MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[DenisonFan]

Another note on the DePauw game.  Austin Brown, who made the shot, his Dad, Dudley, played guard at Denison in the early 70's and is one of the top ten all time scorers.  To bad Austin didn't follow his Dad.

My take on the Witt/Wooster game.  In the first two meetings Wooster let the towers have their points and Wooster just out gunned them.  Same thing in this last game, the only problem Wooster had no bullets in those guns.

Good luck to each and hopefully they can meet again.

[Vanilla24COW]

I too would give a lot of credit for Wooster's struggles to Witt's defense. Their guards did a good job of pressuring Cooper and even though he had 20, it was a quiet 20. They did a great job of taking away COW's 3 point shooting. I will only say this once and it did not have a bearing on the outcome of the game but the officiating for an NCAC championship game I thought was poor. Now had the officiating been good Witt would have still won the game don't get me wrong as it was bad both ways. Good luck to both NCAC teams in the tourney, I too like Witt over BW as the great Dane and the DR I think will more than neutralize Tori Davis. On a sidenote it is great to see D3 getting some pub both on Sportscenters top 10 but also on Mike and Mike in the morning, hopefully the HERD will wake up and give some props to the pure student/athletes who are out there not because of money or dreams of the NBA but purely for the love of the sport.

[woosterbooster]

The Great Dane. I love it!  And that's why they call Russ "The Doctor", because of his initials, D.R. Duh.

Playing catch-up here, WB

[ScotsFan]

I agree with Witt having a matchup advantage over B-W.  If Witt can neutralize Tori Davis with Russ and Borchers, I think B-W will be in big trouble.  For one thing, B-W's perimeter game isn't close to what Wooster's is.  If Davis is a non-factor, Witt should win.  Also, who does B-W have to stop Witt's twin towers? In B-W's game with Wooster, they only outscored Wooster 54-46 in the paint.  And that was with Davis going for 44!  I would be very surprised to see Davis go off for half of that against Witt.   The way I see it, the only chance B-W has is to get one or both of Witt's bigs into foul trouble.  Davis certainly has the ability and quickness to draw fouls.  If he can get one or both in some foul trouble, B-W might have a chance.  But at the same time, what if Witt were able to get Davis in some foul trouble? 

[pennstghs]

lets not look ahead to saturday as of yet because both witt and bw have tough games friday night-i am remaining confident that witt will come out ready to play. lake erie is a guard oriented team-i guess u could say similar to wooster but not quite on that level

bw fans-dont look past carnegie mellon-pittsburgh has a great recruiting base and any team that can beat the princeton offense is obviously defensively astute.

[pennstghs]

another thing if it comes down to it-hope is not a place i would like to see witt or wooster play in tournament time because the looks of the gym and support are awfully intimidating and that venue could cause major problems for road teams with an intense tournament crowd.

lets hope witt wins this weekend so witt and wooster dont have to make the trip up north because i believe witt has the best chance to host the sectionals because a potential witt, wooster, hope, mississippi foursome would make witt the central location and you know those extra $$$ count-

but then again our government doesnt seem to mind about pointless budget deficits..............................

[earlhamalum]

It looks like Hiram, Hired a new coach. 
http://www.hiram.edu/athletics/news/article.xsp?id=820

Looks like he played and graduated from Hiram in 1994, with plenty of coaching experience aftewards.

[smedindy]

I finally did the final power ranking amalgamation of the year:

Here is the NCAC:

2. Wittenberg
5. Wooster
58. Ohio Wesleyan
102. Wabash
138. Earlham
230. Allegheny
256. Denison
321. Kenyon
361. Hiram
370. Oberlin

[smedindy]

For those who want to know:

Wittenberg's portion of the bracket:

Witt (2)
Baldwin- Wallace (4)
Carnegie Mellon (18)
Lake Erie (73)

Wooster's portion:

Wooster (5)
Transylvania (9)
Randolph - Macon (28)
Bethany (41)

[78rmc]

All of this talk about Wansley?  I don't think he will hurt Wooster.  Actually, I would suggest that you not even cover him.  He's used to double and triple teams, so leaving him alone may be your best defense.

[ScotsFan]

There's something eerily similar to Wooster's 1st round matchup in comparison to last year.  Going by the latest top 25, R-MC is ranked #26.  That is the same ranking that B-W came in with last year in their 1st round meeting with the Scots.  Also, R-M and B-W both share the same mascot (Yellow Jackets).  Only difference is, Wooster will be taking on R-M on a neutral court as opposed to taking on B-W in Timken.  Just some fun observations.

Anyone planning on making the trek down to the Bluegrass State this weekend?  WoosterFAN, being from Cincy, you actually have a shorter trek to Lex than you would if the games were in Wooster.  I'm still debating on whether I want to make the almost 5 hour drive if Wooster happens to get by R-M on Friday.  In case anyone was wondering about the ticket situation, they are alotting 200 tickets to Wooster.  They will be on sale at the PEC tomorrow from 2-4 and Thursday from 9-11 and 2-4.  Tickets are $6 for adults and $3 for students.  One ticket will get you into both games on Friday night.

Also, it looks like Transy's spring break doesn't start until March 10th, so their students should be there in full force.  I wonder if Wooster will try and send a bus load of students down to any of the games in Lex?

[ScotsFan]

One thing I've noticed no one has touched on, but could come into play somewhat is the long layoff between games for R-MC.  They played the ODAC finals 8 days ago.  That will be an almost 2 week layoff.  On one side, you could argue that it gives a team extra time to heal and rest.  But, with extended layoffs, also comes rust and losing that feel for real game speed.  And this could especially hurt R-MC to have to come out running with a team like Wooster following the layoff.  Just trying to keep some conversation going.  It's still a long way till Friday...

[imderekpoe]

Anyone planning on making the trek down to the Bluegrass State this weekend? 

I'll be there!  I live in Columbus, but my company happens to have an office in Lexington so I made arrangements to work down there on Friday so that I could just bop on over to the game after work!  I know my parents and some of their friends are also coming down.

[pennstghs]

man this is like last week with the wait until the weekend. i cant wait for the games to begin this weekend.

i was looking at devos, hopes home court, man that gym with its capacity could rival many d1 schools

[TigerFan_1973]

Anyone planning on making the trek down to the Bluegrass State this weekend? 

I am hoping to motor up to Springfield to see Wittenberg in action.  I was there when they played Carnegie Mellon in the regional at Wittenberg in 1977.

As luck would have it, I live almost exactly half-way beteeen Wittenberg and Transylvania.  Witt played and beat Transy earlier in the year. 

Perhaps there is another matchup yet to happen between Wooster and Witt.