MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[billy_pilgrim]

Finally some stats from EC/Denison.

Big Red win the second half by 12, scoring 47 points in the final 20 minutes. That seems a lot like last year's game in Richmond when Denison rallied from a halftime deficit.

Hodgkinson was the story, scoring 27 and grabbing 11 rebounds. Denison was also 20/24 at the foul line.

Meanwhile, bad shooting for Earlham all around tonight. The big three (Jewett, Miller and Henry) combine 48 points. However, they shot 16-45 combined....ouch. Also causing major problems for Earlham....1/14 from 3-point land and 10-16 from the line in the second half.

So, Earlham still in 3rd place....but the dreaded Wooster and Wittenberg swing awaits. Again, second year in a row where Earlham loses a game at home to Denison with major hosting implications.

[woosterbooster]

Smed -

I've always wondered about parents who didn't consider the ramifications of the names that they gave their kids.  The nicknames that would inevitably be delved from them.  Geeze, if I'd known that I'd become WooBoo...    

Wooster certainly did a lot of one-on-one stuff tonight, and almost whenever they send the ball into the post Vandervaart or Will runs through fifteen seconds of moves before shooting.  Still, I'd have thought they had more than six assists.

DC - Better be careful with those comments.  Who knows if the NSA is monitoring DIII basketball forums these days...  

Seriously, the whole pool area (but not the locker rooms, sorry), including the outside wall, is glass.  Olympic size, of course.  The whole thing really is beautiful.  

Steve Moore came over to talk to me before the game and our conversation drifted to the new facility.  I asked him what he knew about the possibility of Wooster adding to or improving theirs and he said that fund-raising would probably begin in 2007.  One thing he said that needed to definitely be done was to replace the bleachers in the gym as they're 30 years old and becoming difficult to move in and out.

[Li'l Giant]

DC - Better be careful with those comments.  Who knows if the NSA is monitoring DIII basketball forums these days... 

Well, if you were to believe the Bush administration (heh) then unless your name was "WooQaeda" it wouldn't be monitored.

[David Collinge]

Believe you me, I'm already on THE LIST.     And damn proud of it. 

Other scores from around the conference, if that's of any interest to the NSA:

Allegheny 86
Hiram 76

Ohio Wesleyan 90
Oberlin 51

[DarkSide-D]

WooBoo,

You should be happy with your nickname, I have been called DD and even Double D.  How would you like to be called Double D?

[David Collinge]

WooBoo,

You should be happy with your nickname, I have been called DD and even Double D.  How would you like to be called Double D?

That makes me think of Kenyon's swim team again....

[DarkSide-D]

Ahhh, girl swimmers.  That reminds me of the day I went into the weight room and there was a girl swimmer who benched more than some of our DB's.   Yeah, those guys never lived that one down!!

[pennstghs]

tonights game vs wabash was pretty much in control after the first couple of minutes when witt went up by 10. from that point it seemed as if any wabash hope went up in flames and witt just pretty much cruised from there

one point of concern-witts big men and shooters did have a very off night, so if an off night causes them to still win by 15, watch out.

another revenge game coming this saturday-denison watch out witt will be out for blood

[David Collinge]

Wooster-Kenyon box score.

I see that freshman guard Sam Dumpe (6'3", Beaver, PA) saw his first action of his career tonight picking up 3 mintes of statistic-free action.  I presume this was garbage time.  Jamie Yoder and Jeff Stevens also got into the end of the game, as usual but their normal last-act compatriots, Brad Chisnell and Cody Drake, never left the bench (if indeed they were present at all.)  Should we read anything into this? 

Just in case any lurkers are wondering, here's the composition of Wooster's team by role and class (note: I count Tom Port as a 'starter' and Evan Will as a 'key reserve'):
* Starters:  2 seniors (1 of whom has another year of eligibility remaining); 2 juniors; 1 sophomore
* Key reserves:  2 sophomores, 2 freshmen
* End of the bench:  1 junior, 3 sophomores, 1 freshman (Dumpe)

Three starters (or four, depending on Tom Port), and seven (or eight) from the 9-man rotation, should return next season.  And there's always a freshman or two in the mix.

This Wooster program is really a machine with no glaring weaknesses.  There's just never a let-up.  I don't know if I've mentioned it in here, but since D3hoops.com has run a poll (beginning with the 1999-00 season), Wooster has received votes in every poll, and has been ranked (25th or higher) an astonishing 94 times (in 102 polls.)  They've been in the top ten 72 times, including the past 32 weeks in a row.  All of these statistics are tops in the D3 world. 

We Wooster fans really have an incredible team to cheer on.  The only thing missing is the banner.  But who knows, maybe this is the year for that, too! 

[MoneyBallSTL]

DC, that's a crazy stat!! It really shows how far this program has come at Wooster, of course, none of that would have been possible if it weren't for the huge successes to the "pre-D3hoops.com" era. As for all of the reserves not playing tonight...I can see no logical explanation except for maybe that they were at a JV contest instead. Sometimes that occasionally happens during some lesser-quality NCAC contests. I just don't see Cody & The Blade being in the doghouse for anything, both quality guys. I never heard Breck mention Dumpe's name on the broadcast, it must've been statistic-free action, but good luck Sam...represent for the gray team!

[woosterbooster]

DC -

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that the boxscore is wrong about Dumpe's playing.  I sat right behind the bench and was paying even more attention to the subbing than I normally do.  Not that I would recognize him, or even know who he is, but I'm thinking that I'd at least recognize an unfamiliar face on the court; or even on the bench.   

But I don't believe that anyone got in during the short period of garbage time except for Jamie Yoder.  Stevens got his two minutes earlier, when the game was still being semi-contested.  Not sure when, exactly, but probably around the middle of the second half.

There wasn't a JV game (afterwards there was a women's game between Kenyon and Hiram), and Chisnell, Drake, et al were in their normal positions at the end of the pine.  Garbage time was very limited tonight.  Although the outcome was never really in doubt, even when the lead was cut to seven at some point in the second half, Wooster never could quite shake Kenyon as you would think that they should have.  Port's absence was felt, the free throw shooting was awful, and the game was just downright sloppy, aided by the officiating which was moreso.

I think that Coach Moore was just not happy with the team's performance, so he kept the regular rotation on the court for nearly the whole game.

[imderekpoe]

For what its worth, my QOWI calculations for the top 6 teams in the region, after last night's games:

1.  Wittenberg - 10.643
2.  Albion - 10.750
2.  Baldwin-Wallace - 10.750
4.  Wooster - 10.643
5.  Carnegie-Mellon - 10.545
6.  Hope - 9.900

[DenisonFan]

GO BIG RED!!

Oh look again.......played 8 guys and OH what happened?  They won again.

I am sad it took Ghiloni soooooo long to figure it out.  But I will be the first to give him credit.  He did!!

Hodgkinson stepped up and had a HUGE game.  Hern was in the tank and was a non-factor. 

I found Coach Justus's quote interesting...He said " they didn't respond to their physical defensive play".   Now come on...when was the last time Denison out musseled anyone??  Big bad bullys from Granville!!  I like it!!

Great win for the team and certainly makes home field advantage in the playoffs a possibility.

Witt next!!!  I am not taking any bets on that one.

GO BIG RED

[wally_wabash]

Oh look again.......played 8 guys and OH what happened?  They won again.

I am sad it took Ghiloni soooooo long to figure it out.  But I will be the first to give him credit.  He did!!

Actually, you're about the last to give him credit.  While you were busy spending December dumping on Ghiloni because he wasn't giving your preferred player(s) enough minutes, most others figured that Denison was playing a schedule out of their league and after NCAC play got into full swing, they'd be about where they are now (smeds was on the forefront of this point).  There's not much surprising to see Denison where they are currently.  I don't think people saw last night's result coming, but Earlham was due for one of those games where they play down to a team they should beat easily and come up short. 

Great win for the team and certainly makes home field advantage in the playoffs a possibility.

It's still early, but I think Denison is on the outside looking in for the fourth seed.  Denison needs one more win either at Wabash or against Earlham the second time around to place themselves in a good tiebreaker situation.  Should they lose to Wabash, Denison will be dominated by both OWU and Wabash in the tiebreak and will need to finish a full game ahead of both to get a home game, which won't likely happen.  If, however, Denison can sweep Earlham and beat Wabash at home, they'll be looking at 11-5 and have some favorable tiebreaks should they slip against another team.  But that's a tall task.  I'd take solace in having finished high enough to to avoid Witt/Woo in the first round and at least having a chance to advance to the semis. 

[Li'l Giant]

And Memphis is back. 

I guess my joke about DC having more name changes than Mellencamp was a bit premature.