2019 NCC Men's Basketball Recap

In the past I've gone with the old saying, but I think the quote from the old but great parody (and NSFW) Rahm Emanuel Twitter account from 2011 says it best: "Only things that f***ing suck never end."

I got to cross an item off my bucket list this past weekend and announce a set of NCAA Tournament games. It was really cool, even with NCAA rules mandating that I announce the game as a neutral party. I did get to introduce Loras and North Central to an instrumental/karaoke version of Team Four Star's arrangement of "Day of Fate" though, which was neat even though probably 99 percent of the crowd didn't know what the song was.

Unfortunately, that game saw North Central's season come to an end by a pretty narrow margin, and for the fourth straight year, North Central's season ends on the first weekend of NCAA Tournament play. But considering the circumstances around this year... I can live with it.

Among the conference's coaches, there wasn't a ton of optimism surrounding the Cardinals, who were picked to finish fourth in the league, though I and I'm sure the team had a lot more confidence. They took that into their opener at home, avenging a double overtime loss from last year to knock off Heidelberg in kind of an ugly game. They followed that up by retaining the Bill Warden/Tony LaScala Trophy with a win at Benedictine in a game that wasn't really close, then followed that up with a 20 point win over Alma. The following week included a long trip to finish off a home-and-home at Finlandia, a game which the Cardinals won convincingly, and they followed that up with a solid win over Millikin to open CCIW play. They followed that up by managing to avenge a massive blown lead to Carroll with a 14 point win, but the streak came to end when North Park came in and hit seemingly every shot to pull the improbable upset.

The Cardinals regrouped after that game, welcoming in Aurora and knocking them off, and followed that up with a fairly convincing win at Wheaton... but a win that came with a cost. Late in that game, Aiden Chang would go down for the rest of the campaign with a nasty leg injury that soured the whole evening. The team didn't let that get them down, following that up with a win up at Albion and taking down Illinois College in a game against previous top assistant Steve Schweer, but that win also came with a cost as Jack Bronec was lost for the year with a knee injury. North Central closed out the calendar year with a trip to Las Vegas for the D3Hoops.com Classic and put on a show in a rout of Husson... but followed that up with a narrow loss to a bad Ohio Northern team.

You'd be forgiven for going into the new calendar year thinking that the Cardinals were in trouble despite a 3-1 conference record to that point, given that two of their starters were gone and the team had no true big on the roster. A game at Augustana seemed to prove that point as the Vikings blew the doors off the visiting Cardinals. For a while, it seemed like things were going to snowball, especially when Elmhurst came in and took a 13 point halftime lead thanks to a halfcourt heave by Jake Rhode, but the Cardinals came out like a totally different team in the second half and came back to win. That game seemed to galvanize the troops, as North Central went down to Illinois Wesleyan and overcame an even more dire situation: down eight with two minutes to go, North Central found a way to come back and win in regulation and deal a devastating blow to the Titans. After a Saturday bye the Cardinals closed out the first half of conference play with a close win over Carthage.

At this point the Cardinals were sitting at 6-2 in the CCIW, good for second place and in solid position with a few good tiebreakers in hand, but the good things kept on coming. The Cardinals blew out Carroll in Waukesha to open the second half, but then needed some major heroics to walk out of the Griswold Center in Decatur with a win over Millikin. The team then avenged its earlier loss to North Park by going into the crackerbox and winning big. But the best prize came that following week. Postponed by a day due to extreme cold, Augustana came in on the last day of January... and the Cardinals handed the then-#1 team in the country just its second loss all year. That high came back down quickly though, as after another Saturday bye, Illinois Wesleyan came in and knocked off the Cardinals, and that Saturday's Senior Night was spoiled by Aston Francis doing Aston Francis things.

The damage was real, as the Cardinals went from third in the first set of Central Region rankings to fifth in the second set. But the Cardinals took advantage of the remainder of their schedule, albeit on the road, to win at Carthage and at Elmhurst, locking up the #2 seed in the CCIW and helping them jump to fourth in the Central in the third regional rankings. North Central then ensured they wouldn't be at the mercy of the selection committee, knocking off Wheaton in the semis and handed the Vikings an additional defeat to grab the automatic bid. That was enough to even give North Central hosting privileges for the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament. On a festive weekend and in front of a packed house, the Cardinals took their opener over newcomer Chatham before dropping a hard-fought game to Loras.

This team has battled injury after injury in recent years, and despite it all has made it to four straight NCAA Tournaments, including getting in twice via the automatic bid on the road. They still haven't made it out of the first weekend since that legendary Final Four run in 2013, but this year especially has to be considered a resounding success when you factor in preseason expectations and midseason adversity.

The Cardinals are going to lose a few pieces for next year. Jack Bronec, despite missing a majority of the year, was a good inside piece for defense, rebounding, and a minimal dose of scoring here and there; in his 11 games he averaged 4.8 points and 4.2 rebounds. A bigger loss is going to be Aiden Chang. He wasn't a huge offensive contributor (5.8 PPG), but his great defense on some of the elite guards in the CCIW will be missed. The third senior departing is guard Tommy Koth, who enjoyed probably his best season: starting in the final 15 games of the year, he put up 7.2 and 2.7 with 49/45/62 splits and had some monster games, including killing Illinois Wesleyan down in Bloomington.

The team will still return a significant chunk of its core for next year however, with fifth year senior Connor Raridon and senior Matt Cappelletti ready to lead the way, aided by Blaise Meredith. All three averaged double figures and were All-CCIW honorees, while Aaron Jones and Mike Pollack will continue to light it up from outside. The other big returnee will be Will Clausel, who played bigger than his size and served as a de facto forward in some instances. We'll have to see how the depth improves and whether or not Todd Raridon will be able to bring in a true big to give the Cardinals some size. But this team should be in good position to contend for the CCIW crown once again next year... and I'm looking forward to being there every step of the way.