MBB: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[pbrooks3]

On DPU's question, Centre has to be a bit disappointed, but not overly so.  This is their first trip in some time.  Without much knowledge on the subject, Wooster must have got the nod based on in-region performance versus Centre's.  Centre's overall rating and rank were higher.  Their loss to Albion earlier in the season probably hurt, too.  The Colonels will be ready to travel.

[TeeItHigh]

This year, this season, Matt Nestheide was no doubt the Player of the Year.  He was the most valuable player on a team that tied for the conference regular season title and led his team to a 23-4 record, including winning 19 of 20 games to finish the year.  Is Montgomery a good player?  Yes, and he may even be more talented than Nestheide or any other player in the conference.  Does that make him this year's most outstanding player?  No.  Millsaps has everyone back and should be a force in the conference next year.  If they win or share the conference title and he has the same year that he had this year, then by all means he should be player of the year...next year.  I'm taking nothing away from Montgomery...he's a heck of a player.  I'm just trying to make sure that we give Matt Nestheide the props that he deserves...and he did what great players do, he backed up the voters by his performance over the weekend.  Montgomery wasn't hosed...he got some votes and finished on a third place team, meaning that he was given some respect by the coaches.  Had Nestheide not been named MOP, then that would have been a far worse crime, in my humble opinion. 

Tough draw for Centre, having to go to Wooster...but I agree with pbrooks3 on this one.  They will take this stride and get ready for Capital on Friday night.  What does everyone think about DePauw's draw? 

[DPU3619]

Tough draw for Centre, having to go to Wooster...but I agree with pbrooks3 on this one.  They will take this stride and get ready for Capital on Friday night.  What does everyone think about DePauw's draw? 

I'm not trying to start the argument on whether the best player in the conference or the best player on the best team should be the winner.  We went over that a couple years back.  I would have voted for Montgomery.  I do see your point, but it's just my opinion.  Nestheide promptly put me to shame by dropping 31 on TU on Sunday.  Let's put it to bed.

As far as DePauw's draw, I was a little afraid that they were the ones that might end up going to Wooster.  DePauw was a definite bubble team, and I figured they'd be prompty rewarded for that by being sent to someplace like Wooster, Chicago, or Hope.   They seemed like the best team that was anywhere close to Greencastle.

I don't know a darned thing about Whitworth other than they're from Spokane.  They've got a pretty good record (22-3), which tells me that it won't be an easy one.  They don't seem to be very easy once you get to this point.

[bucs77]

23-3, Whitworth won their league tournament.  Our mascot is a pirate or buccaneer sp? 
Don't want to give too much away.  haha

[pbrooks3]

Now that we've covered DePauw; what does anyone know about Capital in Columbus and their 19-9 record?  Wooster will seem more like a home game to them than for Centre.  I am comfortable with knowing that the Colonels will play solid defense and maintain the team-oriented approach to basketball that has made them winners all season!

[Spencer Beaty]

watch out for Maryville (TN.)

[pbrooks3]

Centre has moved up #23 in this week's Top 25 poll.  Wooster is #2; Depauw is out.  Several well-know schools from the 25 aren't in the D3 tourney - UW-Oshkosh & UW-LaCrosse.

Here are the 25:

Week 13 men's poll About the Top 25

# Team W-L Pts. Last Week
1 UW-Stevens Point (24) 25-2 624 1
2 Wooster  25-3 589 4
3 Mississippi College  25-2 538 5
4 Virginia Wesleyan  23-4 527 2
5 St. Thomas  24-3 524 6
6 Amherst (1) 25-2 500 3
7 Augustana  22-5 494 9
8 Washington U.  20-4 443 12
9 UW-Oshkosh  21-6 384 7
10 Hope  23-4 361 8
11 Whitworth  23-3 343 16
12 Chicago  20-5 327 11
13 Elmhurst  21-6 288 14
14 Aurora  25-2 281 15
15 Occidental  19-5 246 19
16 UW-La Crosse  19-8 238 18
17 Wittenberg  22-5 223 10
18 Worcester Polytech  22-3 199 13
19 Guilford  21-4 112 17
20 Trinity (Conn.)  21-4 103 20
21 Rhode Island College  24-3 99 —
22 Salem State  24-2 78 —
23 Centre  23-4 64 —
24 New York University  19-6 60 21
25 John Carroll  19-9 59 —

Dropped out: No. 22 DePauw, No. 23 Puget Sound, No. 24 Ohio Northern, No. 25 Mary Hardin-Baylor

Others receiving votes: Lake Erie 47, Brandeis 45, Mary Hardin-Baylor 43, Rochester 41, DePauw 37, Capital 36, Johns Hopkins 36, Wheaton (Ill.) 31, Ohio Northern 25, Ramapo 16, Puget Sound 15, Averett 8, Williams 7, Calvin 6, North Central 6, Keene State 5, Lewis and Clark 5, Catholic 4, UW-Whitewater 4, St. John's 3, Transylvania 1.

[pbrooks3]

Centre fans should look at the posts under the Great Lakes Region with subheading NCAC (North Coast Athletic Conference).  Look at posts on the next to the last page.  There is limited knowledge about the Colonels from the followers of this league.  Wooster is very familiar with Transy from an NCAA loss to them last year.  Most of the Wooster fans think Capital and Wooster are the teams to watch!  Those are fighting words in KY!

[David Collinge]

Centre fans should look at the posts under the Great Lakes Region with subheading NCAC (North Coast Athletic Conference).  Look at posts on the next to the last page.  There is limited knowledge about the Colonels from the followers of this league.  Wooster is very familiar with Transy from an NCAA loss to them last year.  Most of the Wooster fans think Capital and Wooster are the teams to watch! Those are fighting words in KY!

Here's some examples of those "fighting words:"

And then Wooster gets the winner of the Cap v. Centre matchup.  I would expect Cap to win that one, but Centre has been on quite a roll here to close out the season having not lost since January 26th.  They have won their last 9 games of the season by an average of just over 20 ppg including a 32 point drubbing of Pool C selection DePauw.  So, if Wooster can get past Transy, the winner of the Cap-Centre game will be IMHO a far tougher opponent than JCU will be facing in LEC.

Actually, I think Centre is underrated and could beat Capital.

I don't know much about Centre - just what I could glean from their stats - but they look like they could be pretty tough on the defensive end.  Their opponents are only shooting 38% from the floor and only 29% from beyond the arc.  Kind of Wittenberg-like numbers!  I wouldn't be surprised at all to see them playing Wooster on Saturday night.

It's true that we don't know much about Centre, and it's true that we think Wooster is a "team to watch" (duh), but to suggest that we disrespect Centre is both incorrect and disingenuous.  Wooster fans have known enough tournament failure not to take anyone lightly, especially a team with as impressive a record as Centre in as strong a conference as the SCAC.  I hope to see many Centre fans in Timken Gymnasium on Friday.

[pbrooks3]

I have obviously ticked off an NCAC and Wooster supporter.  There is no disrespect in my words I share with the SCAC crowd.  Simply pointing out that folks in the NCAC would like to learn more about the Colonels.

[David Collinge]

Fair enough , and yes we would like to know more about the Colonels.  Please feel free to come to our room and share.  If you would like information on Wooster, I'm sure there's a number of the many Wooster posters who'd be happy to talk up the accomplishments of their team.  But good luck finding out any first-hand info on Capital, as they have no regular posters on the hoops side of the house.  There are a handful of Wooster fans who have see the Crusaders and might be persuaded to give you a scouting report.

A quick and dirty on Wooster is that they play an up-tempo style and shoot the ball extremely well.   On the year, the Scots are averaging 89.4 ppg on 52% FG shooting (41.7% from the arc.)  Wooster is not terribly tall, starting 6'6", 6'5", 6'3" along the front line with a 6'6" post player and two 6'8" frosh in reserve, but the post players have excellent moves in the paint and tend to play much larger than their size suggests.  Wooster has two legitimate All-American candidates in 6'0" junior guard James Cooper (first-team preseason D3Hoops.com All-American, 18.4 ppg, 53.2% shooter including 45% from the arc) and 6'5" senior wing Tom Port (4th team D3Hoops.com All-American last season, 16.7 ppg and 6.5 rpg, with shooting averages slightly better than Cooper's.)  The basic rotation is 8 men, but three frosh (including the two big men I mentioned above) have played well when needed.

Here's a link to our men's basketball page, which probably tells you more than you ever wanted to know.  One other factor is that Wooster plays in a very large gym (cap. 3400) and draws crowds that are annually among the top handful of teams in D3.  It's a tough and loud environment, but plenty of room for as many Colonel fans as want to make the trip, so make your plans and come on up to scenic Wayne County for the weekend! 

[SCACAltFan]

Just wanted to put my two cents in on POTY. I think the POTY should not only commend a player for his play on the court but also the way he handles himself on the court and off. On the court I have never seen Nestheide argue with a ref over a call or no-call or talk back to his coach. Not seeing Montgomery play all year, I know I am not an expert but the few times I have seen him play, I have seen him argue with refs (resulting in a tech. foul in the Hendrix game) and defy his coach when he came to the bench. Nestheide also was chosen to be on the Dist 4 All-Academic team but once again I cannot comment on Montgomery.

I guess what I am trying to point out Matt Nestheide represents the SCAC conference in a positive way in everything he does. once again I am not so sure about Montgomery. 

Woule welcome any comments.

[frank_ezelle]

I don't want to let that comment go unanswered but I also don't want to get off on a tangent when the focus should be on the NCAA Tournament.

Take a player in the league, pick his worst moment of the season, tell it with a negative spin, and I think that just about all of the players would come out sounding pretty bad.  That's probably true about Nestheide as well as every other highly competitive athlete in college sports but that's would be a very unfair way to judge a person. 

You seem to have a general negative attitude about Montgomery and you are welcome to your opinion.  You seem to imply that he might not be up to the normal academic standards of an SCAC student--is there any particular reason for this and is it possible that you question the academic abilities of all of the Millsaps starters?

It seems to me that this post is just as much or more about putting down Montgomery as it is about commending Nestheide.  It's a shame that you felt compelled to take the low road on a subject that has already become old news.

[kiltedbryan]

Now that we've covered DePauw; what does anyone know about Capital in Columbus and their 19-9 record?  Wooster will seem more like a home game to them than for Centre.  I am comfortable with knowing that the Colonels will play solid defense and maintain the team-oriented approach to basketball that has made them winners all season!

Hi SCAC room,

I've seen the Crusaders four times this year, all relatively recently.  Capital hasn't been to the NCAA tournament in 11 years; this fact coupled with playing their first round game within driving range may draw many Crusader supporters to Wooster.  However, they were unable to draw even a full section of fans to watch them take on cross-town rival Otterbein College, so I'm not sure how well their fan base travels.

That's a shame, really, because said fans have had a lot to cheer for from this year's squad.  Capital sports a varied attack with varied personnel.  10 players average over 10 mpg, and only leading scorer Nate Stahl (14.2 ppg) averages above 30 minutes per contest.  Stahl anchors the guard attack; he leads all of Division III with 52% shooting from distance.  Two others also shoot around 40% from 3.  Steve Kyser anchors the inside attack, with 12.9 ppg and 5.1 boards.  I've also been impressed with the Quintin Mitchell in the post.  Capital likes to move the ball quickly upcourt, which several times has disoriented the defense enough to find Stahl or another shooter for a quick 3.

Defensively, Capital likes to put a lot of pressure on guards out front.  Brian Alge and Ryan Wood tend to draw the opponent's best.  Alge in particular will hound a guard all over the court, denying passes all the way out near the mid-court line.  Cap's rotation helps them be able to put forth tons of effort, since a fresher body is always available on the bench.

Weaknesses?  An off-night shooting could sink Capital.  I've seen them take over games via the 3- including a memorable 21-7 run that featured 6 straight 3 pointers in their OAC quarterfinal victory.  To shut down Stahl you have to mark him all over the court- but it's easier to do that than it is to shut down Wooster's attack, say.  (Stahl is Cap's only exceptional shooter; Wooster has 3- Port, Cooper, and Devin Fulk who all are above 45% from 3).  Also, Capital could be hurt by a team with an exceptional post- Cap essentially had no answer (other than to just outscore him) to John Carroll's Brandon Mimes, who logged 34 pts. and 8 boards in the OAC final against them.

Capital is alreadly riding something of a mini-cinderella run.  They weren't supposed to be the winners of the OAC anything this year- the preseaon OAC poll had them fifth in the conference.  One other bit of bad news for you Centre fans- curiously this year, Capital has gone 3-1 vs. teams ranked in the d3hoops Top 25 at the time Cap played them.  That includes two victories over ONU (as #2 and #19), Baldwin-Wallace (#13), and a double OT loss to #10 Wittenberg.

[David Collinge]

From the College of Wooster website:

» NCAA Div. III Tournament Ticket Information: There will be a pre-sale at Wooster's Physical Education Center Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and Thursday also from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. as well as 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. On Friday, tickets will go on sale starting at noon, and the gates open at 4 p.m. Tickets are $6 for adults and $3 for all students. One ticket is good for both games on Friday.

I do not know what arrangements, if any, have been made for pre-sale tickets at Centre.

Capital plays Centre at 6pm, with the Wooster/Transylvania game to follow 30 mins. after the first game ends, not before 8pm.