MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[kiko]

I don't know how widespread this practice is, but I'm glad Baines and Elmhurst make the effort to not just go through the motions.

It was senior night for Marian when North Central paid their visit on Friday, and their approach was to do the ceremony *after* the game, which... I guess is a choice you can make but which is akin to making the local band come on after the headliner plays their set.  I certainly didn't stick around for it and I have to suspect a large swath of the crowd made the same choice.

[Gregory Sager]

Starting a new thread on my preferences/predictions for the 2022-2023 CCIW All-Conference Team...

Those are well-thought-out picks.

If I were to predict how the voting will go, it'd be:

FIRST TEAM
TJ Askew, senior, Wheaton
* Fillip Bulatovic, senior, Carthage
* Daniel Carr, senior, Augustana
* Tyson Cruickshank, senior, Wheaton
* Matt Helwig, senior, North Central
Cody Mitchell, senior, Illinois Wesleyan
Shamar Pumphrey, junior, North Park
Kolden Vanlandingham, sophomore, North Park

SECOND TEAM
Lucas Heflen, senior, Illinois Wesleyan
John Ittounas, junior, Elmhurst
Ocean Johnson, senior, Elmhurst
Mitch Lewis, senior, North Central
Antuan Nesbitt, sophomore, Carthage
Aaron Wafford, sophomore, Carroll
JT Welch, sophomore, Millikin
Jonathan Zapinski, senior, Elmhurst

MOP: Tyson Cruickshank, Wheaton
FOY: Julian Campbell, Carthage
COY: Mike Schauer, Wheaton

My druthers:

Same first- and second-team lists as yours, except that I'd replace AJ Johnson of Carthage with Andrew Williams of Wheaton on the second team.

MOP: Tyson Cruickshank, Wheaton (no-brainer)
FOY: Julian Campbell, Carthage (ditto)
COY: Sean Smith, North Park (no offense to Mike Schauer intended at all, but he took his team from 12-4 and 2nd place last season to 14-2 and 1st place this season, while Sean Smith inherited a 5-11, 7th-place team and, in his first year as a head coach anywhere, took the Vikings to 13-3 and 2nd place)

The CCIW doesn't have these specialty awards, but if it did:

Defensive Player of the Year: Marquise Jackson, North Park
Most Improved Player: Jonathan Zapinski, Elmhurst

[GoPerry]

Starting a new thread on my preferences/predictions for the 2022-2023 CCIW All-Conference Team...

Those are well-thought-out picks.

If I were to predict how the voting will go, it'd be:

FIRST TEAM
TJ Askew, senior, Wheaton
* Fillip Bulatovic, senior, Carthage
* Daniel Carr, senior, Augustana
* Tyson Cruickshank, senior, Wheaton
* Matt Helwig, senior, North Central
Cody Mitchell, senior, Illinois Wesleyan
Shamar Pumphrey, junior, North Park
Kolden Vanlandingham, sophomore, North Park

SECOND TEAM
Lucas Heflen, senior, Illinois Wesleyan
John Ittounas, junior, Elmhurst
Ocean Johnson, senior, Elmhurst
Mitch Lewis, senior, North Central
Antuan Nesbitt, sophomore, Carthage
Aaron Wafford, sophomore, Carroll
JT Welch, sophomore, Millikin
Jonathan Zapinski, senior, Elmhurst

MOP: Tyson Cruickshank, Wheaton
FOY: Julian Campbell, Carthage
COY: Mike Schauer, Wheaton

My druthers:

Same first- and second-team lists as yours, except that I'd replace AJ Johnson of Carthage with Andrew Williams of Wheaton on the second team.

MOP: Tyson Cruickshank, Wheaton (no-brainer)
FOY: Julian Campbell, Carthage (ditto)
COY: Sean Smith, North Park (no offense to Mike Schauer intended at all, but he took his team from 12-4 and 2nd place last season to 14-2 and 1st place this season, while Sean Smith inherited a 5-11, 7th-place team and, in his first year as a head coach anywhere, took the Vikings to 13-3 and 2nd place)

The CCIW doesn't have these specialty awards, but if it did:

Defensive Player of the Year: Marquise Jackson, North Park
Most Improved Player: Jonathan Zapinski, Elmhurst

Williams or Jt Welsh of Millikin?  You listed Welsh.

I had a similar thought on Tor's list - that Andrew Williams getting a second team nod would be well deserving.  Plus, I think the coaches probably try hard to get at least 3 players from the championship team onto the All CCIW team.  So I think Wheaton will get a second teamer.  But I think it will probably be either Schiavello or Eli Considine (a senior) and not Williams since Williams was a reserve most of the season.  Plus, he's one of those players that beat you in ways you don't really notice.

In the last six games that he has been starting, plus the seventh vs Park in which he played big minutes when Eddie Scott got injured early, Williams #s are 12 pts/g; 6.7 rebs/g, 32/38 FT 84%.  Plus, he does all the intangible hustle things that don't appear on the stat sheet.  I would probably throw my vote for Williams on the second team, but I don't think the coaches will go that way.

[Stertorous Thunder]

If I were to predict how the voting will go, it'd be:
FIRST TEAM
Kolden Vanlandingham, sophomore, North Park

I was today year's old when I learned that Vanlandingham is only a sophomore.  I just assumed that he was older.  Wow.  Imagine what he can do in two years.

My druthers:
Same first- and second-team lists as yours, except that I'd replace AJ Johnson of Carthage with Andrew Williams of Wheaton on the second team.

As I've mentioned before, I am a card-carrying member of the Andrew Williams Fan Club and I think he might be my new favorite Wheaton player (even supplanting Ricky Samuelson, 2014-2018), but I don't think I could justify a spot in the all-conference teams.  Nick Schiavello and Eli Considine have been starters all season while Williams only began starting recently after Eddie Scott left a game with an injury.  However, adding to your list of non-existent specialty awards, I'd like to call Andrew Williams the CCIW Sixth Man of the Year.

[Stertorous Thunder]

Williams or Jt Welsh of Millikin?  You listed Welsh.

Greg's lists were his predicted real-life outcomes, which includes Welch.  If he was making his own lists, he said he would vote for Williams.

[bbfan44]

Put Williams on the 2nd team and make Lewis the Sixth Man...he has started only 1 game.

[Gregory Sager]

Williams or Jt Welsh of Millikin?  You listed Welsh.

Yes, because I think that the coaches will reward both Millikin and Carroll with a player each on the All-CCIW teams. You typically don't see a team get left out of the All-CCIW selections unless it wins three or fewer games. The Big Blue and the Pioneers each won four -- and that means that it wasn't just a case of the two of them beating each other and seventh-place Augustana. Millikin and Carroll each had wins upon which they could hang their hats this season; Millikin beat #2 North Park, and Carroll beat both #3 Carthage and #4 Elmhurst.

Welch is a good player in his own right, so I don't think that he'd really be stealing anybody's spot. You could perhaps make the argument that Carroll's Wafford might be doing that, since Carroll strikes me as a team made up of interchangeable parts that has a lot of guys who are all at similar levels. But the coaches will reason that Carroll, too, ought to be rewarded with an All-CCIW spot, and I can see why.

Remember, my first listing is a prediction. This is me going by what I know of how the coaches operate when making their All-CCIW selections.

Williams is on my own personal All-CCIW team (i.e., my "druthers"). Wheaton won the league; therefore, Wheaton ought to have at least as many members of the All-CCIW team as does any other school. As you mentioned, Williams deserves selection on his own merits. I think that the coaches in this case might elide that tradition, because WC would be one of only two schools in the league that has a pair of first-teamers, and, like Wheaton, the other team -- North Park -- would only have those two first-teamers as well. The only team that would have three All-CCIW players, Elmhurst, wouldn't have anybody on the first team. Thus, the political infighting is avoided.

I had a similar thought on Tor's list - that Andrew Williams getting a second team nod would be well deserving.  Plus, I think the coaches probably try hard to get at least 3 players from the championship team onto the All CCIW team.  So I think Wheaton will get a second teamer.  But I think it will probably be either Schiavello or Eli Considine (a senior) and not Williams since Williams was a reserve most of the season.  Plus, he's one of those players that beat you in ways you don't really notice.

Williams plays starter's minutes. In fact, he averages more than seven minutes per game of court time than does putative starter Eddie Scott. Besides, if the coaches were more concerned with who starts than with how much a player actually plays or what sort of impact he has upon a game, then we could probably cross out Kolden Vanlandingham as well, because he hasn't been out there for the opening jump ball in either of NPU's last two games, or in three of their last six. Or how about Mitch Lewis of North Central? He's only started one game all season.

In the last six games that he has been starting, plus the seventh vs Park in which he played big minutes when Eddie Scott got injured early, Williams #s are 12 pts/g; 6.7 rebs/g, 32/38 FT 84%.  Plus, he does all the intangible hustle things that don't appear on the stat sheet.  I would probably throw my vote for Williams on the second team, but I don't think the coaches will go that way.

I don't, either, because I think that Millikin and Carroll will each get a player on the second team. But Williams definitely makes my personal All-CCIW list.

[Gregory Sager]

If I were to predict how the voting will go, it'd be:
FIRST TEAM
Kolden Vanlandingham, sophomore, North Park

I was today year's old when I learned that Vanlandingham is only a sophomore.  I just assumed that he was older.  Wow.  Imagine what he can do in two years.

Kolden's ceiling is sky-high. I saw him last season when Earlham came to the crackerbox and gave North Park a very good game. Earlham freshman Kolden Vanlandingham was, I thought, the best player on the floor that night. He made All-HCAC third team last season, averaging 17.4 ppg and 5.0 rebounds. He led the Quakers in both points and rebounds.

I don't know if his stats are ever going to soar into the stratosphere, because Sean Smith's style of basketball is very much a share-the-wealth sort of endeavor. What I do think is that Vanlandingham is going to get more and more efficient and that he'll get closer and closer to being unstoppable at this level without constant double-teaming, or at least constant face-guarding.

[Gregory Sager]

New D3hoops.com poll is out.

* Wheaton moves up a spot to #6
* North Park is still stuck on the sidewalk with its face pressed up against the candy store window

I'm beginning to wonder if Ken Massey's malfunctioning HAL 9000 computer is unduly influencing Top 25 pollsters where NPU is concerned.

[USee]

COY: Sean Smith, North Park (no offense to Mike Schauer intended at all, but he took his team from 12-4 and 2nd place last season to 14-2 and 1st place this season, while Sean Smith inherited a 5-11, 7th-place team and, in his first year as a head coach anywhere, took the Vikings to 13-3 and 2nd place)

Mike Schauer isn't just 14-2 up from 12-4, he won his first CCIW regular season championship as Wheaton's coach and he won it outright and beat every single team once and his two losses are in OT in early December and by 3 @NPU in January. 14-2 in this league is rarified air. He is, and has been, consistently one of the best coaches in the league and this is the year to honor him. He is as deserving of COY as anyone. That said, for different reasons, I love what Sean Smith has done and I would be a strong advocate for co-coach of the year of it's possible.

[Gregory Sager]

COY: Sean Smith, North Park (no offense to Mike Schauer intended at all, but he took his team from 12-4 and 2nd place last season to 14-2 and 1st place this season, while Sean Smith inherited a 5-11, 7th-place team and, in his first year as a head coach anywhere, took the Vikings to 13-3 and 2nd place)

Mike Schauer isn't just 14-2 up from 12-4, he won his first CCIW regular season championship as Wheaton's coach and he won it outright and beat every single team once and his two losses are in OT in early December and by 3 @NPU in January. 14-2 in this league is rarified air. He is, and has been, consistently one of the best coaches in the league and this is the year to honor him. He is as deserving of COY as anyone. That said, for different reasons, I love what Sean Smith has done and I would be a strong advocate for co-coach of the year of it's possible.

What you've said is true, but I should point out that this isn't a career achievement award, so that whole "consistently one of the best coaches in the league and this is the year to honor him" thing shouldn't count in Mike's favor. In fairness, it's equally true that Sean shouldn't get extra credit for the exact opposite -- the fact that he's pulled off such a major achievement in just his first year as a head coach.

(Also, I have to mention that Sean beat every other team in the league, too.)

[Gregory Sager]

The All-CCIW team has just been announced:

Fred Young Most Outstanding Student-Athlete
Tyson Cruickshank, Wheaton

First-Year Student-Athlete of the Year
Julian Campbell, Carthage

Coach of the Year
Mike Schauer, Wheaton

All-CCIW First Team
*Fillip Bulatovic, G/F, Carthage, Sr., Harwood Heights, Ill., Maine South
Jonathan Zapinski, F/C, Elmhurst, Sr., Southlake, Texas, Carroll
*Cody Mitchell, F, Illinois Wesleyan, Sr., St. Charles, Ill., St. Charles East
*Matt Helwig, G, North Central, Sr., Aurora, Ill., Metea Valley
Shamar Pumphrey, G, North Park, Jr., Chicago, Ill., Lindblom
*Kolden Vanlandingham, G, North Park, So., Richmond, Ind., Northeastern
*TJ Askew, F, Wheaton, Gr., San Diego, Calif., Santa Fe Christian
*Tyson Cruickshank, G, Wheaton, Gr., Highlands Ranch, Colo., ThunderRidge

* -- Unanimous selections

All-CCIW Second Team
Daniel Carr, C, Augustana, Sr., Highlands Ranch, Colo., Regis Jesuit
AJ Johnson, G, Carthage, So., Oswego, Ill., Oswego East
Antuan Nesbitt, G, Carthage, So., Milwaukee, Wis., The Prairie School
John Ittounas, G, Elmhurst, Jr., Vernon Hills, Ill., Stevenson
Lucas Heflen, G, Illinois Wesleyan, Sr., St. Charles, Ill., St. Charles North
Mitch Lewis, F, North Central, Sr., Naperville, Ill., Naperville North
Marquise Jackson, G, North Park, Sr., Macon, Ga., Windsor
Nick Schiavello, G, Wheaton, Jr., Columbus, Ind., Columbus North

CCIW RESPECT Award Recipients
Matt Hanushewsky, G, Augustana, Sr., Arlington Heights, Ill., Hersey
Justin Gruber, G, Carroll, Gr., Menomonee Falls, Wis., Menomonee Falls
Luke Barach, G, Carthage, Sr., St. John, Ind., Hanover Central
Matt Woloch, G, Elmhurst, So., Arlington Heights, Ill., Prospect
Ryan Sroka, G, Illinois Wesleyan, Jr., Lake in the Hills, Ill., Huntley
Cole Laurence, F, Millikin, Sr., Farmington, Mo., Farmington
Shea Cupples, G, North Central, Sr., Normal, Ill., Normal West
Jalen Boyd, G/F, North Park, Sr., Bellwood, Ill., St. Joseph
Eddie Scott, G, Wheaton, Sr., Bowie, Md., Annapolis Area Christian

[Gregory Sager]

I'm a little surprised that Millikin and Carroll didn't get in a player apiece, since, as I said, both teams were much more respectable than the traditional CCIW bottom-feeders. Perhaps the influx of new head coaches into the league within the past few years is changing their way of thinking about postseason awards.

I'm a little surprised as well that Dan Carr didn't make first team ... but, if we're being honest here, the big man who had the biggest impact upon the league this season wasn't Carr, it was Jonathan Zapinski.

Kudos to the coaches for not holding Mitch Lewis's medically-imposed limitations against him. It was physically impossible for him to play the standard amount of minutes someone of his talent merited, but his impact upon play was still regarded as sufficient enough by the coaches to award him second-team status.

Love the fact that 'quise made second team. He's only going to be a one-year player for North Park, but what a phenomenal impact he's had upon the league. As erratic as he can be sometimes, he can impose his will upon a game at both ends of the floor to a degree that you don't often see in this league.

I'm a big fan of the RESPECT award, so congrats to everyone who was thus honored. Special shout-out to North Park's quiet leader, senior co-captain Jalen Boyd.

[Stertorous Thunder]

The All-CCIW team has just been announced:

There isn't really much to quibble with - but it's clear that if Shamar Pumphrey isn't a unanimous selection, preseason all-American Daniel Carr is only on your Second Team, and Ocean Johnson doesn't make your awards list, you're in a very, very good conference.

[Gregory Sager]

The All-CCIW team has just been announced:

There isn't really much to quibble with - but it's clear that if Shamar Pumphrey isn't a unanimous selection, preseason all-American Daniel Carr is only on your Second Team, and Ocean Johnson doesn't make your awards list, you're in a very, very good conference.

Yep. Now tell that to the D3hoops.com Top 25 voters.