WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Ron Boerger]

I was at that game in SA last night, IWU ... do your women always employ the full-court press as much as they did last night?   Led to a number of turnovers, but also led to a lot of easy layups the other way when the press was broken.   And you're certainly right about the shooting, in the first half it seemed that the only thing the Titans were hitting were layups.   

Worth noting that Trinity also was dealing with a number of injury issues, suiting up only 11 (of 16) and then losing their starting PG to what looked like an ankle sprain in the first half.     Hope Ms. Seibring recovers from whatever ails her, and I also hope the team gets a chance to have some fun during their time in San Antonio.

[RogK]

Congratulations to Lexi Baltes, the new CCIW Player of the Week.

[iwu70]

Adding my warm congrats to Lexi Baltes on CCIW Player of the Week!  Way to go Lexi!  First triple double in IWU women's basketball history. 

Ron, yes, the Titans have used the full-court pressure for some years now -- and it has been very effective, esp. vs. teams that don't have good ball-handlers, experienced PGs.  Often they get many more TOs against their opponents and turn them quickly into easy layups.  Against stronger teams with good PGs, the pressing often doesn't work and Mia Smith calls it off.  But, IWU is not such a strong half-court team and is also not a strong rebounding team, so this defensive pressure is often the way to go to win games.  In the past 5-6 seasons, the Titans have been unrelenting in their use of it -- called "run and jump" -- including the season they won the national title.  It's also great for conditioning and for late season, late game fitness over most opponents.  Up til last year, IWU won 5-6 straight CCIW titles, largely using this pressure strategy.  Carthage won the conference last season, as is strongly favored to win it again this year. 

Sounds like Trinity has a very strong team -- to win over IWU by 15, even with some key players injured.  Sounds like they are a top 25 team for sure.

A long season ahead -- and a tough conference race now for most everyone.  Seems to me from what I've seen so far that IWU may finish 2nd or 3rd in CCIW, and be on the bubble for the dance.  They'd likely have to win the Conference AQ to get in. 

Good luck to Trinity for the rest of their season. 

I'm sure the Titans enjoyed San Antonio and soaked up the warm and the sunshine before returning to the wintry blasts of the prairie in Bloomington -- with another super cold front coming down in these next few days.  BRRRRR.

Go TITANS!!!  Let the CCIW race begin.

IWU70

[RogK]

Incimentally (sic), the Assist/Turnover stat was probably originated as a measurement for point guards.
But, it is a stat that does not tell the whole story.
If a point guard could only commit a turnover or get an assist (and do nothing else), the A/TO ratio would pretty much tell the whole story.
However, a guard (or any other position) can do many things in lieu of committing a turnover : make a good pass that isn't an assist, score a basket, get fouled, set a good screen, do the bulk of the dribbling duties.
Also, I suspect there are some assists that are not credited in certain games; some scorer's tables may be more generous crediting assists than others are, or some may notice them better.
Who brought up this topic anyway?

[RogK]

Saw North Park beat Dubuque Tuesday, 78-66.
Nicole Kruckman was sharp ; 8/10 FG, 1/1 FT, 12 rebs, 4 assists, 3 blocks. Hopefully there are no lingering effects from a loud fall she took late in the game.
Annie Shain had 15 pts, 7 rebs, while Rachel Torres added 12 pts, 6 rebs, 5 assists, 3 steals. It has taken a slightly dimwitted observer like me a few games to gain full appreciation of the varied ways that Torres helps out the Vikings; she does a lot of good, not all measured statistically. She's part of a pretty promising group of NP freshmen.
Dubuque looked good off and on, but made too many mistakes. Plus, time slipped away from them without their apparent awareness. Of course, credit North Park for disrupting Dubuque's gameplan.
With the nonconference schedule nearly complete (Wheaton has one left to play in Feb), the CCIW has won 56 of 87, over 64 pct.
I wonder if anyone else would like to submit a forecast of the 14-game CCIW standings. I thought the one I posted was debatable-enough to stimulate debate.

[RogK]

Some notes from the stats so far :
Wheaton is restricting opponents to a .326 overall FG pct.
Elmhurst is at plus 8.5 rebounding advantage and is making an impressive .766 at the foul line.
Augie is making .729 of their FT attempts, also good.
There have been 117 pts scored in an average Millikin game, 200 in an average North Central game.
Carthage is shooting .527 at 2FG att (267/507) and .432 at 3FGs (73/169), both excellent.
Carthage has seven players who have a season high of 17 pts or better : Kuzmanic 30, Schmidt 25, Wenzel 20, Boardman 20, Hahn 18, Stercic 17, Kleiner 17.

[iwu70]

Carthage is loaded, it would appear.  Only way to beat them is to keep the ball in the backcourt, right?   

Looks to me to be WC and IWU chasing Carthage for the CCIW title.  Someone has to put some losses on them.

I still have faith that the very tough gauntlet of games that IWU has played prepared them very well for the CCIW race.  Even at 6-5, the Titans are a very seasoned, dangerous team.  Gotta rebound better and have more effective outcomes when in half-court sets or situations. 

IWU starts @Elmhurst this weekend.

IWU70

[iwu70]

Good luck to the Titans as they begin the CCIW campaign @Elmhurst.

GO TITANS!!

IWU'70

[iwu70]

IWU over EC bigtime, 82-55

Jackson 19 and 6
McMahon 15 and 4
Seibring 10
Baltes 8  5 assists 7 steals

Taylor Reaber 8 off the bench

Another Reaber, Brittany, playing in cleanup time, so three sisters now on the IWU roster. 

A good start to the CCIW campaign.  Road wins always good.

IWU70

[RogK]

In the other conference openers :
Carthage 88, Augustana 52; five Lady Reds scored in double figures, topped by Haley Stercic (5/9 3FGs).
Wheaton 71, Millikin 60; an efficient 22 pts by Ellie Zeller (Wheaton) who made 9/12 FGs (a three incl) and 3/4 FT; Maris Hovee had 15 rebs and 6 assists.
I saw North Park beat North Central 92-71. NP's Rachel Torres, the new CCIW Player of the Week, was quite good, tallying 14 pts, 11 rebs, 7 assists and 6 steals; Brittany Pittas scored 19 in 24:00, adding 4 assists and 3 steals, while Dominikque Williams did well with a dozen pts and a dozen rebs.
Larynn Shumaker scored 24 for NC. As always, I enjoyed the unrelenting hard work from Bobbi Johns and Maryssa Cladis.
Best wishes to NP's Annie Shain (who had to exit the game for a while due to dizziness after taking a clunk to the head) and Kayla McCall (missed most of the game following a hurt leg).
And best wishes to NC's Sofia Svensson, who took a tumbling fall during a collision mid-2nd half. Suffering from neck pain, she was taken away by paramedics. I also learned that she had a concussion around a month ago. She's a freshman exchange student from Sweden and has a host family in the Naperville area. Some of the NC people told me after the game that she had not lost feeling in arms or legs etc and that she'll probably be OK. Her teammates were anxious and concerned, of course. North Park's team was relieved to know that Sofia was expected to be OK. Best of luck to Sofia.
If anyone can post an update about her, please do.

[iwu70]

Rog, thanks for the updates.  Hope the injured players are OK, getting cleared and recovered to get back to action.

IWU70

[iwu70]

We all know that this current IWU senior group has been great, very accomplished and dedicated -- and will be greatly missed -- Seibring, McMahon, Baltes, Jackson, Reaber.  Titans will have to rebuild, and recruit like crazy in the coming few years to replace these great players, great contributors to the Titan program.  Sounds like it's starting

EPG's Ehresman selects IWU -- see piece in today's Pgraph sportspage or website -- pantagraph.com 

A PG, Ehresman averages 16.4, 7+ REBs, and her team is 10-2 -- she has, to date, 1376 career points.  Sounds like the "worthy successor" at PG to Hasselbring and Baltes or possibly playing at the 2.  I'm sure Mia Smith has many more good prospects coming her way in the coming weeks.  The academic strength of IWU and the great facilities @The Shirk are a great draw for students like Ms. Ehresman.  Another player who has already played often at The Shirk during high school tournaments. 

Welcome to the Titan nation, Ms. Ehresman.

Go TITANS!  Titans at home vs. Augie at 7 p.m. Wednesday, with a junior varsity game at 5 p.m.

IWU70

[RogK]

Tonight, we have 1-0 North Park at 1-0 Carthage. The Lady Reds are coming off scoring outputs of 88, 91 and 88. And they have the top overall FG pct and top 3FG pct in the nation (D3). North Park has good depth (although shorter on average) and very good athleticism, so this one could be interesting (maybe for a while, maybe for 40:00?).
I'll probably end up going to Elmhurst, which hosts Wheaton. The Thunder have a 9 game winning streak, while Elmhurst just got whipped by IWU. The 'Jays prefer to get a lot of offense from their lowpost scorers, but Wheaton excels in prevention of that. We'll see what gives. Elmhurst does not typically allow opponents to shoot a high pct either. Maybe just for me, they'll have a 98-96 game, but perhaps I should be happy with 76-72. Wheaton freshman Katie McDaniels is off to a great start, including getting to the foul line for 98 FT att in 10 games.
Augie should be giving it all in Bloomington in order to avoid an 0-2 start.
North Central at Millikin should also be hard-fought, as each squad looks to be 1-1 instead of 0-2.

[iwu70]

IWU over Augie, 78-68, in a very hard-fought game.  Augie has improved a lot.

Jackson 15, McMahon 19, Baltes, an excellent overall game and 21 points.

Titans now 8-5, 2-0 . . . and moving on up.  Keep it rolling, Titans!

IWU70

[RogK]

iwu70, if Augie has improved a lot, that only adds to the early parity among them, Millikin, Elmhurst, North Park and North Central. I may have to disavow my recent standings prediction, although I want to retain the right to brag about it if it turns out to be accurate (ha!).
I did see Wheaton top Elmhurst 69-61. (it wasn't a 98-96 final as I had hoped for; could've been, but for some reason, they didn't play the 3rd half).
The game was fairly tight throughout. Maria Panaggio had a key last-minute steal when her team was up by only 3. Ellie Zeller led Wheaton with 17 pts; Katie McDaniels was sharp, tallying 14, 6 assists, 3 steals; Maris Hovee had 13 rebs and 10 pts. Chantal Meacham made a couple of threes that did not even seem to disturb the net; she could soon be one of our (CCIW's) best 3FG threats. Wheaton committed just 6 turnovers.
Fiona McMahon scored 22 for EC, adding 10 rebs and 3 blocks.
Carthage rang up 42 2nd half points and topped North Park 71-58. Michelle Wenzel led them with 19 pts, while Rachel Torres scored 20 for NP.
In Decatur, Larynn Shumaker's game winning hoop and FT helped North Central edge Millikin 87-85. Brittany Czaplicki almost had a quadruple double for Millikin : 25 pts, 12 rebs, 11 TOs and 8 steals; she had to be pretty tired after such a substantial effort in a high possession back-and-forth contest.