Contact:
Steve Marovich, Sports Information
Director (262) 551-5740
E-Mail: stevich@concentric.net or
carthagesid@carthage.edu
Carthage Web Page: www.carthagesports.com
Carthage 24-Hour Sports Hotline (262)
551-5388
Carthage Men’s
Basketball Falls to No. 13 Wisconsin-Whitewater, 82-81, on Nov. 20;
Red Men Face No. 17
UW-Platteville on Saturday at “Carthage Classic”
This
Week: The Carthage College men’s basketball team (1-1, 0-0 College
Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin), tied for 55th place in the “D3hoops.com”
pre-season poll, lost an 82-81 thriller to No. 13 Wisconsin-Whitewater (1-0) on
Friday, Nov. 20 on the first night of the Carthage Classic at Tarble Arena in
Kenosha, Wis. In the earlier game, No.
17 Wisconsin-Platteville (2-0) defeated Aurora University (0-1), 86-79. On Saturday, Nov. 21, Aurora tangles with
Wisconsin-Whitewater at 5 p.m., with the Red Men facing Wisconsin-Platteville
at 7 p.m.
Last
Week: Carthage opened its 2009-10 season on Sunday,
Nov. 15 with a 76-54 win over Transylvania University (0-1) at Tarble Arena in
Kenosha, Wis.
Next
Week: Carthage travels to Waukesha, Wis., on
Saturday-Sunday, Nov. 28-29 for the Carroll University Classic at Van Male
Arena. On Saturday, Nov. 28, Carthage
plays Concordia University (Wis.) at 2 p.m., followed by Carroll (Wis.) taking
on Wisconsin Lutheran College at 6 p.m.
On Sunday, Nov. 29, the Red Men play Wisconsin Lutheran, also at 2 p.m.,
with Carroll (Wis.) facing Concordia (Wis.) at 6 p.m.
Looking
at the Carthage Classic: James Lancaster (277-123, 15 years)
coaches the Aurora University Spartans (0-0), who went 16-10 last (10-6, 3rd
place Northern Athletics Conference South Division). Friday’s game against Wisconsin-Platteville
is the season opener for Aurora…Jeff Gard, in his first year, coaches the
Wisconsin-Platteville Pioneers (1-0), who went 23-6 last year (13-3, 2nd tie
Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) under former head coach Paul
Combs, who moved on to Wayne State College.
Last year’s team lost to Hope College, 84-69 in overtime, in the second
round of the NCAA Division III Men’s Basketball Championship. Wisconsin-Platteville opened its season on
Tuesday, Nov. 17 with a 73-66 win at Clarke College…Pat Miller (169-55, 8 years) coaches the
Wisconsin-Whitewater Warhawks (0-0), who also went 23-6 last year and tied with
Wisconsin-Platteville for second place in the WIAC at 13-3. Wisconsin-Whitewater also advanced to the
second round of the NCAA Division III Men’s Basketball Championship, where the
Warhawks to eventual-national-champion Washington University (Mo.), 73-70…this
is the sixth Carthage Classic but the last one since the 2003-04 season.
Last
Year: Carthage went 15-10 last season and finished fifth in the
CCIW with a 7-7 mark.
Steve
Djurickovic Named “D3hoops.com” Pre-Season All-America:
Carthage guard Steve Djurickovic (Jr., Pleasant Prairie,
Wis./Kenosha-Bradford) was named “D3hoops.com” second-team pre-season
All-America. Djurickovic led the CCIW in
scoring in 2009 (27.6 points per game), assists (6.36 per game) and minutes
played (37.04 per game), while ranked fourth in three-point field-goal
percentage (.432), eighth in free-throw percentage (.833), 13th in rebounding
(4.7 per game), 13th in steals (0.96 per game) and 14th in field-goal
percentage (.497).
2009 NCAA
Division III Championship First/Second Rounds:
CCIW-champion and No. 3 Wheaton College (Ill.) earned the CCIW’s
automatic qualifier to the NCAA Division III Men’s Basketball Championship by
winning the CCIW Men’s Basketball Tournament.
Wheaton (Ill.) was selected as a host-site for first and second round
games on Friday-Saturday, March 6-7 at King Arena in Wheaton, Ill. The Thunder defeated Fontbonne University
(18-9), 85-58, on Friday, March 6 in a first-round NCAA game, with No. 5
Wisconsin-Platteville defeating No. 40 Hope College (21-7), 83-59, in the other
first-round contest. Wheaton (Ill., 26-3)
defeated Wisconsin-Platteville (23-6), 74-69 in overtime, in a second-round
game on Saturday, March 7. CCIW-member
Elmhurst College received an at-large berth and was also selected as a
host-site for first and second round games at R.A. Faganel Hall in Elmhurst,
Ill. The No. 19 Bluejays (20-8) lost to No.
8 Wisconsin-Whitewater, 81-79 in overtime, in one first-round contest, with
defending-national-champion and No. 2 Washington University (Mo.) getting by No.
20 Lawrence University (19-7), 67-65, in the other first-round game. Washington (Mo., 25-2) defeated Wisconsin-Whitewater
(23-6), 73-70, in a second-round game on Saturday, March 7.
2009 NCAA
Division III Sectional Championship: Wheaton College (Ill.) played host to a
Friday-Saturday, March 13-14 sectional championship at King Arena in Wheaton,
Ill. No. 3 Wheaton (Ill., 26-4) lost to No.
2 Washington University (Mo., 26-2), 55-52, on Friday, March 13 in a sectional-semifinal
game, with No. 1 the University of St. Thomas (Minn., 30-0) defeating No. 7 the University of Puget Sound (25-4),
86-69, in the other semifinal contest. Washington (Mo., 27-2) defeated St. Thomas (Minn., 30-1),
79-64, in the March 14 sectional-championship game.
2009 CCIW
Men’s Basketball Tournament: No. 4 Wheaton College (Ill.) clinched its
ninth CCIW title and its first since 1999 on the last night of the regular
season with a 70-60 win over North Central College. Wheaton played host to the Feb. 27-28 CCIW
Men’s Basketball Tournament at its King Arena, and the top-seeded Thunder won a
re-match with the fourth-seeded Cardinals (16-10), 77-66, in a semifinal game
on Feb. 27. Second-seeded and No. 20 Elmhurst
College defeated third-seeded and No. 26 Augustana College (Ill., 18-8), 59-53,
in the other semifinal contest. Wheaton
(Ill., 24-3) edged Elmhurst (20-7), 67-63, in the Feb. 28 championship game to
claim the league’s automatic qualifier to the NCAA Division III Men’s
Basketball Championship.
The
Coach: Head coach Bosko Djurickovic is in his 14th
season at Carthage in 2009-10 and his 24th overall. His 24-year record stands at 414-198 (218-119
in 14 years at Carthage, 196-79 in 10 years at North Park), an overall winning
percentage of .676. His 413 career wins
starting the 2009-10 season placed him 27th among active NCAA Division III
coaches, and his .677 career winning percentage (398-187) was ranked 35th. Djurickovic’s winning percentage at Carthage
(.647) leads the school’s all-time list, and his 218 wins ranks him first
all-time, ahead of Herbert “Hub” Wagner
(170-107, 1928-43). Djurickovic’s CCIW
winning percentage entering the 2009-10 season (.663, 224-114) is the
sixth-best in the 63-year history of the league, and his 224 place him first
among active conference coaches second only to Illinois Wesleyan University’s
Dennie Bridges on the all-time list. At
North Park (1985-94), Djurickovic coached two NCAA Division III Men's
Basketball Championship teams, one in 1985 and the other in 1987. His teams in the mid 1980s set an NCAA
Division III record with 62 consecutive home wins from February 1984 to
February 1988, and five of his players were named National Association of
Basketball Coaches All-Americans. All 10
of his North Park teams were nationally ranked at some point in their
seasons. Dave Roehl is the assistant
coach, with Ashley Koeshall, Antoine McDaniel, Nick Perrine, Theo Powell and
Cory Wilson serving as part-time assistant coaches.
The Polls: Defending-national-champion Washington
University (Mo., 29-2 final record in 2009, 25 first-place votes) was ranked
first in the pre-season “D3hoops.com” poll, followed by John Carroll University
(25-5) second, Guilford College (26-6) third, the University of St. Thomas
(Minn., 30-1) fourth, Richard Stockton College (30-3) fifth, Franklin &
Marshall College (26-7) sixth, DeSales University (25-6) seventh,
Massachusetts-Dartmouth (27-4) eighth, the College of Wooster (23-7) ninth,
Wisconsin-Stevens Point (24-5) 10th, Bridgewater State College (22-7) 11th,
Texas-Dallas (26-5) 12th, Wisconsin-Whitewater (23-6) 13th, California Lutheran
University (18-8) 14th and CCIW-member Wheaton College (Ill., 26-4) ranked
15th. CCIW-member Illinois Wesleyan
University (13-12) was ranked 26th, conference-member Augustana College (Ill.,
18-8) 39th, CCIW-member Elmhurst College (20-8) was tied for 44th place and
Carthage (15-10) was tied for 55th place.
Broadcast Information:
WRJN-AM Radio (1400) in Racine, Wis., will broadcast all of Carthage’s
men's basketball games in 2009-10 for
the ninth-straight year. Veteran
Kenosha radio sports announcer John Weiser, “The Voice of the Red Men and the
Lady Reds,” handles the play-by-play chores with Tom Roders supplying color
commentary for home games. Click here for the
Carthage audio stream of the WRJN-AM broadcasts. Click here for
“live stats” of home games.
Home Court
Advantage: Since Bosko Djurickovic took
over head coaching duties in 1996, the Red Men compiled a 114-36 record (.760) over
12 seasons at the Carthage Physical Education Center and a 5-5 mark at the
Tarble Arena, which opened on Jan. 5, 2009 with a 71-67 victory over Trinity
International University (Ill.)
Non-Conference
Success: Since Bosko Djurickovic took
over head coaching duties in 1996, Carthage has a 101-42 non-conference record
in the regular season (.706).
Record
Against Top-25 Teams: Since
Bosko Djurickovic took over head coaching duties in 1996, Carthage has a 25-34
record against teams ranked in the top-25 of the “D3hoops.com” poll. Carthage
has played the nation’s No. 1 team four times.
The Red Men fell to CCIW-opponent Illinois Wesleyan University, 91-67,
on Feb. 5, 2005 and 80-79 on Jan. 7, 2006.
Carthage lost to top-ranked Wisconsin-Platteville, 74-48, on Dec. 29, 2008
at the St. Norbert College “Nicolet Bank Holiday Tournament” in De Pere, Wis. The Red Men edged No. 1 Wheaton College
(Ill.), 55-54, on Jan. 21, 2009.
The
Conference: Now in its 64th year as of 2009-10, the CCIW
has sponsored men’s basketball as a championship sport since the conference
began play in 1946-47. Illinois Wesleyan
University has dominated the league over the years, winning or sharing 27
titles in 63 years. Augustana College
(Ill.) has win 12 times, including three titles in a row since 2006. Millikin University and Wheaton College
(Ill.) have claimed nine championships each, and North Park University was won
six times. Carthage College has won four
CCIW championships, winning outright titles in 2000 and 2002, with shared
titles in both 1964 and 2003. North
Central College has won three league championships, and Elmhurst College won
its first-ever conference basketball title in 2001. In a pre-season poll released on Oct. 28, the
CCIW men’s basketball coaches picked defending-champion Wheaton (Ill.) to
repeat in 2009-10 (4 first-place votes, 46 points), followed by Augustana
(Ill.) second (2 first-place votes, 39 points), Carthage third (1 first-place
vote, 37 points), Illinois Wesleyan fourth (1 first-place vote, 36 points),
Elmhurst fifth (22 points), Millikin sixth (17), North Central seventh (15) and
North Park eighth (12).
Nov. 15
Transylvania Game Notes: Carthage jumped out to a 19-2 lead midway
through the first period. Freshman Raul
Guzman (Lyons, Ill./Berwyn-Morton West) had a pair of three-pointers and layup as part of that run. The lead went to 20 points, 24-4, at 7:49; to
22 points, 30-8, at 4:27; and to 25 points at the break, 40-15. The Red Men upped their lead to 26 points in
the second half, 45-19, at 18:55 before the Pioneers made a game of
things. Transylvania used a 25-10 run to
close to within nine points, 53-44, at 10:45,
Carthage came right back with a 16-1 run to go back up by 24, 69-45, at
5:22. The Red Men went on to win by 22
points, 76-54. Three Carthage players
scored in double figures. Carthage shot
54 percent (25-46), while Transylvania shot just 29 percent (17-59). Steve Djurickovic (Jr., Pleasant Prairie,
Wis./Kenosha-Bradford) topped all scorers with 23 points on five-of-nine from
the floor and 13-of-14 free throws, along with nine assists. Freshman Tyler Pierce (Westmont, Ill.) had 19
points on eight-of-11 field goals, along with nine rebounds, and Raul Guzman
added 16 points on six-of-eight field goals, and he also pulled down nine
boards. Barrett Meyer topped the
Pioneers with 11 points.
Quoting
Coach Bosko Djurickovic on the Nov. 14 Transylvania Game:
“Our defense was so good in the first half, but we shouldn’t forget that
Transylvania is a good basketball team.
They play with a great amount of veracity, and they’re going to go back
and win their league. Tyler Pierce and
Raul Guzman are not freshmen-like players.
They are both very mature for their age.
They both had nine rebounds in this game, and if they can do that
consistently, we have a chance for a very special season. Transylvania gave us a wake-up call in the
second half by trying to take the ball out of Steve Djurickovic’s hands and put
it into the hands of Raul Guzman or somebody else. I don’t know if other teams will try that,
but we have to be ready for it. This is
a committed group of kids, and they want to get Carthage basketball back to
where it was five or six years ago.”
Nov. 20
Wisconsin-Whitewater Game Notes: Carthage jumped out to an early 10-point
lead, 23-13, at 13:16.
Wisconsin-Whitewater took a four-point lead, 29-25, at 9:40 after
four-consecutive three-pointers, three by Mike Shaw. The Red Men re-gained the lead late in the
half, but the Warhawks led by three at the break, 46-43. Wisconsin-Whitewater never relinquished the
lead in the second half, although Carthage did tie the contest, 62-62, at
9:23. The Warhawks led by as much as
seven points on several occasions in the second period, but the Red Men almost
pulled it out in the final seconds.
Trailing
by six, 82-76, with 28 seconds remaining, Max Cary (So., Geneva, Ill.) and Steve
Djurickovic (Jr., Pleasant Prairie, Wis./Kenosha-Bradford) scored on back-to-back
layups to cut the lead to two, 82-80, with 8.5 seconds to play. Djurickovic was fouled on his shot and made
the free throw for an 82-81 margin.
Following a Carthage timeout, the Warhawks’ Dustin Mitchell was fouled
but missed both free throws. Carthage’s
Mitch Thompson (Fr., Orland Park, Ill./Sandburg) collected the rebound. The Red Men got the ball upcourt, but Djurickovic
missed an off-balance jumper at the buzzer that would have been the
game-winner.
Carthage
shot 57 percent (29-51), while Wisconsin-Whitewater shot 49 percent
(28-57). The Warhawks out-rebounded the
Red Men, 38-22. Steve Djurickovic scored
a tournament-record 33 points on 12-of-22 field goals and nine-of-10 free
throws, along with nine assists. Max
Cary had 15 points, and Tyler Pierce (Fr., Westmont, Ill.) added 12
points. Dustin Mitchell topped
Wisconsin-Whitewater with 28 points on nine-of-13 from the floor, 10-of-14 from
the free-throw line and a whopping 18 rebounds.
Mike Bendall and DJ Dantzler each had 14 points for the Warhawks. In Wisconsin-Platteville’s win over Aurora,
the Pioneers’ Mike Shaw had 24 points on seven-of-15 three-pointers and
three-of-three free throws.
Quoting
Coach Bosko Djurickovic on the Nov. 20 Wisconsin-Whitewater Game:
“It was an exceptional college basketball game. Wisconsin-Whitewater has a very good team,
and so do we. Even though we’re better
this year, we still haven’t remedied our free-throw situation. We also got rebounded badly, but we’re not
going to see a team with this much size and athleticism again this year. Having said that, we didn’t do all the things
that we needed to control. You can’t be
satisfied with losing by point. We had
opportunities to win spring-board kind of game.”