MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[seinfeld]

Wooster should probably ignore their last game against Allegheny. The Gators were without Briscoe, the conference's leading rebounder and shot blocker. When the two teams played the first time, Briscoe had 16 rebounds, 11 points, six assists, three blocks and three steals. While I don't think the game will be like the buzzer beater in December, it won't be the blowout that happened a month ago.

With the way Hiram is playing right now, they may be seen as the favorite against OWU. But Hiram has never reached the NCAC semifinals before, and have had a couple of flame outs in the first round.

[woosterbooster]

Yikes, I'd forgotten that Allegheny was without Briscoe in that game.  Guess I'm going to have to buy a ticket...

[WAlum]

Wooster should probably ignore their last game against Allegheny. The Gators were without Briscoe, the conference's leading rebounder and shot blocker. When the two teams played the first time, Briscoe had 16 rebounds, 11 points, six assists, three blocks and three steals. While I don't think the game will be like the buzzer beater in December, it won't be the blowout that happened a month ago.

With the way Hiram is playing right now, they may be seen as the favorite against OWU. But Hiram has never reached the NCAC semifinals before, and have had a couple of flame outs in the first round.

Briscoe or no briscoe, Wooster wins by 14 +.
Hiram has never won ONE league tournament game?  Shocking!

[David Collinge]

Hiram has never won ONE league tournament game?  Shocking!

Hiram and Oberlin were the co-doormats of the OAC and NCAC for many, many years.  Hiram's recent upsurge has been very surprising and draws great credit to Steve Fleming.  They are 0-7 in conference tournament play, losing three of those first-round games to the eventual champion.  (The Terriers failed to qualify for four tournaments.)  Only once have they hosted a first-round game, two seasons ago when Wabash defeated them.  This season's #5 seed is their second-highest since joining the conference in 1999.

[David Collinge]

Quarterfinals:

#5 Hiram at #4 OWU, 6pm -- video, audio, live stats -- Bishops swept the season series, 71-58 at Hiram (1/15) and 54-52 in Delaware (2/5)
#8 Allegheny at #1 Wooster, 7:30pm -- audio, live stats -- Scots swept the season series, 76-73 at Allegheny (12/8) and 88-56 at Wooster (1/15)
#7 Denison at #2 Wittenberg, 7:30pm -- video, audio, live stats -- Tigers swept the season series, 84-70 at Denison (12/8) and 82-54 at Wittenberg (1/26)
#6 Kenyon at #3 Wabash, 7:30pm -- video, audio, live stats -- Little Giants swept the season series, 62-60 at Kenyon (12/11) and 74-65 at Wabash (1/29)

[kiltedbryan]

Quarterfinals:

#8 Allegheny at #1 Wooster, 7:30pm -- audio, live stats -- Scots swept the season series, 76-73 at Allegheny (12/8) and 88-56 at Wooster (1/15)

It's ridiculous that Wooster isn't doing live video for this. Wooster is really falling behind the conference in doing video for its contests. Exceptionally frustrating for those of us who aren't actually in the Wooster area.

[David Collinge]

I'm hoping that they're working on this with Clear Picture and just haven't finalized the details yet.  I think everyone else does their video in-house, so it's easier to arrange.  If there is video, the link above will give you access to it. 

[kiltedbryan]

I'm hoping that they're working on this with Clear Picture and just haven't finalized the details yet.  I think everyone else does their video in-house, so it's easier to arrange.  If there is video, the link above will give you access to it. 

Ah, good point. I'd forgotten that Wooster does need to insure that Clear Picture will cover the game. Still, you'd think that once Wooster had clinched a top four conference finish they could've made arrangements for the Tuesday game.

I'll hold out hope for video to watch while I listen to Breckenridge's audio call...   

[ScotsFan]

Unfortunately, for those of you not in close proximity to Wooster, I don't recall CPI ever broadcasting first round games of the NCAC tourney.  Usually these games are yawners and don't seem to be worth the time and effort it takes for CPI to broadcast the game. 

The bigger question is, why is the COW still relying on CPI for the video of their webcasts?  How hard would it be to set up their own video and audio production of a video webcast?   

[wooscotsfan]

I'm hoping that they're working on this with Clear Picture and just haven't finalized the details yet.  I think everyone else does their video in-house, so it's easier to arrange.  If there is video, the link above will give you access to it. 

Ah, good point. I'd forgotten that Wooster does need to insure that Clear Picture will cover the game. Still, you'd think that once Wooster had clinched a top four conference finish they could've made arrangements for the Tuesday game.

I'll hold out hope for video to watch while I listen to Breckenridge's audio call...   

I will hold out hope as well for video since my family is catching some vacation time in sunny South Carolina this week.   If not, Mike Breckenridge does a great job and I actually listened to him on Saturday while watching the CPI video feed of the WOO/OWU game. 

[woosterbooster]

I know nothing about the technology, but I've been wondering something recently.  For about $150, or less, anyone can now buy a mini-video camera on Amazon.com.  Or many other places.  These things will shoot and save files in 720P, which is HD, and a far better picture than you usually see streaming over the net.  Is it a quantum leap from such a product to one that can not just record the HD video but instantly stream it into a laptop which could then put it out onto the web?  Of course you'd need some heavy bandwidth to stream HD, but still.  I'm not talking about the licensing that would be involved here, just the technology.  It seems that we're really close to being able to do this.

[David Collinge]

The bigger question is, why is the COW still relying on CPI for the video of their webcasts?  How hard would it be to set up their own video and audio production of a video webcast?   

That's an excellent question.  I suppose there's a "why buy the cow when the milk is free?" response available, but that's just one aspect of what seems to me to be a larger problem.  Wooster has fallen behind most of the rest of the conference in terms of the quality and breadth of their online athletics presence in my opinion, especially if you consider that most streaming audio as well as all streaming video is produced by local companies (WQKT/WKVX and CPI, respectively) and not the College.  I'd say Kenyon and Wittenberg are doing the best job in this area now, with Oberlin not far behind.  All three have excellent websites and have a broad offering of streaming audio and video for many sports.  OWU (despite having a woeful website), Denison, and Wabash form a middle tier, with Wooster perhaps seventh, ahead of Hiram.  Allegheny is a distant 9th.

[ScotsFan]

I see the NCAC is upping the price of admission to tournament games.  Quarterfinal matchups are $7 and it's going to cost you a $10 spot to get into the semis and finals! 

Is is just me or is that kind of steep?

[woosterbooster]

I see the NCAC is upping the price of admission to tournament games.  Quarterfinal matchups are $7 and it's going to cost you a $10 spot to get into the semis and finals! 

Is is just me or is that kind of steep?

I think it's kind of steep for DIII.  I also think it's the same price as last year.  And, if I remember correctly, the prices actually will drop for the NCAA tournament.  Were they $8?

[wally_wabash]

Anybody NOT going to a game tonight because of the $7?  If the answer is no, then no, it's not too steep.