MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[badgerwarhawk]

Agreed, Greek.  I knew there was no way both Augustana and WHITEWATER would get byes.  If one of the two were awarded the bye Augustana definitely deserved it over us.

I'd say you were both deserving, though.

I was convinced they were more deserving a week or so ago when I commented on being surprised they had assumed the #1 ranking in the regional rankings.  The data Dave and other provided was convincing.

[gbpuckfan]

Congratulations to IWU and Elmhurst on well deserved spots in the tourney. Can anyone give me a good reason for having 62 teams rather than just going with 64 and eliminating the two byes? I think with 64 teams NCC would be in too.

Still a lot better than the days of 48 teams and only 7 at large berths. I will always feel that the 20-5 Drew Carstens led Augie team that tied IWU and Carthage for 1st place was the best CCIW team ever that did not make the NCAAs. IWU was the only CCIW team in the tourney that year and made it to the Sweet 16. Drew Carstens is one of my top 3 favorite Augie players and certainly deserved to have at least one chance to play in the NCAA tourney. Glad things are fairer today.

number of d3 teams (430?) divided by (x?) equals 62 Pat Coleman has the formula somewhere on the boards but cannot find it

IIRC, X = 6.5

[cardinalpride]

The Augie-WashU second round is of course the biggest head-scratcher in the bracket. Not much love for the Midwest in terms of the bracketing. But to be fair, the region is down this year and when the second and third CCIW teams combine for 15 losses, it's to be expected. North Central missing out was not shocking, in light of Carthage's fate last year.

Bluejay,
These type of early second round match ups happen quite frequently in the Midwest/central region. In 2013, NCC at 26-3 (ranked #1 in the region) had to match up against whitewater at 25-4 (ranked 2 in their region) and the defending national champions! NCC didn't even get to play that game at home. Fortunately, NCC was able to survive only to host arch rival IWU in the 3rd round! IWU only won the CCIW that year at 13-1! NCC probably played its best game of the tourney that night for another big win. It's really just a by product of how strong the region is year to year.

[izzy stradlin]

Congratulations to IWU and Elmhurst on well deserved spots in the tourney. Can anyone give me a good reason for having 62 teams rather than just going with 64 and eliminating the two byes? I think with 64 teams NCC would be in too.

Still a lot better than the days of 48 teams and only 7 at large berths. I will always feel that the 20-5 Drew Carstens led Augie team that tied IWU and Carthage for 1st place was the best CCIW team ever that did not make the NCAAs. IWU was the only CCIW team in the tourney that year and made it to the Sweet 16. Drew Carstens is one of my top 3 favorite Augie players and certainly deserved to have at least one chance to play in the NCAA tourney. Glad things are fairer today.

Hard to believe Carstens never played in the tourney.  Joel Kolmodin is another one.  The '03-'04 Wheaton team with Kolmodin, Jon Nielson, and Jonathan Steven went 21-4 and didn't get in.  That team and the Augie team you mentioned both had final four tourney potential.   Nice to have a little larger field these days.

[Mr. Ypsi]

cardinalpride, IWU started the CCIW 13-0, but I was not at all surprised that we lost to you in the conference finale, then again in the tourney.  When healthy, NCC was clearly the best team in the conference that year.  Fortunately for us, both Raridan and Gamble missed some games (IIRC, one of them missed the first Titan game entirely, and the other was less than 100%).

[cardinalpride]

Congratulations to IWU and Elmhurst on well deserved spots in the tourney. Can anyone give me a good reason for having 62 teams rather than just going with 64 and eliminating the two byes? I think with 64 teams NCC would be in too.

Still a lot better than the days of 48 teams and only 7 at large berths. I will always feel that the 20-5 Drew Carstens led Augie team that tied IWU and Carthage for 1st place was the best CCIW team ever that did not make the NCAAs. IWU was the only CCIW team in the tourney that year and made it to the Sweet 16. Drew Carstens is one of my top 3 favorite Augie players and certainly deserved to have at least one chance to play in the NCAA tourney. Glad things are fairer today.

Augie fan,
There are 2 games NCC wishes they could play again, Millikin at home and the last few minutes at elmhurst.  Win and their in.
As far as Drew Carstens is concerned, I believe he is the second best player in the last 15 years not to win MOP. Only behind Landon Gamble of course. :-)
My apologies if Carstens did win the award. I'm going on zero research here.

[iwu70]

Delighted EC got in.  Congrats to John Baines and his team.  Sorry, kiko and AO, just wasn't meant to be this year for NCC.  Would love to see a year when four CCIW teams are selected.

Does anyone know about IWU's first round opponent?  Pointers vs. IWU will be a tough 2nd round game too, if it happens.  I, too, was surprised that Augie has to play Wash U in the second round, but of course at Carver.  I liked the D3hoops proposed bracket much better. 

It's that time of year -- some super duper D3 hoops.  Good luck to all the CCIW entrants.  Let's make some noise for the league.

GO TITANS -- it's a six game season now.  All is wiped clear and clean -- it is a new start for all 62 teams.

IWU70

[augiefan]

I certainly agree that Landon Gamble was an incredible talent, who I always thought could haver played DI at the mid-major level. I feel much the same about Juwan Henry, but I see him getting the MOP in either his junior or senior year perhaps both.

You are correct that Carstens never won the MOP, although d3Hoops had him on three straight All America teams including first team in his junior year. The players that beat out Carstens for MOP were all exceptional players: 2001 Ryan Knuppel, 2002 Antoine McDaniel, 2003 Joel Kolmodin and 2004 Keelan Amelianovich. Hard to find fault with any of the 4, but I think DC should have won it in 2003, since Augie tied for 1st in the CCIW and Wheaton did not.

[iwu70]

bbfan, loved your "all Wesleyan" Final Four.  As an old Methodist and Methodist preacher's kid, of course, I'm all for that!  John and Charles are indeed smiling in their graves with your proposal, perhaps thinking of writing an appropriate hymn in honor -- "All Hail the Power of Wesleyans' Name" or some such.  We could call it the "vital piety" Final Four!  Little chance, of course, as I'm sure some other denominations and some pagen schools will also have their say by final four reckoning.  I'll be praying for the Wesleyans' Final Four.  No pre-determination, I know.  Just faith and hope.

Your faithful servant, IWU'70

[augiefan]

I think the Midwest teams are pretty much as strong as ever. The additional losses for teams like Elmhurst and IWU for the most part came against other Midwest teams many improved over prior years. Look how much tougher it was against the bottom 4 in the CCIW. Until recently NPU and Millikin would not have been considered all that competitive, although perhaps the fall off in talent at Wheaton and Carthage offset that a little. Nevertheless there were no sure things in any conference game this year.

[Naperick]

Nice to see 3 teams in.  Easily could have had a 4th.

I think it shows how strong of a conference the CCIW is.  Many times in the last decade the CCIW has had 3 teams in the D3 tourney.  Good competition and a lot of credit goes to the coaches and athletic directors who are willing to schedule good teams.

Best of luck to Augustana, Illinois Wesleyan, and Elmhurst!

[iwumichigander]

Could easily have been four with a little more luck.  I think IWU, Elmhurst and NCC can look back at 2-4 games that each could have or should have won including a couple of non-conference games.  Two more wins each would have given the CCIW a better chance to put two in.
And, it could be the ".030 SoS = 2 wins " may have worked for both IWU and Elmhurst in discussion at the Pool C table.

There were no walkover or cupcake games in the CCIW this season IMO.  Truly on any given night any team could have won; and, sometimes deservedly did!

[Mr. Ypsi]

There has been some discussion of d3 getting a 63rd and 64th team into the tourney.  I don't recall the specifics, but with teams already in the transition-to-d3-pipeline I seem to recall we might get to 63 as early as 2016 or 17, and a full 64 by 2020-something.

Alas, too late for NCC.   Since Pat and company went 19 for 19 on Pool C, I'll assume their 'left at the table' was also pretty accurate - with the Card's SOS and vRRO numbers, they probably would have been #20, almost certainly at least #21.  It was their winning% that killed 'em - one less loss and they would be dancin'!

[Gregory Sager]

I know of a few years where the CCIW got (3) teams in.  Has the league ever had 4 entrants?

No. I'm pretty sure that the only sport that follows this type of selection format (i.e., the ball sports) in which the CCIW has had four entrants in one tourney is softball. That happened two years ago.

As Mike Krizman's press release on the CCIW website indicated today, this is the fourth consecutive season that the CCIW has placed three teams in the dance. It's also the eighth straight season, and the tenth out of the past eleven, that the CCIW has had at least two teams make it.

Congratulations to IWU and Elmhurst on well deserved spots in the tourney. Can anyone give me a good reason for having 62 teams rather than just going with 64 and eliminating the two byes? I think with 64 teams NCC would be in too.

Still a lot better than the days of 48 teams and only 7 at large berths. I will always feel that the 20-5 Drew Carstens led Augie team that tied IWU and Carthage for 1st place was the best CCIW team ever that did not make the NCAAs. IWU was the only CCIW team in the tourney that year and made it to the Sweet 16. Drew Carstens is one of my top 3 favorite Augie players and certainly deserved to have at least one chance to play in the NCAA tourney. Glad things are fairer today.

Hard to believe Carstens never played in the tourney.  Joel Kolmodin is another one.  The '03-'04 Wheaton team with Kolmodin, Jon Nielson, and Jonathan Steven went 21-4 and didn't get in.  That team and the Augie team you mentioned both had final four tourney potential.   Nice to have a little larger field these days.

Bill Harris is still muttering about that '04 selection snub. I wouldn't recommend bringing up that subject if you ever run into him.

[veterancciwfan]

Has any poster seen Dubuque play this year? Emhurst beat them at home in December 98-93 in OT. And NCC beat Stevens Point in WI in November 63-56. IWU lost to Stevens Point there in the 4th round in 2010 by 16. That was the Doug Sexauer, Sean Johnson, Travis Rosenkranz IWU team.