MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[wally_wabash]

This seems fair.  To me, Witt seemed a bit high at #6...The wins were there, but it just hasn't been all that impressive thus far for Witt.  The Tigers have needed a total of 4 overtimes to get by Denison and Kenyon this year...not exactly the stuff of a top ten team. 

As always, it's not worth using much time scratching one's head over the top 25's as the polls are pretty irrelevant in the grand scheme. 

[gotigers]

very true

question...how do u gain karma? is that just something that somebody gives u for good comments? just wandering

[wally_wabash]

gotigers -

You'll find the answers to all of your questions here:

http://www.d3hoops.com/faq.php?question=41

[smedindy]

Witt's drop makes sense. I think a lot of people were just waiting for an excuse to downgrade Witt, because some of their wins were less than stellar. But they won, so they really couldn't penalize them.

[pennstghs]

i think the drop is rationalized certainly after their loss to OWU-after they prove themselves to be worthy again they will move up, however as we have been discussing the top 25 is somewhat irrelevant come playoff time. Their REGIONAL ranking is the one in which we should be concerned about.........

the osu beatdown is one of the top 5 greatest sports games of all time. its about time the buckeye fans were humbled a little

[WoosterFAN]

Do we have any definitive word on the Vandervaart injury?  I assume that we'll get an update at the beginning of the broadcast tonite.  I for one hope that it is not serious and that this senior can finish his last year on his terms.

Go SCOTS!!

[ScotsFan]

Witt's drop makes sense. I think a lot of people were just waiting for an excuse to downgrade Witt, because some of their wins were less than stellar. But they won, so they really couldn't penalize them.

I totally agree.  I don't know why you would be surprised by their drop in the polls?  IMO, this was just a case of Witt being overrated, but no one could do anything about it until they took another loss.  And they not only lost, but lost in a big way making it even easier for the voters to drop them down to where they ended up.

Do we have any definitive word on the Vandervaart injury?  I assume that we'll get an update at the beginning of the broadcast tonite.  I for one hope that it is not serious and that this senior can finish his last year on his terms.

WoosterFAN,

Wooster Booster posted the other day that he had word that Vandervaart did indeed suffer a broken wrist and in all liklihood is done for the season.  Also, in terms of listening for the broadcast, that would be tomorrow night as it's only Tuesday unless you enjoy listening to country music.

[woosterbooster]

Scotsfan, thanks!  I had a moment of panic there, wondering if as usual I didn't know what day it was and was missing the Kenyon game!

[David Collinge]

I think there's no doubt that Wittenberg's poll drop is reflective of not just OWU (who, BTW, did not rejoin the voting rolls this week as I had hoped they might) but of some of their close calls.  Plus their 17-point loss to ONU looks a little worse each passing week (although that doesn't seem to hurt Wooster's ranking much, but then again, nothing ever seems to hurt Wooster's ranking much.)  Wittenberg dropped further, in terms of points and poll placements, than ONU did, despite ONU going just 3-3 since New Year's Day.

Regarding Wooster's ranking, they've now been in the top 10 for 47 straight weeks, and in the top 25 for 70.  No current member of the Scots' varsity squad has ever dressed for a game in which the team was ranked lower than #14, and none of the non-seniors has ever been in a game carrying a ranking lower than #5 (they've been ranked lower than #5 twice in that span, but it was in the final polls of the last two years--#8 and #9, respectively--and they rehabilitated into a top 5 team before playing again the next season.)  Pretty amazing.  Now let's get a banner. 

[goscots]

The link below leads to a nice article comparing real life to reel life for the movie 'Hoosiers'. I lived in Indiana in 1966 when the local high school (Elston) won the state championship. Quite an event for the town. Back then there was only state champion, but as the article notes, Indiana switched to divisions in 1997. I lived in my current home in Ohio when the switch was made but I still remember the newspaper articles arguing pro and con for the switch.

Realistically I think divisions are a must. While it is a great story when a small public school goes deep into a tournament, I just don't think it would happen often enough.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoosiers#Based_on_a_True_Story

[goscots]

"(although that doesn't seem to hurt Wooster's ranking much, but then again, nothing ever seems to hurt Wooster's ranking much.)"

I think part of this resilience is that fact that Wooster rarely has a 'bad loss'.

Here is the list from the past seasons:

05-06  Baldwin Wallace (Moses Hole - 2 OT), Wittenberg, @OWU (on Senior day), @Transylvania (NCAA)
04-05  Wittenberg twice (both at home), @Albion (NCAA)
03-04  Capital, Wittenberg twice, JCU (NCAA)
02-03 Kalamazoo (Moss Hole), @Wittenberg, Williams (NCAA)

You might argue that the Transylvania loss should have dropped them out of the top ten last season but we all know how big home court advantage is in the tournament (and why the Scots need to win out).

Other than that gamesI would say the double digit loss at home to Witt in 04-05 and the Capital loss are the worst. But 2 or 3 bad losses over 4 1/2 seasons is not much of a reason to drop many spots

[oldknight]

I heard some very bad news today, that Tim Vandervaart's wrist is indeed broken, and that he's almost certainly through for the season.  A terrible break for both Tim and the Scots.  They'll miss him badly, and will have to hope that one or two of the freshmen can step in and play maybe before they're quite ready.

Sorry to hear about Vandervaart's injury. I was really impressed with him at the Mose Hole Classic last month. It's an especially tough pill when you have a team as good as Wooster's with a real shot at a Final Four berth. My sympathies to WooBoo, DC, ScotsFan, et. al.

[ScotsFan]

For my two cents on this whole high school divisions talk, personally, I think they are a must.  Yes, it makes for a nice story when little David rises up to slay the giant, but in reality, how often does that really happen.  Here's a little perspective of why divisions are needed.  Last weekend in the little town of Berlin, OH (down by David's neck of the woods down yonder in Holmes County  ) they have quite the basketball hotbed (especially the girls' team) at Hiland High School.  They are in the smallest division (Div. IV) in basketball.  The Lady Hawks are also the 2-time defending state champions in Div. IV and currently ranked #4 in the state in Div. IV.   Last weekend, they hosted arguably the premier girls high school basketball event in the state.  The Lady Hawks took on the role of David in challenging the #1 and #2 ranked teams in  Div. I!!!   And the result:  They lost by 25 to the #2 team and by 19 to the #1 team.  Even though they are clearly one of the top programs in Div. IV, it is also clear that they don't have the horses to compete with the giants of Div. I. 

The bottom line is that breaking the state tournaments down by divisions gives a heck of a lot more schools a shot at dreaming of a state title than the pipe dreams of becoming the next Milan or some equivalent of that.

[woosterbooster]

Today's Wooster Daily Record has an article on Tim Vandervaart's injury.  Four to Six weeks is the call, with the Scots holding hope that he might be able to return for some of the postseason.  Click below:

http://www.the-daily-record.com/news/article/1515782

[wally_wabash]

Alright, so who's giving Wabash a chance tonight?  I think there's two angles to play on this game:

- Witt is ticked about losing to OWU last week (although they've had a game since the loss) and won't be stopped

or

- Witt really isn't as good as we may have wanted to give them credit for, Wabash is playing much better basketball, and Wabash tends to play Witt tough at Chadwick so we could actually have a ballgame tonight

I think tonight is a big, big game for Wabash if Wabash is going to have a decent shot at getting their game back against Hiram/Gheny and getting that fourth and final home game in the tournament.  Wabash almost certainly needs to beat Woo/Witt/OWU for this to happen and tonight seems like the best chance to do so.