MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[wooscotsfan]

This game was tied late despite the fact that Wooster shot only 14% from downtown and committed 26 to's! 

Matt Crozier led the Blue streaks in scoring and rebounding as he finished with a double double (18-10).

Back from dinner with the family, so here are my first hand observations from the game.  ScotsFan nailed the 3 biggest reasons Wooster lost this game with the two sentences (above) in his post. k+

Wooster did not take care of the ball with 26 turnovers.  Amazing, they might have won the game with over 20 turnovers if they had just taken care of the ball in the last 2 minutes of the game but they lost their composure when it mattered most.

2:10 remaining, score tied 60-60 and Wooster goes their next 3 possessions with 2 turnovers and a missed shot.  Game over!

As noted by DC and ScotsFan, Wooster missed most of their 3 pointers today (3 of 21 = 14.3%) and that was the second reason they didn't get the "W".  By the way, Josh Claytor made a 3 pointer today (saw it with my own eyes  ) and the stats credited it to Ian Franks.  Both teams defended the 3 point line well but Wooster also missed some open 3 pointers.

The third reason for the loss was Matt Crozier who led JCU in the paint.  Wooster gave up a layup and a 3 point play to Crozier with 2:06 left that started the decisive JCU run.  Good defensive teams don't give up layups at the end of games - you have to foul hard and put the opponent on the line.

One other observation:  John Carroll is a scrappy team, as usual, but IMO they would get their clock cleaned by St. Thomas.  JCU didn't shoot very well today due to Wooster's defense, the Scots outrebounded them 38-32 and JCU missed 11 free throws which was only slightly worse than their season average.   I would still pick JCU to win the OAC again but they are not a top 3 team nationally IMO.

ScotsFan also summed up my major concern for the Scots.  If Wooster doesn't start taking better care of the ball, it will be a long season.  Let's hope that the Scots have fewer turnovers on Wednesday at Ohio Wesleyan.

GO SCOTS!

[Toph]

This was my first chance to see JCU in action this season.  I wasn't overly impressed.  As usual, they found a way to win at home and forced a TON of turnovers from Wooster.  Their lack of size is a problem we were all aware of, but when Crozier started off with the first 9 points, there wasn't a concerted effort to get him the ball in the post when his group came back on the floor.

They didn't shoot as well as they had in the first three games, but that was expected.  The missed free throws will come back to kill them if that keeps up (and free throws are not often a strong point for the Streaks).  They were in the bonus early in the 1st half but couldn't do much to capitalize on it.

The other thing that stood out from a JCU fan's standpoint was the lack of finishing around the rim by the Streaks.  How many wide open bunnies did they miss?  4?  5?  Add contested shots from inside four feet, it seemed like they missed more shots in the paint than they did from three!

Wooster controlled tempo for the most part, but the full court pressure from JCU gave the Scots fits.

[woobball]

I realize you are trying to make a larger point but in my opinion the best player on the Scots last year was Marty Bidwell. For certain he did not have the shooting skill than Ian has but what Marty did have was heart and leadership. Even though he is the only starter who was lost to graduation it is a big hole to fill. Brandon Johnson, being the only player left from the Final Four team, needs to fill that role.

From a talent-wise perspective, Franks was the best player.  But, as you pointed out goscots, Marty's leadership is what set him apart from the rest of the team.  And that leadership is  proving harder to replace than I originally thought it would be.  I was hoping that Brandon would be able to fill that leadership role and he very well might do that as the season progresses but so far, I think that lack of a true leader is one of the things that is hurting this team.

I believe this team is really struggling without Marty this year. Three things that the scots are struggling with this year 1. Leadership 2. Taking care of the ball 3. Getting key defensive stops.

1. I heard Coach Moore last year refer to Marty as one of the best captains and leaders he has ever coached. So far without him the team doesn't seem to be playing as hard nor with as much passion and heart as they did last year.

2. Wooster doesn't have a player with a positive assist to turnover ratio this year, nor do they have a player averaging more than 3 assists a game. Bidwell led the NCAC in assists last year and was in the top five in assist to turnover ratio.

3. In all 3 Wooster losses, key defensive stops have been a factor. Besides the thumping against UST, in both the Albion and JCU games, Wooster has not been able to get a stop in the closing minutes of the game (allowing JCU to score almost everytime they got the ball in the last three minutes, and the same with Albion in the final minutes). These are the kind of moments Marty was able to help come up with a big stop.

To be honest, I thought that losing Marty would not be a factor at all with the addition of Brandon Johnson and the other returning players having another year under their belt but it appears to have been a larger loss than everyone expected.

On the bright side, last year's team started out 2-3 as well, so their is plenty of time for the guys to turn it around and play like they are capable of. But in order to do so, I trully believe that roles need to be established and a player (or multiple players) need to start addressing the issues mentioned above.


EDITED to fix the quote formatting; I think/hope I got it right!

[ScotsFan]

On the bright side, last year's team started out 2-3 as well, so their is plenty of time for the guys to turn it around and play like they are capable of. But in order to do so, I trully believe that roles need to be established and a player (or multiple players) need to start addressing the issues mentioned above.

Yes, and last year's 2-3 start was going up against a much lesser schedule than this 2-3 start!  Just trying to brighten things up a bit more...  8)

[ScotsFan]

The other thing that stood out from a JCU fan's standpoint was the lack of finishing around the rim by the Streaks.  How many wide open bunnies did they miss?  4?  5?  Add contested shots from inside four feet, it seemed like they missed more shots in the paint than they did from three!

Coach Moore commented on this in his post game comments.  He basically said that Woo's poor shooting from deep was basically cancelled out by JCU's inabality to finish around the rim as he noted how many easy bunnies the Blue Streaks missed as well.

Wooster controlled tempo for the most part, but the full court pressure from JCU gave the Scots fits.

This is one question I had that maybe either you or wsf could answer since you were at the game.  I know that JCU is known for their constant full court pressure and that they force a ton of turnovers.  But, it seemed in listening to the game that Wooster's radio guy kept saying how Wooster just kept committing foolish turnovers.  It seemesd like at least half of Wooster's turnovers were as a result of lazy passees or carelessness with the dribble and not so much from JCU's pressure.  Any thoughts from those in attendance?

[David Collinge]

Congratulations to Earlham sophomore (and Crawfordsville refugee) AJ Sutherlin, this week's NCAC Player of the Week.  The Sewanee/Rhodes Classic MVP, Sutherlin had a 54-point, 19-rebound trip to the Bluff City as the Quakers split their OT games with the co-hosts.  Congratulations, AJ!

[Toph]

This is one question I had that maybe either you or wsf could answer since you were at the game.  I know that JCU is known for their constant full court pressure and that they force a ton of turnovers.  But, it seemed in listening to the game that Wooster's radio guy kept saying how Wooster just kept committing foolish turnovers.  It seemesd like at least half of Wooster's turnovers were as a result of lazy passees or carelessness with the dribble and not so much from JCU's pressure.  Any thoughts from those in attendance?

Well, even if half of Wooster's turnovers were due to carelessness, that leaves another 13 forced from JCU's pressure!

I may be looking at it through blue and gold glasses, but Wooster looked pretty rattled by JCU's press.  Having watched this team for the last 7 years, I can say this full court pressure was the best I've seen.  As aggressive as the Streaks are in the full court, you're going to give up a fair amount of 2 on 1 and 3 on 1 breaks throughout the game (hence, they give up an average of like 88 points coming into the Wooster game).  The Blue Streaks ability to get in position after a made basket and rotate correctly, forcing Wooster into a position to be trapped, or where they have a forward bringing the ball up the floor was one of the things I was pleased with yesterday.  As usual, the Blue Streaks made as much contact as the officials let them get away with (to be completely fair, the Scots weren't exactly shying away from good, physical defense on their end either).

Some of the passes probably lacked the appropriate mustard, but JCU also gambles quite a bit and tries to jump in front of almost every pass until the opponent gets into their half court set.  Either by design or by force, Wooster found themselves scrambling to get across the half court line fairly often and that led to some forced passes that were easy pickings for defenders.

I think Wooster's poor outside shooting was in part because they just hit a cold streak, and they were playing on the road, but with a few exceptions JCU did a nice job closing on three point attempts.  Wooster didn't get a lot of good looks.  So I'd attribute some of those misses to good defense, but I seriously doubt Woo shoots 3-21 if the two teams play again.

My two cents...anyway.

[smedindy]

Congratulations to Earlham sophomore (and Crawfordsville refugee) AJ Sutherlin, this week's NCAC Player of the Week.  The Sewanee/Rhodes Classic MVP, Sutherlin had a 54-point, 19-rebound trip to the Bluff City as the Quakers split their OT games with the co-hosts.  Congratulations, AJ!

Actually, I think Earlham is the NCAC refugee (now). And they don't have to live like one. (Heh...)

Sutherlin played along side Purdue super-frosh DJ Byrd at North Montgomery.

BTW - Matt Painter has 4 walk-ons this season. All of them are from the area near Lafayette. Add that to Byrd and Purdue has some serious local flavor on his team (even if most are towel wavers). One of them, in fact, has the great name of Bubba Day. I bring this up wondering how much Painter's influence has affected recruiting at the Indiana D-3 level, since many of those walk-ons probably could have been contributors at Wabash, DPU, Franklin, Rose, etc.

[David Collinge]

Belated congratulations are extended to Allegheny senior center George Raftis, who recorded his 1,000th career point with a layup early in the first half against Wilmington College on Sunday.  Well done, George!

---------------------------------------------------------

[in my best John Facenda voice]
This Week in the NCAC:
It's a light slate, with just four Wednesday games, but two of them officially inaugurate the conference season:
Wooster at Ohio Wesleyan 7:30 pm -- video and live stats from OWU, audio from Wooster
Hiram at Oberlin 7:30pm -- Live stats, live audio, live video all from Oberlin
Allegheny at Penn St. Erie, The Behrend College 8 pm -- no coverage that I can find
Kenyon at Case Western Reserve ~8pm (second game of a women/men doubleheader) -- no coverage that I can find

All ten teams suit up for conference action on Saturday; more details forthcoming.

[gobash83]

BTW - Matt Painter has 4 walk-ons this season. All of them are from the area near Lafayette. Add that to Byrd and Purdue has some serious local flavor on his team (even if most are towel wavers). One of them, in fact, has the great name of Bubba Day. I bring this up wondering how much Painter's influence has affected recruiting at the Indiana D-3 level, since many of those walk-ons probably could have been contributors at Wabash, DPU, Franklin, Rose, etc.

I think the fact that Bobby Riddell (initially a walk-on from Lafayette Harrison who went on to be a key contributor as a senior last year) also was an influence.  Not only can you walk-on at Purdue, but you can play if you put in the effort.

While I think that Purdue's receptiveness to walk-ons may have an impact on recruiting at the D-III level, I suspect it is minimal as there are only so many walk-on spots at Purdue.   

[wooscotsfan]

This is one question I had that maybe either you or wsf could answer since you were at the game.  I know that JCU is known for their constant full court pressure and that they force a ton of turnovers.  But, it seemed in listening to the game that Wooster's radio guy kept saying how Wooster just kept committing foolish turnovers.  It seemesd like at least half of Wooster's turnovers were as a result of lazy passees or carelessness with the dribble and not so much from JCU's pressure.  Any thoughts from those in attendance?

From my observations at the game, I would say that the majority of the turnovers were caused by Wooster carelessness and poor decision making on where to pass the ball.  Court spacing was also another issue.  The JCU press was effective at times and in one instance forced a 10 second call when Wooster didn't get over halfcourt.

Carelessness -- several times Wooster players got their pocket picked while dribbling up the court because they didn't focus on ball security with a JCU defender closing in.  Wooster also made one or two bad passes that were just off the mark resulting in turnovers.

Poor decision making -- several times, Wooster tried high risk passes that were picked off by JCU.  A couple of these happened on fast breaks where Wooster foolishly tried to pass through several JCU defenders.  In another instance, a Wooster player tried to pass the ball during the JCU press from near the end line after inbounding all the way to the halfcourt line to another Scot.  Given the length of the pass, it was easily picked off by JCU.

Court spacing -- Near the end of the game, Wooster got trapped near the corner after inbounding which resulted in a turnover.  Wooster also committed a couple of turnovers by letting themselves get trapped against the sidelines.  When you receive a pass near the sideline, the basic rule is to dribble towards the center of the court so the sideline doesn't act like another defender.  To be fair, the Wooster coaches did remind the players to space the court properly in the frontcourt when the Scots were on offense and they did it well.

Wooster did miss a couple of open three pointers but the majority of them were contested and both teams played very tough defense as Toph noted.  Overall, Wooster did a nice job on the boards and they did control the tempo of the game except for the critical last 2 minutes.

The season to date stats tell the story.  Through 5 games, Wooster as a team has only 55 total assists and a very high 89 turnovers.   The Scots are averaging nearly 18 turnovers a game which often results in losses.  It is especially concerning that Wooster's top six players (Hallowell, Franks, Johnson, Balch, Wickliffe, Claytor) each have more turnovers than assists.

Let's hope that Wooster keeps their turnovers under 15 in the game on Wednesday at OWU.

GO SCOTS!

[ScotsFan]

The season to date stats tell the story.  Through 5 games, Wooster as a team has only 55 total assists and a very high 89 turnovers.   The Scots are averaging nearly 18 turnovers a game which often results in losses.  It is especially concerning that Wooster's top six players (Hallowell, Franks, Johnson, Balch, Wickliffe, Claytor) each have more turnovers than assists.

Let's hope that Wooster keeps their turnovers under 15 in the game on Wednesday at OWU.

GO SCOTS!

It's unfortunate that we have to keep bringing up these stats.  These numbers have got to be very frustrating for Coach Moore. I know one of the first stats he looks at after a game is how many asssists there were compared to baskets made.  Saturday's game was a season high for Wooster with just 14 assists.  Before Saturday, Wooster was averaging just over 10 assists/game.  Not Wooster-like basketball.  And when you combine that with the fact that Wooster is averaging nearly 18 turnovers/game, you really have uncharacteristic Wooster basketball.

One more telling stat so far this season:

In Wooster's 3 losses they have had 18+ turnovers.  In Wooster's 2 wins they have had fewer than 14!  That stat pretty much says it all!

[smedindy]

BTW - Matt Painter has 4 walk-ons this season. All of them are from the area near Lafayette. Add that to Byrd and Purdue has some serious local flavor on his team (even if most are towel wavers). One of them, in fact, has the great name of Bubba Day. I bring this up wondering how much Painter's influence has affected recruiting at the Indiana D-3 level, since many of those walk-ons probably could have been contributors at Wabash, DPU, Franklin, Rose, etc.

I think the fact that Bobby Riddell (initially a walk-on from Lafayette Harrison who went on to be a key contributor as a senior last year) also was an influence.  Not only can you walk-on at Purdue, but you can play if you put in the effort.

While I think that Purdue's receptiveness to walk-ons may have an impact on recruiting at the D-III level, I suspect it is minimal as there are only so many walk-on spots at Purdue.   

That's why I was surprised Painter has four of them. I know that last year IU had to ask anyone who played any high school ball to join the team. But Purdue has a team that could be a Final Four team. But again, teams like Kansas and North Carolina also have many walk-ons. Perhaps that's why Painter is filling the practice team with them.

Not knowing the academics, I think Bubba Day or Stevie Loveless (from Frankfort) would have fit in well at Wabash. But again, that's not knowing their academic story. I do know Riddell was accepted at Wabash and had he not been invited to walk on would have probably come to C'ville.

Dru Anthrop was probably destined to walk on at Purdue, since his dad did the same thing.

At any rate, it's an interesting case of 'what-ifs' that can only distract us from the poor shooting of the LGs against DPU.

[pennstghs]

Congrats to Wittenberg for entering the Top 25 for the first time this season debuting at #22.

Wooster is at #25 in the new poll, just saying.

[ScotsFan]

Congrats to Wittenberg for entering the Top 25 for the first time this season debuting at #22.

Wooster is at #25 in the new poll, just saying.

Yeah, yeah.  How many ranked opponents has Witt faced again?  Hope Witt can finally get back on the winning side with Hiram this weekend.  What's that losing streak up to again vs. the Pups?  Just saying.   8)