Greg: Regarding your "not knowing the meaning of a word" comment. You used the Latin (I am assuming) phrase, "Gratias tibi." One question: Joe Maddon uses a 2 Latin word ending to his pregame manager's segment on The Score. Is  Maddon saying "Gratias tibi" to end his pregame interview with Ron Coomer? A curious mind wants to know.

Kiko: I'm with you regarding the addition of Carroll to the CCIW. It's good for football. But it is not a welcome addition to IWU and MU basketball which now have another long Saturday trip to Waukesha. And ask the baseball coaches if they like adding Carroll. The 2016 CCIW baseball games were played primarily in cold or chilly conditions. And now the new school to play is also the the furthest north.  Brr!  

Buddy Sodemann, who got his coaching start at IWU, is/was the asst. head coach at Loras this year. Don't know if he is one of the 5 finalists. My guess is he is. His father Bill began the family basketball tradition as a long time HS coach in St. Louis area. All three sons are involved in college coaching. The Buddy Sodemann stint at IWU was the source of the St. Louis area talent Ron Rose has taken advantage of.

Regarding the reason Daniel Hoekstra chose IWU, maybe some of these facts may have come into play: His father went to IWU and played for Bridges. IWU's accounting program is outstanding. Don't know the percentage, but the % of IWU accounting grads who pass the CPA exam on the first attempt is very high. His home town is St. Anne. Ring a bell? Where a brother attends college is usually not a major reason for his sibling in selecting a college, unless they are twins in which case the school gives a tuition discount.  Each child is different and usually has different criteria for selecting a college.

I don't think it's any secret that there has been some amount of friction between Nadlelhoffer and Sims. Maybe Sims decided to end is college experience.

Nothing left of B'ball season for me so I clicked on Hero Sports to see best teams in the 50 states. Found one error which I reported. For Ohio, Wittenberg was #1. But they do not have the most D3 tournament wins with 51 as stated. IWU's tournament record is 54-24. Not a big deal I know. But I love stats and records.

Didn't St. Thomas beat Augustana in Rock Island 3-4 years ago to advance?

What's with Alma's green road uniforms, which by the way, are ugly with the mock collar. Their colors are maroon and white. All of their fans are wearing maroon.

From my perspective of IWU b'ball, my opinion is what Giovanine did this season was fabulous. And don't denigrate him for having 6 valuable seniors which he successfully recruited. A great example is Ben Ryan who had to choose between IWU and Augie. Great coaches are great because first and foremost they recruit the best players. As Bridges repeatedly said, I want to step off the bus with the best players. And that's what Grey did this season. It doesn't hurt when he has a blue ribbon long-time assistant, Tom Jessse, helping him greatly in recruiting and coaching. One of the hardest things for a coach or manager to accomplish is to meet expectations. And having finished 2nd in D3 and returning 90% of last year's talented team, I know that every school on Augie's schedule aimed at that invisible target on their uniforms. And only one team beat them in OT by 2. Another thing to admire about Augustana this year: The Vikings won every close game except one. That is the mark of a great team. Example: The IWU game in the conf. tournament.  My guess is Augie will be national champs and if so, Grey deserves a bigger prize than CCIW COY.

Larry: Hero Sports correctly identified IWU as a D3, not a D2, school.

Mark: It's hard to contemplate how Raridon should be COY when NCC was embarrassed at Rock Island and lost at home to Augustana. Also, and I know post season results aren't considered, but NCC finishing the season with two losses isn't exactly how a COY team is supposed to finish.

moved up to a D2 or D1 job.

Q: Thanks for the embarrassing update. At least the Hope AD agreed with me that Neil didn't deserve to keep his job. Now tell me he resigned and moved up to a D2 or D3 job.

Forgot one half and I'll get crucified Monday at IWU coffee if I don't show this half, which is the best half I have ever witnessed: First half by IWU on Mar. 8, 1996 in Third Round game at Homer Best Center, Roanoke College:
Points: 70  Points per 40 minutes: 140  FG: 71.4% (25/35)  3 Pt: 70% (7/10) FT: 68.4 (13/19) This is the only college game I have seen where the starting 5 didn't play one second in the 2nd half (halftime score: 70-23 and Roanoke scored last 4 points of the half).

Watched the entire 2nd half of Elmhurst/St. Thomas. I commented to spouse that I thought the St. Thomas 2nd half offense was perhaps one of the best D3 halves I have witnessed (if watching on computer counts as "witnessed"). It just seemed the Tommies couldn't miss in that half. But after checking the box score, please indulge me regarding historical comparisons of the best half (or best 2 OT periods) I have seen compared to the Tommies performance tonight.

First Tonight's 2nd half by St. Thomas: Points: 49  Points per 40 minutes: 98  FG: 45.7% (16/35)
3 pt: 44.4% (4/9) FT: 86.7% (13/15)

2nd Hanover in 2nd Round of D3 tourn. at Shirk Center on 3/5/2005: 48 points  Points per 40 minutes: 96  Pay attention to these eyeball popping stats: FG: 73.9% (17/23)  3 pt: 75% (6/8)  FT: 61.5% (8/13)   It took Scott Trost a month to get over this tough loss suffered at home with an outstanding IWU team.

Third IWU's 2nd Round 2 OT periods vs. Hope on 3/3/12 at DeVoss Fieldhouse (10 minutes): 32 points  Points per 40 minutes: 128, or 3.2 points per minute  FG: 58.3% (7/12)  3 pt.: 50% (3/6) FT: 83.3% (15/18)

You can tell I love stats.

Hunter Hill will go wild tonight. Hope is so small. Giovanine is twice the coach that Niel is. Augie in another laugher. Trust me on this.

CCIW: Quite an over the top post. NCC made too many dumb mistakes in crunch time.

Pat: Can't begin to thank you enough for creating D3hoops. What a joy to come home from a road CCIW game in Jan. and Feb. and spend a half hour on CCIW chat and get to bed at 12:45! The CCIW chat comments are a huge topic of conversation at IWU on Thursdays and Mondays during conf season. Hope to see you in Salem sometime in future.