MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

Marcus Dempsey played the entire game vs. Oberlin.
Todd Raridon removed Alex Sorenson immediately after he broke Bill Warden's almost 63 year old record.
Little doubt Sorenson could have gotten 4 more points as 8:33 remained when he subbed out.

True. On the other hand, Oberlin is a D3 program and RMUC isn't. Ultimately, all that matters in the books is the total number of points. You could probably qualify any performance to death; heck, I did so in my earlier post by making reference to Grinnell playing Bible colleges.

[AndOne]

And, back on the first hand, its highly probable that there is little difference between Oberlin and RMUC as far as the quality of their respective basketball teams. 
Fini.

[Gregory Sager]

Maybe, maybe not. (RMUC is a shadow of its former self.) But the point stands that you can still qualify Sorenson's performance as well as Dempsey's.

[kenoshamark]

Greg,

Good comments about Baltimore being back in the lineup.  I haven't been able to attend a game yet, but I have watched some of the games on line (at least partial amounts).  Baltimore will have an impact and provides a real nice third scoring option (although he isn't shy about shooting so he might consider himself the first option now). 

Johnson is an interesting prospect...he seems very composed on the floor and is certainly getting rave reviews from Bosko.  In the Kenosha News on Sunday morning, Bosko was reiterating his previous comments about how smart he is, how hard he works, the sky is the limit and he will be a star some day.

What I wonder is how he will be used going forward this year and next.  As you stated, they have 40 minutes to use in the post with Perry and Johnson, but who is going to get the key minutes in the future?   Perry is probably a 25 minute player, but Johnson needs more minutes than 15.  You can't really play them together from what I can tell.   Maybe for a few minutes, but that experiment will probably be for the future as there isn't someone you are going to take out of the starting lineup down the stretch of a close game. 

With Perry being the reigning freshman of the year, how do you give him the right number of minutes too?  Bosko raved about him last year, but seems like it has switched to Johnson this year.  Its a great situation to have, but I think it will be interesting to see how it plays out. 

BTW, I can't believe Johnson didn't get some D2 looks....Now, maybe he did, but I would think there would be multiple teams at that level that could have used his size and shot blocking ability.  Just seems like he would have been a natural to be a scholarship player...might have taken him a year or two to round into a full time player at that level, but worth the risk.  Plus, he is supposed to be an outstanding student too and came from a top notch high school so he had to have been seen by bigger schools.  I'm not convinced he isn't taller than Perry and they have Perry at 6"11 and Johnson at 6"10....

Nonetheless, great get for Carthage....

[AndOne]

Article on NCC's Alex Sorenson (incl mention of WC's Aston Francis)

http://www.northcentralcardinals.com/news/2018/1/15/mens-basketball-sorenson-named-to-bevo-francis-award-watch-list.aspx?path=mbball

[AndOne]

Before 1,600 fully engaged fans in a very exciting game that was tightly contested throughout [...]

I watched the second half.  If I did not know better, I would have sworn I was watching a game being played on the last weekend in February.

Agree.  I was watching as well - great environment.

* Just highlights—not the whole game.

Video of the recent North Central/Wheaton game.

http://www.northcentralcardinals.com/news/2018/1/13/mens-basketball-cardinals-rally-for-win-over-wheaton.aspx?path=mbball

[Titan Q]

The new poll...

http://www.d3hoops.com/top25/men/2017-18/week7

[iwu70]

IWU re-enters the Top 25 at 24th, in the latest D3hoops poll.  Augie drops but still there, in the top 10.  IWU's resume looks pretty good so far, still many key games to go.  Lost to now #3 Wash U and to now #17 Emory.  NCC ORV. 

IWU'70

[titanalum94]

Former Elmhurst standout Chris Martin is receiving votes (2) in the latest poll as the head coach at Loras College. His team is 12-4 and 5-2 in the IIAC.

[izzy stradlin]

The new poll...

http://www.d3hoops.com/top25/men/2017-18/week7

I wonder when preseason poll voting will stop impacting the current polls?   I get it in football.  Not hoops.   

[unanimous22]

Seems like North Central and IWU are comparable teams in terms of a neutral court who you got?  IWU MAY be ranked a tad low but NC could easily be ranked #15-20 as well IMO.

[Titan Q]

The new poll...

http://www.d3hoops.com/top25/men/2017-18/week7

I wonder when preseason poll voting will stop impacting the current polls?   I get it in football.  Not hoops.

Yes, this is a real good example of that.  Augie has 434 poll points to IWU's 66.  Outside of preseason expectations, what would be the explanation for such a gap with these 2017-18 resumes?

http://www.d3hoops.com/teams/Augustana/men/2017-18/index

http://www.d3hoops.com/teams/Illinois_Wesleyan/men/2017-18/index

By January 15 voters should be voting based on the current season only in my opinion.

[AndOne]

The new poll...

http://www.d3hoops.com/top25/men/2017-18/week7

I wonder when preseason poll voting will stop impacting the current polls?   I get it in football.  Not hoops.

It appears holding your breath would not be the best answer to this question! 🤭

[AndOne]

Seems like North Central and IWU are comparable teams in terms of a neutral court who you got?  IWU MAY be ranked a tad low but NC could easily be ranked #15-20 as well IMO.

But way back in the opening game of the season, NCC lost to a team that is currently 3 games under .500!
And, IWU beat NCC.
Of course Carthage beat IWU.
But NCC beat Carthage.
It's a dilemma of major proportions. 🤔 🙂

[Gregory Sager]

Too many pollsters refuse to rip up their ballots from the week before and re-examine everything, top to bottom, from one week to the next. They simply use their previous week's ballot as a template and make adjustments to it from where significant wins or losses justify moving a team up or down. I'm convinced of that. It's how we still get preseason bleed in the poll at the regular season's midway point: too many conservative pollsters, or perhaps too many pollsters who don't feel that they have the time to fully re-evaluate on a weekly basis all of the teams that are reasonably worth considering.

This is nothing new. The use of the preseason poll as the takeoff point for the d3hoops.com Top 25 poll's in-season polling has been an ongoing bone of contention for two decades now on this site.