Thanks for the love everyone.  Sorry I'm late with the Week 9/10 writeup:

Season 66, Weeks 9 and 10 - Overview
Despite Freedom winning four of the seven Week 8 games vs CCIW, they still had a big task against CUNY in Week 9.  CCIW went 5-2 against CUNY, so Freedom needed a similar level of success to keep pace in the Challenge.  In the end, Freedom won five of nine against CUNY; not as dominant as in some other years, but enough to keep Freedom with a chance of winning the Challenge heading into Week 10.  Strong performances for Freedom included Wilkes' solid 90-76 victory over York (NY), Carnegie Mellon's 67-56 win over Medgar Evers and then-#25 Delaware Valley's 90-75 win over Staten Island.  All three of those winners are currently ranked in the Top 25.  The CUNY highlights included John Jay's 75-64 win over FDU-Florham and Baruch's 109-76 dismantling of Lake Erie.

It is common for a couple of Challenge games to be pushed to Week 10 due to scheduling conflicts, and more often than not the Challenge victor is decided in the 'extra' week.  So it came to pass in Season 66 with a matchup between two historical Titans of their respective conferences, Frostburg St. and Millikin.  Frostburg has often been Freedom's top seeded team in past Challenges and has a twelve-season active NT streak with a Final Four appearance three seasons ago; Millikin has a ten-season active NT streak and made the NT Championship Game two seasons ago.  These are two programs that represent the success of their respective conferences; it was appropriate that the Challenge go down to such a battle.  

And a battle it was.  Millikin led for much of the first half, up by as much as eight late in the first half, and went into the break with a 35-30 lead.  Frostburg chipped away at the lead, though, and finally carved out a 48-43 lead with 11:47 left on back-to-back baskets by Brian Aponte (a 3-pointer to break a tie) and David Dahlke.  Millikin pulled the score back to 51-51 with 8:45 left on a three-point play by David Heinen, and over the next few minutes the teams traded points, with Millikin responding to every basket by Frostburg.   The game's most important sequence came with three minutes left and Frostburg St. up 62-60.  Millikin forced a turnover and had a chance to tie the game, but Michael Tellez missed a layup.  Frostburg rebounded and Aponte hit another big three-pointer with 2:08 left to give Frostburg some breathing room, 65-60.  After two free throws from Millikin cut the deficit to three, Aponte came through for Frostburg again with an assist to Randall Schwarts to extend the lead back to five with 1:29 left.  From there, the teams traded fouls; neither team was particularly effective at making their free throws, but Frostburg did enough to keep Millikin at bay and win the game 70-64.  Freedom are once again the Challenge victors -- congrats to them.

Other notable games from Week 9:
NYC Tech 60, PSU-Behrend 59 -- a tough defensive battle with a dramatic ending.  Jordan Gomes for PSU-Behrend made a basket with 4:01 left to make the score NYC Tech 58, PSU-Behrend 75.  Amazingly, the score stayed 58-57 for the next 3:51.  With ten seconds left, PSU's Richard Butcher was fouled on a layup attempt (set up by an offensive board from Gomes), and hit both foul shots to give PSU a 1 point lead.  NYC Tech called timeout to set up a final shot, and got what they wanted when Leroy Oliver hit a shot from the left wing with five seconds left.  But did they leave too much time on the clock?  Now it was PSU-Behrend's turn to draw up a final play, and they were able to set up a lay-in attempt by Timothy Edwards.  Unfortunately for them Edwards' shot rimmed out at the buzzer and NYC Tech prevailed.

Drew 75, Hunter 67 (2OT) -- Robert Focht for Hunter hit a game-tying shot with six seconds left to send the game into OT (at 50-50).  In the first OT Drew opened up a five point lead on some deadly outside shooting by Bruce Soper, but Hunter's own marksman Sammy Mehaffy eventually pulled Hunter level again.  Drew had three shots to win at the end of the first OT but missed them all; however, in the second OT Drew held a slim lead throughout, finally sealing the game by forcing a Hunter turnover with 27 seconds and up four points.  Drew hit their foul shots in the final seconds to extend the final margin of victory.

What's next: celebrations for Freedom, back to the drawing board for CCIW and CUNY although they can be encouraged by narrowing the gap to Freedom.  Each conference looks to have a few NT teams in the works, no doubt there will be some inter-conference matchups in the tournament that we all care about the most...

Great job once again coordinating all of this, dabighonu. And oh yeah... go Freedom!

Here is the list of games to schedule for the CCIW-CUNY-Freedom Challenge for Season 68.  If you are interested in participating, go ahead and schedule these as soon as you can (non-conference scheduling opens up on Monday).  I will also sitemail out these schedules in a day or two as an extra reminder.

Week 7

#1 Delaware Valley at John Jay

#2 Brooklyn at Carnegie Mellon

#3 Frostburg St. at City College of NY

#4 York (NY) at Wilkes

#5 Drew at Baruch

#6 Hunter at Penn St, Behrend

#7 Fairleigh Dickinson, Florham at Staten Island

#8 Medgar Evers at Scranton

#9 King's at New York City Tech.

#10 Lehman College at Lycoming

#11 DeSales at Polytechnic

#12 Bard at Lake Erie

Week 8

#1 John Jay at Martin Luther

#2 N. Park at Brooklyn

#3 City College of NY at Carthage

#4 Millikin at York (NY)

#5 Baruch at Augustana

#6 Northland at Hunter

#7 Staten Island at Milwaukee Engineering

#8 Elmhurst at Medgar Evers

#9 New York City Tech. at N. Central

#10 Illinois Wesleyan at Lehman College

#11 Polytechnic at Wisconsin Lutheran

#12 Wheaton at Bard

Week 9

#1 Martin Luther at Delaware Valley

#2 Carnegie Mellon at N. Park

#3 Carthage at Frostburg St.

#4 Wilkes at Millikin

#5 Augustana at Drew

#6 Penn St, Behrend at Northland

#7 Milwaukee Engineering at Fairleigh Dickinson, Florham

#8 Scranton at Elmhurst

#9 N. Central at King's

#10 Lycoming at Illinois Wesleyan

#11 Wisconsin Lutheran at DeSales

#12 Lake Erie at Wheaton

CCidUB reigns supreme

Sorry for the late update, everyone ... life is very hectic for me right now.  Here is where things stand heading into Week 10.  There are two games left in the Challenge, both involving Freedom teams -- Lake Erie at Wisconsin Lutheran and Carnegie Mellon at Hunter.  Freedom needs to win one of the two games to retain their hold on the Challenge trophy,  If WI Luth and Hunter both win, then the crown will pass to CCIW.  (Note after end of season -- WI Lutheran beat Lake Erie and Carnegie Mellon beat Hunter.  I didn't record the scores, but the win for Carnegie Mellon was enough to put Freedom past CCIW for the Challenge win.)

Final Standings
Freedom 12-7  .632
CCIW    13-9  .591
CUNY     5-14 .263

Freedom vs. CCIW

#1 Penn St, Behrend 48-59 Martin Luther

#2 Millikin 61-69 Frostburg St.

#3 Wilkes 59-73 N. Park

#4 Augustana 52-64 King's

#5 Scranton 64-69 Milwaukee Engineering

#6 Elmhurst 72-70 Carnegie Mellon (OT)

#7 Drew 79-60 Carthage

#8 Illinois Wesleyan 54-81 Fairleigh Dickinson, Florham

#9 Delaware Valley 66-56 Northland

#10 Wheaton 68-78 DeSales

#11 Lake Erie lost to Wisconsin Lutheran (Week 10)

Freedom vs. CUNY

#1 Brooklyn 48-63 Penn St, Behrend

#2 Frostburg St. 49-61 John Jay

#3 York (NY) 60-69 Wilkes

#6 Carnegie Mellon defeated Hunter (Week 10)

#7 Medgar Evers 43-72 Drew

#8 Fairleigh Dickinson, Florham 91-67 City College of NY

#9 New York City Tech. 47-73 Delaware Valley

#10 DeSales 90-95 Staten Island

CCIW vs. CUNY

#1 Martin Luther 67-48 Brooklyn

#2 John Jay 63-55 Millikin

#3 N. Park 90-57 York (NY)

#5 Milwaukee Engineering 64-52 Baruch

#6 Hunter 66-80 Elmhurst

#7 Carthage 78-80 Medgar Evers (OT)

#8 City College of NY 53-74 Illinois Wesleyan

#9 Northland 63-62 New York City Tech.

#10 Staten Island 94-84 Wheaton

#11 Wisconsin Lutheran 75-47 Polytechnic

#12 Bard 55-88 N. Central

Great job - thanks dabighonu!

I never followed up with a final post last season, but Carengie Mellon did beat Hunter in Week 10 to give Freedom another Challenge victory.  Congrats to Freedom and thank you all for participating.

I will get the schedules out for next season later tonight.

Here is the list of Challenge games to get on the schedule for Season 69.  If you are interested in participating, go ahead and get these on your non-conference schedules as soon as you can once scheduling opens up Tuesday night:

WEEK 7

#1 John Jay at Martin Luther

#2 N. Park at City College of NY

#3 Hunter at N. Central

#4 Millikin at Staten Island

#5 Brooklyn at Milwaukee Engineering

#6 Elmhurst at Medgar Evers

#7 Baruch at Carthage

#8 Illinois Wesleyan at New York City Tech.

#9 York (NY) at Augustana

#10 Northland at Lehman College

#11 Polytechnic at Wisconsin Lutheran

#12 Wheaton at Bard

WEEK 8

#1 Martin Luther at Fairleigh Dickinson, Florham

#2 Frostburg St. at N. Park

#3 N. Central at Delaware Valley

#4 Drew at Millikin

#5 Milwaukee Engineering at Penn St, Behrend

#6 Lycoming at Elmhurst

#7 Carthage at Wilkes

#8 Carnegie Mellon at Illinois Wesleyan

#9 Augustana at Scranton

#10 DeSales at Northland

#11 Wisconsin Lutheran at King's

#12 Lake Erie at Wheaton

WEEK 9

#1 Fairleigh Dickinson, Florham at John Jay

#2 City College of NY at Frostburg St.

#3 Delaware Valley at Hunter

#4 Staten Island at Drew

#5 Penn St, Behrend at Brooklyn

#6 Medgar Evers at Lycoming

#7 Wilkes at Baruch

#8 New York City Tech. at Carnegie Mellon

#9 Scranton at York (NY)

#10 Lehman College at DeSales

#11 King's at Polytechnic

#12 Bard at Lake Erie

Can you say cciw finally wins the challenge? Haha I can.. im already calling a victory

CCIW-CUNY-Freedom Challenge Results, Season 68

Standings (through Week 8)

Freedom  6-2     0.750
CCIW     4-3     0.571
CUNY     4-9     0.308     

Results Season 68

Week 7 - CUNY vs Freedom

#1 Delaware Valley 66-78 John Jay

#2 Brooklyn 56-90 Carnegie Mellon

#3 Frostburg St. 71-52 City College of NY

#5 Drew 75-58 Baruch

#6 Hunter 55-63 Penn St, Behrend (week 8)

#7 Fairleigh Dickinson, Florham 95-68 Staten Island

#11 DeSales 73-65 Polytechnic

Week 8 - CCIW vs CUNY

#1 John Jay 71-61 Martin Luther

#2 N. Park 61-52 Brooklyn

#3 City College of NY 71-60 Carthage

#4 Millikin 67-91 York (NY)

#5 Baruch 43-58 Augustana (week 5)

#8 Elmhurst 81-70 Medgar Evers

Week 9 - CCIW vs Freedom

#1 Martin Luther at Delaware Valley

#2 Carnegie Mellon at N. Park

#3 Carthage at Frostburg St.

#5 Augustana at Drew

#7 Milwaukee Engineering at Fairleigh Dickinson, Florham

#8 Scranton at Elmhurst

#10 Lycoming 70-96 Illinois Wesleyan (week 6)

#12 Lake Erie at Wheaton

The CCIW-CUNY-Freedom Challenge starts in earnest tonight with six games matching up the CUNY and Freedom conferences.  However, a pair of games have already been played and both led to CCIW victories.  Apparently not content with publicly guaranteeing a CCIW victory, Coach halfakracka from Augustana led off the proceedings a couple of nights early with a solid 58-43 victory over Baruch.  The Vikings' starting backcourt of Cottone and Jackson played an average of 33 minutes and contributed over half of the team's scoring.  Then, last night Illinois Wesleyan pounded Lycoming 96-70.  The Titans had an incredibly balanced offense; no one scored more than sixteen points, but eight guys in the ten-man rotation scored at least eight points.

For Night 7 of the season, Vegas has Freedom the favorite in four of the six games versus CUNY; the exceptions are John Jay being a slight favorite over Delaware Valley and Brooklyn at Carnegie Mellon being a 'pick em' game.

Night 7 update - Freedom beat CUNY in five of the six games to have a strong start to the Challenge.  Carnegie Mellon, Frostburg State, Drew and FDU-Florham all won their games by sizable margins.  DeSales pulled away from Polytechnic late to win 73-65.  The game was actually closer than the score indicated: Poly was down by 4 with the ball with less than a minute left and had two 3-point attempts to cut the margin to one.  Neither shot dropped in the hole, though, and DeSales hit the foul shots to close the game out.  John Jay came through for CUNY, pulling away from Delaware Valley midway through the second half to win 78-66.

Night 8 features five matchups between CUNY and CCIW.  Vegas favors CCIW in two, CUNY in two, with Elmhurst at Medgar Evers being too close to call.  No team in the five games is favored by more than five points.  The game of the night will most likely be #25 John Jay at unranked - but defending national champion - Martin Luther.  There is also one CUNY-Freedom game that didn't make the Night 7 slate (Hunter at PSU-Behrend, Hunter is a one point favorite).   

On Night 8 CUNY edged their series against CCIW, winning three of the five matchups.  John Jay, CCNY and York all won comfortably against CCIW teams that qualified for the NT last season.  North Park and Elmhurst recorded wins for CCIW.  None of the five games were particularly close (sadly I have no stories of last-minute heroics tonight).

In the other game from the night, PSU-Behrend beat Hunter to extend Freedom's advantage in the Challenge.  Freedom is at 6-2, CCIW still has a winning record at 4-3.  Tonight brings seven games between Freedom and CCIW.  Freedom is favored in five of the games but a few of those have very close point spreads.  CCIW needs to win at least five of the seven games to clinch the Challenge title, otherwise the trophy will stay in Freedom's display case for another season.

Great job keeping up with this dabighonu

dabighonu,

I second invader92's comment - your summaries make the challenge more enjoyable.