WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

You deranged Cub fans may enjoy this shot I took from the bleachers in 2015 :
https://www.flickr.com/photos/148978073@N04/35940536780/in/album-72157680111303920/
the end of this game :
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN201508240.shtml
-

Nice shot, Rog! A Bryant walk-off HR!

Lost in the fold there was a Hector Rondon blown save lol

No, Lester gave up the lone Indians run on Santana's RBI single, and then Rondon came in to face the next batter.

[duckfan41]

You deranged Cub fans may enjoy this shot I took from the bleachers in 2015 :
https://www.flickr.com/photos/148978073@N04/35940536780/in/album-72157680111303920/
the end of this game :
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN201508240.shtml
-

Nice shot, Rog! A Bryant walk-off HR!

Lost in the fold there was a Hector Rondon blown save lol

No, Lester gave up the lone Indians run on Santana's RBI single, and then Rondon came in to face the next batter.

Just jumped to the conclusion seeing that Rondon ended up being the winning pitcher. My bad!

[RogK]

Incidentally, I've been in Wrigley exactly once since that game, for a tour in 2017.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

My best experience ... Game 3 of the 2003 NLDS. Called in some favors that a lot of people in the TV sports world owed me .. and didn't know until I picked up the tickets, but I was ten rows behind home plate to watch Mark Prior deal against the Atlanta Braves. I was a couple rows behind Brian Urlacher and a few in front of my idol Ryne Sandberg.

It was my first game ever under the lights (we moved before they went up).

I also had tickets lined up for Games 3, 4, & 5 at Wrigley ... for that year's World Series. Four seats.

[npbaseball40]

I feel like I need to apologize for starting a wildfire of a baseball discussion on a women's hoops' board... but I just can't bring myself to do it

[Gregory Sager]

LOL!

[iwu70]

You are lucky Greg didn't attack you and mock you for posting baseball items on a basketball board.  I guess it's alright on the women's Board, heh?  Or if he's doing it!  But not on big boys board!   LOL

Hypocrisy reins.

Dare I post something about men's basketball here . . . -- Go TITANS, beat Augie!

Have a great weekend, everyone.  Already TGIF in Hong Kong!

'70 

[Gregory Sager]

I don't know why I'm even bothering to respond to your diatribe, Mark, but the direction of the baseball conversation has been pretty obvious. There was an invitation to cite within CCIW basketball history an example of an MOP being won by a last-place team. I responded to the question in extensive detail, on both the men's side and the women's side, with regard to how the MOP has been distributed over the years. That was germane, and very much in keeping with both the question and with the subject matter of this room.

The Cubs illustration was simply the best example I could find of a last-place team having a player who won an MVP or MOP award. Hypocritical? Hardly. It not only illustrated the point, it didn't involve drawing another CCIW sport that has its own board into this board. I didn't cite examples from CCIW baseball (that was npbaseball40 who brought up Zach Hofer of Elmhurst winning the 2009 CCIW POY award, not I), nor did I cite examples from CCIW softball, CCIW men's or women's soccer, CCIW football, CCIW wrestling, etc., either. I used major-league baseball. A grand total of six different posters besides me have kept the major-league baseball discussion going ... and that includes your IWU classmate as well as this site's proprietor, who actually revived the discussion after it had gone dormant with his quip about the '87 Cubs without Dawson finishing in the American Association. And that's hardly unusual, either; you've been around CCIW Chat long enough to know that we've had dozens of discussions about major-league baseball there over the years (typically, but not always, during the off-season). Again, that's not a case of a CCIW sport being brought into a different CCIW sport's discussion board.

I'm sorry that you felt put-upon enough to lash out like that, but your attempt to play "gotcha!" falls wide of the mark.

[GoPerry]

Dare I post about CCIW Women's basketball by congratulating Augustana's Izzy Anderson (3.77 GPA, major in Biology/Psychology), Wheaton's Hannah Frazier(3.72, Math) and Carthage's Sammie Woodward (4.00 Exercise and Sport Science) for their selections to the First Team Academic All District team.

https://academicallamerica.com/documents/2019/2/21//Acad_BasketballW_2018_19.pdf?id=2971

[Mr. Ypsi]

You are lucky Greg didn't attack you and mock you for posting baseball items on a basketball board.  I guess it's alright on the women's Board, heh?  Or if he's doing it!  But not on big boys board!   LOL

Hypocrisy reins.

Dare I post something about men's basketball here . . . -- Go TITANS, beat Augie!

Have a great weekend, everyone.  Already TGIF in Hong Kong!

'70

Mark, I'm surprised Greg let you off the hook for this.  Most IWU grads know the difference between 'reins' and 'reigns'!

[Gregory Sager]

Truthfully, I'm trying to ease off of Mark a bit, Chuck. I didn't want to rub his face in it.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Greg, good for you.  When some alien attacks my classmate, I have to back him up.  But since I voted for him every time he ran for a student office Lo these many years ago, I earned the right to mock him whenever he screws up!

[npbaseball40]

There was an invitation to cite within CCIW basketball history an example of an MOP being won by a last-place team. I didn't cite examples from CCIW baseball (that was npbaseball40 who brought up Zach Hofer of Elmhurst winning the 2009 CCIW POY award, not I)

Guilty, on all accounts.

Back to hoops: No matter the result for tomorrow night's game, I'm looking forward to NPU competing with Wheaton. The Vikings were blown out of the water by the Thunder, 32-81, at home, but bounced back on the road to lose by just 5 points a month and a half later. NPU was also up 18-0 in the first quarter before scoring just 5 points in all of the second quarter.

Wheaton posted 9 threes in the first matchup and 10 threes in the second. With the obvious height advantage going to the Thunder, if the Vikings can continue to defend well in the paint and carry that pressure to beyond the arc, they may have a chance.

It's been fun to watch NPU get some wind behind their sails to make this run and I'm hoping they pull off the upset tomorrow night.

Greg, what's your synopsis?

[Gregory Sager]

The Vikings have got to find a way to slow down Hannah Frazier. Easier said than done, of course, since she's the best player in the league. But she's been able to do her thing with impunity both times that the Park has played Wheaton, in part because NPU's bigs are all freshmen and are still learning how to defend without fouling. It's one thing if Matti Zander or Josie Summerville fouls Frazier; it's another thing entirely if Jayla Johnson, who is especially foul-prone, fouls Frazier, because Jayla is far and away NPU's best scorer and Amanda Crockett badly needs her on the floor.

The Vikings rang up that big early lead at Wheaton a few weeks ago by being aggressive on the dribble, running the floor, and playing fearlessly even when they made mistakes. They should have no trouble getting some of that mojo back, because: a) they're playing with tremendous confidence right now; and b) they're playing with house money, since two weeks ago nobody expected them to be in the conference semis and right now nobody expects them to be able to beat the #21 team in the nation. But they've got to keep that confident attitude even when things go wrong and Wheaton makes runs (which Wheaton most certainly will). NPU withstood Augie's run at the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth the other night, but Wheaton is decidedly a step or two up from Augie.

The other thing that the Vikings are going to have to do is mix it up and hit enough jump shots to make Wheaton play them honestly on the perimeter. Otherwise, Wheaton will just clog the lane to prevent Newsome, Molloy, and Alba Garner from driving and will use all of those long arms of theirs to lose Johnson and Summerville in a forest of limbs. NPU is the worst team in the league in terms of shooting treys, but the Vikes have shown glimpses in recent games of getting better from the outside. They're going to need some of that tomorrow night.

[GoPerry]

Jenn Berg's last game before getting injured was 1/12 vs Elmhurst.  The Thunder lost their next game @ Augie and they were likely still acclimating to a new rotation when playing their next game vs NPU.  That was the first game where Kirsten Madsen significantly soaked up those lost minutes (Jill Berg also injured then)  from 2-3 mins/game to probably 20-25 mins since then.  Madsen has fit in well, helped in running the floor, and giving Wheaton an additional outside shooting threat.  But it also means that the lineup is not at all deep, 7 players really, and that could bite them sooner or later.

Wheaton can't take a confident Viking team lightly and need to come out ready to play.  Otherwise, an NPU squad playing with little to lose will be dangerous – (their youth might benefit them in that situation).