Not that anyone thought that this years NACC would yield an at large selection, but this nice NCAA published resource gives a look into the selection math, RPI style.

https://stats.ncaa.org/selection_rankings/nitty_gritties/44396?utf8=%E2%9C%93&commit=Submit

Quote from: GU1999 on April 28, 2025, 12:48:36 PMCrazy week for CUC DH, Jake Mahler (Vernon Hills, Jr.)

In four games he wen 11/17 with 5 doubles, a HR and two walks.

.647/.684/1.471

OPS of 2.155

CUC put up an eye popping week in general with 56 runs scored and 7 allowed in their four wins.

Award went to Stagowski from RKFD.  Also had a good week over 6 games, but the numbers certainly would favour Mahler who had more hits, a higher Average, OBP%, SLUG%, OPS% and his team won all four games.  The only telling stat that tipped toward Stagowski is that he had 8 xbh, 6 doubles and 2 HR to Mahlers 5 doubles and 1 HR... in two extra games.

Crazy week for CUC DH, Jake Mahler (Vernon Hills, Jr.)

In four games he wen 11/17 with 5 doubles, a HR and two walks.

.647/.684/1.471

OPS of 2.155

CUC put up an eye popping week in general with 56 runs scored and 7 allowed in their four wins.

After 9 innings played (over two games) CUC has scored 29 runs at IIT. 

4/23 projections:
St. Norbert and WL - Split
CUC at IIT - CUC takes both
Aurora at Dominican - Aurora takes two as their top starters are currently going in the midweek games.
Lakeland at Edgewood - Edgewood takes both
Marian at Rockford - Split
MSOE at CUW - Split

4/26 projections:
CUC at WL - CUC takes both
Dominican at Edgewood - Split
Ben U at Marian - Split
Aurora at MSOE - MSOE takes both
Rockford at St. Norbert - Rockford takes the both
IIT at CUW - CUW takes both

Projected Standings at the end of the week:
MSOE 18-13 15-5
Concordia Chicago 15-7
Aurora 17-14 14-8
Benedictine 12-8
Marian 11-9
Rockford 11-9
Concordia Wisconsin 11-9
Edgewood 11-9
Wisconsin Lutheran 9-11
Dominican 7-13
Illinois Tech 6-14
St. Norbert 6-14
Lakeland 4-16

I was at the Thunderdome yesterday.  Stunning day.  All credit to RKFD, they came with a hitting plan and they executed.  9 XBH in game one (4 HR) and the homer in the 11th inning of the second game was the longest HR I have seen in my three years watching games at CUC.  Went through the tops of the trees on the other side of Division St.  Would not surprise me if it hit the houses on a fly.  K. Bergstrom (Jr. Harlem HS), who hit that bomb, is a real problem.  He hit his 10th and 11th HR yesterday. 

Great analysis.  I am reading it largely the same. 

I throw it out there that...
St. Norbert sweeps Lakeland.
CUC grabs both.
BenU also grabs both.
AU and IIT split.
CUW and Marian split.
MSOE and Edgewood split.

After doing a review of the balance of the season and the matchups still to be played, my April 11th predictions for the balance of the season is below.  I have now seen 6 of these teams live and have watched others on a screen and followed the scores. I know that I am probably totally off, but thought it would be fun to throw down a marker.

1) Aurora - 10 - 2 rest of the way (projected NACC record 19-5) - Two very good starters.  Defense is stellar. 
2) MSOE - 12 - 4 (Projected NACC record 18 - 6) All new team this year, but they are still good.
3)CUC - 10 - 2 (projected NACC record 17 - 7) Pitching Staff is VERY deep.  Allowing 3 rpg in conference play and they have played Aurora, MSOE and Ben U already.
4)Ben U 10 - 2 (15 - 9) Slow start, but they are putting it together now and given their schedule down the streach will climb the standings.
5)CUW - 8-6 (13-11) tourney qualifying team from last year.  Will finish strong despite a tougher schedule still ahead of them.
6)Edgewood - 8-6  (13-11) Will be an interesting battle for playoff spots with Marion. 
7) Marian - 6 - 8 (13-11)
8) IL Tech - 6 -10 (11 -13)
9) WI Lutheran - 3 - 11 (10 -14)
10) Rockford 4 - 10 (7 - 17)
11) Dominican - 3 - 9 (7 - 17)
12) St. Norbert - 5 - 9 (6-18)
13) Lakeland - 1 - 11 (5-19)

Quote from: Captain_Joe08 on March 31, 2025, 06:19:44 PM4/1

Dominican at Lakeland (DH) Dominican takes them both
Aurora at Rockford (DH) Aurora takes them both
Benedictine at Concordia Chicago (DH)CUC takes them both in the biggest match up of the day
Wisconsin Lutheran at Concordia Wisconsin (DH)CUW gets both
Marian at Edgewood (DH)Split of these two
St. Norbert at MSOE (DH)MSOE takes two

Not a fully formed opinion yet, but I think that this league has 5 contenders (not in any particular order):
AURORA
BEN U
MSOE
CUW
CUC

After this week, I will put together a rating system for the contenders.

Another NACC v. CCIW match up today with CUC playing @ North Central. 3p.   

Aurora and BenU probably are the class of the league.  Rockford seems to be a bit of iron pyrite.
 Feasting on lesser competition.  Dominican could be a suprise team to me.  They look to have put of come good wins early winning two at Hendrix. 

My team, CUC, could do some damage this year.  Pitching depth looks good and the line up is really experienced. Florida trip revealed some strong starting options.  Got good wins against Massey top 85 teams in Carthage and Grove City and is currently 3 - 0 against the CCIW. 

NACC v. CCIW/SLIAC/WIAC to date:

NACC v. CCIW (17 games) NACC 9 CCIW 8
NACC v. SLIAC (5 games*) NACC 5 SLIAC 0
NACC v. WIAC (3 games*) NACC 0 WIAC 3

*almost too small to report on

Yessir Hopefan.  In FL.  Watching Concordia U- Chicago v Warburg at 3:30 at Lake Myrtle Sports complex.  Head on over. 

Two of the five System principals are really hard against top talent.

Turnovers - need 33+.  Against longer, more athletic and poised guards with top teams, this is problematic for lesser level system teams. 

Offensive Rebound 33% of your misses.  Even with the best "wedging in" strategy trained dailey, and recruiting longer and more athletic "bigs" (GUs Comeaux brothers) to gather long misses, the higher seeded teams will have larger bodies who are athletic.  They will be able to collect a great majority of the longer misses around the rim.

GUs scare of Augie was real.  +17 in first half.  Double digits at half.  Had the lead with less than 10.  Shout out to Johari Dix and the squad. Dix was a menace but got his 5th half way through the 2nd period.

That said, I would posit that the system has been brilliant for GU.  1995-2018 - 0 ncaa tournaments.  Since 2.  GU is thriving. 

Enrollment/retention/fundraising/etc... are all up and in some respects up big.  The place looks great and the vibe is amazing. 

It should be noted that a SLIAC team has never won a tournament game.  So, I may characterize a loss less like like "a system team couldn't win in the NCAAs", and more like like a "#16 seeded system team couldn't win in the ncaas."   

Quote from: bopol on March 02, 2025, 05:07:43 PM

Quote from: Greek Tragedy on March 01, 2025, 08:21:42 AMBoth Grinnell and Greenville are in their conference finals. One or both could make the NCAAs today.

Monmouth, the #1 seed in the MWC was upset by Lake Forest. Spalding, who tied Greenville atop the SLIAC was upset by Webster. Could this be the year for the System teams???

Since Grinell and Greenville both made the tournament, can we just make them play each other for the hilarity? I figure we'd end up with a score of 212-208.

Yes, please.