The Team in the Red Dress

Sure, it was from the desktop computer in my dining room as opposed to on a nice TV. But hey, a selection show is still a selection show. And they got it done in 10 minutes or so.

After knocking off Wheaton on Saturday the Cardinals received the CCIW's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. Interestingly enough, the CCIW sends 3 teams into the fray, reminding us once again that the CCIW is a gauntlet, and one of the best athletic conferences top to bottom in the nation. Wheaton got in, which is no surprise, but I'm a little shocked Wesleyan got in.

To the right is the section of the bracket NCC is in. They will be heading off to St. Louis this weekend, as Washington University in St. Louis won the right to host the first two rounds of NCC's group at their field house. Looking solely at records, the Cardinals are tied with the hosts for best record (Washington gets the tiebreaker due to fewer games), but obviously records can be deceiving. So I'm going to look at some numbers on each of these teams.


Rose-Hulman Fightin' Engineers
The Engineers (20-8) won the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference, like North Central overcoming a tough team (Transylvania) in the tournament title game. They've won 5 in a row, getting hot at the right time. They are led by Julian Strickland (12.9, 4.8) and Austin Weatherford (12.7, 3.7, almost 3 assists per game), and are about on par with the Cardinals in terms of rebounding. While they are a low scoring team (64 ppg), they play phenomenal defense (56.1 ppga) and don't allow many second chances, while scoring efficiently. Their top 9 players in terms of minutes all shoot no worse than 40 percent from the field, and are just under 40 percent from deep as a team (led Strickland at 42.3%, and reserve James Pillischafske shooting 51.8%). They shoot well from the line too (71.8%). A good team that earned its way in.

Washington University Bears
The Bears (19-6) have dealt with the CCIW this year, playing 4 of the gauntlet's teams in non-conference tilts, winning 3 of them. Two of the 3 were at home, but they beat... Augustana and Wheaton! They also went to Elmhurst and won, but suffered a loss in the Shirk Center in Bloomington (that might be part of why IWU got in...). The Bears finished 11-1 at home led by Dylan Richter (16.4 ppg, 4 rpg) and Chris Klimek (13.1, 5.2). They're a high scoring team (77.2 a game), but also give up 71 a contest. A good rebounding squad with no one outstanding player on the glass, but a good team. Clearly they earned the right to be here. If they have one Achilles heel, it's their free throw shooting (68%).

Buena Vista Beavers
Winners of the IIAC tournament, the Beavers (17-10) don't look to have beaten any tournament teams, though they did only lose by 2 to Gustavus Adolphus (Wheaton's 1st round opponent). But the Beavers have some good post players in Wes Nordquist (15.3, 8.1) and Doug Bissen (11.7, 7.3) and have a good shooter in Jeff Janssen (12 ppg, 42% 3PT). Another good rebounding team that plays decent defense (68.1 ppga). They play the host Bears in Round 1, and that should be a fun matchup.

All in all these teams are pretty good and North Central would have tough, competitive games against each of them. But being from the CCIW, you get used to tough competition. If the Cardinals can get past Rose-Hulman in the first round, I think they can beat either Washington or Buena Vista and advance to the sectionals.

If you don't already follow these guys, I highly recommend my proteges from WONC Sports at my alma mater, who have seen more of the Cardinals this year than I have, and they do a good job calling the games. You can follow the department on Twitter as well, as they will presumably be heading down to St. Louis this weekend.

Good luck to Coach Raridon and his team as they try to make a deep postseason run!