WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[GoPerry]

2019 All-CCIW honorees:

https://cciw.org/sports/2019/2/18/WBB_0218194652.aspx

Congratulations to all these young ladies.

[npbaseball40]

2019 All-CCIW honorees:

https://cciw.org/sports/2019/2/18/WBB_0218194652.aspx

Congratulations to all these young ladies.

FWIW, this is the first time NPU women's hoops has had someone honored as the Newcomer of the Year.

[GoPerry]

2019 All-CCIW honorees:

https://cciw.org/sports/2019/2/18/WBB_0218194652.aspx

Congratulations to all these young ladies.

FWIW, this is the first time NPU women's hoops has had someone honored as the Newcomer of the Year.

And quite an accomplishment to receive All - CCIW as a freshman.  Not just Jayla Johnson but also Sierra Grubor( Carroll).

5 seniors, 10 underclassman.  It would've been nice to see NCC's Lyndsay Brennan or Alana Newsome somewhere.  Also, nobody from Elmhurst?   

[Gregory Sager]

Congrats again to Jayla on her well-deserved honors!

This is actually a pretty radical departure from past All-CCIW teams. As GoPerry noted, both Elmhurst and North Central got shut out of the All-CCIW team. While there have been many occasions in which one team got left out, this is the first time I can ever remember two teams being left out. One of the reasons why the All-CCIW team was expanded from 15 to 16 players in various sports was to make sure that teams were able to be represented in a league that had just reverted from eight schools back to nine.

Equally surprising is the teams that got left out. Elmhurst made the CCIW tourney, finishing right smack dab in the middle of the pack in a fifth-place tie with NPU (although the 'jays are seeded sixth). North Central was just a game bahind. Conversely, the two teams that finished in a last-place tie, Millikin and Carroll, are both represented. In fact, Millikin got two players on the team. I'm pretty sure that a last-place team having two All-CCIW players is unprecedented as well.

To sum up, it appears that the coaches have gone with a completely different philosophy than is the norm for All-CCIW teams. They appear to have picked this team solely upon individual merit, with no concern whatsoever for how the teams on which they played fared. It makes me wonder if this is a one-year aberration, or if this is going to be the prevailing philosophy in CCIW women's basketball from now on.

[GoPerry]

Congrats again to Jayla on her well-deserved honors!

This is actually a pretty radical departure from past All-CCIW teams. As GoPerry noted, both Elmhurst and North Central got shut out of the All-CCIW team. While there have been many occasions in which one team got left out, this is the first time I can ever remember two teams being left out. One of the reasons why the All-CCIW team was expanded from 15 to 16 players in various sports was to make sure that teams were able to be represented in a league that had just reverted from eight schools back to nine.

Equally surprising is the teams that got left out. Elmhurst made the CCIW tourney, finishing right smack dab in the middle of the pack in a fifth-place tie with NPU (although the 'jays are seeded sixth). North Central was just a game bahind. Conversely, the two teams that finished in a last-place tie, Millikin and Carroll, are both represented. In fact, Millikin got two players on the team. I'm pretty sure that a last-place team having two All-CCIW players is unprecedented as well.

To sum up, it appears that the coaches have gone with a completely different philosophy than is the norm for All-CCIW teams. They appear to have picked this team solely upon individual merit, with no concern whatsoever for how the teams on which they played fared. It makes me wonder if this is a one-year aberration, or if this is going to be the prevailing philosophy in CCIW women's basketball from now on.

I suppose a "merit only" standard would help explain a few of the surprises.  Personally, I don't think Wheaton merited a 4th spot even though it's not uncommon for the top teams to get that many.  Hannah Williams is a very good player and I'm glad she wears orange.  She's shown potential to put up some large scoring #s but doesn't quite stand out in other areas. When I consider Millikin getting 2 spots, I'd be hard pressed to replace Jordan Hildebrand quite frankly which I somewhat inferred when I made my pre-lim picks last week.  Aubrey Staton didn't make it at all but her performance on the court matches her impressive stats.  But a third MU player?  No way.

Also, Lady Red Madie Kaelber has proven herself a fine player but her scoring was way off this year for whatever reason and I was wondering if she'd even be selected after a '18 first team and '17 second.  I wouldn't be surprised if coaches likely begin with last year's underclassmen selections and then go through a "prove you don't belong again" type of calculus.  I saw evidence of that last year.

[RogK]

Here's an all-CCIW formula that would likely produce better results than the current method.

(A) at least 5 conference wins guarantee 1 player among the 16 spots.

(B) at least 9 conference wins guarantee 2 players among the 16.

(C) at least 14 conference wins guarantee 3 players among the 16.

(D) These "guaranteed" players, named by their coach, are automatically nominated for 1st team, along with 1 each (named by their coach) from team(s) that won fewer than 5 conference games.

(E) At this point, 1st team is voted on, 8 votes by each of the 9 coaches. The MOP would then be elected from among the eight 1st teamers.

(F) The "guaranteed" players who do not make 1st team automatically make 2nd team.*  Players nominated by sub-5-win teams are not among the "guaranteed" group.

(G) There will be a few unfilled 2nd team spots open, with any quantity of nominations allowed by the 9 coaches. Each coach then has as many votes as there are empty spots on 2nd team; this step would probably work best by prohibiting coaches from voting for their own players.

This formula is roughly based on the fact that 4.5 wins are 1/16th of the 72 wins that occur in conference play. I say "roughly" because 4.5 is rounded up to 5 and 13.5 is rounded up to 14.
I don't include anything regarding election of Newcomer of the year.
* I'm pretty sure this would always be less than 8. If anyone can think of a standings scenario that messes up step F, do advise.

[Gregory Sager]

Here's an all-CCIW formula that would likely produce better results than the current method. [snip]

"Better" is in the eye of the beholder. Some people believe that a merit-based system that is completely divorced from the influence of the standings is best.

The opposite argument is raging on the CCIW men's basketball board right now, where some of us are not happy with the fact that the league's second-best forward, who averaged 21.3 ppg, 5.7 rpg, and 3.4 apg in CCIW play, was excluded from the first team -- and the only possibly reason why is because his team finished in eighth place with a 3-13 record.

[lmitzel]

Here's an all-CCIW formula that would likely produce better results than the current method. [snip]

"Better" is in the eye of the beholder. Some people believe that a merit-based system that is completely divorced from the influence of the standings is best.

The opposite argument is raging on the CCIW men's basketball board right now, where some of us are not happy with the fact that the league's second-best forward, who averaged 21.3 ppg, 5.7 rpg, and 3.4 apg in CCIW play, was excluded from the first team -- and the only possibly reason why is because his team finished in eighth place with a 3-13 record.

Yeah, as much as I'm intrigued by Rog's proposal, especially with the bias of "4-12 Millikin got 2 All-CCIW nods while 5-11 NCC got shut out," I don't think it holds water. Can you really say Lyndsay Brennan (averaged an 8-6-2 on 48/40/60 splits) deserves a nod over Jordan Hildebrand (13-8, finished 2nd in the conference in FG% and top 15 in FT%)? Even with red-tinted glasses... I can't make a legitimate case.

All-CCIW is an individual accolade. I kind of get the allure of the better teams having more representation, since in theory they'll have more of the top players, but you shouldn't rob a deserving player because they were stuck on a team that struggled.

[Gregory Sager]

NPU is up on Augie at the half in Rock Island, 27-17. Augie is shooting less than 21% from the field. NPU is led by Josie Summerville with with eight points, while Lauryn Alba Garner and Jayla Johnson each have seven. Augie is led by Alexis Jones with five.

[Gregory Sager]

Carthage leads Elmhurst at the half, 32-31, in Kenosha.

[iwu70]

Congrats to all the CCIW All-Conference honorees.  I was especially pleased to see Raven Hughes selected.

Seems a pretty reasonable slate, all told.

IWU'70

[Gregory Sager]

North Park 63
Augustana 47

[Gregory Sager]

Carthage 61
Elmhurst 53

[iwu70]

Congrats to Carthage and North Park on joining the last four in the CCIW tournament at Wheaton.  '

Come on NPU -- knock off Wheaton! 

IWU'70

[Gregory Sager]

NPU 63, AC 47

Jayla Johnson: 21 pts, 10 rebs
Josie Summerville: 12 pts, 6 rebs
Sinead Molloy: 7 rebs

Izzy Anderson: 12 pts
Scooter Lopez: 11 pts
Alexis Jones: 11 rebs

The Park played a tremendous game at both ends of the floor tonight. Augie only led at 2-0. NPU steadily built up to a 20-point lead at 41-21 at the 3:55 mark of the third quarter on a pair of Jacki Rapp free throws before the hosts made their only serious run of the game at the end of the third and the beginning of the fourth quarters. Sparked by Scooter Lopez and some hot trey shooting -- Lopez hit two from downtown in the midst of some loose-ball confusion -- Augie narrowed the NPU lead down to six at 45-39 on an Izzy Anderson triple with nine minutes to go. But at that point Amanda Crockett called a thirty-second timeout, and whatever she told her troops was clearly the right message. NPU stormed back with a quick 6-0 run over the next two and a half minutes, all on inside shots, and Augie went down meekly from there on in.

Augie had a lot of nice interior looks early on in the first quarter that wouldn't go down, and I think that they let their frustration get the better of them from that point forward. They seemed to force a lot of shots that went too hard at the backboard or the rim. North Park also clamped down nicely on defense -- Sinead Molloy in particular did a fantastic job containing Augie star Alexis Jones all night, holding her to five points (nine under her CCIW average) on 1-10 shooting. At the offensive end, Jayla Johnson was money with the midrange jumper all night, and the Vikes got good stretches from Josie Summerville down in the blocks and Lauryn Alba Garner playing inside-outside. Zakiya Newsome and Jacki Rapp filled in a lot of spots on the stat sheet as well.

This very young North Park team is peaking at the right time. Regardless of what happens on Friday at King -- and I think that we all understand just how steep a hill the Vikes will face -- this is a February surge that this program can build upon.