WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Ultimate Titan Fan]

The Titans dominated the first 7 minutes against Carthage; it looked like it was going to be a complete blow out. But Carthage kept its composure and battled their way back into the game. At one point, I thing they were up by 5 or 7. Sosa put on a shooting clinic in the last three minutes to save the Titans, including one of the most crazy, off-balance shots I've ever seen in b.b.

[Gregory Sager]

Having attended the NC-NP matchup, I won't add much to what Greg wrote. NP performed well defensively, for example limiting Walls and Dimitrova to 9 pts in a combined 66 minutes.

To be fair, I thought that there were stretches when Maya Walls did a good job of guarding Jayla Johnson when NCC was in man. And since NPU is increasingly looking to Johnson to get the job done for them, that really slowed down the Vikings. But the Cardinals spent the entire second half in the 2-3, which made matters moot as far as the defensive performance of Maya Walls was concerned. I wish that NPU had worked harder to find ways to use Johnson against that zone. Nevertheless, Amanda Crockett did identify one player for NPU, Angelina Villasin, who is creative enough to make things happen in the high post against the zone, even if she does lack the kind of size that you usually look for in a high-post zonebreaker.

[Titan Q]

The IWU/Carthage finish was pretty crazy.

IWU controlled the game until late in the 3rd Q.  IWU was stuck on 43 points from 2:44 in the 3rd to (43-37, up 6) to 6:05 in the 4th (43-50, down 7) -- 13-0 Carthage run over 9 minutes.

IWU trailed 56-47 w/ 4:33 to play in the game. The Titans outscored Carthage 15-5 the rest of the way. Kendall Sosa had 10 of the 15 and Sydney Shanks had the winner.  Video of winning shot - https://twitter.com/iwusports/status/1203488961131417600?s=20.

Certainly a big win for the Titans.

[iwu70]

Kendall Sosa is money . . . and truly some of the wildest, off-balanced shots I've seen in roundball, too.  I only smile and say "there she goes again." . . .   

'70

[RogK]

Congrats to Jordan Hildebrand for CCIW Player of the Week. She did well in Millikin's win over Wheaton.
Autumn Kalis excelled in a pair of games, so she gets mention here too.

[RogK]

Incidentally, one of Millikin's possible achievements this season may be that, by the end of the season, we may not think their December defeat of Wheaton was an upset.
We'll see how it all goes.

[Gregory Sager]

Congrats to Jordan Hildebrand for CCIW Player of the Week. She did well in Millikin's win over Wheaton.
Autumn Kalis excelled in a pair of games, so she gets mention here too.

I'm very disappointed that Jayla Johnson of NPU didn't get the nod for POW. That's not to take anything away from Jordan Hildebrand's performance on Saturday, as she had a double-double in that big upset win for Millikin over nationally-ranked Wheaton. But she only played in one game last week. And, yes, Autumn Kalis had a fine week as well with a 22 and 8 against Elmhurst followed by a 27 and 7 against Illinois Wesleyan. But her team went 1-1 last week, and a loss is almost always the death knell to any hopes a player might have for winning the POW.

Meanwhile, all that Jayla Johnson did was come close to what would've been the craziest and most impressive triple-double combo I've ever heard of with 25 and 10, plus 8 steals, in a road win against Carroll and followed it up with an 18 and 9 in NPU's win over North Central.

Frankly, big upset or not, I think that you have to post outrageous numbers to claim POW if you're only playing one game in a week in which all eight of the other teams in the league are playing two. Hildebrand had a terrific game, but 18 and 10 isn't in outrageous-numbers territory. Yes, I'm biased, but I think that they muffed this one.

[iwu70]

Good points, Greg.  Agree with you on the POW selection misfire.  Kalis had a great week too. 

MU looks pretty real to me now . . . I'm sure it's only because of Olivia Lett's coaching, right?   OK -- LOL. 

Looking forward to MU vs. IWU and WC vs. IWU to see where we all are in the women's race.

'70

[iwu70]

IWU over WI-Point 73-61.  Titans leading most of the way.

IWU:
Brovelli with a monster game, 21 and 15
Sosa 13
Lansford 12
Monroe 9
10 pts. off the bench from Eck and Bowen

For Point:
Baehman 22
Collins 11

Titans now 8-2, 2-0.  Augie up next in Rock Island on December 15th.  I think finals first.

Keep it rolling TITANS . . . a great season in the making.

IWU'70

[Mr. Ypsi]

New poll is out.  IWU edges up from 23 to 22.  Wheaton falls out, retaining only 12 points.  Mildly surprised that Millikin (now 7-1 and the reason Wheaton dropped out) received zero votes.  They're dissin' Olivia Lett!

[iwu70]

Chuck, I think MU still has a ways to go to prove itself, prove it is for real, Olivia Lett notwithstanding.  We'll see as they face more CCIW top-tier games. 

Brovelli greatly improved this year.  If she can keep this up, average a double double, 10 and 10 or better, the Titans are going to be a very good team.  They have all the excellent perimeter shooters and good slashers in Shanks, Sosa, Lansford and Munroe, so this team could be really good.  Eck and Bowen making contributions now.  Heller too, in time.   Some great challenges upcoming in the normally tough schedule.  Good game vs. Point.  I'm looking forward to the games vs. MU, WC, NPU and Mary Hardin . . .  all good tests.

Happy holidays to you, Ypsi, and all the other CCIW chatsters.   All best for the New Year from the Far Side. 

'70

[GoPerry]

Notwithstanding Saturday's win I would stop short of saying Millikin is worth any top 25 votes.  Neither team distinguished themselves much – the score at end of regulation was 54-54.  The Big Blue ended up 24-65(36.9%), 3-16 from three(18.8%) and 15-19 (78.9%) from the free throw line and 19 turnovers.  Those sorts of #s and 54 pts won't win you too many games. 

Still, having seen them play, I stand by my comment that they are better than last years team that only won 4 league games.  They've already matched their 7 win total from last year.  Plus, they are a very young squad playing lots of freshman minutes.  So I don't think they'll be among the top two or three teams by the end of February but they won't be dead last like before either.  As I said in my post, I think they're legit to make it into the CCIW tournament which would be solid progress indeed.   

It's not uncommon for a new coach coming to a struggling program to recruit and play a few more sophomores and freshmen in the first few seasons hoping to build up to an experienced winning team in years 3 and 4 with lots of returning experienced players.  I'm not saying that's what Olivia Lett has in mind but it might work out that way since she only has one senior on the roster, G Briana Anthony.

If anything Millikin will be an interesting story to follow this season along with the still improving and young North Park.

[RogK]

Katie McDaniels played 34.5 min/g as a freshman in '13-'14, leading a 19-7 team. And freshman Chantal Meacham averaged 24.2 min that year. Freshman minutes can be very positive for a team.
If Coach Lett brings in another good bunch of newcomers next fall, things will look quite good for Millikin.
In regard to whether they deserve any top 25 votes yet this season, a few more wins will help their case. I have no idea how teams currently getting scattered votes rate vs Millikin. The top 25 should measure what has been accomplished in 2019-20.
Carroll heads to UW-Whitewater today. The Pios are 2-5, but have "been in" most or all of their losses. Their biggest losing margin was only 15, at Ripon. Carroll will need top production from everyone tonight.

[Gregory Sager]

Not that it means anything at this early point in the season, but this is where the CCIW teams rank on Massey:

team	overall rank	SoS
Illinois Wesleyan	17	6
Wheaton	53	58
North Park	66	242
Millikin	80	212
Augustana	87	23
Carthage	95	69
North Central	183	84
Carroll	202	54
Elmhurst	204	79

(For the sake of perspective, there are 443 teams listed by Massey for D3 this season.)

Granted, Massey's database lacks the sort of connectivity here in mid-December that gives anything more than rudimentary accuracy. Nevertheless, you can see why I've been so cautious about making pronouncements regarding both NPU and Millikin thus far this season. Of course, NPU is going to find out where it stands in very short order; within the next three weeks the Vikings are going to play Wheaton (#53), Hope (#1), and Loras (#12).

[RogK]

At least all 9 CCIW teams are well within the top half of D3.
Greg, do you know if "their own games" are excluded from the SoS computations? For example, North Park is 7-0; are those 7 losses by opponents excluded from NPU's SoS?
NP's SoS shouldn't be diminished by games NPU won.