MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[BashDad]

Smith's body language has oscillated between depressed and downright indifferent the past couple games. Frustrating to watch...

[bashbrother]

While I am quite grateful to Kenyon for the free streaming video of today's game I would pay good money for a replay of that last shot.

I second that!!!..... I want to see it again.

[wally_wabash]

There's one for the buzzer beater page!  

So...yeah.  Wabash did not play a very crisp game today, let Kenyon hang around and hang around which inevitably leads to Kenyon hitting a long 3 to get a one point lead with 2.5 seconds left.  Wabash inbounds to half court, gets a timeout.  Off the timeout, Sutherlin inbounds to Bailey who catches and shoots a turnaround 30-footer for the win.  Amazing finish to this game.  Wabash wins by 2.  

Nice to get this win, but games like this will not get Wabash where they want to go this season.  Wabash got a mulligan this afternoon.  Next up is a home date next Sunday against Allegheny.  WAF!

[wally_wabash]

Smith's body language has oscillated between depressed and downright indifferent the past couple games. Frustrating to watch...

I'm wondering how healthy Wes is right now.  He was playing with an ice pack strapped to his hip on Tuesday against OWU.  I'm guessing today wasn't much different.  Wabash plays two games in the next 3-ish weeks.  Hopefully that'll give Wes time to rest whatever it is that is ailing him and get back to being good ol' happy-go-dunkin' Wes. 

[wooscotsfan]

12/11 NCAC Final Scores:

Wooster 68  Ohio Wesleyan 42
Wabash 62  Kenyon 60
Hiram 74  Denison 69

Updated Conference Standings:

Wooster 4-0
Wabash 3-0
Wittenberg 2-0
Allegheny 1-2
Ohio Wesleyan 1-2
Hiram 1-2
Denison 1-3
Kenyon 0-2
Oberlin 0-2

[ScotsFan]

I think after Wednesday's poor performance by Wooster's bigs on both ends of the court vs. Allegheny was certainly addressed by Wooster's coaches over the last 2 days of practice.  Much better performance by Wooster's post players today as they come away with 36 points in the paint and held OWU to just 16!  Compare that to Wednesday where Allegheny outscored Wooster 32-24 in the paint!

Also, after allowing 'Gheny to shoot 48% and getting outrebounded for the first time all season in a poor defensive effort, Wooster turned up the D holding OWU to just 26% shooting from the field and the Scots outrebounded the Bishops 48-34!

One final stat to leave you with in sticking with the defensive theme!  OWU's Tim Brady came into today's game averaging 18 ppg.  He scored TWO today on 1-10 shooting!   

Wooster is now off until the 20th then they travel to the Hoosier State to take on Anderson.

[woosterbooster]

Notes from Delaware:

1. Christine O'Donnell, in a press release earlier today, revealed that in a past life...  Ahem.

2. Wooster's defensive play was excellent.  Taking a page from Hiram's playbook (isn't everybody doing that now?), the Scots defrocked the Bishops on the perimeter, taking away the three.  That left OWU with very little, as Wickliffe, Hallowell, Claytor, and Mays were more than capable of defending the interior.  And, until the game was out of hand (with about ten minutes to go), Wooster owned their defensive board.  All of this was enough, with a solid offensive effort, for the Scots to roll to a decisive win.

3. Bryan Wickliffe.  Offense, defense, boards, hustle, leadership.  Not only that, even after getting a bad blocking call, he steps in shortly after and takes another charge.  What else is there to say?

4. Jake Mays.  Take a gander at how Wick finishes.  Almost always layups or little flip-in finger rolls.  Toss that little jump-hook in the scrap heap unless you're guarded by Gideon's big brother.  Keep two hands on the ball longer, and you'll finish with a higher percentage inside.

5. Ian Franks and Nathan Balch.  Terrific hustle all game from these two guys.  When you add that to their skill sets, well, you win ballgames.

6. Stellar defense by Justin Warnes; totally took his man out of the game.  And, on the offensive end, he's no longer a roadblock in the patterns.  Some nice passes and a pretty cut down the lane for a layup.

7. If you're a student, and you're going to come to the games shirtless, a good prerequisite would be to have spent more time in the weight room than in the dining room.  I'm just sayin'...

[wabco]

If ou are interested they have the last shot on tape playback on the Wabash web site.  Two great coaching calls by Mac at the end.  1) TO with 2 1/2 secs and call anand ececute an inbound to half court and quick TO.  That set up time for a planned last second (really ... a ... last ... second) called play.  2) the shot by Bailey was a planned play ... drawing his man away and providing him the opening to catch and shoot.  Bailey made the shot ... Petty gets the game ball.

[David Collinge]

So anything interesting happen while I was gone?

Thanks again for the updates, wsf.  I know I can always count on you.

The game nobody is filling pages of posts with:
Hiram 74, Denison 69...Pups end the game on a 22-11 run to erase a 6-point DU advantage, holding off the Big Red with crisp free throw shooting in the waning moments.  Denison held the Terriers to just 12 offensive rebounds, and nearly matched their guests on the overall (34-33 Hiram).  In a game with 14 lead changes where neither team led by more than a touchdown, it looks like the decisive factor was Denison's icy three-point shooting (2/13, 15%) and tepid free throw shooting (11/20, 55%), offsetting a strong 50% overall effort from the floor.  (Hiram's comparables were 39%, 73%, and 45%.)  Hiram got good balance, with frosh Andrew Stefanov contributing 16 of the Terriers' 45 bench points (vs. 13 for DU).  Dimonde Hale recorded a double-double with fries but no shake, with 24 points, 18 boards, four assists and just two turnovers.

[David Collinge]

If ou are interested they have the last shot on tape playback on the Wabash web site. 

Also on the D3hoops.com website.

[David Collinge]

Things seem pretty normal for this point in an NCAC season, but just think where we'd be if two last-second jumpers this week had rimmed out rather than falling through.  Of course, Wooster would still have had an OT period to pull their game out, but still, we were this close to near-chaos in the standings.  Instead, we'll just sit on a table topped by three undefeated Ws for another week at least.

[smedindy]

So anything interesting happen while I was gone?

 Dimonde Hale recorded a double-double with fries but no shake, with 24 points, 18 boards, four assists and just two turnovers.

Someone has a jones for an In 'n' Out burger...

[wally_wabash]

My favorite part of the Derek Bailey video....check the reaction of Coach Petty on the bench.  Could Mac be any cooler?  I guess when you've been in the game as long as Coach Petty has, it takes more than a 30-foot game winner to get you to jump out of the seat.   

[David Collinge]

Steve Moore on being ranked #1:

"Getting the No. 1 ranking is nice, [...] but when things like that happen it just serves to motivate opponents even more.

"You still have to go out and produce the next game. It's just like being undefeated the season before -- it doesn't win any games for you the next year."

Moore admitted that some other teams in Div. III have a better claim to this season's No. 1 ranking, saying, "Since we started out pretty high in the poll and the teams above us lost, that's how it works. We've kept winning so they moved us up.

"I think we've played some good basketball at times this season, but we haven't been as consistent as I'd like to see."

Ian Franks on being ranked #1:

"We know the ranking doesn't mean anything right now. It just puts a big target on our backs," Franks said. "We just try and play every game one at a time."

Links to the two stories (subscription may be required):
Moore: http://www.the-daily-record.com/news/article/4946774
Franks (OWU game story): http://www.the-daily-record.com/news/article/4946777

[ScotsFan]

Forgot to mention this on Saturday, but after the OWU game in the post-game interview, Coach Moore mentioned that Wooster has a favorable finals schedule this season in that they finish up with finals on Friday giving them 4 days to fully devote to practice and preparing for their game with Anderson on the 20th.