MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[USee]

In looking at St. Norbert (Wheaton's opponent Saturday) they come in with a 20-6 record. Their notable wins are Vs Whitewater (66-55 on 12/30). They then lost badly @UWW on Feb 2 63-38. Their other losses are by 14 to Augie, by 11 to Grinnell, by 17 to Beloit, by 5 to Grinnell and by 20 to UWGB (d1 school).

It seems Wheaton should have an advantage in SOS and would be favored at home by a comfortable margin. You never know in the playoffs though. Wheaton really needs Kvam and Berg to shoot the ball well if they hope to win Saturday and compete with UST a week later. Peter Smith also needs to find some offense in his game. He started the season strong and hasn't been much of an impact during the conference slate. All those youngsters have now been through a CCIW schedule. They aren't youngsters anymore and need to play like veterans!

[Gregory Sager]

The great thing about having two tournament games within reach of the Metra is that I get to choose between St. Norbert @ Wheaton and Centre @ North Central on Saturday night. I'm still not sure which to attend. I'm trying to get a feel for which is going to be the better matchup, because my priority between the two would be to see the best game.

I'm leaning towards the game at King Arena, because my initial thought is that that's a more competitive pairing. Massey has North Central #3 and Centre #61, and Wheaton #10 and St. Norbert #28, so I think the chances of a good game might be better for the latter matchup. But I'm open to being persuaded otherwise by NCC followers.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Out of curiosity, does anyone know who all such teams are?  I'm pretty sure that Hope, Calvin, and Wheaton absolutely will not play on Sunday.  Messiah never schedules games for Sundays, but is willing to bend for make-ups or tournaments (so as not to inconvenience others, I would assume).  I would assume there are others, but these are the only ones I know about.

North Park teams will play on Sundays. I haven't heard of it being a bone of contention among Parkers for as long as I've been around, although there's plenty of people who would prefer that NPU not play games on Sundays.

I would imagine that the list of no-Sunday-athletics schools would include many of the D3 institutions on this list, besides the ones already named:

Baptist Bible
Bethel
Cairn
Covenant
Crown
Eastern Nazarene
Gordon
Greenville
Houghton
Lancaster Bible
LeTourneau
Maranatha Baptist
Northwestern
North Central (MN)

Except perhaps for Bethel (and don't know whether their policy is Wheaton's or Messiah's), I don't see anyone the NCAA is gonna have to worry about!  (Unless one or more of them is really good in a sport I don't follow.)

[D-3 watcher]

That's pretty good, K. Reed will block that.

They have 6 Sr.s in their 8 man rotation, not to many teams have that going for them. They will not be intimidated by anything IWU will throw at them. Like Q said, IWU will have to play really good to get a win.
Not around the Shirk, so I don't know Zimmers statis, hope he's able to go. When he's healthy, it's a good sub to have.

[iwu70]

Transy looks very strong, experienced to me.  Balanced scoring, pretty physical.   Yes, Titans will have to bring their "A game" this Saturday for sure.

Let's hope a week off, enough to give Zimmer a chance to be back and play vs. Transy.  He's an excellent piece to have off the bench, esp. when some quick points are needed, or to bust a zone.  Seems Titans have to regroup and play alot better than vs. NCC and especially vs. AC in the CCIW tourney.  Let's hope they bounce back quickly.

Good luck to NCC and WC as well -- let's go 3-0 on Saturday, get 3 teams into the round of 32. 

IWU70

[sac]

A pretty big deal for the CCIW....

http://www.d3sports.com/notables/2013/02/regional-realignment-coming

Losing the option to schedule HCAC teams as in-region hurts, I don't think many are within the 200 mile rule.

Being in the same region with the WIAC is going to make things very hard on the NathCon/SLIAC/MidWest.  Not many open spots to rank teams when the CCIW and WIAC usually have 3 rank-able teams at one time.

[petemcb]

The great thing about having two tournament games within reach of the Metra is that I get to choose between St. Norbert @ Wheaton and Centre @ North Central on Saturday night. I'm still not sure which to attend. I'm trying to get a feel for which is going to be the better matchup, because my priority between the two would be to see the best game.

I'm leaning towards the game at King Arena, because my initial thought is that that's a more competitive pairing. Massey has North Central #3 and Centre #61, and Wheaton #10 and St. Norbert #28, so I think the chances of a good game might be better for the latter matchup. But I'm open to being persuaded otherwise by NCC followers.

One word: seats.

[Titan Q]

A pretty big deal for the CCIW....

http://www.d3sports.com/notables/2013/02/regional-realignment-coming

Losing the option to schedule HCAC teams as in-region hurts, I don't think many are within the 200 mile rule.

Being in the same region with the WIAC is going to make things very hard on the NathCon/SLIAC/MidWest.  Not many open spots to rank teams when the CCIW and WIAC usually have 3 rank-able teams at one time.

But with the 70% rule coming next year, isn't any type of regional alignment almost a non-factor in terms of in-region games?

[USee]

Centre comes to NCC with a 21-5 record. Their big wins are vs Trannsylvania, vs Franklin and 2x vs Birmingham Southern (including a 2pt Victory in the conf championship game). They have 9 players that average double digit minutes so they appear pretty deep. It appears their starting lineup is:

Bryon "Montae" Ellis 5-10 Sr G  10ppg, 33% 3pt, 1.6 A/TO
Chris "Tractor" Taylor 5-10 So. G 5.1ppg, 2.9 reb, 2.1 A/TO
Josh "Smith" Karsner 6-4, So. F 11.9 ppg, 4.2 Reb, 45% 3pt
Tyler "Hansborough" Wesley 6-8, Fr, F, 7.8ppg, 8.6 reb
"Billy" Donovan Whiteside 6-3 Jr G, 9.2ppg, 5reb, 40% 3pt

Then they bring:

Blake "Griffin" Scinta, 6-8 Fr, F, 12.7ppg, 5.3reb
Holden "Rent-a" Hertzel 6-5, Fr, F 3.5ppg, 2.5 reb

Seems like these guys are deep and fairly big, but when they go big they are young. They are 14-0 at home and 5-5 on the road this year.

I think NCC has a huge advantage in experience in these matchups and for a team (Centre) that seems pretty average at shooting the 3, they won't get any help from the airplane hangar.

If I am Sager, I am going to King Arena (Which I think Wheaton is a comfortable favorite, but not in blowout fashion).

[CCIWchamps]

IMHO:  The one thing that Wheaton needs to work on to improve is their passing game.  Seem like it is pretty good in non conference play but when we hit the tough conference defenses it goes to the way side every year.  I believe the deliberate dribble penetration game has effected the rest of the game.  The team has begun dribbling into the defense or dribbling while open letting defenses catch up.

If Wheaton will concentrate on less dribbling and quick passes getting the ball around the horn quick with in and out passes they will see more open shots.  Lanes would begin to open up even from the sides for dribble penetration. 

Wheatons had a great year and when the passing game improves the team will take a big step in getting better.

Go Thunder!

Great point.  In the game @NCC, the first half was good and involved passing.  The second half was not good and involved a lot of dribble drives.  Hopefully they've gained the confidence to stay patient with the ball movement on offense instead of putting their heads down and charging to the hoop. 

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Bob - you are right. As long as teams have 18 of their games in region... all of the games will count.

[WUPHF]

Bryan "Montae" Ellis 5-10 Sr G  10ppg, 33% 3pt, 1.6 A/TO
Christ "Tractor" Taylor 5-10 So. G 5.1ppg, 2.9 reb, 2.1 A/TO
Josh "Smith" Karsner 6-4, So. F 11.9 ppg, 4.2 Reb, 45% 3pt
Tyler "Hansborough" Wesley 6-8, Fr, F, 7.8ppg, 8.6 reb
"Billy" Donovan Whiteside 6-3 Jr G, 9.2ppg, 5reb, 40% 3pt

Then they bring:

Blake "Griffin" Scinta, 6-8 Fr, F, 12.7ppg, 5.3reb
Holden "Rent-a" Hertzel 6-5, Fr, F 3.5ppg, 2.5 reb

You seriously made my day with this post!

[Titan Q]

Bob - you are right. As long as teams have 18 of their games in region... all of the games will count.

So as long as a CCIW team plays 4 or more of 11 non-conference games against "in-region" teams (in the region itself, within 200 miles, or in the same administrative region), then all other D3 games will count.  Using IWU this year as an example, in the future the games vs Tufts, Hope, and Mississippi College would have counted.

If this is the case, I don't think losing HCAC teams from the CCIW's region is a big deal at all.  Finding 4 in-region teams is a piece of cake. IWU can schedule, say, Wash U, Chicago, Illinois College, and UW-Whitewater...and then not worry about where the other D3 opponents are geographically.

[AndOne]

The great thing about having two tournament games within reach of the Metra is that I get to choose between St. Norbert @ Wheaton and Centre @ North Central on Saturday night. I'm still not sure which to attend. I'm trying to get a feel for which is going to be the better matchup, because my priority between the two would be to see the best game.

I'm leaning towards the game at King Arena, because my initial thought is that that's a more competitive pairing. Massey has North Central #3 and Centre #61, and Wheaton #10 and St. Norbert #28, so I think the chances of a good game might be better for the latter matchup. But I'm open to being persuaded otherwise by NCC followers.

One word: seats.

Indeed!
It will be much easier to find a seat in the hangar than it will in a packed King Arena.   

[AndOne]

IMHO:  The one thing that Wheaton needs to work on to improve is their passing game.  Seem like it is pretty good in non conference play but when we hit the tough conference defenses it goes to the way side every year.  I believe the deliberate dribble penetration game has effected the rest of the game.  The team has begun dribbling into the defense or dribbling while open letting defenses catch up.

If Wheaton will concentrate on less dribbling and quick passes getting the ball around the horn quick with in and out passes they will see more open shots.  Lanes would begin to open up even from the sides for dribble penetration. 

Wheatons had a great year and when the passing game improves the team will take a big step in getting better.

Go Thunder!

Great point.  In the game @NCC, the first half was good and involved passing.  The second half was not good and involved a lot of dribble drives.  Hopefully they've gained the confidence to stay patient with the ball movement on offense instead of putting their heads down and charging to the hoop.

I think the WC problem/solution with regard to any passing problems can even be further refined. Specifically, problem number 1 is Wheaton's over-reliance on Peters' dribble drives. Passing seems not to be the first consideration with regard to the preferred choice of ball movement. All you have to do to understand this is look at the NCC/Wheaton film from their recent game at IWU. Problem 2, is even more specific to the passing game itself in that if you watch WC, I think you'll see a large percentage of their passes are inside out (off the dribble drive) rather than outside in. Granted this is somewhat due to their outside shooting ability. Thats fine when the shooters are hot. On nights when they're not, WC struggles,
Thats why I think its not just the passing game that needs improvement at WC, but, specifically, the interior passing game. Look to get the ball inside a little more. I think Haynes could do more if he got more touches. Another thing that would help is the development of another inside player who could work an inside passing game in tandem with Haynes. Would make the WC attack that much more dangerous by further development of an inside game to complement their already good outside capabilities. JMHO.