MBB: American Rivers Conference

[Walston Hoover]

I may make the trip up. I doubt there will be many students around from UNI and I've never had a problem sitting in another school's student section.

[Rock Chalk DuHawk]

Wow, Aurora looked great beating up on Loras last night!  They have a PG that is the real deal and then with the addition of Welton (All American) they are going to be a top team all year long. 

Loras couldnt do much all night as Aurora made everything.  The DuHawks were only down by 8 at half but in the second half they just struggled on both ends of the floor.

The DuHawks are 1-0 in conference and at this point that is all that matters as the IIAC never gets 2 teams into the tourny.  Look for them to come on strong during the second half of the year!

[doolittledog]

Here is the article from UNI about the tickets.

The University of Northern Iowa Athletic Department is offering a special ticket price for the Wednesday, December 20th men's basketball game versus Wartburg.  A total of 1,000 general admission tickets are currently available for $5.00 each for the Panthers game against the Knights from Waverly, Iowa. 



To order your tickets go online (http://unipanthers.cstv.com/tickets/$5wartburgmbbticket.html), contact the UNITix office at 319-273-DOME or visit the UNItix office at the NW Entrance of the UNI-Dome or inside the GBPAC.  Mention this offer on the phone or at the box office to receive the special price.




Offer expires at 5:00 pm on Wednesday, December 20, 2006.  This ticket price is not available at the McLeod Center ticket windows on the night of the game.  Limit 10 tickets per person per order.  No other offers will be accepted with this promotion.

[knightlife06]

Solid showing by the Knights last night.  Hopefully they can take that experience and use it as a building block for the conference season. 

[Rock Chalk DuHawk]

Now that winter break has hit and the conference will be starting up rather quickly, lets make some predictions on this years race to the championship.

1. Coe
2. BV
3. Simpson
4. Loras
5. Wartburg
5. UD
7. Luther
8. Central
9. Cornell

Player of the year: Kilburg
Coach of the year: Van Haften

[george]

Who are the best and worst coaches in the IIAC over the last 5 years?

[The Show]

BV dropped two tough ones out in Vegas over the Holiday Break.

Time to regroup for conference play when Simpson visits on the 3rd.

[Kohawk Krazy]

Kohawks picked up a nice victory tonight over #20 Chicago on the road.  Congrats to the Kohawks on the big win!

[doolittledog]

Solid showing to beat a ranked team on the road.  Congrats.  Now hopefully Coe spent all their energy against Chicago and will be running on empty when they play Dubuque on the 3rd.  Of course that probably won't be the case. 

I get the feeling Dubuque will be competitive in most every game this year.  But they will end up just on the short end of the stick most nights.  Hopefully they can nab 6th in conference so they can get back into the tournament. 

[buf]

Wartburg whipped lowly Finlandia by 25pts last night.  Should be a good game tonight against the host team (UWEC)

[The Show]

Since I probably won't have computer access tonight, Happy New Year everyone! Celebrate safe and here's to a new year of great IIAC basketball ahead!

[Storm-what?]

Wow, Simpson men continue their up and down roller coaster of a season by winning the Cactus Jam. Hopefully they can bring some victories into conference play!

[doolittledog]

I posted something similar to this on the football side of this board. 

What are peoples opinions of the NAIA schools from our state.  Is the NAIA similar to Div. III?  Superior?  Inferior?  I know almost nothing about the NAIA.  I know they can offer scholarships but I believe they are mostly low dollar such as $500 - $1000 scholarships.  NAIA member schools generally seem to be similar sized to most Div. III schools and I know when William Penn left the IIAC and when Morningside left Div. II they said that the NAIA was less expensive.  Why is that? 

Just curiosity on my part. 

[Gregory Sager]

In basketball, the NAIA is divided into two divisions. The uppermost strata of NAIA-1 is considered to be better than anything D3 has to offer in terms of team strength, but is otherwise comparable. NAIA-2 has some good teams at the top, but on average the team strength is slightly lower than the average team strength of D3. Check out the ongoing tallies of D3 vs. the two NAIA divisions (and the various other levels of college basketball) in the "D3 vs. D1/D2/NAIA/NCCAA" room under the Multi-Regional Topics header of Posting Up.

The Iowa-based NAIA schools are all NAIA-2 in basketball, and don't appear to be upper-echelon teams (although Northwestern was quite good a few years ago). Keep in mind that the two NAIA divisions are quite small; only 96 schools participate in NAIA-1 men's basketball, and only 144 participate in NAIA-2 men's basketball. By contrast, there are 395 schools participating in D3 men's basketball this season.

The NAIA can be less expensive than D3 for the simple reason that there is no minimum-sport requirement. To be a member of D3, each school has to offer five sports for men and five for women (or just five altogether if it isn't a coed institution). In the NAIA, you can get away with just playing men's basketball if that's all you want to offer. A whole bunch of NAIA schools offer substantially fewer than ten varsity sports. For instance, the Midwest Classic Conference (the Iowa-based league that includes William Penn, Iowa Wesleyan, St. Ambrose, Waldorf, etc.) only has seven sports in which each of the eight schools participates: men's soccer, women's soccer, volleyball, men's basketball, women's basketball, baseball, and softball. When you're not forced to field as many athletic teams, you can work with a smaller budget for your athletic department.

Also, lots of NAIA schools don't even offer athletic scholarships -- and, as you noted, many of the ones that do offer only partial scholarships rather than full ones, and the partials can be quite small.

On the other hand, if you make it to the postseason in NAIA, you have to pay your own travel expenses. In the D3 tournament, travel and per diem expenses are covered by the NCAA.

[doolittledog]

In basketball, the NAIA is divided into two divisions. The uppermost strata of NAIA-1 is considered to be better than anything D3 has to offer in terms of team strength, but is otherwise comparable. NAIA-2 has some good teams at the top, but on average the team strength is slightly lower than the average team strength of D3. Check out the ongoing tallies of D3 vs. the two NAIA divisions (and the various other levels of college basketball) in the "D3 vs. D1/D2/NAIA/NCCAA" room under the Multi-Regional Topics header of Posting Up.

The Iowa-based NAIA schools are all NAIA-2 in basketball, and don't appear to be upper-echelon teams (although Northwestern was quite good a few years ago). Keep in mind that the two NAIA divisions are quite small; only 96 schools participate in NAIA-1 men's basketball, and only 144 participate in NAIA-2 men's basketball. By contrast, there are 395 schools participating in D3 men's basketball this season.

The NAIA can be less expensive than D3 for the simple reason that there is no minimum-sport requirement. To be a member of D3, each school has to offer five sports for men and five for women (or just five altogether if it isn't a coed institution). In the NAIA, you can get away with just playing men's basketball if that's all you want to offer. A whole bunch of NAIA schools offer substantially fewer than ten varsity sports. For instance, the Midwest Classic Conference (the Iowa-based league that includes William Penn, Iowa Wesleyan, St. Ambrose, Waldorf, etc.) only has seven sports in which each of the eight schools participates: men's soccer, women's soccer, volleyball, men's basketball, women's basketball, baseball, and softball. When you're not forced to field as many athletic teams, you can work with a smaller budget for your athletic department.

Also, lots of NAIA schools don't even offer athletic scholarships -- and, as you noted, many of the ones that do offer only partial scholarships rather than full ones, and the partials can be quite small.

On the other hand, if you make it to the postseason in NAIA, you have to pay your own travel expenses. In the D3 tournament, travel and per diem expenses are covered by the NCAA.

Thank you, well done.  You put that better than anything I found on the internet. 

I think I will now try to look if there is a core area for NAIA schools.  You say there are only 145 NAIA-2 basketball schools, I think I read only 90 for football and it seems there are quite a few either in Iowa or in border states to Iowa.