WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Mr. Ypsi]

Congratulations to Carthage for winning the rubber match and the A.  With their 8 losses, but great SOS and vRRO, any guesses on IWU's chances of a C?

[Mr. Ypsi]

I think I have answered my own question.  Despite 8 losses (which is a huge number for the upper reaches of women's d3, where parity is still some years away), their SOS is third in the country, and they are an astounding 6-5 in vRRO (and the committees seem to value number of RROs nearly as much as wins against them - still 6 wins is probably top ten in the country).

They should be pretty safe - we shall see in a couple of days.

[iwu70]

Ypsi, I think our Titans are in, after 1-1 this weekend.  I hope WC gets in too.  They are a good team as well.  These CCIW teams are surely battle-tested.  Our Titans just a couple of open looks, key shots short in Kenosha, and didn't execute very well in the last 1:30 or so.  You have to  hand it to Kuzmanic -- she's goes for the plays, made the key FT when CC was up 3 in the waning seconds.  CC is a tough out for anyone the way they are playing.  Hope the Titans get in and get a relatively easy bracket -- like in 2012, not DePauw or Wash U or Thomas More right away.  They should be seeded somewhere in the middle I would think. I guess 19-8 with their SOS is different than 18-8 last year.

Let's get the Oscars behind us and then we'll hear the bids, see the brackets.  CC surely gets to host the first weekend, if not further.  Titans likely travelling the entire time.

Keep going Titans --a good road team over the years. 

IWU70

[iwu70]

D3hoops has a proposed bracket up that has IWU going to Minneapolis, in a bracket with St. Thomas, starting out with a tough game vs. WI-Whitewater.  That would be a big challenge for the Titans, to say the least.  Big tough Wisconsin teams that rebound it well often give our perimeter oriented Titans a lot of trouble.  IWU lost to WW early in the year, 96-79.  We'll see if it turns out with this bracket or some other.  Lots of combinations possible.  D3hoops had WC left on the table, not making the dance.  Hope that is incorrect.

Anyway, we'll know in a few hours.

IWU70

[D-3 watcher]

IWU out

[Captain_Joe08]

Carthage hosts a pod.

They play St. Norbert the Midwest Champion. The winner gets the winner of Wisconsin Lutheran-Hope. WLC and Hope played each other already this season with Hope needing overtime to beat WLC.

Illinois Wesleyan is left out of the Tournament.

[Mr. Ypsi]

IWU had the third highest SoS in the country, and a ridiculous 6-5 vRRO.  I guess the committee just couldn't get past 8 losses, no matter how good the opponents were.

[iwumichigander]

IWU had the third highest SoS in the country, and a ridiculous 6-5 vRRO.  I guess the committee just couldn't get past 8 losses, no matter how good the opponents were.

Making an assumption central region rankings did not change, IWU had 2 AQs and 3 Pool Cs ahead of them just to get in the conversation.  And, you have, for example, a Springfield 17-11 that wins the NEWMAC; a Bridgewater State 16-11 that wins the MASCAC which does not help.

Too many under 6 loss teams this season.  Heck, the worst record in the last Top 25 was five (5) teams @ 21-4 !

[iwu70]

Really sad that IWU did not get in.  Yes, 8 losses and way too many teams this year with gaudy records against weaker teams.  To me it's a travesty that IWU is not in the tournament field.   May make Mia rethink her scheduling strategy and playing against so many top teams early the year.  Really hard to understand given the numbers, given the record IWU has against RRO, how they didn't make this field.  Very disappointed. 

My warm thanks to all the Titans, Coach Smith and all the staff.  Good luck to the seniors in future endeavors.  Great careers all.  We really enjoyed watching you'all perform this year, and in recent years, too, and appreciate all your efforts.  Good luck.

IWU70

[iwu70]

From a good source, seems IWU beating WC for the third time knocked them out of the last regional rankings, then of course losing to CC gave IWU the 8th loss, not securing the AQ, so the overall resume was changed by the time IWU got to the table.  In this case, damaged both by winning and of course by losing, by 4, really one shot, to CC in the tournament championship game.  Really sad.  This IWU team is definitely tournament worthy. 

You can see Mia Smith's take on it all in the short Pgraph article today.  She'd gathered the team together to watch the selection show, assuming that the Titans had done enough at 19-8 to get in. 

A bitter pill. 

IWU70

[Titan Q]

I think IWU should have gotten in too and was very disappointed yesterday when I learned they had been left out, but the bottom line is that the home loss to North Central kept them out.  When you are already on the bubble, you just cannot lose a home game to the 7th place team in the CCIW. 

It's because of that loss I don't think words like "travesty" apply here.  Unfortunately you kind of have to live with what happens when you have a bad loss like that.

[Roundball999]

I think IWU should have gotten in too and was very disappointed yesterday when I learned they had been left out, but the bottom line is that the home loss to North Central kept them out.  When you are already on the bubble, you just cannot lose a home game to the 7th place team in the CCIW. 

It's because of that loss I don't think words like "travesty" apply here.  Unfortunately you kind of have to live with what happens when you have a bad loss like that.

Sounds plausible.  Two years ago the Hope women were 22-5, ranked in the top 20 all year, and had some strong nonconference wins including Baldwin Wallace and Ithaca, the #1 team in the East.  They did not receive an invite and I believe it was largely due to a similar "bad" loss to a conference foe.

[iwu70]

Q, I agree that NCC loss was a bad loss.  No doubt. It lost the Titans a share of the CCIW regular season crown, too.   I'll still stand by travesty though, given the Titans SOS and wins vs. RRO.  They should have been selected.  Problem this year too was that so many programs had very few losses, loading up on very weak schedules.  Perhaps Mia Smith has to think about a different strategy for scheduling pre-CCIW games if little emphasis is going to be placed on SOS.  Anyway, that's how it looks to me.  Everyone has their own opinion about it all and I respect the various views.  Given IWU's SOS, and overall resume, I still think they should be in -- and pretty much everyone around, including the D3 potential Pool C estimations, projected bracket, and many others -- thought so too.  I'm not alone in this one.  Clearly Mia Smith agreed, too, -- got her entire team together to watch the selection show assuming that IWU had done enough at 19-8, under the supposed, current criteria, to get a bid.  See the Pgraph article and the quotes by Coach Smith.  As she also said, of course it would have been better to win the AQ and not leave this kind of situation in others' hands.  The Titans played CC very tough in that last game, basically losing by one possession, one play, vs. the #9 team in the D3 poll, and one of the top seeds in the tournament.  Sorry, but a bitter pill, tough to accept. 

Good season for the Titans, some great games and lots of great seniors this year.  They did a great job all year.  Just hate to see it end this way. 

There's always next year -- Titans in pretty much a big time re-build mode now.

IWU70

[mwunder]

In this case, damaged both by winning and of course by losing, by 4, really one shot, to CC in the tournament championship game.

There's a 4 point shot now??!!  Can I say the same thing about the Carthage men's team who essentially missed a 3 with 16 seconds to go and ended up losing by 5, or is 4 the cut-off for one shot loses?

I will agree with your last point though...IWU should be in the women's tourney.

[RogK]

Here are some numbers from the 14 game conference season. Listed are the total points scored and the total shots attempted (including 2FG, 3FG, FT). The formula equates making 1/3 of 3FGs to making 1/2 of 2FGs to making 100 pct of FT att. While making 100 of FT att is the most difficult, the value in terms of points produced per shot is comparable to the other shot types.
Etheridge 206 pts, 248 shots
Wenzel 215, 212
Kuzmanic 212, 208
Schmidt 168, 178
Stercic 117, 97
F McMahon 207, 200
Senette 152, 174
C McMahon 264, 249
Baltes 192, 202
Jackson 203, 216
Czaplicki 196, 222
Torres 111, 124
McDaniels 210, 251
Zeller 256, 224
Hovee 96, 127
The 15 above comprise the all-conference team. The numbers measure scoring efficiency only, not other aspects of offense like passing, dribbling, offensive rebounding and committing turnovers. Nor do they measure any aspect of defense, obviously.
A couple of players who (I assume) just missed making all-CCIW also had good scoring efficiency :
Seibring 165, 166
Cladis 159, 158.
Katy S probably missed out only because 3 teammates got on.
I'm wondering if the fact that Cladis (a relentless hard worker) played only 17.6 minutes per game is why the league's coaches decided that North Central didn't warrant any representation on all-conference. While NC had a disappointing 4-10 record, Augie went 2-12 and was represented. Hopefully Maryssa doesn't give a rat's --- about being omitted.
On a more general note, I've followed CCIW WBB for about 11 or 12 full seasons now and have pretty much seen what there is to see. I doubt if you'll see me next season, although I may take in a few NAIA games.
Thanks again to Pat for allowing us to write these pages.