Business has me in northwestern Ohio area this week, along the I-75 corridor between Toledo and Dayton. Naturally, I checked the D3 schedules and saw that I was just 30 miles from both Bluffton, OH and Ada, OH, where both Bluffton and Ohio Northern were hosting HCAC and OAC contests respectively.

I saw most of the first half of Manchester at #25 Bluffton and all of the second half of Wilmington at #22 Ohio Northern…

Some immediate thoughts re: Bluffton…

1. Bluffton is a decent basketball team, but they are small. A good chunk of time in the first half with four players on floor that went 5’8, 6’2, 6’2, 6’2. They shoot the ball well form the perimeter. Take away their “J” and you take away their bread and butter. 4 of their first 5 baskets were from beyond the arc. While this was the first time I’ve seen them play, but first impressions are lasting ones…the Beavers seem vulnerable to cold streaks with their jump shots (I witnessed a 4 to 5 minute FG drought)…that could spell trouble for a team that comes out to play them tight.

2. I found both Bluffton and Manchester overpursuing on defense – they’d collapse when the ball came down low and find an open man outside. Bluffton got past CMU and the voters recognized their efforts more quickly than many other occasions…it’s unusual to see a team go from 0 votes to #25…given what has transpired so far this week, Bluffton might be in a bind to stay in the Top 25, even if they win out this week.

3. Very nice court in my first visit to an HCAC facility. Seating on only one side of the gym, half of which are actual seats (a bit cramped) and the upper section which are open benches. A impressive crowd for a game over winter break.

4. Room for improvement: C’mon…you don’t need to practice dunks before the game while the other team is on the court…as was happening on and off from a few players with 50 to 25 minutes remaining in the warmup.

With six minutes remaining in the first half, I hightailed it out down Ohio 103 and turned right onto Ohio 235 which took me straight into Ada to ONU. ONU’s campus is huge, for D3…reminded me a bit of UW-Whitewater in terms of its size.

1. Wilmington certainly seemed for real. There had clearly been some question about it given their weaker non-conference schedule and the 15 point loss to JCU.

2. Both ONU and Wilmington are all over the court on defense – never letting their intensity level fall. Neither team made egregious mistakes with the basketball, but both teams managed to step up their defense and force the other team to make mistakes they otherwise wouldn’t be making against weaker opponents. Witnessing this game made it clear to me that the OAC is right there with the NCAC, CCIW, MIAA, and WIAC in terms of high-level competition over the rest of D3.

3. Neither team allowed easy baskets – fighting for every point they had. Both move the ball with precision.

4. ONU never led in the 2nd half, the closest they got was a 54-54 tie with 3:56 remaining.

5 Another good crowd for a winter break game…the ONU Sports Center is an older facility but it’s huge and would seem a worthy host for postseason action as it has in the past. Unusual to see the huge scoreboards down just above the baskets mounted on the wall. Lowest scoreboards I’ve seen in basketball…almost to the point where it would seem to impact your vision when shooting.

6. Glad to know there should be room for both teams in the tournament if they continue their winning ways. ONU has 3 losses now, but they are quality.

7. Wilmington now has to go to B-W. If they win there…well…good things.

8. Funny random D3 moment…walking out the gym and Wilmington players were walking towards their locker room when one player uttered, “If we’re not Top 25…” Could you have found a better time to say that…and they surely don’t know who I am.

Oh yeah, IWU lost tonight…

We used to get this kind of letter all the time, but it’s been a while, so when I got a handwritten note with no return address in the mail the other day, it took me back a bit. Once upon a time we would get mail from the father of a prominent Division III player, replete with stats the father had hand-compiled, and I was wondering if this was about to be something similar.

… You do very professional work which is appreciated by basketball fanatics like myself. I’m an ex-college coach and still do personal basketball instruction. I live near the (location withheld) so I try to attend as many games as I can within a two-hour drive. …

The letter, on lined paper, written in all caps, had a clipping inside, a photocopy of a player’s bio from a school’s media guide. The letter was extolling the virtues of the particular player, who had reached a milestone on the particular night he saw them play.

… I sat with/in the midst of the (school withheld) sparse fans and to their little enjoyment (player name withheld) had a 22 point night and played bigger than his listed height. …

This could be just a low-tech version of something we see on the message board occasionally, a little rah-rah boosterism of a particular player by a non-neutral party. Whether this was a parent, uncle, grandfather, or truly just a fan, I don’t know. But it was amusing nonetheless. Keep the letters coming. It’s great to see people who care this much.

Sigh.

The day I’ve been fearing for months has finally arrived. Independence Air has announced it is ceasing operations effective Thursday night, Jan. 5.

This might not mean much to most of you readers, but Independence’s hub was at Washington Dulles airport (IAD for you travel geeks) and it quickly became a favorite of mine because it offered cheap flights to a good number of places where Division III schools are located. I took six flights on Indepdence in the past 15 months, and sent Keith McMillan places via Independence on a few other occasions for D3football.com.

We’ve enjoyed the convenience, the service and the price, which enabled us to see teams such as Wheaton, Illinois Wesleyan, Aurora and the final Hope/Calvin game in the Holland Civic Center last season, not to mention a half-dozen football games. But we also had to figure that such bargains couldn’t last. We’ll have to work harder for bargains in 2006.

Is it too late to start collecting Wendy’s cups?

I’ve only seen the smallest sliver of Division III women’s basketball history over the last 13 years but I’ve had the opportunity to see some of the best players in the country, after covering the NCAA Tournament in-person for this publication on five separate occasions.

The sport has grown tremendously since I was a college freshman back in 1993 and the players of today have benefited from the play of their predecessors. I don’t know that the players from farther back will get their proper due (I hope there are people out there who remember and appreciate them), but I can speak to the successes of those I’ve seen play the game, and welcome the thoughts of others who wish to comment. If I were to fill out a ballot for the players on this NCAA 25th Anniversary team, I would list…

Allison Coleman (Eastern Connecticut State) Coleman was the driving force behind the unlikeliest, most amazing run through the NCAA Tournament that I’ve seen, leading the Warriors to the runner-up finish in 2003. Coleman was an excellent scorer, rebounder, passer and defender who was at her best when her team needed her most, similar in nature to Connecticut’s Diana Taurasi. In the national semifinals, Coleman, playing with four fouls, rallied her team from a 14-point second-half deficit against a heavily favored No. 1 ranked Wisconsin-Eau Claire to win in overtime, then nearly duplicated the feat the next day in the title game, when Eastern’s comeback from 17 down against Trinity (Texas) came up two points short.

Tasha Rodgers (Washington U of St. Louis) Rodgers had the best performance of any player in the five national championship games I’ve seen, a 36-points, 13 rebounds, six steals effort against Messiah in the 2001 title game. Not bad the finale for a four-time NCAA champ. The game story that day described her as unstoppable, and she was, whether it was in the open floor (creating off a turnover) or in halfcourt, driving to the basket. That’s enough to earn my vote.

Alia Fischer (Washington U of St Louis) When I was sideline reporter for our championship game broadcasts a few years ago, I interviewed both the Rodgers family (sitting in the very last row of the stands in Danbury, out of nervousness), and Alia Fischer’s mom, who delivered one of my favorite one-liners from any event I’ve covered in 13 years as a journalist. When I asked if there was anything I should know about Fischer, a dominant center capable of consistently hitting hook shots with either hand, her mom replied “Can I tell you how she was a klutz?”

Corinne Carson (Marymount) I saw Carson twice during the 1996-97 season, when my alma mater took on Marymount, first in regular-season play and then in the NCAA Tournament. She’s the one player whose skills made me sit back and simply say “Wow!” Carson, who overcame significant health issues, was intimidating on both ends of the floor. On defense, she totally destroyed the confidence of opposing shooters by powerfully blocking shots. Offensively she had such a repertoire of moves, that one basket/foul sequence prompted my broadcast partner at the NCAA game to compare her to NBA legend Earl “The Pearl Monroe.”

Ronda Jo Miller (Gallaudet) I wish I had the chance to see Miller and Carson’s head-to-head matchups, because they must have been amazing (I believe Miller was a freshman when Carson was a senior). From the one game I saw, Miller left quite an impression- 38 points, 11 rebounds and six blocked shots worth- and she made it look so easy that day, in the second round of the 1999 NCAA Tournament against The College of New Jersey. Miller totally owned the floor on both ends, whether it was with Carson-like shot blocking, coast-to-coast steal/basket combinations or moves in the paint. Miller was so perfect that day that one of the beat writers yelled out, to no one in particular “She’s Keith Van Horn!”

Feel free to share your thoughts on those players you voted for, and feel free to come up with a write-in candidate or two as well. Perhaps I’ll address my coach selection at another time…