MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[gobash83]

Congrats to this Wooster Hoops Team on a tremendous season!

Franks is a special basketball player and he and all the Seniors on this team will be remembered for a long time.

Cheers again on a great season.

I concur.  Congrats to Wooster on a job well done and to Ian and his classmates on impressive careers.

[drt]

Congratulations on another great season for Wooster.
Does anyone besides me find it completely counter-intuitive that of all the NCAC teams that have claimed National Championships in basketball, one of them isn't Wooster?

[sac]

Congratulations on another great season for Wooster.
Does anyone besides me find it completely counter-intuitive that of all the NCAC teams that have claimed National Championships in basketball, one of them isn't Wooster?

Yes sort of, but I believe Ohio Wesleyan in 1988 is the only one that was a member of the NCAC at the time.

[Gregory Sager]

Congratulations on another great season for Wooster.
Does anyone besides me find it completely counter-intuitive that of all the NCAC teams that have claimed National Championships in basketball, one of them isn't Wooster?

No, because nothing is guaranteed as far as a national championship is concerned. Just because your team gets into the tourney consistently doesn't mean that a Walnut & Bronze will automatically be forthcoming someday. F'rinstance, Franklin & Marshall's history of coming close but always being the bridesmaid rather than the bride puts Wooster's to shame. Same thing with Augustana; like F&M, Augie's been to the Final Four four times without ever coming home with the Big Doorstop, although Augie may have lost the all-time heartbreaker of national championship games when in 1981 it lost the title game on its home floor (the Carver Center hosted the D3 men's Final Four throughout the late '70s and the early '80s), in overtime, no less ... and the only reason the game even got to overtime was because Potsdam State's Derrick Rowland hit a half-court desperation shot at the buzzer to force the tie.

Conversely, Ohio Wesleyan has only been in the tourney twice -- and one of those two appearances resulted in a national championship. So, while you can't win the national championship unless you have a great team (naturally), there's a certain amount of randomness connected with which schools have won it.

Congratulations on another great season for Wooster.
Does anyone besides me find it completely counter-intuitive that of all the NCAC teams that have claimed National Championships in basketball, one of them isn't Wooster?

Yes sort of, but I believe Ohio Wesleyan in 1988 is the only one that was a member of the NCAC at the time.

True dat. Wabash and Wittenberg won theirs prior to joining the NCAC.

[David Collinge]

The final Top 25 poll is out.  Wooster claims the #2 spot with a healthy margin (33 pts.) over #3 Middlebury.  I was afraid that the respective margins of defeat to UST might keep Midd at #2, but I think the voters realized that the 24-pt. shellacking was not indicative of Wooster's season and especially their tournament run to that point.  In fact, the Scots' total of 593 is just seven points shy of a "perfect" second-place finish.  Wooster's tournament victims, apart from Benedictine (ORV with one vote) all ended up ranked: Manchester #18, Cabrini #19, Whitworth #5, and Williams #4.

Further down, Wittenberg makes a well-deserved reappearance in the poll, nabbing the #22 slot after downing ORV LaRoche and barely being nipped by #11 Marietta.

Wabash slips off the end of the poll, dropping to ORV and effective #27, a mere 12 points off the pace of #25 IWU.

Congratulations to all three squads on fine seasons, and thanks to all nine NCAC teams on another terrific and enjoyable season!

[HopeConvert]

Has anyone here found any extensive collections of photos from the weekend? I'd like to see some, but CoW only has 5 on their website, and I couldn't find any on D3Hoops.

Will there be a video available of the Williams game?

[woo91]

Has anyone here found any extensive collections of photos from the weekend? I'd like to see some, but CoW only has 5 on their website, and I couldn't find any on D3Hoops.

Will there be a video available of the Williams game?

Scott Jones posted some really excellent photos from last weekend on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonesy21/sets/72157626322892598/

[HopeConvert]

Has anyone here found any extensive collections of photos from the weekend? I'd like to see some, but CoW only has 5 on their website, and I couldn't find any on D3Hoops.

Will there be a video available of the Williams game?

Scott Jones posted some really excellent photos from last weekend on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonesy21/sets/72157626322892598/

Thanks. That had some of the shots I was hoping for.

[goscots]

Belated, I'm writing about the gams from Salem.

Congratulations to the Fighting Scots and Ian Franks for all the reasons stated above. It was obviously frustrating to be so close to hanging a banner at Salem but it doesn't detract from the amazing run through the playoffs.

When I watched the second semi-final I was rooting for Middelbury simply because I thought the Scots would have better match-ups. Had they won (Middlebury), it might have been a Manchester/Wooster type final, instead of the blowout it became with St. Thomas. They are very deserving champions.

As a final comment, there was a story in the Canton Rep this week:

http://www.cantonrep.com/sports/x1777825182/Wooster-football-coach-47-600-a-year-for-schooling

Mike Schmitz, the College of Wooster football coach spoke at the Luncheon Club in Canton about how difficult it is to recruit with the very high tuition at Wooster and the relatively modest aid that can be offered.

Although it is not specifically mentioned, could this issue become a problem for the basketball team also?

[wooscotsfan]

Congratulations to Kenyon Grad Shaka Smart who has coached VCU to the Sweet 16 in the Big Tourney!
Shaka Smart is a 1999 Kenyon Graduate and he was All-NCAC his senior year leading the conference in assists.

Here is a link to his bio on the VCU basketball website:
http://www.vcuathletics.com/information/directory/bios/Smart_Shaka

[ScotsFan]

Nice find there wsf!  That's pretty cool stuff.  Smart has really climbed the ladder pretty quickly.  I'm guessing with what he's done with VCU, he's not done climbing that ladder yet either.

Mike Schmitz, the College of Wooster football coach spoke at the Luncheon Club in Canton about how difficult it is to recruit with the very high tuition at Wooster and the relatively modest aid that can be offered.

Although it is not specifically mentioned, could this issue become a problem for the basketball team also?

I read this as well.  I think this could become a problem in terms of finding quality kids that could recieve scholarship offers at the DII or NAIA level and still getting them to forego those scholarships offers and come to Wooster. 

I will say, due to the large discrepancy in the numbers you need to fill a football roster compared to a basketball roster, I would think it would be less of a problem for the basketball program.  Thow in the fact that the basketball program can boast things to potential recruits like the 2nd winningest program all-time, the highest win percentage in the 2000's of all divisions, seven straight NCAC championships and 3 Final Four appearances in the last 8 years including this year's runner-up finish and I'd say Coach Moore and Coach Cline should be able to still lure in some pretty solid recruits.

[fantastic50]

Mike Schmitz, the College of Wooster football coach spoke at the Luncheon Club in Canton about how difficult it is to recruit with the very high tuition at Wooster and the relatively modest aid that can be offered.

I can imagine that it would be difficult, but it's worth noting that Wooster has the lowest tuition of the Ohio Five (which also includes Oberlin, Kenyon, Denison, and OWU).

[WAlum]

SHAKA the world!  Kenyon grad takes VCU to the Final Four!

[woolax]

Any information on potential recruits for Wooster next year?

[bufordscot]

Mike Schmitz, the College of Wooster football coach spoke at the Luncheon Club in Canton about how difficult it is to recruit with the very high tuition at Wooster and the relatively modest aid that can be offered.

I can imagine that it would be difficult, but it's worth noting that Wooster has the lowest tuition of the Ohio Five (which also includes Oberlin, Kenyon, Denison, and OWU).

Not exactly hotbeds of college football.