MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Jim Matson]

Ypsi,  Interesting work on the CCIW "All-Sports" Trophy!!  If we took your model of ranking sports in which all participate and applied it nationally, you wouldn't have these New England schools dominating the COSIDA Cup every year.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Ypsi,  Interesting work on the CCIW "All-Sports" Trophy!!  If we took your model of ranking sports in which all participate and applied it nationally, you wouldn't have these New England schools dominating the COSIDA Cup every year.

Thanks, Jim, but if we limited it nationally to only ranking sports ALL participate in, I'm not sure there would be ANY rankings left!  But Williams, et. al., do certainly benefit from winning sports that are not contested by very many.

Personally, since all 21 sports in the CCIW are contested by a majority of schools, I'm willing to grant Wheaton the 'trophy' - though IWU wins with the other three ways of calculating!   (Since the conference seems to have no interest in making the trophy official, I figured I'd show 4 logical ways of determining it and let others decide.)

[Gregory Sager]

I think most of us feel that almost every one of our teams landed top recruits and that 1 thru 8 the CCIW is about to reclaim its place as one of the two or three top DIII conferences in the country. It's hard to wait for the season to begin.

I take it that you meant reclaim in the sense of "renew" rather than "return after a hiatus", because the CCIW has never fallen from its place as one of the two or three top D3 conferences throughout this decade.

NPU's recruiting class, unlike those of most of the other teams in the league, is still a work in progress, so I'm not making any definitive statements about it thus far. I'm very excited about what I've been hearing in terms of some of NPU's prospects, and how close the Park is to getting them, but we're still in wait-and-see mode here in the big city.

My guess is that Carthage is still crossing the T's and dotting the I's with a lot of its prospects as well, since the Red Men always have one of the largest freshmen classes in the league every year and are not going to be confined to only two incoming plebes in 2008-09. I would also bet all the corn in Manito that Bosko and his assistants are going to dip heavily into the transfer pool for this coming season -- the braintrust in Kenosha realizes that the Carthage program must get some bigs into the fold, even if they have to scout every YMCA and every playground blacktop between Kankakee and Sheboygan to find them.

And Millikin? Who knows? As usual, Decatur is apparently under a news blackout. All I know about Marc Smith's recruiting efforts is that one big man that both he and North Park are pursuing.

By the way, thanks, Bob, for continually updating that list. It's a good way to track all eight teams' incoming freshmen at a glance.

[Titan Q]

Here is the Pantagraph's article on IWU's four recent additions...

http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2008/05/07/usports/doc4820a04fed51b110006670.txt

[Dennis_Prikkel]

I think most of us feel that almost every one of our teams landed top recruits and that 1 thru 8 the CCIW is about to reclaim its place as one of the two or three top DIII conferences in the country. It's hard to wait for the season to begin.

I take it that you meant reclaim in the sense of "renew" rather than "return after a hiatus", because the CCIW has never fallen from its place as one of the two or three top D3 conferences throughout this decade.

NPU's recruiting class, unlike those of most of the other teams in the league, is still a work in progress, so I'm not making any definitive statements about it thus far. I'm very excited about what I've been hearing in terms of some of NPU's prospects, and how close the Park is to getting them, but we're still in wait-and-see mode here in the big city.

My guess is that Carthage is still crossing the T's and dotting the I's with a lot of its prospects as well, since the Red Men always have one of the largest freshmen classes in the league every year and are not going to be confined to only two incoming plebes in 2008-09. I would also bet all the corn in Manito that Bosko and his assistants are going to dip heavily into the transfer pool for this coming season -- the braintrust in Kenosha realizes that the Carthage program must get some bigs into the fold, even if they have to scout every YMCA and every playground blacktop between Kankakee and Sheboygan to find them.

And Millikin? Who knows? As usual, Decatur is apparently under a news blackout. All I know about Marc Smith's recruiting efforts is that one big man that both he and North Park are pursuing.

By the way, thanks, Bob, for continually updating that list. It's a good way to track all eight teams' incoming freshmen at a glance.

of the 38 articles in the Decatur Herald and Review that mentioned Millikin in the last 14 days, none of them mentioned Millikin athletics of any kind - seems like a department-wide blackout in the local press.

DoS

[Titan Q]

Coach Smith at Millikin sent me a note and said that he'd pass along recruiting news as soon as he could communicate (based on Millikin rules). 

Also communicated with Bosko yesterday via e-mail.  He said they'll be announcing their class later this month. 

[Naperick]

I heard today that Elmhurst is getting small school scoring machine Zack Boyd, a 6-2 guard from Warrensburg-Latham (near Decatur).

Boyd averaged 23.5 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 2.4 assists as a senior, leading the Cardinals to the 1A Final Four in Peoria, where they took home the 3rd place trophy. 

Boyd was a 1st Teamer on every small school all-state team.  Illinois Basketball Services tabbed Boyd as the Small School (1A/2A) Co-Player of the Year, along with Pinckneyville's Kyle Cassity (heading to St. Louis U).  He was the IHSS.com Class 1A Player of the Year.

Here is a video created for Boyd's recruitment...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoYfDmNhzEo

As you'll see, he is a strong, physical guard...not very athletic, but extremely skilled.  He had a chance to walk-on at Division II Quincy, but most of his interest in the end was Division III.  For some bizarre reason, I do not think Millikin was on Boyd, who is in their backyard. 

I think Elmhurst found another good one from Central Illinois, where they've had a lot of success (Ryan Knuppel, Chris Martin, Brent Ruch, Ryan Burks).



http://www.illinoishighschoolsports.com/ihssallstate/2008IHSSClass1Aallstate.html

http://www.ibsrecruiting.com/ibs-2008-illinois-bo.php

http://www.ihsa.org/activity/bkb/2007-08/1info3.htm

Thanks for the info. about my beloved Bluejays.  I forgot how much luck Sherer has enjoyed with central Illinois recruits.  His Roanoke-Benson background must help with downstate recruiting.

Thanks again, Titan Q!

[Gregory Sager]

Coach Smith at Millikin sent me a note and said that he'd pass along recruiting news as soon as he could communicate (based on Millikin rules). 

Also communicated with Bosko yesterday via e-mail.  He said they'll be announcing their class later this month. 

Bosko sent you an e-mail?! Bosko is not only using a computer these days, but is actually sending people e-mails?!

Anyone have May 7, 2008 in the Apocalypse pool?

[Titan Q]

A Zack Boyd (Elmhurst) story...

http://www.illinoishsbasketball.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=695&Itemid=1

[Titan Q]

Bosko sent you an e-mail?! Bosko is not only using a computer these days, but is actually sending people e-mails?!

Anyone have May 7, 2008 in the Apocalypse pool?

It was just a matter of time before he found the information superhighway.

[titanfan]

Good article on some of the IWU and Augustana recruits.

http://ilprepbullseye.com/page4.html

[knarocky22]

Now if they could just get Augustana's name right  .

[petemcb]

Bosko sent you an e-mail?! Bosko is not only using a computer these days, but is actually sending people e-mails?!

Anyone have May 7, 2008 in the Apocalypse pool?

It was just a matter of time before he found the information superhighway.

It's probably only a matter of time before he's posting here.   

[petemcb]

Coach Smith at Millikin sent me a note and said that he'd pass along recruiting news as soon as he could communicate (based on Millikin rules). 

Also communicated with Bosko yesterday via e-mail.  He said they'll be announcing their class later this month. 

Bosko sent you an e-mail?! Bosko is not only using a computer these days, but is actually sending people e-mails?!

Anyone have May 7, 2008 in the Apocalypse pool?

+k.

[titanfan]

Now if they could just get Augustana's name right  .

What did they do wrong with Augie's name?  Just curious...