MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

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Next Man Up

Quote from: iwu70 on January 09, 2023, 08:33:37 AM
CarrollBooster, don't worry . . . it happens in the CCIW.  No easy nights.   IWU is crashing down to earth too, after a good win vs. Elmhurst earlier.  Not even sure IWU will make the CCIW tournament.   1-19 from three??   Come on, man!

'70

'70,

One for 19 from three is certainly something you would think you would never see from the Mighty Titans.
I mean as a certain IWU booster always prophesied, if you wear a Titans uniform you're automatically a star,  and it's difficult to understand how a collection of such good players could ever go 1 for 19. As such, your aghast over the statistic is understandable.

However, I am quite sure that you can put your fears to bed as far as the Green Team making the conference tournament. I believe only a miracle could keep that from happening. However, short of winning the tournament, there just could be a bit of trepidation with regard to their Pool C chances. However, they'll most likely clear that hurdle as well.  8-)
So young hero, ask yourself............................Do you want to go to college, get a good education, and play (basketball)(football), or do you want to go to college, get a good education, and watch (basketball)(football)? 🤔 😏

Don't surround yourself with yourself. 🧍🏼‍♂️(Yes)

Gregory Sager

New poll is out. Wheaton moves up to #8 from #12, Carthage is towards the bottom of the ORV pile with 14 points, and Elmhurst has fallen out entirely.
"To see what is in front of one's nose is a constant struggle." -- George Orwell

iwu70

Next, Titans need a major turnaround, or a major re-shuffling of the rotation, line-up.  With the injuries, Ron Rose actually doesn't have the depth that we once thought he would have.

I hope they can get back to the winning ways tonight vs. MU at home.   They have no chance whatsoever for Pool C.  Will need to win the CCIW tournament to play in March. 

All you can say is some of these TITANS may have been stars in high school, or in previous seasons, but they are not playing like that right now. 

IWU'70

GoPerry

Quote from: iwu70 on January 11, 2023, 03:10:41 PM
Next, Titans need a major turnaround, or a major re-shuffling of the rotation, line-up.  With the injuries, Ron Rose actually doesn't have the depth that we once thought he would have.

I hope they can get back to the winning ways tonight vs. MU at home.   They have no chance whatsoever for Pool C.  Will need to win the CCIW tournament to play in March. 


IWU'70

Provided they win both Oregon games (which they should) they would probably need to go 9-2 the rest of the way in conference with @Wheaton, @North Central, @North Park.  Not impossible but a very, very, extremely tall order.

Gregory Sager

Quote from: GoPerry on January 11, 2023, 03:54:33 PM
Quote from: iwu70 on January 11, 2023, 03:10:41 PM
Next, Titans need a major turnaround, or a major re-shuffling of the rotation, line-up.  With the injuries, Ron Rose actually doesn't have the depth that we once thought he would have.

I hope they can get back to the winning ways tonight vs. MU at home.   They have no chance whatsoever for Pool C.  Will need to win the CCIW tournament to play in March. 


IWU'70

Provided they win both Oregon games (which they should) they would probably need to go 9-2 the rest of the way in conference with @Wheaton, @North Central, @North Park.  Not impossible but a very, very, extremely tall order.

They actually have both of their games with North Park remaining. And, for that matter, they have to host Carthage, which drubbed the Titans by 21 this past Saturday.

Speaking of which, two of the three CCIW leaders -- North Park and Carthage -- will face off against each other in the crackerbox tonight. I realize that, based upon Twitter traffic, D3 World is pretty much obsessed with #5 Christopher Newport @ #2 Randolph-Macon and the latest iteration of The Rivalry (that's Calvin vs. Hope for those of you who are wet behind the ears where D3 World is concerned), but tonight's game @ Foster & Kedzie is still a pretty big deal out here on this side of Lake Michigan. And I'd say that the Wheaton @ North Central game is pretty big as well, since NCC is only a game behind the three co-leaders; I think that if the Cardinals play exceptionally well tonight they're capable of taking down Mike Schauer's boys.

(BTW, there are also two high-impact games involving the top of the WIAC leaderboard going on tonight, as well las two high-impact games involving the top of the NJAC leaderboard. And there's also the Battle of Dubuque (crosstown rivals Dubuque and Loras are two of the top teams in the ARC this season), a big Marietta @ Mt. Union showdown in the OAC, and for a nightcap, a contest for first place in the SCIAC between Cal Lutheran and CMS late this evening. This is a great night to watch D3 men's basketball.)
"To see what is in front of one's nose is a constant struggle." -- George Orwell

lmitzel

Quote from: Gregory Sager on January 11, 2023, 04:27:50 PM
Quote from: GoPerry on January 11, 2023, 03:54:33 PM
Quote from: iwu70 on January 11, 2023, 03:10:41 PM
Next, Titans need a major turnaround, or a major re-shuffling of the rotation, line-up.  With the injuries, Ron Rose actually doesn't have the depth that we once thought he would have.

I hope they can get back to the winning ways tonight vs. MU at home.   They have no chance whatsoever for Pool C.  Will need to win the CCIW tournament to play in March. 


IWU'70

Provided they win both Oregon games (which they should) they would probably need to go 9-2 the rest of the way in conference with @Wheaton, @North Central, @North Park.  Not impossible but a very, very, extremely tall order.

They actually have both of their games with North Park remaining. And, for that matter, they have to host Carthage, which drubbed the Titans by 21 this past Saturday.

Speaking of which, two of the three CCIW leaders -- North Park and Carthage -- will face off against each other in the crackerbox tonight. I realize that, based upon Twitter traffic, D3 World is pretty much obsessed with #5 Christopher Newport @ #2 Randolph-Macon and the latest iteration of The Rivalry (that's Calvin vs. Hope for those of you who are wet behind the ears where D3 World is concerned), but tonight's game @ Foster & Kedzie is still a pretty big deal out here on this side of Lake Michigan. And I'd say that the Wheaton @ North Central game is pretty big as well, since NCC is only a game behind the three co-leaders; I think that if the Cardinals play exceptionally well tonight they're capable of taking down Mike Schauer's boys.

(BTW, there are also two high-impact games involving the top of the WIAC leaderboard going on tonight, as well las two high-impact games involving the top of the NJAC leaderboard. And there's also the Battle of Dubuque (crosstown rivals Dubuque and Loras are two of the top teams in the ARC this season), a big Marietta @ Mt. Union showdown in the OAC, and for a nightcap, a contest for first place in the SCIAC between Cal Lutheran and CMS late this evening. This is a great night to watch D3 men's basketball.)

And alas, I can only watch one of them. Probably try to have Carthage-NPU up on my phone on standby.
Official D-III Championship BeltTM Cartographer
2022 CCIW Football Pick 'Em Co-Champion
#THREEEEEEEEE

Gregory Sager

I'm gonna have a full spread of live stats tabs active on my laptop in the broadcast perch.
"To see what is in front of one's nose is a constant struggle." -- George Orwell

petemcb

With my son coaching in Chicago's NW suburbs, I have seen Carthage's Freshman, Campbell, several times over the last few years and I kept trying to think which CCIW player he most reminded me of. Now that I'm seeing him play in a Carthage uniform, I realize who it is: Raul Guzman!

GoPerry

Wheaton  76
North Central 71

Wheaton shot 65%, 7 of 13 from three in the first half but were only leading by 7, 41-34, due to eight uncharacteristic turnovers that kept the home team close.  Predictably, they mean reverted to 35% field goal shooting in the second half.  Cruickshank foul trouble for much of the second allowed NCC to close the gap and actually take the lead 52-51 with 11 minutes remaining.  But key buckets from Eli Considine and Nick Schiavello got Wheaton 8 unanswered points to retake the lead and they never relinquished.

Ok – the embarrassingly obvious question:  Why isn't Mitch Lewis playing 30+ mins?  He only clocked 18 mins tonight and thank goodness because Wheaton could not stop him – at all.  He ended up with 20 pts.

Cruickshank led Wheaton with 16 pts, 9 rebs, 4 asst.  Andrew Williams and Schiavello with 14 pts each.

Lewis led North Central with 20 pts.  Matt Helwig had a very quiet 19 pts, 7 rebs.

Another significant road win for Wheaton.  But forget about it because Carthage comes to King on Saturday.  No rest in this gauntlet of a league.

kiko

Around the league this evening:

Carthage 104, North Park 95 at the Crackerbox
Elmhurst 89, Carroll 69 at Faganel
Illinois Wesleyan 73, Millikin 68 at State Farm Arena
Wheaton 76, North Central 71 in the Hangar

I'll let others fill in the deets for their respective games.  I watched Wheaton-North Central, and my main takeaways are (1) Wheaton is a fantastic team who is on their front foot offensively and defensively for 40 minutes, and (2) this game was not refereeing's finest hour, and was poorly officiated for both teams pretty much from start to finish.

kiko

Quote from: GoPerry on January 11, 2023, 10:02:12 PM

Ok – the embarrassingly obvious question:  Why isn't Mitch Lewis playing 30+ mins?  He only clocked 18 mins tonight and thank goodness because Wheaton could not stop him – at all.  He ended up with 20 pts.


I do not have an answer to this, other than to say that the Cardinal offense looks like a completely different system when he is in the game, which I'm sure can't be easy to adjust to from a rhythm standpoint.  Everything flows through him and there is a little bit of Mitch and the Jordanaires when he is in, even if Matt Helwig is also on the court.

I still maintain that he's got an old man at the YMCA game.  He's coming off the bench, doesn't really have a lot of hops and isn't the fastest guy around, so all the young stallions running the court at open gym don't see the threat.  But he's got great footwork, is a really good passer and has a feathery touch, and you pretty much realize after a couple of sequences that you've got your hands full.

Gregory Sager

#56816
Carthage 104
North Park 95

Kolden Vanlandingham: 19 pts
Jalen Boyd: 15 pts
Quillin Dixon: 14 pts, 3:0 a:to
Marquise Jackson: 12 pts, 9 rebs, 3 stls
Jordan Boyd: 10 pts
Shamar Pumphrey: 3:0 a:to, 3 stls
Lance Nelson: 4:1 a:to

Julian Campbell: 23 pts (10-15 FG)
Fillip Bulatovic: 22 pts (9-12 FG), 9 rebs, 9:5 a:to
Tanner Lamb: 17 pts (4-7 trey)
AJ Johnson: 17 pts
Antuan Nesbitt: 15 pts, 9:6 a:to
Anthony Bernero: 7 rebs
Colton Sigel: 5:2 a:to

Carthage beat North Park between the ears tonight. The Firebirds, for as much as they struggled last season, have developed into a team that is a reflection of their head coach, which is to say that they succeed in large part by having a high collective basketball IQ. Every Carthage player seemed to be in the right spot at the right time doing the right things tonight, even their sensational freshman Julian Campbell, and I've seen the Firebirds play enough this season to know that smart, precise basketball is a big part of their identity.

By contrast, North Park did not play smart at all. It's not just a matter of taking bad shots, because taking some bad shots every game comes with the territory of being a high-octane team that tries to run its opponent off the floor. It's how many bad shots they took. Worse, they piled up an inordinate number of offensive fouls by driving into traffic, hooking, using armbars, etc., and offensive fouls like that are typically an indication of a team that isn't reading the officiating properly. Eric Anderson, Kevin Dillard, and Kevin Raher called the game tighter than a drum tonight; Carthage adjusted to it, and North Park didn't.

The other decisive aspect to tonight's game was shooting. NPU didn't shoot poorly; the Vikings' shooting line was .475/.360/.714. But Carthage shot a freakish .600/.524/.724, which becomes a little less eye-catching once you realize that the Firebirds came into the game with the second-best team FG percentage in all of D3. Bosko came up from Florida to watch his son's team tonight, and I told him afterwards that this is the best shooting team ever coached by someone named Djurickovic. He didn't disagree with me. It's true that the Vikings did a poor job of closing out on shooters in the early going, but for most of the game they did a credible job defending in the halfcourt. Carthage simply executed adroitly and with a ton of savvy, and the Firebirds knocked down treys even when they had hands in their faces. It also didn't hurt that they have Fillip Bulatovic, who tonight came closer to a triple-double than any visiting player's ever come in the crackerbox.

Carthage's 12-2, 5-1 record isn't smoke and mirrors. The Firebirds are for real. If they stay healthy, I don't see them fading in the second round-robin of league play.

Bright spots for the Vikings were a high-quality game from Quillin Dixon off the bench, and an equally impressive performance from tenth man Davante Robinson, who has clearly earned more minutes.

I realize that the Vikings are all about passion, edginess, and kinetic energy, and that the formula for their success thus far this year is the fact that they play ball with a runaway-train vibe, but they have to realize now that the needed ingredient for them to reach the next level is to improve their judgment when the ball is in their hands. Nevertheless, I'm not one to lose sight of the fact that this team was not supposed to be doing what it's been doing this year; even on a disappointing night like tonight, the Vikings are never anything less than competitive. There wasn't a whole lotta fun to be had from watching North Park men's basketball over the past few seasons, and now it's fun again even when they lose. I have nothing but great appreciation for what Sean Smith and his guys have brought back to the program.
"To see what is in front of one's nose is a constant struggle." -- George Orwell

Gregory Sager

Elmhurst found itself down by as much as ten points to Carroll in the first half at Faganel, but snapped out of it and caught the Pios at 31-all with three minutes left in the opening stanza. Carroll stayed competitive for the first six minutes of the second half, but then the 'jays went on a 16-3 run and proceeded to put the game away. EU was led by Ocean Johnson (17 and 8), Wesley Hooker (12), Jonathan Zapinski (11 and 9), Kole Hornbuckle (11), John Ittounas (10 and 9), and Neshat Dalipi (10). The Pios were paced by Justin Steinike's 21 and 7, with Kobe Simpson adding 10 points and five steals and Aaron Wafford contributing 10 points as well.

After leading for almost the entire first half, Illinois Wesleyan teeter-tottered with Millikin for the first ten minutes of the closing stanza before the Titans finally used a 9-0 run between the 9:13 mark and the 7:19 mark to open some space between themselves and the Big Blue, which proved enough to stave off the visitors at Shirk even though MU got to within three points on four different occasions down the stretch. Ryan Sroka paved the way for the Greenies with 17 points, while Cody Mitchell double-doubled with 16 and 10 and Hakim Williams chipped in 10 points. The Big Blue featured the artistry of Blo-No native JT Welch tonight, as he had 21 points, while Drake Stevenson (15), Demarcus Bond (14), and Noah Livingston (10) played supporting scoring roles for Millikin. The Big Blue were without the services of big man Cole Laurence tonight, for reasons unknown. That's a shame if you're a Millikin fan, because the one team against whom he comes in handiest in this league is Illinois Wesleyan.
"To see what is in front of one's nose is a constant struggle." -- George Orwell

Gregory Sager

Quote from: petemcb on January 11, 2023, 08:27:04 PM
With my son coaching in Chicago's NW suburbs, I have seen Carthage's Freshman, Campbell, several times over the last few years and I kept trying to think which CCIW player he most reminded me of. Now that I'm seeing him play in a Carthage uniform, I realize who it is: Raul Guzman!

That's a fair comparison, except that Campbell has much better touch around the basket and is a better FT shooter than Guzman was.
"To see what is in front of one's nose is a constant struggle." -- George Orwell

lmitzel

Quote from: GoPerry on January 11, 2023, 10:02:12 PM
Wheaton  76
North Central 71

Wheaton shot 65%, 7 of 13 from three in the first half but were only leading by 7, 41-34, due to eight uncharacteristic turnovers that kept the home team close.  Predictably, they mean reverted to 35% field goal shooting in the second half.  Cruickshank foul trouble for much of the second allowed NCC to close the gap and actually take the lead 52-51 with 11 minutes remaining.  But key buckets from Eli Considine and Nick Schiavello got Wheaton 8 unanswered points to retake the lead and they never relinquished.

Ok – the embarrassingly obvious question:  Why isn't Mitch Lewis playing 30+ mins?  He only clocked 18 mins tonight and thank goodness because Wheaton could not stop him – at all.  He ended up with 20 pts.

Cruickshank led Wheaton with 16 pts, 9 rebs, 4 asst.  Andrew Williams and Schiavello with 14 pts each.

Lewis led North Central with 20 pts.  Matt Helwig had a very quiet 19 pts, 7 rebs.

The big number for me was NCC's abysmal 3-19 performance from beyond the arc. They also had a few layups rim out, and given the margin...

Wheaton is really good, but NCC has been able to at least hang with most of the league so far (that... whatever happened against North Park notwithstanding.)
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2022 CCIW Football Pick 'Em Co-Champion
#THREEEEEEEEE