MBB: Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference

[WLCALUM83]

Benedictine (206 3s attempted --80 made) and Dominican (203 attempted--66 made) have also been lanuching a lot of 3s in conference this season. (If memory serves correctly-3s have been a big chunk of Dominican's game the last few seasons anyway.)

Marian has attempted 124 3s so far in-conference and 24 of them were in the game RF took in (Rankin had only 8 pts, so perhaps CUC was making more of an effort to deny Marian's talls the ball down low)

Aurora's given up 89 3s (3 pt FG % D so far 39%)

As far as the conference race, Edgewood had a bit of breathing room--until Maranatha knocked them off.
Can you say "let's get to a point just one step shy of going to a boat-load of coin-flips"

[WLCALUM83]

1/27/10 finals:

MSOE 67, Benedictine 55 (4 Raider players scored in double-figures, Off had a double-double--17 pts 13 rebounds--MSOE had a 35-22 advantage on rebounds--per MSOE box score)

CUC 78, Dominican 61 (Trailing 16-12 at one point, the Cougars went on a 28-4 scoring run-Stars got no closer than 9 points after that--CUC's Morgan had a double-double --23 pts, 16 rebounds, 4 Cougars scored in double figures and that squad also outrebounded the Stars 48-29, per CUC box score/PBP acct)

Marian 72, Edgewood 65  OT  (Sabers hit every shot they attempted in the extra session--4 Marian players scored in double-figures and Sabers outshot the WI Eagle squad 50% to 41% from floor for entire game, per Marian box score/PBP acct)

CUW 72, Rockford 70 (Falcons' Schneider hit 2 FTs with 2 seconds left, then a potential game-winning 3 by Regents' Weber missed-- Rockford shot 59% from floor for game-and still lost--per Regent box score/PBP acct)
scl  

Aurora 80, WLC 75

(With those results, CUC has a bit of distance in the South--next 2 in-conference opponents--CUW and Benedictine--both on the road--let's see if anyone takes charge)

[RFMichigan]

Today begins the 59th annual Concordia Invitational Tournament, this year hosted by Concordia Wisconsin. The CIT tournament dates from 1951 and is one of the oldest continuous college basketball tournaments in existence. A sidelight to this year's tounrament is that the opening round game between CUW and CUC counts in the NAC league standings.

[WLCALUM83]

Today begins the 59th annual Concordia Invitational Tournament, this year hosted by Concordia Wisconsin. The CIT tournament dates from 1951 and is one of the oldest continuous college basketball tournaments in existence. A sidelight to this year's tounrament is that the opening round game between CUW and CUC counts in the NAC league standings.

Heard CUC lost the opening round game by a point.

[WLCALUM83]

1/30/10 NAthCon finals:

Edgewood 57, MSOE 56  1 sec remaining 2nd half  (WI Eagles' Barczak hit 3 FTs with 1 second left after drawing a foul on a 3 attempt--Edgewood was shooting at a torrid pace in the 1st half, MSOE came out of the halftime break --went on a10-0 scoring run, and the game stayed tight after that -per MSOE stats)

WLC 90, Lakeland 71

[WLCALUM83]

Aurora 84, Marian 57 (Spartans connected on 18 3s for the game-per Marian press release)

[Just Bill]

Not only did Aurora make 18 threes, Marian went 0-for-16.

Big night for three-point shooting in the NAC.  CUW hit 14-for-17 (82.4 percent) from three in beating Concordia Nebraska. They had 10 different players make a 3-pointer.

[RFMichigan]

Big night for three-point shooting in the NAC.  CUW hit 14-for-17 (82.4 percent) from three in beating Concordia Nebraska. They had 10 different players make a 3-pointer.

Oh my.

I noticed that after CUC's one point loss to CUW, their top two scorers played a total of 12 minutes in their consolation loss to Concordia - Ann Arbor. (C James Morgan didn't play at all due to "flu-like symptoms" according to the audio feed and PG Deontay Young played 12 minutes.) It did give some floor time to a number of young players and others who wouldn't otherwise see alot of action, and from the scoring rundown it looks as though they stepped up somewhat as CUC "hung around" until around the 5 minute mark.

Things haven't settled down in either division of the NAC in the past week; in fact both divisions seem to have tightened up even more. This last few weeks is going to be a grind.

[WLCALUM83]

2/2 finals

WLC 82, Dominican 68 (Warriors' S Siemers a double-double--18 pts 10 rebounds--WLC outshot the Stars 53% to 39% and had a 41-29 rebounding edge-per Warrior stats)

Lakeland 69, Edgewood 55 (Schwarz had a double=double and Muskies' clutch FT shooting in 2nd half was difference--Lakeland press release)

Rockford 82, Maranatha 64 (Regents shot 66% from floor in 1st half--per Rockford box)   

CUW 97, Marian 89

[WLCALUM83]

2/6 NAthCon finals:

Lakeland 70, Dominican 69 (Muskies' Schwarz hit game-winning bucket-per Lakeland stats)

MSOE 59, Maranatha 50 (3 Raiders scored in double-figures-MSOE stats)

Marian 72, WLC 71

Benedictine 70, CUW 66

[RFMichigan]

Another 2/6 NathCon final:

CUC - 81  Edgewood - 67 (Young-21 pts.; Morgan-18pts./10 rbs.; Mike Lichtenheld with what must be a career high with 14pts. off the bench.) It was nice to see CUC get some bench points last night after a total of 2 bench points in their win over Benedictine last Tuesday.

From here on out it looks like inter-(or is that "intra"?-I always get those confused.)division play from here on out - except for maybe WLC who has to make a game up out of division(?).

I still think that the south division is totally up for grabs in regards to playoff spots with nobody eliminated from playoff (top four) contention yet. In fact, I don't even know if anyone has even clinched a playoff spot yet.

[Just Bill]

Can any one tell me who the best team in this league is?  At various times this season I think I could have made arguments for MSOE, CUC, CUW, EC, LC, WLC, AU, BU and maybe a couple of others.

C'mon fellas does anyone want to win this thing?

[WLCALUM83]

Can any one tell me who the best team in this league is?  At various times this season I think I could have made arguments for MSOE, CUC, CUW, EC, LC, WLC, AU, BU and maybe a couple of others.

C'mon fellas does anyone want to win this thing?

"Coin flips, coin flips
  coin fliips, coin flips. . . "

[RFMichigan]

Can any one tell me who the best team in this league is?  At various times this season I think I could have made arguments for MSOE, CUC, CUW, EC, LC, WLC, AU, BU and maybe a couple of others.

I think that we won't know the best team in the league until February 27, the date of the league tournament championship game.  I get the feeling that while many teams have several good players, no one team has three or four dominant players so as to be head and shoulders above the rest of the league. There's just a lot of parity in the league this year. Another way to show the parity in the league is that there is probably no team in the league that will finish with less than 5 losses! (CUC has only four losses right now, but finish up by playing the next three teams behind them in the South -  two of them on the road.)

The great equalizer, is of course, that with the way that the 3 point shooting goes, whoever gets hot on a given night can beat almost anyone else in this league. (Witness CUW's performance vs. Seward or Aurora's 18 3's vs. Marian.)

I do think that the south division is a little stonger overall than the north, but of the teams you mentioned, I think that five can legitimately be in the running for the AQ.

[WLCALUM83]

From here on out all NAthCon squads play teams in their own division. CUC can get some distance (Aurora on the road, MSOE at home, WLC on the road --Cougars have won their last 2 games at WLC's "Rex")