MBB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[ScotsFan]

I'm still having trouble grasping the fact that Wilmington is currently in last place and still searching for their first conference win?!     After their 3-0 start, the Quakers find themselves falling like a rock losing 5 in a row and counting?! 

KB, you bring up a good point wrt Marietta and when they could or should crack the top 25.  They may still be relatively unchallenged, but being 4-0 and alone in 1st place in the OAC should be enough for them to at least crack the top 25 IMO. 

[sac]

The really interesting thing is Coach VanderWal is doing it without a Sr on the Marietta roster.

Marietta only received 3 poll points in the last poll.  According to Massey, Marietta's schedule ranks higher than top 5's Williams and Middlebury #8 Eastern Mennonite, #15 Franklin and Marshall  #18 Amherst, #22 Worcester Tech, #27 Western Connecticut and #36 Rhode Island College


Massey has Marietta ranked #13, this seems like a big miss by the pollsters.

[kiltedbryan]

Sac- Thanks for the check on Marietta's schedule relative to some other Top 25s.

Some other bits of interest about the Pioneers—they entered last week 2nd in the nation in overall FG%, and continued that trend in the ONU win, shooting 53%.  Going 8/9 from 3pt land in the first half helped stake them to a 41-36 halftime advantage in Ada.  One potential weakness, though, is that they also allowed ONU to shoot 53% for the game—do that and you won't be able to win on your own off-shooting nights.

A few other observations about the game: though it was pretty close throughout, Marietta took the lead at the 17:10 mark of the first half and never relinquished it.  ONU had several possessions to tie or take the lead, including late in the second half during their comeback, but they never quite got over that hump (they did manage one tie, but Marietta immediately called time out, then went on a 6-0 run).  I'd say that even though they're still pretty young, managing to hold a small lead against a conference foe on the road suggests that there's some poise and maturity to the Pioneers.  The road won't get any easier from here though, as surely the entire OAC has noticed the 4-0 next to Marietta's name.

[albertjackson]

Best OAC team in last 5 years....BW 2006-7 Yellow Jackets led by Tori Davis
Toughest place to play.....take ur pick...Capital, ONU, Wilmington, JCU
Best Coach....Reynolds or Goodwin and its not close!
Worst Coach....Hood or Sheldon
Best game....too many to pick but BW over ONU in 07 Championship was a great one.

I've seen a few games this year and have followed the action online - here's my take....
Mt. has no pt.g and no depth and a coach the players dont like
There is no dominant team
Etta winning close games
Wilmington, BW and Berg disappointing
Muskie losing close games...Ford has 1 foot in retirement
The league is very young
JCU unpredicatable
JCU vs Cap or Etta when all is done and said.

[ste24vie]

Albert, you must be thinking about the 2002 Reynolds. The 2010 model should probably be on the retirement list. He has been using just his five starters and wearing them completely out. He did use a couple of subs earlier and longer against JCU and pulled out the huge upset. Otterbein could easily be 3-1 in conference play instead of 1-3 and against JCU they played no seniors.  Marietta just wore them out and coach reynolds absolutely refused to sub. It was a 4 point game with 7 minutes to play and ended up being a blowout.

[David Collinge]

I wondered how you were going to react to that...

[ste24vie]

Well, just my opinion of course. LOL   

[WAlum]

the disagreement on reynolds reminded me of something I was thinking about this weekend.  I was watching a high school game saturday night at my daughters school.  There were two evenly matched teams.  In the last four minutes of the game one coach made all the right decisions and the other did not.  It seems that the best coaches win the majority of their games decided by five or less points with their preparation and ability to put their team in a position to win.  Anyone interested in looking back at the last three years to see the teams records in games decided by 5 or less?  It may be a slow day at the office.  If so, I will try to gather the information to see where Reynolds teams would fit be compared to others.

Here are this years games, 5 points or less and overtime games. 
Marietta 2-0
Capital 2-0
John Carroll 2-2
Ohio Northern 2-4
Heidelberg 3-2
Muskingum 2-3
Mount Union 2-5
BW 1-2
Otterbein 1-2
Wilmington 0-2

[WAlum]

I started a similar discussion on the NCAC board.  I realize the sample size is small and I know the amount of factors that go into figuring it are astronomical.  However as I said, this question hatched out of a discussion in regards to the question, do better coaches win more close games? For arguments sake, give everyone the same personnel and the game is on the line.  What three coaches do you want coaching your team in a tie game with 3 minutes to go?

the disagreement on reynolds reminded me of something I was thinking about this weekend.  I was watching a high school game saturday night at my daughters school.  There were two evenly matched teams.  In the last four minutes of the game one coach made all the right decisions and the other did not.  It seems that the best coaches win the majority of their games decided by five or less points with their preparation and ability to put their team in a position to win.  Anyone interested in looking back at the last three years to see the teams records in games decided by 5 or less?  It may be a slow day at the office.  If so, I will try to gather the information to see where Reynolds teams would fit be compared to others.

Here are this years games, 5 points or less and overtime games. 
Marietta 2-0
Capital 2-0
John Carroll 2-2
Ohio Northern 2-4
Heidelberg 3-2
Muskingum 2-3
Mount Union 2-5
BW 1-2
Otterbein 1-2
Wilmington 0-2

[albertjackson]

My choice of Reynolds has to do with his body of work over time. The truth is Reynolds does not spend much time recruiting and therefore is working with much less talent that his OAC bretheren. I wont argue he's got 1 foot out the door in retirement but he's certainly not the 1st old-timer we've seen not work the recruiting trail. With that being said I'd take Reynolds, Moran, or a Goodwin coached team to win a close game. Their kids play hard, and they (coaches) make good adjustments and appear to be well prepared. Early returns on Etta coach are impressive, but I dont see Etta much so I cant speak intelligently about him. Conversely, Coach Hood doesnt relate to kids well and when was the last time Mount was significant in hoops? BW headed in the same direction I believe, Coach Sheldon's team's dont guard anyone, he's had 1 winning season in how many years? Didnt catch the game tonight but I did read where BW blew a 19 pt. lead tonight vs JCU. I posted a few weeks ago how this once great rivalry no longer exist. BW hasnt beat JCU since sheldon's arrival. Have to question his ability to relate when quality players who play are quitting program. I noticed Louis Tumblin did not play last yr. at BW....I heard he did not care for Coach Sheldon, and he's not the only player from Bankson's cupboard who is no longer there. I understand not every player is gonna like their coach, but when quality players who play starters minutes, and are on the verge of 1,000 pts quit - somethings up.

[albertjackson]

Validating my opinion.....BW blows big lead to JCU - Again! They blew an 18 pt. lead to JCU last year. Apparently, Sheldon coached teams have historically blown leads. So I'm looking into it. I know for fact that they have now blown 3 18 + pt. leads in last 2 yrs. Apparently this occurred at the Berg as well....will check and see. In Sheldon's defense - his team is young as were most of his Berg teams. But again, when you lose players who played minutes every year you'll tend to be young. Anyone know what happened to BW's Householder? Played quite a bit as a freshmen for BW, and is no longer on roster. Was just curious.

[bouncer1]

Ed Householder out of Tallmadge HS left BW to go to Kent State for reasons other than basketball. 

[David Collinge]

Two in a row for Otterbein, who use red-hot shooting and a big free throw gap to drop Wittenberg 78-64.

[ste24vie]

Otterbein subs played 39 minutes, scored 23 points and committed zero turnovers. Seven Cardinals scored at least 7 points. Coach must be reading the forum. Two huge wins in five days. On the down side, waaaaaaay too many turnovers. A very nice win......

[ScotsFan]

Marietta remained perfect, improving to 10-0 last night while Wilmington's slide continued losing their 6th straight as the Pios beat the Quakers 89-78.