MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[sac]

Seeding pods 1-4 I have Denison as a 3 right now which would avoid JCU, Marietta, Benedictine, Augustana in round one.  They could and probably will get pushed to a 4 depending on the quality of teams  pulled in from the East, Mid-Atlantic or South.

I think Denison should be a higher seed than Hilbert or the HCAC Champion (Mt. St. Joe or Rose-Hulman) but its pretty close.  From the Central and West Regions, Westminster, Central and either Northwestern or No Central(Minn) would be weaker than Denison.  I figure St. Thomas, Benedictine and Augustana are going to draw those 3 since I don't think you can get any of them to Ohio.

As a 3, they'd be looking at teams like North Central, Alma, Elmhurst, Hope in round 1 so still pretty tough.


Denison is 508 miles to Augustana

[Wooster Booster]

As usual, hardly any of the conversation on this forum involves the games themselves.  Every year it's about figuring out who's going to make the conference tournament, who's going to play who.  Then the same thing, on a larger scale, with the NCAA tournament.  Who's in, who's out, who might go where and why.

They just had some really good ballgames down at OWU and there's barely a mention of them.  I guess I just don't get it.

[David Collinge]

Feel free. I didn't see any of the games, I was at work.

[smedindy]

I had senior night last night and followed on Twitter as best I could, being behind 3 hours and all. Stunned and happy for Denison!

[smedindy]

BTW, remember a few seasons ago when there was a disgruntled Denison poster who was really laying the wood on Ghiloni, especially for his substitution patterns?

[David Collinge]

BTW, remember a few seasons ago when there was a disgruntled Denison poster who was really laying the wood on Ghiloni, especially for his substitution patterns?

Yes, I do. For a while there we had two Denison posters (DenisonFan and one other) and I think neither were Ghiloni fans. Heck, I've been around so long now that I remember when we had Allegheny posters! But, like so many other posters, they're all gone now.

[wally_wabash]

Pretty nice turnaround for Denison.  They got drilled by 25 on their senior day by Wabash, then lost their regular season finale to 4-win Allegheny.  So obviously they're going to turn around and run the Witt/OWU/Wooster gauntlet to qualify. 

[David Collinge]

Giving it some thought, I think there's been regular or semi-regular basketball posters from every program (including Earlham, you know it's true) at one time or another, except for Oberlin, Kenyon (although I have met numerous Kenyon lurkers), and, somewhat surprisingly, DePauw. You'd think New Tiger fans would at least have turned up on the women's side, but that was my private echo chamber for years before I forsake it.

Of course, my memory has become seriously impaired, so if I've forgotten any New Tiger, Lord, or Yeo fans, I apologize.

[wooscotsfan]

Wooster gets into the NCAA tourney as expected and will face undefeated Lancaster Bible in the first round on a neutral court.

If Wooster gets to the second round, they will likely face Catholic who is hosting that pod.

[David Collinge]

Great news for OWU and for central Ohio basketball fans: OWU gets to stay at home to face Pitt-Greensburg. Denison goes to JCU but avoids the Streaks for at least one night; they have to get by Alma first. Wooster gets a trip to DC to try to pin loss #1 on Lancaster Bible. Good luck to all!

One nice, rather unexpected feature of this bracket is that OWU can't meet Denison until the sectional final, and Wooster can't meet either until the championship game.

[woolax]

How well does Wooster match up with Lancaster Bible? And assuming they advance Catholic or Endicott?

[David Collinge]

Lancaster Bible is the great unknown in this tournament. The consensus of opinion seems to be that, at 26-1, LBC would NOT have earned a Pool C bid, and I believe that a Wooster team that's had a somewhat subpar season will be the best team they've faced. But maybe they're good enough to have beaten tougher opponents, had they faced any. It's a fascinating draw.

Using Matt Snyder's data, available here, it looks to me like Catholic is very slightly stronger than Wooster but it shapes up as a good game if it happens. Catholic looks like a solid favorite over Endicott, who Matt has as the 23rd best team in the Northeast alone.

[wooscotsfan]

Lancaster Bible is the great unknown in this tournament. The consensus of opinion seems to be that, at 26-1, LBC would NOT have earned a Pool C bid, and I believe that a Wooster team that's had a somewhat subpar season will be the best team they've faced. But maybe they're good enough to have beaten tougher opponents, had they faced any. It's a fascinating draw.

Lancaster Bible 94  Franklin & Marshall 66     Game was played back in November.  Lancaster Bible's best win this season.

Franklin & Marshall is now 22-5 and is in the NCAA tournament.

[fantastic50]

It's tough to get a read on the quality of a team that hasn't played anyone notable in months.  However, for what it's worth, Massey has Wooster a one-point favorite over Lancaster Bible, and would be a three-point underdog to Catholic if both advance.  This is far preferable to getting shipped to Augustana, and while it's a long trip to DC, perhaps offers a better chance to advance than being the "2nd seed" at either JCU or Marietta.

OWU gets a very favorable draw, and will be a substantial favorite to move on to the sectionals (likely at Benedictine).

Denison plays an Alma team that is of comparable quality to the ones they upset this weekend, and avoids facing a host on Friday.

Overall, it seems that the NCAC teams all got draws that were at least as expected, arguably better.

[wooscotsfan]

5 of Wooster's 7 losses were to teams that are now in the NCAA tourney:  Skidmore, Salisbury, Marietta, Ohio Wesleyan & Denison