2018 NCC Men's Basketball Recap

I mentioned this at the outset of my women's recap: I hate writing these posts. The last three years, this has been the second of two I've written and it's always sucked that I've had to write it. I kind of feel like with this year's, it's more true.

North Central was on the right side of the bubble a week ago and it earned them an invitation to Minnesota for the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament, including a tough first round opponent in Wisconsin-Stevens Point. I listened to most of the first half of that game on WONC, where the Cardinals got off to a fairly cold start, the Pointers used a 12-0 run to effectively end the game early, and the Cardinals were unable to dig themselves out of that hole. So for the third straight year, the team didn't make it out of the first weekend, and for the second time in three years, they're a one-and-done.

I'm a little conflicted here: I feel like the last three years on the whole are something of a disappointment, because this core was good enough to lead this team to at least the second weekend, but this year a poor start against a very good team in the first round led to an early exit, last year the Cardinals didn't have quite enough to escape the second round, and the year before horrid officiating helped doom the Cardinals in round one. But at the same time, when you look at what this group accomplished: three straight CCIW Tournament appearances, three wins in those tournaments, including being the first ever #4 seed to win the tournament last year, combined with three straight NCAA Tournament appearances, means that this team is clearly built for the long haul and that this season should be considered a success. But there's still a part of me that feels unfulfilled.

Maybe the beginning of the season should have been an omen. I had extremely high expectations for this Cardinal team coming into the campaign, but the team didn't get off to the best start, dropping a double overtime decision at Heidelberg. But they came home right before Thanksgiving and won the Battle of Chicago-Maple Avenue in dramatic fashion to right the ship. They spent the holiday in Hawaii, dropping a tough one to an extremely good Whitworth team before beating Lewis and Clark to again right the ship. After a week off, they began the appetizer of CCIW play, beating North Park in Chicago before dropping a pair of tough games at Augustana and a heartbreaker at home to Illinois Wesleyan. They followed that up with a pair of road wins that got the team going: at Aurora (who just had their One Shining Moment on Friday night) and at Alma. Coming home, history was on the horizon, as a win over Albion served as head coach Todd Raridon's 500th career victory, then I got to provide the soundtrack to a historic day as Alex Sorenson feasted on an overmatched Robert Morris squad to break the legendary Bill Warden's long-standing single game scoring record.

The team was peaking at the right time coming back into CCIW play, and it showed as they nearly ran the table through the rest of the first half, knocking off Carthage at home before winning at Carroll and at Millikin. They got a tough test from Aston Francis and Wheaton, but held serve at home. After knocking off Finlandia without me, they went to Elmhurst and got punched in the face, serving up a shocking road loss that dropped them to 5-3 in the conference. But they bounced back well, leading for literally all 40 minutes in a win over Millikin before getting revenge on the Blue Jays. The Cardinals went up to Kenosha and knocked off Carthage again, then on Senior Night fell behind early to North Park before fighting back and stealing a dramatic victory from the Vikings.

The last two home dates were disappointing, as Grey Giovanine's jacket and the Augustana Vikings built an early lead and held on to beat the Cardinals, then in the home finale the Cardinals blew a 21 point second half lead and lost in overtime to Carroll. This killed almost all of my enthusiasm for the remainder of the Cardinals' season, but they bounced back incredibly well, winning at Wheaton to secure the sweep, then proceeded to beat Illinois Wesleyan twice in four days, once in Bloomington and once in Rock Island in the CCIW semifinals, before Augustana knocked off the Cardinals a third time to steal the automatic bid. It was enough to get the Cardinals to the NCAA Tournament, but that was all.

This was a really fun group to announce for, and while most of the team is coming back next year, there are two gigantic holes that the Cardinals will need to fill before next season. Erwin Henry missed the final nine games of the year with a broken foot but did a nice job getting the Cardinals to a good spot with his 13.8 points per game on 52/51/79 splits, plus 3.9 rebounds per game and 2.8 assists per game. His inside-out scoring capabilities as a secondary scoring option were an invaluable piece of the team for the last few years, especially as he developed into a very good outside shooter. They definitely missed him towards the end, and maybe with him healthy, they survive a little longer, but it's hard to say.

The bigger hole to fill will be the one in the middle with the graduation of Alex Sorenson. Alex was a three time First Team All-CCIW player, all of them unanimous selections as he put up 18.4 points and 9.1 rebounds per game on 59/37/57 splits. He leaves as North Central's seventh-leading scorer all time with 1443 points and sixth in program history with 731 rebounds, as well as the all time leader in blocked shots with 146 (second place Anthony Simmons had 74). He commanded a double team at all times, and it's extremely hard to replace someone as valuable as that.

Fortunately for the Cardinals, a good chunk of the core remains in place and isn't senior-heavy. Connor Raridon will probably assume the leadership role, which he should be ready for after a nice bounceback year averaging 13.1 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 6.7 assists per game with 43/28/77 splits. If he can work on his outside shot for next year, he'll be an even more lethal player. Aiden Chang will bring back his 6.6 points per game on 36/34/83 splits next year as one of only three seniors, as well as his tenacious defense that really held Brady Rose and Aston Francis in check in three critical games towards the end of the year. They also get another year of Matt Cappelletti (9.4 PPG, 4.5 RPG, 51/42/81) and senior Tommy Koth, who really came along towards the end of the year with Erwin Henry hurt (2.2 PPG, 1.3 RPG, 36/32/62, plus good defense). You've also got one more year out of a continuing to develop Jack Bronec (2.1 PPG, 2.3 RPG in 7.2 minutes per contest). A pair of freshmen will get an offseason's worth of conditioning plus good experience from their first seasons, meaning good follow up campaigns for Blaise Meredith (5.3 PPG, 2.3 RPG, 46/33/60, good defense) and Mike Pollack (10.8 PPG, 48/46/88). You may also get to see a little more out of guys like Will Clausel (1.2 PPG in 11 games, getting a lot more run once Henry got hurt) and maybe some other freshmen like Max Farson and Nick Kramer.

I don't know what's inbound in the way of recruiting, but I'm sure Todd Raridon is hard at work trying to secure another excellent recruiting class, including Alex Sorenson's heir. With the talent in place going into next year, this should still be a pretty good group that will compete for a CCIW crown.

And so my announcing voice goes into hibernation for eight months, giving me plenty of time to relax and recharge so I will be good to go for year number five as the men's voice and my eighth full time with North Central. To quote the Hockey Night in Canada guy, "Here's to an endless summer... and an early fall."