WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[lmitzel]

I know this got brought up over on the men's board as well, but I wanted to post it here too. Starting next year the CCIW Tournament will expand from four to six teams. The plan would be to have the current Tuesday of regular season finale games be when the #3 and #4 seeds would host the #6 and #5 seeds, respectively, with the winners heading to the #1 seed's building for the usual 1-4/2-3 games on the Friday and title game Saturday.

I'm just curious to see how they'll adjust the regular season schedule to still fit the 16 conference games. Add one more December date?

[Gregory Sager]

No, that won't be necessary. This month the NCAA convention voted to bump up by a week the starting date for the D3 schedule for both men's and women's basketball, from November 15 to November 8.

[lmitzel]

No, that won't be necessary. This month the NCAA convention voted to bump up by a week the starting date for the D3 schedule for both men's and women's basketball, from November 15 to November 8.

Yeah, but adding that week on the front end doesn't change that they're playing what will become the quarterfinal/"play-in"/whatever games on the day that is currently the last day of conference play. I don't know where they're planning to shift that day to if the plan is still to do three December dates, because there's only 14 Wednesday/Saturday's in January and February to work with.

After the fact edit: just quoting Greg's post from the men's board that should solve the issue.

In other words, there's now an entire extra week in mid-November to schedule games, so adding a fourth CCIW date will be easy.

[Gregory Sager]

Yeah, I worded that improperly when I was editing my post. What I meant to say was, "No, it won't be necessary to squeeze in an extra game in November and December, because this month the NCAA convention voted to bump up by a week the starting date for the D3 schedule for both men's and women's basketball, from November 15 to November 8. That will allow the CCIW to add a fourth date in December without disrupting the schedule." Too much editing on the fly!

[iwu70]

IWU over NCC at the half, 56-21.  Cruising.

Samantha Monroe with a career night -- 17 first half points with 5 treys.  Another freshman.

'70

[iwu70]

Titans, cruising.  Season high 108 points.  IWU 108 NCC 54

56%, 43% from 3, all 13 TITANS on the roster scoring in this one.

Munroe (career high) 21, 5 treys  (she's the heir apparent for Ehresman), great foot speed.
McGraw 17
Hughes 13
Merritt 13
Sosa 10
Anderson 9

For NCC:
Whipple 11

Titans move to 16-2, 9-0.

'70

[GoPerry]

Thunder with easy win over Augustana 79-57

Hannah Frazier led the way once again with 27 pts, 7 rebs, 2 stls in only 27 mins of playing time.  Maggie Dansdill finished 1 rebound short of a double/double with 18 pts, 9 rebs, 3 stls.  Devin Kyler with 10 pts, 7rebs.  I thought Augie at home would be a tough one, but the Lady Thunder controlled pretty much from start to finish.   Lady Vikes have trouble overcoming the size disparity to compete with Wheaton.

Clare Kramer led the scoring for Augie with 13 pts, 5 rebs followed by Izzy Anderson (12 pts, 4 rebs).  Alexis Jones had 10 pts with 4 rebs.  Thunder were well under their blocked shots average with a mere 3.  8 game winning streak now that must continue in Decatur on Saturday.

[Gregory Sager]

Carthage 77
North Park 51

Clarissa Ramos: 13 pts
Brie Lippert: 12 pts, 3 stls
Sinead Molloy: 6 rebs, 3:1 a:to
Alicia Arnold: 3:1 a:to

Madie Kaelber: 19 pts, 4 stls
Sammie Woodward: 12 pts
Morgan Harris: 10 pts, 12 rebs
Rachel Sydlowski: 10 pts, 6 rebs
Bailey Gilbert: 10 rebs
Maggie Berigan: 8 rebs

[iwu70]

The Titans sure can score the basketball -- 108 points tonight.  You don't see that very often in the women's game.

Keep it rolling TITANS -- no let down.  Hope everyone comes out, opens up their wallets, for the PINK Zone game at home next up, vs. NPU.  Good basketball, a very good cause.

Sure do love those IWU freshmen.

'70

[lmitzel]

The Titans sure can score the basketball -- 108 points tonight.  You don't see that very often in the women's game.

'70

Granted it was all during the System Era, but lest we forget, these two teams hold the record for highest scoring game in CCIW history (234 points), and I'm pretty sure NCC holds the record for high score in a losing effort (113, twice to IWU). I got spoiled for a few years with Big Mac games.

Alas, last night went about as well as expected. I think NCC had 23 turnovers at halftime or something in that ballpark.

[GoPerry]

I know it's way too early to start talking regional rankings, but those matter a lot more than the Top 25. Your Titans will probably be pretty high in the Central in two weeks when the first set drops, barring them coming down to earth a little bit.

lkely Titans will be high in regional rankings which is important even if they wn the AQ (in terms of hosting).
  '70 and Ypsi note the Top 25 but it is much more difficult to rise in the women's than men's.  You just do not see losses on the women's side compared to the men's .

I'm not sure that any men's team this year would win the national title in most past years (no truly dominant teams), yet there may be as many as 25-30 teams that if they get hot at the right time could make it to Salem.  There just isn't that quantity of talent in the women's game.  By the Elite Eight there may well still be 2-3 undefeated teams (in mid-January there are already only 2 undefeated men's teams).  Only a relative handful of women's teams (including, IMO, an under-ranked  Titan squad) have any realistic shot at the Final Four.

I dearly love women's basketball, but will love it even more when:
  a. a sufficient number of talented players bring more parity to D3, and
  b. the CCIW women start earning and getting the national respect that the CCIW men receive!

I'm not sure what it would take to upgrade the conference talent but it would be nice to see.   A lot of the same recruiting factors that make the men competitive (solid academics, location, good schools) exist for the women.  But if the overall pool is smaller then maybe the CCIW schools actually are getting their fair share?

Despite the strength of the McDaniel's led Wheaton teams of the last few years, I was never confident of their chances in the NCAA simply because the lack of strength in CCIW competition hardly prepared them to play much tougher teams in the post season.  They did play some tough non-con games, but those were done by Christmas.   Even this year, I wouldn't think that Mia Smith or Kent Madsen believe winning games by 25, 30 or more are great prep for games in March.  It would be a challenge to keep your team from believing they're better than they actually are ( an occasional occurrence on the forum boards I would say ).

[Hoosier Titan]

Even this year, I wouldn't think that Mia Smith or Kent Madsen believe winning games by 25, 30 or more are great prep for games in March.  It would be a challenge to keep your team from believing they're better than they actually are ( an occasional occurrence on the forum boards I would say ).

You can move a Midwesterner out East, but you can't keep her from watching basketball, apparently. Still keeping up with the CCIW via the Internet.

I'm quite sure Mia Smith would like to play more games against national competition--hence the annual Wash U/Depauw/IWU/someone else early tournament, and the games against WIAC teams. It's why the Titans usually end up with more early losses compared to teams above them. This year's Titan team looks really good; it's rare to see so many first year players  so poised. I do share the concern about unrealistic expectations for the postseason, particularly with so many young players (and some posters!).

[Gregory Sager]

I know it's way too early to start talking regional rankings, but those matter a lot more than the Top 25. Your Titans will probably be pretty high in the Central in two weeks when the first set drops, barring them coming down to earth a little bit.

lkely Titans will be high in regional rankings which is important even if they wn the AQ (in terms of hosting).
  '70 and Ypsi note the Top 25 but it is much more difficult to rise in the women's than men's.  You just do not see losses on the women's side compared to the men's .

I'm not sure that any men's team this year would win the national title in most past years (no truly dominant teams), yet there may be as many as 25-30 teams that if they get hot at the right time could make it to Salem.  There just isn't that quantity of talent in the women's game.  By the Elite Eight there may well still be 2-3 undefeated teams (in mid-January there are already only 2 undefeated men's teams).  Only a relative handful of women's teams (including, IMO, an under-ranked  Titan squad) have any realistic shot at the Final Four.

I dearly love women's basketball, but will love it even more when:
  a. a sufficient number of talented players bring more parity to D3, and
  b. the CCIW women start earning and getting the national respect that the CCIW men receive!

I'm not sure what it would take to upgrade the conference talent but it would be nice to see.   A lot of the same recruiting factors that make the men competitive (solid academics, location, good schools) exist for the women.  But if the overall pool is smaller then maybe the CCIW schools actually are getting their fair share?

I think that that's the case. Adding to this is the fact that the women's game has less parity and more lopsidedness than the men's game, which, as you pointed out, is a fact that the CCIW shows in microcosm. That makes the CCIW's talent pool look even smaller, because the lion's share of the talent tends to be concentrated in two or three teams, meaning that if you're looking at the league as a whole there are plenty of times when you'll watch games between two CCIW teams that really aren't very good at all -- and that's very rarely the case in the much more balanced men's side of things.

Another factor is that I think that D3 women's basketball is more eastern-oriented on the whole, or at least nationally balanced, whereas the midwestern states seem to play the best brand of D3 men's basketball on average. It always seems like the usual suspects from the midwestern portion of D3 women's basketball go deep into the tourney -- Wash U, DePauw, UW-Whitewater, Hope for awhile, and now St. Thomas as well. The Ohio-to-Minnesota pool of solid-to-strong programs is much deeper on the men's side. Heck, the D3 women's Final Four hasn't had more than one midwestern team in it for a full student class cycle of four years now -- and in 2015 there weren't any at all (which, given bracketing in D3, is actually pretty hard to do).

You can move a Midwesterner out East, but you can't keep her from watching basketball, apparently. Still keeping up with the CCIW via the Internet.

I'm quite sure Mia Smith would like to play more games against national competition--hence the annual Wash U/Depauw/IWU/someone else early tournament, and the games against WIAC teams. It's why the Titans usually end up with more early losses compared to teams above them. This year's Titan team looks really good; it's rare to see so many first year players  so poised. I do share the concern about unrealistic expectations for the postseason, particularly with so many young players (and some posters!).

Great to hear from you again, Linda!

[Enginerd]

Even this year, I wouldn't think that Mia Smith or Kent Madsen believe winning games by 25, 30 or more are great prep for games in March.  It would be a challenge to keep your team from believing they're better than they actually are ( an occasional occurrence on the forum boards I would say ).

You can move a Midwesterner out East, but you can't keep her from watching basketball, apparently. Still keeping up with the CCIW via the Internet.

I'm quite sure Mia Smith would like to play more games against national competition--hence the annual Wash U/Depauw/IWU/someone else early tournament, and the games against WIAC teams. It's why the Titans usually end up with more early losses compared to teams above them. This year's Titan team looks really good; it's rare to see so many first year players  so poised. I do share the concern about unrealistic expectations for the postseason, particularly with so many young players (and some posters!).

FYI - Rose-Hulman has been added as a permanent 4th school for the Midwest Classic.

[RogK]

Elmhurst 76, Carroll 42 --
Bluejays Kaela Jones and Georgia Garvie each scored 18 and shot very well. Mikaela Eppard played only 24 minutes and scored 14.
Delaney Sjong had 10 rebs for the Pioneers. No Pioneer scored more than 7.
Carroll's offense has managed 42, 46 and 36 in recent games, reminiscent of last season. Things looked a lot better earlier in the season, but perhaps fatigue and/or nagging injuries are taking a toll.