MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[veterancciwfan]

Hate to bring it up, but the CCIW has now lost its last 4 D3 tourney games: IWU @ Wooster in 2004 (Final 16 game); IWU vs. Hanover @ IWU in 2005 (2nd round); Wheaton vs. Calvin @ Wheaton in 2005 (1st round); NCC @ St. Thomas in 2006 (1st round). Time for a change on Friday and Saturday.

[sac]

Occidental leading CMS 22-12 @ the HALF!!

Are they playing football?

[Mr. Ypsi]

Occidental leading CMS 22-12 @ the HALF!!

Are they playing football?

Actually. baseball - the pitchers are REALLY bad.

[Greek Tragedy]

I have 2 extra tickets for the regional at Whitewater.  If anybody is interested, please send me an email.

I have five.  Email me first! lol.

Section C, reserved "Seatbacks" row 5.

Any Titan fans making the trip, feel free to introduce yourself.  I look like the guy in my picture...probably will be wearing my Pointer hooded sweatshirt (but without the Walnut and Bronze).

The time keeper at Whitewater is BadgerWarhawk, he can point me out if you want to say hi.

Good luck vs. Carroll College tonight!  I'll be rooting for you!

[Gregory Sager]

My first impulse in analyzing what happened to North Central last night is to lean upon the historical. The defeat of the Cardinals by St. Thomas is one that follows a long-term trend of North Central exits in the first or second rounds; unlike North Park, Illinois Wesleyan, and Augustana (and, to a lesser degree, Carthage), the Cards do not have a good track record in March:

1984: St. Norbert 69, North Central 56 (regional semi)
1984: North Central 82, Illinois Wesleyan 77 (regional 3rd place)
1985: UW-Whitewater 72, North Central 53 (regional semi)
1985: Monmouth 69, North Central 60 (regional 3rd place)
1989: North Central 63, Millikin 59 (regional semi)
1989: UW-Whitewater 95, North Central 83 (regional championship)
1990: Illinois Wesleyan 71, North Central 53 (second round)
2006: St. Thomas 76, North Central 68 (first round)

The previous 2-5 tournament record had been accumulated by the man who is by far the most successful coach in North Central history, Bill Warden. For the first half of his career as the head man in the airplane hangar, Warden was North Central's version of Bill Harris in that his teams were annually very good and occasionally bordering upon great, but never successful in the tournament.

But upon closer examination I think it's wrong to fit last night's loss into the greater historical context of the program. That's not simply because there's a sixteen-year gap between North Central appearances in the tournament, nor because Todd Raridon is three head coaches removed from Warden in the Cardinals' chronology. It's because there's no programmatic memory that spans the Warden and Raridon eras, no historical continuity in the way that Illinois Wesleyan has historical continuity in that Scott Trost and his assistants all served under Dennis Bridges (who is still their boss on an administrative level); or in the way that Wheaton has historical continuity in that Harris is the CCIW's longest-tenured coach, with a decade and a half of service at that school; or even in the minor but significant way that North Park has attempted to re-establish historical continuity with Paul Brenegan's enlistment of Modzel Greer as one of his assistants this past season. Cardinalpride is better situated to answer this than me, but I'm guessing that the only things this current edition of the Cardinals have in common with the Cardinals of Warden's glory years are the school itself, the gym, and the name and colors on the uniform.

Seen in this light, you can't really look at last night's loss as part of an ongoing legacy of postseason futility by the Cardinals. It's simply an isolated incident in historical terms; Raridon had a very good but not quite great team this season that was beaten on the road in a fairly close first-round game by a St. Thomas team that deserves more respect on the national level than it's gotten thus far in 2005-06.

Benjy Taylor recruited a lot of these players, so you can't quite say that this is fully Todd Raridon's program right now and nobody else's. But Raridon has clearly put his stamp on this team in that the players Taylor recruited don't play a style of ball that's really much like Taylor's style. This is the second year in which Raridon has essentially written upon a tabula rasa as far as North Central basketball is concerned. His Cardinals don't look like, or play like, Warden's best teams any more than they resemble Taylor's. They're very much a team with their own appearance and style. If he stays at North Central, Raridon will be writing his own history, not adding to someone else's.

[Titan Q]

My first reaction when I saw the bracket was that North Central had a tough, tough draw.  I'm pretty sure 23-5 St. Thomas is a solid team and to have to play the Tommies on their floor is a challenge.  I talked about it on Hoopsville earlier in the week.  In listening to the WONC broadcast, you can tell how charged up it was in the gym last night...I'm sure NCC fans who were there will admit that it was a tough place to play.

The MIAC is a top-heavy conference, but unlike the NCAC (Wooster, Wittenberg), the top 2 seem to change from year-to-year.  Gustavus Adolphus has been the most successful tournament team in recent years of course, making a Final Four appearance in 2003...St. Thomas is always in the mix...Pool C Carleton jumped into the contention picture this year...St. John's is a pretty solid basketball program.  Like the NCAC, the league has quite a few programs that just aren't competitive -- this year those teams were Hamline, St. Olaf, St. Mary's, Macalester, Concordia-Moorhead, and Augsburg (the program that produced D3's only NBA draftee in a long time, Devean George).  From that standpoint, it's always hard to gauge the MIAC's best since the contenders face so many poor teams.

The MIAC champion is usually a very good basketball team.  The kid who killed the Cards last night, 6-8 Issac Rosefelt, was a scholarship player at Division I Bowling Green, so we know they have talent.  I'm sure North Central players/coaches/fans are disappointed, but I don't think they have anything to hang their heads about.  The Cards just got hit with that 13-2 run early in the 2nd half and could never seem to climb back in at after that.

[Titan Q]

The WONC crew did a really nice job last night on the call.  Wayne Randazzo and Jason Lamar, not sure if you'll see the board, but if so a big tip of the cap to both of you.

[Mugsy]

Congrats on a great year for North Central.

For all the talk of the CCIW being one of the best (if not the best)  D3 basketball conferences in the country, I really hope IWU and Augie can put together a run and go deep into the tournament.

I know they are in the tougher brackets and face some tough teams, but it's time to back up the talk.  While it is easier to back up the claim on how the CCIW is one of the tougher conferences top to bottom, if we have early round exits by Augie & IWU, all the discussion on how good the CCIW is moot.

Let's go CCIW!

[Brick]

I don't think we will have to worry about early round exits from Augie...Those guys are ready...They are all healthy now and look for the vikes to get back to mid season form when they took it to IWU down at the shirk!

GO AUGIE

[bethelguy]

Like the NCAC, the league has quite a few programs that just aren't competitive -- this year those teams were Hamline, St. Olaf, St. Mary's, Macalester, Concordia-Moorhead, and Augsburg (the program that produced D3's only NBA draftee in a long time, Devean George). 

Titan - I might be nitpicking (and with the tourney if full swing this is probably a better topic for the offseason) but I think your assesment of the MIAC is not neccessarily tru.  The MIAC is very competitive throughout the league, there are a few teams that year in and year out finish at the bottom, but the league is 4-6 deep every year as well.  GAC and UST have won the league for the last several years, but they don't run away with it.

GAC's 2002-03 national runner-up season, they lost 5 conference games to 4 different teams finishing 2nd in the league.  If it wasn't for a questionable call in the final seconds of their semi-final conference tourney game they would not have even made the NCAAs that year.

This year of the teams you mentioned...
Ham - won @SJU in conference tourney, not a great team but competitive (and very young)
Con - actually a very good team this year but lost their 2 best players (and a 3rd starter) to injuries in January, would have been competitive with many NCAA tourney teams
Mac - was down this year but along with Bethel has had some of the most talented teams in recent years, that did not equate to a conference championship or NCAA berth.
SMU, Aug and St. Olaf have been bad for years, can't defend those programs (Aug was good in the 90s).

I'm not saying by any stretch that the MIAC is loaded, has teams capable of winning the national championship or deserves 4 teams in the NCAAs.  But the talent gap in the MIAC isn't as great as you assume.

The top 2 teams in the NCAC combine for 3 or fewere losses virtually every year and the gap between 2nd and 3rd is usually a 4 game cushion (THAT is a top heavey league).  If you have 3 losses you are a 3rd place team.  The top 2 teams in the MIAC combine for 6 or more loses every year (9 the year GAC was national runner-up) and the 2nd to 3rd gap is usually a 2 or 3 game cushsion. 

[bethelguy]

And I was rather impressed with NCC last night.  Too many turnovers cost them in the end, but they played solid D (especially the 1st half) and I really liked their post players.  Their guards were solid, but I think should have been more aggressive to take shots and open things up for their posts.  All in all it was a great game, neither team allowing the other to take control until UST went on a run midway through the 2nd half. 

Congrats to the Cardinals on a solid season.

[Gotberg]

Thought some may be interested in seeing this:

http://northpark.edu/news/story.cfm?ID=1375

I had a chance to meet Michael Harper at the 2005 NPU Homecoming weekend.  Great guy....

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Thought some may be interested in seeing this:

http://northpark.edu/news/story.cfm?ID=1375

I had a chance to meet Michael Harper at the 2005 NPU Homecoming weekend.  Great guy....

That's a cool piece.  Who knew the Trailblazers cared about the community?

[titan missile]

I have 2 extra tickets for the regional at Whitewater.  If anybody is interested, please send me an email.

I have five.  Email me first! lol.

Section C, reserved "Seatbacks" row 5.

Any Titan fans making the trip, feel free to introduce yourself.  I look like the guy in my picture...probably will be wearing my Pointer hooded sweatshirt (but without the Walnut and Bronze).

The time keeper at Whitewater is BadgerWarhawk, he can point me out if you want to say hi.

Good luck vs. Carroll College tonight!  I'll be rooting for you!

Do you still have extras? 

[Greek Tragedy]

titan...I sent you two emails.  and a message!  Call me if you want.