MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[Pat Coleman]

I have UW-Stevens Point above Wooster and St. Thomas and Amherst above Witt but all three Ohio teams mentioned are in my personal top six.

[TigerFan_1973]

I have UW-Stevens Point above Wooster and St. Thomas and Amherst above Witt but all three Ohio teams mentioned are in my personal top six.

I was talking about just the Great Lakes region.

[Pat Coleman]

Ahh, right.

[David Collinge]

I did not realize that there is a Top 25 board.  I'm off to try to find that.

Thanks.

TigerFan_1973

I found it.  Thanks for pointing it out.

I hope it wasn't too hard to find.  I posted a link to it in my New Year's Eve post on this subject; perhaps you didn't notice that.  Links embedded in posts show up in blue typeface, such as the phrase "link to it" in the previous sentence.

As I said, I don't know enough to even comment on a national top 25.  How do people in the Great Lakes region feel, let's say, about the top 5 in the region?

I would have ONU, Wooster, Witt at 1, 2, 3 but I'm not sure from there.

Any thoughts, please?

TF

I'd have the top 3 that way as well.  After them, I'd probably have Baldwin-Wallace, John Carroll, and Hope, perhaps not in that order, but at this point in the season I'm not enthusiastic about any of them.  And I haven't seen any of them yet, either; I have seen Capital, whose paper credentials are similar to B-W and JCU, but who was mediocre at best when I saw them.  Maybe if I'd seen B-W, JCU, or Hope, I'd be as down on them as I am on Capital.

[ScotsFan]

As I said, I don't know enough to even comment on a national top 25.  How do people in the Great Lakes region feel, let's say, about the top 5 in the region?

I would have ONU, Wooster, Witt at 1, 2, 3 but I'm not sure from there.

Any thoughts, please?

I'd have the top 3 that way as well.  After them, I'd probably have Baldwin-Wallace, John Carroll, and Hope, perhaps not in that order, but at this point in the season I'm not enthusiastic about any of them. 

I have not seen any of the teams listed outside of ONU, Wooster and Witt (and Witt was just a tv broadcast).  I would agree with TF and DC that those 3 would be my GL top 3 right now as well.  As for the remainder of the top 5, I think Hope could be considered right up there with Witt for maybe 3b in the GL Region although, having not seen them, I'm just going by my opinion to stick them below Witt at this point.  And as for B-W and JCU, they have just been far too inconsistent to place them ahead of Hope or Witt at this point of the season.  B-W does have the impressive win over ONU, but they also have the very unimpressive loss to 5-5 Edgewood to counter it.  And JCU has dropped 2 out of 3 to unrakned opponents.  Couple that with the fact that they haven't really been dominant in their wins over average at best opponents and I would have to say that they still have a lot to prove. 

Right now, I'd have to say that there is a pretty large gap once you get below the top 4 in the region.  Hope did lose 2 games, but they were both on the road and both were very winnable games by the Dutch.  Also, do they even count as in-region games for Hope?  I can never seem to get the criteria straight when it comes to what is considered regional and non regional for those MIAA teams.  That could prove to be pretty significant in Hope's favor if they don't have those 2 losses count against them especially considering the relative weakness of the MIAA this season.  Does anyone know if those losses count against hope as regional losses or not?

[Pat Coleman]

If they have a dot next to them on our schedule and results page, they are a regional game.

[sac]

scotsfan---Hope's loss to Wheaton counts as in-region.  The Carthage game doesn't exist.

FWIW---I think all of you would be correct to put Hope behind BW, JCU, Witt, Woo and ONU at this point.

If they have a dot next to them on our schedule and results page, they are a regional game.

What does the dot next to Carthage on Hope's schedule mean?  That game is not in-region.  Its 230 miles to Carthage

[Pat Coleman]

Dammit, that means someone entering the score for one of the schools marked it in-region, which we all know it is not.

Feel free to drop me an e-mail with important stuff like that, thanks.

207 miles to Carthage according to mappoint.

[kiltedbryan]

As I said, I don't know enough to even comment on a national top 25.  How do people in the Great Lakes region feel, let's say, about the top 5 in the region?

I would have ONU, Wooster, Witt at 1, 2, 3 but I'm not sure from there.

Any thoughts, please?

I agree, and I agree that after those three there may be somewhat of a drop-off.  We'll have to keep a close eye on Ohio Wesleyan, Hope, John Carroll, Baldwin-Wallace and maybe another team or two- with the seeming lack of another strong team out of the MIAA, the entire Great Lakes region doesn't seem quite as stocked this year...

Early Regional Records:

Ohio Northern (5-1) loss to B-W
Wooster (5-1) loss to ONU
Baldwin-Wallace (5-1) loss to Capital
John Carroll (6-2) losses to Greensboro and Wilmington
Wittenberg (4-2) losses to Woo and ONU
Hope (1-1) loss to Wheaton (have they really only played 2 in-region games...yikes)
Ohio Wesleyan (4-3) losses to Depauw, Allegheny, and Wilmington

With conference play coming up, most of these teams should be able to quickly inflate their win totals.  Conference-wise, Wooster and Hope are the only teams still unbeaten in their conferences.

The first NCAA regional rankings aren't due till when?  Early Feb.??

[woosterbooster]

Here is the remaining J.V. schedule for Wooster.  (A home game with Muskingum will probably be added somewhere):

1/22/07         At Mount Union  7:30 p.m.
1/24/07         H - Lorain CC   5:00 p.m.  (Varsity vs Kenyon at 7:30)
1/29/07         At Notre Dame   7:30 p.m.
2/1/07           At Muskingum   7:30 p.m.
2/3/07           H - Wittenberg  5:30 p.m.  (Varsity vs Wittenberg at 7:30)
2/8/07           At Wayne College   7:30 p.m.
2/12/07         At Lorain CC   6:00 p.m.

[Gregory Sager]

Early Regional Records:

John Carroll (6-2) losses to Greensboro and Wilmington

Greensboro was not a regional opponent for JCU.

[David Collinge]

Early Regional Records:

John Carroll (6-2) losses to Greensboro and Wilmington

Greensboro was not a regional opponent for JCU.

It's not "regional," but it is "in-region."  According to the 2007 Handbook (page 15), both North Carolina and Ohio are in Membership Region 3, games within which count under the expanded definition of "in-region."

Membership Region 3 includes teams in the following states and commonwealths: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia.

[smedindy]

Geez, all this regional crap is confusing. Let's just play hoops and sort 'em out!

[David Collinge]

You've just gotta get with the program, smeds.  What's important to the NCAA is to preserve the intense academic atmosphere and not encourage the sports teams to make schedules that detract from the academics.  This new definition of "in-region" games is just an attempt by the NCAA to recognize that some out-of-region trips, like say Holland MI to Wheaton IL, are just too hard on student-athletes and should be discouraged, but other out-of-region trips, like say Holland MI to San Juan PR, can easily fit within the student-athlete's study schedule and should be encouraged.

[Mr. Ypsi]

David, nice sarcasm, but a mis-chosen example.  Hope-Wheaton IS in-region; it is Calvin-Wheaton (or Carthage-Hope/Calvin) which are non-region in the CCIW-MIAA Challenge.