MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[imderekpoe]

Check out the records of the UAA teams.  They all have in-region records of over .500 except for Emory.  They've only had 3 games this year that resulted in a QOWI of less than 10 points - a win against Oberlin and the losses to Case and Chicago.   (Compared to 8 for B-W, 4 for Witt, 8 for Woo, and 5 for Hope and Albion.)

[blindwatchmaker]

Earlhamalum and Billy_p,

I as reading the game story from EC's game against Witt and it mentioned that Brandon Miller was dealing with foul trouble and had to sit out quite a bit since he had the task of guarding Witt's big men. 

What do you think Earlham will do differently this time around? Since Miller is your best offensive weapon, seems like they need to assign the task of gaurding the twin towers to someone else?  Just curious...

[earlhamalum]

BlindWatchmaker- That is one heck of a question!  I'm sure Coach J is thinking the same thing.  As for me; you just can't zone these guys.  They are to discipline of a team.  They will work the ball around and get great shots and it is hard to rebound defensively in a 2-3 zone... So that Axe's that out of the picture.

I think Nick Welsh needs to have the game of his life!  *this is bad if i'm hoping on Nick to show up.  The rest will have to be Defense by Committee.  I think Markcous Jewett needs to play big.  *he can pose a problem for Wittengberg's 4 guy!  They need to hit the 3 Ball consistently.  I'd like to see Brandon Miller score 18pts 12 Rebounds and 5 Assist, 3 Steals... (is that asking to MUCH?) WoostBNEL- You can screw u and ur 1/20 odds on B-Mill scoring 20.  I'd also like to see LaRon Henry and Tyler Stewart to put up better then Average numbers.

[smedindy]

Earlhamalum -

Whoa there! I think WoostBNel is kind of a troll (and that screen name is false pretenses anyway) but no reason to get all nasty.

[pennstghs]

do you guys honestly think the hour drive is worth it on wednesday because otherwise i'll be forced to do studying for a test thursday

ticket news today on the witt wooster game

ticket sales will be going on sale starting on saturday at noon instead of the 5:00 time as believe before. there will be 2,000 tickets to the general public available with the other 1000 going to the wittenberg community that needs to tickets for admission. it will quite an atmosphere like always-much hype

[blindwatchmaker]

I know Woo generally has a couple of buses that will head down to Witt, with tix opening up that early its going to be hard to get tix for those traveling there.  Do they reserve a certain number for away visitors?

[waterboy]

DC,

If you haven't seen Witucky play since Stout, then you have no idea what I'm talking about.  He gets the same shots as he did last year and he is simply off target.  If anything, he is pasing the ball more often this season than last, and not being forced to heave up desperation shots.  I've seen him barely draw iron on two very open 3's in each of the last two games.  I don't mean to be rude, but you'd have to see it to understand precisely what I mean.

[David Collinge]

No offense taken, waterboy.  I was just stating my opinions, based on observations from afar.  Nobody is required to agree with them.  Anyway, I was responding to scotsbrod, whose analysis was more of a this year vs. last year look.  You are quite correct that I have little to go on when considering January vs. December. 

[Vanilla24COW]

If I had to guess what the difference is I would guess it to be confidence. It may sound funny but shooting a basketball is much more mental than physical, once you miss a few shots that can really snowball on a player. Knowing Kyle as well as I do I know he will bounce back and hit them when it counts. I wouldn't pay too much attention to FG% as an indicator of his play though, what he brings to the table stretches much farther than his FG%. That kid could shoot 20% from the arc and I would pick him first on my team...unless Nelson was still available. Good luck this week and on Saturday...hopefully the Scots will be able to "shoot the lights back on" in the HPER

[waterboy]

I actually just had a similar discussion with an associate about Witucky's confidence.  He's passed up a few open shots the last couple games, but I'm sure he'll come around.  I'd like to see him take it to the rack and get his game started.

Since there hasn't been an overwhelming reply to my question about All-NCAC teams, here are my picks as of right now, based on what I've seen and the numbers themselves of course: 

First Team
Brandon Miller, EAR
Dan Russ, WIT
James Cooper, WOO
Tim Vandervaart, WOO
Ben Chojnacki, OWU
Dan Hodgkinson, DEN

*Pretty much same as last year, except for Wooster.  I think Vandervaart and Cooper have outplayed Port and Witucky at this point, although if Port lights it up when he comes back he should still receive first team consideration.

I have to think about the other teams and Newcomer before I make my guesses.

[waterboy]

For Newcomer of the Year, my picks would by Yelvington (Ken), Hollihan (All), and Johnson (Woo).  I would have said Yelvington is ahead of the other too, but his recent injury may hurt his chances if he isn't able to come back.  I could be wrong though.  Hollihan will be at Wooster on Wed. so we'll see how it actually stacks up against some real competition.  Johnson has been far and away the most impressive that I've seen play so far this year and he just gets more impressive as the season progressess. 

[WoosterFAN]

I know the lack of TV coverage for high level and high ranking regular season Division III matchups has been well documented on this board. 
A couple of weeks ago I sent emails out to Fox Sports, ESPN and CSTV (all on my DirecTV).  And I finally got a response.  Now the reponse was basically a dismissive: "Thanks, your comments are noted.  Check your listings."  But I got a actual person's email address.  (I apologize in advance, Pat but I did not see anything in the Terms of Service).
   A Ms. Erica Melton emailed back to me and I am asking that everyone on this board that would enjoy watching Division III sports (especially, basketball since it is season) shoot her an email and express yourself.  Can you believe that SAT Night ESPNU had not one but two High School games!?!?!  Shameful.  The CSTV Email address is: emelton@cstv.com.  Good luck guys and be polite

[kiltedbryan]

...But (leaving aside the free throws, a bug that seems to have bitten the whole team), when trying to compare stats from last season to this one, you need to keep in mind how very different these two teams are.  Last year, Witucky's role was to run the half-court set, engineering a way to get the ball into Schlingman, Mealer, Vandervaart, or Bradley with the best position to score, or to get it inside for a kick out to Port or one of the other shooters for the open look.  His role was not shooting, which meant he had more open looks as the game went along. 

This year, he's running a more hurry-up offense, and is less that he's running it than he's a part of it.  The offense more or less runs itself.  It seems to me that one important aspect of this offense is that Vandervaart has a decided quickness advantage on the folks guarding him, so the quicker the ball get up court and shot, the better chance he has for a rebound.  That might explain why Witucky shoots in situations where last year he might have passed.  The "extra pass" is always important, but with this offense it's less important.  Every player in the rotation has the ability to shoot, even to shoot 3's.  Considering that, I think there is an emphasis on shooting whenever you have a good look, especially early in the possession, when Wooster's quickness advantage will help offset its relative lack of height.  That mindset will lead to more shooting and less passing from a player like Witucky.

David, point taken on the year-to-year comparison for Woo...but...
I think my point is that even with every Wooster gaurd able and willing to shoot the 3, and with the up-tempo offense centered on "shooting whenever you have a good look" is that Witucky's shot selection has sometimes seemed forced and awkward to me.  That is, he's not taking good shots.  It's just my opinion, but I feel that he was more effective last year when he passed up more shots in favor of another pass- and then only shot when he clearly was open.  He let the offense come to him and didn't try to press it.  Still, he's so good with the ball and with controlling the offensive flow for Wooster that his value is far beyond his shooting stats.

And I think he will be stellar this weekend because I still think he's a player that rises to the occasion.

[bishopsfan]

All of these recent conversations are great....but OWU scored 121 points on Saturday!!!  I was not able to make it to the game.  Could anyone update me on this game.  Did OWU just shoot the lights out or is Hiram really that bad?

[imderekpoe]

All of these recent conversations are great....but OWU scored 121 points on Saturday!!! I was not able to make it to the game. Could anyone update me on this game. Did OWU just shoot the lights out or is Hiram really that bad?

I'm guessing the answer is 'YES' to both!