MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[fantastic50]

When's the last time potentially Wittenberg and Wooster would face each other on a Friday night instead of Saturday.

Not in a very long time ...

Wittenberg and Wooster have been on opposite sides of the bracket in every NCAC tournament since Witt joined the league in 1989, with the possible exception of the 1992-93 season.  That year, Wooster was the #3 seed while Allegheny and Wittenberg shared the regular-season title; I'm not sure which was in the half of the bracket with Wooster.

[David Collinge]

Great win by Witt today, Witt went on a little run to go up by 7 at half and then put the game out of reach within minutes of the second half starting.

1- Kenyon better tighten up their turnovers before Tuesday, as I haven't looked yet but I'd say almost 1/3 of Witt's points were off of turnovers. Kenyon committed 19 turnovers. Even though Wittenberg committed 15 TO's, they were able to play solid D to counteract those.

2-Also, as I alluded to earlier, the depth thing can play into Witt's favor by throwing fresh bodies out there. 12 guys scored for Wittenberg today!!!!!

3-Kenyon can't compete over the course of an entire game with the athleticism on the boards for Wittenberg. They were outrebounded by 17.

Great crowd on hand as well. Should be a great NCAC tournament again this year. When's the last time potentially Wittenberg and Wooster would face each other on a Friday night instead of Saturday.

Oh, and
4-Kenyon played without their two leading scorers, both probable all-conference honorees, which means that over 45% of the offense was on the bench in warmups today.  I didn't see the game, but I'm quite sure that Witt felt able to key on Dave Knapke (0 pts., only took 1 shot) in the absence of Yelvington and Knight, and let the other guys beat them (they couldn't).  

It's possible that Yelvington will be back for Tuesday's game; I don't know the status on Knight, who injured his ankle during the OT vs. Hiram on Wednesday. 

[David Collinge]

NCAC Final Regular Season Standings (All Games)

1.  Wooster 14-2, 19-6
2.  Ohio Wesleyan 13-3, 17-7
3.  Hiram 11-5, 16-9
4.  Wittenberg 9-7, 13-12 (#4 seed in tourney)
4.  Kenyon 9-7, 15-10 (#5 seed)
6.  Wabash 7-9, 12-12 (#6 seed)
6.  Allegheny 7-9, 11-14 (#7 seed)
8.  Denison 5-11, 8-17
9.  Earlham 3-13, 3-22
10. Oberlin 2-14, 5-20

Tie-breakers, for the anal among us:
#4: Wittenberg swept Kenyon (73-61, 1/24 at KC; 68-44 2/21 at WU)
#6: Wabash defeated Allegheny in their only game (58-56, 1/3 at AC)
That was pretty easy...

[David Collinge]

Cribbing from wooscotsfan's post to add tip times:
NCAC Tournament Games on Tuesday

#1 Wooster hosts #8 Denison 7:30pm
#2 Ohio Wesleyan hosts #7 Allegheny 8:00pm (following women's quarterfinal, Witt vs. OWU, at 6:00pm)
#3 Hiram hosts #6 Wabash 7:30pm
#4 Wittenberg hosts #5 Kenyon 7:30pm

This is the first time since joining the NCAC in 1989-90 that Wittenberg will not host a quarterfinal doubleheader (the Witt women finished 5th).  Another amazing Witt streak gone by the wayside but worthy of commemoration. 

[pennstghs]

DC, I believe Knight will not be playing Tuesday, as he was in a walking boot today, not too promising. I did notice that Yelvington did not play. Witt had numerous guys on Knapke today and was taken out of the game. Kenyon was turnover prone on the perimeter and never got anything going really.

[David Collinge]

OWU, which hasn't won the NCAC championship since their magical 1987-88 national championship season, really had the title in their grasp a week ago, but look what happened:
    Wed: OWU 64, Oberlin 61
    Sat: Allegheny 59, OWU 57
I've said all season that I thought OWU had the best team in the conference, but this is a terrible way to go into the tournament.  I don't know what to think now.  They could repeat as tournament champions, or they could go out in the quarterfinals.  I can't figure this team out.  One thing is for sure: there's no Pool C bid available to the Bishops now, so they need three wins to extend their season.

[smedindy]

DC - I can't figure ANY NCAC team out this year. Is Wooster safe as a "C"? I think they'd better take care of Denison for sure.

[seinfeld]

Here are two sets of numbers:

13.5 ppg; 42% from the field; 39% from three-point range; 72% from the foul line; 6.4 rpg; 3.5 apg; 30 blocks & 28 steals

15.3 ppg; 51% from the field; 38% from three-point range; 77% from the foul line; 4.3 rpg; 3.1 apg; 12 blocks and 29 steals

The first belongs to Tom Port as a sophomore in 2004-05, the second belongs to Ian Franks this year, his sophomore year. While Port, due to his size and athleticism, was probably a little more of a factor defensively, clearly Franks is a better offensive player right now. Pretty remarkable considering Franks was mostly a JV player last year.

Franks' numbers this year are just about as good as Port's as a junior. These are Port's numbers as a junior, when he was an All-American:

15.4 ppg; 46% from the field; 38% from three-point range; 84% from the foul line; 5.9 rpg; 2.8 apg; 26 blocks and 21 steals.

I'm not saying Franks is as good as Port, because he isn't, but he is a lot closer than I think anyone could have imagined. And he is doing this while basically playing the point guard position. And as a result, he should get strong consideration for NCAC Player of the Year. Franks currently ranks in the top-10 in the league in scoring, field-goal percentage, assists, free-throw percentage and assist-to-turnover ratio. I still give the advantage to Yelvington, but Franks has probably joined Wes Smith and Chris Roberts as the three best returning players for next season (I apologize if I'm forgetting anyone).

[wooscotsfan]

If Wooster manages to win their next 2 games and then if they lose in the NCAC tourney final game, their record would be 21-7.  The last time that Wooster lost in the NCAC tourney final and finished at 21-7 was in the 2001-2002 season.  Wooster did not receive a Pool C bid at 21-7 that year and missed the NCAA tournament.

Acknowledging that the NCAA tourney field has expanded some since 2001-2002, there may be a small chance for a Pool C bid with that same 21-7 record this year.  However, as we all know Pool C bids become very scarce if a number of highly ranked teams are upset in their conference tourneys and then are selected as Pool C bids.  If there are too many upsets around the country, a 21-7 Wooster team will not get invited as a Pool C.  I can remember one season several years ago when a Capital team with only 5 losses failed to receive a Pool C bid due to a large number of upsets.

So, the best approach for Wooster is to play every game now as "One and Done"...as in you lose one game, you are done for the season.

First things first, Wooster better play a much better game on Tuesday than they did on February 11th when the Big Red took them to double overtime. 

GO SCOTS!

[woosterbooster]

Port and Franks -

I'm still amazed at Franks; both his ability to penetrate and, with his guard's frame, his ability to avoid, or even use, contact around the basket while finishing.  I think he's the best I've seen at Wooster in that regard.  And that's saying a lot, considering James Cooper just left town a year ago.  Don't underestimate Franks' defense, either.  After Bidwell, he'd be my next choice on the Scots to guard the other team's top guy at guard or wing.  I said this a few days ago but will say it again: next season, with Franks, Balch, and the return of Brandon Johnson, the Scots will have the best three-guard combination in the league, and one of the best in DIII.

Marty Bidwell Sr., now 1-0 as a guest coach, will no doubt be bending ears about how he masterminded today's rout of Earlham.   Seriously, he's gonna be missed in the stands next year, so let's extend this season as far as possible.   

[username........]

I really think that Chris Roberts should be in the top 2 when it comes to NCAC Player Of The Year....Averaging 17.2 points, 5.6 rebs...shot 50% from the field, 38% from 3 and 74% from the line....and is in the top ten in steals, assists and minutes played.....I really do believe that without Roberts...Hiram wouldn't even be in the equation this year. Maybe its just me.....

[David Collinge]

The final conference-only stats are up at the NCAC website.

Scoring: Despite missing the last four games with mono, Kenyon's Bryan Yelvington easily wins the scoring title with an average of 19.2 ppg.  Four other players averaged at least 17.0 ppg in conference action: Oberlin's Jordan Beard (17.9), OWU's Kyle Holliday (17.1), and Kenyon's J.T. Knight (17.0).

Rebounding: Jide Eniola of Hiram was the league's top rebounder at 8.1 rpg, and was even more dominant on the offensive glass, averaging 3.9 rpg to win that category by more than a carom and a half over Allegheny's George Raftis.  Kenyon's Dave Knapke finished second overall with 7.7 rpg, followed by his teammate Bryan Yelvington and OWU's Pat Pellerite, each at 7.5.  Knapke and Yelvington were the top defenisve rebounders at 5.6 and 5.5 rpg respectively.

Assists: Ian Franks of Wooster, at 3.81 apg, won this category, leading Hiram's Nick Russo (3.44), OWU's Kyle Miller (3.07), and Kenyon's Dave Jolson (3.07).

Steals:  OWU's Kyle Miller edged out Earlham's Shane Heidt, 2.33 to 2.27, to become the league's top thief.  Wes Smith of Wabash and Kenyon's J.T. Knight tied for third with an average of 2.0 steals/game.

FG%: OWU's Pat Pellerite and Kenyon's Bryan Yelvington finished in a virtual dead heat in this category, with Pellerite hitting 58.779% of his shots to Yelvington's 58.772%.  Pellerite's teammate Brent Pleiman was third at 57.6%.

FT%:  Wittenberg's Kevin Murray missed just two of his 38 free throws to finish with a league-leading FT% of .947.  Wooster's Justin Hallowell (.900) and Oberlin's Joardan Beard (.875) were the runners-up.

3PFG%:  Oberlin's Ryan Magiera was the only shooter in the conference to make more than half of his three-pointers while connecting at a rate of at least one per game.  He hit 19 of his 31 attempts, a rate of .613.  Kyle Holliday (OWU) and Jordan Beard (Oberlin), who attemped 87 and 104 treys, respectively, were next best at .494 and .490.  Beard connected on the most three-pointers, making 51 to finish ahead of Wooster's Justin Hallowell (45) and Holliday (43).

A/TO:  Nick Russo of Hiram, who committed just 20 turnovers in 16 games, had a ratio of 2.75 to win this category by a wide margin over Wooster's Ian Franks (1.56) and Marty Bidwell (1.45).

Blocked shots:  Kenyon's Dave Knapke swatted away 1.19 shots per game to lead the league in this category.  Wabash's Wes Smith (1.06) was the only other defender to record better than a block per game.

Minutes played:  Chris Roberts of Hiram was the league's Ironman, averaging 34.19 minutes per game to finish ahead of Allegheny teammates Craig Devinney (33.62) and George Raftis (32.69).

Congratulations all around!

[smedindy]

Just looked at the regional rankings. Wooster is 5th in the GL, behind Capital, JCU, C-M and Calvin. OWU was sixth but that will fall now, for sure.

It looks like Wooster will be the third or fourth GL team on the "C" board if they lose in the NCAC tourney, perhaps. If they lose to Denison, then all bets are off.

[ScotsFan]

If
First things first, Wooster better play a much better game on Tuesday than they did on February 11th when the Big Red took them to double overtime. 

I kind of think that game with Denison may have been a case of overlooking an opponent with a road game against your biggest rival looming on the horizon.  With that game so fresh in the minds of Wooster's players, I really doubt Denison comes close to pulling off the upset on Tuesday.  I'm not saying this game is going to be a blow out, but I just don't see Wooster overlooking the Big Red twice in less than a month...

And speaking of playing a better game Tuesday, OWU has not played poorly in one game, but now two games to end the regular season.  I would have thought that Oberlin's near upset bid on Wednesday would have been enough to be a wake up call for the Bishops, but I guess I was wrong as they blew a 10 point halftime lead at home to lose their chance to at least share the regular season conference title with Wooster.

Wooster now joins Wittenberg in winning 5 straight titles since the NCAC's inception!  Witt accomplished the feat from 1990-94.  The difference is, Wooster's 5 straight titles are outright!  Witt had to share titles with Wooster and Allegheny in 1992 and 1993!

Congrats to Marty Bidwell in joining last year's Wooster seniors as having never not won an outright NCAC title over their 4 year careers as  Fighting Scots!!!   8)

[ScotsFan]

Just looked at the regional rankings. Wooster is 5th in the GL, behind Capital, JCU, C-M and Calvin. OWU was sixth but that will fall now, for sure.

It looks like Wooster will be the third or fourth GL team on the "C" board if they lose in the NCAC tourney, perhaps. If they lose to Denison, then all bets are off.

CMU lost again last night to WashU.  I would guess they would fall below Wooster in the rankings.  And Calvin lost today as well and to lowly Kzoo to boot!  So, Wooster's position in the GL region may not be as bad as previously thought...  8)