MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[diehardfan]

MMMMMM lets see, Illinois in winter or Greece in winter.  I have been to both during the winter, I would take Greece too.

Hehe... and this reminds me of the fact that for some reason, Fortosis actually transfered from Westmont and sunny California to enjoy the Wheaton winters.

On the other hand, I'm not really one to talk, since I'm the person who lives in Cali and jokes about wanting to winter in Chicagoland just for basketball. 

this may be a rebuilding year for them

I love CCIW basketball... Seriously. I love how all these teams lost some huge key players, and we're all like "this may be a rebuilding year" since there's always a great chance that at least one of the teams will just reload and win the whole darn thing.

On a completely different note, I hope you guys realize how lucky you are, many of the SCIAC schools do not have stats up. Archived stats, individual games stats... these are even rarer commodities. Yesterday when I was comtemplating who might rank where in the preseason, I was looking at some of the stats and game results from last year and I couldn't help but be amazed and how stinking easy it was. We have a decent SID or two out here, but seriously, as a league to league comparison? Well, there is none. I hope you realize how lucky you are.

[dansand]

On a completely different note, I hope you guys realize how lucky you are, many of the SCIAC schools do not have stats up. Archived stats, individual games stats... these are even rarer commodities. Yesterday when I was comtemplating who might rank where in the preseason, I was looking at some of the stats and game results from last year and I couldn't help but be amazed and how stinking easy it was. We have a decent SID or two out here, but seriously, as a league to league comparison? Well, there is none. I hope you realize how lucky you are.

Diehard,

Here's the NCAA's site for archived stats. It's not quite as complete or, in some cases, accurate as the statcrew setups that most schools use, but you can usually find the basic numbers for just about anyone who plays (or has played in recent years) in the NCAA. It's only updated at the end of the respective season, though.

http://web1.ncaa.org/stats/StatsSrv/careersearch

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Yeah, but there is no guarantee that any particular school put stats in for the years you're looking for.

[dansand]

Yeah, but there is no guarantee that any particular school put stats in for the years you're looking for.

Yeah, that's why I qualified it with "just about anyone." Although I would estimate that upwards of 95% of all NCAA men's basketball teams are included. The D1 teams' archives go back further than the lower divisions.

[martin]

Rusty Loyd left Chicago (where he was an assistant) to take the head coaching position at IIT.  He takes over for former Illinois star Kenny Battle, who coached IIT for two years.  The Scarlet Hawks were 3-26 in 2005-06.  About the same the year before.

I am not sure if this is a good career move for Loyd.  I am not sure why IIT is NAIA and does not join D3.  They have 10 sports, 5 for each gender.

Even more mind boggling is why IIT is in NAIA D1 for basketball.  They get hammered every time they play ONU, St. Xavier or Robert Morris.  The CCAC has a Men's D2 league which might seem a better fit for IIT.

I thought IIT was making a comeback (as a school - aside from sports) after being down for a long time with a campus that was falling apart.  They got some money and began making significant improvements to the campus.  But the latest Princeton Review rankings were not kind to IIT:
Rank / List / Category
#13 / Class Discussions Rare / Academics
#9 / Long Lines and Red Tape / Academics
#8 / Professors Get Low Marks / Academics
#12 / Professors Make Themselves Scarce / Academics
#15 / This Is a Library? / Academics
#20 / Is It Food? / Quality of Life
#4 / Campus Is Tiny, Unsightly, or Both / Quality of Life
#13 / Dorms Like Dungeons / Quality of Life
#8 / Least Happy Students / Quality of Life
#17 / Town-Gown Relations Are Strained / Social

Recruiting will be tough.  Poor marks on just about everything as a school - and you get your brains beat it on the court.  If Loyd can get to .500 in this situation, he should be considered for major D1 openings.

He is leaving the school ranked #1 for Best Overall Academic Experience for Undergraduates.  I hope he knows what he is getting into and just did not jump at the chance to be a head coach.

[diehardfan]

ouch...

and that compared to...

Wheaton
Best Campus Food: #3
Town-Gown Relations Are Great #8
Best Quality of Life: #16
(we're really high on about 8 billion politically conservative and anti partying lists too... duh! )

IWU
Best College Library #9
(they're also rated #9 for being politically unaware, which is hilarious)

(none of the other cciw schools are mentioned)

you forgot to mention that chicago is #14 in "Intercollegiate Sports Unpopular or Nonexistent" 

[True Basketball Fan]

In Rusty Loyd's defense, he might have been exhausted from all of the extremely long trips made at U of C for recruiting and games.  Honestly, his desire to be a head coach was probably more of a factor than the one I just mentioned.  Even with the tough travel schedule, Chicago U over IIT is definitely a no brainer even at a lower position.  Anyway, I wish him luck, he'll need more than that. 

[True Basketball Fan]

Rusty Loyd left Chicago (where he was an assistant) to take the head coaching position at IIT.  He takes over for former Illinois star Kenny Battle, who coached IIT for two years.  The Scarlet Hawks were 3-26 in 2005-06.  About the same the year before.

Actually, he's not replacing Kenny Battle.  He's replacing Marcus Hicks (not sure about first name).  His picture is the third one down on this link:

http://athletics.iit.edu/basketball/mens/index.html

The good thing for Rusty, is that at least he's not following Kenny's mess that he left 2 years ago.  Unfortunately, it's probably not improved a whole lot since.

[Late nite]

Just one man's opinion in September---Looking forward to the upcoming season---Tough to pick a favorite---Saw North Central play this summer---strong front line, but Teising and Vicario will be missed---they made that team go---IWU rebuilding???---Not with the Freeman brothers as their foundation and a coach that has something to prove---Wheaton will be tough and physical---Augie returns a ton of experience and talent--- 9 junior and senior lettermen who logged extensive playing time---Elmhurst front line is comparable to NC and can take over games---Carthage roster is always talented and never set until the first game---Millikin will be much improved---good point guards can control games---North Park looked more athletic at the end of the season last year and will be hungry---The conference race will be determined by the team that defends their home court the best---Just like last season---Whoever wins will have earned it---The league will be as tough as it has ever been---When December comes, I'll probably have a completely new perspective

[martin]

TBF - You are right about Kenny Battle already being gone for a couple of years.  IIT does not have any prior season archives.  Neither does the CCAC.  I looked at media guides from other schools in the CCAC to find out what was happening at IIT.

Battle was hired with great fanfare in August of 2003.  The hiring got a lot of local media attention.  He was gone before the 2004-05 season.  No announcement or anything.  Ron Hicks took over as interim head coach for the next two seasons.  I think he still had the interim title last season.  It looks like Rusty Loyd is head coach - no interim.  So technically, he may be succeeding Battle as head coach.  There is no announcemnet on Loyd's hiring.  His name, phone number and email are the only thing on the men's basketball coaches page.

I hope Loyd is ready for what awaits him.  If things do not work out for him, I hope he is warmly welcomed back into the arms of D3.

[diehardfan]

Listening to Coach Rose give an interview on WJBC right now at the half of the IWU - Olivet football game right now. Just thought I'd let you guys know in case anyone is on and wants to tune in.

[Gregory Sager]

Perhaps the current war isn't an appropriate topic for this board.

You're absolutely right, Warren.

Not that I'm CCIW Chat's version of the Topic Police or anything, but had I been near a computer last week instead of working on my tan at my sister's and brother-in-law's lakehouse I would've spoken up immediately about the inappropriateness of Mark's original post in this thread.

We've always had an informal agreement on this board that politics was off-limits as a suitable topic. Mark, the poster who raised the subject of the war in Iraq, has participated here for a long time, and ought to know that. He also raised the subject completely out of the blue. It would've been far more understandable (and tolerable) if he had been merely following up on a thread that had started on something else and then strayed into politics. That happens from time to time on CCIW Chat, and it's not always avoidable. This was.

There's a good reason why we try to keep politics out of CCIW Chat. Most of us regulars work hard to keep a civil and friendly atmosphere here (internecine NPU-related badinage between myself and the Prike excepted, of course  ), which isn't always easy to do in a room where there are some sharp school rivalries and no shortage of outspoken and opinionated people. For some reason, one of the two traditional powder-keg topics of public conversation (religion) doesn't seem to ruin the decorum in this room, which is nice. But the other one, politics, definitely does -- which is why we try to stay away from it. Mark, I don't know what you were thinking when you decided that Bill's return to Iraq was somehow an appropriate topic for CCIW Chat, but I sure wish that you would've thought twice about it.

[Gregory Sager]

I agree that North Central will be the preseason favorite. How the coaches will vote in their poll is always a mystery -- and, given their dismal track record when it comes to prognosticating, I'm not sure how relevant it is, anyway. But I think that most people who follow the league, myself included, would agree that the Cards probably have the edge coming into the season. I just don't think that I'd put the adjective "overwhelming" in front of the word "favorite" when describing North Central. In terms of votes in the coaches poll, yeah, maybe they'll be "overwhelming". But in terms of "likelihood of winning the league", the word "overwhelming" seems like a bit of a stretch. I think that their chances are more modest than that. They're certainly a much more modest favorite coming into this season than Illinois Wesleyan was coming into last season.

As several other people have mentioned, it's just not that easy to lose your starting backcourt without missing a beat. What nobody else has mentioned, though, is that the short bench employed by Todd Raridon didn't leave him with a lot of returning experience at those guard positions. The Cards don't have a single backcourt returnee who played in every game last year; the most experienced guards the 2006-07 Cards will have are Mitchell Raridon (6.7 mpg in 23 games), Bob Valker (10.9 mpg in 18 games), and Raymond Lawrence (6.1 mpg in 19 games). Together they accounted for 121 points, which is less than 6% of North Central's scoring output last season. That's quite a dropoff from Teising and Vicario. And I think we'll see an awful lot of freshman bomber Reid Barringer at the off guard spot for NCC, which means even less experience on the floor in the Cardinals' backcourt.

I'm kinda curious if Dan or someone else familiar with Augie has a feel for where Giovanine is going to go for his points this year with the two big scorers from 2005-06 gone. Will it be the Swetalla brothers and Pat Brusveen, or maybe just a couple of them? Or does somebody else figure to step up and be looked to for double figures every night?

April, while you cite the returnees for Wheaton, you should know that Bill Harris is very excited about his freshmen, especially the guard from Florida and the 6'5 kid from Nebraska. Look for both to play heavy minutes this year, and the Florida kid might even be starting.

As for NPU, the overall guard situation is not a problem in terms of talent and depth. The Vikings are absolutely loaded to the gunwales with strong sophomore and freshman guards, and the return to full strength of Jason Gordon is going to make all the difference in the world. The big question is whether or not Paul Brenegan can find a candidate from all of those good young guards who has what it takes to step in and start at the point or, if not, whether or not Gordon is able to improve his play at that position in 2006-07. It's not his strong suit, and I personally think that the Vikings would be a significantly better team if Gordon played off the ball. But if he's the best option NPU has at the point, that's where he'll play.

[markerickson]

Straying into politics?  Not my implication.  I wrote about raw information that directly affects family, and this is supported by the moderator who chose not to delete my post.

Just because you had a rosier outlook doesn't mean have the authority to deem what is appropriate or inappropriate. 
   
All was quiet until you had to resurrect the issue.  Next time, Greg, keep your mouth shut. 

[dogtired]

It's certainly not my job or my desire to determine whether your past posts on the war were appropriate or inappropriate.
But it was certainly political. And I agree with Greg in pointing that out.
I continue to hold sincere wishes for the safe return of your family member and all military personnel in harm's way.
God Bless America on this 9-11.