MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[Pat Coleman]

Beat Witt by a last-second shot at home. Doesn't mean they are entitled to be above Witt for all time. Obviously not too many people want to say Amherst is better than Wooster/Wittenberg at this point in the season.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Maybe they were psychic, and already took into account Amherst's fall to Oxy tonite!

[smedindy]

I just saw Oberlin dressed nine against Case. Will things pick up, now that Elvis Francois is back?

That game against Case had a listed attendance of 43. Wow!

I guess the other big question is when the NCAC will update their basketball site?

[ScotsFan]

Beat Witt by a last-second shot at home. Doesn't mean they are entitled to be above Witt for all time. Obviously not too many people want to say Amherst is better than Wooster/Wittenberg at this point in the season.

I would say that I'm more surprised that Wooster didn't fall a couple of spots further.  I would have guessed that they would've been at least 6 behind Albion and Hope.  Now, with Amherst's loss last night, I would hope that the The Lord Jeffs lose that silly #1 vote they have been getting and also fall out of the top 5 while they are at it.  Also, I don't think that WB was trying to imply that Wooster should still be ahead of Witt.  I think he was surprised, like myself, that Wooster only fell one spot more than the fact that Witt is now ranked ahead of Wooster. 

It is nice to see four teams from the GL Region in the top 6!  Had the poll come out today it would probably 4 in the top 5!!!  It will be interesting to see how the NCAA Regional Rankings will rank these teams.  Right now, just going by records alone and not D3Hoops poll, I would have to guess that Hope would be #1.  After that, Albion would probably be #2, although they do have a nice win over BW and their only loss wouldn't count against them, so you could arguably flip flop either one of them.  After that, its anybody's guess between Witt, Wooster and BW and you also have to throw CMU into the mix, although after their loss to Bluffton, I would say they would come in a notch below the previous 3.  We also can't forget ONU and JCU who are both very good basketball teams as well.  All in all, I think this is the deepest GL Region that I can recall.  Just looking at the top 8 teams that I mentioned, all of them would be more than capable of making a run in the tournament.  This is going to be a fun couple of months to watch how things unfold in the GL.

[woosterbooster]

Also, I don't think that WB was trying to imply that Wooster should still be ahead of Witt.  I think he was surprised, like myself, that Wooster only fell one spot more than the fact that Witt is now ranked ahead of Wooster. 

Yep, that was my point, although I'm sure I confused it by mentioning Wittenberg.  I'd figured that Wooster would fall to about fifth or sixth.

Jack

[ScotsFan]

Tonight's finals from the NCAC:

Witt - 80
Kenyon - 51

And Denison was unable to keep the momentum going.

OWU - 91
Denison - 58

I'm sure that DenisonFan will have something to say in regard's to the Big Red's performance tonight...

[ScotsFan]

Mighty IWU has fallen tonight!!!  NCC upsets the #1 team in the land:

NCC - 74
IWU - 70

Will this loss be enough to dethrone IWU from their lofty #1 ranking?  We will have to wait and see.  One thing this does prove is that Mighty IWU IS beatable!!!

[Li'l Giant]

you see? you see? he's not a machine! he's a MAN!

[woosterbooster]

Apparently an underrated non-slouch that knocked them off, and did it at IWU, too. North Central is now 10-0, and until tonight their closest game was 11 points, although their opposition looks a bit suspect. They are currently ranked 31st.

[sac]

Scotsfan you bring up an interesting observation of the potential GL region poll right now.

Hope or Albion would be 1 and 2 with NO INREGION losses the most important element in the regional rankings.

But by the time the first regional ranking comes out Hope or Albion will have at least one loss since they square off next Wednesday night.

As a side note I'm very impressed with Albion considering their losses to graduation.  I said last spring they have some good players in that program and they wouldn't fall that far off, but I certainly didn't expect this kind of a start.  I thought they'd be good by years end.

I'd take a Sectional with Albion, Hope, Wittenber and Wooster in a heartbeat.  wow.

.....of course we'd have to host it in the nicest facility in d3 here in Holland 

[David Collinge]

If we had that quartet in a sectional, we'd all blow our stacks.  That's a final four, not a sectional. 

But it'd be great...

[sac]

I've been to the Final Four

I'm confident most years the Sectional in the Great Lakes is as good or better than the Final Four.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Will this loss be enough to dethrone IWU from their lofty #1 ranking?  We will have to wait and see.  One thing this does prove is that Mighty IWU IS beatable!!!

I haven't seen ANYONE who said IWU was unbeatable (though I, for one, was HOPING they would go unbeaten).

Since #2 and #3 also have a loss (as does presumably FORMER #4 Amherst), who knows?  To me (barring any further upsets) the top five is clearly IWU, Woo, Witt, Hope, and Albion, but I could make a case for ANY order of those five.

[Mr. Ypsi]

I've been to the Final Four

I'm confident most years the Sectional in the Great Lakes is as good or better than the Final Four.

Since the Great Lakes does not include the WIAC, CCIW, NJAC, NESCAC, or ODAC (and the occasional 'stray' team), are you SURE you want to make such an over-the-top  comment?!

[David Collinge]

IWU is in a pretty dominant position in the poll, leading #2 Witt by 59 points (a little more than 2 poll placement positions).  I expect that, all things being as they are now, they'll lose a bunch of #1 votes but maintain the overall #1 position.

Personally, I'd vote for Wittenberg. 

Sac, you're right (as always); I'd say that last year's GL sectional tournament was better than the final 4 (which I was at), and I think that might still have been true if all 4 sectional teams had lost in the sweet 16 (making the GL sectional Wooster, Wittenberg, Aurora, and Maryville of TN).  Actually, I think Final Four participant York would have struggled and probably lost in a first-round game against all but two of the teams in the Great Lakes/South bracket (those being Methodist and Bethany).

For those who may have come in late, here's the games I'm talking about:
Sweet 16:
JCU 75, at Witt 68 (2OT)
at Albion 59, Wooster 58
Calvin 71, at Aurora 59
Miss. Coll. 68, at Maryville 62

Sectional at Albion:
Albion 80, JCU 79
Calvin 75, Miss. Coll. 60
Calvin 60, Albion 52

Final Four:
UWSP 81, York 58
Rochester 65, Calvin 62
UWSP 73, Rochester 49
Calvin 98, York 84