MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[ScotsFan]

Congrats to Witt on turning the tables on Wooster tonight.  Witt was on the short end of the stick in blowing a double digit second half lead at Wooster and tonight, the Tigers returned the favor to the Scots by overcoming as much as a 14 point deficit early in the second half to come all the way back for the win.

Clayton Black was too much for Wooster tonight.  It should have been pretty clear when he made his first 3-pointer of the season, that we were in for one of those nights...   

When Wooster looks back at what went wrong in this game, they need look no further than rebounding and more specifically offensive rebounding.  Witt outrebounded Wooster 39-30 and the more crucial number was a 15-7 advantage for Witt on the offensive glass.  That was the difference in this one. 

And for as good as Wooster looked offensively in the first half, they were equally as bad in the 2nd half.  Case in point, Nathan Balch's 2nd half dissapearance.  He scored 13 points in the first half and was shut out in the 2nd half.  And Matt Fegan's shooting and scoring woes continue.  In Fegan's last 6 games dating back to Witt round one, Fegan has averaged just over 2 ppg and is 3-19 from 3-point range over those 6 games?!  He really needs to get things figured out if Wooster has any hopes of making a deep run come tournament time.

Wooster now finds themselves in a position of needing help if they want to claim their 7th straight regular season conference title.  Not something I thought we'd be talking about just a couple of weeks ago... 

[ScotsFan]

Micheal Cooper, he did a fairly good job on Franks in the second half and kept him well below his scoring average. Although Franks had more than enough driveing layups, I honestly don't think he had a 3 pointer all night and may not have even gotten one off.

The 3-point shot isn't really where Franks is most lethal from an offensive perspective.  He looks to get most of his points driving to the basket and at the ft line.

But with that said, he did manage to make one 3 pointer on four tries...

[sac]

Refresh my memory, how many years in a row has Wooster won the NCAC?

[smedindy]

Six in a row, and seven of eight, regular season crowns for the Scots.

Though right now, any of the top four could win the tourney given matchups, etc. AND Hiram could sneak in and win a couple of games and really wreck things.

[David Collinge]

Wooster and/or Wittenberg have won or shared every (regular season) NCAC Championship since the 1988-89 season.  Witt shared the conference title with Allegheny in 1992-93, and since then it's been only Wooster (11 times including the last 6) or Wittenberg (6 times).  OWU is the only other team to have won an outright title (twice, 1984-85 and 1986-87), while Allegheny has shared the title three times but never won it outright. 

Congratulations to Wittenberg on a great victory today.  Same goes for Hiram, OWU, and 'Gheny.

[GoRed]

Not something I thought we'd be talking about just a couple of weeks ago... 

As I recall, I spoke of this a few weeks ago but was summarily chastised.  Regardless, Witt played an outstanding game and
Clayton Black was great.  Congrats Witt on moving into the top spot.

[wooscotsfan]

Or if they lose to Wittenberg, which I would put the odds at 50-50, or maybe worse for Wooster, then the Scots may not play another home game after Feb. 19. There is recent precedent for this. In 2005-06, Wooster was #1 in the country heading into the final regular season game against OWU. They lost there, and in the NCAC title game, giving them three regional losses. They went on the road for the first two games of the NCAA Tournament.

Prophetic post by Seinfeld. k+  Wooster now finds themselves in a tough spot because they may not play any more home games after February 19th unless they win the NCAC tourney, regardless of the hosting site.

If Wooster's key seniors (Franks, Balch, Wickliffe) want to make some noise in the NCAA tournament, the Scots need to regroup and try to win their next 5 games (2 regular season, 3 NCAC tourney) so Wooster gets a decent seed and hopefully some home games in the NCAA tournament.

Rebounding, minimizing turnovers and avoiding offensive lapses (Wooster was stuck on 68 points last night for ~6 minutes while Witt went on a 12-0 run to take a 5 point lead) should be Wooster's focus in the next few games.

GO SCOTS!

[wooscotsfan]

When Wooster looks back at what went wrong in this game, they need look no further than rebounding and more specifically offensive rebounding.  Witt outrebounded Wooster 39-30 and the more crucial number was a 15-7 advantage for Witt on the offensive glass.  That was the difference in this one. 

ScotsFan nailed the key factor in last night's loss by Wooster. k+  Wittenberg's rebounding advantage in this game meant that Witt got 63 shots at the basket versus only 58 for the Scots.

So, while Wooster outshot Witt (46.6% to 44.4%) they still lost the game with the Tigers taking 5 more shots.

In Wooster's other loss, Wabash took 58 shots compared to only 50 for Wooster.  The Scots had 20 turnovers in that game and gave up 11 offensive rebounds which is why the Little Giants had more shots and won the game.

Wooster generally shoots a higher % than their opponents (as they did in their 2 losses!) but they waste that shooting advantage when they lose the rebounding battle or commit too many turnovers.

[ScotsFan]

Wittenberg's rebounding advantage in this game meant that Witt got 63 shots at the basket versus only 58 for the Scots.

So, while Wooster outshot Witt (46.6% to 44.4%) they still lost the game with the Tigers taking 5 more shots.

In Wooster's other loss, Wabash took 58 shots compared to only 50 for Wooster.  The Scots had 20 turnovers in that game and gave up 11 offensive rebounds which is why the Little Giants had more shots and won the game.

Wooster generally shoots a higher % than their opponents (as they did in their 2 losses!) but they waste that shooting advantage when they lose the rebounding battle or commit too many turnovers.

Yep.  There is a negative trend with this team that gives me great cause for concern as the post season nears.  And that is Wooster's inability to match up with teams who are big and physical on the inside.  Witt, Wabash and even Hiram have seemed to all out-muscle Wooster inside on the boards and especially when it comes to Wooster giving up too many offensive boards which lead to 2nd chance points.  Wooster has GOT to figure out a way to do a better job of boxing out, although last night they may have been so preoccupied with boxing out Witt's bigs, they forgot to account for the smaller players as 6'2" Seth Hill corralled 13 boards?!

All in all, if Wooster can't figure out a way of tightening down their pension for giving up so many offensive rebounds, their post-season will be shorter than expected...

[seinfeld]

Not something I thought we'd be talking about just a couple of weeks ago... 

As I recall, I spoke of this a few weeks ago but was summarily chastised.

Good try, Big Red, but this isn't quite what you said. Here is what you actually said:

The big guys seemed to get intimidated by the smaller, but tougher, Denison inside guys.

I'm sure there were a couple of moments in that game where Wooster's frontline wasn't as aggressive as they should have been, but considering they outrebounded Denison 47-33 in the game you are referring to, how intimidated could they have been? Add in the rebound total from the first meeting, and the Scots outrebounded the Big Red by 22 boards in two games.

Not the composure I expected from the Number 1 team, and I have to say I enjoyed watching it.

Again, not really sure where this comes from. Wooster trailed by four points about five minutes into the second half, then outscored Denison 36-24 down the stretch. Not sure where the lack of composure comes from. And this comment was made while Wooster was undefeated, having won several games in tight fashion, including late come from behind wins over Carnegie Mellon (road) and Baruch (neutral) while grinding out tough wins over Allegheny (road), Wilmington and Wabash (road). And right after your "insightful" observation, Wooster rallied from 11 points down with less than 10 minutes to play against Wittenberg to win. I guess they showed some composure there.

I see a lot more cool from the other two W's - maybe because they don't read as much of their own press.

This statement pretty much discredited any thing else you have said -- even things that may have had some merit. Are you traveling around Ohio watching these teams play? How can you make some sort of assessment like that? You obviously hadn't seen Wabash play, since they just lost to Denison last week. I just pointed out how Wooster rallied against said "W" team with better composure. In Wooster's loss to Wabash, the Scots trailed almost the entire game, but rallied from down seven points with 4:20 to play to force overtime. I would say they kept their cool pretty well in that game. Now, the Scots did blow a big lead against Witt last night, but from all reports, the comeback came as a result of great all-around play from the Tigers, not some sort of mental breakdown from the Scots.

As for the reading the press nonsense, there isn't a coach who has more antipathy to publicity and rankings than Steve Moore. He encouraged the College NOT to publicize the #1 ranking in any way. And while I'm sure there are a few Wooster fans who were already booking their Final Four tickets (this would be the case with any team in this position), all the Wooster fans I know felt Wooster never deserved to be #1 and had a couple of areas that needed fixing. That's the beauty of a long season. These things get flushed out. But after the dust settles, Wooster has lost only two games -- to two nationally-ranked teams -- by a combined five points. They are right were they were when they went to the Final Four (2003 & 2007), and they are also where they were when they bowed out quickly in the NCAA Tournament (2006). So we'll just have to see what happens.

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After seeing how the Scots handled that game, I don't think they have the heads for sweeping conference play and going deep in the tournament any more.

I'm not sure many people thought they were going to sweep the conference schedule. It has only been done three times since the conference went to just one division in the early 1990s. If a Wooster fan posted it on this message board, I'd like to see the quote. As for a deep tournament run, again, people I have talked with were and remain slightly skeptical of how this is all going to play out. But when you're team is undefeated and #1, what are you supposed to think? That you are going to lose in the first round of your conference tournament?

As for Wooster's rebounding, this obviously hurt them last night, but they have always had problems rebounding against Wittenberg. This is the Tigers' bread and butter -- big, physical inside play. But I'm not ready to declare this a significant problem. For one, Wooster leads the NCAC in rebounding margin (+9.7). Second, Wickliffe, Wooster's top rebounder, was limited to just 16 minutes with foul trouble, so this was a factor. And in the Wabash loss, Wooster did give up too many offensive rebounds, but for the game they outrebounded the Little Giants by 7, and Wabash got more offensive rebounds, in part, because they missed 10 more shots, creating more opportunities for offensive rebounds.

[smedindy]

I edited the poll, may have screwed it up...

[GoRed]

Keep in mind I was speaking to their composure in that game (Wooster at Denison), which I don't think any of the writers here witnessed other than me, and what I believed it meant for their ability to run the table and go deep into the tournament.  After seeing what happened in the first game at Wooster, I thought they might be good enough to go through the conference without a loss.  I then saw a few distinct flaws in their armor that night at Livingston.  The fact you feel they demonstrated their composure by pulling that particular game out doesn't prove my point wrong.    

I understand that you and the other Wooster fans won't ever agree with me on this.  I still stand by my comment and it has so far proven out in who is now on top of the conference.  If they do happen to pull out the conference now and go deep into the tournament, good for them.  They have a lot of talent.  

Lastly, I have been to and watched many games - the miracle of video on the internet.  Saw Wabash/Hiram and Woo/Witt.

[pennstghs]

I think some of the rebounding woes come from the fact that Wittenberg and Wabash are two strong rebounding teams. As seinfeld alluded to, Wittenberg has a history of dominating down low in matchups against Wooster and this is certainly not an unheard of stat.

I think Wednesday's Witt/Wabash game could be the biggest game of the season for both teams because of this. With another regionally ranked win, Wittenberg gives itself a strong case for an at large bid if something happens in the conference tournament. Wabash needs a strong victory for confidence reasons, but also to help any floating chance sof a Pool C bid (not many remain at all)

[bashbrother]

Edit - Original photo was removed from web.  This one will do.

[smedindy]

I agree. 10 points.