MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Viking Blue]

Sorry,  27% in the first half.  One would probably assume I have been consuming Wheaton-banned beverages after watching that performance.....

[Gregory Sager]

I would have to agree with your observations of Alexander.  It's easy to admire a player for putting up big numbers in a win.  To a former athlete, though, it is much easier to admire a player for playing as hard as this senior did in a blowout.

TRUE leadership, without saying a single word.

As I said on Saturday, I wish that NPU could clone Jay Alexander. More importantly, I wish that his fire and intensity would rub off on his teammates. I just don't see that same zeal in the eyes of any other Viking, and I'm absolutely certain that NPU could use more guys yelling and flying around and playing every play as though their hair was on fire the way that Jay does. North Park needs that sort of thing very, very badly.

One other point I should've mentioned in my game recap: Elmhurst head coach Mark Scherer called a smart game tonight. He knew that NPU was playing horribly and that the Vikes would really have to sell themselves out defensively in the second half, so he spread the floor more and let the NPU defenders commit in a desperate attempt to pick up some steals, and then trusted his Bluejays to knock down 21-footers ... which they did with aplomb. Good job by the Elmhurst shooters, and good job by Mark Scherer.

[Gregory Sager]

One last ugly stat for the night:

Field goal attempts: NPU 54, Elmhurst 46. And it's not as though this oddity was created by NPU's sending the Bluejays to the free throw line with regularity, thereby wiping Elmhurst FG attempts off the books, because NPU actually attempted two more free throws than did Elmhurst (15-13).

Again, North Park took eight more shots from the field than did Elmhurst. And North Park still lost by 27.

Amazing.

[sac]

No one can make it worth your while to read about a 66-39 game like Gregory Sager......no one. 

[Gregory Sager]

Thanks.

[Titan Q]

For anyone interested, here is the archive of the Ron Rose Show from this week (Tuesday)...

http://www.wjbc.com/wire2/podsports/00771_Titan-Show-Podcast_194301.htm

The player guests were Travis Rosenkranz, Sean Johnson, and Sean Dwyer.

[Titan Q]

The Pantagraph article from the IWU/Wheaton game...

http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2008/01/24/usports/doc47982ca6aac8b728574174.txt

On the double technical situation with 6:21 to play:

Johnson and Raymond both picked up technicals after Dwyer fouled Raymond on a drive.

"I guess Raymond thought Dwyer tripped him, and he gave him a little shove under the pile," Johnson said. "I wasn't going to let Sean lie on the floor and get shoved, so I threw a shove in there."

I'm not sure if Sean Johnson should have gotten in the middle of that or not, but I do know that last year, Kent Raymond walked all over the Titans at the Shirk Center.  He scored a building record 44 points, including 20-20 from the FT line.  Raymond manhandled the Titans.  Last night, the Titans were just tougher than Raymond, and that was one of the biggest reasons IWU won the game.

This from Bill Harris on Kent Raymond's 5th foul:

"With one second on the shot clock, the kid (Travis Rosenkranz) was outside the arc certainly and they call — I would have to look at the tape.,"

Absolutely incorrect.  Travis Rosenkranz drove from beyond the arc on the left wing to the basket.  The contact from Raymond came about 12 feet from the basket with plenty of time on the shotclock.  (Per the play-by-play, IWU missed a shot and Wheaton got the ball at 5:14...the foul was at 4:58.)  For Coach Harris to suggest that it happened "outside the arc" and at the shot clock buzzer is surprising.

Another quote from Bill Harris:

"I thought the game was more physical than the rules call for."

Huh?

[Titan Q]

A few more misc. thoughts on the IWU/Wheaton game:

* Wheaton never led - IWU led from start to finish

* In addition to doing an incredible job on Raymond, the Titans took Andy Wiele completely out of the game (3 made FG's) and held Ben Panner to just 1 made 3-pointer.

* Sean Dwyer's complete stat line is impressive: 11 points, 3 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 steals.

* Freshman Sean Johnson is now 16-32 (.500) from 3-point range in the league.  Only Ben Panner has made more 3's (2 more).

[und63]

GS-
"Tonight was an absolute disgrace. As the North Park coaches said, the Vikings took four steps backward tonight. One can only hope that they completely erase tonight's debacle from their minds, get a good night's sleep, practice hard and listen diligently over the next two days, and show up to the crackerbox on Saturday to face Illinois Wesleyan with minds, hearts, and nerve intact."

Don't worry, NPU is always ready for IWU and will play the game of their lives!  I have yet to see a CCIW team that does not set some high water
marks in their performance against the Titans.

GO TITANS!

[REDMENFAN]

Here's the article in today's kenosha paper about the Carthage-NC game

http://ksn.kenoshanews.com/view_article.php?articleNum=2428284

[Late nite]

Didn't see the Carthage-North Central game---But with a Little Bosko shooting 27 FT's, it would appear that Flopfest was in high gear and Big Bosko was velcroed to any official who would pass by him on the sideline---It's amazing the calls he gets---Some deserved, MANY not

[REDMENFAN]

Late Night- There were a few, maybe 2 times, that Steve went to the line and it was a border line ticky tack foul. Other times, I'd say at least a good 6-8 of his attempts the Redmen were in the bonus and Steve wasn't even attempting a shot, he would make a move and the defenders (#22 and I believe #24 primarily) would deliberately put both hands on him to try and stop penetration, and I guess just hope to not get called for it.  I'd say his final 8-10 attempts were because of NC intentionally fouling Carthage to try and stretch out the game and hope Carthage would miss some and get back into it.  Hey, whatever people think, the kids getting it done. That's really all that matters at this point.

[REDMENFAN]

What do some think about Rairdon's gameplan to kind of let Steve do his thing and go off, but just don't let anyone else hurt you? He stated in the article that it was poor coaching to go to a zone, and that's what really hurt them in the second half by letting others get their points

[Scream]

Elmhurst   66
North Park 39
     'Jays led 28-18 at the half

It was horrible to watch.  NP couldn't hit a shot, lay-up or jumper to save their lives, I definitely am not looking forward to seeing the fg % from this one. 

Bright spots... defense for the most part, intensity on that end of the floor for probably 35 minutes of the game was really great... watching Burks miss 2 freethrows, I can't imagine anyone'll see that again anytime soon... the look in Jay Alexander's eyes, especially in the 2nd half, he was never ready to give this game up, and I loved that, he had some great blocks, and almost dunked over one of the reserve guards, but he decided to lay it in instead... defense on Ruch, I think he ended up with only 15 (definitely under 20)... any more Greg, Scream, Rob, Mr B?

Dim spots... shooting, it was abysmal... offense against the zone, we may as well have not had guys on the court at some points... Elmhurst's shooting, again, don't want to see the percentages... rebounding, on both ends of the floor (with the possible exception of Jay Alexander), we were 1 and done (to quote Rob Berki) all night on the offensive end, and got smoked even on the defensive end far too often...

we'll have to play a heck of alot better to beat an undoubtedly fired up IWU team who just knocked off Wheaton

How does the team respond?  There are a whole lot of possibilities; giving up, forgetting about the bad night, studying the game film of the bad night and dissecting the mistakes, justifying that their three conference losses are all to nationally ranked teams, etc. 

Something tells me these guys (all of them included) won't allow another debacle like this.  When a team beats you by almost 30 points and they put in their entire jv squad with 4 minutes left, there's not many excuses you can make, especially (as Greg said) considering Elmhurst didn't play their best game.

[Late nite]

Don't understand how going to a zone hurt them worse the defense that they played in the first half---they were outscored by 5 points in each half---

What do some think about Rairdon's gameplan to kind of let Steve do his thing and go off, but just don't let anyone else hurt you? He stated in the article that it was poor coaching to go to a zone, and that's what really hurt them in the second half by letting others get their points