WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[badgerwarhawk]

UW River Falls 81
Wheaton 56

The Thunder were thoroughly outplayed and seriously out-coached tonight in River Falls, Wisconsin.  No doubt it was a tough environment to play in with a large turnout and student section for the Falcons.  Bravo to them.  UWRF shot 56% from the field and the easy explanation is  "Good! Layup by ,  Good! Layup by , Good! Layup by , " which you'll see with alarming frequency in the box score play-by-play for RF.   Part of this was terrific passing execution by the Falcons.  But much of it was simply the inability of Wheaton to guard basic screen/roll and giving up easy layups in the defensive set.  I noticed this deficiency in the game vs IWU last weekend but Wheaton's terrific shooting rendered that moot.

No such thing tonight as the Thunder could not continue their hot shooting from last weekend.  They ended up shooting 28% from the field exacerbated by desperation for the last 1/3 of the game and 6/25 from 3 for 24%. Not winning #s.  My biggest fear, keeping the bigger Falcons off the boards, was realized as Wheaton was -21 (28-49) in that department.

UW River Falls is a very good and skilled team.  All credit to them.  I'm thinking that they will go pretty deep.  I would guess that 2/3 of their shot attempts were with 5 feet of the basket but when they did take shots from the outside, they made a lot of those as well (6/13 from the arc).

The box score shows 22 successful layups and 12 missed.  So 34 of 57 shots (59.6%) were described as layups in the play by play. 

I'm always kind of curious if the reality of the situation matches our perception of it.  It sure does in this case.

[RogK]

Next fall, the CCIW will feature the return of Carroll University, bringing the number of schools to nine. Women's basketball will have 16 conference games, with some occurring in December. The nonconf schedule will obviously shrink from 11 to 9 per team. On a typical game day in January and February, 8 teams should engage in conf play and the 9th will have a bye. I guess some "bye" teams may schedule a nonconf opponent, but maybe not. I certainly haven't seen a schedule.
A little info about Carroll's WBB : coached by Kris Jacobsen -- she has completed 18 seasons there, quite successful overall, close to 100 games over .500.
This past season, they went 9-14 (23 game regular season for Midwest Conf); their only game vs a CCIW team was a 109-81 loss to North Central.
They had three seniors who played huge minutes, 35-38 per game.
Of the ten freshmen on the '15-'16 roster, six played 36:00 total or less. The four freshmen who got some playing time are :
5'6" Sara Hartl : 21 games, 5.6 minutes avg
5'10" Sarah Benigni : 20g, 13 min avg; appears to be a good rebounder
5'4" Jessica Powell : 19g, 8 min avg
5'10" Brianna Hubbard : 21g, 6 min avg
None of these four scored much, but the sample numbers are small, so it's not clear what they're capable of. (Always use a preposition to end a sentence with.)
The three sophs were all prominent players :
5'8" Rachel Van Sluys : played 5g in November, scoring in the 6-10 pt range, 3 reb avg, made 12/13 FTs; I'm assuming she got injured.
5'6" Brittney Wald : 34 min/g, 10.2 pts avg, 5.3 rebs, .374 2FG, .323 3FG, .621 FT, 29 steals
5'9" Morgan Lund : 19 min/g, 6.2 pts (highs of 19, 18), decent rebounder (68 in 427 min), .440 2FG, no 3FG att, .641 FT (41/64)
The sole junior 5'7" Miranda Goen : 10 min/g
Dubious conclusions based only on stats : Wald and Lund will be relied upon for scoring, but the Pioneers will need substantial contributions from several others. The '15-'16 seniors comprised a big chunk of the offense, so there will be opportunity for others in '16-'17. Nothing at all stands out among the 2015-16 team stats for them or their opponents. OK, maybe they got to the foul line a bit above avg (19/g); opp 2FG % was .468. In recent years, their Pts For and Pts Against have been in the 60s, more or less.

[RogK]

During one of Wheaton's broadcasts, it was mentioned that a sister of (current Thunder WBB player) Jennifer Berg would be arriving in the fall. Sounds like she could make a quick impact.
http://www.pekintimes.com/article/20160225/SPORTS/160229593
The most blocks all-time for Illinois girls -- hmm, we may soon see her among the CCIW leaders along with Kallenberger and Cuny.
Jill's scoring and rebounding ain't bad either.

[Gregory Sager]

It certainly is a distinguished basketball family. Jennifer's and Jill's older brother Michael just completed a solid career as the center on the Wheaton men's basketball team.

[iwu70]

Thomas More to the Final Four again, made it look east over Wash U.  Seems they will go all the way again this year.

IWU'70

[iwu70]

I guess I'll post this here -- not to irritate all the sensitive guys over on the men's board.  You know, they think anything non-basketball is extraneous, of no interest.  (At least I'm not talking about opera!). 

Congrats to the IWU track and field women -- and Coach Shoe -- for placing second nationally in the indoor DIII championships.  Only Baldwin Wallace better.  And, super congrats to Nia Joiner, national champion in the 60 m dash, with a new national championship record for DIII. 

Super performances by the TITAN women!

On to the outdoors!

IWU'70

[Gregory Sager]

I guess I'll post this here -- not to irritate all the sensitive guys over on the men's board.  You know, they think anything non-basketball is extraneous, of no interest.

That is so not true.

[Mr. Ypsi]

I guess I'll post this here -- not to irritate all the sensitive guys over on the men's board.  You know, they think anything non-basketball is extraneous, of no intest.er  (At least I'm not talking about opera!). 

Congrats to the IWU track and field women -- and Coach Shoe -- for placing second nationally in the indoor DIII championships.  Only Baldwin Wallace better.  And, super congrats to Nia Joiner, national champion in the 60 m dash, with a new national championship record for DIII. 

Super performances by the TITAN women!

On to the outdoors!

IWU'70

Mark, once Augie lost, it is officially the off-season for CCIW Chat - anything goes!

I'm trying to decide between a Spinoza quote or something obscure.

[RogK]

How about a look at Augustana WBB for next season?
They lose seniors Marissa Pezzopane (all-conf, top scorer in '14-'15 and '15-'16) and Andrea McNally (injured a lot of this year, but was a good all-around player during her career).
I think the '16-'17 discussion starts with Kaycee Kallenberger, who finished '15-'16 pretty strong : over the final 6 games, she averaged 13.3 pts, 11 rebs, 3.7 blocks, shot 58% 2FG (33/57) and 61% FT (14/23).
Another six-footer to watch could be Carly McCameron, who had 20 blocks and 67 rebs in 250 minutes, both good ratios. Her 2FG% was good, circa 45%. A little improvement on her 45% FT shooting would help round out her game.
Olivia Mayer is a reliably good guard, leading the squad with 80 assists and scoring in double figures eight times.
Augie averaged 4 made 3FGs (Jen Van Watermeulen 34/109 .312, Mikayla Fallon 14/36 .389). Victoria Allen has shot threes at .324 over two seasons, the equivalent of .486 2FG shooting. It's conceivable that Augie could increase its 3FG production in order to strain opposing defenses more.
Nine non-seniors played at least 250 minutes, so there is a decent foundation of experience to build on.
Check this list of the scoring margins in their 15 losses : 3, 6, 11, 6, 5, 7, 5, 9, 23, 3, 21, 7, 22, 13, 10. Nearly all were close games.
I'll say Augie should be able to compete for a CCIW playoff spot, particularly if a few helpful newcomers arrive.
What do you-all think?

[Mr. Ypsi]

D3hoops.com regional awards are up.

Katie McDaniels (Wheaton) is first team and regional POY.
Morgan Harris (Carthage) and Mikaela Eppard (Elmhurst) are both second team.
Liz Rehberger (NPU) is third team.

Congratulations to them!

I'm having trouble deciding whether I should be PO'ed that CCIW co-champion IWU had no players on any of the teams, or honored that they recognized what a TEAM the Titans are.  Perhaps I am just giddy with possibilities, but I am anticipating several winners next year and wondering where the Final Four is being played?  In Mia I Trust!

[iwu70]

Ypsi, stick with Spinoza..  I'll stick with opera and the next IWU Yao Ming.  I'm glad to hear Greg is still a Renaissance man.  LOL.  Just wanted to give a good shout-out to the IWU track and field women.  Many great performances all year.  Nia Joiner totally awesome.   Hope the team can go one better at the outdoor nationals. 

Yes, off season -- time for IWU softball, baseball . . .and the Cubbies in the World Series.   I haven't quite got my head around Lacrosse yet.   I'm heading for the golf course in May with Spencer -- playing all those lovely courses all around Bloomington/Normal.  My Yankees are just now coming out of assisted living to play in Spring training.

Yes, I think the future of the IWU women's basketball program is pretty bright for the next two years with McGraw and Ehresman . . . and the other newbies coming up. 

Be well, all Chatsters, and have a good summer.

IWU'70

[Gregory Sager]

Uh-oh. Look out, world, iwu70's discovered the bold font button.

[iwu70]

Long ago, Greg!

Happy Off-Season.

'70

Be thankful I didn't discover too too much Spinoza. 

[GoPerry]

Pat/Dave:  Are we going to have to wait until after April 4 for the Womens D3Hoops All American team selections?

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Pat/Dave:  Are we going to have to wait until after April 4 for the Womens D3Hoops All American team selections?

No... they should be released on Wednesday.

During the men's run to Atlanta in 2013... we actually featured them on Hoopsville the Thursday following the Salem weekend. While that sounds like a lovely idea this time around as well, today has been anything but smooth for the Hoopsville show (12-plus hours putting together, encoding multiple times due to failures/crashes, uploading, and processing)... so I am glad we aren't going that route this time.

Again... should be released Wednesday afternoon, I suspect.