Top 25 talk

[zander]

Final:  #1 Wooster 89  Anderson 48

Wooster notches a nice road win by overwhelming Anderson on their home floor.  Wooster shot 62% from the floor and outrebounded the Ravens by 46 to 30.  Wooster scored 61 points in the 2nd half.

Anderson was ranked in the preseason Top 25 and this was their first home loss of the season.

Wooster is now 9-0 and next game is John Carroll at home on 12/28

[zander]

Anderson did not know what hit them.... Justin H has some serious range as his three's were 3 or 4 feet past the NBA line. Pretty nice weapon to have a 6'7" kid that can step that far out and shoot. If you get up on him he will take you to the hole also. Franks is a leader and a player too. Still trying to figure out if A.U is that bad? or?

[ScotsFan]

Anderson did not know what hit them.... Justin H has some serious range as his three's were 3 or 4 feet past the NBA line. Pretty nice weapon to have a 6'7" kid that can step that far out and shoot. If you get up on him he will take you to the hole also. Franks is a leader and a player too.

Hallowell is indeed a nice weapon to have... when he's shooting well.  As a freshmen he was one of the top 3-point shooters in the country in both 3-pointers made and 3-point percentage on his way to being named national newcomer of the year by d3hoops.  However, he fell prey to the dreaded sophomore slump last season and really struggled to find his range from deep all season which hurt the Scots.  But what his struggles from the outside did last season was force him to work on his inside game and I think this has helped him tremendously this season as he has become a much more well rounded player.  No longer can defenders just clamp down on Hallowell and defend him on the perimeter because, as you said zander, if you get up on him he will drive to the basket.  And his shooter's touch has seemed to return as well which doesn't hurt!   

Still trying to figure out if A.U is that bad? or?

Personally, I would just chalk that loss up as just one of those games.  Wooster was just in the zone last night and Anderson found themselves right in the middle of a hornets nest that they couldn't get out of.  Although I didn't see the game, I listened to the radio broadcast and you would be hard-pressed to find a better Wooster performance in a half than what they put on in the 2nd half last night.  Offensively and defensively, the Scots were just in one of those zones! 

Look at it this way.  Coach Moore pointed out in his post game interview that his team was motivated by the fact that this Anderson team (which basically had everyone back from last year's NCAA tournament team) beat St. Thomas in the tournament.  That same St. Thomas beat Wooster by 31 at Wooster in their 4th game of the season last year!    UST was in one of those zones vs. Wooster just like the Scots were last night vs. Anderson.   I do think Wooster is a better team than Anderson, but not 41 points better as we saw last night.  The key for Anderson will be how they respond to this beatdown.  Wooster dropped to 1-3 after their drubbing to UST last season but they were able to put that loss behind them and finish 24-4 over the remainder of the season advancing to the 3rd round of the NCAA tournament.

[kiltedbryan]

Anderson did not know what hit them.... Justin H has some serious range as his three's were 3 or 4 feet past the NBA line. Pretty nice weapon to have a 6'7" kid that can step that far out and shoot. If you get up on him he will take you to the hole also. Franks is a leader and a player too. Still trying to figure out if A.U is that bad? or?

I see that SF put up a similar post...

I doubt that AU is as bad as they looked yesterday, and I also doubt that Wooster is quite as good as they looked yesterday.  Very, very rarely is even a good team like Wooster going to shoot 77% for a full half, and probably just as rarely will Anderson only shoot 25% for a game.  Wooster clearly had its best half of the entire season while Anderson had its worst half of the season.  Have both of those in the exact same half and it helps explain the outlandish 61-26 second half box score.

SF- I immediately thought of the St. Thomas game from last year, too.  Like the Anderson-Wooster game, that one was expected to be close, with UST at #4 and Wooster at #9 in the preseason poll.  After that, it seemed like Wooster had a chance of going into free-fall, but instead, as you note, they had a great year, and, ironically enough, ended the season at #8 in the final poll after the trip to the Sweet Sixteen.

[WcsuAlum]

When will the Top 25 poll be released?

[Pat Coleman]

It's out now. This week of the year so many voters are either out at holiday tournaments or taking a couple days off that it's hard to round up 25 ballots.

Especially if the guy running the poll forgets to send out the voter info on Sunday night.

[Ralph Turner]

It's out now. This week of the year so many voters are either out at holiday tournaments or taking a couple days off that it's hard to round up 25 ballots.

Especially if the guy running the poll forgets to send out the voter info on Sunday night.

Gee what was that guy doing?

National championship weekend, the Gagliardi, the pre-game show, the tailgating, the game itself and the post-game show, for another sport?

   

[Hugenerd]

It's out now. This week of the year so many voters are either out at holiday tournaments or taking a couple days off that it's hard to round up 25 ballots.

Especially if the guy running the poll forgets to send out the voter info on Sunday night.

Gee what was that guy doing?

National championship weekend, the Gagliardi, the pre-game show, the tailgating, the game itself and the post-game show, for another sport?

   

The aforementioned guy has to get his priorities straight.

[David Collinge]

It's out now. This week of the year so many voters are either out at holiday tournaments or taking a couple days off that it's hard to round up 25 ballots.

Especially if the guy running the poll forgets to send out the voter info on Sunday night.

Gee what was that guy doing?

National championship weekend, the Gagliardi, the pre-game show, the tailgating, the game itself and the post-game show, for another sport?

   

...and The Birthday. 

[Pat Coleman]

Actually, I ended up doing that compilation on my birthday because I forgot to do it Sunday night.

[Denny McKinney]

How can Anderson be receiving votes, and RHIT and Transy not?

[Titan Q]

How can Anderson be receiving votes, and RHIT and Transy not?

One thing to remember, the Wooster pasting of Anderson (at Anderson) happened after the ballots for this week's Top 25 were in.  I did not vote for Anderson this week, but those who did will certainly drop them.  (The game got my attention enough to probably move my #1 from Virginia Wesleyan to Wooster...but again, my ballot was already in when the game was played.)

I did not vote for either Rose-Hulman or Transylvania this week.  They're both on my radar, but I want to see what Transy does with Carthage on 1/2, and what RHIT does vs Manchester 1/5.  I suspect other voters are just looking for a little bit more data too.

We're getting to that point of the season where 2009-10 influence on the poll is quickly dwindling...but it's still there a little.  Teams like Rose-Hulman and Transy (not really on the Top 25 radar coming in) are going to fight that a little bit.  Whether it is right or wrong, it's a reality.

I thought 9-0 Marietta would get in this week. 

[John Gleich]

Stevens Point leads St. Thomas 25-20 at halftime.

Come on over to the WIAC in game board and join the party!

[magicman]

#7 St Thomas takes down #4 Stevens Point 61-54.

[John Gleich]

Final from St. Paul, MN #7 St. Thomas beats #4 Stevens Point

meh, what he said

#7 St Thomas takes down #4 Stevens Point 61-54.