MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[gobash83]

What I'm not anxious to see are NCCAA and NAIA schools.  These games essentially do not count for Wabash for any sort of tournament resumé they may want to build.  Bordered on the immediate east by the HCAC, CCIW on the west, and MIAA to the north, there are plenty of D3 schools around that I think Wabash should be filling its invitationals with D3 teams (preferably in-region).  I realize that the problem here is that 2 out of every 3 D3 schools are hosting a tipoff tournament/classic of some sort and there just aren't enough teams to go around, but I'd really like to see Wabash schedule at least two other D3s for these events.  Perhaps scheduling multiple years in advance would help?  How far in advance does Wooster schedule its Mose Hole and Van Wie invitationals?  Wooster always seems to have good D3 fields for those events. 

Wally, I agree.  I did look and it appears that Wabash had posted on the open dates message board back in early October, 2006 trying to find teams for this year's Tip-Off Classic.  While I think that such boards serve a purpose, I would also think that you resort to them after you have tried other, more direct approaches to teams.  I wonder if this has more to do with an attempt to find good "early season" competition to allow the team to get some minutes under its belt versus trying to find good competition in general.

[smedindy]

One one hand, though,  Wabash and Marian have had played each other quite a bit in hoops, and I think the Knights help out the LG's prepare for the NCAC. But this year's tip-off is a bit...um...odd.

[wally_wabash]

Marian busted up our massive home win streak in the late 90s [/grumble]. 

I don't mind the occasional NAIA game...Wooster and Witt typically play one or two every season.  Most teams do.  But to be out of place at your own home tournament isn't right. 

[wooscotsfan]

At the Half:  Wooster 49  Farmingdale 32

Wooster comes out firing on all cylinders offensively led by their 3 returning starters.    Leading the Scots are All-American James Cooper with 14 points, Brandon Johnson with 14 points and Evan Will with 8 points.

Wooster made 8 of 14 three pointers in the first half and overall shot 56% from the floor.  

GO SCOTS!

[jscwittfan]

Wittenberg loses their opener to Benedictine 79-74.  Witt gets a game high 24 from Gregg Hill on 10-22 shooting (as if there was any doubt as to who the main offensive catalyst for this team was going to be), and a nice 12 from Jeromy Romero off the bench, but it was not enough for the Tigers, as Benedictine had 5 players in double figures.  Witt actually trailed by 13 at halftime, and got it as close as 3 with 3 seconds left.  Witt never led in the game.

[wooscotsfan]

Wooster has had 22 turnovers so far with over 8 minutes left.  Ouch, but I guess that stat is not surprising for a first game of the season.

Wooster still has a comfortable 73-54 lead.

[wooscotsfan]

Final:  Wooster 106  Farmingdale State 81

Wooster was led by James Cooper with 19 points, Marty Bidwell with 19 points, Brandon Johnson with 18 points, freshman Bryan Wicklliffe with 11 points, Devin Fulk with 10 points and Evan Will also with 10 points.

Farmingdale State Rams were led by Damien Santana with 23 points and Erastus Shannon with 10 points.

Wooster shot 50% from the floor tonight, made 14 three pointers and outrebounded Farmingdale 49 to 29.

Nice opening win for the Scots.  Wooster will face St. Thomas (MN) tomorrow night in the Championship game of the Al Van Wie Tourney

[billy_pilgrim]

Earlham 87,
Lake Erie 84



per Earlham Web site...no final stats yet


color me shocked, surprised and every other adjective you can come up with...

[wooscotsfan]

Other Final Scores:

Allegheny 69  Bethany 68    nice win for the gators
Mount Union 95  Hiram 84    Mike Staley had 25 points for the Pups
Swarthmore 81  Oberlin 62    road loss for Yeomen
Hanover 63  Denison 51    neutral site loss for the Big Red

[Li'l Giant]

Earlham 87,
Lake Erie 84



per Earlham Web site...no final stats yet


color me shocked, surprised and every other adjective you can come up with...

Great win for the Quakers. Way to go!

[David Collinge]

Earlham 87,
Lake Erie 84



per Earlham Web site...no final stats yet


color me shocked, surprised and every other adjective you can come up with...

Definitely the upset of the night.  NCAC pride!  Go Quake!  8)

Elsewhere:
* James Cooper reached 1,500 career points with a couple of 1st half free throws this evening.  Congratulations to Coop!
* Denison and Kenyon women both open with nice road (neutral site) victories, DU 54-40 over Salisbury and Kenyon 64-54 over Wesleyan.  (I mention here only because these are games in the pick 'em.)
* Very tough night for Witt.  Not only do the hoopsters lose, but the undefeated and top-ranked volleyballers fell in the national semifinals to Wash. U.   
* Anyone have a score from C'ville yet?

[David Collinge]

ATTENTION Pick 'em pickers:  Week 2 games are posted in the pick 'em room.  There's a Monday game (Wabash at Hanover), so we have an early deadline (7:30pm Monday). 

[Li'l Giant]

* Anyone have a score from C'ville yet?

Via text message from Wally_Wabash, the LGs beat Kentucky Christian 96-88.

[wally_wabash]

I'm waiting for stats to be posted, but my impressions from Chadwick tonight...

- Wabash really pushed the tempo tonight.  This is a pretty stout departure from the more methodical Wabash teams I've seen in recent years.  I think this style will suit this Wabash team pretty well...the LGs have some solid outside shooters and with Simkus back they've got plenty of size to work the offensive glass.  I don't have the numbers yet, but it seemed like Wabash got a lot of offensive boards tonight. 

- Color me impressed with the new kid on the block.  Wes Smith was a bit tentative at first, but really started to assert himself a bit at the end of the first half and throughout the second half.  He seems like the type of player who has a knack for getting himself open under the basket in loose ball/chaos kinds of situations.  Some players do this and some players don't...it's nice to have one who does.  Smith's Wabash debut ended with a team-high 21 points and 9 rebounds.  Well done. 

- Wabash's play was a little sloppy at times...sometimes because they were pushing too hard and sometimes because they were a little tired. 

- The Chadwick Crazies are in midseason form. 

- Wabash got solid contributions from a lot of players tonight...Aaron Brock looked particularly sharp, Root and Haltom can hurt you if you let them spot up on the perimeter. 

- Fouls were a problem for the LGs tonight...maybe a little too pumped up for the first game.  I was impressed with the depth demonstrated tonight and that depth was necessary because of the pace of the game and the fouls.  Nice to see Wabash has a second unit that can come in without a lot of dropoff. 

All in all, it was a good win for Wabash tonight.  The LGs opened up on fire, KCC battled their way back to grab a lead toward the end of the first half which is about when Smith got going and led Wabash on a run to end the half.  The second half started with Wabash jumping out to a double digit lead and while KCC made a couple of runs, they never really threatened in the second half.  I think Indiana Wesleyan will be a stiffer test tomorrow for Wabash, but I'm expecting Wabash's size to dominate that game. 

All of that and I didn't even mention Zimmer (15 and 8 tonight).   

[wally_wabash]

Of course as soon as I post, stats get planted on the web page. 

- Wabash shoots 50% for the game (36-78)
- of Smith's 9 rebounds, eight (eight!) were offensive
- very balanced scoring for Wabash tonight...al 9 players who saw the floor scored and all had between 8 and 21 points except for Li'l Earl who had just the three pointer early in the game
- Wabash won the rebound game 42-32, with an 18-9 edge in offensive rebounds (which translated to a 23-12 edge in 2nd chance points)