WBB: Ohio Athletic Conference

seventiesraider · January 18, 2011, 09:02:29 PM

Hopefully the 22 point drubbing Mount Union handed Grove City will be compared to Dennison's 10 point victory when the next Top25 is put together. Mount-Denison have two common opponents I see, both with very lopsided victories for Mount

seventiesraider · January 23, 2011, 01:31:17 AM

First of two Mount-BW meetings coming Monday night. Battle for the conference lead

seventiesraider · January 26, 2011, 12:22:35 AM

Well I guess the regular season championship is pretty Baldwin-Wallace's to lose

GuyFormerlyPSBBG · January 26, 2011, 08:19:32 PM

I am not in the North, so no snow for me. I decided to watch the first half of the Mount Union-John Carroll game. The Jennings kid for John Carroll, I really like the way she plays. She has size and is a good scorer. She is the kind of player I think any team would love to have.

Dave 'd-mac' McHugh · February 02, 2011, 03:29:02 PM

First Regional Rankings: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3hoops/category/ncaa-stuff/regional-rankings/

seventiesraider · February 02, 2011, 07:31:38 PM

Mount-Musky games moved to Thursday.

If you look at common opponents it's a little hard to see Dennison at 2 and Mount Union totally unranked. Of course, straight up. MTU has three loses.

David Collinge · February 02, 2011, 10:39:09 PM

Quote from: seventiesraider on February 02, 2011, 07:31:38 PM
Mount-Musky games moved to Thursday.

If you look at common opponents it's a little hard to see Dennison at 2 and Mount Union totally unranked. Of course, straight up. MTU has three loses.

I don't know offhand how many common opponents Denison and Mt. Union have, but however many there are, Denison has beaten all of them. I don't believe the NCAA looks at margin of victory, which I presume is your point.

seventiesraider · February 05, 2011, 01:01:49 PM

Mount-B Dubs go into today tied for the lead in the OAC and play teams with identical OAC records. Setting up an interesting game in Alliance on the 16th. Ohio Northern is still in the running and has a chance to be the spoiler with games against both in final weeks. Capital looks to be an also ran this year.

seventiesraider · February 05, 2011, 06:11:28 PM

Quote from: David Collinge on February 02, 2011, 10:39:09 PM
Quote from: seventiesraider on February 02, 2011, 07:31:38 PM
Mount-Musky games moved to Thursday.

If you look at common opponents it's a little hard to see Dennison at 2 and Mount Union totally unranked. Of course, straight up. MTU has three loses.

I don't know offhand how many common opponents Denison and Mt. Union have, but however many there are, Denison has beaten all of them. I don't believe the NCAA looks at margin of victory, which I presume is your point.

I guess margin of victory is tougher in basketball than other sports. Teams this time of year are fine tuning and margins might not be relevant. Massey Ratings predicted Denison over Wooster by 30 and I think most people would have thought that was reasonable. 15 points was a little surprising, but across the board, defense doesn't seem to be in vogue on the ladies side of the NCAC this year.

Actually I think that given Denison's strength of schedule they are lucky to make the regional rankings at all. Seriously looking at the numbers, the Big Red is the only women's team in the NCAC this year who could be competitive against the OAC this season.

BTW-I found four common opponents. Mount was stronger against two, Denison stronger against one and one was a draw. Denison's close game against Grove City originally drew my attention as well as a close game against a very bad Heidelberg team.

seventiesraider · February 05, 2011, 11:14:12 PM

Wow, STO broadcasts the Otterbein/JCU game. The battle of 7th place

David Collinge · February 05, 2011, 11:58:19 PM

Quote from: seventiesraider on February 05, 2011, 06:11:28 PMSeriously looking at the numbers, the Big Red is the only women's team in the NCAC this year who could be competitive against the OAC this season.

If by this you mean that Denison would be the only NCAC team who would have a chance at winning the OAC this year, I absolutely agree. The OAC is and has always been a much stronger league than the NCAC. How Denison would hold up playing the likes of Capital, MUC, Wilmington, etc. every few days is an open question. The rest of the NCAC would be near the bottom of the standings. Kenyon and Allegheny would win their share of games, and OWU's talent would get them a few wins here and there too. But only Denison would be a threat night-in and night-out. And Massey, at least, thinks they'd do okay, as DU is ranked higher than anyone in the OAC in his rankings right now, at #28 to B-WC's #33 and Mt. Union's #35. And I believe those rankings take schedule difficulty into account (Denison's is #188, about the 43rd percentile of all D3 schools).

Although it's hard to tell from relatively weak competition, Denison appears to be peaking as the tournament approaches. They only beat Wooster by 15 today, but they were in firm control throughout, and Wooster, while horrible, is improving. But the Big Red wiped out a much better (but still mediocre) OWU team on Thursday by 30, and punished a fairly good Allegheny team last week by 20.

I expect that Denison will meet up with the OAC champ in the first or second round, the way things stand now. That should tell us a lot about how good Denison really is.

Just for giggles, here's how Massey would rank a reunited OAC/NCAC:
1. Denison
2. Baldwin-Wallace
3. Mt. Union
4. ONU
5. Wilmington
6. Capital
7. JCU
8. Kenyon
9. Muskingum
10. Otterbein
11. Allegheny (I think they are better than this)
12. Wittenberg
13. OWU
14. Hiram
15. Marietta
16. Oberlin
17. Heidelberg
18. Wooster

seventiesraider · February 06, 2011, 12:31:13 PM

Couldn't agree more with everything you said. No doubt Denison is a very good team in a conference that isn't very strong this year. The next two week will decide Mount's conference play future and their placement in the tourney. Agreed that the 2-5 NCAC teams could win their share against some OAC teams as I think The Berg could hold down last in both conferences.

Looking forward to a game against an old rival in the early going. (Mother-in-law was a famed Big Red grad)

PS-I have to hand it to DU, undefeated in basketball is a tough thing no matter the league or competition. Everybody has a bad night or a lousy bus ride or a bad team meal.

David Collinge · February 07, 2011, 12:16:59 AM

So a Mt. Union guy from the 70s and a Wooster guy from the late 70s/early 80s are in complete agreement on something. It just feels....weird.

Squash the Grapes!

There! Now I feel better!

seventiesraider · February 08, 2011, 04:33:26 PM

Quote from: David Collinge on February 07, 2011, 12:16:59 AM
So a Mt. Union guy from the 70s and a Wooster guy from the late 70s/early 80s are in complete agreement on something. It just feels....weird.

Squash the Grapes!

There! Now I feel better!

Now if we could just get a football game scheduled

David Collinge · February 09, 2011, 01:31:41 AM

Quote from: seventiesraider on February 08, 2011, 04:33:26 PM
Quote from: David Collinge on February 07, 2011, 12:16:59 AM
So a Mt. Union guy from the 70s and a Wooster guy from the late 70s/early 80s are in complete agreement on something. It just feels....weird.

Squash the Grapes!

There! Now I feel better!

Now if we could just get a football game scheduled

Amen to that! I'd happily take the 60-point loss in exchange for rekindling that once-great rivalry.