Game Notes (MBK): North Park University @ North Central College (1/23/21)

Final Score

NCC 69, NPU 49

Game Summary

Playing for the first time in almost a full calendar year, the Cardinals (1-0) got off to a slow start, falling behind 7-2 early as they struggled to shoot. But then the Vikings (0-1) went cold as well, going nearly eight minutes without a basket as the Cardinals used a 10-0 run to take the lead. North Park hung around though as the Cardinals got a little sloppy with the ball and the game turned into a back and forth affair. The Vikings hit a shot on the last possession of the half, tying the game at 27 going into the locker room. But the master of halftime, Todd Raridon, worked his magic again, as the Cardinals opened the second half on a 17-3 run to take dominant control of the game, and the Vikings would not threaten the rest of the way.

Key Players

• Blaise Meredith (NCC): 9-17 FG (6-12 3PT), 1-3 FT; 25 pts, 7 reb, 6 ast, 1 blk, 1 stl. With the departure of Connor Raridon and Matt Cappelletti this offseason, this has become Blaise Meredith's team, and he put the team on his back today. Most of his damage came from behind the arc, an area of his game he's really improved on over the last couple of years, and he remained a force on the defensive end as well as on the glass. He fought through some physical defense today and wanted more calls than he got, and that's really my only gripe is making sure his head stays in the game, but for the most part he was, and it showed today.
• Brian Johnson (NCC): 5-10 FG (1-3 3PT), 0-2 FT; 11 pts, 9 reb (5 off), 3 ast, 1 stl. The aforementioned departures also leave a gap in the forward position that needed to be filled today, especially with Will Clausel out due to injury, and the sophomore stepped up big time in this one. He opened the season's scoring for the Cardinals with a putback layup early, showed some range from deep, but also did a great job moving without the ball for some layups while also playing strong on the boards. If he can continue to put these numbers up as the season goes on, look out.
• Adam Sundh (NPU): 6-8 FG (0-2 3PT); 12 pts, 4 reb (1 off), 1 ast, 3 stl. In my prep for this game, I reached out to the play by play guy for North Park athletics, Greg Sager. In addition to coaching me on the nuance of Swedish surname pronunciation, he mentioned that he figured Sundh would get some run in this game, and not only did he, but he was probably the Vikings' best guy on the floor. He scored eight straight North Park points in the first half to keep the game competitive, and did it largely by wreaking havoc on the defensive end and cashing those points in on the other end. Tom Slyder has a good one here.

Key Stats

• NCC: 17 second chance points. There are some aspects of this game, looking at the box score, where things were even or even favoring the Vikings, but this number jumped out at me. The Cardinals had 14 offensive rebounds in this game to lead to those 17 points, while the Vikings managed just eight on second opportunities. On a night where both teams had a little rust, taking advantage of these chances was key, and the Cardinals capitalized.
• NPU: 3-19 3PT (15.8%). On the whole this number looks bad, but let's break it down by halves. The Vikings hit their first three attempt of the game to open the scoring, then went cold, but hit a couple threes later in the half, finishing 3-9 in the first 20 minutes. That of course means an 0-10 stretch in the second half. As a point of reference, the Vikings shot about 33 percent from deep last season, and much of last year's roster is back, so between first game jitters and regression to the mean, I don't think we can read too much into this, especially since North Central is a good defensive team.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• IWU 74 (1-0), @ CRL 59 (0-1)
• @ WHE 88 (1-0), AUG 67 (0-1)
• @ CAR 83 (1-0), MIL 57 (0-1)
• BYE: ELM (0-0)
• WBK: @ NPU 59 (1-0), NCC 47 (0-1)

Final Thoughts

Photo by Mark Black

Today was a long time coming. It was the first contest for the Cardinals since the legendary Oshkosh game, and a contest that I think a lot of us weren't sure was going to happen. I'm grateful to the NCAA, the CCIW, and North Central for taking steps to make sure that this contest could be put on safely. And on top of that, I'm glad that the North Central athletic department, even with no fans, still wanted the gameday atmosphere to be as close to normal as possible, and thus invited me back for my tenth year behind the microphone, even though this season is nowhere near what I pictured it looking like.

As for this game, it wasn't pretty at times. There was a lot of rust, which was something to be expected. Fortunately that rust extended both ways, and while the Vikings made a game of it in the first half, good job by the Cardinals to take care of business in the second half and come away with the victory.

With the shortened schedule this season, the Cardinals will go forward by finishing the home and home with North Park by paying a visit to the north side of Chicago on Monday night, while the women's team, who played in the crackerbox this afternoon, will host North Park Monday night, and I'll be back at it for them as well. For the men, it's a good start and a good sign that this team is still pretty good. Hopefully they'll take care of business on the road, but the rest of the schedule is no cakewalk. With luck, today was a good building block for the rest of the campaign.

2020 COAS Pigskin Pick 'Em: Epilogue

And so with the 2020 NFL regular season in the books, so too is the 2020 COAS Pigskin Pick 'Em contest.

We mentioned it on the podcast episode for Week 17, but Adam needed a sweep to overtake me for the column title. Unfortunately for him, the Steelers' back door cover in Cleveland during the early slate guaranteed that the best he could do was tie. And with Green Bay forcing the Bears to back into the playoffs while simultaneously locking up the #1 seed in the NFC, I continued the run of even year magic and clinched the column title, rendering his Chargers and Rams picks moot.

That said, congratulations to Geoffrey Clark for finishing as the 2020 group champion with a .500 record. A full breakdown of how we picked each of the 256 games this year in relation to each other can be found here.

Adam and I may return with playoff picks over the next couple of weeks, though I don't count those nearly as much as I do the regular season games. But either way, I look forward to the return of this feature for 2021!

Records This Season
Lucas: 126-130 (7-9 this week)
Adam: 124-132 (7-9 this week)
Joe: 123-133 (9-7 this week)
Geoffrey: 128-128 (6-10 this week)
Jim: 120-136 (4-12 this week)

2020 COAS Pigskin Pick 'Em: Week 17

And so it all comes down to this. One week. 16 games. The coalition is back to round out the 2020 NFL season!

Fortune smiled upon me in Week 16, as I took four of six disputed games from Adam to give myself a two game lead going into the final week. However, I do not lead the group anymore; Geoffrey Clark has taken a three game lead going into the final sprint. Full standings on ESPN (bearing in mind that Adam and I each have one more point than we should) are here, while correct standings and a full breakdown of how we've picked in relation to each other can be found here.

Given that we are down to the final week, combined with the fact that Adam was in town for the holidays this week... it seemed only fitting that we close out the 2020 campaign in podcast form!

From all of us at Confessions of a Sportscaster, have a Happy New Year!

2020 COAS Pigskin Pick 'Em: Week 16

We're getting down to the nitty gritty of the NFL season, and it's crunch time amongst the coalition as well with two weeks to go.

The entire group has come back to around the same level, as just eight games separate first from last place. More important at the top... it has now become very bunched.

It wasn't a great week for me I'd say (I had at least three games I think that I lost by half a point), but it was good enough, as I took five of eight disputed games from Adam to move back into a tie for first place, and Geoffrey is only a game off of the lead. Correct standings, as well as a breakdown of how we've picked in relation to each other, can be found here. 

And despite him having a pretty solid season on the whole on his own merits, Adam finally decided in Week 16, in a tie for the lead, to throw a curveball.

"I had a special guest helping with my picks this week, my son Aiden. He has played in years past, but I forgot to get him set up. Joe and Jim should be happy about that because they would likely be losing to an 11-year-old, *shots fired* haha. Anyway on to my, or should I say, Aiden’s picks. Honestly I agree with most of them, there are a few I would have gone the other way, but I will stick with his picks and make them my own."

And that, dear friends, is how Adam blew an opportunity to break the even year drought (likely jinx). As we set up for what will likely be a photo finish, he and I disagree on six games out of 16.

From all of us at Confessions of a Sportscaster, have a Merry Christmas! Let's get to the picks.

2020 COAS Pigskin Pick 'Em: Week 15

The coalition soldiers on towards the end of the season, and my triumphant high from last week has come crashing down.

It wasn't a historic loss, thankfully... but Adam swept our four disputed games as my two game lead flips to a two game deficit. Though with 48 to play... anything can happen.

The bad news is, a week after Adam got his ESPN numbers righted... Thursday he screwed up again, so now the only correct number is our margin since I screwed up once earlier in the year. You can view those standings, bearing in mind we each have one more point than we should, here. Correct standings, along with how we've picked in relation to each other, can be found here. The big takeaway from looking at that: Adam is great at hero picks.

This week, he and I disagree on eight games out of 16. Let's see if I can flip the script again!

2020 COAS Pigskin Pick 'Em: Week 14

The coalition is back as we enter the fourth quarter of the season and... oh hey, look at those standings!

For the first time since Week 7, I'm back in the group lead after taking four of our five disputed games. Adam had another picking error on ESPN this week... but this time it worked out as he wasn't given a point he should have been given, which means his two mistakes have now evened out and his score there is accurate. I, however, still have one more point on ESPN than I should.

You can view correct standings, in addition to how we've picked in relation to each other, here. There's one again a fairly clear dichotomy in the group, as Adam is right behind me, with Geoffrey Clark in the hunt as well. Joe and Jim would need miracles to catch up at this point.

This week, Adam and I disagree on just four games out of 16. Hopefully we have no postponements that could throw the integrity of this off. Let's get to it!

2020 COAS Pigskin Pick 'Em: Week 13

The coalition is back on its traditional medium this week as we continue our quest to pick NFL games against the spread!

I hope you enjoyed last week's special podcast edition. Adam and I both enjoyed it, and I think it's safe to say we'll plan to bring that format back for future editions. Stay tuned for more details on that.

As for where we stand now, I was correct in that we came pretty close to a split, as I took five of our eight disputed games last week. It should be noted, however, that that margin I won by should probably have an asterisk. Also, Adam was insistent I include the following:

For the record, if you win by 2 or less games, remember the Denver no QB game and the RGIII/Dez Ravens/Pitt game that was played on a Wednesday day. In both cases I absolutely would have picked the other way if I had the information I had at the time we made picks.

I had a feeling that, if we weren't bound by the system we work under, Adam would have gone the other way and we'd have split last week instead (even though he came reasonably close to getting away with it on Wednesday). He still retains the group lead for now, but it's now by the narrowest of margins (bearing in mind that he and I each have one more point there than we should). Correct standings and our picks in relation to each other can be found here.

Following a chaotic week where all 32 teams still played, just all over the place, Adam and I disagree on only five games out of the 15 games spaced pretty far apart. Let's get to it!