MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[titan2000]

ESPN sent Erin Andrews to the Wooden Nickel this week to get a feel for the LU tradition of eating raw eggs in a boilermaker between classes.  They were filming the back door they use for underclassmen and visited the chicken farm where the special eggs are grown. 

Tharp does not allow his players to do this during the season. 

[Gregory Sager]

Greg: I imagine my comments about LU's gym might have touched a raw nerve as NPU has the same problem.

No, it really doesn't. Lawrence has an endowment in excess of $182m, and judging by the ranks of their distinguished alumni (the CEO of 3M, the COO of Weyerhauser, etc.) the Larries can look forward to an ongoing healthy revenue stream with regard to their benefactors. NPU, as always, makes do with what little it has in the way of a nestegg; the endowment is currently $37m. North Park's endowment has been the smallest in the CCIW since the school first joined the league back in 1962, although it's coming closer to Carthage's. And, as far as I know, there are no sugar daddies lining up to rectify the situation for NPU. The school did get a nice gift from Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren to enable the facelift of the athletic field two years ago, and the Helwig family was quite generous in getting the ball rolling for the new rec center. But these gifts are, quite frankly, a drop in the bucket in terms of what would be needed to build a new gym.

I said that I didn't feel it was right to criticize Lawrence for how that school has decided to spend its money, and I still feel that way. Sam's outlined where the money has gone on the LU campus in recent years, and I'm not going to second-guess how it was spent. But NPU doesn't have the luxury of prioritizing among several different expansion projects. Every attempt to build a new building on the NPU campus is a massive struggle to climb a fundraising mountain. NPU and LU are not in the same position.

[Gregory Sager]

You can squeeze 1,100 into the crackerbox if the temporary endline bleachers, which haven't been used since Bosko left (gee, I wonder why), are brought back out. Alexander can, and has, actually held about 1,400. The reason why capacity (and thus ticket sales) are listed 300 seats lower than that for this coming weekend's sectional is because of the Appleton fire marshal's restrictions, as Q said earlier.

Slight correction here Greg, during the "Rob Berki era" at NPU, the stage bleachers were regularly used for conference games. I remember this vividly because at one point a Carthage female fan wearing not much more than a sports bra in the endline stands yelled at me while on the free throw line: "fat AND bald...what a combination!" I couldn't help but laugh while shooting, I'd never been that accurately insulted.

I wasn't talking about the stage bleachers, Rob. Back in the day, North Park used to put out four sets of the little five-row aluminum bleacher sections, two in each corner at the east and west ends of the gym. I think that they're still there in the gym supply closet. They seat about 20-25 people apiece. They haven't been used for a game since '93 or thereabouts.

Loved the story about the Carthage chick in the sports bra, though. 

[robberki]

I stand corrected Greg. A quick addendum to that story, the group of 4-5 girls in sports bras were on me all game about my, shall we say, sparse hairline. At different points they would chant "balding. balding. balding" especially if I wasn't shooting but standing there during a free throw. Anyway, my parents were in town for that game and I asked if they had heard them chanting, my folks tried to convince me they were saying "Berki. Berki. Berki." but besides being ridiculous (why would a Carthage fan chant my name?) they don't even sound alike. Deep down inside, I think we all knew what they were really saying....

[Knightstalker]

At least you are not Kent Dorfman.  Then they would have been chanting Fat, Drunk and Stupid is no way to go through life.     

[joehakes]

Greg would certainly remember those seats at the end of the floor as that was his customary seat during games, along with Eli Yurick, Gary Eanes and a few other characters.  He would lead "Is this not the winning team?, etc" cheers and generally whip the crowd into a frenzy, demonstrating his considerable leadship abilities as an undergrad.

Those seats were really dangerous, with metal bleachers about 4' from the baseline.  They really made the atmosphere in the Crackerbox great, though.  I have talked with various NP opponents throughout the years that remember that section of seats.  To score on a breakaway, you had to aim right up the middle after the backboard to avoid a broken leg, or landing on Greg, which may have been more painful.

Those are great memories of the old style of college gyms.  The new palaces are great, but can't have the intimacy of that gym, especially when it was full, and NP was winning.

[Gregory Sager]

Actually, we used to break the fall of the players who tumbled into our section. Nobody ever got hurt by the metal bleachers during the dozen or so years that they were there when I was going to Vikings games. The most conspicuous and awful injury ever suffered by a player falling out of bounds under a basket, at least during my era as a North Park fan, was when Pete Rochford of North Central blew out his knee coming down after a layup in '89. And Rochford fell on the floor itself, in the space between the metal bleachers.

[Mr. Ypsi]

If IWU has a .6792 winning percentage (36 wins & 17 losses) in all D3 tourney games, but has only a .2857 winning percentage in tourney games played in the state of Wisconsin (2 wins & 5 losses), what is the probability that IWU will win Friday vs. Lawrence? Where is Mr. Ypsi when you need him?

Secondary factor: IWU is 4-2 in D3 tourney games vs. Midwest Conf. teams with both losses coming on the road at Ripon.

Hmmm...

What would be the most relevant stat - .68 overall, .29 in Wisconsin?  .67 against MWC, but (apparently) .00 against MWC in Wisconsin?

I think I'll just sidestep the whole thing and note: inadequate sample size for any meaningful computation!

(But I sure wouldn't mind if their all-time in-Wisconsin winning rose to .444 by the end of the weekend!)

They(IWU) did beat a MWC team in wisconsin.They beat carroll @ whitewater last weekend.

Oh, geez, how soon I forget!

But 1 of 3 still hardly makes a sample size to conjure with!  (Though no doubt someone can come up with an example of me conjuring more out of less!)

I'm gonna stick my neck out and predict that IWU makes the final four (winning over Augie on Saturday), but that is purely as a fan, not a statistician!  Despite the loss to NCC, what they've done to Augie (at Augie), Carroll, and UWW (at Whitewater) in 3 of the last 4 games just 'feels' like they've finally gotten back to what made them #1 earlier in the season.

[joehakes]

I seem to remember a little selectivity on which players had their falls broken, but there were no serious injuries that I remember.  In the age of liability in which we now find ourselves, as an AD I would not want those bleachers there.  But it was fun.

[veterancciwfan]

This isn't said nearly enough, but thanks Pat for providing d3hoops for all of us D3 junkies (at least in the b'ball season). This site sure makes being a D3 b'ball fan a lot more enjoyable. You are my hero. Who do I write the check out to (bad grammar I realize).

[diehardfan]

[Loved the story about the Carthage chick in the sports bra, though. 

Me too... definitely karma worthy. I must be the karma fairy again tonight. 

[Titan Q]

Here is the Sectional program prepared by Lawrence...

http://www.iwuhoops.com/lunotes.pdf

And some notes from IWU.edu...

http://www2.iwu.edu/menssports/basketball/030706notes.shtml

[Pat Coleman]

This isn't said nearly enough, but thanks Pat for providing d3hoops for all of us D3 junkies (at least in the b'ball season). This site sure makes being a D3 b'ball fan a lot more enjoyable. You are my hero. Who do I write the check out to (bad grammar I realize).

Don't worry about it. It's been a great year. If you want to give us some money, peruse the photo gallery and find some photos you want to buy -- we'll get money and you'll get something in return.

... although at the moment Augie is the only CCIW team we've shot.

[augiefan]

I see the LU program prtojects Jordan Delp as a starting guard for Augie. It doesn't look like the LU staff did much research beyond reading last weeks box scores, unless, of course, Drew Wessels is still on the mend. Is there any word on Drew's health. Since UPS is a pressing team, I really think Augie needs Drew back running the point on friday night.

[Mr. Ypsi]

... although at the moment Augie is the only CCIW team we've shot.

Would it be asking too much that you could have shot them BEFORE we lost the two regular season games to them?!