MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Pat Coleman]

Swarthmore got this far by being pretty talented and super well-coached.

[iwu70]

Thanks Pat. 

'70

[Pat Coleman]

I know it sounds kind of like a generic answer but I think there's no question Swat deserves to be here.

[UWPSUPERFAN77]

Got my hotel and tickets for final 4! Have not been back for 20 years since BO coached UWP! Driving from Lancaster,WI! L My wife of 37 years gave me permission to GO! All tickets courtside are sold out on ticketmaster!

[iwu70]

I, too, believe Swat deserves to be in the Final Four. 

Should be a great weekend.

'70

[iwu70]

I'm sure CNU is good, will be a great challenge for Swarthmore.

Swat got to the final four by beating Mitchell (yes, an easy one), #12 MIT, #5 Randolph-Macon, and #14 Nichols.  A pretty good resume.

WC has the bigger challenge, perhaps, facing Ben Boots and Oshkosh.  And then, there's always Francis . . . No. 62.     LOL

'70

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Swarthmore is the favorite against CNU, for sure.  CNU has made it this far with an incredible defense and real sound fundamentals.  They don't have the kind of deep, individual talent base that Swat or Oshkosh do, but they're really well coached and they play smart basketball.

Swarthmore also plays pretty good defense, they've got more size and talent in the post and way more depth.  Obviously, you never know what Francis and company will be able to do - sky's the limit at this point, but if I'm choosing, it'll be Swat and UWO in the final.  I think Oshkosh is a little better, but Swarthmore is deeper; it should be a good one.

Saying all this probably means CNU-Wheaton and if so, so be it.  I'm fine with whatever combination we end up getting.

[UWPSUPERFAN77]

Ryan Scott: Are you a Wheaton fan? Just curious! God Bless!

[Greek Tragedy]

What an easy trip for Wheaton fans. Less than 3 1/2 hours. You don't even need to get a room Saturday night.

[Gregory Sager]

I've watched Swarthmore and Christopher Newport multiple times this season. I see Swarthmore as the slight favorite in that game; I think that Ryan aptly pointed out the strengths of the Garnet.

I'm well aware of what happened in the Pfund championship game (after all, I'm the one who posted about it after Saturday night's game), nor would I put anything past Aston Francis, but UW-Oshkosh in my mind is the modest favorite on Friday night. Wheaton has particular trouble with stopping skilled big men, and UWO has two of them in Jack Flynn and Adam Fravert. That problem will be exacerbated for Wheaton if Spencer Peterson's knee is less than 100%, since we know that Trevor Gunter is playing hurt as well. Ben Boots isn't Aston Francis, of course (who is?), but he is nevertheless in the top echelon of D3 guards; you don't get named WIAC Player of the Year for your ability to sing the Green Bay Packers fight song. He has an impressively high assist-to-turnover ratio for a scoring PG who favors dribble penetration as much as he does. Boots and Brett Wittchow make up an elite guard tandem. Finally, Connor Duax is a very talented x-factor on the wing.

In short, the Titans are big, athletic, and talented, and they have the sort of balance that can exploit any aspect of an opposing defense. I think that they'll be the best team in Fort Wayne next weekend, and I see them as the favorite to bring home the Big Doorstop. Of course, that's a million miles away from being a foregone conclusion; Wheaton's more than capable of ensuring that the Titans never even see the court on Saturday, let alone win it all.

[Titan Q]

Brady Rose and Nolan Ebel will represent the CCIW in the 2019 NABC Reese's Division III All-Star game...

https://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2019/03/nabc-all-star-rosters

What an honor for both.

[boilingpoint]

Well, that was about as big-time as you will ever see in your life.  I mean, Aston Francis......wow.  Just beyond words what that kid did last night.

I have made a lot of friends from Wheaton College over the years through my association here on d3boards.com.  You guys have been knocking on this door for so long, with so many great teams and players.  Happy for all of you.

In particular, my thoughts are with the late Dave Lawrenz ("Wheaton C" here) - a great friend and the biggest supporter of Wheaton athletics you'll ever find.  He is certainly smiling today.

Titan Q, I met you at The Shirk in 2003 when I was there to see my son Taylor play for Wheaton--I flew out from Oregon and watched him roll his ankle in the last minute of practice the day before the game, so he was out of commission for the week. Anyway, Dave Lawrenz was a friend of mine, he served on the Wheaton College Alumni Board with me for a few years back then, and he was the one who introduced me to you. I "lurk" around this board to keep up with the real scoop for CCIW football and basketball, and it was actually on this forum that I heard of Dave's passing. I had lost touch with him so did not know any of the circumstances. He was a good man and an absolute die-hard WC fan. Thank you for mentioning him.
Paul T. Armerding

I will see everyone in Fort Wayne.

(modified by GS for formatting)

[GoPerry]

I'm well aware of what happened in the Pfund championship game (after all, I'm the one who posted about it after Saturday night's game), nor would I put anything past Aston Francis, but UW-Oshkosh in my mind is the modest favorite on Friday night. Wheaton has particular trouble with stopping skilled big men, and UWO has two of them in Jack Flynn and Adam Fravert. That problem will be exacerbated for Wheaton if Spencer Peterson's knee is less than 100%, since we know that Trevor Gunter is playing hurt as well. Ben Boots isn't Aston Francis, of course (who is?), but he is nevertheless in the top echelon of D3 guards; you don't get named WIAC Player of the Year for your ability to sing the Green Bay Packers fight song. He has an impressively high assist-to-turnover ratio for a scoring PG who favors dribble penetration as much as he does. Boots and Brett Wittchow make up an elite guard tandem. Finally, Connor Duax is a very talented x-factor on the wing.

In short, the Titans are big, athletic, and talented, and they have the sort of balance that can exploit any aspect of an opposing defense. I think that they'll be the best team in Fort Wayne next weekend, and I see them as the favorite to bring home the Big Doorstop. Of course, that's a million miles away from being a foregone conclusion; Wheaton's more than capable of ensuring that the Titans never even see the court on Saturday, let alone win it all.

I'm in agreement here.  I attended the Wheaton/Oshkosh game and I really believe the Titans were a little flat-footed.  It was their first weekend of playing, it was on the road, with a new coach.  Wheaton had played the weekend before, got some kinks out, and played a decent game.  Every team is better in March than they were in November.  But I would random a guess that this is especially true of Oshkosh.  In fact, I remember thinking that, despite their preseason ranking, the Titans might not be the best team in the WIAC, much less #2 in the country.  Even so, their size and length were very impressive even if their performance on that particular night wasn't quite to snuff. 

I think it will be somewhat like the hurdle of beating Augustana.  Definitely possible, but the bread money would have to lean Oshkosh.  If Peterson can't go, all the more difficult.  And I'm not even sure Jay Spencer was 100% on Saturday night – he had real difficulty during Friday's game. Gunter – yes, and Eichelberger has been playing injured since the first week of practice. But it's the FF, everyone needs to step up.

[markerickson]

Less than 400 people attended the Aston Francis Show.  Uff da.

[Gregory Sager]

What did you expect, Mark? The game was played at Augustana, and Augie wasn't one of the two teams left.

The attendance of 359 listed in the box score seems low to me; most of what we were able to see on the webcast was the south stands of Carver, where the Marietta fans were sitting, and it looked as though the Pioneers brought a fairly large group of fans with them when you consider how far the Quad Cities are from extreme southeastern Ohio. The Wheaton fans were on the camera side, so it was hard to get a bead on just how many Wheaties were in the building, but it seemed like a decent contingent. Wheaton's fan base never travels particularly well for any sport, which is part of the downside to having Rand-McNally rosters, so I don't think that anybody should've had soaring expectations regarding Wheaton in terms of attendance, even considering that Rock Island is not exactly the other side of the planet from the western suburbs (as can be observed from a glance at any Augie athletics roster) and that the sectional finals in men's basketball are a pretty big deal for any collegiate fanbase.

Williams vs. Christopher Newport only drew 117 at Hamilton, and the 2 1/2 hour travel time between Williamstown, MA and Clinton, NY was the same for Williams fans as it was for Wheaton fans between Wheaton and Rock Island.

The real anomaly on Saturday was the nearly 1,500 fans at neutral-site Amherst for Nichols vs. Swarthmore. Even considering that the Nichols campus in Dudley, MA is only a little more than an hour from Amherst, MA, that's an amazing turnout. Swarthmore contributed to that attendance total, but the untold story of this year's sectionals was the tremendous fan support that Nichols enjoyed. After all, the school itself only has about 1,500 students.

Now, if you looked at the viewer numbers that Augustana had for the webstream of Saturday night's game, I'll bet that it was huge. A lot of people will be able to say someday that they saw Aston Francis go off for 62 points in the 2019 sectional finals.