MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[David Collinge]

By the way, belated congratuations to Wabash's Andrew Zimmer, named to the D3hoops.com Team of the Week for the week ending Feb. 17.

[BigRedGrad]

Apparently summer has come early once again at WABASH...........NO CLASS!!

With NO time left and the game OVER some kid named Mark Turpin decides he should shoot and add to his stats.  Just HOLD THE BALL.  WHAT WAS THAT??  OH I see, YOUR ONLY BASKET OF THE YEAR!!!! NICE SHOT.

I am surprised yourfans didn't start their chant of "OHIO SUCKS" after you made your basket.

Does Pennsylvania suck when the Gators come to visit??? Or what do you do with Earlham..is that "Almost Ohio Sucks"? 

That was soooooooooooooooooo poor I couldn't believe it.  Nice job coach!!! 

Now Wabash can go back home and prepare for some OHIO school to end their year.

[ScotsFan]

Wooster needs to win the North Coast tourney this week if they want to increase their chances of hosting some games and making a run in the NCAA tournament.

This should be a telling week as far as the regional rankings are concerned.  We'll find out how much in-region win percentage is weighed as compared to OWP and OOWP.  Either way, I don't have a good feeling about Wooster being #1 at least for this week.  Wooster played 2 weaker teams and as a result, Hope now has a better OWP and OOWP.  But, Cap still has both Hope and Wooster beat in OWP and OOWP. 

I agree with you WSF, in that if Wooster wants any shot at hosting they need to win out.  However, even if Wooster were to win out, I'm not sure it would be enough.  I just don't have a good feeling about things unless the Scots get some help in the form of Hope and Cap getting upset in their respective conference tournaments.  We'll see though.  You can never predict how the NCAA is going to sort things out...

[smedindy]

So, you think that no kid should be allowed to play hard and score in garbage time when the game was decided? It looks like Denison was playing hard in the last part of the game.

Turpin has busted his butt on the JV most of the year, played in five varsity games and that was his first FG attempt.

Basically, at the end of a game, if the scrubs are in, play. If the starters are in, then you can just tell 'em to cool it. But no way I'm going after a kid that's played about 10 minutes in the entire year for wanting to try to get in the scorebook.

I recall some scrub at IU making a buzzer shot at the end of a game, for his only points of the year, way back in the day. (I think it was Doug Allen back in the '72 NCAA tourney, but I could be wrong.)

Oh, and the Ohio thing...you can thank Witt for adding that to our repertoire.

[imderekpoe]

Apparently summer has come early once again at WABASH...........NO CLASS!!

With NO time left and the game OVER some kid named Mark Turpin decides he should shoot and add to his stats.  Just HOLD THE BALL.  WHAT WAS THAT??  OH I see, YOUR ONLY BASKET OF THE YEAR!!!! NICE SHOT.

I have no problem with a bench player trying to score at the end of the game.  These guys bust their butts in practice every day and rarely get into a game.  When they finally get a chance to play, there's no way that I would tell them that they need to sit on the ball.  If it was a player from the normal 8 or 9 man rotation I'd have a little more issue with it.  But, for a guy that saw all of 10 minutes of playing time all season, I say "shoot it".  Especially since it was the last game of the season and they guy hadn't put up a shot all year.

[bufordscot]

Last I heard it was the defense's responsibility of stop the scorer.  Good on him!!!

[kiltedbryan]

I agree with you WSF, in that if Wooster wants any shot at hosting they need to win out.  However, even if Wooster were to win out, I'm not sure it would be enough.  I just don't have a good feeling about things unless the Scots get some help in the form of Hope and Cap getting upset in their respective conference tournaments.  We'll see though.  You can never predict how the NCAA is going to sort things out...

Wouldn't it be possible that Wooster could be sent to somewhere "out of region?" For example, Centre came to Wooster last year; it could be that Wooster would go there this year. There are probably other examples of places Wooster could be sent within 500 miles but not within the GL region.  It may not just be Hope/Capital that Woo would be competing against.

Though I should also note that I wouldn't be surprised to see a Hope/Capital/Wooster pair playing each other as soon as the second round, even though you'd rather have teams like that meet in the second weekend.

[sac]

The precedent when Hope is in the tournament is for Hope to play teams from the Chicago area and Wisconsin.  I see no reason why this year would be different.  Since they started using the Pools process for selection

2002--St. Norbert, WI, Carthage, WI
2003--UW Oshkosh
2006--WI Lutheran, Calvin
2007--Chicago, Calvin

In fact the only Great Lakes team thats even been in the same 4 team 1st and 2nd round bracket has been Calvin.  Heck last year, Hope wasn't even paired with the Great Lakes for the Sectionals, instead we got WashingtonU, UW Stevens Point and Carroll.

When I look for 1st and 2nd round opponents for Hope this year, I'm looking at Aurora, Wheaton/Elmhurst, Chicago, Albion/Calvin or other MIAA winner, maybe the HCAC winner (Defiance).

[billy_pilgrim]

Woo hoo... a scrub scoring, finally a NCAC topic I can contribute to this year.

Since I was a little more than a scrub in my EC days, I'll always say let the kids actually play out the final minutes of a blowout. I'd have only two points to my collegiate name if we hadn't been allowed to shoot in garbage time.

HOWEVER, there is one important caveat of garbage time (or even closer 6 to 8 point games for that matter).

DON'T SHOOT THE BALL AT THE BUZZER WHEN EVERYONE ELSE ON THE FLOOR HAS STOPPED PLAYING!!!!

In other words, once players and coaches have made it clear that they aren't trying anymore, i.e. the ball handler is doing the little handshake thing with the guy guarding him, no one should make an attempt at scoring.

The prime example of this came back during Billy's olden high school playing days in a Class 2A Sectional semifinal. Billy was guarding a player 29 feet from the basket in the closing when that player began backing up and said nice game. All around, the other players in the 9 or so-point game were giving half handshakes and hugs. Then, as Billy turned to walk to the bench with the final second about to tick off, the player Billy was guarding, who will forever be remembered as that fat #$(#$(% redhead decided to let fly from NBA range. The ball swished through the net and the fat #$(#$(% redhead decided to celebrate like he had just won the state title with his 3-pointer. To this day, Billy hopes that classless fat #$(#$(% redhead dies a horrific death.

So, in summary, if Little Giant scrub hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer in the confines of an offense and when both teams were still playing hard...good for him.

[ScotsFan]

I'd like to echo the sentiments of those who say let the bench players play!  As cmh noted, those kids at the end of the bench work every bit as hard in practice as the starters and subs off the bench.  If they have the chance to come in and score a couple of baskets in garbage time I say more power to them!  If I were a coach, there's no way I would tell one of those kids at the end of my bench to go in and sit on the ball.  It's one of the few chances they get to see the floor at the varsity level and if they want to show what they've got, go for it!

It's not like that was Brock or Zimmer taking the shot at the end of the game.  Like smeds said, if you empty your bench at the end of the game, let those kids play.  If your starters are still in there and the game is all but over, then that is when you sit on the ball.

[ScotsFan]

The precedent when Hope is in the tournament is for Hope to play teams from the Chicago area and Wisconsin.  I see no reason why this year would be different.  Since they started using the Pools process for selection

Good point sac.  Hope does seem to draw more teams from the midwest and west regions in the early rounds of the tournament.

As far as Wooster travelling to another region, it's definitely a possiblity.  Wooster was shipped to Transy a couple of years ago, but they were also a Pool C participant that year as well.  I would think it would be hard to ship Wooster all the way to Centre if Wooster were to win out an get the Pool A bid.   

[David Collinge]

HOWEVER, there is one important caveat of garbage time (or even closer 6 to 8 point games for that matter).

DON'T SHOOT THE BALL AT THE BUZZER WHEN EVERYONE ELSE ON THE FLOOR HAS STOPPED PLAYING!!!!

In other words, once players and coaches have made it clear that they aren't trying anymore, i.e. the ball handler is doing the little handshake thing with the guy guarding him, no one should make an attempt at scoring.

Welcome back, Billy. 

What you describe is exactly what happened.  Denison's scrubs and Wabash's scrubs had both been in the game for a minute or two, with everyone playing hard.  Then Wabash inbounded the ball with a nine-point lead and just a few seconds on the clock.  The Denison players clearly were expecting a handshake drill, and were acknowledging the end of their season...and of four careers.  The fans were (mostly) on their feet, saluting the seniors, who were gathered at the end of the bench.  And the Wabash kid shot the ball.  "Classless" is perhaps too strong a word, but it was definitely not something he should have done. 

BigRedGrad, were you at the game?  If so, sorry I missed the chance to meet you.

Oddly enough, it was the second such event I got to see that afternoon.  About 90 minutes earlier up at Kenyon, Brandan Barabino attempted a buzzer-beating three with his team down 13 and the Kenyon team already celebrating.  The difference being a) Witt was behind, not ahead; b) Barabino is a starter, not a scrub; and c) he missed badly.  It doesn't show up in the play-by-play, so it might have been after the buzzer, or maybe the scorebook keeper just took pity on him by pretending it didn't happen.  If it had been me, I'd have held onto the ball.

[billy_pilgrim]

I would never call anything classless unless I actually saw it, but I will add this: if a player, no matter how hard he's busted his butt, can only get in the scoring column by hitting a shot with no one else on the floor playing, he better get to busting his butt even harder in the future. And again, this is from an NCAC scrub.

Anyway, first time in a long time that the Quakers won't be involved in the tourney. But I was happy to see them get a couple wins down the stretch, and against some top half teams at that. They didn't quit, which is something that couldn't be said about at least one more talented team that I recall in my time following Earlham.

Enjoy the tourney, I'll be reading about it here.

[BigRedGrad]

Yes I was there and that is why I did not appreciate that behavior. 
The game was clearly OVER!!!!!  Trust me...Zimmer does not take the shot.  Or ANY Denison player if the shoe was on the other foot.

Everyone knows you just turn and hold the ball and shake their hands.  Apparently that is not what they are taught in Indiana....but that is how we play in OHIO!!!!  Even though we suck!!

[Pat Coleman]

THERE WAS NO TIME LEFT, THERE WAS NO ONE DEFENDING HIM.  THE GAME WAS OVER!!!!!  YOU HOLD THE BALL................PERIOD!!!  I don't care how the hell hard he works in practice.  IT WAS A TOTAL "NO CLASS MOVE"

LET"S HERE THE CHANT AGAIN PLEASE!!!!!!  WHAT'S THAT OHIO SUCKS???

All caps is considered shouting and contrary to the Terms of Service.

Take a deep breath -- if you get that worked up over one basket in a game that is clearly over, then you're likely headed for health problems if anything truly important ever comes up.