WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[RogK]

Backseat Driver, I'll be attending Wheaton's game at Robert Morris at 6:00. Like you, I'm not quite sure what to expect, although I think the Thunder will enjoy a height advantage. I'm wondering how much Coach Madsen will use the regulars, since this is an NAIA opponent and the game has no impact on NCAA rankings.

[thunder38]

I would think for All-CCIW for Wheaton you can chalk Olson in for 1st Team: If they win the conference, you could make a case for Bohlen to also be 1st team, otherwise I think she's 2nd Team. Considine likely third team. Because of missing a couple games with mono, I think Hovee might be a snub.  Overall body of work warrants All-conference but the missing CCIW games will likely hurt her.

[iwu70]

RogK, basically agree with almost all of your choices.  Bohlen a good shot at 1st team.

On MOP, perhaps Olson and Kuzmanic co-winners.  Guess it depends on the remaining big game to be played, to some degree.

On the Titans, I'd stay with Seibring 1st, McMahon 2nd, and Gardner 3rd. -- assuming they get three on.  The Titans were really hurt with the loss of Shelby Jackson in the post.

Should be a great game -- WC vs. CC.  I think the Titans will win out now, finishing the regular season 18-7, 11-3.  We'll see.  Gotta go get the AQ now. 

IWU70 

[Backseat Driver]

Final/OT:
Wheaton 64
Robert Morris 60

Brooke Olson- 23 points, 14 rebounds (43 minutes played!)
Hannah Considine- 14 points, 7 rebounds
Maris Hovee- 10 rebounds, 2 blocks

[iwu70]

Wow, a good game, WC vs. RM.  Now the big one, vs. CC.

If the Titans were to go 3-1 in the next four games, including the CCIW tournament, and finish 19-8, do they have any chance for an at-large, Pool C bid to the dance?

Is the AQ absolutely required?

IWU70

[Backseat Driver]

Wow, a good game, WC vs. RM.  Now the big one, vs. CC.

If the Titans were to go 3-1 in the next four games, including the CCIW tournament, and finish 19-8, do they have any chance for an at-large, Pool C bid to the dance?

Is the AQ absolutely required?

IWU70

IWU definitely needs to win the AQ. The Central Region is too deep to sneak in with a 19-8 record, regardless of SOS.

Looking ahead to Wheaton's game against Carthage, the Thunder needs to be efficient on the offensive end. Carthage is a top tier defensive team, so that's easier said than done.  Wheaton was simply unable to score against the Lady Reds in the last meeting. The biggest thing for the Thunder is to not settle for outside shots.

Defensively, ball pressure will be huge. Kuzmanic and Stercic are lights out from the perimeter, and allowing easy passes into Corcoran, Schmidt, and Wenzel is a recipe for disaster. Wheaton needs to have good on-ball defense and crisp rotations.

I don't think you forget losing by 32 points. Motivation wont be enough to in the game, but hopefully it helps the Thunder focus during their preparation.

[iwu70]

Backseat, agree with your recipe for taking on CC.  Gotta battle them on the boards, bigtime. 

Hope it is a good close game, giving WC a chance to win it.  Titans have a tough tough road to get to the AQ, no matter.  If I were the Titans, I'd guess I'd rather take the shorter trip in February up to Wheaton, than that long long trek back up to Cheeseheadland again, for the conference tournament.

IWU70 

[Mr. Ypsi]

I disagree that IWU 'definitely' needs to win the AQ.  Probably, yes; definitely, no.  Don't forget that their loss to Olivet Nazarene doesn't count in the eyes of the committee.  Their losses are certainly not 'bad' losses: 23-0 Depauw, 19-3 Wheaton (twice), 19-4 Carthage, 18-5 Mount Union, and 18-5 UWSP.  And their wins are not all 'gimmes': 19-4 Carthage, 18-5 UWW, 14-9 Wartburg, 12-11 Coe, and twice each 13-10 North Park and 12-11 North Central.

I certainly would not want to rely on a Pool C, but I do not think it is beyond question.

(And maybe, just maybe, a defending national champion gets the benefit of the doubt on close calls! )

[Backseat Driver]

I disagree that IWU 'definitely' needs to win the AQ.  Probably, yes; definitely, no.  Don't forget that their loss to Olivet Nazarene doesn't count in the eyes of the committee.  Their losses are certainly not 'bad' losses: 23-0 Depauw, 19-3 Wheaton (twice), 19-4 Carthage, 18-5 Mount Union, and 18-5 UWSP.  And their wins are not all 'gimmes': 19-4 Carthage, 18-5 UWW, 14-9 Wartburg, 12-11 Coe, and twice each 13-10 North Park and 12-11 North Central.

I certainly would not want to rely on a Pool C, but I do not think it is beyond question.

(And maybe, just maybe, a defending national champion gets the benefit of the doubt on close calls! )

Maybe "definitely" is too strong, since a lot can happen between now and the end of conference tournaments. But I think it'll be pretty tough to get a resume on the table with 8 losses.

[Roundball999]

I disagree that IWU 'definitely' needs to win the AQ.  Probably, yes; definitely, no.  Don't forget that their loss to Olivet Nazarene doesn't count in the eyes of the committee.  Their losses are certainly not 'bad' losses: 23-0 Depauw, 19-3 Wheaton (twice), 19-4 Carthage, 18-5 Mount Union, and 18-5 UWSP.  And their wins are not all 'gimmes': 19-4 Carthage, 18-5 UWW, 14-9 Wartburg, 12-11 Coe, and twice each 13-10 North Park and 12-11 North Central.

I certainly would not want to rely on a Pool C, but I do not think it is beyond question.

(And maybe, just maybe, a defending national champion gets the benefit of the doubt on close calls! )

Maybe "definitely" is too strong, since a lot can happen between now and the end of conference tournaments. But I think it'll be pretty tough to get a resume on the table with 8 losses.

Hope was 22-5 last year, beat several tournament teams along the way, 2 of its losses coming at top 5 Calvin - and no tournament invite.  I'd say IWU needs the AQ.

[iwu70]

Ypsi, sure looks to me like our Titans need the AQ to get in.  I agree they played one of the toughest schedules in DIII this year, had some good runs, but still losses, to top 25 teams, but just didn't amass the record needed for a Pool C consideration, spot.  Sad, but true.  I think we have to hope for two great performances in the CCIW tourney, and a surprise return to the Dance for our women.  They are playing well, have the ability to do it, but it's a tough climb given how well WC and CC have played and are playing.  If our team got in, likely a pretty low seed, so more tough games early on in the Dance,too.  We'll see.  Never say never.  My money this year would be on DePauw to win it all.  They are good! with a great point guard.

Am glad we have a good core coming back, losing only Gardner and Bilek as seniors.  Baltes as the solid PG, top assist player, and the two top scorers in Seibring and McMahon, all coming back.  Mia will need to recruit hard, train up the rest of the returning players and esp. find some size, rebounding strength and post presence for the next few seasons.  Others coming back are pretty good, with some experience = Scurlock, both Reabers, Beoletto, hopefully a healthy Mullarkey.  Not sure if Shelby Jackson would come back as that situation was more than a sore, infected tooth, it would appear.  Some of the deep bench players have to step up now and improve, get their minutes.  They should take a cue from Seibring and see how much she improved in talent, strength and fitness in the off-season to become a much-improved, surely an All-CCIW player, even 1st team All-CCIW.  We'll see.  18-7, 11-3 is a mighty fine season, but hard to compare it to last year's magical, national title run.

Hope you can stop by the Shirk sometime and see the women's national championship banner flying proudly in the Shirk rafters.   A nice bookend to the men's '97 championship banner flying at the other end of the performance arena.

IWU70

[RogK]

To add to what Backseat Driver wrote about Wheaton's win at RMU :
The Thunder's shooting was as off-target as you'll ever see from them, especially going 5/31 on 2FGs and 3/16 3FGs in the 1st half. But they got 17 offensive rebounds in that half, enabling them to get 47 shots up. Their size advantage (and effort) helped in that regard. For the game, they outrebounded Robert Morris 57-35.
Brooke Olson just refuses to rest, even in a nonconference, non-NCAA game. She fully took control of the overtime, even after playing huge minutes in regulation.
Jenn Lee also deserves special mention for energizing the team with a quick burst of scoring and sharp defense during an otherwise mediocre stretch for the Thunder in the 2nd half.
The game was an interesting challenge for Wheaton. No CCIW team plays like RMU. RMU has a couple of ultra-quick small guards who caused some difficulty for Wheaton; fortunately for Wheaton, one of them frequently seemed most interested in showing off her dribbling skill in lieu of getting something accomplished. Despite this advantage in quickness, RMU did not play a hurry-up game on offense. I did like a couple of their players : center Yolanda de la Torre, who had some nice moves around the basket and got 16 pts, 13 rebs, 5 blocks and 4 steals; forward Mary Colon who shot pretty well scoring 14.
I think Wheaton's younger players got some valuable experience learning to deal with RMU's speedy guards.
The game was played at Attack Athletics on Harrison St, a gym that several current and former NBA stars play at during the summer. The Thunder players can now say that they've played on the same court that Michael Jordan and, by the way, President Obama have played on.

[Pat Coleman]

I disagree that IWU 'definitely' needs to win the AQ.  Probably, yes; definitely, no.  Don't forget that their loss to Olivet Nazarene doesn't count in the eyes of the committee.  Their losses are certainly not 'bad' losses: 23-0 Depauw, 19-3 Wheaton (twice), 19-4 Carthage, 18-5 Mount Union, and 18-5 UWSP.  And their wins are not all 'gimmes': 19-4 Carthage, 18-5 UWW, 14-9 Wartburg, 12-11 Coe, and twice each 13-10 North Park and 12-11 North Central.

I certainly would not want to rely on a Pool C, but I do not think it is beyond question.

(And maybe, just maybe, a defending national champion gets the benefit of the doubt on close calls! )

They are not even in the regional rankings. They need to win out.

Ask 2003 Trinity (Texas) and 2004 UW-Stevens Point what benefit the defending champ gets. And they even had their coaches on the committee! It means nothing.

[thunder38]

New Regional Rankings. I added strength of schedule and RvRRO

Central
1 Cornell 20-1 20-1/.485/2-0
2 Washington U. 17-3 18-4/ .554/2-2
3 UW-Whitewater 16-4 18-5/.574/3-2
4 UW-Oshkosh 16-4 19-4/.552/3-2
5 Carthage 17-4 19-4/.536/0-1
6 UW-Superior 17-5 18-6/.540/2-2
7 Monmouth 17-4 18-4/.504/1-2
8 UW-Stevens Point 17-5 18-5 /.539/1-4


Wheaton sits at 20-3 and 18-3 in region but is 0-2 vs RRO (at Carthage, at Simpson- #1 in West) and their SOS is just .479
Pretty easy to see where the shortcomings are in Wheaton's resume. A win vs. Carthage would be huge and their SOS will go up however the CCIW is still a one-bid league however it falls especially since at least three of these UW school will need Pool C.

[Gregory Sager]

I disagree that IWU 'definitely' needs to win the AQ.  Probably, yes; definitely, no.  Don't forget that their loss to Olivet Nazarene doesn't count in the eyes of the committee.  Their losses are certainly not 'bad' losses: 23-0 Depauw, 19-3 Wheaton (twice), 19-4 Carthage, 18-5 Mount Union, and 18-5 UWSP.  And their wins are not all 'gimmes': 19-4 Carthage, 18-5 UWW, 14-9 Wartburg, 12-11 Coe, and twice each 13-10 North Park and 12-11 North Central.

I certainly would not want to rely on a Pool C, but I do not think it is beyond question.

(And maybe, just maybe, a defending national champion gets the benefit of the doubt on close calls! )

Maybe "definitely" is too strong, since a lot can happen between now and the end of conference tournaments. But I think it'll be pretty tough to get a resume on the table with 8 losses.

Six losses. As Chuck said, the OliNaz loss is practically irrelevant in the eyes of the committee, just as is Wesleyan's win over St. Francis and Wheaton's wins over Clarke and Robert Morris. But remember, too, that Wesleyan's loss to Mount Union and win over Muskingum, even though those were games against fellow D3 schools rather than NAIA foes, were non-regional and thus not a part of the primary criteria.

People tend to refer to a team's overall record out of force of habit when looking at post-season possibilities, which is understandable. But that's not how it works in D3. The won-lost record that you need to focus upon is in-region record. Currently, as indicated in thunder38's listing of the new Central Region rankings, Carthage is 17-4 (.809). Wheaton currently sits at 18-3 (.857), and Wesleyan is 14-5 (.737).