MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Titan Q]

While the committee tries to keep seeds in tact, the Division III bracket is impacted significantly by geography.  This is very different than DI, where teams are seeded 1-64 and all are flown to neutral sites. 

And it's not like the old D3 bracket where you played strictly within you region until the sectional.  There is crossover now, like Calvin (Great Lakes) @ Wheaton (Midwest) last year in round 1.

So looking at the regions in the neighborhood based on Pool A teams we know are in, Pat Coleman's projected C's, and possible Pool B Chapman (seeded as I think they could be tonight)...

Midwest
1. Lawrence (A, MWC) - Appleton, WI
2. Transylvania (A, HCAC) - Lexington, KY
3. Augustana (C, CCIW) - Rock Island, IL
4. North Central (A, CCIW) - Naperville, IL
5. Carroll (C, MWC) - Waukesha, WI
6. Illinois Wesleyan (C, CCIW) - Bloomington, IL
7. Wash U (C, UAA) - St. Louis, MO
8. Maryville, Mo. (A, SLIAC) - St. Louis, MO
9. Wisconsin Lutheran (A, LMC) - Milwaukee, WI

West
1. Puget Sound (A, NWC) - Tacoma, WA
2. UW-Whitewater (A, WIAC) - Whitewater, WI
3. UW-Stout (C, WIAC) - Menominie, WI
4. Occidental (C, SCIAC) - Los Angeles, CA
5. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (A, SCIAC) - Claremont, CA
6. St. Thomas (A, MIAC) - St. Paul, MN
7. Carleton (C, MIAC) - Northfield, MN
8. UW-LaCrosse (C, WIAC) - LaCrosse, WI
9. Chapman (B, Indep.) - Orange, CA
10. Buena Vista (A, IIAC) - Storm Lake, IA




Geographically, there are two Great Lakes teams that CCIW teams could bump into early:

Hope (A, MIAA) - Holland, MI
Calvin (C, MIAA) - Grand Rapids, MI

[titanfan]

Q, did you forget about IWU?

[Titan Q]

Q, did you forget about IWU?

Well that's a first.

(Modified above)

[Ralph Turner]

Q, did you forget about IWU?

Well that's a first.

(Modified above)

      8)

Also in the West I think that Chapman is a Pool B.

[79jaybird]

Congrats to the Cardinals and for all matters, the CCIW as a whole for proving to be the best conf. in D-3.  I would hope the NCAA the places the 3 deserving teams into the big dance. 
Let's make it 3 of 4 teams in the final 4.

[devildog29]

Congratulations to the Cardinals  on their trip to the dance.  Maddog, you bring up a good point that the defensive adjustment on Simmons is really what keyed the Titans chances for their comeback.  I'm not getting into the debate about whether Coach Trost is a quality coach or not, that's for somebody above my paygrade.  He probably deserves the benefit of the doubt with his record over the previous 4 years.  That being said, my question is why did it take the Titans 5 full halves of basketball and nearly 80 points from Simmons in those 5 halves (29, 28, and I believe 20 at half last night) before they found the correct adjustment?

[Cardsfan4life]

Sorry I am new to this, When will the bracket be released?

[devildog29]

The teams will be announced tonight, but the actual brackets won't be announced 'til tomorrow due to the huge administrative and logistical planning involved with the way the d3 tourney is arranged and seeded through geography as opposed to just the plain national tourney on the d1 level.  Is that the longest runon sentence of all time?

[augiedad]

I never thought I'd ask this, but anyone know where one can listen to the noon Worcester Poly game on the net??  Previous meetings with MIT:

home: W, 60-58
road: W, 58-57

The WPI "Engineers" vs the MIT "Engineers."

It's hard to beat a team full of guys that smart 3 times in one season!!

[Pat Coleman]

Here's what our Midwest and West brackets looked like at 5 this morning. Still trying to clear the cobwebs:

Midwest
Lawrence
Augustana
UW-Whitewater
Illinois Wesleyan
Washington U.
Carleton
Maryville (Mo.)
BYE

West
Puget Sound
UW-Stout
St. Thomas
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps
Huntingdon
UW-La Crosse
Buena Vista
BYE

Midwest regional members Carroll, Wisconsin Lutheran, Transylvania and North Central are in the Great Lakes bracket.

[augiedad]

This is going to be a long day!!  

I feel like tonight we should get to tune into CBS for a 2 hour Selection Sunday special, hosted by Pat Coleman (Greg Gumbel) and Bob Quillman (Clark Kellogg).

(cue music)
http://www.ilovewavs.com/TV/Sports/TV%20Theme%20-%20CBS,%20NCAA%20Basketball.wav

"Let's now head to the Midwest bracket, where the Vikings of Lawrence are the #1 seed..." (cut to shot of Larry U. players/coaches sitting around TV cheering).

 

[gdog83]

As an IWU "fan" here are a few observations while attending last night's game:

* IWU's pre-game laser like focus they had versus Augie was not present
* 4 assists for an entire game ?  Not easy to do.
* Coach Raridon's strategy to run the shot clock down each possession starting at the 18 min mark of the second half.....thank you.
* The constant pi**ing and moaning about the refs makes enjoying the game almost impossible any more.
* Both teams had difficulty with their shooting legs due to playing in back to back games.
* Trost did an excellent job with in-game adjustments.
* who is the better all around player....Simmons or Harrigan ....who would you start a CCIW team with ?  Simmons or Harrigan ?  Although Harrigan is a terrific scorer and competitor I think the result of the CCIW tourney reinforces the nod to Simmons.  CCIW stats: 4th in scoring, 7th in rebounding and most impressive is 4th in assists per game.

Lets keep our fingers crossed for IWU's pool C bid.

[oldreporter]

Just gotta give a tip of my hat to NCC for keeping an iron grasp on their win last night. And Simmons' ability to pull off a shot was simply amazing... (first time I've seen IWU vs NCC this year). Was glad to see Trost and IWU provide an answer (finally) in the second half. The 2.5 hour trek was definitely worth it.

[maddog]

devildog29
"That being said, my question is why did it take the Titans 5 full halves of basketball and nearly 80 points from Simmons in those 5 halves (29, 28, and I believe 20 at half last night) before they found the correct adjustment?"
I am just speculating, but my guess is the Titans had confidence that Cory and Chris could step up and guard Simmons, they both play pretty good defense. But then IWU finally realized he was just too much for one guy to handle and being down by 19, they had to try something different.

[augiedad]

Live video stream of NEWMAC final - Worcester Poly vs MIT.

http://mfile.akamai.com/21612/live/reflector:49031.asx?prop=n