MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[earlhamalum]

Also notice.. Earlham 0-4 not helping the NCAC at all..

SHHhhhhhh

[pennstghs]

guys i didn't mean that witt has no challenges ahead as i also stated that we have three tough wednesday nights ahead of us at home earlier if you would have read (earlham, wabash, ohio wesleyan).  i have gone to games for years and by far know teams give their best shots against witt.

petewitt54 i didnt mean to disrespect you at all-we t hink along the same lines i think

also, didn't i also say jsut because i dont post something to a subject i dont have enough information about doesn't mean im not on here reading about it. come on guys show me some love

david collinge-i am a diehard penn state fan and have had to put up with crap for too long so this year was awesome to finally have something to talk about-especially after we beat ohio state with all of the "diehard" ohio state fans around here-we can share stories.

[sac]

so this year was awesome to finally have something to talk about-

0-7 vs the team up North as these Ohioans like to say.  8)

[billy_pilgrim]

Thing #4 I like from Wittenberg:

i am a diehard penn state fan

[billy_pilgrim]

0-7 vs the team up North as these Ohioans like to say.

3 of those games are still under review

[Mr. Ypsi]

0-7 vs the team up North as these Ohioans like to say.

3 of those games are still under review

I SURE as hell hope they are not under review by Alamo Bowl officials!!

[David Collinge]

david collinge-i am a diehard penn state fan and have had to put up with crap for too long so this year was awesome to finally have something to talk about-especially after we beat ohio state with all of the "diehard" ohio state fans around here-we can share stories.

I'll defend my conference, even those schools deep down actually I dislike (I'll leave you to guess at which those are  ), because I love my conference.  I love the Big Ten (that's Big TEN), too, but I draw the line at Penn State.  Ick.  I have to go wash my hands after typing those foul words.   

[earlhamalum]

or better yet Big TEN (11) officiating crews... which is worse?

[billy_pilgrim]

I'll defend my conference, even those schools deep down actually I dislike (I'll leave you to guess at which those are  ), because I love my conference.  I love the Big Ten (that's Big TEN), too, but I draw the line at Penn State.  Ick.  I have to go wash my hands after typing those foul words.   

Oh.......that hurts. Well, I'm going to take my 30 undergraduate credits from PSU and my Big Ten Champion T-shirt (not co-champion, only an Ohio State fan could think up that crazy co-championship idea) and head to bed.

(Mumbles incoherently about boosters at Michigan and Ohio State)

[Pat Coleman]

Wittenberg fans!

D3hoops.com needs you. In danger of being the quietest No. 1 team since Amherst in 2004, Wittenberg basketball (and football, shoot) needs more representation on our message board.

Please register for the board via the link at the top of the page, if you have not done so already, and join in the conversation. Your team needs your posting support.

(ducks)

[Mr. Ypsi]

Now, Pat,

They're only renting the space for a week anyway - the winner of the Albion-Hope game is next week's #1 (I've already promised that on several boards, so I sure hope you guys won't let me down)! *

*assumes no other upsets!

[Gregory Sager]

CCIW Chat had the same problems, with the twist that the school dominating the postings was also the one who was most reviled by the others (IWU in both cases).  

I don't go back far enough to know if it was a pre-existing problem, but I suspect it arose from the 'out-of-the-blue' disastrous season of 2001-02 (Scott Trost's first season after Dennie Bridges 'retired').  After 3 final fours in six years, we went 12-13 overall, 6-8 in conference - the first losing season in either category in essentially forever.  When we returned to championship status the next year, there were some of us who were overly defensive about being the 'kings' - I think a couple of students were worse than me in that regard, but they had the excuse of youth.  I long-since apologized to the board for 'rubbing-their-noses-in-it', but have NO excuse.

This year, both sides have greatly changed attitudes.  IWU IS a nationally-dominant team - we're now secure in it and the rest of the conference is proud of it (without ceding a thing - CardinalPride predicted nearly two months ago that NCC would beat us AT Shirk, and was widely mocked even by his fellow Cardinal fans, but, dang, they done do'd it!).  With the sole exception of Millikin (from which we still get occasional posts), we now have good representation from EVERYONE.

Mutual respect is the key - be proud of your school, but be respectful when they are up, and be proud of your conference when YOU are down.

I don't agree with your synopsis at all, Chuck.

1) Illinois Wesleyan has never been "dominating the postings" on CCIW Chat. The Titans have gotten the most pixels lately, but that's a function of their success rather than their support; plenty of fans of other schools chime in with their two bits about them. It's a tendency that is not exclusive to the greenies; when Carthage was all that and a bag of chips back during the Wiertel/McDaniel/Garnes days, they were the ones who were the prime topic of conversation on CCIW Chat. It's simply natural for the discussion in a room to focus more upon the best team at the time than upon any other team. (This room is anomalous in that regard, what with Woo fans being so voluble and Witt fans being so taciturn.)

The Titans do have more supporters among the room's regulars, numerically speaking, but they're not even close to being a majority ... and they're hardly a dominant cadre.

2) Most of the regulars on CCIW Chat are long-time fans rather than students or very recent alumni. Believe me, the alliances, animosities, and affections of most of us who appear in that room on a daily or semi-weekly basis were established long before Scott Trost arrived in Bloomington to take the reins. Wesleyan's 2001-02 season and subsequent success really changed nothing in that regard.

3) I think you're overstating the case of what motivates us, Chuck. Your alma mater's program is the most disliked in the conference for a lot of people, but "reviled" might be a little too strong a word. The essential point, and I think that this is what is really healthy about CCIW Chat, is that almost all of us are motivated primarily by our love for our teams rather than our hatred of someone else's team. In that respect, I tip my cap to the Wooster fans here, who follow that same philosophy. No matter how heated and how high-stakes their rivalry with Wittenberg gets, they never let their feelings towards the Tigers obscure their basic motivation, which is their love of the Scots. My negative feelings towards Wesleyan are infinitesimally insignificant compared to my positive feelings towards North Park, and I'm sure that Kenosha Mark would say the same thing about Carthage, Hiker Jim would say the same thing about Wheaton, etc.

4) In spite of that, "pride" might not be the right term to describe how a lot of us feel about Wesleyan's success. We all want to see the conference be nationally recognized as strong, of course, and the success of our current top dog has a lot to do with that. But we all know that the conference is strong by virtue of its top-to-bottom strength, rather than the success of only one team. Putting all of our eggs into someone else's basket in terms of the pride thing wouldn't sit right with a great many of us, I suspect. Yes, most of us band together and root for whichever CCIW team(s) makes the tournament each March because they're the ones who're carrying the flag for the rest of us, but it's just human nature for there to be limits to how much vicarious pleasure you can derive from a rival's success.

[wally_wabash]

Wittenberg's apathy aside, we've got some big games tomorrow night.  Certainly worthy of some pregame chatter. 

Wabash @ OWU is a critical game for both teams.  Almost always a good game when these two teams get together (save last year's 26-point Bishop loss at the Branch).  Can Chojnacki get enough support to beat Wabash's balance?  Is there enough room on the bus for Wabash's momentum?  This is only Wabash's second road game in the last nine played for Wabash, dating back to the Colorado Thanksgiving tournament.  The winner here gets a leg up on the third seed in the tournament, the loser is playing catch up for the rest of the season. 

Earlham @ Witt is another critical game.  Witt has the bullseye on their backs now and Earlham tends to play to the level of their competition, so we could be in for a good game.  Earlham's near miss vs. Wooster surely has the Quakers believing that they can pull this off. 

Also we'll have one less winless team in the NCAC after Denison and Oberlin square off.  We'll get a pretty good measure of how far off the deep end (or not) Denison has gone after tomorrow night. 

[witt4ever]

Billy_pilgram, Please tell me there is something out there better then Earlham's Teamline... Rumor had it Earlhamalum was on there and made it better... that isn't saying much about what we have to listen to now.  Tell me I can listen to something better on Wednesday.  Show me the link that i can go to for the EC Vs Witt. game, other than Earlham's Teamline.   Thanks

Witt/Earlham game broadcast:
http://secure.stretchinternet.com/live.php?user=wit&id=5244

All Witt broadcasts can be reached from this page, with present, future and archived broadcasts:

http://www4.wittenberg.edu/news/athletics/broadcast/

Most BB games are done by Scott Leo.

He does Witt games, along with Urbana University, produces the Wright State games, was the voice of the Richmond Roosters (Frontier League baseball), and now the voice of the Columbus Clippers (NY Yankees AAA franchise).

[DenisonFan]

Congrats to Witt for making it to the top. 
Having #1 and #3 says volumes for the NCAC.

I said earlier I thought, having played them both, Wooster is the stronger team.
But you never know, on any given Wed or Sat, anything can happen.

If you can catch them on an off night you can give them a run for their money.  But if they bring the A game, you don't have a chance.

Both are very, very, good.

Congrats again.