MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Mr. Ypsi]

hiker,

See post 457 for the explanation of the name change.

(But, then, you've changed too- how did Jim drop off of Hiker?)

While it is true that the destruction of the Cabonney rule occurred in Wheaton, my HOME court will forever be the Shirk!  (Well, um, since my previous several hundred workouts/games had all been at Fred Young Fieldhouse, and that was my first ever time at Shirk, perhaps I'd better hedge my bets and say Shirk 'til they replace IT!)

I hadn't heard about the IWU over Wheaton soccer game - tell me more!

Have all the rumored undergrad losses of the Wheaton bball team actually occurred?  If so, except for the fact that you've still got the coach, I'd suggest 8th (I'll NEVER pick a Bill Harris team for 8th, but bottom half seems likely if all those losses are true).

[emeritusprof]

Not that anyone really cares, Diskerud is trying to recover from the grief caused by a sudden Astro surge of post-season success.

Clayton wonders whether the voters will deepen his grief by awarding the National League MVP to anyone but Pujols, and the Cy Young to anyone but Carpenter.

Emeritus prof is still a devoted Cardinal (as in baseball) loyalist.

The bottom shall certainly fall out should North Park upset Carthage Homecoming in Kenosha this Saturday.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Not to burst your bubble or anything, but I was at a dual tip-off tournament a few years back, so as long as women's games count, there was probably 18 of us or so who made the six games in two days haul.

[Pat Coleman]

Get to an eight-team tournament and you could see eight games in two days or 12 games in three days.

[Mr. Ypsi]

I never thought 4 games in 2 days was a record - it was the 34 years between games!

[Drake Palmer]

Mr Y. - 20 years or 34 years it doesn't really matter!  Only a statistician or teacher of stats could avidly follow a team for that many years without actually seeing them play in person.  And then to have the cheek to debate based solely on stats who's better - Bennett or Amelianovich!   That takes alot of faith in numbers to pull that one off.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Drake,

Actually, despite teaching stats, I put VERY little stock in sports stats!  I base my perceptions on game reports and comments of other posters, taking into account their apparent knowledge levels and known biases.

I've found the collective judgment of posters to be remarkably perceptive and accurate, AS LONG AS posts are weighed differently in general, and differently depending on WHICH player or team a poster is writing about.

It's a fun way to practice 'content analysis', rather than statistics!

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Now that is a real statistician.

[emeritusprof]

How about this stat?

Win 100 games, but not the league pennant.

[The Roop]

That goes hand in hand with making the play offs and ending up under .500

[Titan Q]

Based on what I know about returning players, here's how I see the 2006 race at this early stage...


1 Illinois Wesleyan
2 Augustana
3 Elmhurst
4 North Central
5 Carthage
6 Millikin
7 Wheaton
8 North Park


I think Augustana is going to be very good this year.  The Vikes return 1st Teamer Jay McAdams-Thorton (post), Rick Harrigan (2-guard), and Drew Wessel (point).  These three give them very good, experienced balance...then you add in guys with a lot of potential to be solid contributors like 6-9/235 Joe Caricato, 6-5 Oliver Rorer, the Swetella brothers, Jordan Delp, and freshman Mike Kolze.  You know what you are going to get with McAdams-Thorton - he is very consistent.  If Harrigan has a big year (which he should), if Wessels continues to improve as a CCIW point-guard, and if one (or more) of the guys with "potential" steps up and has a big year, I think Augie is not only a contender, but a tournament team.  My only knock on the Vikes is that their non-conference schedule seems very weak to me - @ Clarke, @ Beloit, St. Ambrose, Simpson, @ Rockford, @ Coe, @Concordia (River Forest), Lake Forest, Rose-Hulman, and vs Marian and UW-Stout or St. Scholastica at the UW-Stout tournament.  Augie could be 11-0 or 10-1 heading into conference play and still not really know much about themselves as a basketball team.

I view Elmhurst as the second legimate challenger to IWU.  Chris Martin is as good of an all-around Division III player as you'll find.  At 6-6/210 he is very big for his position (small forward) - he has a great feel for the game and just seems to always be in the right spot on the floor to make something happen.  The question is, does Elmhurst have enough surrounding their All-American candidate at the right positions to win 11 or 12 games in the CCIW?  6-10/230 junior Nick Michael improved as much as anyone in the league last year.  Towards the end of the season, he was starting to look comfortable playing with his back to the basket.  If he continues to improve and becomes a force inside, he gives Elmhurst a very tough 1-2 punch.  Where I am not sold on the Bluejays yet is at point-guard - seems like they have been struggling at the point for a few years now.  They may have a new face on the roster that I am not familiar with yet, but they really do need a good point-guard to contend.  Elmhurst also needs shooting guard David Gershenzon to have a better year this year - he didn't seem to do much last season.  Looks like Adam Abdul-Haqq is not on the roster this season, after he suffered the season-ending knee injury last year.  On the flip side of Augie, Elmhurst plays some very tough non-conference games - @ Hope, @ UW-Platteville, vs Hanover, and possibly vs Albion in their tournament.  Those are the kinds of games you need to play to be ready for CCIW play.

North Central is clearly headed in the right direction - it won't be long until their basketball program is knocking on the door like the Cardinal football team is.  Again, I do not know about any new impact players, but their returnees are solid - 6-6/225 Anthony Simmons is one of the best big guys in the Midwest Region and 6-5/180 Daniel Walton really impressed me last year.  He reminds me of former CCIW M.O.P. Brent Niebrugge (IWU '98).  The Ray Vicario/Adam Teising point-guard combo is pretty steady - they combined to shoot 44-88 from 3-pt range last year.  6-7/220 Adam Kruntinger is a big body and a nice role player.  With Mike Wilson leaving, it seems that NCC's biggest hole is at the 2-guard position.  They will need the person that fills that spot to be very good and give them an outside presence.  Otherwise, I think the Cardinals will be somewhat one dimensional. 

Carthage has had two mediocre seasons (7-7 in 2004 and 6-8 last year) since the departure of Antoine McDaniel and Rob Garnes.  I think the 2005-06 Redmen have a lot of talented pieces to the puzzle...whether they all fit together or not is the big question.  After seeing him play at the end of 2005, it seems like 6-9/200 junior Mike Wood is poised for a breakout year.  It wouldn't surprise me if he is viewed as one of the top post players in the conference by season's end.  We should finally get to see last year's much-hyped guard Trey Bowens for a full season - definitely a big X-factor for the Redmen.  6-6/225 sophomore Kyle Jeffery impressed the heck out of me in the CCIW debut @ Elmhurst, but seemed to fizzle a bit as the season went on and as teams figured out how to guard him - definitely a big boy though.  6-7/235 junior Brian Schlemm has potential to be a good CCIW player, although I must strongly disagree with Bosko's comment: "from a skill level, there's nobody on our team, and perhaps no one in the league, who's better than Brian..." (I can name a bunch of CCIW players more skilled than Schlemm).  Another X-factor for Carthage is probably 6-6/230 Mark Morrison who was so badly out of shape last year that he was a negative on the floor.  His profile says he is in "excellent condition" - maybe he'll be that perimeter threat we all thought he'd be after his freshman year.  Carthage is the hardest team for me to gauge at this point - the Redmen could go 9-5 or 5-9 for all I know.   


It seems to me that Millikin, Wheaton, and North Park will comprise the bottom 3.  If Kent Raymond really isn't playing, I just can't see Wheaton being competitive unless there are some bigtime newcomers we don't know about it yet.

[Titan Q]

"Tough break: IWU's Cory Jones out again"...

http://www.pantagraph.com/stories/102105/spo_20051021042.shtml

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

That's going to hurt their chances against Illinois.

[David Collinge]

1954 Cleveland Indians, 111-43.  Then Vic Wertz hit a ball 460' to straightaway center in Game 1 of the World Series, and the next thing you know they're 111-47.    Coincidentally, the Giants (1954) and Indians (1948) also have the longest championship droughts outside the City of Chicago.  Considering what's happened the last two years, maybe next season will be a rematch of the 1954 Series.  Or maybe it'll be the Year of the Cubs? 

The Yanks were 103-51 that season, and the White Sox were also over .600 at 94-60.  The Giants won 97 to finish 5 games ahead of the Trolley Dodgers.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Back then there was no LDS, so the Yankees didn't even make the post-season.

That would be worse, although it would be pretty hard for a team to win 100 now and not at least get the wild card.