WIU - Week 2

[ST_Lawson]

Though maybe I'd start doing this each week too (kinda like I'd been doing with football). We'll see if there's any interest or if you guys find it valuable or whatever. Once the season gets rolling a little, I'll start posting RPI rankings. This early in the season, it doesn't really reflect the true rankings of teams....I mean, we're #2 behind Monmouth (NJ). Now, it does seem that we're significantly better than we were last year, as far as I've seen so far, but I don't think anyone would claim we're actually the #2 team in the country ahead of guys like Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina, etc. We'd still lose the large majority of games against teams of that caliber. Anyway, here goes...let me know if there's any other info you want to see down the road. I'll probably do a bit more stat analysis as well once teams have a few games under their belts.

Week 2 for WIU:
Western is now 2-0 after wins at #17 Wisconsin (69-67) and then at home against NAIA Hannibal-LaGrange (94-57).
We are currently ranked #24 in the College Insider Mid-Major poll.
And picked up 4 votes in the AP Top 25 poll for this week.
Kenpom.com (Ken Pomeroy's Rankings) have us listed at #201 out of the 351 Div. I teams: http://kenpom.com/

Up this week are:


Tuesday, November 17 - at home vs the UIC Flames. The Flames were picked to finish last in the Horizon League this year and went 10-24 (4-12 in conference) last season. So far this year they are 0-1 with a 78-75 home loss to San Francisco. This game will be at 7 PM at Western Hall and will be shown on ESPN3.
From the CBS Div. I preseason rankings:
285. Illnois-Chicago: Old coach: Howard Moore. New coach: Steve McClain. Former Indiana assistant and a guy who won more than 150 games at his previous head-coaching stop, Wyoming.
UIC is rated #291 by Ken Pomeroy's Rankings: http://kenpom.com/


Saturday, November 21 - at the Eastern Illinois Panthers. The Panthers were picked to finish third in the Ohio Valley - West Division and went 18-15 (9-7 in conference) last season and was invited to the CIT where they defeated Oakland (Horizon League) and then lost to Evansville (Missouri Valley). Eastern is currently 0-2 with an 88-49 loss at #15 Indiana and 73-56 loss at Ball State. This game will be at 7 PM at Eastern Illinois. This is "Part 1" of a home-and-home series with Eastern this season. They will head back our way and play at Western Hall on December 12th.
From the CBS Div. I preseason rankings:
238. Eastern Illinois: This could be a touch low for the Panthers. They return two potential all-league players in Trae Anderson and Cornell Johnston. If they can integrate the newcomers, could be an OVC sleeper in the tourney.
EIU is rated #288 by Ken Pomeroy's Rankings: http://kenpom.com/

[Western_101]

Eastern looked like a bunch of boys among Men out there at IU. To lazy to look it up but EIU's point guard must be a Hell of an athlete because he looks like he is at best 5' 6" tall.

Looking forward to UIC game. Very happy about the ESPN3 deal.

[Western_101]

One other random thought. I was at my In laws this past Sunday in Springfield, and we were watching the Illinois vs. NDSU (which were coincidentally playing in Springfield) on BTN to go. My Father in law goes into a tirade about how embarrassing it is that the Illini were losing to a DII team.

My wife darted me a look as to be quite, and politely explained that NDSU was D-I.... He relented, paused then came back with, yeah but the're DII in football! My wife again without words told me to be silent and explained to Daddy that NDSU is D-I in all sports just like Illinois State (where my Father in law graduated) she further went on to explain that in football, D-I has two "subdivisons" FBS football bowl subdivision (not series....but she was close) and football championship subdivions (again she said series) ....she further went on to explain the difference between 85 schollys and 63. My F in L seemed dumbfounded and speechless. I on the other hand couldn't be more proud.

BTW.....wtf division do you supposed he thinks ISU is ?

[wiu712]

EIU's point guard must be a Hell of an athlete because he looks like he is at best 5' 6" tall.

Cornell Johnston is 5' 7".
http://www.eiupanthers.com/roster.aspx? ... ath=mbball

Eastern Illinois lost to Ball State tonight 73-56.

The Leathernecks will have a total of 14 games this season, seven at home and seven on the road, that will be aired live nationally.

Of the seven road contests, four are slated to air on ESPN3, two on the Big Ten Network, and one on Fox Sports 2.

The seven home games that will be available for a national audience will air on ESPN3.

[ST_Lawson]

One other random thought. I was at my In laws this past Sunday in Springfield, and we were watching the Illinois vs. NDSU (which were coincidentally playing in Springfield) on BTN to go. My Father in law goes into a tirade about how embarrassing it is that the Illini were losing to a DII team.

My wife darted me a look as to be quite, and politely explained that NDSU was D-I.... He relented, paused then came back with, yeah but the're DII in football! My wife again without words told me to be silent and explained to Daddy that NDSU is D-I in all sports just like Illinois State (where my Father in law graduated) she further went on to explain that in football, D-I has two "subdivisons" FBS football bowl subdivision (not series....but she was close) and football championship subdivions (again she said series) ....she further went on to explain the difference between 85 schollys and 63. My F in L seemed dumbfounded and speechless. I on the other hand couldn't be more proud.

BTW.....wtf division do you supposed he thinks ISU is ?

I know it's probably not a good idea to antagonize the father-in-law, but you could always pull up a copy of the 2015 NCAA Tournament bracket and ask him to find North Dakota State (hint...15th seed, south region) and then try to find Illinois....oh right, Illinois didn't make the tournament in 2015...they were in the NIT. Then you could point out the 5th seed in the East bracket...Northern Iowa...who also plays football in the Div. I MVFC with Illinois State, North Dakota State, and Western.
And if that's not enough, hop back another year to the 2014 NCAA tournament bracket...where's NDSU...12th seed in the West (and ended up winning their first round game against 5th seed Oklahoma). Now look around that bracket for Illinois...oh shucks...they didn't make the tournament that year either...still in the NIT.
So, over the last two years, NDSU has had more NCAA tournament appearances (2) than Illinois (0) and more tournament wins (1) than Illinois (0).

[Western_101]

Scott you are diabolical, I love it

712 just cause they list #2 Cornel.....doesn't mean that is his height......Tom Cruise claims to be 5' 10"

I remember a pretty good little point guard out of Bradley name Daniel Ruffin... they listed him at 5' 10".....but I saw him doing a fund raiser at Sam's club and he and I were the exact same height...(5' 8")

[WIU0812]

If they can finish off this week at 4-0 I will believe they have made some significant strides and become a much better team, but till then the UW win was great, but could be a fluke. Here is to hoping we can start 4-0 and they have shaken off all the excitement and realize there is a long season ahead that will be grueling and need that same or better level of play. I don't see any team sleeping on us the rest of season so that means A game every day. The test begins this week with two DI teams that can give us a true measuring stick of the teams talent.

[ST_Lawson]

If they can finish off this week at 4-0 I will believe they have made some significant strides and become a much better team, but till then the UW win was great, but could be a fluke. Here is to hoping we can start 4-0 and they have shaken off all the excitement and realize there is a long season ahead that will be grueling and need that same or better level of play. I don't see any team sleeping on us the rest of season so that means A game every day. The test begins this week with two DI teams that can give us a true measuring stick of the teams talent.

Right...one game...could be a fluke...could be a trend. I think it's a little bit of both. We are better this year than people expected us to be, we played absolutely out of our minds against WI...hitting nearly everything, Wisconsin came in unprepared for a tough game. Lots of things played into it, and I think that if there was a rematch, we'd have a really hard time beating them again. Everyone is going to come into games against us ready to play. UIC and EIU are teams that are much closer to where we were expected to be. They're both winnable, but neither will be easy...especially playing at Eastern.

[letsgonecks]

There are a lot of factors that make-up a winning team; playmakers, leaders, role players, hard work, coaching, and depth to name a few. These are all things that this team looks to have and these things all lead to what really makes a team win......CONFIDENCE.

I hope they do, but will likely not shoot over 50% all year long and 54% from 3, but they have the look and feel of team believes they can win and make the shots they're given.

You could tell out the gate at Wisconsin that this team believed they could compete and they did. Ok, showed a bit down the stretch where that confidence was shook and it got iffy, but pulled together. They should now only grow in their confidence and as long as the wheels don't fall off or some extreme things happen, they should be very good.

Think back to all the teams we've seen come out on us over the years and lay the wood. The other team always seemed to make the right play at the end. These teams drop shot after shot and you'd look back at their other games or following games and they weren't anything close to what we got. They just had confidence that they could come in and beat us. Minus the CC and TP years, our program hasn't had much to confident in and has showed.

[WIU0812]

Yep, not knocking the win it was absolutely awesome, I am just looking ahead and seeing that every game could be a battle and they will have to prove they deserve to be where they are right now and fight hard to continue to be the talk of the town. I hope they are able to keep their confidence and yet be grown enough to know that they will need to put in the time and effort or some of the easier games could end up being the toughest. At any rate I will be watching tonight and hopefully we see more promising play to keep spirits high.