabian vs Luke Kasten -- the freshmen totals did not approach 66.

Through 2 league games, 48% of IWU's minutes are from freshmen (205 minutes of 425 total)...add in Sean Dwyer's minutes and 56% are from guys who didn't play last year.

[Titan Q]

I just had to give applause to Titan Q for staying up until 2:00 a.m. to post the result of the Occidental vs. Claremont Mudd Scripps game. That is real DIII dedication.

I'd like to take credit for this dedication, but when you get home from Kenosha at 1:40am, I'm not sure "staying up until 2:00" is an appropriate description. 

[79jaybird]

DanSand-great to meet you and Chris at the Augie game last night.  What a thriller at Carver Center for both teams.  Before I go any further, just for the record ALL ELMHURST GAMES can be found on WRSE 88.7FM or www.wrse.com  (the Internet is probably a better bet to get the game).  I was there broadcasting with my Color Analyst.  We go both home and away. 

Looking at the game, Augie's defense and penetration allowed them to get a cushion and take EC's big guys (Ruch and Burks) out of the game.  The big shocker for me was that Ruch and Burks PT combined was less than 10 minutes.
Second half was a different story.  IMO, both teams did not play well.  Augie couldn't hit a free throw which could have really broke the game wide open, and Elmhurst couldn't find an open look. 

For Elmhurst, great job by Jimmy Saris the Freshman who was Elmhurst's only scoring threat in the first half.  For a little guy he was driving up against AC's big guys (Swetalla & Rukavina).

Overall,  what a great "playoff type" of atmosphere #5 against #10 with the game being decided in the final seconds. 

Winning on the road is going to be tough no matter who you're playing in this conference.  Whew!  Who's blood pressure is elevated?

[dansand]

Thanks Jaybird. Same here.  We're having a great time with the webcasts. I got to meet and interview Drew Carstens up at North Park and also met Greg Sager as well.

Burks' and Ruch's foul trouble in the first half definitely played a big role in Augie building up their 7-point halftime advantage. The key for them, defensively, was forcing 13 turnovers. In the second half they they shot the ball better (other than the free throws) than they have in quite some time. Alex Washington carried them in the first half and Matt Pelton and Brett Wessels in the second.

The most interesting thing, to me, was that Augie made the decision to play it straight up in the post and not give Rukavina, Collins, and Swetalla any help with Ruch. He got his points, but they made him work for them (7-15 FG shooting) and in doing so they did a great job guarding the arc. Burks was only able to get off three 3-point attempts, two from about 28 feet (one of which he made) and the 60-footer at the buzzer (which he nearly made).

Definitely a great game with a great atmosphere and a big crowd. A huge win also and one the Vikings really needed after the North Park loss.

[armywife]

It's great to see Augie win yesterday. I'm missing all of the fun, but I'm back in school pursuing my master's degree in education at Regent University.  I'm not going to be able to follow anything very closely, but I'll do some lurking.