MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[David Collinge]

Capital 89, Kenyon 84...Lords miss 10 free throws, and were -8 at the line (21-13)..Recap with box included.
Also...Wittenberg 87, Otterbein 66...Recap with box included.

[seinfeld]

Brandon Johnson to red-shirt this year:

http://www.the-daily-record.com/news/article/4492183

The main push for Wooster's recruiting will be keeping the players they have now. The Scots only graduate one player (Bidwell), and will add to the team an all-conference and potentially all-region point guard in Johnson and a potential starting center in Gideon Mabeny next season. Add to this that only one junior (Geitgey) is even in the rotation now, and Wooster has to worry about having too many quality players, not too few. While this is a good dilemma to have, this can create problems when trying to establish a set rotation.

[woosterbooster]

I'm gonna guess that this sets them up rather well for next season.  I'd see Johnson and Franks starting at the guard spots, with Balch getting quite a few minutes spelling both of them.  Playing time for both Fegan and Geitgey would drop.  Hollowell would remain the starting power forward, with Wickliffe the starting center backed up by the learning Mabeny.  The question is who will be the new Bidwell, and for that spot there are a number of choices in Ross, Sawyer, and Evans.  Possible minutes:

Johnson 28
Franks 28
Balch 24
Wickliffe 25
Mabeny 15
Hollowell 26
Sawyer 18
Evans 18
Ross 18

Those are the guys that I see as the major contributors for next season, and a very vague idea of their playing time.  Of course, this doesn't take into account any incoming freshmen.

[ScotsFan]

I'm gonna guess that this sets them up rather well for next season.  I'd see Johnson and Franks starting at the guard spots, with Balch getting quite a few minutes spelling both of them.  Playing time for both Fegan and Geitgey would drop.  Hollowell would remain the starting power forward, with Wickliffe the starting center backed up by the learning Mabeny.  The question is who will be the new Bidwell, and for that spot there are a number of choices in Ross, Sawyer, and Evans.  Possible minutes:

Johnson 28
Franks 28
Balch 24
Wickliffe 25
Mabeny 15
Hollowell 26
Sawyer 18
Evans 18
Ross 18

Those are the guys that I see as the major contributors for next season, and a very vague idea of their playing time.  Of course, this doesn't take into account any incoming freshmen.

Wooster has the potential to be a very very deep team next season.  WB, you listed 9 players as major contributors.  And you left Geitgey and Fegan out of the mix.  And then there's Terrance Williams.  He hasn't seen much playing time but he's too good to not see the floor some more next year.  With Bidwell now being the only starter graduating this season, there won't be any reloading or rebuilding next year in Wooster to say the least!  8)

While I think Wooster will miss not having Johnson return this year, I am happy to see that he will more than likely be able to return for a full year at 100% next year.  I had been wondering just how effective he would be in returning to play this year and the way the article sounds, he wouldn't have been 100% and I'm sure that weighed heavily into Brandon's decision to scrap this season and return next year. 

Now the Scots will just have to regroup and prepare for the remainder of the season without Johnson.  I still think they have enough to win their 5th NCAC championship in a row without Johnson.  But, not having Johnson certainly brought Wooster a lot closer to the rest of the pack of teams trying to knock off the Scots from their throne!

[goscots]

Given the Scots 5-4 start I was wondering if they still could boost this title. I did some checking and with their last loss in Hawaii they have indeed falling behind Amherst (.8495 to .8498). With the loss of Brandon for the season they may still win the conference, but I would expect them to drop at least two additional games that they might not have otherwise, so its a tagline that is probably gone unless Amhest struggles next year and Wooster becomes something special.

[Gregory Sager]

Given the Scots 5-4 start I was wondering if they still could boost this title. I did some checking and with their last loss in Hawaii they have indeed falling behind Amherst (.8495 to .8498). With the loss of Brandon for the season they may still win the conference, but I would expect them to drop at least two additional games that they might not have otherwise, so its a tagline that is probably gone unless Amhest struggles next year and Wooster becomes something special.

[David Collinge]

I think the reference is to this:

Wooster owns the best winning percentage of any NCAA team (all divisions) of the 2000s with a success rate of .859 (232-38).

(Note that the title of goscots' post is "Team of the Decade.")

[Gregory Sager]

Ah, OK. Thanks, David.

(I confess that I never look at post headers, because 99.9% of the posts that appear on d3boards.com simply use that particular room's generic post header. F'rinstance, the last post in this room to use a header other than "Re: NCAC" was goscots' post #7741, which he posted last May 14.)

[Li'l Giant]

Happy Holidays to all in the NCAC! This isn't a problem here in Texas, but stay warm!

[David Collinge]

Greensboro 71, Hiram 68 (OT)...Hiram scored just two points over an eight-plus minute span,  from 6:08 in the second (when they led by one) through 2:37 in OT (when they trailed by seven).  They found late life, and had a couple of chances to tie the game late in the OT, but came up short.  Chris Roberts led the Pups with 23 points and 7 rebounds.  Box.

[wooscotsfan]

At the Half:   Wooster 41  Thiel 28

Wooster took control of the game in the last 5 minutes of the half.  Scots led 28-24 and then went on a 7-0 run to stretch out the lead.

Wooster is being led by Greg Ross with 8 points, Justin Hallowell with 7 points, Nathan Balch with 7 points while Drew Sawyer and Ian Franks each have chipped in 6 points.  Greg Ross got the start tonight replacing Bryan Wickliffe who is out with the flu.

Tomcats are being led by Nick Sefscik with 10 points.  Scots should be able to secure this victory over a Thiel squad that is only 1-7 on the season.

[wooscotsfan]

Final:  Wooster 82  Thiel 63

Wooster was led in scoring by Drew Sawyer who had a big night with 18 points (8 of 10 FGs), Nathan Balch with 16 points, Greg Ross with 10 points and Justin Hallowell with 9 points.  Sawyer should get some extra playing time after tonight's performance and Nathan Balch now appears to be a starter (2nd consecutive start tonight).  Scots shot 51% from the floor tonight and had only 12 turnovers compared to 23 turnovers for Thiel.

Thiel Tomcats (now 1-8) were led by Nick Sefscik with 21 points (5 three pointers) and Keebo Dowe with 15 points.

Wooster will next play a good Mt. Union team that knocked off Kean University (NJ) 78-70 in tonight's opening game.  Purple Raiders are led by their top scoring guard Chris Switzer who had 29 points tonight (7 three pointers!).  I wonder if Marty Bidwell might be guarding Switzer tomorrow night?   Mt. Union is now 9-1 on the season including 3-1 in the OAC but they have not yet played Capital or Ohio Northern which may be the top two teams in that conference this year.

Wooster is now 6-4 on the season.   Should be a good Mose Hole championship game tomorrow night.

GO SCOTS!

[wooscotsfan]

Other 12/29 NCAC Final Scores:

Ohio Wesleyan 67  Manchester (IN) 60  at CWRU tourney
Guilford (NC) 73  Hiram 70  good road effort by Terriers who lose narrowly to a 7-2 team
Taylor Univ. (IN) 58  Wittenberg 56   at Witt tourney
Salem State (MA) 95  Denison 85
Franklin 84  Earlham 70  from the road team's website (ummm...Franklin of course)

[ScotsFan]

Wow.  Witt loses again?  That loss to Taylor breaks a string of 25 consecutive years since Witt lost in the semi's of their Zimmerman Tournament!    I love how Witt's game recap tries to spin the loss by saying how it was Taylor's 7th win of the season.  What they failed to mention is that Taylor also has 9 losses... 

Looking ahead to tonight's matchup between Wooster and MUC, I am really looking forward to seeing whether or not MUC is actually for real.  One thing is for sure and that is Chris Switzer looks to be for real.  His 7-11 performance from downtown last night really has me worried as Wooster seems to struggle at defending the perimeter this year and it continued last night as they allowed Nick Sefscik of Thiel to go off with a 5-7 performance from beyond the arc.

IMHO, Wooster will need a better overall performance than what they put forth last night to beat MUC.

[David Collinge]

Fans going to the Wooster/MUC game may be interested to know that MUC's starting guard Dave Pellerite is the elder brother of OWU winger Pat Pellerite.