MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[RogK]

Strength of schedule is known at the end of a season, not at the beginning.
Unless some '23-'24 teams are going to play against '22-'23 teams.

[WUPHF]

And thinking in philosophical terms, you should avoid making statements that are unjustified or without good reasons to do so.

Strength of schedule is known at the end of a season, not at the beginning.
Unless some '23-'24 teams are going to play against '22-'23 teams.

Justified and with good reason.

[Greek Tragedy]

You can only base preseason schedule strength on last year's results. Obviously it's all speculative. I mean, even Greg bolded (or asterisk) teams that made the post season last year in one of his tweets when he was talking about NPU's schedule. Obviously we do this to highlight the presumed difficulty of the upcoming schedule.

[Gregory Sager]

You can only base preseason schedule strength on last year's results. Obviously it's all speculative. I mean, even Greg bolded (or asterisk) teams that made the post season last year in one of his tweets when he was talking about NPU's schedule. Obviously we do this to highlight the presumed difficulty of the upcoming schedule.

Exactly.

[WUPHF]

You can only base preseason schedule strength on last year's results. Obviously it's all speculative.

I am speculating of course, but I believe UW-Stevens Point will win maybe 30% of their games in conference play next season, but they will defeat Illinois Wesleyan because that is the predictive power of prior season results.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Of course it's all speculative - including recruits, transfers, and rosters - given that no schools are in session and we don't even have schedules for most teams yet.  If we are going to bash folks for being speculative, then we all better just stop posting until November...

[WUPHF]

No one bashed folks for speculating. Jesus Christ!

[Greek Tragedy]

https://twitter.com/Rj_veliz/status/1669092976843436032?t=64WCtj-vFj7ALV2NAb8pKw&s=19

Wheaton recruit

[Gregory Sager]

https://twitter.com/Rj_veliz/status/1669092976843436032?t=64WCtj-vFj7ALV2NAb8pKw&s=19

Wheaton recruit

He's a 6'2", 175 guard with two years of eligibility remaining. Played two years (and a sliver of a third beforehand, in which he was likely injured early and redshirted) for D2 Western Oregon, where he averaged 2.5 ppg in 23 games his first season and 2.3 ppg in 18 games last season. His shooting line at WOU for his career there was .376/.250/.789. My D2 knowledge is limited, so I don't really have a feel for the strength of competition in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (WOU's league).

He's enrolling at Wheaton as a grad student, so he apparently finished his undergrad work in three years.

[USee]

FWIW, on a recent interview on a well known D3 podcast, Tyson Cruickshank addressed the "foul" at the end of the IWU v Wheaton game. He said he was "definitely" fouled on his forearm and conceded the replay doesn't look like there was a foul. He admitted its a tough call to make but was confident it was the right call.

[Gregory Sager]

I watched that last month. I would probably harbor suspicions about the veracity of a lot of players in that situation, but I'm inclined to believe Cruickshank. It still doesn't square with what I saw, especially given how Cruickshank went tumbling to the floor over what could've been nothing more than a light brush of his arm, but I'll take his word for it that he was fouled.

This is strictly subjective on my part, and I don't expect anybody else to draw the same conclusion on the same basis. But, regardless of my ardent antipathy towards Wheaton in the context of sports, I assume honesty from a Wheaton student-athlete (absent compelling reasons not to do so) where I might not assume it from a student-athlete from another school.

[Gotberg]

Based on NPU's MBB posts on Instagram, it appears that all NPU recruits that verbally committed, submitted their down payments and will enroll for the fall term. 

Exciting times to be a fan of NPU.

[Gregory Sager]

Yep. I think that Instagram tail-ender DJ Wallace was the last to fully complete the enrollment process, and he had his slide posted on Instagram and Twitter yesterday.

Now it's just a matter of them all showing up at Foster & Kedzie in late August healthy and ready to go.

"Exciting times to be a fan of NPU" is putting it mildly!

[Gregory Sager]

Elmhurst's recruiting class:

https://elmhurstbluejays.com/news/2023/6/27/elmhurst-mens-basketball-announces-2023-recruiting-class.aspx

[lmitzel]

Vince Kmiec has started to fill out his staff for the upcoming season.

About a week ago NCC announced that longtime Augie assistant Alex Washington was making the move from Rock Island to Naperville. Washington will serve as Vince's top assistant.

Also returning to the Cardinal bench this coming season is an old friend in Aaron Tiknis.