MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[David Collinge]

If Borchers has another year, then I think Wabash should allow Josh Estelle to suit up again!

Why stop there? Why not bring back Pete Metzelaars as well? I don't think that the big Dutchman's duties with the Colts are so pressing that he couldn't lace 'em up for his old alma mater a few more times.

If not Pete Metzelaars himself, then surely his heretofore unknown identical twin brother has eligibility remaining...

[smedindy]

And I do think there's some DNA of Maurice "Shang" Chadwick, Homer Stonebraker, and Pete Thorn rolling around somewhere. The biochem lab should get on that cloning project, toot sweet! 

I hope all of the NCAC hoop squads enjoyed their turkeys and are ready to kick some non-conference tail!

[Gregory Sager]

If Borchers has another year, then I think Wabash should allow Josh Estelle to suit up again!

Why stop there? Why not bring back Pete Metzelaars as well? I don't think that the big Dutchman's duties with the Colts are so pressing that he couldn't lace 'em up for his old alma mater a few more times.

If not Pete Metzelaars himself, then surely his heretofore unknown identical twin brother has eligibility remaining...

Yep. And I've heard that Drew W. Metzelaars has better handles than his twin brother used to have.

[NCAC4Life]

Big win for the NCAC over the OAC today as Ohio Wesleyan downs Baldwin-Wallace 98-68 at Rochester.

[ScotsFan]

Big win for the NCAC over the OAC today as Ohio Wesleyan downs Baldwin-Wallace 98-68 at Rochester.

Looks like the Bishops found their shooting touch!  Nice win for OWU and the NCAC!

[David Collinge]

Both games in today's NCAC/OAC Challenge went to the OAC.  In the opener, Kenyon lost to Muskingum, 71-66, and Capital finished off the sweep by dumping Denison 71-53.

Kenyon was (IMHO) clearly the better team in the first game.  Josh Klinger basically negated Muskingum's all-conference guard Brandon Todd, and without him, the Musky offense was dysfunctional, repeatedly forced into chucking up buzzer-beating attempts.  On the offensive end, the gameplan was to get the ball inside to Bryan Yelvington, who would either back his man down or kick out for the open jumper.  It wall worked splendidly as Kenyon raced out to an 11-point halftime lead.  But shortly before the half, Klinger re-injured the knee that kept him out of half of last season (more on this below), and shortly after the half, Yelvington picked up his third and fourth fouls, and as a result, the second half was a completely different game.  With Klinger in the locker room, Tood was freed up to work his magic (he finished with 12 points and 7 assists), and with Yelvington watching in frustration from the bench, Dave Knapke and Allen Bediako weren't able to control the paint--Kenyon shot 54.5% in the 1st half but just 36.4% in the second, while Musky's shooting percentage went from a woeful 30% in the 1st to a hot 57.7% in the second.  Still, Kenyon had two chances to tie the game in the final 10 seconds, both three-point attempts by first-year Kodey Haddox (Korey's little brother), but both looked a little panicky and were off-target.

So Kenyon drops to 0-3 with three closes losses to good teams (Brandeis, Tufts, Muskingum.)  And things don't look terribly bright for tomorrow, if they have to take on Capital without Josh Klinger.  Klinger plowed into a Musky defender on a breakaway late in the half (drawing the foul), but crumbled to the floor grabbing his braced knee and writhing in pain.  He was down for a few minutes, but got up (with help) and was able to put some weight on it, which I take to be a good sign.  He emerged from the locker room about midway through the second half with a substantial icepack on his knee.  My completely uneducated guess would be that he'll be back in the lineup soon, based on his being able to walk before game's end today.  I certainly hope so, since Kenyon is a different team with him at the point.

The second game was a mismatch in a couple of different ways.  Capital is ranked #10 in the nation, and while that's IMO tremendously inaccurate (they may not even be the 10th best team in the region), it still points up the gulf between their players and those in the Denison red jerseys.  So how do you account for the fact that Denison stayed within striking distance until the last 7 minutes or so?  Well, perhaps Capital didn't take their opponent as seriously as they might have, or maybe they just rest on their superior athletic ability, I don't know.  But Bob Ghiloni and Kyle Pottkotter certainly get every last bit of game out of their players, and I think that the coaching advantage is the main reason the OAC favorite had trouble putting away the NCAC least-favorite.  Despite being considerably taller, faster, and stronger than their opponents, Capital actually lost the rebounding battle, 34-33.  It seemed to me that Denison's positioning and effort were both better than Capital's, allowing them to overcome the physical disadvantages and stay in the game.  On offense, Denison took a page from the Princeton small-and-slow playbook and ran a number of back door cuts, usually with success.  When the ball went into the post, usually to Jeremy Stuhlfauth (6 FG, 13 points) or Brian Elder (2 FG, 9 points), the result was as often a block (8 blocks for Capital, 4 by Ben Gunn in just 13 minutes) as a bucket.  That meant that DU had to rely on the jumper, and they just haven't got the shooters to make that gameplan work; the Big Red shot just 38.2% excluding Stuhlfauth and Elder, and only attempted 7 threes (making two). 

So what do we know after day 1?  Well, the OAC representatives were picked to finish 1st and 6th by their coaches, while the NCAC representatives were picked to finish fifth and 10th by their coaches.  The OAC #1 beat the NCAC #10, as expected (but not by the sort of margin I'd expect Wooster to ring up on Marietta).  The OAC #6 and NCAC #5 played a game that could have gone either way, even though Kenyon was without the services of their two most important players for about half of the game.  The OAC teams will probably win both games tomorrow as well, but I'm encouraged by today's results that interconference parity may not be too far off.  (Plus OWU's smackdown of BWC helps, even though OWU is our #2 and BWC is only their #5.)

[Hoops MacPherson]

Results from Meadville:

Medaille (3-0) beats Marietta, setting up final of tournament against host  Allegheny (4-0) which beat PS-DuBois, 103-58.

[David Collinge]

Not that I want to play the "comparative scores" game , but it must be noted that St. Thomas, who lost at Wooster by 6 last weekend, defeated Division 2's top-ranked team, Winona St., on their home court last night.  See this site's front page for more details.

[woosterbooster]

After seeing that score, I'm seriously beginning to doubt my ability to judge the merits of anything hoops.  Last week, at the Van Wie tournament at Wooster, after seeing St. Thomas in action (and I use that word loosely) against Otterbein, I'd have bet my bottom dollar that Wooster would take them by 20-30 points.  I was way off, of course, as the Scots had to come from behind to eek out the win.  Now St. Thomas knocks off the top team in DII.  Either the DII voters have no clue, or I have no clue.  I think it's me.

[David Collinge]

UST didn't look very good in that game against Ott.  I remember remarking to Steve Moore at halftime of that game that it didn't look like Steve Fritz had a lot of talent on this year's squad.  I realize that makes me look like an idiot, but I stand nervously by that statement.  They're very good because they are extremely well-coached and fundamentally sound, but not terrifically talented or athletic.  I think they just had an off night against Otterbein.  Off nights happen: look at the Kenyon women, who sandwiched an 11-point loss to a pedestrian ONU squad between a win at #14 Brandeis and a double OT loss at #6 Wash U.

[smedindy]

Wow, Gheny really pushed themselves with that tourney schedule! 

[ScotsFan]

UST didn't look very good in that game against Ott.  I remember remarking to Steve Moore at halftime of that game that it didn't look like Steve Fritz had a lot of talent on this year's squad.  I realize that makes me look like an idiot, but I stand nervously by that statement.  They're very good because they are extremely well-coached and fundamentally sound, but not terrifically talented or athletic. I think they just had an off night against Otterbein. 

I didn't see the STU/Ott game, but one thing that stood out to me from their game vs. Wooster was how fundamentally sound and well coached they were.  I was very impressed with how they ran their inside outside game by getting the ball inside and then kicking it out for an open three.  They reminded me a lot of Wooster prior to the up-tempo days.  And they certainly seem to be a very good shooting team.  Especially from beyond the arc.  That's what kept them in the game against Wooster. 

I must say though, that going by 1st impressions based on team personnel, I didn't expect the Tommies to offer much of a challenge to Wooster.  But they shot the ball much better than I expected them to and had the Scots on the ropes for much of the game.  Now they go and pull off a huge upset beating the D-II number 1.  And on the road to boot.  One question I have is where were GVSU and Findlay ranked.  They had wins over D-1 powers MSU and OSU respectively under their belts already!

[sac]

Findlay was #6 and is 3-0, Grand Valley #24 and is 6-0

They meet December 8th in Allendale, MI, their only meeting of the season.

[David Collinge]

The NCAC/OAC Challenge is now in the books for 2007, and you can chalk up a 4-0 record for the OAC.

In the opener, Muskingum held off a pesky Denison squad, 72-66.  It was more of the same for Denison, who played well but lacks the scoring threat that can carry them to a victory.  Statistically, the game was decided at the free throw line, where Muskingum was a perfect 12-12 while Denison was just 10 of 17.  Otherwise, the stats were similar: shooting (MU 26/53 [49.1%], DU 25/52 [48.1%]), three-point shooting (MU 42.1%, DU 42.9%), rebounds (MU 30, DU 31), and turnovers (MU 8, DU 7) were nearly dead even.  Denison was led by first-year Larry Farmer with 15 points on 7/8 shooting.  (Aside: former Wooster plebe Nick Hershberger started both games in the post for Muskingum, scoring 14 points in each game.)

The nightcap was a thriller with a crummy ending, which has become an all-too-familiar story for Kenyon.  The Lords, playing without co-captain and floor general Josh Klinger (knee) held a 4-point halftime lead over the tenth-ranked Capital Crusaders, and still led by 7 with about 3:00 left.  Capital, however, drilled three straight treys while Kenyon's offense fell silent, and the Cru forced overtime.  The OT was dominated by Capital as Kenyon's Bryan Yelvington misfired on several threes, and Capital ended up with a 95-85 victory.  Statistically, the game was won by free throws (Cap sank 26, while Kenyon missed nine of 26 attempts) and turnovers (21 by Kenyon vs. just 10 by Capital--Klinger's absence was keenly felt.)  Kenyon's missed free throws were critical, but somehow I just felt like they wouldn't have been decisive--that Capital would find some way to pull it out, which they did.  Yelvington was undoubtedly the hero for the Lords, scoring 22 points and grabbing 11 boards.  Dave Knapke quietly added a double-double of his own (11 + 12).  Plebe Kodey Haddox contributed 17, while junior David Jolson added 13 points and 7 assists helping to replace Klinger.  Capital was led by the slimmed-down Steve Kyser, whose 23 points included two huge threes, and by first-year D.J. Frazier with 21, 8 of which came from the from the charity stripe (many of those in the OT.)  (Aside: former Wooster reserve Jamie Yoder is now in the Capital rotation, scoring 20 points on 7/12 shooting in 37 minutes of action this weekend.)

Denison is now 0-5, while Kenyon is 0-4, but both teams are better than that.

Elsewhere:
Medaille 70, Allegheny 68
Manchester 84, Earlham 67
Wilmington 78, Oberlin 50
#9 Rochester 76, Ohio Wesleyan 69
and
Lake Erie leads Wooster by 4 with 13:40 left in the 2nd.

[David Collinge]

Wooster and Lake Erie tied at 57, 10:47 left.  LEC led by something like 14 at the half.