WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Green Beer]

Unrelated to the CCIW. NYU played Sunday and won by only 1 point.  Until this point I would have told anyone that NYU was a lock for this year's tournament champion. Kind of like last year. Even on their worst day they would win by 15 points.  Another way to say it, all the rest of the teams are playing for the opportunity to lose to NYU.  But on Sunday Carnegie Mellon played them within 1 point.  It's still the longest of long shots but at least there's a glimmer of hope

[iwu70]

New poll:   Carroll at #16, IWU up one to #18.

Five games to go.   Go Elmhurst, beat Carroll on Wednesday night.

'70

[iwu70]

Congrats to Leah Palmer on being named to D3hoops' Team of the Week.  Her dropping in 27 from off the bench was quite something.  She's getting more comfortable, knowing her role in the IWU scheme, and helping with paint scoring and rebounding.  Such a different player and temperament from her elder sister, Kate Palmer. 

IWU'70

[blue_jays]

Unrelated to the CCIW. NYU played Sunday and won by only 1 point.  Until this point I would have told anyone that NYU was a lock for this year's tournament champion. Kind of like last year. Even on their worst day they would win by 15 points.  Another way to say it, all the rest of the teams are playing for the opportunity to lose to NYU.  But on Sunday Carnegie Mellon played them within 1 point.  It's still the longest of long shots but at least there's a glimmer of hope

The fact NYU graduated a lot of star power and remains this dominant overall, I'd still take their odds over the rest of the field. Sure, they've looked mortal lately and their returning All-American is in a definite shooting slump, yet they continue to beat teams by double digits in a tough UAA. You gotta play a mistake-free game to even have a chance against them, which speaks to their coaching and depth through the lineup. When you've won 80 in-a-row, taking a loss or two becomes inevitable at some point.

[iwu70]

From what I've seen, I would not count on NYU taking a loss the rest of the season and post-season. 

'70

[lmitzel]

Not starting to do scenarios or anything yet (tried to, but Google Sheets didn't like the idea of a 17 million row spreadsheet), but we do have a clinching scenario on tonight's docket.

Here's our standings coming in:

x-IWU	10-1
x-CRL	10-1
ELM	7-4
NCC	6-5
AUG	5-5
CAR	4-6
WHE	3-7
MIL	2-9
NPU	1-10

Wesleyan and Carroll both locked up their postseason berths over the weekend. They can't clinch any more tonight, though they'd both all but secure a top four finish with victories.

Elmhurst would clinch a spot with a win over Carroll at home tonight AND a Wheaton loss to Carthage (ELM already has a head to head sweep of the Thunder).

And then the game in Naperville tonight, while it wouldn't clinch anything, might be the biggest game on the docket in terms of shaping the tournament picture. Augie beat the Cardinals in Rock Island already, and if they complete the sweep tonight they're probably a lock for a top four spot since they'd have the head to head over NCC. A Cardinal win, meanwhile, salvages a split and worst case keeps the Cardinals just a game out of third place.