WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[wbbfan32]

BIG upset tonight up at Wheaton.
Big Blue 69
Wheaton Thunder 67
in OT

I didn't get a chance to see the game, but Lindsay Ippel (my pick as player of the year, in my opinion) led the team with 26 points.  She also led the game with those 26.  She was 16 of 18 from the FT line and hit 2 with one second left to win the game.  I didn't catch much else because I'm surrounded more by MU enthusiasts and barely got a chance to check the box score, but I'm sure it was a great match up.  I just want to get out my opinion, though, that Millikin wouldn't have this lucky chance if they did not have Lindsay Ippel.  I really do believe she is the reason that Millikin has pulled out the wins they have.  But then again I have to say, one person can't play for more than one person.  Anyway, that's my opinion for the night.  Someone that was at the game tonight, how was it?  Was it as close and exciting as I think it was?

[Gregory Sager]

North Park held Carthage scoreless for nine minutes in the second half, sparking a come-from-behind rally for the Vikings that helped them register a must-win against the Lady Reds in Kenosha tonight, 65-56. Laura Mount led all scorers with 17 points, topping four NPU players in double figures. Evie Peterson had 16 points and 7 rebounds, Megan Slattery had 12 and 6, and Shandrel Young added 11 and 8. Shana Lieberman led the Lady Reds with 16 points, while Carlie Janowiak added 13 and Katie Jarger chipped in 10. The win clinches a CCIW tournament berth for NPU, since the Vikings have swept the two fifth-place teams, Millikin and Carthage.

NPU was joined by two other road teams in the winner's circle in the CCIW tonight. As noted above, Millikin nipped Wheaton in OT in the western suburbs this evening, 69-67. Lindsay Ippel, who as noted hit the two game-winning FTs with a second left in the extra session, led all scorers with 26 points and added 8 boards to the Big Blue cause. Joanna Conner had 17 points and 9 caroms, Lindsay Koehn added 11 points and 9 boards, and Laura Zimmerman had 8 points and 10 rebounds. Elizabeth Fox had a great game for the hosts, with 24 points and 9 rebounds. Jill Trenz had 12 points and 11 rebounds, Wendy Woudenberg added 11 points, and Brittany Cooper chipped in 10 points and 9 rebounds.

Illinois Wesleyan was the only CCIW team to hold serve at home this evening, as the Titans steamrolled over Augustana, 81-53, in Bloomington. All five Titans starters scored in double figures, led by Heidi Harnisch with 23 points and 5 boards. Mallory Heydorn added 18 points, Claire Sheehan had 15 and 5, Val Fleishman had 12 and 7, and Katie Blonn had 10 and 6. Augie was led by Megan Skahill with 13 points and 7 rebounds, and Kelly Sikora also scored 13. Nancy Marcum had 11 and 6.

Elmhurst remained the hottest team in the league, knocking off North Central in the airplane hangar in Naperville, 72-65. Aja Terrier led the Bluejays with 19 points and Heather Furr added 15. The Redbirds were led by Brianna Parra with 14. Two Cardinals seniors notched double-doubles in the losing cause, Meghan Young with 13 and 10 and Jenni Norris with 10 and 10.

CURRENT STANDINGS:
Wheaton 9-3
Ill. Wesleyan 9-4
North Park 8-5
Elmhurst 7-5
Millikin 6-6
Carthage 6-6
North Central 5-8
Augustana 0-13

SATURDAY'S GAMES:
North Central @ Augustana
Carthage @ Millikin
Wheaton @ Elmhurst
Ill. Wesleyan @ North Park

MONDAY'S GAMES:
Wheaton @ Carthage
Elmhurst @ Millikin

[Gregory Sager]

Home court has turned out to be a curse for the CCIW this season. Visitors actually enjoy a 26-24 advantage in conference play going into the final six games of the regular season. The curse holds true for the top teams as well as the bottom teams; Wheaton's only 4-3 in CCIW play in King Arena, and Illinois Wesleyan's 3-4 in Shirk Center. Only NPU (5-1) and Elmhurst (4-2) have done well at defending their home floors.

[Gregory Sager]

I'm trying to sort through the possibilities for winning the CCIW title and for hosting the conference tournament. It's incredibly complicated. Let's see if I've gotten it right:

* Wheaton, Illinois Wesleyan, and North Park have all clinched CCIW tournament berths. The fourth and final berth will go to Elmhurst, Carthage, or Millikin, and we most likely will not know which of the three will get it until Tuesday's pair of games is completed.

* If Wheaton wins its final two games @ Elmhurst and @ Carthage, the Wheaties win the CCIW title outright, and the tourney will be held at King Arena.

* If Wheaton splits its final two games, and Illinois Wesleyan loses its finale @ North Park on Saturday, Wheaton wins the CCIW title outright and hosts the tourney.

* If Wheaton loses both of its remaining games, and Illinois Wesleyan beats NPU, Illinois Wesleyan wins the CCIW title outright, and the conference tourney will be held in Bloomington.

* If Wheaton loses both of its remaining games, NPU beats Illinois Wesleyan, and Millikin beats visiting Elmhurst next Tuesday, then the league has tri-champions: Wheaton, Illinois Wesleyan, and NPU. In that case, Wheaton gets to host the tourney by virtue of the head-to-head records between the three champs: Wheaton 3-1, Illinois Wesleyan 2-2, and NPU 1-3.

* If Wheaton loses both of its remaining games, NPU beats Illinois Wesleyan, and Elmhurst beats Millikin, then the league has a four-way tie for the title: Wheaton, Illinois Wesleyan, NPU, and Elmhurst would all finish with 9-5 records. Those four teams would, naturally, constitute the tournament field. Again, Wheaton would get to host the tourney by virtue of collective head-to-head records: Wheaton 4-2, Illinois Wesleyan 3-3, Elmhurst 3-3, and NPU 2-4.

* If Wheaton splits its remaining games, and Illinois Wesleyan beats NPU, then Wheaton and Illinois Wesleyan are co-champs. Deciding which of the two would host the tourney is where it gets complicated in terms of tiebreakers. Both teams would be 2-0 against NPU and 1-1 against Millikin. But right now Wheaton is 1-0 against Elmhurst, and Illinois Wesleyan is 1-1 against Elmhurst. Wheaton is currently 0-1 against Carthage, and Illinois Wesleyan is 2-0 against Carthage. Therefore, let's examine all three permutations of this particular co-champion scenario; Carthage ahead of Elmhurst, a tie between the two, and Elmhurst ahead of Carthage:

-- If Carthage finishes ahead of Elmhurst, Illinois Wesleyan wins the tiebreaker and the right to host the tourney.

-- If Wheaton beats Elmhurst, Illinois Wesleyan beats NPU, Carthage beats Millikin, Carthage beats Wheaton, and Elmhurst beats Millikin, then NPU, Elmhurst, and Carthage finish in an 8-6 tie for third place. NPU is already in the tourney by virtue of having swept Carthage. That NPU sweep of the Lady Reds also propels Elmhurst into the tourney as the fourth team, and Wheaton's sweep of the Bluejays would give them the right to host the tourney.

-- If Elmhurst beats Wheaton, Illinois Wesleyan beats NPU, and Millikin loses either one of their two remaining games, Elmhurst is automatically the third seed and NPU is automatically the fourth seed no matter what else happens. That's because Elmhurst would've split with each of the co-champs, while NPU would've been swept by each of them, guaranteeing that Elmhurst gets seeded ahead of the Vikings if both wind up 8-6 (if Elmhurst finishes 9-5, the point is moot). NPU has swept both Carthage and Millikin, so the Vikings are safely in the tourney even if they end up in a tie for fourth with the Lady Reds or the Big Blue. If Wheaton then beats Carthage to set up the co-champ scenario with Illinois Wesleyan, the tiebreaker again devolves to Carthage and to the tourney thus being held at Shirk.

I think that covers all the possible outcomes.

[Fawkes316]

Sager, I agree with most of what you are saying, but I think there is at least one more scenario.

If Wheaton loses to Elmhurst and beats Carthage, and Illinois Wesleyan beats North Park, they finish in a 10-4 tie.  If Millikin beats Carthage, North Central beats Augie, then they finish in a 6-8 tie for sixth place. Wheaton and Illinois Wesleyan would have equivalent records against North Park (2-0), Millikin 1-1, and Elmhurst 1-1. No advantage there. Then Wheaton would be a combined 3-1 against North Central and Carthage. Illinois Wesleyan would also be 3-1. They both swept Augie. Wheaton would lose the tiebreaker on road record in conference (assuming the loss to Elmhurst.)

-- If Carthage finishes ahead of Elmhurst, Illinois Wesleyan wins the tiebreaker and the right to host the tourney.

-- If Wheaton beats Elmhurst, Illinois Wesleyan beats NPU, Carthage beats Millikin, Carthage beats Wheaton, and Elmhurst beats Millikin, then NPU, Elmhurst, and Carthage finish in an 8-6 tie for third place. NPU is already in the tourney by virtue of having swept Carthage. That NPU sweep of the Lady Reds also propels Elmhurst into the tourney as the fourth team, and Wheaton's sweep of the Bluejays would give them the right to host the tourney.

Also, if Wheaton beats Elmhurst, and loses to Carthage, Illinois Wesleyan beats North Park, Carthage beats Millikin, then Wheaton doesn't get to host. Elmhurst would have to beat Millikin to give Wheaton a chance. But even so, Wheaton's combined 4-2 against the third place tie, wouldn't be as good as Illinois Wesleyan's 5-1. It's my understanding that they break the first place tie by virtue of the combined head-to-head record, so it wouldn't matter that Elmhurst holds the tiebreaker over Carthage.

There are a lot of crazy scenarios, clearly. The only sure thing is that if Illinois Wesleyan loses they can't host. Wheaton must win both games to control their own destiny, otherwise they need help from Millikin against Carthage. 

Maybe we should just wait until tomorrow.

[Grutte Dirk]

Is there a forum that discusses CCIW sports not found on D3sports.com?

[Mr. Ypsi]

Greg and Skafgas,

Thanks for the conference tourney analysis!  Analyzing all the possible scenarios is my JOB, but today is a day off, and you made my head hurt.

Looking ahead to the national tourney, who are the potential pool Cs?  With only 3 losses and the 34th highest QOWI, I'd say Wheaton is a lock, barring a 3-game losing streak.  IWU is at a quite respectable 46th in QOWI, but already has 6 losses; if they don't get (at least) a 7th they would be the AQ!  IF IWU beats NP and loses in the title game, I'm pretty confident they're in - otherwise it's the dreaded 'bubble'.

I can't see any other C candidates: Millikin is 86th in QOWI and already has 7 losses; NPU is 109th in QOWI and already has 8 losses; Elmhurst did not even make the list of 120 top QOWIs.

I'm guessing the CCIW gets two bids only if someone other than Wheaton wins the conference tourney, or Wheaton wins over IWU in the final.  (A slim hope for THREE teams: Wheaton wins out but loses first round of tourney, IWU wins out, but loses title game of tourney; someone else wins tourney.)

Comments?

[Fawkes316]

Some very important games tomorrow as has been mentioned above. Hopefully, Wheaton and Illinois Wesleyan can win their remaining games, so that whichever team doesn't win the tournament they can still have a good chance at the at-large bid. Both were ranked in the top 6 in the Region last week, and it would be nice to get in multiple teams with the expanded format. I know that in soccer the CCIW women got 3 teams in and men got two teams in the expanded tourney this year.

On a related note, why does the NCAA only release rankings for teams from 1-6 in each region? That would make sense last year when there were only 50 or so teams, but with a 63 team tournament it seems a little strange to only rank a combined 48 teams in the eight regions. I know that is asking for a little more common sense than should be expected of the NCAA, but really ranking at least 64 teams would seem reasonable to me.

[Fawkes316]

Yipsi, I liked the way you spelled my name. With a last name like Kafkas I encounter a lot of weird pronunciations and spellings, but I hadn't seen Kafgas before.    

But back to basketball, yeah I don't think we can expect more than 2 teams. Even though the Wisconsin teams haven't been ranked, they have to get some respect, though the CCIW did pretty good this year against the WIAC.  Also, Carroll and Lawrence have good records and one of them will be a Pool C candidate from the Central. There are just too many good teams with strong QoWIs above Millikin or Elmhurst. North Park beat OshKosh who will probably get in (either A or C), but 11 losses in region is way too many.

I think the conference made great strides this year. I think in a couple of years there will be the possibility of getting three teams in for the first time since Millikin, Wheaton, Illinois Wesleyan and Carthage all made it in 1996.

[Mr. Ypsi]

skafkas,

Sorry about the name - I assure you that was an honest error, not a commentary on your posts!

(But, then, you misspelled my name in return - retribution or error: Enquiring minds (now there's an oxymoron!) want to know? )

[Fawkes316]

O.K. we're even, Mr. Ypsi. It was an accident on my part as well, but skafgas gave me a good chuckle.

[wheatonc]

Wheaton clinched at least a tie for the CCIW regular season championship with a 15 point win over Elmhurst this afternoon.  Both teams struggled with their shooting, but Wheaton's bench helped them hold Elmhurst to no field goals in the last several minutes of the game. 

[wheatonc]

According to the North Park website, Illinois Wesleyan defeated North Park this afternoon, 63-49.  So Wheaton needs to defeat Carthage on Tuesday to win the regular season conference championship outright.

[Fawkes316]

Wheatonc-You're right. If Carthage beats Wheaton, then Wheaton can't win the tiebreaker against IWU. Their only hope in a tiebreaker with Illinois Wesleyan was that Wesleyan would lose to North Park today, or that Carthage would finish behind Elmhurst in the standings. Both those things became impossible today.

[Fawkes316]

Here are the current standings

Wheaton 10-3
Illinois Wesleyan 10-4
North Park 8-6
Elmhurst 7-6
Carthage 7-6
Millikin 6-6
North Central 6-8
Augustana 0-14

Wheaton 57, Elmhurst 42
Carthage 63, Millikin 48
Illinois Wesleyan 63, North Park 49
North Central 61, Augustana 57