WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[lmitzel]

Bad outing for NCC out in Rock Island as they got romped by Augie 94-55. The Cardinals committed 22 turnovers and hit just 5-23 from beyond the arc. Maya Walls was the only Cardinal in double figures with 10 points. Augie was led by 27 from Izzy Anderson, Alexis Jones added 19 and 10 birds off the bench, and Scooter Lopez had 15 points and 8 assists.

Like Rog said, NCC is in a big hole at 2-5 with Elmhurst looming (twice in the next week and a half, even). But the more time has passed, the less North Central's win over Carthage back in December makes sense. Granted, Maddie Kaelber didn't play that night, but still.

[RogK]

lmitzel, I think you owe us (and at least the Western Hemisphere) further explanation of your phrase "10 birds off the bench." I thank you in advance!

[Gregory Sager]

Look at the Cardinals' side of last night's box score, Rog. Exactly ten birds came off of the bench.

[lmitzel]

Look at the Cardinals' side of last night's box score, Rog. Exactly ten birds came off of the bench.

And thus the autocorrect will live on for all eternity.

(Alternatively, I'm considering foreshadowing of my Alfred Hitchcock joke in The Belt^TM thread as my excuse.)

[Gregory Sager]

St. Louis Cardinals = two birds on a bat
North Central Cardinals = ten birds off the bench

[lmitzel]

That "Ten Birds Off The Bench" nickname would have worked so much better in the System years and I'm now upset with myself for not having come up with that intentionally when we were still running it.

[RogK]

made another arbitrarily-delineated statistical study -- players who've played 100+ minutes with a minimum average of .15 FT attempts per minute :
AUG Izzy Anderson .151 FT att per minute
AUG Alexis (10 birds) Jones .169
AUG Justice Edell .197
CRL Rachel Van Sluys .166
CTG none
ELM none
IWU Maddie Merritt .210
IWU Molly McGraw .185
IWU Rebekah Ehresman .168
MIL Jordan Hildebrand .197
NCC Haydn Braun .187
NPU none
WHE Hannah Frazier .169
WHE Jill Berg .186
all teams have played 16 games, so the 100 minutes cutoff affects teams equally (much to their relief, I'm sure).

[RogK]

While preparing the prior post, I observed that the top 7 Millikin players in minutes played have been given about 91% of Big Blue playing time (2906 of 3200). That's quite a concentration.
I think most of the remaining roster members play a decent amount of JV games.

[iwu70]

Titans up in Wisconsin this weekend for a rare afternoon game -- going for 13 in a row.  Women play at 2 p.m., the men at 4 p.m.  A long long bus ride, coming and going. 

The IWU women just keep rolling along . . .

IWU'70

[iwu70]

RogK, don't you need to match your stats with the percentage of making FTs per minute, not just the attempts?  Then I think you'd see the true value of Maddie Merritt.  Just a hunch.

Have a good weekend, everyone.  Friday night already in HK -- long and busy week, much teaching.  I'm bushed, heading home.

'70

[lmitzel]

RogK, don't you need to match your stats with the percentage of making FTs per minute, not just the attempts?  Then I think you'd see the true value of Maddie Merritt.  Just a hunch.

Have a good weekend, everyone.  Friday night already in HK -- long and busy week, much teaching.  I'm bushed, heading home.

'70

I'd say the argument that she gets to the line the best out of any regular in the CCIW speaks for itself. But out of sheer curiosity I went through the numbers. (Made free throw rates in italics)

made another arbitrarily-delineated statistical study -- players who've played 100+ minutes with a minimum average of .15 FT attempts per minute :
AUG Izzy Anderson .151 FT att per minute .130 FT made per minute
AUG Alexis (10 birds) Jones .169 .107
AUG Justice Edell .197 .126
CRL Rachel Van Sluys .166 .083
CTG none
ELM none
IWU Maddie Merritt .210 .178
IWU Molly McGraw .185 .149
IWU Rebekah Ehresman .168 .115
MIL Jordan Hildebrand .197 .132
NCC Haydn Braun .187 .121
NPU none
WHE Hannah Frazier .169 .154
WHE Jill Berg .186 .121
all teams have played 16 games, so the 100 minutes cutoff affects teams equally (much to their relief, I'm sure).

Which I guess does show the value. Add in that Merritt is fifth in the conference in free throw percentage and tied for the most attempts among that group... that's pretty good. And for what it's worth, Izzy Anderson and Hannah Frazier are the only two higher on the percentage list this season.

[RogK]

I think the FT att per minute stat tells us that these players are among the most assertive in terms of driving to the basket. Obviously, someone can get fouled not driving to the basket, but I don't think there is anyone currently in the league who frequently gets fouled in those other circumstances. (OK rogk, define "frequently") Incidentally maybe someday we'll see a player who is good at getting fouled while shooting threes?
I was also a little surprised that Mikaela Eppard and Morgan Harris didn't reach the "per minute" cutoff, because they do attempt several FTs per game; but they play big minutes.
It is also unknown if some of the players on the list could sustain the per-minute rate if playing 30 or 35 minutes per game.
lmitzel, thanks for figuring the makes-per-minute for these players. That could be a separate league-wide analysis, too. Devin Curry comes to mind : she makes .111 FTs per minute but hasn't missed enough additional attempts to reach .15 att per min.

[Gregory Sager]

Posting up has a lot to do with FTs per minute, too, Rog. Bigs who can and do play with their back to the basket -- and who play on teams that regularly try to feed the post -- are going to go to the line whether or not they ever use dribble-drive.

[RogK]

I sit corrected.

[RogK]

The CCIW non-conference schedule concludes this evening as Wheaton hosts NAIA Trinity Christian College (from south suburban Palos Heights). The Trolls are 9-11, but have won four of their last six. Their average score is 69 for and 73 against. They are averaging -12 rebounding and +5 for turnovers.
I forget if Wheaton's status within the NCAA tournament consideration would be affected by a game vs an NAIA opponent.