MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[pennstghs]

Im sure no one cares about my analysis but o well

Wittenberg 72, Hiram 49

Hiram kept it close and was only down 6 at the half until Wittenberg, led by Dane Borcher's 26 points and im sure over 10 rebounds started to pull away. One thing of note and importance is that Wittenberg played most of the game without their starting 5 in at the same time, as the bench saw significant minutes today. Perhaps resting for a tough weekend ahead. I do not feel at ease about Friday's matchup at all as OWU has given us a tough tough time this year, but i think with the motivation of a locked-up NCAA bid they should show up to play.

Also of note, Wittenberg women won by 31 points. Perhaps the NCAC needs to look into having the women's officials full time   as they did a significantly better job than the men's game. Awful both ways tonight.

[Witt4ever]

Complete men's results:

Wooster 94             Earlham 76
Wittenberg 72         Hiram 49
Ohio Wesleyan 60    Kenyon 54
Wabash 87             Allegheny 84

Semi-Final Matchups Friday night at Timken Gym:
Ohio Wesleyan vs Wittenberg at 5:30
Wabash vs Wooster at 7:45

Battle of the W's

[smedindy]

I thought that the OWU - Kenyon affair would be close!

[blindwatchmaker]

Wooster looked good tonight.  Port and Cooper lit it up going for 27 and 21 respectively.  Overall Wooster shot 59.7% from the floor and 40.9% from 3 point land

Could have done a better job defensively though as the Quake shot 49.2% on the game. 

http://athletics.wooster.edu/mb/boxes/2006-07/earlham3.php

Should be 2 fun games Friday!

[jscwittfan]

Witt looked downright UGLY in the first half.  Shots weren't falling, defense was okay, but not the exceptional D we tend to expect from Witt.  I'd be worried if I were this team heading into the matchup with Wesleyan.  The absence of Chojnacki has proven not to be much of a hinderance in this matchup (he only scored 6 in the OWU win, according to Bill Brown post-game tonight), and OWU kept it close in Springfield without him.

Hopefully the Tigers can turn things around like they started to in the second half.  If not, forget the rematch with Wooster.

[WoosterFAN]

I am surprised the Wabash made the early week trip all the way to Meadville and pulled out the win.  I feel bad for the lil' Giants that they will have to turn around go up Wayne County after going all the way back to Indiana.  But I should always remember that Wabash always fights!!

Saw Darth Vandervaart in the box score with 10 points and 8 rbs in 14 min with 3 blocks.  It is good to have him back.  I hope he gets his legs for the weekend.

Eight (8) fouls by Bidwell and Fulk in combined 34 minutes?? 

Rest up Scots because the NCAC is coming to town and Tigers want to defend the title!!

Go Scots!!

[imderekpoe]

With 9 3-pointers tonight the Scots now have 264 for the year - just 2 short of the conference record set by Kenyon in the 1994-95 season.  They're still a bit shy of the NCAA record of 595 set by Redlands in 2005!

[earlhamalum]

Honestly overall this Earlham Team ranks as one of the worst overall in the last 8 years and I think Billy_P agrees with me on that one.  I think they have 3 of the most talented players on one team at the same time during that same stretch.  I just think they lacked Depth and I don't know what they are going to do NEXT year!!

But Hat's off to Earlham for playing hard against Wooster tonight... Shooting 49% from the Field against Wooster isn't easy to do.   Wooster just out manned Earlham today shooting an OUTSTANDING percentage from the field.   Congrats to Wabash for pulling up the upset on the road.

Now I'm not a lobbyist, but I'm going to give it my best shot!  I call it Jewett 1st Team All NCAC.  They say big time player make big time plays in big time situations and now to my point...  Markous Jewett played 8 games against the top 4 NCAC teams (Wooster *3, Wittenberg *2, OWU *2, Allegheny *1)  Jewett went 57-110 from the field 51% , (23 of those shot attempts were  3 pointers), 25-36 Fat's 75%, 4.5 RPG, with an 18.6 PPG.  I would also like to add that if I was a coach of an opposing NCAC team my Defensive game plan would be stop Jewett!!  I would think that was the objectives of the Top 4 teams in the conference since 2 of the teams out work the rest of the NCAC coaching staff.   

I'm glad that I at least explained to everyone on this board why Jewett is a 1st Team all NCAC player and when it happens don't be all that shocked   ... and if it doesn't then I'll just have to accept  the fact   
If it does I'll be willing to accept Karma from each and everyone of you!





P.S.  Don't forget you can't spell jeWETt without WET

[billy_pilgrim]

Good summation of Jewett's stats, Earlhamalum.

I was unable to follow the game tonight. I'll post some thoughts at some point on Earlham's season, but I'll need to look things over first.

However, I would like to say just one thing:

THANKS MARKOUS

[Gregory Sager]

Losing is part of what makes being a Cubs fans special.  Take a look at the Red Sox.  For what seemed like millennia, the misery of Red Sox Fan was almost endearing to the rest of us outside of New England.  They had their curses and their Bill Buckners and their Bucky Dents and their Aaron Boones and it was heart wrenching.  Then they finally won it all....and immediately turned into (drumroll) the Yankees [/shudder].  The Red Sox winning the Series gave the world Fever Pitch.  Think about that....Fever Pitch. 

If the Cubs win, especially now after they've gone and spent about $87 quadrillion, they lose their broad appeal as the loveable losers and turn into Yankees Midwest.  Do you really want that?   

I'd feel dirty and ashamed, but, yes, I could live with that.

[zu1414]

Witt 72 Hiram 49...sigh.

tough end to a decent season for a young Terriers squad. so close, yet so far from that 4-5 game. now if the program wants to take some steps forward we need to finish better than #7. Next year we must: start winning home games and non-conference games to gain that "winning mindset."

One has to go back to the '00-'01 team that went 14-11 (the Terriers first season in the NCAC) to find a double digit in the left hand column

Let's hope we work hard in the off season and perhpas next year at this time we might make it to the weekend.

[ScotsFan]

It'll be interesting to see where Jewett falls in terms of NCAC all-conference.  His numbers are definately very deserving of 1st team as earlhamalum pointed out.  Also, as earlhamalum said, it's too bad that Jewett didn't have a few more players surrounding him.  Gregory is a nice player, but Wooster did a nice job of shutting him down in the 2nd half.  He went for 10 in the 1st half and only managed one fg in the 2nd half.  Henry had a better game than he had been having down the stretch, but his overall shooting percentage still wasn't up to par with what he did over his carreer.  Jewett just had another solid game.  You take away the 3 point attempts and he's 7-10 from the field and they weren't easy bunnies.  Most of them were difficult floaters while he was driving the lane or fadeaway jumpers.  It was nice to see that the Wooster fans that were in attendance last night showed some real class in giving Jewett an ovation as he went to the bench for the final time.

As for Wooster, Tom Port is really making it difficult not to slot his name in as NCAC POY.  In his last 5 games he is averaging 21.2 ppg and all he did after garnering his first NCAC POW of the season is go out and score a season high 27 pts. on 11-17 shooting.  And 4 of his misses were from downtown.  Coach Moore pointed out on his post game interview that he thought this is the best he has seen Port play in his carreer and I would definately have to agree.  Cooper was also right there with Port getting a quiet 21 if you can call it quiet.  He hit a couple of 3's that were of the Wittenberg game winner variety!  It was great to not only see Vandervaart back on the floor, but it was even better to see the game that he turned in!  Nearly a double double in just over 14 minutes of action after being out over a month.  Not to mention the time he missed with the calf injury before his broken wrist.  He has been out quite a while and it's good to see him back and contributing!  Lastly, I just wanted to comment on Andy Van Horn.  I had been riding him a bit lately and I just wanted to say that he is taking some steps in looking like he is getting his shooter's touch back.  He went 2-2 from beyond the arc Saturday against OWU and last night he was 1-1.  I know it's not much, but when you are in the kind of season long funk he was mired in, baby steps look like giant steps and I just wanted to say that I'm hoping the stroke is back just in time to pay dividends in the post-season!

[woosterbooster]

Not to take anything away from Jewett's game last night, but I thought that a few bunnies were among the shots that he made.  They came about through some nice work on the offensive glass where he got inside position and had the easy stick-backs.

He's a nice player, in my opinion much improved from last season when he was shut down by Tim Vandervaart at Wooster.  This year he's more than a shooter, but an intelligent player who makes the most of his ability on the court.

Still, one play from last night sticks in my mind.  Near half court, while being guarded by Tom Port, Jewett lost control of the ball behind him.  Port began a move to the floor to get it, but the super fast Marty Bidwell, coming from probably fifteen feet away, beat both Port and Jewett to the ball.  Jewett dove on top of him.  As usual, no foul was called, even though Jewett decided that a forearm pushed into Bidwell's neck was in order.  I don't think Markous quite realized how close he came to being embarrassed by the man he thought he had down.

Vandervaart was remarkable.  He hit the ground two or three times, scaring the heck out of the crowd and probably Steve Moore and his staff as well.  Tim popped right back up, apparently unharmed.  He had a terrific game, including a catch and conversion at top speed in traffic late in the game.  I suspect he'll be ready to go 20-25 minutes by the weekend.

[billy_pilgrim]

Still, one play from last night sticks in my mind.  Near half court, while being guarded by Tom Port, Jewett lost control of the ball behind him.  Port began a move to the floor to get it, but the super fast Marty Bidwell, coming from probably fifteen feet away, beat both Port and Jewett to the ball.  Jewett dove on top of him.  As usual, no foul was called, even though Jewett decided that a forearm pushed into Bidwell's neck was in order.  I don't think Markous quite realized how close he came to being embarrassed by the man he thought he had down

I see no relevance in this key play whatsoever, unless maybe it is too downgrade Jewett's ability or call him a thug in some way. But, the lesson as always, don't touch a Wooster player or you become A.) a player who deserves to be suspended from North Coast Athletic Conference competition for life (as was the case with the Hiram kid last year) or B.) a lesser player in the eyes of the experts who browse this forum.

Really, again, why exactly would a player having the ball stolen from him stand out as something spectacular and in what way was Jewett about to be embarrassed?

And, from now on, I am going to refer to all abilities of Wooster players as super in a not so subtle attempt to have my opinions on basketball validated.

[smedindy]

FINALLY (OK, a day late, but still) I've finished my Smed Power Rating Amalgamation for the regular season.

Out of 403 teams.

2. Wooster
12. Wittenberg

85. Ohio Wesleyan


196. Allegheny
230. Wabash
270. Kenyon
278. Earlham
322. Denison
333. Hiram
344. Oberlin

Wow...quite the drop off...