The league finished off its non-conference schedule going 12-12 for these two weeks. Those wins were enough to reach 48 wins which is the highest in 7 seasons. The league continues to improve since the great drop into the black-hole of 2007, man its been a long climb out. For the second straight season a couple usual suspects have been suspect. Last year it was Calvin/Albion struggling this year Hope/Albion. If Albion hasn't been supplanted as the 3rd or 4th best program in the league already we're getting awfully close as Adrian/Trine continue to build stronger programs who are now posting winning non-conference records.
| Wk 1 | Wk 2/3 | Wk 4/5 | Wk 6/7 | Totals | |||||||
| OAC | 1 – 2 | 3 – 2 | 0 – 0 | 1 – 1 | 5 – 5 | ||||||
| NCAC | 1 – 1 | 1 – 0 | 2 – 1 | 1 – 1 | 5 – 3 | ||||||
| PAC | 0 – 1 | 0 – 0 | 0 – 1 | 0 – 0 | 0 – 2 | ||||||
| HCAC | 1 – 1 | 5 – 3 | 0 – 2 | 1 – 1 | 7 – 7 | ||||||
| CCIW | 1 – 2 | 2 – 5 | 1 – 0 | 1 – 1 | 5 – 8 | ||||||
| other D3 | 0 – 0 | 1 – 1 | 2 – 1 | 5 – 6 | 8 – 8 | ||||||
| NAIA | 0 – 0 | 9 – 1 | 4 – 2 | 3 – 2 | 16 – 5 | ||||||
| other | 2 – 0 | 0 – 0 | 0 – 0 | 0 – 0 | 2 – 0 | ||||||
| D1 | 0 – 1 | 0 – 0 | 0 – 0 | 0 – 0 | 0 – 1 | ||||||
| OVERALL | 6 – 8 | 21 – 12 | 9 – 7 | 12 – 12 | 48 – 39 | ||||||
| In-region | 4 – 6 | 12 – 8 | 5 – 5 | 6 – 8 | 27 – 27 |
Refuse to count Hope/College of Faith even though it looks by years end I may have to grudgingly accept it. The in-region record fell to an even .500 the last couple weeks. This probably doesn't matter as much as I think it does since strength of schedule is calculated on an individual team basis. It would have been nice to finish above .500 just to say we did though.
Here's what the last few years have looked like, I think there's some things to feel good about here despite my qualms about some of the really poor opponents that appeared on schedules.
Year W-L W%
2005 46-38 .548
2006 52-34 .605
2007 27-51 .346
2008 34-44 .386
2009 35-46 .432
2010 38-50 .432
2011 43-43 .500
2012 44-43 .506
2013 48-39 .552
Interesting because 2005 was a good year when the league sent Calvin and Albion to the NCAA quarterfinals and Hope and Adrian were pretty talented that year as well. I'm not saying we'll send two to the quarterfinals this year but its an interesting thing that the league ended up ahead of that year.
Adrian 11-0
Adrian 71 Northwest Ohio 68
Adrian 72 Lawrence Tech 52
Adrian 73 Mt. Union 63
Adrian 70 Defiance 69 OT
Adrian finished off its pretty easy schedule exactly how they probably should have. The bigger news these past two weeks was the addition of transfer Brandon Romain who comes to Adrian with D2/D1 experience, immediately planted himself in the rotation, scored many points and won their game at Defiance on a last second shot. This is a significant addition for the Bulldogs and the league.
Adrian's last MIAA basketball Championship came in 1955. Their only other one came in 1918, since then I'm not sure the Bulldogs have even sniffed it more than a half-dozen times. This Adrian team can win this years MIAA Championship.
This week: @Calvin, Hope
Albion 4-7
Albion 83 North Park 76
Spring Arbor 60 Albion 53
Chicago 66 Albion 49
Case Western 90 Albion 82
This probably looks how it should have after losing 3 players prior to this two week period. They were able to keep it competitive for the most part. This is the second straight year Albion has gone 4-7 in the non-conference.
This week: @Olivet, Calvin
Alma 5-6
Cornerstone 86 Alma 79
Case Western 101 Alma 99 OT
Alma 76 Chicago 74
Three more good showings by the Scots to close out the year. There's probably good reason to be optimistic the Scots can make a good showing in the MIAA, this was a tough schedule and they competed well.
This week: @Hope, Trine
Calvin 9-2
Calvin 83 Wabash 56
Calvin 87 Ripon 62
Calvin blew-out two more mediocre programs this past week bringing that total to eight on season. In all seriousness the Knights should be primed to make a run at the MIAA title. Like Adrian their schedule didn't prove much but they have the talents and the abilities to win this years MIAA.
This week: Adrian, @Albion
Hope 4-6
Mississippi College 83 Hope 72
Illinois Wesleyan 68 Hope 67
Hope 96 Aurora 85
At least it was warm in Orlando. The Dutchmen finish off December with a whole lot more questions than answers. There aren't many times I've been completely befuddled on which direction or where a Hope team will end up these last 23 years but this one has me kind of stumped.
This week: Alma, @ Adrian
Kalamazoo 3-8
DePauw 76 Kalamazoo 46
Kalamazoo 72 York, Pa 64
Rhodes 89 Kalamazoo 68
The Hornets really struggled after a kind of promising start. I might have expected a little better result, score wise, vs DePauw and Rhodes. They've been off since before Christmas, it will be kind of interesting to see how they start 2013 though the layoff might not really matter much.
This week: @Trine, Olivet
Olivet 5-6
Baldwin-Wallace 94 Olivet 79
Olivet 72 Marygrove
Olivet wasn't very competitive with BW and nearly let a 16 point lead get away from them at The Palace. If ever there was a schedule that lied a little its Olivet's, the combined win total of their 5 opponents they beat is 15, 7 of those belong to Union. Regardless I think Olivet is better than expected but then my expectations were really, really low.
This week: Albion, @ Kalamazoo
Trine 7-4
Franklin 69 Trine 62
Trine 63 Penn St-Behrend 55
MSOE 52 Trine 44
Other than Hope, I'm not sure anyone finished in a more disappointing way vs expectations than Trine. Three of Trine's 4 lowest scoring games happened in these two weeks.
This week: Kalamazoo, @ Alma
It's all-league games from here out. I'll have a more interesting (maybe) preview in the next couple days.
The Neighbors
Ohio Athletic Conference
The OAC continued to be pretty lackluster out of conference, two more high profile losses to NCAC favorite Wooster, at least one was close. 6-8 for the two weeks, those wins came in order: Olivet, Geneva, Kings, Geneva, Houghton, Finlandia. Pretty exciting. They did lose one to D1 Miami, OH.
| Wk 1 | Wk 2/3 | Wk 4/5 | Wk 6/7 | Totals | |||||||
| NCAC | 0 – 2 | 1 – 8 | 2 – 0 | 0 – 2 | 3 – 12 | ||||||
| PAC | 2 – 4 | 1 – 3 | 0 – 0 | 2 – 1 | 5 – 8 | ||||||
| MIAA | 2 – 1 | 2 – 3 | 0 – 0 | 1 – 1 | 5 – 5 | ||||||
| Overall | 10 – 9 | 12 – 19 | 3 – 0 | 6 – 8 | 31 – 36 | ||||||
| In-region | 5 – 8 | 10 – 16 | 3 – 0 | 4 – 6 | 22 – 30 |
Yeah man, not good. A couple years in a row the OAC has been definitively down. Marietta and Capital might end up being pretty good tournament candidates but outside of their conference they've really done very little. Two more non-conference games to go this week with winless Muskingum in a titanic battle with winless Franciscan while Capital gets Denison.
Conference play continued just before Christmas and even earlier than expected Marietta and Capital are two games up in the loss column. Marietta has a little more difficult path to the Jan 16. game with Capital when they meet ONU, JCU and BW in the next two weeks.
OAC Standings
Capital 5-0
Marietta 4-0
John Carroll 3-2
Mt. Union 3-2
North Coast Athletic Conference
The NCAC went 18-10 these past two weeks mostly stepping out of the Great Lakes Region, some opponents were way out. It occurred to me this week I should have tracked how the NCAC did against the HCAC, hint: good. Still 6 more non-conference games in the week after the new year. The NCAC has firmly planted itself among the top half-dozen or so leagues in D3 this year.
| Wk 1 | Wk 2/3 | Wk 4/5 | Wk 6/7 | Totals | |||||
| OAC | 2 – 0 | 8 – 1 | 0 – 2 | 2 – 0 | 12 – 3 | ||||
| PAC | 1 – 1 | 2 – 0 | 3 – 0 | 3 – 0 | 9 – 1 | ||||
| MIAA | 1 – 1 | 0 – 1 | 1 – 2 | 1 – 1 | 3 – 5 | ||||
| Overall | 12 – 7 | 14 – 10 | 6 – 5 | 18 – 10 | 50 – 32 | ||||
| In-region | 8 – 6 | 13 – 8 | 5 – 4 | 15 – 5 | 41 – 23 |
They've been superior to everyone around them except the MIAA, mostly because the MIAA stuck to beating Wabash and Earlham. That in-region record leads me to believe if the NCAC can sort out a third viable NCAA candidate they could get one. Wooster and OWU would really have to screw up to not make the tournament, pencil them in.
No league games for this two week period so nothing changed. Saturday Ohio Wesleyan travels to Wittenberg, a game that might be more important for the Tigers. Still 3 Saturday's from Wooster/OWU.
NCAC Standings
Wooster 4-0
Ohio Wes. 3-0
Oberlin 3-1
Wittenberg 1-1
Presidents Athletic Conference
Well it ended pretty poorly for the PAC, they took their lumps and went 9-15 for this stretch. Bethany beat Hanover for what would usually be a signature win, not sure this year.
| Wk 1 | Wk 2/3 | Wk 4/5 | Wk 6/7 | Totals | |||||
| OAC | 4 – 2 | 3 – 1 | 0 – 0 | 1 – 2 | 8 – 5 | ||||
| NCAC | 1 – 1 | 0 – 2 | 0 – 3 | 0 – 3 | 1 – 9 | ||||
| MIAA | 1 – 0 | 0 – 0 | 1 – 0 | 0 – 0 | 2 – 0 | ||||
| Overall | 10 – 10 | 10 – 8 | 3 – 5 | 9 – 15 | 32 – 38 | ||||
| In-region | 8 – 8 | 8 – 6 | 3 – 4 | 7 – 9 | 26 – 27 |
Eight more non-conference games remains so that book isn't closed yet. The in-region record is respectable, as is the 8-5 record against the OAC.
Conference play resumes this week and its a big one for Thiel and St. Vincent. They'll play each other and Thiel will play Thomas More while St. Vincent gets Bethany. Some early clarity in the PAC perhaps.
Early Standings
Bethany 4-0
St. Vincent 3-0
Thiel 3-1
Thomas More 2-1
Regional Ranking
Bethany and Wooster both dropped a game since the last review. I moved OWU up one and Wooster down one. Bethany stays the same, there just isn't anyone in the picture behind them right now.
1. Adrian
2. Ohio Wesleyan
3. Wooster
4. Calvin
5. Bethany
Five to watch: There really aren't five to watch, right now Marietta's about it. Reaching its probably Thomas More, St. Vincent and Wittenberg.
Efficiency
I like doing the efficiency calculations and intended to write something explaining them a little but got sidetracked. For the region straight efficiency rating says this:
1. Calvin
2. Adrian
3. Marietta
4. Ohio Wesleyan
5. Wooster
6. DePauw
7. Bethany
8. Wittenberg
9. Trine
10. Thomas More
Hope would be #8 on the list if I counted the College of Faith game. That game all by itself distorts Hope's efficiency rating by 11 points.
Using a schedule adjuster I get this:
1. Calvin
2. Ohio Wesleyan
3. Wooster
4. Marietta
5. Adrian
6. DePauw
7. Wittenberg
8. Baldwin-Wallace
9. John Carroll
10. Thomas More
Hope would be #7 with the College of Faith game, I really can't explain why DePauw rates so high. This seems a little more in line with results.
A second schedule adjuster with even more emphasis on strength of schedule says this:
1. Ohio Wesleyan
2. Wooster
3. Calvin
4. Marietta
5. Wittenberg
6. DePauw
7. Adrian
8. Baldwin-Wallace
9. John Carroll
10. Wilmington
Hope would be #4 on this list with the College of Faith game. I think what these three things show is the top 4 or 5 spots in the region are pretty close and that no one is really definitively better than anyone else. It looks at least competitive at the very top though short on numbers, things drop off pretty quick after the top 4 or 5 teams I think.
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