MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[kiltedbryan]

At the Half:  Wooster 50  Hiram 23   

It is hard to believe that this same Hiram team played Witt to a 1 point margin in Springfield last Saturday? 

Not after seeing that Witt/DePauw score...   

I've kind of felt all along Witt has been the beneficiary of a relatively soft OOC schedule and I think DePauw exposed that tonight.  Heck, OWU was exposing it last Wednesday until they forgot how to score in the 2nd half of that game... 

Massey has Wittenberg's schedule at 48th in DIII, which is actually rather respectable...but I assume that is counting Witt's exhibition game against Western Carolina, which the Catamounts count as a regular season game though Wittenberg lists it as an exhibition. I wonder where it would rank with that game removed, since without it, Wheaton (L) and Kean (W) were the sum total of Witt's non-cupcake out-of-conference schedule.

[wooscotsfan]

Current NCAC Standings with 1/15 Results:

1. Wooster 7-0 (13-1)
2. DePauw 6-1 (11-3)
2. Wittenberg 6-1 (12-2)
4. Ohio Wesleyan 5-2 (11-3)
5. Kenyon 4-3 (7-7)
6. Denison 2-5 (6-8)
6. Wabash 2-5 (3-10)
6. Oberlin 2-5 (5-9)
9. Hiram 1-6 (3-11)
10. Allegheny 0-7 (3-11)

[kiltedbryan]

Since the top four are 20-0 against the bottom six, feels like the standings are bit more like this:

1. Wooster 7-0 (13-1)
2. DePauw 6-1 (11-3)
2. Wittenberg 6-1 (12-2)
4. Ohio Wesleyan 5-2 (11-3)


---------------------------------


5. Kenyon 4-3 (7-7)
6. Denison 2-5 (6-8)
6. Wabash 2-5 (3-10)
6. Oberlin 2-5 (5-9)
9. Hiram 1-6 (3-11)
10. Allegheny 0-7 (3-11)

[wooscotsfan]

Since the top four are 20-0 against the bottom six, feels like the standings are bit more like this:

1. Wooster 7-0 (13-1)
2. DePauw 6-1 (11-3)
2. Wittenberg 6-1 (12-2)
4. Ohio Wesleyan 5-2 (11-3)


---------------------------------


5. Kenyon 4-3 (7-7)
6. Denison 2-5 (6-8)
6. Wabash 2-5 (3-10)
6. Oberlin 2-5 (5-9)
9. Hiram 1-6 (3-11)
10. Allegheny 0-7 (3-11)

Nicely edited! k+  That 20-0 stat is very revealing. 

[David Collinge]

Since the top four are 20-0 against the bottom six [...]

The NCAC. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

[kiltedbryan]

A couple good tidbits from Wooster's game recap:

- Xavier Brown scored his 1,000th point for the Scots, becoming the 38th Wooster player to reach that milestone. Congrats Xavier!

- Scott Purcell's career high 18 pts included a perfect 12-12 mark at the FT line. Best single-game performance from the charity stripe for Wooster since some guy named Ian Franks went 13-13 on Dec. 30, 2008.

[imderekpoe]

- Scott Purcell's career high 18 pts included a perfect 12-12 mark at the FT line. Best single-game performance from the charity stripe for Wooster since some guy named Ian Franks went 13-13 on Dec. 30, 2008.

I can't say enough about what Scott has meant to the team this year.  He's had very limited opportunities his first 3 seasons due to injuries, but when he did play he never really gave us any reason to believe that he'd be a consistent double-digit scorer.  Add in his excellent defense and his leadership and IMO he's one of the most important players on the team.

[kiltedbryan]

Updated NCAC offensive and defensive efficiency ratings* through games of 1/15:

Team	Offense	Defense	Margin	SOS Rank
Wooster	112.1	90.5	21.6	10
Wittenberg	115.2	97.5	17.8	50
DePauw	105.9	91.7	14.2	70
OWU	105.4	95.0	10.4	51
Kenyon	101.6	105.3	-3.7	149
Oberlin	98.6	102.7	-4.0	184
Hiram	102.6	108.3	-5.7	177
Allegheny	100.0	106.7	-6.7	172
Denison	99.6	109.1	-9.5	67
Wabash	94.5	109.3	-14.9	45

I have not tried to weigh these ratings by strength of schedule but I have provided each teams current SOS rank according to Massey so that you can make whatever adjustments you desire in your head. See Sac's excellent blog post for his ratings from December where he did perform a SOS-weighted version of these efficiency measures for the top GL Region teams.

I find it somewhat notable that Oberlin's NCAC-worst SOS is still in the top half of DIII schedules according to Massey (55th percentile, to be precise).

*As a reminder, the offense measure is points/100 possessions; defensive measure is points allowed/100 possessions. Possessions estimated as: Poss = FGA - Off Reb + TO + .475*FTA.

[smedindy]

We're not shying away from anyone, which is good for the league. It showed in the results in non-conference, though. However, even though the bottom isn't doing that well I think the league is well positioned for a couple of "C" bids as long as anarchy and chaos don't truly reign.

[ScotsFan]

- Scott Purcell's career high 18 pts included a perfect 12-12 mark at the FT line. Best single-game performance from the charity stripe for Wooster since some guy named Ian Franks went 13-13 on Dec. 30, 2008.

I can't say enough about what Scott has meant to the team this year.  He's had very limited opportunities his first 3 seasons due to injuries, but when he did play he never really gave us any reason to believe that he'd be a consistent double-digit scorer.  Add in his excellent defense and his leadership and IMO he's one of the most important players on the team.

Well said poe and I couldn't agree more...

[wally_wabash]

Updated NCAC offensive and defensive efficiency ratings* through games of 1/15:

Team	Offense	Defense	Margin	SOS Rank
Wooster	112.1	90.5	21.6	10
Wittenberg	115.2	97.5	17.8	50
DePauw	105.9	91.7	14.2	70
OWU	105.4	95.0	10.4	51
Kenyon	101.6	105.3	-3.7	149
Oberlin	98.6	102.7	-4.0	184
Hiram	102.6	108.3	-5.7	177
Allegheny	100.0	106.7	-6.7	172
Denison	99.6	109.1	-9.5	67
Wabash	94.5	109.3	-14.9	45

I have not tried to weigh these ratings by strength of schedule but I have provided each teams current SOS rank according to Massey so that you can make whatever adjustments you desire in your head. See Sac's excellent blog post for his ratings from December where he did perform a SOS-weighted version of these efficiency measures for the top GL Region teams.

I find it somewhat notable that Oberlin's NCAC-worst SOS is still in the top half of DIII schedules according to Massey (55th percentile, to be precise).

*As a reminder, the offense measure is points/100 possessions; defensive measure is points allowed/100 possessions. Possessions estimated as: Poss = FGA - Off Reb + TO + .475*FTA.

Thanks for putting this up, kb.  You really don't have to peel back too many layers here to see why things are the way they are in the league this season.  +k

[Pat Coleman]

Since the top four are 20-0 against the bottom six [...]

The NCAC. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

At least there is a third and fourth team in this group, which wasn't always the case.

[wooscotsfan]

Since the top four are 20-0 against the bottom six [...]

The NCAC. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

At least there is a third and fourth team in this group, which wasn't always the case.

Excellent point Pat because in past years if was often just Woo and Witt battling it out.

....and today we have the Top 4 NCAC teams matched up in two huge games:   

#2 Wooster 13-1 (7-0) is at #9 Wittenberg 12-2 (6-1)

#22 Ohio Wesleyan 11-3 (5-2) is at #31 DePauw 11-3 (6-1)

[wooscotsfan]

Final:  #22 Ohio Wesleyan 75  DePauw 64

Huge road win for OWU as the Bishops stay in the title race and are now 6-2 in the NCAC.  DePauw also drops to 6-2 in the NCAC.

Seth Clark led OWU with 18 points and Taylor Rieger added 12.  Both Tommy Fernitz and Adam Botts had 16 points for the Tigers.

[wooscotsfan]

At the Half:  Wooster 34  Wittenberg 19

In the half, Wooster was led by Xavier Brown, Doug Thorpe and Evan Pannell each with 8 points.