2018 NCC Women's Basketball Recap

These are always the posts I don't like writing. It means my job of yelling is done as I hibernate my homerism for seven or eight months.

At the same time, putting this season in the rear view mirror will probably be a little therapeutic. And so with that thought in mind, let's look at the 2017-18 North Central Cardinals women's basketball season.

I had fairly high expectations for this squad coming into the season even though the team was out its two best forwards from last season, but I figured getting Mayson Whipple back would help offset that. I even went on the road to support them in their season opener at Wheaton, but the Cardinals couldn't overcome a bad second quarter en route to an 0-1 start. They dropped their next game as well, but I figured they could bounce back from that against a beatable Colorado College team in their season opener a few days later. Unfortunately, a bad night at the free throw line prevented that. The losing streak continued against Benedictine the following week, and opening CCIW play at North Park didn't help matters as the Vikings sent the Cardinals to 0-5. But then, in a game I will need to study for years to understand just what the hell happened, North Central made a late rally to force overtime and then took down a good Carthage team for its first win of the campaign. They were unable to take any momentum out of that win though as they ran into the buzzsaw that is Illinois Wesleyan.

Getting a brief respite from the rigors of The Gauntlet, the Cardinals got blown out by a decent UW-Stevens Point team before bouncing back with a nice win over Dubuque. The team then hit the road, losing at Chicago, then splitting a pair in a tournament in Texas. Returning to CCIW action on the first Saturday of the new year, the team played arguably its best defensive half of the year, but went ice cold on the other end of the floor and dropped a tough one to Carroll. They came back home that Wednesday and knocked off Millikin in what turned out to be Lori Kerans' final trip to Gregory Arena as head coach of the Big Blue. Wheaton came in that weekend and did what they do, though I'm proud of the effort the Cardinals put forth in that one by not getting blown out and making the Thunder earn it. It didn't get any easier from there with a three game road trip, where the Cardinals got blown out at Augustana, beat up at Elmhurst, and destroyed again by an Illinois Wesleyan team on a mission. They got the Blue Jays again for a rematch a week after round one but home court wasn't enough to turn the tide. After losing an absolute heartbreaker to Carroll, the Cardinals used the emotion of Senior Night to beat North Park and pick up what would be their final win of the campaign. The road was not kind to the Cardinals after this, with losses to Millikin in Decatur, getting bombarded by the Lady Reds in Kenosha, and putting up a season low 30 points in a loss at Wheaton. The finale saw the Cardinals hang with Augustana for a while, but couldn't make enough shots as the Cardinals dropped their finale.

It marked the end of a 5-20 campaign, the first 20 loss season in over two decades in Naperville. I'd pegged the Cardinals to be good enough to go anywhere between 6-10 and 10-6 in the CCIW; they went 3-13, tied for last. There were a few games they could have and probably should have won but didn't, while I didn't harbor any illusions that they were going to go toe to toe with the Wheaton's and Illinois Wesleyan's of the world. They picked up four of their five wins at home, going 4-8 overall in those games (3-5 in the CCIW). They played nine true road games and lost them all, and added a 1-3 mark in neutral site games.

Looking over team statistics from the season, there are few things that need to be addressed. The team didn't shoot well this year, finishing 32.9 percent from the floor, an abysmal 23.7 percent from behind the arc, and a not good enough 60.5 percent at the free throw line. The overall percentage is partially a result of a bad year from beyond the arc, but I firmly believe those numbers are an aberration. In the System years, the worst the Cardinals shot from deep was 26.6 percent in 2012-13. Three and a half percentage points is a big dip, and it's not like this team doesn't have shooters (though it could use more), but this number will come back up next year just by virtue of the law of averages. Free throws though... are a major problem. Senior Mayson Whipple was one of the best on the team at 75 percent from the line, and the team loses that next year. Virtually the entire roster needs to put in some work at the line this offseason.

All in all though, I do like what the team has in house for next year. Maya Walls is a good offensive player (8.0 PPG on 44/33/57 splits with 4.9 RPG) though a little more rebounding next year would help. Natali Dimitrova has developed into a nice defensive player down in the post (team high 20 blocks, 14 steals), but I'd like to see a little more of an offensive game (5.2 PPG, 35/25/44 splits) and a little more rebounding (3.8 a game). Frankie Pettit and Rachel Dawson backed up both today, and I think both have some potential, but they need to work in the offseason.

The backcourt is still in decent shape. Haydn Braun (5.0 PPG, 24/13/68) will be one of the players taking over point guard duties next year, and she needs to work on her finishing skills as well as her outside shooting, but she's definitely fast enough to be a good point guard in the CCIW. Lyndsay Brennan developed into a nice player as well this year (5.9 PPG on 42/15/60 splits, 4.3 RPG). She'll be a junior next season and her continued skills as a slasher can really help open things up outside. Siarra O'Neill (5.1 PPG on 35/32/33 splits) is a good shooter and will be going into her senior campaign. She missed some time this season, but with a full season should help the squad. I'd like to see the continued development of Bekah Foley (3.2 PPG, 2.8 RPG) and Page Desenberg (3.1 PPG, 1.9 RPG) as well.

Michelle Roof told me after the finale on Tuesday that there are some good players coming in. So far I've only heard about one confirmed recruit: Sydney Geis out of Guerin Catholic in Indiana. She averaged 11.5 points, 2.3 rebounds, 2.2 assists, and 1.5 steals a game as a senior for a Golden Eagle team that went 6-18 this season. I know there are more on the horizon, and the team's Twitter account should have updates as they become available this offseason.

Despite the results, I'm proud of this group. They kept their heads held high throughout the season, gave some teams some very tough fights all year, and never seemed to give up even when down by a bunch. Next year's team will still be a pretty young bunch with a lot of upside and nowhere to go but up. I'm sure they'll put their offseason work in, and with luck we'll have a much more positive 2018-19 campaign.