MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[NCF]

Also congrats to Coach Raridon and the Cardinals for wrapping up a share of the CCIW title tonight.

..not so tough to do in a comparatively not so tough CCIW this year - almost half of the teams fell in a category of "pure junk".

Well, someone is a little bitter here. Hey, your team will have their chance to win the tournament, so relax. While the conference may be in a down year, it is still an accomplishment to win back-to-back conference titles. Good Luck to the Cardinals as they wrap up the regular season and get ready for tournament action.

[markerickson]

I remotely watched part of the second half of the North Park/North Central game.  There were no more than 50 people occupying the "student section."  I couldn't tell if they were all students, but based on my attendance this season, they were not all students.  How pathetic.  What a junk season too.

When was the last time the 7th and 8th place teams combined for no more than two conference victories?

[iwu70]

Yes, pretty sad at the bottom of the league this year.  Agreed.  Still, four pretty darn good teams at the top.  We'll see how the CCIW tournament goes and then what kind of noise the AQ and hopefully 1-2 others make in the DIII dance. 

Titans have senior night Saturday now too, and will want to send the four fine seniors out with a win.  It's a wear GREEN night, in honor of the seniors and in recognition of the University's commitment to environmental sustainability. 

IWU70

[Titan Q]

I remotely watched part of the second half of the North Park/North Central game.  There were no more than 50 people occupying the "student section."  I couldn't tell if they were all students, but based on my attendance this season, they were not all students.  How pathetic.  What a junk season too.

When was the last time the 7th and 8th place teams combined for no more than two conference victories?

http://www.cciw.org/custompages/CCIW_Links/MBasketball/History/MBB_Records.pdf

With 65 CCIW seasons in the books (soon to be 66), only twice has the bottom 2 accounted for 2 or fewer wins...

1949
Illinois Wesleyan 9-1
Illinois College 8-2
Wheaton 8-2
Millikin 6-4
North Central 5-5
Augustana 4-6
Elmhurst 3-7
Carthage 2-8
Lake Forest 0-10

1953
Wheaton 9-0
Illinois Wesleyan 7-2
Millikin 7-2
Augustana 4-4
Lake Forest 4-5
North Central 3-6
Illinois College 1-8
Elmhurst 0-8


Not since 1953. 

And in the current configuration of teams, it's never happened.

[sac]

Someone refresh my memory on why Lake Forest left the CCIW.

[cardinalpride]

I remotely watched part of the second half of the North Park/North Central game.  There were no more than 50 people occupying the "student section."  I couldn't tell if they were all students, but based on my attendance this season, they were not all students.  How pathetic.  What a junk season too.

When was the last time the 7th and 8th place teams combined for no more than two conference victories?

http://www.cciw.org/custompages/CCIW_Links/MBasketball/History/MBB_Records.pdf

With 65 CCIW seasons in the books (soon to be 66), only twice has the bottom 2 accounted for 2 or fewer wins...

1949
Illinois Wesleyan 9-1
Illinois College 8-2
Wheaton 8-2
Millikin 6-4
North Central 5-5
Augustana 4-6
Elmhurst 3-7
Carthage 2-8
Lake Forest 0-10

1953
Wheaton 9-0
Illinois Wesleyan 7-2
Millikin 7-2
Augustana 4-4
Lake Forest 4-5
North Central 3-6
Illinois College 1-8
Elmhurst 0-8


Not since 1953. 

And in the current configuration of teams, it's never happened.

As recently as the last two season, the 7th and 8th place finishers have combined for only 3 wins...
2010
Millikin.    2-12
Elmhurst. 1-13

2011
Elmhurst 3-11
Millikin.   0-14

Not much of a difference to me.

[Dennis_Prikkel]

Someone refresh my memory on why Lake Forest left the CCIW.

a change of presidential leadership and a de-emphasis of athletics.

for those of you who like trivia - north park once had an unbeaten record in CCIW football - having begun the 1962 conference season with a win over Lake Forest - its been almost downhill ever since.

during the decade of the fifties Lake Forest (especially under Hall of Fame coach Wally Lemm) once one of the few schools in the league to challenge Wheaton's stranglehold on the CCI football championships.  They also had some pretty good basketball teams as well.

[AndOne]

I wonder if I send cookies to NPU if it will help them beat NCC...

Not even magic cookies would have helped. NCC led wire to wire in chalking up a 75-49 victory. The Cardinals owned a 28-20 lead with 4:08 to go before halftime and closed with a 10-2 run to effectively put things away, taking a 38-22 advantage into the break. The run was highlighted by a steal by 6 foot CJ Goldthree who then sailed in for a 2 handed dunk. NCC then opened the 2nd half with a 12-2 surge that upped their advantage to 50-24. North Park then countered with a nice 14-2 run to narrow their deficit to 52-38, but they were never able to come within 12 points of the Cards, who held their hosts scoreless over the final 4:27 to close out the 26 point win.

NCC shot 43% including 41% from three, compared to NPU's 30.6%, and out rebounded the Vikings 52-31.
The Cards were led in scoring by Aaron Tiknis with 15. He was nicely supported by Landon Gamble and Derek Raridon, both with 14, and Goldthree with 11. Vince Kmiec added 8. Charlie Rosenberg led the bench scoring with 7 and Ryan Broyles added 4.
Tkinis registered his 4th double-double of the season with 15 and 10. In so doing, he took over the CCIW field goal pct. lead at .604, a remarkable figure when you consider he is shooting .595 on in-conference threes (25 of 42). Aaron ranks highly in many conference statistical categories, and is playing at a 1st team all-conference level.

North Park was led by Roshawn Russell's 14 points. Mike Gabriel added 12 (to go along with a game high 11 boards), and Emanuel Crosby 10. NPU's cause was hurt by having their best player, Mark Holmes score only 5 before fouling out. Seniors Russell and Crosby were honored in a nice pre-game ceremony. Both have been all conference performers during their Viking careers. 

[Titan Q]

New regional rankings...

http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basketball-men/d3


I'm shocked Hanover moved in, and not Augie.  Augie has wins over UW-Stevens Point, Wheaton, and IWU.

[Gregory Sager]

Also congrats to Coach Raridon and the Cardinals for wrapping up a share of the CCIW title tonight.

..not so tough to do in a comparatively not so tough CCIW this year - almost half of the teams fell in a category of "pure junk".

Well, someone is a little bitter here.

Bitter is what OurHouse does best, newcardfan. Alas, in this case, he's right. Millikin is, by record at least, the worst team in CCIW history at a soon-to-be 1-24. NPU (which will finish 6-19, 2-12 after Wheaton cleans its clock on Saturday night) is putrid. And Elmhurst and Carthage are well below par for what's expected of middle-of-the-pack CCIW teams; unless Carthage can manage to beat Augustana in the Toolshed on Saturday night, the Red Men will finish the year with a losing record. Augie will go into that game with something to play for in terms of CCIW tourney seeding; the Red Men, meanwhile, showed indications last night that they're phoning it in after their crushing loss to IWU last Saturday eliminated them from postseason contention.

The same holds true for Elmhurst, except that the 'jays have the even steeper task of having to pull off a major upset at Shirk on Saturday against Illinois Wesleyan in order to avoid a losing season. While the 'jays have been fairly formidable at home, on the road they are 0-6 this season against teams with winning records, with their average margin of loss in double digits. They are almost sure to get pounded on Saturday night by a Titans team that is playing for something a lot more tangible and positive than a mere .500 season.

Meanwhile, the four teams at the top, although solid, aren't really the sort of national-power juggernauts that we're used to seeing in this league. All four of those teams are borderline Top 25 outfits. It's a fool's errand to try to predict what will happen in the D3 tourney, but there's an alarmingly strong chance that, for the first time since 2007, we won't see a CCIW team make the sectionals this March.

The league is down this year, no two ways about it. The coaches keep saying otherwise, but they're supposed to tout the CCIW at every given opportunity.

If you're still ticked off at OurHouse, though, ask him about those dibs he claimed on Wesleyan winning the CCIW championship this season.

I remotely watched part of the second half of the North Park/North Central game.  There were no more than 50 people occupying the "student section."  I couldn't tell if they were all students, but based on my attendance this season, they were not all students.  How pathetic.  What a junk season too.

Absolutely, and the situation was exacerbated by really poor scheduling. NPU didn't have a 2011-12 home game that took place while school was in session until the Wheaton game in the middle of January; and that game, which should've been the rowdiest game of the year, had a big ol' bucket of cold water poured on it by the fact that it was played on a Saturday afternoon rather than in the evening. By the time the NPU student body finally got a chance to see the Vikings, the season was well into the tank and there was no reason to muster up any enthusiasm for heading over to the crackerbox. It was the exact antithesis of soccer season, as far as North Park fan support was concerned.

New regional rankings...

http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basketball-men/d3


I'm shocked Hanover moved in, and not Augie.  Augie has wins over UW-Stevens Point, Wheaton, and IWU.

You're like a curse on Augie, Bob; you keep predicting that the Doggies would get into the Midwest Region rankings, and the regional committee keeps snubbing them. If you're not careful, Grey Giovanine is going to mail you an envelope filled with anthrax.

[Titan Q]

If you're not careful, Grey Giovanine is going to mail you an envelope filled with anthrax.

I'd whip the envelope into the 5th row.

[Gregory Sager]

NPU was pretty listless last night in its loss to North Central. The Cardinals absolutely ate up the Vikings on the offensive boards, as the litany of offenses by the Park brought "failure to box out" up to the top of the list. The one time I saw as many as four Vikings put bodies on Cardinals when the ball went up in the air at NPU's defensive end, the fifth Cardinal (Derek Raridon) went right down the lane untouched and would've had a tip dunk if Emanuel Crosby hadn't clotheslined him and picked up a flagrant foul. It was that kind of night for the Vikings, who likewise did a poor job of following their men through screens and cutting off the weakside on swing passes and skip passes.

North Park then countered with a nice 14-2 run to narrow their deficit to 52-38, but they were never able to come within 12 points of the Cards

Actually, NPU did manage to get within 12. An Emanuel Crosby layup at the 11:37 mark sliced the NCC lead to 54-42. Unfortunately, that's as close as the Vikings got, although they were within 13 with as little as seven minutes to go. Basically, whittling down that 26-point Cardinals lead to 12 took everything that NPU had, as it not only involved the streaky Ro Russell getting white-hot from beyond the arc, it also took a brief segment of all-too-rare strong rebounding by the Vikes in order to achieve that semi-comeback. Alas, the Cards survived the Park's best punch and pretty much cruised to the win down the stretch.

The one consolation was that the two seniors, Russell and Crosby, both went out with double-digit scoring games in their final appearances in the crackerbox.

Seniors Russell and Crosby were honored in a nice pre-game ceremony. Both have been all conference performers during their Viking careers. 

Russell never made the All-CCIW team.

If you're not careful, Grey Giovanine is going to mail you an envelope filled with anthrax.

I'd whip the envelope into the 5th row.

LOL!

[Titan Q]

My take on Augie and the regional rankings.  Midwest committee discussion goes something like this...

"Look, we're not putting 4 CCIW teams in the top 8.  So here's the deal - we'll keep whatever 3 in that have the best resumes.  You guys get through your tournament and let us sort it out in the final ranking.  2 of your teams will have a fighting shot at Pool C...probably not 3." 


Here is all of the Midwest data, by the way...

http://web1.ncaa.org/champsel_new/exec/pdf/staticpdfrank?doWhat=publicrankings&sportCode=MBB&region=35&division=3

Augie's .460 SOS is a killer.

[Titan Q]

Not "in-region", but IWU picks up another win over a regionally ranked team as 19-2 Bethany slides into the Great Lakes this week.  (Staten Island is #2 in the Atlantic.)

Could help.

[iwu70]

I guess new regional rankings no big surprise.  Gotta keep winning, keep building your resume.  Gotta keep rooting for all those key prospective Midwest Pool A candidates, right?  Keep many Pool C spots open.  Bethany was a very good team, out east. 

Gotta love the Oz show last night @ the Griz.  4 treys in 9 minutes of play, to become the leading scorer for the game off the bench.  Zimmer now tied for third with Sean Johnson for the all-time career treys made record at IWU.  Keep going Jordan, keep going Oz! 

Titan fans, who would you rather play in the CCIW tournament -- NCC in the semis or WC in the semis?  My choice somehow would be NCC first.  Need to beat EC on senior night, then have a good strong tournament at NCC.

Coach G with anthrax . . . a truly scary thought.

IWU70