MBB: Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference

[True Basketball Fan]

What NIIC schools are going to be in this new league?

[Gregory Sager]

Aurora, Benedictine, CURF, and Rockford. Dominican, which left the NIIC to join the LMC this year, will thus be reunited with its former NIIC brethren. Eureka is going to join the SLIAC, and geographically isolated Clarke is departing for an as-yet-unclear future that will likely include at least a temporary stretch as an independent.

[Ralph Turner]

TBF, the way that the Eureka went one way and Clarke went another suggests that the new conference will be much stronger.

There are initiatives in the NCAA to apply the Pools system to Golf and Tennis for those conferences that have enough members in those sports.

You know the NIIC and the LMC better than I, but I believe that the new conference has a better chance of putting a Pool A bid together from the 10 men's 11 women's schools than from the 2 smaller conferences, espcially for the NIIC members.  (I have heard that the MSOE will not make the move either.)

As for this year's basketball playoffs, I think that the NIIC comes out ahead.  Pool B in 2005 was relatively weak.  With the extra playoff bids in the 58 team tourney, I think that the NIIC teams have good chances to get 2 Pool B bids.

[True Basketball Fan]

Wow! 2 teams from the NIIC get pool B bids.  That's a pretty hefty prediction.  Amazingly, I think you might be right.  If Aurora, Benedictine, and Clarke have similar seasons to last year's, I truly believe two of those teams get in.  Rockford has to schedule a few more real basketball teams in the non-conference to even get a slight consideration, but I don't think they win 18 or so like they did, if they do that.

[True Basketball Fan]

After doing some checking, I believe two NIIC teams in the NCAA Tourney this year would be a miracle, as those teams mentioned above lost quite a few key players.

[petemcb]

Actually, I thought I had heard that Clarke was already out of the conference, either playing an independent schedule or hooking with with a more local conference.  Can anyone confirm that?  If it's true, then that's one less "contender" for the two possible slots. 

What do you know about who Benedictine and Aurora have lost?  Is Larry Welton back?

[cwm1276]

Looks like Clarke is still in according to the NIIC website, http://www.niiconline.com/

[True Basketball Fan]

NIIC will exist for one more year, but without an automatic bid, because of the loss of Dominican last year.

[True Basketball Fan]

Benedictine lost Ramey and Jackson, and of course the infamous Crawford.  They have a few new guys, but they won't be what they've been the last two seasons.

For Aurora, Welton is back again as far as I know, but McCoy and Gronau are gone.

Both teams will be a little down, but still solid.

[castle]

Hello,

I am a Cal Lutheran fan; just looking to see how good Edgewood looks for '05-06.  They have Cooper, Averkamp, Kuhnau, Fahey, Scott and Wainwright returning...not bad considering that Cooper and Averkamp averaged 34pts, 14rebs, 5asst last year.

Looks to me like they are headed to another NCAA tourney berth?

[keith45]

I think so..they have an up and coming sophomore in Evan Klees and a tough junior by the name of Jesse(?)..as  former womens coach at Edgewood, I got to see them play a ton..if Avercamp gets into better shape, they could be great..they are a very deep team and well coached

[True Basketball Fan]

They probably will make it to the NCAA Tourney with plenty of thanks going towards their lackluster league opponents not putting up much of a test.  They will also most likely get trounced in the first round like last year.

[The Way]

The Way I  See It,

If you can't remember somebody's full name (Jesse ), then they can't be that memorable or tough. Edgewood lost their PG from last year and i don't see solid relacements that will give them 40 solid minutes needed. Avercamp is fat and out of shape. He can score at a rapid pace but he only plays every other possession because it takes him that long to get up the floor. Cooper will not repeat as POY. If you look at the past winners of POY, a junior that has won it has not repeated (besides Metzger of WLC). And Cooper is nowhere near the player that Metzger was. Mikos of MSOE will win POY because that team is going to surprise a lot of people.

But this year by far is the worst  this league has been in years. The winner of the conference tourny this year will be whoever can avoid the injury bug.

[eaglepride]

I had heard that Rockford's men coach resigned.  That is a loss for Rockford, he had turned that program around.  Good luck to the new coach.

[Big_Uns]

I'm going to throw Germayne James into the mix for POY. If he can improve his outside shot a little, he's got outstanding potential. He's probably one of the best ball-handlers in the league and he's got incredible speed. They're gonna look for him to create opportunities for himself and others.