MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[iwu70]

Point held E Tex Baptist to 8 first half points.  Wild.

'70

[iwu70]

Babson over Trinity in OT.  Looks like all the Sectional hosts will advance to Salem.

'70

[Gregory Sager]

Augie eviscerates Marietta, 100-51.

[GoPerry]

Wow... Augie advances and they do so, shall we say, convincingly?  Doubling up Marietta pretty impressive.  Let's hope they kept some offensive powder dry for Salem.  Congratulations gentlemen.

[Gregory Sager]

I clicked out for long stretches in the second half when it was clear that Augustana was going to cruise to victory in a laugher so that I could watch the endings of the two close games on the East Coast. But, boy, that was about as dominant an Elite Eight win as I've ever seen.

Augie held Marietta to 29% FG shooting; the Pioneers had only scored fewer than 70 once this season (a 66-51 win over LaRoche in November), and Augie held the Pioneers to 33 points below their season average. At the other end of the floor, Augie shot 62% from the field (34-55), 72% from downtown (13-17), and 95% from the line (19-20). Twelve different players scored, paced by Hunter Hill with 17, Griffin Pils with 16, Tayvian Johnson with 15 and 6, and Ben Ryan with 12.

Augie moves on to face Babson in Salem in one national semi, with UWSP taking on Virginia Wesleyan in the other.

[iwu70]

Congrats to Augie on Salem.  Keep it rolling Doggies, keep it rolling CCIW.

Point wins, Babson and VA. Wesleyan too. 

My money is on Point.

IWU70

[armywife]

I was only able to watch the 2nd half of the Augie-Marietta game, but that was amazing. Really hope that they can bring home a national championship this year. In any event, that was a great performance tonight. Shaun was at the game soaking it in. I'll bet that was a fun game to be at. Does anyone know if the final four games will be video streamed?

[Gregory Sager]

This marks four straight years that the CCIW has sent a representative to the Final Four. My initial scan of the Final Four records shows that this is only the second time that a league has had a Final Four rep for four straight seasons, with the CCIW doing it from 1978 thru 1981 as well.

What's really remarkable is that the league's been repped in Salem over the past three years now by three different schools: North Central two seasons ago, Illinois Wesleyan last season, and Augustana this season.

[Augie6]

Congrats to Augie on reaching the Final Four.  A dominant performance tonight against Marietta, which, I'm hoping, they can carry over to Salem next weekend.  Would have liked to been there in person, but it was fun to watch online.  Good luck against Babson.

[markerickson]

Greg:  During the NPC run under McCarrell, what school was the team that went to the FF in the fourth year?

[mactitan]

Hunter Hill made an interesting comment on the news last night about the team being used to the Friday-Saturday matchups because they played a lot of tournaments this year. Early in the season I was talking to someone loosely connected to Augie athletics who said that Grey has been trying to schedule more back to back games in preparation for the tournament. Didn't do the research to see if that is true, but I thought it was interesting that Hill specifically brought it up last night. That was among the most perfect basketball games I've ever seen a team play.

It has been too long since a CCIW club came home from Salem with the championship. Go Vikes!

[Titan Q]

Getting to Salem is a really, really big deal.  Congratulations to Grey Giovanine, his staff, and the Augie Vikings on getting to the Final Four.

Augustana is thought of as a tremendous defensive team...which the 2014-15 Vikings clearly are.  What makes this Augie team different, however, is that they are outstanding offensively too -- 79.1 ppg, .506 FG.  Last 6 games:
  - 89 @ Wheaton
  - 82 vs North Central
  - 78 vs IWU
  - 68 vs DePauw
  - 82 vs Mount Union
  - 100 vs Marietta

I see Augustana as the favorite in win the national championship.  I'm rooting for a CCIW/WIAC title game...that would be cool.  I think Augie can defend Stevens Point (which IWU could not)...and I think Augie can score enough points against UWSP's ridiculously good defense to win a 64-60 type game.

But of course, both have work to do Friday.  And IWU knows all about tough Friday nights in Salem:
- 1996: Rowan
- 2001: William Paterson
- 2006: Virginia Wesleyan
- 2012: Cabrini
- 2014: UW-Whitewater

[Titan Q]

With wins at Augustana and at UW-Stevens Point, North Central is looking like a pretty good Pool C pick looking back now.

Also interesting to note that Marietta was certainly one of the first few Pool Cs taken (I had them first based on the numbers).  My projection from the Sunday before the bracket announcement...

1. (GL) Marietta (.893/.519/4-3)
2. (MA) Johns Hopkins (.852/.539/3-3)
3. (C) UW-Stevens Point (.808/.575/2-4)
4. (C)  Washington U. (.800/.565/4-2)
5. (GL) Ohio Wesleyan (.815/.537/3-1)
6. (NE) Trinity-Conn. (.792/.535/5-1)
7. (NE) Amherst (.741/.579/6-3)
8. (NE) Bates (.760/.609/4-5)
9. (AT) William Patterson (.741/.565/4-3)
10. (GL) Wooster (.786/.551/3-2)
11. (C) Illinois Wesleyan (.704/.591/5-5)
12. (C) Elmhurst (.731/.551/4-4)
13. (S) Virginia Wesleyan (.815/.554/0-4)
14. (GL) John Carroll (.769/.527/3-3)
15. (W) St. Olaf (.808/.527/1-5)
16. (MA) Catholic (.846/.506/1-3)[/b]
17. (NE) Eastern Conn. (.815/.550/0-2)
18. (NE) WPI (.808/.515/2-3)
19. (C) North Central (.667/.587/3-6)

I missed just Springfield (.704/.584/3-5).  At the time, I felt like NCC's wins over Augie and UWSP (and IWU to a lesser degree) should have been the difference maker in spot #19.

North Central played two games at Augie:
- Won without Jayme Moten (16 ppg)
- Lost by 6 in a tightly contested game

Marietta lost by 49 at Augie (down 30 at half).  I'm sure Marietta had a bad night...but 49 is 49.

Bottom line - the CCIW was really good this season.  A tough NCC team was the 4 seed.  And #5 North Park beat #1 Augustana, #2 IWU, and #4 North Central.  I'm pretty sure the CCIW can lay claim to "best conference" in 2014-15.

Moving forward, I believe we will see even more top-to-bottom strength and balance - this trend should continue.  All 8 programs are aggressively trying to win now (still not really processing that Carroll is coming back next year!).

[hopefan]

I'm rooting for a CCIW/WIAC title game...that would be cool.

I'm pretty sure that's where I'd put my money on... though would hope it wouldn't be the kiss of death...

[Gregory Sager]

Greg:  During the NPC run under McCarrell, what school was the team that went to the FF in the fourth year?

In 1981, after North Park's national championship threepeat, Augustana made it to the Final Four. Since, as you well know, the Final Four was held at Carver back then, Augie is thus the only D3 school to play in a men's Final Four that it also hosted.

Augie defeated Otterbein in the semifinals, 93-81, advancing to the national championship game against Potsdam State. The hosts came oh-so-close to winning in regulation, but Potsdam State's Leroy Witherspoon hit a halfcourt shot at the buzzer to send the game into overtime. (Since that predated the three-point shot, Witherspoon's halfcourt heave was only worth two points.) The Bears went on to win in the extra session, 67-65. Augie broadcaster Dan Sand alluded to that game during last night's Marietta @ Augustana broadcast, calling it the most painful loss he's ever witnessed. I'm pretty sure that any Augustana fan old enough to remember that game would say the same thing.

That 1980-81 Augustana team, featuring Bill Schneider and Craig Brittnum and led by superstars Maxwell Artis, Shane Price, and Bill Rapier, was one of the best D3 teams I've ever seen. Artis, Price, and Rapier each made the All-CCIW team that season (Schneider made it the following season), and Artis and Rapier were both named to the D3 All-Tournament team in '81, with Artis being one of the rare D3 tourney MVPs who played for a second-place team.