MBB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[kiltedbryan]

Onefan, I agree that this is often a quiet board.  Only a couple regulars and my true rooting interest is Wooster, thus my "home board" is the NCAC room.

I happen to live in Columbus, though, which gives me access to Capital and Otterbein games, so I have been able to take in some OAC games the last two seasons.  Not a lot of activity near me right now, though: Capital is off until New Year's Eve, and while usually Otterbein @ Wittenberg would be a game to see, I'm not so sure it's worth the hour drive to Springfield this year. Then I'm out of town for the Mt. Union game, and I will also have to make a decision about whether I see Otterbein's tournament or go to see Wooster's. (I like the match-ups at Otterbein better: OWU/Hanover should be a good game, and I am interested in seeing Albion play, too, as I hardly ever get to see MIAA teams.)

ONU topped John Carroll today, thanks in no small  part to their younger  talent. 

Could you comment on how 7 JCU players fouling out might have had an impact?   

While I am on the subject, I think the Polar Bears are going to be a major force this year in the OAC. It looked to be somewhat of a rebuilding year, but the team is beginning to jell. GO BEARS!!

I agree with you here, though I'm not yet sure about them being a "major" force. ONU does currently have the most wins (4) of anyone in the OAC, and its only loss is on the road to a good conference foe. The schedule doesn't look easy, though, as ONU will be bombarded with stern tests at Trinity (TX) and conference foe Wilmington before hosting Capital when Capital could easily be 11-1.

[Toph]

I haven't had the chance to see JCU yet this season, but the early part of their schedule has been brutal.  Obviously, nobody wants to be sitting at 3-4, but considering the schedule, I'm not in panic mode yet.

[onefan]

Gee, do you think seven guys fouling out  for John Carroll had any impact on the game? Of course it did. The boys in black and white got whistle happy and decided to have the game decided at the foul line. Not fun to watch and less fun for those involved. I hate watching a game like this and wonder if the refs at this level ever do any self-evaluating  or reflect on whether or not perhaps they collectively let one get out of hand.

As to  my comment about the Bears being a majot force in the OAC this year.....we will see....Without hope,we have nothing.....Best wishes for the Holiday Season!

[ScotsFan]

Gee, do you think seven guys fouling out  for John Carroll had any impact on the game? Of course it did.

To say the least.  When I was first glancing over the last few posts and saw that 7 players fouled out of the game, I thought that was a total for both teams.  Then when I went and read the JCU recap, I came to realize it was 9 total and 7 JCU players!  I also came to find out that the losses JCU suffered were pretty significant comparatively speaking as the seven JCU players that fouled out scored a total of 64 of the Blue Streaks' 97 points. On the other hand, the two Polar Bears who fouled out  only scored 10 of ONU's 102 points.   I've heard of discrepancies in fouls, but this takes the cake.

And I thought the refs in the NCAC were terrible?!

[DII/DIIIFan]

Anyone attending a game at JCU could easily understand how 7 players could foul out in one game - frankly, I am surprised 7 don't foul out almost every game!

JCU reminds me of the old Pat Reilly squads that fouled so much the officials began to look the other way lest a foul be called on every possession. Looks like the officials decided not to look the other way for one game.

[onefan]

ONU wins today 62-44 over Southwestern University in San Antonio. The Bears shot 41% overall and 42% from three point land. They were 5 of 6 from the line. Southwestern shot 34.6% overall and was a miserable 16.7% from beyond the arc. Kyle Gehle lead the Bears with 18, knocking down four deuces, three 3's and one from the charity stripe.

Wabash is also here in San Antonio and was down to a talented  Trinity team when I left. I don't think Wabash has the horses to stay with Trinity.

ONU plays Trinity tomorrow. Looking forward to a good game. These Texas guys look pretty good.....

[kiltedbryan]

Capital trails Carnegie Mellon 38-32 at half.

Capital quickly trims CM's advantage and now leads 44-42 at the 15:50 mark.
And extends it to 48-42. CM has more turnovers (5) than points (4) in the first 6 minutes of the second half.

Carnegie Mellon has righted the ship and avoided Capital running away with it...after Cap held a 5-9 point lead for several minutes, CM has run off 9 straight to tie it at 52 with 7 minutes left.

And the Mellon run continues: 58-52 Carnegie Mellon, 5:13 to go.  That's a 15-0 run.

Capital stops the bleeding and they trade a few buckets: but CM by 6 with under 3 to go.

64-57 Tartans, 1:45 left. Cap will need points in a hurry.

71-65 Carnegie Mellon, FINAL.

[BJ - DSU SID]

Hello OAC...I am the DeSales University Sports Information Director.  Just thought I'd post up this evening with some thoughts on the game today between DeSales and John Carroll.

First I will give you a brief background of us...we have been a program on the brink of the NCAA Tournament over the past five years but never making it.  We have won 20+ games in four of the five seasons and been to three Conference title games in that span, unfortunately losing all three of them.  I was looking forward to the match-up today cause we have a strong team this year and I wanted to see how we played against a strong team from a respected region.  I thought we had that in the match-up today with John Carroll.

In a very hard fought game we came out on top 97-80.  Game release from my view can be viewed here - http://athletics.desales.edu/News/mbball/2008/1/5/DSUJCU.asp?path=mbball - We played very well, shooting a high percentage from two and three-land.  JCU tied the game at 61 but we responded with two runs over the last 12+ minutes of the game that put it away.

My thoughts from the game were that John Carroll is a very physical team.  We are used to that from a few conference opponents (King's and Wilkes) and I think having conference teams play a physical style helped us in today's game.  It was a great win for our program (even though it will count very little come NCAA Tournament bid time).

I think JCU has a nice team.  Terry Walsh is a very nice player.  They are very deep and I am guessing are a top team in the OAC.  I know they have played a brutally tough schedule up to this point.

Good Luck to the Blue Streaks the rest of the year.

[kiltedbryan]

Capital (10-2, 5-0) 83, Mount Union (3-10, 0-6) 67

Capital should have won this game by more.  This was a game for the taking from the start because Mount Union simply doesn't have enough weapons or play enough defense, but almost inexplicably this game was tied 40-40 (I think) at around the 15 minute mark in the second half, before Capital finally realized they had about five times the talent and went on a pretty good run and outscored Mount Union 43-27 for the remainder of the game.

Both teams' best accomplishment during an otherwise ugly first half was the containment of an opponent's scoring threat: Cap's Nate Stahl (13ppg) had 2 at half, and MU's Chris Spitzer (16ppg) had none.  Probably should've given them the ball more, as the teams collectively bricked 35 attempts out of the half's 58. Cap's Steve Kyser stood out as the bright spot, with 13 of his game-high 18 coming in the half.

Speaking of a brickfest: Capital managed to meet their very pedestrian 67% season FT shooting percentage on 20-30 shooting, only to be well outdone by MU's remarkably poor 39% effort, including only 5-15 in the second half.  While that's obviously bad for MU, it'll be much worse for Capital when they can't sink FTs to try to win big games in the OAC. Cap doesn't even have a clear go-to guy for FTs: no one on their entire roster came into the game shooting above 75% from the charity stripe. Ugh.

Box Score, and game story.

[kiltedbryan]

Heidelberg "overcomes" a 25% night from behind the arc to crush John Carroll 104-72.

This one was over by half-time, as in the first half Heidelberg held JCU to under 40% from the field, 1-6 from the arc and the Streaks provided an assist by going 2-7 on FTs, while 'Berg shot 55% and scored 51 points.  51-27 at the break, never came back under double digits in the second half.

Andrew Lemmon gives 'berg a nice double-double, with 20 and 12.

The 'Berg is 10-2, 4-1 in the OAC. JCU falls to 5-6, 2-3 OAC.

[kiltedbryan]

ONU picks up a win, 66-62, at Wilmington.  This sets up a pretty nice matchup between 5-1 ONU and 5-0 Capital (OAC records) this Saturday in Ada.

Based on what I saw from Capital tonight, I would not be surprised at all to see ONU win that game.

[onefan]

Looking forward to the match-up tomorrow between Cap and ONU. The Bears have been steadily improving with Jake Cannon hitting his stride on the inside and the perimeter play of Kyle Gehle. Lack of consistency and focus for an entire game have hurt ONU in their losses. Trinity easily handled the Bears, but in their defense several players had a bug and were sub par for the game...I think they would still have lost, but the score would have been a slight more respectable with a healthy starting five. Good luck to the Bears on Saturday!

[kiltedbryan]

Onefan,

Will you be taking that one in first-hand?  I'd like to hear your impressions of the game and of Capital if you do (I don't want to be the only source anywhere that has seen this team play).

I will be taking in Heidelberg v. Otterbein tomorrow in Westerville.  I doubt it will be much of a contest, but you never know in the OAC.  I am very interested in seeing the Student Princes though.

[David Collinge]

I'd like to hear your impressions of the game and of Capital if you do (I don't want to be the only source anywhere that has seen this team play).

I've seen Capital twice, FWIW. 

[kiltedbryan]

I'd like to hear your impressions of the game and of Capital if you do (I don't want to be the only source anywhere that has seen this team play).

I've seen Capital twice, FWIW. 

Quite a bit, definitely.  I thought you had, since you've commented that you feel Capital is overrated (I agree).  Have you seen Heidelberg?