MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[ScotsFan]

The link must have been fixed.  Here's a direct link to 1st and 2nd teams as well as HM:

All NCAC Team

And since Wally chose not to get into specifics on who won POY, allow me to do so.  Congrats to Ian Franks on winning NCAC POY as well as Bryan Wickliffe joining him on the 1st Team.  Nate Balch checks in as a 2nd teamer and Brandon Johnson deservedly gets recognized as an HM after coming back following his season lost to injury! 

Also, congrats to Wooster native ( ) Mac Petty on receiving his first recognition as conference Coach of the Year in his 37 years of coaching.  I'm sure he'd trade in the award for a chance at the NCAA tournament, but it is an award long overdue nonetheless.

And congrats to all others that were honored on the all-conference team as well!

[wally_wabash]

And since Wally chose not to get into specifics on who won POY, allow me to do so. 

I'm pretty sure I chose to not get into specifics about any of the awards...not just POY. 

[David Collinge]

At first glance, a pretty good effort by the coaches, in my opinion.  I don't see how you can leave Larry Farmer off the first team, but there's no shame in 2nd team.  David Nowicki got firmly screwed IMO, and I'd probably have Sutherlin a team higher as well, but overall it's not too bad.  No arguments with any of the "of the Year" awards.  Congratulations to all of the honorees!

By the way, and in relation to the (now closed) poll above, I should note that the statistics used in the press release are full-season stats, including the conference tournament.  Take that for whatever it may be worth.  Of course, the voting on the first team was complete before the tournament semifinals, so the data shown is not exactly what the coaches were using in their selection. 

[seinfeld]

Quickly on the attendance at the NCAC Tournament. I don't think the Winter Gala had anything to do with Saturday's attendance. It didn't start to 9 p.m., most people don't show up at a dance that goes all night right when it starts, and most of the students who would attend the basketball game weren't heading to a dance afterwards. The NCAC title game in 2009 at Wooster drew 2,800 against Wabash, and this year's game was against Witt. The 2007 title game against OWU drew 3,300, 2006 game against Witt drew 3,300, etc. This all has to do with ticket prices. For comparison, the OAC allowed OAC students in for free and a single ticket for the championship game was only $5 (http://www.oac.org/MENbasketballOTournament.shtml). While we all like Div. III basketball, most people are not willing to spend $10 (or $5 for a student) to go.

Looking back on Wooster's season, there was an obvious turning point, which was the halftime of the Jan. 27 game against Hiram. While they just came off of a win at Wittenberg, it was the defense, not the offense, that carried that win. And the Scots had already nearly lost to Allegheny and Kenyon and struggled with Earlham and Oberlin. Then, leading just 26-24 at halftime, Wooster proceeded to outscore Hiram 41-19 in the second half, and have never looked back. Starting at that point, the Scots have averaged 80.4 points per game and shooting 51% from the field after posting numbers of 68.4 ppg and 44.1% prior to this. Defensively, the Scots went from allowing opponents to shoot 41.8% from the field to 38%.

So what happened? Well, I'm assuming the coaches finally got through to the players about effort and intensity. Offensively, the biggest difference is Balch. He went from not being able to make wide open shots to being what I thought he was going to be this year -- a player that reminded us of James Cooper. Couple in that Johnson has progressively gotten healthier as the season went along, are the two main reasons. But if Wooster is to make any type of run in the tournament, it needs everyone to play to their ability. That means we need to see the Justin Hallowell of last year. He has played great post defense, but he is going to have to knock down three-pointers at a much better clip if the Scots are going to advance. Defenses are going to be better, and Hallowell's height will allow him to get his shot off against anyone.

[sac]

Quickly on the attendance at the NCAC Tournament. I don't think the Winter Gala had anything to do with Saturday's attendance. It didn't start to 9 p.m., most people don't show up at a dance that goes all night right when it starts, and most of the students who would attend the basketball game weren't heading to a dance afterwards. The NCAC title game in 2009 at Wooster drew 2,800 against Wabash, and this year's game was against Witt. The 2007 title game against OWU drew 3,300, 2006 game against Witt drew 3,300, etc. This all has to do with ticket prices. For comparison, the OAC allowed OAC students in for free and a single ticket for the championship game was only $5 (http://www.oac.org/MENbasketballOTournament.shtml). While we all like Div. III basketball, most people are not willing to spend $10 (or $5 for a student) to go.

Maybe attendance is just down because of the economy.  The MIAA tournament attendance was a bit down this year, maybe that is universally the case across the board.

[ChicagoHopeNut]

$10 does seem a bit steep to me but as I student I always got in for free and I have never been in a position to attend the MIAA tourney since graduating.

What is the cost for other conference tournaments?

[sac]

$10 does seem a bit steep to me but as I student I always got in for free and I have never been in a position to attend the MIAA tourney since graduating.

What is the cost for other conference tournaments?

I paid $7 for the MIAA Championship game, that was a bleacher seat in Calvin's lower bowl.

I can't remember if Hope does the tiered pricing at DeVos when they host or not, I think that would make the highest ticket price $10 for the cushy seats.

[ScotsFan]

I don't think it was the economy.  When Woo hosted Witt in the regular season, they drew almost 2900.  While that is lower than previous matchups between these rivals, that is still almost 800 more than what showed up to the NCAC champoinship game.  IMO, wouldn't one naturally conclude that a tournament championship game with an NCAA tournament birth on the line against your arch rival would out draw a regular season matchup against your arch rival?  Well, my guess is had the NCAC not tried to get greedy and jack prices up to $10 for adults and even more greedy by charging students $5 (which IMO was completely bogus), you would have seen a much larger crowd in Timken last Saturday. 

I'm inclined to email the NCAC to see what their reasoning was for jacking up the ticket prices for the championship round this year and if they might want to reconsider this next season due to the lack of numbers attendance wise.

[ChicagoHopeNut]

I am really surprised they charged students. That definitely seems strange to me and probably had an impact on attendance.

But I think the regular season game vs. championship game side of the equation may not hold. People have months to plan for the regular season games whereas for a championship you only are assured of a match-up of rivals the night before.

[wabashsid]

Re: NCAC Tournament

You could always do what Wabash did. The Wabash Student Senate very graciously decided to pay for the Wabash students' tickets to the first round of the NCAC Tournament at Chadwick Court from the activity fees. Students were checked off a list and the Student Senate wrote a check the next day so that any student that wanted to attend the game didn't have to fork over $5 in addition to the money they had already been charged for student activities on campus for the whole year.

Public thanks to Wabash Student Body President Cody Stipes for putting all of this in place.

[fantastic50]

That's a great idea at Wabash to get their students to the game.

I hate to say this, but I think that Wooster's fans may be a bit spoiled by the team's success.  Perhaps when you're hosting the conference tournament finals for the sixth year in a row, it doesn't seem like such a big deal.  I suspect that the crowds might have been better in Springfield or Crawfordsville, if their teams were the #1 seed and host.

[wally_wabash]

That's a great idea at Wabash to get their students to the game.

I hate to say this, but I think that Wooster's fans may be a bit spoiled by the team's success.  Perhaps when you're hosting the conference tournament finals for the sixth year in a row, it doesn't seem like such a big deal. 

And we have a winner. 

[Pat Coleman]

Don't forget, final three-plus hours to enter the D3hoops.com bracket challenge.

You have extra time for the women's bracket, since the first game isn't until 4 p.m. ET on Friday.

http://www.d3hoops.com/pickem/

[David Collinge]

Wasn't weather also a factor in the attendance last weekend?

I wonder how much of the "problem" was unsold tickets allotted to Wittenberg.

Good luck to the Scots tomorrow!

[imderekpoe]

Wasn't weather also a factor in the attendance last weekend?

I wonder how much of the "problem" was unsold tickets allotted to Wittenberg.

Good luck to the Scots tomorrow!

Seems to me that Wooster generally has large support in the community and maybe less from the student body.  With all the high school tournament action last weekend, I would think that also would have had an impact.  Should be interesting to see how attendance is this weekend.  I don't know how well Grove City and Defiance travel, and its a long way for UWW fans.

I'm just hoping that I can make it Friday night!  I'm in Philadelphia this week and my flight is scheduled to get in to Columbus at 5:30.  Of course, "scheduled" is the key word.  I don't think that I've ever had a flight leave Philly on time!