From "Bubble-Out" to Dancing at Merner Fieldhouse

This has been a crazy year.

If you go back to December, with the Cardinals losing both Aiden Chang and Jack Bronec for the season, you would be forgiven to have doubts about the Cardinals' postseason hopes, even with an enlarged CCIW Tournament field. But the Cardinals clearly didn't romping through much of CCIW play, including a big win over Augustana at home. But after a couple tough home losses the week after that big win, the Cardinals were suddenly proclaimed "bubble-out" by some of the experts, something backed up by the numbers.

But then something amazing happened. Illinois Wesleyan entered the regional rankings to give North Central a couple more regionally ranked opponent results, and they took care of business on the road to lock up the #2 seed in the CCIW Tournament, earn a bye, and jump a spot in the Central Region. Even then, North Central was still on the bubble and was projected to need to make the conference title game. They knocked off Wheaton in the semis, forcing a rubber game with Augie. And to quote a wise man, "We're in, so we might as well win the whole thing."

Meet your CCIW CHAMPS @NCCMBB!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/SydPgWV5m4

— Haley Chang (@h_chang22) February 24, 2019

Photo by Steve Woltmann

Saturday was North Central's fifth CCIW Tournament championship, putting them just one behind Augustana for the all time lead. In the 14 years the tournament has been held, the host team has won it nine times. Of the remaining five tournaments won by someone other than the top seed, North Central has won four of them, including Saturday in Rock Island. This gives the Cardinals their fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament berth, sixth in eight years, and eleventh in program history.

It was nice to not have drama like in past years where I'm anxiously awaiting with bated breath to see if North Central received an at large bid. That drama also wasn't reserved for Augustana, who was probably the first team taken in Pool C as they earn yet another NCAA Tournament berth and try to make it five straight years in the Elite Eight and keep up their odd year dominance of making the title game. Wheaton, however, had plenty of it as they were towards the end of the bubble and needed some mercy from the entire committee except for the Central Region rep... as that was Thunder coach Mike Schauer and he had to recuse himself for that part of the conversation. Augie getting in made it 12 years in a row that the CCIW has gotten a team in via Pool C, and with Wheaton getting the nod, it's the seventh time in eight years the conference has gotten three teams into the Tournament.

I'd be lying, though, if I said there wasn't drama on this Selection Monday for me. And I get rewarded with an item from my bucket list.


First and Second Round Site

Gregory Arena
North Central College | Naperville, Illinois

You have no idea how giddy this makes me. Last week I heard that we were putting in a bid to host, but that the odds weren't great. But with UW-Oshkosh's women in a position to host and odd years seeing first weekend hosting privileges for women getting priority, the Oshkosh men will open the tournament on the road and that helped open the door for North Central to scoop up a bid. There were fairly early rumblings that North Central was a possible host going into this past weekend because of that Oshkosh factor, but they ended up getting the hosting nod over one of the very teams in their pod this weekend.

This section is normally where I'd do a writeup on the venue, but it's North Central's historic "airplane hangar" as it's sometimes referred to. The Cardinals went 9-3 at home this past season, with losses to North Park, Illinois Wesleyan, and Wheaton, but picking up the aforementioned win over Augustana. This has been a pretty good building for the Cardinals in recent years, and hopefully it will be again this weekend. The Cardinals previously hosted in 2013, winning both of the NCAA Tournament games played here.

Now that we've set the scene, let's meet the teams coming in for a visit.

Chatham University Cougars
19-9 (9-7), 4th in PAC; Won PAC Tournament

The Cougars make the NCAA Tournament for the first time (and actually apparently make their first ever team appearance in a national tournament in any sport), with the national committee showing that North Central was a good host choice because of the flexibility. The Cougars just barely fit inside the 500 mile limit (any farther and the NCAA would have had to put them on a plane). Chatham struggled a bit in PAC play, opening 2-2, but won four of their last five regular season games to get a home game to open their conference tournament, and followed that up with back to back road wins to get the AQ. They're led by a pair of senior guards in Isaiah Brown (16.3 PPG, 3.9 RPG; 44/40/69) and Will Sandherr (14.3, 3.9, 41/32/75), but also boast a solid inside presence in 6'8" forward Marc Wells (8.0, 7.2; 57/NA/60). Anthony Bomar (9.8, 6.1; 42/36/71) is a solid swingman. I'll be interested to see how much they decide to try to feed Wells, but also how they defend a North Central team without a true big.

Albion College Britons
19-8 (10-4), 2nd in MIAA; Won MIAA Tournament

The Britons are no strangers to basketball in Naperville, as they've played a home and home with North Central for a couple years now. A year after having been pretty bad, they followed it up with a solid 2018-19 campaign, losing twice to regular season champion Trine and on the road at both Calvin and Hope, but won a pair of tight affairs down in Angola, Indiana, including knocking off Trine for the MIAA championship. The big name to keep an eye out for is Caden Ebeling (13.8, 8.2; 60/NA/78), but they're led in scoring by Jamezell Davis, Jr (14.0, 3.6, 3.4 APG; 44/38/76). They have great secondary pieces too in ArShawn Parker (9.7 PPG,;44/35/76), Jaylin Fordham (9.4, 4.9, 2.3; 46/42/74), and Quinton Armstrong (9.1, 5.1; 58/NA/52). They're not going to be an easy out, even against their first round opponent.

Loras College Duhawks
21-6 (12-4), 2nd in ARC; lost in ARC Championship Game

Loras was one of the other teams in discussion to host a pod in the Midwest, ultimately going on the road (probably due in part to North Central being... Central) and getting a tough draw. Loras opened the year winning its first four games, including a one point home victory over Augustana. They ran into some trouble midway through the season, but rounded back into form as the year went on, even knocking off defending national champion Nebraska Wesleyan. In the conference tournament, they knocked off Dubuque after the Spartans beat them twice in the regular season before dropping the title game to Nebraska Wesleyan. The Duhawks were one of the highest scoring teams in the country (91.7 PPG, including eight games reaching the century mark), though they also gave up a ton of points (84.2 PPG). Loras is loaded with scoring, as all five of their starters average double figures, but the two guys to watch are Ryan DiCanio (18.7, 5.7, 4.4; 49/38/80) and Josh Ruggles (18.2, 4.3, 3.5; 48/40/92). That doesn't take away from Demond George (12.2, 3.1, 3.2; 43/35/86), Rowan McGowen (11.6, 3.4; 49/44/88) or Jordan Boyd (10.3, 4.8; 56/35/57). They only go about eight deep, but given how balanced that top five is, anyone can go off on any given night, making this a very dangerous team.

Photo by Steve Woltmann

Start times have yet to be determined as of this posting. In prior years the requirement was for the first game to tip off between 5 and 6pm local time, but apparently there are rumors that the NCAA may spread games out a little bit more. We'll have to see if this happens with the North Central pod or not.

Either way, this is going to be an exciting weekend in Naperville. If you're in the area... come down and watch some Tournament basketball!