Game Notes: (MBK) Augustana College @ North Central College (12/7/24)

Final Score
NCC 76, Augustana 69

Game Summary
After a tough loss to open CCIW play on Wednesday, the Cardinals (6-2, 1-1) opened with a pair of layups on their first two possessions to go up 4-0. Then the seesaw came out as the Vikings (5-2, 1-1) scored the next five. Neither team could gain a large edge as the game stayed within one possession for the rest of the half, the Vikings scoring with eight ticks left to take a 36-35 halftime edge. Augie pushed their lead to five early in the second half before the Cardinals stormed back, hitting back to back threes to get the seesaw going once again. NCC would lead by as many as four, but the seesaw kept going. After 14 ties, the Cardinals took the 30th lead change of the game on a pair of free throws with just over a minute to go, then hit six more while shutting out the Vikings the rest of the way to seal the home victory.

Key Players

• Ethan Helwig (NCC): 6-11 FG (3-7 3PT), 8-8 FT; 23 pts, 2 reb, 3 ast. Ethan's had some rough games to start the year, but in this one got the ship righted. It was a big boost to get his scoring average back into double figures, he hit some big shots, but it was his work at the free throw line late that helped seal the deal. Helwig hit six in a row in the final minute-plus, including the ones that gave the Cardinals the lead for good.
• Tre Davis (NCC): 3-6 FG (1-2 3PT), 2-2 FT; 9 pts, 1 reb, 2 stl. While I could have gone with the only other double figure scorer in Tyler Swierczek (16 pts), I'll go with the guy who made arguably the play of the game. After Augie tied the game at 53, they shut NCC's offense down for 29 seconds before knocking the ball out of bounds and forcing an inbound with just one second on the shot clock. In past years, the Cardinals would have drawn up a lob play inside; instead Drew Gaston found Davis for a fallaway jumper at the buzzer that, at least for the moment, gave the Cardinals some momentum. Davis followed that up a few minutes later with his lone three that again gave the Cardinals the lead. Not a statistically driven game for Davis, but he hit big shots when his team needed him, and his two steals helped on the other end as well.
• Tyler Knuth (AUG): 6-15 FG (4-9 3PT), 6-6 FT; 22 pts, 1 reb. Knuth's main contribution came from his shooting, as he hit a number of big threes for the Vikings while also taking advantage of his trips to the free throw line. It just wasn't quite enough on this night.

Key Stats

• NCC: 9-23 3PT (39.1%). This is a very good shooting night on its face, but it came in the wake of a rough shooting night on Wednesday where the Cardinals hit just eight of 30 treys (26.7%) in a loss to Millikin. On this night, they didn't settle for threes. They largely came in the flow of the offense, and most importantly: they hit them when they needed to. It's a good bounceback effort.
• AUG: Outscored NCC in the paint 28-16. The Vikings had the size advantage in this one, and they used it. Guys were able to make their way to the basket, and then even in instances where they may not have hit, they got to the free throw line where they also had a good night (11-14, 78.6%). It just wasn't quite enough in this one.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• @ NPU 73 (5-3, 2-0), MIL 64 (4-4, 1-1)
• IWU 72 (7-1, 1-1), @ CRL 66 (2-6, 0-2)
• @ ELM 73 (4-4, 1-1), WHE 67 (3-7, 0-1)
• CAR 95 (6-2, 1-0), Knox 69

Final Thoughts

After missing the tough loss on Wednesday, it was good to get back to Merner on Saturday. We saw a tough, physical game a lot like many other North Central-Augustana games of the past. They largely let both teams play in this one (from a biased perspective, I thought to NCC's detriment at times in the second half). But when teams did get to the line, they took advantage; the Cardinals were near perfect (23-24, 95.8%, probably could/should have been my key stat for NCC). It got them back in the win column and to .500 in CCIW play.

It's hard at this point to say how good the CCIW on the whole is this season, but we'll find out more on Saturday when the Cardinals welcome Carroll to Gregory Arena for the first time since their CCIW Tournament meeting in February.

Game Notes: (WBK) Augustana College @ North Central College (12/7/24)

Final Score
NCC 72, Augustana 60

Game Summary
After trading baskets to open the game, the Vikings (3-5, 1-1) went on a 7-2 run to take early control. The Cardinals (5-3, 1-0) followed that up with an 8-0 run to take the lead. North Central pushed their advantage to six before settling into a 19-15 lead after ten minutes. Augie hit a three to open the second quarter, but the Cardinals followed that up with an 11-2 run to push their lead to double digits, and allowed just seven second quarter points to go up 35-22 at the break. North Central led by as many as 20 in the third quarter, and while the Vikings would fight back in the fourth quarter, but it took them until the final minute to get back to a single digit margin.

Key Players

• Biz Daly (NCC): 8-13 FG, 10-15 FT; 26 pts, 7 reb (3 off), 2 ast, 2 stl. Another night, another dominant showing from Daly. Her free throw numbers came down from where she's been for much of the rest of the year, but she continues to shine offensively on the whole. Through eight games, she's averaging 19.8 points, tops in the CCIW.
• Megan McClure (NCC): 4-9 FG; 8 pts, 8 reb (1 off), 4 ast. After what was a rough night on Wednesday (she had 10 rebounds, but turned the ball over six times), she had a good bounceback effort in this one. Her eight boards led the team, and after struggling some to start the year she's starting to find her touch on her midrange jumpers again. If she's hitting those, she's one of the best players on the floor.
• Paige Melton (AUG): 4-8 FG, 9-13 FT; 17 pts, 5 reb (3 off), 1 ast. Coming off a 31 point outburst against Elmhurst three nights prior (only the 11th 30+ point night for a Viking in the 21st century per Matthew Nicol of Augustana), she followed this one up with a good second half outburst, primarily at the free throw line. This solid performance combined with her Wednesday outburst earned her CCIW Player of the Week honors for the prior week.

Key Stats

• NCC: Outscored AUG on fast breaks 20-7. The scoring off turnovers only barely favored the Cardinals (17-15), but when NCC got out in transition they made the most of it. Now granted, many of these fast break points were counted off of free throws according to NCC's stats, but it's then a credit to the Cardinals for making enough of those to help power to a victory.
• AUG: 24 turnovers. NCC continues to employ a backcourt press defense off of inbounds plays, and it continues to wreak havoc on opponents. Augie was called for one ten second call, and came close a number of other times. Again, this resulted in 17 Cardinal points, with Cardinal defenders recording 10 steals for the contest.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• IWU 80 (8-0, 2-0), @ CRL 71 (5-4, 1-1)
• @ ELM 73 (7-1, 1-1), WHE 58 (5-4, 1-1)
• MIL 67 (2-5, 1-1), @ NPU 57 (3-6, 0-2)
• Bye: CAR (5-2, 0-1)

Final Thoughts

You may have noticed if you looked at the box score that Jocelyn Trotter's name was not mentioned. Apparently she suffered a knee injury somewhere along the line and was held out of the game on Wednesday against Chicago. At the time she was day-to-day, though talking to her pregame she gave a timeline of "a couple weeks." Hopefully that holds true; while the Cardinals will be okay, she's a big piece.

In the interim, the Cardinals needed reinforcements... and they got them. Fresh off another successful soccer season, Elle Sutter is back for her fifth year (fourth, given that she lost a year with a knee injury). This was a very quick turnaround decision for her, as she did not suit up on Wednesday but came off the bench on Saturday. With a modest line (5 pts, 5 reb), she'll probably need a little time to get back into basketball shape, but she'll get there, and when Trotter returns it'll make this group even scarier than they already are.

NCC followed this game up with a trip to Chicago to take on UIC in an exhibition on Sunday. They fell 113-53 in that game; not a surprise against a D-I foe, but a good tuneup. They'll get a chance to rest up and prepare for a big one against Carroll, a team that's had their number in recent years, but off to a slower start in 2024-25.

Game Notes: (WBK) Augustana College @ North Central College (1/17/22)

Final Score
NCC 75, Augustana 59

Game Summary
After two weeks' worth of postponements due to COVID issues and a tough road loss at Wheaton, the Cardinals (5-8, 2-3) finally returned home for a contest, and after surrendering a three early, the Cardinals scored six straight, then traded threes with the Vikings (7-6, 1-5) to go back up by three points. That was Augie's high water mark, as the Cardinals had a brief double digit lead get brought down to seven after one quarter. North Central then opened the second on a 9-0 run to push the lead to 16, though the Vikings would rally in the final few minutes to trim it to 37-31 at halftime. Augie scored to open the second half and cut it to four, but a 13-3 run by the Cardinals proved to be the difference. North Central pushed the lead to 16 by quarter's end, and the Vikings would never pull back within single digits.

Key Players

• Allison Pearson (NCC): 4-11 FG (1-8 3PT), 8-8 FT; 17 pts, 2 reb, 5 ast, 1 stl. On a night where her long ball wasn't falling, Pearson still found a way to make an impact. She made the most of her trips to the line, distributed the ball well, and played solid defense. Another good showing from the senior leader.
• Mitrese Smith (NCC): 3-10 FG, 7-8 FT; 13 pts, 7 reb (3 off), 3 ast, 1 blk, 1 stl. That's a good filling of the stat sheet. Smith made a point of wanting to average a double-double this season, and while she's not at that mark (9.8-5.4) she's still upped her game this season. Her jumper from the elbow is nigh automatic, but what impressed me most in this one was her free throw shooting. She's at about 75 percent on the season, improving her numbers with an excellent performance in this one. 
• Emily Brenneisen (AUG): 6-13 FG (2-5 3PT); 14 pts, 4 reb, 3 ast, 2 stl. There were a few Vikings I could have gone with; we'll opt for the leading scorer who helped out in a few other areas as well. This is a good shooting line, she did a decent job on the boards, and played pretty good defense on the whole. And by the way: she's only a freshman. I'd expect to see this team build around her in the years to come.

Key Stats

• NCC: Outscored Augie in bench points 30-3. I feel like I don't focus a lot on bench scoring. It's a big part of the game, but one I tend to stay away from in favor of shooting numbers, rebounding margin, or things like points off turnovers/in the paint/second chance. But a 30-3 edge in this category is something. Every Cardinal that saw the floor on Monday scored, and the scoring was pretty balanced up and down the lineup. It's one of those good team wins you like to see. Jessica Kowalczyk paced the reserves with 11, with Megan McClure adding eight and Stephanie Kowalczyk chipping in six.
• AUG: 20-59 FG (33.9%). For reference, the Vikings are shooting just a tick above 40 percent for the year to date, so to hold them to this line was really good. A cold first quarter (5-21) kind of doomed them, though that second quarter helped get the numbers back closer to the season average.

Final Thoughts
It was weird to do a Monday night game in January, but given the postponements this has been the plan for the CCIW to make up lost ground. Next week will be crazy with a Monday night doubleheader against Elmhurst.

Photo by Steve Woltmann

For this past Monday night though, this was probably the best game I've seen the Cardinals play in quite some time. They shot well, defended well, and outrebounded a bigger team that played a very physical game. They didn't let a super slow-paced second half drag them down, and most importantly, they didn't have the dreaded cold spell late in the game that cost them often in 2021.

It's a key win in what's part of a major chunk of the schedule coming up against teams all clustered together in the middle of the conference. It's not must-win, every night, but the games are all important, and taking as many as possible is key for postseason hopes. That quest continues Wednesday night as the Cardinals welcome North Park to Merner.

Game Notes (WBK): Augustana College @ North Central College (1/30/21)

Final Score
Augustana 57, NCC 51

Game Summary
Things started well enough in this one, as the Cardinals (0-4) scored on the game's opening possession and seemed like they weren't looking back, leading by as many as seven before the Vikings (2-1) fought back to keep it close, trailing by just four after one quarter. The Vikings cut it to one a couple times, but couldn't quite get over the hump as for the second time in six days, the Cardinals took a two point lead into the locker room. And in the third, it seemed like everything was fine as the Cardinal defense clamped down and held the Vikings off the board for seven and a half minutes, and North Central took the biggest lead of the game at a dozen with about three and a half minutes to go in the quarter. But Augie fought back again, cutting it to a seven point game by the end of the frame. Then in the fourth, it all went to hell as the Vikings scored the first ten points of the frame to take a three point lead, and after a pair of Cardinal free throws cut it to one, Augie scored nine straight to put the contest out of reach.

Key Players

• Lauren Hall (AUG): 4-9 FG (2-6 3PT); 10 pts, 16 reb (4 off), 1 ast, 3 stl. Hall did almost all of her damage in the first half, ending the opening 20 minutes with a double-double, but was then held off the scoresheet for the entire second half. Ultimately it didn't matter, as she pulled down six rebounds and notched two of her steals in the second half while the rest of the Viking offense did its thing.
• Kylie Jozwik (AUG): 3-3 FG (2-2 3PT), 1-2 FT; 9 pts, 3 reb (1 off), 1 stl. Normally I wouldn't be listing a player on here who played all of seven minutes- all of it coming in the second half, mind you- but Jozwik made the most of her time, hitting a big three right at the end of the third quarter to cut the Cardinal lead to seven, then hit another in the opening seconds of the fourth quarter, plus a layup and free throw earlier in the comeback effort.
• Jessica Kowalczyk (NCC): 3-8 FG (2-5 3PT), 2-4 FT; 10 pts, 1 reb (off), 1 ast, 2 stl. Pickings were slim, looking at NCC's box score, so we'll go with the lone Cardinal to reach double figures. Between her and her twin sister Stephanie, the Kowalczyk's had a good game on the whole (16 points), but 14 of those came in the first half.

Key Stats

• NCC: 2-20 FG in 4th quarter (10.0%). The team came out of the gate red hot and was 7-14 from deep at the break. Even in the third quarter, while they couldn't pull definitively away with a lockdown defensive performance, they still built a fairly sizable lead, and then the fourth quarter started and once again the shooting went ice cold. The Cardinals missed their first 18 shots of the quarter, including all 12 from beyond the arc, and only managed a couple free throws for points before hitting a pair of meaningless layups in the closing seconds. I have no explanation for it, other than three point shooting is voodoo.
• AUG: 17-24 FT (70.8%). Granted, a bunch of this came late with NCC intentionally fouling, but even then there were a ton of split trips to the line. One of the big reasons Augie stayed in the game was an 11-14 performance going into the final quarter. The Cardinals, for their part, shot 11-23 from the stripe for the game. You do the math.cc

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• @ ELM 65 (1-1), CRL 64 (1-1)
• @ MIL 85 (2-1), WHE 60 (2-1)
• NPU 47 (3-0), @ CAR 40 (0-2)
• BYE: IWU (0-0)
• MBK: @ AUG 80 (1-2), NCC 76 (3-1)

Final Thoughts

Photo by Steve Woltmann

Pain.

This is the third straight game the Cardinals have led going into the fourth quarter, and they've lost all three. Even on Thursday out in Rock Island, the Cardinals led by double digits and seemed in control for most of the game before going cold in the fourth. The same story played out here today. Augie played good defense, yes, but the Cardinals also had good looks and they just wouldn't fall in the final ten minutes. This Cardinal team is better than their 0-4 record. They should have at least one win, and it could be argued that they should be 3-1 and right in the thick of the CCIW title hunt. But alas, this isn't the case.

Fun side note to bring up, is that I found a new meme involving an Augustana coach. Mark Beinborn drew a technical foul in the third quarter when he ran all the way out onto the court trying to call a timeout in a loose ball situation (it was called a jump ball, with possession favoring the Cardinals at the time), and when the timeout wasn't granted, he threw his dry erase marker in frustration. Thus was born the all new "Mark Beinborn Marker Watch," which just doesn't have the same feel as the legendary Grey Giovanine Jacket Watch. Anyway, I don't know if it was that that earned the T, or the fact that he was all the way to the paint, but it gave the Cardinals a free trip to the line (Allison Pearson split the free throws). It also arguably makes up for a timeout granted to the Vikings when they didn't have possession in the contest at Merner between these two four years ago, leading to the lone Augie bucket during a 19-2 Cardinal run that damn near killed me. Sorry, I'm still a little bitter and also have fond memories of that stretch that saw me go from exasperation to matter of factness to pushing myself to my utmost limits as a PA announcer.

Ultimately, I still think this Cardinal team can win a few games. They're pretty talented, if somewhat raw still, have a lot of heart, and can play really good defense. The late cold spells have been a huge problem. The fact that they're hitting their shots earlier in games leads me to believe that it's a weird, small sample size thing and it will get better. At least, I hope that's the case. Things don't get easier for this group though as they prepare for a home-and-home with Illinois Wesleyan. The Titans have yet to play a game this season, and we'll see if that results in any rust for the team in green either down at the Shirk on Thursday or a week from today when these two teams are slated to meet in Naperville.

Game Notes (MBK): Augustana College @ North Central College (1/28/21)

Final Score

NCC 71, Augustana 62

Game Summary

This one had the hallmark of a classic NCC-Augie matchup as defenses ruled the opening minutes. The Cardinals (3-0) didn't even record their first field goal until six minutes in, though trips to the line helped account for scoring to keep this a tight game. Back to back threes midway through the half gave the Cardinals a 14-10 lead, but after a Viking (0-2) timeout to stop the bleeding, they hit three straight from beyond the arc and forced the Cardinals to return the favor with a stoppage. The Cardinals kept it close, cutting the deficit to one before going into the break down four thanks to a late layup. Playing the entire second half without Blaise Meredith, the Cardinals opened it with a 9-2 run to retake the lead, but the Vikings fought back and took a six point lead again with about eight minutes to go. After a Cardinal timeout came the decisive run: the Cardinals scored 13 straight over the next four minutes to take control, pushed the lead to double digits with about a minute to go, and hit free throws late to seal the deal and remain unbeaten.

Key Players

• Matt Helwig (NCC): 5-9 FG (0-3 3PT), 10-10 FT; 20 pts, 11 reb, 4 ast, 1 blk, 1 stl. On a night where Blaise sat the entire second half, the Cardinals needed someone else to step up, and Helwig did, leading all scoring and tying for the game high in rebounds, which as a 6'2" guy is pretty impressive. 14 of Matt's 20 points came in the second half, including all ten of his free throws.
• Shea Cupples (NCC): 2-7 FG (1-4 3PT), 4-4 FT; 9 pts, 5 reb (1 off), 5 ast, 1 stl. I could have gone with Matt Smietanski (15 pts, 7 reb) or maybe Mike Pollack (13 and 5), but I wanted to highlight the sophomore whose shots weren't really falling (though he hit a big three in the second half when Augie was going on its run to take that six point lead with about eight minutes to go, keeping the game still in reach). On a night where he wasn't shooting great, he still got his teammates involved with a game high in assists and pulled down a good number of rebounds amongst the trees. Shea didn't get a lot of run last year, but he's become a key rotation piece this year, and so far he's risen to the challenge.
• Daniel Carr (AUG): 6-15 FG (2-6 3PT), 2-3 FT; 16 pts, 11 reb (1 off), 1 ast, 2 blk. Carr is going to follow in the footsteps of a line of successful Augie big men, though he also brings a nice inside-outside game somewhat reminiscent of former NCC standout Alex Sorenson (though per IWU guy Bob Quillman, he's better facing the hoop than Alex, but not as good with his back to the bucket.) Carr showed off his skillset last night, especially in the first half with 14 points and 7 rebounds before the Cardinals were able to contain him to 1-6 shooting in the second half. Carr is only a sophomore though, so he's only going to get better.

Key Stats

• NCC: 22-28 FT (78.6%). The score may not necessarily have suggested it, but based on shooting percentages, this was your typical NCC-Augie defensive struggle, which meant free throws would make the difference, and the Cardinals made more from their trips than Augie attempted (bearing in mind Augie fouled a ton in the final minutes, giving the Cardinals multiple trips to the line). That led to a 16-20 performance in the second half for NCC, more than enough to ice away the game.
• AUG: Outscored 11-0 off turnovers. I preached defense, but both teams took care of the ball last night (a combined 19 turnovers). But off NCC's nine giveaways, the Vikings could not capitalize, while the Cardinals turned ten Viking turnovers into 11 points. You do the math.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• WHE 82 (2-0), @ MIL 61 (0-2)
• @ CAR 69 (2-0), NPU 55 (0-3)
• IWU (1-0) @ ELM (0-0)- PPD
• BYE: CRL (0-1)
• WBK: @ AUG 69 (1-1), NCC 63 (0-3)

Final Thoughts

Photo by Steve Woltmann

I touched on it a couple times, but I feel like I do need to clarify a bit about the fact that Blaise Meredith sat the entire second half. He was heated coming off the floor at the first half buzzer, and I'm guessing took it too far, because he spent the entire second half sitting at the front spot on the bench, towel over his head. He's a guy that plays with a lot of fire and emotion, which is good, but can backfire if he's having an off night (which he was, at least offensively). Ultimately, his teammates picked him up with that key four minute stretch late and his presence wasn't necessary for a good win against a not-quite-what-they-used-to-be, but still dangerous Augustana team.

The Cardinals will return the home-and-home on Saturday afternoon with a trip to the Carver Center, while the women will try to bounce back from another heartbreaker in that very building last night by facing that same Augustana team in Merner on Saturday.

2020 CCIW Men's Basketball Tournament Preview

The women's tournament preview is in the books. Let's move onto the men.

This is one I'm more able to write about, as I didn't get to see a ton of women's games this season (though I still tried to follow as best I could). For the men though, I saw every home game and chunks of many road games, and this is maybe the most excited I've been for a conference tournament in a long time.

Of course, there's a reason for that as we go into the second year with the six team format. As with the women, the top two teams get byes to the weekend, while the higher seeds host the play in games on Tuesday.

2020 CCIW Women's Basketball Tournament Preview

I'm trying to get these out a little earlier this year. For one thing, North Central is playing Tuesday, so I need to preview that. For another... the fact that this is now a six team tournament means I want to get with the program a little quicker.

This is actually the second year that the CCIW has used the expanded tournament; in prior years this was a four-team affair, but the six team group gives more teams a chance not only for an automatic bid, but also to bolster their resumes for at large selection into the NCAA Tournament.

So below I'm going to preview the entire CCIW Tournament field. I'm only putting the weekend site on here; the weekend part of the tournament hasn't changed in that the conference champion hosts the semifinals and finals, but the past couple years the Tuesday play-in games have had higher seeds host.

One More to Go: A CCIW Update

The regular season concludes tomorrow for the CCIW... which means we have to look at how the CCIW Tournament races are shaping up.

This is an annual feature for me where I look at all the different clinching scenarios. Earlier this week I had thought about trying to crunch numbers with two games to go for odds of each team getting certain tournament seeds. The math proved to be a little too much for me, but I will include the numbers here now that there's just one game to go and the math becomes much more simple.

As usual, a lot of the tournament spots have been claimed already, but seeding is all still well up for grabs. I consider it the advantage in Year Two of having a six team tournament instead of only four. Let's have a look.

Attacking the Gauntlet Once More

Somehow, someway, I keep coming up with new titles for this annual post.

Like many of the conferences in Division III, the CCIW plays a double round robin in men's and women's basketball. Everyone has played eight games to date: one against every other opponent. So as we make the turn into the second half, this is where I start to write a little bit more on a weekly basis, beginning with this one. The regional rankings don't start coming out for another couple weeks yet, so we still have to wait for that, but this is where we start to look at postseason prospects for everyone, North Central in particular.

Game Notes: (MBK) Augustana College @ North Central College (1/22/20)

Final Score
NCC 54, Augustana 53

Game Summary
In another classic between these two rivals, the Vikings (11-6, 5-3) opened the game on an 8-2 run, including a couple early triples that prompted a quick timeout. That timeout from the Cardinals (14-3, 7-1) stopped the bleeding, and they climbed out of the hole, turning the game into a back and forth affair with one tie and five lead changes over the next several minutes, before the Cardinals finally took a little control, leading by as many as five before settling into the break with a 28-25 advantage. The Cardinals couldn't quite pull away in the second half, but managed to create a little breathing room from time to time, getting a couple big threes early in the half for that space. With about ten minutes to go the Cardinals had pushed the lead to eight, and a three point play a minute and a half later gave the Cardinals their biggest lead at nine. The Vikings slowly clawed their way back, pulling within one a couple times, including at that final margin with 38 seconds to go. The Cardinals missed a corner three on the ensuing possession, and Augie called for time with about 11 seconds to go needing one score to win. The Cardinals' defense played it perfectly for the first ten seconds, but after a little bit of a fumble, Augie got off a three before the buzzer... that just rimmed out, allowing the Cardinals to retain possession of The Belt^TM and first place in the conference.

Key Players

• Blaise Meredith (NCC): 6-9 FG (2-4 3PT), 2-5 FT; 16 pts, 11 reb (1 off), 3 ast, 1 blk. I've spent a chunk of the year talking about how Blaise has kind of struggled this year... but he showed up to play last night. He had 10 points and eight rebounds at the break, including hitting an early three to help set the tone, and followed that up a few minutes later with a beautiful stepback three. Later in the game, he was able to attack the basket and get some nice layups. The free throws could have been a little better, but when he attacked the rim and the glass with the impunity he did last night, he's a big reason why the Cardinals escaped with a win.
• Pierson Wofford (AUG): 4-12 FG (0-4 3PT), 7-8 FT; 15 pts, 8 reb (2 off), 1 ast. Wofford was a big reason why the Vikings stayed close in last year's classic, so I was a little surprised that he seemed invisible early on in this game. But he made his presence felt as the game went on, leading his team in rebounding and getting to the basket and the line. He's been a good three point shooter as well this year (37.3%), so to go 0-4 from deep was huge in this one, but he definitely made his presence known.
• Micah Martin (AUG): 3-6 FG, 1-3 FT; 7 pts, 2 reb (1 off), 1 blk. Martin presents a unique challenge for opponents in his 6'11" frame, especially against this North Central team that doesn't have a true big. But Martin really struggled early in this one, missing three of his four first half shots, pretty much all of them early and right at the rim when he should have made them. You also expect a guy of that size to dominate the boards... but he finished with just two. Part of that was due to foul trouble, as he only played six minutes in the first half, sitting with three fouls the rest of the time. He played a clean second half, including getting a couple key layups during Augie's desperate comeback.

Key Stats

• NCC: Outrebounded 42-26. I feel like this is relatively normal for an NCC-Augie game the past couple years, given Augie's hoarding of bigs and outsizing the Cardinals, and sure enough, the numbers agree. The Vikings managed a ridiculous 18 offensive rebounds, leading to 11 second chance points (NCC had four offensive boards for seven second chance points, by comparison). For the Cardinals to win in spite of this is something. Normally I'd put this in Augie's section, but another stat tells the Vikings' tale a little better.
• AUG: 5-23 3PT (21.7%). As a team, the Vikings are shooting 34 percent from beyond the arc this season, so it's a little surprising to see a total this low. Credit the Cardinals for playing good defense, but let's make this number from last night really jarring. The Vikings hit their first two threes of the game, spanning the first two and a half minutes. Over the remaining 37 and a half minutes... that's a 3-21 mark, a 14.3% clip. That usually won't win you games.

Grey Giovanine Jacket Watch

It's time for my favorite feature of the season: The Grey Giovanine Jacket Watch! If you're new to Confessions of a Sportscaster or Division III basketball in general, you may not be too familiar with the gentleman pictured here. This is Grey Giovanine, longtime head coach at Augustana. During his tenure, Augie has become one of the perennial powers at the D-III level, largely due to the coaching of Giovanine. I have nothing but the utmost respect for him as a coach, but it's always fun when Augie comes to town, because watching Grey traverse the sideline is a show in and of itself... especially early in the game because the sport coat he starts the game with is coming off. It's just a question of when.

That question has prompted me to run a pool the past few years (and I even put it up on Twitter with mock gambling lines on Sunday). Tonight, I managed to to actually see the glorious moment with my own eyes: with 15:13 left in the first half, Grey Giovanine removed his jacket following a Micah Martin offensive foul. I had been peeking over shortly before this, feeling like we were on the verge of it, and I tried to swing my head immediately after the offensive foul was called... and sure enough, Giovanine was in the process of ripping his sport coat off. I've never been happier at a basketball game. I ran a pool of probably about ten people last night, with many figuring the jacket was coming off much later in the first half. Kevin, our official scorer, and I both won that pool, figuring the jacket was coming off about seven minutes in. But the 31 percent of respondents who correctly called it on Twitter... you guys also win.

Illinois needs to hurry up and legalize sports betting, because I want to start making this a prop bet.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• @ ELM 89 (16-1, 7-1), IWU 72 (11-6, 5-3)
• @ WHE 58 (11-6, 5-3), CRL 54 (9-8, 2-6)
• @ NPU 72 (3-14, 1-7), CAR 68 (11-6, 3-5)
• Bye: MIL (4-13, 1-7)
• WBK: NCC 70 (8-9, 4-4), @ AUG 63 (8-9, 3-5)
• WBK: WHE 62 (12-5, 5-3), @ IWU 59 (12-5, 6-2)
• WBK: NPU 66 (14-3, 7-1), @ CAR 59 (8-9, 3-5)
• WBK: ELM 64 (7-10, 2-6), @ MIL 53 (11-6, 4-4)
• WBK: Bye- CRL (6-10, 2-6)

Final Thoughts

I don't know that my heart rate has totally gone down from last night. Let's watch that final sequence again.

Final from Naperville: North Central 54 Augustana 53 #d3hoops pic.twitter.com/6JxGLvGAJQ

— Bob Quillman (@IWUhoopscom) January 23, 2020

Breathe, Cardinal fans. You escaped with a win. That makes three in a row over the Vikings, the longest win streak since they won seven in a row from 2011 (the last basketball game I ever called for WONC, incidentally) through 2013, including a pair of CCIW Tournament wins. The win also keeps the Cardinals in first place, albeit tied with an extremely good Elmhurst team. I'll go into the CCIW at the halfway point tomorrow and dig into the numbers a little bit deeper.

This was a good win though, and it was nice to see the Cardinals hang on in a game where their closing out of an opponent wasn't as good as it has been on prior nights. It also marks the third straight defense of The Belt^TM for the Cardinals, who seem to like having a supernatural totem hanging out in Gregory Arena.

They'll kick off the second half of CCIW play on Saturday at home, getting Millikin for the second time in ten days. The Cardinals won the first matchup by ten down in Decatur, and that was a tight one at times, so we'll see if the home cooking can give the Cardinals a little more of an edge.

2019 CCIW Men's Basketball Tournament Preview

To be honest, this year's preview is coming a little late. Last year I did it on a Friday and things were fine, but last year the CCIW Tournament was only four teams. This year it's six, and quarterfinal games were played on Tuesday night.

On Tuesday, the home teams advanced to this weekend's festivities. That meant eliminations for fifth-seeded Carroll, who finally got to the CCIW Tournament after falling just short in prior years, and sixth-seeded Elmhurst, who couldn't live up to preseason expectations.

With the North Central women already eliminated, I'm not touching on the women's tournament, which is too bad, because Wheaton College is on my way home from work and I'd totally go see them play the Thunder in the late semi. But enough about that; let's get to the men's tourney.

One More to Go: A CCIW Update

Part of my annual series on North Central basketball includes a final look at the conference tournament picture. So with one more day of games on the docket, let's get to work on this.

I need to give a ton of thanks and credit to Greg Sager, play by play guy for North Park athletics and frequent contributor to D3Boards, who did pretty much all of the legwork on the various scenarios.

We've had years on opposite ends of the spectrum in the past when I've run this feature. Some years it's a simple "Win and you're in" prospect. Other years, you have teams with absolutely zero control over their own postseason fate because of the weirdness of tiebreakers. This year, with the expansion of the conference tournament from four to six, it made more games meaningful but also opened up a whole new world of clinching scenario possibilities.

Details come after the jump, but suffice it to say that the men's clinching scenarios are a lot simpler than the women's. If you're curious, you can view the CCIW tiebreakers here.

Game Notes: (MBK) Augustana College @ North Central College (1/31/19)

Final Score
NCC 68, Augustana 63

Game Summary
Tipping off a day late due to extreme cold, the Cardinals (18-3, 10-2) managed to stay toe to toe with the Vikings (19-2, 11-1), trading the lead a handful of times and tying at eight separate junctures early in this one, the last of which came at 21-all. Then the Vikings went on one of their expected runs, scoring eight straight to go up 29-21 with just over three minutes to play in the first half, but the Cardinals refused to let Augie put them away, managing to pull back with five at 33-28 by halftime. In the second half a switch flipped as a previously cold-shooting Cardinal team started hitting, knocking down threes on three out of four possessions to grab a 37-36 lead before adding another a couple minutes later to take a 42-36 edge. The Cardinals would push their advantage as high as seven at 44-37 and kept it for a few minutes before the Vikings made their critical push. Aided by a Mike Pollack technical foul, the Vikings embarked on a 9-0 run to take a 56-52 edge. Then the Cardinal defense buckled down and held the Vikings off the board for about five minutes, getting a huge transition layup to take a 57-56 lead followed on the ensuing possession by a clutch three. Augie answered with a contested one at the other end to snap their drought and pull back within one, then had a chance to take the lead at the line, but missed the front end of a one-and-one, and the Cardinals made them pay with a dagger three. North Central went 5-6 at the line in the final 37 seconds to seal the upset.

Key Players

• Matt Cappelletti (NCC): 7-9 FG (3-4 3PT), 1-2 FT; 18 pts, 7 reb (3 off), 1 ast, 2 stl. Cap had a clutch night in this one. He was able to get to the basket for a couple easy looks in this one, and was clutch from beyond the arc. He hit two of his threes in the early going of the second half, including the go-ahead one at 37-36. He also delivered the dagger to push the Cardinals' lead back to four with about 48 seconds to go.
• Blaise Meredith (NCC): 7-10 FG (1-1 3PT), 3-8 FT; 18 pts, 2 reb, 2 ast, 2 blk, 2 stl. The free throw numbers leave a lot to be desired, but the Cardinals don't win last night without his efforts. Blaise scored 13 of his points in the first half to keep the Cardinals in the ballgame, and filled the stat sheet in other places. Maybe most importantly, he didn't hit his head on a backboard like the last time these two teams met.
• Pierson Wofford (AUG): 7-11 FG, 1-1 FT; 15 pts, 6 reb (4 off), 3 stl. Wofford missed a significant chunk of last season, and his return helped push this Vikings team to another level. He showed why last night, wreaking havoc with a couple steals near the midcourt line that he took the other way, including for a fast break dunk during the 8-0 run. He hit a couple big shots in the second half, but it just wasn't quite enough.

Key Stats

• NCC: 7-19 3PT (36.8%). I'm giving the whole line, but it really was a tale of two halves. The Cardinals hit just one of nine from deep, just narrowly missing several of those. In the second half, regression to the mean was the Cardinals' friend, as their 6-10 clip was instrumental in the Cardinals pulling the upset.
• AUG: Tied North Central with 32 rebounds apiece. The first time these teams met, Augie outrebounded the Cardinals 38-25, not unexpected given a level of size disparity in the Vikings' favor. But the Cardinals did a good job neutralizing Augie's bigs; their two tallest forwards, Donovan Ferguson (6'9") and Micah Martin (6'11") combined for just five, with Wofford's six leading the game.

Grey Giovanine Jacket Watch

This almost takes precedence over the game itself. If you're new to Confessions of a Sportscaster or CCIW basketball in general, Augustana has distinguished itself as the premier program in the conference. Much of this is credited to Viking coach Grey Giovanine, who is a hell of a coach. He's also kind of a lunatic with a penchant for throwing off his sport coat, prompting this feature, where we track when the jacket comes off.

I ran a pool involving a few people working last night as well as a couple fans I know. We had a nice range of predictions, most of which had the game going a little way's into the first half before it came off. Instead, we were blessed with a string of three straight offensive rebounds, frustrating Giovanine to no end, and after the final one prompted a swift removal and toss to the manager with 14:20 remaining in the first half. Longtime fan Steve Born won the pool with a guess of 14:30 remaining in the first half. If you want to see the removal and toss in all of its glory, you can see it at about 42:15 of the YouTube video (though I'd go back about a minute before that for the full context).

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• @ CRL 77 (8-13, 4-8), WHE 70 (15-6, 8-4), 
• @ IWU 84 (12-8, 5-6), MIL 72 (10-10, 4-8), 
• @ ELM 87 (11-9, 6-5), CAR 80 (7-13, 2-9)
• Bye: NPU (4-16, 2-9)
• WBK: @ MIL 81 (7-13, 3-8), NCC 67 (6-15, 4-8)

Final Thoughts

Photo by Mark Black

I have a lot to unpack out of this one. At some point in the future I'm going to do a ranking of the games I've announced for North Central, and as of right now, this one is the leader in the clubhouse. Augustana came into the game ranked #1 in the country in the D3Hoops poll, and when you factor in the conference race, this was a huge one. Coming into last night, Augie had won every matchup in Merner since I became the full time men's announcer, so to get that monkey off my back was nice.

It's North Central's second ever win over the number one team in the country; the first was a win at Illinois Wesleyan back in 2006. It's also bound to catapault the Cardinals up from #22 in the rankings next week. From a conference standpoint, the other important result broke the Cardinals' way with Carroll upsetting Wheaton. It gives North Central a two game lead for the #2 spot and the bye in the conference, while pulling within a game of Augustana. The remaining schedule does favor the Vikings, but if they lose another one and North Central runs the table, many of the tiebreaker scenarios will favor the Cardinals. The Wheaton rematches for both teams are the key, in my view.

I'm not going to waste too much space here talking about regional rankings, but I'll touch briefly on them. The first set comes out next week, and while this win probably won't have too big of an impact with this first set, it definitely will in the second set.

Finally, I have to say how proud I am of the crowd turnout last night. On a still bitter cold night with classes having been cancelled, a good-sized contingent of students came and packed the west bleachers. Early in the game, I saw someone with a banner of the Augustana logo, except the Viking face was replaced with Crying Jordan. I've never been so proud of a student section, especially since that whole side really came to life in the final 2:30 of the game. I don't think you can discount the impact that had down the stretch. And of course, they stormed the court when the final buzzer sounded. Thankfully no one got hurt, but when you beat the top team in the country, you have to do it.

The Cardinals have their second bye this weekend, then continue their three-game homestand with Illinois Wesleyan coming to town on Wednesday.

Game Notes: (WBK) Augustana College @ North Central College (1/23/19)

Final Score
NCC 58, Augustana 49

Game Summary
The Cardinals (5-14, 3-7) got hot to start this one off, hitting some early threes to taken an 11-4 lead. This prompted a timeout by the Vikings (11-8, 5-5), who did manage to hang around a little bit, trailing 18-12 after one quarter. Offense ground to a halt in the second quarter though, as it took four minutes for the Cardinals to break the ice, and Augie another minute before they got on the board. The Vikings closed the gap to five with about a minute to go, but a three made it 28-20, a lead the Cardinals took into the locker room. The Vikings scored the first four points in the second half to narrow the gap, but the Cardinals locked down on defense, holding the Vikings scoreless for another five minutes before going bombs away to take a 42-31 lead after three. But the Vikings didn't go quietly as the Cardinal offense slowed down a little bit before pushing the lead back to double digits about halfway through the frame. The Vikings managed to pull back within four with just under two minutes to play, but the Cardinals put the game away at the free throw line for their second straight win.

Key Players

• Natali Dimitrova (NCC): 7-14 FG (1-1 3PT), 1-2 FT; 16 pts, 6 reb, 1 ast, 1 stl. Nat helped set the tone early in this one, scoring 14 of her points in the first half, including nine in the opening quarter. Her first bucket came on a postup, where I completely expected her to get double teamed by Augie's second big, but help never came. I mentioned then and there that they needed to feed her. This was especially true as the game went on since she was being guarded in the post by a 5'7" guard multiple times. Even so, this was a pretty good performance for her as she continues to show how much she's improved over the past couple years.
• Page Desenberg (NCC): 3-6 FG (2-3 3PT); 8 pts, 4 reb (1 off). The stat line may not seem impressive, but Page was the catalyst for the Cardinals taking command of the game late in the third. She hit back to back threes late in the frame to build a 13 point lead, and hit a big layup in the fourth off an inbounds pass to push the lead back to double digits. Simply put: she was clutch last night.
• Scooter Lopez (AUG): 0-3 FG (0-3 3PT); 0 pts, 4 reb, 5 ast, 7 stl. This is the first time I've ever included as a key player someone who didn't score. I could have easily gone with leading scorer Izzy Anderson (17 pts on 5-16 shooting) or Alexis Jones (15 pts, 8 reb, 3 stl), but Lopez' line is crazy. She wreaked havoc on defense while getting her teammates involved, and did a decent job on the glass even though her team got badly outrebounded.

Key Stats

• NCC: 24 turnovers. Augustana plays more of an up-tempo style of play; it's not quite The System, but they did press a lot. The Cardinals didn't have a ton of trouble with the press in and of itself, but they didn't do a great job taking care of the ball. If you'd told me before the game that the Cardinals would have this many turnovers, I'd have been worried that it would be a blowout loss for North Central. But thanks to efficient shooting (7-14 from three and 11-14 at the line) combined with the below, the Cardinals escaped with a win.
• AUG: 1-21 3PT (4.8%), 8-17 FT (47.1%). I figured I had to include the free throw numbers, because those aren't ideal, but the three point shooting line? That's absurd. Augie's postgame wrap called it "cold shooting," but I don't think that does it justice. It took 38 minutes for the Vikings to hit a three. I've never seen that bad of a shooting night before. There were a fair share of open looks here too, but they just didn't fall.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• CAR 67 (14-5, 8-2), @ ELM 59 (8-10, 4-5)
• @ IWU 97 (16-3, 9-1), NPU 52 (7-12, 3-7)
• WHE 76 (15-4, 9-1), @ CRL 59 (7-12, 2-8)
• Bye: MIL (5-13, 1-8)
• MBK: NCC 93 (16-3, 8-2), @ MIL 92 (10-8, 4-6) (OT)

Final Thoughts

This was a really weird game. Even the officiating was kind of bizarre; they let a lot of things go early but also called some weird fouls in some instances too, while also letting a bunch of travels go. I'm not saying this to complain, because overall I think they did a fine job tonight. It was just a weird, low-scoring game.

You have to give credit to North Central. Augie was cold and just missed a ton of shots, but the Cardinals also played really good defense in this one. It's their first multi-game winning streak of the season, and I think Maggie McCloskey-Bax's prediction back in early December is starting to come true. She told me following the Millikin loss that, "We're young; we'll get there." They're definitely getting there. Following up a great effort in a five point loss at Illinois Wesleyan with two straight solid wins? Things are rounding into form.

That's before you get into how impactful of a win this is. It locks up a season sweep of the Vikings, which in and of itself is big because it includes a win in Rock Island, not an easy place to play. But for the conference race, this is huge. The Cardinals have road rematches against North Park and Millikin on the docket for their next two games. Both those teams left Naperville with victories in December, so if the Cardinals run their win streak to four, they tie the season series with both, and barring a major upset by one of those teams or Carroll against the cream of the CCIW crop, the Cardinals will own the tiebreaker over North Park, Millikin, and Carroll when it comes to the CCIW Tournament field because of the aforementioned sweep of Augustana.

I'm getting too far ahead of myself though. First up on the docket is North Park on Saturday. Those Vikings won by a single point in overtime back in December, but seem to be struggling and are battling some injuries. Hopefully the Cardinals can come back from the north side of Chicago with a third straight win and a ton of confidence heading down the home stretch.

Once More Unto the Gauntlet

I'm running out of titles. I was going to go with "Once More Unto the Breach," but I used that in 2015.

One of my many annual features as a part of NCAA Division III basketball season is a checkin on the rest of the conference at the halfway point. This will be followed up in the next couple weeks when the NCAA regional rankings drop, where I'll look at how North Central fares in that arena as well.

But for now, with a single round robin complete, let's look at how North Central is doing.

2018 CCIW Men's Basketball Tournament Preview

Tonight... the madness begins.

I suppose it has technically already begun; many conference tournaments around Division III are already well underway. But the CCIW, with just four teams surviving beyond the 25 game gauntlet, waits until the weekend to decide its automatic entrant into the NCAA Tournament. Enjoy this; it's the last time the top four are guaranteed entry into this contest.

I've only written about the ones North Central makes, so there's no writeup for the women's tournament being held down in Bloomington this weekend. I do, however, want to take a look at one taking place out west starting tonight.

Game Notes: (WBK) Augustana College @ North Central College (2/20/18)

Final Score
Augustana 86, NCC 63

Game Summary
This one started okay for the Cardinals (5-20, 3-13), who were able to keep pace early with the Vikings (15-10, 8-8) and even held a four point lead at 14-10 with about two minutes to play before taking a 16-15 lead into the second quarter. Augie opened the second quarter with back to back threes though to open up a 21-16 lead, though the Cardinals wouldn't stay down for long as Siarra O'Neill went on a personal 8-2 run to give the Cardinals the lead back. But after Andrea Dickerson tied the game at 29 again, the Vikings went on a 12-0 run to open the game up, though a Hannah Vitkus three made the margin a single digit one before the break. Then the Cardinals went cold, failing to score for over four minutes of the third while the Vikings slowly started to pull away, leading by as many as 21 before taking a 64-46 edge into the final quarter of the season. Augie pushed the margin as high as 27 before Mark Beinborn called off the dogs, and Michelle Roof was able to get both Mayson Whipple and Michaela Reedy off the floor with about a minute to go to standing ovations for their four years of service to the program.

Key Stats

• AUG: 30-35 FT (85.7%). This was one of the biggest stats to take away from this one. North Central was in foul trouble pretty much all night and Augustana took full advantage of it. It's hard to pick out just one player for this, because they were all pretty phenomenal.
• Siarra O'Neill (NCC): 5-18 FG (0-9 3PT); 10 pts, 4 reb (1 off), 2 stl. Siarra all but singlehandedly kept the Cardinals in the game in the second quarter with that aforementioned personal 8-2 run that included some pretty impressive fallaways and a nice layup. The three point line kind of tainted the night a little bit, but it wasn't just her. More below.
• Mayson Whipple (NCC): 5-14 FG (2-10 3PT), 0-2 FT; 12 pts, 4 reb (2 off), 6 ast, 1 stl. I'm sure she wished she hit a couple more shots, but all in all it was a fairly nice sendoff for the senior leader. She was able to attack the basket with some success and had some good looks from deep, but they just weren't falling last night. All told, she finishes her career with 946 points (she would have joined the 1000 point club had she not gotten hurt last year) and 334 assists (3rd most in program history, and probably would have finished second, again, without that injury).

North Central "System" Watch

• Augie Turnovers: 11. Not a good enough total. Augie played a press defense as well that helped force 21 turnovers for their part, though the Cardinals did wreak a little havoc. Siarra O'Neill had two of North Central's seven steals.
• NCC 3PT: 5-41 (12.2%). Really, this was the game. The Cardinals got plenty of open looks, but when O'Neill is 0-9, senior Michaela Reedy goes out with an 0-8 night, and even Mayson Whipple only went 2-10, you're gonna have a bad time.
• NCC FT: 6-11 (54.5%). The Achilles heel reared its head again tonight. Mayson lamented missing her two attempts in her final game, but the rest of the roster struggled as well. For the season, the Cardinals clocked a 60.5 percent clip at the line. This has to improve next year.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• IWU 82 (22-3, 15-1), @ ELM 61 (13-12, 9-7)
• Illinois Wesleyan clinches the #1 seed and hosting rights for the CCIW Tournament
• @ CAR 90 (18-7, 11-5), CRL 67 (8-17, 5-11)
• @ MIL 85 (8-17, 3-13), NPU 66 (9-16, 4-12)
• Millikin head coach Lori Kerans retired following Millikin's win
• Bye: WHE (21-4, 14-2)
• (MBK): NCC 83 (18-7, 11-5), @ IWU 74 (19-6, 12-4)
• North Central clinches the #3 seed in the CCIW Tournament
• Augustana clinches the #1 seed and hosting rights for the CCIW Tournament

Final Thoughts

As much as I'd love to point at the free throw and foul disparity and scream about how the Cardinals got screwed, it wouldn't be true. Going 5-41 from deep will kill you every time. This isn't to say that the officiating wasn't questionable last night (the clues are all here on Confessions of a Sportscaster if you know where to look), but it didn't impact the outcome of the game. Michelle Roof got a warning very early in this one for calling out the officials for some poor calls early, but as the game went on she was imploring the team to stop fouling.

This mercifully ends what ultimately was a bad season. It's the fifth 20 loss campaign in program history but the first since 1994. Michelle Roof did express her optimism for next year with the pieces coming in (of which one is confirmed, but I'm sure there's more in the pipeline). One thing I will say: even though I watched a lot of games that went very poorly for the team in red and white, these ladies never gave up. Even last night, they played their hearts out and really, they did all season. I'm proud of this group for keeping their heads up all year long.

Augustana, meanwhile, follows up a conference tournament year with an 8-8 campaign, though they still have some good pieces in place especially on the perimeter. They missed the tournament though, with Elmhurst edging them out with a 9-7 mark, though the Blue Jays are all but certain to be the sacrificial lamb to Illinois Wesleyan, who went 15-1 in the conference this year and are probably on a collision course with Wheaton for the CCIW title.

Later today I'll have a look at the NCAA's third set of regional rankings. I'll very briefly touch on the women's side of Cardinal basketball with more of a look at the rest of the conference (i.e. Illinois Wesleyan and Wheaton) as well as the men's rankings. Then, probably tomorrow, I'll do a season recap for the Cardinals' season and bring everything full circle.

One More to Go: A CCIW Update

It's an annual tradition, though maybe not unlike any other.

Tomorrow is the final day of the regular season in the CCIW, and actually the final time that we'll have regular season games on this day after just two years of the return to nine teams in the conference. Next season, the conference tournaments will expand from four teams to six in both men's and women's basketball. It's going to make more games matter at the end and possibly bolster resumes when it comes to the NCAA Tournament. But that's next year.

With the final day approaching, I always take the time leading up to it to look over the conference and see what the tournament scenarios are. This is where it's handy to have access to the list of CCIW tiebreakers, which was last updated in the fall of 2014 and may need to be updated slightly with Carroll's return. Fortunately, any updates that would need to be made won't impact either race. Also, compared to prior years, this year's post will be so much simpler than any other. As with last year, my thanks goes to the D3Boards community for helping sort through all of this.

Game Notes: (MBK) Augustana College @ North Central College (2/7/18)

Final Score
Augustana 71, NCC 65

Game Summary
The Vikings (17-5, 9-4) pretty quickly silenced the crowd in this one, opening the game on an 8-0 run. The Cardinals (16-6, 9-4) brought Mike Pollack off the bench, and a couple threes got the team back into it, with an Alex Sorenson bucket a couple minutes later narrowing the gap to three. But the Vikings responded with a 10-0 run sparked by back to back Nolan Ebel threes. The Cardinals couldn't make a dent into the lead as Augie would lead by as many as 17 before settling in with a 32-16 halftime advantage. North Central made a bit of a push early in the first half, narrowing the gap to 11 just over five minutes in and forcing an Augustana timeout, but that break stopped the bleeding and prompted an 8-0 Viking run to push the lead back to 19. Augie seemed to have an answer for every Cardinal basket, but holding onto a 16 point lead with eight minutes to play, the Cardinals made their fateful final push, cutting the lead to single digits with four minutes to play, pushing it back under that mark for good with two and a half left, and coming within four at 69-65 with a minute to play. Augie split a pair of free throws, and on the ensuing possession, Mike Pollack missed a three which effectively ended the game.

Key Stats

• Chrishawn Orange (AUG): 8-12 FG (2-2 3PT), 4-6 FT; 22 pts, 4 reb (1 off), 1 ast, 1 blk, 2 stl. Orange has killed the Cardinals at Gregory Arena in his three games here, and last night was no different. He scored Augie's first eight points before taking more of a backseat offensively, but did a ton of damage as the game went along, finishing perfect from the field in the second half and scoring the remaining 14 of his points.
• Nolan Ebel (AUG): 5-12 FG (2-4 3PT), 6-8 FT; 18 pts, 6 reb (1 off), 3 ast. Ebel was clutch last night as well. He had 10 at halftime and didn't shoot particularly well in the second half, but he scored Augie's final six points to seal the victory.
• Alex Sorenson (NCC): 8-14 FG (2-3 3PT), 1-3 FT; 19 pts, 7 reb (2 off), 5 ast, 1 blk. Alex struggled mightily in the early going of this one; he was 1-6 from the floor with just two points at the break as Augie did a fantastic job defensively on him. But he kept working in the post in the second half to help collapse the defense while getting his points, and hit a couple threes to help spark the late comeback attempt. All in all he ended with a solid night for his part.

Grey Giovanine Jacket Watch
Far and away, this is my favorite part of writing up these game notes... and my favorite non-game related aspect of the season on either the men's or the women's side. As a refresher for those of you who are new to either Confessions of a Sportscaster and/or CCIW men's basketball, Augie head coach Grey Giovanine is one of the best coaches in the country... and also one of the biggest head cases. As I understand it, he's mellowed to some degree from past years, but the most fun thing to watch for in these games is Grey's suit coat.

Big game coming up for NCC men’s basketball against Augie on Wednesday... which means I’m on #GreyGiovanineJacketWatch! When do you think the Vikings coach will remove it?

— Lucas Mitzel (@northsider89) February 5, 2018

For years I've run an unofficial pool to see when people think it's coming off. One year I even won a Mountain Dew out of the deal from our former official scorer. This year there are no stakes other than pride and the sheer joy of seeing the coat come off. Last night, Grey took it off with 12:00 remaining in the first half. North Central SID Clark Teuscher won this year's unofficial pool with a guess of seven minutes in.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• WHE 107 (15-6, 8-4), @ IWU 95 (16-5, 9-3)
• Millikin is eliminated from the CCIW Tournament
• @ CRL 73 (9-12, 5-7), CAR 69 (12-9, 7-5)
• MIL 87 (11-11, 4-9), @ ELM 70 (11-11, 4-9)
• Elmhurst is eliminated from the CCIW Tournament
• (Tues): @ NPU 87 (5-16, 1-11), East-West 71
• (WBK): @ MIL 73 (6-15, 1-11), NCC 70 (5-17, 3-10)

Final Thoughts

I talked about how big this game was in yesterday's regional ranking post. Unfortunately, the Cardinals did not come out strong in this one as Augie played fantastic defense all night and hit some shots to pull away early. The Cardinals had some decent looks early on that just didn't fall, as they didn't shoot well in the first half, but shot very well in the second. Unfortunately, Augie heated up offensively as well to have an answer for every potential Cardinal run. They earned a tough road win, their fifth in a row in Naperville. As much as I'd like to complain about some perceived bad calls or the lack of Erwin Henry, Augie absolutely deserved to win this game.

This hurts the Cardinals big time. Illinois Wesleyan lost, which had set the stage for the Cardinals to potentially grab first place in the CCIW. Instead, they're effectively third because Augie is now locked into the tiebreaker over North Central with the head to head sweep. Wheaton's win also brings them within half a game of the Cardinals for third place. It's becoming a fairly crowded top of the conference now, and even though Illinois Wesleyan has lost two straight, they're still a threat at the top.

The other problem is that the Cardinals have a bye on Saturday, so they will idle at 9-4 in the conference until next week. The other contenders are all playing teams in the bottom four of the league this Saturday, so all have opportunities to gain ground on the Cardinals or put them in the rear view mirror. North Central returns to action with their final regular season home game on Valentine's Day when Carroll comes calling.

Once More Into the Gauntlet

I'm running a little behind on this feature, but it's one that I need to run.

Ever since I took over the PA gig at North Central, I've always taken a look at the conference standings at the halfway point of the schedule. It's good to get a look at what's going on and see where everyone stands with seven (or now, eight, with Carroll's return to the conference) games to play.

In a week and a half I'll have a look at where North Central stacks up regionally, but that's only because that's when the NCAA releases its regional rankings. For now, we're going to stick with the conference standings, for both the men and the women. Pictured at the start of each section will be a screenshot of the conference standings pulled from the Confessions of a Sportscaster sidebar as of Monday, January 22nd.