Top 25 talk

[wooscotsfan]

Wooster has now won 20 or more games for 10 consecutive seasons:

2006:  20-1
2005:  27-3
2004:  26-4
2003:  30-3
2002:  21-7
2001:  24-4
2000:  26-3
1999:  25-4
1998:  22-6
1997:  23-6

Congratulations to Coach Steve Moore and the rest of the Wooster program on a tremendous decade of excellence! 

[Pat Coleman]

I wasn't overwhelmed by Witt. I think their backcourt scoring (or lack thereof) will be a problem in the tourney. In my mind, I'm not entirely sure Witt is better than, say, Baldwin-Wallace, whom I admit I have not seen.

[David Collinge]

What'd you think of Wooster, Pat?

[Pat Coleman]

Not quite what I was expecting from the numbers, but obviously playing Witt had some impact.

I wonder if this was typical. Lot of reliance on the outside shot early though they did not fall apart when the shots didn't fall in the second half. I wonder if they might throw it inside more when they're not facing a team with Borchers and Russ on the interior.

On a night when Witucky wasn't much of a factor and Port wasn't himself they beat a Top 10 team. What else needs to be said? Cooper looked like the leader of this team tonight.

Also thought they were well-coached (though that is nothing new). There are some teams in the Top 10 which I am not so sure are well-coached, so that's a plus. Wish they had more competition. Can you trade a couple teams to the OAC for, say, Muskingum?

[kiltedbryan]

Witt trailed by anywhere from 4 to 13 points virtually the entire game; I don't recall that it was ever a "one-possession" game after the opening couple of minutes.

If I'm not mistaken, David, Witt had the lead down to 40-37 at one point late in the first half before Woo closed the half with a 9-3 run to lead 49-40 at half.

[David Collinge]

Yes, that's right, Witt was within 3 briefly late in the first.  My mistake.  They also closed to 4 with about 4:00 left in the game. 

Pat, Vandervaart sees more action down low on offense against other opponents; so do Will and Port, to a degree.  But as you know, when they're not playing Wittenberg, well, they're playing Earlham or OWU, or even Oberlin or Hiram.  The question of "what will Wooster do on the night that the shots aren't falling?" has been asked frequently, but it basically hasn't happened yet.  A week or so ago they had some trouble at Kenyon, but no real trouble with Kenyon, so it didn't really answer the question.

As far as Witt's game was concerned, yes they depend heavily, perhaps too heavily, on Russ and Borchers, and get little offense from the guards, but it should be noted that it was Wooster's gameplan to make sure that the perimeter jumpers were contested.  I'm guessing that that strategy was at least part of the reason for the Tigers' inability to score from outside tonight.

Nice broadcast, good job Pat and Lenny.

Oh, and the last time we made a deal with the OAC, all we got was Hiram.     We did get Witt from the OAC, though.  Imagine what the NCAC (and Wooster's schedule) would look like without that deal! 

[sac]

You'd be looking at about 25 years of 20 win seasons DC. 

Plus we might have heard from Ohio Wesleyan, Alleghany and possibly Kenyon more often.....they all had some good teams years ago.

[Pat Coleman]

Will

About him, impressed. He didn't do much in the first half but made some nice moves during that stretch in the second half. Was deceptively good.

[David Collinge]

Will's been sick most of the week, FWIW.  He could only play 5 minutes on Weds, and he reportedly had a couple of days of 102-degree fever.  But it doesn't sound like dehydration was a problem for anyone in the HPER Center last night! 

[imderekpoe]

Will

About him, impressed. He didn't do much in the first half but made some nice moves during that stretch in the second half. Was deceptively good.

I've noticed in several games this year that Will has not had a great 1st half, but has really turned it up a notch in the 2nd.  Last night his 2nd half contributions were so much more than the stat line could show.  Everyone on the Scots had gone cold and Witt was making one of their comebacks.  Will made good aggressive moves and scored 6 or quick points that really kept things going the Scots way.  He was definitely one of the stars of the game for the Scots.

[Pat Coleman]

I think his stat line showed alright too, frankly.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

1.   Witt (19-2, 10-2) win at Earlham, home loss to #2 Wooster
2.   Wooster (20-1, 12-0) home win over Allegheny, win at #1 Wittenberg
3.   Lawrence (19-0, 13-0) wins at Ripon, over Knox and over Illinois College
4.   Hope (20-1, 9-1) wins over Olivet and #6 Albion
5.   Augustana (20-1, 10-0) wins over North Park and Carthage
6.   Albion (16-4, 7-3) loss at Tri-State and loss at #4 Hope
7.   Baldwin-Wallace (19-2, 13-1) wins at Heidelberg and over Otterbein
8.   IWU (17-2, 7-3) wins at #14 North Central and over Elmhurst (OT)
9.   York (18-2, 8-2) wins at Goucher and Marymount
10. Amherst (19-2, 6-1) wins at Brandeis, Williams and Middlebury
11. Wartburg (17-4, 10-3) loss at Luther, loss at Coe
12. Occidental (16-2, 7-1) win at Caltech, home loss to LaVerne
13. Puget Sound (17-2, 11-1) wins at Pacific Lutheran and George Fox
14. North Central (16-4, 5-4) home loss to #8 IWU, home win over Millikin
15. WPI (19-1, 8-1) wins at UMass-Boston (OT) and at MIT
16. Miss College (19-1, 16-1) wins at Austin and U of Ozarks
17. Stout (17-4, 10-3) wins at River Falls and over #24 Oshkosh
18. Carnegie Mellon (17-3, 7-2) wins over WashU and Chicago
19. Transylvania (18-3, 9-1) wins over Mt St Joseph and at Bluffton
20. VA Wesleyan (19-3, 14-1) win over Randolph-Macon
21. St John Fisher (17-3, 8-1) wins over Hartwick and Utica
22. Lincoln (19-4) win at Delaware Valley
23. Carroll (18-2, 12-1) wins over St Norbert, Lake Forrest and Knox
24. Oshkosh (15-7, 8-5) loss at Lacrosse and loss at #17 Stout
25. Trinity (CT) (16-4, 6-1) win at Middlebury, loss at Williams

[digs]

Tough year for the WIAC.  Only one top 25 team late in the year and on Top 10 teams.  Also just one team clinging to the top 25 on the women's poll.  Anyone have theories as to why they are down?

[Ralph Turner]

Tough year for the WIAC.  Only one top 25 team late in the year and on Top 10 teams.  Also just one team clinging to the top 25 on the women's poll.  Anyone have theories as to why they are down?

Standard demographic theory and the Laws of Probability...

They shall be back!  

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I don't think the WIAC is down, its just that they are too even.  After several years of a consensus favorite, they are back to duking it out and keeping each other from the tournament.  However, the west region isn't too strong this year, so they might sneak an extra team in, if Whitewater can win out to the conference final.  I also think Stout can get in if they lose the conference final and finish with 5 losses or less in region.