Quote from: Hoosier Titan on March 14, 2009, 10:25:42 PM
We were discussing the phantom foul in the car on the way home.  Although I may complain about individual calls during a game, I rarely think that the refs have influenced the outcome of a game.  But that one--the one I'm thinking of was on Claire Sheehan in the open court, when the Titans were about to get a five-second count on the ball handler (not any sort of over-and-back).  It did feel that that might have shifted the momentum. 

Quote from: Just Bill on March 14, 2009, 10:09:25 PM
There are no backcourt 10-second violations in women's basketball. They can stay in the backcourt as long as they want.

When you say "ball-handler" was the player dribbling?

There are no five-seconds calls when the ball is being dribbled. The only five second calls in women's basketball are when the ball is being held, or on the in-bounds.

I have actually seen teams stay in the backcourt and dribble the ball to run out the clock at the end of the game. Consequently, pressing at the end of a game is pretty pointless once the ball is inbounded. Teams have to foul right away.

Wash U had 17 turnovers at halftime, but shot 73% from the floor. I'm not sure I have ever seen a first stat sheet like that before.

Quote from: Marty Peretz on March 12, 2009, 10:14:49 PM
Augiefan,
From what I heard, Wash.U. sold around 350 of its 400 by 3:30. So, between 10:50 and 3:30, my guess is a lot of alums snagged tickets. I'm assuming the other 50 or so were either sold by 5ish or sent back to Wheaton where they will be released to the general public early Friday. This is all just a guess. All I know is Wash.U. had sold close to all of its tickets by the end of the day. Kind of surprising since its students (who regularly account for 60-70 percent of the crowd at an average home game) are on break. Should be a great game.

According the Wheaton Athletics Website, all of the tickets that were returned have been sold. There are no tickets remaining. I heard that the extra tickets sold out in about 5 minutes.

Here's the media guide: http://athletics.wheaton.edu/documents/2009/1/9/MBBYearbook.pdf

The info is on pages 25 and 26.

According the game-by-game in the media guide they won the last two conference games of the 1954-55 season and the first three of the 1967-68 season, so by my count that would be 61.

Quote from: Freebird on March 12, 2009, 07:33:41 PM

Quote from: Drake Palmer on March 12, 2009, 06:53:28 PM

Quote from: Nites on March 12, 2009, 06:46:22 PM

Quote from: Drake Palmer on March 12, 2009, 06:42:10 PM

If UST wins on Friday, who knows, mebbe ol' Drake might amble on down to Chi-town on Saturday.

Staying, no doubt, at the . . . Drake Hotel.  

Is there a Drake Hotel in Chicago? I know there was formerly a Drake Hotel in Mpls & there is a Palmer House in Chicago. 

http://www.thedrakehotel.com/

It is actually one of the best hotels in Chicago but being fairly old the rooms are a bit small

There is a Wyndham-Drake Hotel in Oakbrook which is much closer to Wheaton.


http://www.wyndham.com/hotels/ORDDR/main.wnt?cha=

Quote from: Thunderiffic on March 12, 2009, 04:12:18 PM
I'm frantic and desperate for tickets.  Is there any hope for getting one tomorrow?

From the Wheaton Athletics Website:

UPDATED AT 5:42 PM (CST) March 12, 2009: All available tickets have been sold. No more tickets for Friday's game will be sold.

From what I have heard, this includes the allotments from other teams. Wheaton is selling no more tickets for Friday. You could always try for Saturday.

Quote from: wheaton.thunder on March 09, 2009, 03:16:08 PM
hey let me perfectly clear I do not represent the Wheaton College Athletic Department or Wheaton College in any capacity whatsoever except that as an alum and fan of Wheaton sports.

If you don't have anything to do with the Wheaton Athletic Department, then why are you writing as if you do? Between your screen name and the use of "we" you give the impression that you are speaking for the College, and I think you are doing Wheaton a disservice. I'm sure you had good intentions, but saying things like "we have never had any problems before" sounds like you are speaking on behalf of the school. If the Athletic Department wants to speak on the subject they will. Otherwise make it clear that it's your opinion you are posting and not the College's.

I feel bad that many people had a difficult time finding a place to sit. I think some of the issue was because the first game ended very close to the scheduled starting time of the second game, so it was a chaotic transition. Certainly, that was worsened by there not being clear seating directions, but I can see Wheaton's dilemma about how to fairly divide up the gym. With a rather small section of coveted chair backed seats, they have tended to go with "first-come first-served" as the fairest policy for those seats. Clearly it didn't work well in this situation where spectators from the first game stayed in their seats, which is reasonable, and people had to scramble to find open seats in an already packed gym.

Quote from: Pat Coleman on March 08, 2009, 12:34:17 PM
Interesting that the women could afford to fly an extra team just for the heck of it.

Perhaps there's room built into the sectional's budget for one flight, but not for two. Since IWU hosting only requires one flight, they host. Since St. Thomas would require two flights, Wheaton hosts.

I'm sure the announcer at ONU is happy for the break! When they came to Wheaton, it was almost impossible to keep up with all the substitutions.

Well said, and as a CCIW Women's basketball fan I recognize that we are not where the men are in terms of the depth and tradition across the board. On the other hand, there has been a lot of growth the last few years, and I believe that for the first time in the 10 years that I have been around that all the teams in the league are headed in the right direction and have quality coaches who can build program stability. Women's basketball may never measure up to the history of the men's (how can it, when it's only been around for 20 years), but I think that things are looking good and the future is trending in the right direction.

Quote from: Gregory Sager on March 12, 2007, 01:32:40 AM
Men's basketball and women's basketball are two completely different sports, and not just in name only. Don't be fooled by the fact that they both involve teams of five trying to put an oversized orange ball through an orange metal hoop. Women's sports and men's sports in general have a lot of differences on the D3 level, starting with the way in which players are recruited, and those differences carry right through to even those sports that parallel each other.

It's really no surprise at all that basketball success varies from one gender to the next at a single school, any more than it should surprise anyone that a school's football team can be successful while the baseball team struggles. So much of it all comes down to the coach.

Except that a school's commitment to athletics is generally seen across the board. In years past there have been Athletic Departments that have decided to let their programs languish, in favor of a more preferred sport (sometimes for reasons I couldn't comprehend).

I don't see that happening right now. From a conference perspective the league seems to be making an effort to be nationally competitive in both men's and women's basketball, not to mention strong growth in both men's and women's soccer (I am sure there are others, but those are the one's I follow most closely). I think the committment to women's athletics has grown in the conference as Millikin and Wheaton have proven that the CCIW can produce teams capable of winning women's National Championships.

I might have doubted Augustana's commitment to women's basketball a few years ago, but I believe that the program is headed in the right direction and that's why I wouldn't consider criticizing them, other than to ask, "Why did you wait so long?" They used to be a CCIW powerhouse, but ever since Schumacher left they haven't contended (even for a little while before she left).

Strikingviking-I don't understand the connection between Sager's comment that you can't turn a bad program around in a year, and your comment to the North Central AD. Personally, I have a hard time with fans, however knowledgable, who call for a coach's job, which is how I interpret the "times up" comment.

Before this season, Emily Bauer was the most successful coach, by winning percentage, that North Central has had since Wayne Morgan coached them to a National Championship in the early 1980s. As I mentioned before, it's my understanding that she saw something she didn't like in her players, granted ones that she recruited, and decided that she needed to be clear about the standards of her program.

I think that firing or doing something to weaken Coach Bauer would be the worst thing that the North Central AD could do.

RogK-I agree that talent was down slightly this year, but I think that the overall trend has been upwards across the league since a real downturn in the first couple of years of this decade. The teams at the bottom are much more competitive than they used to be, with the exception of Augustana, and I think that they are preparing to make a comeback in the conference.

I think it's evidence of the importance of stability. Kerans and Baker both started coaching the year the league opened and they are still there now (sure some of that is because of their success; chicken or egg?) Elmhurst hired Semper in the midst of a 5-year run that earned a total of 3 conference wins, but they stuck with her and in her fourth season she got them to 6-8 and then 7-7. Mia Smith has been at IWU for a number of years and that stability has been helping improve that program.

My understanding is the Bauer cleaned house last season and I respect her desire to establish the kind of program she wants. Finally, I was actually impressed with the growth of Augustana this season, and Endress was very successful at Edgewood. You could see a much more positive attitude and commitment to defensive effort even when they were playing much more talented teams.

I think the conference is improving and mostly because of the improved quality and long tenure of the coaches.