Quote from: Gregory Sager on April 24, 2026, 04:19:31 PM

Quote from: PauldingLightUP on April 24, 2026, 01:40:08 PMWheaton schedule is posted. Non cons vs MSOE, vs Illinois Tech, vs Simpson, vs Pfud Classic x2 (UW-River Falls, Central, Piedmont), vs Chicago, at Carleton, at Trinity (TX) Tournament x2.

https://athletics.wheaton.edu/sports/mens-basketball/schedule/2026-27

We should give out an award -- let's call it The Early Bird Trophy -- to the CCIW head coach who not only completes his annual scheduling task ahead of his peers but gives it to his school's SID and has it posted online first.

Here you go, Mike Schauer. Add this to your virtual mantel. Congrats!

Greg I must say this is hilarious

The reason I asked about kids leaving and transferring is because like several others in this room I've followed the CCiW for almost 30 years and with my dad being a CCIW alum as well I love seeing great players an guys who have great careers. But it seems like there won't be any more guys like Steve D, Kent Raymond, Aston Francis , Landon Gamble , Derek Raridon or pick any other all American or multi time all conference player and that just seems impossible in this climate .

Quote from: Jbothe on April 20, 2026, 11:11:15 AMAnyone have insight to the basketball struggles at Augustana?  Surprised to see the players transfer out that did.

CCIW always seems better when Augustana is relevant.

If we being honest they hired the wrong coach 3 times

Quote from: Gregory Sager on April 20, 2026, 02:50:29 PM

Quote from: Titan Q on April 20, 2026, 12:36:17 PM

Quote from: Gregory Sager on April 19, 2026, 10:58:49 AMTransfers have been a part of college sports forever. The portal simply added convenience -- and, thus, acceleration to a trend towards increased transferring that was already growing -- to a truth of academic life that has always existed. And NIL added incentive.

The transfer portal has added convenience for sure.

NIL $$ is the huge difference maker though. The amount of $$ guys like Noah Cleveland (Illinois State) and Jalen Overway (UW-Green Bay) have been guaranteed would shock most people. 

Before, a superstar D3 student-athlete with D1 ability might be willing/able to pay tuition instead of accepting a D1 scholarship. But now, the NIL $$ in many of these D3 to D1 transfer situations is just simply impossible to pass up...it can be significantly more than the value of the scholarship.

That's not what he was asking, Bob. He didn't ask a "Why?" question. He asked a "How?" question:

Quote from: north central on April 18, 2026, 12:14:57 AMDo you guys think there's anything that can be done ( besides money ) to prevent the top 3-5 non seniors in the league from transferring every year?

IOW, "How can we stop the best CCIW non-seniors from transferring out?" The key word in his sentence is prevent. And my point was that there has never been a means to prevent a college student from transferring to another school. Disincentives such as sit-out-a-year rules are obstacles, not actual blockades.

Nor should there ever be a way to prevent a student from transferring to another school. As I said, it's college, not the Army.

So we just have to accept that any freshman or sophomore that's all conference will for sure be gone. I just hate that you can't keep teams together anymore.

Do you guys think there's anything that can be done ( besides money ) to prevent the top 3-5 non seniors in the league from transferring every year? Seriously because any first or second team all conference player is certainly good enough to play d2 at least?

Quote from: Gregory Sager on April 15, 2026, 01:14:45 PMYes, ADs aren't all of a piece. As in every other position, some of them are exceptionally good at their jobs, some of them are incompetent, and some fill the "adequate" space in between. Some are institutional yes-men who always color within the lines, some aren't afraid to go rogue (whether for good or for ill) to move a program or programs forward. Some are good people, some are people you'd rather avoid if at all possible. Some are martinets who have a "my way or the highway" mentality, some are team players and collaborator types. And so on.

As Mark said, you can't really make a blanket statement that encompasses all ADs, even if you restrict it to D3 ADs only.

Very true, I have worked for some really good AD's and some really bad ones too. And I don't mean to lump every AD into the same boat . The role of an AD is really evolving now . AD's used to just have to worry about hiring coaches, facilities, event management, budget stuff etc but now AD's biggest and most important job is fundraising and being innovative and creative with ways to enhance their sports programs. It's is really refreshing to have a progressive AD who wants to win and provides or at least tries to provide those resources. I know a few of the CCIW AD's and for the most part they are really good .

Quote from: blue_jays on April 14, 2026, 06:35:14 PM

Quote from: north central on April 14, 2026, 10:35:11 AMI think this is where a coach or former coach needs to call out the administration publicly because that's the only way stuff will change .

For a current coach, this would be an objectively crazy thing to do, literal career suicide. Unless you are sufficiently monied for the rest of your life, no one would ever do this.

You're right which is why AD's think they can do whatever they want to without being questioned.

AD's know potential coaches won't say anything for fear of never getting another job but someone has to speak up for those coaches so that bad AD's get exposed. I've worked for some good AD's and some bad ones. The good ones have thriving athletic programs and the bad ones have crappy programs .

Quote from: Gregory Sager on April 14, 2026, 10:53:51 AM

Quote from: north central on April 14, 2026, 10:35:11 AM

Quote from: Gregory Sager on April 13, 2026, 10:14:48 PM

Quote from: north central on April 13, 2026, 04:50:51 PMThe reason I pointed out the lack of playing experience and successful assistant coaching experience is because the most successful guys in the league have that blueprint and I think that blueprint obviously leads to consistency . Of course there's not just one formula for success but if the top teams are doing something completely different than what your doing and you have consistently been bad then why not switch it up. The bigger point is how many college head coaches get hired with no successful playing or coaching experience. That's really rare.

Correlation doesn't equal causation, though. As I said, when you've been out of college for 20 years, which sport you played back when you were an undergraduate is irrelevant. What matters is which sport you've been coaching over those 20 years since college; where and at what level were you coaching it; and do you have parallel experience at the job you're now seeking. And in those last two matters we both agree that Noonan comes up short. He can obviously coach this sport well -- his St. Theresa's record conclusively proves that -- but college is a different matter, because the most important part of a D3 head coaching job is recruiting, something you don't have to do as a high school coach. And in terms of his college coaching experience, his assistant coaching résumé is limited (and not very successful) while his head coaching résumé is nonexistent.

Quote from: north central on April 13, 2026, 04:50:51 PMThere are ways to hold your boss accountable. At the interview you ask questions and/or requests of things you need to be successful and if they agree to those things and don't follow thru you have to call them out.

That explains the "accountability" part, but it doesn't explain the "holding them" part. Calling out someone for not fulfilling a promise is useless when you not only don't have power over that other person, but the other person has power over you. If Tom Noonan says to Lori Kerans three years from now, "You promised me I'd have A, B, and C for Millikin men's basketball when I took this job, and yet you've failed to give me A and B and you've only given me half of C, and as I said three years ago I can't compete in this league without A and B and all of C," she will then reply, "Well, things change. Times are hard right now, Millikin is struggling, and the school can't give me a budget sufficient to provide what each of my coaches want, so I can't give you A, B, and all of C. If that's not good enough you can walk away from this job with no hard feelings on our end."

That's why I put in that Moneyball clip in my last post. If you tell the boss that you can't compete with what you have and you need more resources, your boss explains that the money's not there for those resources, and you still persist, your boss will just look at you like Steve Schott (Bobby Kotick) looked at Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) and say, "Is there something else I can help you with?" And then you either slink out of the boss's office mumbling under your breath or you quit. Either way, you're not holding the boss accountable ... because that's a functional impossibility.

I think this is where a coach or former coach needs to call out the administration publicly because that's the only way stuff will change . As you mentioned it seems like Millikin is doing the same ol thing with this hire and Lori knows Tom is just happy to have the job and won't ruffle feathers . But until someone publicly embarrasses Millikin and its administration nothing will change.  This is why I think Millikin didn't go after a more high profile experienced coach because a more experienced coach would have made certain demands prior to taking the job .

That's a fall-on-your-sword move, because if you publicly embarrass the administration you won't have a job anymore. And the problem is that doing so, either while you still have the job or after you're already out the door, could jeopardize your chances of getting a new gig, because a lot of ADs will be wary of hiring someone who comes off as a malcontent or an excuse-maker. That's especially true in an environment like the one we're in now, in which a huge swath of small-college basketball programs are going to be under the gun in terms of resources because of the steep demographic decline that is dramatically shrinking the pool of American 18-year-olds. It's going to push a lot of small colleges to the brink ... and many of them are going to go over the cliff entirely. The last thing that an AD will want in those conditions is to have one of his or her coaches whining about how he or she can't win without more resources.

That is true but how else will anything change because if no one ever says anything then it will be the same. And look at the last 35 years . No one has said anything so it will keep going the same way. I guess I'm here to be the one who calls out those AD's

Quote from: Gregory Sager on April 13, 2026, 10:14:48 PM

Quote from: north central on April 13, 2026, 04:50:51 PMThe reason I pointed out the lack of playing experience and successful assistant coaching experience is because the most successful guys in the league have that blueprint and I think that blueprint obviously leads to consistency . Of course there's not just one formula for success but if the top teams are doing something completely different than what your doing and you have consistently been bad then why not switch it up. The bigger point is how many college head coaches get hired with no successful playing or coaching experience. That's really rare.

Correlation doesn't equal causation, though. As I said, when you've been out of college for 20 years, which sport you played back when you were an undergraduate is irrelevant. What matters is which sport you've been coaching over those 20 years since college; where and at what level were you coaching it; and do you have parallel experience at the job you're now seeking. And in those last two matters we both agree that Noonan comes up short. He can obviously coach this sport well -- his St. Theresa's record conclusively proves that -- but college is a different matter, because the most important part of a D3 head coaching job is recruiting, something you don't have to do as a high school coach. And in terms of his college coaching experience, his assistant coaching résumé is limited (and not very successful) while his head coaching résumé is nonexistent.

Quote from: north central on April 13, 2026, 04:50:51 PMThere are ways to hold your boss accountable. At the interview you ask questions and/or requests of things you need to be successful and if they agree to those things and don't follow thru you have to call them out.

That explains the "accountability" part, but it doesn't explain the "holding them" part. Calling out someone for not fulfilling a promise is useless when you not only don't have power over that other person, but the other person has power over you. If Tom Noonan says to Lori Kerans three years from now, "You promised me I'd have A, B, and C for Millikin men's basketball when I took this job, and yet you've failed to give me A and B and you've only given me half of C, and as I said three years ago I can't compete in this league without A and B and all of C," she will then reply, "Well, things change. Times are hard right now, Millikin is struggling, and the school can't give me a budget sufficient to provide what each of my coaches want, so I can't give you A, B, and all of C. If that's not good enough you can walk away from this job with no hard feelings on our end."

That's why I put in that Moneyball clip in my last post. If you tell the boss that you can't compete with what you have and you need more resources, your boss explains that the money's not there for those resources, and you still persist, your boss will just look at you like Steve Schott (Bobby Kotick) looked at Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) and say, "Is there something else I can help you with?" And then you either slink out of the boss's office mumbling under your breath or you quit. Either way, you're not holding the boss accountable ... because that's a functional impossibility.

I think this is where a coach or former coach needs to call out the administration publicly because that's the only way stuff will change . As you mentioned it seems like Millikin is doing the same ol thing with this hire and Lori knows Tom is just happy to have the job and won't ruffle feathers . But until someone publicly embarrasses Millikin and its administration nothing will change.  This is why I think Millikin didn't go after a more high profile experienced coach because a more experienced coach would have made certain demands prior to taking the job .

Quote from: Titan Q on April 13, 2026, 11:05:25 AM

Quote from: north central on April 13, 2026, 09:42:08 AMTitan Q As a Weslyan fan you had to be thrilled hearing his responses because you probably got the feeling " Millikin won't be good with this guy" It's crazy a guy with no college basketball playing experience is a head coach in the CCIW. Maybe the only coach in the league without college playing experience. Just all seems really weird that there weren't better options .

I did not get that feeling.  I got the feeling this is the kind of person Millikin MBB needs.  I think he will do well.  Just my personal take.

There are quite a few successful head men's basketball coaches across all levels who didn't play.

Ok that's fair but I can't believe you walked away from that interview thinking " Ron Rose is going to have his hands full now that Tom Noonan is in charge " .   
Question when is the last time Millikin finished ahead of IWU in the CCIW standings ? I genuinely don't know and can't remember a time when it happened during my time in the league

Quote from: Gregory Sager on April 13, 2026, 02:45:39 PMMy second thought about the interview is the same one that northcentral and WUPHF had:

Quote from: WUPHF on April 13, 2026, 09:07:55 AM

Quote from: north central on April 12, 2026, 10:35:06 PMThe really alarming part was when asked why Millikin has been bad he didn't have a good answer which makes me think he doesn't know what it takes to be good. 

He did not have a good answer, not at all.

But in all fairness, the this is how I'll do better than my friend and former supervisor is always a tough one. 

WUPHF's point is true as far as it goes, but Noonan's answer to Bob's question regarding Millikin's woeful lack of success since 1989 was, nevertheless, most certainly weak sauce. For those of you who haven't seen the interview yet (and you all really ought to watch it), Noonan answered Bob's question by saying that the frequent turnover at Millikin's head coaching job impeded the ability of the Big Blue to compete for the past 37 years because each coaching change led to a large shift in program philosophy that always put Millikin hoops back at square one.

I don't know Tom Noonan, so I can't say for certain whether he's manufactured an excuse because he's a company man who is already covering for his employer or if he really believes what he said because that's a common explanation among the Millikin fan base -- in which case someone ought to be testing the Kool-Ade sold in Decatur. As an answer it seems to me to be pretty transparently a load of baloney.

Since 1989 Millikin has had six head coaches:

coach	seasons	# of seasons
Joe Ramsey	1989-90 to 1995-96	7
Tim Littrell	1996-97 to 2006-07	11
Marc Smith	2007-08 to 2010-11	4
Matt Nadelhoffer	2011-12 to 2016-17	6
Mark Scherer	2017-18 to 2020-21	4
Kramer Soderberg	2021-22 to 2025-26	5

I think it's a truism that a coach gets a mulligan for his first year, maybe his first couple of years. But even if he's starting from scratch -- and the only MU coach on this list who truly started from scratch was poor Matt Nadelhoffer -- there should be definite progress by the third season, and by the fourth it's probably mostly or all your team in terms of whom you've recruited, and they employ the style you've implemented and the plays you've taught and called. It's your program by then.

So at best I think we can give Noonan's statement some credence as far as the hiring of Nadelhoffer is concerned, and, on the face of it, the hiring of Soderberg. But even that generous second example has a huge hole in it as well: Soderberg was the chief assistant coach for the last two years of Nadelhoffer's tenure, and for the entire span of Scherer's. That's not constant change; that's a pretty consistent source of continuity throughout three head-coaching spans. What's more, Tim Littrell was Joe Ramsey's second chair as well, so there's coaching continuity running through that entire 18-year stretch of Millikin men's basketball. The only stretch of those 37 years in which there wasn't a baton being passed from a Millikin head coach to a Millikin chief assistant coach was the Marc Smith era -- the absolute nadir of Millikin men's basketball.

Bob didn't push Noonan on this point, and I can see why. The Q-cast isn't 60 Minutes, and Bob isn't paid big bucks by some media conglomerate to be a hard-hitting journalist. Bob's not going to ask questions that will scare away every other head coach in D3 from coming on his show. (Well, everyone but Mike Schauer, whose relentless honesty and candor is backstopped nicely by the fact that he's his own boss. ) Can't blame Bob one bit for that.

But I don't mean to be hard on Tom Noonan. Like WUPHF, I think that he's going to be caught between a rock and a hard place whenever he's asked to explain why his alma mater hasn't been able to get the job done on the hardwood for close to four decades now ... as if his new job wasn't tough enough already.

Just two questions of northcentral, though:

Quote from: north central on April 13, 2026, 09:42:08 AMIt's crazy a guy with no college basketball playing experience is a head coach in the CCIW. Maybe the only coach in the league without college playing experience.

How in the world is this relevant? Tom Noonan was not just a head coach of a high school basketball program in Illinois for over a decade, he was a very successful head coach of a high school basketball program in Illinois for over a decade. His record at St. Theresa's is in the Millikin press release for all to read, and Bob reiterated Noonan's record at St. Theresa's in the Q-cast interview. Kramer Soderberg hired Noonan to be his second chair. Would he have done that if Noonan's lack of college basketball playing experience mattered in any way, shape, or form?

College is twenty years in Noonan's rear-view mirror at this point in his life. It's irrelevant now whether he spent those long-gone years in the MU gym or out on the MU diamond. All that matters is that he's spent most of the past two decades coaching basketball.

Quote from: north central on April 12, 2026, 10:35:06 PMInstitutional support has to increase or he is doomed. If he isn't going to hold Lori and the administration accountable then we will be right back here in 4 years.

Please, exactly how does one hold his boss(es) accountable? That street only runs one way.

Since Noonan's a former baseball player, this movie clip seems especially appropriate.

The reason I pointed out the lack of playing experience and successful assistant coaching experience is because the most successful guys in the league have that blueprint and I think that blueprint obviously leads to consistency . Of course there's not just one formula for success but if the top teams are doing something completely different than what your doing and you have consistently been bad then why not switch it up. The bigger point is how many college head coaches get hired with no successful playing or coaching experience. That's really rare.

There are ways to hold your boss accountable. At the interview you ask questions and/or requests of things you need to be successful and if they agree to those things and don't follow thru you have to call them out.


Greg I agree his answer about the recruitment plan was just not good. Millikin won't be able to consistently out recruit IWU for St Louis Kids or good central illinois kids. Tom  definitely needs to tap into the south suburbs,west burbs , Indiana some as well, but does he have those relationships ? 100 miles is ludacris. There just isn't enough talent that you can get in that vicinity that other good d3's can't get.

Quote from: Titan Q on April 13, 2026, 11:05:25 AM

Quote from: north central on April 13, 2026, 09:42:08 AMTitan Q As a Weslyan fan you had to be thrilled hearing his responses because you probably got the feeling " Millikin won't be good with this guy" It's crazy a guy with no college basketball playing experience is a head coach in the CCIW. Maybe the only coach in the league without college playing experience. Just all seems really weird that there weren't better options .

I did not get that feeling.  I got the feeling this is the kind of person Millikin MBB needs.  I think he will do well.  Just my personal take.

There are quite a few successful head men's basketball coaches across all levels who didn't play.

You're absolutely right there are many coaches around the country that haven't played but most of them were managers or at least around the basketball program while college students. If I was an AD in the CCIW I would look at the most successful guys : Ron, Jon , Mike and notice those guys all played in the CCIW and had either individual and/or team success as players and had success as assistants or head coaches prior to getting their current jobs. Even Vince and Steve had good( steve great ) playing careers and success as assistants in the league before being given the jobs. I wouldn't think winning 14 games counts as successful. So my point is hiring someone with this little experience or success at the college level is not typical.  Smart AD's typically look at what the teams that are winning are doing and try to replicate that in some way. He will be completely over matched from a coaching standpoint against Ron, Jon, Mike , Vince, Edwin, and Steve. If someone was ranking the coaches in the CCIW right now he would be unanimously last. Thats not good.  If we really being honest, this hire was made because Lori knows Tom is just happy to have the job and won't ruffle any feathers or put pressure on the administration to change.

Quote from: Gregory Sager on April 13, 2026, 12:35:02 PM

Quote from: ChickenHoops on April 13, 2026, 12:05:19 PMAs an academic institution, what is Milliken's forte? Compare them to peers. Thanks in advance for your thoughts. 

1. It's Millikin, not "Milliken".
2. Your question was already covered here a couple of days ago:

Quote from: Gregory Sager on April 10, 2026, 06:59:58 PMthree of MU's four top majors (Registered Nursing/Registered Nurse, Musical Theatre, and Drama and Dramatics/Theatre Arts) are not good draws for recruiting male student-athletes,

Honestly that point is probably not taken seriously enough. Millikins academic strengths are certainly not conducive to having good male athletes . I know very few good basketball players who are into fine art or nursing . No knock on those majors but it's just facts .

Quote from: Titan Q on April 12, 2026, 04:01:51 PMQ-cast with new Millikin Head MBB Coach Tom Noonan...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pau-0N2Hr7k

Titan Q As a Weslyan fan you had to be thrilled hearing his responses because you probably got the feeling " Millikin won't be good with this guy" It's crazy a guy with no college basketball playing experience is a head coach in the CCIW. Maybe the only coach in the league without college playing experience. Just all seems really weird that there weren't better options .