MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[mwunder]

Yes, I take your points about IWU's earlier inconsistent play.  I commented on that myself.  But, head-to-head doesn't count for anything?  Just seems odd to me.

IWU is the top ranked 3 loss team in the country, I'm pretty sure they're ranked ahead of Calvin, Newport, LaCrosse, Oshkosh, Platteville (all 3 loss teams directly behind IWU) because they have two top 15 wins.

[mwunder]

Congrats to Soren Richardson of Wheaton for CCIW Student Athlete of the week for his performances last week.

Tonight's matchups:
North Central (1-5) @ Augustana (2-3)
Elmhurst (2-3) @ Carroll (2-3)
North Park (3-2) @ Carthage (4-1)
Wheaton (3-2) @ Millikin (3-3)

IWU with the night off.

[kenoshamark]

Carthage with a dominating performance tonight in knocking off NP 103 to 66.  This is the team I expected to see, guess it just took them a big longer to put it together.  Couple of stats that jumped out.  Carthage with 19 assists and only 6 turnovers, shot 29 free throws and made 22.   Riley Brooks with 30 and AJ Johnson with 22.  Daun with 11 boards. 

Got production from their starting five and their three main subs, Haith, Schlesinger and AJ Williams.  All eight had some contributions.  Nice to have 5 guys that can bring the ball up the court against the pressure that NP likes to throw at you.

Carthage had an 18 point lead at half and got it up over 40 before the final buzzer.

[lmitzel]

NCC overcame an eight point halftime deficit and led by ten with under nine minutes to play. As has seemed to happen a lot, the Cardinals couldn't hold it and they drop yet another single digit game 98-93 at Augustana.

Cam Atkinson: 24 pts, 5 reb
Eli Aldana: 19 pts
Jake Willems: 18 pts

Seth Cheney: 23 pts
James Bullock Jr: 17 pts, 11 reb
Tyler Surin: 15 pts, 6 reb, 4 ast

[GoPerry]

Wheaton 88
Millikin 76

Soren Richardson  33 pts
Kyan VanderWoude  15 pts, 5 rebs
Carson Grier  13 pts, 7 rebs
Kyle Neibch  12 pts

Nate Straughter  15 pts 5 rebs
Lane Thomann  10 pts 4 rebs

This game wasn't even as close as the final score as the Thunder pretty much controlled after the first 8 minutes.  That's when Richardson got scorching hot finishing 11-19, 6-9 from the beyond the arc.  I doubt it was in the game plan to shoot 30 treys out of 56 total shots (last season with regularity).  But it makes a coach look Wooden-like when you make 15/30 and the team shoots 56% from the field 32/57.  I don't think the Big Blue played a terrible game, maybe a little sloppy at times.  But when an opponent shoots like that, not much you can do.

Wheaton is just tough to defend against.  Offensively, there's Richardson who is a handful.  Both VanderWoude and Grier like to score inside with their back to the basket as well as run the floor effectively.  And then you have Neibch, Olson, Carbonaro ready to receive the dish outs and extra pass with Martin ordering the floor.  They might defer to Richardson, but all of them seem to be willing and able to take the big shots when it counts.  If they can just keep their opponents between 75-80 pts . . .

We'll see when IWU comes to King on Saturday followed by Park a week later.  Two big tests.

[robertgoulet]

NCC overcame an eight point halftime deficit and led by ten with under nine minutes to play. As has seemed to happen a lot, the Cardinals couldn't hold it and they drop yet another single digit game 98-93 at Augustana.

Cam Atkinson: 24 pts, 5 reb
Eli Aldana: 19 pts
Jake Willems: 18 pts

Seth Cheney: 23 pts
James Bullock Jr: 17 pts, 11 reb
Tyler Surin: 15 pts, 6 reb, 4 ast

Haven't been keeping up with the bball team this year other than seeing what's been on here...what's with all the late capitulation? Young squad?

[Gregory Sager]

Good grief. Glad I had the NPU women's game to call last night in the crackerbox, because if I had watched that game in Kenosha on my computer I would've probably broken whatever was at hand. (My job makes me very much a Jekyll-and-Hyde type; I'm a much more volatile North Park fan than I am a North Park broadcaster.)

Nobody figured that the Vikings were going to come out of Bloomington and Kenosha with two wins, but at least they could've not embarrassed themselves. They failed to reach even that low standard. There's no doubt a lot of soul-searching going on at Vikings practices now along with a lot of hard work as the team gets ready to deal with Elmhurst, because their competence is certainly in doubt by everybody at this point. Sometimes it's not about if you lose, it's about how you lose.

[markerickson]

Two straight NPU games I have watched less than 50%, and turned off each game well before the final buzzer.

[mwunder]

Couple of stats that jumped out.  Carthage with 19 assists and only 6 turnovers, shot 29 free throws and made 22.

That is how you beat a team that throws pressure at you.  You break the press and make the extra pass.  Shooting 54% helps as well.

I watched this game and couldn't help but ask why NPU didn't try and slow things down when the game started to go sideways.  Carthage obviously had the answer to the press and NPU was getting good penetration and looks when they ran their sets.  Why not pick up Carthage at half court and force them to run their offense?

[Greek Tragedy]

Nobody figured that the Vikings were going to come out of Bloomington and Kenosha with two wins...

I'm shocked you would say this, especially basically being the face of NPU. "Nobody" means you, the coaches, the players etc. That's not a good attitude at all. NPU is a good team. They had won 6 of 7 with their only loss at Eau Claire. Going into Bloomington, they were actually ahead of the Titans in the standings and tied with Carthage in the loss column. So, no one thought they could win those games? It's not like they were perennial WIAC bottom-feeder Stout going into Shirk and just trying to be competitive. Oh wait, the Blue Devils won that game. NCC got their only conference win against IWU, albeit at home. Elmhurst beat the mighty Titans as well. It's a sad day when the face of NPU doesn't think there's a chance the Vikings could win those games.

[GusD]

Couple of stats that jumped out.  Carthage with 19 assists and only 6 turnovers, shot 29 free throws and made 22.

That is how you beat a team that throws pressure at you.  You break the press and make the extra pass.  Shooting 54% helps as well.

I watched this game and couldn't help but ask why NPU didn't try and slow things down when the game started to go sideways.  Carthage obviously had the answer to the press and NPU was getting good penetration and looks when they ran their sets.  Why not pick up Carthage at half court and force them to run their offense?

Have you ever seen a NPU game where they put the brakes on? It's not in the DNA of either the coach or the players. The word slow is not in the vocabulary at NPU.

[Gregory Sager]

Nobody figured that the Vikings were going to come out of Bloomington and Kenosha with two wins...

I'm shocked you would say this, especially basically being the face of NPU. "Nobody" means you, the coaches, the players etc. That's not a good attitude at all. NPU is a good team. They had won 6 of 7 with their only loss at Eau Claire. Going into Bloomington, they were actually ahead of the Titans in the standings and tied with Carthage in the loss column. So, no one thought they could win those games? It's not like they were perennial WIAC bottom-feeder Stout going into Shirk and just trying to be competitive. Oh wait, the Blue Devils won that game. NCC got their only conference win against IWU, albeit at home. Elmhurst beat the mighty Titans as well. It's a sad day when the face of NPU doesn't think there's a chance the Vikings could win those games.

I thought it would be inferred, but since you want me to be literal about it -- "nobody" refers to people outside of the North Park program and fan base.

Wheaton is just tough to defend against.  Offensively, there's Richardson who is a handful.  Both VanderWoude and Grier like to score inside with their back to the basket as well as run the floor effectively.  And then you have Neibch, Olson, Carbonaro ready to receive the dish outs and extra pass with Martin ordering the floor.  They might defer to Richardson, but all of them seem to be willing and able to take the big shots when it counts.  If they can just keep their opponents between 75-80 pts . . .

Better make it "75-77 pts," because we all know what magically happens when a team reaches 78, right?

[mwunder]

Couple of stats that jumped out.  Carthage with 19 assists and only 6 turnovers, shot 29 free throws and made 22.

That is how you beat a team that throws pressure at you.  You break the press and make the extra pass.  Shooting 54% helps as well.

I watched this game and couldn't help but ask why NPU didn't try and slow things down when the game started to go sideways.  Carthage obviously had the answer to the press and NPU was getting good penetration and looks when they ran their sets.  Why not pick up Carthage at half court and force them to run their offense?

Have you ever seen a NPU game where they put the brakes on? It's not in the DNA of either the coach or the players. The word slow is not in the vocabulary at NPU.

To paraphrase a line from 'Remember the Titans', NPU was "getting beat like they stole something.'  Adjustments are part of the game.

Nobody figured that the Vikings were going to come out of Bloomington and Kenosha with two wins...

It's a sad day when the face of NPU doesn't think there's a chance the Vikings could win those games.

I think the emphasis was on the TWO, not the winning and I don't think he's wrong for saying this. The last time NPU beat both these teams on the road was in their 24-6 '22-'23 season.  Before that, it was '07-'08.  I think he was just being realistic.

[GoPerry]

Nobody figured that the Vikings were going to come out of Bloomington and Kenosha with two wins...

I'm shocked you would say this, especially basically being the face of NPU. "Nobody" means you, the coaches, the players etc. That's not a good attitude at all. NPU is a good team. They had won 6 of 7 with their only loss at Eau Claire. Going into Bloomington, they were actually ahead of the Titans in the standings and tied with Carthage in the loss column. So, no one thought they could win those games? It's not like they were perennial WIAC bottom-feeder Stout going into Shirk and just trying to be competitive. Oh wait, the Blue Devils won that game. NCC got their only conference win against IWU, albeit at home. Elmhurst beat the mighty Titans as well. It's a sad day when the face of NPU doesn't think there's a chance the Vikings could win those games.

I thought it would be inferred, but since you want me to be literal about it -- "nobody" refers to people outside of the North Park program and fan base.

Wheaton is just tough to defend against.  Offensively, there's Richardson who is a handful.  Both VanderWoude and Grier like to score inside with their back to the basket as well as run the floor effectively.  And then you have Neibch, Olson, Carbonaro ready to receive the dish outs and extra pass with Martin ordering the floor.  They might defer to Richardson, but all of them seem to be willing and able to take the big shots when it counts.  If they can just keep their opponents between 75-80 pts   (---IWU <78) . .

Better make it "75-77 pts," because we all know what magically happens when a team reaches 78, right?

Oh good catch . . my bad Greg.  Amended above .

[Greek Tragedy]

So, the last time NPU beat both on the road was a whole 3 years ago? So, not very long ago. Being realistic? Not a very confident bunch, are you? Again, they had won 6 of 7. IWU has shown to drop games they shouldn't (Stout at home, Elmhurst, NCC). Looks like Carthage's early season struggles are over, but NPU is capable of beating them as well.