MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[wally_wabash]

I'm pretty sure there isn't a non-traditional season for the winter sports in general, basketball specifically.  Not sure about the open tryout thing.  I imagine it happens some places and doesn't in most others. 

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

There is no non-traditional season, or practice season for basketball (or ice hockey, or the rest of the winter sports)... though, I've heard of at least one suggestion of having a ten-day period in September to help welcome everyone back and get new students on board earlier (especially meeting with coaches) that would then cut the one-month period at the beginning down to more like two or so weeks (the one-month pre-season needs to be addressed, IMHO).

As for try outs... up to the school and the program. There are hundreds of reasons to conduct them or not... and those reasons are usually all based on the situation, program, school, etc.

[smedindy]

FWIW, Allegheny's roster has 6 seniors, 2 juniors and 2 sophomores listed.

[Gregory Sager]

Depends upon your point of view, Wally. If you're a fan of a different NCAC team, then that sign might turn out to read, "Free Cupcakes in Meadville!" I guess it depends upon whether or not you like cupcakes.

Allegheny just hired a new head coach, Bob Simmons, at the horrifyingly late date of July 28. (His predecessor, Jim Driggs, had resigned on June 10.) Classes started at Allegheny on August 25. You tell me what level of magic (or skullduggery) would've been necessary for a newly-hired coach to locate, observe, vet, persuade, and enroll a recruit in less than a month on the job, let alone a bunch of them, at a school that has very respectable admissions standards.

The Gators had eleven players from last season who would've been eligible to return this season. Those eleven constituted most of last season's rotation and two of the three double-digit scorers that the Gators had in 2014-15. Given the coaching change and the lackluster (albeit hardly disastrous) 11-15, 8-10 record of a year ago, it's a fair guess that some of those eleven will not be Gators again this coming season. I suspect that the best-case scenario is that Coach Simmons has to bring in a few warm bodies via the dreaded open-tryout route to fill out the 2015-16 roster for practice purposes and as injury insurance. Of course, the worst-case scenario is that enough of those eleven possible returnees declined to come back to force Coach Simmons to hold open tryouts for potential players who will actually see the floor in 2015-16.

Without knowing which and how many of those eleven players are back, it's hard to say just how dire are the straits that Coach Simmons faces. Open tryouts are never a good thing. But the pertinent questions are how many roster slots those open tryouts need to fill, and whether or not those slots are for team roles that are more than practice fodder.

I wish him well. This is an ugly situation to have to face in a brand-new job.

FWIW, Allegheny's roster has 6 seniors, 2 juniors and 2 sophomores listed.

IOW, ten of the possible eleven returnees came back to play for the Gators this season, despite the coaching change. That's almost the entire 2014-15 Allegheny rotation, so the Gators should be just fine this coming season. The question is whether the four incoming freshmen are holdover recruits who decided to stick with their college choice despite the change in coaches over the summer, or true walk-ons who made the team at the open tryout and will function as "program players" (i.e., warm bodies who fill out the roster for practice purposes), or some combination thereof.

[Schwami]

I know that at least one of the Allegheny freshmen is not a true walk-on; he chose Allegheny specifically because he could play both football and basketball, and made his commitment before the coaching change.

[Ruysdael]

Did anyone get a chance to take in Wooster's Black and Gold scrimmage yesterday?  If so, how did the Scots look?  I'm particularly interested to hear about the incoming class of recruits.

[David Collinge]

http://www.northcoast.org/sports/mbkb/2015-16/releases/coachespoll
OWU is the favorite of the coaches, followed by Woo, Witt, wab, and DPU.
I wonder who besides Mike DeWitt voted for the Scots?

[David Collinge]

http://events.lls.org/pages/coh/honoringcoachgoodwin

[Bishopleftiesdad]

Owu's season preview.

http://www.battlingbishops.com/news/2015/11/12/MBB_201516pre_1.aspx

[WooClone15]

Here's Wooster's:
http://www.woosterathletics.com/sports/mbkb/2015-16/releases/20151105gb81i9

The season kicks off in less than a week!

[wabashcpa]

A "Welcome to Wabash" for Johnny Jager - 19 pts in his first game for the LG's in their win over Illinois Tech.  Think we got us a good one here!

[wally_wabash]

A "Welcome to Wabash" for Johnny Jager - 19 pts in his first game for the LG's in their win over Illinois Tech.  Think we got us a good one here!

18 and 14 for Purvlicis as well.  Solid opener for those two.  Things will escalate quickly this weekend as Wabash heads up to Wheaton for a game with Defiance.  Host Wheaton and George Fox (bit of a roadie for those guys) are the other pair for the weekend. 

[David Collinge]

The NCAC-OAC Challenge, which admittedly did not feature the best the OAC had to offer, was a clean sweep for our boys. On Saturday at Otterbein, Wittenberg dumped Capital 87-78, after which Ohio Wesleyan squeezed past the hosts 80-75. Last night in Springfield, the reversal of the matchups produced similar results, victories for OWU, 72-59 over Capital, and for Witt, 71-41 over the Cards.

Elsewhere the conference recorded wins for DePauw, Oberlin, and Wabash, offset by losses for Allegheny and Kenyon (to D1 Miami of Ohio), bringing the conference's aggregate record to 8-4. Of those losses, two were to D1 competition (Hiram got smacked around by MAC favorite Akron on Monday), while the other two belong to Allegheny. Denison begins its campaign tonight at Washington & Jefferson, and Wooster, last to start on Thursday, hosts Silver Lake College, a USCAA squad from Manitowoc WI off to a 3-6 start but coming off back-to-back losses (to Grinnell and UW-Parkside) by a combined 85 points.

[David Collinge]

Denison 78, W&J 63

[wooscotsfan]

At the Half:  Wooster 56  Silver Lake 14 

Wooster played 11 players in the half and 9 got into the scoring column.  Scots being led by Milt Davis with 10 points, Spencer Williams with 8, Alex LaLonde with 8 and freshman Jordan Stock with 7 points.

Starting lineup for Wooster was Dan Fanelly, Alex LaLonde, Spencer Williams, Ari Stern and freshman Eric Bulic.

The initial 3 subs off the bench were Alex Baptiste, Milt Davis and freshman Mitch Balser.  Next 2 subs were freshmen Reece Dupler and Jordan Stock.  Josh Kipfer was the 11th sub into the game.

Wooster looks incredibly deep in talent this year but obviously Silver Lake is not the best measuring stick. 

GO SCOTS!