MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[TigerFan_1973]

I just found this on the OAC thread and thought people over here might be interested as well.

Re: OAC
« Reply #296 on: Today at 04:27:15 PM »   

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[WoosterBNel]

Well I am very interested in seeing this torri davis guy play. He sounds like a great player but I have never seen a big man get the better of Russ and Borchers. I cant really put a line on this lake erie game because I have never seen them play. But if we drop a 3rd ncaa first round game there will be some rumblings around the springfield area. Lets get this W and see this torri guy play, sounds like a man who has a passion for the post game like i do.

[DenisonFan]

All Conference has been posted.
Cooper POY.

[ScotsFan]

Well I am very interested in seeing this torri davis guy play. He sounds like a great player but I have never seen a big man get the better of Russ and Borchers.

I wouldn't exactly classify Davis as a "big man" per se.  He's only listed at 6'3".  That's what makes what he does so amazing.  He shouldn't be able to do what he does against guys that he's giving away anywhere from 3-6 inches on any given night.  But he does.  He's just so quick with his post moves and he's got such a nice fade away touch.  And he's got some quick hops to boot.  I've never seen a player follow up their own misses more than he does.  He's just got some great overall basketball instincts which is why he plays a lot taller than his size!

[smedindy]

http://www.northcoast.org/mb/mballncac06.pdf

You know, if Formato was on a better team, he'd be a first teamer.

I think DeWitt's a great choice for coach of the year. Good guy and always has top notch teams.

[ScotsFan]

Wow.  Congrats to James Cooper for being named NCAC POY!  I didn't think he would get it this early in his carreer at Wooster.  I figured Russ was going to win it again.

Congrats to Brandon Johnson as well on being named the NCAC Newcomer of the Year.

Also congrats to all 4 of Wooster's players to make All-NCAC:

1st Team:

James Cooper - 1st time on the all-conference team.
Tom Port - 2nd consecutive selection to the 1st team.  He was a 2nd team selection in his 1st year at Wooster.

2nd Team:

Kyle Witucky - This is Kyles 3rd all-conference mention.  He was 1st team last year and HM in 2004
Tim Vandervaart - Tim was HM last year.

Congrats to all of the fine student athletes to make All-Conference selection.  I was going to include a link, but smeds beat me to it.

The league still seems to be quite young judging from the low # of Sr.'s on the All-Conference team.  Only one senior out of five on the 1st team, only two seniors out of six on the 2nd team, and only three seniors out of seven to make HM.

Smeds, I couldn't agree more with your opinion on DeWitt being named COY.  I don't know him, but he just seems like a real class coach.  He deserves the award after a successful (although he probably would've liked it to be a little more successful) season.

[woosterbooster]

I don't see the second team or HM mentioned in that release, will that be upcoming?  As a matter of fact, when going to the league website, I couldn't even find the release or any mention of the all-league teams. Weird.

I can't believe that Dane Borchers is not on that first team.  With no offense to either Chojnacki or Tom Port, I'd have definitely placed Borchers ahead of one of them.

[ScotsFan]

WB, once you click on the link, you have to scroll down.  The entire listing of 1st & 2nd team and HM are on the 2nd page of that release.

[woosterbooster]

They sure are!  Thanks, Scotsfan, never should have missed that bunny. :-)

[oldtigerfan]

Congratulations to James Cooper.  As I have written earlier, I think Cooper is a great offensive player, but I do not think that at this point in his career he is the all around player that Dan Russ is.  However, Cooper certainly was hard for us or anyone else to stop offensively.

Congratulations to Steve DeWitt.  He is a good guy and a good coach whose team played well especially down the stretch.  I am a Wittenberg fan and believe Bill Brown is a much better coach than he usually gets credit for.  However, if anyone else deserved consideration for Coach of the Year, it is Steve Moore.  He took a look at his talect and realized that he had to change his whole approach .  He did it very successfully.  That is good coaching.  It is hard for Steve Moore and Bill Brown to get the recognition they deserve because we all expect their teams to win, but good for Steve DeWitt.

Dane Borchers deserves to be on the first team all conference.  How can the most valuable player in the conference tournament not be?  I cannot imagine that he would not be among the top five players any coach in the conference would want on his team.

[John Rusnak]

I haven't seen either team play this year, but I can't believe that Cooper is that improved from last year that he warrants POY over Russ.  Somebody made the comment about defense and my presumption is that the mindset of the voters is to pick more based on offense than anything...but with that said, I suppose congrats to Cooper...this could definitely spark Russ to elevate his game.

[jimmychitwood15]

Just here to voice my disappointment of the All Conference honors released today. The big three from Witt were all a level below where they should have been.  POY was close and could've gone either way but I thought Russ was a better all around player. Borchers more than deserved to be on the 1st team, nobody will argue that. Brady is the biggest let down to me (who was 2nd team his Soph year and missed most of last year b/c injury), he has consistently been a clutch player alongside the towers.  I thought Brady deserves that spot over Witucky.

Individual honors mean nothing and I know these guys don't care. The main focus is solely winning one game at a time and making a run in the tournament.

[bigkrapper]

It looks like Hiram, Hired a new coach. 
http://www.hiram.edu/athletics/news/article.xsp?id=820

Looks like he played and graduated from Hiram in 1994, with plenty of coaching experience aftewards.

In one of my only serious posts on this website I want to congratulate Steve Fleming on his return to his alma mater.  I had the pleasure of working with him for a few years at Ashland and he is a class guy with a great knowledge of basketball.  I hope Hiram truly gets behind him (build him a new airport hanger or something) and he is able to build some success there.  Good luck Coach Fleming!

[billy_pilgrim]

Well, glad to see LaRon Henry moved up to 2nd team with his performance last Friday. Also nice that Jewett gets some love.

I guess I'm just not sure about Cooper as POY though. Again, I love Cooper and his game. I thought he should have been Newcomer of the Year last season. And he hit some amazing shots the other night against Earlham, including that baseline spinning layup that proved to be a nail in the coffin.

Still, I think Russ and Miller were the better all-around players. I would have voted Cooper third behind those guys...and that's really no disrespect to James.

Oh well, so it goes.

Good luck W's..........

[wally_wabash]

I guess I don't see how or why it's so surprising that Cooper was named POY.  He was the best player on the league's best team.  Without any other player in the league that really jumps out as a POY guy (sorry, Russ...you're a really good player, but 15/6 just aren't POY numbers).  the award is going to go to the best player on the best team. 

Perhaps the tiebreak between Russ and Cooper was the head to head matchups:  Cooper 2, Russ 0 (these awards are supposed to be based on the regular season only). 

As far as his defense goes...meh.  He plays within a structure that isn't terribly concerned with defense.  Wooster wants simply to outscore the other guy.  They aren't interested in grinding out a game in the 60s.  And it's hard to knock the success...20-something and 3 speaks for itself.  So, in cotext, Cooper played his part.  He's more than deserving of the award.