MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[itsnotmeitsyou]

Let's hope the season starts soon so we can actually talk basketball here.

And, Greg, how many times have you told Charcoal Delights stories . . . that are, I may say, also totally irrelevant to D3 hoops.

Story, not stories. And the answer is once ... yesterday, when I told the story about the water bottle on the CCIW football page.

You could argue that I've mentioned several times that bit about what Tim Bernero tells his team when they travel to Chicago, but: a) it's not really a story, it's just a quote; b) I've recited that quote on three different boards, so it's not as though I'm subjecting the same audience to the same quote over and over again; c) it's relevant to CCIW hoops; and d) it's the Carthage coach saying something to his Firebirds, so it's about Carthage and not NPU.

  I finally went there to see what it was all about and had some pretty lousy food.   Just say'n.

Oooh! Edgy!

Alas... my first eye roll of the season for a post.

Btw the way - it's nice to know I can live rent free in someone's head (it's an especially spacious place to prepare for mercilessly long posts this season by reading Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment).

[USee]

Pre-season CCIW Coaches Poll due soon—perhaps by end of this week. While it means nothing as far as how things will shake out in late February, its always interesting to learn what the early impressions are.

I can't see anyone but Illinois Western getting the top spot.

I am not sure why you think this. I think it's really a toss up. IWU lost the most between Wheaton, NCC and Elmhurst and their returners have the least experience among those teams returning players. They may have the most talented roster, but they also have the most question marks. If anything North Central returns the most of those contenders (not including Augie and Millikin who return everybody basically). North Central might get dinged because of a new coach, but the cupboard is not bare. Wheaton's talent and length rivals the other top teams and Elmhurst has 3 of their starting 5 from their final 4 team back. I am not sure what the talent level at NCC or Elmhurst is beyond the returning minutes but based on simply who returns what, I would have a different order.

I initially thought the second spot would be a 50/50 tossup between Wheaton and Elmhurst with Elmhurst finishing slightly ahead based primarily on their late season success last year. But now having learned more about Wheaton's experienced transfers, I think they should notch the 2nd spot.

For the same reason I thought Elmhurst would finish second, I think the residual effects will propel them to 3rd. EU remains a good team, but they lost a ton of talent while North Central has a likely All-American back as well as a second player as good as anything EU returns. NCC should be the third choice.

I would have this order

NCC
Wheaton
IWU
Elmhurst
Augie
Millikin
Carthage
NPU
Carroll

I think there is a lot of parity in the league this year. Maybe more than most years. Not sure there are any D3.Com top 10 teams in this group but I would start with NCC/Wheaton/IWU somewhere in the top 30 or so teams in the country and it wouldn't surprise me to see 5 different CCIW teams ranked at some point this season.

[Gregory Sager]

Wheaton is going to be good this year. They have the longest team in recent memory with 5 players between 6-6 and 6-9 and another 5 either 6-4 or 6-5. The two big transfers are going to be huge contributors and they have a 6-8 freshmen that some Wheaton insiders believe to be the next Nate Frank.

Too bad for the kid's golf game, then.

[Gregory Sager]

Pre-season CCIW Coaches Poll due soon—perhaps by end of this week. While it means nothing as far as how things will shake out in late February, its always interesting to learn what the early impressions are.

I can't see anyone but Illinois Western getting the top spot.

I am not sure why you think this. I think it's really a toss up. IWU lost the most between Wheaton, NCC and Elmhurst and their returners have the least experience among those teams returning players. They may have the most talented roster, but they also have the most question marks.

Well, Mark is immune to Wesleyan hype -- in fact, he's antagonized by it at least as much as are any of the rest of us who refuse to drink the green kool-aid -- so that can't explain why Mark thinks IWU will be picked first.

I'm just spitballing this, USee, but my suggestion is that Mark is honestly trying to predict the order of the upcoming coaches poll rather than indicating how he himself would predict the 2022-23 CCIW finish. My alternate suggestion would be that he's trying to set up the Titans to fail. In the past, that was actually a part of the gamesmanship involved in how CCIW men's basketball coaches made their preseason poll choices. (I don't get the sense that the current CCIW head coaches are as interested in playing those sorts of mind games with each other, although I could be wrong.)

There is an awful lot of turnover this season, and one of the things that strikes me is that continuity from the previous season means more in the current nine-team format, which has forced the CCIW to revert back to scheduling three league games per team in early December, than it did before Carroll rejoined the league. That gives Augustana, Elmhurst, Millikin, and North Central a leg up on the other teams. (I'd include Carroll as well, but nobody's really expecting anything from the Pioneers this season.) It's hardly a prohibitive advantage, but it is a leg up.

I think there is a lot of parity in the league this year. Maybe more than most years. Not sure there are any D3.Com top 10 teams in this group but I would start with NCC/Wheaton/IWU somewhere in the top 30 or so teams in the country and it wouldn't surprise me to see 5 different CCIW teams ranked at some point this season.

I agree with the first two points. The third will come down to how well the league does in November outside the circuit.

[Gregory Sager]

The d3hoops.com preseason poll is out. There are three CCIW teams clumped at the bottom -- IWU at #21, Elmhurst at #23, and Wheaton at #24. North Central, with 11 points, is halfway down a massive dogpile of ORVs.

Other locals include UWO at #3; UWL at #15; Wash U at #16; Wabash, Hope, and Calvin all above North Central in the ORV melee; and UWW and Hanover at the tail end of the ORV list.

[iwu70]

For IWU, things will sort out pretty fast re: their place in this top 25 pre-season poll:   They play #3 Oshkosh, #13 St. Joseph (CT.), #16 Wash U, #23 Elmhurst x 2, #24 Wheaton x 2, and from the ORV category, Yeshiva and North Central x 2.  That's ten games in all of their schedule against these pre-season ranked teams.   Plus, all the other tough nights in the CCIW, especially on the road.   IWU will have plenty of opportunities to prove themselves . . . basically all year.

'70

[Greek Tragedy]

I define "pretty fast" in a 25-game season as possibly the 1st 2 weeks or so.

That would be:

Yeshiva
Webster/Stevens Point
Nebraska Wesleyan
St. Joseph (CT)

in the 1st two weeks and then Oshkosh before the 1st regular season poll is out. I think, based on their preseason poll position, they should go 4-1. Getting a win on the road at Oshkosh would obviously be huge.

[lmitzel]

And coaches' poll is out.

IWU picked to win, receiving six first place votes, a second, and a third. NCC picked second with one first place vote, Elmhurst and Wheaton tying for third (though the Jays got the remaining first place votes).

[Gregory Sager]

I may have spoken too soon about the current conclave of CCIW head coaches not sharing the taste for psychological warfare that their predecessors had. Despite the fact that everybody else seems to think that this is going to be a season of parity, they boosted Illinois Wesleyan above the rest of the league by a pretty high margin. It seems likely to me that at least some of Ron Rose's peers want to see him roast a little on the hot seat.

I was surprised to see North Park picked seventh rather than Carthage. Given the dismal performance of last season's Vikings, NPU's new and unproven head coach, the presence of a truckload of newcomers on the roster, and the fact that the Vikings will be playing a brand-new style of ball this coming season, I wasn't even sure that the coaches would pick the Park to finish ahead of Carroll, let alone both of the schools north of the Cheddar Curtain. Even considering that he has lost Crishawn Cook, Garrett Horner, and perhaps Kyle Czerak as well, getting slotted eighth behind NPU has to be seen as something of a slap in the face if you're Stevie D.

[Gregory Sager]

Speaking of the Cheddar Curtain, when are Carroll and Carthage going to post their 2022-23 rosters? We're less than two weeks away from opening day, and the CCIW has already released the coaches preseason poll.

And, speaking of rosters, how in the world is Blaise Meredith still playing basketball for North Central? He's already logged four non-medical-redshirt, non-COVID seasons of twenty-plus games apiece. Did he acquire Canadian citizenship and appeal successfully to the NCAA that Canadians should get an extra year of eligibility down here in the States, just like they do up in the land of beaver nickels and bagged milk?

At least Jake Rhode had the decency to break his leg in order to squeeze in another year of basketball.

[WUPHF]

And, speaking of rosters, how in the world is Blaise Meredith still playing basketball for North Central? He's already logged four non-medical-redshirt, non-COVID seasons of twenty-plus games apiece.

Wait a minute... how is he playing a sixth season?

[Pat Coleman]

North Central doesn't have a 2022-23 roster posted that I can see. Is this a 2021-22 roster you're looking at?

[Gregory Sager]

You're right, Pat. NCC still has the 2021-22 roster up. Know why I thought otherwise? Because North Central posted an article about being picked #2 in the coaches poll about five seconds after the league office sent out the press release. You'd think that NCC would've posted the actual team about which the article is referring before posting the article -- or anything else concerning the 2022-23 Cardinals.

Oh, that tricky Clark Teuscher!

(Somewhere in the bowels of some building on the NCC campus, Clark is probably laughing at me until his sides hurt.)

[lmitzel]

You're right, Pat. NCC still has the 2021-22 roster up. Know why I thought otherwise? Because North Central posted an article about being picked #2 in the coaches poll about five seconds after the league office sent out the press release. You'd think that NCC would've posted the actual team about which the article is referring before posting the article -- or anything else concerning the 2022-23 Cardinals.

I feel like NCC's men's roster is usually one of the last ones posted, but this does seem kinda late even for us.

Oh, that tricky Clark Teuscher!

(Somewhere in the bowels of some building on the NCC campus, Clark is probably laughing at me until his sides hurt.)

Maybe even with one of his cats in his lap to complete the ensemble!

[John Gleich]

Wheaton is going to be good this year. They have the longest team in recent memory with 5 players between 6-6 and 6-9 and another 5 either 6-4 or 6-5. The two big transfers are going to be huge contributors and they have a 6-8 freshmen that some Wheaton insiders believe to be the next Nate Frank.

They lose a bunch but return Cruickshank, Shiavello, Considine and Eddie Scott, which represent almost half their starts.

The Thunder should be solidly in the top 25 early this year

I thought the big guy from last year's Glenbard West team was going to Gonzaga, not Wheaton...