By Mark Simon
D3hoops.com

It’s a given that every season you’re going to have a couple of league races that are nip and tuck from top to bottom. In 2004, it looks like the best place to go for that is the men’s side of the Ohio Athletic Conference.

In one of the tightest league races in the country, the top four teams in the OAC enter the weekend separated by only one game in the standings, and the sixth place team is still in the race at three games behind with five games remaining in the regular season.

John Carroll men’s coach Mike Moran had a couple of one-liners handy to describe the tightness of the race and his team, and when you’re tied for first place (15-4 overall, 10-3 OAC), having won 23 consecutive home games, the humor flows nicely.

David Gibbons hasn't started a game, but averaged 14.5 points for the Blue Streaks.

“The one thing that’s for sure is that nothing is for sure,” Moran said. “Is there a favorite? I don’t think so. I think we’re all longshots. There’s so much parity that you get a headache just thinking about it.”

Opposing teams may get a headache trying to keep track of who’s on the floor for JCU, which rotates in a new unit of five players every seven to eight possessions. Moran implemented this system in the middle of last season — it doesn’t involve the run-and-gun principles of squads such as Grinnell, but since the team goes 13 deep, it keeps the key players fresh for when Moran decides who’s on the floor at game’s end. Leading scorer David Gibbons, an all-OAC selection last season, actually comes off the bench. This season has also given Moran the chance to coach two of his six children — senior guard Matt Moran and freshman guard Pete Moran.

“It’s my new system of recruiting,” Moran said with a laugh. “It’s easier to make your own recruits then to have to go get them. It’s more fun this way.”

The Blue Streaks have followed an interesting pattern this season, making the season fun at times and difficult at others. When they win, the games are close (seven wins by five points or less). When they lose, the scores get ugly, as they did in a 29-point loss to Capital and a 17-point loss to Otterbein.

“I think our defensive pressure is what we do best,” Moran said. “We win a lot because of the fatigue factor. We always seem to have one little spurt in us.”

Baldwin Wallace (15-5, 10-3), the team with whom John Carroll is tied, has had a few nice spurts of its own. The Yellow Jackets were picked to finish sixth after going 8-19 and 13-13 the last two seasons and graduating OAC player of the year Shawn McCormick, but have been one of the most pleasant surprises in the league and the nation. B-W has enjoyed its share of ups and downs, coming back from 25 points down to beat Mount Union, and blowing a 24 point lead in a loss to Ohio Northern. Four of their five defeats have come against opponents ranked in the Top 25 at game time, including non-league foes Randolph-Macon and Hanover.

“It has been a very pleasant surprise,” said 23rd-year coach Steve Bankson, whose team has stunned the OAC before. In 1998, B-W won the OAC Tournament after placing sixth during the regular season. That was the same season that the top four seeds all lost their opening playoff game, so this kind of evenness is nothing new to the league. Remember that Otterbein was picked sixth in the league’s preseason poll in 2002, then went on to win the national title. Ten years previous Ohio Northern was tabbed the league’s fifth-best team in preseason, didn’t even win the league, but did take home the national championship.

As with JCU, success at B-W is a family affair. The Yellow Jackets got a big boost this season when freshman Tori Davis joined his brother, junior Thad Davis, on the front line. Both go 6-foot-4 and have used their leaping ability to their advantage. Thad ranks third in the league in scoring (19.0), first in rebounding (10.3), and tied for second in blocked shots (1.9). Tori rates 10th in scoring (14.6), third in both rebounding (8.2), and leads the league in blocked shots (2.6). The stats, according to Bankson, who didn’t have to go far to recruit the Davis’s (both share the same hometown of Elyria) don’t measure the full impact, since both alter many shots just with their presence inside.

“Defensively we’re a lot different than last year,” Thad Davis said. “We go out and try to get a lot of rebounds. Rebounding is the best way to kill a team. We’re on this winning streak now because of our defense.”

As a freshman Ohio Northern's Chad Bostelman scored 35 points in two games at the Final Four. He and the Polar Bears are still trying to get back to the NCAA Tournament.

B-W can’t afford to lose because of who’s right behind them. Ohio Northern’s seniors were freshmen on their Final Four team, including a backcourt featuring preseason All American Jim Conrad and three-time All-OAC selection Chad Bostelman. Capital, tied with ONU for third at 9-4, has the league’s best overall record the last two seasons at 45-11. Otterbein, in fifth place at 8-5 in the league, has beaten each of the four teams above it in the standings. Mount Union (7-6) has hung tough with everyone, with five of its league losses being by five points or less.

“This is a conference that is very tough to win,” said Ohio Northern coach Joe Campoli, who hasn’t seen a race quite like this in his 29 seasons. “It’s a year where anyone can beat anyone.”

WHERE ARE THEY NOW? The 1997 WBCA player of the year, Cori Carson is a Diva, and that's not a bad thing for the former Marymount star, who still holds the women's NCAA shot-blocking record (5.7 per game).

Carson, an All-American and Player of the Year her senior season who starred for the Saints from 1995 to 1997 switched her athletic focus from the hardwood to the gridiron. Carson works for First Capital Realty in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Bethesda, Md., creating brochures promoting housing for sale. She also plays semi-pro football in the National Women's Football Association, as a tight end for the D.C. Divas, whose next season starts April 3.

The 5-foot-11, 150-pound Carson scored 1,772 points at Marymount and was good enough to earn a WNBA tryout in the league's inaugural season. She says the Phoenix Mercury wanted to sign her, but got scared off by the liver transplant that she had just before the 1994 season (after transferring to Marymount from Upsala), which would have increased their insurance costs. That experience, and the horror stories she heard from friends playing overseas turned her off from making basketball her career.

Instead she trained to become a referee and officiates local youth and adult league games. She also discovered that she liked full-contact football. Certain skills from basketball have come in handy.

"I have great hands,'' said Carson said. "It's too bad I can't play two positions. I got to play safety too when I played for Baltimore. I could read the plays, like I did in basketball. D.C. has a lot of talent, so I don't have to play both. I like playing tight end though. I love faking like I'm going to block, then going out and catching a pass.''

BROWNOUT: Now that New Jersey City has formally declared its intentions to leave the NJAC, its goal is to take over the lead for most conference championships on its way out. The Gothic Knights are tied with Rowan with 10 men's NJAC titles, so this is something that is important for them to leave behind.

"We have a long tradition of rivalries in this league,'' said NJCU head coach Charles Brown, who played at the school from 1962 to 1965, and has coached there for 22 seasons. "Every game for us is like a rivalry game."

NJCU has hit a recent funk, with losses to Rutgers-Newark and Montclair State, but stands as the favorite to win the league title. It heads into the weekend sitting on a magic number of one to clinch the top seed in the new six-team playoff format.

The Gothic Knights have been buoyed by the return of senior Samar Battle (20.1 points per game, 7.8 rebounds, and an NJAC-best 37 blocked shots), who sat out the second half of last season due to academic struggles, and the improvement of players like sophomore point guard Alex Mirabel. Battle has emerged as one of the top players in the NJAC and recently passed Brown into ninth place on the school's all-time scoring list.

The team's primary bugaboo is its free throw shooting, having barely made more than half its free throw attempts this season. Were it not for that, the Gothic Knights might be a Top 10 team.

Brown, who worked as both head coach and as a public school principal until 1998, has a reputation of being a lifesaver to kids in New Jersey's inner cities. The graduation rate for his players at NJCU is 65%, up from 12% when he was first hired. He recently was named to the New Jersey Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame and was presented with its Coaching Legends Award. He has 420 career wins at his alma mater and even though he expressed disappointment at the league switch, he plans to stay there for a while.

"The guys were kidding me about being a legend,'' said Brown, who turns 62 on Feb. 24. "I told them that being a legend means that you had great players playing for you, and it means that you're old.''

GAME OF THE YEAR? Chuck Winkleman admits this would have made for a better story had his Hendrix team come back last Sunday from a big deficit to beat defending women's champ Trinity (Texas), rather than lose by two points, but you don't have to win to make this portion of the column.

Of the 12 players on Hendrix's roster, eight are freshman or sophomores, and they looked like a young team through the first 33 minutes. Trinity was rolling along, both in this game, which it led by 15 with seven minutes remaining, and this season to the tune of a No. 1 ranking and a host of lopsided wins.

Suddenly the Warriors began to fight back and show that they were up for the challenge. With his team having closed the gap to a point in the final seconds with an 18-4 run, Winkleman told his team in a timeout huddle that he was sure they were going to win.

"They needed to know I believed that they could do the job,'' Winkleman said. 
That's why he felt there was something to gain from this game, even though it was Trinity's Allison Wooley who stepped up to make the big defensive play, enabling the Tigers to win, 59-57. Players like freshman guard Tori Huggins (the top high school scorer in Arkansas last season) and 2003 SCAC Newcomer of the Year Erin McKenzie should only get better from experiences like this. The two combined for 36 points and helped fuel the rally that came up just short.

Perhaps a game like this will help the inconsistent play that has come when the team has gone on the road. At home, Hendrix (14-6, 6-3 SCAC) has proven they can hang in with anyone, having beaten DePauw in overtime and lost by a hair to Trinity.

"We've lost some games that make this team look kind of funny,'' Winkleman said referring to losses at Centre and Oglethorpe. "We're deep enough and talented enough to (compete for the SCAC title). Whether we have the experience to deal with tough situations like a DePauw or Trinity, I don't know yet."

When asked whether he'd like to many any guarantees should the teams meet again, Winkleman was comically insistent. "No, no, no!'' Winkleman said with a laugh. "Make sure there are no more guarantees in your story.''

SPEER HEADING A RUN: Tiffany Speer is doing her best to keep Whitworth's season from getting derailed.

Speer, last year's Player of the Year in the Northwest Conference, is averaging 22.7 points per game this season, and an even more impressive 29 points per game since No. 2 scorer Sarah Shogren went down with an injury four games ago. Two weekends ago she netted 24 points — in each half — in a 65-54 win against Linfield.

"I've tried to use my speed to beat people downcourt,'' Speer said. "The guards I play with are amazing. They know where to get me the ball. We're all on the same page and we all love to run the floor.''

The thing that Pirates coach Helen Higgs was most pleased with was the 18 assists on 22 baskets in that game.

"The thing that stands out about Tiffany is that she's relentless,'' said Whitworth coach Helen Higgs. "She's always going, going, going. That carries over to the rest of the team and has been a huge part of our success.''

Shogren is expected to return next weekend when Whitworth (13-4, 5-3) hosts the top two teams in the NWC — Pacific Lutheran and Puget Sound.

Though the three-game deficit for first place may be too much to overcome in a season in which the NWC is going without a postseason tournament (the automatic bid goes to the regular season champ), Whitworth still feels it can make an argument for an at large bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Pirates have a couple of quality non-league wins, most notably ones over Gustavus Adolphus and Division I Utah Valley State.

"We think if we finish second in our league, we have a shot,'' Higgs said. "I do think our league is underappreciated though. We're still the new sisters of the west.''

BELIEVE IT OR NOT: Illinois College junior guard Dylan Dudley says he can make 40-50% of his halfcourt shots. Should we believe him? Well, unless someone wants to fly us out to check, we'll take his word for it. After all, this is the player who hit a shot from midcourt at the buzzer last Saturday to send his team to overtime against Ripon (in a game it went on to win), one of four extra sessions that took place that day in the Midwest Conference.

"We practice them behind coach's back,'' said Dudley, who earlier this season hit another buzzer-beating 3-pointer in a double-overtime win over Beloit. "We mess around with them before and after practice. I think I make around five out of 10. It's a straight-on shot. Once you get it down, it's pretty easy actually.''

Dudley, a 6-3 junior guard is averaging a team-high 14.8 points for the Blue Boys (7-10, 5-5 MWC) and shooting 40% from 3-point range this season.

Actually, it was one of only 3.8 overtimes on Saturday — the Grinnell/Carroll game had a four-minute overtime because the officiating crew insisted the clock be set at four minutes. Apparently four minutes is the length of Iowa high school overtimes.