CUC with two tight - one a miracle- wins last week keep them in the playoff hunt. I guess the close wins balance out the "argh" losses to Lakeland, Benedictine, and Dominican.

NACC Standings after 2/15

Wisconsin Lutheran 21-2 (14-2) x
St. Norbert 18-6 (14-3) x
MSOE 16-7 (12-4) x
Concordia Wisconsin 13-10 (10-6) x
Marian 16-7 (9-7)
Aurora 10-13 (8-8)
Benedictine 9-14 (8-8)
Rockford 12-11 (7-9)
Concordia Chicago 9-14 (7-9)
Lakeland 7-16 (6-10)
Dominican 7-16 (4-12) z
Illinois Tech 4-19 (3-13) z
Edgewood 4-20 (3-14) z

CUC has the head to head tiebreaker on Rockford for the final NACC Tournament spot.

I expect WLC to take a tumble down the polls with their loss to MSOE Wednesday. Hoping that is a bit of a wake up call for them with the conference tournament coming up.

Lakeland isn't out of the picture but has to basically win out and get help.

Marian has the toughest schedule left with MSOE and St. Norbert left so they could slip out of the tournament field if things don't break their way. They do have head to head tiebreakers over Aurora, Benedictine, and Rockford but not against Concordia Chicago and Lakeland.

2/19 Scores

Rockford 78 Benedictine 59
Concordia Chicago 82 Illinois Tech 76
MSOE 84 Marian 75 (OT)
Edgewood 93 Dominican 91
Aurora 109 Lakeland 60
#16 Wisconsin Lutheran 90 Concordia Wisconsin 59: Mmmmm roasted Falcon.

NACC Standings

#16 Wisconsin Lutheran 22-2 (15-2) x (1)
St. Norbert 18-6 (14-3) x
MSOE 17-7 (13-4) x
Concordia Wisconsin 13-11 (10-7) x
Marian 16-8 (9-8)
Aurora 11-13 (9-8)
Rockford 13-11 (8-9)
Concordia Chicago 10-14 (8-9)
Benedictine 9-15 (8-9)
Lakeland 7-17 (6-11) z
Dominican 7-17 (4-13) z
Edgewood 5-20 (4-14) z
Illinois Tech 4-20 (3-14) z

Lot riding on the last batch of games this weekend.

WLC has officially locked up the top seed with the win tonight and can claim an outright NACC title with a win at Lakeland Saturday.

2/22 Matchups

Illinois Tech at Rockford: Regents can't afford a slip up here with a loss to Tech.
#16 Wisconsin Lutheran at Lakeland: WLC can wrap up the regular season with an outright regular season crown. Please don't fall 20 points behind here like the last matchup against Lakeland.
Marian at St. Norbert: Marian can breathe a sigh of relief that they are in the conference tournament despite the loss last night. Still could cause chaos with a win over St. Norbert.
Concordia Wisconsin at Benedictine: CUW is fighting for a NACC Tournament home game. BenU is fighting for their tournament spot lives. Something has to give here.
Aurora at Dominican: Dominican can cause chaos with a upset here. Aurora should be okay with a loss but it's better not to sweat out other results.
MSOE at Concordia Chicago: Raiders are hoping for other results to bounce their way in the standings to get two home games in the tournament but those hopes are faint at best.

WLC Men were not in the initial unveiling of the top 16 seeds last night on hoopsville. If I had a guess they were the next team or two behind the top 16.

Quote from: Captain_Joe08 on February 21, 2025, 11:09:15 AMWLC Men were not in the initial unveiling of the top 16 seeds last night on hoopsville. If I had a guess they were the next team or two behind the top 16.

They're currently 17th.  You can check everyday.  This gets updated regularly.

https://d3datacast.com/npi/

Wasn't too sure how close it followed the site's rankings. Still that MSOE loss dropped them a handful of spots.

Scenarios for today:

Aurora: Win and in. A loss leaves them at 9-9 with not good tiebreakers against CUC, Benedictine, and Rockford if they all tie at 9-9 which could leave them out of the tournament.

Benedictine: A win gets them in but if they lose, then they need CUC to lose as well as they own the H2H tiebreaker over the Cougs.

CUC: A win gets should get them in as well. If they lose then they need a Rockford loss to get in via H2H tiebreaker.

Rockford: Win and in. Loss and hope that Benedictine loses to get in via tiebreaker.

Halftime Scores:

Lakeland 44 #16 Wisconsin Lutheran 35: At least it ain't 20 but again another slow start by WLC which isn't help by the Muskies shooting 8/16 from 3.

Concordia Wisconsin 49 Benedictine 26
St. Norbert 35 Marian 24
Aurora 41 Dominican 37
Rockford 39 Illinois Tech 28

#16 Wisconsin Lutheran 87 Lakeland 84: Warriors come back again but the Muskies made them earn it.

Rockford 76 Illinois Tech 65
St. Norbert 78 Marian 63
Concordia Wisconsin 97 Benedictine 71

Aurora is trailing Dominican 83-82 with 2:39 left.

NACC Standings pending the AU-DU & CUC-MSOE game

Wisconsin Lutheran 23-2 (16-2) X (1)
St. Norbert 19-6 (15-3) x (2)
MSOE 17-7 (13-4) x (3)
Concordia Wisconsin 14-11 (11-7) x (4)
Aurora 11-14 (9-9) x
Rockford 14-11 (9-9) x
Marian 16-9 (9-9) x
Concordia Chicago 10-14 (8-9)
Benedictine 9-16 (8-10)
Lakeland 7-18 (6-12) z
Dominican 7-17 (4-13) z
Edgewood 5-20 (4-14) z
Illinois Tech 4-21 (3-15) z

CUW locked in the 4 seed, Marian is looking at best a 6 seed but if Dominican wins, then the 5 seed is in play. BenU needs to be MSOE fans later on as they are on the outside looking in at the moment.

Dominican beats Aurora 101-97 in OT.

Concordia Chicago stuns MSOE 71-63 and is in the field. Benedictine is out. Tournament field is set now. Seeding is a rough guess based off of tiebreakers

1. Wisconsin Lutheran 23-2 (16-2)
2. St. Norbert 19-6 (15-3)
3. MSOE 17-8 (13-5)
4. Concordia Wisconsin 14-11 (11-7)
5. Concordia Chicago (11-14) (9-9)
6. Marian 16-9 (9-9)
7. Aurora 11-14 (9-9)
8. Rockford 14-11 (9-9)

My thoughts on the NACC Tournament

Favorite: WLC

On paper this is WLC's to lose but their rather pedestrian play in the last month or so has numbed those expectations. They were fortunate enough to not have 2 or 3 more losses to their conference ledger at this point thanks to second half comebacks. The key for the Warriors is to come out strong on both the defensive and offensive sides. Too often teams have been getting hot early putting WLC on their heels right away before calming down. Regardless of what result, the Warriors should be in the NCAA tournament.

Challenger: St. Norbert

For a while there it looked like the Green Knights were on shaky ground after the calendar turned to 2025 despite their strong start (If they held on against Platteville, they could be in the convo for an at large to a degree) but they have gotten hot as of late. They have a tall task against WLC if they meet up in the finals but momentum is on their side and WLC hasn't played their best basketball as of late so there is a chance SNC could steal the Tournament Title on WLC's home court here.

Dark Horses: Marian, MSOE

MSOE turned in a great season to this point (barring yesterday's loss to CUC) and pulled the upset on WLC a week ago and made St. Norbert sweat it out on the Green Knights floor earlier. They have to go through SNC to make the final but they should watch out for their Quarterfinal opponent here too. Marian by far exceeded expectations this year despite being up and down in league play. They gave both MSOE and St. Norbert something to think about in their matchups and second/third time could be the charm for the Sabers.

That was rough to see Lakeland blow a 20 pt HT lead down there and have a double-digit HT lead in the cornfields and still come away with losses to WLC.

WLC is a stacked veteran team and those teams near the bottom of the Pool C group will want the Warriors to win the AQ so they don't become a bid thief.

I mean they should but they aren't exactly playing their best basketball as of late so that might be cause for concern. MSOE capitalized on that a week and a half ago. But they are on the other side of the bracket with St. Norbert.