Second Team All OAC:
Brian Pollock
Maurice Haynes
Chris Switzer
Andrew Bene
Tyler Felt
Rudy Kirbus
6. Baldwin Wallace: Projected OAC Finish: 6th Projected Wins: 9 Floor: 6-12 Ceiling: 12-6 Players to Watch: Andrew Bene, Kyle Brown, Denny Santiago Analysis: Duane Sheldon returns to his alma mater to coach the new look Jackets in 08-09. They lose several catalysts (Bub, Tyler) from a 4 year run of consistent play that brought with it an OAC championship and two NCAA tournament appearances. The loss of two of the top 5 journeymen of the last four years leaves many lingering holes in the back court. One could pose the question: how do you lose two OAC journeymen, and even have the ability to field a team the next year? We will find out this year as Andrew Bene leads the charge through the conference. BW is a team that can really have a great year, or get on a bad run and struggle. They have a lot of tough guys, its just a question of getting the chemistry together under a new coach and system. Kyle Brown is a great shooter and scorer, same goes with Tumblin and Santiago. Its just a question of whether they can play well at the point guard position and whether they can defend well enough against the good teams. BW is definitely a skilled team, with a lot of talented guys that are hard to stop. Good teams have good point guard play, and thats a question for BW to answer.
5. Mount Union: Projected OAC Finish: 5th Projected Wins: 11 Floor: 8-10 Ceiling: 12-6 Players to Watch: Dave Pellrite, Chris Switzer, Sam King Analysis: Mount is a sexy pick this year. They have jumped out to a 5-0 start. They have good players that have been playing well in this league for a long time. They are pretty balanced. But never in my right mind am I gonna put a Mount Union team anywhere near the top of the OAC Conference. I dont care if they start 11-0. I would still bet on them falling apart. They hate their coach. Hes like the Byron Scott of the OAC. He has some credibility, hes coached some good guys, but in time teams just begin to resent him and stop playing hard for him. Chris Switzer is a really cool guy, and a shoe in for the All OAC Party Team, and I am positive he would have a lot of things to say about his coach. It would be funny to hear. But bottom line, I think Mount is good but just not good enough to get over that hump. There a tough matchup at the guards though. Dave Pellrite is a Rudy Kirbus type player, who is big and thick yet quick enough to go by you and score. He shoots it nice and gets to the line as well. I think they will have an up and down season with many peaks and valleys. The coach-player relationship is the thing that brings questions and makes me not believe in them.
OAC All Breakout Team:
RJ Brown
Travis Kinn
Rudy Kirbus
Ross Niekamp
Chris Zajac
Brian Pollock
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
OAC PREVIEW (PART 2 of 5)
First Team All OAC:
Nate Stahl
Ryan Wood
Brandon Rogers
Kyle Meyer
Trevor Scott
Kyle Brown
8. Heidelberg: Projected OAC Finish: 8th Projected Wins: 7 Floor: 4-14 Ceiling: 8-10 Players to Watch: Josh Calver, Jake Smalley, Travis Kinn Analysis: New head coach (the big black assistant from ONU the last couple years), new core of players (the figthing josh calvers) and coming off the best season in school history, heidelberg may be in for an up in down season in the OAC. They are off to a 3-1 start, probably due to a couple of nice cupcakes wins but maybe not. They have some toughness at the guards but none have proved it over the course of a marathon season. I am sure they are having some concerns at the 3-4-5 positions. Travis Kinn is kind of a tweener, but is strong and tough and seemed to be able to hang in there against bigger players last year. Its just a question of whether there guards are gonna be good enough to get shots for themselves against good defensive players. It was easy for them to get good shots when Shriver and Lemmon were playing. It will be much tougher for these current guys to create there owns shots and get 3s with no real post presence. I definitely think they can beat the bad teams and can beat the medium skill teams when they shoot the ball well and get lucky.
7. Musky: Projected OAC Finish: 7th Projected Wins: 8 Floor: 6-12 Ceiling:9-9 Players to Watch: Trevor Scott, Pat Byrne, Tyler Felt Analysis: Muskies are thin at all positions, but the guys they have are pretty good. This is the part of the conference that can really start to go many different ways. The 4-7 range is really gonna depend on how these teams do head to head, and how lucky/well they play on the road. Without Brandon Todd, and his robot arms, the Muskies are gonna struggle handling the ball. He made things a lot easier for the team last year, and they still finished in the lower rung of the conference. They have a healthy Trevor Scott, who was decent but still no 100% last year coming off major surgery. He is long, quick and a pretty good all around player. He shoots a high percentage and is a great free throw shooter. He has a pretty good middle game. Tyler Felt is one of the many paper champions in this conference. What an anomaly. You'll see great numbers from him (20 and 10) and then just be baffled at how bad he sucks when you play against him in real life. I'm sure he is good I just havent seen it and probably never will cause JCU will dog him again. You cant win in this conference with 7 guys. At least I dont think so. Its too long of a season, and the guys in this league are too good. They will have some nice wins, some nice first half fights, good 10 minutes of the second half, and a lot of close last minute losses. Definitely good enough to beat teams that dont come to play.
OAC COY: Damon Goodwin
Nate Stahl
Ryan Wood
Brandon Rogers
Kyle Meyer
Trevor Scott
Kyle Brown
8. Heidelberg: Projected OAC Finish: 8th Projected Wins: 7 Floor: 4-14 Ceiling: 8-10 Players to Watch: Josh Calver, Jake Smalley, Travis Kinn Analysis: New head coach (the big black assistant from ONU the last couple years), new core of players (the figthing josh calvers) and coming off the best season in school history, heidelberg may be in for an up in down season in the OAC. They are off to a 3-1 start, probably due to a couple of nice cupcakes wins but maybe not. They have some toughness at the guards but none have proved it over the course of a marathon season. I am sure they are having some concerns at the 3-4-5 positions. Travis Kinn is kind of a tweener, but is strong and tough and seemed to be able to hang in there against bigger players last year. Its just a question of whether there guards are gonna be good enough to get shots for themselves against good defensive players. It was easy for them to get good shots when Shriver and Lemmon were playing. It will be much tougher for these current guys to create there owns shots and get 3s with no real post presence. I definitely think they can beat the bad teams and can beat the medium skill teams when they shoot the ball well and get lucky.
7. Musky: Projected OAC Finish: 7th Projected Wins: 8 Floor: 6-12 Ceiling:9-9 Players to Watch: Trevor Scott, Pat Byrne, Tyler Felt Analysis: Muskies are thin at all positions, but the guys they have are pretty good. This is the part of the conference that can really start to go many different ways. The 4-7 range is really gonna depend on how these teams do head to head, and how lucky/well they play on the road. Without Brandon Todd, and his robot arms, the Muskies are gonna struggle handling the ball. He made things a lot easier for the team last year, and they still finished in the lower rung of the conference. They have a healthy Trevor Scott, who was decent but still no 100% last year coming off major surgery. He is long, quick and a pretty good all around player. He shoots a high percentage and is a great free throw shooter. He has a pretty good middle game. Tyler Felt is one of the many paper champions in this conference. What an anomaly. You'll see great numbers from him (20 and 10) and then just be baffled at how bad he sucks when you play against him in real life. I'm sure he is good I just havent seen it and probably never will cause JCU will dog him again. You cant win in this conference with 7 guys. At least I dont think so. Its too long of a season, and the guys in this league are too good. They will have some nice wins, some nice first half fights, good 10 minutes of the second half, and a lot of close last minute losses. Definitely good enough to beat teams that dont come to play.
OAC COY: Damon Goodwin
Monday, December 1, 2008
OAC PREVIEW (PART 1 of 5)
After a little time off, JC is back. Over the next couple days, I am gonna break down the OAC conference. A conference where every game is decided by several crucial second half minutes. A league where no lead is safe. A league where names like Oosiley, Grogan, Todd, and Lemmon echo for all eternity. This has been a conference dominated by a John Carroll program who not only is the nastiest team in the league year in and year out, but is also perenially the best drinking team as well and takes full advantage of the hot bed of young coed jersey chasers/pantydroppers that flood the streets of South Belvoir. I am gonna provide some analysis on the teams and rank them from 10-1, and offer some predictions. I havent paid a ton of attention to whats going on in the league, but my time as a journeymen is plenty of expertise. I know every team in this league like no one else. If you wanna great snapshot of how the league is gonna play out this year, I encourage you to take a spin through my writing in the next several days. FROM 10 TO 1....
10. MARIETTA Projected OAC Finish: 10th Projected Wins: 4 Floor: 0-18 Ceiling: 7-12 Player(s) to Watch: Isaiah Creasap Analysis: Marietta sucks guys. I think we are all pretty aware of that. They just have never gotten enough good guys in there who are tough and get the fact that they are playing in one of the most unique conferences in America. They play shitty defense, like laughable score at will defense if you take 20 seconds to get a good shot. Offensively you can dog the shit outta them and they panic and turn the ball over or shoot a bad shot in which you can get out and score in transition. This is a night off in the conference similar to when the elite teams in the NBA go to OKCity or Memphis. Isaiah Creasap is a good shooter. He is gonna have 3 30 point games this year, maybe more. But I dont think he could be a good player on the top 4 teams in the conference. He would be a great great weapon to a good team, but I dont think he would be tough enough to hack it day in and day out. Just dont really see much from Marietta. I hope I am somewhat wrong though cause it sucks being shitty year in and year out. Maybe they have a Mimes this year. A program changer.
9. OTTERBEIN: Projected OAC Finish: 9th Projected Wins: 6 Floor: 2-16 Ceiling: 8-10 Players to Watch: Adam Wells (kidding, hes a fag who had a nice 6 year career) Corey Ratai, Ryan Kennedy??? Analysis: The Ross Banaszack era is over folks. He has moved on to bigger and better things namely Ross Jr. His absence creates a decent hole, seeing that he had possession of the ball for 90% of Otterbeins offensive possessions. Never bet against Dick Reynolds, a somewhat competent coach with a time tested system. But come on, I think this is a team that the good teams will throttle both home and away if they play well. I wonder if Ryan Kennedy is back. He was fresh on the scene for his sophomore year strapped with a couple of barb wire sleeves on his intimidating arms, and had a few nice scoring games early. Then he fell off the grid and no one has heard from him since. He was rumored to be playing on a club team in Turkey, being paid 200K in addition to free room and board. All in all unless they have a few decent new post players, and a couple of shooters who play well all year, this is a team thats gonna get beat. They are gonna play with teams for a half hard because they have a stickler coach, but good teams will pull away for easy wins.
10. MARIETTA Projected OAC Finish: 10th Projected Wins: 4 Floor: 0-18 Ceiling: 7-12 Player(s) to Watch: Isaiah Creasap Analysis: Marietta sucks guys. I think we are all pretty aware of that. They just have never gotten enough good guys in there who are tough and get the fact that they are playing in one of the most unique conferences in America. They play shitty defense, like laughable score at will defense if you take 20 seconds to get a good shot. Offensively you can dog the shit outta them and they panic and turn the ball over or shoot a bad shot in which you can get out and score in transition. This is a night off in the conference similar to when the elite teams in the NBA go to OKCity or Memphis. Isaiah Creasap is a good shooter. He is gonna have 3 30 point games this year, maybe more. But I dont think he could be a good player on the top 4 teams in the conference. He would be a great great weapon to a good team, but I dont think he would be tough enough to hack it day in and day out. Just dont really see much from Marietta. I hope I am somewhat wrong though cause it sucks being shitty year in and year out. Maybe they have a Mimes this year. A program changer.
9. OTTERBEIN: Projected OAC Finish: 9th Projected Wins: 6 Floor: 2-16 Ceiling: 8-10 Players to Watch: Adam Wells (kidding, hes a fag who had a nice 6 year career) Corey Ratai, Ryan Kennedy??? Analysis: The Ross Banaszack era is over folks. He has moved on to bigger and better things namely Ross Jr. His absence creates a decent hole, seeing that he had possession of the ball for 90% of Otterbeins offensive possessions. Never bet against Dick Reynolds, a somewhat competent coach with a time tested system. But come on, I think this is a team that the good teams will throttle both home and away if they play well. I wonder if Ryan Kennedy is back. He was fresh on the scene for his sophomore year strapped with a couple of barb wire sleeves on his intimidating arms, and had a few nice scoring games early. Then he fell off the grid and no one has heard from him since. He was rumored to be playing on a club team in Turkey, being paid 200K in addition to free room and board. All in all unless they have a few decent new post players, and a couple of shooters who play well all year, this is a team thats gonna get beat. They are gonna play with teams for a half hard because they have a stickler coach, but good teams will pull away for easy wins.
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