MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[kiltedbryan]

The '06 NCAA loss at Transy has always really stuck with me. That was a Salem-capable team that beat eventual national runner-up Wittenberg 2 out of 3 times. If I remember the bracket correctly, had Wooster beaten Transy, we would've had Woo-Witt game #4 that year in the Sweet Sixteen. That would've been something.

Actually, it would have been the Elite 8. That's when Transy lost to Witt. I can't remember who Transy beat in the Sweet 16 (maybe Maryville?), but they won fairly convincingly.

Transylvania beat Mississippi College, Wittenberg beat Hope in other sweet 16 game in Springfield. 

Sac's right (as per usual, with anything involving Hope). Here's the recap for the Hope-Witt game: http://www.wittenbergtigers.com/sports/mbkb/2005-06/releases/20120813qlb2sc

Looks like it was close - Hope came back and tied it with 5 mins to go but couldn't take a lead.

[sac]

The Witt/Hope game is one of two consecutive outs in the tournament where Hope had just a terrible time making shots they had made all season.  The next year against Wash U over in Stevens Point was just as memorable for the same reason.


I don't remember much of the Transylvania/Miss College game other than  Transy was clearly better esp on the defensive end.  I also remember thinking that with so many fans there in attendance (400/500 maybe) it amazed me that not one could find a computer and log on to D3hoops.com.

[smedindy]

Pretty quiet on the board tonight.  Wasn't there a game?

I'm not sure, I'm still celebrating making you look like a fool for saying Wooster was no good in 2011 when they went to the national title game, which you then followed up by more less dismissing as a fluke.

Well, that's right neighborly...

[woosterbooster]

Due to not paying attention to the early start time, I missed the entire first half.  After the break, Wooster quickly fell further behind and had to play catch-up all game.  The Scots still don't enter the ball into the post very often, but tonight I'm not sure I blame them, as usually nothing good happened.  Transy's defense was generally very good, and Wooster had to work hard to get shots.  There were a few available threes, and they shot them well, but I don't remember Brown passing up any looks.

Really, there are only two ways to get an open three.  Help from your teammates (good in-and-out passing, high picks) or a defender that gets lax and sags off.  Creating your own three really doesn't work much; I mean, you have to be moving horizontally along the three-point line, then somehow squaring up, etc.

Even though the video was quite good, it's tough to determine from a stream if the calls were justified or not.  Claytor was pretty annoyed, though, and even picked up a technical while sitting on the bench after the game had been decided.

I'm rambling here; it's late and I'm mostly asleep.  But kudos to the Scots for making a nice comeback and almost pulling it out.  Transy helped by missing a lot of free throws down the stretch.  Wooster had some nice ball movement in the last minutes, although it still didn't involve the post guys much.

[smedindy]

NCAC now 34-24 non-conference with some big games tonight.

[smedindy]

I'm flummoxed on how Transylvania lost to Manchester at home. Maybe they didn't get the 'home cooking' calls? Maybe none of the refs in the Wooster game were from Ohio?

I KID! I KID!!! 

[Gregory Sager]

Really, there are only two ways to get an open three.  Help from your teammates (good in-and-out passing, high picks) or a defender that gets lax and sags off.  Creating your own three really doesn't work much; I mean, you have to be moving horizontally along the three-point line, then somehow squaring up, etc.

You can create your own three if you've developed the jab-and-stepback. That's a skill that doesn't seem to be practiced by a lot of players nowadays, for reasons I can't fathom. Like the midrange pull-up and the up-and-under post move, it's not utilized nearly as much anymore as it should be. But the jab-and-stepback can be a devastating move for a shooter to use to get his own shot if he's good at it; NPU had a player back at the turn of the millennium, the late Rick Alspach (251 career treys), who turned it into an art form.

[smedindy]

Or you could do the ol' Les Selvage method. Just chuck it from way down town whenever or wherever.

[woosterbooster]

Or you could do the ol' Les Selvage method. Just chuck it from way down town whenever or wherever.

I wish I'd seen that guy play.  In Terry Pluto's great book on the ABA, Loose Balls, Selvage is mentioned early on, I think by his own general manager in San Diego.  To paraphrase: "Yeah, I remember Les Selvage.  He took a lot of threes.  I don't remember a lot of them going in."

My favorite chucker of all time was 6'7" George Stone of Marshall University.  I saw him play in the mid-sixties, at the old Madison Square Garden in New York.  It was either in their ECAC Holiday Classic or the NIT.  Now, this was years before there were three-pointers in college.  At any rate, Stone started making some long jumpers, from the foul line-extended on the right side.  Twenty footers.  After he hit three or four of these, somebody started guarding him out there.  No problem, Stone simply backed up and made a few more.  He continued this strategy, retreating and heaving.  By halftime he was shooting from what I swear was thirty-five feet, right in front of the scorer's table, and they were STILL going in!  Somebody else must have taken note of this, because he ended up playing a few years in the ABA.

[seinfeld]

Was there a game tonight? Why yes, there was. Wooster rebounds with a 65-52 win over Mt. St. Joseph.

http://www.woosterathletics.com/sports/mbkb/2012-13/releases/20121219acg1h3

Jake Mays bounces back by leading all players with 16 points and 8 rebounds. Probably the biggest note from tonight's game is that Claytor didn't start. I guess the coaching staff is sending a little bit of a message that Claytor needs to elevate his level of play. Claytor has not played as well this season, and hopefully this gets him going.

The other interesting takeaway from tonight is that Transylvania is starting to live up to its preseason ranking, as it disposed of #9 Franklin & Marshall 86-73. I think the loss to Transy will be seen as a lost opportunity to post a really good in region win more than a bad loss. Hopefully Wingard, who absence has been overlooked, will be back in time for the Mose Hole. He is Wooster's best freshman and someone who can provide instant offense. Throw in LaLonde, who will likely start playing in early January, and the Scots should be getting more offensive reinforcements in the next few weeks. The key will be to continue to play solid defense and get Claytor to play with more passion.

[smedindy]

There were other games as well, of course:

DPU cruised past Kalamazoo 76-46.
Hiram continued it's PrAC mastery in besting Westminster 81-62
Wittenberg easily handled UC-Clermont 89-47
Alas, Wabash didn't have much luck in stopping Franklin as the Grizzlies won 97-82.

38-25 non-conference thus far.

[ScotsFan]

The other interesting takeaway from tonight is that Transylvania is starting to live up to its preseason ranking, as it disposed of #9 Franklin & Marshall 86-73. I think the loss to Transy will be seen as a lost opportunity to post a really good in region win more than a bad loss.

It did state in the DR writeup of the Transy game that the Pios had been without the services of their starting pg Barrett Meyer which may explain their losses to the likes of Manchester at home.  He was back for this tourney and, as you can see, the results speak for themselves as Transy not only handed Wooster their 2nd loss, but knocked F&M from the ranks of the undefeated.  I hardly think you could classify this as a bad loss considering this was a Transy team that was returning 4 starters from a team that finished 23-5 last season and made the NCAA Tournament. 

[bufordscot]

Or you could do the ol' Les Selvage method. Just chuck it from way down town whenever or wherever.

I wish I'd seen that guy play.  In Terry Pluto's great book on the ABA, Loose Balls, Selvage is mentioned early on, I think by his own general manager in San Diego.  To paraphrase: "Yeah, I remember Les Selvage.  He took a lot of threes.  I don't remember a lot of them going in."

My favorite chucker of all time was 6'7" George Stone of Marshall University.  I saw him play in the mid-sixties, at the old Madison Square Garden in New York.  It was either in their ECAC Holiday Classic or the NIT.  Now, this was years before there were three-pointers in college.  At any rate, Stone started making some long jumpers, from the foul line-extended on the right side.  Twenty footers.  After he hit three or four of these, somebody started guarding him out there.  No problem, Stone simply backed up and made a few more.  He continued this strategy, retreating and heaving.  By halftime he was shooting from what I swear was thirty-five feet, right in front of the scorer's table, and they were STILL going in!  Somebody else must have taken note of this, because he ended up playing a few years in the ABA.

John Rinka - Kenyon & Tom Dinger - Wooster each would have scored a lot more points had there been a three point line in the early 70s.  Both great shooters although Dinger had a better supporting cast and didn't have to put up as many from downtown.

[smedindy]

Non - Conference Records by Conference (in order of wins):

OAC 11-3
PrAC 8-1
HCAC 6-9
MIAA 3-3
UAA  3-5
NEAC 1-0
AMCC 1-0
CC 1-0
NJAC 0-1
CCIW 0-1
Non D-3 4-2

[smedindy]

Just two upcoming games before the Holiday break:

Friday:

Hiram (4-4) @ Case Western (5-3) - The Spartans are 3-2 vs. the NCAC, beating Denison, Kenyon and Oberlin and losing to Witt and Allegheny. They'd be perfect for the middle muddle of the conference! The Terriers have turned it around by getting fat off of the dregs of the PrAC. Case is a big step up and a test to see if Hiram's early season troubles are truly behind it.

Saturday:

Anderson (4-4) @ Ohio Wesleyan (7-1) - I was surprised, a bit, when compiling the conference's record against other conferences on how poorly the NCAC has done against the HCAC. Here's one of the last chances at redemption, and it's a good matchup for us. The Bishops have been off for two weeks after their close win over DPU and they play host to a Ravens squad that's been winning games they're supposed to win and losing games they're supposed to lose. This is one they're probably supposed to lose.