MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

The only Millikin recruit I know about is 6'3, 220 forward Isiah Florey from Monticello, who will join his former high school teammate Zach Fisher on the Big Blue.

[titanfan]

Anybody know if they are streaming the IBCA all star games online?  I did a quick search and couldn't find them. 

[all blues]

FWIW- Millikin recruit Florey, 3rd leading scorer and rebounder for Class 2A 4th place finisher.  Sub 50% FT, but 2nd on team in assists.  Looking ahead, leading scorer and 2nd leading rebounder 6'5" Calvin Fisher, with one more year of HS remaining.  (didn't confirm he's Zach's brother, but...)

[Titan Q]

Anybody know if they are streaming the IBCA all star games online?  I did a quick search and couldn't find them.

I don't think there was video.

IWU commit Grant Wolfe (Effingham) made a buzzer-beating 3 to lift the South over the North 114-113 in the 3A/4A game.

[Titan Q]

The only Millikin recruit I know about is 6'3, 220 forward Isiah Florey from Monticello, who will join his former high school teammate Zach Fisher on the Big Blue.

Another...

https://twitter.com/MCRSportsEditor/status/862401538077151234

Jeff Arenz‏ @MCRSportsEditor  May 10
Mount Carmel native Levi Laws signs letter of intent to attend Millikin this fall in Decatur. Laws will study math and play basketball.

5-11 PG who has been at Wabash Valley JC - http://www.wvcwarriorathletics.com/sports/mbkb/2016-17/bios/laws_levi_83g4?view=bio.

Laws is 2nd in all-time IHSA assists, with 939 from 2012-2015 at Mt. Carmel H.S.

[Gregory Sager]

That's not the Mount Carmel on the South Side of Chicago, which is the school by that name with which most of us are familiar. It's the high school based in Mount Carmel, Illinois, a small village on the Wabash River (i.e., the Illinois-Indiana border) in the extreme southeast corner of the state. The closest city of any size to that Mount Carmel is Evansville, which is an hour south.

Another...

https://twitter.com/MCRSportsEditor/status/862401538077151234

Jeff Arenz‏ @MCRSportsEditor  May 10
Mount Carmel native Levi Laws signs letter of intent to attend Millikin this fall in Decatur. Laws will study math and play basketball.

5-11 PG who has been at Wabash Valley JC - http://www.wvcwarriorathletics.com/sports/mbkb/2016-17/bios/laws_levi_83g4?view=bio.

Laws is 2nd in all-time IHSA assists, with 939 from 2012-2015 at Mt. Carmel H.S.

Much more relevant is his Wabash Valley career, which was undistinguished. He played in 24 of WVCC's 32 games last season and did not start any of them, and his statistics were likewise pretty modest.

[all blues]

Laws is 2nd in all-time IHSA assists, with 939 from 2012-2015 at Mt. Carmel H.S.

Granted, Millikin is drowning right now, and clutching at straws.  And this kid is a straw.  But-if you watched any Big Blue games last year, you noticed they had 2 big guys, Cunningham and Farmer, who were kept busy setting picks instead of looking for passes.  They had the 2 highest shooting percentages on the team.  JC was second in shots taken, but IMHO the team would've benefitted if they'd both had more opportunities.  Maybe a guy who has a proven ability to set up scorers can "accentuate a positive".  Also, amongst his otherwise lackluster stats, he was second on the team (out of a roughly 12-man rotation) in assist/turnover ratio.  BTW, Greg-did you check out Wabash Valley's "minutes per game" stat?  Leading scorer had 16 ppg playing 5 minutes a game, etc.  Some bad wiring there, lol

(modified by GS for formatting)

[Gregory Sager]

Transylvania has announced that the fourth team in its holiday tournament will be Guilford. Since that means that there will be two ODAC outfits in the tourney, it will be played in a classic format, with North Park and Transy alternating against Emory & Henry and Guilford.

NPU's 2017-18 non-con sked is thus complete:

date	opponent	2016-17 record
Fri., Nov. 17	BLACKBURN (North Park Classic)	12-13
Sat., Nov. 18	ILLINOIS TECH (North Park Classic)	22-6
Tue., Nov. 21	CHICAGO	16-9
Tue., Nov. 28	UW-OSHKOSH	17-11
Sat., Dec. 9	@ Coe	10-15
Sat., Dec. 16	@ Lake Forest	14-11
Wed., Dec. 20	vs. Emory & Henry (@ Transylvania tourney)	20-8
Thu., Dec. 21	vs. Guilford (@ Transylvania tourney)	24-6
Wed., Feb. 7	EAST-WEST	?

[Greek Tragedy]

Seems to be an improvement from last year's schedule when they played half of the MIAA and Manchester twice. Oshkosh should be good again this year and you have the two ODAC teams as well. I think their low SoS  really hurt them last year.

[Gregory Sager]

Agreed. And Illinois Tech is going to be very good this year as well.

[augiefan]

IWU just landed a huge addition to their program. SG Zach Knobloch from Marengo, IL transferred from UWWhitewater. Knobloch is one of the best 3 point shooters in IHSA history, and he was getting lots of playing time as a freshmen at Whitewater until semester break saw the arrival of two DI guard transfers on the scene. He will be a sophomore eligibility wise.

Knobloch will be handful offensively but does have some work to do as a defender. All in all a really nice addition to what is already the best recruiting class in the CCIW.

[badgerwarhawk]

We talked about Knobloch a week or two ago augie.  Rather than repeat myself I thought I'd mention it and you could page back a ways and check it out if you were interested.  I would add however that only one of the D1 transfers could be considered a guard.  Rongstad is versatile enough to play a guard spot.  However Scotty Tyler will never be mistaken for a guard.   He's a pretty decent shooter from beyond the arc but he's essentially a post player.   

[AndOne]

IWU just landed a huge addition to their program. SG Zach Knobloch from Marengo, IL transferred from UWWhitewater. Knobloch is one of the best 3 point shooters in IHSA history, and he was getting lots of playing time as a freshmen at Whitewater until semester break saw the arrival of two DI guard transfers on the scene. He will be a sophomore eligibility wise.

Knobloch will be handful offensively but does have some work to do as a defender. All in all a really nice addition to what is already the best recruiting class in the CCIW.

Lets just wait until the season starts, and we see what some of the young heroes can actually do on the court before we anoint anyone as "the best" prior to any shots being made or any basketballs even being bounced. 🏀 ⛹ 😉

[augiefan]

I did not see the news release on Knobloch until June17th in the NW Herald and did not see any comments here after that date, so I thought perhaps it had not been noted. Sorry for the redundancy.

The comment n the best recruiting class was tongue in cheek just to generate some controversy in the dog days of summer posts. This being said Knobloch has a lot of upside for the IWU program.

[AndOne]

Knobloch may indeed have some upside but the reality is that only four players will consume all but miniscule minutes at guard and the identity of three of them is already known. There will be a lot of competition for the 4th spot.
And it's still to early to label any recruiting class as "the best."