MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[wooscotsfan]

Wooster is also playing Salisbury the day after the St. Mary's game.

Thanks Pat, always appreciate your excellent work with this website as well!

[imderekpoe]

Wooster will likely play only 7 non-conference games and 18 NCAC games for a regular season schedule total of 25.  So with the 2 Mose Hole opponents, St. Mary's and Skidmore, we are only missing 3 non-conference opponents.  Any other posters have the missing 3?

The Scots will travel to Cabrini on Nov 24.  I think that I've pretty much got the scheduled sorted out.  Still missing one opponent, presumably for the season opening Al Van Wie Rotary Classic.  I also don't have the dates for sure for the Denison games as neither Wooster or Denison has schedules posted yet, but I've made a guess.

11/20 Al Van Wie Rotary Classic
11/21 Al Van Wie Rotary Classic - Skidmore
11/24 @ Cabrini
12/02 @ OWU
12/05 DePauw
12/09 Denison or @Denison 
12/12 @ Wabash
12/19 St Mary's (MD) @ Puerto Rico
12/20 Salisbury @ Puerto Rico
12/28 Mose Hole (Marietta, St. Joseph, Pitt-Bradford)
12/29 Mose Hole (Marietta, St. Joseph, Pitt-Bradford)
1/06 @ Kenyon
1/09 @ Oberlin
1/13 Hiram
1/16 @ Wittenberg
1/20 Allegheny
1/23 @ DePauw
1/27 OWU
1/30 Wabash
2/03 Kenyon
2/06 Denison or @Denison
2/10 @ Hiram
2/13 Wittenberg
2/17 @ Allegheny
2/20 Oberlin

[wooscotsfan]

imderekpoe - I actually found the 2015-2016 Wooster schedule on the internet today though it is not yet linked to the Scots basketball page.  You have the schedule 98% correct and I can provide two minor adjustments. 

The other non-conference opponent is Silver Lake College out of Manitowoc, WI and Wooster will host them on November 19th.  It is not clear from the schedule if this is considered another game in the Al Van Wie tourney or just a separate game?  Silver Lake's head basketball coach is a Canton native, a graduate of Malone University and some of his coaching career has been in Ohio so he may have some type of connection with the Wooster coaches?

Wooster's schedule does show them playing at Cabrini on November 24th.  I think it is good that the Scots will play both Skidmore and Cabrini (two decent opponents) before they travel down to Delaware to play at Ohio Wesleyan on December 2nd.  Tough opening NCAC game on the road especially because OWU returns most of their team.

The other minor adjustment is that the Wooster schedule shows them playing Pitt-Bradford in the first round Mose Hole game on 12/29.  The Scots will then obviously play either Marietta or Mt. St. Joe's on 12/30 depending on the first night's results.  Would be great to see another Woo-Marietta matchup!

Wooster hosts Denison on 1/3 and plays at Denison on 2/6.

GO SCOTS

[sac]

Wooster looking for an assistant coach
http://hoopdirt.com/job/assistant-coach-college-of-wooster-part-time/

any scoop out there?

[imderekpoe]

Wooster looking for an assistant coach
http://hoopdirt.com/job/assistant-coach-college-of-wooster-part-time/

any scoop out there?

I think that last year's JV coach was Casey Kaufman, who is the interim head coach this year at Malone.

[imderekpoe]

Wooster's schedule has been posted.
http://www.woosterathletics.com/sports/mbkb/2015-16/schedule

[wally_wabash]

This can't be a good sign, right?
http://alleghenygators.com/news/2015/10/1/MBB_1001155800.aspx

[Gregory Sager]

Depends upon your point of view, Wally. If you're a fan of a different NCAC team, then that sign might turn out to read, "Free Cupcakes in Meadville!" I guess it depends upon whether or not you like cupcakes.

Allegheny just hired a new head coach, Bob Simmons, at the horrifyingly late date of July 28. (His predecessor, Jim Driggs, had resigned on June 10.) Classes started at Allegheny on August 25. You tell me what level of magic (or skullduggery) would've been necessary for a newly-hired coach to locate, observe, vet, persuade, and enroll a recruit in less than a month on the job, let alone a bunch of them, at a school that has very respectable admissions standards.

The Gators had eleven players from last season who would've been eligible to return this season. Those eleven constituted most of last season's rotation and two of the three double-digit scorers that the Gators had in 2014-15. Given the coaching change and the lackluster (albeit hardly disastrous) 11-15, 8-10 record of a year ago, it's a fair guess that some of those eleven will not be Gators again this coming season. I suspect that the best-case scenario is that Coach Simmons has to bring in a few warm bodies via the dreaded open-tryout route to fill out the 2015-16 roster for practice purposes and as injury insurance. Of course, the worst-case scenario is that enough of those eleven possible returnees declined to come back to force Coach Simmons to hold open tryouts for potential players who will actually see the floor in 2015-16.

Without knowing which and how many of those eleven players are back, it's hard to say just how dire are the straits that Coach Simmons faces. Open tryouts are never a good thing. But the pertinent questions are how many roster slots those open tryouts need to fill, and whether or not those slots are for team roles that are more than practice fodder.

I wish him well. This is an ugly situation to have to face in a brand-new job.

[wally_wabash]

I definitely understand that it can be a tough situation with a coaching change so late in the game.  But maybe I would have gone with some flyers around the rec center or an email to the student body as opposed to a full fledged story on alleghenygators.com. 

[Gregory Sager]

Good point.

[Mr. Ypsi]

I definitely understand that it can be a tough situation with a coaching change so late in the game.  But maybe I would have gone with some flyers around the rec center or an email to the student body as opposed to a full fledged story on alleghenygators.com.

Good point.

Yeah, although probably every coaching staff in the conference would have heard of it, it still might not be wise to publicly advertise that 'we are dead meat'.

Probably won't help attendance either!  Unless there are a whole lot of 'freeway accident' gawkers or Rudy fans in the target audience.

[Or, despite being the furthest school from Indiana, a boatload of Hoosiers fans!]

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

I definitely understand that it can be a tough situation with a coaching change so late in the game.  But maybe I would have gone with some flyers around the rec center or an email to the student body as opposed to a full fledged story on alleghenygators.com.

That may be done as well... and they may be using the website for those who want more information.

Late coaching hires of programs struggling tend to do this. You never know if there are players on campus who didn't have an interest in playing prior and now you can get access to them because they figured why not. Only 10% of high school players play any kind of college level sports - there are bound to be good players just sitting in their dorm room who previously didn't have an interest in playing. For a late-hire coach, getting a sense of what talent you have on the entire campus isn't a bad idea.

[WoostAr]

College of Wooster with an interesting tie to Coach Popovich of the Spurs:

http://grantland.com/features/nba-gregg-popovich-san-antonio-spurs-history-coach-division-three-pomona-pitzer-college-sagehens/

[wooscotsfan]

Wooster's website now lists the 2015-2016 returning 9 letter winners:

Seniors:  Alex LaLonde, Josh Kipfer, Chris Logsdon

Juniors: Dan Fanelly, Milt Davis, Nick Nossaman

Sophomores: Spencer Williams, Ari Stern, Derek Schwarz

[Bishopleftiesdad]

I know that in Baseball most of the NCAC teams have fall ball. Usually the first day of that Fall ball is open tryouts. Is this different in Basketball because it being a winter sport?