MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[iwumichigander]

In the maybe I missed it category - CCIW Conference Tournament question -- Who or what determines the tournament seeds?

From CCIW.ORG "The format approved by the directors of athletics has the top four teams from the regular season meeting at the site of the regular season conference champion with the winner garnering the automatic qualifying spot. The last Friday and Saturday in February, which will be February 24-25 in 2006, will be the date for the tournament. Bracketing for the tournament will break down with the number two and three seeds meeting in the first game on Friday followed by the one and four seeds in the second game. The winners will meet on Saturday night."

Does the conference finish determine the seeding?

[augiedad]

Mich, yes, the finish determines the seedings...that is how conf tournaments work.

[Gotberg]

According to NPU's website, NPU beat Concordia(WI) 81-80.  Look forward to hearing more details.

[mr_b]

Final from the Crackerbox: North Park 81, Concordia WI 80

[mr_b]

This was a tale of two halves, more or less.  The Vikings overcame a flurry of tunrovers to take a 38-26 lead at the half.  Bjorn Berg continued to have the hot hand with 13 and Brett Mathisen and Jason Gordon contributed 7 apiece.  The Falcons got 9 from Matthew Peets and 5 from David Lipanot, but at the break they were just 3 of 9 from the charity stripe.

In the first six minutes of the second half, North Park had built a 21-point lead.  The Falcons continually pressed on defense to force turnovers and actually knotted the score with a minute to go.  Berg sank some key free throws as time expired to give the Vikings the lead for good.  The second half took almost an hour, and by the end of the game, North Park had 29 personal fouls and Concordia, 26.

[mr_b]

Bjorn Berg led the team in scoring for the second straight game with 28 points, including 5 three-pointers.  Gordon ended up with 18 before fouling out.  Peets led the falcons with 26 and Lipanot added 14.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Greg,

Still think Berg is too short to be the starter?!

Of course, I'm a huge fan of Earl Boykins, so Berg looks like a BIG guy!

BTW, does Bjorn Berg get a whole lot of Bjorn Borg jokes/taunting, or has the world forgotten about Borg?

[Gregory Sager]

Ever see your team win a game, and yet walk out of the building feeling as though they lost? That's how I felt tonight. What an odd feeling.

I didn't like it.

I don' t think that the Vikings liked it, either. Judging by their grim faces in the handshake line -- faces almost as grim as those of the Falcons that they had just barely beaten -- the Vikings knew that they had just won one of the all-time ugliest victories in school history. They had to hang on by the skin of their teeth to beat a clearly inferior team that they had all but buried at 56-35 with fourteen minutes left in the ballgame. Add to Paul Brenegan's laundry list of problems yet another one that he has to solve: The Vikings don't know how to play from in front.

It started out very badly. The North Park turnover factory was cranking out miscues with assembly line precision. Eight minutes into the game NPU had scored seven points and turned the ball over ten times. CUW, knowing full well how much trouble the Park has with taking care of the ball, was running two defenders at the ballhandler every time NPU crossed midcourt, and the Vikings were completely unable to swing the ball around and hit the man who had thus been left open. Worse, the Vikings dribbled straight into sideline traps. The only saving grace was that they were playing so well at the defensive end that CUW couldn't take advantage of all of the extra possessions.

Eventually NPU became more conscientious about this and began to demonstrate some proper ball movement and sound ballhandling judgment, swinging the ball around to an open Bjorn Berg -- who began knocking down shots with clockwork precision. Even though it was only a 38-26 lead at the half, one got the feeling that the Park had finally hit its stride and would win going away against the slower and smaller Falcons.

It certainly seemed that way in the first six minutes of the second half, as the Vikes opened up that 21-point lead. The defense was excellent -- everyone picking up switches, everyone communicating, everyone rotating, hands going up in the air, strong rebounding. It was really encouraging to watch. Then CUW coach Wayne Rasmussen did a really smart thing. While most teams down 21 in the second half of a ballgame would've started jacking treys, he instead made his players pound the ball into the low post to one of CUW's two CCIW-caliber players, senior center Matthew Peets. Peets is strong, mobile, deceptively quick, and has great technique. He'd get the ball twelve feet out, and he really began to make all three of the NPU big men who tried guarding him (Brett Mathisen, Jeremiah Sargent, and Mike Ventura) pay. Worse, there was no weakside help at all to bail out the Vikings' bigs. Peets got to the rim at will; he never even bothered kicking it out to keep the Vikings honest on the perimeter. CUW pressed the Vikings after every basket, and once again the NPU ballhandlers were not up to the challenge. And at the other end of the floor, when they did break the press the Vikings showed no patience whatsoever. They did exactly what you're not supposed to do with a big lead -- they immediately drove to the basket or jacked up a long trey, taking no time off of the clock whatsoever. It's Basketball 101 that you eat clock with a lead -- you not only shorten the amount of time that your opponent has with which to come back, you make him work longer and harder on defense and take away his legs for the run he hopes to make on offense. Well, Brenegan's going to have to teach a remedial course in Basketball 101 to his team, apparently.

CUW caught NPU at 76-76 with a minute and change left, but the Vikings held on to win mostly because CUW's two best players (Peets and wing David Lipanot) each missed a crucial FT while Bjorn Berg made 3-of-4 in the last minute.

It was a win, but it was as close to disgraceful as a win could possibly be. If the Vikings don't learn how to take better care of the ball, this will be the last game that they win all season.

[Gregory Sager]

Aurora 84, Millikin 77

The Big Blue dropped one for the first time this season, falling to 3-1 after losing this one at home. I suspect that the basketball gods are angry that Tim Littrell keeps scheduling Indiana-Northwest every season.   Drew Gensler had 22, Byron Graven had 17, and Lance Brooks had 11 for the hosts, and Korte Long logged another one of his double-doubles (12 and 12) for Jimmy Millikin as well. The Spartans were led by Larry Welton's 29 points, Jeremy Cartwright's 18 points and 9 boards, and Courtney Carson's 12 points.

Still think Berg is too short to be the starter?!

Starting is irrelevant. Berg came off the bench tonight (the starters were Jeremiah Sargent, Brett Mathisen, Jason Gordon, Devin Burnett, and Steve Reynolds) but nevertheless he still played most of the game.

Look, I'm a big Bjorn Berg fan, and not just because he wears royal blue and gold. There is a good chance that next Monday morning he will become the most improbable CCIW Player of the Week in the entire sixty-year history of this circuit*. And if that happens, nobody will crow about it here louder than yours truly.

Berg has always been a great shooter -- a valuable asset on a team that isn't well-equipped in that department -- and he's more of a complete player now than he ever was when he was toiling on the JV team in previous seasons. Once again he played solid D tonight (and had yet another block, I might add), showed a patience at the offensive end of the floor that I dearly wish his younger teammates would emulate, and in general was clearly NPU's MVP. But none of that negates the fact that CCIW off-guards are bigger and quicker than the ones who play for Judson and CUW. I'm not going to bet against Berg and say that he'll definitely be overmatched against a Trey Bowens or a Jason Fisher or a Rick Harrigan. I'm simply recognizing the obvious physical impediments he'll face come January and February.

BTW, does Bjorn Berg get a whole lot of Bjorn Borg jokes/taunting, or has the world forgotten about Borg?

His name's pretty unremarkable on a campus where the surname element "Berg" (as in Bergstrom, Bergquist, Soderberg, etc.) is as common as lutefisk is bland. And for generations the North Park dorms have been filled with kids whose ethnically-sentimental parents named them Bjorn, Linnea, Erik, Britt, Anders, Sonja, etc. I've known two Gunnars, two Kajsas, and a Sven at NPU, and all of them were at least third-generation Americans. The All-CCIW first-team center on the Park's 1985 national championship team was named Lars Anderson. So I doubt that Bjorn Berg's name strikes anyone as remarkable at the Park. As for the tennis reference, the sad truth is that I think you're dating yourself with that one, Chuck. Unfortunately, I strongly suspect that the current crop of students "knew not Joseph" when it comes to that particular Swedish tennis star. They were all born in the mid-eighties, round about the time that the golden-haired immortal with the two-handed backhand was being inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame.

Sorry to make you feel so old. But better you than me.  

* In basketball, that is. I can tell the story of an unlikely football CCIW Player of the Week from a couple of decades ago that will never be topped for as long as the CCIW exists.

[dansand]

Mmmmmm....lutefisk.

[Jim Matson]

I don't know how I missed that story on Welton, but I did.  Thanks for posting it Bob.  Very nice story which speaks volumes about Welton.

[tjcummingsfan]

Greg I always had the impression that CUW was a superior school to CURF athletically, is that not true?  I'm at least assuming its not true for men's basketball this season, unless I missed something.

[iwumichigander]

Augiedad - Thanks!  I was pretty sure seeding went by conference finish but did not see it called out on the CCIW.org site.

[markerickson]

how about some surstromming with the other Swedish delicacy?

[petemcb]

Bob, I too would like to thank you for sharing that story about Larry Welton.  I was at the Lee Pfund on that Saturday night, and was shocked when Bollier's name was announced for the all-tourney team, presumably precluding him from consideration for the Landry award.   After his stellar performance on the Friday night, he had followed that up with another strong outing Saturday, where he clearly was the leader for Wheaton on both ends of the floor.  He is a very deserving recipient, but I am even more impressed with Larry Welton's gesture.  As has already been mentioned, it speaks volumes about his character, and I wish him nothing but the best this season.