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.


Women's Basketball

I had not necessarily high expectations coming into the year, but this... is not ideal. With the head to head tiebreaker, North Central is currently in last place in the conference. Depending on your perspective, 1-7 has a couple different meanings. That mark includes an 0-5 record at home, which is pretty bad, especially when you consider that the five teams that have left Naperville with victories have combined for nine other CCIW victories. The Cardinals have narrow losses to Millikin and North Park, as well as a tough one to Carroll, getting beat by a good Carthage team, and playing pretty poorly against Elmhurst. But in context, the Cardinals did a nice job fighting back in the Millikin game in particular. The win came at Augie, which is a tough place to win, with road losses at Wheaton (by 20-plus, which isn't a surprise), and last night's narrow loss at Illinois Wesleyan. All in all, there are some positives to take from here. North Central may finish last, but I don't think they'll finish the year 1-15 in conference. They'll need to go on a mini run though in the second half to make the conference tournament.

The top of the conference is interesting, with Wheaton having gone into Bloomington and beating Illinois Wesleyan to get them first place as of right now. Carthage has cruised back into contention once again, with Augie playing maybe a little better than I'd expected having beat Wheaton last night, though a loss at home to North Central looks a little weird given the standings. Elmhurst should be in decent shape for the tournament as well, but I think that last spot could well be up for grabs.

Men's Basketball

North Central finds itself in very good position the first time through. The hiccup against North Park is pretty glaring a month-plus after the fact, but otherwise it's been business as usual even down two starters the rest of the way. The only other blemish was getting their butts kicked at Augie and Blaise Meredith going viral for all the wrong reasons. Otherwise, the Cardinals have taken care of business. They thoroughly dominated Wheaton at King Arena, staged a dramatic comeback at Illinois Wesleyan, and otherwise have taken care of business at home.

The big thing looking at the rest of the conference is that zero next to Augustana. There have been eight undefeated seasons in CCIW history, but it hasn't been done since Jim Borcherding went 16-0 at the Vikings' helm in 1972-73. Their second half is relatively tough, with trips to Bloomington and Naperville on the docket. Wheaton could threaten for the #2 seed, but would need to win in Naperville, something they haven't done in a while. Illinois Wesleyan has three home losses in conference which has brought them down a notch from their preseason ranking, while Elmhurst has a chance to sneak in and host a quarterfinal game. That sixth spot should have an interesting race, with Millikin currently in the lead, though any one of those other teams could potentially come in and steal it. Even North Park, who sits in last, has wins at home over Wheaton and at North Central. Anything can happen.