MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

WooMix · February 25, 2009, 05:52:21 AM

The OWU loss caught me off guard. I totally did not see that one coming. Wow!

ECHOOPER · February 25, 2009, 07:21:49 AM

Quote from: lebron23 on February 24, 2009, 11:45:30 PM
it'll be a good semi-final matchup b/w the LG's and the Gators although it is setting up for a Wooster-Wabash championship game!

Wouldn't be so quick to give Bash the game over Gheny. Anything can happen as it did tonight. Plus the Ohio refs may not want an Indiana team in the championship game.

It will be tough for Wooster to lose at home when you look at the remaining teams. Riding the emotions and the way the can shot at Timken.

Ryder16 · February 25, 2009, 07:36:22 AM

As much as I like the odds of the scots winning the tournament now with the 2-4 teams out, how will this effect their strength of schedule and seeding in the NCAA tournament assuming they win ? how will it effect thier pool C odds if they lose ?

M.Knapke · February 25, 2009, 07:52:11 AM

Congratulations to all teams that advanced last night.

It is still a wide open tournament.

Any one of these teams can Win It! There is "NO CLEAR FAVORITE" in my humble opinion.

Lord Supporter

lebron23 · February 25, 2009, 09:27:14 AM

I'm not saying by any means that Wooster WILL win the tournament...but having home court advantage and only the 5, 6, and 7 teams remaining....you have to call Wooster the clear favorite...if you were to go to vegas and this tournament was hypothetically up for bet....what do u think the odds would be?...although any of the 3 other remaining teams could easily upset the scots....wooster is the clear favorite being the 1 seed with home court advantage....trust me though, the team will not practice and prepare as if they are, however....this is just my opinion and i'm 1-3 picking so far after one round so you can tell how well i do at betting against the underdogs!

David Collinge · February 25, 2009, 10:15:32 AM

Quote from: Ryder16 on February 25, 2009, 07:36:22 AM
As much as I like the odds of the scots winning the tournament now with the 2-4 teams out, how will this effect their strength of schedule and seeding in the NCAA tournament assuming they win ? how will it effect thier pool C odds if they lose ?

Kenyon's regional winning percentage (.619) is better than Wittenberg's (.526), so Wooster's OWP is actually better than it would have been.

wally_wabash · February 25, 2009, 10:16:25 AM

As I was telling LG last night, I really don't think there is a best team in our league this year. Wooster has been the most consistent since January, but nobody in the league is so good that they can win on a night when their opponent is on. We've had seasons in the past where even if one team was on, they probably weren't going to beat Wooster or Wittenberg. I can remember a game 2 years ago where Wabash hosted Wooster. The LGs could not have played a better game, Wooster probably couldn't have played much worse and Scots still won by five points. Sometimes you're just flat out better. But that isn't the case this year...any of these teams can beat anybody else. It'll come down to which team can stay "on" over the weekend.

ECHOOPER · February 25, 2009, 10:27:00 AM

Quote from: wally_wabash on February 25, 2009, 10:16:25 AM
It'll come down to which team can stay "on" over the weekend.

It will also come down to fatigue. All the games friday night will be tough and hard fought. So the team that wins the tournament will have to fight through everything to win. It may not be the best team that wins but it the team that has the drive to fight through the fatigue and beat a team that may be on.

wally_wabash · February 25, 2009, 10:45:34 AM

Quote from: ECHOOPER on February 25, 2009, 10:27:00 AM
Quote from: wally_wabash on February 25, 2009, 10:16:25 AM
It'll come down to which team can stay "on" over the weekend.

It will also come down to fatigue. All the games friday night will be tough and hard fought. So the team that wins the tournament will have to fight through everything to win. It may not be the best team that wins but it the team that has the drive to fight through the fatigue and beat a team that may be on.

This is a good point. I know that last season Wabash ended the regular season with games @Witt and @Denison then traveled to Allegheny for the quarters and then back to Wooster for the semifinals and championshp games. I think it added up to something like 5 games in 10 days all on the road. By the time Wabash got to the finals against OWU there was nothing left. Now this year, Wabash ended with the game @ Denison and then turned around quickly for the game at Hiram. One less road trip involved and the long one wasn't quite as long. Hopefully that means there will be a little more left for Wabash this time around and they can close the deal.

ScotsFan · February 25, 2009, 11:19:24 AM

Quote from: WooMix on February 25, 2009, 05:52:21 AM
The OWU loss caught me off guard. I totally did not see that one coming. Wow!

What in the world happened to OWU over the last week and a half of the season??? They had won 10 straight games heading into the last week of the season including 2 easy wins over Witt and an 18 point win over Wooster in that streak. And they certainly looked like they were the team to beat heading into the postseason at least from my perspective.

And then comes Oberlin's near upset bid which was definitely some foreshadowing of things to come. Or should I say a thing to come. And that thing was Allegheny! First last Saturday when the Bishops enjoyed a comfortable 10 point lead at home at the half. But Allegheny had other ideas outscoring OWU by 12 in the 2nd half to pull off the upset and in the process killed OWU's bid at sharing the regular season NCAC title with Wooster!

And then came last night. Nearly identical circumstances with OWU up 8 this time at home at the half. Surely lightning can't strike twice can it? I guess it does in Delaware as OWU blew a comfortable lead to the Gators for the 2nd game in a row! And just like that, what I had considered the most dangerous team heading down the stretch is now cleaning out their lockers! Hard to believe things went so bad so fast for the Bishops to end the season...

smedindy · February 25, 2009, 11:56:19 AM

First Hiram and then OWU hit the skids. Kenyon's skids were injury related, at least. What an unexpected final four in the NCAC! No OWU, no Wittenberg.

ScotsFan · February 25, 2009, 12:06:01 PM

Quote from: lebron23 on February 24, 2009, 11:45:30 PM
and as far as Wabash defeating Hiram, it wasn't completely unexpected but kind of disappointing the way the Terriers finished off the season....

I agree with the aspect of Wabash beating Hiram not being completely unexpected. If OWU hit a wall the last week of the season, Hiram hit that wall about a month ago when they lost to Wooster. It really looks like that loss really took the wind out of Hiram's sails! Had they won that game, who knows how differently things would have been. But that loss started Hiram on a tailspin losing 4 of their last 6 games to finish out the season.

I really think this had a lot to do with the youth of this team. They were not only young, they weren't accustomed to having to deal with the pressures of contending for the conference championship. I think that finally started to weigh on them down the stretch.

But they are young, and they should be able to build off of this cinderella season...

sac · February 25, 2009, 12:11:48 PM

Quote from: ECHOOPER on February 25, 2009, 07:21:49 AM
Quote from: lebron23 on February 24, 2009, 11:45:30 PM
it'll be a good semi-final matchup b/w the LG's and the Gators although it is setting up for a Wooster-Wabash championship game!

Wouldn't be so quick to give Bash the game over Gheny. Anything can happen as it did tonight. Plus the Ohio refs may not want an Indiana team in the championship game.

...because one from Pennsylvania is better?

David Collinge · February 25, 2009, 12:29:48 PM

Quote from: ScotsFan on February 25, 2009, 11:19:24 AMWhat in the world happened to OWU over the last week and a half of the season???

Without going into any unnecessary detail, a quick check at the Oberlin and first Allegheny boxscores might shed some light on one of OWU's key problems down the stretch. As for last night, Allegheny played very, very well in the second half, including making seven treys (54%), while shutting down Kyle Holliday (1 for 10) and keeping Pat Pellerite in foul trouble. Tim Brady had an excellent game, but so did George Raftis and Henry Heeter, and that was just enough. I think last night's story was more about how Allegheny won than how OWU lost.

kiltedbryan · February 25, 2009, 02:10:24 PM

I don't really want to make any predictions about this weekend, but I will say that I felt Wooster put together one of its best overall games last night- in nearly all phases of the game. I felt it was truly an inspired performance at Timken, especially in the first half. Quality rebounding, passing, shooting that involved the entire team. At one point early in the game, I believe that 7 of the 8 players who had entered the game had scored. Similar all-around efforts this weekend would make the Scots a hard team to beat.

The effort of this young Wooster squad seems to be peaking at the right time. Clearly the tragedy with Coach Cline's son put extra emotion into last night's game, but I think this team's true late season wake-up call was the double overtime win against Denison a few weeks ago. Since then, Wooster accomplished a nearly wire-to-wire win at Wittenberg (a challenge regardless of season and records), then utterly shut down Allegheny and ran away with the games against Earlham and Denison. Last night in the first half was the first time in watching the Scots this year where I sensed a confidence level that said "we know we're better than <insert opponent here>" and they played like it. It was a very Scots circa 06-07 experience to watch.