MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[IWU53]

Don't really know about that. Just feel that my health is good enuf and IWU's newby's are good enuf that I'll be able to get at least one more trip to Salem. Hope your guys do well too.

[Titan Q]

Another CCIW grad becomes a high school head coach...

http://www.athletics2000.com/trojans/codebase/fbevent.asp?id=4601&source=3

(John Camardella was named head coach at Prospect last spring.)

[cardinalfanrochelle]

AndOne,
              Where are you??? You haven't posted in a long time ? Miss your comments they make the chat more enjoyable

[AndOne]

Retired?

[cardinalfanrochelle]

  Can't be you're too young

[north central]

Titan Q your prediction seem pretty accurate even though I would not expect that much from Wessels from Augie  and I would not hold my breath on Gensler coming back.

And just out of curiosity when was the last time Millikin came into a season being predicted to finish at least in the top three. It always seems that the big blue are in the 6-8 range. Obvioulsy those predictions have been right but anybody know when was the last time they were predicted high 

[Titan Q]

Titan Q your prediction seem pretty accurate even though I would not expect that much from Wessels from Augie  and I would not hold my breath on Gensler coming back.

I was told by someone whose opinion I value that Brett Wessels is a better basketball player than his brother Drew (a 1st Team All-CCIW player) - and I know that Brett was quite a bit better high school player.  As I understand it, Brett will start at a 2/3 spot in what will essentially be a 3 guard look for the Vikings (Drew, of course, was a point-guard).

[Titan Q]

Sporting News/Street & Smith's 2007-08 Division III preseason top 10:

1. Wash U.
2. UW-Stevens Point
3. Brockport St
4. Amherst
5. Augustana
6. Brandeis
7. Virginia Wesleyan
8. Guilford
9. Rochester
10. Williams

"Possible Breakthroughs":

Alvernia, Aurora, Averett, Calvin, Capital, Defiance, Elmhurst, Hampden-Sydney, Heidelberg, Hope, Keene St, Lewis & Clark, Loras, Mississippi College, Plattsburgh St,  Puget Sound, Rhode Island Coll, Rowan, Stevens Institute, Ursinus, Wheaton, Whitworth, William Paterson, UW-Platteville, UW-Whitewater, Wittenberg, Wooster, Worcester Poly, York


Preseason All-American Team...

1st Team

James Cooper, Wooster
Andrew Olson, Amherst
Troy Ruths, Wash U
Ben Strong, Guilford
Larry Welton, Aurora

2nd Team

Sherod Harris, Brockport St
Chad McGowan, York (Pa)
Kent Raymond, Wheaton
Nick Shattuck, Ursinus
Anthony Williams, Plattsburgh St


5.  Augustana

Augustana did something many teams were unable to do last season.  The Vikings knocked off Washington-St. Louis, but that came early in the season in a two-point decision.  Coach Grey Giovanine returns two key players in seniors Jordan Delp (13.1 ppg) and Dain Swetalla (11.9 ppg, 4.8 rpg).  The big storyline, however, is the addition of two Division I transfers, which is rare for Division III basketball.  The newcomers are 6-2 Brett Wessels from Iowa and 6-3 Keaton Frye of Valparaiso.

[Gregory Sager]

And just out of curiosity when was the last time Millikin came into a season being predicted to finish at least in the top three. It always seems that the big blue are in the 6-8 range. Obvioulsy those predictions have been right but anybody know when was the last time they were predicted high 

I don't think Millikin's been picked as high as third since the Joe Ramsey era (probably in the late eighties or early nineties, to be specific; I'd have to check my old CCIW media guides to find the answer), although the Big Blue have finished as high as third as recently as the 1998-99 season.

This is where the coaches have picked Millikin to finish over the past eight seasons, along with where the Big Blue actually ended up when the smoke cleared at the end of February:

season	picked	finished
1999-00	6th	4th (7-7)
2000-01	7th	7th (3-11)
2001-02	7th	8th (3-11)
2002-03	7th	7th (2-12)
2003-04	7th	5th (6-8)
2004-05	5th	7th (4-10)
2005-06	7th	7th (3-11)
2006-07	7th	8th (2-12)

Don't put too much stock in the CCIW preseason poll. It's always a useful point of reference, of course, but the coaches are notorious for mostly getting it wrong when it comes to prognostication. During one seventeen-season stretch in the '80s and '90s the preseason poll guessed wrong thirteen times as to which team would be the eventual CCIW champion! That's just plain bad picking, especially since the league usually had an established hierarchy during those two decades. I've always suspected that numerous CCIW coaches have used the preseason poll as an opportunity to exercise a little gamesmanship, anyway, rather than as a vehicle for their own legitimate forecasts.

Here's the teams that the coaches have picked to win the league over the past eight seasons, together with their actual finishes, the actual champions, and where the coaches had foreseen those actual champions finishing:

season	predict champ (finish)	actual champ(s) (predict)
1999-00	Wheaton (2nd)	Carthage (4th)
2000-01	Carthage (2nd)	Elmhurst (6th)
2001-02	Carthage (1st)	Carthage (1st)
2002-03	Carthage (1st)	AC (2nd), CC (1st), IWU (3rd)
2003-04	Augustana (2nd)	Illinois Wesleyan (5th)
2004-05	Illinois Wesleyan (1st)	Illinois Wesleyan (1st)
2005-06	Illinois Wesleyan (2nd)	Augustana (2nd)
2006-07	North Central (4th)	Augustana (2nd)

And here's how the coaches have fared in terms of properly picking the eventual finishes of all eight teams in each of those last eight seasons:

season	right-wrong
1999-00	0-8
2000-01	2-6
2001-02	2-6
2002-03	4-4
2003-04	3-5
2004-05	4-4
2005-06	2-6
2006-07	0-8

Moral of the story: The CCIW was and is the home of great basketball coaches ... but don't take their predictions to the bank.

[north central]

Sager thanks for the info, very thorough and in depth as usual. I do remeber when we finished third in 98-99 and if we would have beat Weslyan the last game we would have been second.  Seems that the predictions about the big blue have been fairly accurate. Lets hope Coach Smith can turn this thing around.

[cciwgrad]

I'm with you millikin33... hope the Big Blue can compete.

I heard the incoming group is showing talent in open gym and the team is already in intensive early am training.  Looks like Smith is looking for dedication... good sign!! 

[AndOne]

Sight seen----

Former IWU great, Keelan Amelianovich scrimmaging today at North Central.

His shot seems a little off compared to whats normal for him, but it prob won't be long at all before he regains his customary touch.

[BeastMaster]

Not sure how good the Big Blue will be this season.  Word on Gensler is that his playing career is done.  Also hearing some class issues may come into play with some newcomers.  Have not heard a lot of good things thus far from MU. 

[martin]

Jong Lee was the point guard who led Stevenson High School to a fourth place finish in Class AA last year.  The Tribune gave this description of him:
"The senior guard has perhaps one-fourth (Derrick) Rose's ability but combined skill with fearlessness to lead a Stevenson team of modest athletic gifts to the Class AA basketball Final Four."

He was heading to the University of Chicago.  He decided against that and I heard he is at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.  Just going to school, not playing hoops.

I saw him play in person a few times last year - my brother's kids go to Stevenson.  I thought he would be a very good DIII player.  He was a very good student - although I think Chicago stretched to admit him, his ACT was only 29 (GPA 4.1 on a 4.0 scale).

I realize going to Chicago may have scared him but I think a lot of other DIII schools - including most if not all of the CCIW - would have welcomed him.  How many kids like Lee do we lose every year?  Are there a lot of kids playing intramural hoops at Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, etc who could be having a nice DIII hoops career?

[north central]

Not sure how good the Big Blue will be this season.  Word on Gensler is that his playing career is done.  Also hearing some class issues may come into play with some newcomers.  Have not heard a lot of good things thus far from MU. 

I heard Gensler is done too.

Jong Lee was the point guard who led Stevenson High School to a fourth place finish in Class AA last year.  The Tribune gave this description of him:
"The senior guard has perhaps one-fourth (Derrick) Rose's ability but combined skill with fearlessness to lead a Stevenson team of modest athletic gifts to the Class AA basketball Final Four."

He was heading to the University of Chicago.  He decided against that and I heard he is at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.  Just going to school, not playing hoops.

I saw him play in person a few times last year - my brother's kids go to Stevenson.  I thought he would be a very good DIII player.  He was a very good student - although I think Chicago stretched to admit him, his ACT was only 29 (GPA 4.1 on a 4.0 scale).

I realize going to Chicago may have scared him but I think a lot of other DIII schools - including most if not all of the CCIW - would have welcomed him.  How many kids like Lee do we lose every year?  Are there a lot of kids playing intramural hoops at Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, etc who could be having a nice DIII hoops career?

Believe me having played and coached at the d 3 level we lose a ton of kids every year that could help programs out. The fact of the matter is that if you dont absolutly love the game playing d 3 wont be enticing to you. Many kids would rather go to a big school and party than go d 3 and play at a smaller school. As long as d 3 does not offer anything  monetary then that will always be the case.


(modified by GS for formatting purposes)