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.