MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[billy_pilgrim]

Earlham drops to 0-4 with a loss at home to Manchester. I have no idea what the final score was (spread was probably about 10) or what any statistics say (because I couldn't care less who didn't score what).

Worst start for the Quakers since 1999 when Earlhamalum was a freshman forward.

I almost drove to Richmond for this one, glad that I saved the $8,524 in gas and used the Internet to listen to the Teamline broadcast...actually that wasn't that great either.

Wooster and Kenyon are the next two opponents...no better time to start playing well than with the pre-conference conference portion of the schedule at hand.

So it goes.

[earlhamalum]

Billy-Billy-BillyPilgram-  Don't forget that year we started 1-11 and then went on finishing 4th in the conference, Beating "THE" Allegheny Gators at home when they had a crafty Guard named----hmmm Before Nick Catanzarite.... Oh gzz i hope it comes to me... Jake Delsandro.  Right after beating Allegheny we had Wooster UP by 1 at Half-Time In Timken Gymnasium with 2,175 Fans with their jaws to the floor. 

Woosterbooster- Granted you guys still managed to win by 26.   You were talking about how efficent Tim Vandervaart is with his POST MOVES.  Celtic Kevin McHale.  (How about them Celtics beating Manchester United.  That one was for you Billy) Back to the subject at hand, don't act like outstanding Center play is anything new at Wooster.
You have Tim, Bryan, John and Stan who have all had outstanding Post moves and Careers with Wooster.  Seems to a theme at Wooster.   

Well I'm off to grab some dinner before the Colts Game!!!!   It's going to to be a late night in downtown Indianapolis, Hopefully the outcome is different then My QUakeRs!

[ScotsFan]

Back to the subject at hand, don't act like outstanding Center play is anything new at Wooster.
You have Tim, Bryan, John and Stan who have all had outstanding Post moves and Careers with Wooster.  Seems to a theme at Wooster.   

Yeah, like I said in my last post, the theme has a name and that is Doug Cline.

[woosterbooster]

EA -

I know that Wooster has had some very good centers, a few of which were certainly better all-around players than Tim Vandervaart.  I guess what I was trying to relay was that his moves are very different than those of Nelson, Gorman, Meech, or anyone else. 

Vandervaart made 12 field goals against Walsh.  Every one of them was a layup: I've yet to see him settle for any less of a shot.  He's able, with speed, agility, and know-how, to get to one side of the basket or the other before the defender.  He goes over nobody.  He muscles down nobody.  It's all lateral quickness, feeling where the defender is, giving him a little of this, a little of that, and suddenly there's the final quick move when he knows that one side of the hoop open, and he's always there first. 

I was a Celtics fan for years, and loved Kevin McHale with his up-and-unders and dropsteps, but half the time he was forced into taking little fallaway jumpers.  I don't even know if Vandervaart has that shot in his arsenal, he's never needed it in the last couple of years.  Tuesday night will be really interesting, to see how he does offensively against probably the biggest test of his college career.  I have the feeling that he'll give their big guys all they can handle, unless they double team him.  In which case it'll be up the the outside shooters to do their jobs.

[David Collinge]

The OAC finishes off a clean sweep of the OAC/NCAC Challenge with two dominating victories in New Concord. 

In the opener, Capital played an excellent game and polished off Denison 81-68.  Junior post Steve Kyser had a career-high 31 points, giving him 53 points (and 18 rebounds) in the two-game sweep.  He was unstoppable, hitting from all over the court, including two sweet threes, and crashing the offensive boards hard.  As a team, Capital grabbed sixteen offensive rebounds (vs. 17 defensive rebounds for Denison) and had seven steals.  As a result, Capital had 18 more field goal attempts, and as both teams shot equivalently well (DU 46%, CU 48%), that spelled defeat for the Big Red.  Capital led most of the second half by anywhere from 15-20 points, and led by 17 with 4:15 remaining.  From then on, however, they had a lot of trouble with Denison's full court trap defense, and had three missed shots, two turnovers and two fouls as Denison cut the lead to 11 with 1:21 left.  At that point, with all the momentum and the game still possibly in doubt, Bob Ghiloni threw in the towel, sending in two reserves from the back end of the bench, and allowing Capital to essentially run the clock out.  Probably it wouldn't have mattered, but it was another head-scratching move by the DU coach.  Box score; Short Recap.

I think Denison has used four starting lineups in their five games, so your guess is as good as mine as to who will start when they play your favorite team.  Denison is off until Saturday, when they open NCAC play by hosting Wittenberg.  Capital finishes up the NCAC portion of their schedule on Wednesday when they host Ohio Wesleyan.  Capital is now 2-1 against NCAC foes.

In the nightcap, as anticipated, Muskingum had no problem with Kenyon, racing out to a 15-1 lead and coasting to an 86-61 victory.  Although it sounds odd, I'd have to say that Kenyon played better today than yesterday against Capital, but nothing they could have done would have mattered against a far superior Muskingum squad.  Musky did everything well: they shot 60%, grabbed 14 offensive rebounds (despite playing a four guard set most of the day, giving up from 1-4 inches per position), dished out 20 assists, and forced 23 turnovers including 13 steals.  They were at least a step quicker and more aggressive, and Kenyon was never in the game.  Junior point guard Brandon Todd had 21 points to go with the 27 he posted against Denison, and added ten assists for the double-double.  If they gave out an OAC/NCAC Challenge MVP award, I'd give it to Todd by a whisker over Capital's Steve Kyser.  But Todd had help; four Muskies were in double figures, including frosh Pat Byrne (Todd's high school teammate who had 17 today, 30 for the weekend) and soph. Trevor Scott (Andy Van Horn's high school teammate, who had 12 today and 33 on the weekend).  Kenyon was led by Bryan Yelvington, who had a somewhat better game today than yesterday, and frosh Dave Knapke, with 13 points apiece.  Knapke had 27 of the 113 Kenyon points on the weekend (24%); I wouldn't hesitate to put him in the starting lineup ahead of Allen Bediako, who had another barely-there game.  In fact, Kenyon's starting lineup is a little odd, given that it includes two players (Bediako and Chris Willoughby) who play sparingly (between them, 16 minutes today and 20 yesterday) and contribute less (combined 4 turnovers, 3 fouls, one block and zero points on 0-1 shooting today.)  Their backups, Knapke and David Jolson, respectively, seem to be better players and play much more (52 minutes today, 64 yesterday.)  But what do I know?    Box score; Recap. 

Kenyon travels to Washington & Jefferson on Weds.  The Prexies are off to an 0-5 start, including losses to Allegheny and OWU.  Muskingum hosts Thiel on Wednesday and won't see another NCAC opponent until they run into Earlham on Dec. 20 at the Washington & Jefferson holiday tournament.

[David Collinge]

Our little kaffeeklatsch passed the 100,000 hits threshold this weekend.  Hooray for us!  8)

[Gregory Sager]

Our little kaffeeklatsch passed the 100,000 hits threshold this weekend.  Hooray for us!  8)

And you marked the occasion in high style, David. The line "Capital understank Kenyon" would've been noteworthy in its own right, but the McHale's Navy reference put you over the top as the Posting Up POTW (Poster of the Weekend).

[woosterbooster]

POTW, yeah.  But anyone who would subject themselves, on purpose, to back to back doubleheaders involving both Kenyon and Denison deserves either a greater reward than that, perhaps basketball fandom's version of the Purple Heart, or, maybe a short stay in a nearby local institution where they have men in white coats, if you get my drift. 

[Gregory Sager]

I just chalk it up to the fact that David's been in exile in southern California for so long that he's starved for live D3 basketball. Kenyon and Denison may not look like much, but at least they're the genuine article as far as D3 is concerned.

[ScotsFan]

I just had a question I forgot to bring up over the weekend concerning the Scot's lineup.  I noticed that Craig Elam was in street clothes on the bench.  Did he get injured or something?  Just wondering if anyone in here knew anything about it?

[imderekpoe]

I just had a question I forgot to bring up over the weekend concerning the Scot's lineup.  I noticed that Craig Elam was in street clothes on the bench.  Did he get injured or something?  Just wondering if anyone in here knew anything about it?

We know that he dinged his knee in the opener and didn't play much in the 2nd game of the Van Wie tourney.  I was guessing that Coach Moore didn't want to take a chance on aggravating the injury in a game that doesn't count (in the eyes of the NCAA!)

[David Collinge]

POTW, yeah.  But anyone who would subject themselves, on purpose, to back to back doubleheaders involving both Kenyon and Denison deserves either a greater reward than that, perhaps basketball fandom's version of the Purple Heart, or, maybe a short stay in a nearby local institution where they have men in white coats, if you get my drift. 

This from the guy that just three days ago suggested that Kenyon would be better than Wittenberg...

I knew these boys [OWU] would be tough.  It's the rise of the NCAC East.  Wooster and OWU, not necessarily in that order, followed by the Marx spouting Lords of Kenyon.  All three possibly better than anyone the west can produce.

I'd go on, but Nurse Ratched says if I don't log off, I won't get my cigarettes... 

[Witt4ever]

All tickets for the Witt-Woo game Dec. 9 will be reserved.

Tickets go on sale Dec.4 and will be available 5-7pm  in the HPER lobby.

Tickets will be $8 adults and $5 students.

No passes will be honored.

w4e

[David Collinge]

W4E,
Are the students in session, or will they be, for this game?

[smedindy]

The NCAC - East? Wait, who is the west?

Looking at geography the Eastern most NCAC schools are Hiram, Allegheny, Wooster, Kenyon, and Oberlin.