December 14, 2022: A Top 25 duel in the Windy City
#13 Whitewater faces #21 Chicago tonight
I was on press row last night for Mary Hardin-Baylor men’s basketball’s huge 71-65 win over D-I Texas State. It was truly a special night for the program, and a great reminder that the gap between D-I and D-III is not as significant as people on the outside of D-III may assume it to be.
I say that partially because I did not have a chance to watch D3 women’s hoops live last night, and I’m still getting caught up on scores as I write this…so here goes….
Game of the Day: #13 UW-Whitewater @ #21 Chicago, 7 pm EST
Watch: https://athletics.uchicago.edu/sports/wbkb/live-video
This is a critical non-conference test for both teams, and one you will not want to miss. Whitewater actually saw its ranking improve this week, going from #14 to #13, thus making the Warhawks the nation’s highest ranked WIAC team. At 7-2, UWW is led by Kacie Carollo, the reigning WIAC Player of the Week, who is a sharpshooter from long-range. She was 5-of-6 on 3-pointers in the dominant win over a good Augustana team exactly a week ago.
Chicago comes into this one still undefeated, with its best wins coming at Wheaton and against Carroll at home. The Maroons lack a top-tier victory to add to their resume, but get that chance tonight. Plus, it will have been 11 days since they beat Wheaton on Dec. 3, leaving plenty of time for preparation. For the most part, Chicago tends to play a tight rotation of between 7-9 players, though that obviously varies upon the game. Grace Hynes is a fun player to watch, as she is incredibly dynamic, averaging 17.6 points per game.
Other notes/news…
I was very wrong on my prediction/analysis prior to last night’s 83-45 dominant win for UW-Stout at Northwestern (MN). I am starting to think Stout might be a legitimate contender in the WIAC this year, right up there with River Falls and La Crosse as dark horse contenders. Sydney Brennan had 15 points for Stout…all 15 coming on five made 3-pointers.
Sticking with the WIAC conversation, La Crosse continues to play well, picking up a 58-47 win over Carlton last night. The thing I really like about the Eagles is how balanced they are offensively. There are 5 scorers on the floor at all times it seems, which really spreads out the defense. 3 players had double figures in scoring for UWL last night.
Belhaven and Piedmont went down to the wire in Jackson, MS last night, with Piedmont pulling out an 88-87 win on a game-winning layup from Laken Stiles. Piedmont was really strong in the paint, with 44 points there, and shot 45.2%, a byproduct of those short-range scoring opportunities. Ashley Scott took charge for Piedmont, with 27 points. Piedmont now 5-3 overall.
The other game I’ll be following tonight fairly closely will be Albertus Magnus’ road duel with #11 Springfield. Albertus Magnus is 7-0, though they’ve played a relatively weak schedule and are ranked #136 by Massey Ratings. Still, I think we will see Springfield tested a bit, which will be yet another data point as us voters try to figure out the middle portion of our Top 25 ballots. Of all the sections of the ballot, that 11-17 range has been amongst the toughest to rank, at least for me. Springfield has looked sharp, and as I mentioned the other day, still has just one loss on the year, which came by 4 points to Amherst.
After watching UMHB MBB win last night, for fun I decided to plug in #1 Hope (D-III) vs Illinois-Chicago (#150 in Massey ratings for D1 WBB) and see what the projected result would be. It has the final score being 69-63 with Ill.-Chicago winning. But Hope would have a 36% win probability in matchup between the two. Go even lower, to #299 at Grambling State, and Hope has a -3-point margin. Go to #320 (Presybterian) and Hope wins by two. Of course, this is just a computer model. Hope probably would be every team in the 150-300 range, possibly lower than that even, if they played each other, say, five times. But it is cool to have some way a showing that D3s can play too…and win against D1 opponents. Division doesn’t matter as much as our society has made it out to be. Hopefully, more upsets like UMHB MBB beating Texas State will happen in the future, and continue to bring respect to D3 hoops.
Fairly short write up for you today, but the bottom line is that you should be tuning in this evening for the Top 25 showdown in Chicagoland. This might rival Hope-Trine as the best matchup of this week. We shall see. Enjoy the rest of your day and keep supporting D3 women’s hoops!