MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[imderekpoe]

If my calculations are correct, James Cooper has now amassed 1943 career points.  If he scores 14 points at Earlham on Saturday he'll tie Bryan Nelson for 2nd in career scoring at Wooster.  He should have a legitimate shot at passing the 2000 point mark during the conference semi-final game, assuming that Wooster advances on Tuesday.

And an unrelated question - how long is the Scots' winning streak over Earlham?

[imderekpoe]

I finally found the official tiebreakers:

1. Head-to-Head competition (NCAC contests only – no restrictions regarding number of games and sites).
2. Combined win-loss record with all teams above tied teams (restricted to "like" games – any team played twice; and single games played at the same location, either home or away).
3. Record versus individual opponents examined in descending order of standings (restricted to "like" games – any team played twice; and single games played at the same location, either home or away).
4. Coin toss.

IF THREE OR MORE TEAMS ARE TIED, the combined records of the teams
involved versus each other are totaled and rankings are listed according to
the winning percentage. The best percentage will be given the highest
seed. If two or more teams tie for the highest percentage, the lowest team
will be seeded. Once the lowest team is clearly seeded the remaining
teams repeat the process until the tie is broken. If three or more
percentages are arrived in initial process, and no ties remain, then teams
shall be seeded according to their percentages.

LIKE GAMES: Defined as: games that are played under the same
traveling condition (either home or away). E.G.: OWU and ALL are tied.
ALL plays DEN once—at DEN. OWU plays DEN twice—once home and
once at DEN. In comparing the two schedules, only compare the games
at DEN, throw out the DEN at OWU game. All teams played home &
home are also "like" games (teams that play each other twice).

[imderekpoe]

In case anyone is interested, the NCAC Baseketball Policies and Procedures are here: http://www.northcoast.org/policies/basketball.pdf

[David Collinge]

Great work, cmhscots--thanks!

Okay, let's apply tie-breaker #2 to a potential Wabash/Kenyon tie.  The teams above them are Woo, Witt, and OWU.  Wabash played each one twice.  Kenyon played Witt twice, and played at Woo and played OWU at home.  Kenyon's record in those games would be 0-4 (presuming a loss Sat. to Witt, necessary for there to be a tie.)  Wabash's record against Witt, at Woo, and vs. OWU is 1-3--they beat OWU at home.  Thus, Wabash has the tie-breaker over Kenyon.

A potential Hiram/Allegheny tie for 6th is still a coin toss, as their records/schedules would be identical.

Oberlin and Denison tied at 4-12 (Scenario 2 in my post above) still goes to Denison, using tie-breaker #3 ("best-win.")  Head-to-head they split, and collective like record against the teams #1-#7 would be 1-9 each (like games are home vs. Woo, at OWU, and 2x vs. Wabash, Kenyon, Allegheny, and Hiram, and the only wins would be home wins by Denison over Wabash and Oberlin over Allegheny, both this coming Saturday.)  Tie-breaker #3 falls to Denison by virtue of their win over Wabash (necessary to make this scenario possible.)

Oberlin and Denison tied at 3-13 (Scenario 3a above) is still an oily coin toss.  It's the same as above, without the fantasy wins over Wabash and Allegheny.  If those two wins are losses, tie-breaker #3 is indecisive, and we move to #4--coin toss.

Oberlin, Denison, and Earlham tied at 3-13 (Scenario 3b), it is the same result as scenario 3a (Oberlin/Denison coin toss.)  The first tie-breaker is

the combined records of the teams
involved versus each other are totaled and rankings are listed according to
the winning percentage. The best percentage will be given the highest
seed. If two or more teams tie for the highest percentage, the lowest team
will be seeded.

Those percentages are Oberlin .750, Denison .750, Earlham .000 (both OC and DU swept EC, and split with each other.)  Thus Earlham is seeded (#10) and the process continues with OC and DU.

Once the lowest team is clearly seeded the remaining
teams repeat the process until the tie is broken.

Were left with Oberlin and Denison tied at 3-13, which is the same as Scenario 3a.

So farewell and adieu to Earlham, who have been eliminated even if they can manage to beat Wooster Saturday.  Which seems strange: they could finish with wins over the #1, #2, and #4 teams in the conference and finish behind two teams that beat nobody better-placed than #8.  But that would be a fitting end to Earlham's bizarre Jekyll/Hyde season.

[wally_wabash]

Hmm...color me very concerned about Wabash's chances of hosting a first round game.  Wittenberg, for all intents and purposes, has virtually nothing to gain (what's the difference between a #2 seed and a #3 seed..zilch as far as I can tell) and everything to lose (specifically, the risk of injury to key players).  It's a different story if Wittenberg were a pool C candidate, but that seems pretty unrealistic at this point.  Kenyon on the other hand has everything to play for...home court advantage next week, senior day, the warm feeling you get anytime you beat Wittenberg at anything, etc.  I was really hoping that the #4 seed wouldn't come down to the last Saturday. 

[smedindy]

Of course, Witt could win and Wabash could lose. It's been that kinda year.

[BigRedGrad]

I have to think Wabash prevails against the Big Red on Saturday.
It is the OILY coin. :-)  Very slippery oily coin.   I wonder who is there when they flip or are they just told by the NCAC you lost or won. 
It is one more game but I don't know which is worse...losing the flip or having to get stomped by the Scots.  Come tournament time NO coach is going to be Mr. Nice guy.

It is one and done for either Oberlin or the Big Red and that is a fact.

[David Collinge]

It is one more game but I don't know which is worse...losing the flip or having to get stomped by the Scots.

Ask Brian Elder, Chris Eberst, Tom Perkins, or Brian Gognat which is worse.  Ask Jordan Beard, Matthew Godwin, Chase Palmer, or Elvis Francois.  I'll guarantee you get the same answer 8 times.

[wally_wabash]

It is one more game but I don't know which is worse...losing the flip or having to get stomped by the Scots.

Ask Brian Elder, Chris Eberst, Tom Perkins, or Brian Gognat which is worse.  Ask Jordan Beard, Matthew Godwin, Chase Palmer, or Elvis Francois.  I'll guarantee you get the same answer 8 times.

Definitely.  Oberlin and Denison are longshots to advance in the tournament for sure.  But longshot has better odds than no shot.  I can't imagine either team would want to throw away the opportunity to play next week. 

[David Collinge]

Congrats to Yelvington at Kenyon on his game last night.....Career high and terriffic stats.....been following him since his HS days....Great young Man

A little more on this...at Hiram last night, in another must-win game for Kenyon (as they all are at this point), Bryan poured in a career-best 34 points on 12-of-14 shooting (7/7 after the half) and a perfect 10/10 from the line.  He also had nine rebounds and three assists on the evening.  Bryan is averaging 15.0 ppg and 7.6 rpg, and is shooting .518 from the floor and .825 from the line.  I think he's a shoo-in for one of the seven first-team all-conference slots, and should be a dark horse candidate for POY next season.  I don't know him (I tend to avoid contact with the players) but I've heard nothing but good things about him from coaches and parents around the league. 

[David Collinge]

...which reminds me, with the regular season coming to a close this weekend, it's time to start thinking of all-conference teams.  For reasons that escape me, the coaches select a seven-man first team and a seven-man second team on separate (and sequential) ballots.  The honorable mentions are then selected (by third ballot) in a somewhat more complex way that ensures that every school is represented on the overall list.  How the coaches have the time and energy for all this is a mystery, but hey! when it comes to NCAC hoops, we've got time and energy in abundance!

So I'd like to suggest that we provide our own all-conference teams.  The guidelines (found in the document cmhscots linked to earlier today) tell us that nominations begin tomorrow and voting begins Monday, but it doesn't say when the teams will be announced.  I think we should plan to have our teams ready by the first semifinal tipoff next Friday. 

We'll dispense with the sequential balloting and all that razzmatazz.  If you're interested in participating, post your seven-man first team and your seven-man second team, together with your selections for Player of the Year, Newcomer of the Year, and Coach of the Year, over in the Pick'ems room, with a deadline of, say, 3pm next Friday 2/29.  I'll compile the results, and figure out an honorable mention, and post the teams that afternoon.  Everyone who feels sufficiently well-informed to participate is welcome to do so.

Personally, I think your decisions should be made on the basis of conference-only stats, as opposed to overall stats, in addition to whatever intangibles you think are important (such as leadership or sportsmanship,) but it's entirely up to you.  Here's two links to help you out:
Individual stats, conference-only
Individual stats, overall

If for whatever reason you'd prefer your picks to be anonymous and/or kept confidential, you can PM them to me through this site (preferred) or email them to me at dacollinge <at> yahoo <dot> com.

[woosterbooster]

How do they deal with player positions?  How should we?  A balanced team, or just whom we consider the seven best guys even if they're all posts or guards?

Note the time of this post.  I can't sleep worrying about the fortunes of the Scots.

[BigRedGrad]

I will give you seven out of eight........Gognat has been hurt all season and I am sure another bus ride to Wooster isn't in his top ten things he wants to do.  I am probably wrong again, it is just a guess.

Rah Rah!!

[David Collinge]

How do they deal with player positions?  How should we?  A balanced team, or just whom we consider the seven best guys even if they're all posts or guards?

They don't.  Coaches can vote for anyone on the ballot, except their own players.  Since it's a seven-man team, I'm not sure that forcing a positional balance is important.

However, positional balance may be a by-product of your selections, even if unintentional.  Personally I find it difficult to compare a player like Mike Staley to a player like Dave Knapke straight up; if the final slot on my team were to come down to two players such as these (purely hypothetical), I'd probably opt for Staley solely by virtue of his being (IMO) the second-best point guard in the league as opposed to Knapke being just one of the 7-10 best forwards. 

[wooscotsfan]

At the Half:  Wooster 44  Earlham 31

Wooster is being led by James Cooper with 23 points (4 three pointers) and Marty Bidwell with 5 points.

Earlham is being led by Nick Welsh with 14 points and Tristian Gregory with 12 points.

GO SCOTS!