MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

Today's games:

Carthage (2-1) vs. Mary Washington (5-0) *, 2 pm
Illinois Wesleyan (4-0) vs. Kenyon (3-1) **, 2 pm
Elmhurst (3-0) @ Illinois College (2-3), 3 pm
UW-Oshkosh (2-1) @ Carroll (2-2), 4 pm
North Park (2-1) @ Anderson (1-3), 4 pm
Millikin (5-0) @ UW-Stevens Point (4-0), 5:15 pm
Loras (2-1) @ North Central (0-2), 7 pm
Dubuque (3-0) @ Augustana (3-0), 7 pm
UW-La Crosse (4-0) @ Wheaton (4-1), 7:15 pm

* at Washington, PA
** at Albion, MI

The Loras @ NCC game is at 4:15, NOT 7:00

One of these days I'll finally learn my lesson and I'll stop trusting the CCIW MBB page for accurate tipoff times.

[Gregory Sager]

North Park 76
Anderson 75

Mike Vuckovich: 18 pts (4-7 trey)
Julian Campbell: 18 pts (9-12 FG)
Jerome Smith: 11 pts, 5:0 a:to
Kolden Vanlandingham: 10 rebs

This was a toothache of a game to watch (and I watched it silently in the second half, as the Anderson student PBP broadcaster was unbearable), but the Vikings pulled it out after trailing most of the game. With 11 seconds left and the game tied at 75, Kolden Vanlandingham, who was invisible at the offensive end of the floor most of the day, drove to the basket and was fouled. He missed the first FT, made the second, and then the Vikings made a sturdy stand at the other end of the floor, forcing AU's Elijah Mattingly to settle for an off-balance fadeaway from the FT line at the buzzer that was well off target.

The Vikings had a really hard time negotiating Anderson's very active 2-3 zone, which their coach has gone back to using after a one-season hiatus. They were only 1-11 from downtown against the zone in the first half, and threw away a lot of passes trying to hit cutters along the baseline. The best efforts they had were when they put Tyvin Garrison at the high post to make it easier to dump down to Julian Campbell on the low block. Anderson, which ran hockey shifts to keep everybody fresh, did a great job of getting out in transition and punishing the Vikings with easy baskets, which is definitely something NPU will have to clean up.

Jerome Smith was the unsung hero for NPU today. He swished three treys in the first 30 minutes that kept the Ravens from running out to huge leads, did a great job of getting the ball into the low post or finding the baseline cutter, and just generally was a calming and steady influence for his teammates on the floor. Campbell was the main gun in the first half, and then Vuckovic took over in the second half.

Ugly win while it was happening, but in retrospect any road win looks pretty.

[Gregory Sager]

Elmhurst pulled off an electrifying 73-72 buzzer-beater win over Illinois College down in Jacksonville. In a back-and-forth contest in which neither team led by more than seven points, Dom Trelenberg hit two free throws with 25 seconds left to pull the 'jays into a 70-70 tie. But the 'jays fouled IC's best FT shooter, Ty Lenhardt, with only three seconds left on the clock and the Blueboys in the double bonus. Lenhardt drained them both to give IC the two-point lead, and with two passes up the right side of the court the 'jays got the ball to Trelenberg, who sent up a falling-backwards 25-footer from the sideline up in the air -- and it swished as the backboard lit up. Trelenberg (18 pts) was the hero, but Sebastian Blachut was the leading EU scorer with 19. Luke Smith (15 and 8) and Vinnie Adjahoungbeta (10 and 9) also made noteworthy contributions to the Elmhurst cause.

The endgame did not work out so well for the other DuPage County team active in the afternoon, as North Central dropped its third home game to start the season, 73-69, to Loras. Tyler Swierczek had a chance to tie the game in the last few seconds with a trey attempt from the right elbow at Merner Fieldhouse, but his shot was well off the mark. James Bullock had another big day in the losing cause for NCC with 23, with Alejandro Diaz posting a 14 and 7 effort. Good to hear my North Park football colorman Sam Corbett on the call for the NCC webcast today, doing his usual bang-up job.

Millikin led at UW-Stevens Point for most of the second half, but the Big Blue faded in the final five minutes and ended up dropping their first loss of the season to UWSP, 69-63. Lane Thomann posted his usual healthy numbers -- 21 and 7 on this particular occasion -- while Nate Straughter chipped in 15 and Ian Winkler added 11.

Carroll was game, but game wasn't enough to get the job done, as the Pioneers dropped their second in a row to a WIAC team. This time it was UW-Oshkosh that got the better of Jannsen's boys at Van Male, 85-76. Michael McNabb again led the way for CU with 23 points, while Jacob Naber turned in a 13 and 10 double-double performance, Peyton McKenna scored 13 as well, Lamar Smith was the lone scorer off the bench as he gave the Pios an 11 and 7 day, and Dennis Estepp had 11 as well.

This was a really tough weekend for Carthage, as the Firebirds return from the Appalachian foothills with two losses in their baggage. Today it was another ranked team, Mary Washington, that got the better of the Firebirds, as the Eagles broke a halftime tie with the first six points of the second half and never relinquished that lead. Riley Brooks, coming off of a really bad performance yesterday, put the 'birds on his back today with a 23 and 10 effort, but Riley Johnson (13 and 14) was the only other Firebird who supported Brooks effectively, as Carthage shot an anemic  .328/.179/.625 line.

[Gregory Sager]

Dubuque outlasted Augustana in a close-run battle of unbeatens, 88-82, at Carver. The Spartans led most of the way, but Augie was in it until the last minute when Dubuque closed it out at the FT line. Augie was paced by Marieon Anderson's 22 points, and he was joined in double figures by Andre Klaver (15 and 7 with a 5:2 floor game), Cam Atkinson (12), Jake Willems (11), and Dom Rhoden (10), while Dani Romero contributed a 5:1 floor game.

I'll let GoPerry recap the Lee Pfund title game, but Wheaton's close loss to UW-La Crosse culminates a tough day for the CCIW. The league only went 3-6 today.

[GoPerry]

Wheaton  66
UW – La Crosse  70

Soren Richardson  19 pts
Kyan Vanderwoude  13 pts, 7 rebs
Reid Olson  13 pts

Sam Grieger  30 pts, 6 asst
JJ Paider 16 pts 14 rebs

This was a battle from the very beginning and a very hard fought game.  Wheaton went out to an early 8-0 lead but the Eagles quickly came back, tied it, took the lead and led the rest of the way.  The Thunder actually had a chance to tie or take the lead with a trey with 20 secs left, 68-66, but ended up turning the ball over.  Wheaton doesn't have any defender near good enough to answer Sam Grieger, by far the best player on the floor, who drove the lane with ease and was pretty much dominant.  When he wasn't floating in soft jumpers on the drive, he was dumping the ball out of the double team to Paider for whom Wheaton also had no answer.  It was pretty obvious that UWL had a pretty large physical and strength advantage.  Carson Grier is listed at 200 lbs but was no match for Paider at 6'7" 230lbs.  Brady Wynja at 220 lbs did a little better.

Despite the loss, there is a lot that this young team can take from it.  After a nice 4-1 start (and a loss they gifted away) this should be a reality check.  Hopefully, they have a better sense of what it will take to compete with teams that are bigger, stronger, and much better defenders than the teams they've played and beaten so far.  More like the teams they will face in league play twice a week starting soon.

UWL is certainly good enough to go far.  But their lack of depth is a real weakness.  They basically play 5 guys and that's it.

[Gregory Sager]

Despite the loss, there is a lot that this young team can take from it.  After a nice 4-1 start (and a loss they gifted away) this should be a reality check.  Hopefully, they have a better sense of what it will take to compete with teams that are bigger, stronger, and much better defenders than the teams they've played and beaten so far.

Mike Schauer made that pretty plain in his postgame interview. He called out VanderWoude and Grier and said that they needed to invest some serious time in the weight room if Wheaton is to become a national power over the next couple of seasons. To be fair to VanderWoude and Grier, Mike also pointed out that they're still teenagers, whereas Paider, Grieger, Derousseau, and Butler are grown men with grown men's bodies. Anybody who follows a college sport that involves contact and strength knows that the difference between the body of an 18-year-old adolescent and that of a 21-year-old man is immense.

UWL is certainly good enough to go far.  But their lack of depth is a real weakness.  They basically play 5 guys and that's it.

I was struck by how little Gritzmacher went to his bench last night. The Wheaton game was definitely an outlier for him; he'd played his bench an average of 42 minutes per game in UWL's first four contests, but his reserves only saw the floor at King Arena for 28 minutes yesterday.

Regardless of whether or not Gritzmacher starts using his bench more consistently, it's only a weakness if there's an opponent capable of exposing it enough to beat them. So far the Eagles haven't played a team that has had that capability -- and it's not as though UWL has played any lightweights thus far. When I saw all five Eagles start walking up the floor at the beginning of their possessions in the latter part of the second half yesterday like they were strolling down the driveway to check the mailbox, I knew that they had the game won -- even though Wheaton did make an actual game of it in the waning moments (thanks in large part to senior Soren Richardson). I couldn't figure out why Mike Schauer wasn't pressing an opponent that was obviously trying to conserve its energy. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that Wheaton, although deeper, was just as tired as UWL was, so the Orange and Blue probably didn't have an effective press in them by then. And that goes back to my earlier point about contact and strength. Physical contact, by its very nature, significantly saps a body's energy reserves, especially for the recipient of the contact as opposed to the one who is delivering the blows.

Seems backwards to think that a team that didn't go to its bench very often could wear down a deeper opponent, but I think that that's exactly what happened at King Arena last night. And it sounds like Mike agrees with me.

[Gregory Sager]

CCIW overall: 26-13
Home: 12-7
Away: 10-4
Neutral: 4-2

vs. ARC: 0-2
vs. C2C: 0-1
vs. CCS: 0-1
vs. HCAC: 1-0
vs. MIAA: 3-1
vs. MIAC: 4-0
vs. MWC: 7-0
vs. NACC: 7-1
vs. NCAC: 1-0
vs. UAA: 1-1
vs. UMAC: 1-0
vs. WIAC: 1-6

Tuesday's games:

Augustana (3-1) @ UW-Platteville (3-2)
Carroll (2-3) @ MSOE (1-2)
Elmhurst (4-0) @ DePauw (4-1)
North Central (0-3) @ Benedictine (2-2)
Wheaton (4-2) @ Manchester (0-5)

[mwunder]

As previously mentioned, Carthage shat the bed this past weekend at the Great Lakes Invitational.  Listless, outmuscled, and outhustled.  To quote Shorsey, "gotta set the tone!" and no one in Red and Black stepped up to do that in either game.

42-119 (35.3%), 13-56 (23.2%), and 26-40 (65%).  A lot of these misses are coming on open looks from what I saw.  CCIW should take note...Carthage cannot shoot the basketball right now.

A quick side note...when did the entry pass go the way of the Dodo bird and become extinct?  Multiple times during the Maryville game, R Johnson was being fronted by a defender and the wing was unable to get the ball to Johnson over the top.  Seems like a lost skill.

Another side note...Carthage SI team has taken to spelling "Carthage" incorrectly in stories on their website.  Such a shame.

[markerickson]

How many minutes did Richardson guard Grieger?  Did he consistently slash the zone for open jumpers? Grieger went 0-2 from trey land.

[iwu70]

IWU rised to #6 in the new week 1 poll.  Carthage drops out of the top 25, now the top teams in ORV. 

I've watched most of the five games IWU has played now and they are better than I originally thought they would be.  Great physicality and depth, with Noah Cleveland making a huge difference in rebounding, shot blocking and anchoring the post with great skill.  They are better shooters than I thought too.  5-0 is a great start . . . two excellent PGs in Fridman and Niego, and plenty of slashing talent at the wings, with Lawrence and Ruggles making contributions.  We knew what we would get from Colak and Funk.  Brady Kuehl a very pleasant surprise, especially on defense.  Boldt still injured and has not suited up as yet.

Key upcoming game will be against #5 Wash U in mid-December.  Always.

IWU'70

[Gregory Sager]

A quick side note...when did the entry pass go the way of the Dodo bird and become extinct?  Multiple times during the Maryville game, R Johnson was being fronted by a defender and the wing was unable to get the ball to Johnson over the top.  Seems like a lost skill.

Posting up in general has seen a long, slow decline at this level, as motion and its derivative offenses have long since taken over the copycat world of college basketball. It's not nearly as easy as it used to be to find a big man with good hands and quick feet who has been coached with patience and proper technique at the high-school level to refine his back-to-the-basket skills. And with the decline of the low-post game as a preferred offensive option goes the decline of entry-pass skills.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

One of the trends I've noticed early this year is an almost complete preference for an open three over a post shot.  Even teams with top notch post players will prefer a kick out to an open shooter over sending that big guy into the defense for a hard two.  Many teams are treating a single post defender the way we've traditionally seen post players handle double teams.  Not sure if it will continue, but it looks like teams are taking a 35% chance of three over a 60-70% chance of a two.

[GoPerry]

How many minutes did Richardson guard Grieger?  Did he consistently slash the zone for open jumpers? Grieger went 0-2 from trey land.

They tried everyone but Richardson on Grieger.  Devin Martin (6'3") was on Grieger (6'5") most of the 1st half but was not effective in stopping him. It might also have contributed to Martin having a very subpar performance (1-8, 2 pts, 4 asst, 5 turnovers).  For the last 10 mins of the game the taller at VanderWoude (6'5") had a little more success, but not much really.  Grieger regularly drove the lane with ease.

[GoPerry]

(thanks in large part to senior junior Soren Richardson).

Two more years and thank goodness!

[GoPerry]

Wheaton  95
Manchester Univ  88

Soren Richardson  24 pts, 6 rebs
Kyan Vanderwoude  22 pts, 6 rebs
Carson Grier 19 pts, 5 rebs
Brady Wynja  14 pts, 8 rebs

Ty Lynas  30 pts, 4 rebs
Clay McCorkle 23 pts
Max Robertson 22 pts 6 rebs

This was a bit of a track meet at times, but a very close game most of the way with 14 ties and 14 lead changes.  The 0-5 Spartans made a game of it with neither team leading by more than 3 pts until Wheaton finally pulled away with about 2 mins remaining.  Manchester's 88 pts was 16 pts over their season average of 72.  They had a terrific shooting night;  52.2% from the field, 42.9% from three.  The Thunder defense wasn't exactly in shutdown mode either.  Wheaton's size was a big advantage as evidenced by 64 out of 95 pts in the paint.

5-2 going into CCIW play with a couple more non-cons to go.