WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

On NP's roster, would be nice to have size and class year of the players on the team.

IWU70

The NPU roster lists both height and class.

[Backseat Driver]

Backseat Driver, I noticed the team photo, too. But, there are a couple of discrepancies with uniform numbers on the roster vs those worn for the photo. There is a player wearing 24 in the photo, but no 24 is listed on the roster. Also, Iris Cheng is wearing 33 but has 3 in the roster; another basketballista is wearing 3 in the photo.

It's possible that these were typos that have been corrected, but I don't see any discrepancies between the photo and roster?

[RogK]

Backseat Driver, the Wheaton roster has been updated. Will you be able to attend the opening pair of Thunder games next week and provide for us some eyewitness reports?

[iwu70]

Thanks, guys, for the additional info on the NP roster.  I'll check it out.

Yes, Munger, not Mungar . . . I'll do better.  You know me, I'm not an ace at spelling and not a doyen of data, always looking to rosters or archives, hence my use of Kman, Zman, and now another error with dear Hannah, or is it Hanna? . . . time will tell.  Sure glad we have so many talented copy editors on these boards.

Only about a week or so and the season begins.  I'm sure Ms. Munger is ready to be back on the floor and would, no doubt, long for another shot at the Titans somewhere deep in the DIII dance come March, 2013.

Looking forward to seeing the 2012-13 edition of the Titans, of "run and jump" in the post Olivia Lett era. 

IWU70

[Backseat Driver]

Backseat Driver, the Wheaton roster has been updated. Will you be able to attend the opening pair of Thunder games next week and provide for us some eyewitness reports?

I will not be attending. I've moved out of CCIW territory so I think I'll be trying to catch video streams occasionally this season.

[Gregory Sager]

In looking ahead to NPU's opening weekend, the Vikings start out with a home game against Milwaukee Engineering on Friday evening of next week, followed by a road game against Dominican on Saturday afternoon. MSOE was a solid 17-10 last season, but it looks as though the Raiders lost a lot from that team. MSOE only returns one starter and two other players who saw action in 20 or more games, and seven of the 11 players on the roster are frosh. Dominican doesn't have a roster posted yet on the school's website, so I can't be sure which players NPU will be facing. But three of the starters from last season's 19-9 Stars outfit are at least eligible to return this season, including leading scorer Ashley Oliver, along with most of the bench. DU does have a new head coach, so that might shake things up a bit.

This will be about as experienced a team as NPU has fielded in a long, long time. It's the senior year for Amanda Reese's first recruiting class, and we'll see what the six seniors who remain from that inaugural class have learned over the past three years.

[RogK]

North Park's season preview :
http://athletics.northpark.edu/news/2012/11/6/WBB_1106122948.aspx?path=wbball
Note the nice smiles in the photo.
Greg, you've recently mentioned here the need for more accurate shooting by the Vikings; Coach Reese specifically included that in her list of things they're striving to improve, along with rebounding and overall scoring average. I assume that 3FG pct and 2FG pct will be looked at separately.

[Gregory Sager]

North Park's season preview :
http://athletics.northpark.edu/news/2012/11/6/WBB_1106122948.aspx?path=wbball
Note the nice smiles in the photo.
Greg, you've recently mentioned here the need for more accurate shooting by the Vikings; Coach Reese specifically included that in her list of things they're striving to improve, along with rebounding and overall scoring average. I assume that 3FG pct and 2FG pct will be looked at separately.

I think that a big ingredient to improving NPU's trey shooting is a healthy Annie Shain. Last season she connected from downtown at a 40% clip (16-40), on a team that only made a collective 27% of its treys. Keeping her on the court has been a problem, though; last year she tore an ACL in the middle of the CCIW campaign, and this preseason she's missed time due to an MCL injury. But she's now practicing again with the team.

NPU also needs Shaina Yalda and Sarah Peterson to bounce back from regressive campaigns in terms of three-point shooting, but I think that having Annie Shain available off the bench will be huge for the Vikings.

[RogK]

A healthy and fun-filled 2012-13 season is hereby wished to all.

[iwu70]

Good luck to all the CCIW teams, coaching staffs, and players for the 2012-13 season.  Should be another good one!  Our Titans open up on the road Friday with a very tough match-up with Mount Union, then Muskingum on Saturday, both games @North Manchester, IN.  It will be very interesting to see how the new starting five and new rotation of players comes together in these very tough pre-CCIW season games.  Mia Smith will be working her magic yet again. 

Good luck to the Titans, the defending national champions!  Go TITANS.  (I'll be staying home @Shirk Friday/Saturday to watch the IWU men start out vs. Coe, then Loras, also a Friday/Saturday tip-off tournament format). 

As RogK says, "a healthy and fun-filled season is hereby wished to all!"

IWU70

[Titan Q]

Article on the Titans...

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/illinois-wesleyan/replacing-lett-s-scoring-will-be-key-for-iwu-women/article_c507ab9e-2ec7-11e2-9bc3-001a4bcf887a.html

[RogK]

The final sentence of that article says that IWU attempted 1827 threes last season. The league stats show that IWU opponents attempted 1827 total FGs. IWU did lead the league in 3FG attempts (650 in 33g) and 19.7 per game. Within the 14 game conference regular season, Wheaton led with 21.1 threes attempted.

[Gregory Sager]

The burning question, Rog, is: Which gym will you grace with your presence tomorrow night as Opening Weekend commences? The airplane hangar for Olivet @ NCC? King Arena for Blackburn @ Wheaton? Or the crackerbox for Milwaukee Engineering @ NPU?

[RogK]

Tonight I'll attend the Dominican at Elmhurst match. Tomorrow, Olivet at NC. As for Saturday, I haven't decided yet.
Last Saturday, I saw the other Olivet (Nazarene) win at St Xavier, 100-88. That one was hard-fought, high-energy and often sloppy (58 TOs, not all forced); 47 fouls included, so the scorer's table was kept very busy.

[Gregory Sager]

Doesn't sound like fun to me. I like a nice, leisurely pace at my scorer's table. I hate falling behind and trying to catch up, or trying to find a spare moment to erase a mistake, or having to confab with my tablemates about who scored the basket or how many team fouls there are or whether the shot clock was reset or not.

If I had to keep score for the Grinnell men's team, I'd demand a paid vacation at the end of the season.