MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[realist]

Calvin 78 Hope 53. 

[thunder38]

Per WETN- WETN's pregame coverage of tonight's Wheaton-Illinois Wesleyan game will start at 6 pm and will go live to Bloomington around 6:30. Rusty Lindsey on play-by-play duties with Jon Panner and Owen Handy joining him on the broadcast. Audio can be picked up on 88.1 FM in the local Wheaton area or on the Wheaton Stretch portal.

No doubt a knowledgable broadcast team.

Best of luck to both teams tonight. Hoping for another terrific game between these two teams.

[Titan Q]

I watched 5 minutes of the Chicago/Wash. U. game and can't watch any more. Wash. U. up 15. Chicago is a horrible defensive team with a selfish "I can create my own shot" offense. I like Mike McGrath, but he needs to recruit some team oriented players who at least make an effort on the defensive side. Chicago can't be the 8th best team in the Midwest Region. I would like to know the rationale the committee used when it decided to give Chicago the #8 ranking last Sunday. There has to be a reason. Elmhurst would beat Chicago by double digits. The majority of CCIW coaches want a conf. tournament so the teams at the bottom don't give up hope the third week of January. Can't damage that thin veneer of self-esteem. To those coaches, some advice: Recruit better players. That's what winners do.

Chicago is absolutely the right #8 team in the Midwest based on the criteria. 

[iwumichigander]

I watched 5 minutes of the Chicago/Wash. U. game and can't watch any more. Wash. U. up 15. Chicago is a horrible defensive team with a selfish "I can create my own shot" offense. I like Mike McGrath, but he needs to recruit some team oriented players who at least make an effort on the defensive side. Chicago can't be the 8th best team in the Midwest Region. I would like to know the rationale the committee used when it decided to give Chicago the #8 ranking last Sunday. There has to be a reason. Elmhurst would beat Chicago by double digits. The majority of CCIW coaches want a conf. tournament so the teams at the bottom don't give up hope the third week of January. Can't damage that thin veneer of self-esteem. To those coaches, some advice: Recruit better players. That's what winners do.

By ranking UChgo, the vRRO improved for several teams including WashU, Augustana, Rose-Hulman, Wheaton and IWU.  Outside of the Midwest, all UAA teams ranked in their geographic/administrative regions got a boost.  I thought it was a logical ranking. 
Another guess would be - ranking UChgo may have been one of those NCAA adjustment suggestions we hear about.

[Titan Q]

I watched 5 minutes of the Chicago/Wash. U. game and can't watch any more. Wash. U. up 15. Chicago is a horrible defensive team with a selfish "I can create my own shot" offense. I like Mike McGrath, but he needs to recruit some team oriented players who at least make an effort on the defensive side. Chicago can't be the 8th best team in the Midwest Region. I would like to know the rationale the committee used when it decided to give Chicago the #8 ranking last Sunday. There has to be a reason. Elmhurst would beat Chicago by double digits. The majority of CCIW coaches want a conf. tournament so the teams at the bottom don't give up hope the third week of January. Can't damage that thin veneer of self-esteem. To those coaches, some advice: Recruit better players. That's what winners do.

By ranking UChgo, the vRRO improved for several teams including WashU, Augustana, Rose-Hulman, Wheaton and IWU.  Outside of the Midwest, all UAA teams ranked in their geographic/administrative regions got a boost.  I thought it was a logical ranking. 
Another guess would be - ranking UChgo may have been one of those NCAA adjustment suggestions we hear about.

Chicago had the best numbers - plain and simple.  I had the Maroons in as Pool C #20 this morning (before WPI and Hope lost).

[D-3 watcher]

Foul trouble will always be a factor, but fatigue and depth might not be.
For whatever reason, the tourney games have media timeouts. So that's 8 media, along with 4 30's and 1 full, for each team. 18 total, instead of 12.

[bopol]

I watched 5 minutes of the Chicago/Wash. U. game and can't watch any more. Wash. U. up 15. Chicago is a horrible defensive team with a selfish "I can create my own shot" offense. I like Mike McGrath, but he needs to recruit some team oriented players who at least make an effort on the defensive side. Chicago can't be the 8th best team in the Midwest Region. I would like to know the rationale the committee used when it decided to give Chicago the #8 ranking last Sunday. There has to be a reason. Elmhurst would beat Chicago by double digits. The majority of CCIW coaches want a conf. tournament so the teams at the bottom don't give up hope the third week of January. Can't damage that thin veneer of self-esteem. To those coaches, some advice: Recruit better players. That's what winners do.

By ranking UChgo, the vRRO improved for several teams including WashU, Augustana, Rose-Hulman, Wheaton and IWU.  Outside of the Midwest, all UAA teams ranked in their geographic/administrative regions got a boost.  I thought it was a logical ranking. 
Another guess would be - ranking UChgo may have been one of those NCAA adjustment suggestions we hear about.

Chicago had the best numbers - plain and simple.  I had the Maroons in as Pool C #20 this morning (before WPI and Hope lost).

Chicago's also a good indicator of the value of SOS, as they were in ahead of Defiance, Marian and MSOE

Chicago 14-9; .579 SOS; 3-6 against RRO
Defiance 19-4; .485 SOS; 0-3 against RRO
Marian  19-6; .510 SOS; 1-1 against RRO
MSOE 21-5; .491 SOS; 0-0 against RRO

So, a loss can be made up for with about .020 of SOS by this standard.

A useful barometer for figuring out where others stand when comparing region to region.

[titanfan]

I watched 5 minutes of the Chicago/Wash. U. game and can't watch any more. Wash. U. up 15. Chicago is a horrible defensive team with a selfish "I can create my own shot" offense. I like Mike McGrath, but he needs to recruit some team oriented players who at least make an effort on the defensive side. Chicago can't be the 8th best team in the Midwest Region. I would like to know the rationale the committee used when it decided to give Chicago the #8 ranking last Sunday. There has to be a reason. Elmhurst would beat Chicago by double digits. The majority of CCIW coaches want a conf. tournament so the teams at the bottom don't give up hope the third week of January. Can't damage that thin veneer of self-esteem. To those coaches, some advice: Recruit better players. That's what winners do.

By ranking UChgo, the vRRO improved for several teams including WashU, Augustana, Rose-Hulman, Wheaton and IWU.  Outside of the Midwest, all UAA teams ranked in their geographic/administrative regions got a boost.  I thought it was a logical ranking. 
Another guess would be - ranking UChgo may have been one of those NCAA adjustment suggestions we hear about.

Chicago had the best numbers - plain and simple.  I had the Maroons in as Pool C #20 this morning (before WPI and Hope lost).

Chicago's also a good indicator of the value of SOS, as they were in ahead of Defiance, Marian and MSOE

Chicago 14-9; .579 SOS; 3-6 against RRO
Defiance 19-4; .485 SOS; 0-3 against RRO
Marian  19-6; .510 SOS; 1-1 against RRO
MSOE 21-5; .491 SOS; 0-0 against RRO

So, a loss can be made up for with about .020 of SOS by this standard.

A useful barometer for figuring out where others stand when comparing region to region.

Also sheer volume of games against RRO.  I know Q has said the committee has valued that a lot in the past.  Chicago is much stronger in that criteria than Marian, Defiance, or MSOE.

[unanimous22]

On the run, with 30 seconds or so on the shot clock, IWU's announcer just said "Well, that is a good shot. He's been hot" as Nelson launched a 3.

"Come on man!" Ditka voice.

[unanimous22]

Titan band is awesome though, I heard Green Day, Joan Jett, Journey, etc.

Wheaton played amazing tonight...Congrats, here's to the CCIW dominating the tournament. Cheers!

[Titan Q]

Wheaton was outstanding this evening in Bloomington.  They were the aggressor from the tip, I thought they played so much looser than IWU, and their defense against an elite offensive IWU team was tremendous.

The Titans just seemed out of sorts on both ends of the floor all evening long.  It was such an uncharacteristic and just plain weird game for the Titans.

IWU is still OK in terms of the NCAA tournament -- will be one of the first Pool C's selected, and should be a safe bet to host Rounds 1-2 next weekend, but this loss will really hurt IWU's chances of hosting a Sectional if they advance from the Regional.  From that standpoint this one hurts.

Really impressive performance by Wheaton tonight.  It's pretty hard to dominate this IWU team that thoroughly. 

[GoPerry]

Congratulations to the Thunder on their 2nd CCIW tourney crown with a tremendous total team effort in the win tonight.  Came out determined to be aggressive and not go down 3 times in one season to the Titans w/o fighting for it.  Peter Smith, for the 2nd night in a row, played another great game, shooting and going to the hoop with confidence.   Tad Fischer with some big baskets early.  Tyler Peters had one of his best of the season beginning with that first 3 pointer to start the game. MOP worthy.  And Nate Haynes finally gets a win in his hometown.  They were able to take the Shirk faithful crowd out of it early and really didn't let them get too much back into it. 

Gotta be a tough one to take for the Titans, but perhaps this will better focus them for a deep run over the next 3 weeks.  Wouldn't doubt it one bit.   I still think IWU is the better team but ran into an inspired buzzsaw in the first half tonight.  Might this be enough to get Wheaton home games next weekend?  That's probably a stretch.

[blue_jays]

Wheaton blowing out IWU was definitely a big, and happy, surprise. Especially given how many points they surrendered last time. Tonight showcased Wheaton's true potential that they haven't realized until this weekend. Once again, Tyler Peters shows why he's the best player around, near triple double with 29-10-8.

[AppletonRocks]

I thought IWU was unbeatable after reading this board all season.   

[Mr. Ypsi]

I thought IWU was unbeatable after reading this board all season.   

You obviously don't read very well.