MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[Gregory Sager]

Elmhurst wasn't the "3rd or 4th best CCIW team", ScotsFan. The 'jays finished second in the CCIW, and second in the CCIW tourney. They beat Augustana once in three tries (CCIW champs, CCIW tourney champs), they beat UW-Oshkosh (2nd place WIAC), UW-Whitewater (4th place WIAC), and took two out of three from the CCIW's third-place team, Wheaton. They're currently ranked 14th in the nation. That's not marginal.

I've seen Elmhurst numerous times this season. They would've had a legitimate chance at making a Salem run.

Well, maybe if Emhurst would have found a way to beat Millikin at home, we wouldn't be having this conversation.  Same goes for Witt and their loss at Allegheny.  With the margin of error being so small especially when factoring the high number of conference tournament upsets, there is really no one to blame but themselves for not getting the job done against far lesser teams.

I'm not trying to defend the current selection process by using this QoWI nonsense.  Thank goodness changes are being made for next season and I hope they work out better than the current sytem that is in place.  The point I was trying to make was that it isn't fair to say that whomever wins the national championship isn't a true national champion because the 59 best teams aren't in the field as Elmhurst's coach was quoted as saying in the front page.  I'm sorry, but I have a hard time feeling sorry for them.  As I said, they really have to look no further than that home loss to Millikin to figure out why their season is over.

I never said that Elmhurst deserved to be in according to the current criteria. In fact, I was the first one on CCIW Chat to say the opposite. I posted last week that the Bluejays were up the creek without a paddle, much to the consternation of the Bluejays loyalists.

My objection was to your line, "Like those Pool C bubble teams are seriously in consideration for a run to Salem?" Fact of the matter is, Elmhurst is good enough to make a run to Salem. The fact that the Bluejays did not meet the criteria that would've allowed them the chance to prove it -- and, again, the 'jays have no one but themselves to blame for that -- does not alter that basic fact. The Bluejays were good enough to make it to the Final Four if they had had the chance.

[WoosterFAN]

From what I remember of Transy last year.  They hit a bunch of shots and could not seem to miss especially when it is important and the Scots were making a run.  Their Guard Bain made 7-10 and they hit for 42% in the game after going for 5-10 in the first half.

One of the things that I did not notice is that despite size advantage that they do not seem to rebound well (outrebounded for season 32.3 rpg to 29.0 rpg).  That maybe because they shoot from distance so much. 

And if my memory serves, we got what we wanted inside against a senior laden team.  This time, it is in our gym, with our fans and after sleeping in our own beds.  I doubt that we'll go 1-8 from the 3pt line in the second half again.

We must defend this house!!

[bufordscot]

From the Atlanta Journal Constitution
http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/shared-blogs/ajc/marchmadness1/entries/2007/02/26/wooster_ohio_having_a_cow.html

[wally_wabash]

Something to keep in mind...

Since the beginning of the '03-'04 season Wooster has lost 14 games.  9 of those games were at Timken.  This suggests that Wooster's home court isn't quite as advantageous as we might otherwise believe.  As long as Transylvania manages to not soil themselves when the pipers come out, I think this could be a good game.  And really, all the pressure is on Wooster here...#2 in the country, getting the grudge match at home...it's a done deal, right?  Transy is playing with house money Friday night. 

[diehardfan]

This is a genuine DIII level sandwich.  Anything on submarine, hero, or hoagie style bread is nothing but an NAIA meal with mayonaise. 

Whew... I think just looking at that thing almost gave me a heart attack. I think I'm going to go eat some raw vegetables now. 

Seriously, referring to something as an NAIA meal is hilarious. What a great DIII jab.

[TigerLady]

Interesting Article!

http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/hp/content/oh/story/sports/college/wittenberg/2007/02/26/snssp022707wittcolumn.html

[sac]

Sounds like the author reads this site

[smedindy]

This just in...water is wet. Film at 11...

[jscwittfan]

Interesting Article!

http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/hp/content/oh/story/sports/college/wittenberg/2007/02/26/snssp022707wittcolumn.html

While I can see the point of John Carroll getting in over Witt being a topic of discussion, the fact is that JCU was higher in the final regional rankings and made it farther in their conference tournament.

Really, it reads like nothing more than sour grapes, as I'm sure the hypothetical Bill Brown-Cheerios situation didn't happen, because even Bill knew they were done after Friday.

[wally_wabash]

Sour grapes indeed...

The reality is that the bottom seven of the NCAC this year killed QoWIs for our best two teams.  The margin of error is pretty small in D-III in general and gets razor thin when 3 of the 10 teams in your conference sit between .333 and .500 and four more sit below the 0.333 threshold. 

So how could Witt have done better?  As nice as it seems to look that they beat York (who is dancing), that game couldn't have mattered less to the committee.  It didn't happen.  Same with the Cedarville game.  And with the Swarthmore/Haverford games.  We all knew the rules when these schedules were made, so every time you sacrifice a chance to play a D-III team in your own region, you sacrifice the chance to pick up some in-region wins which are part of the primary criteria.  You can't win if you don't play. 

Some other points from the article...

- It's "unfair" to qualify for the tournament?  How is that?  Everybody plays by the same rules...regardless of whether or not we agree with the rules, they are the same for everybody and are therefore fair. 

- One can't compare the D-I tournament and their ratio of bids to teams eligible to what we have in D-III.  D-I has a little thing called a $6 billion tv contract that pays for things like our D-III tournament, so they can be allowed some special dispensation here. 

- The NCAA doesn't seek out the next best 18 teams.  This is true.  But I don't think the NCAA has made the promise to find the best 18 at-large teams.  They promise to find the best 18 at-at large teams that meet their criteria. If they feel that the criteria isn't giving the best tournament field, then they need to alter the criteria (which they are doing). 

- I'm not sure I would go as far as to call the d3hoops.com Top 25 "worthless", but the top 25 is not an indicator or predictor or a tool used by the committee to select at large teams.  It's pointless to point at the poll as proof of why your team should be in.  The poll is irrelevant to tournament selection. 

The bottom line is that had Witt not inexcusably blown their game against Allegheny and then made the conference tournament final, they'd probably be in.  Witt's destiny was in their own hands and they didn't take care of business. 

[ScotsFan]

cmhscots asked about Transy's style on the HCAC board; a Bluffton poster responded:

Quote from: cmhscots on Today at 09:48:45 am
So what is Transy's style?  I know last year they beat Wooster primarily riding Marc Bain's hot hand, but I'm not sure from looking at their stats what their style is this year.

Looking over Transy's roster and their stats, I'd say that they remind me a lot of OWU.  Both teams have several players that can shoot the 3-ball extremely well.  Both teams have big men that can shoot the 3-ball well. 

Both Transy and OWU averaged 75 ppg,  both shot above 46% overall (OWU-46%, Transy-47%) and both were close in 3-pont % (OWU-37%, Transy 40%).  Both teams seem to do a good job of moving the ball around to find the open man for the 3. 

The similarities continued on the defensive end as well as both Transy and OWU allowed teams to shoot over 40% from the floor and both allowed teams to shoot at a 35% clip from 3-point range and both allowed similar ppg outputs with OWU allowing 64ppg and Transy allowing 67ppg. 

So when looking at what style of play they bring, I would say all we need to do is look at OWU.  Wooster could benefit from having seen OWU twice in the last 2 weeks.  And that familiarity with the Bishops really paid dividends for the Scots in that NCAC championship game as it seemed as though Wooster were the ones that made all the right adjustments. 

[AndersDY]

From the Atlanta Journal Constitution
http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/shared-blogs/ajc/marchmadness1/entries/2007/02/26/wooster_ohio_having_a_cow.html

I can't believe the arch filling turned into arrests. That's good that the charges were dropped, but I recall a year that probably did go overboard ("snow" in the archway turned into "snow and various debris") and little was said. Perhaps they're a bit more protective with the shiny new improvments to Kauke?

[ScotsFan]

From the Atlanta Journal Constitution
http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/shared-blogs/ajc/marchmadness1/entries/2007/02/26/wooster_ohio_having_a_cow.html

I can't believe the arch filling turned into arrests. That's good that the charges were dropped, but I recall a year that probably did go overboard ("snow" in the archway turned into "snow and various debris") and little was said. Perhaps they're a bit more protective with the shiny new improvments to Kauke?

It was actually the rent-a-cops, errrrr, campus security that seemed to have caused the whole thing to escalate like it did.  They seem to be the ones that called the police to the scene instead of contacting the dean of students who ended up being called in and calming things down when it was all said and done anyways.  Needless to say, the Wooster PD didn't come out of that whole situation looking too good with the way that they handled things once they arrived on the scene.

[Pat Coleman]

That's odd -- this reporter specifically asked me about Witt's tourney changes midseason if they lost to Wooster twice and I told him they were not good.

Why would he expect them to be better if they lost to Allegheny and Ohio Wesleyan?

[smedindy]

Witt has no one to blame but themselves for not getting in the tourney. I think the Dorksen 8 needs to step up their game next year, and the signs are positive for many of those teams.