Quote from: GusD on June 10, 2025, 02:53:58 PM

Quote from: HansenRatings on June 10, 2025, 11:38:10 AM

Quote from: Little Giant 89 on June 09, 2025, 12:35:31 PM

Quote from: The Third Division on May 28, 2025, 01:41:45 PMIt should be "The College of North Central That Is North Central of Absolutely Nothing"

Not even in the center of Naperville, or DuPage County for that matter.

In 1926, when then name was adopted, the college would have been nearly directly North of the population center of the United States.

And in 1926 when Naperville was a sleepy small town of about 4,500 NCC, being adjacent to downtown, was certainly right in the center of Naperville.
Currently, it's in the northern part of the city as over the years the population has expanded in a southerly direction. Wheaton, to Naperville's north, also grew southward forcing Naperville to expand mostly in the same direction into Will County now as well as DuPage.

Boy, I know the boards are hopping when we're diving into the minutiae of city planning and historical population trends. Time for me to dust off my treatise on local flora and their influence on arthropod proliferation.

Quote from: bopol on March 05, 2025, 09:07:16 PMThe trouble with the system is that it doesn't work against good teams.  They won't panic, they have players that can bring it up the court in pressure and can make good passes and find the layup.  Hence, Grinnell will be competitive in their conference and against weaker competition, but can't get over the top.  It's a path to take a bad team to above average - a load of 17-8 seasons...but it won't make a Top 25 team.

I guess the coach is slowing it down a bit...this ain't the Grinnell you've seen in the past.

I remember a 2009 Grinnell game versus Wheaton. The Thunder won 130-109 and set a school single-game record with an 80% field goal percentage (52 of 65). Tim McCrary scored 32 points on 13-of-15 shooting, Kent Raymond scored 31 points on 10-for-13 shooting, and even the offensively-challenged Jake Carwell scored a career-high 25 points on 12-for-14 shooting.

Quote from: Green Beer on March 06, 2025, 09:57:42 AMYeah. I can't see why a top tier would even want to play in "the system." Sure, there is technically a starting 5 at the beginning of the game, but the best player gets no more playing time than the bottom 10th player (assuming I understand the rotation correctly). It's truly selfless play. If you're an elite player, you're sacrificing your stats and potential personal achievements for the good of the entire team. I'm not saying it's impossible, just hard for me to visualize. Good on you if you can embrace that mindset.

Uhhh the best players in the system do not do the sacrificing: they do the shooting. John Grotberg (Class of 2009) averaged almost 30 points per game and scored nearly 3,000 career points. 4 of their guys in the last 20 years scored more than 2,000 career points.
Remember when Jack Taylor scored over 100 points in a game TWICE?

Quote from: faunch on March 04, 2025, 09:12:30 AM

Quote from: Retired Old Rat on March 03, 2025, 06:16:39 PM

Quote from: scottiedawg on March 03, 2025, 02:04:04 PM

Quote from: faunch on March 03, 2025, 01:46:58 PMHow does U of Chicago get to host with an 18-7 record, pool C bid and 34 NPI?

Because Illinois Wesleyan women's basketball are hosting.

St. Johns got jobbed because Chicago is within 500 miles of all three schools in the pod, St. Johns is not.

I guess the good news is St. Johns often does not do well with home court advantage.  Still, I'd have liked the opportunity to attend a game.

On google maps SJU is 498 miles from U of Chicago.

The NCAA is all about that 500 mile radius for making pairings, and has been for decades. Carnegie Mellon out in Pittsburgh has traveled to play NCAA tennis at UChicago multiple times over the years. All about saving costs on the flights.
UChicago's central location in the D3 landscape makes them ideal to host NCAA postseason in many sports. Being a major metro hub means anyone can get there.

Good to see Knoche back at UChicago to get the program back on track, after Gilcrist's trainwreck tenure.

https://athletics.uchicago.edu/news/2025/2/5/general-craig-knoche-named-head-football-coach-at-the-university-of-chicago.aspx

Not basketball related, but just saw the sad news of the passing of Wheaton College's legendary soccer coach Joe Bean. He will be greatly missed.

https://athletics.wheaton.edu/news/2025/2/13/mens-soccer-wheaton-college-remembers-former-mens-soccer-coach-joe-bean-1939-2025.aspx

A sad day for soccer and the Wheaton College community with the passing of legendary coach Joe Bean.
A great coach and better man. He will be greatly missed.

https://athletics.wheaton.edu/news/2025/2/13/mens-soccer-wheaton-college-remembers-former-mens-soccer-coach-joe-bean-1939-2025.aspx

Quote from: bopol on February 08, 2025, 11:40:57 PM

Quote from: Gregory Sager on February 08, 2025, 11:28:29 PM

Quote from: bopol on February 08, 2025, 11:15:19 PMYep, as someone who did the commute for a decade down I94 from Lake County to Chicago, that drive sucks.  So, no, most 18 year olds won't commute there and there aren't commutable public university options for the Northern/NW Suburbs.  Frankly, UIC on the Metra is a better option than NEIU, which is in a terrible location to serve the needs of anyone who isn't served just as well by UIC.

Definitely agree, and, aside from some very specific grad programs, UIC has a better academic reputation than NEIU as well. Livelier campus and closer to downtown, too.

(Two weeks from Tuesday the North Park baseball team will be playing an exhibition game against UIC at the Flames' Granderson Stadium for the second season in a row. I'm really looking forward to it, because watching a game at Granderson is a great experience. UIC says it has "the best batter's eye in all of college baseball," and they're right.)

UIC is an excellent university.  Granderson Stadium is awesome.  I'm looking forward to baseball season.

I echo this sentiment about Granderson Stadium. The view from the field and press box is amazing.

NCC win was preordained, there was no way they weren't winning a title this year, regardless of opponent. Maybe the best team seasons in D3 history right there.
Despite MU fans twisting themselves into pretzels thinking that they coulda won that game, it was never gonna happen. They'll blame coaching decisions till the cows come home, but NCC wins that game every day of the week. Tonight's version would be the closest they'd ever get.

Quote from: CarollFan on November 19, 2024, 01:16:54 PMSullivan and Johanik co-dpoy
Luke opoy

https://cciw.org/news/2024/11/19/cciw-announces-football-all-conference-teams.aspx

Glad to see Johanik get this recognition. Stud player who was a menace in the games I watched.

After watching this Wheaton offense, they coulda gone far in the bracket and would handle the majority of these playoff teams. Sigh.

As a melancholic UChicago fan at the moment, I just wanted to reflect on the amazing run the Maroons had from 2014 to 2023. Nine-straight trips to the postseason with 1 national title, 4 Final Fours, 6 UAA titles, cumulative record of 139-28-23 (.792 winning percentage) while regularly playing one of the toughest schedules in the country.

When Mike Babst arrived on campus in 2013, he proceeded to bring in the best soccer talent the school's ever seen. The finesse and athleticism that the Maroons cultivated over the years transformed them into perhaps the most aesthetically pleasing brand of soccer in all of Division III. A tactical, possession-focused squad that patiently built play from the back, putting a lot of onus on fearless defenders to make the right decisions and passes, and take the ball up the field themselves if they had the opportunity (Richard Gillespie being the prime example). They had creative players at forward and in the midfield who were always looking to set up the best shot possible.

Most opponents resorted to packing 10 or 11 behind the ball, parking the bus, and relying exclusively on counters to create any chances. Even if that led to some low scoring affairs, UChicago remained unfazed – they were comfortable in tight contests and knew how to deliver in the final minutes if needed.

The golden class of Lopez, Koh and Capotosto brought the program to new heights (each one earned a UAA MVP award and multiple All-American accolades). Then the legendary 2022 squad put together one of the greatest seasons in D3 history to help them finally get to the top of the mountain. Each year, the Maroons were a joy to watch as a fan.

Babst, Pat Flinn, and Julianne Sitch all had D1 backgrounds and they excelled in both recruiting and establishing a playing style/identity that won games.

The fact that the coaching hiring pool was so shallow after the 2022 season still has me in disbelief. I thought the UChicago job would have been hugely desirable as the defending champs, but it didn't show in the candidate pool. IMO, I would have preferred that they elevated Mike Mauro to interim coach and gave him a prove-it season to see if he could handle the top job. His tactical acumen was a huge asset for those teams.

Going forward, I'm not sure if the trainwreck 2024 season is a blip on the radar, or an indication that the Maroons are slipping from the national elite. My worry is that this will be a slow slide back to being an average-to-good team whose best days are behind them. I'd love the players to prove the opposite, however.

Quote from: devildog29 on November 10, 2024, 01:28:08 PMI'm sure there will be plenty of tears shed on this board. 

https://www.iwusports.com/news/2024/11/10/football-norm-eash-announces-retirement-after-38-years-leading-iwu.aspx

The fact Norm is going out on a whooping from NCC is perfect, couldn't have scripted it better. The no handshakes with NPU was quite a career capper for him. Good riddance.

UChicago pitching ace Drew Bryan is transferring to D1 East Carolina University.
https://twitter.com/DrewBryan18/status/1676927263491739649

Quote from: Kuiper on June 07, 2023, 06:14:34 PM

Quote from: blue_jays on June 07, 2023, 05:22:26 PM
UChicago is open again, Sitch jumping to D1
https://athletics.uchicago.edu/sports/msoc/2022-23/releases/20230607hu06bg

Wow! Talking about leaving while on top. 

Chicago is still strong and has lots of talent, but this was always going to a challenging year for the coach to replace Griffin and Wada and motivate the players to avoid the post-championship hangover.  it will be interesting to see if they will try to hire a new coach now or just name Mauro interim for the fall season to allow a full search.  He's been an assistant at a variety of stops, but never a head coach in college.

While losing the 2 best defenders in school history will hurt, their replacements (D1 transfer and Gomas) are the best possible scenario. Also people overlook Moonesinghe, but he was outstanding playing alongside those guys and made a huge leap in 2022.
Considering that it's already summer, I'd make Mauro the interim this year and do the coach search after the season. IMO he's top notch, let's see what he can do in the lead chair. UChicago's last 2 hires were internal people (Flinn and Sitch) who know how to recruit to UChicago (one of the toughest schools in the nation to get into). Both were home run hires, because they knew what kind of players they needed to play their possession-based, highly-technical brand of soccer.