Quote from: Greek Tragedy on Today at 09:31:10 AM

Quote from: Gregory Sager on Yesterday at 09:21:33 PMNobody figured that the Vikings were going to come out of Bloomington and Kenosha with two wins...

I'm shocked you would say this, especially basically being the face of NPU. "Nobody" means you, the coaches, the players etc. That's not a good attitude at all. NPU is a good team. They had won 6 of 7 with their only loss at Eau Claire. Going into Bloomington, they were actually ahead of the Titans in the standings and tied with Carthage in the loss column. So, no one thought they could win those games? It's not like they were perennial WIAC bottom-feeder Stout going into Shirk and just trying to be competitive. Oh wait, the Blue Devils won that game. NCC got their only conference win against IWU, albeit at home. Elmhurst beat the mighty Titans as well. It's a sad day when the face of NPU doesn't think there's a chance the Vikings could win those games.

I thought it would be inferred, but since you want me to be literal about it -- "nobody" refers to people outside of the North Park program and fan base.

Quote from: GoPerry on Yesterday at 04:53:23 AMWheaton is just tough to defend against.  Offensively, there's Richardson who is a handful.  Both VanderWoude and Grier like to score inside with their back to the basket as well as run the floor effectively.  And then you have Neibch, Olson, Carbonaro ready to receive the dish outs and extra pass with Martin ordering the floor.  They might defer to Richardson, but all of them seem to be willing and able to take the big shots when it counts.  If they can just keep their opponents between 75-80 pts . . .

Better make it "75-77 pts," because we all know what magically happens when a team reaches 78, right?

Good grief. Glad I had the NPU women's game to call last night in the crackerbox, because if I had watched that game in Kenosha on my computer I would've probably broken whatever was at hand. (My job makes me very much a Jekyll-and-Hyde type; I'm a much more volatile North Park fan than I am a North Park broadcaster.)

Nobody figured that the Vikings were going to come out of Bloomington and Kenosha with two wins, but at least they could've not embarrassed themselves. They failed to reach even that low standard. There's no doubt a lot of soul-searching going on at Vikings practices now along with a lot of hard work as the team gets ready to deal with Elmhurst, because their competence is certainly in doubt by everybody at this point. Sometimes it's not about if you lose, it's about how you lose.

Quote from: D3BBALL on January 12, 2026, 06:46:50 PMAnother reason I don't think his formula is accurate enough, and that he just uses the formula period, is that I think he takes last week's top 25 votes in his formula to determine his rankings for this week. Maybe I am wrong, but I know he can't take this week's votes as they are not out yet and they need his votes first. I ran the numbers for 3-4 teams, and they fell in line with what he has on his top 25 today. Trinity is number 2 in his ranking this week, based on teams' rankings from a week ago. I don't think anyone else is looking at where teams stood a week previous when determining their rankings or using data that is a week old. They are looking at present data and what all the teams did as of the day they are voting. 

I've already told you this, but I guess that I have to say it again: You're directing an argument at me regarding things that I've never disputed.

Quote from: Gregory Sager on January 06, 2026, 03:51:20 PMI neither defend nor criticize this particular poll ballot submitted by Jay Murry, nor do I defend or criticize his methodology.

I said that seven days ago, and it still holds true. If you want to argue about Jay's ballot or his voting methodology or his formula in particular, go do it with someone who disagrees with you. As for me, I don't care one way or the other. How Jay, or you, or anybody else, feels about Trinity (CT) vis-a-vis the D3hoops.com Top 25 means nothing to me. The reason why I challenged you was because you said that Jay wasn't subjective, not because you said that Jay was wrong.

Quote from: Jbothe on January 12, 2026, 10:06:33 AMIt is the time of the year that teams are starting to separate themselves during the conference season. 

Everyone is chipper when they enter the new year with a winning record.  But the real tests occur every Wednesday and Saturday now.

Wesleyan is going to be hard to beat from here on out.  Carthage looks to be playing better.  Who steps up behind those two will be the question. 

There has been no separation yet. Carthage is 4-1 and remains the only team in the league with one loss, but there are three teams -- IWU at 4-2, NPU and Wheaton at 3-2 -- with two losses apiece that are within a game of the lead. Heck, the entire league except for 1-5 North Central is within two games of first place.

Wow. Two buzzer-beaters today! Michael McNabb dropped in a putback off an Evan Bland miss to enable Carroll to top Millikin, 67-65, at Van Male, and Wheaton's Soren Richardson hit a trey off of a Carson Grier offensive rebound and kickout to drop North Central in the hangar, 72-71, a game in which Wheaton had the lead for only 46 seconds.

Elmhurst had a fairly easy time of it in beating Augie at Faganel, 77-64.

Illinois Wesleyan 79
North Park 59

Kolden Vanlandingham: 18 pts, 9 rebs, 6:0 a:to, 4 stls
Marquis Vance: 10 pts, 9 rebs
Mike Vuckovic: 10 pts

Mason Funk: 24 pts, 10 rebs
Karlo Colak: 15 pts, 7 rebs
Casen Lawrence: 15 pts (5-8 trey)
Noah Cleveland: 12 pts, 10 rebs, 4 blks

North Park played the worst half of its season in the opening stanza. It's not a coincidence that Illinois Wesleyan likewise played what's probably its best half of the season in that same half. NPU looked too scared by the length of the Titans to go into the paint, and as a result their offense never got started, while at the other end of the floor they were late on closeouts and the Titans made them pay for it. They were down by as much as 25 in the first half, and trailed by 20 at the intermission.

Still behind by 21 with under a dozen minutes to go, the Vikings finally got the run started that everyone was waiting for them to showcase, cutting the deficit to 11 with multiple chances to get it into single digits. Two problems with that run, though: One, Kolden Vanlandingham was doing all of the heavy lifting with little support. Two, the Vikings couldn't hit a shot from deep to save their lives. NPU attempted more than half of its field goal attempts from beyond the arc, and shot a hideous 5-29 (.172) from there. You're not going to come back against Maranatha Baptist shooting like that, let alone a ranked team in its own gym. The Vikings had to start gambling all over the floor, and the Titans with their trademark efficiency took what was given to them and built the lead back up.

The Vikings are a much better team than they looked today, but they fell flat on their faces with a lot of eyes on them, what with IWU being ranked and the Vikings knocking on the door of the Top 25. They need to put this game out of their minds immediately, however, because on Wednesday they're going to have just as stern as test as the one they had today, as they travel north to Tarble to take on league-leading Carthage.

Ed McGhee was interviewed by Dave McHugh on Hoopsville this evening. The interview starts at the 19:00 mark.

Quote from: Stretch4 on January 08, 2026, 10:34:13 AMWith Macon and UWL going down last night, maybe Jay Murray will find a way to move Trinity up to 7 or 8 on his ballot next week. 

It's "Murry", not "Murray".

(I'm sure that Jay has spent his entire life correcting people on the spelling of his name, so I'm happy to step in and do it for him for a change. )

Fridman's shoulder surgery is old news, though. The absent CCIW player I really want to hear about is Staishaun Kelley. What happened to him? He's been MIA since Augustana's loss to Dubuque around Thanksgiving time. Injured? Ill? Something else? He's still on the Augie roster. Great defensive player who can score a bit, too. Augie could certainly use him.

Carthage	4-1	10-4
North Park	3-1	10-3
Illinois Wesleyan	3-2	11-3
Millikin	3-2	11-3
Wheaton	2-2	8-5
Augustana	2-2	7-6
Elmhurst	1-3	8-5
Carroll	1-3	6-7
North Central	1-4	5-9

Saturday's games
Augustana @ Elmhurst
Millikin @ Carroll
North Park @ Illinois Wesleyan
Wheaton @ North Central

all games are 4:15 pm starts

Wheaton won at home, 85-84, after almost coughing up a 16-point lead in the second half, as Carroll's defense stiffened -- but the Pios' offense couldn't quite take them over the top. Michael McNabb missed what would've been the tying trey in the waning seconds and Lamar Smith hit a buzzer putback that didn't matter. Wheaton was led by Soren Richardson's 25 points and 5 steals, with Carson Grier contributing 17 and Devin Martin adding 15 with a really nice 8:3 floor game. Carroll was paced by McNabb's 27 and Smith's 22 and 7, with Dennis Estepp pumping in 11 off the bench and Peyton McKenna and Jacob Naber adding 10 each, Naber leading CU with 10 boards. Bad stat of the night: Carroll only went 7-15 from the line, dragged down by Smith's shocking 0-7 performance. Smith had been shooting .729 from the charity stripe coming into tonight. Fun to hear former Wheaton point guard Jon Nielsen doing color on the broadcast.

Another team that fell short in a comeback attempt was Elmhurst, which dropped an 83-77 overtime decision at home to Millikin. The Big Blue jumped out on EU at the start of the second half and led by a dozen with under nine to go, but the 'jays fought back and managed to catch up at the end of regulation thanks to four Vinnie Adjahoungbeta free throws in the final 15 seconds. But Millikin pulled out to a two-possession lead in OT and got a dagger trey from Nate Straughter in the final minute to seal the deal. Straughter and Ian Winkler had 20 apiece for the Big Blue, with Lane Thomann and Chris Ketchum contributing 17 and 14, respectively. The 'jays were paced by Adjahoungbeta's 27 (on 8-12 shooting) and Dom Trelenberg's 19, while Aidyn Boone added a 13 and 10 double-double in the losing cause.

Illinois Wesleyan beat Augustana at Shirk, 88-79. The Titans led wire-to-wire, and while Augustana shaved down a 17-point deficit with 11 minutes to go and refused to fade, the game was never really in serious doubt. Noah Cleveland was the bell cow with 25 and 13 for the winners, and IWU also got strong shooting performances from Karlo Colak (23 on 4-8 long-range bombs) and Casen Lawrence (21 on 5-9 from downtown), Colak also adding 10 boards. Jackson Niego had a nice 5:1 floor game with 4 steals. Leading the way for Augie was Jake Willems with 25 (4-7 from range), Cam Atkinson with 14 (4-9 from beyond the arc), and Dom Rhoden with 13.

Carthage held off a doughty North Central squad and finally got some separation at the very end of the game in the hangar, getting back on the bus to Wisconsin with a 69-61 win. Riley Brooks sparked the victory with 21, aided considerably by the efforts of the Johnson brothers; AJ had 13 and 9, while Riley had 11 and 10. North Central was paced by Sean Molloy's 17 points, with Alejandro Diaz the only other Cardinal in double-figure scoring at 13. Tyler Surin led the way on the boards for NCC with 9.

Kolden Vanlandingham! It's so, so easy, Mark! Yes, typing that first capital K will feel difficult, but it'll get easier from there. I promise.

Step into the light!

Thx!

I don't think I've ever seen a link to Jacob Schauer's ratings. Does he make them public, Matt? If so, could you post a link here?

Indulging my own curiosity, and in the interest of promoting Matt Snyder and the D3 Datacast podcast he does with his brother Zac (a podcast that's well worth viewing if you're a D3 basketball fan), I'm going to post Matt's computer-generated predictions for tonight's CCIW games in comparison to Ken Massey's.

Here's the MasseyRatings predictions:

Illinois Wesleyan 77, Augustana 69	(IWU 77%, AC 23%)
Wheaton 79, Carroll 76	(WC 58%, CU 42%)
Carthage 74, North Central 72	(CC 55%, NCC 45%)
Elmhurst 73, Millikin 67	(EU 70%, MU 30%)

... and here's Matt's:

Illinois Wesleyan 74, Augustana 69	(IWU 69%, AC 31%)
Carroll 83, Wheaton 82	(CU 54%, WC 46%)
Carthage 67, North Central 64	(CC 61%, NCC 39%)
Elmhurst 70, Millikin 69	(EU 54%, MU 46%)