Great Lakes Region

[wooscotsfan]

Witt has to travel to Hiram Saturday, and the Terriers can cause some issues with their style. It could be an Admiral Ackbar 'trap' game.

So, may the "Force" be with the Terriers! 

[wooscotsfan]

Witt has to travel to Hiram Saturday, and the Terriers can cause some issues with their style. It could be an Admiral Ackbar 'trap' game.

So, may the "Force" be with the Terriers! 

Final:  Hiram 65  Wittenberg 51  Thanks to Admiral Ackbar and the Terriers! 

[sac]

If someone from Central Ohio would take the time to explain the sudden outburst of good play from Capital it would be greatly appreciated.

[David Collinge]

If someone from Central Ohio would take the time to explain the sudden outburst of good play from Capital it would be greatly appreciated.

[WAlum]

From the Columbus Dispatch earlier this week.

Tough love for Capital men

If they could have taken another exit out of Rickey Arena the night of Jan. 2 to avoid the public, the Capital men's basketball players surely would have taken it.

The Crusaders were rocked 76-55 at Ohio Wesleyan, and the final score didn't begin to tell the story.

"We were down by 30 points a couple of times," said Kelly Winter, a senior guard and captain from Dublin Scioto. "A couple of guys on the team from Lexington had about 80 people come down to watch us. We were embarrassed. Oh, man, it was horrible. No one said a word in the locker room. It was silent."

The next day, the players talked behind closed doors about what had to be done to turn around the season.

"We didn't yell," Winter said. "We said we had to stop playing so badly in the first halves of games. We'd be down by 15 points and have to spend the rest of the game playing catch-up. We had to be more physically and mentally prepared."

Everyone apparently was listening because Capital (9-6, 6-2) has won four straight games and is tied for first place with John Carroll in the Ohio Athletic Conference going into a game at Ohio Northern on Wednesday.

The Crusaders have just two seniors and two juniors and are not close in talent or experience to previous teams under coach Damon Goodwin.

Goodwin and his staff went back to basics after the loss at Ohio Wesleyan.

"We changed practice around where we really get after it — we're so much more intense," he said. "In the past, we talked a lot about what we had to do. These kids have responded by playing hard. It's not as if we're killing teams, but we have put ourselves into position to give ourselves a chance. Our guys are listening and following the game plan. More than anything, it has been effort."

Goodwin has told the players that they can't give up easy baskets and must keep unforced turnovers to a minimum because their margin of error is so slim.

"I'm not trying to sound like a hard guy, but the talking is over," Goodwin said. "Part of coaching is deciding what makes everything go. This team must battle for everything it gets."

[sac]

OAC

Capital         8-2
John Carroll   7-3
Wilmington    6-4
Marietta       6-4
Bald-Wally    5-5
Ohio No.       5-5

Capital grabbed the OAC lead with a convincing 85-68 win over John Carroll.  The Crusaders control their destiny completely as they do not not play JCU again.  Capital has a pretty favorable schedule until back-to-back road trips to Bald-Wally and Marietta near the end of the season.

Wilmington slipped with an OT loss at Heidelberg.  That was a big loss considering Wilmington hosts Capital on Wednesday.

For all of Marietta's issues, the Pioneers are right in the thick of things just two games back.  Marietta needs help but it should be noted their final two games are hosting Capital and JCU.  Could be an interesting finish.


Wed's game to watch:

Capital at Wilmington




NCAC

Wittenberg         7-1
Wabash             6-2
DePauw             6-2
Wooster            5-3
Ohio Wesleyan    5-3


Hiram's big win over Wittenberg makes the NCAC the race it probably should be, at least for now.  With good parity at the top, it would have been shame to see someone run and hide at the top.

Wed games to watch:

Wabash at Ohio Wesleyan--  Game 2 of OWU's tough 4 game stretch against the top of the conference, its getting must win time for the Bishops.  This game begins a 7 game stretch for Wabash where they play 5 vs the top of the conference.

DePauw at Wittenberg--  After a rough early December DePauw has won 7 of its last 8, this game begins a tough 3 game stretch against Witt, OWU, Wabash.   Witt will be looking to rebound after Saturday's loss to Hiram.




MIAA

Hope        6-0
Adrian       4-2
Trine         4-2
Calvin       3-3
Albion       3-3

The MIAA crosses the midway line Wednesday night with Hope firmly in control of the title race at the moment.  A win over Trine would put them 2 up, but the Dutchmen have their 4 toughest road games remaining.

Pivotal week for Adrian as they host Albion, travel to Calvin and host Hope in their next 3.  After that stretch they'll either be in it or out of it.  Trine's in the middle of their pivotal week and were handed an ugly 27 point loss at Calvin.

Wed games to watch:

Hope at Trine --   For Trine a win would put them a game back and open up the MIAA race, for Hope its a chance to put a little more distance between them and a challenger.

Albion at Adrian--  Important game for Adrian, they really need to win the next 2 for their home game with Hope to be meaningful.  For Albion its now becoming about surviving and winning enough to make the MIAA tournament.  Saturday's loss at home to Alma was damaging.




PAC

Thiel        9-0
Bethany   8-1

Really just counting down to the Bethany/Thiel game on Feb 11.   Both teams should breeze through this week.

[Wabash2011]

New poll, don't understand the Wooster leapfrog again, http://www.d3hoops.com/top25/men/2011-12/week8

[smedindy]

Wabash's loss to Witt looked bad, then Witt lost to Hiram. Wooster beat a good OWU team. It's really hard to discern any difference between many teams.

[Wabash2011]

Wabash's loss to Witt looked bad, then Witt lost to Hiram. Wooster beat a good OWU team. It's really hard to discern any difference between many teams.

I understand the above statement, BUT.....Wooster has lost to Witt, DePauw and Wabash.....yet they rank in the poll above all three.  Hiram beats DePauw and Witt, but not Wabash.   Wabash loses to Witt and DePauw.  I would think that both of those teams are worthy of consideration above Wabash and Wooster...Granted Wabash had a bad game at Witt, and Witt had a bad game at Hiram....Wabash beats Wooster by 14..DePauw beats Wooster by 9..a week removed..really don't get this one at all.  Seems more about the program and history than the team.....parity, yes...serious question, does NCAA look at this poll at all? Even politically at the end of the year?  I think the answer is no, but just asking.

[David Collinge]

serious question, does NCAA look at this poll at all? Even politically at the end of the year?  I think the answer is no, but just asking.

No, the NCAA (i.e., the regional and national committees) do not take the D3hoops.com poll into account when compiling regional rankings and selecting and bracketing the tournament.

[sac]

OAC

Capital         8-3
John Carroll   8-3
Wilmington    7-4
Marietta       7-4
Bald-Wally    6-5


Never a dull moment in the OAC it seems, within a coupe days of grabbing the outright OAC lead Capital falls to Wilmington thus creating the above conference race.

There will be a lot of top of the standings vs bottom of the standings games in the next couple weeks.  That's kind of good because it looks like this one will come right down to the final weekend.  Also kind of good because with the leagues track record there will likely be a couple head scratching upsets.

Wilmington is the focus of the next week as they complete a tough stretch of games with Capital, Bald-Wally and Marietta.  I figured the Quakers would have faded by now, and if they don't this week they probably won't.

Sat. Game to watch

Wilmington at Baldwin-Wallace:  all kinds of implications from conference race to tournament seedings.  Wilmington won the first game by 3 at home, way back in early December.



NCAC

Wittenberg         8-1
Wabash             6-3
DePauw             6-3
Wooster            6-3
Ohio Wesleyan    6-3

Wittenberg was the big winner Wednesday night not only defeating DePauw in a close one but also regaining a 2 game lead after dropping this past Saturday's game at Hiram.   Witt has OWU to thank for that as the Bishops kept themselves in the race by beating Wabash, thus helping to create the 6-3 logjam.

Witt still has to play all 4 of the 6-3 teams plus Hiram, so this it would seem is far from over.


Sat. game to watch

DePauw at Ohio Wesleyan:   The implications are kind of obvious.  This is game 3 of OWU's tough 4 game stretch.  This is game 2 of DePauw's tough 3 game stretch.

bonus:  might want to keep an eye on the Wooster at Hiram game, just in case the Terriers are feeling frisky this weekend.



MIAA

Hope        7-0
Adrian       5-2
Trine         4-3
Calvin       4-3

Trine took the hardest losses of the last 7 days being crushed by both Calvin and Hope.  Again, Hope still has all 3 of its toughest road games to play.  Big week for Adrian.

Sat game to watch

Adrian at Calvin:    Loser of this one probably sees its chances of winning a piece of the MIAA go to near 0%, certainly a must win for Calvin and with Hope going to Adrian next Wed. you can probably say the same for Adrian.

bonus, bonus:  Calvin is fresh off two offensive beat-downs of Trine and Olivet, Adrian is fresh off a defensive beat-down of Albion.



PAC

Thiel        10-0
Bethany     9-1

Still counting down the Bethany/Thiel game on Feb 11.  Thiel hosts Westminster and Bethany is not playing this weekend.


UAA/AMCC

None of our UAA/AMCC Great Lakes teams will factor in their conference races or NCAA tournament unless they win their tournament.

But, Carnegie Mellon and Case Western will be playing New York Univ. twice each in the next 10 days.  NYU is currently tied for the UAA lead with Emory and Washington.

[KnightSlappy]

bonus, bonus:  Calvin is fresh off two offensive beat-downs of Trine and Olivet, Adrian is fresh off a defensive beat-down of Albion.

Calvin's defensive beat-down of Trine was just as (if not more) impressive than what Adrian did to Albion. Better Defensive efficiency rating for Calvin over Trine, and the Thunder have an actual offense most nights (which Albion does not).

[sac]

Well from an efficiency point of view Calvin had its two best games in quite some time by a large margin.

In the modern game of basketball being down 35-5 with 3:00 to play in a half is pretty much a beat-down on any level even if you are bad at scoring.  I would think most of the time you can accidentally score more points than 5 in 17 minutes of action.

Most Tiger fans know how are hard 35-5 can be.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Well from an efficiency point of view Calvin had its two best games in quite some time by a large margin.

In the modern game of basketball being down 35-5 with 3:00 to play in a half is pretty much a beat-down on any level even if you are bad at scoring.  I would think most of the time you can accidentally score more points than 5 in 17 minutes of action.

Most Tiger fans know how are hard 35-5 can be.

Or how great it is if you are the 35!   (An entire 4 months of 'no worries'!)

[ziggy]

Well from an efficiency point of view Calvin had its two best games in quite some time by a large margin.

In the modern game of basketball being down 35-5 with 3:00 to play in a half is pretty much a beat-down on any level even if you are bad at scoring.  I would think most of the time you can accidentally score more points than 5 in 17 minutes of action.

Most Tiger fans know how are hard 35-5 can be.

Or how great it is if you are the 35!   (An entire 4 months of 'no worries'!)

I was born on the day of one of the 5.