MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[AndOne]

D3Hoops Preseason Poll is out.

North Central-13th
Augustana-18th
Carroll-ORV-38th
Elmhurst-ORV-44th

Frequent CCIW foe Benedictine, who lost their starting center and point, is ranked 6th and received two 1st place votes! 
I'll just say it isn't last year anymore boys.

Also, if Augie is 18th, then I think IWU is 17th, or maybe 19th. To mention Carroll and, especially, Elmhurst ahead of IWU approaches the ridiculous. Anyone ever heard of Trevor Seibring? I sense a few pupils didn't do their homework. 

http://www.d3hoops.com/top25/men/2016-17/preseason

[lmitzel]

D3Hoops Preseason Poll is out.

North Central-13th
Augustana-18th
Carroll-ORV-38th
Elmhurst-ORV-44th

Frequent CCIW foe Benedictine, who lost their starting center and point, is ranked 6th and received two 1st place votes! 
I'll just say it isn't last year anymore boys.

Also, if Augie is 18th, then I think IWU is 17th, or maybe 19th. To mention Carroll and, especially, Elmhurst ahead of IWU approaches the ridiculous. Anyone ever heard of Trevor Sebring? I sense a few pupils didn't do their homework. 

http://www.d3hoops.com/top25/men/2016-17/preseason

Yeah, some of the votes were absolutely bizarre. I think NCC is ranked probably about right, though they could maybe be higher, but Benedictine definitely raised an eyebrow. They've got some pieces, sure, but 6th in the country with a pair of first place votes makes absolutely no sense.

Have to agree on the lack of respect for IWU from the pollsters. Just an all around weird poll, but such is the problem with preseason polls. I'm sure a lot of this will be remedied fairly quickly.

[AndOne]

NCC roster is still not up. Want to see this monster lineup. Is it all upperclassmen?  Thought 4 starters returned but pg was 5'11".  Who is 6'6" pg?  That would be impressive.

Hello Mr. Rhode.

NCC is traditionally about the last conference team to post its roster. Has to do with determination of who will make the 16 member traveling team should the entire roster number more than 16. The coaches, understandably, often want to take 2-3 weeks after practice starts to make this determination. I suspect the varsity roster will be up soon.

As far as as players positions, be aware that a versatile player might be able to switch positions from one year to another. Also an 18 or 19 year old may grow an inch or so over a year's time. Additionally, good coaches often adjust their rotation dependent on the makeup of the opposing team and, especially, as a response to changes during a game. A team might start with their normal lineup, but then go either "big" or "small," for a certain time, depending on whats happening during that night's game. Lastly, some posters sometimes like to throw different possibilities out there for consideration. As far NCC's starting PG, make no mistake. Jagger Anderson is the man at that spot. He is a player the Cardinals are very lucky to have. However, like everyone else, he can't play every minute. With NCC's versatility. many possibilities arise. 

* Lastly, if this is Jake rather than his dad, be aware that few players have taken an active role on the board during their playing career. Much of this is likely due to their coach's preference. You might want to check with Coach Baines before proceeding any further. 

[sac]

Not having a CCIW in the top 10 might seem really silly at the end of the year.  But I understand the questions.

2010 was the last time the CCIW didn't have a pre-season top 10 (or top 5).  IWU ended up the highest ranked CCIW in the final poll at #12

[Gregory Sager]

I posted this on the Top 25 board, but I know that some of you never stray from CCIW Chat. Since it's CCIW-specific and it relates to a current topic here, I'll re-post it:

As I keep telling people whenever someone posts the D3 preseason rankings of The Sporting News or DIII News, the d3hoops.com preseason Top 25 is the only D3 men's basketball forecast that's really worth taking seriously. Before I say anything further, I want to make it clear that I still believe that.

Be that as it may, however, there are still some stray voters in the d3hoops.com poll who make me wonder how much they're really paying attention when they make out their preseason ballots, as opposed to simply re-posting last March's tourney results for their respective Top 25s. I could cite other examples, but I'll use two cases in point from the league whose games I broadcast, the CCIW: 1) Augustana may be coming off of a championship game appearance and an Elite Eight appearance over the past two seasons, but Augie lost six seniors who were not only their top six scorers but also their top six rebounders and top six minutes-eaters. Picking the Rock Islanders #18 -- which means that there's individual voters who picked them even higher than that -- is ridiculous; and 2) how Elmhurst, which lost a whopping nine players who averaged double-digit minutes last season, was deemed worthy of appearing on someone's ballot (if not on two of them, since EC got two points in the poll) is beyond me. Coach John Baines is forced to re-construct almost his entire rotation this season. Granted, the CCIW coaches' preseason poll is notorious for getting it wrong, but the CCIW coaches picked the Bluejays to finish sixth out of nine teams.

[X-Road Coug]

I'm just a dad having fun teasing his son about a potential defensive assignment.  All good here.
Btw, is it normal for conference games to be so early?  We played them after semester, in hopes of some guys being ineligible? 

[Pat Coleman]

It's hard to schedule 18 conference games solely after Jan. 1, so most conferences don't attempt to do so.

[Gregory Sager]

I'm just a dad having fun teasing his son about a potential defensive assignment.  All good here.
Btw, is it normal for conference games to be so early?  We played them after semester, in hopes of some guys being ineligible? 

As Pat said, it's simply too difficult to fit in 18 conference games in January and February. Keep in mind that this is the new normal. This season will be the first time since the 1991-92 season that the CCIW has had nine teams rather than eight. That means that each team is going to have to have a couple of byes -- one per round-robin -- and it also means that there's a greater tendency to imbalance schedules in terms of hosting on Wednesdays versus the more desirable Saturday hosting dates, unless the December Saturday dates are utilized.

During Carroll's previous sojourn in the league, the CCIW was a nine-team circuit from 1967-68 thru 1991-92. And over that 25-season period, every CCIW team played at least one December conference game each season, if not more. The difference is that the league office is now more systematic about how it schedules, for purposes of fairness and balance.

Good question, though. And welcome to the board!

[Greek Tragedy]

Luckily, the CCIW is only playing 16 conference games.     

[Greek Tragedy]

The WIAC had 9 teams until last year. We played 3 or 4 conference games in December. After the new year, we did Wednesdays and Saturdays until the end of the season.

[Pat Coleman]

Luckily, the CCIW is only playing 16 conference games.     

Good thing I'm sticking to football. Fewer games and I can count them on my fingers.

[hickory_cornhusker]

Luckily, the CCIW is only playing 16 conference games.     

Good thing I'm sticking to football. Fewer games and I can count them on my fingers.

Technically 18 conference dates are needed. With nine teams and a double round robin each team will have 16 games and two byes.

[Gregory Sager]

Luckily, the CCIW is only playing 16 conference games.     

This is what I get for posting about St. Norbert last night. I had 18 games on the brain, because the MWC played an 18-game conference sked up until this coming season. (That's an incomplete double round-robin, by the way, since there's eleven MWC teams; a full double round-robin would mean 20 games.)

Technically 18 conference dates are needed. With nine teams and a double round robin each team will have 16 games and two byes.

If I were a less honest man, I would've fallen back upon that excuse for my slip-up.

[Greek Tragedy]

As far as I know, the MWC is playing a full round robin 18-game conference schedule this year. You guys stole Carroll University, leaving the MWC with 10 teams.

[Greek Tragedy]

Luckily, the CCIW is only playing 16 conference games.     

Good thing I'm sticking to football. Fewer games and I can count them on my fingers.

Technically 18 conference dates are needed. With nine teams and a double round robin each team will have 16 games and two byes.

Yet still, only 16 games.