WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[iwu70]

RogerK, thanks for the schedules.  Sure looks like the Titans have one tough pre-CCIW schedule, with away games and the overall high quality of the teams they are playing.  Look forward to the season, with the Titans again have a strong chance for CCIW and post-season achievements.  Sounds like Carthage really has a great team upcoming.  In eight weeks, we'll be playing basketball!    Hope the streaming video system is in Shirk by then. 

IWU70

[Titan Q]

IWU will have an exhibition vs DePaul again...

http://www.depaulbluedemons.com/sports/w-baskbl/spec-rel/091511aab.html

[iwu70]

Ypsi, Q and other IWU friends:  Homecoming October 21-23.  Hope to see you.  Great football game IWU vs. North Central that weekend.  iwu70

[RogK]

North Central, Augustana, Carthage, Illinois Wesleyan and Millikin have new rosters posted.

[iwu70]

Pre-season hoops.com All-American teams up.  I find them dubious.  Two each from Chicago, William Paterson and George Fox, but not Olivia Lett of IWU? on any of the four teams?  Come on?!!  Someone has not done their homework very well.  IMHO.  Looking forward to the season and seeing what the "new look" Titans really look like.  Sure, lots of talent departed last year, but lots of very good talent remains.  Laura Karsten of Wheaton named to the first team. 

The "game of the year" in football this weekend at IWU Homecoming -- if you want to see a real corker . . . IWU vs. North Central, basically for the CCIW championship.  1:30 p.m. at IWU, Wilder Field at Tucci Stadium.  Get there early as I'm sure there will be a huge crowd, for Homecoming, for such a great match-up.

IWU 70

[Backseat Driver]

I'm (sort of) new to the board -- had a different username a few years back. I feel a little more comfortable posting now that I'm out of school and don't have direct "inside knowledge." Now I can just offer unfounded opinions like everyone else 

Looking forward to what should be a very competitive season in the CCIW. All of last year's conference tourney teams have seen key contributors graduate. Here are some things to watch:

-IWU: How well will last year's reserves adjust to more prominent roles? The Titans return two starters (Hasselbring and Lett) and two main bench contributors (Solari --who has to bounce back from a significant knee injury-- and Gardner). That leaves plenty of open spots. The recent past tells me that there's plenty of talent on the roster, but it will be interesting to see how a more inexperienced IWU team performs on that especially tough non-conf. schedule.

-Wheaton: People might not realize this, but Wheaton lost a lot with the graduation of Annie Bowen and Kelly Brooks. Bowen was the "glue" of Wheaton's defense (#2 in the league last year) and was the team captain. And I know that iwu70 talked a lot about Karen Solari's sixth woman prowess, which I wont argue with, but I'll just add that Brooks was indispensable in that role for Wheaton. The Thunder returns the best backcourt in the league, but they will need to maintain the same defensive urgency they had last year and have some bench players contribute. Also keep in mind that Laura Karsten also plays on the soccer team, which is currently 14-0-1 and has a pretty good shot to be playing into December.

-Millikin: The Big Blue return pretty much everybody, but I don't think it's possible to overstate the impact of Elise Wildman's graduation. She was one of the top two or three players in the league throughout her career (at least in my opinion). Millikin might be a bit more perimeter oriented on the offensive end, not unlike Wheaton was last year.

-Carthage: Heather Gilmore's graduation leaves a big hole. She was their best perimeter defender and arguably the toughest player for opposing teams to match up with (I say "arguably" because Jacklin is also very tough to defend). The Lady Reds didn't have a bad year last year, but I'm sure they were expecting to go further, so we'll see how they bounce back.

Lots of question marks, and that's just last year's top four! Elmhurst returns Merklein and Ney, but lost some good, tough guards. I think North Park has a chance to be pretty competitive this year with Acree returning (presumably) to complement Jones. Not sure what to expect out of NCC and Augie, they both lost their best players from a year ago.

I think IWU has to be the preseason favorite, but probably not as overwhelmingly as in recent years. Carthage has already beaten the Titans twice over the last two years, and Wheaton had a chance to beat them at King Arena last year and hung tough despite a bad shooting night in the conference championship. It should be an exciting race.

[Backseat Driver]

Pre-season hoops.com All-American teams up.  I find them dubious.  Two each from Chicago, William Paterson and George Fox, but not Olivia Lett of IWU? on any of the four teams?

Hard to argue against the players from Chicago or George Fox (I don't know anything about WP), but Lett certainly could be on one of the squad's. I guess to try to look at it from an outside perspective, Lett was not on the All-Region or All-American teams after last year. That might affect it, I don't know. She's certainly one of the best returning players in the league.

[Gregory Sager]

I think North Park has a chance to be pretty competitive this year with Acree returning (presumably) to complement Jones.

Kamauria Acree will indeed be back in uniform for NPU this season.

[Backseat Driver]

I think North Park has a chance to be pretty competitive this year with Acree returning (presumably) to complement Jones.

Kamauria Acree will indeed be back in uniform for NPU this season.

That's great news both for Kamauria and NPU. As I inferred above, I think she makes them a completely different team. Adding her slashing ability to the strong post play of Roxxane Jones and Sarah Peterson and the shooting of Dana Christensen, and the Vikings have a nice lineup. Depth might be an issue, but I would expect them to win a few more than 3 games in the league.

[RogK]

At this point, I'm guessing that IWU will be a much more half-court oriented team than we're used to. Shelby Jackson may be a focal point of the offense; in her limited time last year, she made 20/30 2FG. Also, if heavier minutes are going to be expected from Karen Solari, Olivia Lett and Britt Hasselbring, a slower pace (less pressing and running) would be logical.
We'll see.
The Titans will surely be in the top 4 of the conference, but I see Carthage as the favorite. Senior-packed Millikin may be next in line.

[gordonmann]

I'm the person primarily responsible for assembling Preseason All-American picks. So you can point your complaints and criticisms toward me.

That doesn't mean the picks are just my thoughts. We start with the postseason All-Americans from last year, unless someone else has returned from injury to knock them off the list. Then we look at the All-Region picks (which feed into the All-American selections), which are made by sports information directors and media members in each region.  We look at players who were first team all-region without being All-Americans. That isn't a guarantee that someone will make the All-Americans but it helps identify strong candidates.

Then we do the same thing with second team All-Region picks and so on.  We also factor in team success, strength of conference and input we've culled from coaches, media, etc. 

Backseat Driver hits the exact reason Olivia didn't make our list. She wasn't selected All-Region last year.  If the people who watch this region week in and week out didn't select her as one of the best 15 players in the region, then it's hard for us to elevate her to the top list in the country, even with all the graduations.

In Olivia's case, I've seen her play several times the past two years. She's very talented and has a great midrange jumper. She may have been the most versatile player on the Titans last year.  If she continues to play like she has and the Ttians keep winning, she'll get consideration for postseason awards this year.

It's not a perfect system and I'm open to recommendations on how to improve it. 

[iwu70]

I seem to recall that IWU beat George Fox and Chicago last year.  Also, Kean.  Perhaps not William Paterson.  Seems like these awards shoulds spread the love around a bit more.  IMHO. 

[Backseat Driver]

I seem to recall that IWU beat George Fox and Chicago last year.  Also, Kean.  Perhaps not William Paterson.  Seems like these awards shoulds spread the love around a bit more.  IMHO.

At the end of the day, they are just preseason awards. That doesn't mean it's not significant, but it's almost more of a "players to watch" list than anything else. Olivia Lett will certainly be able to show how good she is as IWU's best returning player from their Final Four team.

[gordonmann]

I seem to recall that IWU beat George Fox and Chicago last year.  Also, Kean.  Perhaps not William Paterson.

Sure, but those are team accomplishments, not Olivia Lett beating the best players on George Fox, Chicago, or Kean.  When IWU played Chicago last year, both Maroon All-Americans outscored and outrebounded Lett.  When IWU played George Fox, Munger outscored and outrebounded Lett and Gordon had comparable points (Lett: 8, Gordon: 7).

Seems like these awards shoulds spread the love around a bit more.  IMHO.

I understand that sentiment.  It hasn't been our approach to just pick one person per team, but I understand that the best players on the best teams are worthy of All-American consideration, regardless of their numbers.  That's a fair criticism.

Lett's a really nice player.  As Backseat Driver said, she's got a chance to prove me wrong. Though I suspect she has much bigger motivations than that.

[RogK]

The discussion of individual Titans who did very well against strong opponents brings to mind this : when IWU beat Kean at Kean's gym, Britt Hasselbring had 15 pts (efficiently - 5/7 FG, 5/6 FT), 15 rebounds, 4 steals, 3 assists, 0 TO. Not bad.