MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[woosterbooster]

I'm not so sure that Dickinson was the better team.  And, by saying that, I mean no disrespect to them.  It was just one of those nights when Wooster just couldn't get any jumpers to drop.  Not mid-range, not threes.  These things happen, and if they happen against a mid-level team such as a Denison or Kenyon, the Scots have enough talent that they can find another way to win.  But not against a pretty good team such as Dickinson.  A very tough loss, though, at home.

[wooscotsfan]

Congratulations to the Dickinson Red Devils on the win at Wooster.  They played some tough defense and made 11 three pointers which was the difference.

As others have noted, Wooster did not shoot well tonight and you won't win many NCAA tourney games shooting only 35% from the floor.  Freshman Dan Fanelly played a great game tonight with 15 points and 8 boards -- it will be exciting to watch him develop further next season.

Congrats to seniors Doug Thorpe, Kenny DeBoer and Scott Purcell on finishing their Wooster careers with a NCAC title and a NCAC tourney title! 

[kiltedbryan]

I'm not so sure that Dickinson was the better team.  And, by saying that, I mean no disrespect to them.  It was just one of those nights when Wooster just couldn't get any jumpers to drop.  Not mid-range, not threes.  These things happen, and if they happen against a mid-level team such as a Denison or Kenyon, the Scots have enough talent that they can find another way to win.  But not against a pretty good team such as Dickinson.  A very tough loss, though, at home.

Just incredibly disappointing, but Dickinson was the better team throughout the night. They earned it, good luck to them later in the tourney.

I think we agree, based on the bolded sections. My premise was that Dickinson was better than Wooster on Saturday night, and yours seems to be that Wooster was worse than Dickinson that night. Seems like po-TAY-to, po-TOT-to to me. :-)

This is the worst I've felt about a Wooster tourney exit since the '05-'06 team that lost in the second round at Transylvania. I really thought, especially once I saw the bracket, that the Scots could make a serious push for Salem this year. Alas.

[countyroad]

Any news next year's newcomers at Wooster, whether it be freshman or transfers? It will be nice to hopefully have LaLonde back and healthy.

[seinfeld]

Any news next year's newcomers at Wooster, whether it be freshman or transfers? It will be nice to hopefully have LaLonde back and healthy.

Wooster's top "recruit" for next year is already on the team now (DeBoer). We need to see an article about him like was written about Richard Barnes today (http://www.the-daily-record.com/local%20sports/2014/03/29/barnes-coming-back-to-finish-business). It's not as much of a pipe dream as you might think. The other top "newcomer" for next year is also already on the team (LaLonde). Considering he has only played 18 varsity games in three years of college, and none this past year, he is more or less like getting a new recruit.

As for players not currently on the team, if they can land a true post player and preferably a point guard who can run the offense in two years, then this will have been a successful offseason. But that is a lot of ifs.

Wooster might actually be more athletic next year, but will they be able to shoot well enough? That's what has sent them home each of the past two seasons, and right now I don't see an obvious reason to think that they will be a better shooting team next year either.

[fantastic50]

I saw Kenny in the annual I.S. Monday parade (of seniors) last week (and he was carrying a senior teammate on his shoulders!)  Particularly given that basketball spans both semesters, I would be really surprised if he comes back next year.

[sac]

6'4 SF Ryan Wobbe (2014) of South Bend's Saint Joseph H.S. has committed to the College of Wooster

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKpPWsZ3X54

[sac]

6-1 guard  Taylor Graffa  Detroit Country Day will attend Wooster College.

Jr. year highlights, #20
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omzazVLYN8U

[seinfeld]

Sac,

Man, you are on top of this stuff. If I didn't know better, I'd think you were the Wooster SID. Are these guys showing up on a recruiting commit list somewhere?

[sac]

Sac,

Man, you are on top of this stuff. If I didn't know better, I'd think you were the Wooster SID. Are these guys showing up on a recruiting commit list somewhere?

Just random twitterz

[sac]

Trifecta for DePauw

Jack VandeMerkt   6-7 C Riverside-Brookfield HS (Chicago burb) 
"will choose between DePauw University, Illinois Wesleyan and University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh among others"

Mason Hankins  5-11 PG  Hamilton Southeastern HS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-jmwbFbv1M

David Vogel  6-4  G/F  Norwell HS, Ossian, In
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIE-UEX-ESU

[Ralph Lee Wilson]

Update via the Journal Review:
Antoine Carpenter resigns and the search for a new coach starts immediately. Interesting interesting.

[smedindy]

Intriguing. The results for the LGs haven't been there the last two seasons. However, Wabash doesn't just roll through coaches - they're really patient. Hmmm....

[wally_wabash]

So....I've kind of been waiting to see if something would happen with the basketball position or not and I had actually reached the point of thinking that no changes would be made here as it's been quite awhile now since the season has wrapped up.  I've got some numbers to present here, but before any of that I do need to say that I'm really bummed that this didn't work out for Coach Carpenter.  I really wanted to see him pick up where Coach Petty left off seamlessly and continue the upward swing Wabash had been on from about 2008-2011. 

And now for some cold hard facts and why things like this come to pass.  In the '11-'12 season, Coach Carpenter inherited a senior-laden and really talented group.  That group started 12-1, ranked #14, and was fresh off of a total boatrace job against Wooster.  The rest of the season was marked by really inconsistent play, a 6-7 record and a first round NCAC tournament loss at home to Denison and if any one game was responsible for keeping the LGs out of the big bracket that year, it was that one.  18-8, 10-6 were the final tallies there.

On to '12-'13...this was always going to be a rough season having graduated more or less all of the team's offense and rebuilding with two players who miss all of preseason camp for football, an improving center, and then a ton of freshmen.  It's the textbook definition of a rebuilding year.  Final tally here was 9-17, 7-9- good enough for 7th place and another first round tournament exit.  Also noteworthy is that Wabash ranked 9th or 10th in the league in the following categories: Scoring O, Scoring Margin, FG%, 3FG%, and Assists.  Even with an adequate defense (which that group turned into by the end of the year), you can't win if you can't score. 

'13-'14...like I said, '12-'13 was always going to be hard.  But now you've got all of those players back, including the 2013 NotY AND the guy that will become the 2014 NotY and the record doesn't improve one game.  8-17, 7-11, 7th place again, and again one and out in the league tournament.  And tracking the above statistical categories from '12-'13 to this past season: Wabash was still 9th or 10th in every one of those same categories.  And ultimately I think it is this lack of improvement with a group of talented players (now with a year of experience) that maybe creates the need for a change. 

And again, I'm not celebrating this at all.  But when you look at the year-over-year results, I think it isn't too hard to see why there might be a change made there.  Look around this league right now.  There are some really REALLY good coaches up and down this league.  And not just good, but experience and success out the wazoo.  Steve Moore is obviously a master and his record speaks for itself.  Bill Brown is tremendous and has been to the Final Four.  Bill Fenlon has been to a Final Four.  Mike DeWitt has that thing at OWU humming along.  Bob Ghiloni over at Denison has a ton of experience in the business and has done a pretty good job (especially against Wabash over the last few years).  The point being, this is a really rugged group of coaches to compete against and try to learn this trade for the first time while also having/expecting success. 

It'll be an interesting handful of weeks coming up to see which direction AD Maklin decides to take the program. 

[wooscotsfan]

6-1 guard  Taylor Graffa  Detroit Country Day will attend Wooster College.

Jr. year highlights, #20
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omzazVLYN8U

Sac -- thanks for the posts on the new Wooster recruits. k+

Great to see that Wooster beat out Wittenberg, Hope and Washington University among others for Taylor Graffa's recruitment.   Here is a link to an article where he answers questions about his recruitment:  http://theprepballreport.com/2014/04/09/country-days-taylor-graafa-talks-college-of-wooster-commit/