MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[David Collinge]

I watched it, but I'm very hesitant to draw any sweeping conclusions from a medium resolution, fixed-position camera that may not be watching the part of the action I would have watched.  That said, it looked like Hiram had a lot more energy than Witt from the get-go, which may have been a combination of Hiram's enthusiasm for this particular matchup and Wittenberg's endless bus ride (long enough normally, but the hours-long traffic jam didn't help.)  Hiram basically could do no wrong early on.  They have a lot of raw athletic ability, and when it works (which is not too often), they're hard to stop on either end.  Wittenberg seemed to me to be too willing to settle for the long three, and as they weren't falling early, they fell far behind and had to play catch-up all afternoon.

[WooHoopsntrack01]

WOW!     All of this is huge for the Scots as they came out of a nail biter 1-0 in the NCAC.  And with Wabash, Witt, and OWU going down, this could also have been the week of separation.  Gonna be interesting.

As for the comments about Hallowell, I'm not so sure if he is gonna get it going.  At the Albion game, and I hate to say this, I was like "THATS HIM?" Was very unimpressed as he did not shoot the ball well and his D had me dumbfounded.  The Scots are going to have to rely on grit and gutsy performances if the are going to pull this thing out.  I think we (SCOTS FANS) are hoping this is just the bitter waters period before the sweetness comes!  Regardless, we're in for a great year in the NCAC!! 

Big road trip for the Scots now.  If they can take 2, wow,....could be turn around they need!  Get'em ready coach!!!

[seinfeld]

WOW!    All of this is huge for the Scots as they came out of a nail biter 1-0 in the NCAC.  And with Wabash, Witt, and OWU going down, this could also have been the week of separation.  Gonna be interesting.

As for the comments about Hallowell, I'm not so sure if he is gonna get it going.  At the Albion game, and I hate to say this, I was like "THATS HIM?" Was very unimpressed as he did not shoot the ball well and his D had me dumbfounded.  The Scots are going to have to rely on grit and gutsy performances if the are going to pull this thing out.  I think we (SCOTS FANS) are hoping this is just the bitter waters period before the sweetness comes!  Regardless, we're in for a great year in the NCAC!!  

Big road trip for the Scots now.  If they can take 2, wow,....could be turn around they need!  Get'em ready coach!!!

Wooster is 2-0, not 1-0. And if you think Hallowell can't shoot, you must not have gone to a single Wooster game last year -- like these two:

http://www.the-daily-record.com/news/article/4525256

http://www.the-daily-record.com/news/article/4536937

Not to mention that he was the Freshman of the Year in Div. III. What does that have to do with this year? Nothing, other than he isn't sneaking up on people, which is another reason he needs to diversify his game. As for defense, the few times I've seen him, I think he is better this year.

[ScotsFan]

WOW!     All of this is huge for the Scots as they came out of a nail biter 1-0 in the NCAC.  And with Wabash, Witt, and OWU going down, this could also have been the week of separation.  Gonna be interesting.

As for the comments about Hallowell, I'm not so sure if he is gonna get it going.  At the Albion game, and I hate to say this, I was like "THATS HIM?" Was very unimpressed as he did not shoot the ball well and his D had me dumbfounded.  The Scots are going to have to rely on grit and gutsy performances if the are going to pull this thing out.  I think we (SCOTS FANS) are hoping this is just the bitter waters period before the sweetness comes!  Regardless, we're in for a great year in the NCAC!! 

Big road trip for the Scots now.  If they can take 2, wow,....could be turn around they need!  Get'em ready coach!!!

You should know better than to draw conclusions after just seeing him in person once.  As for why Hallowell has seemed to have lost his shooter's touch, I'm sure he's wondering that himself.  But, it's not as though Justin is the only Wooster player struggling to find their shot either.  Nate Balch shot nearly 50% from deep last season and he was having trouble drawing iron in yesterday's game.  Personally, I think some of the struggles that Wooster had yesterday shooting the ball could be attributed to Kenyon's gym.  It's not a particularly common gym as there is a lot of glass behind the baskets.  IIRC, Wooster seems to always struggle shooting at Kenyon since they opened up their new gym.

Heck, if you look at the stats from yesterday's game, Franks was far and away Wooster's best shooter on the day as he canned 5-7 treys.  The rest of the team was a miserable 4-22 from beyond the arch!  So, Hallowell isn't the only one struggling to find his range.

Personally, I can't remember a Wooster team that has struggled this much from 3-point range.  The Scots are shooting well below 40% so far this season and they only have one player shooting over 40% and that is Matt Fegan checking in at 43%.  And for as hot as Franks was yesterday beyond the arc, he was only 4-16 prior to yesterday's 5-7 performance.

I just think the part that is the most puzzling is that we are talking about proven shooters here.  Both Hallowell and Balch were at or over 50% from deep last year and they are both struggling to crack 30% this season.  All we as fans can do is hope that shooters touch returns and soon!  These guys are too good of shooters to not find their range sooner or later.  I just hope they find that range sooner than later... 

[BigRedFan]

Big win by the Big Red!!!  Congrats to Luther on his 32 points......10 for 10 from the line....VERY NICE!!

Looks like the big 3 may have their hands full this season.  Not to say they won't end up on top, it would be nice to have a little compitition.

It will certainly make for some exciting games!!!

GO BIG RED!!

[David Collinge]

Looks like the big 3 may have their hands full this season.  Not to say they won't end up on top, it would be nice to have a little comp[e]tition.

I'm very curious to know who you see as the "Big 3."  Last year, the top three in the standings were Wooster, OWU, and Hiram, and Hiram's lead over 4th place was two full games.  On the other hand, the tournament final four was Wooster, Wabash, Allegheny, and Kenyon.  And a traditional rendering of the "Big [Any Number]" in the NCAC must include Wittenberg.  So which three of these were you thinking of?

[ScotsFan]

Looks like the big 3 may have their hands full this season.  Not to say they won't end up on top, it would be nice to have a little comp[e]tition.

I'm very curious to know who you see as the "Big 3."  Last year, the top three in the standings were Wooster, OWU, and Hiram, and Hiram's lead over 4th place was two full games.  On the other hand, the tournament final four was Wooster, Wabash, Allegheny, and Kenyon.  And a traditional rendering of the "Big [Any Number]" in the NCAC must include Wittenberg.  So which three of these were you thinking of?

I was kind of wondering this myself.  Traditionally speaking, the NCAC has been the "Big 2" with Witt and Woo battling it out and everyone else fighting for scraps.  Occasionally, OWU or Wabash will have a decent showing and put in a scare to either of the Big 2, but the staying power of either of those 2 hasn't been there.  I really wouldn't say there's been anything but the big 2 up until last year and possibly this year.

I will say, it is nice to see some of the traditional lower tier teams rising up to challenge the likes of Woo and Witt.  A few years ago, the only question wrt a Witt/Hiram game or a Woo/Kenyon game was how big the margin of victory was going to be.  Now, low and behold, Hiram has actually beaten Witt 3 times in a row!  And Kenyon really deserved to win that game vs. Wooster which really would have shaken up the standings!  And Denison made everyone take note that they're not going to be an easy out either with the way they handled Wabash. 

If things continue the way they went down last weekend in conference play, this season has the makings of being one of the most balanced and competitive conference races we've had in the NCAC.  To me, it looks like any team from 1-8 in the conference has the potential to pull off a win over anyone in this conference.  I can't recall a year when I looked at the top 8 teams in the conference and thought that.

As BigRedFan noted, this will indeed make for some exciting games and an even more exciting conference championship race!

[BigRedFan]

Witt and Woo for sure but I always consider OWU part of that mix.  Year in and year out OWU can beat anyone.  Coach DeWitt has done a great job since coming there and I have the utmost respect for him and his program.

Sorry for the mass confusion.  My bad.

[David Collinge]

No worries.  Anyway, I'm right there with you: I also have a great deal of respect for Coach DeWitt and his program, something I hope shows through in my posting.  And yet I'm also right there with ScotsFan in that I'm thrilled by the appearance of parity in the conference, something we've seen precious little of.  After all, OWU is currently tied for ninth place!

If the conference race is going to be a war, it can only help the team that emerges and goes on to the NCAAs.  I'm not sure that two months of blowouts interrupted by the occasional nailbiter has done Wooster a lot of good in recent years.

[David Collinge]

Just one game on tap for tonight, and a non-conference one at that, as NCAC founding member Case Western Reserve travels to conference co-leader Hiram for a 7pm tip.  Building on their successful first videocast(s--they did Saturday's women's game as well), Hiram will offer Live Stats, Audio, and Video.

[David Collinge]

Ian Franks' heroics Saturday at Tomsich Arena led Wooster to a key road victory, and that's all well and good, I suppose.  But what Franks was really playing for was a shot at the coveted NCAC Player of the Week trophy, and all his hard work paid off today when he was named the third recipient of the award for this season.  Congratulations, Ian! 

[David Collinge]

Hiram drops a 77-75 heartbreaker to Case tonight.  Case led by 9 at the half, but Hiram came out like they were playing Wittenberg and took control of the game in the second half, opening with a 14-4 run.  Along about the 7 minute mark, things fell apart for the Pups, and they found themselves trailing by 8 with about 3 minutes to go.  Then some tenacious defense combined with some sloppy errors by Case led to an 8-0 Hiram run, tying the game with 0:35 left.  Alas, Case's Bryan Erce, after dribbling out most of the clock, made a brilliant one-on-one drive to the hoop to score the winning bucket with 0:03 left.  After a timeout, Hiram tried a 3/4-court inbound pass to Chris Roberts, who turned and shot but missed badly.  The whole sequence was poorly thought out, as they had ample time to get a better shot and/or inbound to half court and call time to set up a higher percentage play.  (I'm assuming that there were in fact three seconds left; the clock was not visible on the video, so I'm going with what the announcer said.)  Hiram drops to 3-3, and suits up again Wednesday against Grove City.

[wally_wabash]

As I did during football season, I plan to tweet live updates from Wabash hoops games this season.  Feel free to follow along this season! 

[WooHoopsntrack01]

2-0 yes in NCAC now are the Scots thanks for that correction.

On the other hand, I think Hallowell is a good player.  Moreever, I did not say that "He cannot shoot"; I simply said "He did not shoot the ball well" against Albion.  So it shocked me ya know.  And yes, I was unable to attend any games last season so when I saw him i was still expecting much more, so was disappointed a bit.  While he is a target, I really didn't see Albion "all over him"; he got off plenty of shots with ease, etc.  He very well maybe pressing ya know, which would be understandable because I'm sure he expects more from himself.  As people are saying, it just looks like he needs to diversify his game if the Scots are gonna go deep in the NCAA tournament, none of us can deny that.

Nevertheless, its a big weekend for the Scots as they head to the East Coast.  It will be very good for them to "get away" and relax.  I think they'll be some opportunities for bonding and a leader shall soon develop!  Go SCOTS!!

[David Collinge]

After a timeout, Hiram tried a 3/4-court inbound pass to Chris Roberts, who turned and shot but missed badly.  The whole sequence was poorly thought out, as they had ample time to get a better shot and/or inbound to half court and call time to set up a higher percentage play.

(Not that anyone cares, but...) I've been thinking about this play, and I've had a change of heart.  It still wouldn't have been my choice, but I can see where it might not be a bad gamble, especially for a strong rebounding team like Hiram.

Trailing by two with three seconds left, most teams would want to use that time to get off the best shot they could, but Hiram has a special strength in offensive rebounds (12 more last night) and may have wanted to play to that strength.  Three seconds is plenty of time to get off a shot, grab the rebound, and put it back up.  So here's my entirely made-up mathematical analysis of the play.

>3/4 court inbounds pass: let's say that has an 80% chance of being successful (20% steal, overthrow, etc.)
>Roberts turns and shoots: I give that 25% max.  Roberts doesn't shoot much from the arc, where he's .333 this year and was .406 last year, and this was a tough shot.
>Hiram gets the rebound: I make this, somewhat generously, 35%, because they're playing for it, i.e. it's part of the play's design.  Last year they got 40.2% of the available rebounds at the offensive end.  This year it's down to 32%, as it was last night.  Plus Eniola, their best offensive rebounder, is out of the play, having thrown the inbounds pass.  But Case would have been concentrating on the shot, not the rebound, giving the Hiram rebounders an advantage.
>Rebounder puts it back in: 80%.  He's probably alone and more or less right next to the hoop.  He only misses if he rushes or gets nervous.
So the chance that Roberts makes the shot to win the game is 80% x 25%=20%, and the chance that they force OT on a stickback is 80% x 75% x 35% x 80%=16.8%.  They get a positive result 36.8% of the time, which is probably about as good as they could have hoped for had they played for one "good" shot.  Plus this play generates two good opportunities for Case to foul, giving Hiram a chance to tie or win at the line.

As it happened, Eniola did connect on the inbounds pass, Roberts missed the shot, but Hiram did not get the rebound.  Roberts' shot missed badly enough that it caromed long, spoiling the plan.  The missed rebound also might be due in part to who was on the floor: besides the unavailable-to-rebound Eniola and Roberts, it was Russo, Sheppard, and Campbell (IIRC), who collectively had 6 boards on the night.  I'd have had Muhammad and Milton in for sure (Meyer and his 10 boards had fouled out by then.)