WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Mr. Ypsi]

Congratulations to CCIW Most Outstanding Player, Heidi Harnisch of IWU.
Playing through pain for a lot of the season, she still ranked 3rd in the nation in 3 point pct at .478 and led the conference with .506. Her 2.9 made threes/game was 15th best nationally and her 3.07/game led the CCIW. All excellent numbers. Obviously, she does more than shoot threes. Her ability to cut to the hoop makes her even more difficult to guard.
IWU will be lucky to find another 5'10" player who can shoot and score so well, although they did find Harnisch when it was time to replace previous MVP Katie Cantrell, who was a similarly superb 5'10" player.
All CCIW teams need a Heidi Harnisch or two.
Again, congratulations to the league's new MVP.

Before you get a swelled head, I had to add this one!

Although injured most of her freshman year, Christina Solari entered school that fall.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Obviously, I feel chatty tonight!

Not many teams could survive the graduation of a Mallory Heydorn-Claire Sheehan backcourt, but I THINK the Titans have so much talent on the bench they will only take a half-step back.  Comments?

It's way pre-mature to speculate (one never knows when the next Ippel/Trenz freshmen will arrive, or the super transfer), but as of today would I be safe in assuming that IWU will still be heavily favored next year?

BTW, just to sow the seeds of terror in the opposition - Christina Solari will be a senior, but she is fully eligible for a medical redshirt year!  I have no clue whether she would take it - I doubt even she would know, and the decision may be up to her parents (after all, there are already two Solari's at IWU - any more in the pipeline? ), but be forewarned.  She COULD play two more years!

[thundermike]

Not many teams could survive the graduation of a Mallory Heydorn-Claire Sheehan backcourt, but I THINK the Titans have so much talent on the bench they will only take a half-step back.  Comments?

It's way pre-mature to speculate (one never knows when the next Ippel/Trenz freshmen will arrive, or the super transfer), but as of today would I be safe in assuming that IWU will still be heavily favored next year?

I think IWU will be favored again next year, and Elmhurst will probably be right behind them. Not only do the Titans return Solari, but also 5 other players who played in at least 30 games this year (Schulte, Preston, Arlis, Castens, Harvey). They have plenty of talent returning, though I wouldn't expect another 30-1. In addition to Lyndsie Long, Elmhurst returns Meghan Merklein, Kelsey Monroe, and Megan Ney so they should be in pretty good shape too.

[RogK]

Thanks, Mr. Ypsi, for your compliment. But, it didn't take a lot of smarts to immediately see that Fidelia, Sheehan and Heydorn were all going to be excellent. I don't think I saw Christina play in that year of her injury; I remember that Mia Smith said Christina was quite a rebounder.
Elmhurst loses a fine player in Brittany Bobruk. Several players will have to become strong rebounders and defenders to replace what she did for the Jays. If her numbers were down this season, it's understandable -- I believe she lost a close family member in November or December.
Elmhurst has a nice group of players coming back, for sure.

[thundermike]

D3hoops.com All-Region teams are out and the CCIW is well represented

1st Team:
Kathleen Fidelia (Wheaton)
Christina Solari (IWU)- Central Region Player of the Year

2nd Team:
Claire Sheehan (IWU)

3rd Team:
Lyndsie Long (Elmhurst)

Central Region Coach of the Year: Mia Smith (IWU)

Congrats to all!

[RogK]

Since I referred to Elmhurst's rebounding in my previous post, I thought I'd better actually look at the stats.
Brittany Bobruk did lead the team with .274 per minute.
Here are the per-minute averages for the rest of the team, excluding the seniors and those who didn't play at least 100 minutes (an arbitrary cut-off).
CJ Harris .270, L Benson .234, L Long .230, M Ney .221, M McTeague .203,
M Merklein .198, C Randick .129, A Randazzo .117, K Monroe .111,
C Gentry .100.
The last four are guards and guards commonly have rebounding numbers like theirs. Lyndsie Long's .230 is very good for a player of her size and by no means does she have to improve at rebounding or anything else. She's a fabulous player as is.
Harris's .270 was very good. Elmhurst may also ask Benson, Ney and McTeague to replace Bobruk's high level of rebounding. And, of course, incoming freshman and/or those under-100-minute players could help in '09-'10 as well.
Overall, Elmhurst looks good going into next season. Meghan Merklein finished her freshman year impressively and Kelsey Monroe got over her mid-season shooting slump. The Jays are not yet up there with Illinois Wesleyan, but they can reasonably aspire to it.

[RogK]

Carthage will be a different team next year, with the graduating of Katie Jarger, Lisa Gartelos, Shana Lieberman and Carlie Janowiak this spring.
The only returning players that you'd consider to be a center or power forward are Katherine Burshiem and Rosie Dorn. The rest are guards or small forwards, which might result in their offense being a little less half-court oriented. Maybe.
Dani Ripkey hit .397 of her threes this year and it sounds like she'll have a green light to fire away next season, based on some web site quotes from the coach. I think she should, too, from what I saw. If she plays 20:00, she should take 14-15 threes. (Yes, I like threes.)
They have a nice bunch of other mid-sized players, any of which could blossom, since there will be a lot of open playing time.
Cory Bazany had 20 FT attempts in just 60 minutes. That's sorta interesting, ain't it?

[RogK]

Congratulations to Claire Sheehan on making the 2009 NCAA Division III State Farm Coaches' All-America Basketball Team.
Only ten players get that honor, nationwide.
IWU's web site article lists some of her basketball achievements, all adding up to a very fine career.

[iwu70]

Congrats to Claire Sheehan on being named All-American.  A great honor.  And congrats to Christina Solari for Regional Player of the Year.  Also a great honor.  Coach Smith did a great job all year!

Looks like Wash U may go on and win it all on both sides -- from the Bracket of death on one side and surviving Shirk over the Titans on the other.  Too bad such tough games in the Midwest have to happen in round of 32 and 16 and 8, before Final Four trips. 

Congrats to IWU's national women's track athlete of the year, nationally -- wow, that's something too!  Ms. Rocca I believe. 

A good year for women's athletics at IWU.

[RogK]

Congratulations to Christina Solari, third team D3Hoops All-American.
She had a very good year. And, looking ahead to '09-'10, there isn't anyone you'd rather have than her, to build a team around.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Since I had convinced myself that Christina Solari was a legitimate national POY candidate, I was initially disappointed she was 'only' third team.  But Pat does teams fairly strictly by positions (he's willing to fudge a bit, with 3 guards first team for the men, but shooting guards and small forwards are often pretty interchangeable 'wings' - see Keelan Amelianovich!), a stance I strongly agree with.  Since the first team center was Hillary Klimowicz, who took a team otherwise far inferior to IWU to the Final Four (and was named POY), and the second team center was Kristen Shielee, who as the sole significant senior led a bunch of freshmen and sophomores to the title, my disappointment soon evaporated (and she still beat out fourth team center Carrie Snikkers, an amazing talent for Hope).  While I don't know anything about the other front-court players named to the top teams, I have trouble believing they were all better than these four - I wonder if Pat considered calling any of them 'power forwards', or if they are all too clearly 'centers'?

What still surprises (and disappoints) me is that neither Kathleen Fidelia nor Claire Sheehan made even HM.  The CCIW has simply gotta step up in non-conference and post-season performance - we're getting the Rodney Dangerfield treatment!

[Mr. Ypsi]

To follow-up, I can't even legitimately complain that we are being unfairly disrespected.

A men's AA listing or Top 25 poll with only one CCIW player or team would (most years) not be credible.  I long for the day when the women reach that level.

Recently the post-season has been IWU's responsibility, and we didn't go as far as I anticipated (sorry! ).  (For the men, it is a very down year when the post-season is the responsibility of just one team.)  Millikin and Wheaton 'carried' this conference almost from its inception, and need to get back to 'national' status.  Elmhurst seems a potential 'break-out' team next year.  Time for Carthage, North Park, North Central, and Augustana to add to the national stature of the conference.

C'mon folks, the CCIW should be a top 5 conference in women's hoops!  They're consistently top 2 or 3 in men's.  Go get 'em, women's CCIW!

[RogK]

Mr Ypsi, I agree with your post encouraging betterness among all the women's teams.
As a rare neutral observer, I'd like all of the games to be competitive and replete with excellent play.
Besides IWU, Wheaton and Carthage certainly had good years. Carthage finished at 18-9, despite playing only 8 home games.
North Central, Elmhurst and Millikin all were in "the middle of the pack."
Augie and North Park obviously had a tough time of it, going 1-13 in conference play. Augie has a lot more coming back in '09-'10 than NP does, and it's time for the Rock Islanders to get better results.
North Park's coaches have had less than a year in their positions and have a small handful of returning players, so if they improve next year, it would be a noteworthy accomplishment.

[RogK]

I thought my last post might provoke a response from an Augustana partisan or two, but... silence.
Wheaton will probably be pretty good next year, by the way. They have a nice mix of players to bring back. Plus, no doubt some good freshman will arrive.

[thundermike]

I thought my last post might provoke a response from an Augustana partisan or two, but... silence.
Wheaton will probably be pretty good next year, by the way. They have a nice mix of players to bring back. Plus, no doubt some good freshman will arrive.

Wheaton has some significant holes to fill and some injuries to overcome, but you are right that they have good players coming back.