MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Kinda hard to give him credit (which most of us already have) for stuff we will never see. I feel like I'm in Jr. High again....

My response is somewhere between fair enough and I blocked an obvious troll last night.  But I get your point.  Also, I am not saying you were trolling.

"Blocked an obvious troll" - I get that potential interpretation, but that's honestly not likely from someone who has had multiple Twitter interactions with said "blocker" over the years.  That's what created the disappointment for me.  Enough on this (apologies if I hijacked things around this topic) - I'm on to the thrill of our women's team playing a conference rival in the final four in Pittsburgh tonight.  Go Hope!

[WUPHF]

I think we need a moratorium on apologizing for off-topic posts.  There is simply not enough traffic here to be concerned about discussing something else.  And, I get your point.  I was just thinking about how I had to block a troll for the first time ever.  Enjoy the games and best of luck to your team.

[Next Man Up]

OK, guys, highly partisan fans are common in college sports.

Most of us are guilty of that.

On Twitter, he does more than anyone else to hype players and programs and to foster discussion.  You gotta give him credit for that.

Kinda hard to give him credit (which most of us already have) for stuff we will never see. I feel like I'm in Jr. High again....

Hmm, this seems to be a trend. Maybe we should print some "Blocked by Bob" t-shirts.

I'll take two please - as long as they aren't Titan Green!

Dutch,

I assume something in orange would be appropriate for your needs? 
The Research and Development team advises several shades, including safety orange, aerospace orange, international orange, and even basketball orange (Code #F88158), will soon be available. 

[Flying Dutch Fan]

OK, guys, highly partisan fans are common in college sports.

Most of us are guilty of that.

On Twitter, he does more than anyone else to hype players and programs and to foster discussion.  You gotta give him credit for that.

Kinda hard to give him credit (which most of us already have) for stuff we will never see. I feel like I'm in Jr. High again....

Hmm, this seems to be a trend. Maybe we should print some "Blocked by Bob" t-shirts.

I'll take two please - as long as they aren't Titan Green!

Dutch,

I assume something in orange would be appropriate for your needs? 
The Research and Development team advises several shades, including safety orange, aerospace orange, international orange, and even basketball orange (Code #F88158), will soon be available. 

Might need 3 or 4 if you have them in orange.  Being a real color geek (ok I'm actually a color scientist) I'd prefer it in PMS 166 C (R:244 G:106 B:31) which is the official Hope Orange

[Gregory Sager]

Tomorrow evening the Bluejays will resume their attempt to win the first-ever national championship for an Elmhurst team that would be credited to the CCIW. That's because the two national championships that Elmhurst has previously won, which were in women's volleyball in 1983 and 1985, were achieved under the auspices of the Chicago Metro Conference. That short-lived league has an interesting story that is part of CCIW lore, since almost all of its members were likewise members of the CCIW.

Congress passed Title IX in 1972, but the NCAA fought it, arguing that collegiate athletic departments didn't directly receive federal funds and were thus not covered by that law. But by the end of the decade the courts had determined that, as departments within institutions that did receive federal funds, Title IX applied to collegiate sports as well ... thereby ushering in the modern era of women's sports on the collegiate level.

But smaller schools were slow to add women's sports -- they often didn't do so until there was demand within the student body to offer a particular sport -- and, thus, conferences were slow to sponsor championships and supply officials, recordkeeping, and a supervisory bureaucracy for those sports as well. Women's sports were added in fits and starts among CCIW schools in the late '70s and early '80s, and to say that budgeting (for travel, uniforms, officials, game management, etc.) for women's sports was minimal at that point as compared to men's sports among CCIW schools would be a gross understatement. Still, there were women's teams sprouting up, and a felt need to give them something to play for. Since they played shorter schedules than the men played, and they weren't given the travel budgets to drive hither and yon for games, the four Chicagoland CCIW schools banded together in 1982 along with Concordia (IL) to form the Chicago Metro Conference in order to give their women's teams in volleyball, basketball, softball, and the running sports a venue for competition. Carthage and Carroll decided that they wanted in on that, so the infant league expanded to seven schools before beginning competition in the fall of 1982, and a year later George Williams College in Downers Grove joined as well. (George Williams only lasted two years in the league before the cash-strapped school went into suspended animation and was eventually absorbed by Aurora.)

The CMC lasted for four school years, 1982-83 through 1985-86. Since it was obvious that women's sports were not only going to expand but would also demand a bigger part of athletic budgets, some people started to wonder if it made sense for six schools to compete in two different conferences with each other, one for men and one for women. And then there was the matter of Augustana, Illinois Wesleyan, and Millikin viewing the CMC as a threat; word got out that those three schools were looking to bolt from the CCIW and start a new league that would include Wabash and DePauw, plus whatever other non-MWC Illinois D3 schools outside of Chicagoland (e.g., Eureka, Rockford, and MacMurray) they could entice to join them. Upon hearing this, Wheaton and North Central immediately declared that they would put more money into their athletics travel budgets for women's teams and leave the CCIW to join the new league as well, forcing the hand of the more northern CCIW schools (Elmhurst, North Park, Carthage, and Carroll) to agree to dissolve the CMC, likewise expand their athletics travel budgets for women, and consent to have the CCIW expand to sponsor women's sports.

These conversations all took place in 1984-85 and 1985-86, as I understand. (I honestly don't know how serious discussions ever got about splitting the CCIW or among schools that were threatening to leave it, but this was more or less the way events proceeded back then.) Concordia (IL) was left the odd man out when the CMC dissolved, but the Cougars were immediately able to find a home for their women's teams in the Northern Illinois Conference (which for awhile was the Northern Illinois and Iowa Conference when Clarke was a member), and of course the Northern Illinois Conference eventually merged with the Lake Michigan Conference to form the NACC.

The CMC was only around for the length of one graduating class, but it was spectacularly successful in that brief four-year span. Not only did Elmhurst win D3 national titles in women's volleyball in '83 and '85, North Central won the D3 national title in women's basketball in '83 as well.

By the way, Elmhurst is not only seeking to win its first-ever national title in men's basketball, and its first-ever national title with a CCIW team, it's also seeking to become the first-ever CCIW team to win a national championship in men's basketball without winning the league.

[Gregory Sager]

I think we need a moratorium on apologizing for off-topic posts.  There is simply not enough traffic here to be concerned about discussing something else.

With this new moratorium in effect, it's obvious that we should take this opportunity -- in honor of former Elmhurst hoops greats Ryan Knuppel and Ryan Burks -- to pay homage to their downstate hometown by once and for all resolving the age-old question, "Just how much corn is grown in Manito, anyway?"

I haven't been able to come up with a good answer, what with the nature of rural property lines and mailing addresses turning that question into something of a square-peg-in-a-round-hole matter, but I can tell you this: As of 2016, Mason County, within which Manito is located, grows more popcorn than any other county in the United States.

Give that a thought as you enjoy handfuls of the stuff while watching this weekend's Final Four -- or while reading the ongoing saga of who's blocking whom on Twitter.

[USee]

And now the starting lineups for tomorrow's FF showdown in Ft Wayne:

Elmhurst BlueJays:
Starters:
#1, 5-11, Sr, G, Jake "I'm not leaving without my" Rhode
#23, 6-5, Sr, F "Mc" Lavon Thomas "The Tank Engine"
#22, 6-2, Jr G, "Illinois" Wesley "an" Hooker
#2, 6-3 Jr, G, "Can't throw it in the" Ocean "From the Pier" Johnson
#24, 6-4, Sr, F, "Blue" Jay Militello

Reserves:
#10, 6-3, Sr, G, Dominic "an cigars" Genco
#15, 6-6, Jr, F, Jonathan "Monica" Zapinski
#35, 6-4, Jr, F Bryce "Valparaiso" Drews
#33, 6-4, Sr F, "Deer" Hunter "National" Merritt "Scholar"

Wabash Little Giants:
Starters:
#3, 6-1, Sr, G,  Jack "Steph Curry went to" Davidson
#13, 6-2, Sr, G,  "Steven" Tyler "Hansbrough" Watson
#11, 6-5, Sr, F,  "Oscar winner" Kellen "Hitman" Schreiber
#14, 6-4, Sr, F,  "Show me" Ahmoni Jones
#2, 6-3, Fr, G, "My Cousin" Vinny Buccilla

Reserves:
#32, 6-8, Fr, F Jesse Hall "and Oates'
#33, 6-5, So, F,  "Uncle" Sam "Up and" Comer
#22, 6-2, So, G,  Avery "Leave it to" Beaver
#12, 6-0, So, G, "Last but not" Edreece Redmond

[Flying Dutch Fan]

As a kid growing up in NW Iowa, we would often travel through Sioux City and drive by the American Pop Corn Company - who had 3 giant warehouses for Jolly Time Popcorn.  Right next to this was a large petroleum company with 10-15 giant storage tanks.  We would joke (literally every time we drove by - likely driving my parents crazy) that if one of the tanks ever blew up there would be popcorn 50 feet deep for miles.

[WUPHF]

This is exactly why the boards should support a conversational free for all.

[Gregory Sager]

#10, 6-3, Sr, G, Dominic "an cigars" Genco

One of my bitter disappointments of the past few years of broadcasting has been my inability to get "the Consigliere" to catch on as Dominic Genco's nickname. (His parents love it, by the way; at this year's EU @ NPU game they even had me sign a "Consigliere" plaque that they made for their son.) I get the feeling that, for as much as The Godfather and The Godfather II are revered as pinnacles of American cinema, a lot fewer people have actually seen those movies than I thought.

#11, 6-5, Sr, F,  "Oscar winner" Kellen "Hitman" Schreiber

USee, your gifts as a provocateur are underestimated.

As a kid growing up in NW Iowa, we would often travel through Sioux City and drive by the American Pop Corn Company - who had 3 giant warehouses for Jolly Time Popcorn.  Right next to this was a large petroleum company with 10-15 giant storage tanks.  We would joke (literally every time we drove by - likely driving my parents crazy) that if one of the tanks ever blew up there would be popcorn 50 feet deep for miles.

Speaking as someone familiar with Sioux City, it always struck me as funny that the American Pop Corn Company was located there. I figured that for years there must've been concern that the aromatic scent of their popcorn would be compromised by the stench wafting into the factory from the stockyards that were a feature of Sioux City's agricultural industry for so long.

[kiko]

OK, guys, highly partisan fans are common in college sports.

Most of us are guilty of that.

On Twitter, he does more than anyone else to hype players and programs and to foster discussion.  You gotta give him credit for that.

The only thing I will give him credit for is taking his ball and going home.  Which is his prerogative.

Partisanship is fine and to be expected.  Bob is a knowledgable guy but has always had both a very petty side to him and extremely thin skin when it comes to different POVs.  Tolerance of dissenting views is not his strong point.

[kiko]

Regarding Elmhurst - I am glad to see the Jays navigate their way to the final four, especially since many members of the current team had their run short-circuited two years ago.

I thought going into the year that the Jays had potential for this type of season given how senior- and super-senior-dominated their roster is.  From my POV, that can be a difference-maker come February and March.  Elmhurst has a nice combination of size as well as great guard play, and it is unusual to find both at this level.

The two games where they blew big leads (North Central and Millikin) were head-scratchers and made me wonder a bit about their fortitude.  Glad they seem to have righted that ship.

[Next Man Up]

And now the starting lineups for tomorrow's FF showdown in Ft Wayne:

Elmhurst BlueJays:
Starters:
#1, 5-11, Sr, G, Jake "I'm not leaving without my" Rhode
#23, 6-5, Sr, F "Mc" Lavon Thomas "The Tank Engine"
#22, 6-2, Jr G, "Illinois" Wesley "an" Hooker
#2, 6-3 Jr, G, "Can't throw it in the" Ocean "From the Pier" Johnson
#24, 6-4, Sr, F, "Blue" Jay Militello

Reserves:
#10, 6-3, Sr, G, Dominic "an cigars" Genco
#15, 6-6, Jr, F, Jonathan "Monica" Zapinski
#35, 6-4, Jr, F Bryce "Valparaiso" Drews
#33, 6-4, Sr F, "Deer" Hunter "National" Merritt "Scholar"

Wabash Little Giants:
Starters:
#3, 6-1, Sr, G,  Jack "Steph Curry went to" Davidson
#13, 6-2, Sr, G,  "Steven" Tyler "Hansbrough" Watson
#11, 6-5, Sr, F,  "Oscar winner" Kellen "Hitman" Schreiber
#14, 6-4, Sr, F,  "Show me" Ahmoni Jones
#2, 6-3, Fr, G, "My Cousin" Vinny Buccilla

Reserves:
#32, 6-8, Fr, F Jesse Hall "and Oates'
#33, 6-5, So, F,  "Uncle" Sam "Up and" Comer
#22, 6-2, So, G,  Avery "Leave it to" Beaver
#12, 6-0, So, G, "Last but not" Edreece Redmond

Good work, USee.
I'm quite sure the Green Contingent of the CCIW is in full agreement with your designation of W's Schreiber as Hitman.   

[Gregory Sager]

The Bluejays are getting some love from at least one local TV station.

[Gregory Sager]

Congrats to IWU's Matt Leritz on yet another honor, First Team All-American.

Yeah, well, the NABC's All-American honor continues to lose credibility at an alarming rate. Not only did they relegate Aston Francis to second team after his amazing senior season (and Final Four run) in 2019, but this year they put Wabash's Jack Davidson on the third team. As Pat said on Twitter, there probably aren't two better players in all of D3 than Davidson, let alone two better players in Region 7. (One of the problems with the NABC All-American award is that their format only allows one player per region for each of the three teams.)

Not to worry, though, Mark, as your boy Matt Leritz will almost certainly make the first team of the only Division III All-American team that really matters: the d3hoops.com All-American team.