MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[seinfeld]

Seinfeld, when will we know if Wingard did or did not make the grades?  I'm assuming he won't be playing on Saturday vs Denison?

I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing Monday, Jan. 6. If he doesn't play again this year, it will mean the Scots will be without two guys (Alex LaLonde being the other) who I thought going into the season could be big keys in addressing the one weakness that was exposed last year -- three-point shooting from the wing. This really showed up against Cabrini (and OWU in the NCAC Tournament). Both have the length and the range to be zone busters (accuracy is still in question). They were also two very athletic guys who could guard both small forwards and big men as well. Wooster has the depth to overcome their absence, but I think it definitely makes a postseason run more challenging.

[sac]

I thought I'd try my hand at offensive and defensive efficiency measures for the NCAC teams. A few notes: 1) this includes all games, so includes some games against non-DIII opponents 2) this relies on my ability to type correct figures into Microsoft Excel, 3) this is my first time running calculations like this, so accuracy not guaranteed.

Offensive measure is points per 100 possessions; defensive measure is points allowed per 100 possessions. Possessions estimated by the generally accepted formula of: Possessions = FGA-OR+TO+.475*FTA. Kudos to members of these boards (especially sac) for making me aware of such a measure in the first place.

Team	Offense	Defense	Differential
Wittenberg	120.7	95.1	25.7
Wooster	107.1	90.2	16.8
OWU	105.2	95.8	9.5
DePauw	103.7	95.6	8.1
Kenyon	109.8	108.3	1.5
Hiram	102.7	105.5	-2.9
Allegheny	103.3	108.5	-5.2
Oberlin	98.6	105.3	-6.6
Denison	100.0	112.1	-12.1
Wabash	92.2	110.2	-18.0

Some observations:
1. Wittenberg's offense is excellent - just a huge gap above the rest of the league. I think a 120ish mark is usually among the elite in all of DIII. Credit the seemingly unstoppable force that is Scott Masin and his 65.5% shooting from the floor.
2. As I expected, Wooster has the best defensive mark, but the gap over the other top contenders is smaller than I expected.
3. Speaking of the top four, there's a major drop-off between DePauw and Kenyon. When the NCAC round-robin is done, it seems unlikely that any of the bottom six will challenge for a top-four finish.
4. Denison is likely not as bad as this metric makes them look, as they've played a tougher schedule than most. In addition to facing Marietta, they've opened conference play with DePauw, OWU and Witt with Wooster next on the calendar. Ouch.

Wittenberg's offensive efficiency will surely come down some.  With the rule changes I'm seeing higher numbers all around.  In the past I viewed Wooster's 90.0 defensive efficiency an excellent number, I think now that's probably in elite territory.

This blog entry is a couple weeks old, but I've attempted to factor in strength of schedule for a couple years.  Using a strength of schedule has Witt/Woo very close.
http://scottsbbblog.blogspot.com/2013/12/a-peak-at-efficiencies.html

[smedindy]

With just a few non-conference games left (two for Kenyon, one for Allegheny, and two for Oberlin) - the NCAC is 37-28 in non-conference - a pretty good recovery.

[wooscotsfan]

1/3 Final Score:
Kenyon 76  Merchant Marine 73   Lords improve to 6-4, play at 8-1 NYU tonight

1/4 Final Scores:
DePauw 61  Allegheny 49   DePauw now 8-3, 3-1 NCAC; Gators now 3-7, 0-4

Wabash 63  Hiram 56    Bash now 2-8, 1-3;  Terriers now 3-8, 1-3

Oberlin 101  Cairn 69   Yeomen rout winless Cairn and are now 4-8

[wooscotsfan]

At the Half:  Wooster 50  Denison 29

Wooster is being led by Xavier Brown with 11 points and Scott Purcell (3 three pointers) also with 11.

[wooscotsfan]

Final:  Wooster 100  Denison 75   

Wooster was led tonight by Evan Pannell with 19 points, Xavier Brown with 15 points, Scott Purcell with 14 points, Kenny DeBoer with 12 and Josh Kipfer also with 12.  Scots shot 62% from the floor and took care of the ball with only 11 turnovers.

Denison's top scorers were Brad Woolard with 24 points and Alex Longi with 16 points.

Wooster is now 11-1, 5-0 NCAC.  Next game is at Kenyon on 1/8.

GO SCOTS!

[kiltedbryan]

1/3 Final Score:
Kenyon 76  Merchant Marine 73   Lords improve to 6-4, play at 8-1 NYU tonight

Kenyon 44, NYU 60.

Kenyon falls to 6-5, NYU improves to 9-1, though against a pretty weak schedule (Massey rates it #309 in DIII).

[wooscotsfan]

1/5 NCAC Final Scores:
DePauw 90  Hiram 89  2 OT's   DePauw squeaks out a key road win to stay in the title race with only 1 NCAC loss so far.
Wabash 73  Allegheny 70   3rd Win a Row for the Little Giants

Current NCAC Standings with 1/5 Results:
1. Wooster 5-0 (11-1)
2. Wittenberg 4-0 (10-1)
3. DePauw 4-1 (9-3)
4. Ohio Wesleyan 3-1 (9-2)
5. Kenyon 3-1 (6-5)
6. Wabash 2-3 (3-8)
7. Oberlin 1-4 (3-8)
8. Hiram 1-4 (3-9)
9. Denison 0-4 (4-7)
10. Allegheny 0-5 (3-8)

[hopefan]

Hope I'm not repeating old news...

Steve Thompson, former captain of Wooster's B-Ball team in early 2000's, named AD at Eureka College, Eureka, Il... member of the SLIAC... St Louis Intercollegient  Athletic Conference...

I'm always happy to see someone come into the SLIAC that has the kind of background Steve Thompson has...

[wooscotsfan]

Hope I'm not repeating old news...

Steve Thompson, former captain of Wooster's B-Ball team in early 2000's, named AD at Eureka College, Eureka, Il... member of the SLIAC... St Louis Intercollegient  Athletic Conference...

I'm always happy to see someone come into the SLIAC that has the kind of background Steve Thompson has...

hopefan -- thanks for the update on Steve Thompson.    Great to see that he is the new AD at Eureka College whose most famous alum is none other than Ronald Reagan.  Steve Thompson was a major contributor on several successful Wooster teams and he was a team captain his senior year.

Here is a link to the news release which includes a photo of Steve Thompson:  http://www.sliac.org/Releases/2013-14/eurekaAD

[wooscotsfan]

New D3Hoops Top 25 poll was released today and the NCAC is well represented with 3 teams: 

Wooster remains at #2 by a slim margin, just 5 votes ahead of #3 IWU which has one loss to a D3 team

Wittenberg moves up to #9 after a couple of wins

Ohio Wesleyan enters the poll at #22 after two very strong road wins over Marietta and Defiance.  Marietta is still slightly ahead of OWU at #19 despite identical 9-2 records and the head to head loss to the Bishops.  Marietta is the only other Great Lakes team in the top 25 as Calvin dropped out.

DePauw also appears in the "other receiving votes" group essentially at #40 with 10 votes in the poll.

[seinfeld]

Seinfeld, when will we know if Wingard did or did not make the grades?  I'm assuming he won't be playing on Saturday vs Denison?

I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing Monday, Jan. 6. If he doesn't play again this year, it will mean the Scots will be without two guys (Alex LaLonde being the other) who I thought going into the season could be big keys in addressing the one weakness that was exposed last year -- three-point shooting from the wing. This really showed up against Cabrini (and OWU in the NCAC Tournament). Both have the length and the range to be zone busters (accuracy is still in question). They were also two very athletic guys who could guard both small forwards and big men as well. Wooster has the depth to overcome their absence, but I think it definitely makes a postseason run more challenging.

Wingard is officially out of school for this semester.

Hopefully Thorpe can get his shooting touch back tonight. For the season he has only hit 50% or more of his field goal attempts in one game, and over the past six games, he is shooting just 28.8% from the field and 25% from three-point range, averaging just 8.5 ppg during that stretch.

[wooscotsfan]

At the Half:  Wooster 44  Kenyon 23

Wooster's post players are leading the scoring as Dan Fanelly has 8 points and Josh Kipfer has 7.

[wooscotsfan]

Final:  Wooster 92  Kenyon 52 

Scots were led tonight by Doug Thorpe who had 16 points on 7 of 12 shooting (over 50% as Seinfeld requested  ).  Also in double figure scoring for Wooster was Dan Fanelly with 12 points, Kenny DeBoer with 11 and freshman Milt Davis with 12.  Wooster made 9 three pointers vs. only 2 made by the Lords.

Wooster is now 12-1, 6-0 NCAC 

GO SCOTS!  

[ScotsFan]

Witt and OWU are headed to OT.

The Bishops were up 22 with 16 minutes left and allowed Witt to come all the way back and force OT.