Was at Benedetti-Wehrli today, obviously enjoyed the outcome. Went into the game not sure what I was expecting, then once I saw the touchdown on NCC's second offensive play was immediately confident that everything was going to be fine. I didn't expect the margin to be as wide as it was, even with Bethel getting the garbage time score.

And then I ended up catching the end of the game that was played eight miles to the north. I don't know about anyone else, but I got 2019 quarterfinal against St. John's vibes from that ending, except this time it was Wheaton getting the benefit of it all.

It was a good day in the CCIW on the whole.

NCC's had seasons of 9 home games in my time (1 non-conference, then the regular slate of CCIW games) from time to time, but it's been the exception and not the rule. Just depends on how home-and-home agreements fall, what kind of tournaments you get, things like that.

NCC's 2026-27 schedule is out.

Season opens on Friday 11/6 at St. Mary's, first home game is Saturday 11/21 against Concordia Chicago.

The fun part on their schedule this year is a trip to Puerto Rico in December to take part in the D3 Basketball Clasico. Schedule is not released yet, but other schools participating are Concorida Wisconsin, Cortland, Gettysburg, La Verne, Lycoming, Messiah, Ripon, Salve Regina, and UMass Boston.

Good get for NCC: Nathan Palmer from Geneva will be playing in Naperville. Palmer averaged 16 points this past season for the Vikings, was Third Team All State according to the IBCA.

Quote from: D3BBALL on March 09, 2026, 09:41:45 AM

Quote from: Greek Tragedy on March 09, 2026, 09:03:28 AMIt helps to host. Hosts went 30-1 the 1st weekend.

That is just a huge advantage, wonder what it has been like the first weekend the past 5 years.

I went back just to last year's, and hosts went 22-8 if I counted right. I'd have to do more digging to see how stuff was pre-NPI.

Quote from: Patrick Coleman on March 09, 2026, 03:21:26 PM

Quote from: GusD on March 09, 2026, 03:16:52 PMIf the object is to "make it as neutral an event as possible" why is every other game going to be played on the higher ranked team's home court?
If a school IS hosting a national meet/event or didn't file the necessary papers then it's unavoidable.

You answered your question.

But even on a team's home floor, yes, things such as PA announcements and fan placement can be made more neutral.

Can confirm from personal experience.

Which is also probably fair because if I had been let loose for the couple NCAA Tournament weekends NCC has hosted they'd still be cleaning pieces of me from the rafters of the hangar after the Greatest Back Door Cut of All Time.

Wheaton 75
NCC 67

Tough one at the hangar tonight. It was tight early on, as the Thunder had a decent lead late in the first half before the Cardinals trimmed it to three going into the break. But Wheaton opened the second half on a 9-1 run and the Cardinals weren't able to claw out of that hole. A big credit to the Thunder for the tough road win in a loud Merner.

Jenna Hunter: 30 pts, 11 reb
Kate Oliver: 18 pts, 6 reb
Lydia Brogan: 11 pts, 11 reb

Cate Uhren: 17 pts, 4 reb, 6 ast
Kennedy Hartwig: 15 pts (including a pair of Kennedy Hartwig Special's)
Jocelyn Trotter: 7 pts, 9 reb, 4 ast

Biz Daly was back tonight and played 30 minutes, notching 8 and 6 with 4 blocks, which was good given that she missed a couple weeks with a knee injury.

NCC finishes the year 14-12, which is a nice improvement over last year, and the Cardinals will return just about everyone (and I hear through the grapevine that there's a really good recruit, but I don't know a lot in the way of details).

Scenarios for the weekend are all pretty simple going into Saturday.

• Carroll gets the 1 seed and hosting rights with a win or an IWU loss to Augie. IWU needs a win and a Carroll loss to set up a busy weekend for the folks at the Shirk Center.
• Quarterfinal hosts are set as NCC and Carthage. With NCC idle, Carthage is in control of its destiny. They're the 3 seed with a win at Carroll, with a loss they fall to 4 and NCC gets the 3 seed.
• Elmhurst is in and is most likely the 5 seed, with one exception below.
• Augustana is the other team in control of its destiny on Saturday. If they beat Illinois Wesleyan on Saturday, they get the #6 seed. They can move as high as 5 if North Park beats Elmhurst and Millikin beats Wheaton as well.
• If Augie loses to IWU, Wheaton gets the final spot.

NCC played from behind the whole night up in Kenosha as the Firebirds jumped out to an 8-0 lead and fairly easily put the Cardinals away for a 60-48 victory. NCC shot just 29.1 percent from the floor in the contest.

Ameli Sanchez: 14 pts, 5 reb
Kaitlin Park: 8 pts

Malia Green: 18 pts, 7 reb
Nora Ahram: 14 pts
Mallory Winters: 11 pts
Grace Cord: 8 pts, 8 reb

Fortunately for the Cardinals, the other results they needed to have happen happened (IWU beat Wheaton pretty handily, and Augie ran away and hid from Elmhurst), so NCC will host one of the quarterfinal games on Tuesday.

Quote from: Gregory Sager on February 18, 2026, 11:56:37 PMNorth Central ended Augustana's slim postseason hopes with an 83-76 win in the hangar. James Bullock was high man for the Cards with 18, as Alejandro Diaz added 16 and NCC's two-headed monster at center, Ethan Marlowe and Justin Sveiteris, each scored 10, Sveiteris grabbing 11 boards to lead the way in that category for the hosts. Jaydon James had an additional eight rebounds for NCC. Augustana got 17 points and three steals out of Dom Rhodes, Jake Willems had an outstanding 16 and 11 night, and Andre Klaver contributed 13 for Augie.

We nearly had a repeat of the refrain for much of the year in Naperville, as the Cardinals nearly blew a couple double digit leads. NCC led 22-10 at one point in the first half, but Augie responded with a nice run and even led 27-26 late in the first half, but NCC rallied to go back up two by the break. The Cardinals would lead by as many as 15 and were up 14 with about four minutes to go, but the Vikings managed to make it a one score game a couple times in the final minute but never had the ball with a chance to tie.

On the whole, a pretty rough year in Naperville, but I'm always happy to go out with a win. And a big thanks to Sean Molloy, who closed out his career with a 7 point, 6 rebound effort in the victory.

Quote from: Gregory Sager on February 19, 2026, 12:10:30 AMIllinois Wesleyan has clinched a share of the CCIW title, and it appears to me that the Titans have also clinched the #1 seed, since even if they lose to Augie and Carthage gets a W at Van Male, the tiebreaker will work its way down to Wheaton first, where IWU registers a 2-0 mark and CC is only 1-1.

Yep, this is confirmed. Men's tournament will be in Bloomington. Carthage is still the most likely recipient of the other bye, but Elmhurst would steal it with a win and a Firebird loss to Carroll.

Quote from: Gregory Sager on February 19, 2026, 12:10:30 AMSpeaking of the fourth-place tie, we're right back where we were going into last Saturday, with those three teams all a game under water -- this time at 7-8 rather than 6-7. They're currently seeded:

4. Wheaton
5. Carroll
6. North Park

Wheaton's win over Carthage tonight becomes the Thunder's ace in the hole as far as tiebreakers are concerned. That, and getting home court on Saturday against a Jimmy Millikin team that may or may not have its heart into playing spoiler, leads me to believe that WC has the inside shot at being the other team besides Elmhurst that will host a quarterfinal game next Tuesday. And Carroll has the tiebreaker over NPU regardless of whether both teams win on Saturday or both teams lose.

Wheaton's path to the 4 seed is to either beat Millikin (at 8-8, they have it over NPU with tonight's win and over CRL by virtue of edge in road wins.) Those tiebreakers would also come into play with a three-way tie at 7-9.

Carroll needs a win AND a Wheaton loss to move ahead of them, and by beating Carthage would own the tiebreaker over NPU.

North Park needs to be alone at 8-8 in order to get the home quarterfinal (so they need a win and both Wheaton and Carroll to lose.)

Quote from: Gregory Sager on February 18, 2026, 01:17:41 PM

Quote from: mailsy on February 18, 2026, 11:18:07 AMWe've gone from this^TM

Quote from: Just Bill on January 24, 2007, 02:41:09 PMOK, this is kind of a corny thing that me and my college buddies used to do for various leagues.  We start the season with the previous year's national champion and award them the "Championship Belt" (think boxing).  That team can then hold the belt until they lose to another D-III team.  Then that team holds the belt as long as they can.  It's kind of a take-off of being "the team, that beat the team, that beat the team." Almost always the Belt winner is also the national champion.  I've tracked it back to the start of this season.  I'll keep track of it for a while and see if any else thinks its fun (or not).

Nov. 17-Nov. 27 - Virginia Wesleyan (lost to Averett 81-73)
Nov. 27-Jan. 2 - Averett (lost to Guilford 74-69)
Jan. 2-Jan. 7 - Guilford (lost to Virginia Wesleyan 75-55)
Jan. 7-Current - Virginia Wesleyan

Next Championship Belt game:  Tonight, Hampden-Sydney at Virginia Wesleyan

Since we are firmly entrenched in conference play it doesn't appear the Belt will get out of the ODAC until tournament time.

To This^TM

Quote from: sac on February 17, 2026, 06:31:38 PM2025-26 "The Scenario" Belt^Tm Path
3/20/25: Trinity (CT)
1/24/26: Wesleyan
1/31/26: Connecticut College
2/7/26: Amherst
2/14/26:  Williams

Fin!

Over 19 years! It is kinda Glorious^TM

It's just a shame that the thread's creator, Curator of The Belt^TM Just Bill, hasn't been on the site for the past two years. Bill would be secretly proud of how long it has lasted, although he'd dismiss it all with one of his trademark self-deprecating quips.

If nothing else, we know the Weasels^TM have to still be lurking around somewhere...

Quote from: Gregory Sager on February 17, 2026, 04:56:44 PM

Quote from: lmitzel on February 17, 2026, 12:51:04 PMSo the only caveat to this (and the only reason I know this is from talking with Bob Quillman who passed along a note from IWU's Sports Information department) is that the tiebreaker sheet on the CCIW website (that is not only over a decade old but is also kinda hidden now) is that it operates under the old eight-team format, so the "last seven" rule is actually "last eight".

This makes sense -- base the rule upon an entire round-robin rather than just a random number of games. And it stands to reason that the fifth tiebreaker will become "Record in their last nine games" when the CCIW becomes a ten-team league in 2027-28.

Yeah, it makes sense to me too, it's just weird that it's not updated on the CCIW's website, especially since you used to be able to click into the web page with the tiebreakers, and now it's kinda hidden along with being 12 years old and obviously now out of date.

Quote from: Gregory Sager on February 17, 2026, 12:37:14 PMLucas, I just have one correction regarding the unlikely scenario of Elmhurst tying for the title with Carthage and IWU. As you said, the top tie has to be broken before the pack tie, so the top three have to be measured against the NPU/WC/CU pack tie cumulatively. Note the language in the CCIW's tiebreaking procedures:

QuoteMen's & Women's Basketball
Seeding will be determined by regular season finish. Ties are broken by the following:

1. Head-to-head competition.
2. Record against team(s) above the tie beginning with the highest ranked team.
3. Record vs. team or teams in 3rd place. If still tied, go to the next place for determination, et cetera.
4. Road record against conference schools.
5. Record in their last seven conference games.
6. The point spread of the tied teams' head-to head competition.
7. Coin toss

(Emphasis mine.)

The plural "teams" indicates that the tie has to be broken by whatever exists in the next spot down the standings ladder, whether it's one team or two teams ... or three, as in this case.

Combined record of each of the top three vs. the NPU/WC/CU pack tie:

IWU 5-1 (swept WC and CU, lost @ NPU)
CC 4-2 (swept NPU, lost @ WC and @ CU)
EU 4-2 (swept NPU, lost @ WC and @ CU)

Illinois Wesleyan gets the #1 seed. The tiebreaker then moves down to #7 Augustana:

CC 2-0
EU 2-0

Stil tied. So we move down to #8 Millikin:

CC 1-1
EU 1-1

Still tied. So we move down to the bottom to #9 NCC.

CC 2-0
EU 2-0

Still tied. So we move on to tiebreaker #4, which is CCIW road record:

CC 4-4
EU 4-4

No help there. On we go to tiebreaker #5, record in last seven CCIW games:

CC 5-2
EU 6-1

Elmhurst gets the #2 seed and the bye, while Carthage gets stuck hosting a quarterfinal on Tuesday evening.

With that tie broken, we move on to the pack tie. North Park gets the #4 seed by virtue of being the only team of the three to have beaten #1 Illinois Wesleyan. Wheaton and Carroll both were swept by IWU, split with #2 Elmhurst, split with #3 Carthage, and split with #4 North Park. So you have to go below the tie again to the third tiebreaker and break that remaining tie by using the bottom tier of the CCIW. Wheaton and Carroll both split with #7 Augie, both swept #8 Millikin, and both split with #9 North Central. So on we go to the fourth tiebreaker, CCIW road record. Wheaton won two CCIW road games -- an artifact of the Thunder's inverted split with North Central -- while Carroll won only one, so Wheaton gets the #5 seed and a Tuesday date at the crackerbox, while Carroll gets the #6 seed and a trip down I-94 to Kenosha on Tuesday.

I hope I got that right. Check my work, please!

I reran this, and you are correct!

So the only caveat to this (and the only reason I know this is from talking with Bob Quillman who passed along a note from IWU's Sports Information department) is that the tiebreaker sheet on the CCIW website (that is not only over a decade old but is also kinda hidden now) is that it operates under the old eight-team format, so the "last seven" rule is actually "last eight". Ultimately this doesn't matter as Elmhurst is still a game up in the second half and gets the #2 seed.

I had run into the "road record" tie a couple times with Wheaton/Carroll, and I knew Wheaton had the edge, but I think I had really only taken a cursory glance at it with the knowledge of "Road Carroll is a completely different team from Home Carroll" and hadn't realized that it was only a one game difference.

Scenarios for the CCIW Tournament went live on Sunday, but I didn't get to sharing this right away... partially because there was a hiccup Q alerted me to.

Back like 10 years ago, there was a link on the CCIW's website to their tiebreaker procedures. It is no longer directly listed anywhere on the website that I'm aware of, but Googling "CCIW Tiebreakers" will take you to a sheet... from 2014. This sheet lists as one of its tiebreakers "record in their last seven conference games." Obviously a relic of the eight team era, and one you would have figured would have been updated since Carroll came back into the fold, but this is what's still on the site.

So Q being someone who does due diligence reached out to the IWU Sports Information office, who passed along an updated tiebreaker sheet (referenced in my top link) that shows an update from "record in their last seven conference games" to "record in their last eight conference games."

Before when I mentioned IWU had the tiebreaker over Carroll at 15-1, it was because of this loophole; Carroll's win over the Titans occurred outside the seven game window. But with it now at eight games, that game is part of that tiebreaker, and that means Carroll is in the driver's seat for the 1 seed and hosting rights.