WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[iwumichigander]

Thank You! Thank You! Thank You Lady Titans! 

[Hoosier Titan]

It now looks more likely that the celebration of the two Final Four teams will be next Tuesday, 27 March, instead of tomorrow night.  Stay tuned.

[RogK]

I was just reading through the recent posts and saw a little mistake in reply 3123 : the list of IWU seniors should include Amy Burton, but not Melissa Gardner. Melissa is just a junior and has another year of excellent play for the Titans.
Turns out that the last team to top the Titans was Wheaton, 76-74 in 2OT on January 28. That was when Brooke Olson poured in 25 pts for the Thunder.

[iwu70]

Yes, happily, Melissa Gardner, shooter of that HUGE trey in the championship game, is a junior, back again next season, along with all those active and hungry sophomores!  I think Bilek and Gardner are the returning seniors for next year.  Time to reload. 

Thanks to all of this year's seniors for their hard work and leadership -- Burton, Solari, Hasselbring and Lett.  We'll miss you next year for sure. 

HT, hope the celebration is on the 27th, better than tomorrow night, which conflicted with the homecoming concert of the Collegiate Choir at Second Pres.  Hope for no conflict.  Keep us posted.

Thanks to all the TITANS for a great season, a wonderful championship run.  Much appreciated.  Let's celebrate!!!

Just chatted with Jordan Zimmer here in the Library . . . he's still in the boot, hoping the stress fracture can heal up without surgery. 

IWU70

[RogK]

In addition to Olivia being D3Hoops Player of the Year, Diana Jacklin made 2nd team. Both are deserving and both players represent the CCIW very well.

[iwu70]

Mia Smith with another big Coach of the Year award today.  Congratulations, Coach Smith.   (see IWU sports site, under "women's basketball" for details). 

Diana Jacklin very deserving on her All-American honors.  Great to watch her play and compete this year . . . and for her to lead Carthage to a great run in the tourney. 

Titans will have some very good, experienced players back, but some uncertainties too on how to replace Solari's toughness, Hasselbring's steadiness, ball-handling, floor generalship, and, of course, the total all-around offensive and defensive game of the Player of the Year, Olivia Lett.  No replacement likely.  It will be new, it will be different, just like it was this year.  No need to be discouraged, Ypsi!

Key players coming back:  Gardner, Bilek, McMahon, Jackson, Baltes, Scurlock, K. Reaber -- and some of the pine-sitters will have to step up.  Scurlock, Seibring, Brown and others can step it up.  Two starters and three key rotational players coming back.  I like Baltes as the new PG. Shelby Jackson improved greatly over the season -- will be really good these next two seasons.  Will have to find some new pieces, some new additional bigs, more scoring for sure..  Of course, we all hope Coach Smith will again be guiding the program, the team, running the "run and jump."  I like our chances.  Recruitment can't be hurt by a national championship.   To me, it's another reload, not a rebuild for 2012-13. 

New mix for six.  Hope for Hope, yet again.  Why not?   Look forward to that banner-raising night at The Shirk!

IWU70

[Titan Q]

A Springfield Journal-Register article on Olivia Lett and IWU's championship...

http://www.sj-r.com/sports/x1730865808/Wesleyan-s-title-team-has-strong-ties-to-area

[iwu70]

Big IWU celebration @The Shirk, announced now for March 27th -- next Tuesday -- at 7 p.m. 

Oh happy day!

IWU70

[RogK]

A few more Final Four thoughts rattling around in my head:
Thanks to Michelle Bilek's dad for giving me a lift from the gym to the Titan celebration site.
Have we mentioned here that Karen Solari made game-tying free throws late in Saturday's game? I had noticed that she was making 70 or 80 pct of her shots in the warm-ups. Karen shot 79 pct at the line for the season, as well as just over 50 pct for FGs. Her scoring average was 4.8, with 7 teammates averaging higher. Known primarily for her defense, she likely would have had better scoring totals if the Titans needed her to (they didn't).
iwu70, I notice that you repeated the "defense wins championships" maxim.
I still don't like that simplification. I say good defense combined with good offense wins championships. And, if one says that all teams that make it to the Finals have very good defenses, then it is even more important to have talent on offense in order to score points against them.
Incidentally, I was glad to read that you got a great deal of enjoyment sharing the championship night with your elderly parents. An honorable thing to do. You definitely would've enjoyed being there in Michigan, too, seeing all the nonstop smiling on the Titan faces. It's possible you'll get to see a few smiles next Tuesday!

[iwu70]

RogK, sure wish I could have been in Holland.  But, elder care calls.  Perhaps next year!  My folks, both IWU grads too, '40 and '43, greatly enjoyed the night and the good video streaming from Hope. 

Yes, offense is needed, too, though I think everyone associated with the IWU program and championship runs this year will acknowledge that team defense, especially the pressure of "run and jump" had an awful lot to do with the Titans overall team successes this year in CCIW, league tourney and D3 dance.  That being said, it doesn't hurt to have on your side one of the best trey shooters in the country, alot of other tough/good offensive players, some of them improving quite abit over the year (like Bilek and Jackson), some awfully good experienced players (Solari, Hasselbring and Lett), and, certainly, the "national player of the year" and her terrific offensive (and defensive and rebounding and leadership) skills on your team.  As Dennie Bridges often said, it's surely best to have the best players getting off the bus with you! (or something like that!).    We'll celebrate for sure.

I think the Titans will be pretty good again next year too -- likely:  1-Baltes and Reaber, 2-Gardner, 3-McMahon and Bilek, 4-Scurlock, Seibring, 5-Jackson and Brown.  Other pine-riders may surprise.  Need some new scorers, some new bigs.  Five from the championship team rotation coming back.  Very hard to replace the seniors -- Burton, Hasselbring, Solari and Lett.  It's happened before, though, and the program improved year to year.  Karen Solari has bragging rights over All-American sister, CCIW first-teamer, Christina Solari.  So, new mix for six.  Newbies and recruits yet to come.   Sure would be nice to find another Olivia Lett, another Hope Schulte, another Christina Solari, or another Mallory Heydorn . . . of course!

I'm very optimistic.  Will surely enjoy all the smiles Tuesday celebrating such a great season of IWU hoops -- both men and women.

IWU70

[Backseat Driver]

I've said this before, but I really think the difference for IWU this year was that they were a stronger half-court defensive team than the last few years. Their press is always good, but this year in particular the Titans were tough to crack in the half-court as well. I don't know if there's really a stat to quantify my opinion, it's just the impression I got after having seen IWU many times over the last several years.

[NCF]

That's why defense wins championships! The offemse wows the crowd. Looks like iWU will be tough again next season as well. But for now-enjoy the celebrations!

[RogK]

Olivet Nazarene, an annual opponent of IWU, will have a new coach next year :
http://www2.olivet.edu/athletics/news.php?c_id=3&n_id=8076
It's not clear if they will still generally play the same way, although a new coach will likely revise something, minor or major. The article also says ONU is transitioning to NAIA Div II (from I). The CCAC league has been divided into I and II, so maybe it is all going to be II? I'll check that out, but that's not of interest to most readers.
It sounds as if outgoing coach Doug Porter is taking a few years (?) off from coaching. Watching his recent teams several times a year has been interesting to me, since they played an unorthodox way, to the extreme. They made me think: what's the logic behind doing this or that, and how one aspect of their game complements the others. I'll check their box scores next fall to see what the new coach opts for, style-wise.

[NCF]

Olivet Nazarene, an annual opponent of IWU, will have a new coach next year :
http://www2.olivet.edu/athletics/news.php?c_id=3&n_id=8076
It's not clear if they will still generally play the same way, although a new coach will likely revise something, minor or major. The article also says ONU is transitioning to NAIA Div II (from I). The CCAC league has been divided into I and II, so maybe it is all going to be II? I'll check that out, but that's not of interest to most readers.
It sounds as if outgoing coach Doug Porter is taking a few years (?) off from coaching. Watching his recent teams several times a year has been interesting to me, since they played an unorthodox way, to the extreme. They made me think: what's the logic behind doing this or that, and how one aspect of their game complements the others. I'll check their box scores next fall to see what the new coach opts for, style-wise.

Any time a new coach comes in, you can bet they will bring, not only their philosphy, but make some changes as well. I played for three different coaches in colleg and each one brought something unique to the table.

[HCACBBALL]

With ONU it sounds like they are going to hire their assistant to keep this style going.  They have a healthy following in the community that was not there before they started running this style.