WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Mr. Ypsi]

DANG!!  That was OUR game!  IWU led 85% of the game, but Wheaton 'steals' it, 66-62.

Congratulations to the Thunder.

I guess I'll now see whether my restored confidence in IWU getting an at-large with nine losses is justified.

[Gregory Sager]

Liz Rehberger's not being a unanimous first-teamer was a disgrace. Some CCIW head coach is a real head case to have snubbed her.

Agree.  Maybe the Carroll coach not being quite as familiar with her?

Liz Rehberger tore up Carroll to the tune of 19 points, five rebounds, four steals, a block, and a 3:1 a:to ratio in only 25 minutes of floor time at Van Male earlier this month. I'm sure that CU head coach Lindsay Schultz became more familiar with Liz than she wanted to be.

I'm not curious enough to go thru 16 boxscores to see, but with Carroll going 1-15 can you really be sure there weren't at least 8 other opponents who tore them up even worse than Ms. Rehberger did?!

Do you really think that coaches only base their votes on the games they see, Chuck?

No, but that seemed to be the implication of your post.

I was simply rebutting GoPerry's theory.

[iwumichigander]

DANG!!  That was OUR game!  IWU led 85% of the game, but Wheaton 'steals' it, 66-62.

Congratulations to the Thunder.

I guess I'll now see whether my restored confidence in IWU getting an at-large with nine losses is justified.

A good effort but too much Berg (sp?). We need a 3 point shooter or two!  Titans probably baubles team?

[iwu70]

Really great game at Wheaton -- another huge battle.  Not the outcome I was hoping for as Wheaton showed their mettle coming back in the 4 Q from 7-8 down, really the last 4 minutes, to win 66-62.  Titans outplayed WC for 36 minutes, but WC outplayed IWU for the last 4, winning the 4Q 22-12.  The Titans really got out of the offense in the last 6 minutes or so, due to some great defense by Wheaton and many blocks by Berg.  She had a great game, a freshman, with 8 blocks.

Ehresman a superb overall game, 16
Merritt 14 and 10
McGraw 12

For Wheaton

McDaniels 16
Lawson 12
Berg 10 and 8 blocks

Just shows you gotta play totally hard the entire 4 quarters.

Now at 18-9, the Titans have to wait.  I personally don't think they get in with 9 losses, but what a tremendous season, a really good team, and a very high SOS.   The normal Mia Smith scheduling way.  This loss is a tough one to take given how well the Titans played for most of the game.

Congrats to Coach Madsen and the Wheaton team on the CCIW tournament championship and the AQ.  Let's hope the Titans get in too -- as they are truly deserving.

Thanks to all the IWU seniors for their great work, dedication to the program, and representing IWU in such a class way. "Victory with Honor," and sometimes bitter defeat too.


IWU70

[shepherd]

Congratulations to the Thunder on a great comeback.

IWU is a very very good team and deserves to be in the playoffs.
They are a very good team who I would not be surprised to beat some of the top ranked teams.
That was the best defensive effort I have seen against the Wheaton team.  They closely contested every shot not only inside but closely guarded the threes so good that Wheaton did not get a three until after the half.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Titans out-rebounded the Thunder 50-32.  MOP Katie McDaniels shot 3-16. This should NOT have happened!

But, again, congrats to Wheaton.  You were better in the clutch than we were.   

[RogK]

Saw the well-played and hard-fought CCIW final and hereby wish both teams a long run in the NCAA tourney. Yeah, I know IWU hasn't been guaranteed a spot.
Congrats to the Thunder for the big win.

[iwu70]

Great game, good D by the Titans throughout. WC played an excellent final 5-6 minutes and that was the difference.

I actually thought Ehresman outplayed the MOP McDaniels tonight.  McDaniels hit the key FTs down the stretch but otherwise truly struggled vs. Ehresman's very tight, good defense.  One of the keys was the blocks by Berg, stopping the Titans on numerous possessions when IWU could have put the game away.  A small lull at 3-5 minutes to go and WC got back into the game, making the key plays in the last 2 or so minutes.

Great game.  I surely hope IWU gets in the D3 dance as I, too, think they could make some real noise in the tournament.  I wish WC good luck for their tournament run -- I hope they go far, have a good run, make us all proud with a good showing for the CCIW.

Thanks again to all the seniors on all the teams -- for their dedication and hard work and for making CCIW women's basketball such a great sport, a strong league.  We have enjoyed the season.  (Yes, surely so!  -- sorry Greg!). 

IWU70

[lmitzel]

I bet at a minimum, the Titans come to the table. What I'm interested to see is the bottom of the Central rankings. Elmhurst went 1-1 this week (with a loss to IWU) while Augie went 0-2, and the Vikings were the last team in the Central. If the Blue Jays and Vikings trade places, the Titans can then add another win versus an RRO. Even with two losses this week, both were to RRO Wheaton, and if they drop, it won't be much. I bet the Titans are one of the last few in.

[RogK]

Wheaton has now won 8 straight and 14 of their last 15. This makes Carthage's 70-44 victory over the Thunder on Feb 1 even more noteworthy. Carthage made 9 of 14 threes in that game and put forth a tremendous defensive effort.
This tidbit for lmitzel (the rest of ya are probably tired of the topic) : I expected and found some correlation between NCC's team eFG% and Wins-Losses.
.306-.349 eFG won 0, lost 2
.350-.399 : 3-3
.400-.449 : 5-4
.450-.499 : 3-2
.500-.545 : 3-0
I don't dare look at previous seasons in case the theory falls apart under more data.

[GoPerry]

Congratulations to the Thunder Ladies on bringing home the tournament trophy and the AQ.  The hot shooting they enjoyed on Friday certainly didn't materialize on Saturday, but they did just enough at the right time to get it done.  And yes Katie McDaniels struggled some, but to her 14 pts she added 3 rebs, 4 assts, 1 blk and 2 steals.  And Jill Berg?  I've been glad to see that she was getting a few more minutes lately in spelling Devin Kyler.  However, I will admit that I wasn't really expecting that.

Now, it's all about their seeding.  Oshkosh lost to Whitewater today(bad news for IWU) and Chicago lost to WashU.  So there's a chance Wheaton might end up ranked #2 in the region, certainly no lower than #3.  Will that be enough to get first weekend hosting consideration?  I sure hope AD Julie Davis put in the necessary paper work to try.  Even if they don't, I'm hoping they get a decent draw.

Notwithstanding last night's performance, Wheaton has been playing at a pretty high level these last 2 weeks.  McDaniels has been herself, but Chantal Meacham has been heating up from trey-land this month(top 10 in the nation) and we'll really need that to continue.  Kelly Lawson and Devin Kyler have been solid and Maggie Dansdill has continued to make all the hustle plays to help her team win.  It only gets tougher from here and they need to be prepared for the tougher task no matter who they play or where they travel.

Thanks again to a great Wheaton crowd at King, including a majority of the Men's players sitting front row at the West basket.  It was great seeing the likes of Aston Francis, Ricky Samuelson, Luke Peters, Trevor Gunter, Mark Champion going crazy at Jill Berg's layup and one with 1:30 left.

Let's Roll!

[GoPerry]

I bet at a minimum, the Titans come to the table. What I'm interested to see is the bottom of the Central rankings. Elmhurst went 1-1 this week (with a loss to IWU) while Augie went 0-2, and the Vikings were the last team in the Central. If the Blue Jays and Vikings trade places, the Titans can then add another win versus an RRO. Even with two losses this week, both were to RRO Wheaton, and if they drop, it won't be much. I bet the Titans are one of the last few in.

As mentioned, UW Whitewater beat UW Oshkosh which will make things that much tougher for the Titans.  An Oshkosh victory would've given them the AQ and probably kept Whitewater below IWU in the final regional ranking.  Now Whitewater gets the AQ and I think Oshkosh will be ranked higher than IWU in the central.  Chicago will also stay ahead so that's at least 2 Pool Cs have to go before IWU gets to the table.  Having said that, Oshkosh will go pretty quickly and Chicago will probably go soon afterwards; so I agree they'll get to the table.  But what happens then?

Without looking back, I'm pretty sure that the history of the Women's draw is that W/L's below .700 almost never get selected.  I would think it's because the depth of the Women's game is not like that of the Men yet.  Therefore, you have a lot more teams with +.750 %s and more teams at the very bottom.  This is evident by the Top 25 teams for men and women and how many losses they have.

I really hope they make it (and if they do, not in the same draw as WC).

[Mr. Ypsi]

It's gonna be a nervous night and morning in B'town.  The men's team is also on the bubble.  IWU could very plausibly have zero, one, or two teams in the tourney.  I (obviously ) am hoping for two!

Although it happened just last year, it is rare over the past couple of decades for NEITHER team to make the post-season.  Let's not make it two years in a row or it could become habit-forming!

[RogK]

"Nervous?"
"Yes"
"First time?"
"No, I've been nervous lots of times"
- Ted Striker, Airplane

[Mr. Ypsi]

"Nervous?"
"Yes"
"First time?"
"No, I've been nervous lots of times"
- Ted Striker, Airplane

+K

Actually, this is the first time I can ever recall where BOTH teams were on the bubble.  Always before one (or both) were obviously in, or obviously out.