Wooster pulls away for a road victory at BW - 81-74. Scots paced by 4 in double figures Xavier Brown, Evan Pannell, Jake Mays, and Jalen Goodwin paced the visitors with 18 (4-4 3pt). Win despite 22 fouls and 16 TOs?

What is this that I am hearing about Zimmer being hurt? From a basketball standpoint, post players can be defended from the perimeter buy pressure the guards and contesting passing lanes. That is text book Wooster Scot defense. Where we really struggle is with those athletic guards that can create their own shots and opportunities for others. Has IWU faced Scot level defense?

Wooster Hosts again. I am not in favor of another iteration of Tigers v. Scots at Timken for a spot in the Final Four. My blood pressure may not be able to take it. This is quite a POD with the top 3 winningest Division III programs. The head coach at North Central is experienced having lost to Ill. Wesleyan in the 1997 National Championship game! Best perimeter player is coach's son. Looking forward to the CCIW/NCAC challenge for the final four!

Fellow NCAC followers and Wooster Fan - I'm baaaack! Those that may remember from a few years back. I am Wooster Alum, former Bissman resident and former Voice sports columnist and Voice football/baseball/basketball beat writer.

I have been busy the past few years deployed with the US Navy as a Command Master Chief of a ship. I am back on shore duty in Virginia (right around VA Wesleyan and C.Newport). Thanks to this site, I was able to follow commentary about the NCAC and the Scots even thought I could not post. Dave (hope you remember me) - I am also in the final research and writing stages for my dissertation!

Well, I am back and excited about the end of the NCAC season for the Scots and the whole NCAC. Can we get some ESPN or FoxSports love for the best Division III hoops rivalry Witt v. Woo? I know that Gameday broadcast is out of the question but with twitter and Facebook, I think we should lobby for game day mention for the game on Saturday.

It is good to be back and look forward to my posts about the Div III hoops in this area as well as beloved Scott!

Go Bengals!

Looks like Wooster will face Amherst in Salem, VA in the first game of the Final FOUR!!!

Wooster SCOTS fans start to celebrate...We are headed to Final Four..9 hours from Memphis...6 point lead with :13.8 left in OT!!

Never sure how much wieght to put on it but remember that Brockport St was NCAA #1 in the East Region this year.

This game will be very interesting as it appears to be strength vs. strength is this where the tough pre-NCAC schedule plays a part??

Wooster's defense since the end of the season has been excellent.

33% FG% for OWU in the NCAC final
32% FG% vs TRANS UNIV  NCAA First Round
32% FG% vs Centre NCAA Second Round
37% FG% for JCU tonite in the 'Sweet Sixteen'

Defense does indeed win championships.  Rest for Elite Eight tomorrow night and hopefully defensive effort will continue!!

Go SCOTS!!

Sectional team breakdown:

First After road trips from Ohio, Wooster will face JCU.

John Carroll, 21-9 (13-5 OAC), is the runner-up based on tiebreak in the OAC after tying Capital for the title.  In the NCAA tourney they defeated Westminster at home and then went on the road to defeat #1 seed Lake Erie, 79-77 after coming back from 16 points down.  They are 25th in the last D3Hoops poll and were 5th in the GLakes regional rankings.

The Blue Streaks are led by 6'5" Senior Guard Brandon Mimes, All-OAC First Teamer, who goes for 20.6 ppg and 10.5 rpg while shooting almost .500 @ .499 FG%.  Second leading scorer and rebounder is another 6'3" senior Forward Terry Walsh, All-OAC Second Team member 16.4 ppg and 6.2 rpg and leads the team 66 makes from 3 point land.  The point guard is the only other double figure scorer, 6'0" Senior Pete Moran who was also recognized as All-OAC Honorable Mention. He averages 10.2 ppg and almost 5.0 apg. From recent box scores and stats it looks like they go mainly two deep on the bench with the starters are getting more than 35 minutes per game.

Common opponents with Wooster: These teams have history in the tourney that the SCOTS websites covers.  JCU went 2-0 vs. ONU.  ONU beat Wooster 91-84.  And of note JCU went 0-2 for BW and 1-2 vs CAPITAL and some bad losses to Wilmington and Heidelberg??

St. John Fisher, 23-5 (11-3) is the conference and tourney champs of the Empire 8 conference).  They defeated Wentworth Tech and Plattsburg State at home to advance to the sweet 16. Received 3 votes in the D3Hoops poll.  They were #2 in the NCAA East regional rankings, FYI their opponent, Brockport St is #1 in the East.

St. John's has four players that average double figures.  They are led by All-E8 Second Teamer, 5'11 Senior Guard Dan Mueller, 14.2 ppg, 3.3 apg, 89 makes from long distance, hitting 3's @ .473 (all lead the team) and 6'6" Senior Center Dan McSweeney, ALL-E8 First Teamer, 12.2 ppg, 7.4 rpg and 1.5 bpg (leading the team in rbs and blocks). 6'4" Junior Forward Justin Beigel (from my hometown, Cincinnati, OH) is the third leading scorer and 2nd leading rebounder, 11.9/6.5 and was also All-E8 Second Team. 6'3" Freshman Wing Chris Baltz chips in as the fourth leading scorer 10.1 ppg.
St John's has 10 players in the rotation that average more than 10 mpg!!

There are no common opponents this year. And if they should meet Wooster and St. John Fisher would be competing for the first time.

Brockport State (25-5, 14-20 is the regular season champs and tourney runners-up in the State University Of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC).   They advanced past Williams and St. Lawrence to reach the sweet 16.  They are not ranked in the D3Hoops poll but are #1 NCAA in the East Region.

A three headed monster leads Brockport:  5'9" Junior Guard Sherod Harris (16.3 ppg, 4.3 apg and 58 3's connecting @ .487 clip). And 6'2" Junior Forward Brandon Williams (13.6 ppg and 8.8 rpg) are both first team all conference and 6'7" Center Contrel Parish ( 12.5 ppg, 5.3 rpg is the conference rookie of the year. Another seven players see more than 10 minutes per game in a deep rotation.

Wooster and Brockport both played Oberlin this season.  Brockport won by 12 in their first game of season and of course SCOTS swept season series. And they have played only once in the histories, the 71-72 season, a win by Brockport St.  Interestingly, Brockport went 1-1 vs. St. John Fisher already this year.  This is round 3.

First sandwiches and now snowing filling arches...is this a basketball board or what..

I wonder what the original and true origin of the story...As a loud, proud, tatooed member of Sixth Section, Phi Sigma Alpha, I am hear to tell you that the Sixth Section, The Sigs were the first to successfully fill the arch with snow in a secret clandestine operation that was not discovered by authorities until sun up.

Does anyone else have similiar claims...I am betting everyone does.

SECOND TEAM
Gregg Hill Wittenberg So. W
Ryan Hollihan Allegheny So. C
Brandon Johnson Wooster So. G
Mike McDevitt Hiram Jr. F
Dustin Rudegeair O. Wesleyan Jr. F
Quinton Spencer Oberlin Sr. G/F
Tim Vandervaart  Wooster Sr. F
Bryan Yelvington Kenyon So. F

HONORABLE MENTION
Bill Babe Allegheny Jr. G 5-11
Korey Haddox Kenyon So. G 6-3
Jesse Jean O. Wesleyan Jr. F 6-5
David Jolson Kenyon So. G 6-3
Josh Klinger Kenyon Jr. G 5-11
Michael Loll Oberlin So. G/F 6-5
Jimmy Savage Allegheny Sr. G 6-3

From what I remember of Transy last year.  They hit a bunch of shots and could not seem to miss especially when it is important and the Scots were making a run.  Their Guard Bain made 7-10 and they hit for 42% in the game after going for 5-10 in the first half.

One of the things that I did not notice is that despite size advantage that they do not seem to rebound well (outrebounded for season 32.3 rpg to 29.0 rpg).  That maybe because they shoot from distance so much. 

And if my memory serves, we got what we wanted inside against a senior laden team.  This time, it is in our gym, with our fans and after sleeping in our own beds.  I doubt that we'll go 1-8 from the 3pt line in the second half again.

We must defend this house!!

From Websters:

Sandwich: 1 a : two or more slices of bread or a split roll having a filling in between b : one slice of bread covered with food

Submarine: 2 : a large sandwich on a long split roll with any of a variety of fillings (as meatballs or cold cuts, cheese, lettuce, and tomato) -- called also grinder, hero, hoagie, Italian sandwich, po'boy, sub, torpedo

Gyro: a sandwich especially of lamb and beef, tomato, onion, and yogurt sauce on pita bread

Burrito: a flour tortilla rolled or folded around a filling (as of meat, beans, and cheese)

Does this help?  I do not normally participate in this kind of jocularity but I could not resist on this one!!

Here is some breakdown of the opponents coming to Wooster.

CENTRE, 23-4 (12-2), is the 2007 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) Tournament Champions (#2 Seed) out of the South Region.  It looks like they tied for the regular season title with Depauw after splitting their season series.  Last year, they were 19-8 and 9-5 in the conference.  They are in also receiving votes in the D3 Hoops top 25 @ about #32 and #7 in the NCAA South Regional Rankings.

They look to have a pretty balance attack. Looks like a eight man rotation with four players averaging more than 8.0 ppg.  Matt Nestheide, a 6'0" Senior Guard, looks like he leads the team for the PG spot as the leading scorer at 14.6 ppg including 46% from long distance and leading the team in APG, 3.3 and 29 stls for the season and  6'9" 240lbs Senior Center Patterson is leading rebounder @ nearly 7 per game.  Also, maybe a little young, among the regulars are two sophomores and 1 freshman.

Common opponents with Wooster: None but Centre did go 1-1 for GL region competition (Loss vs Albion @ Hanover College Tourney and Win @ Thomas More)

TRANSYLVANIA, 19-8 (10-6), out of the Midwest Region is the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament champions as (#2 seed).   They came in second in the conference to Franklin.  We know a little bit about them from last year.  They hosted and made it to the Elite 8. They beat Wooster to get to the Sweet 16 but lost the regional final @ Wittenberg.  That team had 7 seniors, returning on one player that saw significant time.  They are not ranked nationally or regionally.

Transy also puts out an eight man rotation with 4 scoring more than 8 ppg.  They are led by Seniors 6'7" F Nick Feagan who is leading scorer and rebounder (16.1, 5.1) and 6'6" F Senior Joey Searle (14.8, 4.9).  Feagan did not play last year due to injury but was first team all conference before getting hurt.  And Searle got us for 13 in the NCAA Tourney game.

Common opponents with Wooster:  We may have Centre in common after the weekend.  But besides playing last year (I would like to emphasize at this point that they are two different teams).  Transy went 2-1 vs GLAKES competition including 2-0 vs Thomas More. The loss was to Wittenberg @ Witt in November.  Feagan got 19 pts and 5 rbs and Transy only shot 42%.

CAPITAL, 19-8 (10-5) is the Ohio Athletic Conference tournament champions as #1 seed and shared the conference regular season title with JCU.   Last year they were 12-13 and 9-9 in the tough OAC.  Capital had not won the OAC tournament since the 1984 season and last made an appearance in the NCAA tournament during the 1995-96 season

Capital is led by the wing/post combo of Soph 6'6" Wing Nate Stahl (14.2, 4.5 including 51% from distance) and Junior 6'5" Post Steve Kyser (12.9, 5.1).  Capital looks deep as 10 players avg more than 10 mpg played.

History and Common opponents: Wooster last played and beat Capital in NCAC/OAC Challenge @ OWU in 2004-05 season where the SCOTS prevailed 83-73. Capital played about half the NCAC this year (Witt, Kenyon, Denison and OWU).  They went 2-2 losing  vs Witt @ home and OWU @ home.  Scots went 1-1 vs OAC (W vs MtUnion and L vs ONU) both were at Home.  Capital went 2-2 vs same teams.  2-0 over ONU and 0-2 to Mt Union). Get the Mt. Union game film!!

Also of note, a couple of quality GLakes region senior are going home probably.

Dane Borchers and Torri Davis are probably done.

Borches (an COW thorn in the side) for 10 pts, 20rbs and 3 blks in his likely last game and Davis goes for 15 pts and 19 rbs...two All-Region quality players that will be missed in the region!!

Unfortunately, ONU's Greg Badenhop did not go out as gracefully:

2-10  shooting and 1-6 from 3pt land for 7 pts in loss to Otterbein that I did not see coming.