MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Next Man Up]

Honestly, I'm not sure why we don't read anything about him here in this room. I think that our resident NCC fan has only posted about Matt Helwig once or maybe twice this season. I mean, there's no rule here that says that you have to wear a green uniform in order to get hyped on CCIW Chat.

This also isn't the only place there is discussion about CCIW and D3 players anymore.  On Twitter for example I've had a whole lot to say about how great Matt Helwig is.  Many others have too.

Well, congratulations. But, as I made clear in my earlier post, I'm talking about this room. What gets tweeted in that social-media cesspool is irrelevant to my point.

It's enough that we so often in this room hear "he is a great player," but what makes Twitter such a putrid cesspool is that just about every player mentioned on that forum has the word "great" attached to his name.
Heck, on Twitter, a player can even be great before he has made even one point on the college level. Twitter is replete with tweets about a just committed kid being a "great get," or being "significant" because he is a "great" player. Well, he may have been one in HS, but lets withhold judgment of his collegiate level talent for a game or so. The annals of Twitter are replete with accounts about how so-and-so is going to be great, and then the kid is on the team for two years, hardly ever plays, and then disappears, never to be heard from again. And this seems especially true in cases that pertain to kids wearing what color uniform?   

[Pat Coleman]

As though that has never happened on D3boards.com?

[Next Man Up]

As though that has never happened on D3boards.com?

Jesus, did you read what I said? I didn't say it never happens on D3boards. In fact I specifically said we so often in this room hear "he is a great player." But please explain why are you busting my balls when I said it's worse on Twitter than on D3boards? What is the sense in doing that when you're associated with this social-media forum?

[Pat Coleman]

Just in case sac thinks my one sentence is actually ball-busting a new poster, just noting for him that Next Man Up is an old poster who re-registered.

[Next Man Up]

New poster, old poster, or even middle aged, you still contradicted yourself when you implied I said it never happens on D3. I even retyped what I said the first time for you. And you still didn't answer why you are ball busting someone who is essentially defending this forum. Would you have been happier if I said D3 is worse than Twitter? I don't think so.

[hopefan]

Pat, get away from this and check out the Prin-Westmin ending

[sac]

Just in case sac thinks my one sentence is actually ball-busting a new poster, just noting for him that Next Man Up is an old poster who re-registered.

"team d3hoops" is a wide ranging mix of people under different subjects at different times etc etc.  Its just an observation I've made about why people don't stick around as often as they used to particularly new posters who tend to get ganged up on when they rock the boat a little, or just root for the wrong team.  I didn't mean you personally Pat, but a lot of older posters including myself could maybe step back and be more welcoming.   Like  "Hey welcome to the board, but you're wrong man"  as an ice breaker.


Here's another thought though.
The advent of the smart phone and many people going to that as their sole online device makes chatboards like this very difficult to participate in, I don't have the patience to type out a huge paragraph of thoughts or observations so it must wait, nor do I enjoy reading the boards from my phone.  Just a personal preference that I'm probably not alone in.

Also the link the d3boards on the main page has alwyas been to small and to hard to find, not obvious a link to a chat board to a new person.

   

[Gregory Sager]

Just in case sac thinks my one sentence is actually ball-busting a new poster, just noting for him that Next Man Up is an old poster who re-registered.

I have to say that I'm with Mark on this one, Pat. What he said in post #55023 is correct.

[Gregory Sager]

Maybe a better question for Greg....will I be allowed to bring in a backpack and/or a yeti filled with water?

I doubt that that would be a problem. The worst that the guys at the door would do is ask you to show what's inside it.

[kiko]

Just in case sac thinks my one sentence is actually ball-busting a new poster, just noting for him that Next Man Up is an old poster who re-registered.

"team d3hoops" is a wide ranging mix of people under different subjects at different times etc etc.  Its just an observation I've made about why people don't stick around as often as they used to particularly new posters who tend to get ganged up on when they rock the boat a little, or just root for the wrong team.  I didn't mean you personally Pat, but a lot of older posters including myself could maybe step back and be more welcoming.   Like  "Hey welcome to the board, but you're wrong man"  as an ice breaker.


Here's another thought though.
The advent of the smart phone and many people going to that as their sole online device makes chatboards like this very difficult to participate in, I don't have the patience to type out a huge paragraph of thoughts or observations so it must wait, nor do I enjoy reading the boards from my phone.  Just a personal preference that I'm probably not alone in.

Also the link the d3boards on the main page has alwyas been to small and to hard to find, not obvious a link to a chat board to a new person.

Smartphone adoption is a big driver of the migration to emerging media platforms.  And the UI for this board is not necessarily state of the art.  (That is not a shot at management -- see the comment above about my enjoyment of this forum.  But it will have an impact, especially for digitally native cohorts.)

I personally have found it more challenging to post the 'Congratulations to Illinois Wesleyan' meme from my phone. 

I see a lot of hard data about media consumption and platform usage as part of my 9 to 5.  Without sharing proprietary numbers, there is a very clear link between decline in usage of more mature forums such as message boards and increases in other platforms. 

I am sure this is true, generally speaking, but I feel like the decline in posts over time did not directly correspond with the increase in #d3hoops traffic on Twitter.  I say I feel because I have no data on the matter.  I would have to go back to particular points in time to illustrate my point.

An interesting question for you and others: why was the CCIW football forum so much more active than the basketball thread?

The Landlord will be able to answer this question better than I can since he sees the nums for this site and I don't.  I would guess that there was some level of softening happening already, but I would be very surprised if these trends were not exacerbated significantly by COVID.  First, a lost season certainly impacted traffic levels, and second, peoples' routines were massively disrupted, and to the extent that they have returned to some semblance of normal, that normal probably looks a bit different than in the before times.  In short, the site likely had to re-acquire some of its legacy audience and that is not easy to do in the current social media environment.

---

My guess re: the football forum (and it is purely hypothesis) is that there are potentially three factors impacting the difference we're seeing.  One, football has a regular cadence of games that are always held on weekends.  This gives folks more time to post, both in the immediate aftermath (still the weekend) and in the six day pause between games which allows for a longer shelf life for most discussions.  Basketball has some semblance of this come January as the Nov/Dec schedule is a bit random, but this year just as we hit the 'regular cadence' part of the schedule, we started seeing cancellations that certainly won't cause an uptick in posting activity.

Two, for football, the CCIW has two entrenched* elite teams on the national landscape.  By entrenched, I mean that both have built bigger followings on this board over time through prior seasons' success, and that neither North Central not Wheaton were likely to fall out of the top ten this year.  This fostered continued engagement, including by supporters of playoff opponents.  In basketball, we have three ranked teams, but those teams' position is not cemented in the same way as we see in football, either from a historical standpoint or for this season, as we'll see some of those rankings slide as conference losses pile up.  Net/net, the football board is drawing from a base of posters that is constructed differently.

Three, I suspect football engagement picked up deeper into the season.  Bell week was early and may have skewed that a bit.  But my sense on this (basketball) page is that less engaged folks usually start paying more attention after we are through the holidays.  We're just past that point now, but omicron and ripples from it are sucking a lot of the oxygen out of the room via cancelled games and via the myriad of ways in which it can distract people from their typical activities.

[Titan Q]

#3-Illinois Wesleyan (12-2, 5-1) vs North Park (7-6, 3-2), 7pm at NPU Gymnasium...


#3-Illinois Wesleyan (11-2, 4-1 CCIW)
G - Luke Yoder, 6-0 Jr. (12.6 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 2.9 apg)
G - Cory Noe, 6-2 Sr. (14.4 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 1.5 apg)
G - Pete Lambesis, 6-4 Sr. (11.6 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 2.7 apg)
F - Cody Mitchell, 6-7 Jr. (8.4 ppg, 6.4 rpg)
F - Matt Leritz, 6-7 Sr. (17.9 ppg, 11.0 rpg, 2.2 apg)
-----
G - Ryan Sroka, 6-5 So. (5.6 ppg, 3.5 rpg)
G - Lucas Heflen, 6-2 Jr. (5.4 ppg)


North Park (7-6, 3-2)
G - Izaiah Sanders, 5-11 Sr. (8.7 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 2.3 apg)
G - Michael Osborne, 6-3 So. (15.9 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 4.9 apg)
F - Jalen Boyd, 6-4 Sr. (12.8 ppg, 5.8 rpg)
F - Adam Bulwa, 6-5 Jr. (6.3 ppg, 5.5 rpg)
F - Jordan Boyd, 6-7 Sr. (11.8 ppg, 6.3 rpg)
-----
G - Gabe Johnson, 6-4 Jr. (10.3 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 2.8 apg)
G - Jonathan Johansson, 6-4 Jr. (6.4 ppg, 2.5 rpg)


Video
https://boxcast.tv/channel/mkfk0h71h07ygfgcyby1

IWU Radio (Eric Stock)
https://www.iwusports.com/watch/?Live=282&type=Live

Live Stats
https://athletics.northpark.edu/sidearmstats/mbball/summary

IWU Game Notes
https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sites/iwusports.com/documents/2022/1/18/mbb2122game15_NorthPark.pdf

[WUPHF]

My guess re: the football forum (and it is purely hypothesis) [...]

Wow! Thanks for the detailed response. Everything you said makes sense.

[iwu70]

Good luck to the Titans tonight in Chicago @ North Park University!   

I'll be at The Shirk watching the big women's game -- IWU hosting MU, both teams undefeated in Conference play.  This is the inflection point for the season . . . can the IWU women play their best game of the year and come away with the upset.  Earlier in the season, I personally had no hope that IWU would compete with MU, NPU or WC . . . but now it's pretty clear I was wrong and this team has developed much faster, figured it out much quicker, than I thought.  This is much due to the steady play of the seniors (Lansford, Eck and Bowen) and the rapid development and improvement of the three freshmen:  Huber, Powers and Palmer.  Tonight, I assume we'll see a lot of Katlyn Heller guarding Knudsen, and maybe even running doubles at her . . . and, we'll have to see if Covid has bitten the Big Blue in any significant way for tonight.  If IWU plays hard, does well what got them this far, shoots a good percentage, and battles for a reasonably even rebounding line, I think they have a chance to upset Millikin.  I don't think they will turn over MU as much as other teams in the CCIW, but they will no doubt use defensive pressure, getting the ball out of the hands of some key MU players, and hoping others won't beat them.  Heller and Palmer off the bench have been playing very well in recent games.  It's an all-hands on deck tonight, to stop the Big Blue. 

IWU'70

[Gregory Sager]

North Park (7-6, 3-2)
G - Izaiah Sanders, 5-11 Sr. (8.7 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 2.3 apg)
G - Michael Osborne, 6-3 So. (15.9 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 4.9 apg)
F - Jalen Boyd, 6-4 Sr. (12.8 ppg, 5.8 rpg)
F - Adam Bulwa, 6-5 Jr. (6.3 ppg, 5.5 rpg)
F - Jordan Boyd, 6-7 Sr. (11.8 ppg, 6.3 rpg)
-----
G - Gabe Johnson, 6-4 Jr. (10.3 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 2.8 apg)
G - Jonathan Johansson, 6-4 Jr. (6.4 ppg, 2.5 rpg)

This is incorrect, Bob. Gabe Johnson is a starter, and Adam Bulwa is a reserve.

Of course, if Covid protocols continued or continue to rear their ugly head at NPU, this could change. But under normal circumstances, Johnson starts and Bulwa comes off the bench.

[Gregory Sager]

Good luck to the Titans tonight in Chicago @ North Park University!   

I'll be at The Shirk watching the big women's game -- IWU hosting MU, both teams undefeated in Conference play.  This is the inflection point for the season . . . can the IWU women play their best game of the year and come away with the upset.  Earlier in the season, I personally had no hope that IWU would compete with MU, NPU or WC . . . but now it's pretty clear I was wrong and this team has developed much faster, figured it out much quicker, than I thought.  This is much due to the steady play of the seniors (Lansford, Eck and Bowen) and the rapid development and improvement of the three freshmen:  Huber, Powers and Palmer.  Tonight, I assume we'll see a lot of Katlyn Heller guarding Knudsen, and maybe even running doubles at her . . . and, we'll have to see if Covid has bitten the Big Blue in any significant way for tonight.  If IWU plays hard, does well what got them this far, shoots a good percentage, and battles for a reasonably even rebounding line, I think they have a chance to upset Millikin.  I don't think they will turn over MU as much as other teams in the CCIW, but they will no doubt use defensive pressure, getting the ball out of the hands of some key MU players, and hoping others won't beat them.  Heller and Palmer off the bench have been playing very well in recent games.  It's an all-hands on deck tonight, to stop the Big Blue. 

IWU'70

Wrong room, Mark. Here's the one you're looking for.