WBB: Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference

[NACfan215]

This is about what I had as well, although I have MSOE slightly higher in the 3rd and maybe even 2nd spot, I think they will be strong this year and compete for the top spot.

Also, I dont see Alverno making the playoffs this year, after losing 86% of their scoring and not bring much in this year there will be a steep drop off and I dont see them finishing ahead of the likes of Marian and Rockford.

POY - Schulz - WLC
Dark Horse Candidate - Denfeld - MSOE

Conference Champ, WLC (until someone proves they can knock them off) - However, I think there will be more parity among the playoff teams this year. 

Looking forward to the first week of non-conference games to see how some of the NACC teams stack up.

[Captain_Joe08]

I think this year there will be one very good team (WLC), three or four solid teams (CUW, BU, EC, maybe MSOE) and the rest will be a toss up. I think Alverno will be rebuilding but not like DU.

1. WLC: Knueppel will have Schulz as the go to scorer. Question is where will other consistent scoring come from?

2. CUW: It is never wise to discount the Falcons but not one player on their roster really stands out.

3. Edgewood: Could be a toss up with the next few teams. I think WI Eagles have improved as of late.

4. Benedictine: IL Eagles have a bit of production but can they break into the top 3 of the NACC?

5. MSOE: They could be better but moving up will be tough.

6. Marian

7. Aurora

8. Alverno

9. Lakeland

10. Rockford

11. Concordia Chicago

12. Dominican

[Look It Up]

CUC opens up the new season with a 95-57 rout of Lawrence. Cougars go 15-33 from long distance.

[WLCALUM83]

It'll be interesting to see how CUC's new talls are worked into the rotation. The last several seasons when Marian relied on the 3 a lot, that Fond du Lac squad got into the NACC playoffs, but it was 1 and done for them after that.

[Captain_Joe08]

Been a little behind the pace when it comes to NACC basketball.

11/15 Scores

Calvin 61 Lakeland 48
Concordia Chicago 95 Lawrence 57
Beloit 78 Aurora 71
Albion 68 Benedictine 54
Concordia Wisconsin 61 Augustana (IL) 54
Dubuque 94 Edgewood 79
Cornell 81 Rockford 40
UW-La Crosse 85 Alverno 45
Webster 70 Dominican 51

11/16 Scores

Loras 99 Edgewood 71
Alverno 67 Mount Mary 50
Spalding 81 Dominican 45
Mt. Mercy 93 Rockford 56

NACC went 3-10 this weekend......not good but not out of the ordinary with the teams some of them faced.

Weekday predictions (Monday-Thursday)

11/17

Beloit at Concordia Wisconsin: Aurora hung with the Bucs in a close game. I think the Falcons should win at home here.

11/18

Benedictine at Monmouth (IL): Eagles drop another one.

11/19

Ill-Springfield at Concordia Chicago: It won't matter how many three's CUC makes in this one against a DII foe.
Marian at Lawrence: I was on the fence for this one untill CUC air raided Lawrence from three.....Sabres get win number one.

11/20

Kalamazoo at Dominican: MIAA goes 3-0 against the NACC on the hardwood.
Alverno at Edgewood: Edgewood can score but can they play D? Eagles take it at home.

[NACfan215]

I noticed over the weekend that Aurora's returning leading scorer and first team all-conference player from last year Bethany Dorrington (SO last season) is not on the roster, this could deter Aurora from repeating last seasons success. 

Also, two players who were named all-freshman team- Tori Riechers - CUW and Alyssa Hernandez - Dominican - are also not on this years rosters.

[Captain_Joe08]

Saturday's Scores

Non-Conference

Capital 65 Benedictine 52
Wittenberg 89 Aurora 35
Marian 73 Mount Mary 28
UW-Platteville 82 Alverno 52
George Fox 65 Wisconsin Lutheran 58

Standings as of 11/23/14

1. Edgewood 1-2 (1-0)
2. Concordia Wisconsin 2-0 (0-0)
3. Marian 2-0 (0-0)
4. Concordia Chicago 1-1 (0-0)
5. MSOE 0-0 (0-0)
6. Lakeland 0-1 (0-0)
7. Wisconsin Lutheran 0-2 (0-0)
8. Rockford 0-2 (0-0)
9. Dominican 0-3 (0-0)
10. Aurora 0-3 (0-0)
11. Benedictine 0-4 (0-0)
12. Alverno 1-3 (0-1)

[Captain_Joe08]

11/29 Matchups

Edgewood at Benedictine: Eagles seem to be the better team at this point.

Alverno at Wisconsin Lutheran: No upset here. WLC uses to close losses to nationally ranked teams to their advantage.

Lakeland at Concordia Chicago: Something tells me CUC surprises Lakeland at home.

Marian at Dominican: Stars are in for another long season.

Concordia Wisconsin at Aurora: CUW rolls.

MSOE at Rockford: Raiders win big on the road.

[Captain_Joe08]

NACC Standings as of 12/3/14

1. Concordia Chicago 3-1 (2-0)
2. Marian 4-0 (1-0)
3. MSOE 2-0 (1-0)
4. Wisconsin Lutheran 1-2 (1-0)
5. Benedictine 1-5 (1-0)
6. Concordia Wisconsin 3-1 (1-1)
7. Edgewood 1-4 (1-1)
8. Lakeland 0-3 (0-1)
9. Rockford 0-4 (0-1)
10. Aurora 0-5 (0-1)
11. Dominican 0-5 (0-1)
12. Alverno 1-2 (0-2)

Tonight's Matchups

Alverno at Concordia Chicago
Rockford at Dominican
MSOE at Marian
Benedictine at Aurora
Edgewood at Concordia Wisconsin
Wisconsin Lutheran at Lakeland

Should be straightfoward. MSOE-Marian looks to be the best game of the bunch.

[WLCALUM83]

Marian beat MSOE

WLC lost at Lakeland

CUC won.

[NACfan215]

Little Surprised by Marian over MSOE.  Nothing major stuck out at me aside from the number of fouls, (49 combined).  Only other thing was 23 to 14 advantage Marian had in turnovers.

LC played a very effecient game in beating WLC, limiting themselves to only 8 turnovers, shooting 44% from the field, 43% from 3pt range (10-23), and 81% from the line (although only shooting 11 FT compared to WLC 25, and it wasnt even that close as the FT difference was 23-4 with 2 minutes left in the game).  Schulz had 23 and 16, although taking her 22 shots (8-22) to get there (7-8 FT), LC played solid straight up defense forcing her into tough shots.  WLC outrebounded LC 44-30, collecting 21 Offensive boards.  WCL not shooting terribly either at 37%/38%/71%

CUC continues their surprising dominance in the early conference season.  beating an overmatched Alverno team at home.  It wil be interesting to see CUC in their first road challenge of the year saturday heading to a tough Edgewood team.

Rockford over Dominican big as expected, another long season for the Stars

Closer than expected BU win over Aurora, AU up 2 at halftime, limited to 19 points in the second.  Really only 1 or 2 scoring threats for AU with Koski and Marks.  Still havent figured out BU, will be nice to see a matchup between BU and CUW this weekend, good game to see where both teams stand.

CUW with a comfortable win over Edgewood. 

[Captain_Joe08]

Well I didn't think WLC was going to run the table at the beginning of the year. They have to find another reliable scorer outside of Schulz to keep opponents from keying their defenses on her.

[NACfan215]

The surprising thing is they are shooting 48% from 3 point land on the season.  Also, Bahr is out for a couple weeks which seems to take away that second reliable person at the moment.  I am a little intrigued to see how they match up against CUC and their what I would consider "40 minutes of chaos" (similar to a VCU or Wichita State).

[Captain_Joe08]

Saturday's Matchups

Dominican at Lakeland: Muskies make it two straight after their upset of WLC.

Concordia Chicago at Edgewood: I think EC finds a way to slow down the high octane Cougar attack.

Aurora at Wisconsin Lutheran: Lowly Spartans run into a bunch of angry Warriors.

Benedictine at Concordia Wisconsin: Surprisingly, I am not too confident in CUW here at home.

Rockford at Marian: Sabres should win here.

Alverno at MSOE: MSOE should be the better team here.

[Captain_Joe08]

WLC 63
Aurora 58

Final

Wasn't even thinking of being at the game but I couldn't find South Division high school (where the Terry Porter Classic was) but I decided to come here.

Even if you take out Kristin Schulz's 36 points (which put her over 1,000 points for her career 16th WLC WBB player to do such) and Aurora's Shannon Koski's 33 points, WLC beat Aurora 27-25. There were times where WLC could've broken the game wide open but they kept hurting themselves with turnovers and missed easy shots.