MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[petemcb]

I'd like to see the script for that halftime talk.

[titanhammer]

Q, please tell us that Dwyer's DNP was not due to another foot injury.....

No, just a little banged up from the MacMurray scrimmage - took a bad fall I guess.  He will be fine.

Sean Johnson turned his ankle at the end of the game, but I don't think it was too bad.
For the limited time I was able to watch, I thought Doug Sexauer looked very good and the play wasn't as sloppy as one might expect for an intra-squad scrimmage.

[BRLHSFAN]

Been away for awhile, but popping in to see if anyone is here that can tell me if the Elmhurst games will be on wrse this year or not?  I just went there and it was music and when I tried the play by play from the Elmhurst website that's not working either?  Does anyone know?  Maybe it's because it's an away game, but they've done them in the past so I'm not sure now.

[augiefan]

Augie and Simpson are tied 21 all just past the half way point in the 1st half.

[Viking Mike]

Does anyone know why the new website (www.hear it from home.com) for Augie basketball is not up and working? 

[fcnews]

Does anyone have a score on Elmhurst @ MacMurray game?

[Titan Q]

Does anyone have a score on Elmhurst @ MacMurray game?

No, but the line is 32 1/2 and I have wagered an amount equal to the drop in my 401K the last 3 months on the Highlanders to cover.  Need a score.

[petemcb]

Just got home from my doubleheader:  Millikin @ Aurora and Lake Forest @ Benedictine.  When is the last time a CCIW went winless in the conference?  I can't imagine Millikin winning a conference game this season.  I know "on any given night......", but I just don't see it happening.  They are one of the smallest CCIW teams I've seen..........only two players over 6'2".  And the three players listed at 6'2" don't even appear to be that.  Other than Ogunleye, the rest of the guards dribble and dribble with not much of a sense of direction or purpose.  There is a whole lot of moving the ball around the perimeter seemingly without much of an idea as to how to enter the ball into the paint.  I saw no consistent shooting from outside by anyone other than Ogunleye, in spite of the fact that the roster lists ten players 6'2" and under.  Actually, the most pleasant surprise was 6'0" senior Mark Patrick who represents the only other threat from the outside.  He hit a couple of fadeaways and was a decent spot-up shooter.  In fact, with about 25 seconds left, and Millikin up by 3, Ogunleye, dribbling around the perimeter, kicked it over to Patrick who drained a 3 for the final 6 point margin of victory.  Clearly, Ogunleye had confidence in Patrick, who seemed to be the only player Ogunleye was looking for.  6'7" Joscar Demby was somewhat effective when he was in, but Aurora really didn't offer much in the way of interior defense, so it's difficult to judge how he'll do in CCIW competition.  He played limited minutes, maybe due to some ill-advised fouls.  It looked like he tired pretty easily.  6'4" Robert Burton had a couple of nice offensive putbacks but wasn't much of a factor other than that.  It looks like it could be a long winter in Decatur.

[Viking Mike]

AUGIE WINS AT SIMPSON---------------------82-79!!!!

According to the stats, it looks like this was a well played game.  Augie shot 50%, outrebounded the Storm by 5 and shot hit 7 of 14 three's.  And yet, the game was only won by 3 pts.   Delp hits a jumper with the game tied with 00:23 left in the game.  Welcome back Jordan!!!      Congrats Vikings on your first win of the 2008-09 season.
Looking forward to making it to many games at Carver this year.

[petemcb]

In second game of the doubleheader, Benedictine beat Lake Forest soundly, 88-67.  Benedictine is a solid team this year and would probably finish in the middle of the pack in the CCIW this year.  I would guess that games between them and Carthage, North Central and NPU would be real battles.  They might also give Elmhurst a tough game.  They have a few effective big men, including 6'6", 215 lb. sophomore A.J. Brown who looks more like about 230 pounds, 6'5" 210 Rob Bridgeman who threw down a breakaway dunk as well as stroking a couple from beyond the arc, and 6'6, 210 lb. Dan Klecan.  The three of these guys all worked really hard, played workman-like interior defense, and rotated in for each other.  The three-headed monster would be a challenge for most CCIW teams.  They have a 6'7, 200 lb. sophomore as well as a 6'11" 260 lb. junior who didn't even get off the bench until the last couple of minutes.  The other player they have who would have looked good in a CCIW jersey somewhere is freshman guard Nate Green, 5'9", 152 pounder from Thornwood.  This guy is really quick and catches and shoots from almost anywhere near the arc.  This is one of the more exciting, entertaining Benedictine teams in the last few years, worth the drive on a night where there's nothing going on in the CCIW but you still need a game to watch.  

[Viking Mike]

Does anyone know why Wessels did not play tonight.  I noticed he wasn't scrimmaging with the team a couple of weeks ago at a practice.   Is he injured?  Will he be available for the U. of Chicago game Wed night?

[petemcb]

Lake Forest also had a couple of players worth the price of admission and then some.  Freshman big (and I mean BIG, like 6'5", 265 lb. big) man Travis Clark from Evanston High School was remarkably nimble around the basket and has maybe the softest touch I've seen on a freshman big man in quite a while.  The NBA player he reminded me of was Oliver Miller before his weight got the better of him.  Big, agile, soft touch, good sense of where he is in relation to the basket at all times, and passes well out of the post.  He could start for at least half the teams in the CCIW this year.  Try to get out to see him this season, along withtheir 6'1", 175 lb. sophomore guard Victor Campbell from Milwaukee.  

[augiefan]

I guess any road victory is a good one. A little to close for comfort, but the 1st game is always a challenge. I have no idea why Wessels did not play. Hopefully, Dansand can tell us or it will be mentioned in Dave Wrath's game summary on the Augie website. We need him at full strength for Chicago and Wash U.

[Gotberg]

Two starters, Antonio Stevens and Chris Brown, didn't make grades and are going to have to sit out until at least the end of the semester. North Park now gets to experience the sense of frustration and irritation that Wheaton felt over John Mohan; you expect student-athletes to have their act together by the time they're juniors, and when they don't it's doubly hard to take because by that point their teammates and coaches have come to depend upon them much more than when they were mere freshmen or sophomores. The thing to keep in mind is that in the end, veterans or not, they're still only twenty-year-olds. Anyone who spends time with twenty-year-olds knows that they are prone to mess things up; maturity is not magically conferred upon someone on his eighteenth birthday. If it was, college would be a very different experience!

I hope that Tone and Chris keep their eyes on the bigger picture, which is that getting their grades in order and earning their degrees are the most important matters at hand, not simply getting back into uniform. Their progress is being closely monitored by the coaching staff, and I've been told that they're working hard to be reinstated at semester break.

That's just the beginning. Sophomore forward Nick Hoekstra, who was a steady customer on last year's JV team and had made such outstanding off-season progress that Paul Brenegan and his staff were looking to him to be a key contributor off the varsity bench this season, tore his ACL and is out for the year. Sophomore swingman Kendall Greer, who was projected to be the team's sixth man, broke a bone in his foot and is out until semester break. And sophomore guard Clayton Cahill, who is expected to be one of NPU's two biggest offensive threats alongside Nick Williams, has been nursing a pulled groin and has missed both of the preseason scrimmages. At last report the coaches are hopeful that he'll be able to suit up on Saturday against Wash U in Colorado Springs.

Both Hoekstra and Brown were credited with playing statistics in today's game for NPU.

http://www.northpark.edu/athletics/mbasketball/stats/2008stats/11-15mbb.htm

[AndOne]

The stat sheet also shows both played zero (0) minutes. Computer foul up?