WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[RogK]

Incidentally, I hope no one interpreted my previous post as blaming NC's newcomers for the loss. Nearly all of NC's veteran players came up short, result-wise, as well. The effort was good, but...
That said, many coaches probably think it's unwarranted/dumb/foolish to give substantial playing time to your 11th best or 20th best player, and everyone in between, against a strong opponent like RHIT. This is a fair criticism of NC. If NC shows steady improvement through the season, then the on-court experience pays off. We'll see.
Elmhurst held another opponent to a very low output (42 pts) and improved to 6-0.
Augie topped Webster 82-69 and is 4-0.
Amanda Kelly missed only 2 shots while leading IWU with 19 pts in their win over Illinois College; she also had 4 assists and 3 steals.
Carroll lost to Calvin, using only 7 players in the process. One positive for the Pioneers is that they grabbed 15 o-rebs.

[lmitzel]

Incidentally, I hope no one interpreted my previous post as blaming NC's newcomers for the loss. Nearly all of NC's veteran players came up short, result-wise, as well. The effort was good, but...
That said, many coaches probably think it's unwarranted/dumb/foolish to give substantial playing time to your 11th best or 20th best player, and everyone in between, against a strong opponent like RHIT. This is a fair criticism of NC. If NC shows steady improvement through the season, then the on-court experience pays off. We'll see.

I didn't get to see any of the game, but I didn't take your post that way at all. I was shocked to see a score for North Central that low, but it's a risk of The System. When you live by the three, you die by the three, and 7-30 won't get it done against most teams.

I didn't realize Jamie was hurt and was going to miss this game, but that's a huge loss for them. Her presence when she came to North Central a couple years ago really changed the dynamic of the press. In the one game I was at so far this season she cheated up much of the time she was out there, but normally she's playing safety, and after a couple blocks on the back end teams start to shy away from layups and start taking six footers which eventually start to become ten footers. Anita Sterling can do similar things with drawing charges, but losing your best safety hurts a lot. Jamie probably wouldn't make up a 24 point difference, but suffice it to say that it would have been significantly closer had she played.

[lmitzel]

Adding onto the point about playing the freshmen a lot, I pretty much agree on all fronts. Playing that style, you have to get pretty much everyone into the action just to give your starters and second unit a breather. Those freshmen though are adjusting to a style of play they haven't played before, and it's going to take a little time for everyone to get comfortable with it. They're also going to do better than 7-30 from deep most nights (and those 30 attempts are very low for North Central; it's usually at least 50). It makes me a little nervous for conference play, but this is a team that can rise to the occasion. Give them time to gel and get experience, and they'll be a tough customer in January and February.

[Gregory Sager]

Jamie probably wouldn't make up a 24 point difference, but suffice it to say that it would have been significantly closer had she played.

I don't think that I'd include the adjective "significantly" in that sentence. Cuny's a good player, but RHIT features very smart and creative ballhandlers who didn't need to get to the rack to score. All day long they were banking in six- to ten-footers; I've never seen a team use the square on the backboard so effectively for lining up their shots. And they have great size as well -- a strong 6'3 player, a star 6'1 player, and very good 5'11 and 5'10 starters -- so Cuny wouldn't have simply just had her way on the boards.

Even with Cuny in uniform for NCC, that would've been a comfortable win for Rose-Hulman. As Rog said, it's easy to see why the Engineers were the unanimous #1 pick in the Heartland preseason poll.

Adding onto the point about playing the freshmen a lot, I pretty much agree on all fronts. Playing that style, you have to get pretty much everyone into the action just to give your starters and second unit a breather. Those freshmen though are adjusting to a style of play they haven't played before, and it's going to take a little time for everyone to get comfortable with it.

True, but as Rog also pointed out, the veteran Cardinals didn't play very well yesterday, either.

They're also going to do better than 7-30 from deep most nights (and those 30 attempts are very low for North Central; it's usually at least 50).

Give the Engineers credit for that. The shocking 60-34 rebounding bulge in favor of RHIT explains why NCC only got off 30 trey attempts.

It makes me a little nervous for conference play, but this is a team that can rise to the occasion. Give them time to gel and get experience, and they'll be a tough customer in January and February.

No doubt. One bad game isn't the end of the world, and the Cardinals are clearly going to be a dangerous team in CCIW play.

[lmitzel]

Jamie probably wouldn't make up a 24 point difference, but suffice it to say that it would have been significantly closer had she played.

I don't think that I'd include the adjective "significantly" in that sentence. Cuny's a good player, but RHIT features very smart and creative ballhandlers who didn't need to get to the rack to score. All day long they were banking in six- to ten-footers; I've never seen a team use the square on the backboard so effectively for lining up their shots. And they have great size as well -- a strong 6'3 player, a star 6'1 player, and very good 5'11 and 5'10 starters -- so Cuny wouldn't have simply just had her way on the boards.

Even with Cuny in uniform for NCC, that would've been a comfortable win for Rose-Hulman. As Rog said, it's easy to see why the Engineers were the unanimous #1 pick in the Heartland preseason poll.

Maybe I'm drinking too much of the Kool Aid, but I'm going off of what I noticed from Years One and Two in The System and the past two-plus. Having Jamie anchor the press changes things a lot. Even if RHIT was banking home those 6-10 footers, Jamie alters a lot of those. My "significantly" descriptor was figuring maybe another 8-10 points, maybe more, but again, I'm a homer.

Looks like no Jamie again today, which will make it tough for this game against Manchester just getting underway up at North Park.

[lmitzel]

Final: NCC 116, Manchester 72 (edited because North Park's stats page had a hiccup and I wasn't sure if Manchester's last basket was counted on there or not)

No Jamie Cuny, no problem. NCC takes care of business against a team it should beat, hitting 17 of 49 threes and forcing 43 turnovers. Jessica Dahle led the team with 12 points, Anita Sterling added 11 on a perfect 3-3 shooting plus 2-2 at the line, Siarra O'Neill added 10 points, and Kelly Wallner had a career high 9. Dahle also added six steals for the Cardinals. Manchester got 14 apiece from Minehart and Bolen.

[Gregory Sager]

Rose-Hulman 59
North Park 55

Liz Rehberger: 17 pts, 7 rebs, 3 stls
Amani Davis: 4:2 a:to
Shaylee Sloan: 3 stls

North Park was up by as much as 13 in the first half and had an eight-point lead at halftime at 30-22, but RHIT is too good a team to bury. The Vikings suffered a disastrous third quarter in which their excellent defense from the first half fell apart; the Engineers more than doubled their halftime score, outdistancing the Vikings, 24-9, for the quarter. Although the Engineers were up by nine at one point in the final quarter, NPU did manage to hang tough, cutting the Rose-Hulman lead to two on a couple of occasions late in the game, but the Vikings never quite got over the hump.

Tough loss, but nobody expected the Vikings to go undefeated this year. Truth be told, I'd rather they fall a bit short in a game against a team this good than romp over a St. Mary's or an Illinois Tech in a game in which nobody in an NPU uniform is really pushed. This game will stand the Vikings in good stead later on, as RHIT is very comparable to a top-level CCIW outfit.

[RogK]

Can't add anything major to what Greg said. North Park is surely disappointed to drop that one. I'd say they did quite well overall, with helpful contributions of one kind or another from everyone who played.
As for the NC game, I'll supplement Imitzel's summary by saying I thought the Cardinals' point guards did very fine work pushing the pace; the shortage of assists on their stat lines is not indicative of how they played.
A couple of very tight losses elsewhere in the CCIW. Carthage used a 29-17 4th Q to tie the U of Chicago at 69. The Maroons ended up winning in OT. Madie Kaelber's 28 pts led the Lady Reds.
Washington U (St Louis) edged Illinois Wesleyan 87-86. Molly McGraw supplied 33 pts for the Titans.
Carroll made 25/50 2FGs and nabbed 16 0-rebs, but got topped by Finlandia 77-68. For Carroll, Brittney Wald scored 24 and had 4 steals. Three others scored in double figures, including Morgan Lund who also had 11 rebs.

[Gregory Sager]

Carroll might be hard put to scrounge up a win this season. Finlandia looked like the best bet for a Pioneers W, especially since the two teams met twice, but the Daughters of Sibelius won 'em both, by five and by nine. Carroll's other losses have been by 27 (St. Norbert), 27 (Franklin), 45 (Chicago), and 39 (Calvin). The Pioneers have UW-Oshkosh (preseason #14, currently 3-0) and UW-Whitewater (preseason ORV, currently 6-0) left on the non-conference docket, and you know that the Pioneers are not going to be competitive in those games.

Since the Pioneers only scheduled 24 games for this season, that leaves the CCIW as the most realistic venue for a Carroll win. However, while I make no claim to have an informed opinion on the other eight CCIW teams (other than the three that I've seen live), my initial surmise is that there's a pretty big gap between Carroll and everybody else in this league. My guess, albeit on limited information, is that a Carroll win in league play would be a pretty remarkable upset.

That's a shame, because I hate to see teams go winless, especially when it's a blown-out-every-game kind of winless.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Carroll might be hard put to scrounge up a win this season.

Kinda looks that way.  Though I'll be generous and give 'em two wins somewhere or other.

I preferred the eight team CCIW (though if they HAD to expand, Carroll was probably first choice).  At least for now, they have weakened the CCIW in football and women's bball (MAYBE strengthened us is men's bball).  I checked the Carroll website but short of checking every sport individually saw no way of seeing their general quality.  Do they have any athletic strengths?

[Gregory Sager]

It's hard to say. Carroll was good at most everything by MWC standards, but MWC standards are not CCIW standards. Last year Carroll was third in MWC all-sports rankings on the men's side, and first on the women's side. The year before they tied for first with Grinnell among the men and were first among the women. The year before, third and tied for second.

Oddly enough, however, the only sports in which Carroll actually won the MWC over the past three years were men's golf last year and men's soccer (tied with Lake Forest) back in 2014-15.

(BTW, this is your early Christmas ypsi, Chuck. )

[lmitzel]

Carroll might be hard put to scrounge up a win this season.

Kinda looks that way.  Though I'll be generous and give 'em two wins somewhere or other.

I went back to look to see if this has happened before. The last team to go 0-for the CCIW was Augie back in 2006, and has happened nine times total. NCC came close back in '11-'12 and was spared that fate by beating Augie in the regular season finale. That season was... not fun.

But it just goes to show how hard it is to go 0-for the season. I'd have to think they'll steal at least one somewhere.

[RogK]

Congrats to Mikaela Eppard, new CCIW Player of the Week.
Elmhurst's 5 leading scorers are Mikaela, Kaela, Kalia, Hannah and Michaela.

[RogK]

Millikin cruised past MacMurray 88-53 on Monday. Yanni Saddler (5'5" soph) had 7 rebs and 26 pts. As a freshman in '15-'16, her scoring high was 8. Some of her season totals were 50 pts and 37 rebs in 230 minutes. She is clearly being relied upon much more this year and no doubt improved her game during the offseason.
Through five games, Millikin is shooting .441 on 2FGs, .405 on 3FGs and .775 at the foul line.

[Gregory Sager]

Through five games, Millikin is shooting .441 on 2FGs, .405 on 3FGs and .775 at the foul line.

I'd be more impressed by this if MU's first five opponents hadn't consisted of four SLIAC teams and a MWC team. The Big Blue's OWP is a beyond-anemic .316.