Game Notes: Robert Morris University @ North Central College (12/30/17)

Final Score
NCC 117, Robert Morris 72

Game Summary
This one was close in the early going as the Eagles (5-10) were able to score on three of their first four possessions, but they struggled to contain the Cardinals (7-4), who matched them basket for basket, and took the lead for good about two and a half minutes in with a 9-0 run. The Eagles shot okay from deep to keep the game reasonably close, but the Cardinals got the lead to double digits about eight minutes in, and after having the lead hover between eight and ten, used a 10-0 run to take total control. North Central would lead by as many as 26 before a Marquel Murphy buzzer beater on the baseline made it 61-37 at the break. Alex Sorenson singlehandedly kept North Central firmly in front as he scored the first 19 Cardinal points of the second half, then sat down for a couple minutes while the lead eclipsed 30. He came back in for all of a minute before Todd Raridon called off the dogs for the second straight game.

Key Stats

• Alex Sorenson (NCC): 25-29 FG (1-2 3PT), 3-4 FT; 54 pts, 14 reb (5 ofF), 1 ast. I don't know what more needs to be said, other than bask in the glory of that stat line. Coming into yesterday, Sorenson's career high was 32 points, set against Benedictine last season. He had 31 at halftime on 15-18 shooting. An overwhelming majority of his workload came against a completely overmatched interior Robert Morris defense, but he was automatic from the baseline as well. It continued in the second half, as it took until Alex was in the 40's for the Eagles to start double teaming him, and he still scored on them. He was lifted after a pair of free throws put him at 50. I turned to North Central SID Clark Teuscher and asked if the coaches knew he was two points shy of Bill Warden's all time record. He told the bench, and they made sure Clark told the Robert Morris bench that Alex would return solely to get the record. He returned with 9:30 to go, and immediately tied the record on a baseline jumper. On the next possession, Mike Pollack missed a layup, but Alex was right there to tip it home, and he was lifted at the next dead ball to an ovation and the announcement of his breaking the scoring record. His 25 made field goals is also a school, breaking the previous mark of 19 also held by Warden.
• Connor Raridon (NCC): 5-9 FG (0-1 3PT); 10 pts, 8 reb (1 off), 12 ast, 1 blk. Connor joked on his way out of the locker room yesterday that he didn't score 54, but after his monster outing against Albion in the previous game, he was just as vital in this one. He helped North Central dominate the paint early, but then took on more of a facilitator role, grabbing plenty of rebounds and taking a huge chunk out of Adam Teising's lead in career assists (Connor is now 56 off the record). Even the last couple of years Connor has contributed beyond just being a go-to scorer, and the scary part continues to be that Connor still has two years of eligibility left, so he hasn't even peaked yet.
• NCC: 36 assists on 47 field goals. I could have gone a number of directions with this last one. North Central shot 62.7 percent from the floor and 44 percent from three, while outrebounding Robert Morris 59-22. Any one of these stats would paint the picture that the Cardinals totally dominated this one, but the assist number is mind-boggling. This shows that overall, North Central's ball movement and finding the open guy/force feeding Alex Sorenson in the post was clicking. Said 36 assists are a school record for a single game.

Final Thoughts

The aforementioned 59 rebounds by the Cardinals in this one were also a single game record, so a ton of old marks fell yesterday. You really need to watch the tape, because it tells a lot. Robert Morris took a ton of bad shots (33 of their 77 attempts were from beyond the arc), but beyond that, on a majority of their three attempts, no one crashed the boards, so there were three or four white jerseys all in the paint to collect the rebound. A few of them were even able to be corralled on a bounce because no Eagles were even close. Really, it was about as close to a perfect all around performance as you can find.

Today’s game was a bit of a blur. We broke the school for assists too so I was getting the ball in some great spots #GoCards https://t.co/f0gMKmIQiO

— Alex Sorenson (@AlexSCOREnson) December 31, 2017

As far as implications about this game go, it was great to get the win in a game that I thought would be much closer than it was, but as far as how it impacts the Cardinals' resume, it doesn't a ton. Robert Morris is an NAIA school, so by and large this game won't show up as a factor when regional rankings come into play. But it's a great way to close out the calendar year and extends the Cardinals' win streak to four with CCIW play resuming on Wednesday.

I've announced close to 100 women's basketball games at North Central, plus a few dozen men's games, and then factor in the dozens of high school games I announced back in my Aurora Christian days. Some day I'll do a list (probably when I work my 100th women's game), but of all of the games I've ever announced, I think this one had to immediately catapult into the top five. There's a few that involved buzzer beaters, and I've now announced the single game scoring record games for both the men's and women's teams. But this one was something special, and makes it two games in a row where history has been made.

We'll be hard pressed to make it three with Carthage coming to town on Wednesday. They're a good team near the top of the CCIW standings, though the last time these two teams met, this happened. Hopefully it's an omen of good things to come!

2017 COAS Pigskin Pick 'Em: Week 17

And so it all comes down to this. One week. 16 games. The fate of our contest hanging in the balance.

In our head to head contest, Adam has led literally wire to wire, but he's currently in second place among the coalition. Don't let the ESPN standings fool you; they've been a little off since Week 1, since I go by the picks made on here. Factoring those in, Adam is four games off the group lead. You can view the correct standings, as well as a full breakdown of our picks in relation to each other, here.

Last week I took four of the six games Adam and I disputed, which has pushed me to within one game of him. Like last year, I'm not necessarily aiming to win the whole group; as long as I can overcome Adam here at the end, I'm good. That said, like I mentioned last week, I'm not going to cheat. Adam sends me his picks for me to post on here, but I don't look at them until after I've already made mine. I'm not going contrarian in all 16 games in a desperate attempt to beat him; it wouldn't be fair play.

In the season finale, Adam and I disagree on a whopping nine games. Since it's an odd number, this means a tie is in play. Best of luck to you, sir! Let's get to it!

2017 COAS Pigskin Pick 'Em: Week 16

We're down to the penultimate week of the coalition picking games against the spread, and the margin is still pretty narrow.

We all had at least .500 weeks, but the gap at the top is almost as small as you can get. Adam took three of five disputed games last week to open his lead up to three games with 32 to play. He's led wire to wire this season, at least on me, though he's only up two points on Geoffrey Clark for first overall, regardless of what ESPN says. The correct standings (with my and Adam's picks being based on what happens here, adjusting for mistakes on ESPN made by both of us), as well as a breakdown of all our picks in relation to each other, can be found here.

I think it's important to note, in the interest of full disclosure, that Adam and I do not compare picks before entering them in. We each come up with our picks independently, with me making sure to at least get my picks in, though not necessarily my rationales, ahead of Adam. When he sends them to me, I want to make sure I'm not making picks based on what he's doing, or going insane over the final two weeks by looking at his picks, then going contrarian in a desperate effort to supplant him. I know my dad has said he also does his picks first before reading this weekly post so his aren't colored by the same biases. I assume the same is true of Geoff.

With the disclaimer out of the way, let's get to the picks. Adam and I disagree on six games out of 16 this week.

Game Notes: Albion College @ North Central College (12/19/17)

Final Score
NCC 92, Albion 78

Game Summary
In Todd Raridon's first crack at 500 career wins, it was the Britons (1-7) who came out of the gate strong, scoring on five of their first six possessions and building an early 9-2 advantage. But the Cardinals (6-4) wouldn't go quietly into the night, fighting back and staying in the contest. Albion led 17-9 at one point, but the Cardinals scored seven straight to pull back within one, and had an answer when the Britons pushed the lead back to six. The Cardinals fought back, grabbing their first lead of the game at 25-24 with 6:51 left in the first half, and from there the game turned into somewhat of a back and forth, with each team grabbing small leads before going into the locker room knotted up at 40. Whatever Todd Raridon said in the locker room worked; the Cardinals grabbed the lead nine seconds into the second half on an old fashioned three point play and never looked back. Six minutes later the lead was ten, and a three on the Cardinals next possession signified that the game was all but in hand. North Central would lead by as many as 23, and with 2:21 to play Raridon called off the dogs, with the end of Albion's bench making the final margin closer than the second half of this game made it seem, and at double-zeros he became the 13th active coach in Division III to reach 500 wins.

Key Stats

• NCC: 19-28 FG in 2nd half (73.1%). For reference, it's not like the Cardinals had a bad shooting night in the first half (10-21). They were just absolutely locked in in the second half, and it's not like this was a complete dominance in the post (32 points in the paint), though the Cardinals did dominate the paint. They were hitting jumpers left and right as well, finishing 6-13 from three for the night, including 3-6 in that second half.
• Connor Raridon (NCC): 12-15 FG (0-1 3PT), 12-13 FT; 36 pts, 4 reb (2 off), 8 ast, 2 stl. On a night where the officials were calling everything, Connor adjusted and made the Britons pay at the free throw line, but he was hitting literally everything. Despite missing his one three attempt, he also took a number of midrange jumpers, and they pretty much all fell. By my count in the official play by play, he went 6-7 on jumpers not counting that three, and factoring in that a pair of those were in the paint. His 36 points are a career high, and with his eight assists he moves into North Central's top ten all time in assists with 205, and he's 68 away from Adam Teising's all time mark. That record could fall by season's end.
• Alex Sorenson (NCC): 9-15 FG (1-3 3PT), 5-9 FT; 24 pts, 7 reb, 3 ast, 1 stl. Even though this was Connor's (and his dad's) night, Sorenson helped make sure the Cardinals weren't going to squander this one. He was nigh unguardable; Albion's Ryan Lowe started the game on him defensively, and he's a big dude (listed as 6'11", but he's more like 6'9" and stocky), but Sorenson loves eating those guys up. He used his speed and low post skills to dominate him and other defenders who had to challenge him due to the sheer number of fouls being called. His seven boards were also a game high.

Final Thoughts

The one major downfall to last night's game came in the first half: Blaise Meredith was fouled with just under seven minutes to play in the first half, and hurt his knee on the play. He stayed in long enough to nail a pair of free throws and was immediately lifted for Raridon. He looked to be in serious pain after the fact and did not return to the game. He's played fairly well through the first ten games of the season, but I don't know the exact nature of his injury and whether or not this is something that will keep him out for an extended period of time. We'll have to see.

I touched on it a little bit above, but this was a foul-happy game. It was physical, to be sure, but no more so than any usual game you'd see; the officials just kept whistling contact. There were a combined 48 fouls and 63 free throws, which slowed the game down a ton, yet amazingly we only had one player foul out, though both teams had to go pretty deep in their rotations in the first half due to the sheer number of players picking up a pair of fouls. I'm not a huge fan of games like that, and I'm sure if you talked to both coaches, they would have said the same.

With the Cardinals' win tonight, North Central head men's basketball coach Todd Raridon becomes one of 13 active @NCAADIII coaches with at least 500 career victories! #WeAreNC #d3h pic.twitter.com/15gctbOVzE

— NCC Cardinals (@NCC_Athletics) December 20, 2017

But this was a night about Todd Raridon and his reaching the 500 win plateau, even if he may downplay the significance of the achievement. He was already on his way off the floor as I was making the announcement about him winning number 500, but he got an ovation anyway. I congratulated him after the game, and his response was that he was disappointed so few people were in attendance (180 was the official total), though given that it's the week before Christmas and North Central's campus is pretty much deserted, it makes sense. Either way, it was a nice win for this program that got off to a slow start this season, but seems to be making some strides as we near the end of December.

Final from Gregory Arena, and some mementos from Todd Raridon’s 500th career win! #WeAreNC #d3h pic.twitter.com/8fhkHU87YS

— Lucas Mitzel (@northsider89) December 20, 2017

The Cardinals have a nice long week and a half break to enjoy the holidays and spend time with family, returning to action on Saturday, December 30th when we welcome Robert Morris- Chicago back to Gregory Arena for the second straight year. While this game will have basically no impact on North Central's postseason outlook, it's still going to be a tough game and an important tuneup before CCIW play resumes two weeks from tonight.

Game Notes: University of Dubuque @ North Central College (12/16/17)

Final Score
NCC 71, Dubuque 61

Game Summary
The Cardinals (2-7) got off to a good start, scoring the game's first eight points to take control, though the Spartans (2-8) answered with a couple quick baskets to get on the board. A little scoring lull followed, though the Cardinals got hot and were able to push the lead to ten before Dubuque cut it to six at 19-13 after one. North Central caught fire in the second quarter, hitting a number of threes to push the advantage as high as 19 before taking a 42-26 lead into the locker room. Whatever was said in the Spartans' room at halftime must have had an impact, because Dubuque opened the third quarter on a 16-1 run to steal the momentum and make this a contest again, but the Cardinals hit threes on three straight possessions to push the lead to eight. The Cardinals would lead by as many as 13 in the frame before settling into a nine point advantage going into the final ten minutes. The Spartans would pull within four with just under four minutes to play, but another three and a short jumper effectively put the game on ice, and the Cardinals hit enough shots the rest of the way to end the home stand on a high note.

Key Stats

• Siarra O'Neill (NCC): 7-16 FG (6-13 3PT), 0-3 FT; 20 pts, 2 reb. The Cardinals needed someone to step up from beyond the arc yesterday, and Siarra did that part perfectly. She hit three in the first half, then added a couple in that key third quarter wakeup call, and added her sixth in the fourth quarter to help put the game away. Unfortunately, she didn't shrug. Either way, she became the thirteenth Cardinal in program history to hit six threes in a game, and is one off the single game record shared by Miranda Grizaffi and Kelsey Cooling.
• Hannah Vitkus (NCC): 0-2 FG (both 3PT), 1-4 FT; 1 pt, 12 reb (4 off), 1 stl. I joked with the assistant SID during the game that Hannah had pulled off a Dennis Rodman line, and that's really what this is. She played a very short stretch in the first quarter but pulled down six rebounds in that time, which prompted me to look up the single game record for NCC (22, set back in the eighties). She had limited action in the second quarter to pad that total, but still had seven boards in just four first half minutes. This was an impressive total, either way.
• Cece Pope (DUB): 3-12 FG (0-2 3PT), 9-15 FT; 15 pts, 12 reb (3 off), 1 blk. The local product (Naperville North) had a great homecoming. While she struggled from the field, she made up for it with repeated trips to the free throw line, which she did a decent job of taking advantage of. You do have to credit the Cardinal defense for making her earn it, which she did, but 3-12 is not an ideal shooting night.

North Central "System" Watch

• Dubuque Turnovers: 18. Anything in the upper teens at this point I'll take as a win since the pressure defense isn't constant this year. The Cardinals were able to force a few good defensive stops in key moments and logged 11 steals, with four players logging two apiece. North Central turned it over 19 times though, for what it's worth.
• NCC 3PT: 14-49 (28.6%). This is about the season average for the team, but after Monday night's debacle, this was a welcome sight. They got a couple to go in early to set the tone, hit several in the second quarter to pull away, then hit three in a row in the third to stop the bleeding of that 16-1 Dubuque run.
• NCC FT: 13-25 (52.0%). This... still needs to be better, but it's about what they've been averaging this season. Many of their trips end up being splitting a pair, which isn't ideal, though a couple players took advantage of their opportunities. The one that bugs me was Siarra O'Neill getting fouled on a three and missing all three shots.

Final Thoughts

I looked at records coming in, and figured that the Cardinals had to have a good chance at getting back in the win column. You have to beat the bad teams, and the Cardinals definitely came out last night ready to play and ready to win, and it resulted in a victory. That second half scared me a little bit, but the Cardinals were able to stem the tide and regain control before it was too late. It's a big win that you hope, again, will spark a little momentum for the Cardinals, but they've got a tough slate ahead. They head into the city tomorrow to take on the University of Chicago in what will be a very tough road game, then they head down to Texas for a tournament between Christmas and New Year's. Hopefully the Cardinals will get a win or two mixed in that trip and carry some momentum into CCIW play.

2017 COAS Pigskin Pick 'Em: Week 15

We're down to the final three weeks, and the coalition remains bunched up in our attempts to pick NFL games against the spread.

We combined for seven consensus games this past week, which might be a season high but I don't think is an all-time high. We struggled, nonetheless, winning just two of those games. You can view a full breakdown of all of our picks in relation to each other here.

That spreadsheet includes correct standings, which show our top three pickers, myself included, all separated by one game, with my dad not terribly far behind. Adam took three of our five disputed games last week to give himself a little cushion, but it's not a lot. That didn't stop him from sending me this week's picks with this proclamation:

Who’s in first…This guy. Haha, back up on top…

Not only is Adam back on top, he is back from Beaumont and ready to go. We disagree on just five games out of the 16 on the docket again. This week we have some Saturday games to mess with the schedule, games that would conflict with the Death to the BCS Playoffs were they being played in reality. Alas.

Game Notes: UW-Stevens Point @ North Central College (12/11/17)

Final Score
UWSP 68, NCC 44

Game Summary
In a game I'd like to forget, the Pointers (4-3) were able to grab the early lead and never relinquished it, though the Cardinals (1-7) were able to keep it reasonably close for part of the quarter, though the Pointers led 23-13 after one. The Cardinals were unable to get the lead back down to single digits, struggling from outside and not getting their first triple until Mayson Whipple hit with 6:19 to go in the half. The Pointers kept up the pressure and led 37-20 at halftime. The effort and energy picked up a bit after the intermission, but the Pointers were still able to push the lead to 53-29 after three, and the fourth quarter turned into garbage time, with coach Michelle Roof getting her end of the bench players some minutes for the second straight outing.

Key Stats

• UWSP: Outrebounded NCC 55-25. That includes 21 Pointer offensive rebounds, nearly equaling the total number of Cardinal rebounds. The Pointers had decent size, but a lot of this was just related to not boxing out and getting out-hustled.
• Taylor Barrett (UWSP): 5-12 FG, 3-4 FT; 13 pts, 11 reb (3 off), 2 stl. I could have gone with Ashley Leiterman (13 pts on 5-7 shooting, but only four rebounds) as my choice here because she was more efficient, but Barrett dominated the glass in addition to having a pretty good day from the floor.
• Mayson Whipple (NCC): 5-10 FG (1-4 3PT); 11 pts, 3 reb, 2 ast. It's an improvement over the Wesleyan loss, for what it's worth, but not by a ton. She really struggled in the first half, shooting just a pair of threes and making one, spending most of her time with the ball dribbling around the perimeter. She started to attack the basket a little more in the second half, showing that she still can beat anyone off the dribble. I'm just not sure why she's not doing it more.

North Central "System" Watch

• UWSP Turnovers: 19. One thing I will give the Cardinals credit for is that they are still causing some havoc on defense. The team recorded nine steals, paced by two apiece from Lyndsay Brennan, Page Desenberg, and Diamond Calicott, who played just six minutes last night.
• NCC 3PT: 3-27 (11.1%). You're going to have off shooting nights... but not like this. Last night was just awful. It took almost 14 minutes for the Cardinals to get their first three, and that was it for the first half. They hesitated to shoot for much of the night, and even when they did shoot, everything was off. You know they're due for one of those games where they get red hot, but I don't know when that game is coming.
• NCC FT: 5-10 (50%). And we're still around the season average. They actually hit their first three as a team last night, impressing basically the entire table, before regressing to the mean. A slight improvement in this game wouldn't have affected the outcome, but through eight games I think we can safely say: this team isn't good at the line.

Final Thoughts

It's pretty telling when the high point of your night was having a stoppage in play because a player lost her hair extensions. I think we were laughing way harder about it than we should have, but in a game like last night's, I don't know what else you can do.

I was cautiously optimistic going into last night. Before the season I'd chalked this one up as a loss, but when I went to prep for the game yesterday I saw UWSP's record and stats, and wasn't overly impressed. I figured with an effort similar to what was put in against Carthage last week a win was possible, but it became apparent pretty quickly last night that the Cardinals just didn't have it.

I've said this multiple times already this season, and others have confirmed with me: we're all getting flashbacks to the 2011-12 season, which is not a season you want to have flashbacks from. That year was awful, and the 2017-18 campaign is shaping up to be just as bad, if not worse. But Michelle Roof put it well last night before I left: "This is why we coach: to figure this crap out." They have a few days to figure this crap out before getting back into action on Saturday as we close out the four game home stand against Dubuque.

Game Notes: (MBK) Illinois Wesleyan University @ North Central College (12/9/17)

Final Score
IWU 68, NCC 66

Game Summary
This one started out okay as the Cardinals (3-4, 1-2) scored the game's first four points and held the Titans (7-1, 2-1) off the board for the first three and a half minutes. But North Central's offense struggled to build off the early momentum, and the Titans shook off any rust they had and built a 16-8 lead just over ten minutes in. They poured it on with an assault from beyond the arc, using an 11-0 run to build a 17 point lead. The Cardinals were unable to really cut into that lead and the Titans took a 39-23 advantage into intermission. Wesleyan would push its lead as high as 19, but the Cardinals made a game of it again with a 9-0 run. The Titans would push the lead back to 17, but the Cardinals wouldn't go away, hitting back to back threes just after the midway point of the half to trim the deficit to seven. They cut it to two with just under six minutes to play, but missed a couple gimme layups that could have tied the game, and the Titans were able to preserve their lead. An Aiden Change three with about a minute to play made it 66-65, and after a Titan miss, the Cardinals got the ball back with 38 seconds to go. Mike Pollack missed a contested mid range jumper from the left wing, but Connor Raridon grabbed the offensive rebound and the Cardinals called timeout to set up a final play. Rather than hold for the last shot though, they got it in quickly to Alex Sorenson by the basket, where he was fouled. He hit his first free throw to tie the game, but missed the second, and Colin Bonnett of the Titans grabbed the rebound, threw it to a teammate before he fell out of bounds, then off a perimeter pass broke through the defense to kiss home a layup at the buzzer to break the hearts of every fan in red.

Key Stats

• Colin Bonnett (IWU): 5-9 FG (1-2 3PT), 4-4 FT; 15 pts, 3 reb, 3 ast. Bonnett isn't the first option on this Titan team, but he's a key piece in the backcourt, and he showed why with a solid outing, leading his team in scoring, and serving as the center of the mob scene after his game-winner. It was a fantastic individual effort that saw him grab a rebound off a missed Sorenson free throw, find Jaylen Beasley to save a turnover, then beat Erwin Henry one on one to save the win for the Titans.
• Jaylen Beasley (IWU): 4-7 FG (3-4 3PT); 11 pts, 5 reb (1 off). It's possible there were other guys I could have gone with here, but Beasley earned the mention with his early work to build that huge lead. He's been kind of an underrated player in the conference for a couple years, but has really turned into a key piece for this Titan team. After his heroics at Wheaton on Wednesday, I was worried every time he launched from deep, and he showed why in this one by hitting his first three attempts from out there.
• Connor Raridon (NCC): 6-14 FG (1-2 3PT), 7-9 FT; 20 pts, 8 reb (3 off), 7 ast, 3 stl. I almost went with Alex Sorenson here (15 points on 6-8 shooting, 14 rebounds, all apparently with the flu), but Raridon had a phenomenal all around floor game. He did most of his damage in the second half, with 13 points, seven rebounds, four assists, and two steals in the final 20 minutes, though the two were probably both just as responsible for keying the comeback. Raridon's key offensive rebound with about 18 seconds left set the stage for Sorenson's potential heroics. Alas.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• Wheaton 98 (6-2, 2-1), @ Elmhurst 95 (5-2, 2-1) (2OT)
• Augustana 70 (6-1, 2-0),@ Carthage 61 (5-3, 2-1)
• @ Millikin 57 (5-3, 1-2), Carroll 54 (2-4, 0-2)
• @ Coe 77, North Park 69 (1-6, 0-2)

Final Thoughts

I'll start with the fun note first. I've embedded the video from Saturday's doubleheader above (something I've done the last two years so you can watch the full game for yourselves). Obviously, the women's game precedes the men's, so you'll have to skip forward to watch this thriller. But there was a great hustle play captured by NCTV and tweeted out as the short clip by Illinois Wesleyan alum and basketball guru Bob Quillman. Commentary to follow. (You can also skip ahead to it on the YouTube video).

Jason Gregoire’s hustle play pic.twitter.com/lxiZ6AuH56

— Bob Quillman (@IWUhoopscom) December 11, 2017

On a North Central offensive possession with the score 22-10 Illinois Wesleyan, Erwin Henry tried to deliver an entry pass to Kane Wildermuth in the post. Titan defender Jason Gregoire jumped up and knocked it away, then gave chase, saving it before taking a tumble over the scorers' table. The NCTV cameraman did a perfect job following the play and capturing the hustle. What that camera, sadly, can't show you is the reality of being up close and personal to a play like that. I'm right at center court on top of the action. Basketballs come out our way from time to time (I made a nice play on one last year that earned a shoutout on both NCTV and WONC). We've also had players come running full speed towards the table, but in every prior circumstance I've been involved in, they've been able to brace themselves at the table before vaulting over. That did not happen this time. Gregoire was able to use his momentum to catapult over right in between myself and SID Clark Teuscher. We tried to brace his fall as best we could, with the only casualty of the play being Clark's chair. Nothing really prepares you for that moment, and even though a player is coming at you full speed, everything kind of slows down. I knew it was coming, but nothing really prepares you for a 205 pound man coming right at you when there's nothing you can do about it. This is now something I can cross off my bucket list, though.

Big picture, this one hurt. The Titans were figured to contend for a CCIW Tournament spot, but with the CCIW appetizer schedule out of the way, they're in one of the best spots in the conference to this point. Meanwhile, North Central is in a bad 1-2 hole; they beat a bad North Park team they were supposed to beat, but have lost back to back games to contenders in Augustana and the Titans. The fact that North Central put itself in a huge hole early didn't help matters. They did a great job coming back, but they missed a couple open layups that could have completely changed the outcome of this one. I'm also haunted by Sorenson playing defense up in the high post on the final possession and being unable to slide down and help Henry defend Bonnett's game-winner. I don't blame either player for it; it was a perfectly drawn play by head coach Ron Rose, and Bonnett executed that last play perfectly. All you can do is tip your cap.

The Cardinals get a pretty quick opportunity to rebound though, as they head out west of the Fox River for the annual non-conference rivalry game with Aurora University tomorrow at 7. While a win in this one wouldn't help their CCIW situation, it would be a key win in region and also serve as a confidence booster going into the rest of the non-conference slate.

Game Notes: (WBK) Illinois Wesleyan University @ North Central College (12/9/17)

Final Score
IWU 94, NCC 47

Game Summary
This one started out reasonably enough as the Titans (7-2, 3-0) scored nine of the game's first 11 points. The Cardinals (1-6, 1-2) showed resolve though, scoring seven unanswered to tie the game. Wesleyan regained control and despite a late three that cut North Central's deficit to three, the Titans answered with one of their own at the end of the frame to make it 19-13. After those fairly optimistic first ten minutes, plus a Lyndsay Brennan jumper to cut it to four, the Titans went on a 12-2 run and put on a continued offensive clinic from there, taking a 46-22 lead into the locker room. It was more of the same in the third as after Natali Dimitrova opened the second half with a layup, the Titans scored 20 unanswered points to turn the game into a laugher. In garbage time, North Central at least proved competitive, only getting outscored 23-18 in the final ten minutes.

Key Stats

• IWU: 40-72 FG (55.6%). Combine this with the fact that 56 of the Titans' 94 points came in the paint, you do the math. The Titans got way too many open looks at the basket, and converted on basically all of them. They also had an efficient day from deep (6-16, 37.5%).
• Ashley Schneider (IWU): 7-8 FG (1-1 3PT), 1-3 FT; 16 pts, 5 reb (1 off), 2 stl. You could basically take your pick of any of the Titan regulars and they would be a fit in the key stats section. Schneider earned the nod after having the most efficient day out of anyone, and she did all this damage in just 25 minutes of action.
• IWU: Outrebounded NCC 54-30. With no Cardinal really having a good day by any stretch of the imagination, this was another number I was curious to see about, and wasn't terribly surprised by, other than maybe that the disparity was this great. Part of it was a poor shooting night by NCC, but the Titans also grabbed 14 offensive rebounds. The amazing thing is how spread out the rebounding duties went. Four different players tied for the team lead with five boards apiece, four other players grabbed four, three grabbed three apiece, and the team low was two, tied for by two guards who play towards the bottom of Mia Smith's rotation. North Central's Brennan led all rebounders with seven, for what it's worth.

North Central "System" Watch

• IWU Turnovers: 14. Just your usual, disciplined outing for a fundamentally sound Titan team. The Cardinals were able to rack up eight steals, led by a pair from Bekah Foley. For comparison's sake, the Titans picked up 14 steals on their end as a part of forcing 20 Cardinal turnovers.
• NCC 3PT: 4-24 (16.7%). Occasionally you'll have bad shooting days, even like this, but I can't remember the last time the Cardinals shot this poorly from deep. They didn't take a ton of shots, but they also made very few of them. It's hard to win on a day like this, though this wasn't the sole reason they lost.
• NCC FT: 5-11 (45.5%). Again, not a major factor in the defeat, but the alarming trend continues. This is a team that will lose close games because of things like this (and they have already this season). For the year, the team is at 51.0%.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• @ Elmhurst 71 (4-4, 2-1), Wheaton XX (4-3, 1-2)
• @ Carthage 74 (5-3, 1-2), Augustana 67 (5-2, 1-1)
• Carroll 69 (2-6, 1-1), @ Millikin 65 (3-4, 0-3)
• @ Chicago 78, North Park 36 (5-2, 2-0)

Final Thoughts

During the five years North Central ran The System, they sported a 5-6 overall record against the Titans, with the difference being their 2016 CCIW Tournament meeting. The Cardinals only won a pair in Gregory Arena, but boasted three victories down in Bloomington in their last four trips. This game, however, harkened back to the 2012 and 2013 matchups with the Titans, when Illinois Wesleyan won a national title and carried over a bunch of players from that team the following year. The talent level isn't quite that disparate, but I think the energy level definitely was. Sadly, this isn't the first time these Cardinals have come out flat at home. But after the thrilling win on Wednesday, I expected some level of momentum to carry over. I wish I had an answer for why it didn't.

North Central closes out the first part of their CCIW schedule at 1-2. It matches last year's mark at this stage, and honestly is about where I would have pegged them, even going into the campaign. If you look at the standings on the main page (if you're reading this on mobile, scroll to the bottom and cBut I fear the team that I'd pegged for a minimum six wins in the conference (and officially predicted nine for) may be fighting to even hit that threshold of six. They've got a few weeks to continue to get the kinks out, but it won't be easy.

The Cardinals are right back at it tonight, taking on a UW-Stevens Point team that doesn't have as strong a record as I feared they would, but I'm sure will still pose a very tough test for a Cardinal team that desperately needs to find a spark.

Game Notes: (WBK) Carthage College @ North Central College (12/6/17)

Final Score
NCC 81, Carthage 77 (OT)

Game Summary
This was a good one last night as the Lady Reds (4-3, 0-2) were able to hit some threes early to take control. But the Cardinals (1-5, 1-1) were able to get the ball inside for some easy baskets and keep the game close, trailing 21-17 after one quarter of play. The game turned into a bit of a seesaw affair in the second quarter, with the Cardinals grabbing a couple one point leads, but the Lady Reds were able to bounce back and took a 40-34 lead into the break. North Central didn't score in the final 2:07 of the first half, then went about five minutes into the third before finally scoring, but the Lady Reds were up by as many as 11 midway through the frame before taking a 52-43 lead after three. In the fourth though, the Cardinals stormed back, opening the frame on a 14-2 run to grab the lead, and the game turned into a tight one the rest of the way. North Central was unable to put the game away at the line, giving up a tying layup with about six seconds left and forcing an extra session when Mayson Whipple missed a three at the buzzer. North Central got a Maya Walls layup a minute into overtime, then added a three a couple minutes later to go up five. Carthage got four Autumn Kalis free throws to trim the lead to one, but the Cardinals got another layup from Walls and some free throws to put the game away for their first win of the season.

Key Stats

• Maya Walls (NCC): 10-14 FG (3-7 3PT), 2-4 FT; 25 pts, 10 reb (5 off), 1 ast, 1 blk, 2 stl. Maya had easily the best game of her collegiate career to date, more than doubling her previous career high, and she did it both inside and outside. She hit some key threes to help keep the Cardinals in it, and helped put the game away down low. Her 10 rebounds were a team-high, as she picked up her second double-double of the season.
• Lyndsay Brennan (NCC): 6-9 FG (0-1 3PT), 1-1 FT; 13 pts, 4 reb (1 off), 2 ast, 1 stl. Lyndsay was a key catalyst as well for helping keep the Cardinals in this one, relentlessly attacking the basket and getting several layups to go. She's a lefty, which adds to the difficulty of guarding her, and those lefty floaters were huge, including the go-ahead three point play in the fourth quarter.
• Mayson Whipple (NCC): 4-13 FG (2-9 3PT), 3-4 FT; 13 pts, 5 reb, 8 ast, 1 blk. In terms of shot selection, not the best outing; I'd like to see more layup attempts than three attempts, but Mayson got some buckets when she needed to. More impressive was the fact that she did a beautiful job distributing the ball. Not only did she have eight assists last night, she didn't turn the ball over. When your star point guard takes care of the ball like that, you're going to win a lot of games.

North Central "System" Watch

• Carthage Turnovers: 16. Again, given the nature of the Cardinals going away from the System a little bit, the turnover numbers won't be as high as they were in years past, but forcing 16 while only committing 11 is pretty good. The Cardinals got nine steals, paced by three from Jessica Dahle. Natali Dimitrova also took a charge, though not in the Anita Sterling sense; she got bowled over on a post move by Rachel Szydlowski.
• NCC 3PT: 12-44 (27.3%). We're back into System territory in terms of offense, with a ton of threes getting jacked up, and they're hitting at about the clip they were in the System years, with roughly the right number of attempts. Ideally, you'd like to shoot better here, though a number of misses were of the in-and-out variety.
• NCC FT: 7-12 (58.3%). I'm pretty sure this is an improvement on the season rate, but it's still not all that ideal. North Central could have put the game away with a little better free throw shooting down towards the end, though a 3-5 clip in the second half isn't awful. Nonetheless, it could have avoided the extra session. All in all though, the Cardinals hit at the end when they needed to, and I can't complain about that.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• @ Illinois Wesleyan 88 (6-2, 2-0), Wheaton 81 (4-2, 1-1)
• @ North Park 67 (5-1, 2-0), Millikin 61 (3-3, 0-2)
• Augustana 66 (5-1, 1-0), @ Elmhurst 63 (3-4, 1-1)
• UW-Platteville 78, @ Carroll 73 (1-6, 0-1)
• MBK: @ Augustana 79 (5-1, 1-0), NCC 72 (3-3, 1-1)

Final Thoughts
I'm not going to lie: I didn't have high expectations coming into this one. Carthage is a good program, and the way the Cardinals had been playing I wasn't feeling particularly great about this one. But North Central kept it close the whole way and I felt okay in the halftime intermission. But this overtime thriller ended in fun fashion with a nice little mass celebration at midcourt after all was said and done.

Fantastic comeback win for @NCCWBB !! pic.twitter.com/C2PFKEQ0uE

— Troy D. Hammond (@PrezHammond) December 7, 2017.

After the handshake line, they met at midcourt again, and before I got into my end of game spiel, I let them celebrate, because they deserved it. They've played quite a few teams pretty well, but didn't play particularly well in their last two. This was a nice win, not only because they finally got into the win column, but also because of this fun little nugget.

Prepping for tonight's @NCCWBB game against @LadyRedsBBall. Saw this stat from Carthage's game notes and it makes me smile. #HomeCourtAdvantage #IAmTheHype #THREEEEEEEEE pic.twitter.com/N6ZpSB0fX6

— Lucas Mitzel (@northsider89) December 6, 2017

I retweeted this again after the game with the note that it was still true and still making me smile. Tarble Arena in Kenosha has been a house of horrors for the Cardinals, who haven't won there since 2006, so to return the favor to a senior class of Carthage's by keeping them winless in Naperville is a fun little dish of revenge.

We close out the December portion of conference play on Saturday as Illinois Wesleyan comes to town. This has turned into a great rivalry in the last few years, and hopefully the Cardinals can carry the momentum from last night into that game.

2017 COAS Pigskin Pick 'Em: Week 14

With four weeks to go, the coalition is getting bunched up as we continue to pick NFL games against the spread!

I mentioned last week that we could have a change in the leaderboard, and we did: I took six of nine disputed games last week, which wasn't quite enough to catapult me to the top, but it helped propel Geoffrey Clark to the top, and just one game separates the three of us, with my dad within sight behind us.

You can also view a full breakdown of how we've picked games in relation to each other here, including the correct standings which take into account the fact that Adam and I have both screwed up some picks on ESPN, making those standings a little off.

This week, we disagree on just five games out of 16. Adam is hard at work in Beaumont, Texas this week, but still found time to pass along his picks for the week.

2017 Death to the BCS Playoffs: Official Bracket

And so after 14 weeks, it has all come down to this. The College Football Playoff field is set, but I needed an extra day with commitments yesterday to process all of the happenings from Championship Saturday and build the field for the Death to the BCS Playoffs.


I'm okay with what the College Football Playoff has done, because it allows for more settling things on the field than the old BCS did. That's why Dan Wetzel, Josh Peter, and Jeff Passan wrote the pictured book tearing the BCS to shreds and offering up their solution, which I've adopted as my hope for the eventual playoff. This is a 16 team field where every conference champion makes it, thus making the regular season more meaningful for more teams and allowing access to all teams. We then fill the field with six at large teams, which for some may seem like a lot, but I think it's a fair number and it makes the bracket even.

So how are these teams decided? Wetzel, Peter, and Passan recommended a selection committee, but in its absence I took on that role singlehandedly, though I didn't do so alone. I use a number of metrics, which are explained to some degree in every mock bracket post but gone into greater detail back in my season introduction post. For your reference, my NCSS and Playoff Points scores can be found here, while the computer rankings can be found here, here, and here.

Armed with this information, and seeing all ten automatic bids awarded, I can build out the playoff field. In the rankings below I'll have each team's record and their relevant scores and rankings. As a new feature, after showing where each team was seeded last week, I will also share how many times each team has made the playoffs before. You can find a full archive of that, along with postseason records by team, conference, and seed, here.

And so, without further ado, here is the official field for the 2017 Death to the BCS Playoffs!

Game Notes: Benedictine University @ North Central College (11/29/17)

Final Score
Benedictine 75, NCC 61

Game Summary
This one looked like it was going to be ugly early as the Eagles (3-1) jumped out to a 6-0 lead and led by ten just four minutes into the game. But the Cardinals (0-4) would rally back, closing the quarter on a 12-4 run to make it 19-17. North Central would take the lead right away on a Siarra O'Neill three, but the Eagles got the lead right back and imposed their will, opening up a nine point advantage, but a 7-0 Cardinal run closed the gap before the Eagles took a 38-34 lead into the break. The Cardinals came out of the intermission strong and tied the game at 42, but the Eagles went on an 11-2 run to regain control of the contest and held a 59-50 lead after three. Mayson Whipple hit a three to open the fourth, but that was as close as the Cardinals would get, with the Eagles leading by as many as 16 in the final frame to snap North Central's five game winning streak over them.

Key Stats

• Madisyn Fischer (BEN): 6-13 FG (4-7 3PT); 16 pts, 5 reb (2 off), 6 ast, 1 stl. The Eagles shot pretty well for the game, but I think Fischer had the best night of all of them. She was able to get a couple clean looks at the basket while doing a great job finding open teammates. She effectively ended the game in the fourth quarter last night when up seven, she launched a corner three and somehow banked it in. I think even she was in disbelief about it.
• Mayson Whipple (NCC): 7-15 FG (1-5 3PT); 15 pts, 4 reb (1 off), 2 ast. Mayson was a big reason why the Cardinals overcame their slow start. Early in the game, the Eagles couldn't guard her and she was able to get to the rim almost at will. For some reason I feel like North Central went away from that a little bit, but the Eagles also adjusted and better defended the dribble-drive. Still, Mayson has looked pretty good to start the year.
• Andrea Dickerson (NCC): 4-7 FG (3-6 3PT); 11 pts, 6 reb (1 off), 2 blks, 1 stl. Andrea started her collegiate career at Murray State, and I think was at NCC last year but was hurt all year. Getting some action now, she's looked good. She's an excellent shooter, one who I thought did a little more damage than just a trio of triples, but also played some pretty good defense. The best play I saw from her last night was midway through the third quarter with NCC down nine. After a turnover, she got back and played some solid help defense on Venita Parsons on the right wing, then somehow got over to the left wing where Parsons had passed to an open Fischer and blocked her attempted three.

North Central "System" Watch

• Benedictine Turnovers: 17. This number, on one hand, isn't good enough. I know North Central isn't going full "System" anymore, but when you put full court pressure on a fair amount of the time, you should get more than 17 takeaways. Six of them came on steals by six different Cardinals.
• NCC 3PT: 9-33 (27.3%). The Cardinals caught a little fire in the second quarter but went ice cold (0-6) in the final nine-plus minutes. This has always been a team that is live and die by the three, and with attempts down this year, this percentage needs to go up a little bit.
• NCC Charges Drawn: 1. Hannah Vitkus drew one in the first half, which prompted me to bring this feature back. Anita Sterling being gone means that we aren't going to see many of these anymore, but it's something I still intend to keep track of.
• NCC FT: 2-7 (28.6%). Ye gods. There weren't a ton of fouls in this game, so North Central's trips to the line were limited, but even when they got there they didn't take advantage. Not helping the team line is Natali Dimitrova, who went 1-3 at the line last night to take her season average to 31.3 percent. For the season, the Cardinals are now at an even 50 percent from the line. In fairness, Benedictine wasn't great at the line either (7-13), but this continues to be an alarming trend four games in.

Final Thoughts

I told my assistant SID this late in the game, but I'm getting flashbacks to the 2011-12 campaign. That was the last pre-System year, and that team wasn't very good. The difference is that I like the pieces on this year's team, but I definitely think they're still adjusting to a more traditional style of play. Relearning how to play basketball on the fly is going to lead to some growing pains. There was definite effort all game, as I don't think they really had a lapse like they had in the first three games, but this is a pretty good Eagle team.

Last night's game was the quickest NCC women's game I've worked in a long time. For the last few years I've gotten used to these games taking two hours to complete. This one was done in just over an hour and a half. I just wish we could have gotten a better result on the three year anniversary of this fun game.

#THREEEEEEEEE years ago this afternoon, UW-Eau Claire’s women’s basketball team blew a 19 point lead to @NCCWBB. It’s the greatest comeback I’ve ever seen. Hoping on this anniversary we pull out a win against Benedictine! #WeAreNC pic.twitter.com/MxDXQE7cby

— Lucas Mitzel (@northsider89) November 29, 2017

NCC have a couple days to go over the film and get ready for CCIW play. I mentioned in my preview that I could have seen the Cardinals going into the North Park game at 4-0. Instead, it's the exact opposite and the Vikings haven't been too bad to start the year. Hopefully the kinks continue to get worked out and they're ready for The Gauntlet.

2017 COAS Pigskin Pick 'Em: Week 13

The coalition returns to action again this week, and I get the feeling everyone is eager to get back to it, after the week we all had.

Maybe having 11 weeks of data to work with really helped us all. Even though I swept the three picks Adam and I disputed, he and the rest of the group all finished with a winning record. It's created a little log jam in the standings.

Now that said, after giving Adam grief a couple times, I screwed up and made a wrong pick on ESPN, taking the Jaguars on there after taking the Cardinals on here. Since precedent is that COAS picks get priority, I have one more win than ESPN says I do. You can see those adjusted and correct standings, as well as a breakdown of our picks in relation to each other, here.

So with the gap having narrowed, these last 80 games are critical to see who will win. This week, Adam and I disagree on a whopping nine games out of 16. Watch out; we may have a change in the leaderboard this week!

2017 Death to the BCS Playoffs: Automatic Bid Games

I started this feature last year, because in Week 14 it's almost all conference championship games, and as such NCSS really won't make any changes. There are a few games where changes will be made, with that said, and you can check my spreadsheet for those updates. A quick survey of my schedule shows that there are all of two games this week that fit that criteria, though I will throw the Army-Navy game in as a feature for this week even though it's a week and a half out. It does count for those metrics.

Speaking of that Army-Navy game, that game won't have any bearing on the playoffs; neither team is in contention for an at-large bid (Navy has five losses, and Army has three without the requisite metrics to overcome them). As such, it thus comes down to a total of twelve games to fill the ten automatic bids. Nine of those are conference title games; I'll go into those games below. The other three are Sun Belt contests, and as the only conference without a championship game, the tiebreakers are once again messy.

2017 Death to the BCS Playoffs: Week 13 Mock Bracket

The playoffs are well underway in every division of college football except the FCS. And now that North Central got bounced badly, I can turn my full attention to basketball and the Death to the BCS Playoffs.

The regular season is over for all but one conference, plus some assorted other games including the Army-Navy game that's not going to have any playoff impact. So with the conference title games taking place this coming weekend, I need to do one final mock bracket.

This is for the playoff system created by Dan Wetzel, Josh Peter, and Jeff Passan in the pictured book where there's a 16 team field: 10 automatic bids to every conference champion, plus six at larges to fill the field. They are seeded 1-16, with home field advantage going to the higher seed for the first three rounds before the title game is held in college football's mecca: Pasadena.

So how do we fill the field, and how is it seeded? Ideally, this would be done by committee, but since we don't have a committee for this, I take that responsibility on, though I don't just do it based on the eye test. I use a number of metrics to help me make the right decision. I glance at Non-Conference Schedule Strength (NCSS) to get a measurement of whether teams are trying to challenge themselves out of their conference schedule (and it also gives me an excuse to call Nick Saban a coward). More importantly, I care about results. That's where First Degree (PP1), Second Degree (PP2), and Adjusted Playoff Points (aPP) come in. Those factor in who you beat, and also a little bit of who they beat as well as the Adjusted points factoring in losses. This helps differentiate between 10-2 teams or 11-1 teams. Finally, to help factor in margin of victory and create a lack of bias, I also look at computer rankings devised by Jeff Sagarin (SAG), the late David Rothman as compiled by a UCLA staff member (ROTH), and from the website All My Sports Teams Suck (AMSTS). These factors, along with factors like head to head victories and wins over other playoff teams combine organically to build the bracket.

And so, with that explanation out of the way, let's look at our final mock bracket for this season.

2017 NCAA Playoff Points: Week 13

Rivalry Week is concluded, and now for all intents and purposes, the regular season is done, with one exception.

The Sun Belt is still playing out its string, and I'll touch on their automatic bid scenarios tomorrow. Today, though, we need to go through the results from this past week, because a lot of major things happened that need our attention.

Several upsets happened, which will mean some upheaval in the Death to the BCS Playoffs, but I'll get to that later today. For now, like last week, I'm going to update everyone's Playoff Points and update the conference rankings below.

2017 COAS Pigskin Pick 'Em Week 12

I'm running these a little early because of the holiday. And with plans both later tonight and for Thanksgiving, I wanted to keep up the tradition and get these up a little early. Especially given how early we're playing games tomorrow, I felt that this was important.

Adam I'm sure wants to get right back into this, after he took five of seven disputed games last week to not only extend his lead over me, but to overtake first place in the coalition. And yet he's still complaining about the Browns costing him an extra one (the lesson, as always: don't bet on Cleveland.) You can also see correct standings with a breakdown of our picks in relation to each othere here.

With the byes complete, we have 96 games left over the next six weeks. On this holiday weekend, Adam and I disagree on just three games out of 16.

From all of us here at Confessions of a Sportscaster, Happy Thanksgiving!

Game Notes: Benedictine University @ North Central College (11/21/17)

Final Score
NCC 82, Benedictine 79

Game Summary
This one didn't look great early as the Eagles (0-3) were red hot coming out of the gate, overcoming a couple early one possession deficits with long range precision, jumping out to a 12-4 lead. The Cardinals (1-1) called a couple timeouts to stop the bleeding, but the threes just kept falling for the Eagles, who led 38-23 with 3:11 to play in the half. Then the Cardinals decided they'd had enough and closed the half on a 15-2 run to go into the break only down two. They carried that momentum into the second half, tying the game immediately and then turning the game into a battle. The lead would change hands seven times over the next few minutes before the Cardinals seemed to take command, going up ten with 6:43 to play, and after back to back threes with under five minutes to play led 74-60. The Eagles had a run in them though and chipped away at the lead with threes and free throws. Up two with 20 seconds left, the Cardinals made a critical turnover, and the Eagles tied the game at the line with 16.7 seconds to go. The Cardinals played for the last shot, and Mike Pollack buried a contested three with 1.1 seconds to go to give the Cardinals the win in the Battle of Chicago/Maple Avenue.

Key Stats

• Mike Pollack (NCC): 8-11 FG (6-9 3PT), 3-4 FT; 25 pts, 1 reb, 1 ast, 1 stl. I completely glossed over Pollack in the season preview, but I'm okay with being proven unaware of how good he truly was. Pollack hit three triples in the first half, including two during that key 15-2 run, but he saved his best for the second half. He hit the aforementioned back to back threes that gave the Cardinals their 14 point advantage, then on the final play caught an Alex Sorenson pass on the left wing, took two dribbles to his right, and launched a contested three that I wasn't crazy about at first, but went nuts when he hit it.
• Erwin Henry (NCC): 6-11 FG (2-3 3PT), 6-7 FT; 20 pts, 4 reb (1 off), 8 ast. On a night where Alex Sorenson (2 pts, 2 reb in 13 minutes) was limited by foul trouble, the Cardinals needed another one of their seniors to step up, and Erwin absolutely did. He attacked the basket in the second half to help build that 14 point lead for the Cardinals, and hit some key free throws late to maintain the lead. The fact that he quietly had eight assists as well was even better.
• Brayden Olson (BEN): 10-15 FG (5-9 3PT), 7-9 FT; 32 pts, 2 reb (1 off), 4 ast, 2 stl. Olson went bonkers from beyond the arc in the first half, hitting all five of his threes to help open up that huge Benedictine lead. He turned his focus inside in the second half, attacking the basket and hitting some key free throws to help Benedictine erase that 14 point Cardinal lead. On a team that has seen most of its key personnel from the team that made the national title game two seasons ago, Olson is the key offensive weapon, and really showed it last night.

Final Thoughts

It's not a Battle of Chicago/Maple Avenue without the game being dramatic, and this one certainly lived up to the billing of the last two matchups (NCC won last year on a huge defensive stand on the final possession, and two years ago Benedictine got the end of game heroics. But this was a big win for the Cardinals coming off a double overtime loss over the weekend, and one that lifted my spirits after whatever you want to call the ending of the women's game that preceded it. And somehow, I'm able to talk today after worrying I'd destroyed my vocal cords calling Pollack's game winner.

The Cardinals head to Hawaii for a tournament this weekend, playing Whitworth and Lewis and Clark on Friday and Saturday, respectively. They then get a week off to prepare for the CCIW opener at North Park on December 2nd.

Game Notes: Colorado College @ North Central College (11/21/17)

Final Score
Colorado 60, NCC 56

Game Summary
This game started well enough as the Cardinals (0-3) got a three on their opening possession, but the Tigers (1-2) would score the game's next seven points and pretty much controlled the contest from there. While the Cardinals only trailed by two points after one quarter, the bottom started to fall out as the Tigers would lead by as many as ten before settling into a 33-27 halftime lead. The third quarter was awful for the Cardinals, as they only managed five points for the frame and the Tigers took their biggest lead of the night at 51-32 with ten minutes to play. Fortunately, the Cardinals woke up, going on a 13-2 run in the first four minutes of the frame to cut the lead to eight. They got it down to six with four and a half minutes to play, but then the Cardinals were called for an iffy foul and Michelle Roof received a horrible technical foul for leaving the coach's box with no formal warning. Despite the setback, the Cardinals would get the lead down to four with under a minute to play, but didn't have enough left in the tank to grab their first win of the season.

Key Stats

• McKenzee Gertz (CC): 4-10 FG (4-7 3PT), 5-8 FT; 17 pts, 14 reb (1 off), 2 stl. Gertz is just a freshman, but played a phenomenal game in this one, hitting some early threes to put the Tigers in control. While she missed a couple free throws late that could have iced the game (hold that thought), she also dominated on the glass with a team high in rebounds.
• Haydn Braun (NCC): 6-15 FG (1-5 3PT), 2-4 FT; 15 pts, 3 reb (1 off), 1 ast, 1 stl. Through two actual games I've seen Haydn play in, she's been fairly impressive so far. She can shoot a little bit (though last night was an off night), but she can also get to the rim. She's quick and seems to be the heir apparent to Mayson Whipple. In the meantime, these two should play off of each other a little bit with the drive/kick opportunities.
• Diamond Calicott (NCC): 3-6 FG, 2-6 FT; 8 pts, 15 reb (9 off), 1 stl. I figured Gertz's 14 boards were a game-high; turns out Calicott's dominance on the offensive glass propelled her to one more. Obviously, she needs to be better at the line (hold that thought as well), but this was a decent game for a player who I wasn't sure would be playing this season.

North Central "System" Watch

• Colorado Turnovers: 23. This was, all told, a pretty sloppy game. Of the 23 turnovers, only eight came off steals, paced by two from Frankie Pettit. The rest were an assortment of mostly travels, though the Cardinals did get a ten second backcourt takeaway, as well as a five second call on a player not advancing towards the basket.
• NCC 3PT: 7-31 (22.6%). After a good outing in the first game (mainly propelled by a hot second half), the team has come back down to earth a bit. They aren't shooting as many threes as they have in years past; some of it is a change of style, some of it is also due to what I fear may be some tentativeness on the part of the Cardinals. They didn't have a ton of "open" looks, and credit Colorado's defense for that, but they also seem to be passing up some looks that they'd probably take in the last five seasons.
• NCC FT: 7-20 (35%). This is getting moved into the "System" Watch feature. It needs to become its own thing outside of the key stats, because this is unacceptable. In a game you lose by four, with 13 missed free throws... you do the math. For the season, the Cardinals are at 52 percent.

Final Thoughts

Hang on, I'm not done complaining about stuff from this game. I want to start with the technical foul. Coach Roof received it for being out of the coach's box. According to the rulebook, this is a violation that is worthy of a tech, but the rulebook also states that a warning is to be issued. I talked to her after the game, and she said she was warned earlier in the game, but the table was never made aware, something that I thought was supposed to happen. I chalk this up to a lack of communication, something that seemed pretty rampant in this game. It also seemed in real time with the tech that the head official talked the official who came to the table to report the tech into making it a tech. I'm just going to leave this link here and let you put two and two together.

Back to actual in-game stuff that isn't official-related, watch the final sequence by North Central. I feel like one disadvantage of The System not often brought up is that sometimes you're not fully prepared for critical end of game situations. Such was the case on the final possession of the game where North Central needed a basket and failed to get a shot off entirely. This was with multiple veterans on the floor. If you get off a bad shot and miss, I wouldn't be crazy about it, but you at least got something off. Not getting off a shot is about as inexcusable as the baker's dozen missed free throws.

This was a game the Cardinals should have won. The Tigers aren't very good (they were 2-23 last year) and given the score with some of the context, even hitting 60 percent of your free throws turns a four point loss into a one point win. This was a team that I thought could start 4-0. Even factoring in an understandable loss to Louisiana, they should have beaten both Lake Forest and Colorado. Instead, they're 0-3 and have a week to prepare for the rivalry game with Benedictine. Hopefully, the Cardinals can get some of the kinks worked out after the holiday and finally get into the win column.

2017 NCAA NCSS Rankings: Week 13

With Nick Saban Is A Coward Week behind us, we can get to the week everybody loves in the regular season: Rivalry Week!

For the most part, these rivalry games are played in conference, but there are a number of games that are played between interconference rivals, and these games need to be accounted for. That, combined with the four independent schools, and the need for this post for one final week this season becomes clear.

You can find a primer on how the NCSS metric works in my season introductory post. Here's the final set of rankings by conference for the 2017 season.

2017 Death to the BCS Playoffs: Week 12 Mock Bracket

Over in Division III of the NCAA, Saturday was the first round of the playoffs, North Central is still alive as one of the top 16 teams in the country. It's a shame that in reality, a 16 team bracket at the FBS level is nothing more than a pipe dream because of corruption and greed. That's where I'm glad Dan Wetzel, Josh Peter, and Jeff Passan wrote the book pictured here.

In this 2010 (and updated in 2011) classic they tear the old Bowl Championship Series apart piece by piece and introduce their replacement plan, which I've adopted as my pick I'd advocate for: a 16 team field where every conference gets its champion in automatically. The rest of the field is filled with deserving at large candidates, and home field advantage reigns for the first three rounds.

The at large selections and seeding processes are suggested to be done by a committee. Since said committee doesn't exist, I try my best to be the committee and build out this scenario to the best of my ability. To do so, I use a number of metrics. I start with a casual look at Non-Conference Schedule Strength (NCSS), which gives a score based on what that schedule looks like. More points are awarded for road games and/or games against Power Five schools, while teams get penalized for playing down a level, though they don't get soapboxed unless you're one of the five schools full of cowards this past week. More importantly, I look at First Degree, Second Degree, and Adjusted Playoff Points (PP1, PP2, aPP, respectively) as a way of looking beyond records to how good the teams you beat were. Finally, to help reduce bias, and also to factor margin of victory in, I use three sets of computer rankings: Jeff Sagarin's (SAG), those compiled by a UCLA staffer using the late David Rothman's formula (ROTH), and those from the website All My Sports Teams Suck (AMSTS).

These factors all somewhat organically combine to build the field. So without further ado, here is my penultimate 2017 mock bracket.