Game Notes: (WBK) Carthage College @ North Central College (1/22/25)

Final Score
Carthage 63, NCC 60 (OT)

Game Summary
We had a fun one early as the Cardinals (7-10, 3-5) got the scoring going early, overcoming an early small deficit and leading 24-16 after one quarter. The Firebirds (13-4, 5-3) trimmed the lead a couple times in the second quarter, but the scoring slowed down a ton as the Cardinals took a 35-26 lead to the locker room. NCC scored the first four of the second half to push their lead to a game-high 13, but Carthage fought back, using back to back threes at one point to cut the deficit to three. The Cardinals pushed the lead back to six by the end of the third but went cold to start the fourth, not getting their first field goal until the halfway point of the stanza. Despite that, the Cardinals held onto a four point lead with three minutes to go, but couldn't hold it as a pair of Marianna Morrissey layups tied the game at 56. Carthage had the first shot to win in regulation, but Grace Keiffer swiped the ball with just under five seconds left and the Cardinals called timeout to advance the ball. Josylin Simmons-Doxie's drive did not fall, and we got free basketball in Naperville. It took over two minutes in overtime before the Firebirds opened the scoring. The Cardinals answered a minute later, but the Firebirds retook the lead on the ensuing possession. Keiffer hit a pair of free throws with 21 seconds left to tie the game again, but Alyssa Orozco hit a corner three with 4.6 ticks left, and Keiffer's desperation three to force a second overtime was blocked to end the contest.

Key Players

• Marianna Morrissey (CAR): 6-13 FG (0-1 3PT), 3-4 FT; 15 pts, 7 reb (1 off), 4 ast, 2 stl. Morrissey had a strong first half, scoring nine on 4-7 shooting before going quiet for most of the second half. But her two quick layups late in regulation forced the extra session. She coughed the ball up a lot (six turnovers), but made up for it with some clutch play late.
• Megan McClure (NCC): 5-9 FG (1-2 3PT); 11 pts, 5 reb, 2 ast, 2 blk, 4 stl. It's been a bit of an up and down year for the fifth-year, but McClure had a solid game in this one. She hit a midrange jumper early in the game, but it didn't really set the tone. She was able to also get free for a couple easy layups, and she played very good defense on the interior (and she was rewarded with the couple blocks and team-high in steals). It just wasn't enough on this night.
• Biz Daly (NCC): 3-15 FG; 6 pts, 1 reb, 2 ast, 1 blk, 1 stl. I was high on Biz Daly at the beginning of the season, and she's definitely improved from her freshman year. But this was a rough outing for the sophomore. The Cardinals kept feeding her down low, but she just could not buy a layup the entire night. One of her three makes was a baseline jumper, and as the game went on she stopped backing opponents down and started trying turnarounds, just to get something to fall. Unfortunately for most of the night, it didn't.

Key Stats

• NCC: 22-66 FG (33.3%). This isn't a great line, but when you break it down it gets worse. The Cardinals were hot out of the gates, shooting 11-16 in the opening quarter. For those of you keeping track at home, that means they went 11-50 the rest of the game. This is a streaky team, and I even said at the table that I didn't think the first quarter was necessarily sustainable, but they just went absolutely cold at the worst possible time.
• CAR: 23 turnovers. If it weren't for the fact that the Cardinals couldn't buy a basket for most of the night, this would have been a fairly comfortable Cardinal win. Carthage tried a trap defense for chunks of the first half before going away from it due to lack of results. Meanwhile on the other end, 13 steals contributed a majority of the above, plus a few travels and a ten second call that ultimately led to 21 Cardinal points. Cashing in more would have flipped the result, but Carthage won the second chance point battle 13-6 after a +18 rebounding margin.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• WHE 64 (9-8, 4-4), @ AUG 62 (7-10, 3-5)
• @ CRL 73 (12-5, 7-1), ELM 71 (10-6, 2-6)
• IWU 81 (17-0, 8-0), @ MIL 60 (5-12, 4-4)
• BYE: NPU (3-14, 0-8)
• MBK: NCC bye (10-7, 3-5)

Final Thoughts

This one hurt. I had to go up to Alyssa Orozco postgame and congratulate her on her game-winner, because that's all you can do. But in a game that the Cardinals led for a majority of the contest, they just couldn't finish it off.

At the halfway point, the CCIW has a fairly clear set of tiers. Illinois Wesleyan is by itself, unbeaten and ranked second in the nation, with Carroll a tier below. Then there's a decent sized cluster with Carthage a game up on third place, and the Cardinals in a tie for the final spot, a game back of Millikin and Wheaton. The standings more or less make sense for the Cardinals, as they've lost to all the teams above them and beaten everyone even with them or below. Two of their conference wins came on the road, so they'll get the rematch in the comforts of home, plus additional home contests against Millikin and Illinois Wesleyan yet to go. They'll have a shot at the conference tournament still, but they'll need to go on an absolute heater if they want to live up to their preseason ranking.

Elmhurst comes calling this weekend for a matinee tipoff.

Game Notes: (MBK) Carthage College @ North Central College (12/4/21)

Final Score
NCC 91, Carthage 59

Game Summary
Looking at the final score, you might be surprised that it was the Firebirds (4-3, 0-2) that got off to a hot start, getting an easy layup followed by back to back threes on their first three possessions for an 8-0 lead just two minutes in, forcing a pissed off Todd Raridon to call timeout. Whatever he said worked though, as the Cardinals (4-1, 1-0) responded with a 13-3 run that forced Steve Djurikovic to take one for Carthage. The Firebirds tied it out of the timeout, but a 7-0 Cardinal run gave them control once again, and while Carthage stayed close for a while, the Cardinals slowly pulled away, taking a ten point halftime lead, then survived the early Firebird push that cut it to six, and other than a brief moment where they cut it back to nine a couple minutes later, the Cardinals led by double digits the rest of the way, pushing the margin to 20 with seven and a half to play, and the end of the bench got it over 30 in the final couple minutes.

Key Players

• Matt Helwig (NCC): 10-18 FG (4-5 3PT), 7-7 FT; 31 pts, 9 reb (1 off), 7 ast, 1 stl. Matt Helwig is making an early case for First Team All-CCIW. He's had some huge games out of the gate for the Cardinals, and was huge for them here. He scored NCC's first seven points and 10 of the first 13 to get the Cardinals back into it, then poured it on as the game continued. Adding in all the rebounds and assists (including a couple really nice ones) was the icing on the cake.
• Ethan Helwig (NCC): 9-16 FG (3-5 3PT), 4-6 FT; 25 pts, 3 reb, 1 ast. Ethan had the other three of those first 13 points, but stayed involved throughout the rest of this one, hitting from both outside and inside. While he didn't contribute as much to the box score as Matt did, this has probably been Ethan's best game of his young NCC career.
• Fillip Bulatovic (CAR): 7-18 FG (0-4 3PT), 5-13 FT; 19 pts, 8 reb (2 off), 4 ast, 1 blk, 1 stl. Bulatovic is one of the best players in the CCIW, and has played some great games at Merner Fieldhouse. This wasn't a bad one... but it wasn't great, either. He had a rough night at the line, and shot okay, though NCC defended him pretty well throughout. He's going to get his, but the Cardinals made him work for it. Bulatovic also got T'd up in this one... more on that later.

Key Stats

• NCC: 12-19 3PT (63.2%). My vocal cords got a workout tonight. They really got this going after that first timeout when Matt Helwig buried a three and got fouled for a four point play to literally cut the Carthage lead in half... something that's really hard to do with an eight point lead. Ethan had a good night as well, Shea hit a few big ones, Blaise got one before Todd Raridon called off the dogs, and Human Victory Cigar Barak Diehl hit a couple in garbage time to push the final margin over 30.
• CAR: 9-20 FT (45.0%). I feel like it's cheating to go with threes for both teams, and there's not a lot else to look at when you lose by 32, so we'll go with a stat that has to be somewhat alarming for the Firebirds. As noted above, a lot of these misses were by Bulatovic. He missed his first two tries of the game, prompting a joking "Time to try the Hack-a-Fillip" from the official scorer, but it's weird how on the money he was. This is something the Firebirds will need to clean up if they want to compete in the CCIW this year.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• @ MIL 70 (5-3, 1-0), AUG 45 (4-4, 0-1)
• @ ELM 76 (7-1, 1-0), WHE 75 (7-1, 1-1)
• Jake Rhode hit a halfcourt shot at the buzzer
• @ IWU 63, (7-0, 1-0), CRL 44 (3-4, 0-1)
• Illinois Wesleyan retains possession of The Belt^TM
• Eastern Illinois 76, NPU 71 (3-2, 0-0)
• Game does not count toward's NPU's record

Final Thoughts

This was, admittedly, kind of a weird game even beyond those dueling scoring runs in the first couple of minutes. Both teams ended up getting flop warnings (NCC had one by I think Ethan Helwig late in the first half after a three attempt, Carthage got one trying to draw a charge), and after the Carthage one there was a brief stoppage of play. Things got weirder later when Fillip Bulatovic got fouled on a shot attempt, and immediately afterwards, Carthage's Nemi Ostojic got a technical foul, though I didn't see for what. This resulted in Bulatovic getting to shoot his free throws with no one in the lane, followed by Matt Helwig taking technical free throws for the Cardinals. Then with the Cardinals up 18 following a pretty Ethan Helwig layup, he ran into Bulatovic coming back down, Bulatovic pushed him, and I feel like Helwig embellished it a little bit, but he got away with it, drawing a technical foul on Bulatovic and two more Matt Helwig free throws.

All of this occurred with former Carthage head coach and current assistant Bosko Djurikovic watching from well behind us. We didn't even know he was there until we heard his familiar bellowing from behind us. It was good to see him back at a CCIW basketball game though.

The Cardinals will have a few days to get ready to get back to work with a tough one on the docket as they head north to go take on UW-Oshkosh for the first time since... well, you remember.

Game Notes: (WBK) Carthage College @ North Central College (12/4/21)

Final Score
NCC 50, Carthage 40

Game Summary
This one was never really in doubt as the Cardinals (4-4, 1-0) jumped out to an 8-0 lead and never looked back. The Firebirds (4-3, 1-1) couldn't really claw back as North Central pushed the lead to double digits by late in the opening frame and led 16-8 after the first ten minutes. The Cardinals got it right back to double digits in the second, and other than a brief moment of Carthage cutting it to nine, it stayed there, with back to back threes late making it 31-16 going into the break. North Central led by as many as 18, and did get cold in the fourth again, but the lead was sufficient, and the Firebirds would get no closer than eight in the closing stages.

Key Players

• Mitrese Smith (NCC): 7-12 FG, 1-1 FT; 15 pts, 5 reb (2 off), 1 blk. It's great to have a threat in the paint, and Mitrese has looked pretty good so far this season. Granted, this is just the second home game of the year, so I haven't seen much, but this was a good showing. She's also picked up a good elbow jumper as well, which is a nice weapon to have in the arsenal.
• Elle Sutter (NCC): 3-7 FG (2-5 3PT), 1-2 FT; 9 pts, 11 reb (2 off), 2 ast, 1 blk, 3 stl. Elle Sutter made some good plays in the opener against St. Mary's, and played well enough to work her way into the starting lineup in recent weeks. She's rewarded the faith placed in her with another good performance in this one on both ends, wreaking some havoc defensively while showing some scoring prowess. And she's only a sophomore.
• Lauren Knight (CAR): 5-9 FG (3-3 3PT), 2-2 FT; 15 pts, 6 reb. Knight went down in the first half with what looked like a leg injury, and couldn't seem to put any weight on it. But she came back in in the second half, and was hitting some long threes to try and get the Firebirds back into it. The Cardinals did a good job after she hit a couple though to try and make her work harder for those shots, and ultimately limited the damage.

Key Stats

• NCC: 14 assists on 18 field goals. It was hard to pick one thing, because a lot of the stats were pretty close in this one, but this jumped out at me when I went to look at it. That level of assists to field goals is really good, and even though the offense went cold in the fourth, the defense stayed strong and held on to get a win against a good Carthage team.
• CAR: 12-53 FG (22.6%). This was the big thing for me. NCC played outstanding defense in this one, including holding the Firebirds to 4-22 shooting from beyond the arc. Getting six steals and blocking three shots, including one or two impressive plays, was awesome too.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• @ MIL 73 (5-3, 1-0), AUG 62 (5-3, 0-1)
• WHE 75 (8-1, 1-1), @ ELM 57 (1-7, 0-1)
• @ IWU 75 (3-4, 1-0), CRL 62 (5-1, 0-1)
• @ NPU 73 (6-1, 0-0), Chicago 64

Final Thoughts

It was good to get back at it after this team was away from home for so long. I wasn't sure what to expect tonight, considering this Carthage team had just won against Wheaton on Wednesday, and Tim Bernero's squads have always been tough to play. But the Cardinals got out to that great start, literally never trailed, and bounced back in a big way after getting trounced at Chicago on Wednesday. It gets the team to .500 on the year, but also gets a big first conference win, something that took several tries in the shortened campaign last winter. The Cardinals are on the bye in conference on Wednesday, but welcome in UW-Stevens Point for a 6pm contest that night.

Game Notes (MBK): Carthage College @ North Central College (2/20/21)

Final Score
Carthage 71, NCC 68

Game Summary
This one looked early like it might get out of hand despite the Cardinals (5-4) taking an early 6-3 lead. But the newly-minted Firebirds (4-5) began opening fire from beyond the arc, using a 14-1 run to help build what would become a 15 point lead at 24-9. But in the building of that lead that the Cardinal offense finally woke up and they began hitting threes as well, slowly cutting into the Carthage lead to make it 35-30 Firebirds at the intermission. The Cardinals opened the second half on fire, with an old fashioned three point play making way for back to back Brian Johnson threes, though after his second one he got a little too into it, got in the face of one of the Firebirds, and was T'd up. That stopped the bleeding and resulted in six straight for the Firebirds, who were able to retake brief control, though the Cardinals fought back to tie the game at 47, then took their first lead since very early in the game at 50-49. The teams traded a couple leads before Carthage started to assert control, though their lead wasn't huge. It was a three point game with about two and a half minutes to play, when the defenses asserted control until the final seconds, when Kyle Czerak hit a fallaway contested three at the end of the shot clock to put the Firebirds up six with just 34 seconds to go. NCC answered with a fairly quick three, got a miss on the front end of a one-and-one, and Blaise Meredith hit a pair of free throws with 6.3 seconds to go to make it 69-68 Carthage... eerily similar to The Miracle on Brainard Street a year and a day prior. Unfortunately this time, Carthage sank two free throws at the other end, and a Mike Pollack three fell short, allowing the Firebirds to escape with the win.

Key Players

• Josh Washburn (CAR): 7-11 FG (3-7 3PT), 4-4 FT; 21 pts, 5 reb, 3 ast, 1 stl. The senior rose to the occasion in this one, hitting a bunch of big shots early in the game, as he scored 10 in the first half, but kept it up in the second half. His two free throws with 4.9 seconds left sealed the deal for the Firebirds.
• Fillip Bulatovic (CAR): 5-15 FG (0-4 3PT), 5-10 FT; 15 pts, 11 reb (3 off), 6 ast, 3 stl. In last year's matchup, Bulatovic hit a bunch of big buckets to keep Carthage in control until the very end. This year, he still got his despite some inefficiencies, but also filled the stat sheet elsewhere. This guy is going to be a star in this league.
• Brian Johnson (NCC): 5-9 FG (all 3PT); 15 pts, 8 reb (1 off), 2 ast, 1 stl. I don't think it's too outlandish to call this something of a breakout game for Brian. He hit a couple threes in the first half to help get the Cardinals back into the game, then hit those back to back triples early in the second half that cut it to a one point game, but his technical to some degree I think took the wind out of NCC's sails.

Key Stats

• CAR: Outscored NCC in the paint 28-8. There were a few ways I could have gone here. Carthage was not good at the line, and had the Cardinals won I would have highlighted an 11-19 day at the stripe. Instead, I have to look at how the Firebirds were able to find some looks at the rim when they needed to, combined with a good outside shooting day. The combination proved to be too much.
• NCC: 14-37 3PT (37.8%). This is a pretty good percentage, for what it's worth. But when 37 of your 52 shots come from beyond the arc... this isn't ideal. Granted, quite a few misses were open looks that a lot of other times would fall. It's also important to note that Firebird center Sean Johnson and his 6'11" frame were in for much of the game to wreak havoc, but still.

CCIW Scoreboard/The Belt^TM Watch

• @ ELM 81 (4-1), MIL 79 (1-9)
• Elmhurst retains possession of The Belt^TM
• @ WHE 81 (9-0), CRL 55 (3-5)
• @ AUG 74 (5-1), NPU 7 1(1-10)
• BYE: IWU (4-0)
• WBK: @ CAR 72 (2-7), NCC 50 (1-8)

Final Thoughts
File under: Basketball is weird. Following a blowout up in Kenosha without Blaise Meredith no less, I'm not saying this should have been a cakewalk in the rematch in Naperville. But the Firebirds also always seem to play the Cardinals really tough, especially in Naperville, and Saturday was no exception.

Another stat I didn't put in up above for Carthage that I do have to mention: the Firebirds had just three points off the bench on Saturday, and it was on Kyle Czerak's ridiculous dagger three (that I think even rolled around a bit before falling). Czerak went to high school with my brother, prompting a text from my dad postgame of "Foiled by the ACC grad." Foiled indeed.

It's yet another tough loss for this Cardinal team that started pretty strong, but has really been struggling of late. Things don't get any easier to close out the regular season though, as a home-and-home with a currently unbeaten Wheaton team looms on the horizon.

Game Notes (WBK): Carthage College @ North Central College (2/18/21)

Final Score
Carthage 70, NCC 62

Game Summary
Fresh off their first win of the season, the Cardinals (1-7) got a bit of a gut punch, as Carthage (1-7) started the game hot, jumping out to a 19-7 lead. But the Cardinals clawed back, scoring seven straight to close out the quarter, including a broken play jumper at the buzzer off a jump ball. The Cardinals took a brief lead at 21-20 early in the second, but Carthage answered, leading by as many as five late before taking a 36-33 lead into the locker room. The Cardinals opened the second half on a tear, scoring eight straight to take a five point lead before Carthage answered with nine straight of their own, forcing a back and forth struggle, with a late old-fashioned three point play giving the Cardinals a 54-50 lead going into the final frame. An early three pushed the Cardinal lead to its highest mark at eight. Carthage cut that in half before an NCC basket with just over five minutes remaining gave them a 62-56 lead. Then the bottom fell out; the Cardinals missed their final seven shots and committed four turnovers in that span as Carthage scored 14 unanswered to close it out.

Key Players

• Lauren Knight (CAR): 5-8 FG (3-5 3PT), 8-10 FT; 21 pts, 2 reb, 4 ast, 3 stl. One thing I noticed in prepping for Thursday's game was how young this Carthage roster is, which to some degree explains why this was their first win. But this was easily the best game of Knight's young collegiate career, as she notched career highs in most categories, specifically points. She was a killer, especially early in the game.
• Bridget Barrett (CAR): 5-8 FG, 0-2 FT; 10 pts, 11 reb (4 off), 1 ast, 1 stl. Another freshman putting up a monster game. While the 11 rebounds aren't a season high (she notched 15 against North Park earlier this year), the four offensive boards helped her team, and she hit a couple huge buckets, including what turned out to be the game-winner.
• Allison Pearson (NCC): 8-18 FG (5-12 3PT); 21 pts, 1 reb, 3 ast, 2 stl. Alli did all she could in this one. She was on fire for stretches of the game, and her fifth three of the game gave the Cardinals that aforementioned eight point lead. Unfortunately she went cold down the stretch, though it doesn't eliminate an all around good game.

Key Stats

• CAR: 8-24 3PT (33.3%). The overall number doesn't tell the whole story, because Carthage was hot to start the game. They went 4-10 from deep in the opening quarter as part of that early 19-7 surge to start the game. That makes for a 4-14 mark the rest of the game, which isn't great, but they hit when they needed to.
• NCC: 3-14 FG in 4th quarter (21.4%). The first half of the quarter was fine; the Cardinals hit three of their first seven shots and led by six when they hit their last one. And then, as has happened so many times this year, they went cold in the final minutes.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• @ WHE 68 (8-1), CRL 57 (5-3)
• MIL 81 (6-3), @ ELM 55 (2-7)
• NPU 66 (5-3), @ AUG 52 (3-2)
• BYE: IWU (3-1)
• MBK: NCC 73 (5-3), @ CAR 53 (3-5)

Final Thoughts
Okay, let me get this out of the way. While it didn't impact the outcome, the officiating, especially in the second half was... interesting. I saw the first ever over and back call made when the ball was ten feet from the midcourt line. While the official's names are not listed on the box score, let's just say it was a familiar face who has been alluded to in previous Confessions of a Sportscaster. The clues are there.

Carthage also lost starter Destiny Antoine early in the game to what appeared to be an ankle injury, and she did not return. Margueret Spear also looked like she hurt her collarbone in the first half, but managed to come back in and finish the game. Gutsy performance from her, so I tip my cap, and extend well wishes to both on speedy recoveries.

As for the game itself... this was a bummer. I was hoping that the spark from a Senior Day win would carry over, and for a bit it seemed like it might. But the theme of the year has been not hanging onto fourth quarter leads, and the Cardinals once again went cold when they could least afford to. It's another game though, that they were in, and their 1-7 record doesn't do justice to the fact that this is a good team.

The Cardinals will get another crack at the team without a name when they head up to Kenosha 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.

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.

Game Notes: (MBK) Carthage College @ North Central College (2/19/20)

Final Score
NCC 70, Carthage 69

Game Summary
After surrendering a basket on the opening possession, the Belt^TM-wielding Cardinals (20-4, 13-2) scored the next eight, including two threes in four seconds thanks to a dumb turnover. But the Red Men (15-9, 7-8) got right back into it and turned this into a back and forth affair. Carthage would lead by as many as five before taking a 35-33 advantage with a minute to go in the half, and carried that into intermission. After trading a couple baskets to open the second half, the Red Men began to assert control, scoring six straight to open up a 45-37 advantage and forcing a Cardinal timeout. North Central tried to cut into the deficit, but Carthage pushed it as high as 11, going up 55-44 with about nine and a half to play. An 8-0 Cardinal run made it a game again, but Carthage scored seven of the next nine to push the lead back to eight. Seemingly, the Red Men had an answer for every late Cardinal push, as they led by six with just 25 seconds to play. But a three pointer cut the deficit in half with 14 seconds to go, the Red Men split a pair of free throws with 11 ticks left, then committed a foul on another three with just 4.3 seconds left. The Cardinals hit all three to pull within one, intentionally fouled with 3.7 left, and Carthage missed the front end of the one-and-one, allowing the Cardinals to call timeout with three ticks left. Out of the timeout, a baseball pass across halfcourt was intercepted by two Carthage guys, but a travel with 1.6 left gave the Cardinals new life. They opted for a lob play... but drew a foul with 0.9 left, and hit both free throws to steal victory from the jaws of defeat, successfully defend The Belt^TM, and clinch the outright CCIW title.

Key Players

• Aiden Chang (NCC): 4-5 FG (3-4 3PT), 5-5 FT; 16 pts, 2 reb (1 off), 3 ast. As far as offense is concerned, Aiden is a complementary piece, but he really stepped up last night, especially late. He scored 14 of his 16 in the second half, and saved some heroics for the very end. He hit the three with 14 seconds left to make it a 68-65 game, then was fouled on the three attempt with 4.3 seconds left, calmly draining all three to make it a one point game and set up that ridiculous ending.
• Matt Cappelletti (NCC): 5-11 FG (1-4 3PT), 3-4 FT; 14 pts, 8 reb (2 off), 2 ast. It wasn't necessarily the greatest shooting night for Cap, who seemingly adjusted his shooting stroke for a much higher arcing shot. He was able to help keep the Cardinals in the game though with decent rebounding and hit some key baskets, but none bigger than on North Central's final possession. After his baseball pass was picked off and the Carthage travel gave them another chance, the Cardinals dialed up a lob to Cap, who caught it on the far elbow and tried to turn and go up with it... but was bumped, putting the Cardinals into the double bonus. Cap proceeded to calmly hit both free throws to turn a one point deficit into a one point lead, winning the game.
• Fillip Bulatovic (CAR): 7-12 FG (1-4 3PT), 0-2 FT; 15 pts, 5 reb, 1 ast, 1 stl. I found myself cursing Bulatovic as the game was winding down. Coming off the bench, he had seven in the first half, including his lone three, while all four of his field goals in the second half came at clutch moments in the final seven minutes. His last two especially seemed like daggers; he found himself open under the hoop and converted to push the Red Men lead to six on both. But at the end, he ended up wearing goat horns, committing the foul on Cappelletti (his fifth of the game) to put him at the line for the game-winning free throws.

Key Stats

• NCC: 14-17 FT (82.4%). North Central shot pretty well for the game (47.1% from the field, 34.8% from deep), but weren't on track at the line early, missing both of their first half attempts. But they were money in the second half. Connor Raridon went a perfect six-for-six, Aiden Chang hit all five of his, including the three crucial ones with 4.3 seconds left, and despite having the one miss earlier in the second half, Cap had ice in his veins as he hit the two that stole the game with 0.9 to play.
• CAR: 16 second chance points. The Red Men have a bunch of freaking giants; 6'11 centers Sean Johnson and Brad Perry combined for 11 rebounds in this one, including five on the offensive glass. Carthage had an 11-2 advantage in second chance points at the intermission, and as time was winding down I knew I was going to highlight this as a key stat. But for the game, Carthage only outrebounded the Cardinals by one (despite having 11 total offensive boards), and their 11 point advantage on second chance opportunities went to waste.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• IWU 94 (16-8, 10-5), @ NPU 92 (4-20, 2-13) (OT)
• @ ELM 62 (20-5, 11-5), CRL 59 (11-13, 4-11)
• Elmhurst clinches a home game in the CCIW Quarterfinals
• @ WHE 68 (15-9, 9-6), MIL 53 (4-20, 1-14)
• BYE- AUG (17-7, 11-4)
• WBK: @ IWU 90 (16-8, 10-5), NCC 63 (11-13, 7-8)
• Illinois Wesleyan clinches a home game in the CCIW Quarterfinals
• WBK: ELM 75 (10-15, 5-11), @ CAR 73 (11-13, 6-9)
• WBK: @ MIL 82 (16-8, 9-6), NPU 68 (17-7, 10-5)
• Millikin clinches a home game in the CCIW Quarterfinals
• WBK: WHE 71 (18-6, 11-4), @ CRL 54 (8-16, 3-12)
• Wheaton clinches hosting the CCIW Tournament
• WBK: Bye- AUG (12-12, 7-8)

Final Thoughts

I mentioned last year that North Central's win over then-#1 Augustana was the biggest win I've ever seen in person. I think that title is safe, but in terms of the drama... this one is probably going to be pretty high on the list. We called this The Miracle on Brainard Street in the immediate aftermath of the game last night, because, let's be honest: North Central had no business winning this game. Down six with 25 seconds to go, and down four with four seconds to go, your win expectancy has to be less than one percent. But the Cardinals got the breaks they needed and took advantage of them to steal a huge win. The only CCIW prize they were playing for was the outright title, which I'm glad we got to celebrate in front of a home crowd. Otherwise, it's trying to keep yourself in a good position in a chaotic Central Region to try and stay in solid position just in case you need a Pool C bid for the NCAA Tournament. I think the Cardinals are pretty safe, but pulling out this win gives you a little insurance.

The Cardinals close out the regular season on Saturday at Wheaton, who will be trying to get a home game on Tuesday. I'll go over full clinching scenarios later today or tomorrow for both the men's and women's CCIW Tournaments, because there's still a lot up for grabs with one to go.

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.

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.

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.

Game Notes: (MBK) Carthage College @ North Central College (1/16/19)

Final Score
NCC 67, Carthage 63

Game Summary
This one was not easy as the Red Men (7-10, 2-6) scored the game's first basket and kept the pressure up early. But the Cardinals (14-3, 6-2) stayed with them, taking an early 13-7 lead before the Red Men embarked on a 12-2 run to grab the lead. The rest of the half was somewhat back and forth, with the Red Men holding a five point lead with about two minutes left, but the Cardinals tied the game at 33 on a Mike Pollack three right before the buzzer. That momentum carried over into the second half, with the Cardinals scoring five quick points and forcing a Red Men timeout, but it wasn't quite enough to stop the bleeding as the Cardinals later used a 13-0 run to grab firm control of the game. But the Red Men had one more push in them, following with a 15-4 run to cut it to a one possession game. North Central was able to pull away just enough though thanks to solid efforts in the paint and at the line.

Key Players

• Connor Raridon (NCC): 8-13 FG (0-2 3PT), 12-13 FT; 28 pts, 10 reb (2 off), 3 ast, 1 stl. A week after doing most of his damage distributing the ball, Raridon took a more active role in the offense in this one, especially in the second half where he scored 18 of his points. He was able to get to the basket plenty in this one while also hitting his usual mid range jumpers, and was lethal at the free throw line.
• Kienan Baltimore (CAR): 7-12 FG (0-2 3PT), 4-5 FT; 18 pts, 6 reb. Baltimore came into the game as one of the CCIW's leading scorers, and showed why in this one with a solid offensive performance. He did get away with at least four or five uncalled travels that the crowd clamored for and played a significant chunk of the game in foul trouble. That he remained as effective as he was is a testament to how good a player he is, even if he did flop a couple times. His other major problem was taking care of the ball, as he committed six turnovers.
• Sean Johnson (CAR): 2-7 FG, 1-2 FT; 5 pts, 9 reb (1 off), 1 ast, 8 blk. The big question for this game was how effective the 6'10" center would be, and he was. He picked up a couple early blocks to help set the tone and was a beast on the glass. He also played solid defense for the most part, though the Cardinals did get open looks based off of him switching. Johnson's eight blocks are one shy of the Carthage single game record.

Key Stats

• NCC: 19-22 FT (86.4%). On a night when other shooting was subpar (35.7% from the field, 27.6% from deep), the Cardinals needed to find other ways to get points on the board, and they succeeded at the line. Raridon did most of the damage, but other guys stepped up when they got their trips to the line.
• CAR: 15 turnovers. This is the kind of number you'd see more likely in a women's game than a men's game, but the Red Men didn't take good care of the ball, and it was a big reason why they lost. North Central notched steals for eight of those 15 giveaways, leading to 22 Cardinal points.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• AUG 77 (16-1, 8-0), @ WHE 73 (12-5, 5-3)
• IWU 82 (11-6, 4-4), @ ELM 80 (9-8, 4-4)
• MIL 71 (9-7, 3-5), @ NPU 58 (4-13, 2-6)
• Bye: CRL (6-11, 2-6)
• WBK: @ IWU 82 (14-3, 7-1), NCC 77 (3-14, 1-7)

Final Thoughts

The conclusion of Wednesday's games marked the halfway point of CCIW play, so on Thursday I will write up the annual post looking at the CCIW at the halfway point. This means my thoughts on how the conference looks will wait until then.

Last night was an interesting one as Carthage refused to go quietly into the night. A lot of credit has to go to Carthage coach Bosko Djurikovic, who was kind of a treat on the sideline. Beyond just bellowing instructions to his players and getting in officials' ears, he was also talking about flopping I think kind of to the officials as well as to the table, while also having a fun interaction with a fan sitting behind us with a grin on his face. I don't want to say it was a reunion game, per se, but it was kind of cool to get to see 19 minutes of action from Carthage sophomore Brett Czerak, who went to Aurora Central Catholic with my brother, and he acquitted himself pretty well on the night.

The Cardinals kick off the second half on Saturday with a trip up to Carroll. The Cardinals have split with the Pioneers in the first two years since Carroll returned to the CCIW, with one win apiece both at home and on the road.

Game Notes: (WBK) Carthage College @ North Central College (1/9/19)

Final Score
Carthage 67, NCC 57

Game Summary
This might have been the fastest game I've ever worked, but it didn't start great as the Lady Reds (10-5, 4-2) scored the game's first five points, but the Cardinals (3-13, 1-6) started to crawl back from the free throw line. Carthage jumped out to a 19-8 lead early on, prompting a timeout, after which the Cardinals worked their way back, trailing 22-15 after one. North Central played a strong second quarter to push the Lady Reds' lead as low as four, but they had an answer every time, taking a 37-30 lead into the locker room. North Central started the second half strong with two straight layups, but the Lady Reds started to connect from beyond the arc to pull back away, leading 53-39 after three. Carthage would push the advantage as high as 18 before both teams put in the ends of their benches and the Cardinals got a couple garbage time buckets to trim the lead.

Key Players

• Madie Kaelber (CAR): 8-11 FG (3-5 3PT), 3-3 FT; 22 pts, 3 reb, 1 ast, 4 stl. After missing last year's date at Merner due to injury, last night was the Madie Kaelber Show on both ends of the floor. She wreaked some havoc on defense, jumping passing lanes a couple times early to lead to Carthage baskets, while also bombing away from deep and converting on layups as well.
• Bailey Gilbert (CAR): 5-14 FG (3-8 3PT), 3-4 FT; 16 pts, 10 reb (4 off), 5 ast, 2 stl. Good teams always need someone doing the dirty work as well, and Gilbert fit that role well. She wasn't as efficient shooting the ball as Kaelber was, so instead wreaked havoc on the boards and did a great job finding open teammates.
• Haydn Braun (NCC): 5-9 FG (4-7 3PT); 14 pts, 4 reb, 1 stl. Braun hasn't had the greatest of sophomore years. She hasn't gotten a ton of runtime, sitting behind Tyonne Howard and Alanna Newsome for significant stretches of games. But she got hot early last night and was able to stay in the game, creating an intriguing lineup of her and the aforementioned two (when normally Lyndsay Brennan or Allison Pearson would take her place) in the backcourt. Hopefully this is the spark needed for her to take the next step.

Key Stats

• NCC: 18-59 FG (30.5%), 6-27 3PT (22.2%). The good news is that after an abysmal night at the free throw line on Saturday, the Cardinals went 15-17. Unfortunately the rest of their shooting failed to catch up. Amazingly, the Cardinals shot better in the second half (31.3/27.3) than the first (29.6/18.8) despite seemingly going ice cold for significant stretches of the second half.
• CAR: 8-21 3PT (38.1%). The Lady Reds snapped a four game losing streak in Naperville behind finally having a good shooting night at Gregory Arena. Only hitting eight doesn't really capture the impact though, as they hit threes at crucial moments when it seemed like the Cardinals were threatening, and that was really the difference in the game. Some of these were defensive breakdowns, but a lot were just good offensive movement. Tip your cap.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• ELM 77 (7-8, 3-3), @ CRL 70 (7-8, 2-4)
• @ WHE 76 (12-3, 6-0), MIL 75 (5-10, 1-5)
• IWU 93 (12-3, 5-1), @ NPU 60 (6-10, 2-5)
• Bye: AUG (10-5, 4-2)
• MBK: NCC 85 (13-3, 5-2), @ IWU 83 (9-6, 2-4)

Final Thoughts

The Cardinals missed some layups last night, which could have turned the tide, but I don't think it would have been enough. North Central did a great job defending inside as they contained forwards Rachel Szydlowski and Maggie Berigan to 17 points on 7-17 shooting, but Carthage just wasn't missing from deep. It's their first win in Naperville since Stephanie Kuzmanic pushed off on her game-winner in 2014, thus killing one of my favorite memes in CCIW basketball. But you know what they say: all good things must come to an end.

The loss drops the Cardinals to 1-6, remaining in the basement by half a game. I have to hope that the second half will be kinder, but the Cardinals had a favorable first half schedule with five home conference games, and dropped them all. I'll cover the halfway point next week after we've reached it, but the Cardinals close it out with a trip down to Bloomington to take on Illinois Wesleyan on Wednesday night.

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.

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.

Game Notes: (MBK) Carthage College @ North Central College (1/3/18)

Final Score
NCC 77, Carthage 67

Game Summary
The Cardinals (8-4, 2-2) took early command in this one as they scored the game's first 11 points. It took the Red Men (7-5, 2-2) five and a half minutes to get on the board, but the Cardinals remained in total control, not letting the lead dip back down into double digits in the first half and leading by as many as 18, but the Red Men closed the half on a 7-2 run to make it 40-27 at the intermission. Carthage came out of the locker room stronger and used an 8-0 run fairly early in the half to make it 51-46, but the Cardinals responded with an 11-0 run to regain command. The Red Men didn't give up, cutting the lead back down to six with about five minutes to play and again a minute later, but the Cardinals put the game away with a 9-0 run over the next two minutes to win their fifth straight and even up their CCIW record.

Key Stats

• Alex Sorenson (NCC): 13-21 FG (0-2 3PT), 2-2 FT; 28 pts, 7 reb (2 off), 4 ast. As far as encores go, this was pretty good. Alex fell in love with his midrange jumpers a little bit too much, but still dominated in the post as he's been doing. Carthage doubled a lot more than Robert Morris did, but Sorenson was still able to find his looks while also dishing out to open teammates for baskets. Sorenson also did quite a bit of damage against Carthage's backup big men.
• Erwin Henry (NCC): 8-14 FG (2-4 3PT), 1-1 FT; 19 pts, 6 reb (1 off), 2 ast, 2 stl. The last few games, Connor Raridon and/or Sorenson have done the heavy lifting and Henry has kind of faded into the background, but he broke through in a pretty big way tonight, hitting a couple threes at critical moments to help the Cardinals take command of this one. He also did a great job on defense with his two thefts and did an excellent job helping the Cardinals control the glass.
• Brad Kruse (CAR): 4-6 FG (1-2 3PT), 5-5 FT; 14 pts, 6 reb, 3 ast, 1 blk, 4 stl. There were a few options I could go with for the Red Men, but I think Kruse had the best overall game, leading the team in rebounding and wreaking a little havoc on the defensive end. Late in the game as Carthage was pressing to try and force mistakes, he intercepted a bad crosscourt pass in the backcourt and took it home with a dunk for emphasis.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• @ IWU 72 (10-3, 3-1), Augustana 53 (10-2, 2-1)
• @ North Park 70 (4-7, 1-2), Millikin 69 (8-5, 1-3)
• @ Wheaton 97 (9-3, 3-1), Carroll 92 (4-8, 0-3)
• @ Elmhurst 87 (9-3, 2-1), Edgewood 60
• WBK: NCC Bye (3-9, 1-2)

Final Thoughts

Photo from NCC Athletic Department

I think we all knew that this one was going to be a tougher contest than what the Robert Morris game ended up being, and a lot of people were expecting this to be a really good one. The Cardinals surprised with how strong they came out on both ends of the floor. Carthage really struggled early, taking some ill-advised shots, but they really did a great job in their comeback effort. The Cardinals just had an answer for every run, and despite a subpar free throw shooting night, took home a solid win.

This now creates a nice little log jam in the CCIW standings, as the Cardinals are just a game out of first place and half a game out of a CCIW Tournament berth. Obviously it's still very early in the race and a lot can happen, but this Cardinal team is clicking right now. Their next two are on the road, but they're both winnable games against Carroll on Saturday and Millikin on Wednesday, before they return home to take on a resurgent Wheaton team on the 13th.

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 CCIW Men's Basketball Tournament Preview

In years past, I've done a women's tournament preview as well, and done that first. This year, since North Central didn't make the women's tournament, I'm going to skip that one and instead leave my thoughts on the matter to the regional rankings post and the knowledge that a #4 seed has never won a CCIW Tournament game, and only once has a #2 seed won the tournament. But that's about the women.

Today I'm looking at the tournament North Central did make, so let's preview the CCIW Tournament.

One More To Go: A CCIW Update

I didn't get to watch any of it live, but I'm reveling in the upset pulled off by NCC against Illinois Wesleyan. I guess if you maybe want to get technical, both of them.

The regular season all comes down to Tuesday, and while most of the CCIW Tournament field is filled, the seedings are still very much up for grabs. And so as I like to do on an annual basis going into the final game, here are the scenarios for seedings in next weekend's CCIW Tournament.

I do want to express my thanks to the D3Boards community for working out all of the men's scenarios, which greatly helped my understanding of how Tuesday's stuff was going to work.

A Second Run Through the Gauntlet

This is a feature I've run almost annually since I started Confessions of a Sportscaster, but it's the first year with nine teams. I think that means we're getting this started a few days earlier than we have been. Of course, I'm also writing this a couple days after we got through the first CCIW runthrough.

CCIW play is a double round robin, so every team in the conference plays everyone else twice: once at home and once on the road. There were a few quirks this season where some teams have played five games at home or on the road in conference, but for the most part most teams have played four at home and four on the road. The rest of the way, the sites flip. So with that in mind, let's have a look at the CCIW standings and how North Central looks going into the second half.