MBB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[Dr. Acula]

That wasn't much fun.  Let a share of the OAC title slip away today at home.  Just not a good game to watch at all.  ONU wins 66-62 and, frankly, Mount was very fortunate to even crack 60 today. 

In the 2nd half Mount shot 39% from the field, 5-11 FT, 10 turnovers and 13 fouls.  Parker carried them early with 21 first half points (8-13 FG), but unfortunately he had a tough second half.  1-5 FG, 4 TO.  Parker (26-10) and Farrington (14-12) both notched double doubles. 

We sound like broken records here, but it was usual culprits.  Missed layups, missed FT including both 1 and 1 front ends, mental lapses on D, bad passes for turnovers.  Thankfully ONU is not even mediocre offensively so they couldn't score enough to make the final what it probably deserved to be. 

Mount was locked into the 2 seed regardless, but it would have been nice to have a share of the regular season title.  Oh well, gotta win the tourney now.  It's the only chance any OAC team has this year. 

[JCUStreaks70]

I am not on the committee, so my word means nothing, buuuuuuut the Tournament tracker does say JCU is a bubble team if we do not win the OAC.. Not saying I like it, but there is a world where 2 OAC teams do get in.

[Flying Dutch Fan]

I am not on the committee, so my word means nothing, buuuuuuut the Tournament tracker does say JCU is a bubble team if we do not win the OAC.. Not saying I like it, but there is a world where 2 OAC teams do get in.

Pretty much no persons word (on the committee or not) means anything anymore - it's all up to the NPI calculation

[Pat Coleman]

I am not on the committee, so my word means nothing, buuuuuuut the Tournament tracker does say JCU is a bubble team if we do not win the OAC.. Not saying I like it, but there is a world where 2 OAC teams do get in.

Yep -- there is a small chance as of this moment. It can change if enough conference favorites lose in their tournaments.

[ziggy]

John Carroll is one of the teams who have really helped themselves over the last couple weeks and benefitted from some teams who may have been ahead of them in the Pool C pecking order taking some losses (Whitworth, Anderson, Keene State are prime examples that come to mind).

In our latest run of simulations (at the conclusion of play Sunday), JCU is "bubble-in", receiving an at-large bid 71.4% of the time when needed. This breaks down further to 54.7% when the loss comes in the semifinals and 84.4% when they lose in the OAC final.

Overall, John Carroll looks to be in fairly good shape as long as they can win their semifinal game and there isn't an above-average amount of carnage in other conference tournaments.

Bubble Watch will continue to be updated with fresh simulations each day here: https://d3datacast.com/npi/mbb-projections/

[Dr. Acula]

Looking at HS stats in the Repository and noticed that incoming PG Cam Weekly from Jackson followed up his stellar shooting as a junior with another great shooting season this year.  He leads the area in 3P% at 50.7% (38-75) and FT% at 86% (37-43).  He shot 56.7% from the floor and was among the area leaders at 4.4 APG also.

[D3fanboy]

Looking at HS stats in the Repository and noticed that incoming PG Cam Weekly from Jackson followed up his stellar shooting as a junior with another great shooting season this year.  He leads the area in 3P% at 50.7% (38-75) and FT% at 86% (37-43).  He shot 56.7% from the floor and was among the area leaders at 4.4 APG also.

FT and 3P shooting? Who's the new guy?

[BillyRayJimBob]

Well ... What Mount Union team will show up tonight?

The Purple Raiders are 4-2 against the remaining field.
JCU is 5-1
Musky is 2-4
Heidi is 1-5

[Dr. Acula]

Two things down 39-31 at half: 

1) These refs have sucked tonight.  You can let them play physical.  That's fine and honestly preferred in a tournament game IMO. But you can't let them come out of the gate and literally not call anything, including egregious fouls on both teams, and then selectively decide you're going to start calling some normal fouls.  Not all.  Just random ones including the one Panning drew that the whistle was blown after he missed and the ball had already been rebounded.  I thought Fuline was gonna get T'd on that and he had every right to.

2)  Have to play, and specifically shoot, much better in the 2nd half.  This looks way too much like ONU the other day.  31% shooting is not gonna cut it.  Stagnant offense, bad shooting.  That last possession pretty much summed it up.  You don't even pass the ball.  You just play 1 on 1 and get a bad 3 point look that is so wide right it doesn't even hit the rim.

The 10 fouls forced Fuline to go into his bench far more than I'm sure he'd like, but you have 3 starters with 2 fouls so you don't have much choice.  Gotta lock in for the 2nd half here.

[Dr. Acula]

Who had Mount's crunch time 5 being Farrington, Moore, Casenhiser, Taylor and Collier?  Not me.  But they've played great down the stretch.  Parker back in with 4 fouls with 2 min to go up 6.

Also, I want to correct myself.  These refs don't suck, it's one guy so technically just that ref sucks.

[BillyRayJimBob]

Who had Mount's crunch time 5 being Farrington, Moore, Casenhiser, Taylor and Collier?  Not me.  But they've played great down the stretch.

Thinking along the same lines.  I had to go check the roster to see who are underclassmen and was wondering if this was what next year's lineup may look like.

Excellent turnaround/come back.

[D3 Poster]

JCU is the favorite heading into the finals.  Several seasoned seniors should carry them.  Too bad Chicone missed the season, soooo much better with him.

[Dr. Acula]

Who had Mount's crunch time 5 being Farrington, Moore, Casenhiser, Taylor and Collier?  Not me.  But they've played great down the stretch.

Thinking along the same lines.  I had to go check the roster to see who are underclassmen and was wondering if this was what next year's lineup may look like.

Excellent turnaround/come back.

Hell of a second half response.  55% shooting!  Crowd was into it big time.  Fun to watch.

Salute to Farrington.  With Parker limited to 5 minutes because of fouls Farrington stepped up huge.  17 and 7 in the half.  6-7 shooting.  Finished with 25. Big time clutch half.  Taylor was 3-3 with 8 pts in the half and had some key rebounds.  Casenhiser was 4-6 in the half and finished with 14 points.  He played well running the point.  He and Taylor are going to be very good the next 3 years.  They're both fearless.

On to JCU.  Agreed the Streaks are the favorites, but I definitely wouldn't say massive favorites or anything.  Should be a fun one.

[Dr. Acula]

Reading the article in the Rep and there was an interesting note from Fuline.  Other than the COVID-shortened season of 12 games, this is Mount's sixth straight appearance in the OAC championship game.  From where the program was when he took over that's unbelievable.

[D3fanboy]

Reading the article in the Rep and there was an interesting note from Fuline.  Other than the COVID-shortened season of 12 games, this is Mount's sixth straight appearance in the OAC championship game.  From where the program was when he took over that's unbelievable.

those 18-19/19-20 Mount teams really took the program to a whole different level.  The way 19-20 was playing before getting the rug yanked out....Fuline likely would have had two Final Four appearances in three seasons