MBB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[ScotsFan]

Hello?           Hello?          Hello?          Hello?

chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp

[Toph]

JCU actually played Cleveland State pretty tough last week.  I'm excited about the Streaks this year.  Don't be surprised if they make a run at the OAC title.

[David Collinge]

JCU actually played Cleveland State pretty tough last week.  I'm excited about the Streaks this year.  Don't be surprised if they make a run at the OAC title.

I noticed that JCU beat Emory & Henry by a measly 7 points this weekend.  Mt. Union beat the Wasps by 20 earlier this season at Wooster, and I came away thinking that E&H was horrible.  But they play the "system" style, and it produces some flukey results that make the score-comparison game even trickier than usual.

I attended the OAC/NCAC Challenge doubleheaders this weekend, and have posted extensive comments on the NCAC page (albeit more focused on Kenyon and Denison than on Capital and Muskingum.)  In a nutshell, I was very impressed by Muskingum, although I wonder how they'll fare against a good team with size.  Musky starts 4 guards and 6'6" senior Jason Dicken.  Dicken hurt something on his leg in the Denison game, and didn't return; then he started the next day against Kenyon but didn't seem to be part of the game plan.  I don't know if that's normal for Musky or if it's injury-related.  The guards they have, though, make a four-guard set perfectly reasonable.  Brandon Todd is a player.  It seems like everything he shoots finds the net, no matter how crazily off-balance it is.  And if you leave him open at the arc for a nanosecond, you lose three points.  He and Wooster's James Cooper are the best guards I've seen this year...and Cooper's a first team preseason All-American.  Musky also has a freshman guard, Pat Byrne, like Todd from Cambridge H.S., who is fearless in driving to the hoop and also has a sweet outside shot.  They also have an outside scoring threat in sophomore Trevor Scott.  Despite having no size whatsoever (except on the bench, where languish two players who would be taller than 6'8" if they were permitted to stand), they rebound very well--at least against the likes of Denison and Kenyon, who are taller if not more athletic.  With their shooting skills and aggressive, athletic defense, they'll be tough to beat.

Capital also has a standout player, 6'5" junior post Steve Kyser.  He was unstoppable this weekend, grabbing 18 rebounds and dropping 53 points on the NCACers from spots ranging from the backboard to the top of the key.  Unlike Todd, however, he had little help.  Against Kenyon, Kyser was a one-man band in what was a truly ugly game.  Against Denison, he got 21 points' worth of help from sophomore Ryan Wood, many of those on wide-open jumpers that were open because of the focus given to Kyser.  I'm somewhat less optimistic about Capital's chances against their OAC foes, although they should be competitive. 

[andrewhope]

GO HOPE                       VCVVDXFG VIXIN BLIS DONOR

[TigerFan_1973]

Just a question about a couple of Ohio H.S. players. Fontbonne Univ. has two kids fro Dayton this year. Adam Hiles and Brady Hosemann from Kenton Ridge HS. Anybody know anything about these players. Thanks in advance.

I can shed a little light on this post.  Those guys are not from Dayton.  They are from Springfield, the HOME OF THE WITTENBERG TIGERS.  Dayton just happens to be the closest bigger city to Springfield.  My dad happens to live in the Kenton Ridge district.

However, since they didn't go to Witt, I must confess that I have never heard of 'em.

I would bet if you are a baseball fan, you have heard of some Kenton Ridge graduates, though.

Dave Burba, Rick White, and Dustin Hermanson, major league pitchers of some repute, all played high school ball at Kenton Ridge.

------- PG-13 Warning-----------------
By the way, where is Fontbonne Univ anyway?  Is it really F.U.?  It seems that there is (are?) the makings of a cheer in there somewhere. 

Inquiring minds want to know.
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Hello to my new friends from Hope from last season.

TigerFan_1973

[TigerFan_1973]

Hello to my new friends from Hope from last season.

TigerFan_1973

Whoops.  I thought I was on the MIAA board.

[bouncer1]

Just wanted to try and create some discussion about the upcoming OAC bb season.  Does anyone have an opinion about the order of finish before things get started this weekend?  I know what the polls have said but how often are they right? There are two undefeated teams going into conference play--ONU and Etta but they are likely to finish on opposite ends of the OAC.  And what's with BW??  3-1 with a couple of close calls already. Do they deserve top billing?  Is JCU and its new batch of recruits for real?  Does tricky Dick down at Ott have something up his sleeve this year? How about Mount and their 35 new recruits? For what it's worth, this is my order of finish---ONU, Musky, Cap, JCU, BW, Berg, Ott, Mount, Etta, and Wilmington.  Any other ideas??  Let's get some chatter going in anticipation of another great OAC bb season.  To me, it looks like the league is better all around with maybe only ONU as a standout team.  Thoughts???

[Gregory Sager]

Just a question about a couple of Ohio H.S. players. Fontbonne Univ. has two kids fro Dayton this year. Adam Hiles and Brady Hosemann from Kenton Ridge HS. Anybody know anything about these players. Thanks in advance.

I can shed a little light on this post.  Those guys are not from Dayton.  They are from Springfield, the HOME OF THE WITTENBERG TIGERS.  Dayton just happens to be the closest bigger city to Springfield.  My dad happens to live in the Kenton Ridge district.

However, since they didn't go to Witt, I must confess that I have never heard of 'em.

I would bet if you are a baseball fan, you have heard of some Kenton Ridge graduates, though.

Dave Burba, Rick White, and Dustin Hermanson, major league pitchers of some repute, all played high school ball at Kenton Ridge.

------- PG-13 Warning-----------------
By the way, where is Fontbonne Univ anyway?  Is it really F.U.?  It seems that there is (are?) the makings of a cheer in there somewhere. 

Inquiring minds want to know.
------- END PG-13 Section ----------

Hello to my new friends from Hope from last season.

TigerFan_1973

Fontbonne University is in St. Louis. It's a member of the SLIAC (St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference), which is in D3's Midwest Region.

[ScotsFan]

For what it's worth, this is my order of finish---ONU, Musky, Cap, JCU, BW, Berg, Ott, Mount, Etta, and Wilmington.  Any other ideas??  Let's get some chatter going in anticipation of another great OAC bb season.  To me, it looks like the league is better all around with maybe only ONU as a standout team.  Thoughts???

bouncer, I'll join in on the chatter.  I'm an NCAC guy, but I follow the OAC closely due to Wooster's former ties with your conference and our recent competive games against JCU and B-W and even ONU a few years back.  Your predicted order of finish is interesting.  I agree with you that ONU seems to be the team to beat, but placing Musky and Cap ahead of B-W and JCU?  Personally, I see JCU being the darkhorse team this year.  Yes, they already have 2 losses, but they are both to DI schools (Loyola, Chi. and CSU).  Brandon Mimes is back for the Blue Streaks and he should present a tremendous lift to this team having him back.  As for B-W, they seem to not be firing on all cylanders just yet.  Will that change as the season progresses remains to be seen.  I don't really know too much about Cap and Musky, but from what David Collinge reported after the NCAC/OAC challenge, he didn't seem too impressed with Cap.  He did say he was  impressed with the fish, however.  Also, take into consideration that they faced 2 teams from the NCAC that will be lucky to finish in the top half of the conference in Kenyon and Denison, so maybe Cap was just playing down to the competition. 

Overall, on paper at least, it looks like the OAC is Northern's to lose.  But the OAC never seems to go according to script and it appears to be as deep and as talented as it always is.  Good luck to all the OAC teams this season and I know I for one am looking forward to the showdown between Wooster and ONU Wooster's holiday tournament on Dec. 29th!  That game could go a long way in determining hosting of tournament games come March!

[David Collinge]

Both JCU and B-WC have posted some scores that make me wonder about them.  JCU beat Emory & Henry 119-112; Mt. Union beat those same Wasps 103-83 at Wooster, and made the Wasps look horrible in the process.  I grant you that E&H may have improved since that season-opening train wreck.  B-WC beat Olivet 74-71 and Oberlin 81-66 (after leading by just 2 at the half.)  Now, maybe the O's are better this year than normal.  Still I'd expect a top 5 national team playing at home to wipe up the gym with the likes of Olivet and Oberlin.  (By the way, I almost fell out of my chair when I saw that the Jackets lost only 82 vote-points in the Week 1 poll; that's the equivalent of being moved down ballot slightly more than 3 places by the average voter, from about 11th-12th to about 14th-15th.  I guess the voters were more forgiving of those close home wins than I am.)

I don't really want to pass judgement on teams I've not seen based on comparative scores of games I've not seen, but as of now I don't think it's far-fetched to put Muskingum and maybe even Capital (as well as ONU, of course) ahead of JCU and B-WC.  Whether they'll finish that way is another question.  I doubt that any OAC coach will take B-WC lightly just because Olivet played them to a near-tie. 

Capital was fairly impressive against Denison, and pretty stinky against Kenyon.  But they also took Wittenberg to double OT and stayed with a pretty good OWU team for most of the game last night.  I think the jury's still out of the Crusaders.  They host Baldwin-Wallace on Saturday, which should be an interesting game, to say the least.

[bouncer1]

How about some predictions for opening night in the OAC.  Games are Ott @ JCU,  Berg @ Wilm,  Musky @ Mount, BW @ Cap, and Etta @ ONU.   My predictions are JCU over Ott, Berg over Wilm, Musky over Mount, Cap over BW, and ONU over Etta.  Anyone else want to get in on the predictions.

[wooscotsfan]

bouncer1 -- based on some observations of OAC teams/players the last couple of years, my top 5 order of finish this season would be:

Ohio Northern - deepest team in the league and Greg Badenhop is superb

Baldwin-Wallace - assumes Tori Davis stays healthy.  He is money in the lane.
Sekerak and Schuler can score if you double team Davis.

JCU - Brandon Mimes is back and he is very tough in the paint.  Pete Moran should be the #2 scorer and the Blue Streaks will be a factor in the race

Capital - Crusaders may pull some upset wins vs. top 3 this season

Otterbein - have gotten off to a decent start this season

Don't know enough to rank the rest of the teams accurately

As ScotsFan noted, Ohio Northern will play at Wooster in the Mose Hole Classic at the end of December.  Should be a great game between the Polar Bears and Scots!

[David Collinge]

Capital - Crusaders may pull some upset wins vs. top 3 this season

F'rinstance:
Capital 93, Baldwin-Wallace 85
B-WC is now 3-2 (0-1).  Rocky start, to say the least.  Capital moves to 3-2, 1-0.

Elsewhere:
ONU (5-0, 1-0) 80, Marietta (2-1, 0-1) 50
Heidelberg (3-3, 1-0) 90, Wilmington (3-2, 0-1) 78
JCU (4-2, 1-0) 86, Otterbein (3-2, 0-1) 77

Muskingum (4-0) at Mt. Union (2-1) is probably finishing up right about now.


UPDATE:
Mt. Union (3-1, 1-0) 71, Muskingum (4-1, 0-1) 64
Grapes hold Fish to 34% shooting, including a woeful 4-19 from Brandon Todd.  Todd played the entire 40 minutes; I guess they'll sink or swim with his performance.  Muskies actually had 16 more field goal attempts and lost; that's tough to do if you're not Grinnell.  Mt. Union shot just 64% from the line (21/33) and won; that's tough to do no matter who you are.  Box score.

[David Collinge]

I attended the OAC/NCAC Challenge doubleheaders this weekend, [...] In a nutshell, I was very impressed by Muskingum, [...]  Brandon Todd is a player.  It seems like everything he shoots finds the net, no matter how crazily off-balance it is. 

Wow, scratch all of that above.   

Just back from the JCU/Musky game, won by JCU 81-74.  I wonder if Jor-El explained to his infant son that, although he might be Superman on Earth, back home he's just one of the guys.  Brandon Todd needs to hear that lecture.  Everything he tried worked like magic against Denison and Kenyon, but Deni-Keny ain't the OAC.  I noticed from the box score that he stank up the joint at Mt. Union

Grapes hold Fish to 34% shooting, including a woeful 4-19 from Brandon Todd.

and tonight was no different.  Todd sank just 6 of 19 attempts, most of them of the drive, spin, cut, jump, double-pump, underhand toss variety.  He's now shooting just .365 on the season (and he was 20 of 37 against Deni-Keny), but nevertheless he's heaved up 38 attempts in his first two OAC games.  In his defense, Muskingum doesn't seem to have a lot of shooters, aside from Trevor Scott, and Scott had a very tough time getting open looks tonight (although he managed to shoot 6/13 for 20 points.)  Still, Todd took about 1/3 of his team's field goal attempts, and on at least several of them it was obvious to all from the inbounds pass that he was going to drive and (for lack of a better word) shoot come hell or high water.  Muskingum had just 5 assists on 23 field goals tonight (Todd is the PG), and that's the main reason they lost. 

JCU was cruising throughout the first half, holding a 17-point halftime lead.  Brandon Mimes (25 pts., 16 rebs., 2 blocks, 2 steals) was doing pretty much whatever he wanted.  The second half was downright ugly.  In the second half, there were just 23 successful field goal attempts, and 36 fouls.  Musky committed its 10th foul, putting JCU in the double-bonus, with 13:41 remaining in the game.  JCU returned the favor about 2 1/2 minutes later.  Watching 49 free throw attempts in 20 minutes is bad enough, but only 36 of them were good, and that was even worse.  JCU's Derek Smith even airballed one of 'em.  But the biggest culprit here was Brandon Mimes.  As JCU had little difficulty getting the ball inside to Mimes, he wore out a path to the line.  But he was just 7 for 16 from the stripe, including a 2 for 7 performance in the first 6 1/2 minutes of the second half when JCU should have been putting the game away.  The poor free-throw shooting brought both the Muskies and the crowd (1758) back to life, and with accurate free-throw shooting (19/22 in the 2nd), they managed to get the lead all the way down to 2 with 4:52 left.  Then Brandon Todd took over.  In the next 2:49, he went 0-3 and committed a foul.  When his teammates could wrest the ball from his possession, they were 1-2, with Scott canning a trey to keep the Muskies in the game.  But JCU finally figured out that tricky foul-shooting thing, going 10 for 10 in the last 2:03 to pull away to the 7-point win.

[David Collinge]

So, here's the scores.

JCU (5-2, 2-0) 81, Muskingum (4-2, 0-2) 74
Capital (4-2, 2-0) 83, Wilmington (3-3, 0-2) 76
Ohio Northern (6-0, 2-0) 75, Heidelberg (3-4, 1-1) 70
Otterbein (4-2, 1-1) 61, Marietta (2-2, 0-2) 55
Mt. Union (4-1, 1-0) 81, Hiram (0-4) 54
Baldwin-Wallace (3-2, 0-1) was idle.