MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[kiko]

In the Hangar:

North Central 87, Carthage 75

This one was not as close as the final score would suggest as the Cardinals led by as many as 20 in the first half and stretched it to 25 after the break before Carthage narrowed it toward the end.  The NCTV-17 broadcast noted early on that Carthage is last in the conference in points allowed per game, and it was evident throughout the game that the Firebirds can go through long stretches where they are defensively challenged.

This was exacerbated by the Helwig show, as Matt scored 37 (22 in the first half) and Ethan added 20 and 12 to augment a particularly strong individual defensive effort.  The two brothers combined to shoot 21-of-33 from the field, including 11-of-20 from behind the arc.  I expect Lucas was having a ball working this one.

The Cardinals close out their conference slate at 8-8, which gives the Sons of Warden their thirteenth consecutive season at- or above .500 in conference play.

Since this was likely the final NCTV-17 broadcast of the year, a shoutout to the crew for their work and a plea to add a clock to the on-screen graphics next year.

North Central
Matt Helwig 37 and 7; 4 steals
Ethan Helwig 20 and 12
Mitch Lewis 12 and 5

Carthage
Antuan Nesbitt 15
AJ Johnson 14 and 8; 4-of-6 from downtown
Julian Campbell 14
Fillip Bulatovic 13 and 6

[mr_b]

Final from Chicago: North Park 63, Illinois Wesleyan 57.

[GoPerry]

Wheaton clinches a tie for the conference title with a 70-57 win over Carroll

TJ Askew   19 pts, 9 rebs
Tyson Cruickshank  17 pts, 11 rebs
Andrew Williams 12 and 8
Nick Schiavello 5 rebs

Eckahelo Simpson   15 pts 5 rebs
Aaron Wafford   12 pts,
Josh Hudgens 10 pts

The Pioneers came ready to play and gave all the Thunder could handle tonight.  It was a 1 point ball game with 8 mins remaining until Wheaton finally put together a run outscoring Carroll 20-7 the rest of the way.

The Pios are a young team that will be heard from in the next season or two for sure.

[Pat Coleman]

Final from Chicago: North Park 63, Illinois Wesleyan 57.

I believe Massey still believes they lost.

[lmitzel]

In the Hangar:

North Central 87, Carthage 75

This one was not as close as the final score would suggest as the Cardinals led by as many as 20 in the first half and stretched it to 25 after the break before Carthage narrowed it toward the end.  The NCTV-17 broadcast noted early on that Carthage is last in the conference in points allowed per game, and it was evident throughout the game that the Firebirds can go through long stretches where they are defensively challenged.

Yeah, the Cardinals took control pretty early tonight. Really, the closest Carthage got was on a three that made it 12-9 NCC, but the Cardinals slowly began to pull away from there. Defensively challenged, for sure, and while their field goal numbers were respectable (41.4% for the game, incidentally with identical field goal numbers in each half), it seemed worse given the Firebirds missed quite a few looks down low early in the game that allowed the Cardinals to really build that lead.

This was exacerbated by the Helwig show, as Matt scored 37 (22 in the first half) and Ethan added 20 and 12 to augment a particularly strong individual defensive effort.  The two brothers combined to shoot 21-of-33 from the field, including 11-of-20 from behind the arc.  I expect Lucas was having a ball working this one.

Can confirm.

The Cardinals close out their conference slate at 8-8, which gives the Sons of Warden their thirteenth consecutive season at- or above .500 in conference play.

The win also clinched a CCIW Tournament berth for the Cardinals. Elmhurst's win over Augustana would have sealed it regardless of the result at the hangar, but it was nice to take care of business tonight.

This was kind of a chippy game; the officials largely let both teams play in this one. Two plays in particular stood out: after a North Central defensive rebound, I think it was Nick Smoldt got tangled up with a Firebird on the way down the floor, and Smoldt was seemingly thrown to the floor right in front of an official. No call was made on the play. The second came with about eight minutes left in the game; Carthage's Tanner Lamb took a hard screen from Ethan Helwig as John Blumeyer was bringing the ball up, Antuan Nesbitt poked the ball away from him right to Lamb, and in the scrum for it Blumeyer rolled over Lamb's knee, gave the Cardinals a five-on-four and Blumeyer a wide open three (I toned my three call down significantly, given the circumstances), and during the official's timeout to tend to Lamb, Blumeyer and Nesbitt exchanged words and each was T'd up. I don't want to say the benches cleared, but guys did come out onto the floor a little bit. Fortunately things settled down after this, but unfortunately Lamb would not return. Hopefully he'll be okay.

[CarrollBooster]

Following up on GoPerry Wheaton/Carroll game report.

Carroll has been playing much better as of late, beating Elmhurst and Augustana in the two.  Better player movement and ball movement.

Carroll played Wheaton toe to toe tonight for 30+ minutes. Impossible for Carroll to overcome a 28-7 foul shots attempted difference and 21-9 overall foul count difference. I'm not one to complain about officials, but that was the difference in the game.

Kobe Simpson didn't play for Carroll.  Not sure why.  Cruikshank was nails down the stretch, Wheaton just put the ball in his hands and he always makes the right play.

Kylo Simpson, Josh Hudgens, Paradisio Dante and Aaron Wafford played well for Carroll, although Wafford started 4-4 in the first few minutes and struggled shooting the rest of the game which hurt and Carroll struggled to score the last 10 minutes.

Be nice to finish with a win vs. Millikin Saturday to win 3 of the last 4 going into the off season.

[Gregory Sager]

North Park 63
Illinois Wesleyan 57

Kolden Vanlandingham: 13 pts
Jordan Boyd: 10 pts, 7 rebs
Marquise Jackson: 4:1 a:to, 5 stls
Shamar Pumphrey: 4 stls

Ryan Sroka: 14 pts, 7 rebs
Harrison Wilmsen: 10 pts, 7 rebs
Hakim Williams: 10 pts, 7 rebs
Cody Mitchell: 11 rebs

It wasn't the prettiest affair, but the Vikings, as they typically do, put together a couple of brief stretches in which their defense turned it up a notch and the Titans suddenly couldn't keep the ball at all, much less keep up on the scoreboard. The first time, the stretch lasted three minutes, from 8:51 of the second half to 5:49, in which NPU went on a 12-1 run, culminating in a Jalen Boyd trey that brought the house down, to turn a 43-41 deficit into a 53-44 lead. To their credit, the Titans fought back to within two at 1:49 when a Marquise Jackson foul coupled with a Kolden Vanlandingham tech allowed Ryan Sroka to get to the FT line for four throws, making three of them to close to 57-55. But that's when the second stretch kicked in for the Vikings, who used their quickness to good advantage at both ends of the floor to go on a 6-0 run to close it out, IWU getting a meaningless uncontested layup with four seconds remaining.

The Vikings shot a beastly 32% from the field and 16% from downtown, as Ron Rose's grind-it-out, muscle-it-up game plan worked and allowed IWU to dictate the tempo and style of the game for most of the way. Unfortunately, if you're wearing green, the team you root for can't shoot and can't protect the ball. IWU was south of 30% from the field for the game, and made only one trey in 13 attempts. It's so weird to see a Wesleyan team that can't hit a jumper to save their lives, given how the program's reputation for decades has been that of a roster stuffed with sharpshooters. They didn't even really attempt to run their offense, either (only three assists), as the game plan -- send a relay of guys down into the blocks, feed the post, and then use your legs and butt to push your way to the basket -- was successful enough to keep them in the game. But in the end the Titans just seemed physically worn down by having to chase the Vikings all over the floor, while Jackson, Vanlandingham, and Shamar Pumphrey just spread the floor and drove past the Titans to either get to the rim and finish or draw fouls.

NPU got its turnover-ratio mojo working again tonight: 18 TOs for IWU, only 10 for NPU, with thirteen of the eighteen Titans cough-ups courtesy of Vikings steals. A 3:18 a:to ratio's gotta be some sort of program low for Illinois Wesleyan. NPU, meanwhile, ended with a solid 14:10 ratio.

Now it's on to the Carver P.E. Center for the Vikings, who hope to close out strong for the regular season against Augie and set themselves up for a potential post-season run.

[Gregory Sager]

Final from Chicago: North Park 63, Illinois Wesleyan 57.

I believe Massey still believes they lost.

LOL!

[Gregory Sager]

Lucas is now our tiebreaker guru, so he'll correct me if I'm wrong about this. But if I'm not mistaken, a North Park win at Augie coupled with an Elmhurst win over Wheaton at Faganel would not only give the Park a share of the CCIW title, it'd give them the top seed in the tournament, right? Or will Illinois Wesleyan also have to beat Carthage in order to make that happen?

[lmitzel]

The field itself is set: Wheaton, North Park, Elmhurst, Carthage, North Central, and Illinois Wesleyan are all in. Other than Wheaton and North Park guaranteed to make it to the weekend, seeding is still up for grabs.

Lucas is now our tiebreaker guru, so he'll correct me if I'm wrong about this. But if I'm not mistaken, a North Park win at Augie coupled with an Elmhurst win over Wheaton at Faganel would not only give the Park a share of the CCIW title, it'd give them the top seed in the tournament, right? Or will Illinois Wesleyan also have to beat Carthage in order to make that happen?

I've been in Microsoft Excel for the past hour or so trying to figure this out. If I understand the tiebreaker rules correctly, the IWU/Carthage game doesn't matter for the top spot.

• Wheaton: Clinches the #1 seed with a win OR a North Park loss
• North Park: Clinches the #1 seed with a win AND a Wheaton loss
  
  
  
  • Obviously if Elmhurst is alone at 9-7, North Park's sweep of the Jays trumps Wheaton's being swept by them. If Carthage joins them at 9-7, I'm assuming I have to break the tie for first place before I break the tie for third place; North Park would be 3-1 against teams in the tie for third; Wheaton 2-2.

And then for the remaining four teams:
Elmhurst

• Clinches the #3 seed with a win AND either a North Park loss OR a Carthage loss
  
  
  
  • Again, assuming I read this right, basically Elmhurst needs North Park to not be the 1 seed with a tie at 9-7 because they got swept by the Vikings while Carthage split. Carthage losing keeps them at 8-8 and avoids the tie entirely.
  [li]Clinches the #4 seed with a win OR an Illinois Wesleyan loss
• Falls to the #5 seed with a loss AND an Illinois Wesleyan win

Carthage

• Clinches the #3 seed with a win AND either an Elmhurst loss OR a North Park win
  
  
  
  • Carthage gets it outright as the only 9-7 team with a win and Elmhurst loss. If we have a tie at 9-7 from Elmhurst knocking off Wheaton, the Firebirds need North Park to win to sneak into that top spot and switch the first team we look at in the tiebreaker.
• Clinches the #4 seed with a win OR an Elmhurst loss
• Falls to the #5 seed with a loss AND an Elmhurst win

North Central

• Clinches the #3 seed with an Illinois Wesleyan win AND a Wheaton win.
  
  
  
  • This is my Chaos Scenario I alluded to the other day. This would result in a four way tie at 8-8; the Cardinals would be 4-2 against teams in the tie, Elmhurst and Illinois Wesleyan 3-3, and Carthage 2-4.
• Clinches the #4 seed with an Illinois Wesleyan win
  
  
  
  • If Elmhurst wins to get to 9-7 and we're sitting on a three-way 8-8 tie, the Cardinals still own the tiebreaker with a 3-1 record against teams in the tie; Illinois Wesleyan would be 2-2 and Carthage 1-3.
• Falls to the #5 seed with a Carthage win
  
  
  
  • Carthage at 9-7 guarantees at least one team a win ahead of the Cardinals. Elmhurst winning obviously puts them a game up on NCC to close it out; if they're the only two tied at 8-8, Elmhurst owns the tiebreaker by virtue of one win over Wheaton, who swept the Cardinals.

Everything is turning green and I feel dirty. I guess if nothing else...

Illinois Wesleyan

• Is locked into the #6 seed
  
  
  
  • A loss puts them at 7-9, behind everyone else in the tournament.
  • A win puts them in either a three- or four-way tie, depending on the Wheaton-Elmhurst result. NCC would come out on top in either scenario (head to head against teams in the tie), followed by Carthage (a split with North Park, while IWU was swept), and if Elmhurst is also 8-8, the Jays get the tiebreaker thanks to splitting with Wheaton while IWU was swept.

My head hurts. When I originally filtered today's results to get to the 8 possible combinations that mattered, I'd already had Wheaton locking up the title, but I had to rerun the tiebreakers, and that chicken-or-egg scenario with a 9-7 Elmhurst/Carthage tie tied me up a little bit.

Most of the rest was pretty clean though.

[Gregory Sager]

The field itself is set: Wheaton, North Park, Elmhurst, Carthage, North Central, and Illinois Wesleyan are all in. Other than Wheaton and North Park guaranteed to make it to the weekend, seeding is still up for grabs.

Lucas is now our tiebreaker guru, so he'll correct me if I'm wrong about this. But if I'm not mistaken, a North Park win at Augie coupled with an Elmhurst win over Wheaton at Faganel would not only give the Park a share of the CCIW title, it'd give them the top seed in the tournament, right? Or will Illinois Wesleyan also have to beat Carthage in order to make that happen?

I've been in Microsoft Excel for the past hour or so trying to figure this out. If I understand the tiebreaker rules correctly, the IWU/Carthage game doesn't matter for the top spot.

• Wheaton: Clinches the #1 seed with a win OR a North Park loss
• North Park: Clinches the #1 seed with a win AND a Wheaton loss
  
  
  
  • Obviously if Elmhurst is alone at 9-7, North Park's sweep of the Jays trumps Wheaton's being swept by them. If Carthage joins them at 9-7, I'm assuming I have to break the tie for first place before I break the tie for third place; North Park would be 3-1 against teams in the tie for third; Wheaton 2-2.

This sounds right to me, based upon past seasons. Thanks, Lucas.

[markerickson]

When the CCIW tourney field had four teams, did IWU ever fail to qualify?  They qualify this year only because of a too generous field of six.  Recognizing IWU lost major contributors from last season, this year's squad is the least impressive I have seen in 30+ years of watching CCIW hoops.

Titans and Vikings combined to miss 33/38 trey attempts. Had NPU used the clock more wisely down the stretch, coupled by the idiotic T, North Park should have won easily by double digits.

"Winning Ugly" applies to last night's game.

[Gregory Sager]

When the CCIW tourney field had four teams, did IWU ever fail to qualify?

Been a while since I've been Ypsi'ed! Yes, the Titans failed to qualify during the four-team-format era of the CCIW tourney in 2007, 2009, and 2017.

They qualify this year only because of a too generous field of six.

I disagree that a six-team tourney field is "too generous." There is a very sound reason for a power conference such as the CCIW having a six-team field rather than a four-team field: It helps Pool C chances.

With a four-team field, two of the teams will exit the tourney going 0-1, harming their winning percentages -- and winning percentage is an important aspect of the five primary criteria the national committee uses to choose Pool C (at-large) teams. With a six-team field, the CCIW's Pool C aspirants have a better chance of exiting the conference tourney with a 1-1 record, thus doing much less damage to their winning percentage, while the corresponding hit to their SOS for playing a #5 or #6 seed is far more negligible (because, historically, even fifth- or sixth-place CCIW teams end the season with overall winning records).

Recognizing IWU lost major contributors from last season, this year's squad is the least impressive I have seen in 30+ years of watching CCIW hoops.

Oh, the 2006-07 Titans (Ron Rose's first IWU squad) were far worse than this team. The 2022-23 IWU team is much too slow by current CCIW standards, but, other than shooting ability, it's a team made up of solidly competent basketball players, many of whom are young and still growing into their games. That 2006-07 team, which finished seventh in the CCIW with a 4-10 record, had a really good center in Zach Freeman and not much else. Scott Trost had taken the Titans to the Final Four the year before and managed to parlay that accomplishment into a D2 head-coaching job at Lewis, but his recruiting had sloughed off in his last two or three years in Bloomington. He thus conveniently left town in the nick of time and really left his successor Ron Rose in a bind. It's to Rose's credit that he got the Titans back to their accustomed level fairly quickly.

Let's keep in mind that, even though IWU is teetering on the edge of a losing season in 2022-23, the Titans still took the #1 team in the country to overtime, lost by only two points to the #22 team in the country, and got ripped off by a bad call at the buzzer and were thus deprived of an upset of #7 Wheaton in Wheaton's gym. Plus, there's the old problem with the "overrated" chant -- by chanting "overrated," you're actually diminishing your own team's accomplishment in beating that so-called overrated team. Illinois Wesleyan gave North Park two hard-fought games this season; the Titans led NPU with under five minutes remaining in the game in Bloomington back on January 18 and only lost to the Vikings by four, and last night in Chicago the Titans were within two with under two minutes remaining and ended up losing by six. Calling the Titans "the least impressive Titans team I have seen in 30+ years" thus does a real disservice to an excellent North Park squad.

The Titans are by no means a strong team. But they're solid enough to be a threat in the CCIW tourney (as are each of the other five teams), .500 record or not.

Titans and Vikings combined to miss 33/38 trey attempts. Had NPU used the clock more wisely down the stretch, coupled by the idiotic T, North Park should have won easily by double digits.

I disagree that it was an idiotic T. After Marquise Jackson had been whistled for a foul under the east basket, Kolden Vanlandingham muttered, "That wasn't a foul," as he was walking away. Rabbit-eared ref Kevin Dillard, who was ten feet behind Vanlandingham at that moment, heard him, and Dillard handed him a T-bone for it. No confrontation, no naughty words, no raised voice ... just an arbitrary exercise of power on the part of an oversensitive ref who'd been getting an earful all night from both head coaches (plus a couple of the Vikings, not including Vanlandingham, who'd been giving the officials a steady stream of hardwood lawyering for 38 minutes) and had probably had enough. I'd like to think that Dillard, who's called hundreds of CCIW games over the years, probably thought better of that call in retrospect ... perhaps even moments after he'd made the T signal. Once you've made that signal, you can't take it back.

"Winning Ugly" applies to last night's game.

Truer words were never spoken. Aesthetically speaking, that was a game only a mother could love. But it sure looks pretty in the W column for the Park.

[lmitzel]

They qualify this year only because of a too generous field of six.

I disagree that a six-team tourney field is "too generous." There is a very sound reason for a power conference such as the CCIW having a six-team field rather than a four-team field: It helps Pool C chances.

With a four-team field, two of the teams will exit the tourney going 0-1, harming their winning percentages -- and winning percentage is an important aspect of the five primary criteria the national committee uses to choose Pool C (at-large) teams. With a six-team field, the CCIW's Pool C aspirants have a better chance of exiting the conference tourney with a 1-1 record, thus doing much less damage to their winning percentage, while the corresponding hit to their SOS for playing a #5 or #6 seed is far more negligible (because, historically, even fifth- or sixth-place CCIW teams end the season with overall winning records).

I remember running through D3Hoops' conference tournament tracker page when the CCIW announced the expansion of the tournament from 4 to 6 and seeing how many teams from each conference made it. I think the number ended up being in the mid-60 percent range; having two-thirds of your league make it falls right in that ballpark. And it's benefitted the CCIW repeatedly; since the first expanded tournament in 2019, the CCIW has gotten at least one pool C bid, and only once failed to get two (2020, when both representatives were still alive before the world went to crap.) Heck, if NCC had been able to go full "They Shouldn't Have Let Us In" and stolen the CCIW Pool A bid a year ago, we might have gotten 3 Pool C's.

Let's keep in mind that, even though IWU is teetering on the edge of a losing season in 2022-23, the Titans still took the #1 team in the country to overtime, lost by only two points to the #22 team in the country, and got ripped off by a bad call at the buzzer and were thus deprived of an upset of #7 Wheaton in Wheaton's gym. Plus, there's the old problem with the "overrated" chant -- by chanting "overrated," you're actually diminishing your own team's accomplishment in beating that so-called overrated team. Illinois Wesleyan gave North Park two hard-fought games this season; the Titans led NPU with under five minutes remaining in the game in Bloomington back on January 18 and only lost to the Vikings by four, and last night in Chicago the Titans were within two with under two minutes remaining and ended up losing by six. Calling the Titans "the least impressive Titans team I have seen in 30+ years" thus does a real disservice to an excellent North Park squad.

The Titans are by no means a strong team. But they're solid enough to be a threat in the CCIW tourney (as are each of the other five teams), .500 record or not.

To add onto this point... were it not for the heroics of one Shea Cupples on Saturday night, Illinois Wesleyan would be 8-7 and playing for a home game next Tuesday when they welcome Carthage to the Shirk Center on Saturday instead of being locked into the 6 seed.

The Titans aren't as strong as they were last year, that's clear. But they are no slouches by any stretch of the imagination, and I'd argue have as good a shot as any of the other five teams of grabbing a Pool A berth.

[Stertorous Thunder]

The Titans aren't as strong as they were last year, that's clear. But they are no slouches by any stretch of the imagination, and I'd argue have as good a shot as any of the other five teams of grabbing a Pool A berth.

In most seasons, a win against the Titans is an occasion to storm the floor in celebration, but this year IWU is a victim of its own previous success.  It's quite a testament to their history that this season where they are merely "good," yet still very capable of keeping pace with the highest level of conference and national opponent, will be considered disappointing.

But the season isn't over and I completely agree that this year's Titans are capable of knocking anyone, and potentially everyone, else out of the tournament.  But if they don't, I legitimately hope to see IWU improve next year even though my CCIW basketball rooting interests are 1.) Wheaton and 2.) whoever is playing Illinois Wesleyan.  A good conference needs a good powerhouse villain.