MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[ScotsFan]

Good win for the Scots last night over a quality in-region opponent.  I believe this is Wooster's first win over a team with a winning record!  8)   For now anyways.  I say that because ONU is surely to get over .500 sooner or later and I would expect OWU to get over .500 by the end of NCAC play as well as Wabash.

Is that tough non-conference schedule starting to pay dividends already for the Scots?  It was nice to see the other team fold down the stretch for once this year as Transy did vs. the Scots and their decisive 14-0 run to put the game away in the final 2 minutes!  This is the kind of win that could propel Wooster on into good things once NCAC playe resumes!

Wooster's top 3 scorers once again led the way for the Scots as wooscotsfan noted, but one player that really stood out to me last night was Brandon Johonson.  For someone who was questionable coming into the game with a sprained ankle, I thought he did an admirable job on both ends of the floor when he was in the game.  In his 19 minutes he dished out a game high 6 assists including 2 of the biggest assists of the game on 3-balls from Franks and Hallowell to key Wooster's 14-0 run at the end of the game!  He also only scored 6 points but they were both HUGE baskets at critical junctures of the game.  The first came with Wooster teetering on the edge of losing the game as Transy was on a bit of a run and up 55-51.  Brandon nailed his 1st trey to cut the lead back down to one and end Transy's momentum.  And his 2nd trey was the first of 3 straight Wooster 3-pointers and sparked Wooster's decisive run.  I saw a glimpse of the leader that we were all expecting Brandon to be at the start of the season last night!

[pennstghs]

David, I meant everyone else in this board. Considering you're the only one that posts on the women's board, your interest is a foregone conclusion.

Good luck to all of you and your teams in the year 2010!!

[David Collinge]

David, I meant everyone else in this board. Considering you're the only one that posts on the women's board, your interest is a foregone conclusion.

Good luck to all of you and your teams in the year 2010!!

The story's made the front page now, too (in two places, actually).

[GoRed]

Looking forward to a great season of conference play in 2010.  Maybe it's delusional on my part, but there seems to be more parody this year and the conference winner could be a surprise.  I can see the Gators chewing up a few of the early season favorites, the Little Giants should come back to step on a few of you who aren't looking and who knows, maybe my Big Red will take down a few more, too!

Good luck to all, have a great New Year and see you at the finish line!     

[sac]

I imagine there's a fair number of readers of this page (members and lurkers alike) that rarely, if ever, venture out to other threads.  You good folks may be unaware of the fact that Washington U. came into the Mose Hole Classic with the D3 Championship Belt^TM in their possession.  (Think of a prizefighter entering the ring with his championship belt being carried behind him ; for more information, please see this thread.)  The Belt^TM changed hands twice in the tournament, and is now displayed proudly in Wooster's trophy case.  Since Wooster is done with non-conference play altogether, and since they're off now until Jan. 9, that means that the Belt^TM will stay in NCAC hands up to and into the NCAA tournament.*  The Belt^TM has never before belonged to an NCAC team (not since the first rhinestone bangles were sewn on its alpaca-suede surface approximately three years ago), so the tour of the Belt^TM through our conference over the next two months should be a thing to behold.  Come out and see the Belt^TM when it comes to an arena near you! 

*There is one chance for it to slip away; that's if it somehow comes into Allegheny's possession on or before Feb. 6, and then the Gators somehow lose it to Penn St.-New Kensington on Feb. 8.**   But that's not going to happen, even if we have to mandate Olympic-style blood tests as a way of postponing that PSUNK match.

**Actually, that can't happen, as PSUNK is a non-D3 institution (they're USCAA), and as such are ineligible to rumble for the Belt^TM.***  That 'Gheny/PSUNK battle will be a non-sanctioned bout.  So, barring a very unfortunate set of circumstances, the NCAC tournament champion will enter the NCAA tournament with the Belt^TM tightly cinched to their waistline.

***So you can just ignore all this stuff in italics.

If I ignore the italics stuff, how will I know to ignore the italics stuff? 

[David Collinge]

If I ignore the italics stuff, how will I know to ignore the italics stuff? 

[Gregory Sager]

My last lingering memory of 2009 will probably be my wonderment at the fact that DC somehow managed to find a smiley that's holding up a championship belt.

[ScotsFan]

Here's to a safe and Happy New Year everyone!

[smedindy]

It's about time the D-3 Championship Belt ^TM got out of the UAA!

[goscots]

I imagine there's a fair number of readers of this page (members and lurkers alike) that rarely, if ever, venture out to other threads.  You good folks may be unaware of the fact that Washington U. came into the Mose Hole Classic with the D3 Championship Belt^TM in their possession.  (Think of a prizefighter entering the ring with his championship belt being carried behind him ; for more information, please see this thread.)  The Belt^TM changed hands twice in the tournament, and is now displayed proudly in Wooster's trophy case.  Since Wooster is done with non-conference play altogether, and since they're off now until Jan. 9, that means that the Belt^TM will stay in NCAC hands up to and into the NCAA tournament.*  The Belt^TM has never before belonged to an NCAC team (not since the first rhinestone bangles were sewn on its alpaca-suede surface approximately three years ago), so the tour of the Belt^TM through our conference over the next two months should be a thing to behold.  Come out and see the Belt^TM when it comes to an arena near you! 

*There is one chance for it to slip away; that's if it somehow comes into Allegheny's possession on or before Feb. 6, and then the Gators somehow lose it to Penn St.-New Kensington on Feb. 8.**   But that's not going to happen, even if we have to mandate Olympic-style blood tests as a way of postponing that PSUNK match.

**Actually, that can't happen, as PSUNK is a non-D3 institution (they're USCAA), and as such are ineligible to rumble for the Belt^TM.***  That 'Gheny/PSUNK battle will be a non-sanctioned bout.  So, barring a very unfortunate set of circumstances, the NCAC tournament champion will enter the NCAA tournament with the Belt^TM tightly cinched to their waistline.

***So you can just ignore all this stuff in italics.

This is pretty neat and it will be fun to watch it potential bounce around the league. 

There are scenarios where the trophy will stay in the league even if the NCAC tournament champion doesn't win the National Championship. One scenario is if Wittenberg has the trophy for the last regular season game and then loses at Oberlin on Feb 20th and Oberlin doesn't make the NCAC tournament.

Of course I'm hoping it stays with the Scots all through the season.........

[David Collinge]

Five games Saturday, none of them involving the Belt^TM:

Capital at Kenyon, noon 1pm 12:45pm sometime soon (sheesh!  make up your minds!) -- Live Stats, Audio, and Video
Hiram vs. Rutgers-Newark at Marymount U., 2pm -- Live Stats and Video, maybe -- Marymount has these resources for their home games; whether they'll extend it to the non-Saints games in this tourney I can't say
Oberlin at Case Western Reserve, 3pm -- no live coverage to my knowledge
Franklin at Wabash, 3pm -- Live Stats and Audio
OWU at Roanoke, 7pm -- Live Stats and Audio

[ScotsFan]

I imagine there's a fair number of readers of this page (members and lurkers alike) that rarely, if ever, venture out to other threads.  You good folks may be unaware of the fact that Washington U. came into the Mose Hole Classic with the D3 Championship Belt^TM in their possession.  (Think of a prizefighter entering the ring with his championship belt being carried behind him ; for more information, please see this thread.)  The Belt^TM changed hands twice in the tournament, and is now displayed proudly in Wooster's trophy case.  Since Wooster is done with non-conference play altogether, and since they're off now until Jan. 9, that means that the Belt^TM will stay in NCAC hands up to and into the NCAA tournament.*  The Belt^TM has never before belonged to an NCAC team (not since the first rhinestone bangles were sewn on its alpaca-suede surface approximately three years ago), so the tour of the Belt^TM through our conference over the next two months should be a thing to behold.  Come out and see the Belt^TM when it comes to an arena near you! 

Hopefully, Wooster can retain The Belt^TM a bit longer than Transy was in possession of it!

Kenyon will be Wooster's first title defense and seeing that the Lords already gave the Scots all they could handle in Gambier earlier this season, I'm sure that the added motivation of The Belt^TM could push Kenyon to a victory! 

Of course, Wooster will now be playing with the added pressure of trying to defend The Belt^TM everytime out.  How will they handle the pressure?  We'll have to wait until the 9th to find out.

[David Collinge]

Today's doubleheader at Kenyon has been delayed by an hour "due to a problem with [the] officials"; new time noted in post above.  I'm going back to bed now. 

UPDATE:  They should have delayed it permanently.  Ben McGrath is 7 for 7 from the arc with 26 points at the half.  Capital leads a rust-inhibited Kenyon 50-24.  Yuck.
UPDATE:  Kenyon's comeback attempt falls just short, losing to Capital 86-55.

[GoRed]

Final from Gambier - Capital 86  Lords 55.  McGrath's treys did the trick in the first half and the Crusaders never looked back.  He ended up with 34.  Knapke had 17 pts. and 13 boards.  J.T. had 11.

[David Collinge]

Hiram is getting similarly murdered, trailing Rutgers-Newark 80-48 with 6:22 left.  They're being doubled up (40-20) in the second half.
UPDATE:  Final score: Rutgers-Newark 85, Hiram 59.  You know there's something amiss when your leading scorer is Jide Eniola, who had 14.  Chris Roberts contributed, uhm, four points.  And a rebound.