CCIW

[PaulNewman]

Fishercats, your post above strikes me as absurdly good.  Excellent, succinct observations....capped off by very generous praise and then generous constructive feedback re: the broadcast.

I watched the last 25 or so minutes (after all the goals already scored).  During that span -- except for the last 60-75 seconds when NP nearly scored twice -- I thought Hope did a good job of disrupting NP before they could get serious possession and real threats going, often keeping NP backed into their own final third.  Your comment about the fouls fits for me as well.  Hope seemed more aggressive/physical, winning a significant majority of 50/50 and even 40/60 balls.  I didn't notice the subbing but your point there also seems salient especially given NP being described as 2-3 deep with very good to exceptional players at every position.

NP should be fine.  And my bet is that Calvin and Hope will be NCAA-tourney bound.  As I presume was expected, Brandt has elevated the Hope program back to prominence.

[fishercats]

Thanks for the notes, fishercats. I'm in charge of broadcast production for NPU Athletics (the graphics and video switcher guy) so I'll take blame for that one. After watching the film back, I do agree with you - need to stay wider at times. I also stat the game, so sometimes I get carried away with the immersive view... actually took a break to fix something in stats when that ball was played back - thinking that there would be some dead time - and kind of spazzed out when I realized a goal was upcoming. One thing I will note is we don't have a "preview" mode, meaning fans at home are seeing the exact same thing I'm seeing, without knowing what shot our camera people have. So when there's a bit of quick switching, it's because they haven't quite steadied the shot yet. Still pretty green with some of this stuff, but I'm trying to improve each day.

I'll be better this Saturday, thanks for following!

-TW

I appreciate the response...always worried about how comments will be received. I also realize that sometimes feedback is never offered. Again, your production team is really on the leading edge - graphics, interviews, and one of the best live stats pages out there (I like the "minutes played" stat). And you probably have multiple types of audiences to accommodate. My perspective is more along the lines of a coach/parent who wants to see the tactical set up and how plays evolve. Thanks.

[npbaseball40]

Thanks for the notes, fishercats. I'm in charge of broadcast production for NPU Athletics (the graphics and video switcher guy) so I'll take blame for that one. After watching the film back, I do agree with you - need to stay wider at times. I also stat the game, so sometimes I get carried away with the immersive view... actually took a break to fix something in stats when that ball was played back - thinking that there would be some dead time - and kind of spazzed out when I realized a goal was upcoming. One thing I will note is we don't have a "preview" mode, meaning fans at home are seeing the exact same thing I'm seeing, without knowing what shot our camera people have. So when there's a bit of quick switching, it's because they haven't quite steadied the shot yet. Still pretty green with some of this stuff, but I'm trying to improve each day.

I'll be better this Saturday, thanks for following!

-TW

I appreciate the response...always worried about how comments will be received. I also realize that sometimes feedback is never offered. Again, your production team is really on the leading edge - graphics, interviews, and one of the best live stats pages out there (I like the "minutes played" stat). And you probably have multiple types of audiences to accommodate. My perspective is more along the lines of a coach/parent who wants to see the tactical set up and how plays evolve. Thanks.

Always open to constructive criticism! I'm self-taught with this production stuff, so always happy to learn and hear what people think.

You're not the first person to suggest I stay on the wide shot more often, so I'll definitely focus on that Saturday. Tune back in and let me know what you think!

[mr_b]

Thanks for the notes, fishercats. I'm in charge of broadcast production for NPU Athletics (the graphics and video switcher guy) so I'll take blame for that one. After watching the film back, I do agree with you - need to stay wider at times. I also stat the game, so sometimes I get carried away with the immersive view... actually took a break to fix something in stats when that ball was played back - thinking that there would be some dead time - and kind of spazzed out when I realized a goal was upcoming. One thing I will note is we don't have a "preview" mode, meaning fans at home are seeing the exact same thing I'm seeing, without knowing what shot our camera people have. So when there's a bit of quick switching, it's because they haven't quite steadied the shot yet. Still pretty green with some of this stuff, but I'm trying to improve each day.

I'll be better this Saturday, thanks for following!

-TW

I appreciate the response...always worried about how comments will be received. I also realize that sometimes feedback is never offered. Again, your production team is really on the leading edge - graphics, interviews, and one of the best live stats pages out there (I like the "minutes played" stat). And you probably have multiple types of audiences to accommodate. My perspective is more along the lines of a coach/parent who wants to see the tactical set up and how plays evolve. Thanks.

I also second Paul Newman's sentiments.  I don't post on this board very much but I do follow it when I can.  I appreciate cogent observations and thoughtful suggestions for improving media delivery.

[Gregory Sager]

I think that the comments about NPU's shortened rotation last night are fair. Kris Grahn has used 31 players thus far this season, which is a huge number for any team, but 13 or 14 of them only saw time at the end of blowout wins. They're obviously players that Kris wouldn't feel comfortable using yet against a team of Hope's abilities with the game on the line. I'm not sure why last night he declined to use Isak Esfandyari, who had played in five previous games and started three of them (and who can play either D or M), or midfielder Osvaldo Espinosa, who had also appeared in five games. It's possible that they weren't available; NPU has endured a rash of injuries that have sidelined numerous players this season, including two-time All-Region holding mid Ulrik Lund (who has yet to play a game), D1 transfer Johan Björck (who likewise has yet to suit up for a game), D1 transfer Noel Holm (missed three games to injury before coming in last night as a sub), and striker Isak Flo (concussed in Sunday's game against CNU). And that's just the ones that I know about.

NPU could use a bye right about now. The Vikings are in the top 15% of D3 in terms of games played to date, and only Calvin and Defiance (10 games apiece), and Adrian, Averett, Baldwin Wallace, DePauw, Finlandia, Greensboro, Greenville, Illinois Tech, Lake Forest, Merchant Marine, North Central, Ripon, Stockton, Wabash, and Western Connecticut (nine games apiece) have played more. But the Vikings aren't going to get one for awhile, so they're just going to have to soldier through it.

[Gregory Sager]

North Park 4
Illinois Wesleyan 1

I figured that after playing Luther, Christopher Newport, and Hope in succession over the past eight days that IWU would look slow and unskilled this evening by comparison, and, while nobody attached to the Vikings would voice that sentiment, I suspect that that was exactly the case tonight. After a ragged start, the Vikings ended up running the show for most of the contest. It was especially gratifying to see NPU break through and score a couple of goals off of short free kicks, as they had a pile of those against those three ranked teams that they couldn't convert. Two of those FKs were off of the right foot of Gustav Ericsson; congrats to him for becoming the eighth Viking in program history to record three assists in one game (Kris Grahn did it twice).

If you're Illinois Wesleyan, you got on the bus and headed back to Bloomington at least consoled by the fact that you upped your goals per game average.

[Gregory Sager]

Wheaton massacred Alma, 7-0, in Wheaton.

The other two outcomes were surprising ties. North Central suffered its first blemish of the season by being held to a scoreless draw by Elmhurst at Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium, despite outshooting the 'jays 28 (10) to 4 (1) and outcornering them 11-3. I'm curious as to whether or not Dave Di Tomasso parked the bus in that one.

In Decatur, Carthage ended up drawing with winless Millikin, in spite of even more lopsided shooting and corner numbers than were statted in the EU @ NCC contest -- 31 (15) to 6 (3) and 14-3, respectively. Carthage broke the scoreless tie in the 81st minute and the Firebirds must've felt that they were home-free -- until MU scored a goal with only 45 seconds left in regulation, that is.

[deepthroat]

Maybe I'm wrong about this, but I'm kind of surprised IWU isn't better at soccer. It seems like they should be.

[Gregory Sager]

Maybe I'm wrong about this, but I'm kind of surprised IWU isn't better at soccer. It seems like they should be.

Why?

[Gregory Sager]

NCC bounced back from the surprising draw it suffered the day before by dispensing with Aurora yesterday, 2-0, without too much fuss.

[deepthroat]

Maybe I'm wrong about this, but I'm kind of surprised IWU isn't better at soccer. It seems like they should be.

Why?

Just seems like they should be. They're good at a lot of sports, seems like soccer would be up their alley.

[WUPHF]

Illinois Wesleyan is usually better at soccer, yes.

Good not great.

[Gregory Sager]

IWU is good at a lot of sports, true. But it's not good at all of them, so the success of the Titans shouldn't be assumed in this case. (I'd be more surprised if North Central wasn't good at this sport, since NCC has taken over from Augustana in recent years as the unofficial all-sports king of this league.) IWU head coach Kyle Schauls is working the same Chicagoland suburban recruiting turf as is everybody else in this league (Wheaton excepted), plus the immediate Bloomington/Normal area, so it's not as though he's neglecting some primary recruiting area that the rest of his IWU coaching peers are hitting.

In fairness to Schauls, and to be completely honest, this is one of the few sports in which the CCIW is lagging a bit. In most sports, men or women, the CCIW is among the premier leagues in all of D3. That's not true in men's soccer, however; the CCIW is a middling conference in this sport. It's better now than it was during the first decade and a half of CCIW men's soccer play, in which the league consisted of Wheaton and a bunch of nonentities that ranged from average quality (Augustana and North Central) to barely competent and sometimes incompetent, with Wheaton hardly having to break a sweat whenever it took to the pitch against a CCIW foe. That changed completely with the rise of North Park under John Born in the early 2000s, and with Carthage's rise under Steve Domin a bit after that, and both NPU and Carthage have continued to be successful since then in large part due to coaching continuity. (Wheaton fell off a bit during the recently-ended DeClute era, but anybody who believes that the Orange and Blue will not return to the status quo ante of being a power in this region is fooling himself.) North Central, which hired an excellent, proven D3 coach not too long ago in Enzo Fuschino, appears to be on the rise, but the right thing to do with regard to the Cardinals is to withhold judgment until they start beating ranked (regional or national) teams.

Everybody else in this league seems to be in a constant holding pattern, including Illinois Wesleyan ... and that's just not the CCIW way. This is a league in which either excellence or an aspiration to excellence is expected of every team, regardless of sport (whether it's actually there or not). But I just don't get the sense that a lot of CCIW men's soccer head coaches have their feet held to the fire in terms of whether or not they're succeeding -- or their ADs judge the men's soccer coaches differently than they do the coaches in other sports by being willing to accept 9-8-1 or 6-9-2 seasons stocked mostly with fistfuls of non-conference wins over lower-half MWC, SLIAC, and NACC teams as representing "success" for a CCIW men's soccer team.

[Gregory Sager]

Illinois Wesleyan is usually better at soccer, yes.

Good not great.

Over the past decade the Titans have made four of ten CCIW tourneys and have averaged a +1 in the won-loss department in terms of overall record. They've never played in the D3 tourney, and the only time that they've ever made it to the CCIW tourney championship game (2019) they got there by winning a PK shootout after a scoreless-tie semifinal game, and they were seriously overmatched in the championship game by a North Park team that shook off a surprise IWU goal in the first minute by coming back with a brace of tallies and then playing keepaway for the entire second half. (Seriously, there were guys out there in green kits that I'm not sure even touched the ball in the second half.)

"Good" strikes me as a bit of an overstatement. Illinois Wesleyan has been slightly above average in a league that as a whole is slightly above average.

[WUPHF]

Illinois Wesleyan is usually better at soccer, yes.

Pretty good not great.