MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[imderekpoe]

Looks like Goodwin is out with a hand injury tonight. DeBoer is warming up so he may be available tonight.

[wooscotsfan]

At the Half:  Wooster 30  Ohio Wesleyan 29

Wooster is being led by Doug Thorpe with 8 points and Josh Claytor with 5.

OWU's top scorers in the half were Marshall Morris with 7 points and Reuel Rogers with 6.

Good defense in the half as both teams shot less than 40% from the floor.  Wooster with a 23-19 rebounding advantage.

[wooscotsfan]

Final:  Ohio Wesleyan 76  Wooster 66

Congratulations to Ohio Wesleyan on winning the NCAC Tourney and the NCAA automatic bid.

The Bishops were led by Marshall Morris with 19 points (4 three pointers), Andy Winters with 17 and Taylor Rieger with 14.

Wooster's top scorers were Doug Thorpe with 24 points, Evan Pannell with 11 and Josh Claytor with 12 points, .

[smedindy]

Congrats to the Bishops. Wooster should be in the tourney as well, so let's hope they represent well!

[seinfeld]

First off, credit to OWU. They are a really good team who can score quickly. Winters is the best point guard I've seen in the NCAC in a number of years.

While DeBoer and Goodwin aren't superstars, they are key players, and their absence (or in DeBoer's case not nearly 100%) made the Scots' margin of error even that much smaller than it would have been otherwise.

As for the game itself, from Wooster's standpoint, two things jump out. One, the big men for Wooster left about 8-10 points on the floor, the vast majority of them in the first half. If they (in particular Mays) convert what should have been close to automatic shots right near the rim, Wooster would have led at half by six to eight points instead of one. When the inevitable OWU run came in the second half, there would have been a cushion. When the game was starting to get away from Wooster, Mays & Claytor were 5-for-15 from the floor. They improved that a little bit with some garbage points.

The other issue is the shooting of Brown. When your leading scorer for the vast majority of the season goes 2-for-10 and scores four points, you are in trouble. Unfortunately for Wooster, this isn't an isolated game lately. Since Brown carried Wooster to an overtime victory over the Bishops Feb. 6, he is just 24-for-64 (37.5%) from the field and 4-for-16 (25%) from three. In the NCAC Tournament it was even worse (9-for-30/2-for-12). On the bright side, his shooting can only get better.

As for the tournament, Wooster is obviously in. As to whether the Scots will host next weekend, I think the answer is yes. In fact, I think both Wooster and OWU will host next Saturday. After that is much more of a question.

It would be interesting to know how the committee would look at Wooster and OWU. The Bishops have a slightly better in-region W-L % (22-4 vs. 22-5), and the fact that they won the conference tournament (this isn't a criteria, but if we remember the discussion from last year, the committee has consistently shown that they give this significant weight). On Wooster's side, they own the head-to-head vs. Ohio Wesleyan (2-1), and have a better win % (probably over 56% after today). Both teams are 3-2 against regionally-ranked teams. You could probably flip a coin as to which team is considered a higher seed.

[woosterbooster]

There are at least three reasons that Wooster lost tonight.

• The injuries; really unfortunate.  Kenny DeBoer's game has broadened this season, so much so that he earned a starting berth.  He's a three-point threat, has the ability to penetrate and finish, he can rebound, and he can defend.  He tried to play tonight, but I suspect he was in some pain, and his minutes were very limited.  Jalen Goodwin's broken bone was also a killer.  He may have lost his starting job earlier in the season, but it had nothing to do with his play, only the rise of Doug Thorpe.  Goodwin is still a very solid, careful third guard.  He makes few mistakes, plays hard defense, and has turned himself into a nice three-point shooter.  Wooster not having these two guys was a big blow.


• OWU's remarkable three-point shooting.  Unless you're as talented as Whitworth or Illinois Wesleyan, or you're team nickname is Lakers or Spurs, you're not going to beat Wooster in Timken unless you're throwing it in from the ocean.  OWU played very well, but if they don't have unusual suspects making so many threes, they don't win.
• I'm not going to mention the third thing in public.  But geeze, it's frustrating, and has been for a long time.

[woosterbooster]

Jerry beat me to the punch with our nearly-simultaneous posts.  And, he hit my third point right on the head.  With me, though, it's not both of the big men, it's just one.

[ScotsFan]

Wow.  Marshall Morris had only made 10 3-pointers ALL season.  Last night he hit on 4-5... 

Is Goodwin's injury season ending?  That's a big loss heading into the tournament.

[kiltedbryan]

Well, both NCAC teams fall into the same 8-team bracket:

Pod 1:
Penn-State Behrend at Wooster
Marietta at Dickinson

Pod 2:
Cabrini at Hampden-Sydney
St. Vincent at Ohio Wesleyan

Based on this draw, it seems like the GL Regional Committee kept the Scots ahead of OWU in the final regional rankings. Wooster and Hampden-Sydney look like the 1/2 seeds here, with OWU as the 2/3 seed.

I think Wooster's draw, in particular, is quite favorable. By this implied seeding, I think the only road trip the Scots could face before Salem would be to go to Hampden-Sydney; I think if OWU comes out of that bottom foursome, Wooster would still host that potential OWU-Wooster Sweet Sixteen tilt. Obviously, cart before the horse for now...

[woosterbooster]

Agreed.  A terrific draw for Wooster, and I think we're a pretty sure thing to get two home games.  Now for the injury situation.  DeBoer's knee needs to get better, and Goodwin needs to join the ranks of shooting coaches.

[imderekpoe]

Well, both NCAC teams fall into the same 8-team bracket:

Pod 1:
Penn-State Behrend at Wooster
Marietta at Dickinson

Pod 2:
Cabrini at Hampden-Sydney
St. Vincent at Ohio Wesleyan

Based on this draw, it seems like the GL Regional Committee kept the Scots ahead of OWU in the final regional rankings. Wooster and Hampden-Sydney look like the 1/2 seeds here, with OWU as the 2/3 seed.

I think Wooster's draw, in particular, is quite favorable. By this implied seeding, I think the only road trip the Scots could face before Salem would be to go to Hampden-Sydney; I think if OWU comes out of that bottom foursome, Wooster would still host that potential OWU-Wooster Sweet Sixteen tilt. Obviously, cart before the horse for now...

I agree!  This is a much better draw for the Scots than I anticipated.  I really thought that they would not be in line for more than 1 home game, and was afraid that they might get sent to Whitworth!

[fantastic50]

In unofficial final national rankings, based on a formula intended to mirror the selection criteria, Wooster and OWU are both in the top 15 nationally, while Hampden-Sydney is #50.  With that in mind, I see the two NCAC teams as the top two seeds in this group of 8, in some order, with Hampden-Sydney and Dickinson below them.  I think that both get two home games, provided they advance.

[kiltedbryan]

Agreed.  A terrific draw for Wooster, and I think we're a pretty sure thing to get two home games.  Now for the injury situation.  DeBoer's knee needs to get better, and Goodwin needs to join the ranks of shooting coaches.

As to the injury situation, the stretched out tournament format could be a real blessing here, especially for DeBoer nursing that knee. The full weeks between games for the first three weeks, and only one game day instead of the back-to-back setup of a "pod" should help maximize his recovery time and minimize the game-level intensity time. Still haven't heard anything on whether Goodwin will be back at all.

[kiltedbryan]

In unofficial final national rankings, based on a formula intended to mirror the selection criteria, Wooster and OWU are both in the top 15 nationally, while Hampden-Sydney is #50.  With that in mind, I see the two NCAC teams as the top two seeds in this group of 8, in some order, with Hampden-Sydney and Dickinson below them.  I think that both get two home games, provided they advance.

Yes I agree with you on the relative rankings nationally; but I'm not sure the committee looks at it this way - my sense has always been more that the committee looks at each regional ranking relatively equally - e.g. GL #1 = South #1, GL #2 = South #2, and doesn't rank all teams nationally to then decide seeding.

In other words, it feels like the bracket is seeded more as "OK, Wooster is GL#1, then OWU and Hampden-Sydney are both regional #2s" (as a example; not sure if H-S would've been South #2 in the final rankings). And that the bracket is not seeded as "Wooster and OWU overall rank in the Top 15, H-S ranks in the Top 50, so thus Woo-OWU-Hampden."

Could be totally off, but I seem to remember feeling this way back when Wooster got sent to St. John Fisher the one year - I think they both ended up as Regional #1s coming into the tournament (or maybe Woo was even the GL#2), so the committee saw them as roughly equal even though I remember thinking that Wooster looked like they were clearly higher "nationally."

[kiltedbryan]

Current Massey Rankings in parentheses:

Pod 1:
Penn-State Behrend (174) at Wooster (27)
Marietta (56) at Dickinson (79)

Pod 2:
Cabrini (70) at Hampden-Sydney (5)
St. Vincent (66) at Ohio Wesleyan (25)

Wooster and Hampden-Sydney look like pretty strong favorites in their first round match-ups. Marietta-Dickinson looks like a pick'em since it's at Dickinson. OWU should be a reasonable favorite at home against St. Vincent.