By WJBC Staff
NAPERVILLE – The Illinois Wesleyan men’s and women’s basketball teams were picked to finish second in the 2016-17 College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin annual preseason coaches’ polls.
The Illinois Wesleyan men (13-13 overall and 7-7 in CCIW play last year) placed second in the coaches’ poll with 53 points and one first place vote, finishing behind only North Central with 63 points and seven first-place votes.
PODCAST: Listen to WJBC’s interview with IWU coach Ron Rose.
With 29 conference basketball titles in its history, Illinois Wesleyan claimed the final CCIW Tournament spot last season, edging North Park by one game in the standings. The Cardinals (19-8, 12-2 CCIW) got a second-place finish and an NCAA postseason appearance last season. North Central has won six conference titles in program history, most recently in 2012.
Two-time defending league champion Augustana (29-2, 13-1) was third with 52 points and one first place vote while North Park (14-11, 6-8) placed fourth with 46 points after finishing fifth last season.
Carroll (20-5, 15-3) was picked fifth with 31 points as the Pioneers make their return to the CCIW after a 24-year absence. Carroll finished second behind St. Norbert in the Midwest Conference last season. Elmhurst (22-7, 10-4) (26 points) was sixth, followed by Wheaton (5-20, 1-13) (25 points), Carthage (10-15, 4-10) (17 points) and Millikin (9-16, 3-11) (11 points).
Voting is done by the CCIW’s head men’s basketball coaches. Each coach votes for the eight other schools in the conference in order of predicted finish. Points are assigned in reverse order of voting (eight points for first, seven for second, etc.). Coaches do not vote for their own teams.
The IWU season begins Nov. 15 with a 7 p.m. home game against Dominican and hosts Webster in the first round of the IWU Tip-Off Tournament Nov. 18-19. Aurora and Loras are the other two teams in the tournament.
IWU women
The Titan women finished second to Wheaton, with whom they shared the regular season title last year.
Winners of seven previous conference championships for head coach Mia Smith, IWU received 58 points and two first-place votes while the Thunder (22-6, 11-3 CCIW) won the poll with 63 points and seven first-place votes.
PODCAST: Listen to WJBC’s interview with IWU coach Mia Smith.
Wheaton is coming off back-to-back CCIW regular season and tournament titles and has the second most titles of any conference team with eight, behind only Millikin with 11.
North Central (14-12, 8-6) placed third with 46 points and Carthage (9-16, 5-9) was fourth with 43 points. Elmhurst (13-13, 7-7) was fifth with 40 points, followed by North Park (16-9, 7-7) (27 points), Augustana (20 points) and Millikin (9-16, 2-12) (17 points).
Carroll (9-14, 8-10) was picked ninth with 10 points as the Pioneers return to the CCIW after a 24-year absence.
The Titans open their season on Saturday, Nov. 19, with a 3 p.m. game against Luther College in a tournament at Wisconsin-Stevens Point. IWU has its first home game on Nov. 22 against Wisconsin-Whitewater and opens CCIW play on Dec. 3 at North Central.
