BB: NCAC: North Coast Athletic Conference

[Dr. Acula]

OWU used to get many of the non D1 players from Central Ohio, reviewing the rosters those numbers have been going down. They still have quite a few Ohio players. But not like they used to. OWU used to consistently win 20+ games a year. Now it seems feast or famine.

It sure does.  The consistency is absent lately.

[Dr. Acula]

OWU used to be a given for the conference tournament every year and one of the teams that seemed to be always in the mix for the #1 or#2 slot.  They have only made 2 of the last 6 tournaments and don't appear to have any momentum going in to this year.  Every team has some down years so maybe this is just a temporary lull.   As my brother-in-law says, "It's more about the Jimmys and the Joes than the Xs and Os".  OWU needs to have some greater success recruiting to get that depth that makes good programs succeed year after year.  Good luck to them as the conference always seems better when OWU is in the mix.

It definitely seems like Denison has become that second program behind Wooster.  These things can be cyclical.  Look at Berg.  They were consistently very good under Palm, but when he stepped down they've been a little up and down under Fitzgerald.  In a competitive conference if you don't get droves of talent like a Wooster it's tough to separate yourself consistently.  Everyone has some dudes meaning that on any given day they can beat you.  You get a great class (like Oberlin in their magic season) and you ascend for a year or two only to drift back to the middle because someone else has a great nucleus now.  I don't envy the coaches.  These schools are expensive and not easy to get into to and you have to mine talent and depth from that pool.  Not easy.

[Pops33]

Well stated Dr.  It would be interesting to see if things change with the recruiting classes for Wooster in the next few years.  I believe Craddock does all of the legwork and he brought talent in to Denison when he the head coach for the Big Red, but Coach P is pretty gregarious to talk to.  The success of the program will bring good recruits to Wooster, but I have to think that he is the closer when the students are on campus. 

I am guessing that the rest of the NCAC will be somewhat happy with Coach Pettorini retiring and they will be hoping for more parity in the league as a result.  However, the best kind of parity is to bring the bottom levels up instead of the top level of competition down.  A competitive baseball conference, like the OAC has had, is the best for everybody.  The OAC typically gets 3 teams in Regionals, while the NCAC is limited to 1 or 2.  The three that got in last year was an anomaly.  I understand that many of the NCAC schools have academic requirements that may be a little more stringent than other conferences, but you should still be able to find 3-4 quality baseball players every year even with those requirements.  I am excited to see if Brua can get Hiram to a level where it can compete for a spot in the conference tournament, if not more. 

[Bishopleftiesdad]

I usually, have compared the size of Rosters/classes between the OAC and NCAC every year. I believe as a general rule, at least it seems to me, is that roster sizes and class sizes in the OAC are generally larger in the OAC. That may go back to Pops point of entrance requirements.
However I can tell you OWU I do not believe is that much harder to get into than the OAC schools. I do know it is harder to stick. I know at least one player that moved from OWU (he was a starter as a freshmen) and moved to an OAC school to finish his eligibility. He was a starter at the OAC school as well. His problem was Academics. He had a hard time staying eligible at OWU. He had no such problems at the new school.

[Dr. Acula]

In the OAC it varies by coach I think.  Berg always had a trimmed down roster by OAC standards (35-38 under Palm).  Etta did too.  Mount and BW always have a football team size roster.  I actually just looked last night because I wanted to see how many freshmen Mount brought in.  They didn't bring in a large freshman class (16) and they still have 56 kids on their roster.  I've seen seasons where it was over 60.  I often wonder how much of that is influenced by the administration.  Are some schools pushing their coaches to stuff their rosters in an effort to aid enrollment?

[Bishopleftiesdad]

I always wondered that too. The year that OWU brought in a very large class, 25 I think. Was the year that they transitioned from Holloway to Watts. Watt did not have much time to recruit. I always thought that perhaps baseball and the other sports, may had to pick up the slack.

[old scot]

woo is tough to get into and tougher to graduate.  Jr and Senior independent study is PHD grad school stuff.


recruited by Bob Morgan in the late 70s  Probably the second best team in the country but,never could get by Etta.

Coach P came in for my last 2 years  He tried to kill us with conditioning because he heard how tough Morgan was.


Pettorini is tough and fair. in 38 years he has never had a losing season.. Enjoy retirement coach. No more killers and champions

[Pops33]

I was told by a former assistant at Mount that it uses athletics as a way to increase enrollment as a directive from the administration. Thus, the extra large roster sizes.  Conversely, Wooster indicated that they only bring in players they believe will have be able to play, which usually results in only 8-12 recruits per year.  I think you can use roster sizes as a general guide to see who does this, but I also know that some schools do even not list some guys on the roster if they believe the player will not even dress with the team that year.  So that guideline does not truly represent how many kids are brought in by the school. 

Both methods of recruiting have their pros and cons.  With the shotgun, mass recruiting approach, you are playing the numbers game in addition to focusing your efforts on some specific kids.  With the reduced number of recruits approach, you are able to focus a lot more attention on specific players.  it is also more attractive to an incoming player if you don't have multiple guys lined up at every position in just about every class.  Thus, the recruits have a greater chance of impacting the program with fewer kids comng in every year.

[Dr. Acula]

I was told by a former assistant at Mount that it uses athletics as a way to increase enrollment as a directive from the administration. Thus, the extra large roster sizes.  Conversely, Wooster indicated that they only bring in players they believe will have be able to play, which usually results in only 8-12 recruits per year.  I think you can use roster sizes as a general guide to see who does this, but I also know that some schools do even not list some guys on the roster if they believe the player will not even dress with the team that year.  So that guideline does not truly represent how many kids are brought in by the school. 

Both methods of recruiting have their pros and cons.  With the shotgun, mass recruiting approach, you are playing the numbers game in addition to focusing your efforts on some specific kids.  With the reduced number of recruits approach, you are able to focus a lot more attention on specific players.  it is also more attractive to an incoming player if you don't have multiple guys lined up at every position in just about every class.  Thus, the recruits have a greater chance of impacting the program with fewer kids comng in every year.

The other thing to keep in mind regarding larger rosters is that those programs usually field a JV team and probably have separate V and JV practices.  For reference, it looks like Mount has 21 JV games scheduled this year. 

Mount has long been a large roster athletic department so that coach's comments don't surprise me.  Heck, they have 26 guys on the basketball roster (17 V, 9 JV).  Obviously being good helps with recruiting.  It makes it easier to choose to use athletics to drive admissions when by far your two best programs nationally are large roster sports (football and track & field).       

[Pops33]

Excited to finally see baseball back in action.  Unfortunately, the NCAC has stumbled out of the gate, going 2-9 in the first weekend.  It was against some good competition, but this is not helping the out of conference records.  Several of the games were against southern teams, who have an advantage this early in the season.  I believe 20+ games are scheduled for this week and as long as the weather allows it the only teams not playing by the end of the week are Oberlin and Wooster. 

[Pops33]

Craddock named interim coach at Wooster for 2019-2020 academic year. http://woosterathletics.com/sports/bsb/2018-19/releases/20190225fialjn

[Bishopleftiesdad]

Yeah, Wooster usually starts late, and I am not sure about Oberlin. OWU start off on Saturday, against Thomas More, who beat Depauw, 5-3, 0-3. They are playing down in Kentucky. John Carroll certainly put a hurt on the Gators.
Denisons game with Ferrum was close. they play today at 1:00 pm.
Witt beat what was a better Earlham team, last year.

[Bishopleftiesdad]

Craddock named interim coach at Wooster for 2019-2020 academic year. http://woosterathletics.com/sports/bsb/2018-19/releases/20190225fialjn

Good for them. I cannot see anyone else getting the permanent job. However I am not tied in to Wooster athletics like others.

[Bishopleftiesdad]

OWU partners with BSN/Nike
https://battlingbishops.com/news/2019/2/25/GEN_02252019.aspx
This affects all sports, but I post here mostly.

[wally_wabash]

Wabash won the second game of their opening series at LaRoche 7-3 earlier.  Rubber game is underway.