MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Titan Q]

You both seem to want to give WashU all the credit, and they deserve a lot. Great team, excellent game plan, definitely the best they've played all year. I'm just not sure they deserve ALL the credit.

The thing that stuck out to me was how often Leritz took threes that weren't good decisions (he was 0-5, tied for most attempts on the season). Obviously, credit to WashU for putting him in that position, but you want your best player making better decisions. Maybe you could argue his teammates weren't giving him good alternatives, but that doesn't describe all 40 minutes.

I think the teams are quite even, even enough I'd expect home court would be the difference if both teams played at 100%. My observation is simply that the larger difference in final score was IWU not quite clicking like they'd hope.

I don't think there was much chance IWU wins that game regardless, but I also don't think a 10 point difference is that likely if they play again.

Matt shot 50% from 3 last season and I believe came into this game right at 40%.  He's a very good shoot 3 point shooter and that's always been a big part of his game.  His looks yesterday were good ones - he just missed those shots.

I agree that him taking 5 3s in a game, vs maybe 2, is abnormal.  But that is a function of not being able to do much down low vs the 6-10 guys. And also in trying to exploit where he does have an advantage vs Davet and Wolf - being more mobile and taking them to the perimeter. I'd take those 5 3-point looks from Matt anytime.

I do agree there is not as much separation in these teams as yesterday looked like.  In fact, I don't think there is much at all.  Same teams, neutral court in March - toss up.  But we see games like this every now and then where a great team plays great vs another great team and there is a lopsided outcome.  I just personally don't think you're giving WashU enough credit for how well they played yesterday.  I thought outside of a few small stretches, they were almost flawless in executing their game plan vs an outstanding IWU team.  It's hard to do what WashU did yesterday to this IWU team.  UW-Oshkosh and Wheaton (who are both as good as WashU) didn't come close to it.

[lmitzel]

Also, Bob, your tweet made the NPU athletics page gamer. Congrats on another CCIW first!

That's awesome. I think that even beats out the occasional me showing up in the background of the photos used for NCC basketball stories. Though I did show up in a Carthage tweet once, which was kinda neat.

[Titan Q]

Also, Bob, your tweet made the NPU athletics page gamer. Congrats on another CCIW first!

That is pretty awesome.

Phil Mickelson responded to a tweet of mine last month, on my 50th bday.
https://twitter.com/PhilMickelson/status/1461778007090212873?s=20

But I think ending up in a D3 gamer is way, way cooler!!

[Titan Q]

Things seem to go well for North Park when you're watching the Vikings play in crunch time on your phone in an airport, Bob.

We'll have to get the NPU athletic department to swing you some frequent-flier miles so that we can stick you in a terminal somewhere when Wheaton comes to the crackerbox on January 5.

Totally forgot about the airport thing - that is great stuff.

I can promise I will not be in an airport on 1/19 and 2/2!

[WUPHF]

Things seem to go well for North Park when you're watching the Vikings play in crunch time on your phone in an airport, Bob.

We'll have to get the NPU athletic department to swing you some frequent-flier miles so that we can stick you in a terminal somewhere when Wheaton comes to the crackerbox on January 5.

Totally forgot about the airport thing - that is great stuff.

I can promise I will not be in an airport on 1/19 and 2/2!

The boards have been slow lately, but things like this make it all worthwhile.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

You both seem to want to give WashU all the credit, and they deserve a lot. Great team, excellent game plan, definitely the best they've played all year. I'm just not sure they deserve ALL the credit.

The thing that stuck out to me was how often Leritz took threes that weren't good decisions (he was 0-5, tied for most attempts on the season). Obviously, credit to WashU for putting him in that position, but you want your best player making better decisions. Maybe you could argue his teammates weren't giving him good alternatives, but that doesn't describe all 40 minutes.

I think the teams are quite even, even enough I'd expect home court would be the difference if both teams played at 100%. My observation is simply that the larger difference in final score was IWU not quite clicking like they'd hope.

I don't think there was much chance IWU wins that game regardless, but I also don't think a 10 point difference is that likely if they play again.

Matt shot 50% from 3 last season and I believe came into this game right at 40%.  He's a very good shoot 3 point shooter and that's always been a big part of his game.  His looks yesterday were good ones - he just missed those shots.

I agree that him taking 5 3s in a game, vs maybe 2, is abnormal.  But that is a function of not being able to do much down low vs the 6-10 guys. And also in trying to exploit where he does have an advantage vs Davet and Wolf - being more mobile and taking them to the perimeter. I'd take those 5 3-point looks from Matt anytime.

I do agree there is not as much separation in these teams as yesterday looked like.  In fact, I don't think there is much at all.  Same teams, neutral court in March - toss up.  But we see games like this every now and then where a great team plays great vs another great team and there is a lopsided outcome.  I just personally don't think you're giving WashU enough credit for how well they played yesterday.  I thought outside of a few small stretches, they were almost flawless in executing their game plan vs an outstanding IWU team.  It's hard to do what WashU did yesterday to this IWU team.  UW-Oshkosh and Wheaton (who are both as good as WashU) didn't come close to it.

I remember thinking on at least 2 of those three point attempts, "that's exactly what Juckem wants."  A lot of it is situational - you probably wouldn't want anyone taking guarded threes with double digits on the shot clock.  Yes, that was WashU forcing IWU into positions they didn't want to be in, but IWU is a good enough and experienced enough team not to settle in those situations.  That's been Yeshiva's issue often, as well - the guys want to keep the pace up so much they're willing to settle for mediocre shots the other team hopes they'll take.  That works fine against a lot of their conference opponents, but its not going to fly against Williams of IWU.

[Titan Q]

Mostly for the IWU parents crew I was hangin' w/ yesterday. Regarding Yeshiva game...

* Game on - don't expect a cancellation.

* YU has set aside a section for IWU parents - check w/ IWU's athletic department on this (make sure they are counting you).

* Bring your vax card.

* Mask up.

[Gregory Sager]

I realize that CCIW Player of the Week is not that big of a deal, but, nevertheless, I was disappointed that the league decided to repeat Nyameye Adom as POW rather than awarding it to Jordan Boyd. Yes, a 30-point tally is always a significant achievement, and Adom's performance against Olivet (which I watched) was outstanding. But Boyd's 23 and 7 game was against a CCIW opponent, on that CCIW opponent's home floor, and it was the linchpin of a win achieved without two of his fellow NPU starters in uniform -- and Boyd was also the one who hit the game-winning shot with six seconds remaining.

Go ahead and accuse me of wearing royal-blue-and-gold-tinted glasses. I don't care. Jordan Boyd should've been named POW.

[Mr. Ypsi]

I realize that CCIW Player of the Week is not that big of a deal, but, nevertheless, I was disappointed that the league decided to repeat Nyameye Adom as POW rather than awarding it to Jordan Boyd. Yes, a 30-point tally is always a significant achievement, and Adom's performance against Olivet (which I watched) was outstanding. But Boyd's 23 and 7 game was against a CCIW opponent, on that CCIW opponent's home floor, and it was the linchpin of a win achieved without two of his fellow NPU starters in uniform -- and Boyd was also the one who hit the game-winning shot with six seconds remaining.

Go ahead and accuse me of wearing royal-blue-and-gold-tinted glasses. I don't care. Jordan Boyd should've been named POW.

I totally agree - and rather doubt that anyone would accuse me of royal blue and gold tinted glasses!

[GoPerry]

I realize that CCIW Player of the Week is not that big of a deal, but, nevertheless, I was disappointed that the league decided to repeat Nyameye Adom as POW rather than awarding it to Jordan Boyd. Yes, a 30-point tally is always a significant achievement, and Adom's performance against Olivet (which I watched) was outstanding. But Boyd's 23 and 7 game was against a CCIW opponent, on that CCIW opponent's home floor, and it was the linchpin of a win achieved without two of his fellow NPU starters in uniform -- and Boyd was also the one who hit the game-winning shot with six seconds remaining.

Go ahead and accuse me of wearing royal-blue-and-gold-tinted glasses. I don't care. Jordan Boyd should've been named POW.

I totally agree - and rather doubt that anyone would accuse me of royal blue and gold tinted glasses!

I would have had no problem recognizing Mr Boyd's excellent performance with the weekly accolade.  Unfortunately, I've not found the SIDs to be too deeply analytical in their weekly voting.  This is not a knock on them because they are very busy people and likely don't have the time or bandwidth to evaluate the nuances of individual performances.

[npbaseball40]

I would have had no problem recognizing Mr Boyd's excellent performance with the weekly accolade.  Unfortunately, I've not found the SIDs to be too deeply analytical in their weekly voting.  This is not a knock on them because they are very busy people and likely don't have the time or bandwidth to evaluate the nuances of individual performances.

FWIW, I nominated Jordan with plenty of supporting info, including everything Greg said in his above post. I have no idea who officially "votes" for the players in the league office, but I can tell you it isn't us SIDs. To throw all SIDs under the bus with this kind of blanket statement is, putting it mildly, ill-informed and/or just plain ignorant.

I'd argue we care the most about awards like this, as we are always looking for something positive to post, especially in the current climate.

[WUPHF]

I have no idea who officially "votes" for the players in the league office, but I can tell you it isn't us SIDs.

I think we all assumed that the SIDs were heavily involved. 

A conference is basically a member organization and so this level of disconnect is surprising.

[GoPerry]

I would have had no problem recognizing Mr Boyd's excellent performance with the weekly accolade.  Unfortunately, I've not found the SIDs to be too deeply analytical in their weekly voting.  This is not a knock on them because they are very busy people and likely don't have the time or bandwidth to evaluate the nuances of individual performances.

FWIW, I nominated Jordan with plenty of supporting info, including everything Greg said in his above post. I have no idea who officially "votes" for the players in the league office, but I can tell you it isn't us SIDs. To throw all SIDs under the bus with this kind of blanket statement is, putting it mildly, ill-informed and/or just plain ignorant.

I'd argue we care the most about awards like this, as we are always looking for something positive to post, especially in the current climate.

Didn't mean to offend and certainly wasn't throwing anybody under the bus nor making a blanket statement.  I was under the impression that it is the conference SID's that do the voting for the Player of the Week awards in contrast to the year end All Conference selections which are the coaches.  But your post makes it sound like there are nominations from the SIDs and then someone in the league office determines the recipient?  If that's true I wasn't aware of that extra step.

I think they pretty much get it right most of the time and one might say the selection of Adom this week wasn't wrong either.  My point was that if SIDs miss certain subtleties of individual performances during the week prior to nominating, for lack of time or bandwidth for a deeper dive beyond just stats, then that is perfectly understandable to me.

   

[Next Man Up]

I would have had no problem recognizing Mr Boyd's excellent performance with the weekly accolade.  Unfortunately, I've not found the SIDs to be too deeply analytical in their weekly voting.  This is not a knock on them because they are very busy people and likely don't have the time or bandwidth to evaluate the nuances of individual performances.

FWIW, I nominated Jordan with plenty of supporting info, including everything Greg said in his above post. I have no idea who officially "votes" for the players in the league office, but I can tell you it isn't us SIDs. To throw all SIDs under the bus with this kind of blanket statement is, putting it mildly, ill-informed and/or just plain ignorant.

I'd argue we care the most about awards like this, as we are always looking for something positive to post, especially in the current climate.

Didn't mean to offend and certainly wasn't throwing anybody under the bus nor making a blanket statement.  I was under the impression that it is the conference SID's that do the voting for the Player of the Week awards in contrast to the year end All Conference selections which are the coaches.  But your post makes it sound like there are nominations from the SIDs and then someone in the league office determines the recipient?  If that's true I wasn't aware of that extra step.

I think they pretty much get it right most of the time and one might say the selection of Adom this week wasn't wrong either.  My point was that if SIDs miss certain subtleties of individual performances during the week prior to nominating, for lack of time or bandwidth for a deeper dive beyond just stats, then that is perfectly understandable to me.

Due to both my own curiosity, and the general level of confusion which seems to exist on this question, I thought it would be nice if we could get a definitive answer.

As such, I contacted CCIW Executive Maureen Harty and asked who does the nominating for POW. I was initially advised that "The process varies from sport to sport. In all cases the coaches are involved in the nominations." My follow-up question was, in men's basketball, who ultimately picks the winner? The response was "The SIDs."
There you have it.

[markerickson]

Instead of POW, Viking Boyd could monetize his NLI by appearing in a US Bank commercial to show the Minnesota Vikings, "This is how you win a game in the waning moments."  Skol!