MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[WoosterFAN]

What is this that I am hearing about Zimmer being hurt? From a basketball standpoint, post players can be defended from the perimeter buy pressure the guards and contesting passing lanes. That is text book Wooster Scot defense. Where we really struggle is with those athletic guards that can create their own shots and opportunities for others. Has IWU faced Scot level defense?

[smedindy]

IWU's schedule is ranked #2 in the Massey Ratings. Wheaton is ranked #5 in Massey's defensive rankings. Just an FYI.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Jordan Zimmer broke his foot last year, and re-injured it last week.  On Friday he 'tweaked' it again, and after starting on fire (10 points in about 10 minutes), barely played after that.  Foolishly, believing my lyin' eyes and the word of his grandfather (sitting in front of me on Friday), I took him out of my starting lineup in the tourney fantasy contest (replacing him with Clayton Black of Witt) - he proceeded to score 28 (39 fantasy points to 13 for Black ) and totally took over the second OT against Hope!  John Koschnitzky is also hurt, with back disc problems that will probably require surgery after the season (according to his dad).  Both are tough as nails and are seniors facing the end of their careers - you can bet that both will play and play as though they are 100% healthy!

[Gregory Sager]

What is this that I am hearing about Zimmer being hurt? From a basketball standpoint, post players can be defended from the perimeter buy pressure the guards and contesting passing lanes. That is text book Wooster Scot defense. Where we really struggle is with those athletic guards that can create their own shots and opportunities for others. Has IWU faced Scot level defense?

Zimmer doesn't create his own shot. Nor is he mostly a spot-up shooter, which is what he was during the earlier part of his career. Most of his perimeter shots this season have come off of screens. What that means is that IWU very consciously sets up its offense to constantly screen on the perimeter in order to spring Zimmer free -- and it also means that Zimmer himself is in constant furious motion around the perimeter, moving from screen to screen in an attempt to get the fraction of a second's opening that he needs to get off his shot.

That's really what made his performance against Hope so remarkable last weekend. His job on the offensive end requires perpetual movement on his part, as compared to his teammates, and it's tough enough to do that on an ailing foot -- but he was at his best in the second overtime, over 30 minutes of personal game time deep into his effort.

[AndOne]

And to add to what GS said above, it should be noted that a large percentage of Jordan Zimmer's running through screens takes place along the baseline. Accordingly, the largest percentage of his 3 balls are launched from the corners, especially the left corner. Another spot the Wesleyan offensive flow and screen sets channels him to quite often is a spot a couple of feet to the left of a line straight out from the basket where he comes off the screen. receives the ball, and turns and fires a three, all in the same motion, often without even one dribble.

[Mr. Ypsi]

And to add to what GS said above, it should be noted that a large percentage of Jordan Zimmer's running through screens takes place along the baseline. Accordingly, the largest percentage of his 3 balls are launched from the corners, especially the left corner. Another spot the Wesleyan offensive flow and screen sets channels him to quite often is a spot a couple of feet to the left of a line straight out from the basket where he comes off the screen. receives the ball, and turns and fires a three, all in the same motion, often without even one dribble.

Yeah, that may be the scouting report Hope had - IIRC, at least 4 of his 7 threes against them were from the right of the key!

Bottom line - if he is 'on', if he gets open for even a split-second anywhere, your only defense is prayer!   He now tops the all-time 3-point list at IWU, and we've had some good ones.

[woosterbooster]

Recently graduated Wooster guard Nathan Balch got a lot of his shots, from the corners, by running the baseline.  It took him a season or two, but by his senior year, he was very comfortable playing without the ball.  Wittenberg's little Sullivan was in constant motion on the perimeter, always working to find an opening to get his shot off.  By his senior year, Wooster generally did a decent job on him, but it took a combination of Warnes and Balch to do it.  Sullivan, though, was much shorter than Zimmer, who I suspect will be able to shoot over the Wooster guards and possibly even Warnes.  Wooster does switch on almost every screen, which will help, but will also provide mismatches underneath for IWU.  Still, as always, I'm more concerned with Wooster's offense than their defense.

[Gregory Sager]

Bottom line - if he is 'on', if he gets open for even a split-second anywhere, your only defense is prayer!

But it needs to be said again that, as Chuck alluded with his "on" comment, there is an element of streakiness to Zimmer. He is not a formidably high-percentage shooter like, say, his IWU predecessor Keelan Amelianovich. Zimmer's more of a 40-45% guy in this type of running-off-of-screens style, whereas Amelianovich was a 45-50% guy. What makes Zimmer more dangerous, though, is his lack of a conscience in terms of depth. He sees nothing wrong with firing up 25-footers, whereas lots of other high-volume perimeter shooters are uncomfortable firing 'em up at that range. That's really what makes Zimmer an ideal screen shooter, because shooting behind screens often means that you have to get off your shot a step or two further back than you'd get it either by spotting up or by creating your own shot. And, in fact, I've seen Zimmer even spot up from that deep; the first big triple that he hit in the second overtime at Hope looked like it was launched from about three or four feet behind the arc, and it did not come off of a screen. Hope simply didn't get out to guard him that far away from the basket.

As WB indicated, Zimmer's height also helps him as a screen shooter, because the screener's defensive man can't simply stop, jump, and block Zimmer's shot.

[old scot]

Hey, hey, you can't do that on here.  You're only allowed to criticize other posters. 

Seriously, I've seen the OWU student section, in Delaware, be pretty obnoxious at Wooster games.  Their own security has had to settle them down.  At Kenyon, a couple of years ago, I watched as some of their students ripped into our cheerleaders, no less.  When they wouldn't stop, I had a talk with a staffer who spoke to them.  Allegheny's students, at baseball games in Meadville, used to bring a keg to the field and were downright rotten.  Unfortunately, here in Wooster, the kids are probably not much better, when they're there, which is unlikely this weekend due to the beginning of spring break.  The Wooster baseball players used to sit together at basketball games and were really bad until Steve Moore himself put and end to it.

Woo Boo, Don't come down on only the baseball players. This was probably the doings of the Kappa Chi Fraternity. Although 40% of the frat was made up of baseball and hoopers others joined in on the agressive cheering. The bball and hoopers were a close knitt group.

It is sad in this age that fans have to be politically correct and not be hard on the visiting team. I guess the home field advantage no longer should exist. We should all have cupcakes and koolaid together after the game.
Most of todays atheletes grew up playing ball when score was not kept and everyone wins in the end. Well, life is not like that. The aggressive people succeed and the rest fall by the way side.
I have no problem with unruly fans. This is college level athletics. Players are trained to handle this environment. I think a team that can handle this reflects the discipline of the coaching that goes along with being a winning program.

Otherwise, GO SCOTS, make it to the finial four.

[formatting fixed]

[magicman]

North Central leads Wittenberg 32-30 at the half.

[DanTHEman67]

Tigers down by 8 and call a timeout.

[DanTHEman67]

Less than 12 mins. left.

[DanTHEman67]

A glimmer of hope in that NCC has some foul trouble so Witt is taking it inside and manages to cuts it to four.

[DanTHEman67]

Wittenberg takes the lead with just over 6 minutes remaining.

[DanTHEman67]

Timeout for NCC with just over a minute left and Witt up 4.