MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[iwu70]

Survive and advance.  IWU over Carthage 74-67 at The Shirk.

After leading by 15, the Titans made it difficult and scary in the last 2-3 minutes, but get the win.  Now head for the Semis vs. Augie on Friday. 

Leritz and Noe coming up big.

'70

[iwu70]

EC over Wheaton. 

On the weekend:

EC vs. NCC
IWU vs. Augie

Coming down to the top-seeded teams.

'70

[iwumichigander]

Why isn't Crishawn Cook playing for Carthage?

Did we ever get an answer to this question?

Yes, it was answered on Saturday evening here on CCIW Chat. Cook was sidelined by a thumb injury. There was nothing further said regarding his status for the CCIW tourney.

Crook was not in the lineup tonight either

[Titan Q]

IWU 74
Carthage 67

* Matt Leritz: 18 pts, 8 reb, 2 assists
* Cory Noe: 18 pts, 4 reb, 3 assists
* Doug Wallen: 14 pts, 6 reb, 2 assists
* Pete Lambesis: 13 pts, 7 reb, 3 assists

* Jordon Kedrowski: 17 pts, 2 reb
* Kienan Baltimore: 14 pts, 8 reb, 6 assists

https://www.iwusports.com/boxscore.aspx?id=7697&path=mbball


The Titans really shared the ball well tonight.  During the stretch the Titans pulled away in the 2nd half they made the extra pass to find an open man several times.

IWU is a very talented and skilled team.  Should be a great game Friday in Naperville.

[iwu70]

Kedrowski was superb.

IWU'70

[USee]

Dangler,

Someone could have a million posts and not be an expert.

Cue Mr. Ypsi.......

[Mr. Ypsi]

Dangler,

Someone could have a million posts and not be an expert.

Cue Mr. Ypsi.......

Gee, thanks for the gratuitous insult during a discussion I'm not even involved in.

[kiko]

The message here is ..... if you are in a weaker conference, play a tough nonconf schedule to increase your SOS.  Otherwise, you must win your conference automatic bid!

Well, the Bennies played North Central, St. Norbert, and Letourneau as part of their non-conference slate.  I would submit that playing -- and beating -- three 20-win, regionally ranked teams amongst your five non-conference games is a sign of a team that is playing a tougher non-conference schedule.

My allegiances are well-known here, but I have zero issue with the Bennies being ranked where they are at this point.

[iwumichigander]

Wow - chippy in here - with the plethora of irrelevant posts may have to find a more relevant board - oh wait there is not a more relevant board 

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

The message here is ..... if you are in a weaker conference, play a tough nonconf schedule to increase your SOS.  Otherwise, you must win your conference automatic bid!

Well, the Bennies played North Central, St. Norbert, and Letourneau as part of their non-conference slate.  I would submit that playing -- and beating -- three 20-win, regionally ranked teams amongst your five non-conference games is a sign of a team that is playing a tougher non-conference schedule.

My allegiances are well-known here, but I have zero issue with the Bennies being ranked where they are at this point.

Yeah, I looked through the numbers again today and it's hard to argue with the rankings.  You could make a case for NCC or Elmhurst, but NCC lost to BenU and Elmhurst lost (twice) to NCC.  Those head to heads have to mean something, especially this time of year.

[USee]

Dangler,

Someone could have a million posts and not be an expert.

Cue Mr. Ypsi.......

Gee, thanks for the gratuitous insult during a discussion I'm not even involved in.

I prefer to call it gratuitous humor, and your involved now!

[Titan Q]

My updated look at Pool C - http://www.d3boards.com/index.php?topic=4232.msg1979937#msg1979937.

[Viking Mike]

I have no problem with RAC/NCAA ranking based on head to head, but ranking based on how your opponent did against another ranked opponent seems like a stretch.

Team A beat Team B,  Team B beat team C,  Team A and C did not play, but A must be better than C based on common opponent.

Augustana deserves to be behind 4 of the teams they lost to, but I'm just not convinced that Ben Univ and St Norbert are better than Augie or IWU.  I'm not sure that either would go 18-7 against the same schedule the Vikings played.

I think Ben Univ and St Norbert are quality teams and deserve NCAA bids. I just feel that the RAC / NCAA are looking mostly at the head to head results and disregarding the whole body of work.  And then extrapolating results based on how a common opponent competed against another ranked team seems like a big stretch. 

My point about Ben U beating a ranked La Tourneau team was that this same team (Latourneau) lost the very next night to the CCIW's LAST PLACE TEAM
(Millikin)  Millikin went 1-15 in the CCIW this year.  Does LaTourneau deserve to be ranked 4th in the South.  Probably because their whole body of work speaks for itself.

It would be so fun to settle some of these questions on the court, if all teams are lucky enough to get bids!

I feel like a North Central/Benedictine rematch would be true karma.

[Viking Mike]

I feel like these regional rankings for the Central are not likely to change next week, even if a few of the teams lose.  It seems like everyone is locked in based on what transpired during these head to head matchups earlier in the year.  Am I wrong thinking this? 

[Titan Q]

I am surprised Benedictine is ahead of NCC at this point. https://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2020/02/mens-third-regional-ranking

As I see it, the teams have to be lined up regionally in the right order so that the region's Pool C candidates hit the board in the right order -- and so the region maximizes its Pool C chances.  I would think every RAC and the national committee would want this.  It's how the process is meant to play out.  What you don't want to happen is a team hitting the board during Pool C and blocking teams behind them - either blocking entirely, or for several rounds - with better resumes.

That is what would happen currently if Benedictine and North Central were Pool C teams.  For context, see my 20 round Pool C projection here - http://www.d3boards.com/index.php?topic=4232.msg1979937#msg1979937.

Resumes:
* Benedictine: .800/.506/3-0
* North Central: .840/.538/2-2

North Central has the better resume here.  There is a significant amount of separation in NCC's combination of WP and SOS.  While RRO clearly favors BU (3-0 is better than 2-2), it is not enough of a difference to trump the WP/SOS advantage. 

Demonstrated more objectively, Matt Snyder creates an RPI from the combination of WP and SOS -- NCC's is .614 and BU's is .580.  That is a huge difference.  While the RPI isn't a real thing in the process, this is simply a way to understand the difference in NCC and BU's WP/SOS combination. https://tomaroonandgold.blogspot.com/p/division-iii-mens-regional-rankings.html. 

Most importantly, going back to the real test of how these teams fair in the Pool C process (http://www.d3boards.com/index.php?topic=4232.msg1979937#msg1979937)...

* NCC's resume fits in at about spot #6, ahead of where I have LeTourneau.
* BU's resume fits in at about spot #13, ahead of where I have UW-Oshkosh.

BU would sit on the board several rounds longer than NCC would.  I don't think there is any real question about that.

I get the importance of the head-to-head result (BU over NCC) as long as the numbers are almost a tie.  But after two recent BU losses, the numbers are no longer a tie.  NCC's resume is better, and NCC should be ranked ahead of Benedictine.