WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[RogK]

The Carthage roster now looks complete, with uniform numbers assigned to the six freshmen.
Elmhurst's new list is here :
https://elmhurstbluejays.com/roster.aspx?path=wbball
Twenty-three players listed, including seven who played at least 246 minutes last season.
The '18-'19 jays were a good 3FG shooting team at .331, the equivalent of .497 for 2FG shooting. Their 2FG% was .385, the equivalent of .385 for 2FG shooting. (nyuk nyuk)

[RogK]

I guess it's about time for my annual reminder that pre-season rankings are based on zero games played in the relevant season. Pre-season rankings should never be accepted as starting positions for any teams.
"We were #3 in the pre-season poll and haven't lost in November, so we deserve to be #3."
Once games begin, pre-season polls should be flushed down the basketball toilet. Teams should be judged solely on what they accomplish in the 2019-20 season, with no credit or blame carried over from previous seasons.

[RogK]

the CCIW coaches' conference standings forecast should come out soon; (no, it's not a ranking like national polls)
I'd expect Wheaton, Carthage and IWU to be at the top of the league, but as for the rest, who knows.

[RogK]

the coaches' forecast :
Wheaton
IWU
Carthage
Greg's North Park Vikings
Augustana
North Central
Elmhurst
Millikin
Carroll

[Gregory Sager]

I might've flipped Carroll and Millikin at the bottom, but otherwise this is pretty much how I would've picked 'em.

[Gregory Sager]

Here's the league's story on the coaches poll:

https://cciw.org/news/2019/10/30/wheaton-predicted-to-win-2019-20-cciw-womens-basketball-title.aspx

This is the first time that I've seen someone other than CCIW SID Mike Krizman write a presser for the league's website. I note proudly that the intern who wrote it is none other than Ellie Manderfeld, the senior centerfielder for the NPU softball team.

[lmitzel]

Yeah, I can't really nitpick at all about the poll. I had figured it would be Wheaton-IWU 1-2 in some order, with Carthage at 3... then a dropoff but with everyone all kind of clustered together. To have seven points separating spots 4-7 on the list, and have number eight just four points back of that spot shows how even the middle of the pack should be.

Last year 6-10 was good enough to make the conference tournament; I think the year before if the format were what it is now 5-11 was the benchmark. I'd expect something similar this year. Should be fun.

[iwu70]

Another season soon upon us.  Looking forward to it as well.

Watched the TITANS scrimmage against Knox last Wednesday.  IWU tied or won all the quarters played.  Great speed and pace of the game, with excellent trey shooting by IWU -- Sosa, Munroe and Lansford are all key threats there. 

As expected, starters were:

Brovelli, Shanks, Sosa, Lansford and Munroe.   Good experience in that group.  Brovelli much improved, lighter on her feet, good running of the floor, 5-6 blocks.  She could lead the league in blocked shots.  Shanks moved more to the forward position.  Titans still working on offensive sets and on "run and jump" but surely they will play with great speed and with defensive pressure, as is Mia Smith's signature style.  They are not a particularly deep team.  Not very big . . . but good skills.   Rotational players involved, again as expected, are Eck, Bowen and Lowis, off the bench.  I'm sure it will take some time to put it all together.  And, again, a pretty tough, mostly road games, early schedule.  No nights off.  Not at home much the first month!

Most surprising and pleasing of all is freshman Katelyn Heller.  She is strong, ready to play at this level.  I was very impressed with her, for sure. 

Seems #2 or #3 in CCIW is about right in CCIW at this stage.  Wheaton still the favorite.  But, this could all come together pretty well.  Key is keeping everyone of the top 5-6 healthy.  Raven Hughes surely a big piece missing, greatly missed.

The Titans open @University of Chicago, I believe.  No easy nights there.

IWU'70

[GoPerry]

Returning a first team All-Am from last season(and a sure pre-season pick) plus four of five starters, #14 feels about right to me as a pre-season slot for the Thunder ladies.  Without surveying 25-30 other teams, I believe Wheaton should consider themselves among the top 10-15 in the country and hopefully play like it.  Saturday opener vs UT-Dallas will be a great first test.  It looks like the rest of their non-con schedule is pretty strong and includes several teams that should end up with winning records.

No doubt there are very high expectations for the Thunder this year.  Hannah Frazier does a bunch of things well on both ends and I'm not sure there's anyone else in the conference who can check her.  Hannah Williams and Kristi Demske are veteran players with offensive skills who help/need to take some of the scoring load from Frazier.     

A key player to Wheaton's success will be all con guard Jordan Myroth.  She averaged about 8 pts/g last season but I'd like to see a little more assertiveness and get somewhere around 11-12/g .  At 5'11" she presents real match-up problems.  She's not been afraid to post up smaller defenders and she should continue doing so to get even better at it.  She's already a very good defender, rebounder (6.5/g) and ball handler.

I'm not sure Jill Berg will slot right into a starter role or continue off the bench – I'd probably favor the latter.  Kirsten Madsen showed lots of grit with quality minutes last year also.  I'll be interested to see if Hannah Swider can step up to significant minutes.  Typically one or two first years get some floor time early in the season - maybe 6'1" Ellie Cassel or local product 5'10" Annie Tate but just speculating.

"Expectations" is relative.  Winning the league, outright and tournament(AQ), is the first goal for any team.  But this year's Thunder squad should not be content with that.

[Gregory Sager]

Every year I keep waiting for North Park to get over the hump and make some first-division noise, and it never seems to happen. But this season the Vikings might be ready to make that leap. The CCIW's head coaches seem to think so, since they picked NPU fourth. Of course, that by itself doesn't amount to a hill of beans. But the way that NPU finished the season last year with a flourish, including winning a rout in the CCIW tourney opener at higher-seeded Augustana, combined with the fact that the only player lost from last season's rotation is backup big Matti Zander -- who should be easily replaced by getting a now-healthy Alisha Panthier back, plus a genuine glass-eater in Oakton transfer Elizabeth Stangel, who last season ranked fifth among all three divisions of the NJCAA with 14.9 rpg -- leads me to think that there is genuine room for optimism for the Vikings regardless of the opinion of the coaches.

Most likely the fortunes of the Vikings will rest upon Jayla Johnson. Her terrific freshman season, in which she averaged 14.1 ppg and 5.9 rpg (and well over two steals per game, too) and was named the CCIW Newcomer of the Year, only scratched the surface of her potential. As the team around her improves, she'll have less cause to have to force the issue when the halfcourt offense bogs down (which last season happened all the time). She's a gifted athlete and the most versatile and technically sound big that Amanda Crockett has ever brought into the program, and with the addition of Panthier and Stengel and the progression of Josie Summerville I think that Johnson can go out on the floor even more and beat opposing PFs off the dribble.

NPU's other virtue is the plethora of small, quick guards on the roster. The Vikings can push the ball up the floor, pick pockets, and jump passing lanes with the best of them. (Finishing at the basket is another matter, though; if blown layups was an NCAA statistic, North Park would've been nationally ranked in D3 in that category.) Having so many of them allows Amanda Crockett to keep them fresh and make the pressure that they put upon the other team relentless. The problem is that their speed gets wasted when the halfcourt offense gets too static.

Among other players, I think that it's important for Josie Summerville and Sinead Molloy to take the next step. Summerville can rebound like nobody's business, and she's great at positioning herself under the basket. But she really needs to improve her shooting touch down low. Molloy is a great glue player who is a nasty defender and a good distributor. If she can improve her outside shooting, she's got a shot at having a breakout junior season.

North Park proved it could stop other teams from scoring last season; the problem is that, at under 60 ppg, the Vikings did a terrible job of putting the ball in the basket at the other end of the floor. They need to significantly improve their outside shooting -- aside from the departed Zander, Sophia Lehocky was the only Viking to shoot north of 30% from downtown -- and curtail the parade of missed layups. If they can upgrade the offensive production from last year, they could really be fun to watch this season -- and, remarkably, this is a team that may not peak for another year yet, as Panthier and Angelina Villasin are the only seniors on the roster.

I'm really looking forward to calling games for this particular Vikings team.

[Gregory Sager]

Not to cast any aspersions on your jet-set lifestyle, Rog, but if you're around and available this coming Friday night, the Vikings will be playing a scrimmage at 6 pm in the NPU gym.

[iwu70]

Congrats to Hannah Frazier on pre-season First Team All-American, according to D3hoops.  I don't think IWU has anyone who can really guard her.  Perhaps Shanks this year.  Raven Hughes would have been the option, but not now.

IWU small and fast, with only one 6'+ post player in Brovelli.  Defensive pressure and trey shooting will have to do it for this year's edition of the Titans. 

Wheaton looks really set, with a very experienced line-up, for a great year. 

Carthage and NPU looking to break into the top two or top four?

'70

[RogK]

Well, Greg, I shouldn't boast excessively, but I have lately been to both Bensenville and Countryside IL.
Who might serve as the opponent at NP on Friday?

[Gregory Sager]

Well, Greg, I shouldn't boast excessively, but I have lately been to both Bensenville and Countryside IL.
Who might serve as the opponent at NP on Friday?

I'm not sure who NPU is playing.

Carthage and NPU looking to break into the top two or top four?

Carthage doesn't need to break into the top four. The Lady Reds have finished third in each of the last two seasons.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Did I miss (or forget) an announcement at some point, or does no one know why Raven Hughes (who would be a junior) is no longer on the Titan roster?  I think she would likely be a first-team All-CCIW player if she were here.