Freeman Invited to CBI

Last month, Zach Freeman was identified as one of 96 players in NCAA II, III, and NAIA to be considered for inaugural Collegiate Basketball Invitational field...

http://www.mccarthysports.com/player_list.html

This week Zach was selected as one of the 60 invitees. Considering all of the small college talent across the country in the senior class, this is quite an honor. I'm sure he will do IWU, the CCIW, and Division III proud!

1st Team All-American nod

A big congrats to Zach Freeman for being named a 1st Team All-American by D3hoops.com...

http://www.d3hoops.com/tow/07/menallam07.htm

Illinois Wesleyan has now had a representative on 8 of the 10 D3hoops.com All-American teams:

2007 - Zach Freeman (1st)
2006 - Adam Dauksas (1st), Keelan Amelianovich (1st)
2005 - Adam Dauksas (1st), Keelan Amelianovich (2nd)
2004 - n/a
2003 - Luke Kasten (3rd)
2002 - n/a
2001 - Luke Kasten (HM)
2000 - Korey Coon (1st)
1999 - Korey Coon (2nd)
1998 - Brent Niebrugge (3rd)


IWU has quite a history of attracting and developing great players.

Familiar Four

This weekend four outstanding Division III programs will compete for the 2007 national championship in Salem, Virginia. Illinois Wesleyan has faced 3 of the teams in the last 12 months (Wash U, Amherst, and Virginia Wesleyan) and the other within the last 3 years (Wooster)...

http://www.iwu.edu/~iwunews/sports/mbb2007/iwumbb8.htm

http://www.iwu.edu/~iwunews/sports/mbb2006/ncaa6.htm

http://www.iwu.edu/~iwunews/sports/mbb2006/ncaa5.htm

http://www.iwu.edu/~iwunews/sports/mbb2004/Miwu28.htm


Current Wooster star Tom Port was a freshman starter on that 2003-04 Scots team that defeated the sophomore-dominated Titans in the 2004 Wooster sectional. Virginia Wesleyan has all of their key players back from the team that nipped IWU in the national semifinal last year and Amherst has several key contributors back from the team the Titans beat in the 3rd place game. And of course, we just saw the Wash U. Bears this December.

My pick: Wooster over Virginia Wesleyan.

My pick for 2010 Final Four: Illinois Wesleyan over Wittenberg

Recruiting, Part 3

It is officially recruiting crunch time. As high school seasons come to an end in the Class A and AA state tournaments, student-athletes typically turn their attention to selecting a college. While getting pursued heavily by schools their entire senior year, most choose to put the recruiting process to the side during the season. They talk to coaches, make campus visits, etc, but very rarely does a student-athlete make a firm decision in January or February.

As I posted a few weeks back, it seems like most of IWU's key recruits in recent years have commited from about March 30 to April 30. That's the same window in which I think Ron Rose and staff will start getting firm commitments from the young men they've been working so hard on. So here on March 6, you can see why I call it "crunch time."

Tonight is another evening where the entire staff will be on the road watching different games, speaking to the parents before the game, trying to catch to student-athlete after the game, etc.. It is amazing to me how tough a job recruiting is -- in terms of effort needed in the process, Division III is absolutely no different than Division I. In fact, some elements of Division III recruiting actually make it tougher...probably a topic for another blog entry.

Still a long way to go, but things are going to starting happening soon.

PS I'll have plenty of information on each student-athlete that commits to IWU as each becomes official.

CCIW - One and Done

Augustana lost 73-69 at home to Carroll last night in Round 1 of the Division III tournament, leaving the CCIW without a team in the second round for just the first time since 1991. It is just the third time overall in 32 years of the D3 tourney that the CCIW hasn't had a team in Round 2.

This was kind of a transition year in the CCIW and one that was hard to evaluate. Last year the league had four very legitimate "Final Four caliber" teams in regular season champion Augustana, conference tourney champ North Central, Elmhurst, and tourney 4-seed IWU, which came within a basket of playing for the national title. Four All-Americans graduated from the CCIW conference tournament teams -- IWU's Adam Dauksas and Keelan Amelianovich, Chris Martin from Elmhurst, and M.O.P. Rick Harrigan (Augie).

Early on, a couple things became apparent:

1) The 2006-07 CCIW probably did not have a single team as good as any of the top 4 last year, and
2) There was more parity in the league than anytime in recent memory. #8 Millikin won at #2 Elmhurst...#7 IWU played two barn-burners vs #1 Augustana...#6 North Park swept preseason favorite North Central...#5 Carthage and #4 Wheaton were ranked in the D3hoops.com poll most of the year...etc.

The simple fact is that while the CCIW had a couple teams good enough to make a deep tournament run this year, the league's lone tourney rep. Augustana just was not a powerhouse. The 2006-07 Vikings separated from the CCIW field by making big plays down the stretch in several games, but they just weren't a team that took the floor with so much more talent than the other team that even on a down night could win easily. Last year when IWU faced Carroll, the Titans were just simply so much better that they weren't going to lose. This year's Augie team won with great defense, hustle, big plays, etc, but they weren't by any stretch as talented as those 4 CCIW teams last year.

I still think the CCIW was the best conference in Division III in 2006-07 because of the parity and talent level 1-8....but the league just didn't have one powerhouse team. I feel strongly that Augustana and Elmhurst were both good enough to win 4 games and get to Salem with the parity out there this year, but unfortunately they were both susceptible to off nights too -- Elmhurst lost to #8 Millikin at home (a loss that probably kept them out of the NCAA field) and Augustana, of course, fell at home in Round 1 of the NCAA tournament.