MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[fantastic50]

Wooster (22-6) goes to Capital to play Gettysburg (18-8) in the first round.  The winner will face the victor between Capital (24-4) and Thomas More (19-8).

[David Collinge]

Wooster (22-6) goes to Capital to play Gettysburg (18-8) in the first round.  The winner will face the victor between Capital (24-4) and Thomas More (19-8).

Thomas More, it should be noted, is coached by former Wooster great John Ellenwood, who was an assistant at Capital for three years before heading to TMC.  In Ellenwood's three seasons in Crestview Hills, the Saints have gone from 3-23 to a 19-8 PAC championship season. 

I'm not sure if Gettysburg has anything to contribute to the All-In-The-Family nature of this regional. 

[wooscotsfan]

Pretty good draw for Wooster in the tourney.  Gettysburg on a neutral floor should be a game that Wooster will have a decent chance of winning.  A 2nd round potential game vs. a host school was expected.  I actually prefer Capital as the host school instead of John Carroll which still plays that full court press style with a 10-12 man rotation.

Let's hope that Wooster can make some noise in the tourney!

[countyroad]

I sure lucked out.  Capital is right down the street from me.  Depending on what time the game is played I might be able to catch the Scots play.

[David Collinge]

For those who haven't been there, the Capital Center is a very nice, 2100-seat facility, and should be a fine host site for this regional.  It could get a little crowded, however, given how well Wooster travels and how well Capital draws (I doubt that either Gettysburg or TMC will contribute too much to the throng.)  To make matters worse, Capital's spring break has already come and gone (first day of classes was today), so the students should be out in force.  Wooster, on the other hand, begins its spring break on Friday.  Listen up, COW students: to get from Wooster to Florida, you have to drive through Columbus anyway, so why not take an extra day or two en route?

[ScotsFan]

Pretty good draw for Wooster in the tourney.  Gettysburg on a neutral floor should be a game that Wooster will have a decent chance of winning.  A 2nd round potential game vs. a host school was expected.  I actually prefer Capital as the host school instead of John Carroll which still plays that full court press style with a 10-12 man rotation.

Let's hope that Wooster can make some noise in the tourney!

I agree.  I can't really complain about who Wooster drew.  It could be a lot worse...  As you said, we all knew that Wooster would be travelling.  It was just a matter of where.  I think I would rather be playing at Cap as well.  And, even though their 1st round game is at Cap, Wooster should still enjoy a large advantage in crowd support in their game vs. Gettysburg. 

No question, the toughest section is the Midwest/West.  They have the top 7 teams in the d3hoops Top 25!!!    And 9 of the 15 teams in that sectional are ranked!!!   There are two possible 2nd round matchups featuring top 10 teams!  St. Thomas has managed to remain unbeaten throughout this entire season and they have the very real possibility of being knocked out of the tournament in the 2nd round by UWSP! 

[David Collinge]

While poking around on the Massey site, something I don't do often, I did notice that Hiram's December loss to Franciscan ended up as the second-least likely result involving D3 teams this season.  What better testament to Hiram's rise than to be on the "right" side of a statistic like that?

[LGHistorian]

Good luck to Wooster in the NCAA.

It was nice to hear some good feedback on Wabash's effort in the NCAC championship game from Wooster.

It was an exciting year in the conference and I hope this will continue next year.

And I also want to express my deepest sympathy to the Wooster community for the loss of a child.  One thing that gets overlooked by people who are anti-sports is how much it means to have an extended family (team, coaches, etc.) for support during life's most tragic or troubling times.

[lebron23]

Looking at the Scots first round matchup, I can say statistically it was a good draw at least...first for the Gettysburg College Bullets of the Centennial Conference who finished the regular season and conference tournament play with an 18-8 record...
Starters
PG- 5-10 160 Sr. Chris Nevolo- 4 PPG, 91% FTA
SG- 6-2   160 Sr. Dan Capkin- 14 PPG, 64% FTA, 41% 3PA
SF-  6-5  195 Sr. Corey Dorsey- 12 PPG, 77% FTA, 31% 3PA
PF- 6-8   190 Sr. Joe Spierenburg- 5.5 PPG, 6 RPG, 2.5 BPG
C-  6-6   190 So. Andrew Powers- 18 PPG, 7 RPG, 73% FTA
Totalling- 53.5 PPG from starters or 82.3% of team's total points PPG
Top Reserve(s)
F- 6-5   195 So. Kevin Kennedy- 6 PPG, 78% FTA
-Kennedy was the only real reserve that had significant playing time as others played but not much.
Some key notes- The Bullets have won their past 4 games after losing the previous 3.  The average score for their past 4 wins is 69-58 so they have been playing some good ball
-For the year, averaging 65 PPG, Opp. 61 PPG
-Average 34% 3PA, Opp. 30% 3PA
-73% team FTA
-Rebounding dead even with Opp. at about 33-33 RPG
-Averaging 16 TO's per game with Opp. 14 TO's per game
-Average 4 block shots per game
-Finished 10-2 at Home, 6-6 Away, and 2-0 at Neutral Sites. 

Now for the College of Wooster Fighting Scots of the North Coast Athletic Conference who finished the regular season and conference play with a record of 22-6....
Starters
PG- 6-1 175 So. Nathan Balch- 12 PPG, 90% FTA, 47% 3PA
SG- 6-3 175 So. Ian Franks-     15 PPG, 79% FTA, 39% 3PA
SF- 6-4 205 Sr. Marty Bidwell-  10 PPG, 71 % FTA, 42% 3PA
PF- 6-7 200 Fr. Justin Hallowell- 14.5 PPG, 89% FTA, 4.5 RPG, 52% 3PA
C- 6-6  205 So. Bryan Wickliffe- 7.5 PPG, 6 RPG, 71% FTA
Totalling- 59 PPG from starters or 70% of team's total PPG
Key Reserve(s)
G- 6-1 175 Jr. Dustin Geitgey- 5 PPG, 82%FTA, 3 RPG
G- 6-1 180 Fr. Matt Fegan- 5 PPG, 48% 3PA
F- 6-4 200 Fr. Mike Evans- 4.5 PPG, 37% 3PA
F- 6-5 205 Fr. Greg Ross- 4.5 PPG, 3.5 RPG
Some Key Notes- The Scots have won their past 9 contests with an average win of 84 PPG to their Opp. 66 PPG
-For the year Wooster averages 81 PPG and their Opp. 69 PPG
-Wooster averages 43.5% 3PA, with Opp. at 33% 3PA
-Wooster shoots at a 77% FTA
-Wooster averages 37.5 RPG to Opp. 32 RPG
-Wooster averages 14 TO's per game to their Opp. 13 TO's per game
-Average 2.5 BPG as a team
-Finished the year 15-1 at home, 7-4 Away, 0-1 at neutral sites....
Some Final Comments
-Gettysburg plays around a 6-7 man rotation as Wooster typically plays more of a 9-10 man rotation
-Wooster is coming in with slightly more momentum riding their 9 game winning streak
-Andrew Powers and Justin Hallowell potential matchup could be a great one...with Powers having a great inside game and Hallowell shooting Threes Lights out
-Wooster will need to use their depth to an advantage to try to tire out and possibly get Powers and/or Spierenburg in foul trouble to alleviate their lack of height.
-Gettysburg will need to play a more slow grind it out game against Wooster while relying on their big 3 of Powers, Capkin, and Dorsey to outlast Wooster's great shooting team..
-If Wooster can negate the slightly height disadvantage and use their depth, I feel Wooster will win the game and advance to play the Capital/Thomas More winner....should be a great one!! 

[imderekpoe]

Nice job Lebron23!

I agree that this seems like a good draw for the Scots.  At least its a heck of a lot better than traveling to Augustana to play Wash U!!  I was only half-listening to the Hoopsville analysis, but it seemed like all of the guys on there were picking the Scots to advance out of this pod.

The stat that really jumps out at me for Gettysburg is that they hold their opposition to .297 from behind the arc.  Since Wooster scores a large percentage (38.5%) of their points on 3's, that could be a huge factor in this game. 

Any word on Balch's availability this weekend? 

[ScotsFan]

Thanks for the overview lebron.

-Andrew Powers and Justin Hallowell potential matchup could be a great one...with Powers having a great inside game and Hallowell shooting Threes Lights out

My gut feeling would be that Wooster will start with Wickliffe on Powers with help from Greg Ross, Mike Evans and Kaleb Reed.  I would hate to see Hallowell get into foul trouble trying to gaurd the Gettysburg big man!

I'm really amazed by the apparent lack of depth from Gettysburg.  Only 2 players off their bench averaging double figures in minutes played?  Wooster on the other hand has 4 players off the bench averaging double figures in minutes.  I would guess that Wooster will definitely want to try and dictate the tempo of this game and get out running every chance they get to wear down the Bullets.  If Wooster can find a way to get Gettysburg in foul trouble, the Bullets could be in real trouble!

An interesting stat I noticed while comparing Wooter and Gettysburg and that has to do with 3 point shooting.  Gettysburg has only 2 players with more than 30 made 3-pointers on the season.  Meanwhile, Wooster has 5 players with 30 or more made 3-pointers on the season!  And 4 of those 5 shooters for the Scots have a better percentage from beyond the arc than Gettysburg's best 3 point shooter!  Only Ian Franks has a slightly worse percentage than the Bullets' Dan Capkin!  Hallowell finished the year ranked 4th in the nation in 3-point fg % at 51.7%. And if Nate Balch wouldn't have gotten injured, he may have had a chance to make enough more treys to qualify him for the national rankings where he would have also finished in the top 10!  You need 2.5 made 3's pg and he was at 2.2 when he was injured.  It just continues to amaze me how Coach Moore and his staff can keep bringing in such talented shooters year in and year out!

Something that Gettysburg does have going for them is senior leadership and experience.  Several of Wooster's losses this season have been to teams heavy on senior leadership so, Wooster will have to be well aware of the fact that 4 of the 5 starters for Gettysburg are all seniors and I believe they also all have tournament experience.

Lastly, one other thing I think will be key for Wooster is the status of Nate Balch.  With Nate, I think this team is very capable of making a deep run into this tournament.  Wooster proved that they can get the job done without him, but I just think they will miss his ball handling ability and his shooting the deeper they get into the tournament.  He will have been off for almost a week and a half by the time tip happens on Friday, so hopefully Tom Love and the rest of the Wooster training staff will have him ready to go!

[larry_u]

Can someone post your NCAA team's profiles in here:

http://www.d3boards.com/index.php?topic=6299.0

[lebron23]

ScotsFan...very good point about keeping Hallowell out of trouble by not guarding Powers....that would put Hallowell and Spierenburg matching up....Spierenburg averages 2.5 Block per game, but I would have to imagine he doesn't guard players that have quite the range that Hallowell has....he seems pretty lanky though at 6-8 190, so that might be something to look at if Hallowell can spread him out of the paint, it might open the lanes up a bit for Franks, Balch, Bidwell and company to get some closer baskets without Spierenburg in their face....i'll try to get an accurate word on Balch as soon as I can.... 

[ScotsFan]

The stat that really jumps out at me for Gettysburg is that they hold their opposition to .297 from behind the arc.  Since Wooster scores a large percentage (38.5%) of their points on 3's, that could be a huge factor in this game. 

Yes, it does look like Gettysburg does well at defending the three, but how often do they face a team like Wooster with all of the shooters they throw at you?  I was over on the CC board and there was mention that the CC is not that good of a conference when it comes to 3-point shooting.  Gettysburg was the highest ranked team nationally of the top 4 in their conference and they checked in at 211th...  BTW, Wooster was 4th nationally in a virtual tie with Wis. Lutheran and Wesley.  Wooster is ranked even higher in 3-point percentage.  They are 2nd behind Brandeis in that category.  But what stands out to me is the number of made treys.  Wooster is more than 100 made treys than almost everyone else in the top 10!

[ScotsFan]

Can someone post your NCAA team's profiles in here:

http://www.d3boards.com/index.php?topic=6299.0

I think lebron did a fairly nice job for Wooster's team profile.  I would just cut and paste that to the link provided by larry u...

Any word on when tickets will be made available and how many Wooster will likely be allotted?