MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[David Collinge]

As anticipated, the tip times for the single-game sites (Wooster, Wittenberg men, Denison, Kenyon women) will be 7:30, while at the doubleheader sites (DePauw, OWU), the women tip at 6:00 and the men go afterward, approximately 8:00. Tickets for Tuesday's games are $7 ($5 under 18 and non-NCAC students, NCAC member institution students get in free), and that gets you into both games at Greencastle and Delaware (great deal!).

[David Collinge]

The new poll is out, and the NCAC ends their regular season with two ranked teams. #8 Wooster stays exactley where they were, as did all of the Week 11 top 10. Wittenberg stays at #22 but gained 55 points, equivalent to two spots on the average ballot. OWU drops just off the bottom of the ranking from #18; they are just 2 points shy of new #25 Richard Stockton. Despite their buzzer-beating win at OWU and second-place conference finish, DePauw still receives no votes from any of the 25 voters.

[wally_wabash]

Who ya got?

Wooster is winning. 

Denison did split with Witt and won their game in Springfield, but then Denison wrapped up the regular season by losing to the two teams that won't be participating this week.  That's maybe not the kind of momentum you like to carry in to a quarterfinal game at Witt. 

Maybe we should keep an eye out for the Kenyon Lords at OWU.  OWU is coming off of a tough loss at home that would have kept them off of Wooster's half of the bracket.  Kenyon has a recent road win at DePauw, but beyond that nada vs. the top four.  I like OWU here. 

And then Wabash/DePauw.  Bonus rivalry games are fun.  These two teams meet up just six days after a 1-point game in the same gym.  After a horrid start to the season, Wabash has been much better over the back half of the schedule and now they've got a chance to end DePauw's season (doubt DePauw has a chance at an at-large if they lose tonight...they probably need two wins and some help anyway) and take one more trip back out to Wooster to see if the slipper fits.  Why not?  This is probably the one game that Wabash could have drawn for the first round that I think they have a reasonable chance to win.  First, because I think the rivalry aspect raises their level of play.  Second because Wabash's final home game was 2/12 and after two straight weeks of travel, I don't know that another mid-week roadie out to central Ohio was going to end well. 

I think I'm liking OWU to win this tournament.  Just a hunch and a tough choice because Wooster has picked up their play again after a couple of weeks of so-so ball (by Wooster standards).  OWU/Wooster on Friday might be the game of the tournament. 

[imderekpoe]

Who ya got?

Wooster is winning. 

Denison did split with Witt and won their game in Springfield, but then Denison wrapped up the regular season by losing to the two teams that won't be participating this week.  That's maybe not the kind of momentum you like to carry in to a quarterfinal game at Witt. 

Maybe we should keep an eye out for the Kenyon Lords at OWU.  OWU is coming off of a tough loss at home that would have kept them off of Wooster's half of the bracket.  Kenyon has a recent road win at DePauw, but beyond that nada vs. the top four.  I like OWU here. 

And then Wabash/DePauw.  Bonus rivalry games are fun.  These two teams meet up just six days after a 1-point game in the same gym.  After a horrid start to the season, Wabash has been much better over the back half of the schedule and now they've got a chance to end DePauw's season (doubt DePauw has a chance at an at-large if they lose tonight...they probably need two wins and some help anyway) and take one more trip back out to Wooster to see if the slipper fits.  Why not?  This is probably the one game that Wabash could have drawn for the first round that I think they have a reasonable chance to win.  First, because I think the rivalry aspect raises their level of play.  Second because Wabash's final home game was 2/12 and after two straight weeks of travel, I don't know that another mid-week roadie out to central Ohio was going to end well. 

I think I'm liking OWU to win this tournament.  Just a hunch and a tough choice because Wooster has picked up their play again after a couple of weeks of so-so ball (by Wooster standards).  OWU/Wooster on Friday might be the game of the tournament. 

I'll go with Woo, Witt, OWU tonight.  I don't see Denison sneaking up on the Tigers again, but I'm also not convinced that the Tigers are all that great.  I'm pretty sure OWU is the 2nd best team in the conference and Kenyon isn't. 

I'm really up in the air on DePauw / Wabash.  I only saw DePauw once (at Wooster) and wasn't too impressed, and I haven't see Wabash at all.  DePauw has been incredibly inconsistent with several really good wins, but also some really bad losses and close calls.  Wabash is certainly better than they were early in the year, but I guess I'll have to go with the Tigers.

I agree that a Scots / Bishops game would probably be the highlight of the tournament, and I'll pick Wooster to win Friday and against the Old Tigers Saturday. However, any of the big men for the other 3 could give the Scots a hard time and make things interesting.

Should be an interesting week!

[ScotsFan]

I think I'm liking OWU to win this tournament.  Just a hunch and a tough choice because Wooster has picked up their play again after a couple of weeks of so-so ball (by Wooster standards).  OWU/Wooster on Friday might be the game of the tournament.

A month ago, I would have strongly agreed that OWU was the team to beat, however, they did stumble a bit down the stretch.  Since their come from behind win at Woo last month, OWU has stumbled to a 4-3 finish with losses to Witt, Wabash and DePauw.  And 2 of their 4 wins were less than impressive with a 3 point win at Kenyon and a 5 point win vs. Allegheny.  Wooster, while they haven't played great basketball down the stretch either, did manage to finish the season 7-0 after struggling through a 3 game stretch with narrow win over Allegheny at home and back to back losses to DePauw and OWU. 

I still feel OWU is the 2nd best team in the tournament, but don't sleep on DePauw.  The New Tigers have to be one of the biggest head scratchers in the league this year with wins over Witt (sweep), OWU and Wooster and losses to the likes of Oberlin, Allegheny, and Kenyon.  Take away those losses and they would have been every bit in the mix to win the conference title.  So, if they can get by Wabash tonight in the first round, they could be a tough out the rest of the way.  That said, I just have a hard time picking against a Wooster team that finished 7-0 to finish the season.  After Wooster lost back to back to DePauw and OWU, the NCAC race was very much in doubt.  But Wooster finished 7-0, while DePauw and OWU stumbled down the stretch going 5-3 and 4-3 respectively since their wins over Wooster. 


As for the 1st round, I'll take the home teams.  I think Woo, Witt and OWU should win easily and I wouldn't be surprised in the least to see Wabash knock off DePauw in the rivalry matchup.  DePauw should win, but then again, they should have won their games with Oberlin, Allegheny and Kenyon as well. 

[David Collinge]

Just to stir things up a bit, I'll take Wooster and Kenyon in the top half and Wabash and Witt in the bottom, with Witt emerging as the tourney champ.

[wooscotsfan]

I think OWU, Witt and DePauw all badly need a win tonight to keep their NCAA tourney hopes alive.  OWU could get a Pool C bid but they will probably put even that scenario at serious risk if they can't win a NCAC quarterfinal game.

So, I will be boring and take all the home favorites tonight -- Woo, OWU, Witt and DePauw.

[wooscotsfan]

At the Half:  Wooster 34  Oberlin 28

Wooster's top scorers in the first half were Doug Thorpe with 10 points and Kenny DeBoer with 9.

Congratulations to Doug Thorpe who has reached 1,000 points in his Wooster career!

[wooscotsfan]

At the Half:  Wittenberg 27  Denison 22

DePauw hits their first 5 shots of the game and leads Wabash 13-0.

[wally_wabash]

13-0 DPU.  This probably could have started better. 

DePauw leads 38-28 at the half down in the G'dingle.  Wabash reeled this thing back to within four at one point, but DePauw went on a mini-run in the last few minutes there to stretch it back out to double digits.  Going to need a big half for Wabash to wipe out that deficit.

[wooscotsfan]

At the Half:  Ohio Wesleyan 38  Kenyon 24

At the Half:  DePauw 38  Wabash 28

[wooscotsfan]

Final:  Wooster 89  Oberlin 56 

NCAC Semi-Finals will be played at Wooster on Friday night.

Wooster was led in scoring tonight by Xavier Brown with 17, Dan Fanelly with 16 points (8 boards), Kenny DeBoer with 11 and Doug Thorpe with 10.

Wooster is now 23-3.    Next game is probably Ohio Wesleyan on Friday night.

GO SCOTS!

[wooscotsfan]

Final:  Wittenberg 64  Denison 49

Wittenberg was led by Zach Leahy with 17 and Scott Masin with 16.

[sac]

OWU has been ahead of Kenyon by 15 for a lot of the game.  14 to play

[wooscotsfan]

~12 minutes left:  DePauw 50  Wabash 37

~3 minutes left now:  DePauw 71  Wabash 56   New Tigers will play the Old Tigers in Round 3 on Friday night!