MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[GusD]

IWU RECRUIT

IWU has received a commitment from 6'6" combo forward Bradley Biedke of Conant HS.
A very good HS player, he is averaging about 16 PPG, and 10 RPG. In keeping with tradition, he'll likely be described by the Greenie faithful as a "tremendous," "enormous," or "difference making" acquisition as with each IWU recruit over the past millennium or so  . This may ultimately prove true, but let's wait until the young man has gotten at least a few games under his belt before heaping on the accolades .

[iwu70]

GusD, never heard of him.    Just happy he's chosen IWU.  Sounds like a nice recruit.  I assume others wanted him, too.  (By the way, what we said about Fridman earlier has pretty much turned out to be true). 

IWU rises to #11 in the new national poll. 

Key game tomorrow night vs. NPU at The Shirk.  Titans need to win out, go to 21-4 on the regular season. Final game of the regular season up at Carver on Saturday, vs. Augie.

Here comes the CCIW tournament, chances for six teams to win the AQ. Sure looks to me like the tournament will be in Kenosha.

'70

[Gregory Sager]

Illinois Wesleyan 87
North Park 81

Rico Powell: 23 pts
Davante Robinson: 12 pts
Taijon Barry: 12 pts
Lance Nelson: 4:0 a:to

Harrison Wilmsen: 17 pts, 7 rebs
Nick Roper: 12 pts
Mason Funk: 10 pts
Josh Fridman: 10 pts

The Vikings continue their reeling. They did make a late comeback attempt that fell short, but they dug themselves too deep a hole to climb back out of it against a good team.

This collapse has been epic. Tonight's loss makes it a five-game skid for NPU, and at the worst time of the year. And now the Vikings have to shake all that off and get themselves in a positive frame of mind for Tuesday's quarterfinal.

[iwu70]

Yes, a bit more on the IWU-NPU game.

A pretty hard-fought, statistically close game.  IWU was up as much as 14 early in the second half, but NPU came back to get it to 6 points at several points late.  IWU played well down the stretch and got the win 87-81.

For NPU:

Powell 23
Barry 12
Robinson 12

North Park's speed and pressure defense challenged the Titans at points.

NPU shooting 52%, 33% from three, and 90% from the line. 

For IWU:

Wilmsen 17 and 7
Bazzell, hot early, 16, on 4-5 from three
Roper 12
Funk 10
Fridman 10
Williams 9

In the first half, this game was a track meet, up and down at an amazing pace.

IWU shooting 51%, 37% from three, and 77 from the line.

A good win, another 20 win season for Ron Rose and the Titans.  Carthage wins again tonight, so IWU still one game back with one game to go for the regular season race.

Final game of the regular season @ Augie on Saturday.

IWU'70

[lmitzel]

Cardinals grab the 6th and final spot in the CCIW Tournament.

NCC 80
Carroll 76

I only paid passing attention to this game. The Cardinals led 9-0 out of the gate and were up 19-6 at one point early. But Carroll fought back and took the lead for the first time with just under six minutes to go before the Cardinals fought right back. NCC didn't allow a field goal over the final 2:12 to turn a two point deficit into the four point victory.

Terrance Moncrief: 24 pts, 5 reb, 4 ast
Ethan Helwig: 14 pts, 5 reb
Tyler DiSilvio: 13 pts
Drew Gaston: 13 pts

Erik Victorson: 13 pts, 5 reb
Kobe Simpson: 12 pts
Jacob Naber: 10 pts, 5 reb
Eckahelo Simpson: 7 pts, 10 reb

[lmitzel]

And here's clinching scenarios for Saturday on the men's side. My spreadsheet showing my work is at the end of the Twitter thread.

[Stertorous Thunder]

2024-2025 Fred Young CCIW Most Outstanding Student-Athlete

It's not a runaway race this year, but I still predict a unanimous vote.  I think the voters are going to hold off on anointing Soren Richardson the best player in the conference and will reward Nick Roper in his senior year. As the top scorer and leader on nationally ranked Illinois Wesleyan, Roper was the preseason favorite for the award and never failed to back up his case for the honor.


2024-2025 CCIW First-Year Student-Athlete of the Year

The easiest way to determine the best first-year player is to compare any freshmen on the conference leader board in total minutes. I believe that Devin Martin of Wheaton is the only member of the Top 25 and as of today he is tied for the conference lead in assists. If one was tempted to claim that playing alongside Soren Richardson boosted his assist numbers, the other side of the coin is that Martin's scoring numbers would have been higher if he wasn't feeding teammates. Freshman teammate Kyan VanderWoude made great strides throughout the season and is arguably a greater team contributor today, but Devin Martin was in the starting lineup from Game 1 and quickly looked ready for the college game.

Discuss...

[mwunder]

2024-2025 Fred Young CCIW Most Outstanding Student-Athlete

It's not a runaway race this year, but I still predict a unanimous vote.  I think the voters are going to hold off on anointing Soren Richardson the best player in the conference and will reward Nick Roper in his senior year. As the top scorer and leader on nationally ranked Illinois Wesleyan, Roper was the preseason favorite for the award and never failed to back up his case for the honor.

There's no way a player on a 3 or 4 win team wins the MOSA award. Over the past 20 years, the award has never been given to a player on a team with 8 wins or less. Three times, the award was given to a player on a 9 win team (Steve D and Kent Raymond twice).

I also don't believe there's any way this is a unanimous choice this year. AJ Johnson, Ryan Johnson and Nick Roper all have cases to be made.

[mwunder]

Odd question. Where is Carthage getting the idea that they are ranked #17? It's all over their website, but they are not ranked on the nation's premier source of D3 basketball information and I don't see anything on the NCAA site outside of regional rankings.

Just found it odd.

[ziggy]

Odd question. Where is Carthage getting the idea that they are ranked #17? It's all over their website, but they are not ranked on the nation's premier source of D3 basketball information and I don't see anything on the NCAA site outside of regional rankings.

Just found it odd.

They are likely referring to their ranking in NPI, the metric that is used for NCAA Tournament selection and seeding. They were #17 earlier this week but rank #15 through games played 2/19/25: https://d3datacast.com/npi/

[mwunder]

Odd question. Where is Carthage getting the idea that they are ranked #17? It's all over their website, but they are not ranked on the nation's premier source of D3 basketball information and I don't see anything on the NCAA site outside of regional rankings.

Just found it odd.

They are likely referring to their ranking in NPI, the metric that is used for NCAA Tournament selection and seeding. They were #17 earlier this week but rank #15 through games played 2/19/25: https://d3datacast.com/npi/

Ahhh, I can't get to that site so I was unaware. I like the team, I like the coach, I really, really don't like the SID and whoever thought this was a good idea. Karma is real.

[GusD]

2024-2025 Fred Young CCIW Most Outstanding Student-Athlete

It's not a runaway race this year, but I still predict a unanimous vote.  I think the voters are going to hold off on anointing Soren Richardson the best player in the conference and will reward Nick Roper in his senior year. As the top scorer and leader on nationally ranked Illinois Wesleyan, Roper was the preseason favorite for the award and never failed to back up his case for the honor.


2024-2025 CCIW First-Year Student-Athlete of the Year

The easiest way to determine the best first-year player is to compare any freshmen on the conference leader board in total minutes. I believe that Devin Martin of Wheaton is the only member of the Top 25 and as of today he is tied for the conference lead in assists. If one was tempted to claim that playing alongside Soren Richardson boosted his assist numbers, the other side of the coin is that Martin's scoring numbers would have been higher if he wasn't feeding teammates. Freshman teammate Kyan VanderWoude made great strides throughout the season and is arguably a greater team contributor today, but Devin Martin was in the starting lineup from Game 1 and quickly looked ready for the college game.

Discuss...

MOP———-Ryan Johnson, Carthage (Tied for 5th in in-conference scoring, 1st in rebounding). Roper is 3rd in scoring, tied for 6th in rebounding. And Johnson is on the conference winning team.

First Year——-I believe Fridman of IWU merits consideration as it seems he is a little better all around player than Martin. Plus, he's not on the last place team.

[GusD]

Looking at the upcoming schedule for Saturday, it's not at all difficult to envision Augie, NCC, and Elmhurst all finishing with 8-8 conference records once things have all been sorted out.

[Pat Coleman]

Carthage also talks about being regular season champions of the CCIW. I thought that wasn't a thing -- that they were CCIW champions if they finished first at the end of conference play.

[bopol]

One game up with one game left and they own the tiebreaker, so they will host the CCIW tournament.  So I guess that makes them CCIW regular season champions.