MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[sac]

No Cabs I don't believe thats over the top

I also believe the Midwest Sectional is the same in most years.

[Ralph Turner]

David, I would lament the absence of South Region appearances in the Final Four, because the South Region schools always seem to travel to the Great Lakes Sectional for the Sweet 16.

(The 1999 H-SC team hosted the Sectionals that year on their way to the Final Four.)

http://www.d3hoops.com/archives/mncaa99.htm

[smedindy]

Seeing IWU at Chadwick, I thought they were beatable.

I also think Witt and Wooster better sack up when they come to Chadwick.

But of course, Wabash needs to bring it at OWU next week - of course there's a couple of games this week that Wabash needs to take care of.

[Mr. Ypsi]

sac,

I would certainly agree with you on SOME years, but since you're leaving out UWSP, UWEC, Amherst, Williams, HSC, RMC, William Patterson, Catholic, etc., I'm not sure I could agree on MOST years!

[ScotsFan]

No Cabs I don't believe thats over the top

I also believe the Midwest Sectional is the same in most years.

This is definately true.  The GL and MW are far and away the toughest sectionals to come out of year in and year out.  It seems that whomever survives out of the GL Sectional recently has run into the eventual national champs in the 1st round at Salem with the exception being last year.  Three years ago, Wooster survived to Salem, only to lose in OT to eventual champs Williams with National POY Brian Nelson basically playing on one leg.  Wooster went on to win the 3rd place game over H-SC.  The next year JCU survived the GL Sectional winning at Wooster to advance to Salem, only to lose in the semis to eventual champs UWSP.  They went on to defeat Amherst in the 3rd place game.  And last year Calvin survived winning on the road at Albion only to lose to Rochester in the semis at Salem.  They went on to trounce York in the 3rd place game.  My point is, by the time a GL representative makes it out of the GL Sectional, in most years, they are basically spent, both physically and emotionally.  It takes so much just to get to Salem out of the GL Region in most years, that once you get there, there just isn't much left. 

I'm not saying that UWSP wouldn't have won back to back titles if they had come through the GL Region.  But it certainly would have made it more difficult.  Just look at last year.  Calvin had to win on the road @ Wheaton and then they had to win @ Albion just to get to Salem.  Talk about a tough road.  Heck, all Albion had to do was host (ranked at the time) #5 Wooster whom they beat with ft's with no time left on the clock, and then host #15 JCU whom they beat on a prayer 3 pointer at the buzzer, before bowing out to #14 Calvin. 

I'm sure you could make this argument for the MW Sectional as well, but this year, moreso than in recent years, the GL Region seems exceptionally strong and deep.

[Pat Coleman]

I haven't seen ANYONE who said IWU was unbeatable (though I, for one, was HOPING they would go unbeaten).

Kind of thought I'd heard it on the air at some point.

[ScotsFan]

Since #2 and #3 also have a loss (as does presumably FORMER #4 Amherst), who knows?  To me (barring any further upsets) the top five is clearly IWU, Woo, Witt, Hope, and Albion, but I could make a case for ANY order of those five.

I would have to agree.  If Wooster can lose at home to the #17 team in the country and only swap places with Wittenberg, I could totally see IWU retaining the #1 ranking, although not with the stranglehold that they had held prior to their loss.  The top 5 is pretty clear cut, no matter how they are ranked as you said, barring any other upsets that is.  

Wooster doesn't have a gimme on Friday as they take on TCNJ.  They defeated Ramapo on the road last night in a key NJAC game  55-54 to take a slight edge in that conference race.  TCNJ has not lost an OOC game yet this season.  They have also not faced an OOC opponent as good as Wooster for that matter.  Should be a good one on Friday at W&J.  I would guess there will be a fairly good Wooster following down to WashPA to cheer on the Scots for the weekend tournament.   Hopefully the Scots can make good on my Wife's birthday instead of dropping 2 out of their last 3!!!

[witt4ever]

Remember the name Mark Caraway?

Well, he is back on Witt's roster, as of last night, and saw limited action in the game against Kenyon.



It will be interesting to see how much playing time Caraway gets since he has not been with the team all year. He replaces Matt McCurdy on the roster.

A starting lineup of Russ, Borchers, Brady, Howard and Caraway would probably be the most athletic lineup since the '93-'94 Final Four team. 

In case, Coach Taylor still reads this stuff.

[DenisonFan]

OWU 91
Denison 58

Well at least the Big Red is consistant.  Another 30 point loss.

Besides Hodgkinson nobody stepped up.  That will give you an "L" every time.

There is no consistancy.  Hern looked like he was sleep walking. 

Hodgkinson doesn't even play half the game.  I understand when you are down by 30 who cares.  But I really did not think this team was that bad.  I may be wrong.

Oh well.  Welcome to 2006

[wally_wabash]

Focus will be the key for Wabash this weekend.  Two games that the LGs should win...but with a team reliant upon its seniors and senior comps looming in the next day or two, you never know. 

As for the who's #1 thing...I think logically it has to be Witt.  I think Amherst would have received a lot of IWU's votes, but that won't happen now.  I'm not sure it makes a lot of sense to keep IWU at #1 for right now...they did lose at home to an unranked (albeit apparently under-ranked) opponent.  I'm not sure IWU had lapped the field here and gets the mulligan.  My guess as to who the top three will probably be next week is Witt, Wooster, IWU in what amounts to pretty much a dead heat. 

[ScotsFan]

A starting lineup of Russ, Borchers, Brady, Howard and Caraway would probably be the most athletic lineup since the '93-'94 Final Four team. 

Since when is Howard starting for Witt?  Did I miss something?  Last time I checked, Witt's starting lineup included Steffes and Bowen or Denbow. 

[CentralOH]

DenisonFan,
I didn't make it to OWU last night - were you in attendance?

It doesn't look like there was much defensive pressure from the Big Red, but I'm only going off the box score.  The offense might have a better chance if they were able to transition a little vs. always taking the ball out of the basket.

[MoneyBallSTL]

The new national poll should be interesting. I for one don't think IWU should retain the #1 spot. Despite losing to an undefeated team, for some reason North Central was unranked??? Should Witt get the #1, it would be a shame since Wooster beat them, therefore it's only logical to make Wooster #1, Witt #2 and IWU #3.  And as for any other unbeaten teams left in D3...they should no longer be unranked, I don't care how soft their schedule is, if you go 11-0 or better, you should be top 25. Look at Illinois and Ohio State in D1, they got to those points and made the top 25 now.

[wally_wabash]

It's not quite that easy, Moneyballs.  There are more D-III hoops teams than there are D-I hoops teams, so a D-III top 25 is a little more exclusive, relatively speaking. 

[David Collinge]

I think the pollsters have done a good job this season not succumbing the knee-jerk reactions to losses.  They're supposed to evaluate the teams each week and decided who they think the best teams are.  It's extremely unlikely that we'll have an unbeaten national champion, so losses are part of the game, even for the very top teams.

So the voters' task is, basically, to ask whether they think they were wrong about IWU.  Did NCC expose some weaknesses, or was it just a loss and these things happen?  If IWU ends up 23-1, they'll almost certainly be #1, so does it matter if the one loss was last week or last month? 

Some voters will decide that IWU's loss shows that they are not the best team.  Others will decide that they are the best, and the loss changes nothing.  No voter will drop them below #5, and maybe not even below #3.  I think on balance enough of these voters exist to keep IWU in the #1 spot.

Don't forget that there's two unbeaten (in D3) MIAA squads lurking just behind the NCAC powers.  Voters that had IWU #1 and decide to switch might find Hope or Albion mighty attractive, especially if they compare the recent tournament performances of NCAC and MIAA teams.  (Hope and Albion square off at Kresge next Wednesday, BTW.) 

As I said below, I'd probably vote for Wittenberg, who has some good quality wins, and whose only loss was on a last-second shot on the road against an archrival who was #2 at the time.  The IWU loss doesn't affect that, as I would have been voting for Witt all along.