MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Greek Tragedy]

As Greg pointed out, I wouldn't be too worried about Oshkosh just yet.  Yes, they were preseason #2.  I think even the coach thought that was a little high.  It might have gotten to their heads a little.

A funny (to the non-Oshkosh faithful) quote from the coach was in the Milwaukee Journal after losing to Point.  It said something like his team was "the all-excuse team" and that his team had "no heart and no leadership, that's us in a nutshell." 

Oshkosh does have three losses already.  But look who they have played.  They lost to Lawrence for the 3rd straight time, this time in Appleton.  Last time I checked, Lawrence has been pretty good the last couple of years.  They lost at Point to kick off the WIAC season.  Yeah, Point lost basically everyone, but they are still 3-1 in the conference and are always tough in Quandt.  Lastly, they just lost to Stout at the buzzer thanks to a long 3-pt. shot, who is 4-0 in conference and their only loss was at Wooster. 

So, plenty of time for Oshkosh to get some quality wins under their belt! I'm definitely not counting them out yet.

[rknuppel]

Hey guys.  Long time since I've posted on this board.  I've been following the board all year and decided I might as well chime in a bit.  Glad to see the Jays in the top 25 and having a successful year.  With Martin leading the way they are a legit threat to any team.  Glad to see some freshman getting opportunity to contribute.  I'm going to the Bluejay Classic game on Saturday and looking forward to getting my first peak at the Jays this year.

Sounds like the conference is strong as ever this year with IWU, Elmhurst and Augie leading the way.  Hopefully with the tourney expanding and the conference tourney we can see 3 or more CCIW teams get into the tourney.

Also, glad to see this forum still operating at a high level.  Pat does and always has done a great job with the site and it's become the D3 sports headquarters.  Nice work Pat!

I'll have my first hand Elmhurst report after this weekends game.  Go Jays!

[tjcummingsfan]

#1  I would have to guess 2 years ago when they started the season undefeated in non-conference games.

#2  I'm probably an absurd optomist, I will say before I graduate seminary in 2009.  (my definition of competitive being .500 in conference)

[Mugsy]

It has been 5 years since NPU has won a CCIW football game - 0-35 since 2001. 
They are 3-67 over the past decade and 5-79 since 1994 (.059 winning percentage).  After a 3-0 start to this season, there was hope for the NPU faithful that this year they would break the drought. 

They have shown signs of improvement, but now they'll be starting over again with another new head football coach.

[dansand]

Congratulations to Rick Harrigan for his second straight CCIW POW selection (co-POW last week with Bjorn Berg of NPU). He's off to a remarkable start so far (27.6 ppg, 4.1 rpg, .614 fg%, .567 3p%), and given Augie's injury problems, it's a good thing.

[Stat]

Hey Knup, glad to see you on the board.  You are an old timer now.
Went up to see Carthage Sunday.
First thing I noticed, other than the empty stands, was the lack of any energy on the bench. Stark contrast from the good ol days.
Lawrence shot the lights out from the perimeter.  No adjustment.
Schlem looked very good, and that is the positive news.
They lack a penetrating guard.
Seems like: take the jumper and hope.
Bosko's body language was not good,  however the staff had nice tans from the Hawaii trip.
500 ball will be nice.

[Gregory Sager]

I'll have my first hand Elmhurst report after this weekends game.  Go Jays!

Good to hear from you again, Ryan. I may see you at Faganel on Saturday. Elmhurst's tourney this year may not be one of their best in terms of competition. The Bluejays beat Marian (WI) by 39 points in the first round of the Bluejay Classic last year. The whuppin' they'll put on the Sabres this time around probably won't be as extreme, but the 'jays will still win going away on Friday night. Buena Vista is in a rebuilding year; they're currently 1-4, and their two leading scorers are freshmen. Olivet's usually a second-division MIAA team; the Comets tend to be athletic but wildly inconsistent.

I'll be pretty surprised if the 'jays don't end the weekend with two more W's under their belts.

[diehardfan]

Okay, I know I am weighing in on this late, but please give me a break, I just came back from THE LONGEST MEETING EVER! ...in Arizona of all places.

I'd like to think of CCIW chat as... Frasier? Does that work? Since it a show that nerdy intelligent people can actually enjoy? Plus.... funny and random and sometimes crazy? Plus, Dennis get's to be the grumpy father? lol   Then Greg, David, Warren, etc get to take turns being the heady intellectual witty ones.

Plus, it would be a nice extention of how CCIW chat used to be for me... Cheers, where everyone knew your name... etc. just like Frasier was in real life.

I've never seen desperate housewives, and never, ever, ever, EVER will, and it would also never ever occur to me that CCIW chat was like that show... I'm guessing the only time it was, was back when Q had all those RMC stalkers posting about him here.



Ryan... are you ever planning on doing a d3pickem on your site again?  

[Greek Tragedy]

Sounds like the conference is strong as ever this year with IWU, Elmhurst and Augie leading the way.  Hopefully with the tourney expanding and the conference tourney we can see 3 or more CCIW teams get into the tourney.

That's a bold statement.  The conference tourney probably hurts the chances of the CCIW getting more teams in, just like the WIAC and basically any other conference because it gives every team in that tourney, except one, one more in-region loss. 

As was posted last year in the SOSI page, contrary to popular belief, an expansion of the tourney by 10 teams (projected last year) didn't really help any of the "big name" schools.  Last year, I took the top 18 teams in both the SOSI ranking and the Winning % ranking and took the average of both rankings.  The top 5 teams ended up being Benedictine, Scranton, Transylvania, Hardin-Simmons, Franklin and Marshall.  So, it's almost better to have a top heavy conference where only two teams dominate. 

I'm not an expert of the CCIW, but I see Augustana and Ill. Wes. are undefeated.  Obviously Ill. Wes. is highly regarded.  Has Augustana played anyone of note?  At a quick glance, I didn't really see any quality wins.  I may be wrong.  Elmhurst has already been ranked, but they now have two nonconference losses.  North Central, don't know what they are about.  Doesn't look like they've really played anyone, though Loras did beat Whitewater. 

Anyway, I point is that I think it will be real hard for any conference to get three teams in.  I guess the best bet would be for Ill. Wes. and Augustana to basically run the table and then have both get knocked out in the conference tourney.  But, like the WIAC, the CCIW is a league where everyone beats up on everyone.

[Gregory Sager]

I think that there will be years in which the CCIW tourney helps the league get an extra team into the big dance, and years in which the CCIW tourney is a hindrance in that regard. The circumstances aren't the same from year to year; there's just too many variables involved.

I, too, don't think that it'll become commonplace for the CCIW to get three teams into the NCAAs. I think it'll be somewhat easier than it's been in the past -- after all, there have only been two seasons (1990 and 2001) in which the CCIW has had three tourney representatives -- but it'll hardly be an automatic occurrence. It will be automatic in all but name for the league to get two teams into the dance from now on, though. After all, it was the expansion of the NCAA tournament field that led to the league's sanctioning of the CCIW tournament in the first place. The understanding was that the CCIW would do nothing to jeopardize the league champion's chance to get a berth in the NCAA field; nobody wanted to see the CCIW champ be forced to stay home in March, as has happened all-too-often in the WIAC, MIAA, etc.

I haven't seen either Augie or North Central yet, so I can't comment on them based upon my own observations. And it's tough to extrapolate too much from the records of their foes to date, but thus far Augie's foes are 29-31 and North Central's are 19-27. Take out the 1-12 record of woebegone IIT, though, and the records of the teams that the Cards have played improves to a much more impressive 18-15.

[The Roop]

Hey Roop.........so what kind of mileage does your Hummer get, anyways?

"The Roop" doesn't own one because "The Roop" doesn't need one.

[rknuppel]

Greg:  Yeah I noticed the competition for the Bluejay Classic might be a little down this year.  But after what I saw in the championship last year (Elmhurst get beat by like 30), I'll be looking forward to seeing a win on Saturday!  Hopefully I'll see you there on Saturday.

Old School:  Never meant to make a "bold" statement.  I'm simply hoping the conference is strong enough this year to get more teams in.  I don't know all the stats and numbers behind who a tourney expansion helps, but I do know how tough it's been in the past to get 3 teams in.  An expansion surely helps those chances some I would think.

diehardfan:  I just didn't have time to keep up with the CCIW schedule on my pickem site.  With the D1 college pickems I don't have to enter schedules/results, they are automatically entered.  For CCIW (or other d3 conferences) I'd need someone to enter the games and results into the site.  From there, the standings and statistics are automatic.

stat:  How is Jason doing?

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Plus, it would be a nice extention of how CCIW chat used to be for me... Cheers, where everyone knew your name... etc. just like Frasier was in real life.

So would that make your recent hiatus like Diane leaving Cheers and then guest starring on Frasier?  (Granted, a comparison to Lilith would be more apropos, but I'm not sure your feelings on the character and wouldn't want to presume and compare you someone protrayed in a rather poor light throughout both shows).

[markerickson]

When North Park gets some players, besides Bret, who can create off the dribble, then the scoring will increase.  I have not seen Jason Gordon play this year.  Last year's team was no different.  Regarding the Loras game, NP scored 19 buckets in the whole game, and attempted under 50 despite having approx. 12 TOs.  These stats suggest little ball rotation.  Last year's team spent far too much time simply hanging around the trey line instead creating opportunities.

[Greek Tragedy]

rknuppel,

No problem.  I'm just bitter because the WIAC has a hard enough time getting two in, and you're talking three!  There have been several times in recent years where the WIAC regular season champion got to watch the tourney champion go to the big dance.  In fact, the first year Point won the national championship, they didn't even win the WIAC that year.  River Falls, with national player of the year Rich Melzer won it, but only finished 20-7 overall.