WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

Started by wheatonc, March 03, 2005, 06:18:19 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 3 Guests are viewing this topic.

iwu70

Yup, looks to me like NCC is higher than their 6th place ranking by the coaches.  I'd have them above EC and perhaps above MU, too.

IWU70


iwu70

Good Pgraph piece today on the IWU women's program, Mia Smith's optimism about the newbies.  If Mia is optimistic about the quality and smarts of the freshmen cohort, I surely will be too.  Let's hope Coach Smith finds some good contributors, role players to come in and provide support and energy for the four strong, returning starters:  Baltes, MacMahon, Seibring, and Jackson.  This piece indicates that the fifth starter may well be the junior, Kasey Reaber, not Beoletto.  The senior Taylor Reaber and Beoletto perhaps come first off the pine in the rotation.  Mia is taking a number of the freshmen with her to Baltimore for the initial tip-off tournament at Johns Hopkins.   Taylor Reaber had a minor injury earlier, did not play in the scrimmage and Emily Considine is coming back from a concussion. 

Titans open Nov. 16th, Saturday in Baltimore, vs. Washington and Jefferson.  Play another game on Sunday, the 17th, also at Johns Hopkins. 

IWU70


RHIThoops40

After viewing Millikin last night, I think 4th is a distinct possibility. Last year Millikin was sorely lacking in ball handling, which led to some 31 turnovers per game. Over 40 in the 2 games against North Central. They didnt really have a point guard or bigs and had people playing out of position This year:

2 point guards, Durkin, soph from Mother Mac, and Weber, a Freshman from Normal will half the turnovers,  2 strong ball handlers who were succesful in handling pressure against top flight AAU teams. and now Czplicki can play 2 guard where she belongs.

Soph Kelsey Goings will be a very strong post CCIW post. Probably 8 pt and 8 rebs this conference season, then better next couple of years.

Then there is Yip Ypya from PB-L, a freshman of immense talent, ball handles very well and can score.  If she can adjust to the college game by CCIW tournament, nobody is going to want to play Millikin. Potential 17 ppg player, but probably not this year.

Last seasons Millikin group was 5 role players all out of position. While Johnson and Bria Williams aren't real posts, they fill the roles and battle hard. Hoskins is a very solid player and this yr won't have to handle the ball so much.

This years team is much more to Coach Kerans' system. Now that her health issues are over, it looks like the talent pipeline to Decatur is reopening. Within 2 years they will be back in the mix for conference championships. Coach's track record is undeniable,she's hard to beat when she has the tools to work with.  This year they are a little young yet, but has as good a shot as anyone at 4th.

To put a little needle to my esteemed North Central fan: The new Millikin players are not transfers, they are freshmen and sophs (2 classes that have enough talent to have 7 to 8 players of CCIW starting abilities). We 've addressed ball handling and size issues here.

Has North Central addressed their 48% field goal defense? We'll get 15 more shots per game this season, that would be about 14 pt if  last year holds. The NC- Big Blue games become quite interesting then!!

RHIThoops40

Hey IWU fans,

Is there any report on how Gabbie Weber is looking and what chances she has for playing time? Good athlete, hard worker, very focussed, my daughter really liked playing ball with her in the summer when they had the chance.

Mr. Ypsi

Yip Ypya is a shoo-in for the all-name team.  She needs to transfer to EMU so she can be Yip Ypya from Ypsi! ;D

iwu70

Does Yip Ypya get the yips?    :D  Sorry, couldn't resist.  Surely a CCIW all-name winner.  "It's Yip at the line with the yips." 

On TITAN newbie, Ms. Weber, Titan Coach Mia Smith specifically mentioned her amongst the three pleasing, developing freshmen for her "strength" and toughness.  (Pgraph piece today).  She's on the varsity group, in the first 12-15 who are going to Johns Hopkins for the first weekend, tip-off tourney road trip.  Don't know how much playing time she'll get, what role she'll play, though in looking at the Washington and Jefferson roster, W & J has some big (6'3" and 6'0) returning horses, scorers, so perhaps Ms. Weber may well get some PT to help Seibring, Jackson, and Taylor Reaber in the paint.  Time will tell.

IWU70


RHIThoops40

Very glad to hear the news on Ms. Weber.

Not sure, she'll help you with the 6'3 girl, but she give you some hard mid court traps on the run and jump!

iwu70

Yes, I'm pretty sure IWU will do everything it can to play, defend and trap near the half court line and not let the ball anywhere near the 6'3" girl from Wash and Jeff (playing in Baltimore on the 16th).

IWU plays an exhibition at DePaul today -- this evening.  If as in the past, IWU will get thumped pretty good . . . but always good to play tough opposition and get toughened up for the very tough D3 schedule IWU plays, toughened up for the CCIW run, esp. games against the top teams like Carthage.

I'm pretty optimistic about IWU's prospects for the new year.  Wouldn't be surprised to see them be 7-4, even 6-5 going in to CCIW play, but then really contend for the CCIW championship.  That will be key as they may not have the record or ranking to be considered for the D3 Dance unless they do well in CCIW play.  We'll see.  Would love to see them go 8-3 or 9-2 in the early going, but that's probably a bit too optimistic, given the quality of the teams they are playing.

IWU70

iwu70

D3 Pre-season poll out with DePauw #1, Wash U #2, Whitewater #4, Carthage #12, IWU at #28 (ORV) and WC getting a few votes in ORV too.  Sounds about right to me.  Sure shows what a tough schedule the Titans will have playing potentially Numbers 1, 2, 4, 12 (twice) 23, and several of the ORV teams including Howard Payne, Wash and Jeff (opening day), Wheaton, etc.  Of course, don't really know too too much about what these pre-season polls mean.  Seems to me DePauw lost more than Wash U and it could have been Wash U at #1.  Sounds about right for Carthage, though they could have been ranked in the top ten, reasonably.

By January 1st, we'll really have a better idea, see how some of these tops teams really play, compare against each other, as lots of top 30-35 match-ups will have been played by then. 

Congrats to Carthage for a good pre-season ranking.

IWU at DePaul in an exhibition in an hour or so.

IWU70 

iwu70

IWU getting totally thumped by DI DePaul in their exhibition game tonight.   It's about 120-54 with 2+ minutes to go.  Not quite sure the usefulness of this kind of exhibition, other than having a good workout, seeing how different the divisions are in talent, size and physicality.  It's a tune-up, surely a confidence-builder for DP, but not quite sure the purpose of this for the Titans.  Have wondered about it in past years too.  But, there it is -- it is what it is.

Seibring led the Titans with 13 pts.  DP had three players with 20+ pts.  You can find the "live stats" on the IWU site.  Not sure it's very instructive of what to expect from the Titans once the regular season gets underway.

IWU70

Backer

Blue jays down 47-22 at the half to the Flames at UIC scrimmage.

Backer

Flames over Jays 94-63. Too tall,  too fast,  too good. Two of the Jay's three six footers not dressed due to injury.

RogK

I didn't attend that EC/UIC game, but a few of the Bluejays did alright getting the ball into the hoop : Devin Vaughn made 11 of 12 FTs and Whitney Shaffer scored 10 pts on 8 FG att in 15:00. Elmhurst had a bad case of turnoveritis, committing 42.
Elmhurst's opening tournament will now be held in Missouri Nov 15-16.
On Saturday, I saw a 50 minute scrimmage in which North Park drubbed Concordia by a composite 119-72 score.
Can't make any broad conclusions based on one practice game, but the Vikings were energetic and smart.

iwu70

Wow, looks like NP has some gamers, some horses there -- or that Concordia is a door mat?

IWU70