MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[fcnews]

Titan Q - While your in town, walk across the seat from Wash U. and see the Fontbonne campus. Enjoy your stay in the STL.

[Mr. Ypsi]

TQ    Anybody with 4000 posts must really be getting up there in years!!!!   Congrats on a milestone

Apparently too busy to post his milestone post in the little used "best attendence" board though! lol  ...if you're getting up there in years...well then I'm afraid how old I actually am since I'm nearing 6000. 

I guess we should be careful with the age thing lest Mr. Ypsi's pacemaker short circuits!

Now, now - I just started posting when I was 6!

[Pat Coleman]

Yeah, but once you dug the hole and inserted the post you couldn't get nearly as many in per day.

[Gregory Sager]

The boxscore from the Wheaton/Whitworth game in the Lee Pfund tournament last year (Whitworth won by 3)...

http://athletics.wheaton.edu/Sports/mbball/mbbarchivedstats/2007/mwhe2.htm

I was at this game. I can tell you that you will learn absolutely nothing about next Friday's game by looking at this box score. Whitworth essentially played six men in that game (with a seventh getting four minutes), and of those six Pirates only two are on this year's squad. The amazing Bryan Williams, the Whitworth PG who looked every bit as good as Kent Raymond that night and who was eventually named the NWC's POY, has moved on. It's a completely different team. Whitworth head coach Jim Hayford has done a really remarkable job of reloading without missing a beat in terms of keeping his program atop the NWC.

Congrats to Wheaton on getting thru opening weekend and continuing its Cinderella Lazarus season. And congrats as well to Augie on a fine 2007-08 campaign.

A top flight perimeter recruit would help next year Titan Q, but it's hard to do that when IWU keeps beating out Augie for prize recruits. Let us have one this year, as you folks got your fair share last year.

Break out the violins, Rock Island's gonna play us that old sad song again.

I'm looking at the CCIW's men's basketball page at the moment, and it's telling me that Augustana has won the last three conference titles in a row. I can't speak for Titans fans, but if my team was continually beaten out by a particular conference rival for every prospect over which they went head-to-head, and yet my team still won the conference three years in a row, I'd take that tradeoff in a New York minute.

[nwhoops1903]

I was at this game. I can tell you that you will learn absolutely nothing about next Friday's game by looking at this box score...

True about WW.  But the Thunder looks like they lost only 2 guys.  Is Wheaton much different than 07?

[Gregory Sager]

I was at this game. I can tell you that you will learn absolutely nothing about next Friday's game by looking at this box score...

True about WW.  But the Thunder looks like they lost only 2 guys.  Is Wheaton much different than 07?

The two guys Wheaton lost from last year to this year were power forward Michael Fiddler and small forward Johnnie Standard. Fiddler was the team's best interior defender -- Wheaton's interior D has struggled in his absence this season -- and Standard was a good outside shooter and the team's second scoring option (albeit a very distant second scoring option). But aside from that, it's still the same team. The major improvement that Wheaton has made from last year to this year is about thirty or forty pounds' worth of upper-body muscle on center Andy Wiele that has made him a much more potent force in the blocks on offense and on the boards at both ends.

[Gregory Sager]

Mugsy, very nice post - +k!  Next up is Whitworth - the Thunder should actually be favored (uh, oh! ); if they survive, they face either Hope or OWU - both known to be beatable by CCIW teams.  I think they genuinely have a shot at Salem!

Which this Titan would love to see - we whupped a Final Four team 3 times!

Illinois Wesleyan 63, Wheaton 60
Illinois Wesleyan 61, Wheaton 59
Illinois Wesleyan 81, Wheaton 78

Is "whupped" really the appropriate verb here, Chuck?

[nwhoops1903]

I was at this game. I can tell you that you will learn absolutely nothing about next Friday's game by looking at this box score...

True about WW.  But the Thunder looks like they lost only 2 guys.  Is Wheaton much different than 07?

The two guys Wheaton lost from last year to this year were power forward Michael Fiddler and small forward Johnnie Standard. Fiddler was the team's best interior defender -- Wheaton's interior D has struggled in his absence this season -- and Standard was a good outside shooter and the team's second scoring option (albeit a very distant second scoring option). But aside from that, it's still the same team. The major improvement that Wheaton has made from last year to this year is about thirty or forty pounds' worth of upper-body muscle on center Andy Wiele that has made him a much more potent force in the blocks on offense and on the boards at both ends.

Thanks!!  How do you feel Raymond has improved/changed this season?

[Gregory Sager]

I was at this game. I can tell you that you will learn absolutely nothing about next Friday's game by looking at this box score...

True about WW.  But the Thunder looks like they lost only 2 guys.  Is Wheaton much different than 07?

The two guys Wheaton lost from last year to this year were power forward Michael Fiddler and small forward Johnnie Standard. Fiddler was the team's best interior defender -- Wheaton's interior D has struggled in his absence this season -- and Standard was a good outside shooter and the team's second scoring option (albeit a very distant second scoring option). But aside from that, it's still the same team. The major improvement that Wheaton has made from last year to this year is about thirty or forty pounds' worth of upper-body muscle on center Andy Wiele that has made him a much more potent force in the blocks on offense and on the boards at both ends.

Thanks!!  How do you feel Raymond has improved/changed this season?

He hasn't changed much. He's possibly a little stronger and finishes better -- but he was already plenty good at that before this season. He's also a little more prone to force shots from the outside, but without Standard around to knock down open treys Raymond's passing options have been much more limited this season. It's either find Panner, feed Wiele in the low post, or shoot it himself; freshman guard Andrew Jahns has shown glimpses of being a solid scorer for Wheaton, but he's too unreliable at this point for Raymond to look for him the same way that he looked for Standard as a perimeter option last season.

As numerous CCIW Chat regulars have been saying all season, Wheaton is a team that has limited offensive options. There's usually two Wheaties on the floor, sometimes three, who are offensive ciphers; although Jahns and sophomore forward Jacob Carwell have sporadically contributed at the offensive end, they do so very infrequently at this point in their careers, and the other three guys in the Wheaton rotation -- forward/center Phill Denham and guards Stephen Young and Jeremy Berntsen -- are complete nonentities at the offensive end of the floor. Apart from Wheaton's big three, there have been only nine double-digit-scoring performances from Wheaton in the Sonic Atmospheric Disturbance's 28 games to date: Carwell and Jahns have four apiece, and Denham has one.

Between the three of them, Raymond, Panner, and Wiele score almost 75% of Wheaton's points on average. They've scored over 78% of Wheaton's points in the two tourney games to date. That's not what anyone would call a balanced attack.

[April]

Congrats to Augie on a great season. You are building quite the impressive legacy of CCIW championships. Hopefully you can make a nice playoff run someday.

And now to my favorite topic, Wheaton. I love your playoff run this season... Its good for the soul. After not getting in in '04 after a brutal loss at the Shirk, after watching that flashback worthy tip in at the first round game against Calvin in King Arena in '05, and years and years of playoff games that involved teams that weren't as good as you could have been.... this year is ours. We are long overdue. Go get em boys!

Thanks!!  How do you feel Raymond has improved/changed this season?

He hasn't changed much.

Darn. Does that mean he won't be a D3hoops.com All-American this year either?  (Sorry Pat, I had to )

[Gregory Sager]

Thanks!!  How do you feel Raymond has improved/changed this season?

He hasn't changed much.

Darn. Does that mean he won't be a D3hoops.com All-American this year either?  (Sorry Pat, I had to )

He'd better be. In fact, I've already stuck my neck out and called him a "shoo-in first-teamer" in the NWC room.

[Greek Tragedy]

And now to my favorite topic, Wheaton. I love your playoff run this season... Its good for the soul. After not getting in in '04 after a brutal loss at the Shirk, after watching that flashback worthy tip in at the first round game against Calvin in King Arena in '05, and years and years of playoff games that involved teams that weren't as good as you could have been.... this year is ours. We are long overdue. Go get em boys!

Too bad you decided not to come and see the two wins yourself! lol...you can't say, "ours" and "we" because you weren't there, even though you could've easily been there (with a free flight (?) and transportation and room)! Just giving you crap, April. 

[Titan Q]

TQ    Anybody with 4000 posts must really be getting up there in years!!!!   Congrats on a milestone

4000!  I didn't even see it coming.  I will make sure to celebrate today!

[Titan Q]

Break out the violins, Rock Island's gonna play us that old sad song again.

I'm looking at the CCIW's men's basketball page at the moment, and it's telling me that Augustana has won the last three conference titles in a row. I can't speak for Titans fans, but if my team was continually beaten out by a particular conference rival for every prospect over which they went head-to-head, and yet my team still won the conference three years in a row, I'd take that tradeoff in a New York minute.

Actually, IWU and Augustana really didn't go head-to-head for about 3 years there - I think we all know Scott Trost wasn't recruiting a lot of kids during the 2003-04, 2004-05, and 2005-06 seasons (after he landed Dauksas, Amelianovich, and Freeman in back-to-back classes), as IWU was loaded during that stretch.  Trost landed some good players in those years, including 1st Teamer Darius Gant, but he wasn't out hitting it like he was those first two years at IWU.

Last year things got back to normal with IWU recruiting very hard (as Augie does every single year).  The Titans landed two kids Augie wanted bad (Doug Sexauer and Edmond O'Callaghan) and at least another two they were on (Dan Schouten and Chris Stamas), while not losing anyone to the Vikings.  We'll see what happens this year - it is definitely really competitive this year. 

It's nice to be back in the trenches with the likes of Augie, Chicago, Wash U, etc, that is for sure!  For IWU to replace an 8-man senior class of '06 - that included two 1st Team All-Americans (Dauksas, Amelianovich) - with a freshman class last year consisting of only 5-11 guard Sean Dwyer was not exactly the way you draw it up.  The coaching transition was tough on IWU as it usually is on any program.  Ron Rose got the Titans back in the CCIW mix by getting IWU back on the recruiting trail in a big way last Spring...which is exactly what Scott Trost did when he got to IWU and is how he built a 3-time CCIW champion and Final Four team.  Coach Rose is out there again looking to add pieces to the puzzle.

[usee]

Q, your presence has been requested in the Hope Sectional room.