MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Titan Q]

IWU scrimmages NCAA D2 Maryville U. today at 11:00am in St. Louis.  It's closed to the public.

[hopefan]

IWU scrimmages NCAA D2 Maryville U. today at 11:00am in St. Louis.  It's closed to the public.

Too bad it's closed... I might have run over and given you guys a report....

[AndOne]

Sneak in. A check will be in the mail. 🕵🏻 

[Gregory Sager]

Greg,

Whether NPU flies under "everybody's" radar depends on which group of everybodys you're looking at.

If the group is those who are not familiar with the CCIW, or those who don't give the Parkers much credit because they don't see lots of articles, posts, etc singing their praises then, yes, they will be flying under the radar.

But, if you're talking about those who closely follow the conference and the teams therein, no such advantage will fall to your team. This is especially true of the players and the coaches who have played and coached against the current NPU squad. They know that to underestimate a squad who is capable of winning on just about any given night, means that there is a strong possibility that they will be leaving the gym that night with a check mark in the L column. And if they don't know that, they should.

Disagree. Of course the Vikings will be prepared for and competed against with an attitude of respect by their CCIW opponents. That's a given in this league even when facing a bottom-feeder, and it certainly holds true for a team that's had previous experience dealing with Jordan Robinson and Juwan Henry. But that's not the point. What we're talking about here isn't the perception of opposing CCIW players and coaches. This is all about internal perception within the NPU program. The Vikings feel that they've been disrespected. People can argue until the cows come home as to whether the #4 spot is where they belong, or whether it should be higher or lower. (Everybody knows my opinion of how the coaches approach their preseason poll, and the relative amount of value it's worth.) But what you or I think doesn't matter, and in this specific instance it's not what their opponents think that I'm talking about, either. It's what the Vikings think about being picked fourth (and being ignored altogether in the d3hoops.com Top 25) that is the issue at hand.

[iwu70]

Thanks, Q,

As always, I'll look forward to your preview.

Yes, I noticed that Beasley looks bigger and stronger now.  Bausch is always fun, full of energy, though foul prone.  Hope Falitico gets better, cleared to play soon.  Stempel and Rose surely almost certain to start? 

Season coming up fast now. 

All best,

IWU'70

[John Gleich]

Yes, maybe its the concept that they are the best team that drives their #1 ranking.
You can bet the world that if Amherst, or any other team for that matter, finishes first at the end of the year that they will have someone on the year-end AA team. Thats a given.

Kind of on the same theme, one "weird" thing, to me at least, is the fact that a team has both a 2nd team and a 4th team pre-season AA, and receives not only no mention in the Top 25, but not even a single vote as far as the ORV teams. Heck, they are only picked for fourth in their own conference. Wonder when the last time something like that happened?

Interestingly, it's NOT a given.

2016 - St. Thomas (no one on any AA team)
2015 - UW Stevens Point (Alex Richard -4th team, leading scorer but not the best player)
2014 - UW Whitewater  (KJ Evans -honorable mention, arguably not their best player)
2013 - Amherst (Toomey 1st team, Workman 3rd team)
2012 - Whitewater (Davis 1st team)
2011 - St. Thomas (Nicolai 2nd team)
2010 - UW Stevens Point (no one on any AA team)

Twice in the last 7 seasons, the champs didn't have anyone on the AA team, and in two of the last three years, the rep was pretty far down the list (strange statement, I'll grant... Getting on the list is honor in itself, no matter where one falls on it).

[AppletonRocks]

D3Hoops Preseason All-American team

4 CCIW players:

First Team--Alex Sorenson--North Central Jr.
Second Team--Juwan Henry--North Park Sr.
Fourth Team--Jordan Robinson--North Park Jr.
Honorable Mention--Connor Raridon--North Central So.

http://www.d3hoops.com/awards/all-americans/men/preseason-2017

I think DJ DeValk from St Norberts should be on the list. 

[Titan Q]

Chicago defeated North Central today in all 3 scrimmage periods - by 11 points and 6 points respectively in the two varsity halves.  Not sure the total for the JV period.

[X-Road Coug]

Elmhurst 2nd scrimmage today at Wisconsin Whitewater.

[John Gleich]

Chicago defeated North Central today in all 3 scrimmage periods - by 11 points and 6 points respectively in the two varsity halves.  Not sure the total for the JV period.

Are you surprised by this? I know that Chicago beat NC last year and started last year 16-2 (and can't remember why the wheels fell off at the end of the year) but NC was the highest ranked team nationally and the coaches pick to win the CCIWW.

Is Chicago better than their record last year showed (can't recall how much they brought back), NC not as good as projected, or.... just a scrimmage so I should sit down and wait until games start?

[WUPHF]

Are you surprised by this? I know that Chicago beat NC last year and started last year 16-2 (and can't remember why the wheels fell off at the end of the year)...

Every Chicago loss between November 22 and February 27 was to a team ranked in the D3Hoops.com Top 25 except for final game against Washington University.  The Maroons did lose the three seniors that had some saying they were a national championship caliber team, but they will be good again this season.

[Greek Tragedy]

Are you surprised by this? I know that Chicago beat NC last year and started last year 16-2 (and can't remember why the wheels fell off at the end of the year)...

Every Chicago loss between November 22 and February 27 was to a team ranked in the D3Hoops.com Top 25 except for final game against Washington University.  The Maroons did lose the three seniors that had some saying they were a national championship caliber team, but they will be good again this season.

Not ranked at the time, though...and Chicago, going into that 1st weekend double-header vs Emory and Rochester, at home, was ranked 11th. THey dropped to 21st after that weekend and then dropped out after being swept by Emory and Rochester the following weekend.

[Gregory Sager]

Are you surprised by this? I know that Chicago beat NC last year and started last year 16-2 (and can't remember why the wheels fell off at the end of the year)...

Every Chicago loss between November 22 and February 27 was to a team ranked in the D3Hoops.com Top 25 except for final game against Washington University.

November 21, actually. And of the two other teams that beat the Maroons that weren't covered by your description, Wash U was ranked as high as #14 at one point and North Park was in the ORV column.

The Maroons did lose the three seniors that had some saying they were a national championship caliber team, but they will be good again this season.

Those three Maroons seniors actually represented the problem that the team had in meeting its lofty expectations, as their performances all declined last season. Jordan Smith, who was one of only about a half-dozen players in this region who had the ability to commandeer a game against any opponent, saw his three-point shooting percentage and his points per game drop from .314 and 15.1 as a junior to .284 and 12.3 as a senior while playing roughly the same amount of minutes. Alex Voss, an unspectacular but fundamentally sound workhorse in the Maroons rotation for four seasons, went from junior shooting splits of .460/.423/.667 to .414/.345/.651 as a senior. He took nine more FG attempts, two more trey attempts, and 30 more free throws, yet scored three fewer points as a senior than he had as a junior. And center Nate Brooks, whom I kept expecting to achieve superstar status based upon his ability and physique, went from being an 8.3 and 7.6 player as a junior to a 5.6 and 5.9 player as a senior.

I'm not saying that they won't be missed, of course, but this might be an instance in which having graduation clean house might turn out to be a blessing in disguise for the Maroons.

Collin Barthel is on the verge of being an exceptional D3 center, but I think that Chicago will be as good as Waller Perez wants the Maroons to be. He's a guy who has scholarship-level talent, and it seems to me that he's barely tapped into it.  The other question for the Maroons is what kind of play they're going to get out of their perimeter, where they've lost their primary penetrator in Smith.

[WUPHF]

November 21, actually. And of the two other teams that beat the Maroons that weren't covered by your description, Wash U was ranked as high as #14 at one point and North Park was in the ORV column.

I did not include the Mount Union game because that game would probably never be viewed as end of the year and I believe the Raiders were never ranked in the Top 25 in the Spring, just as with Washington University.  That is to say neither team was ranked during the time in which Chicago fell off...  That was my thought process...my mistake for the lack of clarity.

The Maroons definitely return talent, but I am not sure if they are better than fourth or fifth in the league...

I agree with Waller Perez though he had his share of the ups and downs last season.  He was great against Washington University on the road and then a complete non-factor in the rematch, though, did he have Mononucleosis or something?  My memory is failing me...

[4samuy]

I had the opportunity to attend the Chicago-NCC scrimmage and as was stated, Waller Perez and Colin Barthel were the go to players for IMO a middling team in UAA.  Couple of things stuck out, rebounding and depth of Chicago.