Only outsiders argue that, Greek Tragedy.

Quote from: Pat Coleman on February 21, 2025, 05:12:06 PMOnly outsiders argue that, Greek Tragedy.

Exactly. It is a commonly-known fact throughout the CCIW that "conference champions" refers to the team that finished first in the regular season. This is the nomenclature that the CCIW has always used. If you win the CCIW tournament (if the CCIW holds a tournament in your particular sport), then you are the "CCIW tournament champions".

Here's a pic of the Carroll WBB team after winning the CCIW co-championship last season. The banner was provided by CCIW commish Mo Harty, who was present for the Pioneers' clinching win:



Anybody see the words "Regular Season" on that banner?

Millikin, too, won a co-championship last year, sharing the crown with North Park in baseball. Here's a pic of the Big Blue behind a similar banner:



By contrast, this is the banner that the CCIW had Millikin use when the Big Blue won the CCIW baseball tournament championship a week later:



Unfortunately, this season the league's press releases have taken to referring to CCIW champions as "regular-season champions." The CCIW office may think that this is adding clarity, but it's actually doing the exact opposite. There would be a lot less confusion if the league's press releases just stuck to the script.

Quote from: iwu70 on February 21, 2025, 02:22:35 PMLooks to me like IWU and Carthage get a third game Saturday next

That is a really premature and foolish assumption. Are they the favorites? Of course. Are they each a lock to get to the championship game? Of course not.

Quote from: Stertorous Thunder on February 20, 2025, 03:02:29 AM2024-2025 Fred Young CCIW Most Outstanding Student-Athlete

It's not a runaway race this year, but I still predict a unanimous vote.  I think the voters are going to hold off on anointing Soren Richardson the best player in the conference and will reward Nick Roper in his senior year. As the top scorer and leader on nationally ranked Illinois Wesleyan, Roper was the preseason favorite for the award and never failed to back up his case for the honor.


2024-2025 CCIW First-Year Student-Athlete of the Year

The easiest way to determine the best first-year player is to compare any freshmen on the conference leader board in total minutes. I believe that Devin Martin of Wheaton is the only member of the Top 25 and as of today he is tied for the conference lead in assists. If one was tempted to claim that playing alongside Soren Richardson boosted his assist numbers, the other side of the coin is that Martin's scoring numbers would have been higher if he wasn't feeding teammates. Freshman teammate Kyan VanderWoude made great strides throughout the season and is arguably a greater team contributor today, but Devin Martin was in the starting lineup from Game 1 and quickly looked ready for the college game.

Discuss...

I disagree with you about Roper "backing up his case," ST. His numbers are very good, but they're not dominant. He also turns the ball over a lot, and is not the world's greatest defender. In fact, IWU's best player isn't Nick Roper at all; it's Hakim Williams. Williams is the best defender in the CCIW, bar none, and he's also a double-digit scorer in addition to being the only player in the circuit who ranks among the top five in assists, a:to ratio, blocked shots, and steals. Take Roper off of that team, and Ron Rose merely starts Karlo Colak in his place and the Titans are still a top-three team at worst. Take Williams off of that team, and the Titans are in a world of hurt.

Is Roper deserving of All-CCIW first team? Absolutely. Is he deserving of the Fred Young award? I don't think so. But I don't get a ballot, so my opinion means nothing.

The problem here is that there's a difference between whom I think ought to be named MOSA, and whom I think will be named MOSA. I agree with you that Soren Richardson ought to be named MOSA, but he won't be. But it's not because he's a mere sophomore. As others have pointed out, he'll suffer because his team finished in the bottom third. Only twice in the 58 years it's been awarded has the Fred Young been given out to a player from a team that failed to reach .500 in CCIW play, Steve Albinger of Carroll in 1985-86 and Jeff Kuehl of Illinois Wesleyan in 1988-89. Note how long ago those two played.

Richardson is going to win the scoring title by what will almost certainly be the largest margin over the second-highest scorer since Aston Martin outpaced Kienen Baltimore by ten and a half points per game six seasons ago, and Richardson will be the first player to average over 20 ppg in league play since Matt Helwig and Nyameye Adom did it three seasons ago. Of the six performances in which a player scored over 30 points in a CCIW game this season, Richardson's responsible for three of them ... and he had another CCIW game in which he scored 29. But, because the coaches inevitably consider this to be a Most Valuable Player award and not a Most Outstanding Player award (i.e., reward the best player on a competitive team rather than the best player, period), Richardson is not going to win it.

The award will either go to Ryan Johnson or to Nick Roper. Johnson's the more deserving of the two; his numbers are better, he's more crucial to his team's success, and his team will finish higher than Roper's (and swept them as well). But, because Johnson's only a sophomore and the coaches have shown a propensity in the past to reward seniors above all else, it's a distinct possibility that the award will go to Roper. (Tyler Knuth is the dark horse in this race, in large part because he, too, is a senior.)

Devin Martin's in the same boat as his Wheaton teammate. He deserves the First-Year award; the difference between him and Josh Fridman isn't huge, but it's noticeable. But because of where Martin's team is going to finish and where Fridman's team is going to finish, I think that Fridman wins the award in a walk. And, by the way, I don't think that either one has the highest ceiling as a CCIW player going forward; from what I've seen, Kyan VanderWoude is the member of the class of '28 (four-year player category) most likely to dominate the CCIW over the next three seasons.

Get to 78 and win . . .  oh, sorry, Augie over IWU 85-76.

A weak performance tonight by the Titans on the road, Funk and Roper having off nights.  Combine 0-7 from three.  Too much Knuth. 

IWU finishes 20-5, 12-4 in CCIW play. 

Tournament semis Friday night in Kenosha.

'70

 

Boy, when's the last time that a team outrebounded IWU by seven boards? Looks like the Titans spent the whole night putting the Rock Islanders at the charity stripe as well; 36 is a lot of free throws.

Carthage had unexpected trouble with Millikin this afternoon at the Griz, but the Firebirds were able to go on a 10-0 run to break what had been a 66-66 tie with six minutes to go and wound up winning by an 84-77 score to finish their regular season 20-5, 14-2. They were paced by Riley Brooks with 23 and 7, AJ Johnson with 23, AJ Williams with 12, and Griffin Daun with 10. Ryan Johnson led CC with eight boards. Millikin, whose season ends with an 11-14, 5-11 mark, got 24 points from Lane Thomann and 10 from JT Welch, with Drake Stevenson grabbing eight caroms. Good to see Demarcus Bond get the chance to close out his career in action rather than in street clothes, as he had a nice 5:1 floor game today.

Carroll sprang a surprise upon Elmhurst at Faganel this afternoon, upsetting the 'jays, 83-68. Aaron Wafford came up big in his swan song with 22 on 4-6 shooting from beyond the arc, while Jacob Naber had a 15 and 7 day and Wafford's classmate Kobe Simpson ended his career in fine fashion with a 14-point performance. Evan Bland added 11 for the Pios (9-16, 5-11). Elmhurst, which is now 11-14, 7-9, moves on to the tournament.

Steven Schultz was never a major contributor but after Senior Night in Wheaton tonight, I will miss watching his game. In his limited minutes this season, the big guy often made himself Soren Richardson's personal give-and-go assist machine with some smooth passing. Down the road, he's likely going to become well known at his local pickup game spot as the Old Guy Who Totally Knows What He's Doing. Newcomers to the gym will underestimate the middle aged guy with the dad bod, but the regulars will absolutely love playing with him.

Quote from: Gregory Sager on February 21, 2025, 07:05:24 PMAnd, by the way, I don't think that either one has the highest ceiling as a CCIW player going forward; from what I've seen, Kyan VanderWoude is the member of the class of '28 (four-year player category) most likely to dominate the CCIW over the next three seasons.

I completely agree. VanderWoude has gotten better in just about every game I've watched. The last time I saw a Wheaton freshman end the season playing this well... well, okay it was just last year. But it was Soren Richardson and that should terrify the rest of the CCIW to face those guys playing together for two more years.

It's been tough to watch some of the recent games, but it's about to be fun again to be a Thunder fan.

Wheaton ekes out a 73-68 win over North Central at King to close out a 7-18, 4-12 season that may have ended in a last-place finish but which featured a strong ending that must have Wheaton fans pretty excited about next year. As ST said, it was the repeated two-man-clearout give-and-go's, with Soren Richardson as the initiator and recipient and Steven Schultz as the facilitator in the middle, down the stretch that really propelled Wheaton to the win. Richardson, the standout sophomore from Northfield, Minnesota, ended his season with a 28 and 7 performance while his sidekick Schultz had a perfect 7:0 floor game feeding Richardson time after time late in the game. Kyan VanderWoude had a 21-point oohs-and-ahhs kind of night for Wheaton as well. For North Central (14-11, 7-9), Terrance Moncrief was a layup machine, slicing through the Wheaton defense repeatedly on his way to 18 points. He was joined in double figures for NCC by Ethan Helwig and Tyler Swierczek, both of whom had 14 and 7, while Drew Gaston had seven rebounds as well.

Tuesday night's CCIW tourney quarterfinals will feature #6 North Central @ #3 North Park and #5 Elmhurst @ #4 Augustana. Both games will tip off at 7 pm.

NPU RECRUIT

North Park has received a commitment from Marquis Vance, a 6'3" SF from Marist HS.
Vance recently had a 40 point, 20 rebound game.

Quote from: GusD on February 24, 2025, 03:13:41 PMNPU RECRUIT

North Park has received a commitment from Marquis Vance, a 6'3" SF from Marist HS.
Vance recently had a 40 point, 20 rebound game.

Don't short him, Mark. He had a 40-point, 20-rebound, 8-assist game against Fenger.

I'm pretty excited about Marquis (who's actually listed at 6'4") becoming a Viking. After he racked up another double-double in Marist's win over DeLaSalle last Tuesday (which included an 11-point performance by Vance in the third quarter in which he poured in three treys), Marist coach Brian Hynes had this to say about him in a feature article about Marquis in the Daily Southtown:

Quote"The biggest thing with Marquis, his leadership style, is by actions," Hynes said. "He's vocal, but it's impossible not to watch how hard he plays. I've said this before but I think our kids are sick of hearing, 'Why can't you be more like Marquis?'

"I don't know where we'd be without him. I love the kid.

"The interesting thing for us is we're just never surprised because that's how he is every day. Even if we have an hour shootaround, he's dripping in sweat.

"He just gets the guys going. He's the pick-me-up guy."

As far as I can remember, he is also the first recruit North Park MBB's ever had from Marist. NPU's had a bunch of ballers from Marist's archrival Brother Rice over the years (including Rico Powell), but never a RedHawk.

Marquis Vance is the second NPU recruit to verbal, along with 6'3" Marko Arnautovic from Glenbrook South, who announced his commitment to the Park on X a couple of weeks ago.

Don't hype up Vance too much now, guys!    He hasn't played a single CCIW minute yet. 

IWU falls to #16 in the week 12 poll.  Carthage enters this week at #23. 

'70

Not to open the can of worms again, and I apologize if this was already posted about (I went back a little ways, but not over the whole season)...  Does Carthage being the host for the tournament on the weekend mean that there will be no free livestream of the games? 

Quote from: tjcummingsfan on February 24, 2025, 05:30:24 PMNot to open the can of worms again, and I apologize if this was already posted about (I went back a little ways, but not over the whole season)...  Does Carthage being the host for the tournament on the weekend mean that there will be no free livestream of the games? 

They have links for the games at their schedule to their YouTube page, which is free, so I think signs point to them being available.