I've been looking forward to this for months now.
No, really.
That schedule has since changed around a little bit, so Friday begins another campaign at my old stomping grounds. This year, I have a new task: I will be the public address announcer for both the men's and women's basketball teams at North Central. That means more nights at Merner, but it's something I love to do, and I have the support behind me to do it.
Today, I'm going to look at both teams' expectations for the coming year, and take a look at whose names I will be calling a lot over the next few months, and how I think they will fare as they prepare for the gauntlet that is CCIW basketball.
Women's Basketball
2013-14: 11-14 (4-10 CCIW), missed CCIW Tournament
This is my fourth year doing PA full time for Michelle Roof's squad, so for me, this is a year of having seen a young team grow up. Of the group of freshmen that started in the 2011-12 campaign that I cataloged on here, only two remain. If we want to get technical, three remain, but Lauren Hernandez is out for the season. Towards the end of last year,
she suffered a knee injury and from conversations I had with Coach Roof, had rehabbed really well and was looking great in open gyms... then she hurt the same knee. She will remain around the team, and I believe was able to redshirt so she can finish her career next year, but that's a tough loss for this team. Even so, there are a lot of good players on this roster.
The Cardinals will rely on a pair of seniors who rode through a tough freshman year and have led the transition to the Grinnell system Coach Roof employs. Point guard Bobbi Johns has never been a major scorer (7.6 PPG last year), but distributes the ball well (about four assists per game) and is tied for seventh all-time in Cardinal history with 128 steals in three years (she had 60 last year, the tenth-highest single season mark in program history). She should be in third by the time we get to CCIW play. Maryssa Cladis is the other four-year senior, and by season's end will likely move into second all-time in made three's. She averaged 9.3 points a game last year and shot 32 percent from deep last season. North Central also has another senior they can rely on in Tess Godhardt, a transfer from Elmhurst who played in the Cardinals' final four games of the year and averaged just shy of double figures. She will have a full season to work with, and should add a key scoring and rebounding presence.
There are really only a couple other players who were major contributors from last year that return. Junior Kim Wilson continues to shoot very well (7.3 PPG last year, 30.8 percent from three), and the Cardinals return a key forward in sophomore Anita Sterling, who wasn't much of a scorer (5.3 PPG), but is an underrated shooter (31.8 percent from deep), has good length, and clearly learned something at the Sophie Newson School of Drawing Charges. Coach Roof told me she's been very impressed with Sterling so far.
Fortunately for this team, there is a lot of youth that can learn from these great leaders. Sofia Svensson was a great energy player for last year's team, and while she is back in Europe, Coach Roof was able to recruit fellow Swede Therese Pettersson, who is 5'10" and hopefully possesses that same spark. Pettersson is one of seven freshman on this year's team, and all will get some playing time in Roof's line change-heavy system. Another intriguing name for me is sophomore Jamie Cuny. The Naperville Central product is a new addition to the team, but is 6'2", and height will probably help balance out a three-heavy offense.
The 2013-14 Cardinals averaged 93 points a game last year, but lost some games they maybe shouldn't have. Their three point shooting made a jump from Year One to Year Two of the new system (they shot 29.9% last year), and it's probably safe to assume that number will climb another point or two this year. Coach Roof did tell me she wants to add a slashing element to the offense so there's less of a reliance on the three. Then again...
Holy crap. Granted, it was against Waubonsee Community College, but still! This team has proven to be a nightmare for a lot of CCIW foes. Carthage has struggled in their last two trips to Naperville, and the Cardinals combined with Illinois Wesleyan to break the conference record for highest combined score in a game... both times they played last year. Luck will regress to the mean this season, and despite the voting, I see no reason why the Cardinals can't make the conference tournament for the second time in three seasons.
2014-15 Prediction: 15-10, 8-6 CCIW, Make CCIW Tournament, ..., Profit.
Men's Basketball
2013-14: 14-11 (7-7 CCIW), missed CCIW Tournament
It's kind of hard to think that this is a team that made three straight CCIW tournaments, hosted the first two, including
unleashing holy hell on their biggest rival in a title game to win their first of two straight auto bids to the Big Dance, which resulted in
a Sweet 16 and
a Final Four. Only two of the major contributors from those runs remain: senior forwards Jack Burchett and Charles Rosenberg. Burchett was a fixture on the Final Four team who wasn't known for his offense, though he averaged 9.8 points per game last season. Rosenberg, meanwhile, is back after a year away from the program (he averaged 4.8 points and 2.4 rebounds per game in 2012-13). The Cardinals' top two scorers are gone, and they will be sorely missed. Landon Gamble was a lethal post player who finished his Cardinal career fourth in program history in scoring, while Vince Kmiec was a master thief (NCC's all time leader in steals) and deadly three point shooter. The Cardinals will have to rely on some new weapons this season.
Six freshman are on the active roster, and we'll probably see some of them getting significant minutes. For me, the key figure on this year's squad is Kevin Honn. The 6'4" junior forward averaged 5.4 points and 2.5 rebounds per game last year while starting in 12 of the Cardinals' 25 contests (he played in all). He'll need to step up to replace the lost scoring. He possesses a decent outside shot (35.5% last year), and the Cardinals will need some of that to make up for the injured Tyler Sutton (6.9 PPG, 39.5 percent from deep last season).
With so much youth, I think this team still needs a little bit of time to gel. Hopefully by January, they'll be able to live up to the expectations of contending for the CCIW Tournament.
2014-15 Prediction: 13-12, 7-7 CCIW, Contend for 4th seed in CCIW Tournament
Friday evening, the season begins for both teams with the
Chicago Marriott Naperville Tipoff Tournament. My tournament workload is down a bit since I'm now the voice for both the men's and women's basketball teams, but I will be in attendance for both days. I'll have writeups for the four games involving the Cardinals with some details about the early contests, and on Saturday I'll have the All Tournament Teams and Tournament MVP's. Tomorrow night I'll continue the preview by taking a look at the six teams that will be making the trip to Naperville this weekend.
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