MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[Vanilla24COW]

Although the loss of Port is a big blow, the Scots will be able to function without him. There have been instances in the past in which important players missed games (Nelson, Thompson, etc) and the rest of the Scots stepped up. I see this being the same sort of deal. It will be hard to beat Witt with an extra guard but at the same time Witt will have to find a way to defend the extra guard, I don't see Borchers or Russ being able to reach step beside Witucky, Van Horn, Cooper or Johnson, lets just hope the 3's are plentiful in that matchup. Best wishes to a speedy recovery for Port and once he gets back into the lineup the team will be that much better as other guys will have had to step up their games a bit.

[WooMix]

My reliable sources at Wooster just confirmed that Tom will be out 3-6 weeks instead of the 2-3 reported in the press.

[woosterbooster]

My reliable sources at Wooster just confirmed that Tom will be out 3-6 weeks instead of the 2-3 reported in the press.

Shoot.  But I'm afraid that sounds much more realistic to me.

[imderekpoe]

On a side note concerning Port, does anyone think this injury might sway Tom into coming back for his 4th year of eligibilty even more?  Depending on how serious the fracture is, and how long he is out, I think it could sway him into coming back, if he was still on the fence about his decision.

I was wondering that same thing.  I wouldn't be too surprised that if his injury ends up being a season-ending thing that he might decide to come back.  Assuming, of course, that family finances and life plans don't get in the way of college hoops! 

[DenisonFan]

Just a sidebar to coming back.
Hern also has another year if he wants.  But he must be a full time student to play.
Hern graduates in May and so I am pretty sure he is done. 
If there was a graduate school he could but I don't think his family is going to pay HUGE money so he can shoot hoops.

[imderekpoe]

My reliable sources at Wooster just confirmed that Tom will be out 3-6 weeks instead of the 2-3 reported in the press.

Note that the press said "AT LEAST" 2-3 weeks this morning!

In any case, its a big loss for an extended period of time.  But I agree with Vanilla24COW that they should be OK.  Sure, there's no one person on that team that can replace Port, but I'm guessing that Coach Moore will have the other 8 in the rotation buckle down that much harder and do what it takes to get the job done.  We should be able to better judge the effect on the rest of the season after Saturday night.

Looking at the remaining schedule, the tough games (IMO) will be:
   

• Sat vs OWU - First post-injury game, and against a good team.  Fortunately at home.
 

• Jan 28 vs Earlham - Might have a bit of a lapse after an expected easy game at Kenyon.  And after the OT game in Richmond earlier this year, the Quakers will be thinking they can take this one.
 

• Feb 4 at Witt - It will take a monumental effort by the rest of the team to win this one.
• Feb 11 vs Wabash - Hopefully won't take 'Bash too lightly after the blowout in Crawfordsville.
• Feb 18 at OWU - 4 1/2 weeks out, so there's a chance that Port will be back by then.  Could be a huge game to determine the location of the conference tourney!

[woosterbooster]

If Wittenberg were to win it's next game against Wooster, and both teams won all of their others, giving them each one loss in conference play, where would the tournament be held?

[imderekpoe]

If Wittenberg were to win it's next game against Wooster, and both teams won all of their others, giving them each one loss in conference play, where would the tournament be held?

I'm thinking that they have abandoned using overall record as a tiebreaker.  Rather there would be a coin flip and the winner would get to choose either to be the #1 seed or to host the tournament.

[smedindy]

If I recall some super-secret tiebreakers I once heard about, I think the next tiebreaker may be how they did against the rest of the conference, in ascending order of finish.

For example, if Witt and Woo both lose another game, and Witt loses to OWU and Wooster loses to Allegheny (for example), then Witt would host because Wooster's other loss was to a team that finished lower in the conference.

But if they both have one loss, to each other, then I got nothin' there....

[sac]

 In the event of a tiebreaker that  cannot be broken, the NCAC Final Four will be held in Zanesville, OH.

We're sorry, very, very sorry.

[David Collinge]

WooBoo, you've got me stumped on the new footer.  Off to IMDB for me! 

Back from IMDB:  Ah.  Never saw it; not my genre.

[ScotsFan]

I think "derek" is correct in that if Witt were to beat Wooster and neither team had any other conference losses, it would go to a coin flip.  However, I believe smeds is right if they happen to take on losses other than to themselves, it goes to who lost to the better teams.

[woosterbooster]

DC -

You've never seen The Hunt for Red October?  Submarine movies aren't among your genres?  It's the best of them, IMHO, followed by Run Silent, Run Deep.

[David Collinge]

I have always thought of the Tom Clancy movies as cold war/espionage/action movies, which don't really interest me.  I could be wrong, since I never saw it, or any other Tom Clancy movie, and never read any of the books either. 

My favorite submarine movie, by far, is The Enemy Below, with Robert Mitchum and Curt Jurgens.  Destination Tokyo is pretty good for a long-winded propaganda flick.  Then there's Operation Petticoat....

The dates of release of these three pictures are 1957, 1943, and 1959, respectively.  What does that say about me? 

[Warren Thompson]

I have always thought of the Tom Clancy movies as cold war/espionage/action movies, which don't really interest me.  I could be wrong, since I never saw it, or any other Tom Clancy movie, and never read any of the books either. 

My favorite submarine movie, by far, is The Enemy Below, with Robert Mitchum and Curt Jurgens.  ... Then there's Operation Petticoat....

The Enemy Below has that great scene wherein Mitchum and Juergens salute each other after the former's destroyer rammed the U-boat. Operation Petticoat has some great comedic scenes and one-liners uttered by Cary Grant (e.g., when informed by his XO that the Tony Curtis character, a genuine pain in the butt, is returning to the boat, he simply remarks, "war is hell").