MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[iwumichigander]

If North Central wins this thing, is the CCIW a one bid league this year?

sure looks like it at this point.  Inquiring minds will want to see regional rankings and KnightSlappy's updated numbers. It may depend on any fallout in the WIAC, however, I am not sure that will happen.

[iwumichigander]

In the continuing weird CCIW season, whoever bet in Vegas in a three way 11-5 tie for conference championship AND those three teams have an overall 18-7 record. Probably won a huge , bigly payout

And my vote for coach of the year - Bosco.  He has coached up a team that many of us had in the middle of the pack, won a tie for the regular season championship and the rights to host the conference tournament.  In a potential two game tournament on his home court I would give him good odds to pull off a tournament win.

[iwu70]

Isn't Augie pretty safe for a Pool C bid?

'70

[AndOne]

One thing that did pan out pretty much as theorized in the preseason was Carroll finding the sledding to be much tougher in the CCIW than in the MWC. After finishing 15-3 (2nd) in the Midwest, and 20-5 overall last year, and returning the majority of it's team, CU ended it's first season in the CCIW at 13-12 overall, and 8-8 in the conference. This mark was good for only a sixth place tie in the 9 team conference.

[AndOne]

Isn't Augie pretty safe for a Pool C bid?

'70

Aren't they shaky now, and with virtually no chance should they lose on Friday?

[Gregory Sager]

North Park 86
Millikin 71

Jordan Robinson: 26 pts, 10 rebs, 7:1 a:to
Colin Lake: 16 pts
T.J. Cobbs: 14 pts, 4:0 a:to, 4 stls
Juwan Henry: 14 pts, 4:1 a:to
Joe Biko: 3:0 a:to

Jordan Cunningham: 21 pts
Nathan Lovekamp: 11 pts, 7 rebs
Tyler Pygon: 11 pts, 5:2 a:to

This felt more like an occasion to sigh with relief than to celebrate, but, then again, the Vikings themselves undoubtedly feel differently about this than I do.

I never stop worrying about this North Park team, because I'm all-too-well-aware of how thin their margin for success really is, even against a 3-21 team of underclassmen that you'd figure were too exhausted and demoralized by now to put up a fight with anybody. Sure enough, Millikin turned out to be pesky, and Matt Nadelhoffer's boys were beginning to make me uncomfortable with the way that they were hanging around deep into the second half. That's often a recipe for growing confidence, especially for a young team. But, with the NPU lead only 62-55 at the 11:32 mark, the Vikes went on one of those patented lightning runs of theirs that's typically catalyzed by pickpocketing. In the space of three minutes and two seconds North Park ran off a 10-0 blitz that featured a pair of steals and fast-break layups, and the only question after that was how large the final margin was going to be. As it turned out, it was not as big as you'd think, because NPU went into the weave and held the ball until the last eight seconds of every possession, and that's typically a recipe for short-circuiting your own offense as well as eating clock. But who really cares if the Vikes fell six points short of covering the Massey spread? On a night in which the royal blue and gold snapped a string of 30 miserable years without CCIW hardware, nobody's going to complain about the cosmetic details of the clincher.

I've watched Jordan Cunningham a couple of times via webcasts, but you have to see him in person to appreciate how deceptively quick he is. Nobody expects a 300-pound person to move like that, but he's got a very nice burst. He's also a solid finisher around the basket. He was a total headache for NPU tonight. If he could lose 30 pounds, he would be unstoppable at this level.

Jordan Robinson was Jordan Robinson. Enough said. Great contribution as well from the Junkyard Dog, who is now averaging 13.3 ppg over North Park's last nine games and is 11-24 (.458) from downtown over that stretch. The other coaches around the league still don't seem to have picked up on the fact that T.J. Cobbs is now a legitimate threat to knock down those open looks from beyond the arc that everybody keeps giving him. As Mark said, Colin Lake played through the flu tonight and was terrific. He may be a Jack Russell Terrier in a league filled with Dobermans and German Shepherds, but, like a Jack Russell, he's both smarter and more fearless than any of the big dogs. Juwan Henry was honored with not one but two basketballs in a pregame ceremony. NPU forgot to give him one when he passed 1,000 points two years ago, so he got one with "1,000" painted on it and one with "2,000" painted on it. Getting honored with two free basketballs in a pregame ceremony and then cutting down the net at the west end of the floor in a postgame ceremony -- I'd say that Juwan bookended his night nicely.

P.A. announcer Kevin Shepke kept the crowd apprised of what was going on in Bloomington and Kenosha, and the entire gym was utterly amazed by what was going on in Shirk. The refs couldn't believe it, either; during one timeout the three of them walked over to the scorer's table and checked out the scoreboard operator's smartphone to watch the IWU video feed so that they could see which of their colleagues were calling that game. That cracked me up, because, when the score is 62-31 at the half, one thing you know for sure is that the refs are having absolutely no effect upon what's going on.

This was a fun night, sigh of relief or not. It all still feels very much like unfinished business, but a big and very unpleasant monkey was finally lifted off of the back of the North Park program tonight. Congratulations to the Vikings. I could not possibly be more proud of these guys.

[iwumichigander]

Isn't Augie pretty safe for a Pool C bid?

'70

Aren't they shaky now, and with virtually no chance should they lose on Friday?

Augie was a bubble team prior to tonight's 107-77 loss to IWU.  A first round loss might pop their bubble

[Gregory Sager]

In the continuing weird CCIW season, whoever bet in Vegas in a three way 11-5 tie for conference championship AND those three teams have an overall 18-7 record. Probably won a huge , bigly payout

I think that I've mentioned this before, but 11-5 is the worst record for a champion(s) in the 71-year-history of this league. Doesn't matter, though, because the trophy looks the same no matter how pretty or ugly the W-L is.

And my vote for coach of the year - Bosco.  He has coached up a team that many of us had in the middle of the pack, won a tie for the regular season championship and the rights to host the conference tournament.

I can't argue with that. What Bosko's done this season is really impressive. But, in the big picture, you have to stop and give Tom Slyder a long, slow standing ovation for what he has done at North Park. I talked about this at length on the postgame show, because usually when I'm mentioning Tom during a game it's because he's yelling at somebody in stripewear or is calling a timeout with a disgusted look on his face. But he took over a moribund program five years ago that seemed stuck to the bottom of this league with Gorilla Glue, and now tonight he's cut down the net after winning a share of the title of an incredibly difficult league in which to overcome two decades of second-division finishes -- and he did it with his first full recruiting class climbing up the ladder in front of him to cut down their own pieces, still in uniform.

That's just really, really hard to do, as anyone who has followed this league for any length of time must realize. Tom Slyder is one heck of a basketball coach. So, yeah, the Serbian Prince may win the COY award, and you have to give him his due. But, like I said, Tom deserves at least that long, slow standing ovation for the rebuilding job he's done at the corner of Foster & Kedzie.

[kiko]

This is what Tom Slyder turned around:

2015-16: 6-8 in conference
2014-15: 6-8
2013-14: 1-13
2012-13: 1-13
2011-12: 2-12
2010-11: 4-10
2009-10: 7-7
2008-09: 0-14
2007-08: 6-8
2006-07: 5-9
2005-06: 2-12
2004-05: 0-14
2003-04: 3-11
2002-03: 2-12
2001-02: 6-8
2000-01: 4-10
1999-00: 7-7
1998-99: 6-8
1997-98: 1-13
1996-97: 0-14
1995-96: 4-10
1994-95: 5-9
1993-94: 8-6

Said differently, the last time North Park finished above .500 in conference play, Carroll was completing its second season of MWC affiliation.   I'm obviously rooting for a different team this coming weekend, but as Gregory said, to see your first recruiting class reverse that kind of trend must be pretty special.

[iwu70]

Congrats to the three CCIW regular season co-champions -- Carthage, NPU and Augustana.  What a crazy, up and down year it has been for almost all the contending teams. 

Should be a very interesting weekend in Kenosha.   I guess CC and NCC playing the best right now.  Would love to see NPU win it and get the AQ.

If I had a vote, I'd vote for the NPU Coach over Bosko for Coach of the Year.  IMHO.

Next up, all conference selections.  Brady Rose had quite a year -- remember all the talk about how he wasn't that good etc.  Guess he put all that to sleep big time.  He'll perhaps move over to the 2 next year, with Nick Coleman taking up the PG duties.

My vote is with Robinson for MOP of the year in the CCIW. 

IWU'70

[Greek Tragedy]

If North Central wins this thing, is the CCIW a one bid league this year?

sure looks like it at this point.  Inquiring minds will want to see regional rankings and KnightSlappy's updated numbers. It may depend on any fallout in the WIAC, however, I am not sure that will happen.

Eau Claire, who was ranked above Augustana, IWU and Carthage last week and probably will be today, lost their 1st round game to La Crosse at home last night. River Falls is safe as a Pool C, imo, Whitewater looks good. So #2 seed Oshkosh and #5 seed La Crosse could still win the Pool A.

[bbfan44]

FRIDAY--AT CARTHAGE

5:00---North Park vs. Augie
7:00---Carthage vs. North Central

Nice color useage.

[cubs]

Quick question for the regulars here....  Had Carroll won last night against Elmhurst, would they have qualified for CCIW Tournament or would they have lost out on tiebreaker to either North Central or Illinois Wesleyan.  All three teams would have been 2-2 in the head-to-head tiebreaker, and it looks like Carroll had the best record (4-2) against the three teams that finished tied for first place at 11-5.

[GoPerry]

Quick question for the regulars here....  Had Carroll won last night against Elmhurst, would they have qualified for CCIW Tournament or would they have lost out on tiebreaker to either North Central or Illinois Wesleyan.  All three teams would have been 2-2 in the head-to-head tiebreaker, and it looks like Carroll had the best record (4-2) against the three teams that finished tied for first place at 11-5.

The first tie-breaker is head to head record with those teams you are tied with.  The only tie-breaker Carroll would've won was a tie with NCC only(a 2 way tie for 4th).  The IWU win over Augie took the Pios out of it even with a win vs EC(NCC would've won the tie-breaker in a 3 way tie for 4th).

[GoPerry]

Congratulations to Carthage and Coach Djurickovic on winning 7 of their last 8  (4 in OT) to share the conference title and deservedly host the tournament this weekend.  Congrats also to Tom Slyder and North Park on their great accomplishment so far.   Congrats to Augustana as well although they probably aren't quite celebrating in the same way.  Finishing the season with 3 road games(all losses) was a tough break for them but I doubt Coach G will use it as an excuse.   

Good luck to those teams and NCC the rest of the way.  I'm really hoping we can snatch a Pool C for one of them and see what damage they can do.