MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[David Collinge]

Watching the Denison/Hanover game from beautiful Collier Arena (in beautiful Hanover, IN).  They have a three-camera setup for this (free) videocast--what splendor!  See link on previous page.  Hanover has the early lead as Denison is trying nothing but threes.  Interesting note: Hanover has a frosh guard from Carmel named Nowicki--surely the little brother of the Wittenberg player.

Hanover leads at the half, 30-23.  Denison is playing good defense, but their offense is fairly lifeless, they're turning it over too often trying to force the tempo, and they're being badly outrebounded, giving the Panthers second, third, and even fourth looks.  Still they made a nice run towards the end of the half to cut a 14-point deficit in half.  Frosh Dimonde Hale may not make the best decisions (see yesterday's recap), but on video he's a nice-looking player, lanky and yet athletic.

DU's offense looks much sharper early in the second half, but already in the first 4 minutes they've allowed two second-chance hoops to Hanover.  Poor rebounding is killing this team.  DU got to within 3 early, but it's back out to 15, 50-35, about midway through the half.  Hanover is getting the ball inside with few problems, while the Big Red has gone back to the three-only offense at the same time that they've gone cold.  Inside the last two minutes, Hanover started missing free throws and Chris Luther started hitting threes, but the only result was to make the final score a little more respectable: 69-57.

[ScotsFan]

Well I'm a little tardy on my comments from last night, but I'm with Bryan in that I can't remember seeing a Wooster team so thoroughly dismantled as they were last night by UST.  I knew the Tommies has a good team, but I didn't expect them to be 30 points better than Wooster.

And I don't like the look of that stat that WSF posted.  Only 30 assists so far through three games to go along with 50 turnovers???    That's not Wooster basketball!

I had one question.  Where has Jake Mays been?  Is he injured or something?  I wasn't able to attend either game but I watched them on Clear Picture and he made zero appearances over the weekend.  I couldn't tell if he was on the bench or not.  Anyone have any idea of why he was missing in action this weekend?

The Scots don't have long to regroup as they have yet another tough contest with an OAC contender in ONU on Tuesday.  

[David Collinge]

Mays has the flu or some such malady.  He wasn't at the Van Wie, from what I understand; I think he was at home, recuperating.

[ScotsFan]

Thanks for the info David.

[David Collinge]

Pre-holiday schedule around the conference

Tuesday:
Oberlin (1-2) at Waynesburg 7pm (Audio?)
Denison (0-3) at Case Western Reserve 7:30pm
Washington & Jefferson at Kenyon (1-2) 7:30pm (Live Stats, Audio, Video; follows conclusion of women's game vs. ONU, also with LS/A/V coverage)
Ohio Wesleyan (1-1) at Defiance 7:30pm (Live Stats)
Capital at Wittenberg (3-0) 7:30pm (Live Stats, Audio, Video)
Ohio Northern at Wooster (1-2) 7:30pm (Live Stats, Audio, Video)

Wednesday:
Hiram (1-1) at Mt. Union 7pm (Live Stats)

[David Collinge]

Allegheny's George Raftis, twice an all-conference honoree, has gotten his senior season off to a roaring start, with a 42 point, 16 rebound effort en route to being named the MVP of the Buzz Ridl Classic at Westminster.  For his strong weekend, George has also been named the season's first NCAC Player of the Week.  Congratulations, George!

[wooscotsfan]

At the Half:  Wooster 35  Ohio Northern 29

Ohio Northern built a 11 point lead (23-12) off Wooster turnovers and then the Scots went on a 14-0 run to retake the lead at the half.  ONU is being led by Tony Meyer with 11 points and Ezra Bradshaw with 5 points.

Wooster is being led by Ian Franks with 12 points, Bryan Wickliffe with 9 points, Josh Claytor with 5 points and Justin Hallowell with 5 points.

[David Collinge]

Some other scores:
OWU 35, Defiance 32...half
Wittenberg 43, Capital 28...half
Kenyon 41, Washington & Jefferson 31...half
No updates on the Oberlin or Denison games

[wooscotsfan]

Final:  Wooster 70  Ohio Northern 64  

Wooster played a better game tonight with only 13 turnovers to get the win.  Scots were led by Ian Franks with 22 points, Justin Hallowell with 16 points (4 three pointers), Bryan Wickliffe with 9 pts and 8 boards, and freshman Josh Claytor with 8 points, 4 steals.  Brandon Johnson hit a big three pointer with only 1:24 remaining after ONU had cut the lead to just 3 points.

Ohio Northern's top scorers were Ezra Bradshaw with 22 points, Kyle Meyer with 12 points, Tony Meyer with 11 points and Matt Phillips chipped in 10 points.

Wooster is now 2-2.  Next up is a road game at John Carroll on Sunday afternoon.

GO SCOTS!

[kiltedbryan]

Among individual players, Ian Franks and Brandon Johnson just don't seem to have gotten going yet.  Franks, the team leader in scoring a year ago at 15.5 ppg, is struggling to find the basket this year, shooting only 30 percent from the floor.

Ian submits the following rebuttal to my comments above:
Franks vs. ONU:  22 pts on 9-14 shooting, 3-5 FTs, 6 boards and 4 assists.

[David Collinge]

More finals:
Wittenberg 79, Capital 69
Oberlin 63, Waynesburg 51
Kenyon 83, Washington & Jefferson 72
Defiance 74, Ohio Wesleyan 71
Case Western Reserve 67, Denison 57

Overall, 4-2...and 2-0 vs. the OAC

[pennstghs]

Wittenberg had a nice victory tonight over a average Capital team. They were outmatched by Witt, but Coach Goodwin's team like usual had a tenacious defense and actually cut a 15 point Wittenberg lead into 6 with under 4 minutes to play. Sloppy play by Witt I thought with a lot of missed assignments out of the zone.

Gregg Hill had 35 points to lead Witt! Good start to the season!

[goscots]

A good comeback win for the Scots from the crushing defeat on Saturday,  I can't add anything new to the other reports on the St. Thomas game other than I thought the Scot's actually did a good job defending in the paint and denying the post pass in the first half. It's the offense that clearly looked lost. You just didn't know where the open shot was going to come from. I wasn't at tonight's game so I can't comment if it looked any better but 13 turnovers is definitely an improvement.

Another note - Brandon Johnson is only 4 points from 1000 for his career.

[seinfeld]

I meant to post this observation before tonight's game, but wanted to wait until I saw them play in person before I did. And thankfully, coach Moore and Ian Franks illustrated my point perfectly.

The biggest change to the offense this season, up until tonight, was that Franks was not running the point, or at least being allowed to run the offense in the half court. I know it was probably logical thinking that Brandon Johnson would return to point guard, and Franks would slide over to the wing, but I felt that this would be a mistake, and I think it has already proven out.

Franks was Wooster's best player last year. In fact, when he was running the point, he was one of the best guards in the region. His struggles at the off-guard spot is not a surprise. Here are some numbers I wrote about last year that showed the difference in his play when he was the point guard vs. the off-guard.

Another puzzling development has been the play of Ian Franks in recent games. In the first seven games of the year, Franks averaged 15.6 points per game and shot 54.8% (40-of-73) from the field and 39.1% from three-point range (9-of-23). In the last six games, he is averaging just 10.5 points per game (if you take away the last two minutes of the Mt. Union game, when he got eight points at the foul line when the Purple Raiders were fouling to stay in the game), his average would be 9.2 points per game. He is shooting just 37.7% from the field (20-of-53) and 18.2% from three-point range (2-of-11). Throw in three foul outs for good measure.

I don't think it is coincidence that his recent poor streak coincides with his movement to the two-guard position. It seems that his natural position would be shooting guard, but he put up better numbers when he was running the point. Maybe they need to use him more in that role.

As good as Johnson was in his first three years, he never put up a season like Franks did last year. To me, since Franks is your best player, he shouldn't be tinkered with. The rotation and distribution of the ball should be adjusted around him.

I think this became very clear tonight. For the first 10 minutes, Johnson did all the ball handling and Franks seemed lost in the offense. Then Franks returned to his role as the trigger for the offense, and he and the rest of the team exploded from there.

Johnson is obviously a very good player who will only get stronger and better as the year goes on, but it would be a big mistake, in my opinion, to change Franks' role in the offense.

[WooHoopsntrack01]

Seinfeld.....

you posted "As good as Johnson was in his first three years, he never put up a season like Franks did last year. To me, since Franks is your best player, he shouldn't be tinkered with. The rotation and distribution of the ball should be adjusted around him."

Interesting.  They are two totally different players for one.  But the biggest difference i would totally have to say in terms of the number point wise and overall between BJ and IF are their supporting cast.  Or at that time, really back then BJ was more of a supporter not the main show. 
Here are some stats that I had a chance to look at.  And no offense at all against these Scots of 2009, but truth is, they are really a totally different team than the names you'll see below:

Brandon's 1st year he was 6,7,8 man playing 20 min/g 9.5ppg, 75assist, 49 steals.  Who he supported are names like: Cooper, Port, Witucky,VanHonrn, Vandervaart, Fulk, Bidwell, Will

BJ's 2yr and first year starting he played still about 20-25 min/g with 11ppg, 125ass, 63 steals.  He played with: Cooper, Port, Vandervaart, Fulk, Will, Bidwell, Geitgy,

BJ's 3rd year, same deal....11.3ppg, 105ass, 34 stls  with: Coop, Fulk, Will, Bids, Geitgy, Melick, and on the scence comes the big man who is playing so well now. 

So, the players they have been playing with are totally different.  I think Brandon was/is owed that chance being a leader on this team to help.  Now, IF is totally capable, but defensively they are going to need BJ's quickness if they are goin to make a run in the postseason.

THESE NEXT 4 GAMES could really either lift up the guys spirits or make for a long season.  LETS GO SCOTS WE'RE PULLIN FOR YA!