MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[smedindy]

Witt has an advantage that they've spread around the scoring load. Even with Clayton "Get A Haircut Hippie  " Black has an off game, McKee, Cooper and Leahy (among others) have picked up the slack.

(Seriously, give Black a beard and he could be someone like Marc Gasol from a couple of years ago or Fabricio Oberto).

Wooster needs to have their inside game working. When they struggled earlier in the year they were reliant on the perimeter game.

No team making it this far has a lot of weaknesses. Both squads make you earn every point you get - except for Hiram the NCAC was a defensive, patient, fundamental league. Witt and Wooster will be content if you just chuck three-pointers up all night, which hurt teams like OWU and Wabash at times during the year.

[Gregory Sager]

North Central did get off to a rough start in part due loss through graduation.  Only one senior on this young team.

The bigger reason was injuries. NCC only lost one senior from last year's team, although he was a good one (Brian Evans). In November and December NCC was plagued by a string of injuries that adversely impacted the depth-challenged Cardinals.

I had posted pre-season that I thought Todd Raridon would find a way to put this team together but it might take a little time. I never expected, honestly, the Cards exceptional success this season in the CCIW.

Cardinals are anchored by 6' 6" 240 Soph - Landon Gamble who is a post handful;Derek Raridon Jr G/F really good and So CJ Goldthree who has come on strong in 2nd half (and Goldthree might be considered by some as the missing piece of the early season puzzle).

He left out NCC's best player, 6'6 junior PF Aaron Tiknis (11.1 ppg, 7.0 rpg). Tiknis was not only NCC's best rebounder, he also led the Cardinals in assists with 108, an eye-popping number for a power forward. He also shot over 50% (40-79) from downtown, finishing second in the CCIW in trey percentage (57% in league games). Tiknis started his career not too far away from Wooster, at D2 Wheeling Jesuit. This is his second year with the Cardinals.

The PG, Kevin Gillespie, is very solid. He's not a star by any means, but he's skilled and tough, and he's an ironman who may not leave the court at all this weekend. Superstar or not, there wasn't a single point guard in the CCIW who could dominate Gillespie.

Expect a well-prepared, disciplined, tough defensive team that can shoot the ball (.470 FG% / .402 3Pts%).  Weaknesses could be depth and youth. Cards are a really good team.

Youth won't be a problem. North Central's starting five of Kevin Gillespie, C.J. Goldthree, Derek Raridon, Aaron Tiknis, and Landon Gamble has been together playing heavy varsity minutes for two full seasons now (Tiknis came off the bench last season, while the other four started), and the other two main players in the rotation, Charlie Rosenberg and Vince Kmiec, have plenty of minutes under their belts now as well.

Depth is NCC's most serious concern. The Cards go seven deep, and after that there is a huge dropoff. In fact, it's more than a dropoff; it's a cliff. If you get the eighth and ninth men for NCC on the floor for any protracted amount of time, you'll see that they're most likely in way over their heads at the sectional level of play. The Cards are superbly conditioned, and Todd Raridon has been very canny in his substitution patterns, so the Cards are usually able to get around issues of fatigue and foul trouble. But that depth issue is always looming for NCC as a potential Achilles heel.

[pennstghs]

A few things to get to:

First, good to meet you D-Mac McHugh Friday night. I wouldn't ever expect to meet you in the circumstances we did but during a tornado warning in the bleachers at Transylvania!

As for WooBoo's comments, I don't think I directly called you out for questioning officiating (someone else did) but spoke about the board generally. I don't think the response you gave was respectful, deserving or even had any sort of valid points or substance whatsoever. To say I'd be better off seeing another tournament instead of my team getting their ass pounded? Wow, glad we have some class at Wittenberg.

On to actual comments that have some substance and validity. Both NCAC teams will have their hands full no doubt. I expect Witt to have a good crowd on hand and obviously Wooster will have the house packed. Wittenberg needs to continue to play through the post and generate open 3's. I hope NCC watched film of this weekend as the 2-3 zone is not the way to play this Witt team. Hopefully the senior leadership and solid bench play continues for Witt.

Wooster has a great chance by being the home team, but for the few minutes I watched IWU-Hope, what I took away was that IWU has some solid mid-range shooters and will take a complete effort. From what I"ve seen from Wooster is that when they are tough to beat it's when their scoring is well-rounded versus Xavier Brown trying to do too much.

And don't worry guys, I'm over Wooster hosting over Wittenberg. I feel I had to vent and have some entirely valid points, but it is what it is. I'm not really disputing them hosting, moreso disputing them being ranked higher but its moot at this point.

Anyone want to volunteer to keep me updated Friday night and Saturday?

[kiltedbryan]

Wooster posted a nice little highlight video from this weekend's action:

http://youtu.be/k4_ZubiM1qs

Enjoy!

[kiltedbryan]

Titan, somewhere around the middle of the season, Matt Fegan was returned to the point guard slot, moving X.B. to shooting guard.

Corrected.  Thanks.

The move to bring Fegan back into the starting lineup as the point guard was coupled with increasing Jalen Goodwin's minutes off the bench to spell Fegan at point, and allowed both Xavier Brown and key reserve Doug Thorpe to slot into the shooting guard role.

Taking the ball out of Brown's hands has generally been good for the Scots offense, I think, because it took ball handling pressure off of the freshman and made for fewer possessions where he was just trying to create directly from the point. Plus Brown's offensive failing is that he was turnover-prone; both Fegan and Goodwin have been solid ballhandlers, and both help engage more of the Wooster offensive weapons than Brown did, I think. Goodwin may not get enough credit for just how well he's played in the supporting point guard role, actually.

Fegan returned to the Wooster lineup in the Jan. 18th game against Allegheny, which immediately followed the DePauw loss that made the Scots 12-3 on the year. Since then, the Scots are 15-1, and averaging (if I'm doing my math right!) nearly 4 fewer turnovers per game (from 14.7 to 11.0).

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

For the record, the official NCAA mileage system has it as 513 miles from Wash U to Wooster campuses... any other software is honestly a moot point.

Now, the video from Wooster... are they allowed to post that since the video is actually owned by the NCAA (joke for anyone understands the NCAA Tournament rules).

[scottiedoug]

I understand that Wooster fans are looking forward but I still am interested in reading whatever anyone who saw Wooster beat Maryville can offer about Maryville's game.  We return a lot of freshmen who played a lot of minutes and I, too, am looking to the future, albeit next year and not next weekend.  Thanks!

And good luck!

[ScotsFan]

I understand that Wooster fans are looking forward but I still am interested in reading whatever anyone who saw Wooster beat Maryville can offer about Maryville's game.  We return a lot of freshmen who played a lot of minutes and I, too, am looking to the future, albeit next year and not next weekend.  Thanks!

And good luck!

Sorry scottiedoug.  I had been meaning to answer your post.  Personally, I thought Maryville played pretty darn well against the northern Scots on Friday night.  They came out on fire and got out to an early 10 point lead but you had to question whether or not they would stay that hot.  They did cool off a bit which allowed Wooster to chip away at that 10 point deficit  and manage to get into the locker room with momentum and a tie score.  I thought Wooster would just come out of the locker rooms and just build on their momentum, but to Maryville's credit, they stayed right with the Scots for the majority of the second half.

As for the future of Maryville, they may be young, but it's going to be tough to replace a scorer like Milton Stanley.  I thought he was the best player on the court for both teams.  He was a very difficult matchup for the Scots to defend and ended the game with 21 points.  I didn't see anyone from Maryville that could step up and do what Stanley did for them in that game.  Your Scots may be young, but its just my opinion that it won't be easy for them to try and replace a talent like Stanley...

Hope that answers some of your questions for you.  Now, back to discussing this weekend... 

[ScotsFan]

Wooster needs to have their inside game working. When they struggled earlier in the year they were reliant on the perimeter game.

They were also struggling to find their identity.  Claytor REALLY stepped his game up as the season went along.  Coming into this season, I hadn't seen anything from Claytor in his first two years at Wooster that showed me he could carry the load inside for the Scots this season with the loss of Bryan Wickliffe to graduation.  So, early in the season, Wooster struggled to find their identity and as a result, struggled to win games.  Claytor then proved that he could be THE guy inside for Wooster and I think the results, since Wooster lost back to back games to Witt and Wabash back in December, speak for themselves.

There are still times when Wooster reverts to going away from Claytor and their inside game and you can see the offensive struggles follow.  So I agree that keeping Woo's inside game going will be a key for continued Wooster success this weekend.

[scottiedoug]

Thanks, ScotsFan.  Last year it was not all that clear who would replace last year's best player, Eryk Watson.  Maybe someone will appear.  I hope we can schedule some NCAC team next year.  It helped to have played Witt this year when we had to try to deal with Wooster.

[ScotsFan]

Witt has an advantage that they've spread around the scoring load. Even with Clayton "Get A Haircut Hippie  " Black has an off game, McKee, Cooper and Leahy (among others) have picked up the slack.

(Seriously, give Black a beard and he could be someone like Marc Gasol from a couple of years ago or Fabricio Oberto).

Do you have something against long haired, bearded hippies?     My hair is gaining on Black's (not quite as long but getting there) AND I have a beard, AND I like the Dead!       I let my hair grow out every winter a) because my wife likes me with long hair, and b) because I can!     I'm not a fan of Clayton Black, but it has more to do with the team he plays for and not the length of his hair... 

[smedindy]

Hah 

[imderekpoe]

Illinois Wesleyan (21-7, 10-4 CCIW) @ Wooster (26-4, 12-4 NCAC)...

PG
(Wooster) Matt Fegan, 6-1/185 Sr - 7.5 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 2.7 apg, 1.6 A/TO (57-125 3-point, .456)
(IWU) Eliud Gonzalez, 5-9/170 Sr - 6.3 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 5.5 apg, 2.2 A/TO (55-131 FG, .420)

SG
(IWU) Jordan Zimmer, 6-5/190 Sr - 15.8 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 0.9 apg (96-229 3-point, .419)
(Wooster) Xavier Brown, 5-11/180 Fr - 13.0 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 1.6 apg (142-327 FG, .434)

G/F
(IWU) John Koschnitzky, 6-6/205 Sr - 9.4 ppg, 3.0 rpg (86-216 FG, .398)
(Wooster) Justin Warnes, 6-3/180 Sr - 5.4 ppg, 4.2 rpg (45-91 FG, .495)

F
(Wooster) Justin Hallowell, 6-7/210 Sr - 14.0 ppg, 6.8 rpg (74-182 3-point, .407)
(IWU) Victor Davis, 6-5/225 So - 10.6 ppg, 5.0 rpg (113-219 FG, .516)

F/C
(Wooster) Josh Claytor, 6-7/225 Jr - 11.1 ppg, 5.3 rpg (140-227 FG, .617)
(IWU) Kevin Reed, 6-7/225 Jr - 9.2 ppg, 6.0 rpg (112-183 FG, .612)

Bench
(Wooster) Jake Mays (F/C), 6-8/215 Jr - 6.2 ppg, 4.5 rpg
(Wooster) Doug Thorpe (G), 5-9/175 So - 6.1 ppg, 1.1 rpg
(Wooster) Evan Pannell (G), 6-2/175 Fr - 3.0 ppg, 0.9 rpg
(Wooster) Jalen Goodwin (G), 6-0/175 Fr - 2.7 ppg, 1.7 rpg

(IWU) Andrew Ziemnik (F), 6-5/225 So - 7.3 ppg, 4.1 rpg
(IWU) Stephen Rudnicki (G), 6-3/173 Sr - 6.0 ppg, 1.6 rpg, 2.2 apg
(IWU) Nick Anderson (C), 6-9/200 So - 4.5 ppg, 2.9 rpg
(IWU) Eric Dortch (F), 6-3/210 So - 3.1 ppg, 2.8 rpg


Team stats...

PPG
IWU - 77.0
Wooster - 75.2

Opp PPG
Wooster - 62.8
IWU - 66.8

FG
Wooster - .475
IWU - .467

Opp FG
Wooster - .390
IWU - .414

3-point
Wooster - .398
IWU - .360

Opp 3-point
Wooster - .282
IWU - .358

Reb. Margin
IWU - +6.2/game
Wooster - +5.8/game

FT
Wooster - .698
IWU - .678

A/TO
IWU - 1.1
Wooster - 1.0

Opp A/TO
IWU - 0.7
Wooster - 0.7

Also add to the bench for Wooster:
Kenny DeBoer (F), 6-5/215 Fr - 4.0 ppg, 2.3 rpg

I would think that DeBoer is likely to see some big minutes against the taller IWU lineup.  He was out with a knee injury for the last several games of the regular season, but was back for the conference semis.

[ohiofan1954]

question about OWU fans. Are they always rude and obnoxious? I know this is a basketball board but last night I was at a lacrosse game at owu and the fans were terrible and an embarrassment to the school. They had ncac refs and are the dirtiest team I have seen in any sport other then the Wayne State football team. Still they were constantly and in a very rude way complaining they are being shafted by the refs. I know this is something that happens to some extent with just about all teams but they crossed the line. I hate too see what they will be saying when Denison kills them on the 31st. Now mind you this is at a school where I have seen the security throw opposing parents out for "negative"cheering. I thought Penn State and Ohio State  fans were bad but the Bishop fans were terrible, not so much the students but the older folks.

[woosterbooster]

Hey, hey, you can't do that on here.  You're only allowed to criticize other posters. 

Seriously, I've seen the OWU student section, in Delaware, be pretty obnoxious at Wooster games.  Their own security has had to settle them down.  At Kenyon, a couple of years ago, I watched as some of their students ripped into our cheerleaders, no less.  When they wouldn't stop, I had a talk with a staffer who spoke to them.  Allegheny's students, at baseball games in Meadville, used to bring a keg to the field and were downright rotten.  Unfortunately, here in Wooster, the kids are probably not much better, when they're there, which is unlikely this weekend due to the beginning of spring break.  The Wooster baseball players used to sit together at basketball games and were really bad until Steve Moore himself put and end to it.