MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[woosterbooster]

A lot of factors played into last night's loss, not the least of which was the size of Bruckner and some of the other the Baptists.

Playing on the road, so far away, on the third day of the trip when the initial adrenalin rush was gone, certainly didn't help.  Wooster looked a step slow most of the night.  Although their 15 turnovers wasn't a terrible number, too many of them were on poorly planned upcourt passes that they don't usually make.  They were horrible at boxing out, usually a team strength, even on free throws, giving up way too many easy second chances.  They gave up too much penetration, and countless times their big men would then leave their own man, who would receive a dump-off dish for an easy layup or dunk.  The Scots kept the score close, but they sure looked off their game.

Point guard Brandon Johnson managed only 11 minutes on the court due to foul trouble.  He picked up his second early in the first half, even before I was able to navigate and obtain the video, and had to sit.  When he came back, he quickly picked up a third and then a fourth.  He was a non-factor, and you have to believe if he was on the court the Scots fortunes would have been at least somewhat better.

While the Baptists are a good team, this win moving them to 8-4, I think that given some better circumstances (a neutral court, or at least a road game closer to home) the Scots probably win it.

I'm not sure that I understand, or appreciate, the headline and story lead on the CB website:

http://www.cbulancers.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=8100&KEY=&SPID=3077&SPSID=37637

[Titan Q]

This was not a good loss.  Cal Bap is a middle of the row GSAC team.  It is always tough to go on the road and win  2,000 miles away from home but this should have been a Scots win.  If this was to either Concordia Irvine or Azuza Pacific which are the top of the league it would have been a difference.  Cal Bap may finish 4th or 5th in league.  Have to say this will probably not help the Scots maintain the #1 ranking.

Below is a post I made on the Top 25 board.  I went back and checked -- that Westmont team IWU beat last year by 18 finished 11-9 in the GSAC, tied for 5th in an 11 team league (ie "middle of the row GSAC ").  I was very impressed by Westmont though -- they were not far behind the level of the 4 teams that made the CCIW conference tourney.  IWU just played great in that one.

Keep in mind how good the GSAC is when discussing this.  "Middle of the pack" CCIW last year I guess was Illinois Wesleyan -- the #4 seed in the conf. tournament.  IWU finished 3rd in Division III.  The GSAC is every bit as good (or better) as the CCIW. 



The GSAC is one to the top 2 or 3 NAIA D1 leagues.  I've seen two Illinois Wesleyan games vs Westmont College on holiday trips.  In 1997, IWU's national championship team defeated Westmont by 8.  Last year IWU won by 18 while ranked #1 in Division III.   Both times I left very impressed with the talent level at Westmont, and I believe those Westmont teams both finished middle of the GSAC pack.

I don't know anything about Cal Baptist's 2006-07 team, but on paper it was probably a game a lot like IWU's last year vs Westmont.  Going into that one I looked at it like a road game vs a CCIW contender -- it was going to be tough, but one the #1 team in the nation should win.  (Westmont was not quite as good as the 4 teams that made the CCIW conference tourney last year, but just a notch behind.)  IWU played well in that game and handled Westmont on their floor.   I am guessing Wooster had a little bit of an off-night and Cal Baptist played well.  It was probably an upset, but not anything to get too worked up over. 

Now, if Cal Baptist goes on to win the GSAC or maybe even finish 2nd, I'll change my tune to say Wooster was not really even favored to win the game. 

[Titan Q]

PS The Westmont team that only lost by 8 to IWU's 1997 national champs finished 5-9, tied for 6th in an 8-team GSAC.

http://www.gsacsports.org/gsacmbkhistory.html

[ScotsFan]

Wooster Booster,

Was your video feed good enough that you could tell wheter or not Wooster was getting their money's worth on all the fouls that were being called against them?  I mean the ft disparity was pretty large in this game with CBU getting 38 attempts from the line compared to just 11 attempts for the Scots.  To me, that's where CBU won this game.  Couple in the fact that Wooster's floor general was basically a non-factor only logging 11 minutes due to foul trouble and you have a clear recipe for defeat against a quality NAIA opponent. 

As I said on the Top 25 board, Wooster can take a couple of things away from this loss.  One is the fact that they probably won't be facing any more 6'9" 270 lb. Div. I transfers the rest of the season and two, that this loss doesn't really exhist in terms of the NCAA and when it comes time to make selections and seedings in the NCAA Tournament.   Hopefully, they can get home for the Holiday, get re-energized and re-focused and come out ready to kick some PB arse a week from tomorrow!

[ScotsFan]

Come on guys, if Wooster really thinks ONU is loaded., why not meet them in the finals on Saturday and have two regional teams going head to head in the championship game? I think you are fooling yourselves if you truly believe a program is going to pick a team they think is going to give them the toughest game in the opening game of a tournament.

onefan, look at last year's Mose Hole and tell me who out of a field that included Lycoming, Thiel and B-W was going to give Wooster the toughest test?  And then tell me who Wooster played in the opening round?  I'll help you out.  It was B-W.  If ONU needs to use the fact that they were chosen as Wooster's first opponent because Wooster felt that they were the easiest opponent to beat to get to the finals as "bulletin board materiel" than they are hurting for motivation.  Think what you want, but I'll almost guarantee that Wooster's coaches and  players aren't appoaching this game as ONU being the easiest opponent in the field.

[woosterbooster]

The video wasn't clear enough, or from close enough, to get much of a read on the foul calls.  While I thought the announcers were very good and unbiased, questioning some of the calls in both directions, the picture was of typical internet streaming calibre, reminiscent of my early days of watching tv back in the snowscreen fifties, except in color.  The cameraman, also, wasn't too hot, sometimes forgetting to pan to the end of the court where the ball was.  That was mystifying in itself.

Plus, as I mentioned before, I missed the first ten minutes of the broadcast, which included Brandon Johnson's first two fouls.

Just an aside:

It turns out that one of the coaches in the volleyball club where I coach has Evan Will as a boyfriend.  Poor girl.  She's a junior at Wooster, as he is, and a really nice girl who also coaches volleyball at Wooster's Edgewood Middle School.  We got to talk for a bit last night and she told me she was hoping to watch the video feed last night if her dad could help her to figure it out.  I hope she had more luck than I did.

[wally_wabash]

Just watched the live stats and text play-by-play and it seemed like the Scots couldn't buy a rebound off a free throw miss. It must've happened 4 times in the final 2 minutes. It's gotta be hard to box out 6'7" and 6'9" but it sounds like there HAD to be some over-the-back calls missed.

I'm still waiting for Wooster to be part of a game that was refereed appropriately.  We've already seen a lengthy thread of Scots fans whining about the refs in a game that they won. And now, here's a guy, armed with a box score and the accompanying play-by-play and totally devoid of any audio or video evidence (regardless of quality), is going to claim that Wooster got jobbed by the zebras.  Absolutely must have been the case...Wooster doesn't lose unless they're playing 5 on 8.   

[woosterbooster]

Well, even playing 5-on-8, I think we can rest assured that Wooster will once again run Wabash out of the gym twice this season.  Some things never change.

[wally_wabash]

Well, even playing 5-on-8, I think we can rest assured that Wooster will once again run Wabash out of the gym twice this season.  Some things never change.

Whoa!  Why the swipe at Wabash?  Who was questioning whether or not Wooster is going to stomp Wabash this season?  What does Wabash have to do with Wooster's self-perceived inability to get a fair game out of the officials?  Let's stay on point here. 

[Li'l Giant]

Well, even playing 5-on-8, I think we can rest assured that Wooster will once again run Wabash out of the gym twice this season.  Some things never change.

Someone points out that Wooster fans are whining about the refs and WooBoo makes it personal. Some things never change.

C'mon, WooBoo. You going to get yourself banned and the NCAC board shut down again ?

Or is it sufficient to stay on point and answer us why every time Wooster loses, or wins a close game, there has to be a problem with the officiating?

[woosterbooster]

Gee, excuse me.  Did I wander into a Wabash fan club by mistake?  You're allowed to take potshots at the Wooster fans for complaining about the officiating but I'm not allowed to point out that, once again, Wooster will wipe up the floor with your manly school?  You don't think you made it personal first?

Sorry.  It's a two-way street.  Live on it.

[ScotsFan]

Ahhhh, it just wouldn't be the same in here without Wally showing his true feelings towards Wittenberg and Wooster.  I was beginning to miss it.

[wally_wabash]

What I was pointing out was that the Wooster war on NCAA officials has reached comedic levels.  It was bad enough with the excessive complaining from the Witt game (the most recent example...the past is filled with many, many more), but at least most of you actually saw that game.  Today I see somebody telling me that, based solely on a box score and a textual play-by-play, Wooster must have been screwed.  How you can't see this as being the most over the top example of this increasingly prevalent behavior here is beyond me. 

Wooster has to be one of the most fun teams in the country to watch and many of you get to do so on a very regular basis...yet an overwhelming number of posts here seem to be aimed at whining about the officials after nearly every single game (particularly in any game Wooster loses and every game against Wittenberg regardless of the outcome).  It doesn't make any sense to me why you'd ever let the game be about the officials when your team is so good.  I like to believe that Wooster fans are better than that. 

[Titan Q]

Both sides have landed a couple punches -- points made.  I can tell you that this conversation is headed nowhere from here though.  How bout getting back to basketball.

[Li'l Giant]

Gee, excuse me.  Did I wander into a Wabash fan club by mistake?

No, that's the football board. This is the Wooster Fan Club.

No one took a potshot at Wooster's team. No one disputes your team is great. We all know you'll destroy Wabash this year and probably the next 5.