MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[Gregory Sager]

Then why does it feel as though you've been posting it all summer?

File this request under "heading off Chuck at the pass", then. 

[ScotsFan]

At least Wooster won't be a unanimous pre-season #1.  According to the MIAA page, DIII News has released a pre-season top 25 and Wooster checks in at #6 with Wittenberg at #20. 

Here is the DIII pre-season top 25:

1. Virginia Wesleyan
2. Amherst
3. William Paterson
4. Baldwin-Wallace
5. Wisconsin Whitewater
6. Wooster
7. Mississippi College
8. Widener
9. St. Thomas
10. Tufts
11. Ursinus
12. Randolph-Macon
13. Scranton
14. Hope
15. Augustana
16. WPI
17. Coe
18. Lawrence
19. Claremont
20. Wittenberg
21. Lincoln (Pa.)
22. Maryville (Tenn.)
23. Occidental
24. Gordon
25. St. John Fisher

Personally, I like this one better than the S&S.  Keep that bullseye off of the Scots for as long as we can please. 

[goscots]

Does anyone know when the scrimmages are to be played?

[imderekpoe]

Does anyone know when the scrimmages are to be played?

This is what I've got on the Scots' scrimmages:

Sunday, October 22      Intrasquad Scrimmage  2:00 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 28         Black/Gold Scrimmage  11:00 a.m.
Friday, Nov. 3               Scrimmage @ Otterbein  6:00 p.m.  (probably only taking the upperclassman)
Saturday, Nov. 4          Freshman scrimmage vs. Lakeland Community College  10:00 p.m. (at Wooster)
Monday, Nov. 6            Downtown Rebounders Meet the Team Night. 
Wednesday, Nov. 8      Scrimmage vs. Ashland University  7:00 p.m. (at Wooster)
Saturday, Nov. 11        Exhibition Game vs. Alumni Team   7:00 p.m.

[goscots]

Thanks for the info cmhscots.  Is the intra squad on Sunday open to the public? I could possibly swing through. I'd like to see some of the new players.

[woosterbooster]

Thanks, cmh, for that schedule.  Never gone to one of their scrimmages before, but I'm antsy to get this season underway and maybe seeing them in action will temporarily sate me. (Took 59 years for me to work the word "sate" into a sentence, so I don't care if I used it correctly or not. )

[imderekpoe]

I made it over to the scrimmage today.  They spilt the squad into 3 5-man teams and 1 6-man team.  Each team played 2 16-minute games with no subs except for the 6-man team.

I thought the star of the day was Brandon Johnson.  He played great defense, ran the offense well, and provided scoring when needed.  Among the veterans Port, Vandervaart and Fulk also looked really good.  Cooper looked OK in his first game, but didn't do much in the 2nd.  I think that he needs to work a little harder on offense when he doesn't have the ball.

I'm not sure who most of the newcomers were, but some looked like they were ready to contribute.  Once of the point guards (#21 - maybe Kyle Molz) consistently hit 3's from a few feet outside the arc and was the clear leader of his team in the 2nd game.  A couple of the big guys looked OK, but still need some seasoning.  Battista at times looked a little lost in the offense and didn't contribute much, but he did nail all of his FT's. 

Overall, I thought it was pretty good for an early scrimmage.  Sloppy at times, but you could see that there is a ton of talent on this team.

[woosterbooster]

cmh -

I was there, too, and would completely agree with your assessment, although I didn't stay for the fourth game.  Kyle Molz seemed to be the class of the freshmen, and Brandon Johnson was superb; he's gonna go down as one of the best Scot players ever before he's through.  All the other returnees looked sharp and played hard, except for Van Horn.  Damned kid only hit the floor about every fifteen seconds.  One of these days he'll learn to hustle.

Jack

[goscots]

Any comment on VanHorn, Will, and/or Bidwell?  Obviously I didn't get there but the initial observations from cmh sound good.

[Gregory Sager]

At least Wooster won't be a unanimous pre-season #1.  According to the MIAA page, DIII News has released a pre-season top 25 and Wooster checks in at #6 with Wittenberg at #20. 

Here is the DIII pre-season top 25:

1. Virginia Wesleyan
2. Amherst
3. William Paterson
4. Baldwin-Wallace
5. Wisconsin Whitewater
6. Wooster
7. Mississippi College
8. Widener
9. St. Thomas
10. Tufts
11. Ursinus
12. Randolph-Macon
13. Scranton
14. Hope
15. Augustana
16. WPI
17. Coe
18. Lawrence
19. Claremont
20. Wittenberg
21. Lincoln (Pa.)
22. Maryville (Tenn.)
23. Occidental
24. Gordon
25. St. John Fisher

Personally, I like this one better than the S&S.  Keep that bullseye off of the Scots for as long as we can please. 

I didn't think much of this poll at all. Some of these schools (UW-Whitewater, Lawrence, and Augustana all come to mind) lost most of their big guns from last season. Heck, I'll bet that Augie gets picked no higher than third in the CCIW preseason coaches poll (not that the CCIW coaches have a good track record when it comes to prognosticating). And Augie might not even be picked that high.

I also have to question the astuteness of any poll that puts two SCIAC teams in the Top 25. One, maybe. But not two. It's just not a very strong league at all, not even in the haves-and-have-nots sense of the NCAC.

[ScotsFan]

Personally, I like this one better than the S&S.  Keep that bullseye off of the Scots for as long as we can please. 

I didn't think much of this poll at all.

GS, I wasn't saying what I said because I thought the poll overall was accurate.  I was just glad that they didn't have a bullseye on Wooster like the S&S poll does.  While it's nice to be thought of as the #1 team in the country, it does bring with it a lot of unneeded pressure.  Personally, I don't put too much stock into any pre-season polls, but the one they do here is the one that I will look to as being the most accurate.  I do agree with you in that I was questioning some of the teams in that poll.  Usually the S&S poll can be just as questionable IMHO.  Case in point, putting Wooster as the team to beat above the defending national champions who return just about their entire team as well.

[ScotsFan]

Thanks for the updates from the Scot's scrimmage cmh and WB.  Nice to hear that Brandon Johnson is looking so good.  I had a good feeling about him taking over the point duties for Witucky this season.  It's hard to imagine losing a player as valuable as Kyle was to this team and not really skipping a beat, but I actually think that Brandon has the ability to bring even more to the position than Kyle did.

I ran into Coach Moore at the Case Western football game, and, no surprise, he said that Brandon Johnson will be the point guard.  I'm looking for an exceptional season from him, one in which he'll show enough that he might get some preseason All-American honors going into his junior year.  I hope that aside from all the big men recruits is a guard that can step in and get some minutes at the one spot to spell him as I don't think that Cooper or Fulk are really cut out for that role.

From the sounds of it, at least early on, it looks like Kyle Moltz might be that freshman eh?  Cooper and Fulk are more of a shooting guard as opposed to point guards and I agree that they aren't really suited for that role.  I know it's early, but we already know that Kyle's brother was pretty good down at Witt, so it's not too far-fetched to think he could come in and be a contributor right away at the point.

[wooscotsfan]

Wooster has posted the Season Outlook on their website.

Here is a link: http://athletics.wooster.edu/mb/outlook.php


GO SCOTS!!

[goscots]

Took a peek at the Black vs Gold scrimmage today. The Scots looked very good, especially the returning letterman. Not sure of all the freshman but the Gold team was Vandervaart, Will, Cooper, Johnson, and Bidwell. The Black team had Port, Van Horn and Fulk plus what I saw as the two best freshman, Craig Elam and Kyle Molz. Pretty balanced game until the end with Gold winning something like 91-84. As written in last weeks scrimmage Johnson looked real good running the offense. Port was strong to the hoop and shooting well and Vandervaart might have had a triple double (he had a ton of assists).

[David Collinge]

...and the defense?    175-odd points in a scrimmage doesn't suggest that defense is a high priority, unless this was a for-the-fans kind of scrimmage.