WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[GoPerry]

While Mayson Whipple is out, I imagine that Caroline Heimerdinger (currently 11.3 min per game) and Lyndsay Brennan (9.7 min / g) can take over most or all of Whipple's minutes; from what I've seen, they have the athleticism for playing a lot at a fast pace. Likely a 3rd player will handle some of the dribbling duties, but not sure who. We'll see, eh?
Very incidentally, last night I saw North Central's Strength of Schedule improve -- attended Benedictine's 60-49 win at Dominican.

Yes, I believe Heimerdinger will end up taking over the starting duties with (I think?) Shannon Ryan coming in on the first line change, though they'll share time with Lyndsay Brennan as well. While it'll be hard for them to replace Whipple's ability to hit off-balance scoop shots, they're all good at getting to the rim. It'll be an adjustment to be sure, but it'll also be a good opportunity to see what's available at that spot. From the limited action I've seen, all three have been pretty good this season.

And one by-product of the system is that the efficiency(or inefficiency for that matter) of any one player is somewhat muted since most are averaging less than 15mins/game.  It's sort of basketball's version of portfolio diversification.  So while there's little doubt Coach Root would love to have Mayson healthy and playing, I would thing that their style of play makes it less difficult(still difficult, just less difficult) to replace her.

[iwu70]

Final from the Griz -- IWU over MU 81-74 in a hard-fought game.

A tremendous line for Ehresman -- 26 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists and NO TOs.  She's playing so so solid. 
Maddie Merritt with a break-out game, 23 and 6
Others, 8, 8, 7, and 7

Y. Saddler for MU with 23.

IWU goes to 2-1 in the CCIW, 7-5 overall.  Big game up next with WC at The Shirk.  IWU needs that one badly.

IWU'70

[GoPerry]

Wheaton 80
Augustana 69

This is a nice win to pick up for the Thunder on the road in Rock Island.  It wasn't the prettiest game as Wheaton struggled from beyond the arc (3/15 for 20%).  A good number of their 22 turnovers were from just plain carelessness and not necessarily from the Augie pressure defense.   It allowed the Lady Vikes to stay within striking distance.  It is a real bonus for Wheaton to have a veteran like Ellie Zeller back in the lineup, a former 1st and 2nd team all-conference player who adds senior leadership on the floor.

For Augustana, sophomores Corrie Reiley and Izzy Anderson are both very good players and it is puzzling to me why they don't start or play starters minutes.  They were only averaging 23 and 24 mins/game coming in and I can easily see closer to 30 mins being warranted.  Perhaps coach Beinborn really favors seniors like Mayer and Fallon?  Reiley and Anderson played 28 and 29 mins tonight so maybe a change is coming.  The Vikes are a better team with those 2 sophs on the court in my opinion.

Katie McDaniels   19 pts, 3asst
Ellie Zeller  14pts, 3 rebs
Kelly Lawson, 12 pts, 5 rebs

Corrie Reiley  16 pts on 5/10 ( 3/7 from 3pt), 4 rebs
Izzy Anderson 13 pts, 4 assts, 3 stls
Kaycee Kallenberger, 13 pts, 16 rebs, 3 blks

[Gregory Sager]

The Vikings drop another one, this time on the road at Carthage, 65-50. NPU is really struggling right now.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

The Vikings drop another one, this time on the road at Carthage, 65-50. NPU is really struggling right now.

Maybe if they changed their nickname to Cardinals...

[Gregory Sager]

If NPU changing to the Cardinals and North Central changing to the Vikings would do the trick on Saturday when the Park travels to the airplane hangar in Naperville, I'd be all for it.

[iwu70]

So impressed with how well and how consistently Rebekah Ehresman is playing right now.

That line vs. MU was something:

26 pts. 7 rebs, 6 assists, 2 steals and NO TOs.   I think she's overall IWU's top rebounder. 

As mentioned, a real break-out game for Maddie Merritt too -- with 23 and 6.  Shooting a high % from the charity stripe. 

Keep it rolling TITANS -- get Molly McGraw back on track. 

Let's beat WC this weekend. 

IWU'70

[lmitzel]

Pretty much all according to plan up in Waukesha, as the Cardinals knocked off Carroll 117-86. They were up 62-40 at the break and were able to get a lot of their end of the bench players some game experience. Paula Zerante had 22, Miranda Grizaffi buried six three's for 18, Natali Dimitrova put up 12, and Michaela Reedy and Diamond Calicott each scored 10. Jamie Cuny only played six minutes and scored two points (at the free throw line), but blocked three shots in that time frame. Given the margin, I can't blame Coach Roof, and most of the rest of the regular forwards played limited minutes (10 for Sterling, 5 for Juarez, 9 for Calicott).

I have a little more faith in the upcoming game against North Park given Greg's pessimism North Park's struggles, but the memories of Liz Rehberger going off last year are still fresh and are probably what scares me about this game.

[RogK]

Imitzel, you were right about Shannon Ryan taking over 1/3 of the point guard duty.
I wonder if the 120 FG attempts by NC last night set a CCIW record.
A few other stats that "caught my eye" : Carthage's Autumn Kalis was 6-for-6 at 3FGs; Wheaton's Jill Berg had 10 rebs in 14:00; Millikin's Mikayla Gilbert made 8/8 2FGs.
While looking here to see if team FG att were listed, :
http://www.cciw.org/custompages/CCIW_Links/WBasketball/History/WBB_Records.pdf
I noticed that Millikin's Devin Curry set the all-time league record (minimum 30 att) last season for FT% during conference play, .939 (31/33). Retroactive congratulations to her!

[lmitzel]

Imitzel, you were right about Shannon Ryan taking over 1/3 of the point guard duty.
I wonder if the 120 FG attempts by NC last night set a CCIW record.
A few other stats that "caught my eye" : Carthage's Autumn Kalis was 6-for-6 at 3FGs; Wheaton's Jill Berg had 10 rebs in 14:00; Millikin's Mikayla Gilbert made 8/8 2FGs.
While looking here to see if team FG att were listed, :
http://www.cciw.org/custompages/CCIW_Links/WBasketball/History/WBB_Records.pdf
I noticed that Millikin's Devin Curry set the all-time league record (minimum 30 att) last season for FT% during conference play, .939 (31/33). Retroactive congratulations to her!

If I had to guess... probably? 120 field goal attempts is the second-highest mark in program history, trailing only the 131 they put up last season against the late Principia College team, and the D-III record is 134. Not every school tracks field goal attempts as a record (read: I started alphabetically with Augie and they didn't have it, so I said screw it), and trying to find anyone putting up more than 120 shots is going to be hard.

[RogK]

Question for Greg : I'm assuming you'll attend the multi-gender double header of North Park at North Central tomorrow evening. Can I count on you joining me at the 1pm Olivet Nazarene women at Roosevelt contest? The 3:40 Metra would get us to Napertown at exactly 4:37.
Or would there be a risk of brain damage if one witnessed up to 600 points within eight hours?

[Gregory Sager]

Actually, my plan is to attend the Wash U @ Chicago men's game earlier in the afternoon before heading out to Naperville.

[RogK]

No "must wins" this early in conference play, but the following W-L records will be set by Saturday's results :
AUG remains 3-1, CRL 1-3 or 0-4, CTG 4-1 or 3-2, ELM 2-2 or 1-3, IWU 3-1 or 2-2, MIL 2-3 or 1-4, NCC 3-2 or 2-3, NPU 2-3 or 1-4, WHE 4-0 or 3-1.

[RogK]

Of course, when I say there are no "must wins" at this point of the season, you know I'm not a coach.

[GoPerry]

For the Wheaton ladies, a win tonight at IWU will create some early separation at the top of the standings.  A key to the game will be the Thunder ability to limit turnovers against the Titan pressure which has been forcing 25 turnovers/game.  Wheaton has been in a habit lately of turning the ball over in the 20+ range and they really should be better than that.  Plus, the Titans are more likely to make them pay for the mistakes they got away with at Augie and earlier games.   I don't think this is a must win game for IWU but I'm sure Coach Smith believe this is a home W they really need to have.