BB: CCIW: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Mr. Ypsi]

IF Pankau shuts down Thomas More (and I think he will), they are kaput.

AND I'm becoming very fond of both Sweeney and Mehn.  I've become cautiously optimistic about IWU's chances for Appleton.

Unlike last year!

[mwunder]

IF Pankau shuts down Thomas More (and I think he will), they are kaput.

AND I'm becoming very fond of both Sweeney and Mehn.  I've become cautiously optimistic about IWU's chances for Appleton.

Unlike last year!

I assume by kaput, you don't mean that if they lose game one that they have ZERO percent chance to get to Appleton, correct??     

[CCIWFAN6]

IF Pankau shuts down Thomas More (and I think he will), they are kaput.

AND I'm becoming very fond of both Sweeney and Mehn.  I've become cautiously optimistic about IWU's chances for Appleton.

Unlike last year!

In this case, I would prefer you be very pessimistic!!!

[Mr. Ypsi]

Nice ripostes, guys!  Yeah, TMC still has a non-zero chance, and as I pointed out on the regional board, I was VERY nervous!

Carthage fell to BV, 8-1, and faces #1 seed Coe (who also lost) in an elimination game at noon (CDT) tomorrow.  IWU beat TMC, 3-2, and will face BV (and seek to avenge Carthage's loss) at 7.  It's CCIW vs. IIAC day!

[Dennis_Prikkel]

carthage beats coe 5-3

[Mr. Ypsi]

So, the two CCIW reps went 1-4 against BV, and 4-0 against everyone else!  I think it is safe to say that (for this tourney, at least), BV was the best team, and the CCIW guys can argue over #2 and #3.

Coe, Thomas More, and Ripon need not enter the discussion.

As a CCIW guy, I was rooting for Carthage to pull it off today.  As a Central Region guy, I'll be rooting for BV this coming week.  They will be considered VERY long shots, but (I dare say) no longer than IWU was last year.

GO BEAVERS!!

[mr_b]

The All-CCIW team has been announced.

Congratulations to Luke Johnson for his selection as CCIW Coach of the Year!  Very well deserved.

[Gregory Sager]

Yes! Congratulations to Luke Johnson on his much-deserved COY award!

The interesting thing about the All-CCIW team is how Chicagocentric it is. Of the 32 players named, only four are not Chicagolanders. I don't think that that's ever happened before. Even when you consider the fact that the CCIW has always been dominated in most sports by student-athletes from the Chicago metropolitan area, an 88% Chicagolander rate is still extraordinarily high -- especially when you consider how large the All-CCIW baseball team is.

[CCIWFAN6]

Congratulations to Jason Pankau on being the Central Regions Pitcher of the Year, along with all the CCIW representatives.

http://cciw.org/sports/2010/6/1/BB_0601104502.aspx?id=273

Jason ends a truly remarkable career at IWU, as the schools all-time leader in wins and strikeouts, while leading his team to a National Championship in 2009. Along with those accomplishments he was pitcher of the year in the CCIW twice and 3 time all conference performer.

Hopefully he receives a chance to pitch at some level after graduation.

[hasbeen]

Having seen Pankau pitch nearly every time he took the mound, he may be the most dominant pitcher I've seen in the CCIW in a long time.  He not only performed at a high level for one year, he was conistently a show stopper since his sophomore year.  Congratulations on a tremendous career. 

Congratulations to Angel Carrasco, Trevor Popp, A.J. Nathan, and Ryan Hopp on making the Gold Glove Team as well.

While I agree that Luke Johnson is well deserving of the CCIW Coach of the Year award, I do believe that it should have been shared with Dennis Martel.  I am biased toward IWU; however, if you compare what was lost from last year's CCIW 4th place IWU team and the 2nd place North Park Team, the losses are as large if not larger for IWU.  They lost top hitter Casey McIntosh, leaders and former all-conference/all-region players in Brett Moore, Mike Morrissey, and Kraig Ladd, and nearly their entire pitching staff (Brent Kulavic-2008 All-American/Central Region Pitcher of the Year, Paul Kabbes, Joe Froelich, Alex Tosi, Marty Roche) except for Pankau and Sweeney.  Coach Martel was working this season with two seniors, two juniors, three sophomores, and two freshman as every day position players.  And of those position players, only Grodecki, Hopp, Z Scott, Sullivan, and McDermott started for the national championship team.  Pankau and Sweeney were his only pitchers with significant game experience.

I have always been a big fan of Coach Johnson, and I am not taking anything away from his honor.  He is very deserving of the award, but saying the losses of North Park were greater because of Giovenco going pro and some other injuries is not fair to Dennis Martel and his staff.  I believe we are overlooking his tremendous accomplishment this year because of the success of the IWU program.

Congrats to the Titans on another great season.

[hasbeen]

Congratulations to Jason Pankau (3rd Team) and Kevin Callahan (Honorable Mention) on making the D3baseball.com 2011 All-America team!

http://d3baseball.com/awards/all-americans/d3baseball-allamericans-2011

[Gregory Sager]

Having seen Pankau pitch nearly every time he took the mound, he may be the most dominant pitcher I've seen in the CCIW in a long time.  He not only performed at a high level for one year, he was conistently a show stopper since his sophomore year.  Congratulations on a tremendous career. 

Congratulations to Angel Carrasco, Trevor Popp, A.J. Nathan, and Ryan Hopp on making the Gold Glove Team as well.

While I agree that Luke Johnson is well deserving of the CCIW Coach of the Year award, I do believe that it should have been shared with Dennis Martel.  I am biased toward IWU; however, if you compare what was lost from last year's CCIW 4th place IWU team and the 2nd place North Park Team, the losses are as large if not larger for IWU.  They lost top hitter Casey McIntosh, leaders and former all-conference/all-region players in Brett Moore, Mike Morrissey, and Kraig Ladd, and nearly their entire pitching staff (Brent Kulavic-2008 All-American/Central Region Pitcher of the Year, Paul Kabbes, Joe Froelich, Alex Tosi, Marty Roche) except for Pankau and Sweeney.  Coach Martel was working this season with two seniors, two juniors, three sophomores, and two freshman as every day position players.  And of those position players, only Grodecki, Hopp, Z Scott, Sullivan, and McDermott started for the national championship team.  Pankau and Sweeney were his only pitchers with significant game experience.

I have always been a big fan of Coach Johnson, and I am not taking anything away from his honor.  He is very deserving of the award, but saying the losses of North Park were greater because of Giovenco going pro and some other injuries is not fair to Dennis Martel and his staff.  I believe we are overlooking his tremendous accomplishment this year because of the success of the IWU program.

Congrats to the Titans on another great season.

I don't agree with you. Personnel losses or not, the Titans were picked to win the CCIW by the league's coaches in the preseason poll. NPU was picked to finish sixth. You can't spin away the fact that the league's braintrust felt that IWU had significantly more talent coming into this season than did NPU; the difference between first place and sixth place is far too big a discrepancy for that.

Dennis Martel had a great season, but the CCIW coaches did the right thing in selecting Luke Johnson as the sole recipient of the award. The guy who deserved to win the COY won it.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Sincere congratulations to the conference award winners!

Jason Pankau was a no-brainer for Pitcher-of-the-Year - I'd guess it was unanimous.

I personally would have gone for co-COYs (Johnson and Martel), but have no problem whatsoever with Johnson getting it solo.

Likewise, I would have gone with Callahan solo for Player-of-the-Year, but have no problem with him sharing it with Hodges.  With two weeks left, it was CLEARLY Kevin's award, but he tailed off at the end, plus there will always (rightfully, IMO) be some bias towards a senior over a sophomore.

[BigPoppa]

Sincere congratulations to the conference award winners!

Jason Pankau was a no-brainer for Pitcher-of-the-Year - I'd guess it was unanimous.

I personally would have gone for co-COYs (Johnson and Martel), but have no problem whatsoever with Johnson getting it solo.

Likewise, I would have gone with Callahan solo for Player-of-the-Year, but have no problem with him sharing it with Hodges.  With two weeks left, it was CLEARLY Kevin's award, but he tailed off at the end, plus there will always (rightfully, IMO) be some bias towards a senior over a sophomore.

Looking at CCIW-only stats one could have made the argument that it was Hodges' award to lose. Hodges had a better CCIW season, Callahan a better overalll season..

[hasbeen]

Having seen Pankau pitch nearly every time he took the mound, he may be the most dominant pitcher I've seen in the CCIW in a long time.  He not only performed at a high level for one year, he was conistently a show stopper since his sophomore year.  Congratulations on a tremendous career. 

Congratulations to Angel Carrasco, Trevor Popp, A.J. Nathan, and Ryan Hopp on making the Gold Glove Team as well.

While I agree that Luke Johnson is well deserving of the CCIW Coach of the Year award, I do believe that it should have been shared with Dennis Martel.  I am biased toward IWU; however, if you compare what was lost from last year's CCIW 4th place IWU team and the 2nd place North Park Team, the losses are as large if not larger for IWU.  They lost top hitter Casey McIntosh, leaders and former all-conference/all-region players in Brett Moore, Mike Morrissey, and Kraig Ladd, and nearly their entire pitching staff (Brent Kulavic-2008 All-American/Central Region Pitcher of the Year, Paul Kabbes, Joe Froelich, Alex Tosi, Marty Roche) except for Pankau and Sweeney.  Coach Martel was working this season with two seniors, two juniors, three sophomores, and two freshman as every day position players.  And of those position players, only Grodecki, Hopp, Z Scott, Sullivan, and McDermott started for the national championship team.  Pankau and Sweeney were his only pitchers with significant game experience.

I have always been a big fan of Coach Johnson, and I am not taking anything away from his honor.  He is very deserving of the award, but saying the losses of North Park were greater because of Giovenco going pro and some other injuries is not fair to Dennis Martel and his staff.  I believe we are overlooking his tremendous accomplishment this year because of the success of the IWU program.

Congrats to the Titans on another great season.

I don't agree with you. Personnel losses or not, the Titans were picked to win the CCIW by the league's coaches in the preseason poll. NPU was picked to finish sixth. You can't spin away the fact that the league's braintrust felt that IWU had significantly more talent coming into this season than did NPU; the difference between first place and sixth place is far too big a discrepancy for that.

Dennis Martel had a great season, but the CCIW coaches did the right thing in selecting Luke Johnson as the sole recipient of the award. The guy who deserved to win the COY won it.

Agree to Disagree