MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[smedindy]

I agree - I think Cooper was the best choice this year in a year where each candidate had their flaws.

[Vanilla24COW]

Wally, I can see your point but I wouldn't say that Wooster doesn't care about defense. While it is true that they have picked up the pace of the game I can tell you that one stat that is very important to the coaching staff at COW is DER. Basically it keeps track of the points per possessions. I would say that Coach Moore has adapted to the talent that this year's team had as far as quickening the pace and firing more from the outside but I would be willing to bet if they were able to get a few 6'7" guys or a good solid post player he would go right back to his bread and butter of pounding the ball inside and playing good tough man to man D

[earlhamalum]

I'm a little surprised by Cooper being POY as a Soph. with sub-par numbers besides scoring and only 1 steal a game.  I would much rather of had Russ win POY if it was not Miller.  

Maybe they changed POY this year and was just worried about OPY.  As Bob Knight said the great thing about basketball, you can't just be an offensive or defensive guy; you need to be able to do a little bit of everything in the game of basketball to be a Great player.  That is what a POY does, and as we all know Cooper does not possess an all around game.  

I sometimes wonder why kids these days just want to score.  They think scoring is everything and then when Individual awards are given they look at scoring.  (gzz I guess how can I blame the kids)  It just blows my mind that all around players get overlooked.  Sorry to Matt Formato and any other kid on HM that should have been 2nd team over Wooster's Kyle Witucky.  As my mom always say, "life isn't fair"

[WoosterBNel]

We all know Russ can score the ball, but he blocks and changes so many shots on the other end. I don't know know how you dont give Russ the POY for the second year I thought it was a lock. I mean Cooper doesn't even rebound THAT well for his position. I guess those 2 more points per game sealed it for him. Hodgy should be a first teamer over Chojnacki for sure. Another big time snub. And whats the deal with K Brady being an honorable mention. Arguably the 3rd or 4th best scorer in the league, but gets punished because he plays a team game and doesn't get as many shots as these other 1st and 2nd teamers. The NCAC was definitely off of their rocker when putting some of these picks together.

[David Collinge]

Congratulations to OWU's Andy Warnock, named today to ESPN the Magazine's Academic All-America Team today.  CoSIDA has selected Andy to the second team of the college division.  This is a great achievement for this outstanding scholar-athlete, who has done his school and conference proud.  Well done, Andy! 

[wally_wabash]

Another big time snub. And whats the deal with K Brady being an honorable mention. Arguably the 3rd or 4th best scorer in the league, but gets punished because he plays a team game and doesn't get as many shots as these other 1st and 2nd teamers.

Please.  Wabash has two or three guys that probably warrant some recognition but have no shot whatsoever at making these teams because of the system that Coach Petty has used with this group.  Let's not play the "he got hosed because of the system" game...there are lots and lots of players in this league that sacrificed any shot at all-conference awards for the betterment of their team. 

I'll tell you what...I'll give you EVERY all-NCAC slot to have and split between Wooster and Wittenberg.  You can have every single slot...we'll have the all-Witt/Wooster team.  You give me the team's slot in the NCAA tournament.  What's that?  No dice?  That's what I thought.  Enough with the sour grapes. 

Wally, I can see your point but I wouldn't say that Wooster doesn't care about defense.

Perhaps we're splitting hairs here, but these are the facts as I see them:   
- Wooster is the most talented team pound-for-pound in this conference (perhaps in the country)
- Wooster dictates the pace of every single game that they play in the NCAC (not even the mighty Witt could slow things down in two regular season games vs. Wooster)
- Wooster can pretty much do whatever they want with the majority of the teams in this league. 

With those things as fact, if Wooster wanted to win the NCAC by playing defense, they could.  They're quicker, more athletic, and have better fundamentals than any other team in the NCAC (unless we're way overstating how great Saint Moore is).  Wooster has chosen to shoot the daylights out of the ball and assume that the other team just can't shoot as well as they do.  It's worked 25 out of 28 times this year (just two teams have better FG%s for the season than Wooster: North Central and Baldwin-Wallace...hmmmm, interesting).  But the fact remains that nearly half of Division III teams hold their opponents to a lower FG% than Wooster does and a full 288 of 377 D-III allow fewer points per game than Wooster does.  Those stats don't lie...Wooster isn't playing defense and they're not terribly concerned about playing defense.  If Steve Moore were that concerned with defense, those numbers would be a lot better...he's got more than enough talent there to have a better defensive ballclub. 

[woosterbooster]

But the fact remains that nearly half of Division III teams hold their opponents to a lower FG% than Wooster does and a full 288 of 377 D-III allow fewer points per game than Wooster does.  Those stats don't lie...Wooster isn't playing defense and they're not terribly concerned about playing defense.  If Steve Moore were that concerned with defense, those numbers would be a lot better...he's got more than enough talent there to have a better defensive ballclub. 

Certainly Wooster isn't playing the defense that they would like to be playing. But it's a quantum leap from there to say that Steve Moore, or the players, are not concerned about it.  Of course they are, and of course they work hard on it in every practice.  I've heard Coach Moore, at least half a dozen times this season, talk about points/possession, both offensively and defensively.  He's often not happy with that defensive number, and would love to get it down.  The same with defensive field goal percentage, which of course intertwines with pts/poss.  But the fact is that Wooster's interior defense just isn't that strong, which in turn can lead to occasional breakdowns on the perimeter.  That doesn't mean, though, at all, that they aren't making the effort or aren't concerned about it.

[ScotsFan]

- Wooster dictates the pace of every single game that they play in the NCAC (not even the mighty Witt could slow things down in two regular season games vs. Wooster)

Wally, this is the very reason behind part of your next statement:

But the fact remains that nearly half of Division III teams hold their opponents to a lower FG% than Wooster does and a full 288 of 377 D-III allow fewer points per game than Wooster does.  Those stats don't lie...Wooster isn't playing defense and they're not terribly concerned about playing defense.  If Steve Moore were that concerned with defense, those numbers would be a lot better...he's got more than enough talent there to have a better defensive ballclub. 

The reason Wooster is allowing so many PPG is because teams that play Wooster are getting more POSSESSIONS per game than they normally would, not because Wooster isn't concerned about playing defense.  The more possessions, the more chances to score.  The more chances to score, the higher your point total will more than likely end up.  Wooster is not running your typical half court offense either and they are dictating the pace of the game to their favor as you stated earlier.  Wooster still had the largest MOV in the country even though they were allowing such a high ppg average.  I'm not saying that Wooster couldn't stand to play better on the defensive end.  I'm just saying that to say they aren't concerned about playing defense is a bit of a stretch. 

[smedindy]

Wooster's high octane offense is the reason the defensive numbers are a bit off.

You can be a good defender without a plethora of steals as well - look at the work off the ball. And if they ever want to serious go into sabermetrics in hoops, you can see about measures like + / - and measuring opponent players efficiency, thingsd like that.

[woosterbooster]

The nature of basketball, fortunately or unfortunately, makes it difficult to isolate an individual's value from his team's success or failure.

Put a Daniel Russ on the court with the Wittenberg "B" team against Wooster, and his +/- won't look so good.  On the other hand, if you put Russ, Borchers, Port, and Cooper on a team with even an old guy like me, we'd likely fair well against lots of DIII teams, even with me just standing in the corner or basket-hanging. :-)

Maybe, though, there are complex mathematical formulas that could adjust a player's +/- based upon who he was on the floor with.

[sac]

I'm curious if Wooster folks think Coach Moore went for the high octane offense after watching his team get bogged down by a superior defense at Albion last year.

As I recall that was a pretty high scoring Wooster team as well.  Just a theory.

[WoosterFAN]

Congrats to all on the ALL-NCAC teams.  Proud of the Scots putting five (including newcomer of the year) on the all-conference team. 

I have to admit I am surprised a little about Cooper named POY as a SOPH.  Maybe now we know that the voting takes place before the tourney final since RUSS was not POY and BORCHERS was not first team. 

Also I thought that NCAC did a 5 player 1st team + POY for a total of six at the top.  According to the news release there were 6 players named first team last year.  Borchers should have been 1st team but I am not sure who you take off.  Maybe Port missing a few games??  Tough call in a more "competitive NCAC".

Last thing, gotta note that three WITT ALL-NCAC players will graduate and WOOSTER brings back 4 of 5 mentioned.  I know it is early but an off-season discussion will have to be: does witt reload or rebuild??

[woosterbooster]

I believe that Borchers has another year of eligibility and has chosen to return next year, ala Port.

[wooscotsfan]

I'm curious if Wooster folks think Coach Moore went for the high octane offense after watching his team get bogged down by a superior defense at Albion last year.

As I recall that was a pretty high scoring Wooster team as well.  Just a theory.

Sac - the real reason that Coach Moore changed the Wooster offense this year was entirely due to the players that he had available.  It had nothing to do with the Albion game last year.   

Wooster graduated two starting big men from last year's squad (6'7" Matt Schlingman and 6'5" Blake Mealer who was a strong guy that held his own in the lane).  Coach Moore had no front court players to replace these two talented big men.

On the other hand, Coach Moore had 5 returning wings/guards who were good ball handlers, strong outside shooters and who had plenty of game experience (Port, Witucky, Cooper, Van Horn, Fulk) as well as a couple of promising freshmen who were 6'3" or shorter (Brandon Johnson, Marty Bidwell).  So Coach Moore wisely changed Wooster's offense to fit his personnel and the Scots switched this year to an up tempo team that will take the open shot quickly if it is available.

One other note, all 5 of those returning wings/guards can shoot the three pointer and when you add in freshman Johnson that is 6 players who are a three point threat for Wooster.

[sac]

Thanks for the answer  wooscotsfan........makes more sense than completely changing your offense based on a single game.