Game Notes: (MBK) Greenville University @ North Central College (11/15/19)

Final Score
NCC 122, Greenville 103

Game Summary
No, that's not a typo. Getting right to work with The System, the Panthers (1-2) used an early 9-0 run after surrendering a basket on the opening possession to take control. But the Cardinals (1-1) clawed their way back, finally taking their first lead with about 12 and a half minutes left in the half. The teams would trade advantages over the next couple minutes before a 10-2 Cardinal run gave them a seven point lead, but eight straight by the Panthers eliminated it. The Cardinals finally got a little breathing room again right before the half, taking a 47-42 lead into a much needed intermission. The Panthers would tie the game at 49 early in the second half, but the Cardinals responded with a 9-0 run extended to a 14-2 run to take firm control. Greenville would get no closer than seven the rest of the way as North Central began to pull away, going up by 20 with 11 and a half to play, and from that point on would lead by no less than 12, as eventually Todd Raridon was able to go to his reserves.

Key Players

• Connor Raridon (NCC): 6-8 FG, 6-7 FT; 18 pts, 15 reb (2 off), 12 ast, 1 blk. That's a triple-double, by the way; the first in NCC men's basketball history. To an extent, it can come with an asterisk: against a non-System team he's not pulling down 15 rebounds, but it's his ninth career double digit assist game and one off his career high (and program record), and most of his points came in halfcourt sets. Maybe more important though: going up against a pressure defense when primary ball handlers are going to turn it over a bunch, he had just four, good for a 3:1 assist-to-turnover ratio, which is outstanding. Add it to the list of cool things I've gotten to announce.
• Matt Cappelletti (NCC): 22-26 FG (2-5 3PT), 1-3 FT; 47 pts, 7 reb (2 off), 3 ast, 1 blk, 2 stl. Okay, this one gets a definite asterisk. Cap's previous career high was 35, when he lit up Husson last year at the D3Hoops.com Classic in Vegas. But Friday he was 20-21 from inside the arc, almost all of them right around the basket. He got a couple dunks in the second half as the Cardinals were pulling away, and most of the rest were layups. Almost all of these can be atributed to The System: with the Panthers gambling in the backcourt and getting their share of takeaways, in cases where the Cardinals were able to break it, Cap was often alone going to the basket and had an easy bucket. Forwards always have big scoring nights against System teams... but this was a monster one.
• Henry Johnson (GRE): 7-10 FG (2-3 3PT), 1-2 FT; 17 pts, 1 reb (1 off), 2 ast, 1 stl. It's hard to pick just one guy off a System team, so I'll go with their leading scorer, who was efficient from the floor, even if he didn't do a ton else.

Key Stats

• NCC: 76 points in the paint, 47 fast break points. I'll go with both of these, as both are indicators that you played a System team. Yeah, they turned the ball over a bunch, but the tradeoff was a bunch of easy looks at the basket.
• GRE: 25 turnovers. I'll go over System numbers in a moment, so I wanted to look at something else. This was very reminiscent of NCC women's games running the System; the Cardinals often had a ton of turnovers too, so this was really no exception. Of course they cause the Cardinals fits, but they got in their own way a few times too.

Greenville System Watch

• Wholesale Line Changes: 20-25. I'm bringing back this feature after going away from it after a while with the NCC women. Greenville's guys played longer stretches before a fresh five came to the table than the women did. Usually with the women shifts were maybe 40-60 seconds; Friday night they were closer to two minutes before a fresh group came in.
• NCC Turnovers: 35. This is to be expected. The full court pressure gave the Cardinals fits, especially early in the game; North Central had 19 turnovers in the first half. Of the 35 giveaways for the game, 21 came off steals; Chris Jackson paced the team with five, Riley Simmons and Sontiago Grady each had four, and Barry Nixon logged three. Those 35 turnovesr led directly to 36 Greenville points, which is... less than ideal.
• GRE 3PT: 16-53 (30.2%). Of Greenville's 91 shot attempts, 53 came from beyond the arc. This is normal for a System team, and the percentage is pretty consistent with what you can expect. They were at about 36 percent going into the game, and struggled a bit thanks to good Cardinal defense. The Panthers hit a few early to get that early lead, but finished 6-25 in the first half, a big reason why they trailed.

Final Thoughts

It's hard to make too many conclusions based off of this game. I was always used to announcing for a System team, so to have the shoe on the other foot is a little different. Cap likely won't have another 40 point game (maybe 30 on a great shooting night, but that's about it), and Connor probably won't log another triple-double. But against an opponent you should beat, the Cardinals ultimately took care of business, and now they don't have to worry about a System team again until potentially the NCAA Tournament. It was a good way to right the ship after a season-opening loss. The Cardinals are currently in the midst of a fairly long layoff, but continue the homestand on Monday when Rose-Hulman comes to town.

The System: A Retrospective and a Preview

I don't normally write a preview-type piece for an individual game, especially for a non-conference game. But I feel like in advance of tonight's men's game against Greenville, I need to write a little something. But it's not a preview in the traditional sense. I also need to take a look back at five years that were a hell of a lot of fun.

A good primer in advance of reading this piece is this 2017 piece from D3Hoops.com. There are some good quotes included from former North Central coaches Michelle Roof and Doug Porter as well.

COAS Pigskin Pick 'Em: Week 11

We're onto Week 11 of the NFL season, and the coalition continues to chug along in our quest to pick games against the spread!

I mentioned last week that it wasn't ideal for Adam or I. Adam rebounded, I didn't; he swept our six disputed games and now has a season-high six game lead. I'm still holding onto second place, but not by a ton. At this point, I'm all but counting on a second straight Thanksgiving heater.

Meanwhile, Adam made another mistake this past week, but it worked out kind of in our favor. He picked the Steelers over the Rams in the column, but picked the Rams on ESPN. This counteracts one of his two screwups from the week before, so he now only has one more point on ESPN than he should. You can view correct standings, as well as how we've picked in relation to each other, here.

As I attempt to get back on track, Adam and I disagree on just three games out of 14. Let's see if I can climb back into the race!

Game Notes: (MBK) UW-Oshkosh @ North Central College (11/12/19)

Final Score
UW-Oshkosh 76, NCC 66

Game Summary
The first few minutes were a microcosm of the contest as the Titans (2-0) punched the Cardinals in the mouth by opening on a 9-2 run, forcing a Todd Raridon timeout. The Cardinals (0-1) were able to rally, getting it back to a one possession game once before the Titans got hot, pushing the lead as high as 13 before settling into the break with a 45-33 lead. The Cardinals came out strong to start the second half, dropping the deficit to seven before a Titan heat check got the lead back up to 13, but the Cardinals refused to go away, pulling back within six with just over seven minutes to play. But in a key sequence late, after the Cardinals were down seven, missed two open threes to cut it to four, and a jumper-stop-dagger three sequence put the game away.

Key Players

• Eric Peterson (UWO): 7-11 FG (2-3 3PT), 2-5 FT; 18 pts, 12 reb (1 off), 5 ast. On a night where Oshkosh's bigs struggled, the Titans needed their perimeter guys to step up... and step up they did. Peterson was able to get to the basket with relative ease tonight, hit a couple key threes, and dominated the glass amongst the trees. The Batavia native posted career highs in each of the aforementioned categories.
• Adam Fravert (UWO): 6-13 FG (3-6 3PT), 0-2 FT; 15 pts, 8 reb (1 off), 2 blk, 2 stl. Similar thing here for Fravert. He got some easy looks at the basket and hit a few key threes as well. It was Fravert's triple in that late sequence that served as the dagger.
• Will Clausel (NCC): 6-9 FG (0-3 3PT), 2-3 FT; 14 pts, 3 reb (1 off), 1 ast, 1 blk. On a night where the stars struggled some offensively, the Cardinals needed a spark off the bench, and Will stepped up. While he struggled from deep, he was able to take advantage of drives to the basket. Additionally, his post defense against Oshkosh's bigs who had a major size advantage on him was phenomenal and helped keep the Cardinals in the game.

Key Stats

• NCC: 6-23 3PT (26.1%). Sometimes it's the simple things. On a night where Oshkosh was hot from deep, the Cardinals couldn't match. They'll shoot better as the year goes on, I'm sure; Cap won't go 1-6 every night, and Mike Pollack won't miss four straight after making his first.
• UWO: 6-10 3PT in the first half (60.0%). It's pretty much this simple. The Titans got hot early and that helped them build the lead. In a game where a lot of other things were even (Oshkosh won the rebounding battle 40-39 and had 40 points in the paint to NCC's 38), things like this make the difference.

Final Thoughts

Oshkosh is the defending champion, and despite losing a couple key pieces from their title team, they still brought back a significant chunk of last year's core, and it showed. This team is elite, and they played up to it in a tough environment. They have a legitimate shot at repeating this March.

From North Central's perspective, the other big problem was they committed a few dumb turnovers. While they only resulted in nine Titan points, it set a bad tone. I think this team will clean it up though. Big picture wise, getting a tough test like this to open the year will be good for them. Oshkosh will be regionally ranked come February, and a regionally ranked loss is still a good resume builder. This team should be fine.

It was great to see Aiden Chang return to the floor last night. I put a little extra into introducing him, and I even choked up a bit when I got to him. He played fairly well in his first game back, and I'm sure getting that first one out of the way helps.

The Cardinals have a couple days to reset, but they're going to have to be ready. Greenville comes to town on Friday, and North Central will have to be ready to run against a System team. There's going to be well over 300 points scored on Friday and I can't wait.

2019-20 NCC Men's Basketball Preview

Friday we checked in on the women. Today, we flip on over to North Central's men's team. They get a little bit later of a start to their season, and were extremely late in posting the official team roster, so I partially wanted to hold off for that.

But the anticipation for this group is really high, as are the expectations. Let's see what the outlook for the season is.

2019-20 NCC Women's Basketball Preview

With the calendar now flipped to November, the weather getting colder, and the time change meaning it's dark way earlier than it's supposed to be, that means it's about time for me to get back to one of my favorite times of year: basketball season!

The season officially tips off this weekend; the women get things started before the men do, so I'll do my first of two season previews and take a look at what the North Central College women's basketball team has on tap for the next few months!

2019 COAS Pigskin Pick 'Em: Week 10

As we move onto the second half of the 2019 NFL season, the coalition chugs on in its quest to successfully pick games against the spread!

Last week was... less than ideal for our group. Adam and I were both due for clunkers, and while I took two of our three disputed games to tie Adam once again, our lead on the rest of the group has shrunk to just two games.

You will notice that the standings in the link I just provided will differ from what's on our tracker as well as the official standings at the end of this post. Aiden forgot to pick almost every game a few weeks back, but Adam was able to get me his retroactive picks where he went 5-9 and has a more respectable record. But it wouldn't be a Pigskin Pick 'Em contest without Adam accidentally picking the wrong team on ESPN. He informed me early on Sunday that when he originally filled his picks out he took the Chiefs over the Vikings before changing his mind for the column and forgetting to change it back on ESPN. I also noticed when numbers didn't add up that he accidentally took the Broncos on ESPN instead of the Browns. Unfortunately, these didn't cancel each other out, which would have been great; instead Adam has two more wins than he does in reality because the column is the official pick.

Anyway, onto this week. Adam and I disagree on six games out of 13. Let's get to it!