MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[augie_superfan]

Haha...good one Q...by the way, great job with the "telecast" tonight.  You did a great job of staying as unbiased as possible even when things weren't going IWU's way

[Jim Matson]

Yeah Bob, you were unbelievably objective in calling tonight's game.  You and Mike did a good job.  Perhaps your biggest audience yet!

Great game to watch on the internet.  I was surprised to see Wesleyan miss the last 3 FTs of the game - not typical Titan ball.  Augustana clearly is a top 5 team now. 

[iwumichigander]

Congratulations to Augie who played tough all night; and in the end, seem to want the win more.  IWU (after a 55.0% FG and 81.8% FT 1st half  performance) shot just 24% FG 30.8% 3pt and 6 -13 for 46.2 % all in the second half.  Poor 2nd half shooting together with 21 turnovers for the game (Augie had 17 turnovers) You just can't win games in this league with shooting like that.  You gotta value the ball more. It really looked like two different Titans teams in each half.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Despite my earlier misgivings about the conference tourney, I'm with Q!  (Though I think the Titans are a fairly safe bet for a C even if they don't make a comeback for the A.)

Barring a TOTAL meltdown by NCC or Elmhurst this weekend, the CCIW will have FOUR teams in the top 25 next week.  Anyone think THREE Cs are even remotely possible, or is that a total pipedream for those who envision a REAL national tourney?

[Titan Q]

Thank you, everyone.  It was great to have 4100 (the final count) logged in and watching tonight.  Despite the result, we had a great time bringing that to you.

[Jim Matson]

April, for a team we thought had no chance, Wheaton is doing fairly well.  Harris has done an outstanding job coaching these guys and really building a "team" attitude - you can tell they really enjoy playing together.

Yes, I like the fact that we played 2 of the top 3 teams in the CCIW to the final 15 seconds!

[John Gleich]

I made a comment in the Top 25 room a few days ago, suggesting that Augie, at 5-0 was technically in the drivers seat in the conference race.

April,

I remember reading that post (and the resulting dismissals) and, while perhaps the points were valid (because only about 1/3 of the conference race completed, and Augie had played a number of their games at home) the lead they carried DID/DOES put added pressure on their opponents.  They already had a two game lead on the conference... and if a team should happen to lose to the Vikings, it would put them back to three... not an insurmountable gap, but with 8 or 7 (or fewer) games remaining in conference play AFTER that game, the task becomes much more daunting.

Perhaps this is over-analyzing the situation, but maybe discounting your insight was under-analyzing it (by the dissenters) as well.  I think you can pretty clearly make that statement now, and you won't get much backlash!  

I know that the conference race is only about half finished, but the jumble appears to possibly be filtering itself out.

[Pat Coleman]

Q,

Sorry we couldn't put a link up until your halftime, when our own broadcast ended.

[79jaybird]

CardinalAlum- "No way Jaybird, Cards by 8 at home"  after a prediction of a close game (under 4 points) and an OT?  Why can't I do this well on my lottery numbers??
How neat.. my hockey game ended and by the time I got back to my car, I tuned into WRSE 88.7 FM ( and FYI this is the Elmhurst Station to hear all Bluejay games, both WONC and WRSE covered the game Jim you did a nice job on the air) so I tuned in just in time to catch the final 7 seconds of the game.  Sounds like Elmhurst showed their true "heart" to battle back.
Augie is in the driver's seat and as long as they take care of business, They should win the CCIW and be the #1 seed in the Tournament.  From a Bluejay perspective, I hope the Jays can knock off Augie Sunday and hope they get some help from the other CCIW members to knock of Augie.
Why is the Augie/EC game on Sunday?

[diehardfan]

I made a comment in the Top 25 room a few days ago, suggesting that Augie, at 5-0 was technically in the drivers seat in the conference race.

April,

I remember reading that post (and the resulting dismissals) and, while perhaps the points were valid (because only about 1/3 of the conference race completed, and Augie had played a number of their games at home) the lead they carried DID/DOES put added pressure on their opponents.  They already had a two game lead on the conference... and if a team should happen to lose to the Vikings, it would put them back to three... not an insurmountable gap, but with 8 or 7 (or fewer) games remaining in conference play AFTER that game, the task becomes much more daunting.

Perhaps this is over-analyzing the situation, but maybe discounting your insight was under-analyzing it (by the dissenters) as well.  I think you can pretty clearly make that statement now, and you won't get much backlash!  

I know that the conference race is only about half finished, but the jumble appears to possibly be filtering itself out.

No thanks, that's exactly what I meant. Thank you for seeing past the April is extremely busy Reader's Digest version post, and seeing it for what it is.

There is a lot of pressure on a team to perform, if there is an unbeaten team. As long as a team remains unbeaten, the other teams have to hope that the other team fails at some point. (aside from any games remaining against the undefeated team). Though I tend to do well under pressure, I wouldn't exactly say that I like to be in that position.... etc. etc.

[augievike93]

Why is the Augie/EC game on Sunday?

The Quad City Times mentioned something about scheduling conflict with EC pushing the game back from Saturday to Sunday.  http://www.qctimes.net/articles/2006/01/24/sports/doc43d5d014a8650435848866.txt

However it didn't really list what the conflict was. 

Regardless, it should be oneheckova game.

[bluejaybacker1]

79Jaybird- It was scheduled on Sunday because the wrestling team has their annual Al Hanke invite on Saturday.

[Elmhurst_Mom]

holy crap...i'm exhausted!! just some unbelievable stuff going on in the cciw....THE most exciting season i've ever seen with some absolutely great games!  Elmhurst at NCC with a TIGHT game and then the Titans are soooooo talented.... but then  i have to take my hat off to augie....i'm shocked....and i don't mean that disrespectfully....i just really thought with a full house at shirk....that would be the deciding vote.....and i was wrong.  now there's sunday.....see ya there.

[knarocky22]

What a great game down in Bloomington tonight.  I think one of the keys to the second half was Augie not allowing Dauksas to bring the ball up the court.  They would double team him and make whoever else was back there (which more than a few times was one of the Jones brothers) bring the ball up the court, which resulted in some turnovers.  Also, Nate Swetalla did an amazing job on Amelianovich.  Although he only scored 2-3 points, I thought he was one of the keys in the Augie victory tonight.

[armywife]

I want to add my vote for Q doing the webcast last night. You did a great job of staying objective with IWU down. Thanks again.

This is an exciting year in the CCIW, with everyone talking about IWU taking first and everyone else playing for second, this has been a pleasant surprise for Augie fans. I haven't scrolled back to see where folks placed Elmhurst and North Central, but I'll bet their place in the conference so far has been a surprise too.

I'm looking forward to seeing how Sunday goes.