MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

The NCAA released its first official NPI ranking today. You can find it via this link.

rank & team	NPI score	current pool status
4. Illinois Wesleyan	67.741	A
29. North Park	61.240	C #12
30. Carthage	61.227	C #13

Thanks to Matt Snyder for supplying the current pool status info.

What this basically means is two-fold:

1) It means that Illinois Wesleyan is currently in line to get the CCIW's Pool A berth, since the list assumes that every conference goes chalk in its own tourney (i.e., every regular-season winner goes on to win the conference tourney as well, which of course doesn't apply to the one league in D3 that doesn't have its own post-season tourney, the UAA). IWU would be the #4 seed in the 64-team D3 tourney field; in other words, one of the four quadrants of the bracket -- one comprised wholly or mostly of midwestern teams, of course -- would be built around the Titans as the quadrant's top seed.

2) It means that, of the 21 Pool C bids that will be apportioned to at-large teams, if everything held true from today (which, of course, it won't) North Park would get a Pool C bid as long as there were nine "bid thieves" or fewer. Likewise, Carthage could afford eight bid thieves and still lay claim to a Pool C ticket to the big dance. A bid thief situation happens when there's a team that wins its conference tournament despite not winning the regular-season title and is ranked lower than a given team already aspiring to a Pool C berth. That victorious underdog in effect unexpectedly takes away a Pool C slot by winning its league's Pool A slot, thereby forcing its league's highly-rated regular-season champion to accept a Pool C slot it otherwise wouldn't have needed and thus stealing it from a lower-ranked Pool C aspirant.

To illustrate the point, let's look at the WIAC. UW-Platteville, the current leader in that league, is #3 in NPI. But UW-La Crosse is right behind at #5, so if UW-Platteville were to lose in the WIAC tourney and UW-La Crosse won the WIAC tourney (and, thus, the WIAC's Pool A berth), UW-Platteville wouldn't be a bid thief, because the Pioneers were going to get in regardless, whether as a Pool A or as a Pool C. But if current Little East leader Keene State (NPI #18) were to lose in the Little East tourney and, say, second-place Rhode Island College (NPI #117) were to win the Little East tourney title instead, then RIC would force Keene State to be a bid thief where North Park and Carthage are concerned, because Keene State has a higher NPI than those two CCIW teams, whereas RIC is so far down the NPI list that the Anchormen* don't have even the faintest glimmer of hope of garnering a Pool C berth.

There are currently 19 non-CCIW leagues represented above North Park and Carthage, so there's 19 different opportunities for bid thievery as far as NPU and CC are concerned. Four of those 19 leagues have multiple representatives ranked higher than NPU and CC, so a loss by the league's favorite wouldn't necessarily mean bid thievery. Pat could probably tell us the history of bid thieves, but if I'm correct it's usually somewhere in the four-to-six range in terms of the number of bid thieves in a given season for a team in the middle range of Pool C hopefuls like the Vikings and the Firebirds, although bigger bloodbaths have completely upended the Pool C process in the past.

If the status quo were to hold, the Vikings and the Firebirds would both be slightly above the middle of the pack in terms of seeding, so wherever they went for the opening weekend of the D3 tournament they wouldn't be playing the host on Friday night in the first round.

So ... right now the CCIW is in line to get three teams into the field. But that can definitely change. Also, although it probably goes without saying, only Illinois Wesleyan, North Park, and Carthage are still in the running at this point to get a Pool C bid. Each of the other six teams needs to win the CCIW tournament in order to go dancing.

* I wonder if Rhode Island College has ever asked Will Ferrell to throw out the first pitch at an RIC baseball game.

[iwu70]

Congrats to Nick Roper on Player of the Week in the CCIW.

'70

[iwu70]

IWU rises to #2 in the latest poll.  Now receiving 3 first place votes.  The "other" Wesleyan still #1.  Trine dropping down.

No comments heard from John Wesley.   

'70

[tjcummingsfan]

North Park made its first appearance of the year in the RV category with 2. 

[Stertorous Thunder]

Following a 13 game losing streak that stretched past two months, Wheaton coach Mike Schauer finally got his 400th career coaching win tonight in an upset at North Park.

[iwu70]

IWU loses at North Central.  Looks like the TOs did them in.

Big game next at Carthage.

'70

[Gregory Sager]

Wheaton 102
North Park 89

Preston Bax III: 15 pts, 3 stls
TJ Gardner: 15 pts, 8:2 a:to
Rico Powell: 15 pts
William Bates: 11 pts
Lance Nelson:  11:2 a:to

Soren Richardson: 53 pts (18-23 FG, 6-8 trey, 11-14 FT)
Kyan VanderWoude: 17 pts, 10 rebs, 5:1 a:to
Kyle Neibch: 15 pts (5-9 trey)
Devin Martin: 7 rebs, 8:4 a:to, 4 stls

Soren Richardson played one of those once-in-a-decade games that, when we see them here in the crackerbox, we never forget them. He set a new gym record for most points by an opponent, breaking the old record of 49 set by Kirk Anderson of Augustana 33 years ago. Richardson narrowly missed the gym record of 54 scored by Jack Ecker of the Vikings against Carthage in 1995. And the thing is, Richardson did it with economy. I mean, 53 points on only 23 field-goal attempts is nothing short of amazing. He was hitting shots with guys in his grill, hitting shots over bigger guys, hitting pretty much every kind of shot there is. You can't do anything but tip your hat to the guy. Somebody on X tweeted that Richardson is "the next superstar" in the CCIW. That take is wrong. He's already there.

It wasn't just The Soren Richardson Show, though. Drew Martin and Kyan VanderWoude were outstanding. I watched those two along with sophomore Richardson tonight, and I couldn't help thinking back as the game was going on to the middle of the last decade when young guns Juwan Henry, Jordan Robinson, TJ Cobbs, and Colin Lake were starting to collectively mature as players and the Vikings started beating ranked teams like Augustana and North Central. It feels as though Wheaton is very much on that road, especially if Mike Schauer can find a better-than-average big or two.

Speaking of Mike, congrats to him on his 400th win. I'd feel worse if he wasn't both a quality guy and a fellow Covie.

As for the Vikings, they didn't show much patience today against the 2-3 zone, settling for trey attempts time after time rather than using determination and know-how to slip inside the zone and get better looks. Nevertheless, you can't argue with an 89-point performance in a league in which the average team score is around 74 ppg. Fifteen points above league average wins the vast majority of games. The FT shooting for NPU was uncharacteristically subpar, but the Park nevertheless shot 56% from the field and 50% from downtown, and their 28 assists (one more than Wheaton had) is a season high for a CCIW team -- and that's overall, not just in CCIW games. But when you give up 102 ... .

The biggest problem for North Park wasn't an inability to force turnovers the way they usually do. Wheaton coughed it up 16 times, 11 of them courtesy of Vikings steals. But Wheaton's motion, in which everything relies upon the cut-and-pass, was run so well tonight that the Schauerites could've been shooting an instruction video for YouTube. And some of that's on the Vikings for playing terrible off-ball defense. There was no excuse for trailing a half-step behind cutters the way that they were tonight.

The crucial stretch of the game was the end of the first half. NPU was up by 16 with 3:40 to go in the opening stanza, but it was only a seven-point Vikings lead at the half. By going on that quick end-of-half run, Wheaton kept itself in the game and gave itself a fighting chance coming out of the locker room for the second stanza.

Mostly, the Vikings just got outhustled and outexecuted by a young and hungry Wheaton team that I have never felt was bad. Wheaton was simply overdue. Tonight, dues got paid.

The Vikings have to snap out of it and get ready to go into the airplane hangar and take on a North Central team flying high after toppling second-ranked Illinois Wesleyan tonight.

[lmitzel]

IWU loses at North Central.  Looks like the TOs did them in.

Big game next at Carthage.

'70

North Central fell behind 12-2 about 3 minutes in, prompting a Vince Kmiec timeout to stop the bleeding. After that it was pretty heavily tilted NCC's way. The Cardinals went on an 18-0 run that spanned about five and a half minutes and included four of IWU's 16 giveaways on the night (with the asterisk that one of the four came on a Harrison Wilmsen tech). The Titans only led for about 30 seconds in the second half as NCC was able to pull away. 18 Cardinal points came off the 16 Titan turnovers.

Tyler Swierczek: 19 pts
Terrance Moncrief: 17 pts
Drew Gaston: 14 pts

Josh Fridman: 11 pts
Harrison Wilmsen: 11 pts
Marko Anderson: 10 pts, 6 reb
Hakim Williams: 8 pts, 7 reb, 5 ast (but 5 TO)

[GusD]

IWU rises to #2 in the latest poll.  Now receiving 3 first place votes.  The "other" Wesleyan still #1.  Trine dropping down.

No comments heard from John Wesley. 

'70

Wesley was waiting until after tonight's game. 

[Gregory Sager]

It could've been a three-upset night, as Carroll came back late before the home crowd at Van Male after trailing almost all night. The Pioneers even took a brief 70-69 lead on Carthage on a pair of Erik Victorson charity tosses with just under four minutes to go. But the Firebirds responded and pulled out to what eventually became an 84-75 win in the second 2024-25 iteration of the Battle of Packerland. Riley Brooks led the way with a low-efficiency 21, but Griffin Daun continued his hot hand with 17 points (on 6-8 shooting) and 9 boards, while Ryan Johnson had a 13 and 13 night and big brother AJ scored 13 as well. The Pios were paced by Kobe Simpson's 15, while Victorson had 14, Kylo Simpson added 12 and 8, and Jacob Naber tossed in 11.

Elmhurst topped shorthanded Millikin, 78-68, at Faganel. Dom Trelenberg scored 18, Tagen Pearson put in 17, and Sebastian Blachut had 15 for the 'jays, while Lane Thomann led the Big Blue with 19 while Drake Stevenson and Nate Straughter each scored 10. MU was again without the services of Demarcus Bond and JT Welch.

[Gregory Sager]

IWU rises to #2 in the latest poll.  Now receiving 3 first place votes.  The "other" Wesleyan still #1.  Trine dropping down.

No comments heard from John Wesley. 

'70

Wesley was waiting until after tonight's game. 

For what it's worth, North Central was also founded by Methodists and retains a vestigial relationship with the United Methodist Church. So Wesley, if he cared, would've just been hedging his bets in this one.

[iwu70]

I'm so delighted that John Wesley has turned out to be such a CCIW basketball fan.   

I'm sure he'll be cheering for the Titans vs. Carthage . . . no Methodist connection there, right? 

IWU gotta clean up the TO issue.

'70

[lmitzel]

CCIW Standings through last night:

y-IWU	10-2
CAR	9-2
NPU	9-3
ELM	6-6
AUG	5-6
NCC	5-7
MIL	5-7
CRL	2-9
WHE	1-10

I hadn't paid super close attention to the standings in the past week or so, but Illinois Wesleyan has not only clinched a CCIW Tournament berth, but I believe they're also locked into a top four seed (with the sweep of Elmhurst, the Jays can't catch them, and Augie has a win over the Jays as well, so a three way tie there is bad for Elmhurst).

Carthage and North Park both lock up tournament berths with victories or an Augustana loss to Millikin on Saturday. If Augie loses, Carthage or North Park wins would lock them into top four seeds as well.

Meanwhile, Wheaton would be mathematically eliminated from the postseason with a loss and a North Central win over North Park.

I'm not doing my spreadsheet of scenarios yet. There's over a million possible combinations of results and I can't deal with that.

[Gregory Sager]

I'm so delighted that John Wesley has turned out to be such a CCIW basketball fan. 

Hey, you're the one who started it:

John Wesley would be proud, Wesleyans rise.

CCIW Standings through last night:

y-IWU	10-2
CAR	9-2
NPU	9-3
ELM	6-6
AUG	5-6
NCC	5-7
MIL	5-7
CRL	2-9
WHE	1-10

I hadn't paid super close attention to the standings in the past week or so, but Illinois Wesleyan has not only clinched a CCIW Tournament berth, but I believe they're also locked into a top four seed (with the sweep of Elmhurst, the Jays can't catch them, and Augie has a win over the Jays as well, so a three way tie there is bad for Elmhurst).

Carthage and North Park both lock up tournament berths with victories or an Augustana loss to Millikin on Saturday. If Augie loses, Carthage or North Park wins would lock them into top four seeds as well.

Meanwhile, Wheaton would be mathematically eliminated from the postseason with a loss and a North Central win over North Park.

I'm not doing my spreadsheet of scenarios yet. There's over a million possible combinations of results and I can't deal with that.

I await your spreadsheet with bated breath, Lucas. Between the tight pennant race among the top three teams and the four-car pileup in the middle of the standings, I get a headache just thinking about breaking that all down on a spreadsheet.

The four-car pileup may just resolve itself naturally, however. I see short-handed Millikin fading. The Large Primary Color is clearly not the team that it was when it had Bond and Welch not only active but in mid-season form. That's a shame, because I hate to see a team knocked out of competition by attrition rather than by the outcomes of the games themselves. Kramer Soderberg & Co. deserve better, as do Millikin fans. (I'll keep to myself my unkind thoughts about what their broadcasters deserve. ) I also hate to see a team lose its competitiveness when it still has to play Carthage and Illinois Wesleyan among its four remaining games, but that's just me being selfish.

[ziggy]

I'm so delighted that John Wesley has turned out to be such a CCIW basketball fan. 

Hey, you're the one who started it:

John Wesley would be proud, Wesleyans rise.

Are any of the Wesleyans even Wesleyan anymore?