MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[woosterbooster]

DePaul 42 - Wooster 30 at the half.  For nearly two decades I've enjoyed the style as much as the success of Wooster basketball.  I can no longer make that statement.  One-on-one just doesn't do it for me.

Defensively, this team hustles and plays hard; DePauw's 42 points are the result of an incredibly hot-shooting half.  But on the other end of the court, Wooster is again nowhere.  Quick shots, me first, ignore the open man and the heck with getting the ball inside.  Maybe it's fun for them to play, but it's not fun to watch.  And it won't be successful.  Unfortunately, time is running out for them to change.   

[GoRed]

Nine minutes left at Livingston and the Big red holding on to a 2 point 51-49 lead.  Hale held to only 2 points in the first half has gone to
work and has 13 for the game now. 

Winters just hit with his 4th foul, though.  A barn burner!

[GoRed]

Not to be for the Big Red.  Winters ties the game at 59 with two minutes to go and extends that to a 65-59 lead after Longi misses the front end of a 1-and-1 and then gets a 3-pt attempt blocked on the next possession. 

Darius White hit a three with 38 seconds left and OWU gave the Big Red two more chances to tie on missed FTs in the final minute, but OWU pulled out a 67-64 win in the end. 

Winters finishes with 20 points.  Hale had 15 and Weingart 14. 

[smedindy]

Finals all around:

Witt just beat Hiram 68-62 after trailing most of the game.
Kenyon beat Allegheny 83-74.
DePauw beat Wooster 68-52.

Final Standings:

Wooster 14-2
OWU 12-4
Kenyon 9-7
DePauw 9-7
Wittenberg 9-7
Wabash 7-9
Denison 7-9
Oberlin 5-11
Hiram 5-11
Allegheny 3-13.

[smedindy]

I believe Kenyon wins the third place tiebreaker due to H2H with DePauw and Witt (Kenyon 2-1. DPU 2-2, Witt 1-2). The unbalanced NCAC schedule did the Old Tigers in. (Well, that and losing games they should have won, too...)

DePauw gets fourth due to H2H vs, Witt. (See above. Sorry, Witt)

So if I have this right:

Oberlin @ Wooster
Denison @ OWU
Wabash @ Kenyon
Wittenberg @ DePauw

[GoRed]

I just checked the NCAC website.  They have Denison vs. Kenyon as the 3 vs 6 game and Wabash vs. OWU as the 2 vs 7. 

[smedindy]

Yeah, I saw that too. Did I do the tiebreaker wrong? Or did they shift the tiebreakers???

UPDATE: They corrected the bracket. I'm NOT going nuts!

http://www2.northcoast.org/mbasketball/NCACTournament/2013

[smedindy]

I don't know if my Twitter question to the NCAC caused them to change the bracket, but they fixed it. Good to get it right, but kind of embarrassing to publish a bad bracket in the first place...

[GoRed]

I couldn't understand how Denison would have been in front of the LGs either. 

Nice job on calling all the possibilities, smedindy.  You nailed it!

[seinfeld]

The Indiana trips for Wooster have gone from a problem to a disaster, at least by Wooster standards. That's four losses in a row out there, and none of them did they play even remotely well. Today DePauw was just simply better. No one has played well for Wooster in these games, but the play of Doug Thorpe really sticks out. Thorpe, who has single-handily won a couple of real important games this year, has been miserable at Wabash and DePauw. Combined, he is 2-for-21 from the field and 1-for-13 from three-point range this season. If you take out his stat line, Wooster has actually shot better from the field (38.9% to 38.6%) and three-point range (34.8% to 33.3%) in the two games.

Regardless, these teams may be meeting again in just six days.

[David Collinge]

Both the Wittenberg squads, men and women, earned a #5 seed and both will travel this week, the men west to DePauw and the women to disappointing #4 Denison. Unless I am very much mistaken, this is the first time since joining the NCAC in 1989 that Wittenberg will not host a quarterfinal match in either bracket.

[ohiofan1954]

I wonder if Denison has it in them for another effort against the bishops like yesterday? Nice to see Kenyon earn a home date in the tournament. Someone made a comment over in the oac board that they liked the oac tournament system. I believe the MAC has a similer system but I am not sure if it is a two game bye for the top two or just a one. I do like the two bye system because it does reward play during the regular season.

[woosterbooster]

I wonder if Denison has it in them for another effort against the bishops like yesterday? Nice to see Kenyon earn a home date in the tournament. Someone made a comment over in the oac board that they liked the oac tournament system. I believe the MAC has a similer system but I am not sure if it is a two game bye for the top two or just a one. I do like the two bye system because it does reward play during the regular season.

I'm up for Wooster getting byes instead of making road trips to Indiana.

[smedindy]

I don't like the byes into the conference semis. In fact, if you HAVE to do a conference tourney then invite everyone. Though a 7-10, 8-9 game won't exactly be thrilling, but that's the way it goes.

[goscots]

The Indiana trips for Wooster have gone from a problem to a disaster, at least by Wooster standards. That's four losses in a row out there, and none of them did they play even remotely well. Today DePauw was just simply better. No one has played well for Wooster in these games, but the play of Doug Thorpe really sticks out. Thorpe, who has single-handily won a couple of real important games this year, has been miserable at Wabash and DePauw. Combined, he is 2-for-21 from the field and 1-for-13 from three-point range this season. If you take out his stat line, Wooster has actually shot better from the field (38.9% to 38.6%) and three-point range (34.8% to 33.3%) in the two games.

Regardless, these teams may be meeting again in just six days.

To me, poor shooting in of itself isn't playing badly. I only got to listen to the game yesterday but I heard many plays where Wooster just flat out made poor decisions (fouls with <5 seconds on the shot clock, turnovers on passes, not blocking out, ....). I'd like to strike this up to DePauw having more to play for than Wooster, but at this point I think we are all a bit nervous.