MBB: American Rivers Conference

[Hoosiersfan2323]

Thanks Hoosiersfan for these recaps.  And to dunkin, rigyank, AEN, and others for stepping up the conversation on here.  My work schedule has picked up this year so I haven't been able to follow closely at all.  Which is a shame, because it sounds like it's been a great year in the IIAC.  Crossing my fingers UD can pick up some more wins and make it into the conference tourney.

Glad to be able to help - I'm relatively new to the IIAC after following the CCIW for a few years, and I think that this league is grossly under-respected. The quality of basketball is high, several of the league's top players were recruited heavily by CCIW schools, and within the next few years, I imagine the IIAC will start getting the respect it deserves. In fact, two IIAC players (Ruggles & Cook) on the D3hoops team of the week this week...

Dunkin, couldn't agree more about the Loras-Wartburg first half. Incredibly sloppy with some fouls that left you scratching your head as a fan.

Not sure about any NWU injuries - if anyone knows,  I would be interested as well. At one point when I checked in, NWU was up 20. Low minutes for the team's stars may have been due to the blowout conditions of the game.

Dubuque is an interesting team, and everything goes through Lake. When he's really good, they're really good. Watched him drop 50 on Loras in an L a few weeks back, the game was a war the whole way through. Then goes 4-13 against Coe and they lose at home. He's a heck of a player - going to be interesting to see how UD aid next year without him.

[rlgyank]

For NWU, in the case of Schimonitz, he had 2 fouls with about 10 minutes left in the first half, so he did not play the rest of the half. He did take a fall with about 7 or 8 minutes left in the game and did not return, so those are the reasons he did not have very many minutes.

Cook should have had more minutes in the box score, there was about a 5 minute stretch in the 2nd half where they did not have him in the game. He had come in for Wells-Ross, but the play by play did not show the substitution. The box score showed Wells-Ross with 36 minutes, but that should be decreased by about 5 minutes.

The season just seems to fly by, for NWU they only have 6 regular season games left. It should be an exciting end to the regular season.

[dunkin3117]

Saturdays slate

BV at Central...To much Kyle Smith for BV to handle...Central by 11
Coe at Loras...Coe will keep this one tight...Loras by 5
UD at Wartburg...Wartburg is undefeated at home....Wartburg by 5
NWU at Simpson...Matchup of the day...Simpson by 6

[Greek Tragedy]

In case you missed it, Loras best Macalester last night 165-89... not a typo. Loras scored 100 points in the first half. I believe the 165 points was the most scored in any NCAA game this season.

Not too many takeaways from this game, as Macalester is not good and most of Loras' points were scored on wide open buckets. I suppose the one item of note is that freshman's Rowan McGowen is averaging over 13PPG for Loras after dropping 26 last night. Back at it tonight against Monmouth...

MAC in 2017 is one of the worst MIAC teams I have seen. Plus they started playing a variation of Grinnell system... not much take away is right.

Anyone have thoughts on Wartburg? They are ranked pretty high in d3hoops poll but I bet thats mostly due to good run in the NCAA last year and solid start, even though they dont have too many (maybe UWSP) good wins. I think they are solid but will be interesting to see how they do against Neb. Wes and Loras.

It should be known I really like this Prairie Wolves team.

Point hasn't been any good for two years and counting now.

I haven't been over here in awhile and have been meaning to, but work and home life has been pretty busy lately. At this point, I suppose I can stand corrected as Stevens Point leads the WIAC with a 6-1 record, most recently losing to Oshkosh on the road.

Anyway, I love me some ruffles Ruggles! He's on my fantasy team and he just lights ups the boxscore. The IIAC is really shaping up to be a great conference race. As an outsider, I thought NWU would run away with the league. I thought, mistakenly, Wartburg's late run last year in the IIAC tourney and NCAA was a little flukey, so I wasn't sure how good they'd be this year. They took apart the Pointers, but have since tailed off a little. Shockingly (sarcasm), I know very little of the IIAC, but it's still enjoyable to check out the scores, standings and board. I want Wartburg to do well because then it makes Point's loss to them look better! Also, I'm rooting for Loras as, previously stated, I have Ruggles on my team.

I'm not sure about the SOSs of each team, but I've heard NWU's isn't very good. The IIAC seems like it's beating up on each other, so the losses are mounting up and their chances for Pool C bids go down. Loras, BVU and Wartburg already have 4, 5, and 6 losses. 6 to 7 conference games to go, so the margin of error is getting small. 5 teams within two games of 1st place. It's going to be a crazy 3 weeks or so.

[Hoosiersfan2323]

Happy Saturday, everyone. No better way to enjoy the day than a full slate of IIAC basketball, featuring every team in the league playing. Here's what we're looking at:

Buena Vista at Central: (Massey Prediction: BV-86, Central-80)
Coe at Loras: (Massey Prediction: Loras-90, Coe-78)
Dubuque at Wartburg: (Massey Prediction: Wartburg-79, UD-69)
Nebraska Wesleyan at Simpson: (Massey Prediction: NWU-90, Simpson-85)
Maranatha Baptist at Luther: (Massey Prediction: Luther-75, MBU-63)

Lots to watch, but I'm especially interested in Dubuque-Wartburg and NWU-Simpson. I'm no computer so this is based on gut alone, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Wartburg struggle with UD and Simpson will be playing with desperation after a few losses, so they may be able to pull the upset over NWU. Updates later...

[Hoosiersfan2323]

Saturdays slate

BV at Central...To much Kyle Smith for BV to handle...Central by 11
Coe at Loras...Coe will keep this one tight...Loras by 5
UD at Wartburg...Wartburg is undefeated at home....Wartburg by 5
NWU at Simpson...Matchup of the day...Simpson by 6

I missed this, Dunkin. Apologies - not trying to reinvent the wheel!

[duckfan41]

In case you missed it, Loras best Macalester last night 165-89... not a typo. Loras scored 100 points in the first half. I believe the 165 points was the most scored in any NCAA game this season.

Not too many takeaways from this game, as Macalester is not good and most of Loras' points were scored on wide open buckets. I suppose the one item of note is that freshman's Rowan McGowen is averaging over 13PPG for Loras after dropping 26 last night. Back at it tonight against Monmouth...

MAC in 2017 is one of the worst MIAC teams I have seen. Plus they started playing a variation of Grinnell system... not much take away is right.

Anyone have thoughts on Wartburg? They are ranked pretty high in d3hoops poll but I bet thats mostly due to good run in the NCAA last year and solid start, even though they dont have too many (maybe UWSP) good wins. I think they are solid but will be interesting to see how they do against Neb. Wes and Loras.

It should be known I really like this Prairie Wolves team.

Point hasn't been any good for two years and counting now.

I haven't been over here in awhile and have been meaning to, but work and home life has been pretty busy lately. At this point, I suppose I can stand corrected as Stevens Point leads the WIAC with a 6-1 record, most recently losing to Oshkosh on the road.

Anyway, I love me some ruffles Ruggles! He's on my fantasy team and he just lights ups the boxscore. The IIAC is really shaping up to be a great conference race. As an outsider, I thought NWU would run away with the league. I thought, mistakenly, Wartburg's late run last year in the IIAC tourney and NCAA was a little flukey, so I wasn't sure how good they'd be this year. They took apart the Pointers, but have since tailed off a little. Shockingly (sarcasm), I know very little of the IIAC, but it's still enjoyable to check out the scores, standings and board. I want Wartburg to do well because then it makes Point's loss to them look better! Also, I'm rooting for Loras as, previously stated, I have Ruggles on my team.

I'm not sure about the SOSs of each team, but I've heard NWU's isn't very good. The IIAC seems like it's beating up on each other, so the losses are mounting up and their chances for Pool C bids go down. Loras, BVU and Wartburg already have 4, 5, and 6 losses. 6 to 7 conference games to go, so the margin of error is getting small. 5 teams within two games of 1st place. It's going to be a crazy 3 weeks or so.

The WIAC is brutal - loaded with so many good teams, every night is a war for every team in the league. You're right that standing 6-1 at this point is really impressive, SP looks legit from the perspective of an outsider who admittedly hasn't watched them live.


I want to talk about Ruggles for a minute, because I saw that Chris Martin made a bold statement in his post-game interview last Wednesday when he called Ruggles "one of the elite players in the country". I'm a CCIW fan and, more specifically, an avid Wheaton fan, and I was really disappointed when Wheaton wasn't able to keep Ruggles home (he played his high school ball at Wheaton-Warrenville South). People said then that he would be a D3 star, and I believed it. After two seasons spent dealing with all kinds of injuries, he's proving me right. 22.1 PPG, 4.6 RPG, 3.7 APG and no one's talking about the kid as an All-American candidate. Meanwhile, if you look over at the CCIW, everyone is already labeling Brady Rose an All-American (and he's a heck of a player so this isn't a shot at him) with virtually the same numbers (22.8 PPG, 2.8 RPG, 3.4 APG). I know the CCIW is the better league, but if you look at Massey (which I know is imperfect but it's still a good measuring stick) before writing it off as a difference in competition played, IWU's strength of schedule is 33rd in the country compared to Loras at 34th. Brady Rose probably is an All-American - but why isn't Ruggles in the same conversation?


There's also a legitimate argument to be made that Ruggles is the most efficient scorer in the country. He's shooting 51.2% from the field (125-224), 46.3% from three (68-147), and 92.7% from the FT line (102-110). I saw someone make the claim on twitter the other day that Ruggles is the only member of the 50-40-90 club in the country, so I dug into the numbers on the NCAA site and confirmed that this is true (using the NCAA minimums for attempts). This sparked my curiosity, so I started looking at historical numbers on the site and found that there has literally been one other player in D3 hoops in the past decade who has finished the season as a member of the 50-40-90 club.


If you want to chalk up the lack of buzz surrounding Ruggles to the fact that Loras isn't nationally ranked, fine, I won't argue with that. But I would genuinely be interested to hear from other CCIW/IIAC fans about what I'm missing here. In any case, I wish he was playing alongside Aston Francis for my Thunder!

[Smitty Oom]

The WIAC is brutal - loaded with so many good teams, every night is a war for every team in the league. You're right that standing 6-1 at this point is really impressive, SP looks legit from the perspective of an outsider who admittedly hasn't watched them live.


I want to talk about Ruggles for a minute, because I saw that Chris Martin made a bold statement in his post-game interview last Wednesday when he called Ruggles "one of the elite players in the country". I'm a CCIW fan and, more specifically, an avid Wheaton fan, and I was really disappointed when Wheaton wasn't able to keep Ruggles home (he played his high school ball at Wheaton-Warrenville South). People said then that he would be a D3 star, and I believed it. After two seasons spent dealing with all kinds of injuries, he's proving me right. 22.1 PPG, 4.6 RPG, 3.7 APG and no one's talking about the kid as an All-American candidate. Meanwhile, if you look over at the CCIW, everyone is already labeling Brady Rose an All-American (and he's a heck of a player so this isn't a shot at him) with virtually the same numbers (22.8 PPG, 2.8 RPG, 3.4 APG). I know the CCIW is the better league, but if you look at Massey (which I know is imperfect but it's still a good measuring stick) before writing it off as a difference in competition played, IWU's strength of schedule is 33rd in the country compared to Loras at 34th. Brady Rose probably is an All-American - but why isn't Ruggles in the same conversation?


There's also a legitimate argument to be made that Ruggles is the most efficient scorer in the country. He's shooting 51.2% from the field (125-224), 46.3% from three (68-147), and 92.7% from the FT line (102-110). I saw someone make the claim on twitter the other day that Ruggles is the only member of the 50-40-90 club in the country, so I dug into the numbers on the NCAA site and confirmed that this is true (using the NCAA minimums for attempts). This sparked my curiosity, so I started looking at historical numbers on the site and found that there has literally been one other player in D3 hoops in the past decade who has finished the season as a member of the 50-40-90 club.


If you want to chalk up the lack of buzz surrounding Ruggles to the fact that Loras isn't nationally ranked, fine, I won't argue with that. But I would genuinely be interested to hear from other CCIW/IIAC fans about what I'm missing here. In any case, I wish he was playing alongside Aston Francis for my Thunder!

Thanks for the insight Duckfan!! I had no clue he was that efficient, the 50-40-90 club is a incredibly impressive accomplishment. Who was the one other player to do it? Loras isn't in the national converstion but definitely one of the top teams in the West, and he will be recognized by the IIAC and All-Region teams for sure. I remembered reading an Around the Region article on him last year, he really has persevered injuries, great story, sounds like him his brother and his family really deserve this.

http://www.d3hoops.com/columns/around-the-region/west/2016-17/loras-ruggles-heart

Oh... and if Francis and Ruggles were on the same team:

[duckfan41]

The WIAC is brutal - loaded with so many good teams, every night is a war for every team in the league. You're right that standing 6-1 at this point is really impressive, SP looks legit from the perspective of an outsider who admittedly hasn't watched them live.


I want to talk about Ruggles for a minute, because I saw that Chris Martin made a bold statement in his post-game interview last Wednesday when he called Ruggles "one of the elite players in the country". I'm a CCIW fan and, more specifically, an avid Wheaton fan, and I was really disappointed when Wheaton wasn't able to keep Ruggles home (he played his high school ball at Wheaton-Warrenville South). People said then that he would be a D3 star, and I believed it. After two seasons spent dealing with all kinds of injuries, he's proving me right. 22.1 PPG, 4.6 RPG, 3.7 APG and no one's talking about the kid as an All-American candidate. Meanwhile, if you look over at the CCIW, everyone is already labeling Brady Rose an All-American (and he's a heck of a player so this isn't a shot at him) with virtually the same numbers (22.8 PPG, 2.8 RPG, 3.4 APG). I know the CCIW is the better league, but if you look at Massey (which I know is imperfect but it's still a good measuring stick) before writing it off as a difference in competition played, IWU's strength of schedule is 33rd in the country compared to Loras at 34th. Brady Rose probably is an All-American - but why isn't Ruggles in the same conversation?


There's also a legitimate argument to be made that Ruggles is the most efficient scorer in the country. He's shooting 51.2% from the field (125-224), 46.3% from three (68-147), and 92.7% from the FT line (102-110). I saw someone make the claim on twitter the other day that Ruggles is the only member of the 50-40-90 club in the country, so I dug into the numbers on the NCAA site and confirmed that this is true (using the NCAA minimums for attempts). This sparked my curiosity, so I started looking at historical numbers on the site and found that there has literally been one other player in D3 hoops in the past decade who has finished the season as a member of the 50-40-90 club.


If you want to chalk up the lack of buzz surrounding Ruggles to the fact that Loras isn't nationally ranked, fine, I won't argue with that. But I would genuinely be interested to hear from other CCIW/IIAC fans about what I'm missing here. In any case, I wish he was playing alongside Aston Francis for my Thunder!

Thanks for the insight Duckfan!! I had no clue he was that efficient, the 50-40-90 club is a incredibly impressive accomplishment. Who was the one other player to do it? Loras isn't in the national converstion but definitely one of the top teams in the West, and he will be recognized by the IIAC and All-Region teams for sure. I remembered reading an Around the Region article on him last year, he really has persevered injuries, great story, sounds like him his brother and his family really deserve this.

http://www.d3hoops.com/columns/around-the-region/west/2016-17/loras-ruggles-heart

Oh... and if Francis and Ruggles were on the same team:

Based on my research, the only other player to do it in the last 10 years was Colby Taylor from Central - believe it was two years ago, but may have even been last year. That season, he shot 53% from the field (196-370), 46.9% from three (69-147, coincidentally one more than Ruggles has hit in the same amount of shots this year), and 92.5% from the FT line (99-107). Others were close, others were in the club without reaching the NCAA minimum requirements for attempts, but only Ruggles and Taylor in the last decade according to the NCAA statistics.


I hear you on Loras not being on the national scene, and I appreciate that feedback. If Loras wins the IIAC and advances a few games into the national tournament, though, it seems to me that he should be in the conversation. Winning solves everything!

Also, that gif is probably the most accurate representation of what those two would look like on the court together for the same team!

[Titan Q]

I want to talk about Ruggles for a minute, because I saw that Chris Martin made a bold statement in his post-game interview last Wednesday when he called Ruggles "one of the elite players in the country". I'm a CCIW fan and, more specifically, an avid Wheaton fan, and I was really disappointed when Wheaton wasn't able to keep Ruggles home (he played his high school ball at Wheaton-Warrenville South). People said then that he would be a D3 star, and I believed it. After two seasons spent dealing with all kinds of injuries, he's proving me right. 22.1 PPG, 4.6 RPG, 3.7 APG and no one's talking about the kid as an All-American candidate. Meanwhile, if you look over at the CCIW, everyone is already labeling Brady Rose an All-American (and he's a heck of a player so this isn't a shot at him) with virtually the same numbers (22.8 PPG, 2.8 RPG, 3.4 APG). I know the CCIW is the better league, but if you look at Massey (which I know is imperfect but it's still a good measuring stick) before writing it off as a difference in competition played, IWU's strength of schedule is 33rd in the country compared to Loras at 34th. Brady Rose probably is an All-American - but why isn't Ruggles in the same conversation?

Ruggles is in the same conversation.  It just takes someone to start to conversation.   

[duckfan41]

I want to talk about Ruggles for a minute, because I saw that Chris Martin made a bold statement in his post-game interview last Wednesday when he called Ruggles "one of the elite players in the country". I'm a CCIW fan and, more specifically, an avid Wheaton fan, and I was really disappointed when Wheaton wasn't able to keep Ruggles home (he played his high school ball at Wheaton-Warrenville South). People said then that he would be a D3 star, and I believed it. After two seasons spent dealing with all kinds of injuries, he's proving me right. 22.1 PPG, 4.6 RPG, 3.7 APG and no one's talking about the kid as an All-American candidate. Meanwhile, if you look over at the CCIW, everyone is already labeling Brady Rose an All-American (and he's a heck of a player so this isn't a shot at him) with virtually the same numbers (22.8 PPG, 2.8 RPG, 3.4 APG). I know the CCIW is the better league, but if you look at Massey (which I know is imperfect but it's still a good measuring stick) before writing it off as a difference in competition played, IWU's strength of schedule is 33rd in the country compared to Loras at 34th. Brady Rose probably is an All-American - but why isn't Ruggles in the same conversation?

Ruggles is in the same conversation.  It just takes someone to start to conversation.

Well then I guess we can consider the conversation started 😊

[doolittledog]

Posters need to keep predicting Dubuque to lose. I think they are 3-0 after whoever picks them to lose. Road win @ Wartburg today!

[Greek Tragedy]

Checking out the Pool C board and things don't look good for the IIAC. Looks like it'll be another year of just one NCAA tourney bid. Nebraska Wesleyan's SOS won't win them any votes, Loras is listed as a friend contender and Wartburg and Buena Vista are nowhere to be found.

[dunkin3117]

Still a lot of basketball to be played.  A Loras, NWU, BV winning out in the regular season could get them back into the conversation for a 2 bid, should someone else win the tournament.  Wouldn't be and won't be an easy task for any of them as they each have to play one another yet, on top of playing teams that are still vying for a conference tournament bid.  This league is deep and should be getting more recognition on the national stage than it is.  That was non more apparent than Saturday as Coe beat Loras, UD beat Wartburg, and Simpson beat NWU.  So many talented teams. 

[Smitty Oom]

I really do think that 4/5 IIAC teams could win at least a game or two in the NCAA tourney. Unfortunately, part of the problem about the IIAC is that they aren't scheduling well enough in the non-conference season to be considered for an at large. Wartburg and Simpson both played multiple non-D3, which do not count in primary criteria. NWU has a below .500 SOS, which makes it incredibly hard to get the NCAA birth in March. Loras has the best chance as of right now, but they only have a .524 SOS with a .750 WP, which puts them on the bubble and probably on the wrong side of it.

Another part of the problem is that the top of the league is beating up on each other, much like the WIAC.

Like what Dunkin said, I think for the IIAC needs to root for Loras (maybe BVU) to win out and then lose the Playoff championship game in order to get two teams into the NCAA.