MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[wooscotsfan]

Final:  Ohio Wesleyan 73  Allegheny 59

Bishops shot 61% from the floor to get the nice road win.  Tim Brady led OWU with 27 points, Pat Pellerite added 12 points and 12 boards.  Mike Schwartz added 10 points.

OWU also won the board battle by a 30 to 25 count.

George Raftis led the Gators with 16 points and 11 boards.

Wooster vs. Ohio Wesleyan is one semi-final matchup.

Wabash vs. Wittenberg is the other semi-final matchup.

[pennstghs]

Looks like we're heading for a powerful Final Four for the NCAC. I don't think OWU can hold up against Wooster, but we'll see. Wittenberg/Wabash is the game to see however as Witt easily could have won both matchups but ended up losing to Wabash in both matchups. If Witt can hold Wabash's 3 point shooting to a more reasonable percentage, they stand a good chance at advancing.

Pretty ho hum win for Hiram tonight. Witt came out and forced 7 first half turnovers and turned that into 12 points to go ahead 23-6 to start the game. Short of a run by Hiram to cut the lead to 7 points, this game was never in doubt!

Also, in the grand scheme of things, is it really that big of a deal who wins COY???

POY goes to Franks whether the regular season, non-conference or tournament is counted, hands down! Sorry wally, Wes Smith is hurt by his team's balance here!

Keep it up Wittenberg, good luck Friday  night!!

[ScotsFan]

We're closing in on a one day record for eye roll smileys...and the day is young!  The record will be smashed if the Scots only win by 15 tonight.   

Wooster only wins by 14 tonight.



Did I break the record yet?    

[smedindy]

I don't think Witt could have 'easily' won both matchups against Wabash. Yes, they could have won both matchups, but they didn't. That says to me that "Witt could have blown Wabash out twice, but didn't and lost to them twice..."

That being said - it's tough to beat a team three times in a season. Look for a great game Friday.

[sac]

More importantly the last two holders of the belt will duke it out on Woosters court.

[smedindy]

Oh, I forgot about The Belt! ^TM

Witt to helt!

Keep the Belt^TM!

[wally_wabash]

POY goes to Franks whether the regular season, non-conference or tournament is counted, hands down! Sorry wally, Wes Smith is hurt by his team's balance here!

This is not a hands down situation.  The two players score about evenly, Franks shoots a little better and assists a little more, Smith does a little more in the defensive statistical areas.  Either player could justifiably win that award.  Or already has even though the season isn't over yet. 

And speaking of Wabash's POY candidate, Smith led the Little Giant effort this evening with 21 and 10.  Chase Haltom pitched in 17 for Wabash and he had a nice game tonight.  Chase is at his best when he dribbles inside that arc and gets some mid range jumpers.  He's good in that 14-18' area.  Shelbourne added 12 points as he was back in the starting lineup tonight.

Denison was scrappy as always but couldn't withstand two major Wabash runs...one at the end of the first half and another about midway through the second half.  Those two outbursts proved too much for the Big Red to overcome, particularly with their top offensive player ice cold (Luther was just 1-14 tonight).  Denison was led tonight by Dimonde Hale with his game high 23 points and 10 rebounds.  This kid has some pretty serious game. 

On to the semis and the Witt Tigers.  WAF! 

[ScotsFan]

POY goes to Franks whether the regular season, non-conference or tournament is counted, hands down! Sorry wally, Wes Smith is hurt by his team's balance here!

This is not a hands down situation.  The two players score about evenly, Franks shoots a little better and assists a little more, Smith does a little more in the defensive statistical areas.  Either player could justifiably win that award.  Or already has even though the season isn't over yet. 

Answer me this.  How many games has Wes Smith basically put his team on his back and carried them to a win this season?  POY isn't about leading your team/conference in the most statistical categories.  That's just part of the equation.  It is also about the value that player brings to the table.  Would Wooster be even close to finishing 15-1 in the conference without Ian Franks?  I can think of 4 or 5 games that the Scots would have lost if not for Franks stepping up and carrying them to victory.  THAT is why I, and obviously many others, feel that Franks is indeed, hands down, the POY in the NCAC this season. 

And one other thing.  Is it just me, or is there some sort of us against the world complex going on among Wabash fans?   I mean, Wally jumps all over me for stating my opinions on why I feel Coach Moore is deserving of COY.  He jumps all over David for his opinion on the criteria on voting for All-conference selections.  He jumps on penn about the POY debate.  Smeds jumps on penn for his opinion that Witt could have won both games vs. Wabash just as easily as they ended up losing them.  Why so sensitive all the time???  

[bufordscot]

I'm intrigued by Wally's increasingly strident assertions that the conference awards should be for the full season, including non-conference play and post-season tournament play.  I'm wondering how the rest of you feel about this, so I've added a poll.  Thanks for voting.

Colten Craigin, averaging 1 point per game in two appearances for Wabash, comes off the bench and scores 22 leading Wabash past Witt, scores 28 to help put Wooster away, and averages 25 in the NCAA tourney leading Wabash to an improbable title.  Be interesting to know who Wally's POY would be. 

[pennstghs]

Lets mark this down in the history books, ScotsFan and myself agreeing on something!!

Who's going to be making the trip up to Wooster this weekend? I won't be in attendance Friday night, but if Wittenberg can pull off the "improbable" upset, I should be in attendance Saturday. I'll be up for meeting up with anyone before hand and afterwards.

Wally: Yes, Wes Smith is a great player and he will get votes, however, in my opinion Ian Franks is the POY because of his value to his team. This is a compliment now, when Wes Smith was in foul trouble in the first half against Wittenberg, Wabash is still a formidable team and would be successful without him. If Franks is out for a period of time for Wooster, they would fall apart. Point being, everyone is entitled to opinions and as i've found, everyone makes the arguments that most benefit the player or coach or point they're defending.

Smeds, I didn't mean to discredit Wabash, what I was trying to say was that how close both of those games were, Wittenberg could and in my mind should have won at least the home game vs Wabash. I mean come on, Zinnerman was shooting 2-14 from 3 point range for the season and hit 3-3, with two of them very crucial. Brock hit a couple lucky end of shot clock 3's as well.

If Wabash is this big underdog story that gets no credit from anyone, I guess they have their chance to prove it by beating both Wittenberg and potentially Wooster. If they pull that double off, I will rest my case!

[wally_wabash]

I'm intrigued by Wally's increasingly strident assertions that the conference awards should be for the full season, including non-conference play and post-season tournament play.  I'm wondering how the rest of you feel about this, so I've added a poll.  Thanks for voting.

Colten Craigin, averaging 1 point per game in two appearances for Wabash, comes off the bench and scores 22 leading Wabash past Witt, scores 28 to help put Wooster away, and averages 25 in the NCAA tourney leading Wabash to an improbable title.  Be interesting to know who Wally's POY would be. 

Did Colten play his two games in the non-conference portion of the schedule or during the NCAC portion of the schedule? 

POY goes to Franks whether the regular season, non-conference or tournament is counted, hands down! Sorry wally, Wes Smith is hurt by his team's balance here!

This is not a hands down situation.  The two players score about evenly, Franks shoots a little better and assists a little more, Smith does a little more in the defensive statistical areas.  Either player could justifiably win that award.  Or already has even though the season isn't over yet. 

Answer me this.  How many games has Wes Smith basically put his team on his back and carried them to a win this season?  POY isn't about leading your team/conference in the most statistical categories.  That's just part of the equation.  It is also about the value that player brings to the table.  Would Wooster be even close to finishing 15-1 in the conference without Ian Franks?  I can think of 4 or 5 games that the Scots would have lost if not for Franks stepping up and carrying them to victory.  THAT is why I, and obviously many others, feel that Franks is indeed, hands down, the POY in the NCAC this season. 

Finally...you guys get to the meat of what is really going on here.  All of this traces back to the game where two things happened: 1) Ian Franks was the only player on his team who could make a shot and 2) Allegheny gagged away a 12-point second half lead to the Scots.  That, and that alone, is where The Legend of Ian Franks™ began.  Would Wooster be 15-1 without Franks?  Probably not.  Would Wabash be 12-4 and in 2nd place without Smith?  Absolutely not.  Advantage: push. 

And one other thing.  Is it just me, or is there some sort of us against the world complex going on among Wabash fans?   I mean, Wally jumps all over me for stating my opinions on why I feel Coach Moore is deserving of COY.  He jumps all over David for his opinion on the criteria on voting for All-conference selections.  He jumps on penn about the POY debate.  Smeds jumps on penn for his opinion that Witt could have won both games vs. Wabash just as easily as they ended up losing them.  Why so sensitive all the time???

It's just you.  You said that Coach Moore should be COY because he's won six straight league championships (this is on the record...I can pull the quote again if you'd like).  I said previous results can not (or at least should not) play any role in a single year award.  That's not jumping on you, that's debate.  As is the discussion about whether or not the entire season should count for an "of the Year" award.  If you're reading animosity, you probably need to relax and not take everything so personally.  This is sport...fans debate things like this all of the time.  It's ok to do so and not get all tweaked out of shape about it. 

Now, the one thing that does grind my gears is that it very much seems like in the world of Wooster, the NCAC is composed of Wooster and Wittenberg and that's pretty much it.  You've already mentioned aloud here how nice it will be for the Scots to not have to play Witt until the final...completely dismissing every other team in the tournament including the one that finished ahead of Wittenberg in the league standings and beat them twice.  It was also noted erroneously that Witt was picked to finish second in the preseason poll...without having actually looked at the poll because really, how in the world would the poll say anything other than Wooster and Witt are the top two (only two?) teams in the league?  Impossible!!  There are other teams in the league...some of them are actually worth paying attention to. 

[ScotsFan]

I'm the one getting 'tweaked out of shape' in all of this?  Please excuse me.  I need to take a few minutes to clean up the coffee I just spewed all over my keyboard in laughter.   

[imderekpoe]

Now, the one thing that does grind my gears is that it very much seems like in the world of Wooster, the NCAC is composed of Wooster and Wittenberg and that's pretty much it.  You've already mentioned aloud here how nice it will be for the Scots to not have to play Witt until the final...completely dismissing every other team in the tournament including the one that finished ahead of Wittenberg in the league standings and beat them twice.  It was also noted erroneously that Witt was picked to finish second in the preseason poll...without having actually looked at the poll because really, how in the world would the poll say anything other than Wooster and Witt are the top two (only two?) teams in the league?  Impossible!!  There are other teams in the league...some of them are actually worth paying attention to. 

I would have to agree completely with the original point that Wooster didn't want to play Witt on Friday.  I don't believe that anything was ever said negative about Wabash in that original statement, but somehow it seems to have been taken that way...

While not overlooking OWU, Allegheny or anyone else, I would think that going in to the tourney we would agree that the teams most likely to beat Wooster would be Wabash or Witt.  By Witt moving into 3rd place, that eliminates the possibility that Wooster has to beat both of them to win the tourney.  Wabash wasn't mentioned in that original statement as there was no possibility that they would move from the #2 seed.

Beyond that, Witt is our rival.  Nothing is better than beating your rival with everything on the line.  In past years when Wooster has played other teams in the final, its still satisfying to win, but its not the same as beating Witt for all the marbles.

Wooster also seems to start every game against Witt very tight, and falls behind early almost every time.  That's what really scares me about playing Witt.  We fall behind by 10 pts early, and its tough to make a big comeback against a good team.

Finally, there's a whole lot of conference history that says that the NCAC is Wooster, Witt then everyone else.  Obviously that's not always true, and certainly hasn't been as much for the last couple of seasons.  But its not like we're talking the last 4 or 5 years.  Without looking it up (shame on me!) Wooster and Witt have been the dominant programs for the last 15+ years.  Until other teams more consistently break into that upper echelon year after year, it will be hard to think of Wabash, OWU, Allegheny, et al in the same way that we think about Witt.

[smedindy]

I wasn't criticizing the idea that Witt could have beaten Wabash each time. Certainly they could have. I was questioning the use of the word 'easily'. That's all.

Sometimes I think Woo fans think other fans are "us against the Woo" and read into things that aren't there.

[wally_wabash]

Sometimes I think Woo fans think other fans are "us against the Woo" and read into things that aren't there.