WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[duckfan41]

I don't know. Sierra Grubor has really come on like gangbusters here at the end of the season. She averaged almost 23 ppg in the three consecutive road games that CU just played.

Sierra didn't Mist many shots in those contests.

Okay it's borderline criminal that this pun hasn't been acknowledged yet... nicely done

[iwu70]

As much as I love Kendall Sosa's game and indeed her prospects for the future, I think Raven Hughes deserves the All-Conference nod more, if you are going for a third Titan, beyond Merritt and Shanks.  Raven's rebounding, consistent scoring and incredible shooting percentage merit the nod, IMHO.  Sosa will be All-conference in coming years, quite likely.  Both still sophomores. 

'70

[GoPerry]

Elmhurst @ NPU tonight is a very significant game for a CCIW tournament berth.  An Elmhurst win likely clinches a berth for the LadyJays presuming NCC loses to IWU.  A Park victory keeps the Vikes very much in the running and maybe even a leg up – their win at Augie could be the tie-breaker.  At the very least, their fate will remain in their hands.  Going to six teams has kept more games significant later in February, at least this season.

[lmitzel]

Elmhurst @ NPU tonight is a very significant game for a CCIW tournament berth.  An Elmhurst win likely clinches a berth for the LadyJays presuming NCC loses to IWU.  A Park victory keeps the Vikes very much in the running and maybe even a leg up – their win at Augie could be the tie-breaker.  At the very least, their fate will remain in their hands.  Going to six teams has kept more games significant later in February, at least this season.

Yeah, every game is significant tonight (especially that ELM-NPU game), but not every team has something to play for in terms of the conference race.

Here's a quick update on the standings:

School	Record
*-Wheaton	14-1
z-IWU	12-2
y-Carthage	9-5
x-Augustana	7-8
Elmhurst	5-9
NCC	5-9
North Park	4-10
Millikin	4-10
Carroll	4-10

Bearing in mind thus far that Wheaton locked up the #1 seed, Wesleyan is locked into #2, and Carthage clinched #3. Augie's in for sure, but the question of seeding is still relevant. Your clinching scenarios tonight:

• Augustana clinches the #4 seed with a loss by NCC
• Elmhurst clinches a tournament berth with a win AND losses by Millikin and Carroll
• NCC clinches a tournament berth with a win AND losses by North Park, Millikin, and Carroll

If tonight goes full chalk, North Central would still have a one game lead on the remaining three teams for the sixth and final spot. In that scenario, North Central would clinch the final spot with a win at Elmhurst or a North Park win over Millikin; North Central has the tiebreaker over Carroll (either the split with Carthage or the Augie sweep, depending on records) and North Park (split with Carthage), but Millikin has the tiebreaker over NCC due to the season sweep.

I'm rooting for the chaos scenario for obvious reasons: NCC upsets the team in green tonight and beats Elmhurst on Saturday, while Carthage dispatches Augie on Saturday, giving North Central the #4 seed and a home game on Tuesday. I know it's unlikely, but North Central came within a ridiculous foul disparity poor shooting third quarter on Saturday of finally knocking off Wheaton, and even then the Thunder needed double overtime. LET ME HAVE MY HOPES AND DREAMS.

[RogK]

lmitzel, are you also going to yearn?
Tonight's matchups first time around :
12/15 North Park loses at Elmhurst 68-60; 70 FT attempts in that game.
1/9 Millikin loses at Wheaton 76-75; highest opponent score against the Thunder.
1/16 Carroll loses at Carthage 71-60.
1/16 North Central loses at Illinois Wesleyan 82-77; NCC scores 8 in the 3rd Q and 36 in the 4th.

[Gregory Sager]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERsI3twlu34

[RogK]

Yeah, I was hoping lmitzel had seen that scene. Thanks, Greg.
Thanks to lmitzel for figuring the tournament possibilities.

[lmitzel]

lmitzel, are you also going to yearn?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERsI3twlu34

I, uh... sure?

(I don't remember having seen that scene prior to today, but I'm an uncultured swine who didn't watch a ton of Seinfeld, so...)

[RogK]

Uh oh, I guess that makes me a cultured swine. Ha! I resemble that remark!
So, the all-CCIW awards are based on games played before this coming Sunday, presumably not to be influenced by performance in the conference tourney. That would seem to narrow the time frame for voting. Yes?

[Gregory Sager]

Yes.

(Coaches used to have the better part of a week to do it. Now they have two days.)

[GoPerry]

Millikin games have been pretty free-flowing, so several opponents have "filled up" the stats as well. We'll see what Coach Lett emphasizes in coming seasons, but we could say that this year, she's done a good job getting her players in position to succeed at the offensive end. I prefer to see an 85-75 game over 55-45, so I'm not complaining. Recruiting is the main determinant; stay tuned.
I think your list is reasonable, GoPerry. Other possibles could be Hannah Williams, Kendall Sosa, Alanna Newsome. I'm 100% on Gilbert and Kalis from Carthage. I had a nice chat with Coach Bernero after Saturday's game, but he neglected to reveal his list of all-conf nominees. I'd say several Lady Reds have earned consideration. Our conversation was probably 80-90% not about D3. Subjects included Thai iced tea.
Elmhurst is another team that has gotten big games from various players, but perhaps not enough through the whole season. Coach Carrillo has done well getting productivity from a bunch of players who weren't prominent (or even present) last season.

I can see Williams and Sosa getting strong consideration for their scoring.  Williams especially has had some big games of late.  Ashley Schneider was a second teamer last year so she'll definitely get a look again.  I guess it depends on whether the coaches will grant half the spots to Wheaton and Wesleyan like they did last year (4 each).  A strong case can certainly be made to do so as the separation between those two teams with Carthage and the rest of the league is just as stark as last season.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Regional Rankings Week 2 released: https://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2019/02/women-regional-rankings-second

[GoPerry]

Regional Rankings Week 2 released: https://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2019/02/women-regional-rankings-second

A little curious.  Since the last ranking:

Chicago goes 1-1 and moves from #2 to #1 in the ranking
Oshkosh 2-1, drops from #2 to #1
Wheaton 2-0, stays put #3
Whitewater 3-0 jumps from #8 to #4
IWU 2-0 drops from #4 to #5

Not at all what I was expecting.  I guess the head to head means Wheaton can't possibly be ranked ahead of Chicago or Oshkosh?

The vRRo #s don't make sense to me either unless they're also counting teams ranked last week.

[thunder38]

Regional Rankings Week 2 released: https://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2019/02/women-regional-rankings-second

A little curious.  Since the last ranking:

Chicago goes 1-1 and moves from #2 to #1 in the ranking
Oshkosh 2-1, drops from #2 to #1
Wheaton 2-0, stays put #3
Whitewater 3-0 jumps from #8 to #4
IWU 2-0 drops from #4 to #5

Not at all what I was expecting.  I guess the head to head means Wheaton can't possibly be ranked ahead of Chicago or Oshkosh?

The vRRo #s don't make sense to me either unless they're also counting teams ranked last week.

This would be the first week they could factor vRRO into the equation so that could explain some of the movement.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

They only count the results against the previously ranked teams. They cannot count the current rankings ... when they are trying to compile the current rankings. It would start a never-ending cycle of updating vRRO, re-ranking, updating vRRO, re-ranking, etc.

The vRRO data is based on the previous week's rankings. Week 1 didn't have that data set at all since there were no rankings to base it on. This week is based on Week 1. Week 3 will be based on Week 2. The final RAC assisted rankings will be based on Week 3. The National Committee produces an absolute final rankings based on Week 3 and Week 4 - per se. Little harder to explain, but basically Week 3's rankings aren't dropped off because of the re-ranking and re-totaling thing at the very end.