MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[shepherd]

Wheaton 70 North Park 67

North Park, Carthage, ILL Wesleyan all knotted at 8-5 in conf. play.   
behind Augustan at 11-3

NCC at 8-6
Wheaton, Carrol at 7-6 still have a chance at the tournament.

Wow

[kiko]

(IMHO) a BIG question re the above discussion involving the possible POY-------
Who has faced tougher competition?
I think that should have something to do with the voting. But will it, or will the voters just look primarily at the stat lines, and any press that has been generated during the season?

Alas, voters likely look at W/L team and stat lines versus SOS or who you played.  The NEWMAC is not the CCIW however, Babson did not exactly play cupcakes in non-conference.  With

I know it is Player of the YEAR, but the kind of career that Flannery has put together has been incredible. He has led Babson to Salem his Sophmore year, scored 2000+ career points, 2 time First Team All-American, led the Beavers to 4 straight NCAA births and winning two straight NEWMAC championships. Not to mention the fact that Babson has been ranked number one the whole year and he has been that steady force for the best team in the nation.

The past couple years the award has usually gone to a player on one of the best teams in the nation, such as last year when Lucas Johnson from Benedictine won the award. He was an exceptional player and very worthy of the award don't get me wrong, but there were players with better stat lines than Johnson. He was the best player on a then undefeated team playing in the National Championship, the choice was a no-brainer.

With this being said, Jordan Robinson is turning in a great campaign and one that will very likely end with him being named an All-American.

Smitty,

You are right in that it is the Player of (THIS) Year. And, with all due respect, much of your first paragraph points out the impressive record Flannery has compiled in previous years. And that is not to diminish what he has done this season. But, unless the award is for a career's worth of accomplishments, it honestly isn't really pertinent.

Additionally, as I pointed out above, I truly do feel that, as the Talking Heads suggested in Once In A Lifetime, you have to ask yourself who this year's results were accomplished against. Cupcakes or primarily tough competition? I think that should really be a factor. That said, I think Flannery is probably a deserving recipient, and it will not be surprising at all if he wins.

As far as Lucas Johnson being the POY last year, yes he had a fabulous year, but no way was he the best player in the entire nation last season. He did have the best game of anyone when it mattered most in the national championship game, but the absolute best player in the entire country for the entire year, no way. Especially when, and here again the question of against who comes up, many of his stats were compiled against very cupcake like conference competition. BU was 20-0 against a conference that has only one other good team.

AndOne, you're not exactly the most unbiased observer on the topic of Lucas Johnson...

Benedictine beat five CCIW teams last year, including two who finished in the top 25.  And they beat three top-ten teams in the tournament.  Their conference is their conference, but Johnson and the Eagles earned their recognition on the court last year.

Given those five wins against CCIW teams, it is a bit of a disconnect that you are dismissing Lucas Johnson's body of work when a good chunk of it came against the same set of schools you are using to bolster Jordan Robinson's case.  (To be clear, I think Robinson has a very strong case for POY... this logic, though, doesn't exactly support it.)

[iwu70]

IWU 90 CC 78

Rose 25
Stempel 17 and 7
Bonnett 15
Seibring 14
Bausch 11

Titans firing on all levels tonight -- shooting 55%, 38% and 86%.  Tons of fouls on both sides. 

Keep it rolling, TITANS -- great second half tonight.  Any road win in the CCIW is a good one, and this one was a very key one, to be sure.   Another tough one upcoming at WC. 

IWU'70

[USee]

Aston Francis!

Holy fade away 3 from NBA range! What a great Saturday night!

[Titan Q]

IWU 90
Carthage 78

http://www.iwusports.com/boxscore.aspx?id=4081&path=mbball

* Brady Rose: 25 pts, 2 reb, 2 assists
* Andy Stempel: 17 pts, 7 reb, 8 assists
* Colin Bonnett: 15 pts, 3 reb, 5 assists
* Trevor Seibring: 14 pts, 2 reb
* Alec Bausch: 11 pts, 5 reb, 2 assists

* Mike Stevenson: 27 pts, 3 reb
* Kienan Baltimore: 17 pts, 3 assists
* Drew Joiner: 11 pts, 7 reb, 2 assists
* Brad Perry: 9 pts, 12 reb



IWU: 55% FG, 86% FT

Considering the venue (road game), the quality of the opponent, and the stakes, I think this was probably IWU's most impressive performance of the season.  IWU's offense was really clicking tonight behind starting perimeter players Brady Rose, Andy Stempel, and Colin Bonnett.  These three all made multiple big plays throughout the game.

Back to the grind Wednesday at Wheaton - another key road game for the Titans.

[augie77]

It seems we're gearing up for a potentially chaotic end of season.  We could plausibly end with a four way tie for first at 11-5 if Augustana can't win at least one of its tough away games (at North Park and IWU).  If Carthage, IWU and North Park all win their other games, as predicted by Massey, that's what we'll have.  How would the first seed and home court for the tournament be decided in case of such a log jam?

[iwumichigander]

It seems we're gearing up for a potentially chaotic end of season.  We could plausibly end with a four way tie for first at 11-5 if Augustana can't win at least one of its tough away games (at North Park and IWU).  If Carthage, IWU and North Park all win their other games, as predicted by Massey, that's what we'll have.  How would the first seed and home court for the tournament be decided in case of such a log jam?

You beat me to the post.  This is a race to the last game result.  And, under the right circumstances a certain team looking down for above might be looking up for 5th place

[Titan Q]

It seems we're gearing up for a potentially chaotic end of season.  We could plausibly end with a four way tie for first at 11-5 if Augustana can't win at least one of its tough away games (at North Park and IWU).  If Carthage, IWU and North Park all win their other games, as predicted by Massey, that's what we'll have.  How would the first seed and home court for the tournament be decided in case of such a log jam?

I think North Park wins that hypothetical scenario.  The first tie-breaker would be wins vs the other teams in the tie and that would go:
* North Park 4
* IWU 3
* Carthage 3
* Augustana 2

So in that crazy scenario, I guess that would be the conference tournament seedings.

[gordonmann]

When was the last time the CCIW didn't have a team ranked in the Top 25? Has that ever happened before?

[Titan Q]

When was the last time the CCIW didn't have a team ranked in the Top 25? Has that ever happened before?

It's never happened in Massey but I'm sure it has happened in the D3hoops.com poll.

[markerickson]

Six teams vying for four spots.  I did slip away at times during a birthday party tonight for a dear friend to watch the WC/NP game, for which I give thanks because there were too many people I didn't care to speak with.  Saw Aston bank a 28' (?) trey.  Saw Robinson get hammered on two possessions in the last minute with no call.  I watched Wheaton jump out to an 11-2 lead and then had to socialize.  NP tied the game late, but then just did not hit shots.

[iwu70]

Second half tonight at Tarble was about the best I've seen IWU play this year -- defending, moving the ball, penetrating off the dribble, and hitting key treys.  Almost perfect FT shooting by the starters.  Brady Rose had perhaps his best game as a Titan.  Bausch always the pest, fouling a  trey shooter, then with a smirk on his face.  No wonder he fouled out.    Rose hit the dagger from the top of the key to put the Titans up by 12 or 14 with about 2 or so minutes to go.  Great shot.  The entire Titan bench was holding their hands in the air mimicking Rose's follow through on that trey.

Seibring looks OK, surely 90-95%, gutting it out.   

Keep it going TITANS -- can't let up at WC -- as is obvious from the outcome there tonight.  Carroll has really thrown a wrench in the works in several games this season.  Give them credit.

IWU'70

[GoPerry]

Wheaton 70
North Park 67

Aston Francis 28 pts, 4 rebs, 4 assts
Kobe Eichelberger, 11 pts, 4 rebs
Luke Peters, 7 pts, 10 rebs , 6 assists, 3 blocks.

Jordan Robinson  22 pts, 12 rebs, 4 assts
TJ Cobbs,  15 pts, 6 rebs, 4 stls
Darius Brown, 6 pts, 9 rebs

This was a really great game and one where the Thunder overall played a more complete game. The one exception would be the atrocious rebounding in giving up 19 offensive boards to the Vikes.  Otherwise, they really played Robinson very well and he probably didn't have the kind of game he wanted despite his 22 and 12.  He was a mere 3/11 from trey.   This was really big for a young Wheaton team finally being able to make the key plays and shots down the stretch to come away with a  significant close win after several close losses this season where they just couldn't finish.  Yes, it came against a Henry-less NPU team but this season we'll take it and be on our way.

Speaking of which, it has to be a tough pill to swallow for Coach Slyder with Henry out and losing 3 straight.  Hard to believe but the 15-7 Vikings are in very real danger of not even making the post-season without the AQ – that is if they even make the CCIW tourney.  They likely need to go 3-0 these last 3 games to stay in the at-large hunt.

As an aside:  It was a terrific turnout for tonight's game at King Arena as Wheaton honored Mel Peterson, the school's all time leading scorer and rebounder from the 1957 NCAA College Division National Championship Team.  Numerous former players were on hand including some of the recent vintage All American/All Conf standouts like Peters, Raymond, McCrary, Panner, Wiele, Frank, Jahns, Teuscher  and some from earlier years like Steve Clum,  Pfund(Kerry and Randy).  Nice to get the win in front of these folks.

[thunder38]

Here's the highlights from tonight's Wheaton win over North Park including six triples from Aston Francis to set a new school record for single-season three-pointers with 80.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6noE9L_fQaI

Along with everything else that seems to coming down to the wire in the final week and a half of games, Francis (25.2 ppg) will be challenging Steve Djurickovic's 2008-09 season (25.4 ppg) as the highest scoring average in conference place since North Central's Alonzo Alexander in 1991-92.

[Greek Tragedy]

Did someone take all the sharp objects away from Greg? Man, what a tough week.