WBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[iwu70]

Beer, that would be grand, to add to this year's freshmen group.  Sounds like all these "exceptional" newbies will push the rising juniors too.  Mia and Brian do a great job at recruiting, and success and great facilities breed more success. 

As Ypsi always used to say, "in Coach Smith we trust."

Looking forward to today's final regular season game at Shirk, hopefully wrapping up another regular season CCIW championship.

March basketball to come . . .

IWU'70

[iwu70]

IWU clinches a share of the regular season crowd (Carroll also won), beating Augie 86-68.  The Titans now seeded #2 and will travel to Carroll for the tournament semis on Friday. 

For Augie:

Papez 14
Lewis 12 and 89
Tatum 10 

Augie with 22 TOs.  Shooting 47%/36% from three/69% FTs.

For IWU:
Bardic, another awesome game, 26
Kobylarzyk 15
White, a double double, with 14 and 10 assists
Palmer, off the bench, another double double, 11 and 11

IWU at 44%/39%/80% from FTs.

IWU made 10 treys today.

IWU concludes the regular season 20-5, 15-1 in the CCIW. 

The injury bug bites . . . Caitlyn Leyden going down in the first Q with some kind of knee injury.  She drove to the basket, was hit with no foul called, and didn't get up off the floor.  Had to be helped from the floor.  She did not return to the game, but did stay and sat on the bench the rest of the game, so no immediate trip to the ER.  I have no idea if she will miss games. 

Congrats to Coach Smith, all the staff, and all the Titans on another CCIW regular season Championship.  Congrats to Carroll as well, both finishing 15-1, not easy in this league. 

On to the post season.

'70

[Green Beer]

There were multiple injuries throughout the game including a player on Augie's team who fainted.  She fainted on the way to the bench and her teammates had to carry her to the chairs and lay her down. The refs stopped the game while Augie's coach and support staff attended her. They were concerned but not paniced, as if they were aware of some sort of situation, but if you were in the stands it was quite harrowing.

[iwu70]

Seems some good news for the Titans, with no serious injury to Caitlyn Leyden.  Some others with minor concerns, still in boots etc., but all pretty much ready to go on Friday in the CCIW tournament.

Good luck to the Titans up at Carroll this weekend.

'70

[Gregory Sager]

Annie Radenkovich is out as North Park's head coach, and her assistant coach Sam Ervin is gone as well. GA Lore Porter is thus minding the store at the moment for NPU WBB as the sole remaining coach.

Sad to see Annie go, as she's a North Park alumna and former Viking and is a terrific person to boot. But three straight 20-loss seasons, with only two CCIW wins in those three seasons, is clearly not acceptable.

I'm very hopeful that John Born can find and hire an excellent candidate to run the NPU WBB program. North Park has had a lot of success in building competitive programs in several other women's sports over the past few years, a couple of which have won CCIW hardware and another of which appears to be on the verge of doing so. There's no reason why North Park women's basketball can't be competitive as well. And the most important step to achieving that is to make a successful hire for the head coaching job.

[Gregory Sager]

Congratulations to Aliyah Hershberger for being named to the All-CCIW second team. I'm not immune to recognizing the difficulty level of that achievement. You can't help but admire how hard she had to work and how often she had to succeed on the court to earn that kind of respect from the other eight head coaches in the league when her team only went 1-15. Despite the pounding she took while fearlessly driving to the basket time after time as one of the league's smaller players (North Park lists her at 5'6", but I doubt that that's accurate), she still managed to lead the CCIW in minutes per game, and she was both a top ten scorer and appeared in some of the shooting categories as well.

[iwu70]

Congrats to all the All-CCIW players selected.  I'm especially happy about unanimous selections for first team for Ava Bardic and Sawyer White.  As I predicted earlier, Caitlyn Leyden on the Second Team. 

Glad to also see Ava Bardic, at long last, honored this week as the CCIW Player of the Week.  She's had a great season and this is well-deserved.

Good luck to the Titans up in Cheeseheadland this weekend.  Not easy beating Carroll on their floor.

IWU'70

[lmitzel]

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).

[iwu70]

It will be Carroll hosting IWU for the AQ again, tomorrow at 7 p.m.  Both teams winning semis tonight. 

IWU had a close one, trailing by 7 going into the 4th Q, then outscoring Carthage in the 4th, 24-8 to come from behind.  Carthage all over Ava Bardic tonight.

For Carthage:
Elsmore off the bench 18
Cord 12
Green 10

CC at 37%/30% from three/ 80% from the line

For IWU:
Palmer off the bench 17
Balli with a big game 15
White 11 with 5 steals
Bardic 10

IWU struggling from three.

IWU at 36%/20% from three/74% from the line.

IWU moves to 21-5 on the year, goes for the AQ tomorrow.  Into the tournament no matter. Hard to win at Carroll.  Again, hoping to host some D3 dance games at the Shirk.

Keep it rolling, Titans.  A great season so far, with more basketball to be played.

IWU'70

[Green Beer]

Q says Titans limited by sickness and injury  tonight.  That's why no r&j. I think we're gonna get pushed around by Carroll Saturday.

[iwu70]

Yes, both IWU teams hit by injuries and sickness  ... and teams all over these tournament games.  Top scorer for NPU men out last night.  No Gricius for Carroll?  Leyden for IWU is coming back from an injured knee, so not in top form.  Of course, you know about Fridman earlier and now Cleveland out with the broken wrist.  Maybe he'll be back soon.  It's a long season and it takes its toll.  Brady Kuehl got dinged up last night too, but I think he's OK.  You gotta admire those getting through it all as warriors, still playing at a top level -- Niego, D. Williams, Funk . . .and on the women's side, Bardic, White and Balli.  You can tell the two freshmen are wearing down.  Palmer has been a life-send. 

I agree, a tough match-up tonight vs. Carroll on their home floor. The Titans just don't seem to play all that well there.

I think the men take care of business tonight, but Elmhurst is playing really well just now too, taking down #2 seed Carthage, and ending Ryan Johnson's great CCIW career.  He missed key shots last night, tired legs, front of rim . . . at key moments late. 

Here comes March for both IWU teams, no matter.

IWU'70

[iwu70]

Tonight, if Gricius still out, must stop Wizner, then win the game.  Maybe they return at times to run and jump.  I would not be surprised to see Leah Palmer start tonight.  White guarding Wizner.  Rebounding against the bigger Carroll team always key.

'70

[iwu70]

IWU over Carroll for the AQ, in OT, 74-70.

Gricius played and played well.  IWU was able to contain Wizner.

Bardic again coming through with 23
White 17 and 5 more steals
Palmer again key, 10 and 9

IWU with two key OT wins over Carroll this season on Carroll's home floor.  Great stuff.

IWU moves to 22-5 and has punched their AQ ticket to the D3 dance.   I hope they get to host some games at the Shirk next weekend.  A week to rest and recover, get some folks back, more healthy from injuries and season fatigue.

Carroll surely in the tournament as well.

Congrats to Coach Smith and all the coaching staff, and to the Titans for a great tournament run, winning the AQ, and entering the D3 March dance on a good win over an extremely high-quality opponent.

Keep it rolling, Titans.

IWU'70

[GoPerry]

Carroll hosting and looks like a good draw.

Committee certainly didn't do the Titans any favors - traveling to Holland.  Then again, for the most part, nothing but good teams remaining at this time of year.

And the #s like 5 WIAC teams . . wow . .

[iwu70]

Yes, Carroll got the better draw.  A tough draw for IWU at Hope.  But, it was a close game with them earlier, losing in OT earlier in the season.  I guess it comes down to who improved more over the season, and who has survived the fatigue and injuries of the long regular season.  We've had some bitter losses to Hope there over the years, so I hope this year will be different.  I hope all the Titans get healthy and get good rest this week.

Go get two Ws, Titans!   

iwu'70