MBB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[Dr. Acula]

I'm going to make a mental note of who this officiating crew is in the box score.  These guys are BAD.  Both ways so not against Mount or anything. 

[BillyRayJimBob]

"That's not my stat ... No, that's not my stat ... I said, that ain't my stat, garsh dang it!!!" (With some respects to Greg Thomas).
85.2% from the foul line ... 100% in the first half. Happy the fall-off in the second half was not impactful, but a couple of clutch free throws in the final minute or so were.

Pick 2,3, or 5 games from last year that you could play some sort of bonus card where the Purple Raiders shoot 85% from the free throw line. Impact on the season?

[D3 Poster]

Mid-December look... Mount & Muskies in their own group, with Ott in the next tier and then lump everyone else in the third bucket.

Watching the M&M game, I can see why Doc A commented as he did.

[Dr. Acula]

I haven't seen everyone play yet, but that is my sense as well regarding the top 2.  I wouldn't put Ott in their own group yet, but that was based off the Mount game where they did not impress me. 

Muskie is a good team.  Davis is so good at getting to the rim.  Even more impressive because you don't even have to respect his perimeter shooting and he *still* gets in the paint and scores.

Yesterday was a good game (19 lead changes) that could have been even better if there weren't so many fouls killing the flow of the game for stretches.   

Casenhiser came out scoring their first 8 points and 11 total in the first 7 minutes on only 5 shots.  He was feeling it from 3.  Unfortunately he picked up his second foul just under 12:00 and had to sit until the last couple minutes of the half (where he picked up a 3rd foul).  He picked up a 4th foul early in the 2nd half and had to sit again for a long time.  He barely played 20 minutes which stinks because he was shooting like he could have scored 30+ yesterday.  He still ended up with 16.

Hamilton picked up the slack with 23 points and 6 assists and our new favorite stat...12-14 FT.  Farrington was not a focal point of the offense yesterday (to my untrained eye) in terms of getting lots of touches (5 FG att).    Laurich got more touches than normal and put up a double double with 15 and 10 on 12 shots.

Second game back and Taylor already asserted himself as the 6th man.  There is still some rust such as a couple miscommunications on whether he was cutting or staying leading to turnovers, but this game is a classic example of why Fuline likes Taylor specifically and players like him historically.  Swiss army knife.  6'5", defends any position, efficient offensively and high hoops IQ.  11 pts (3-3 FG, 1-1 3pt, 2-2 FT), 8 reb  (3 off reb), 2 ast, 2 blk, 2 stl, 0 TO.

I came away from that game very positive about the Raiders.  Your two best players did not even play like they normally do and you won on the road in a close game.  Taylor is only going to get better as he gets his legs under him.  This team has room to get better and that's exciting as a fan. 

[Dr. Acula]

Farrington is in warmups and wearing a boot tonight.  Don't like that.   

This one is over.  59-32 at half.  11 guys already have minutes.  The combo of BW not being very good and Mount shooting 63% from the field is a good recipe.

[Dr. Acula]

Ott goes to half down 7 then outscores Etta by 20 in the 2nd half.  Etta shot badly (36%).  The Pios were picked to finish 2nd by the coaches but they are a very pedestrian 5-5, 1-2 so far.  They have some good players, but they're digging a hole early.  You may be right, D3 poster.  Ott might be their own tier this year. 

As a Mount fan I have to admit that my confidence level for winning the conference currently is exponentially higher than it was before the season as long as Farrington isn't out long term.

[raiderpa]

Thus far, I think this Raider team is right behind the National Runner-up in talent and may have the ability to take a deep run into the tournament.  Musky looked very good as well, but Mount's young bench has been surprisingly strong and they lose very little when they go 8 or 9 deep.

[Pat Coleman]

"That's not my stat ... No, that's not my stat ... I said, that ain't my stat, garsh dang it!!!" (With some respects to Greg Thomas).
85.2% from the foul line ... 100% in the first half. Happy the fall-off in the second half was not impactful, but a couple of clutch free throws in the final minute or so were.

Pick 2,3, or 5 games from last year that you could play some sort of bonus card where the Purple Raiders shoot 85% from the free throw line. Impact on the season?

@wally_wabash getting a mention here!

[Dr. Acula]

Thus far, I think this Raider team is right behind the National Runner-up in talent and may have the ability to take a deep run into the tournament.  Musky looked very good as well, but Mount's young bench has been surprisingly strong and they lose very little when they go 8 or 9 deep.

When it comes to keys for tournament play I like a number of things so far from this team.

1)  They primarily play essentially two PG's.  They're a undersized defensively, but the trade off is that you have two good ball handlers on the court the majority of the time.  And Weekly has done fine as the back up to them.

2)  With Vaden developing they have some depth with their bigs with now three guys that they can legitimately play 15+ minutes as post players.  Beyond that their next tier down of Moore (6'5"), Taylor (6'5") and Collier (6'4") are all decent size also so you can get away if you need to with only having one of the post guys out there if needed.

3)  FT shooting.  The aforementioned primary ballhandlers both shoot 88+% at the line.  Farrington is at 85%.  So three of your crunch time guys (who so far have attempted 67% of the team's total FT) are excellent FT shooters.  Collier and Taylor are also very good at the line and likely to be on the floor in close games.  And Moore (73%) isn't bad at all and knocked down two huge FT at Muskie to put them up 3 in the waning seconds.

4)  Defense.  They're holding teams to 38.6% shooting so far.  When you score over 80 per game on average that math works out well for you usually.

5)  3 point shooting.  FT and 3's have been an Achilles heel for some recent teams.  They're shooting 36.7% as a team.  And again, the guys that would be playing in tight games are all shooting better than that with Casenhiser topping them at 42.3%. 

[Dr. Acula]

Thus far, I think this Raider team is right behind the National Runner-up in talent and may have the ability to take a deep run into the tournament.  Musky looked very good as well, but Mount's young bench has been surprisingly strong and they lose very little when they go 8 or 9 deep.

Forgot to mention...I would probably put the Bower-Malone/Gurley/Friga COVID team ahead of the current team in terms of talent at the moment.  Friga was 1st team All-OAC and NBM was OAC POY, Region POY and 2nd team AA that year. 

[D3fanboy]

Thus far, I think this Raider team is right behind the National Runner-up in talent and may have the ability to take a deep run into the tournament.  Musky looked very good as well, but Mount's young bench has been surprisingly strong and they lose very little when they go 8 or 9 deep.

Forgot to mention...I would probably put the Bower-Malone/Gurley/Friga COVID team ahead of the current team in terms of talent at the moment.  Friga was 1st team All-OAC and NBM was OAC POY, Region POY and 2nd team AA that year. 

that team was streaking towards a national title run, I don't think there was a hotter team in the country at the time of the shutdown.  I think the 19-20 Raiders were actually the superior team to the national runner-up squad

The fact that Friga couldn't capitalize on his streams looks so crazy now only a handful of years later with the NIL craziness. 

[Dr. Acula]

They had come off back to back games where Gurley scored 40 then NBM dropped 53 in their last tournament game.  The talent between that team and the runner up team was probably similar, but the COVID team was so mentally tough and played so well together. 

And earlier I mentioned Fuline loving the Swiss Army knife guys and that team had two in Poole and Slack.  Their only real weakness was lack of post depth.  I was confident that was at worst a final 4 team.  Which that sucks for Fuline because multiple final fours is pretty elite company as a HC.

[Dr. Acula]

Final from Bexley:  BW 79, Cap 76

Ouch.

[BillyRayJimBob]

Final from Bexley:  BW 79, Cap 76

Ouch.

Apparently, the gap between a 1-8/0-3 BW and a 5-5/1-2 Capital, on the Crusaders' Comets' home court was/is not that big?

[BillyRayJimBob]

100 years since the Purple Raiders Men's basketball program went 10-0 to start the season?

The win improved Mount Union's record to 10-0 which matches the best start in school history when the Raiders went 10-0 in the 1925-26 season.

While there are gaps in my Purple Raiders Men's basketball followership, I would have never thought it to be more than 30 years, with memory arguments for 20 and 10 years.

I wonder how many 9-0 starts there were? (But not curious enough to do the research ... I need to do Christmas gift wrapping this weekend, as the Wife is not happy when I throw everything in a gift bag on Christmas Eve!)