WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[AndOne]

... says the guy who went somewhere other than a CCIW school for his college education.

Hey, he just wanted to be out on the plains, man ...

... says the guy who went somewhere other than a CCIW school for his college education.

Even though, coming out of Glenbard West, I was highly coveted by all the CCIW schools save the one in North DuPage  , I was a kid who felt the need to broaden my horizons and escape the environment he grew up in. That plus I didn't want my mom asking if I was coming home every weekend! The CCIW schools were just to close to home. Alas, I was enticed by The Pleasure Capital of the Plains, and journeyed off to Lincoln and NWU some 525 miles from home. 

[AndOne]

Who doesn't?

"O" Street in Lincoln. 😊

[iwu70]

In my earlier post about IWU, I forgot entirely about A. Schneider as one of the top returning Titans.  My bad.   So an update:

PG -- Munroe -- perhaps backed up by Fr. Catie Eck or Fr. Caylie Jones -- both with strong HS careers, resumes.
2 -  Sosa
3 -  Anderson/Shanks
4 -  Schneider and Hughes
5 -  Merritt / Brovelli

We'll see about the others, and the other two freshpeople.  I wouldn't be surprised at points for Merritt and Brovelli to be on the floor together, other times when Mia goes speed and pressure and neither of them are on the floor.  Key likely still is how IWU finds a reliable and consistent PG to replace Ehresman. 

IWU'70

[iwumichigander]

Who doesn't?

"O" Street in Lincoln. 😊

looks a lot like the "L" "I" "N" and "C" streets 😃😄

[AndOne]

Ya, but O Street is Lincoln's Main Street, and the hub of downtown activity. 😏

[lmitzel]

So 7 possible NCC returnees won't be doing so.
By far, the biggest loss is Maya Walls who started 24 of 25 games, and who led the team in rebounds while finishing second in scoring.

Congrats to new coach Maggie McCloskey-Bax for being able to persuade the 8 newbies to stick with their previous commitments and enroll at NCC. After finishing 5-20 (3-13) last season, opportunity abounds in Naperville. 🏀

I don't know if there was an error initially or what happened on the site, but Maya Walls is back on the roster now. I was surprised she originally wasn't, since I saw her in a photo with teammates at the Huddle the athletic department throws at the beginning of the year.

[AndOne]

A very welcome "addition" to the Cardinals roster. 

[RogK]

the new North Park roster is up :
https://athletics.northpark.edu/roster.aspx?path=wbball
ten newcomers and five returning

[RogK]

No Elmhurst roster yet. Tethnie Carrillo has had 6 or 7 consecutive years enjoying the development and performance of excellent low-post scorers Mikaela Eppard and Fiona McMahon.  I'm not sure there is a similarly reliable post scorer this season. It will be interesting to see how Elmhurst's offense evolves this year. I don't expect them to rely a lot on 3FG shooting.

[RogK]

Here is the '18-'19 Augustana roster :
https://athletics.augustana.edu/roster.aspx?roster=168&path=wbball
Lots of depth, including many seniors and juniors. Not that any should be guaranteed X number of minutes of playing time. I'm all in favor of using freshman if they're good.
With their depth, Augie need not worry about foul trouble, so I'd think they could play a style that yields a high quantity of possessions for them and the opponent.

[iwu70]

IWU roster up too.  A very experienced returning group.  Some interesting newbies -- four in all.  I expect a very competitive year, with the Titans again contending for the CCIW championship.  In Mia we trust. 

Key will be finding the proper roles, the proper mix -- with 8-9 very experienced returnees.  I'd expect a big big year from Raven Hughes.  And, better interior D, paint scoring from Merritt and Brovelli.  Probably some needed 3 point shooting output from somewhere . . . and Munroe perhaps coming into her own as the PG, replacing Ehresman.  We'll see.  There are others who may be tried in that role too.  Shanks and Hughes returning from injury. 

Looking forward to another very interesting year of women's hoops at IWU and in the CCIW.

'70

[RogK]

To refresh your memory, iwu70, your Titans have at least three players on this year's team who can shoot 3FGs very well. Last season, Munroe hit 24/63 for .381 (equivalent of .571 2FG%), Sosa made 23/59 for .390 (equivalent of .585 2FG%), while Anderson sank 54/138 for .391 (equivalent of .587 2FG%).
There could be additional long-range shooters among the newcomers.
I wish all D3 teams had 6 or 7 or 8 good (33% or better) three point shooters. Defenses have it way too easy as things are now.

[iwu70]

RogK, thanks for the reminder.  Yes, those returnees are pretty good beyond the arc and I'm sure we'll have some pop from the perimeter this year.  Perhaps others from the newbies as well.  Just didn't feel that any of those three were really 3 pt. specialists as we've had in the past on several very successful Titan teams.  I met several of the freshmen recently, and they are very impressive, motivated and being brought in . . along quickly, by the veterans.  Perhaps several will see PT as "run and jump" can be personnel intensive.  And, they get varsity experience early and often.  It will be interesting to see how Hughes and Shanks come back from injuries.   Looking forward to the new energy, the new mix, and the creation of a new team dynamic in the post-Ehresman, post-McGraw era at Shirk and beyond.  As I've mentioned, I'm very optimistic given all this experienced talent returning.

'70

[RogK]

I'm not quite sure what "3 pt. specialist" would mean, but I decided to dig a little and found that Nina Anderson's (single-season) 54 made threes rank tied for 11th in IWU history.
https://static.iwusports.com/custompages/WBB/CAREER-W/HTML/HISTSEAS.HTM#S03-point_field_goals
Slightly under 2 per game for her, while others (Heydorn in particular) have averaged 3 makes per game. I guess it also matters which players, if any, have a "green light" to shoot threes whenever they see a good opportunity. We as fans never know exactly what instruction players have received.
Are there 2 pt specialists? Are there 0 point specialists?
Outside the context of IWU and D3, there was maybe one player per NBA team who was considered a 3 pt specialist in the early years of the NBA three point shot. If I recall correctly, many teams didn't want anyone to shoot a 3 unless the team was down by 3 in the last minute of a game. Check 1980 to 1987 on this list :
https://www.basketball-reference.com/leaders/fg3_yearly.html
Mike Bratz's 57 led the league one year for an 82 game season!
Then it slowly dawned on the NBA coaches that, "hey, you know what, we can use those 3 points earlier in the game, maybe at 8:19 of the 2nd quarter." It was then OK for guards to shoot threes whenever. Nowadays, of course, we have tall players who can shoot threes and drive to the hoop. Kevin Durant for example is basically impossible to guard because of that combination of height and varied scoring ability.
It's 4:36 a.m. here; going back to sleep.

[lmitzel]

I'm not quite sure what "3 pt. specialist" would mean

Um... basically everyone who played for North Central between 2012-13 and 2016-17? 

But in all seriousness, you'd probably have to look at attempts. The conference ranks the top 15 in percentage every year, and of the leaders, the person with the fewest attempts was Augie's Izzy Anderson with 69 last year. Nine of the 15 on the list hoisted at least 100, so you're looking at four a game. I think four a game is probably a good benchmark to consider, but you'd also have to look at total shot attempts as well. To go back to the Nina Anderson example, she took 138 threes out of 204 total shot attempts. I'd consider just shy of 70 percent of your shots coming from behind the arc a three point specialist, though for some players to just consider them three point specialists may be a disservice to the remainder of their game.

Are there 2 pt specialists? Are there 0 point specialists?

So... post players and defensive specialists?