MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[drt]

Thank you WSF, for the kudos.  Back at you for Woo's success.
Woo Boo, Witt's .500 record this season has put a huge bite on the W-L discrepancy.  Congratulations.

[David Collinge]

This was really not the effect I had in mind...

...and I didn't think WB's post was all that terrible. 

[ScotsFan]

Woo Boo,
Your karma reflects how truely classless you and your opinions are.  Class equals respect for your traditional rivals.  Woo-Witt is one of the great rivalries in D3. 
Wallow in your enjoyment of Witt's down year.  I doubt Steve Moore is.....
I don't see your team ranked highly in any polls, and I see it as an unfortunate trend for the NCAC, not as an opportunity to gloat.
Not that you would understand the nuance of this post, but I thought I would throw it out there for everyone else.

Judging from your karma, you don't have much room to talk...   

Witt's streak is impressive and they should definitely be applauded on it.  But all things must come to an end at some time...

BTW, I was thinking the same thing as WB.  Does that make me classless too?  I don't want to be construed as gloating or anything... 

[woosterbooster]

Woo Boo,
Your karma reflects how truely classless you and your opinions are.  Class equals respect for your traditional rivals.  Woo-Witt is one of the great rivalries in D3. 
Wallow in your enjoyment of Witt's down year.  I doubt Steve Moore is.....
I don't see your team ranked highly in any polls, and I see it as an unfortunate trend for the NCAC, not as an opportunity to gloat.
Not that you would understand the nuance of this post, but I thought I would throw it out there for everyone else.

Excuse me?  I'll root for who I want, against who I want, and I'll gloat at whichever team I please.  And, by the way, it doesn't look to me as if you want to compare karma percentages with anyone.

[M.Knapke]

Just read last nights comments,tough room; sort-a sorry I was out and about and missed it live.

History & Traditions should not only be "Noted, Observed and Celebrated", but also Congratulated.
Traditions+Experience+Execution+a dash of luck=Success

Now everyone knows things change, here comes the weekend. Tighten up the chin straps. Heads and Eyes Up.

Smile and Enjoy.

Good Luck

[drt]

I was a little  over the top on that one.  I guess I just don't believe in kicking anyone when they're down, no matter who it is.

[kiltedbryan]

Wittenberg's consistent success over 50+ years is simply amazing.  No doubt, regardless of exactly what its record ends up being this year, Witt will continue to be a successful and winning organization for years to come.  And, as a Wooster fan, I must admit that- in a certain way- I like it like that.  I want my arch-rival to be good; I want those games to matter.  I want every game between them to be a battle for the conference title, an NCAA bid, etc.  It's part and parcel of what makes it such a great rivalry.

Speaking of "success streaks" though, I was trying to remember how many seasons of 20+ wins Wooster has had in a row?  This will be the first season in several where Wooster has not completed a 20 win year by the end of the regular season, yes?

[smedindy]

It's incredible. That kind of run doesn't come by accident.

[David Collinge]

Speaking of "success streaks" though, I was trying to remember how many seasons of 20+ wins Wooster has had in a row?  This will be the first season in several where Wooster has not completed a 20 win year by the end of the regular season, yes?

The last time Wooster won fewer than 20 regular season games was 2001-02, when they finished 19-6.  The next season, they won 30 games (23-2 reg. season) and went to the Final Four.

[woosterbooster]

A repeat of that scenario isn't out of the possibility.  Wooster loses Marty Bidwell after this season, and he'll be an important loss in many ways.  But he's the only departure.  With Brandon Johnson returning, the Scots will no doubt have the best set of three guards in the league, and one of the best in all of D3, with he, Ian Franks, and Nathan Balch.  Justin Hollowell and Brian Wickliffe also return.  Add to that the belated debut of the seven foot Gideon Mabeny (sp), plus any additions from the next freshmen class, and what has turned out to be a pretty good Wooster team this year could be much improved next season.

As for Wittenberg.  Of course I recognize their achievements over the years.  But given my druthers, and ESPECIALLY since they're a hated rival to the Scots, I'd love to see them lose every game for the next century, or at least until coach Brown retires.  Witt as an Oberlin-like doormat instead of a nemesis?  Hoorah!  Bring on Kenyon, OWU, or both, to take their place.  Shorter trips, classier programs, free admission instead of eight bucks, and, at least in Kenyon's case, a better facility. 

[ScotsFan]

Speaking of "success streaks" though, I was trying to remember how many seasons of 20+ wins Wooster has had in a row?  This will be the first season in several where Wooster has not completed a 20 win year by the end of the regular season, yes?

The last time Wooster won fewer than 20 regular season games was 2001-02, when they finished 19-6.  The next season, they won 30 games (23-2 reg. season) and went to the Final Four.

As you noted, Wooster didn't get to 20 wins in the regular season on '01-'02 but they ended up with 20 by winning 2 NCAC tournament games before bowing out to Witt for the 3rd time that season.  They also failed to reach 20 wins in the '96-'97 season but ended up with 23 after post-season wins.  And they even received an at large bid to the NCAA tournament that season!  And that was the year their current streak of 20+ wins overall started.

The last season Wooster didn't reach the magic number of 20 wins in a season was back in the 1995-96 season.  They ended up 19-7 that season...

So that would make the streak 12 straight years of 20+ win seasons and on the verge of extending it to 13! 

Even more impressive is what Moore has accomplished over his 21 years at Wooster.  He has only failed to reach 20 wins in 4 of those seasons!  Once was his first season which was also Wooster's lone sub-.500 season under his reign.  The other 3 times, Wooster still won 18 games twice and 19 games once!

And over the past 6 seasons Wooster is averaging an incredible 27 wins per season!  8)

And as WB notes, with what Wooster has returning and the fact that they are only losing Marty, this streak should be continuing at least into next year, if not further depending on how recruiting goes.  8)

Pretty impressive...

[David Collinge]

Wooster loses Marty Bidwell after this season, and he'll be an important loss in many ways.

More on Marty, from Dan Brown of the Daily Record.

[Pat Coleman]

I just got this list from WPI's sports information director a few minutes ago, actually. Streaks of consecutive 20-win seasons, entering 2008-09:

Wooster 12
Maryville (Tenn.) 10
Amherst 8
Virginia Wesleyan 5
WPI 5
Elms 4
Hope 3
St. Thomas 3
Augustana 3
Farmingdale State 3
Salem State 3
Whitworth 3
Northwestern (Minn.) 3

Some of these streaks are going to end this year.

[Witt4ever]

Regarding Wittenberg's downfall this season, much can be gained by looking at the present day roster and coaching of Bill Brown. As some may know, I am not a fan of Bill Brown's coaching style. Just ask Arte Taylor.

Brown plays too many players during the game. During Witt's heyday (70's), Coach Hunter only played 7 or 8 men a game, these players accrued around 30-35 minutes a game whereas Brown's starters are lucky if they play 25 minutes a game.

Sometimes Brown's player combination just boggles the mind. Inconsistent rotation.
As a Freshman recruit, Lewis Buzzard was the talk of Springfield, as he was picked in the top 125 post players in the Midwest regardless of college division. Sometimes Buzzard starts a game, then he does not play any minutes for 2 or 3 games. So the team can not get into any flow.
And for a team that does not scrimmage during practice and does not have any set plays, they are lucky the streak has continued as long as it has.

The roster situation should be noted as the following:
6 players that were freshmen that played significant minutes on the 2006 final 4 team are no longer on the team due to injuries or just quitting the team.

The players are : Dan McNeely(quit team), Tyler Howard (never returned to team from serious concussion in 2006 NCAC tourney game against Wooster, DJ Corbett (quit), Mark Caraway (transferred to Wright State to be with his girlfriend).

And the other 2 players are Gregg Hill (Witt's best  player, injured for over 3 years with a bad shoulder) and Kyle Bigler (point guard with ACL).

Now for  the rest of the story:

27 players are no longer with the team since the 2005-06 season
that could be playing at Witt now.

First the names of the players that played significant Varsity minutes:

Dan McNeely, Tyler Howard, DJ Corbett, Mark Caraway,  Gregg Hill, Kyle Bigler, Robby Peters, Derrick Hannon (transferred to Cedarville, local fans knew about this before Brown knew), Casey McCoart, Trent Bailey, Tim Beck ( saw him at the local Meijer store before season, said looking forward to the new season, then just quit),Jeromy Romero (on and off player from Delaware, Oh)

Now for the other players that played JV:
Dan Bruce, Sean Hyland, Jace McGonigle(was a star at West Jeff but never saw much varsity action),Sonny Snell, Nick Vukasovich,  Ben Dobberstein, Nick Felter, Joe Klamforth, Kevin Lange. Brian Morrow, Tyler Siemon, Adam York, Darrel Cook and Patrick Guido.

And for the record, I went back at looked at Daniel Russ's statistics during his freshman season He never started one game. Period. Maybe this speaks volumes about Alex Brandt or lack of talent that Witt has. I hope the former and not the latter.

As Bill Brown said during a recent post game interview, "Winning just is not important as used to be". If he feels like this, the players probably sense it.

Wittenberg athletics sure has changed in the last 5 years. Witt fans expect that the football and basketball program will lose and the soccer and volleyball teams will win.

Just like former Wittenberg President Wm. Kinnison wanted over 30 years ago and one of the reasons that Witt got out of the OAC. He wanted team parity among all varsity sports. A Springfield native which makes it worse..

Who would have thunk it.

[seinfeld]

Witt4Ever,

Thanks for one of the most candid posts I've seen on this board. I've always had the sense that Wittenberg has had more physical talent than Wooster, but seeming underperformance (with the exception fo 2006) and the attrition rate does seem high there. Brown has what I think is a pretty strong recruiting advantage over Wooster due to the school's location. Springfield, and Clark County as a whole, is much bigger and has a lot more talent to choose from. In other words, the 30-40 mile radius around Wittenberg is much more fruitful (including Dayton) than it is around Wooster. So Wooster is forced to go farther away to get its recruits. That is not a small thing in Div. III. Being able to pluck a good local player every few years makes for easier recruiting. And while Wooster has had some nice players from nearby, the last all-conference level players were Nate Gaubatz and Steve Thompson in 2001.