According to last rankings, there are only 3 out 8 CCIW teams that have not recevied any votes. The rest look like this:

NCC - 19th
Augie - 24th
IWU - 28th
Wheaton - 36th
Elmhurst - 45th

That's impressive. Right?

QuoteUnless the Augie/Titan rivalry is like Hope/Calvin and Rangers/Celtic or whatever....

I couldn't be any happier when soccer references are made 

QuoteLawrence has "sold out" tickets.  Hmm, I guess that means there will be more people to witness the upset when NC beats Lawrence.   ( hopefully)

Well put. I hope you are right, but we need to win tomorrow night to have a shot at giving the second 1st ranked team in the nation their 1st loss of the season.

(Looking back, I think that's when IWU season started going south. It doesn't matter any more now, and I really wish IW the best in the tournament)

For what is worth.... the top 25 is out with NCC ranked the highest in CCIW at 10th followed by IWU at 11th and then Augie.

On the NCC - STT match up....
St. Thomas looks like a good team with a solid basketball program. It will be a good match and any team can come out with the W. NCC has some good momentum going into this game though. They have won 7 out of their last 8 games by beating some quality teams. I don't necessarily think that it will be a huge disadvantage to NC to play away. I feel like this year they have been better on the road than at home. They beat IWU and Elmhurst (twice) and lost to both teams at home.

Game preview:
http://www.noctrl.edu/x7253.xml

#2 is not decided either.  If NC doesn't drop a game and IWU loses to Augustana, then things can change again. I think NC has something to prove to Augie, and specially Elmhurst.  But then so does IWU to Augies....anyway... If...then... my point is that this conference is too unpredictable to make any kind of predictions with certainty. Whatever happens I think we all need to be proud about the conference, and feel bad for 1 (I will be positive and not say "or 2") of the 4 teams that won't make the big tournament

NCC 88-68 over Wheaton. Sounds like an easy game for North Central.

Quote from: robertgoulet on January 23, 2006, 12:24:05 AM
kobe bryant had 81 tonight.

81.


he attempted 46 fg's. only had 2 assists. the team, as a whole, only had 16 assists.


i am fighting with myself over this right now. i am not a very big kobe fan. he doesnt make his teammates better, like the "great ones" are supposed to do. he is a great scorer....but not a winner.

81 points is just ridiculous. part of me says, "wow....81....". the other part of me says....."BALL HOG!"

he shot over 50% from the field. over 50% from the 3pt line. and 18-20 from the  FT line.

what do you all think?

Does anybody here know why Simmons didn't start last night for the Cardinals? It looks like that Drennan kid started in his place. I completely trust what coach Raridon is doing, but I am just curious to hear if anybody knows anything.  Simmons still ended up playing 32 minutes though.... I remeber when Benjy used to shuffle his starting 5 just to wake people up.

On the Bosko subject... I think that he is a good coach that deserves a lot more respect than what people are giving him. Carthage lost yesterday to a sharp cardinal team, but remember their 3 previous games. As many of you have said, Carthage could have been sitting at a 3-1 CCIW record right now. Considering the lack of experience and the loss of some good players, Carthage is not doing that bad. I just don't think it is fair to judge a coach by one bad game or even a bad season. He has the good reputation, but most importantly he also has the rings that all the other coaches in CCIW combined don't have. Anyway, I am starting to sound like a Carthage fan now, so I am going to stop. My heart is with North Central...  

CCIW schedule....

Wouldn't it be nice if teams played one game at home and one away, or have no more than 2 away games in a row during conference play? I think that kind of schedule would make the league a little more competitive. It would be hard for any team to have long stretches of road games. (NCC is opening the conference with 6 straight away games, that is almost half their games). They do it in the NBA,  but teams play 100 games all season.

It is pretty clean, each team has to play 14 games. Take European soccer leagues as an example.  All games are scheduled on the same day of the week and time (most of the time), and teams play at home every other game. CCIW should designate 1 or 2 days of the week for basketball, so let's say every Friday night at 7:30 all games take place at the same time.  You could also add Tuesday or Wednesday for a couple of weeks. I know that there could be problems with double booking the facilities, but (I am sorry if I am offending anyone) what else can be booked that could interfere with basketball?

Just a thought....

Congratulations to NCC for a great win at the Shirk.

I am sure this victory meant probably as much to the players as is did to Cardinalpride, the guy that stood his ground on a NC upset (and was the only one). I believe this was a very important win, but this was only the first game of the conference. This win definitely tops the last one at the Shirk 3 years ago.

It was great to see coach Trost admit that his team was outcoached by NC. That is just a great attitude that I hope everyone in the league learns from.

Coach Raridon....keep doing what you are doing! You have earned everyone's respect with the great job you have done in the last 2 years. I am looking forward to see how high you will take the program.

(Welcome back Greg!)

Quote from: maddog on December 29, 2005, 12:57:47 PM
albcard "we went to OT, manged to score 3 more points than IWU...and walked out of there as CHAMPIONS. We had just crushed a very good team in their own house. It felt GREAT! You should have been there to have seen the fan's faces. "

I do remember that game and it was a nice win for NCC at the Shirk, they played well in the 2nd half. But I think to say that NCC "crushed a very good team in their own house." is a little off base, after all, it was a 3 point win in OT, not exactly a blowout.  That was Coach Trost first year at IWU and he and the team struggled to a 12-13 overall record and 6-8 in the CCIW, tied for 4th place. The Titans were hardly a " very good team " in 2001-2.

I think I just liked to say "crushed a good team"    I said "crushed" to emphasize the facy that NNC won the game, not that we won by 20 or 30, and I said "a very good team" referring to IWU in general, not the team for that particular year (which by the way had an All American player in  Luke Kasten).  That game didn't make much of a difference in both teams' record or final placement in the conference. It was just a GREAT moral victory for NCC that year.

Al B, Thanks for sharing that with us!  Al B do you believe in the upset this year?

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I think it will be very tough. I believe in the team, and I will be happy with a 1-13 CCIW record if that single win is at the SHIRK. At this point though, let's hope that we keep this good streak going and that we increase our level of play when conference starts. There are clearly some favorites this year, but anybody can win at any given night. I am a HUGE soccer fan (being European and all) and the reason why I enjoy CCIW Basketball (college basketball in general) so much, is the similar unpredictablilty of the games. I don't like to predict, I enjoy the results and the drama in the league, and I am REALLY HAPPY when NCC does well.

NCC's team didn't achieve much during the 2001-2002 season, but they DID sweep IWU. I think beating them at the SHIRK center was the highlight of that season. NCC delayed IWU's 100th win at the SHIRK.

We were down by 19 points during the second half and then somehow we managed to come back. Mike Kulbeda hit a 3 pointer to tie the game, we went to OT, manged to score 3 more points than IWU...and walked out of there as CHAMPIONS. We had just crushed a very good team in their own house. It felt GREAT! You should have been there to have seen the fan's faces. That was one of the best sports moments for me.