MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[augiefan]

Augie wins 72-63 at EC

[titanfan]

New Standings:

If NP wins:

Augie         6-2
IWU           5-3
Carthage   5-3
Elmhurst    4-4
Wheaton   4-4
North Park 4-4
NCC           3-5
Millikin        1-7

If Millikin wins:

Augie         6-2
IWU           5-3
Carthage   5-3
Elmhurst    4-4
Wheaton   4-4
North Park 3-5
NCC           3-5
Millikin        2-6

Either way this race is nuts.  If NP wins there are 6 teams from 4-4 to 6-2.  Holy cow!

[RedMan1]

Aceon2, hahaha, I did hear "The Voice" say that too. I'm not blaming the refs at all and do not want to argue about the refs. Just wanted to hear what other people thought. Darius Gant seemed like a man amongst boys out there. Very impressed with his performance.

Mwunder- I will say this, you were correct with Steve needing to work on his 3 point shot. Granted 28 points is a very good night, but he missed some big 3's down the stretch that could have put the Redmen up by 4 and possibly 7.

[augiefan]

Wessels led Augie with 22 points. 12 for Swetalla. Augie's defense held down Burks and Ruch with Burks a great FT shooter hitting only 3-8 FTs tonight. A great road trip week for Augie, who got big help off the bench tonight from Bertrand and Larson.  Now it's home to try to repay NPU for one of our losses.

[iwumichigander]

RedMan1 - I thought it was a fairly evenly called ball game as I listened to it.  I was a little surprised to see Carthage with 24 fouls and IWU 19. 

The big difference in this game , aside from Gant taking over in the 2nd half, was IWU not only out rebounding Carthage 48 - 28.  It was 2nd chance points - IWU 25 (19 offensive boards) Carthage 6 (7 offensive boards).

"We were 20 down on rebounds tonight," said Carthage coach Bosko Djurickovic, "and you just can't do it that way. We didn't have a matchup for Darius Gant. He's a wonderful player, I like the way he plays, and I give him all the credit."

[dlawrenz]

North Park lost tonight in OT.

[Mr. Ypsi]

North Park lost tonight in OT.

Can't add any details, but Millikin won 79-67 in OT.  The Blue must have gone crazy in the added time.

[Dennis_Prikkel]

North Park lost tonight in OT.

Can't add any details, but Millikin won 79-67 in OT.  The Blue must have gone crazy in the added time.

I saw the worst two halves of basketball by two different teams I've ever seen.  Millikin scored 20 points in the first half and was down by 11 - they had one offensive rebound in the 1st half.

North Park embarrassed itself in the 2nd half - the players played like they didn't care (absolutely no enthusiasm the entire game) - and the coaching was worse.  North Park stayed in a zone in the 2nd half even though the Big Blue showed no inside threat and Millikin went lights out, hitting unguarded three-pointers repeatedly.

On the offensive end it was all one on two or three basketball the entire 2nd half for the Vikings - wild layup attempts being thrown at the basket from eight feet away.  One long-time fan (five years more than me - 48 years) said it was just ******* basketball - absolutely no team play.

Coaching in the 2nd half didn't exist for North Park either.  With 24 seconds left in regulation and the score tied North Park dribbled out the clock with Jason Gordon, all 6-3 of him, getting his six-foot lacksidasical baseline jumper slammed back in his face by the elbow of the Millikin center with a second left on the clock.

If that's the best enthusiasm and coaching that North Park can muster,  I for one would rather watch the Jayvee play in their stead, at least they would hustle.

DoS

[petemcb]

Any word on how the on-bus verbal assault of Bosko by the Titan Nation went?  Was that a factor in the final outcome?

[AndOne]

Just throwing out some predictions

IWU 67  Carthage 64

Elmhurst 71  Augie 69

Wheaton 76  NCC  65

NPU 59  Millikin 54

I think all the home teams win making this league anybodys for the taking:

5-3, 5-3, 5-3, 5-3, 4-4 !!

Well, ace................................you're batting .250. At least you didn't get an O-fer!

[AndOne]

NCC downs 24th ranked Wheaton 80-73. Heres the Box:

http://athletics.wheaton.edu/sports/mbball/mbbstats/mwhe19.htm

[Gregory Sager]

NPU pulled one of the all-time classic tank jobs tonight. Up by ten with eight and a half minutes to go, the Vikings allowed an unimpressive opponent to hang around that never should've been in the game in the first place, and they eventually found a way to lose to that unimpressive opponent. It was simon-pure ugly basketball on the part of the Vikings, and as a North Park fan it was both disheartening and disgusting to watch. It made me wonder if expectations were raised too high for NPU in 2007-08.

Take nothing away from Millikin, though; the Big Blue clearly earned the win. The Blue played much harder down the stretch and clearly wanted to win the game more than did the Vikes. Tunde Ogunleye (28 pts, 9 rebs), John Harmsen (13 pts), and Joscar Demby played excellent second-half basketball, while Dana Givens (11 pts) made two massive treys in crunch time that brought Millikin into a tie. Millikin played great interior defense, managed to hit eight of twelve trey attempts in the second half in spite of the fact that almost every one was well-contested, and sank a seriously respectable 13 of its 14 FTs in the extra stanza.

But it never should've come down to that. The Vikings were weak in the low post. The perimeter players couldn't make a shot when it was money time. And on three or four big possessions late in the second half and in overtime, the Vikes got trapped too far up the floor and watched Millikin get easy transition baskets.

But the key to the loss was that same old story -- NPU went into a shell late in the game with the lead, with various Vikings looking up at the game clock as though they could will it down to zero without doing anything constructive. NPU has been in plenty of close games thus far, winning some and losing some. But it's the games that the Vikes have had a substantial lead late that have really exposed their weakness, which is a lack of a killer instinct. Tonight, as in several games past (Knox and North Central come to mind) the Park had its foot on the throat of an inferior opponent and eased up. Tonight, unlike Knox and North Central, that opponent got up off the floor and took the game away.

There was a good-sized and enthusiastic crowd tonight, so there was no fault there. But, given the bad juju going on in the crackerbox for this NPU team, I'd rather that the Vikes finished out the year on the road. Nothing is going right for them in their own gym.

NPU had a golden opportunity to get right into the middle of this race with a win tonight. Instead, the Vikings tripped over their own shoelaces.

[Naperick]

Augustana  72   (15-4, 6-2)
Elmhurst     63   (14-5, 4-4)

The right team won.  The Vikings were more physical and more intense.  Augustana has more depth.  They would be a very strong bet for the Final 4 if they had all of their players.  Augie led, 57-45, with just under 9 minutes to go.  Elmhurst went on a 16-6 run to make it 63-61 with 2:47 remaining.  I was thinking a 3rd straight overtime game for the Bluejays.  Elmhurst then had three straight turnovers and that was the game.  Point guard play continues to kill the 'Jays.  Elmhurst had 17 turnovers while the Vikings had only 8. 

Surprising stat of the night - Ryan Burks was 3 for 8 from the charity stripe.

[Naperick]

AUG  6-2  15-4
CAR  5-3   11-8
IWU  5-3   11-8
WHE 4-4   14-5
ELM  4-4   14-5
NPU  3-5   11-8
NCC  3-5   9-10
MIL   2-6   9-10

[Naperick]

AUG  72
ELM  63

CAR  77
IWU  87

NCC  80
WHE 73

NPU  66
MIL   79  OT