MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[titanhammer]

titan hammer, I will concede your point about the #4 CCIW being better than the 2nd in many of the 38 AQ conferences.

...and that's the point I was making:  I wasn't trying to make a case that the CCIW deserved four teams in the tournament.  All the CCIW has in the tournament for sure is the AQ (still games to be played).

[iwumichigander]

CCIW Weekly Men's Basketball Release #11 offers expanded/revised criteria for:

Conference Tie-Breaker Breakdown
Below is the criteria for tie-breakers in conference play. This criteria is used to
determine seedings for the CCIW men's & women's basketball tournament:
a. Head to head competition.
b. Record against team(s) above the tie beginning with the highest
ranked team. In cases of more than two teams being involved in
a tie, the composite record of the involved teams will be
considered.
c. Record versus team or teams in 3rd place. If still tied, go to the
next place for determination, et cetera.
d. Road record against conference schools.
e. Record in their last nine games.
f. The point spread of the tied teams' head-to head competition.
g. Coin toss


These revised criteria (above) seem to address tournament seeding issues.  I am not going to even attempt to break this down in scenarios.

FYI - prior criteria (pre-tournament) was:
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

[79jaybird]

Titanhammer and Greg, I understand and that is just theory.  I tell my youth hockey team ( that I coach)  not to think that you're untouchable beacause the worst team in the league can beat you anyday. We're something like 8-1 or7-2 and at the top, but I tell my kids to think that we are 0-0 or 5-5 with something left to prove.
I still think Augie is in great shape to make some waves deep in post-season.

[oldreporter]

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. 

augiedogie -- don't ban yourself from the game just 'cause it was your first and they lost... if that kind of superstition worked, i'd have to ban myself from the rest of IWU's games for life... if you look at the conference championships, IWU didn't win a single CCIW champ the four years I was at IWU (98-02), but did 97-98, and have the last three years. In addition, when the 01 team went on their Salem run and got 3rd, I had chosen that semester to study off campus. Now, I've been out of state for the last three years, and IWU has won the CCIW all three years, and this year were undefeated until I started going to the games in January when I got back in IL... 

Go enjoy whatever games you have left! I know I am (and will more than likely be wearing green in Augustana so that the Titans can out-cheer the Vikings!)

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Wow, man, you really are a curse.

[Johnny Augie]

And please, this is not a plea to begin talk about who the MOP is, but merely pointing out the fact that what awards the CCIW have given (with the exception of the Player of the Week) are not exactly what we would presume them to be or what we thought its meaning should be. 

I would leave the Player of the Week included as well.  Didn't Nate Swetella win this award after averaging 6 points and 2 boards over 2 games?  I know he played great defense, but come on.

[Titan Q]

I've been trying to figure out which team in the CCIW is the best lately, but I can't seem to differentiate between Augustana, Illinois Wesleyan, Elmhurst, and North Central.  And it is not just that the top 4 are balanced -- all 4 are very good too.  I honestly think all 4 "contenders" are legitimate Final Four-caliber teams and that this is the strongest upper half of the league I've seen in 16 years of following the CCIW.

Elmhurst impressed the heck out of me Saturday in Bloomington.  The Bluejays have gotten so much better from the first time I saw them (December 3 vs Hanover) -- freshmen Brent Ruch and Robert Strzemp have really emerged as good players, Brian Lee has become a dependable point-guard, Chris Ihlenfeldt is a steady presence from 3-point range, 6-10 Nick Michael is getting pretty scary, and All-American Chris Martin finally looks to me like he's on a team where he feels like he doesn't have to do it all.  Of course, Martin is currently 5th in the CCIW in scoring (19.8 ppg), 1st in rebounding (8.1 rpg), and 2nd in assists (4.36 per), behind only Adam Dauksas.  Actually hard to figure out how one ends up near the top of all of those categories.

Elmhurst has a budding CCIW superstar in 6-9/255 Brent Ruch.  In EC's opener @ Hope, Ruch played 8 minutes, going 0-4 from the field.  He played 8 minutes in the loss @ UW-Platteville (1-5) and in the loss @ Albion, Ruch was 1-1 from the field in 15 minutes of action.  He has now started two games -- last night at Carthage, Ruch had 18 points and 15 rebounds (7-13 FG) in 33 minutes.  Saturday at IWU in front of 3000, he had 23 points on 10-12 from the field.  In his last game as a non-starter (at Millikin), he was 6-8 from the field for 13 points and 8 rebounds.  In CCIW play overall, the freshman is averaging 10.0 pts, 6.5 rebounds, and is 2nd in the league in FG % - 46-75 (.613).  On WJBC Saturday I made the comparison to former Wheaton 1st Teamer Luke Moo, and I think Ruch has a chance to be as good as Moo.

I also think North Central is outstanding.  Anthony Simmons is the best big guy I've seen this year, and I've seen some real good ones.  The Cardinals have such a great frontline with 6-6/225 Simmons (18.6 ppg, 5.9 rpg, .570 FG), 6-5/200 Daniel Walton (17.6 ppg, 7.0 rpg, .620 FG), and 6-7/220 Adam Krumtinger (10.7 ppg, 7.5 rpg, .549 FG).  Statistically, is there a better 3-4-5 combo in the nation?  Then you add in that steady backcourt duo of Adam Teising and Ray Vicario and you really have a balanced, dangerous squad.  NCC is shooting .538 on the season as a team, and holding opponents to .417.   I think the Cardinals can play with anybody.

Augustana plays the best defense I've seen this year.  Throw out D1 Southern Illinois, which I saw a couple weeks back play Illinois State, and Augie plays the best D I've seen at any level in 2005-06.  Vikings opponents collectively have 241 assists to 348 turnovers -- a .69 A/TO ratio.  Augustana also has one of the leading candidates for the 2006 M.O.P. right now, Rick Harrigan (21.3 ppg in CCIW play).  Harrigan has taken over a number of games for the Vikes down the stretch in league play -- vs Wheaton, @ Carthage, vs North Central and @ Elmhurst.  The one game he was only able to play 16 minutes due to injury is the one game Augie has lost.  Jay McAdams-Thorton is having another solid year and the Swetallas have both been impact transfers.  Drew Wessels gives them a solid point.

And then there is 3-time defending league champ, and national preseason #1, Illinois Wesleyan -- two legitimate All-Americans in Adam Dauksas and Keelan Amelianovich and a third guy who has scary talent in 6-7 Zach Freeman (15.1 ppg, 7.6 rpg, .546 FG).  Plenty of solid role players as well with Jason Fisher, Matt Arnold, Cory Jones, Chris Jones, Steve Schweer, Mike McGraw, and Andrew Freeman.  Eight seniors and two juniors in the rotation and a team that's been through the wars many, many times.


Enjoy the finish, folks...and make plans to get to that inaugural tournament.  There are a lot of years when the 4 teams that make it to Salem are not collectively as good as the teams that will be in Rock Island in a couple weeks.

[Titan Q]

Speaking of the tournament location, basically it is very simple right now -- if Augustana wins @ Millikin Saturday, the Vikes clinch the #1 seed and the right to host.  (Augie has the tie-breaker locked up over IWU by virtue of sweeping Elmhurst.)

[David Collinge]

Congratulations go out to IWU's Keelan Amelianovich (3.82, Accounting) and North Central's Dan Walton (3.56, Social Science/History), named today by CoSIDA to the Academic All-District First Team for Region V, College Div.  By being selected to the first team, these scholar-athletes are nominated for Academic All-America status. 

Congratulations also to Wheaton's Jordan Kemper and Michael Fiddler, and IWU's Adam Dauskas, named to the Academic All-District second team.

Men's Academic All-District teams

[bluejaybacker1]

I was wondering how they select these teams? Is it based on court performance and GPA?

Congrats, to all though for being selected.

Nevermind, I see that they have to be nominated by someone.

[iwumichigander]

33 consecutive seasons without an unbeaten team in CCIW play - amazing.

Another interesting historical note, since inception in 1975 only three (3) teams with undefeated records have become NCAA Division III National Champions:
1986  Potsdam St. (32-0) 
1995  Wis.-Platteville (31-0) 
1998  Wis.-Platteville (30-0) 
The two USWP teams coach was Bo Ryan.

Average number of losses through 2005 for a Div III National Champion - 3

National Champion(s) to survive the gaunlet with the most losses corrected 2/10:
NCCA shows six (6) National Champion teams had five (5) losses

And, through March 2003 CCIW teams hold or participated in setting:
7 of 10 NCAA Division III National Tournament Series Team Records
        (Three-game minimum for tournament series records).

[Titan Q]

Mich, you get your Titan Card taken away for a day...the 1997 Titan national champs were 29-2.  IWU lost @ North Central on 1/22 and at Benedictine on 3/1.  Otherwise all W's.

The 2001 Final Four team was 24-7 - I'm sure some NCAA website has IWU's '97 team with that 24-7 record but I'd expect more of you.

[79jaybird]

TitanQ or IWUMichigander... how many times has 1 conference been able to field 3 teams into the NCAA Tournament.  The only one that I know of was 2001 when Elmhurst, IWU, and Carthage each made the big dance.
Q  you're right about Brent Ruch.. For a Freshmen he's playing like  seasoned veteran and is getting better each time I see him.  The Bluejays have a strong underclass  which I would like to see get molded into a solid upperclass in a few years.

[titanhammer]

TitanQ or IWUMichigander... how many times has 1 conference been able to field 3 teams into the NCAA Tournament.  The only one that I know of was 2001 when Elmhurst, IWU, and Carthage each made the big dance.
Q  you're right about Brent Ruch.. For a Freshmen he's playing like  seasoned veteran and is getting better each time I see him.  The Bluejays have a strong underclass  which I would like to see get molded into a solid upperclass in a few years.

I don't know how many times, but do remember we had three in '90:  North Central, North Park, and IWU.

[hodes50]

Thanks Q.  There are some things this longtime lurker will let slide, but not 1997.  I couldn't remember the other 5 losses that year.  Maybe the cold air up in Michigan has gotten the better of mighigander's memory!