WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[iwumichigander]

Ypsi, SIU-E is where Coach Smith played and starred.  I think Lett transferred from SIU Carbondale, but I could be wrong.

IWU @D1 EIU tonight -- exhibition:  EIU 86 IWU 82

Starting:  Munroe, Shanks, Schneider, Merritt and Anderson.

Sosa 18
Hughes 15
Anderson 15
Schneider 12
Shanks 11

For EIU:

Grace Lenox 22

Seems IWU playing lots of folks, and, as would be expected not shooting a good % from 3 to start out.  But FG % at 46%.  FTs 18-22. 

EIU basically played only five, with only one other player playing more than 10 minutes.  Heavy minutes on the starters.

Seems IWU gave them a real good game.

Up next SIU-E on the 5th.  A good full test of exhibitions. 

I think Coach Smith is going to have trouble keeping Hughes and/or Sosa out of the starting line-up.   Riches of talent in the rotation.   IMHO.

IWU'70

Lett did transfer to IWU from SIU-Carbondale

[GoPerry]

The 2018-19 Wheaton squad is a very solid team with plenty of talent.  The critical question will be how we or who will replace the 20+ pts/game of scoring lost from Dansdill and Lawson graduating.  Besides Hannah Frazier and Devin Kyler, I'm not sure who the next natural scorer is.  I've been hoping/waiting for Jordan Myroth to step up the offensive part of her game after pretty much deferring her first two seasons.  Beyond that there's some question marks that will need answers as the season progresses.  It's not uncommon for one or two freshmen to see the floor for  Wheaton.  It would be nice to get some contribution there.  The Thunder were very good defensively last year and I would expect more of the same.

A very stern test waits for the Thunder tomorrow in welcoming NAIA bound and perennial powerhouse Thomas More, (D3 Hoops #5 Pre-season) and their  1st team All - American Sr guard Madison Temple to King Arena.  Sometimes the "does it all" description gets thrown around figuratively, but not in this case.  At 6'0" Ms Temple led the team in scoring [ 17.9/g ], rebounding [ 7.0/g ], assists [ 5.3/g ], a:to [ 2.7 ], 3pt % [ 62/136, 45.6% ], ft% [ 87.6% ],  is the fastest shoe-lacer-upper and beats everybody at Jeopardy.  I'm wondering if Coach Madsen might go with 6'2" Kyler guarding Temple a few minutes.  Kyler not only has the size but also the mobility that might contain Temple some.  I'm sure the rest of the Saints will be a handful also.

I really like a tough non-con schedule, especially for the women even though leading off with such a difficult opponent can be a blessing or a curse.  It's potentially a significant win to start which might give lots of tailwind to your season.  On the other hand a loss, even against a Top 5 nationally ranked team, still means you're starting out 0-1 and nobody likes that.  I'm reminded of this a couple seasons ago when WC lost an OT game at #1 Hope in the opener.  Win or lose, it will be a good measuring stick for the Thunder to play a team of this caliber that has lost a total of 6 games in the last 6 seasons( not counting their vacated '14-'15 season) with multiple Final Fours and championships.  The Thunder should expect to win and be ready to play from the get go.  Sure they might have to work out some first game kinks but do it quickly because the first game counts the same as the 20th.

Good luck to all.

[iwu70]

Opening Day Games:

Thomas More over Wheaton 71-49

Benedictine over Augie 71-66

'70

[GoPerry]

Thomas More  74
Wheaton  46 . . .  misleading score because it wasn't even that close

Really poor performance by the Thunder.  Wheaton was totally unprepared to play any decently competitive team much less a squad like Thomas More.   Have to start with coaching.  Errors and faults too numerous to delineate.  Lack of scoring a big problem, no hustle, way too many 3s ( and not making them), first free throw not until 3 mins left in 3rd quarter?  Really?  Lackluster defense to say the least.

Thomas More is good and Temple is the real deal – phenomenal finisher.  But Wheaton made the Saints look like the Auerbach Celtics.

[Gregory Sager]

After peeking my head in the gym during a few practices this fall, I finally got my first full-view look at North Park tonight, as the Vikings hosted Edgewood in a five-quarter scrimmage. This is very much a new-look North Park team that is almost completely dominated by freshmen and sophomores. The duo that makes these Vikings go consists of fleet-footed sophomores Lauryn Alba Garner and Zakiya Newsome -- the latter fully healed from the knee injury that shortened her freshman season -- but I think that the player to watch for the Vikings is their versatile 5'7 frosh forward from Wheaton-Warrenville South, Jayla Johnson. I suspect that she is going to lead the team in scoring this season. The 6'0 freshman center from Georgia, Josie Summerville, brings much-needed size to what will either be the smallest team in the league this season or close to it; she grabbed 12 rebounds tonight, and, although she's raw with the ball in her hands, I think that she will eventually round into an effective low-post scorer. Kayla Patterson, a 5'6 freshman from Schaumburg, is the best shooter on a team that doesn't appear to have much in that department. Another guard to watch is 5'7 Jackie Rapp from DeKalb HS, who could develop into a good CCIW player somewhere down the road, although she'll probably be a bit overmatched right now. And the juco transfer, diminutive guard Angelina Villasin, will help right away on a team that is definitely missing quite a bit in terms of experience.

The most improved returnee is Alisha Panthier, who, quite honestly, I never thought would develop into much of a player. She started at center tonight, and, while she's not All-CCIW material, she's no longer a liability on the floor. The Vikings will need good minutes out of her, as, again, size is at a premium on this team. The Vikings will press a lot, I suspect, taking advantage of their best asset, which is their perimeter defense -- between the quickness of Alba Garner, Villasin, and Newsome, and the ballhawking abilities of Sinead Molloy, the Vikings should be able to force plenty of turnovers in the backcourt and in the open floor.

My expectations are realistic. NPU is very young, and the team is probably a shooter or two and another big away from being complete. The Vikings will take their lumps in the CCIW this season. But it feels like a promising new beginning for a program that's really been stuck in neutral for a few seasons now and really needed a personnel makeover. I think that this team will be much better in February than it is right now.

[RogK]

Saw the Wheaton opener, which I expect will turn out to be their worst game of the season. They were "out-quicked," if I can use a term like that.
Thomas More looked especially impressive in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. When they were doing their best, they passed the ball very well. When Wheaton devoted more defensive effort to preventing drives to the hoop, Thomas More swung the ball around quickly and sank several threes.
As GoPerry noted, Thomas More's Madison Temple is really good, a 6-footer with guard skills, strength and agility, a modern positionless player who can do a big variety of things quite well. A lot of other good athletes, tall and medium, on that team, too.
It may take Wheaton a few more games to get things working smoothly.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Madison Temple is in the conversation for national player of the year this season. That's the level she is on.

[GoPerry]

Madison Temple is in the conversation for national player of the year this season. That's the level she is on.

Really good ball handler, passer, point-guard vision, good outside shooter.  Drives the lane well and finishes and/or draws the foul.

I was a little frustrated that Wheaton defenders didn't force her left b/c she was killing them driving right, the side she seemed to favor.  I wouldn't be surprised if she is equally adept left but we never found out.  That plus the Thunder awareness of her to give helping defense (absolute necessity) was pretty lacking.

In any case, agree with Dave.  Talent seldom seen at this level but pretty obvious.

As RogK noted, Saints are good and a better team.  But they aren't 30 pts better - or at least I don't think they are. I guess we'll see.

[RogK]

In their 71-66 loss to Benedictine, Augie shot poorly.
Their 3FG shooting was a bit below acceptable, as they scored 15 pts from 19 shots.
Their 2FG shooting was not good : 32 pts from 50 shots.

[iwu70]

Thanks for all the updates, details.

IWU opens tomorrow, Sunday, against #7 U of Chicago @The Shirk.

'70

[lmitzel]

Good opener in Naperville as NCC beat Knox 62-54. Knox led by a few for much of the way, but the Cardinals took over in the 4th. Alanna Newsome led the was with 17 and 3 steals, Tyonne Howard has 8 points, 7 assists, and 3 steals, and Allison Pearson added 8 points.

This team is going to be so much fun to watch.

[RogK]

Elmhurst topped Aurora 67-56. Becca Gerke scored 13 in 15:00, while Kelly Weyhrich had 5 assists and 9 rebs. The 'jays were whistled for 30 fouls. I'll be interested to see some of their newcomers.

[RogK]

Carroll lost a close one in downtown Milwaukee, MSOE winning 58-56. (that's a really good halftime score -- sorry)
Theresa Wichser led Carroll with a highly efficient 21 pts (6/9 3FG, 3/3 FT).
Katie Rossetti had 9 pts, 7 rebs. Kayla Stefka had 3 blocks and 2 steals, maybe an early indication that she's a pretty good athlete.

[RogK]

Millikin lost 70-64 at Central of Iowa, but got an outstanding debut by Aubrey Staton : 26 pts, 9 rebs, 3 blocks, 2 steals. Yanni Saddler added 14 pts for the Big Blue.

[iwu70]

IWU goes down by one point to UChicago, in a very exciting game.  The Titans had the game won up 3 with about 40 seconds to play, but missed 4 FTs in that last little bit, to let the Maroons back in.  Titans had trouble getting into their offense in the first half, with very tight, good D by Chicago.  Likewise, UC handled the TITAN pressure pretty well, though the Titans did climb back into this game several times.  I'm convinced that as Munroe and Shanks develop as PGs, the Titans will improve greatly.  Seems to me very hard for Mia to keep Raven Hughes and Kendall Sosa out of the starting line-up, likely then with Shanks as the PG, as others suggested earlier.  Give credit to the Maroons for sticking with it and pulling out this win.  Two very good teams, with early season mistakes and rust.  I'll have to see the box to see which team won the TO and rebounding battles.  But, you won't win many close games if you miss FTs, in the final minute or so.  Tough loss, but perhaps these two teams meet again in March. 

Shanks had an excellent game, I think 21 points.  Titans surely need more rebounding from Merritt and Brovelli. 

On to the next very tough game vs. Wartburg, up in Iowa.

'70