MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[usee]

They parted on fine terms...but what I'm saying is that no one at that school knows how good he really is.  For whatever reason he wasn't given a chance.  He would destory Travis Rosenkranz in a game (i dont know sean) and I know its not all one on one, which is one of the things that makes TR so good, BUT my point is that Beauchamp is an unreal scorer and defender.  He was cheated out of his college basketball career by a basketball program that has managed to slip into mediocrity over the past few years...

Seriously dude.

Dude.

Dude 

[tjcummingsfan]

love it

[coebball70]

Dude?

By chance did my cats run across my keyboard and change the CCIW chat address?  This is really odd. 

[Mr. Ypsi]

First one to win a road game is Conference Champs

I move we declare Carthage and IWU as co-champs.  All remaining games are for conference tournament seeding purposes only.

Do I hear a second?

[Mr. Ypsi]

BTW, in case anyone has missed it, a nice story on the front page about Bosko and son - check it out!

[Gregory Sager]

How about the North Central center (what's his name?), with Bill Warden's outstanding mid-eighties teams, who delighted in blind-siding opposing guards at mid-court when they were trying to guard the Cardinals point-guards.  How many guards did he pummel to the floor with meaningless (and mean picks), while the Cardinals fans roared their approval.

That was Kerry Kelley. Yeah, he was a cheap-shot artist, but Illinois Wesleyan's center at the time, Kevin "Fingernails" King, was a much dirtier player. Just ask Dan Mulkerin about that the next time that you see him.

I never saw Ernie Flores play, although Ernie stories are legion among NPU oldsters. The most brutish North Park player I ever saw was Milorad "Sofie" Sofrenovich, the backup center on the 1984-85 national championship team. Sofie had little to no basketball skills, but he was huge (6'8, 240) and had as much of a nose for trouble as Pacman Jones in a strip club. His role was to come into the game for 2-4 minutes per half to give star center Lars Anderson a breather, and work the body of the opposing center like a prizefighter until Lars was ready to re-enter the game. We Parkers would both laugh and cringe at Sofie's goon-squad behavior, and we (semi-affectionately) referred to him as "the Terminator". He's now a Chicago cop. Make of that what you will.

You also forgot the two 6'5, 230 football players whom Carroll's Dave Fink enticed to join the basketball team during the end of the tenure of the Pioneers in the CCIW, Brian Fulton and Chris Bumby. Carroll had little in the way of skills on that squad, but every team in the league was terrified to even cut through the lane against the Pioneers, much less drive to the hole against them. Fulton and Bumby would knock you to the floor and then step on your prone body as soon as look at you.

I could think of a couple of Augie players of recent vintage that I'd like to add to your list, but since the memory of those guys is still fresh and there are no doubt Augie partisans who know them personally, I'll refrain from pointing fingers. Pointing out older CCIW enforcers is an exercise in nostalgia. Pointing out newer ones could be interpreted as sour grapes.

[Gregory Sager]

Well I may have to join the old scrub ladies at the back fence to throw in my 2 cents too, It's funny when Nick Williams got hit in the face twice player names were put on the post on who they thought did it, but when Mitch Radidon got smacked twice against Wheaton no names were posted and life went on. Jay Alexander is a court smart player and guess what, he throws hip checks better than half of the Chicago Blackhawks. Look at the stats if you take credit for the no calls Rogers would have been 11-17 and Drennan would have been 8-13, taking a shot in the chest part of the game,pushing back in front of an offical and no call priceless. There are times the officals actually show they are human and do swear at some of the players after hearing them chirping in their ear all game, to err is human to forgive is divine. Punk stuff is where a player could get hurt ,like a player on the floor reaching out or raising a leg to trip someone should be called with a "T" or intentional foul called who wants to see a year or career ending injury. What hurt North Central was lack of players on bench I'm not saying the players there wouldn't have helped, for one I don't know the JV player rules about playing 2 games in a night but the 3 players missing Williams,Johnson and Twyman hurt the Cardinals. I really like watching Williams play and you can see Rogers & Drennan play differently without him in there he does so many things well that he doesn't need to score big to play big. Greg ,I think you are wrong about Johnson if he had more mins on the floor, you would see a different player and then David, he adds alot to the team all around ,on offense and on defense. About the flops everyone does it just a part of the game, get over it. Greg about the steak dinner comment( Wheaton game) explain that one to my wife.......can't wait to hear about this post, ladies it's getting cold and it's time to come in from the fence in the backyard

I'm not commenting about Wednesday's game any longer. I've had my say, and I think that this discussion has gone on long enough.

To respond to your other points, though:

1) There's no rule against playing in both the JV game and the varsity game in the same night. F'rinstance, both NPU and NCC dressed players for varsity on Wednesday who had played in the earlier JV contest, although none of them actually got into the varsity game (the box score shows that NCC's Brett Hulett got into the varsity game, but I was later told that that was a mistake; personally, I don't remember Hulett seeing the court in the varsity game). D3 rules say that you can only participate in 25 regular-season contests, however, and each JV contest counts just as much as does a varsity contest. Therefore, a player who participates in both uses up two of his 25 eligible games in one night.

2) What I think about Justin Johnson doesn't matter. What Todd Raridon thinks about him is what matters, so if you have a dispute with the number of minutes he's been getting, you need to direct your concerns to the NCC coach.

3) The reason why I joked that Matt Rogers owed Andy Wiele a steak dinner was because Wiele played absolutely no defense against Rogers; thus, Wiele played a key role in the huge night that the NCC forward logged against Wheaton. Wiele's idea of low-post defense in that game was to raise his arms and stand there while Rogers went underneath his arm and around him. And I say that as the CCIW Chat observer who was the first to champion the heretofore lightly-regarded Wiele this season. I still think that Wiele is a vastly-improved player, but his D last Saturday was sorely lacking.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Greg,
Since Kevin "Fingernails" King was well after my era, I have no comment one way or the other.  But I take offense at your 'nostalgia'/'sour grapes' cut off - before Nixon slunk back to California is nostalgia; everything since is 'current events'.

We oldtimers demand the respect due to age, dude (special nod to coebball70).

[Pat Coleman]

One of WETN's basketball sponsors is insurance man Ned Gulbrandsen

To some of us this is a statement of the bleedingly obvious.

[Titan Q]

http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2008/01/18/usports/doc47915b0894d4d407685390.txt

ELMHURST – Those seeking a diverse sporting experience could view the Illinois Wesleyan-Elmhurst basketball game and the Al Hanke Invitational wrestling tournament without leaving Faganel Hall today.

The downside to that rare opportunity is the grappling event has pushed the start of the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin basketball contest to 8:30 p.m., one hour later than usual.

"Maybe he goes to bed at 8:30. That would be nice," IWU coach Ron Rose joked of Elmhurst junior big man Brent Ruch.

[Pat Coleman]

GASP!

A CCIW game not at 7:30 CT?

How will the world survive???

[usee]

I would think the game at King arena vs the chicago Vikings is a "must win" for the Thunder if there is such a thing. They are now 1-2 in conference and can't afford to pick up a home loss and go to 1-3 if they hope to be a factor in the CCIW race. That said, NPU is playing with a lot of confidence now and the Thunder will have to play better defense than they have yet played if they are to win this contest. NPU's 2 conference wins are against the two teams that have downed the Thunder, giving the vikings an extra measure of confidence. I would think Carwell has to start showing up for these games if Wheaton wants to make a run in this conference race. The best way for him to make his presence felt is on the defensive end. neither of the wheaton bigs (wiele, carwell) have established themselves as paint defenders (see NCC game) and if that doesn't change it will be a conference season of disappointment for us thunder fans.

[und63]

"I'm not commenting about Wednesday's game any longer. I've had my say, and I think that this discussion has gone on long enough."

AMEN!  The only thing you left out was the size of the ref's shorts!

[Titan Q]

I would think the game at King arena vs the chicago Vikings is a "must win" for the Thunder if there is such a thing. They are now 1-2 in conference and can't afford to pick up a home loss and go to 1-3 if they hope to be a factor in the CCIW race. That said, NPU is playing with a lot of confidence now and the Thunder will have to play better defense than they have yet played if they are to win this contest. NPU's 2 conference wins are against the two teams that have downed the Thunder, giving the vikings an extra measure of confidence. I would think Carwell has to start showing up for these games if Wheaton wants to make a run in this conference race. The best way for him to make his presence felt is on the defensive end. neither of the wheaton bigs (wiele, carwell) have established themselves as paint defenders (see NCC game) and if that doesn't change it will be a conference season of disappointment for us thunder fans.

I think there is such a thing, and I see 4 "must win" games tonight...

* Wheaton (1-2) at home vs North Park (2-1)
* Carthage (2-1) at home vs Augustana (2-1)
* Elmhurst (1-2) at home vs Illinois Wesleyan (2-1)
* North Central (1-2) at home vs Millikin (1-2)

The way things have started, all 8 teams are still in the title race, but protecting homecourt is an absolute must (as always).  I just think any home team that loses tonight has very little chance of winning the regular season title, based on all of the tough games left to play. 

[NPC-Alum]

Given the start of the season and the expectations therefrom - I'd think that Augie is in more of a "must win" situation than Carthage.  My take only...

A couple last (hopefully) comment on Wednesday's  NCC- NP game:  Rogers had one foul going into the last 30 seconds of the game; based upon this fact, no North Central fan should be allowed any complaints about the calls.  Period.

That said, the red headed ref was clueless both ways - missed the fact that Rogers smacked Williams in the face after the rebound (automatice ejection?) and many other calls (both ways).  What really impressed me about that game, from an officiating standpoint, was the fact that they could miss stuff that happenend within two feet of them (welll noted previously).  Oh, and for what it's worth, it was Riordan that hip checked Gordon to no call.  Sorry, Greg.