MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[earlhamalum]

You know what... I know I should of been a Wabash fan... Cause i had 1000-999 odds the team i was going for would of LOST.  Why you may ask?  Cause i'm that big of a loser... Give me the Worst Karma ever... I'm Ready for it!  My basketball life sucks so bad... I was hoping IU would beat PSU... once again.. i should of been Routing for PSU... I'm done.. NHL for Life

[David Collinge]

Thanks for the play-by-play, Wally; EXEMPLARY use of the "modify" button.  I "applaud" you.

[fighting_scots]

Wow, what a night-- The Bash comes up BIG vs. Witt--a fitting night to honor the senior Lil' Giants with a win they will likely savor for a long time--

And the region has gone officially gone wild with BW upset by ONU at home--

It must be getting close to TOURNEY TIME!!

[wally_wabash]

Wabash has a chance if the guards play well. 

Medeiros, Joseph, and Woods got the bulk of the guard minutes.  Comibned they shot 10-24 which isn't great but they were 5-12 on 3-point field goals which is way better than they did in the first meeting.  

Wabash has and will struggle in the paint against Witt (but who doesn't really). 

Offensive rebounds: Witt 16, Wabash 7.  Hammer, nail, head, bang.  Witt actually had 21 second chance points to Wabash's one second chance point.  That's an amazing stat.

Medeiros and Joseph have to hit some shots. 

Boy did they.  Joseph had a huge three to end a Witt spurt in the second half.  Medeiros hit three triples, none bigger than the shot in the last minute.  These guys stepped up big tonight.

  Wabash is also going to have to defend the perimeter better this time around.  Witt killed Wabash with the three point shot the first time around.  I know Witt's post is strong, but if you're going to give up the 3 point shot to them, the Tigers have the players to burn you with it. 

Witt was 1-13 from outside tonight.  

The Crazies will help for sure, but the number one key is that Wabash has to shoot better.  38% won't ever beat this Witt team.  If Wabash can get that number up a little, they'll have a good chance.  But again, that's all going to have to start on the outside with the guards. 

Wabash ended 39.1%.  Not much better than 38%, but better.  The biggest key was keeping Witt's three pointers out of the basket and making just enough shots.  Witt shot just 32.7% tonight.  

And the Crazies were huge tonight.  They almost drowned out the broadcast on a handful of occasions.  

All in all not a bad pregame analysis.  The bottom line is that if you can play great defense against Wittenberg, you'll have a shot because the score will be low.  Hit a few big shots, and you can steal a win.  That's what Wabash did tonight.  

[David Collinge]

Here's the updated Regional Rankings:
Great Lakes
1. Wooster 18-1 22-1
2. Baldwin-Wallace 19-2 21-2
3. Wittenberg 16-2 21-2
4. Carnegie Mellon 14-3 18-4
T5. Calvin 9-1 18-5
T5. Hope 14-2 21-2

Here's a recap of tonight's scores involving NCAC and regionally ranked teams:

OWU 73, Oberlin 53
Allegheny 81, Hiram 72
Earlham 80, Denison 59
Wabash 51, #3 Wittenberg 46
ONU 72, #2 Baldwin-Wallace 68
#5 Calvin 78, Albion 66
#5 Hope 90, Alma 46

#1 Wooster and #4 CMU idle

[sac]

Well clearly after tonight 18-5 CMU deserves the #2 spot ahead of 22-2 Hope. 

[David Collinge]

I'm guessing that OWU is wishing they hadn't lost that one-point OT game to Earlham in January right about now.  Still, if they beat Wooster on Saturday (possible) and Allegheny beats Wittenberg (not possible), OWU would finish tied for 2nd (but lose the tiebreaker to Witt.) 

OWU is fairly quietly putting together a very nice season.  They're sitting at 16-8, with their losses coming to #1 Wooster, #4 Wittenberg (x2), a very good Robert Morris-Chicago team (ranked #2 in NAIA-II), Wilmington, Otterbein, Earlham, and Haverford; these teams have a combined record of 137-51 (the first five are collectively 104-15).

[Kramer]

If any one doubted Coach Ghiloni has lost control of this team look at the stats.  They are oficially done.

[Kramer]

soory - should be OFFICIALLY

[smedindy]

I looked at the stats - and it just seemed again they wre disinterested in playing D or rebounding. Some players are just unreachable - and selfish - at times.

[witt4ever]

kramer,

Look at Denison's turnovers and Earlham's points off turnovers.

Same as Witt last night.

Here's a proposition for you, I'll trade you Brown for Ghiloni and throw in Hemenway and Huelsman.   

[jimmychitwood15]

Whoa, witt4ever, you might want to take a step back there.

Have you ever heard of an off night? 1-13 from 3pt land couple that with 21 TOs that's a deadly combination for any team.  You're awfully quick to throw Coach Brown under the bus. Witt never has an easy task at Chadwick.

Take a glimpse at Brown's numbers: In his 13th season at Witt...

-Overall record of 296-69 (.810)
-10 of 13 seasons with 20+ wins
-18 wins fewest in any season
-6 NCAC Reg. Season Titles & 3 NCAC Tourney Titles
-4 time NCAC Coach of the Year
-Led the Tigers to 8 NCAA Tournament appearances

That's pretty damn good.

I am curious to find a coach with better numbers in DIII, I don't know exact stats but I bet there's not too many. I'm sure Coach Moore and maybe a handful more but not many.

[ScotsFan]

First of all, congrats to the Little Giants on the upset of Wittenberg.  What a great way to send those seniors off on senior night.  Now, just make one more memorable occasion and duplicate it if (when) the two of you meet up again in the conference semis!!!

On another note, it looks like someone forgot to take their bitter pills yesterday???  

What's positive about a 2-11 shooting night?  Why not just call it as it is...Fulk stunk last night.  There is no silver lining to 2 for 11.  Not to worry, even Redick has an off night now and then.  I'm sure Fulk's legacy won't be forever tarnished by the bad game he had in a 25 point win over Kenyon. 

At least it's nice to see Kenyon paying proper homage to the Scots on their webpage...Lord knows the rest of the conference isn't pulling their own weight in this endeavor. 

I don't dislike Wooster's team.  Quite the contrary.  I have become a little annoyed with some of the posts here concerning the all-encompassing greatness of Wooster Men's Basketball.  We've seen posters raise eyebrows about how much coverage Wooster's greatness gets (or doesn't get is more like it) on the websites of other NCAC schools.  We've seen posters try to loft Wooster's players into basketball stratospheres that they aren't even close to.  We've seen posters throw tantrums because Wooster players get fouled too hard.  The thing is that the rest of the NCAC isn't obligated to sit and marvel at Wooster's program.  They're good, we all know they're good but they aren't entitled to anything which is often the tone that a lot of posts take here. 

Thank God Wabash beat Witt, or who knows how far you would have fallen Wally?  My gosh, do you always have to be so critical???  Maybe angry is a better word to describe it.  Or maybe better yet, blowing things completely out of proportion and not letting things go.  You've become a little annoyed?  If this is a little annoyed, I'd hate to see you when you are totally annoyed.  Your problem is, you take things waaaaaay to seriously in here.  That's obvious by how you have brought up things that happened weeks ago.  Try letting go!  Another thing, why do you care so vehemently about Wooster's fans' opinions of things in here?  Maybe some of the things that come out are a bit far fetched, but Wooster is enjoying, arguably one of it's best regular seasons in the school's storied history, so if a few of us want to get excited, so be it.  Why don't you come down off of your high horse and try not to take everything so seriously.  I know I for one will start to take you less seriously the more you come out with your own annoying posts like the two I highlighted.  

[Kramer]

I agree Jimmy, I'd take him in a minute.  Great win for Wabash though.  It's good to see another team step up and beat one of the Big Two.

[ScotsFan]

One question I had regarding Witt is why don't they force the tempo a bit more?  By them slowing the game down to a crawl, it seems to allow decent teams like Wabash to stick around.  Sooner or later it'll bite you as it did last night.  I know Witt had an off night, but their talent level should be able to overcome off nights.  We know that Witt can play more up-tempo than they show almost nightly as evidenced by their 2 games with Wooster.  I know that Wooster's style dictates why Witt chose to up their tempo in those 2 games, but, I just think Witt allows too many teams to stay close, and eventually, it will bite you as it did last night.  I've always heard, the longer you let a team stick around, the more they start to believe they can, not only hang with you, but they might actually be able to beat you.  Witt let 'Gheny hang around way too long, and it nearly cost them that game.  Last night Witt allowed Wabash to hang around, and it did cost them.  I just think Witt would be better served if they opened things up a bit more.  Not to the point of what Wooster is doing, but at least more than they did last night and in most games. 

Also, with regards to the question about Coach Brown vs. Coach Ghiloni.  I think the numbers that jimmy posted are pretty darn convincing.  There should be no doubt, Brown is a no-brainer IMO.