MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[petewitt54]

Woops, did I say '92?  I meant '94.  It was Coach Brown's first year. 

[goscots]

The game that had to be stopped to wipe the floor was last years #1 vs. #2 game in which there was well over the 3100 capacity in the gym (it was three deep behind the basket).

The reason it was so overloaded was because Witt used simple raffle tickets and didn't tear them upon entry. All one had to do was gather a bunch of tickets from others within the gym and walk out to hand them to others. Witt used reserved seating tickets this year but still didn't tear them upon entry.

[woosterbooster]

Witt used reserved seating tickets this year but still didn't tear them upon entry.

That's true, they did not.  Which might go a long way towards answering why the aisles in the student sections on both sides of the stands were full of people all game long.  Not to blame Wittenberg, though.  If I were selling tickets at $8 a pop, I'd be loathe to have those valuable ducats immediately ripped in half.

[Vanilla24COW]

"Greg leaned in " and "Rustad's fling at the basket" are fairly good descriptions...I will leave it at that I think....I can remember a game in '03 in which Witt dominated the first half against Woo and in the second half it was completely opposite as the Scots could do no wrong and the Tigers could do nothing, that all started with a Witucky 3 the first play of the second half...the Woo/Witt game in 99-00 at COW was pretty good too, I can remember the Scots raining in 3's in that game (Ellenwood's and Filmore's Sr years) believe that game ended up being a double digit W for Woo.

[WoosterFAN]

Now I am going to date myself.  I covered SCOTS basketball for Wooster Voice in these days.  And Timken became a very exciting place in Steve Moore's second year.
I had the best seat in the house for every home game..end of press row right next to the bench.  It was 1988-1989 season.  Bill Brown was at Kenyon, Erich Reibe  (2nd team ALL-NCAC) and Stan Aukamp were freshman, Matt Hiestand was a junior and Mike Trimmer was a senior.  And Allegheny, with F Dagget, F Williams and G Amos, was the class of the league.
   Timken was rocking for the first time in many years when SCOTS beat the GATORS (69-63) in FEB in battle for first place in the NCAC after losing to them 73-59 (in game that was not that close) in Meadville.  The SCOTS had to go to Meadville for conference tourney championship game and lost by 2.  Man those were exciting times during the infancy of the Steve Moore era.  The SCOTS went 21-7, 10-2 but NCAA bid.  First 20 win season since 77-78!!
   For the record, Bill Brown was coach of the year in the NCAC that year but was 0-2 vs. former teammate Steve Moore and the game in Gambier was a beat down!!

[kiltedbryan]

Woops, did I say '92?  I meant '94.  It was Coach Brown's first year. 

I checked Woo's all-time results on their webpage- it was '94, but it wasn't the conference championship, just the regular season matchup at Woo.  Wooster lost that home game 64-67, Woo had already lost to Witt 62-67 in Springfield earlier that year.

For the record, Bill Brown was coach of the year in the NCAC that year but was 0-2 vs. former teammate Steve Moore and the game in Gambier was a beat down!!

Looks like Coach Brown managed to exact some revenge in that '94 year...   

[drt]

I hate to date myself, but beating Scranton by one in the semi, followed by crushing Oneonta in the final in 1977 has to be the near the top.  The revenge on Scranton was sweet.  Their coach wore turtle necks, sport coats and hippy medallions.
D3 alltime was the '75 Stagg Bowl when we shellacked the Ithaca Bombers 28-0, then got happy with the Phenix City locals post game....

[Witt4ever]

Witt used reserved seating tickets this year but still didn't tear them upon entry.

That's true, they did not.  Which might go a long way towards answering why the aisles in the student sections on both sides of the stands were full of people all game long.  Not to blame Wittenberg, though.  If I were selling tickets at $8 a pop, I'd be loathe to have those valuable ducats immediately ripped in half.

Witt needs the extra money for the new indoor track and football locker rooms. 

[kiltedbryan]

The game that had to be stopped to wipe the floor was last years #1 vs. #2 game in which there was well over the 3100 capacity in the gym (it was three deep behind the basket).

You know, that triple-overtime game was epic, but do you remember that the other two games Woo-Witt played that year (home game at Woo and conference final at Woo) were both won by Witt by the identical score of 61-59.  Wooster only lost 3 games that whole season by a combined total of 5 points- two to Wittenberg and the NCAA tournament game at Albion, 58-59.

That's not unlike what Wooster did to Wittenberg last year- providing the national runner up with two of their four total losses.

[Superfoot Wallace]

If we're talking in general, I'll have to go with last year's Michigan/Penn St. game in AA where Chad Henne hooked up with Mario Manningham for the winning TD with no time left on the clock.  To see the PSU fans go from celebration to sheer disbelief in just a few minutes was absolutely priceless!!!

blasphemer!

put them in the iron maiden

[goscots]

Actually, if you list in reverse order Wooster losses in the last 4+ seasons it is full of close one possession losses: (Sorry Scotsbrod but you have some numbers transposed on the Witt score at Timken gymnasium)

2005-06   91-88 loss to Transylvania in second round of NCAA
2005-06   59-61 loss to Witt in NCAC championship game
2005-06   83-86 loss to OWU in last regular season game
2005-06  108-113 loss in double OT to Baldwin Wallace in Mose Hole
2004-05   58-59 loss to Albion in second round of NCAA (I'm still mad)
2004-05   59-61 loss to Witt in the NCAC championship game
2004-05   51-69 loss to Witt at home (easily their worst performance but countered by the 3OT win at HPER)
2003-04   64-70 loss to JCU in the Elite Eight round
2003-04   62-73 loss to Witt at home -
2003-04   62-72 loss to Witt at HPER
2003-04   71-74 loss to Capital at home (Scots trailed by 8 with 32 seconds left and still had a chance to tie this game with the last shot)
2002-03   72-74 OT loss to Williams in National semifinal
2002-03   55-61 loss to Witt at HPER
2002-03  72-79 loss to Kalamazoo in Mose Hole

14 losses in 4+ years with of them 8 one possession (including the last six if you count OT as one)

[pennstghs]

now see i guess i did generate some discussion........

yeah i would have to agree with the wittenberg/wooster championship game at wooster in 2003-04 season. i did attend that game as well and it was a packed house. that dunk by kevin longley let the wittenberg crowd back into the game and it was pandamonium the rest of the way. the downside to that game was the ride back in a blizzard-took 3+ hours

also, its hard on any level of division 3 sports to keep the fans attendance in complete control unless you take reserved seating to the full limit and employ ushers checking tickets, which no school has a budget for. no one gets hurt in the games so whats the big deal.

[kiltedbryan]

(Sorry Scotsbrod but you have some numbers transposed on the Witt score at Timken gymnasium)

  I should've double-checked that a bit better.  I think I was even at that 69-51 loss.

[Pat Coleman]

For me, the biggest game was when my alma mater won the national title in '01. Other than that I might have to go with last year's title game or the 1999 title game, the one won by UW-Platteville in double OT over Hampden-Sydney.

[Gregory Sager]

Just think, if Wooster had pulled off that NCAC championship game back in '02, they'd be in the midst of an 11 year postseason streak and counting.  Would anyone happen to know who currently has the longest active post-season streak going?

It's Maryville (TN). The Scots have made the last nine tournaments; the last time that they spent March on their couches was back in 1997. I'd have to research it further, but I think that Upsala and Christopher Newport each made it eleven times in a row at one point or another over the 32-year history of the D3 tournament.

For me, the biggest game was when my alma mater won the national title in '01. Other than that I might have to go with last year's title game or the 1999 title game, the one won by UW-Platteville in double OT over Hampden-Sydney.

I've been present for three of North Park's five national championship games, and while each one was special I'd have to say that the best sporting atmosphere I've ever experienced was a mid-January game between North Park and Augustana that was played in the Park's gym back in 1982. Augie was the #1 team in the country at that point, and that evening they brought two keg-equipped buses filled with fratboys across Illinois and into our gym. The North Park gym was always packed and overheated in those days, but if anything it was especially so that night -- and the distinguished gentlemen from Alpha Tappa Kegga on the other side of the gym helped bring the North Park student section to a remarkable fever pitch of intensity and made the noise level and the tension level in the building particularly high.

There must've been close to two dozen lead changes throughout what was a relentlessly defensive-oriented struggle, and if I remember correctly neither team led by more than five points the entire night. North Park won the game, 50-49, when PG Mike Gordon, who was easily the worst shooter on the entire team, heaved a desperation shot from behind the midcourt line that swished through the net just as the final buzzer started going off. All five Augie players fell to the floor in disbelief, and the stunned Augustana fratboys walked out of the building in complete silence. I'm amazed that nobody got crushed in the pileup of delirious North Park students on the floor. It was one of those unbelievable nights that no one who was there will ever forget.

Gordon, who lived across the hall from me in the dorm, was an extremely surly individual who was not exactly the most beloved member of the Vikings. But he was golden that night, and afterwards members of the student section made up business cards that identified them as members of the "Mike Gordon Appreciation Society". Embossed on the bottom of the business card, in memory of that night, were the words, "47 feet of bad attitude". I still carry mine in my wallet.

I've never experienced a more highly-charged sporting event. The hair was literally standing up on the back of my neck throughout the entire game. I was so exhausted afterwards I could've slept for a week.