MBB: Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference

[earlhamalum]

As a former Basketball and Baseball player at Earlham each year we went up against the Beavers... My heart and prayers goes out to the college and all affected!

[AUStudent]

wow 

[diehardfan]

Oh God, this so profoundly upsetting. 

My prayers are with the Bluffton college community today for the safety and recovery of those still alive, and the families and friends of those who were killed who are going through a lot of shock and anguish right now.... 

Life is so fragile...

[diehardfan]

There is a ton of information including pictures and first hand accounts on the Atlanta newspaper site:

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2007/03/02/0302buscrash.html

[diehardfan]

Air Tran is offering free flights to families...

http://www.ajc.com/business/content/metro/stories/2007/03/02/0302airtran.html

[fcnews]

Fontbonne wishes to offer our deepest sympathy to the entire Blufton Family. We lost a player on the floor and 22 years ago while at Missouri Baptist we lost two players driving to a game. Words will not help now. But will in a couple of weeks. God Bless All the Families. I will light a candle in our Chapel to burn for those in pain.

[AUStudent]

Man Transy got smoked

[WooMix]

I kinda think that Wooster let the handle off in the second half.  It could have been worse for Transy.  I'm sure those who watched the second half or the entire game for that matter will echo the same sentiments.

[wooscotsfan]

Report from Wooster where I watched Wooster beat Transy 92-66

This game was essentially over at the half as Wooster played very tough defense and held Transy to only 32% shooting in the first half while the Scots were on fire with 60%.  At the Half:  Woo 48  Transy 27

Wooster was led tonight by James Cooper with 21 points, Tom Port with 19 points (5 of 6 behind the arc), Brandon Johnson with 17 points and Tim Vandervaart with 9 points.

As a team, Wooster made 9 of 16 three pointers tonight (56%) and also won the rebound battle by a 35-25 count.

Transy was led by Joey Searle with 20 points, Joey Verax with 12 points and Nick Feagan with 11 points.  The Pioneers shot only 41% from the floor and only 7 of 22 from behind the arc but this was primarily due to Wooster's defense which was tough.

Congratulation to the Transylvania Pioneers on a nice season and to Seniors Nick Feagan, Joey Searle and Gary Mouser on fine college careers!

[AndOne]

I am a North Central/CCIW conference fan who normally posts in the CCIW room. We played Bluffton in basketball this season in our season opening tournament. I got to talk with a couple of the players and their families after the game---just before the basketball team got on the bus to head back to Ohio. They were a great group. What a tradegy the baseball team bus crash was/is for the entire BU family.

Now, unfortunately there is more shock and suffering to overcome as I ran across this sad news this morning:

Breaking news from CNN.com:

The Associated Press reports that an Ohio baseball player pulled from the wreckage of an Atlanta bus crash that killed four of his teammates died this morning, raising the crash death toll to seven, a hospital spokeswoman said.

The thoughts and prayers of the North Central community go out to the Bluffton team members, families, school, and community.

[RO_24]

Bluffton Basketball has been in Europe touring, and played 3  games, going 2-1 against various level teams in England and France.

They lost in London on the first night of the trip by 7, I'll take the blame on scheduling that game, we landed and they hadn't slept in 24 hours previous to the games beginning, they were dead..

Played against Tremblay, and Nationale 3 team in France (comparable to D3 basketball) and won by 6 against a bigger and more athletic team, just not basketball savy team.  Finished their schedule against Dreux on Saturday evening winning by 18 I believe, they looked very good in this game, looked as though everyone played together.  Everyone on the team played quite a bit, including guys who played on the JV team all last year. 

They, along with the rest of the cross-cultural crew will be in Nice and Monaco this week before returning to the states.  Just thought I would pass that on to anyone interested in reading.

[David Collinge]

Here's an update from Ohio (or rather, an update of Ohio from North Dakota).  Schedules are not complete as regards tournament pairings unless otherwise noted:

OAC:
Baldwin-Wallace:  men; women
Capital:  men; women
Heidelberg (not posted)
John Carroll (not posted)
Marietta:  men; women
Mount Union:  men; women
Muskingum (not posted)
Ohio Northern (not posted)
Otterbein (not posted)
Wilmington:  men; women

NCAC:
Allegheny:  men (complete); women
Denison (not posted)
Earlham (not posted)
Hiram (not posted)
Kenyon:  men (complete); women
Oberlin (not posted)
Ohio Wesleyan (not posted)
Wabash (not posted)
Wittenberg:  men (complete); women
Wooster:  men (not posted); women (complete)

HCAC:
Anderson: (I couldn't get to their %#*@^ website)
Bluffton:  men; women
Defiance:  men (not posted); women
Franklin:  men; women
Hanover:  men; women
Manchester (not posted)
Mt. St. Joseph:  men; women
Rose-Hulman:  men (complete); women (complete)
Transylvania:  men (complete); women (complete)

Other Ohio schools:
Case Western Reserve:  men; women
Lake Erie (not posted)

Yes, I know these are not all Ohio schools, but they are the three conferences with at least 3 Ohio schools.

[haterinthehouse]

Most rosters for the conference have been posted.  Any thoughts? Not sure about AU's roster yet. Dont know many of the Transy kids (KY).  Looks like Hanover added some good size and a quality guard

[Darryl Nester]

haterinthehouse:

Based on my look at team pages around the conference:

• Bluffton, Hanover, MSJ, and Transy have posted full rosters.
• Franklin has removed the names of last year's seniors, as well as a half-dozen non-returning underclassmen, but their roster is not up to date (none of the players have been advanced to the next year in school, and new freshmen have not been added to the list).
• Anderson, Defiance, Manchester, and RHIT are unchanged from last year.

(On the women's side, it appears that the women's rosters at FC, HC, and MSJ are not caught up with the men's side, while the AU women have an up-to-date roster, as do BU and TU.)

I don't pretend to have any advance information about any of the newcomers, and I'll avoid making any comments about my favorite team, but a few observations:

• MSJ's roster lists 16 freshmen.  Will they have another FOTY like Michael Romes in that bunch?
• Transy added 10 freshmen plus a sophomore transfer, but they have a lot to replace with the loss of Feagan and Searle.
• Hanover brought in size ... but will they stay?  Last year, Hanover's preseason roster listed two players at 6'4", two at 6'5", one at 6'6", and one at 6'9" ... but all were gone before the end of the season.  (In fact, some were gone before practice started.)
• I'm looking forward to seeing the rosters from AU and DC; both had outstanding freshmen last year (Fultz and Holliday at AU, Floyd and Sales at DC), and I wonder if they are back.  (AU, in particular, lost Nick Rogers after an injury-plagued first year two seasons ago.  Holliday also missed most of the conference season with an injury.)

[Darryl Nester]

News flash (well, it was news to me ... perhaps others already knew):  This year's conference tournament will include the top SIX teams instead of just the top four.  Instead of having a Tuesday night "play-in" followed by a Friday/Saturday "final four," there will be #3 vs. #6 and #4 vs. #5 games on Friday night, #1 vs. #4/5 and #2 vs. #3/6 Saturday, and the championship game Sunday afternoon.