WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[lmitzel]

North Central is up at Stevens Point tonight. They're winning the rebounding battle, which is nice, but have a ton of early turnovers and are down 22 in the final minute of the first half.

[lmitzel]

Final from last night: UWSP 95, NCC 72

Cardinals committed 26 turnovers and were down 26-7 after one quarter, but bounced back pretty well after that and, even though they lost by 23, they kept the margin around that most of the night, even pulling within 13 after three quarters. 11 points apiece for Mayson Whipple and Shannon Ryan, 10 for Selena Juarez (which I'm pretty sure is a career high).

Alarming stat which really concerns me: NCC shot 10-23 at the free throw line last night. They've had some struggles at the line all year so far (60.9 percent for the season, when in prior years they've been in the 65-68 percent range). I know free throws aren't a focus in The System, but when you get those opportunities... you kinda need to make the most of them.

[badgerwarhawk]

Carroll: 43
WARHAWKS: 65

Carroll started the game sinking 3 three pointers and with an 11-1 run.   The WARHAWKS finished the quarter with a 13-3 run of their own and settled the game in the second quarter outscoring the Pioneers 25-9.  The lead reached a high of 26 points in the third quarter before bench players took over. 

Carroll dressed eight players for the game.  After hitting 3 of their first 4 three point attempts they made only 1 of the next 16.  Their guards really struggled with the WARHAWKS defensive pressure committing 30 turnovers which included 14 steals and surrendered 29 points.  Brittney Wald led the Pioneers with 13 points and 6 rebounds though she also committed 11 of the turnovers.  Carroll is just not good. 

The first seven WARHAWKS averaged 16 minutes of floor time and the lineup was dominated by other substitutes early in the third quarter.  By the end even our radio guy had trouble identifying players on the floor having never seen some of them before. The WARHAWKS travel to Augustana on Tuesday.  I know that they are much better so it should be interesting.

[RogK]

Thanks for the detailed game summary, badgerwarhawk!
Imitzel, how does NC score only 7 in that 1st quarter? Bus lag?
As you pointed out, their FT pct was not good. 60% for the season is tolerable (just barely), as it get you a decent amount of points per possession. Closer to 70% should be achievable.
NC would like to take 65 or 70 threes in each game, but most opponents guard the 3-line tightly enough to discourage that many tries. So, NC does end up attacking the basket more, yielding many FT attempts in some games. This can secondarily work to their advantage if key opposition players get in foul trouble, although a strategy of trying to induce fouling by specific opponent players is often dubious because you end up blowing possessions via offensive fouls or forced shots.

[lmitzel]

Thanks for the detailed game summary, badgerwarhawk!
Imitzel, how does NC score only 7 in that 1st quarter? Bus lag?

I'm going to chalk it up to looking ahead to their trip to Hawaii next week not taking care of the ball against a Top 25 team. After that first quarter they played well, so maybe bus lag? I don't know.

As you pointed out, their FT pct was not good. 60% for the season is tolerable (just barely), as it get you a decent amount of points per possession. Closer to 70% should be achievable.
NC would like to take 65 or 70 threes in each game, but most opponents guard the 3-line tightly enough to discourage that many tries. So, NC does end up attacking the basket more, yielding many FT attempts in some games. This can secondarily work to their advantage if key opposition players get in foul trouble, although a strategy of trying to induce fouling by specific opponent players is often dubious because you end up blowing possessions via offensive fouls or forced shots.

I think the attempt number is a tad high. When I first found out NCC was going to The System Caoch Roof told me they were gunning for 45 attempts a game. Average is probably in the 50-60 range, even with defensive adjustments. What helps is having point guards who can penetrate and get layups, which is why Mayson Whipple (and Bobbi Johns before her) have been so valuable.

[RogK]

Here's a little look at which players are frequently getting to the foul line. I decided to limit it to those who had at least 3 FT att per game played by the team. Also, I arbitrarily imposed a minimum of .15 FT att per minute.
AUG Kaycee Kallenberger .187 per min
AUG Mikayla Fallon .152
CRL Caylee Koker .164
CTG Morgan Harris .159
ELM none
IWU none
MIL Emily Schultz .217
MIL Yanni Saddler .151
NCC Diamond Calicott .287
NPU Liz Rehberger .181
WHE Katie McDaniels .197

[RogK]

Millikin's game at Wash U St Louis has been postponed to another day.

[Gregory Sager]

As North Park prepares to take on Illinois Tech down at 30th and Wabash this afternoon, I decided to check out the roster of the Scarlet Hawks -- and I got a strong feeling of déjà vu. Then it struck me that some of these names were the same as the names I called when I did the play-by-play for the women's soccer match between the Scarlet Hawks and the Vikings that was played at NPU this fall. Lo and behold, seven of the twelve Scarlet Hawks who will face the Vikings on the hardwood this afternoon also faced the Vikings on the pitch two months ago today!

I'm impressed that Illinois Tech has so many student-athletes who are competing in two sports that have back-to-back seasons. But, given the specialization that is now customary among athletes, having a team that consists of that many two-sport athletes does not bode well for the Scarlet Hawks in terms of basketball. It's therefore not a surprise that they are 0-6 this season, with their last contest being a 79-19 loss at MSOE three days ago.

[iwu70]

IWU routs Chicago, 79-52 at The Shirk.

Ehresman 18
McGraw 16
Merritt 11
Shanks, the freshman, 11
Kelly 10

Run and Jump doing it's dirt, forcing 38 Chicago TOs.  Titans outscored Chicago 30-7 in the 4th Q to pull away easily.

Titans now 4-3, 1-1. 

Heading south soon after Christmas to face #4 Thomas More, the defending DIII champions, currently undefeated at 7-0, and a game in Ohio too, at Wilmington College. 

Happy holidays to all the Titans -- rest up after Finals, get ready for the rest of the CCIW season.  It's going to be tough.

IWU'70

[iwu70]

Correction:  Titans now 5-4, 1-1. 

'70

[Gregory Sager]

Probably the less said about NPU's 86-33 road win over Illinois Tech, the better. But I'll say some stuff, anyway. Emmy Gryna, the freshman from Wheaton North, had her best day as a collegian, leading the Vikings with 17 points, mostly off of 5-8 shooting from beyond the arc. Shaylee Sloan, whom I think is going to have to be a key player in order for the Vikings to make any headway this season, had a nice 11 and 13 double-double and was a perfect 5-5 from the field. Amani Davis had her usual strong floor game, notching a 7:1 a:to and coming up with four steals.

[RogK]

As one of a select few who attended the NP / IIT contest, I'll submit a few comments, per Greg's nonrequest (ha). First, North Park was very nice to IIT. Had NP decided to press them, the Vikings could have easily ran up 130 points or more. Second, Liz Rehberger could've scored 35 or 45 and picked up 8 or 10 or 12 steals, had she been turned loose; she wasn't turned loose, so this game hurt her per game stats. Not something to be too worried about, but I'm just advising our readers that her usual productivity was absent by design.
North Park committed 17 turnovers, but quite a few involved disrupted efforts to get the ball to players who normally don't see many scoring opportunities.
The trio of Vikings listed by Greg certainly played well. I'll also applaud Hannah Rehfeldt, who was left open by IIT numerous times and could've sank an additional number of threes, but she literally passed on the chance and instead fed others.
IIT has maybe two or three players who'd get part-time duty on some CCIW rosters. Their team is of below-average height and basketball skill, but I give them credit for trying. Never much fun for winless teams. As Greg mentioned earlier today, a bunch of 'em are multi-sport participants and are presumably keeping up with IIT's respected academic demands.

[Gregory Sager]

That's true. And if the rules were suddenly changed prior to the opening tip and players were no longer allowed to use their hands, NPU would've been in big trouble.

[RogK]

Fortunately, no such revision occurred, nor was any scoring called back due to offsides.
That was quite a 4th Q smashing of U-Chicago by IWU, 30-7... wow.
Other CCIW results :
Elmhurst was up 50-48 early in their 4th Q, but then jumped ahead of UW Platteville for a 73-61 final. Mikaela Eppard had 22 pts, 13 rebs; Hannah Lipman had 9 defensive rebs.
Augie (9-0) had minimal trouble at Central College (Pella IA) and won 81-59. Augie scored 36 from 2FGs, 21 from 3FGs and 24 from FTs.

[lmitzel]

The NCC women have been enjoying Hawaii for the last few days, getting some beach time in, taking in a luau, pregaming for the beach with McDonald's, but I have heard no word about the legendary 1 liter Mai Tais I encountered on Maui on my honeymoon. (Then again, they're in Honolulu, so that's probably why). But they begin the Hoops in Hawaii Holiday Classic tonight against Chapman University at 5:00 Hawaii time (9:00 here). I can't find anything about a video feed for the game, much less a stats feed. Hopefully something will pop up between now and then.