MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

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.

Did you not read my previous post? Here it is again, with the key point highlighted this time:

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.

[Gregory Sager]

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 .

[iwu70]

I'm sticking with 78.  Perhaps the Titans will need more than that this weekend to take down high-scoring Wheaton at home.

'78 . . . I mean '70 

[GusD]

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.

Whenever you're talking about your own team, "nobody" refers to nobody outside of the realm of your team players, coaches, and fans. You're really saying nobody else with else being inferred.

[Gregory Sager]

Elmhurst 81
North Park 75

Mike Vuckovic: 18 pts (8-13 FG), 4:1 ato
Kolden Vanlandingham: 17 pts
William Bates: 10 pts
Tyvin Garrison: 10 pts
Jerome Smith: 10 pts

Dom Trelenberg: 32 pts (13-22 FG), 8 rebs
Sebastian Blachut: 12 pts
Aidyn Boone: 10 pts, 7 rebs
Luke Smith: 10 pts

The Vikings made it five straight halves of cringe-inducing basketball woefulness before they finally snapped out of it with a strong second half ... but in the end it wasn't enough. Elmhurst found another hustle gear beyond the frenetic pace at which the two teams were playing, using it to get to every loose ball in the first half and control the boards. (They ended the game with a 37-27 rebounding advantage, including 15-8 on the offensive glass.) The Bluejays had the lead in double digits before the game was even five minutes old, and built it up a 22-point lead that looked like it was going to be the launching point of yet another humiliating onslaught against NPU. The Vikings did manage to shave that lead to 15 at the half with a late run, but it was still clearly going to be an uphill battle.

Elmhurst pushed it back up to 22 a minute and a half deep into the second stanza, and that's when the Vikings remembered how to play basketball. Vuckovic and (especially) Vanlandingham led a steady charge that chipped away at the EU lead until the Vikings only trailed by three at 72-69 with 3:43 left. But the 'jays got a Trelenberg jumper in the paint, Boone stole the ball on a dig-down in the low post and fed Blachut with a long pass that resulted in a dunk, and suddenly the lead was back up to seven. Still plenty of time left, but at that point the wheels came off for NPU in a mental sense, as they concluded the game with a flurry of shots that were either off-balance or heavily contested, as well as a bunch of defensive sequences in which somebody lost his man and the 'jays made them pay for it.

Disappointing ending, although the big almost-comeback was encouraging. At the very least, the Vikings showed what they are still quite capable of doing when they keep their cool and don't play faster than their brains can keep up. As for EU, Trelenberg demonstrated yet again that he is very much All-CCIW first-teamer caliber, and the 'jays also got standout performances from Boone and Blachut as well.

[markerickson]

Trelenberg likely scored a career high, and the ball often seemed to find him unguarded.  This athletic dude can play above the rim.  Suffocate him and Elmhurst loses.  NPU did not have a lead the entire game.

[iwu70]

IWU 80, Wheaton College 61  (yes, get to 78 and a bit more and win the game).

The Titans played very tough defense, with Colak and Funk working hard to limit Soren Richardson to 9 points on 4-13, 1-6 treys shooting.

For WC:
WanderWoude 30, hot from three in the first half
Richardson 9

Wheaton shooting 34%, 27% from three/ 93% from the line

For IWU:
Cleveland again a monster game, 30 and 13
Lawrence 22, 6-9 from three
Colak 12 and 7
Niego 8 assists, 3 TOs

IWU at 47%/48% from three, and 69% from the line.

A very good road win.

IWU looked very good tonight, firing on all cylinders. 

'70

[GoPerry]

Was hoping for more from Wheaton at home.  But realistically they're still a young and inexperienced team despite some recent success.  If not for a hot VanderWoude, this one would have been over even earlier. The Titans torched the Thunder defense in the first half shooting 17-31 for 55%, 8-14 from three for 57%.

Wheaton seemed lost against a really good and physical defensive team like IWU.  Soren Richardson was absent/ineffective throughout the night.  Carson Grier fouled out.  No answer for Cleveland and how do you leave Lawrence open for so many threes (he finished 6 of 9)?

[mwunder]

Millikin showed why they are number 1 in rebounding in the CCIW and just dominated Carthage on the glass in their 77-74 win over the Firebirds at home on Saturday night.  The Big Blue hauled down 43 boards to the Firebird's 25.  Carthage didn't get off the bus until the 18 minute mark of the first half, and trailed until early in the second stanza.  I thought the 4th foul by Lane Thomann at 5:46 would be a turning point, but he played sensational the rest of the way, ending with 35 and 12.

Carthage had chances late to put this one away, but either made a bad pass or took a bad shot.

Thomann. 35 - 12
Straughter chipped in with 13.

Brooks. 20 on 15 shots
Daun. 14
R Johnson. 11

The 'and-one' dunk by Thomann at the 12:14 mark was highlight worthy and in my opinion, the turning point of this game.

[mwunder]

So, the last time NPU beat both on the road was a whole 3 years ago?

In a magical season for NPU no-less.  Before that was '07-08...18 seasons ago.  Point is, CCIW road wins are hard to come by.

[mwunder]

Is it just me or is a 30 point night becoming the norm in the CCIW?  Just this past week, there were 6 different 30+ point performances by 6 different players.  On the season, there have been 15 30+ Point performances by 11 different players.  Cleveland, Trelenberg, Brooks, and Thomann have gotten to 30 twice.

[GusD]

Is it just me or is a 30 point night becoming the norm in the CCIW?  Just this past week, there were 6 different 30+ point performances by 6 different players.  On the season, there have been 15 30+ Point performances by 11 different players.  Cleveland, Trelenberg, Brooks, and Thomann have gotten to 30 twice.

Combination of very good shooters, and pretty crummy perimeter defense.

[iwu70]

IWU moves up to #13 in the poll ( from #15).  Wash U took two losses in UAA play, so they've now dropped behind IWU in the latest poll.

On the 30 point shooters, with Cleveland it's just his domination in the paint, strong rebounding with put-backs, and even a few three-pointers thrown in for good measure.  He's not a good FT shooter, perhaps the only weakness in his game.  He's a regular double-double, and sometimes takes the ball end-to-end showing that he really wants to be a point guard!    He and Boldt have provided very good rim protection so far this year for the Titans.

IWU'70

[Gregory Sager]

Is it just me or is a 30 point night becoming the norm in the CCIW?  Just this past week, there were 6 different 30+ point performances by 6 different players.  On the season, there have been 15 30+ Point performances by 11 different players.  Cleveland, Trelenberg, Brooks, and Thomann have gotten to 30 twice.

My take is that there is some exceptional scoring talent right now in the CCIW, and it's fairly evenly distributed throughout the league. To further your insight about those fifteen 30+ performances by eleven different players, it's actually sixteen 30+ performances:

	# of	# of
team	30+ games	30+ players
Augustana	0	0
Carroll	1	1 (McNabb)
Carthage	2	1 (Brooks-2)
Elmhurst	2	1 (Trelenberg-2)
Illinois Wesleyan	3	2 (Cleveland-2, Funk)
Millikin	2	1 (Thomann-2)
North Central	0	0
North Park	3	3 (Vance, Vanlandingham, Vuckovic)
Wheaton	3	2 (Richardson-2, VanderWoude)

If we drop the scoring cutoff down to 28, we get eight more for a total of 24 performances of 28+ points ... but it's still just that same cast of eleven different players (two more apiece for Richardson, Thomann, and Vuckovic, plus one more each for Brooks and VanderWoude).

Last season there was a total of ten 30+ performances for the entire 2024-25 campaign, representing only four teams; Richardson had four, Tyler Knuth of Augustana had three, Tagen Pearson of Elmhurst had two, and AJ Johnson of Carthage had one. So a much smaller parade of 30+ totals -- and two of the four players who got them are no longer in the league!

The year before that? Get this -- only four 30+ performances for the entire 2023-24 season, from only three players. Vanlandingham had two, Jacob Naber of Carroll had one, and Fillip Bulatovic of Carthage had the other.

It's pretty remarkable. Kudos on spotting this interesting trend. It's particularly noteworthy from my point of view, since I'm adding 30+ scoring performances as a category for the next iteration of the official North Park MBB record book.

[Patrick Coleman]

When I was an SID, that was something I added to our record book as well. And they still maintain it!

https://catholicathletics.com/sports/2023/7/27/mens-basketball-30-point-games.aspx