MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[iwumichigander]

rather interesting comment - that the crowd got bigger as the game was winding down

That is somewhat true, I showed up at halftime!!!

Not unusual really as the Wheaton students who can get the WETN radio and webcast sometimes will drift over as the game progresses.

[Johnny Augie]

You have to hand it to Wheaton...they hit some great shots in the final minutes and deserved to win the game.  Bollier had some good shots that seemed to get the crowd going each time Augie crept back into the game.

[Johnny Augie]

On one more note...

Coach Harris was a real class act after the game.  Wheaton was celebrating their victory with the students and both teams never really had a chance to shake hands.  Pretty much the coaches shook hands and the Augie players, realizing the mid-court party, started to head back to the showers.  Coach Harris ran down the court and grabbed Harrigan to see if he was ok and to wish them good luck in the tourney.  Like always, Coach Harris shows that he's a great guy.

[Gregory Sager]

Bottom line, #2 Lawrence had some trouble vs Carthage just like #3 Augustana, #4 Hope, #7 Illinois Wesleyan, #22 Carroll, #25 Calvin, and "#26" Elmhurst did.

"Crushed" was admittedly an exaggeration on my part. But Lawrence clearly did not have as much trouble with Carthage in Kenosha as Augustana and Illinois Wesleyan did. The latter two games went right down to the wire -- Carthage missed a shot that would've won the game at the buzzer against the Titans, and they also had a chance to tie the game in the last six seconds against the Doggies. Lawrence pulled away in the last quarter of their game in Kenosha; Carthage never got any closer than eight points in the last 5 1/2 minutes of that game. So the point still stands.

[Jim Matson]

Whew!  What a great game at Wheaton tonight!  Again the young Thunder surprise me with their ability to play with the big boys of the CCIW.  After getting crushed by North Central, Wheaton comes back and plays solid with another great example of leadership from Bollier.  These guys are having fun...

[bluemom]

I have not been counting my chickens before they have hatched...taking what is given as it is given.......  as we get the final four set in Rock Island I will pontificate on seedings and pairings if you allow me to do so.  But,

With the Carthage loss tonight, they join Millikin and North Park whose seasons will end with Conference play.   Whetaon is one loss away from elimination, thus setting officially the Conference tournament with Augie, IWU, NCC and Elmhurst.

Great win tonight for Wheaton!

[Gregory Sager]

For what it's worth, Ed Whitaker is a second-year player.  He has started 12 games this season.

How would you like your crow, Mr. Prikkel ... baked or fried? 

[iwumichigander]

Augie has been barely winning all year no matter who they play, and it finally caught up with them. It looks like IWU has a good shot of at least tying or perhaps beating Augie for the title now. Any idea who gets the tourney if Augie and IWU tie with 11-3 records?

Well they would split the head-to-head tiebreaker.  Then, isnt the next tiebreaker record vs. 3rd place, 4th place, etc?

If so, NCC finishes 3rd then Augie and IWU would both be 1-1
Then on to 4th place Elmhurst where Augie would be 2-0 and IWU 1-1
So Augie would get it.  If Elmhurst finished 3rd the Augie would win it there.

I think that is right but I'm not totally positive

 
Here are the official CCIW NCAA Qualifications:
B. The following tie breakers will be used to determine the CCIW automatic
qualifier:
1. Head-to-head competition, win-loss
2. Best record vs. team in 3rd place. If still tied, go to the next place for
determination, et cetera
3. Road record
4. Record in last 9 games

In the event IWU and Augustana have identical records, then the conference title is a tie or shared.  Augustana by above criteria would be the host for the CCIW Tournament.  Of course, if Augie drops 4 and IWU runs the rest of the table -- welcome to the Shirk

[robertgoulet]

so, i may be a bit naive.....but could someone explain how the cciw will run......

i.e.

augie gets the 1 seed.....so they host the tourney......

1st day of the tourney 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3.

the following day the winners face off for the AQ?

[augiedogie]

What a game at Wheaton tonight.  Augie goes 10-18 from the free throw line to lose by 4. With 49 seconds left and down 2 they miss BOTH free throws which ended up sealing their fate. Tough loss, and I've banned myself from going to anymore games this season, because it was my first game and they lost. 

[iwumichigander]

Augiedoggie - normally a 73.7% FT shooting team, I agree tonight's Augustana 55.6% FT hurt.  However, I think the more telling stats are these:

2nd chance points-AUGIE 0,WHEATON 4. Fast break points-AUGIE 5,WHEATON 14.

Wheaton out rebounds Augie 32-28 .  Bollier and Fiddler had outstanding performances tonight in every category.  You really gotta like what Bill Harris has done this year with the Thunder and admire the leadership Bollier has provided.

[Mr. Ypsi]

I realize there are still several games left, but unless Augie totally tanks and fails to win the regular-season title, I would expect that Grey Giovanine will be COY in a landslide.  But I wonder if anyone else shares my feeling that perhaps it should be Bill Harris.

Here you've got a coach who knows some trouble is on the horizon (4 of 5 starters are graduating), but then finds a whole bunch more are transferring or quitting (altogether Wheaton returned ONE of the top nine players from last year).  Out of respect for Harris I did not pick them 8th, but did figure anything above 7th would be a stretch.

Yet now, late in the season, they still have a shot at the conference tourney (though I predict they will finish 5th).  I don't know if ANYONE has ever won COY with a team that low, but I think he should get strong consideration - and predict that Wheaton will be right back in the mix as early as next season.

Comments?

[Ralph Turner]

I am confused as to why DIII even does regional rankings. It has nothing to do with the NCAA selection?? Pool A is the automatic bids, Pool B is for the independants without a conference and Pool C is compared nationally. What am I missing?

advoice, I'm with you -- I do not see much value in the regional rankings nowadays.  I guess all it does is let us know where some of the teams stack up vs each other at this point.  We know that Transylvania would be seeded higher than Illinois Wesleyan if the tournament started today, for example.

But then again, since they don't go strictly by seeds in making the bracket, who really cares?  Geography skews the bracket anyway.

Advoice, the regional rankings are the basis of the national Pool C selections.  The Pool C selection process is to compare and contrast the highest ranked team in each region that hasn't already earned a Pool A or B bid.  Each region's regional rankings determine which eight teams are in the discussion at any point in the selection process. 

Q, I'm guessing that you are questioning the value of these mid-season rankings releases, rather than the rankings themselves.  There doesn't seem to be any real point in releasing the 3 rankings that happen during the season, except as they provide information to fans, coaches, players, etc.  Then the final ranking, the one that is used in the tournament selection and (to a degree) bracketing, is done in secret and never released to the public.  It's nice to have the preliminary rankings as fodder for discussion, and it's hardly the only time we receive essentially useless information.  They're certainly no more or less useful than the D3hoops.com top 25 ranking, but I sure wouldn't want to do away with that!

Good response, David.

The NESCAC has figured out how to use the QOWI to its advantage.

The ASC has a full slate of inter-divisional games. In 2003-04, the West "won" the series, 44-23.  The net effect was to raise the QOWI of the teams in the West by +0.57.  Look on the Pool C board to see how much 0.57 QOWI points mean.  The West was the "Power" conference relative to the East.

At the end of the year, let's look at the difference that the Midwest Region (non-CCIW) games made on the QOWI.  If the CCIW is truly a power conference, we should see that difference, similar to the example of the ASC-West vs the ASC-East.  Likewise that difference will have been built into the data that the committee considers, and should help with the bids.

The QOWI will reflect the impact of the total number of losses.  For those of you who have not given the QOWI any serious consideration, divide the number of in-region games into the integer "8" and you will get the net impact of a loss on the QOWI.   The Augie loss tonight drops their QOWI by  (8 / 19 = ) -0.421 points.  By the end of the regular season, Augie will have played 22 In-region games.  The loss will be worth  (8 / 22=)  -0.3636 QOWI points.  The "Power" dividend (+0.57) that the ASC-West teams got more than compensated for an extra loss that one could argue is the net effect from the competition from a balanced CCIW or other power conference.

As for the inherent weakness of the Northeast, we need the Coaches pushing from the NABC and WBCA to get a power index.  Hopefully, it comes out of the Competition or the Executive Committee where I think that it has been sent for study.

As for my impression of the relative strengths of the MIdwest, they seem to be very good, but that much better to have the CCIW 4th team knocking out a 2nd team from another conference for a Pool C?

[titanhammer]

Not only that, but thanks to PointSpecial I now have to find a dictionary and look up "defenestration" (I took all of my English classes at D1 and JUCO).

You shouldn't've needed a dictionary, hammer; all you needed was to scroll backwards 30 or 40 pages in CCIW Chat to find the illuminating (if not directly on point) discussion of the Second Defenestration of Prague. 

I think I would rather continue to work on my taxes.  I keep trying to find the loophole where I can put my newborn daughter on my 2005 return.

Claim OB/GYN medical expenses.

Not enough there...especially since my wife is an RN in her OB/GYN's office.

[patcummings]

I was courtside at tonight's Augie/Wheaton game and blogged my thoughts on the Daily Dose.