MBB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[David Collinge]

What I do find interesting is this debate...say Carroll goes to the finals and loses in a close one to Capital or Northern...is there any chance they're in?

If that scenario were to play out, I'd say that JCU was a lock for a Pool C bid.

BTW I edited your post merely to complete the quote attribution. 

[kiltedbryan]

What I do find interesting is this debate...say Carroll goes to the finals and loses in a close one to Capital or Northern...is there any chance they're in?

If that scenario were to play out, I'd say that JCU was a lock for a Pool C bid.

BTW I edited your post merely to complete the quote attribution. 

JCU would probably be the very first Pool C GL team selected if they lost in the final.  Remember, though, that the score of that loss would make no difference; none of the selection criterion (primary or secondary), require the selection committee to consider the margin of a victory/loss.*  JCU could lose by 50 in the OAC final and that wouldn't harm/help its Pool C chances any more than losing by 1 on a desperation 3 pointer at the buzzer in the fourth overtime would.

*Disclaimer:  I assume that this is what is meant when the Handbook uses the term "results" versus opponents.  That is, the "result" is a win or a loss, period.  The result is not "a win by 26, a loss by 5."  So far as I can tell, the committee never considers the actual scores, just the outcomes.

[Toph]

Didn't the OAC used to play all 3 rounds at one site starting on Thursday?

I remember one year (2002-2003 I think) they played every game at BW to celebrate 100 years of OAC play or something like that.  Carroll should've hosted that season as well, if I'm not mistaken.

If you want to go farther back you'll have to find someone more...distinguished

[David Collinge]

Just to make Toph happy, I have picked Musky to beat Capital tonight.  That's how wacky the OAC tournament can be.  Now I'm off for the long drive through nowhere to Ada to see if Otterbein can make good on another of my 1st round upset picks.  I'll report back much later tonight.

[kiltedbryan]

David,

I'll be making the much shorter drive to Bexley to see if Muskingum can make good on your pick!

[johnworms]

Final: Otterbein 52, Ohio Northern 51. Last second shot by OTT's Ousely goes in. The Cards advance to take on Capital for round three Friday night.

[kiltedbryan]

Final from the Capital Center:

Muskingum 60, Capital 82

Capital will host the OAC semifinals and finals this weekend in Bexley.

[kiltedbryan]

All OAC Quarterfinal Results:

Capital 82, Muskingum 60
Otterbein 52, Ohio Northern 51
Baldwin-Wallace 95, Heidelberg 82
John Carroll 102, Wilmington 88

Semifinal Matchups: (Friday @ Capital)

Baldwin-Wallace vs. John Carroll
Otterbein vs. Capital

[johnworms]

Anyone surprised by these scores? I suppose the only upset was Otterbein over Ohio Northern. I thought the Cards might spring this one, losing by only 7 in Ada, and losing by a last second three in overtime in Westerville. As the old adage states, it's hard to beat a team three times in a season. As for the Cards matchup against Capital, I gotta go with the Crusaders in the rubber-match, but it should be a great game! My prediction...BW over Cap in the finals.

[kiltedbryan]

I think it's probably even money between John Carroll, Capital, and Baldwin-Wallace for the OAC tournament title.  Which means, of course, that Otterbein will win it.   

[onefan]

Traveled to the ONU/Otterbein game tonight. Otterbein's Tyler Ousley layed in the winning basket with seven/tenths of a second left on the clock to end ONU's season. Must give Otterbein credit, they got it done inside to Ousley most of the night and ONU couldn't convert late in the contest four straight trips down the court with a missed lay up, two missed threes with good looks at the hoop and one huge turnover  with under 35 seconds to go with ONU leading by one. Not a stellar night at the charity stripe  for the Bears either. Can't log off without noting that only about 40 of the1000+ Otterbein fans that usually attend the Cardinal home games were able to find their way to Ada.....

[kiltedbryan]

Took in Capital's victory over Muskingum tonight at the Capital Center.

This was a thorough and satisfying win for the Crusaders.  Capital held a 44-27 rebounding edge, held Musky to under 35% shooting for the game, and simply shot lights out in the second half.

The decisive section of the game started with around 16 minutes left to go.  Muskingum had cut an 11-pt. halftime deficit (34-23) to 6, at 39-33.  Capital responded with a decisive 21-7 run to make it 60-40.  The run was remarkable- just fantastic shooting.  Nate Stahl started the run by hitting a jumper, then Ben Gunn sank a FT.  Then Ross Niekamp hit two consecutive threes, followed by a Stahl three (12-0 run).  Then the Ryan Wood show started: he drained 3 straight three pointers on the next three possessions, and it was 60-40 and the game was over.  18 straight points on 3s without a single miss.    Wow.

Capital ended the second half 10-13 (76.9%) from three point land.  They only had 6 two point buckets in the half.

Had Capital not run off such an impressive shooting half, the story of their win would have been how well they contained Musky leading scorer Brandon Todd, who could only muster 9 of his season average 18 in this one.  He kept looking for lanes and space, but Ryan Wood and Senior Bryan Alge marked him very well all night, and Todd posted what must have been one of his worst shooting performances of the season (3-15 FG, 1-7 3-PT).  Both Wood and Alge impressed me a lot on the defensive end.  Wood's excellent all-around effort made him the game's MVP.

Musky got strong bench performances from two players: Cory Bourquin (16 pts, 4-9 on 3s) and Senior Jason Dicken (10 pts, 3 blks.), who played with all the passion you'd expect from a man playing in his last collegiate game.

[David Collinge]

What a strange gym that is up in Ada!  It seemed like the game was going on in another room, because, well, it was.  There's about a 25 foot empty space between the sidelines and stands on each side, so even though I was in about the 5th row, I couldn't see what was going on in the opposite corner.  There's a half-wall coming down from the ceiling on either side of the floor, putting the gym floor in what amounts to a separate room from the bleachers.  There were a bunch of chairs set up along the sideline opposite the Otterbein bench to allow for an up-close student section, but all the students did was mill around all night, talking to each other, and not really getting involved until the last three minutes or so.  Or maybe it just seemed that way; I suppose whatever noise they may have been making was swallowed up into the balcony above the floor.  I'll never complain about the HPER Center at Witt again; the two people who chose to sit in the top row must have been a half-mile from courtside, with part of a wall between them and the court.  Very, very odd atmosphere.

And it was a strange game, too.  A real defensive struggle, marked (as onefan notes) by inaccurate shooting, especially by the PBs.  ONU took a one-point lead with 3:37 left on a Cannan layup, then both teams stopped scoring; ONU couldn't hit anything (0-3), and after two misses of their own, Ott got hit with back-to-back charges.  Ott, down one, got the ball back with :30 left when Jake Cannan just gave it away in the paint, then Ott called timeout with :20 left to set up the final shot.  After the timeout, they moved the ball around the perimeter for 17 seconds without doing anything that looked like a play (which describes a great number of Ott's possessions tonight) before throwing the ball out of bounds.  Luckily (for Ott), an ONU player got his hand in the way of the attempted turnover, and Ott retained possession with :03.3 left.  They inbounded the ball to Banaszak, who looked for the screen to fire the jumper.  Instead he dumped it off to Ousley at about 8 feet on the right side of the lane, and he lifted up a floater that bounced three times on the rim while the horn sounded, then gracefully dropped through. 

For the game, Ott shot 44.9%, including 6/14 from the arc (3/4 by Banaszak, who had 13).  Ousley led the way with 19 augmented by 11 boards and 5 blocks, and even drained a sweet three-point jumper.  Ousley and Banaszak not only contributed more than 60% of their team's scoring, they also played 37 and 40 minutes, respectively.  Ousley was so important to the Cardinal attack that, when he was gassed midway through the second half, Dick Reynolds called timeout rather than subbing him out for a possession or two.  Ott only went to the line 5 times in the game, hitting two. 

At the other end, ONU shot a humbling 37.5%, just 4/13 from the arc, and missed 7 of 18 free throws.  Greg Badenhop was just 2/10 on the game, 1/6 from the arc, and most of his shots were way off.  He also did a lot of standing around on the offensive end; it seemed like he only moved if there was a screen being set for him.  A far cry from the Badenhop I've seen in the past, and a poor finish to his great career.  Bart Hostetler actually led the PBs in scoring, with 10.  Michael Hunter was a load inside, grabbing 8 rebounds and refusing to give Ousley any space when they were matched up.  Unfortunately, he was only on the floor for about half the game, while Ousley played virtually the whole 40.

I liked Ott's "old school" look.  They wore all red uniforms, not too baggy (especially compared to the yards and yards of fabric swaddling the PBs), with white piping and little other ornamentation.  It was the appropriate getup for a hard-nosed defensive sruggle; it would not have looked out of place had their jerseys said "INDIANA" instead of "OTTERBEIN." 

The ONU pep band was pretty good, too. 

Recap and box score

By the way, in the cover photo, I'm sitting behind Cannan and just below Ousley's left armpit. 

[Gregory Sager]

I wouldn't be surprised at all if JCU takes the AQ from this conference and surprises people in the NCAAs.

I wouldn't either.  Much of it depends on the play of Brandon Mimes and Terry Walsh (who has really come on strong lately).  JCU will probably have to figure out a way to beat those losers from across town, though.  If John Carroll gets past Wilma and manages to beat BW, at least the Jackets can take solace in the fact that they can count Kenny Roda among their alumni, while John Carroll can claim nobodys like Tim Russert and Don Shula.

Don't forget London Fletcher-Baker.

[Toph]

For once the OAC played out as expected...3 blowouts and a close one.  I wanted to point out that JCU is streaming once again www.wjcu.org

I'm not sure that the game(s) from Capital will be covered, but they should be.  They always have in years past.

Now, looking ahead to tomorrow...I said it yesterday, JCU needs to find a way to beat BW.  It seems unbelievable to give this stat, given the success of the JCU program, but BW has won 6 straight over the Streaks and the last win for the good guys was back on January 12, 2005!!! 

In the last contest Carroll had a big half time lead and gave it back.  I was unable to attend the game, but I had a friend calling with updates.  He told me Mimes was more or less a nonfactor on both ends of the floor (I think he finished with 1-9 shooting).  Obviously, this can't happen again. 

I wish I could make a trip down to C-Bus and make a weekend out of these games, but I guess my brother's birthday comes before gorging myself on basketball (it's close though).

DC-
Couldn't agree more about ONU's gym.  Even though I never saw a game from the stands (always on press row), I can only imagine what it felt like to sit what seems like 100 yards from the action!  I'm surprised you didn't mention the Polar Bear in the corner by the far basket.  I'm told that thing used to roar and light up when the Bears made a three...but I've never seen it happen.

I also love Otterbein's uniforms.  Coupled with their old school gym (dim lighting making the unis look almost cream colored, classic look to their many banners) it's almost straight out of Hoosiers.

Picks:
JCU gets the monkey off their back over the losers.  Obviously, I'm making this pick as a totally unbiased observer.

The other purple is too much for Ousley and co..  Should be a fun weekend of hoops.