MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

I continue to feel the CCIW would be better off having all 8 teams in the conference tournament.  Carthage will be competing for a Pool C bid at the end of the bubble with teams that had a chance to win quarterfinal games in their conference tournament - for example, Ohio Wesleyan (beat Kenyon in NCAC round 1) and DePauw (beat Wabash in NCAC round 1).  The impact of these wins on winning %, relative to Carthage's 0-1 in the CCIW tournament, is literally enough to be the difference between being in and out.

Does anyone know the logic behind only having 4 teams in the CCIW tournament?  Is it purely to save on costs?  I agree that all eight should participate---why not?

I could be wrong on this but if everyone is allowed into the conference tourney, you are only allowed 24 regular season games instead of 25?

A team is allowed 25 games max on their schedule... however, the conference tournament accounts for just one game - no matter how many games are played. So teams schedule 24 games (unless you are the UAA who schedules 25) and if you play in three rounds of the conference tournament, it only counts as a single game on the schedule.

Thus the argument the UAA can schedule better is slightly flawed because they only gain a single game. And everyone else in the country only schedules 24 games unless they are predicting ahead of time they won't make the conference tournament.

[Titan Q]

I continue to feel the CCIW would be better off having all 8 teams in the conference tournament.  Carthage will be competing for a Pool C bid at the end of the bubble with teams that had a chance to win quarterfinal games in their conference tournament - for example, Ohio Wesleyan (beat Kenyon in NCAC round 1) and DePauw (beat Wabash in NCAC round 1).  The impact of these wins on winning %, relative to Carthage's 0-1 in the CCIW tournament, is literally enough to be the difference between being in and out.

Does anyone know the logic behind only having 4 teams in the CCIW tournament?  Is it purely to save on costs?  I agree that all eight should participate---why not?

I could be wrong on this but if everyone is allowed into the conference tourney, you are only allowed 24 regular season games instead of 25?

A team is allowed 25 games max on their schedule... however, the conference tournament accounts for just one game - no matter how many games are played. So teams schedule 24 games (unless you are the UAA who schedules 25) and if you play in three rounds of the conference tournament, it only counts as a single game on the schedule.

Thus the argument the UAA can schedule better is slightly flawed because they only gain a single game. And everyone else in the country only schedules 24 games unless they are predicting ahead of time they won't make the conference tournament.

Every CCIW team plays 25 games, Dave (11 non-conference, 14 conference)...and then 4 play in the conference tournament.  Are we going to get kicked out of D3?

[Pat Coleman]

The conference tournament does not count as one of your 25 games. (Rule changed in about 2004 or so.)

[toooldtohoop]

Congratulations to the Thunder!  It has been a battle all year, but this team really played up to its potential tonight.  Tyler Peters was just awesome, and Nate Haynes lived up to his beast nickname.  Thunder out rebound IWU by a pretty good margin.  Just an excellent team victory with many contributors.  Great to have Peter Smith playing well, and Fischer is finishing his senior year as an impact player off the bench.  Just hope this will be the new normal for our Thunder!

On a side note, I thought coach Rose and the Titans displayed a lot of class after the loss.  They exhibited sportsmanship as the clock wound down.  I think all the coaches and players joined the prayer circle.  And they stayed out and applauded as Wheaton was awarded the championship trophy.  Would have been easy and understandable for them to have left quickly.  Great program, great season, and hopefully a lot left for them in the tournament.

[iwu70]

Awesome, almost perfect game by WC tonight, shooting 70% from the field and from trey, or close to it.  They really played up in the passing lanes all night and held all IWU scorers to single digits.  Pretty impressive.

Yes, congrats to Wheaton on their tournament win, and the AQ.   Let's hope 3-4 CCIW teams get in the Dance and that all make some noise. 

IWU70

[iwu70]

My error, two Titans scored in double figures, Overstreet and Zman.  I guess they just shut off LiveStats on me when I looked at the end of the game.  Sorry.

WC really took it to the Titans, in any case. 

Now we wait on Pool C and seedings, and the initial weekend match-ups.  Hope Augie and Carthage get in.

IWU70

[USee]

Wow.   I wasn't expecting that result.  Congratulations to Wheaton and Coach Mike Schauer.  He has done a tremendous job with this team all year.  They have been in every game and they play hard all the time.  I really thought Peter Smith was a huge difference last night.  Last weekend at King he got into early foul trouble and never really made an impact.  Last night he played exceptionally well scoring 14 pts. But defensively he makes the Thunder so much better with his length and versatility. He can guard all 5 spots on the floor and that made a big difference. 

I also thought the added media timeouts were to Wheaton's benefit.  4 extra breaks allowed the Thunder starters time to stay fresh which partially offset IWUs depth advantage.  All that aside, the Thunder picked the right time to play their best game of the season. 

This game probably helps both teams.  Wheaton goes into the tourney with tremendous confidence after a win over a team like IWU on the road.  The Titans are a veteran group that will use this as a reminder of how quickly things can change and how fragile the season is in the playoffs.  I wouldmt want to be IWUs next opponent. 

Good luck to all the teams in the tourney.

[Titan Q]

I have Carthage in safely - http://www.d3boards.com/index.php?topic=4232.msg1584521#msg1584521.  Hope I'm right.

I believe we are going to see 4 CCIW teams in.  This would be great to see -- the CCIW has been the best conference in Division III this season.

[iwu70]

Q, thanks for all the research, assessment and detail on Pool C.  I hope you are right and CC gets in too.

Looking forward to the tournament.

IWU70

[thunder38]

Highlights from last night's game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxRtDs4JZag&feature=youtu.be

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

The conference tournament does not count as one of your 25 games. (Rule changed in about 2004 or so.)

I apologize... when I did my research to confirm, what I read did not indicate the conference games didn't count any more. My confusion then and I got sent down the old road. Sad considering my head was screaming what I was reading wasn't making any sense. Just too long a day, I guess.

So it gets back to the fact that the UAA does not have any advantage of everyone else in terms of scheduling and not having a conference tournament.

[carthage guy]

If carthage truly gets in i will be happy with the progress div 3 has made on getting the best teams in .... I played on teams that would have gotten a made noise in the tourney but will left out with 18+ wins playing in the cciw. great to see... good luck to all cciw squads

[augiefan]

I sure hope Q is right about 4 CCIW teams in the tourney. Of course, if that happens, the 4 will probably be facing off against each other in the second round, assuming everyone gets past their first round opponent. Best case Augie and Carthage get sent to a different region than IWU and Wheaton, who should get home court for two games.

[USee]

Mike Schauer mentioned an amazing stat from the conference tourney.  The Thunder won the CCiW Tournament with their second leading score, Brayden Teuscher, making zero field goals in 2 games.  He was 0-5 from the field on the weekend.  He did go 17-17 from the free throw line.   Wheaton also  out-rebounded both teams by a combine 67-48.  That's pretty impressive vs those two teams.

[toooldtohoop]

Mike Schauer mentioned an amazing stat from the conference tourney.  The Thunder won the CCiW Tournament with their second leading score, Brayden Teuscher, making zero field goals in 2 games.  He was 0-5 from the field on the weekend.  He did go 17-17 from the free throw line.   Wheaton also  out-rebounded both teams by a combine 67-48.  That's pretty impressive vs those two teams.

I also thought that Wheaton defended Nelson particularly well last night.  Tyler locked him up, and he never got his rhythm.

Wheaton bench 16-12 over IWU.  Not a big difference, but perhaps demonstrates that Wheaton has some guys on their bench that can play too.

Schauer went big with Berg starting last night, and maybe got this game off to a different start than last Saturday.  IWU did not pound us inside early like they did last week.  Berg has really been coming on down the stretch.  And Joel Smith is showing toughness and is hitting big shots.

Wheaton was deep enough to win two games against great opponents on the road in back to back games.  Hope they can keep it going.

And I hope the best conference in the country can get four in.  Trust the experts' analysis on Carthage.  Dangerous team on any given night. 

Go Thunder and CCIW!