MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[David Collinge]

Pat's already got a story up on the front page.  Since James Cooper was the last-second hero, his picture accompanies the story.  That means there's two different pictures of Coop on the front page.  I hope it doesn't go to his head! 

Dan Russ, Kyle Witucky, and Steve Moore have all also graced the front page early in this season.  Pretty cool... 8)

[ScotsFan]

Its nice to finally celebrate a Scots win over a Coccia House pizza again!!! All I can say is that was an epic game, and more specifically, an epic 2nd half.  The first half was all Witt in the first 10 minutes and all Woo in the final 10 minutes.  But the 2nd half was nip and tuck all the way with no team enjoying more than a 5 point cusion.  I can't remember one half of basketball being so competitive where there seemed to be absolutely NO margin for error.  One stat that popped out at me, in catching Coach Moore's post game comments in the car after the game, was the fact that, not only did Wooster only committ ONE turnover in the second half, six of their seven total turnovers occurred in the first 5-6 minutes of the contest!  That means that Wooster only had ONE turnover over the last 35 minutes give or take a couple!  Pretty amazing stat, considering how strong Witt's defense is.

MoneyBall, I echo your sentiments regarding ESPNU.  I had (emphasis on the word HAD) some high hopes when ESPN launched the new channel.  But, I have since been SEVERELY disappointed.  All they showed the entire fall season were repeats of football games that aired on ABC, ESPN, or ESPN2!  I thought ESPNU might be interested in a bit more diversity in college athletics.  At the very least, they could show some other college sports such as soccer or hockey, not to mention some sports at the smaller divisions.  They didn't even televise any of the soccer playoff games, which I thought would be the least they could do.   I have come to the conlcusion that this channel is nothing more than and extra "Instant Classic" channel for ESPN to air major college football and basketball.  I think that they are missing out on a lot of REAL college atheletics stories by not covering ALL college athletics at every level.  If any fan of basketball were to watch the performance of both Witt and Woo tonight, and not walked away thinking, that was on HELL of a basketball game played at a high level, I would have to beg to differ as to whether or not you were a true fan of the game of basketball!

Oh well, enough of that tangent.  I have been meaning to vent on that subject and MoneyBall got me started.  Not like anything I say in here, or to ESPN is going to get those suits interested in anything DIII.  Hell, the only football playoff games they show round by round are DI-AA.  They did show a couple of DII games, but I don't even know if the DIII finals are going to be on the N"etwork"?!  It just pisses me off that they are missing the boat on this and there is nothing that can be done!

[ScotsFan]

DC, you should've postponed your move to SoCal by about a week!   You missed one of the best games (if not THE best game)  I have witnessed at Timken since I have been following the Scots.  Breck does a fantastic job on the radio, but, even he could not do justice to the explosion that went off when Coopers shot ripped the net!  BTW, when all the congrats were exchanged by the 2 teams, the students and players lifted Cooper on their shoulders celebrating his herorics.  I'm sure he was loving every minute of it as he is a Springfield native, and he wasn't heavily recruited by Witt!  It was pretty cool to see a Wooster celebration on the Timken floor as opposed to the other way around as has been the trend lately! 8)

[GoBigRed]

Smedindy -

Were you in attendance? The rotation had EVERYTHING to do with it! Their big guy is their best player and one of five or six guys who could be conference POY, and they start him at the top of the key?

When you refer to Wabash's 5-out (because even though I don't have that big a bball IQ I know you couldnt possibly be serious about a 5-in, that sounds like 3sec waiting to happen), did they have a big man of this caliber who they all but disregarded for the sake of developing a freshman?

Denison has 6 talented kids, I wont name names because maybe someones parents will get their feelings hurt, but if you go 11 deep, that means theres 5 guys who shouldnt see the floor. And sure enough there were stretches in the game tonight when those excess 5 were in the game together. Im not saying those kids wont be good in a year or two, but theyre not ready. If I know that, then how come Denison's coaches dont know that? 

They need to play those 6 30 minutes a game, and if youre gonna play the other guys, switch the other 5 in two per game to fill the other 20 minutes. Maybe I just gotta stop going to their games, they were 2-1 before I started going.

[David Collinge]

Here's a photo of Cooper's game-winning shot, courtesy of Matt Dilyard of the College of Wooster:


Evidently Witt doesn't think Cooper has the range, as Billy Bowen is giving Cooper plenty of space.  I wonder what Steve and Doug are thinking--they look pretty sedate as they watch the shot go up.

[David Collinge]

Hugh Howard's (Wooster) press release has been added to this site, and can be accessed from the front page.  It's a very good write-up; but so is Ryan Maurer's (Wittenberg).  Since there is only one press release associated with each game, here's a link to Ryan's recap.

Wittenberg also has an audio archive of their broadcast available here.

[smedindy]

It looks like Hern and Hodgkinson are leading the team in minutes. Hern played 29 minutes against Bluffton, which seems OK to me.

"5 in / 5 out" is the sub pattern - its akin to a line change, which can be effective if your second unit brings a lot of energy. It can really disrupt what the other team is doing.

I think you'll find a lot of teams don't play six players 30 minutes a game, unless they absolutely had to. It would wear them down.

Tom Port only averages 29 minutes a game for Wooster.
Dan Russ only averages about 26 minutes a game for Witt.

In fact, in the HUGE game Russ only played 31 minutes. Port did play 34, but this was a HUGE game, not a non-conference game against a non-rival.

[woosterbooster]

Just some opinions on the Wittenberg-Wooster game, which was one of the most exciting basketball contests I've ever seen.  I totally agree that either ESPNU or CSTV should pick up these broadcasts; the sporting world is missing out on something very special.

Wooster's defensive effort was a sight to behold.  From Coach Moore's first timeout onward, they stepped it up to an unbelievable level.  The gameplan, obviously, was to not double down underneath, and that caused problems.  But the Wooster big men (especially Vandervaart, whose hustle was phenominal) did an excellent job considering that they had to try to handle Russ and Borchers one-on-one.  Borchers is good, but Russ is much better.  He has so many ways to score, and a terrific shooting touch.  Certainly a player who could play many minutes at mid-range D1.

On the perimeter, though, is where the defense paid its real dividends.  The ball was continually pressured, as were the off-players, and as the game went on, entry into the middle became more and more difficult.  Everyone was involved, but Brandon Johnson stood out.  I've come 180 degrees on my opinion of him as a player.  Offensively, he plays within the flow, takes what's there, and has excellent court vision.  Defensively, his quickness, hustle, and tenacity sets him apart, at least last night.

The only player who seemed not to step his game up after that first timeout was Evan Will.  At some point later in the game, after another timeout, Steve Moore was in his face, hard.  From that point on, Will was a changed player, keeping many balls alive inside and not being afraid to try to score.  Late coming, but an excellent effort.

Tom Port, after a sluggish start, had an excellent game.  As was pointed out, he's a streak shooter, but once he got it going, he was a force, both from three-point land and inside.

Kyle Witucky, offensively, was definitely off his game.  He forced some threes, and at least one other shot, a runner on the right side.  He even missed both of his free throws. 

James Cooper.  What can you say?  He drives me nuts by often standing on the wing waving for the ball when he's only half open.  He seems to look annoyed when he doesn't get it.  But then, when he GETS the ball, he nearly invariably delivers, able to score either inside or outside, despite the pressure. 

His scoring, inside, is very old school.  After penetrating, more often than not, rather than fly out of control to the hoop, he'll pull up for a very under-control short jumper.  He shoots from well back above his head, with a high arc and an occasional pump fake.  Getting shots off in a crowd when you're undersized is an art, and he's mastered it.  I've only seen him rejected twice this year (probably more, but that's all that I remember), once by a Stout seven-footer (whom he shot over a few other times to score) and last night by a second big-man coming in from the side.  Can't recall if it was Borchers or Russ.

3.  The officiating was, as usual, not up to the level of play.  There was one call where one of the refs, standing no more than 10-12 feet from a Wittenberg shooter, signalled that his shot was a three when the guy's foot was clearly on the line, visible even 60 feet away, in the stands, on the other side of the court.  Luckily, this was quickly overruled by another official.  Even the Witt victory in the JV game is tainted, as whoever threw in the half-court shot to win it took two and a half big long steps before releasing it.  And obvious travel, pointed out by everyone in the gym, but the officiating crew was oblivious.

4.  The Wittenberg crowd did have the best chant.  After a great steal by Brandon Johnson, the Wooster students broke into:

HE'S a FRESHman
HE'S a FRESHman
HE'S a FRESHman

The Witt crowd quickly retorted:

WE didn't WANT him
WE didn't WANT him
WE didn't WANT him

They may, though, wish to revise their lyrics (and/or scouting) after Johnson's performance last night.

One last comment.  I don't, at all, consider Wittenberg to be a dirty basketball team.  They play hard and physical.  They'll sometimes push and hold, and they know the little tricks.  However, that's not dirty ball; holding a player never hurt him.  It's up to the referees to watch for this kind of stuff.  Unfortunately, they tend to let too much of it go on.

However.  There was an incident last night where Dane Borchers set a hard, but absolutely legal, pick at midcourt.  One of the Witt guards ran Brandon Johnson into it at a pretty high speed.  My problem is that Borchers's elbow came up at the last second, aimed at Johnson's face.  Luckily, it appeared to not connect solidly, although Johnson hit the deck hard, mostly from the pick itself.  But that elbow WAS a very dirty play, and Borchers should be ashamed.

[woolax]

If one wants to listen to the Witt Archive broadcast of the game is it free? or does one have to pay?

[ScotsFan]

WB,

Great points all around.  I too was very impressed by the defensive tenacity showed by Wooster last night after that 2nd timeout.  Especially, the perimeter defense.  I think that Wooster learned from the Stout and Earlham games that they were leaving shooters open outside when they were trying to double down inside and they were getting burned.  Not last night, however.  Witt came into the game last night leading the league in 3-point fg percentage at nearly 44%.  Last night, they only made 3-11 and went 0-4 in the 2nd half!  

I echo your sentiments on Brandon Johnson and James Cooper.  Cooper is really proving himself to be a real special player.  And, usually, one area where freshmen seem to struggle early is on the defensive end of the floor.  Not Brandon Johnson.  That kid was all over the place, making several key steals including the biggest one with under a minute to go in the game.  Witt's fans might want to re-think their "We didn't want him" chants, because Witt let Cooper get right out from under them, and I didn't see any Witt freshmen better than Johnson's all around game last night!

The officiating was sub-par at best, and that is being generous.

There was one call where one of the refs, standing no more than 10-12 feet from a Wittenberg shooter, signalled that his shot was a three when the guy's foot was clearly on the line, visible even 60 feet away, in the stands, on the other side of the court.  Luckily, this was quickly overruled by another official.

I think you are being generous in saying that the official was only 10-12 feet from the shooter.  It was Russ shooting, and I remember the official in question running up from behind and looking right at Russ's feet, and he still gave him the trey?!  Another official had to come from clear across the floor to over-rule him after everyone in the gym (besides the Witt folk) erupted about his foot being on the line!  Also, I thought that Russ got away with at least two charge calls as well.  On one, Russ was on a breakaway and Vandervaart beat him down the floor and looked to have established position well before Russ got to him.  Russ plowed him over and got the blocking foul and the hoop!  

And that pick by Borchers on Johnson?  I saw it on the replay last night on our cable access channel and Borchers definately threw out his elbows.  If that wasn't intentional, I don't know what you would call it?  

Finally, I just have to tip my hat to Daniel Russ.  I don't know what it is about Wooster, but he comes ready to play every time these two rivals meet up!  I was telling a friend of mine, their coaches ought to get a sports psychiatrist to work with Russ so that he can envision every opponent they are playing in Wooster uni's and the young man would be UNSTOPPABLE!!!  He is a tough competitor and seems like a class act on and off the floor.  Maybe Kenny Brady could use a lesson or two in how to conduct yourself with class from Russ!

[Kramer]

smedindy - Denison hasn't been subbing 5 in/5 out, it's been a constant yanking of players in and out, with Hern and Hodgkinson usually getting around 28 minutes.  The problem they seem to be having is that some of the guys just aren't ready and the players that are never get in to the flow of the game.  Additionally, it seems that they never seem to have the right combination of players in the game.  They go through periods in the game where they literally have 5 players out there that can't score, which results in big spurts for the opposing team.  Then the momentum swings and they just can't get back on track.

[goscots]

Not sure I can add anything new to the great set of comments made from last nights games, but I'll reinforce a few points.

First - Thanks to Mr. Collinge for typing the play by play. Even though I was there to enjoy it, it was great to be able to come back to 'relive' it through your posts. The Wittenberg site has the play by play also with the box score but its not as easy to follow.

Second - This is a classic because it played out exactly as billed, Witt's superior front court against Wooster's superior backcourt. Early on Witt had the advantage but you knew that as Witt's guard got tired it would swing.

Third - I agree with an earlier post - it would be great if Witt did not drop at all in the D3hoops poll, but the reality is they will probably be 5th or 6th on Tuesday.

Fourth - IMO this was Ports best game at Wooster. His two best games this year are now Stout and Witt - the most important games for him to step up. Brandon Johnson just continues to amaze me - he is playing like a second year Varisty player.  Vandervaart didn't put up big box score numbers, but his hustle and work effort was second to none. Coach Brown gave him credit in the Daily Record with the momentum changing play with his dunk off a Fulk assist.

Last - Even though I called out a few players above, this was a team effort. Wooster just does not lose much when the bench comes in. Last night there were several periods of time when only two starters were on the floor.

[woolax]

I know sometimes the local cable channel in Wooster sometimes re-plays the Wooster basketball games. If anyone in Wooster could tape the game I would be more then willing to pay for a copy of it. Contact me at cliverman@hotmail.com

[imderekpoe]

I've got to second Wooster Booster's comment on Evan Will.  He had a rough time of it in the first half, made a couple of bad turnovers during the Tirger's 14 - 0 run, and looked out of place.  But, when he was given the chance to get back in the game, he turned his game around and was a completely different player.   Also, Brandon Johnson was huge with his defense, and in particular one long offensive board where he soared WAY over everyone else to grab it.

I have to admit that even though I picked Wooster in the Pick 'em, I really felt that the Tigers would win, maybe easily.  I didn't think that the Scots would be able to stop Russ (and they couldn't), but I also figured that if Earlham could shut down the Scots perimeter game that Witt would certainly be able to.  Fortunately that was not the case, and that was really the difference in the game.  The Scots guards handled the ball better, were able to score from outside or distribute the ball inside when they had position, and played better defense.  

Great game from both teams, and I'm certainly hoping for more of the same on February 4!

Go Scots!

[smedindy]

Kramer -

The impression I got from reading the threads was that Denison was going in five at a time at some point. I'm sorry if I misinterpreted or if the posts weren't clear.

That's happened with Wabash at times, early in the seasons past with a young team. There were some combinations that were interesting. It's just a way of learning who really can play.