MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[David Collinge]

Outside of the Wooster high school girls, Denison is the worst team that I've seen this season.  That includes all of the NCAC, all of Wooster's other home opponents, NAIA school Walsh, and 19 girls high school teams at the Classic in the Country at Hiland.  I'd pick Oberlin over them even on a neutral court, but probably not at Denison.

Denison 75, Oberlin 48, Jan. 10 at Denison.  Of course, that was part of the two-game Denison Renaissance, or Denaissance, which came to a sudden and bloody end at the hands of the Medici-like Kenyon (73-70) and Hiram (120-117, 4 OT) squads

[wally_wabash]

Didn't Walsh win a national championship or at least play for one a couple of years ago (with a Wooster transfer I believe)?  Have they really fallen off that far? 

[smedindy]

Saturday night I'll get to see the pillowy-soft Big Red in all of their glory.

[Schwami]

From the Wabash website:

"It was the Wabash defense that proved to be the difference-maker in the game. Three weeks after giving up 55 points to the Bishops' Ben Chojnacki and Dustin Rudegeair, the Little Giants held the duo to combined 13 points. Chojnacki, the leading scorer for OWU coming into the contest, finished with only four points before leaving the game in the second half with an injury to his left knee. Rudegeair, the North Coast Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Week, was held to eight points on 1-of-5 shooting from the field."

Let's hope the injury to Ben Chojnacki is not serious.

[TigerFan_1973]

Witt has always done a first class job at staging events.  They have hosted a number of NCAA regional-type (quarterfinal, etc.) games. 

In fact, Witt has been the host school for the D3 Final Four four times, from 1989-1992.

Thanks for that reminder.

I forgot about that.  I didn't get to pay much attention to Witt during that period.

TF

[Witt4ever]

Didn't Walsh win a national championship or at least play for one a couple of years ago (with a Wooster transfer I believe)?  Have they really fallen off that far? 

Yes, Walsh won the NAIA II title  in 2005 with UC transfer Robert Whaley. He was selected in the 5th round of the NBA draft by the Utah Jazz and named player of the year in NAIA.

Randy Sistrunk was the player from COW.

They are currently ranked 2nd in the country.

[tigerup07]

Correction: Ryan Maurer is Director of News Services for Witt, not Director of University Communications. Sorry about that. But regardless the fact remains that he has two fulltime jobs and does them both, all while being a husband and father (his kids are amazingly cute if you ever get the chance to meet them, but I'm sure they'll grow up to be stellar athletes and record breakers for Witt)

About the students at Witt, and your comment TigerFan, I know what you mean. For four years straight now, I've been explaining to people that yes, there's a game tonight and you should come, and yes, Witt has a Pep Band, its been around a couple of years now, and yes, we went to the national championship game. It gets aggravating but some students just really don't care. There's a large trichotemy on campus. You get students who are athletes or sports fans, then you have students that are wrapped up in their studies and activities, then you have students who (excuse me for this but its true) are nerds and just play video games and read comics all day.
It's good to have dedicated students but in my mind I just don't know how anyone can be so uninterested even when the team just went to the NCAA finals. Just my opinion though.

[wally_wabash]

Didn't Walsh win a national championship or at least play for one a couple of years ago (with a Wooster transfer I believe)?  Have they really fallen off that far? 

Yes, Walsh won the NAIA II title  in 2005 with UC transfer Robert Whaley. He was selected in the 5th round of the NBA draft by the Utah Jazz and named player of the year in NAIA.

Randy Sistrunk was the player from COW.

They are currently ranked 2nd in the country.

I thought that was the case...Walsh beat my hometown Oregon Tech in the semis that year I believe.  Come to think of it, Walsh knocked Oregon Tech out of the tournament last year also.  Maybe this is the year the Hustlin' Owls get a little revenge.   

[pennstghs]

tigerup07-i echo your thoughts-i have been saying this for a long time as well. in fact i made the comment last night at the game as it was the first wednesday-midweek game in a while "wow this crowd is pathetic." i guess the matchup wasnt as anticipated as some may be. i think next wednesday's game home vs OWU is going to be indicative of how the wittenberg students respond. everyone shows up for the wooster game just to say they went but generally dont care or follow the team the rest of the year as religiously as myself or others may do.

hey at least we dont inflate our attendance numbers like otterbein haha-for those of you who dont know what im talking about i reference you to the OAC board's recent discussions

[WillieBrown]

everyone shows up for the wooster game just to say they went but generally dont care or follow the team the rest of the year as religiously as myself or others may do.

Pennstigs you have some kind of crazy complex where you believe that since you are at every game that you are in some way superior to the other fans that have time commitments. I mean go to the games, enjoy yourself, waste your time driving to allegheny and wabash to see us beat them by 20, but dont come back here degrading the rest of the Witt fan base because we dont show up for a wednesday evening game against Earlham. This STILL IS the NCAC and we can take off 10-12 games a year and still win by 20. Just have a drink and relax on the greater than thou attitude.

[David Collinge]

Didn't Walsh win a national championship or at least play for one a couple of years ago (with a Wooster transfer I believe)?  Have they really fallen off that far? 

Yes, Walsh won the NAIA II title  in 2005 with UC transfer Robert Whaley. He was selected in the 5th round of the NBA draft by the Utah Jazz and named player of the year in NAIA.

Randy Sistrunk was the player from COW.

They are currently ranked 2nd in the country.

This post got me thinking about how the NAIA opponents of Wooster are faring.  And since I'm all about keeping the peace between the Wittfields and the MacLeods this week , I'll throw in Witt's NAIA opponents too.

Walsh, as noted, is 20-3 and ranked #2 in NAIA-II.  Wooster defeated Cavs 85-68 at Walsh on Nov. 25.  Walsh has won 16 straight games since losing in OT at Cedarville on Dec. 9.
Georgetown (KY) is 19-3 and ranked #6 in NAIA-I.  Wooster defeated the Tigers 80-73 on Nov. 28 in Wooster.  Georgetown has won 10 straight games, and 12 of 13 since losing to the Scots.
Cedarville is 16-6 and ranked #17 in NAIA II.  Wittenberg defeated the Yellow Jackets 66-61 on Dec. 5 in Springfield, then (after the YJs beat Walsh) Wooster beat them 104-95 on Dec. 16 in Wooster.  Cedarville then lost their next three games (two to ranked teams--#8 Huntington and #12 Mt. Vernon Nazarene,) but has rebounded to win seven of eight, their only loss coming last week at #2 Walsh by 7.  Before losing to Walsh, they got their revenge on #12 MVNU, 90-67.
California Baptist is 14-7 and in the "others receiving votes" category of NAIA-I (effective #27.)  The Lancers beat Wooster 94-89 on Dec. 20 in Riverside.  Since then, CBU has gone 6-3 in the tough GSAC, losing to third-ranked Concordia in OT, to #14 San Diego Christian by 2, and ORV Biola, and won at #12 Asuzu Pacific by 11.
Indiana-Southeast is 18-8 and in the "others receiving votes" category of NAIA-II (effective #37.)  Wittenberg beat the Grenadiers 78-47 on Dec. 30 in Springfield.  Southeast is 6-3 since then, losing by 23 at #6 Georgetown and by 7 at ORV Asbury.

This is a pretty stout collection of teams that have been very successful this season, and Witt and Woo collectively went 5-1 against them, providing nearly 20% of their collective losses on the season.  Hooray for us! 

[pennstghs]

Willie-did i say i go to every game or mention you at all? no didnt think so. i have been to a total of 5 games this year to be honest. from the past is what i was referencing the fact that most students don't seem to care all that much about what is going on. i never said that they had to drive to away games i was talking about home games, so before you start attacking get your facts straight.

o yeah u might want to spell my name right too-that just detracts from your credibility

[TigerFan_1973]

and yes, Witt has a Pep Band, its been around a couple of years now,

Witt's always had a pep band ...

What's this about it being around a couple of years now?

I did miss a few years in there, but surely you are not telling me that there were years without a pep band?

Next you will tell me that they don't ring the bell the number of points after a score in football anymore!  It was a bit of a chore when they would get up 56-0 sometimes.

I guess I'm getting old, but I feel the urge to talk about the good old days again!

TF_1973

[earlhamalum]

TigerFan_1973 and others-  I enjoy the fact that 2/16/00 at HPER Center in Springfield, OH on one of those random Wednesday night NCAC game where Wittenberg was suppose to win by 20 Wittenberg rented not a pep band for that game but a BAND.  (Black college band or High School?? I can't really remember) they had to be 125+ out of the 824 in attendance that night.  They kind of heckled us (Earlham players) before the game started, but by the 2nd half we had us 125 + fan, courtesy of Wittenberg College.   Never knew how to say thank you for that!   

Oh by the way Earlham 71 Wittenberg 60          

[smedindy]

DC - That's all well and good for Witt and Woo - but then there's the other 8....

Kenyon beat Myers

Ohio Wesleyan lost to Aquinas and triumphed over Notre Dame (Ohio)

Wabash beat IU-South Bend and lost to Oliver Nazarene.

Allegheny, Dension, Earlham, Hiram, Oberlin didn't play NAIA teams.

So that's 8-3 vs. the NAIA. And 1-0 against "OTHERS" since Wabash dispatched Cincy - Clermont with ease!