WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[RogK]

Some notes on Saturday :
IWU shot 59.3 % and had six players in double figures, sailing past North Central 93-68. The Cardinals are thereby out of playoff contention.
It is probable that IWU will host the tournament and face Elmhurst, while Carthage encounters Millikin. If IWU loses its last two regular season matchups and ties somebody at 11-3, things could be shuffled around.
Lisa Gartelos scored 22 and added 7 rebounds for Carthage in their 66-59 defeat of Wheaton. Sarah Jones had 18 pts for W.
In Chicago, Maegan Skahill had 17 pts and 10 rebs and teammate Becky Rehn had 8 assists, 8 rebs and 4 steals to lead Augustana 70-59 over North Park in the rematch battle of the Vikings.
Matters started well for Elmhurst as they got out to a 38-26 halftime lead, thanks to hitting 7 of 11 threes. But Millikin responded with vigor in a 46-29 second half, taking the game by five, 72-67.
Lindsay Ippel used an assortment of nifty swirling movements at the hoop and finished with 34 points. Fans seated behind me spoke of her as "a monster."
Kelley Steers was second for the Big Blue with 15 pts, missing just 1 FT, 1 two and 1 three. She had a huge steal late in the game, topping off a well-rounded performance.
Offensively, Millikin stays spread out and moves the ball around quickly. This makes it tough to have two or three defenders attend to Ippel while simultaneously keeping coverage on 3-point threats Steers and Megan Mateer. Leave them open and you'll regret it. But then, Andrea Riebock and Kayla Pembrook or others will hurt you with a basket or fine pass.
Defensively, Millikin can match Elmhurst for quickness and they have a 2 or 3 inch advantage in height and arm length at every position.
This brings us to one more week of regular season CCIW action. Best of health to everyone and I hope all enjoy the fun of the sport, especially the seniors.

[Jaywatch]

A bittersweet day for Elmhurst--on Saturday they clinched the fourth spot in the CCIW tournament with North Central's loss to IWU, but let another game slip away in which the Bluejays led until the final minutes.  Millikin played very well as a team in the comeback, with the guards finding Ippel around the basket with some nice passes, rotating the ball well to find holes in Elmhurst's helpside defense, and knocking down the perimeter shot when Elmhurst tried to send too much help on Ippel.  Ippel uses her body very well to seal the post defender who is fronting her, and showed that she has great hands in catching the entry pass thrown over the top of the defense.  The inside-outside game that Millikin displayed on Saturday is very tough to defend, indeed.
Elmhurst has shown that they can play with any of the top three teams, though, and may be a dangerous foe in the tournament--they just have to put together a full 40 minutes of basketball.  I sensed that they shifted to a conservative mode offensively during the final few minutes when they still had the lead, and momentum then shifted to Millikin.  It also didn't help Elmhurst that their starting post, Brittany Bobruk, was in foul trouble for significant minutes in the second half, forcing them to play smaller, which put them at even more of a disadvantage against Ippel and Co.

[RogK]

Discussion issue anyone? --
Unlike soccer or hockey, with their offsides rules, basketball allows players to be stationed anywhere on the court, regardless of where opponents are or where any stripes are painted on the floor.
With that in mind, does anyone besides me wonder why "cherry picking" isn't used more often?
True, you face a 5-on-4 defensively, but at the offensive end you probably have a 1-on-zero or a 1-on-1, both of which are more dangerous than a 5-on-4, no?
I realize that if it's a game of younger players, you want all of 'em playing defense, so they learn how. But at the college level, I would think that some teams (not all) could become good at using "cherry picking" as an offensive option.
Agreement or derision, anyone?
Is the term "cherry picking" still in use, by the way?
Is there a separate term for a player who guards someone near midcourt, but takes off when a shot goes up? Would we include that in a definition of cherry picker? Or is the cherry picker strictly not guarding anyone?

[WWWRHH]

Cherry picking as a strategy is harder than it looks when playing on a full length basketball court. (I have seen it employed by old guys playing on short courts because they are either too tired and / or lazy to play defense )

The defensive team is not only defending with four players, but rebounding with four players.  So it is easier for the offensive team to find a good shot and control the rebound for a second shot.  If the defenders do control the rebound they still have to advance the ball down court before the offensive team transitions to defense, and full length passes after rebounding are hard due to positioning and traffic under the basket.  If the offensive team makes the basket, they can usually recover good defensive position during the time it takes to recover the ball, step out of bounds and inbound.  If a team is successful at employing the strategy, it can be countered by basically making the game 4 on 4.

Cherry picking does not work against a good alert team that can take care of the ball and find the open player.

I think your last point is closer to good, aggressive transition basketball than cherry picking.

Running the court in transition can create real opportunities.  If they are not directly involved with the play (rebounder / inbounder and ball handler) the Hope women release down court immediately following change of control and typically get several opportunities for layups since they are not afraid to make long passes.

[Jaywatch]

Interesting stats on the Illinois Wesleyan thumping of Elmhurst last night.  IWU clearly came to play, and to clinch their top finish in the conference, while Elmhurst came out sluggish and turnover prone.  The lead was 15 at half, and in the mid 20s throughout the second half.  With about five minutes remaining, and down about 24, Elmhurst subbed in a lineup made up of entirely freshmen.  IWU responded by subbing its starters back in, and its last two starters didn't leave the game until around 30 seconds remaining, and up 29.  Heydorn ended up with 35 minutes, Solari 31, Dye 28 and Sheehan 27 minutes.
There were recent posts discussing whether IWU ran up the score against Augustana.  Perhaps against Elmhurst IWU was trying to make a statement against their first playoff foe?  Perhaps they were trying to reach the century mark in the game?  I suspect the first reason is a possibility, although it may also cause the opponent to come into the next contest fired up to play.  In any event, playing the starters deep into a blow out seems to be done at the expense of the bench players who would like to get onto the floor, and at the expense of getting experience to the younger team members.  And then there is the risk of injury to a starter during "garbage minutes" at a time when the team is getting ready for the playoffs.
Hoosier Titan, any thoughts?

[RogK]

Jaywatch, without addressing your issue right now, I have another question.
There was a play Saturday, partially blocked from my view, where Candice Sutton was descending from a layup and may have konked heads with Lyndsie Long. Do you know if that collision occurred?
I note that Long played only 19 minutes last night. Is she not at 100%?

[Jaywatch]

Roj, I have not heard of an injury to Long, and I do not think her limited playing time last night was due to injury. 

[RogK]

Thanks, Jaywatch.
Regarding your issue about IWU :
I suspect IWU was "making a statement" and maybe attempting to demoralize Elmhurst via a substantial win.
I doubt that they were trying to reach 100. While they are close to being the highest scoring D3 team, they don't really push things in an effort to break scoring records. For that, I refer you to the NAIA Olivet Nazarene women. They average 105 compared to IWU's 86. They shoot 49 threes per game, IWU only 28.
Anyway, I think it's within the boundaries of sportsmanship for one good team to clobber another good team.

[Hoosier Titan]

Jaywatch,

I am not going to be able to give you a full story about minutes last night because I was not at the game until about the 12:00 mark of the second half (a major academic event was scheduled in conflict with the game--it seems no university is small enough to avoid scheduling conflicts.   ) I actually rushed in with my academic robes in arms.

I do not think anyone last week actually accused IWU of running up the score--there was just a discussion of how to avoid blowouts.  I am quite sure that if Mia Smith had the goal of scoring 100 points, the Titans could have done so (or at least they would have played with more urgency).  There were possessions with lots of passes; maybe they were working on that aspect of their game.  It's true that the starters played more minutes than they have in some games lately.  Should the Titans advance into and through the NCAA tournament, it's reasonable to expect that the games will not be blowouts and that the starters and selected subs should be getting used to playing longer minutes.  Also, as height is not the Titans' strong point, finding the extra pass that will lead to an open shot will be crucial in the NCAAs, if and when the Titans get there.

Those are my thoughts at the moment.  I know Mia Smith appreciates the efforts of student athletes on both teams and I do not think she would purposely run the score up.  Still, I know it's not fun.

[iwumichigander]

It's true that the starters played more minutes than they have in some games lately.  Should the Titans advance into and through the NCAA tournament, it's reasonable to expect that the games will not be blowouts and that the starters and selected subs should be getting used to playing longer minutes. 

Jaywatch, I think Hoosier Titan has it about right when you check the distribution of minutes last night.  Coach Smith went about 9 deep last night; what a team needs to do to win the CCIW Tournament to lock-up the AQ.  Any team with NCAA Tournament hopes needs a strong starting 5 + 4 if it wants to go beyond the first round of the NCAA Tournament.  No team can really afford to wait until NCAA Tournament time to fine tune that 5+4.  Sooner is better to get that group working as one. The Titans need to think, play and execute because it's really "one and done" time.

[Hoosier Titan]

I just remembered something:  Coach Smith put all four seniors in with about 5 minutes to go, with the intention of bringing them out one at a time so that they could get a nice ovation at their last home game.  There were almost no dead balls after that point; she had to call two rolling timeouts to make the substitutions.  But that added 4-5 minutes for Bull, Dye, Gravlin, and Sanchez. 

Of the non-seniors, Mallory Heydorn and Christina Solari had the most minutes and they both had reasons for needing playing time:  Heydorn has/had a sore Achilles tendon and her minutes have been limited.  I assume she's feeling better (else she surely would have been out most of the second half), and needs game time.  And Solari played with four fouls for quite a while--given the Titans' lack of depth at the post, she needs to practice playing in that situation.

[iwumichigander]

I just remembered something:  Coach Smith put all four seniors in with about 5 minutes to go, with the intention of bringing them out one at a time so that they could get a nice ovation at their last home game.  There were almost no dead balls after that point; she had to call two rolling timeouts to make the substitutions.  But that added 4-5 minutes for Bull, Dye, Gravlin, and Sanchez. 

Of the non-seniors, Mallory Heydorn and Christina Solari had the most minutes and they both had reasons for needing playing time:  Heydorn has/had a sore Achilles tendon and her minutes have been limited.  I assume she's feeling better (else she surely would have been out most of the second half), and needs game time.  And Solari played with four fouls for quite a while--given the Titans' lack of depth at the post, she needs to practice playing in that situation.

Giving the seniors one last time in the Shirk during a regular season game was my other thought.  Glad you posted back.

[RogK]

In Decatur last night, the local partisans probably gave a most appreciative send-off to Millikin's nice flock of seniors. The Big Blue shot 64.2%, topping North Central 83-58.
Lindsay Ippel, had 26 pts, 6 blocks and 11 rebs.
In Kenosha, Carthage won, getting past Augustana 67-55.
The game I saw saw Wheaton get out to a 20-8 lead, slowly --- this was 2/3 through the first half. The quality of play was such that I thought I would have to go home and wash my eyes. Fortunately, things perked up. The teams played more or less even to make it 31-20 at the half.
NP had a bit more consistent intensity than Wheaton did in the second half and "made a game of it." But Claire Glass coolly hit a bunch of FTs to save the game (60-56) for Wheaton.
LaRae Kostreva had 17 rebounds and 4 blocks for NP.
This has been a weird ending for Wheaton's season. They competed quite well against strong non-conference teams. But things soured since then. The injuries to Lynnea Kvam and Lissie McAlvey hurt for sure. The Thunder will likely do better next year.

[RogK]

What do you-all think about 1st Team all-CCIW?
I say Lindsay Ippel, Lyndsie Long, Christina Solari and Sarah Bull. These four have been consistently outstanding. Can't decide on the other spot.
Carthage would deserve someone, but which one?
Does anyone disagree with my four above?

[Mr. Ypsi]

From SI "Faces in the Crowd" this week: Erin Higgins (Kenosha).  "Erin, a junior guard at St. Joseph's High, scored all 35 of the Lancers' points in a 50-35 loss to Wetosha Central, hitting 13 field goals, including five three-pointers, and getting 13 rebounds.  She is averaging 19.7 points and has 1,943 for her career.  She is also the Lakeshore Conference's soccer player of the year."

Wow!  Not knowing anything about the level of play in that conference, is she a likely scholarship player, or is Carthage on her like white on rice?!   [Or perhaps a 'steal' for another CCIW team?]