MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[David Collinge]

From the Wooster website:

» NCAA Div. III Tournament Ticket Information: There will be a pre-sale at Wooster's Physical Education Center Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and Thursday also from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. as well as 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. On Friday, tickets will go on sale starting at noon, and the gates open at 4 p.m. Tickets are $6 for adults and $3 for all students. One ticket is good for both games on Friday.

[seinfeld]

The previous link was to a blog entry from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer. Here is the link to the printed story, which I found on Wooster's Web site:

http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/printedition/2007/02/27/sptroadtoatlanta0227a.html

[jscwittfan]

That's odd -- this reporter specifically asked me about Witt's tourney changes midseason if they lost to Wooster twice and I told him they were not good.

Why would he expect them to be better if they lost to Allegheny and Ohio Wesleyan?

This reporter also specifically sucks. 

[DLP]

Feb. 27, 2007

ALL-NCAC BASKETBALL SQUAD ANNOUNCED;
PORT NAMED PLAYER OF THE YEAR

http://www.northcoast.org/mb/mballncac07.pdf

CLEVELAND -- Wooster senior forward Tom Port (Avon Lake, OH/Avon Lake) has been named Player of the Year to highlight the 2007 All-North Coast Athletic Conference men's basketball squad, announced today after voting by the conference's head coaches.

Port leads a trio of repeat first team selections after he led Wooster to the North Coast's regular season title and helped the Fighting Scots win their 10th NCAC Tournament crown, and first since 2004. The 6-5 senior makes the first team for the third consecutive season and makes his fourth overall appearance on the all-conference team. Port started his career by earning the NCAC's Newcomer of the Year honor following the 2003-04 campaign and earned second team recognition that year.

The other two repeat first-team honorees are Ohio Wesleyan senior Ben Chojnacki (Medina, OH/Medina) and Scot junior James Cooper (Springfield, OH/South) , last year's NCAC Player of the Year. Two players move up from the second team. They are Wittenberg senior Dane Borchers (Russia, OH/Russia) , who was also a second team choice two seasons ago, and Denison senior Dan Hodgkinson (Lake Forest, IL/LakeForest), who earned second team honors in 2004 and 2006, and first-team recognition in 2005.

Senior senior forward Markous Jewett (Richmond, IN/Richmond) makes his first team debut after earning honorable mention honors last year. Wabash junior Andrew Zimmer (Hobart, IN/Hobart) is the lone first-teamer making his overall debut on the all-conference team.

Kenyon freshman Dave Knapke (Westerville, OH/St. Francise de Sales) was voted Newcomer of the Year after he averaged 10.2 points per game and grabbed 5.4 rebounds per game for the 10-16 Lords.

Wooster head coach Steve Moore was voted Coach of the Year for the seventh time and first time since 2002-03. He guided his squad to its 10th regular-season title and third in a row. He is in his 20th season at Wooster and has posted an 463-106 (.814) mark in that span, including a 25-3 mark entering the 2007 NCAA Division III Tournament. In 26 years as a collegiate head coach, Moore has gone 550-171 (.763).

[smedindy]

I guess the big shock for me is Klinger on the all-conference honorable mention team since he only played half of the games.

Knapke is a decent player, but I wonder if Haltom, Brock and Root split votes for Wabash allowing Knapke to win???

[wally_wabash]

How about Mike Staley out of Hiram for NoY?  Led the league in assists (and not by a smidgen...he had 53 more assists in four fewer games than his next closest dime-dropper), played more minutes in the league than anybody except Jewett, and started all 24 games that he played in this season.  Was there any single freshman more valuable to a team this year than this effective point guard?  I really like the Wabash freshmen and I'm sure Knapke is a solid player, but I have to think the league overlooked this one. 

[bufordscot]

Thanks Seinfeld,  I saw it in the paper but couldn't find it on their website.  Good article.

The previous link was to a blog entry from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer. Here is the link to the printed story, which I found on Wooster's Web site:

http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/printedition/2007/02/27/sptroadtoatlanta0227a.html

[WoosterFAN]

SECOND TEAM
Gregg Hill Wittenberg So. W
Ryan Hollihan Allegheny So. C
Brandon Johnson Wooster So. G
Mike McDevitt Hiram Jr. F
Dustin Rudegeair O. Wesleyan Jr. F
Quinton Spencer Oberlin Sr. G/F
Tim Vandervaart  Wooster Sr. F
Bryan Yelvington Kenyon So. F

HONORABLE MENTION
Bill Babe Allegheny Jr. G 5-11
Korey Haddox Kenyon So. G 6-3
Jesse Jean O. Wesleyan Jr. F 6-5
David Jolson Kenyon So. G 6-3
Josh Klinger Kenyon Jr. G 5-11
Michael Loll Oberlin So. G/F 6-5
Jimmy Savage Allegheny Sr. G 6-3

[David Collinge]

Had we'd known all along that they were going to take a seven-man first team, we could have avoided arguing about Markous Jewett.  There's really no argument over the top 7, it's the cutting back to five that would have been tricky.  Seven first-teamers and eight on the second team; last year it was 5 and 6.

I would guess that Staley's late-season suspension cost him some support in the Newcomer voting.  Nevertheless, Knapke is a very impressive player, very poised for a frosh.  I think he's very deserving.  Klinger's selection is certainly interesting, though.  In fact, Kenyon has four names on the list, more than anyone else except Wooster (also 4).  Four Kenyon Lords, two Wittenberg Tigers...

Congratulations to all of the honorees.  Extra congratulations to Tom Port and Dan Hodgkinson, both of whom were all-conference performers throughout their collegiate careers.

[jscwittfan]

Congrats to all the All-NCACers.  Can't really argue with the selections, and kudos to the NCAC for not limiting themselves to 5 for each team, instead honoring those who really did deserve to be honored.  We rip a lot of the things the conference does a lot of times, but I think they got this one right.

It's also pretty clear (I would think) that Staley's suspension really hurt him.  You live, and hopefully, he'll learn.

With that said, this is my only potential snag with the awards - Steve Moore as Coach of the Year.  Listen, before you all jump on me for this one, let me explain myself.  We all know that Moore is a great coach.  We all know that Wooster was a favorite to win the conference championship.  We all knew that Wooster was going to be loaded after only losing one senior last year.  In my opinion, anything less than a conference championship for the Scots could have been interpreted as (doesn't necessarily mean it was) a poor coaching job.  In my mind, it would be the equivalent of giving Florida's Billy Donovan the SEC Coach of the Year title - we all knew Florida would be great, so he only did what was expected of him.  Who stepped up and really did a great job - did something we didn't expect them to do - is, in my mind at least, the Coach of the Year.

My vote would have went to Steve Fleming at Hiram.  A team that was picked to finish 9th in the coaches' poll and 10th in the media poll comes out of nowhere to finish tied for 6th.  Sure, a lot of that may potentially have been because of the fact that none of those bottom teams could really get hot, and players obviously have a lot to do with it, but I think he did the best job of coaching this year considering he didn't have as much to work with as did Moore.

Again, not saying that Moore isn't deserving, because it's clear he's a great coach.  I just think that with the roster/experience he had, the deck was stacked in his favor.

[David Collinge]

I know where you're coming from, although by that logic Steve Moore and Bill Brown would never be candidates for this award; they either meet expectations or they underachieve--there's no 'up' button in their elevators.

I think Steve Fleming's chances were sabotaged by the Terriers' weak stretch run, losing their last five games. 

In hindsight, my choice for the Coach-of-the-Dorksen-Eight Award would be Kenyon's Matt Croci, leading the Lords to a double-digit win season for the first time in 11 years, and they were snakebit in their ability to lose nailbiters (although that tendency could be blamed on the coach, I suppose.)  Then again, with four all-conference players plus the conference Newcomer of the Year, maybe the Lords should have done even better! 

But I don't think any of the Dorksen Eight really distinguished themselves in a positive way, and Wooster did have an impressive season even by their own lofty standards.  The fact that his roster was stacked should be a credit to him, rather than a debit, since recruiting is one of the requirements of a D3 head coach.  I think the award to Steve Moore is well-deserved.

[goscots]

I'm glad to see that there were 7 players on the first team. As I posted a couple of weeks ago, a team should represent what a coach wants to play a game with and 5 is too few. Another point, throughout the league there were 98 players who average over 10 minutes a game, so in my opinion 7 does not dilute the honor.

[wally_wabash]

Do we know the basis of Staley's suspension?  Did he make it rain at a Hiram gentlemen's club? 

[Gregory Sager]

Sounds like the author reads this site

He should read it more carefully. The author mischaracterized Pool B as consisting of both independents and schools from conferences that don't have tournaments. Pool B actually consists of both independents and schools from conferences that don't have full D3 membership.

[Pat Coleman]

Or who don't have seven teams who meet the membership period qualifications -- the Presidents Athletic Conference is very much a full D-III member conference but its seventh team is finishing the two-year waiting period this year.

I believe the threshold for being recognized as a D-III conference is five schools. But that's not enough for an automatic bid.