MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[David Collinge]

Also,
OWU 53
Kenyon 47

[wally_wabash]

As my good friend LG pointed out to me, it's probably no small coincidence that Wabash's loses their first ever game on the biannual eastern swing just days after I point out that they'd never lost on this trip before.  One of these days I'll learn my lesson.   

Secondarily, Wabash used just 8 players in the game, with 7 of those players eating up 198 of the 200 minutes.  With Zimmer and Stephens both out, there wasn't much experience on the floor for Wabash today.  Freshmen Aaron Brock and Chase Haltom had 20 and 23 points, respectively, for the Little Giants. 

We'll see what Wabash has left in the tank for tomorrow's postponed game at Hiram. 

[TigerFan_1973]

Those kids are out there.  Wooster finds them.  Witt finds them.  They don't have any unfair advantage over the rest of the schools in the conference,

I don't follow Witt as closely as I once did, but they were very successful over the years at getting great players from small schools.  At the time I lived in Springfield, Ohiio had three levels of high school athletics, AAA, AA, and A.

It seems like Witt was always getting the 'A' player of the year or guys who were on the 'A' all-star team.  They were from small schools but knew how to play ball and listen to what the coach wanted them to do.

A lot of what is said in conversations like this is speculation because we don't have any players, coaches, or SIDs explaining it to us.  I would have to think, though, that Mount Union has decided to "specialize", as another poster put it, in football.  Witt used to be a D3 football power before the administration(s) had other thoughts.

I believe that the NCAC was started because the schools involved did not want to be athletic powers in D3.  Some schools left the OAC for that reason.  

TF_1973

[TigerFan_1973]

We'll see what Wabash has left in the tank for tomorrow's postponed game at Hiram. 

Why was that game originally postponed?  Snow?

It's been like spring all winter down here, so it'a almost possible to forget that it still snows other places.

[Li'l Giant]

The Wabash/Hiram game was postponed because of a power outage.

[ScotsFan]

Why was that game originally postponed?  Snow?

It's been like spring all winter down here, so it'a almost possible to forget that it still snows other places.

Actually, I think Colorado is the only place it snows these days?!

[Li'l Giant]

Why was that game originally postponed?  Snow?

It's been like spring all winter down here, so it'a almost possible to forget that it still snows other places.

Actually, I think Colorado is the only place it snows these days?!

It certainly doesn't snow in South Texas.

[wooscotsfan]

At the Half:  Wooster 49  Denison 31

Tom Port came out tonight on fire as he scored 17 of Wooster's first 20 points to start the game! 

Needless to say, Port leads Wooster with 21 points and Marty Bidwell has chipped in 7 points.  Scots made 8 three pointers in the half and Port had 3 of them.

GO SCOTS!

[wooscotsfan]

Final:  Wooster 96  Denison 67

Wooster coasted in the 2nd half tonight and won this game easily.  Tim Vandervaart did not play tonight due to a calf injury but there is a chance he will play in next Wednesday's game.

Wooster was led by Tom Port's double, double with 26 points (10 boards), Brandon Johnson with 14 points, James Cooper with 13 points, Marty Bidwell with 13 points and Devin Fulk with 11 points.

Denison was led by Danny Hodgkinson with 25 points and Shea McMahon with 13 points.

Wooster is now 11-2, 4-0 NCAC    Next game at Allegheny on 1/10

GO SCOTS!

[wooscotsfan]

All the NCAC 1/6 Final Scores:

Wittenberg 71  Oberlin 41
Ohio Wesleyan 53  Kenyon 47
Allegheny 72  Wabash 69
Hiram 67  Earlham 65
Wooster 96  Denison 67

Wooster is now 4-0
Wittenberg and Ohio Wesleyan are 3-1
Hiram is 2-1 with Wabash at home tomorrow
Allegheny and Earlham are 2-2
Wabash is 1-2 and at Hiram tomorrow
Kenyon and Oberlin are 1-3
Denison is 0-4

[imderekpoe]

Not a very interesting game at Timken tonight, as for the most part Denison seemed totally uninspired and uninterested. It was hard to believe that this team took Witt to triple overtime a few weeks ago.

Another strong performance from Marty Bidwell.  He was 6 for 9 from the floor (with 2 of the misses from 3-pt range) and the usual hustle all over the court.  Bidwell picked up about 8 extra minutes tonight as he and frosh Dustin Geitgey took up the minutes usually filled by Vandervaart.  An interesting decision by Coach Moore to go small and use Geitgey instead of Elam or Melick.  I wonder if that's any kind of hint as to Moore's thoughts on the future prospects of the freshman big men?

[ScotsFan]

Furthermore, they have probably the NCAC's best player on a non-contending team in Dan Hodgkinson, the current NCAC leading scorer at 19.0 ppg.  If the best defense the Scots can offer on Dan is Craig Elam or Robert Melick, Hodgkinson could go for 30+ and the game could easily come down to a question of whether the Scots can hit their jumpers. 

Final:  Wooster 96  Denison 67

Wooster coasted in the 2nd half tonight and won this game easily.   Tim Vandervaart did not play tonight due to a calf injury but there is a chance he will play in next Wednesday's game.

Wooster was led by Tom Port's double, double with 26 points (10 boards), Brandon Johnson with 14 points, James Cooper with 13 points, Marty Bidwell with 13 points and Devin Fulk with 11 points.

Denison was led by Danny Hodgkinson with 25 points and Shea McMahon with 13 points.

Wooster is now 11-2, 4-0 NCAC    Next game at Allegheny on 1/10

GO SCOTS!

Looks like Wooster still found a way to coast in this game despite Darth Vandervaart being injured.  And Port & Will's flu symptomns must've worn off by game time as well.

An interesting decision by Coach Moore to go small and use Geitgey instead of Elam or Melick.  I wonder if that's any kind of hint as to Moore's thoughts on the future prospects of the freshman big men?

That raises a very interesting point cmh.  I am finding a very hard time understanding why we aren't seeing more minutes form the Wooster frosh bigs than we have been seeing.  I mean Darth doesn't see any action tonight, so the logical assumption would be to see more of Melick and Elam?? 

Ummm, no.  It's Dustin Geitgey who played a total of 14 minutes and didn't contribute anything on the offensive end.   I did hear on the radio how he made a nice block on Hodgkinson on the defensive end.

[David Collinge]

Will was clearly slowed down tonight.  He was beaten easily on the defensive end by Hodgkinson several times, and was largely ineffective tonight.  And of course Vandervaart was in street clothes, and visibly limping.  But Port was absolutely lightspout on both ends of the floor from the opening tap.  According to Coach Moore, he missed two days of practice, but there were no ill effects that I could see.

And I also agree with cmhscots that Denison played like they couldn't wait to get back on the bus.  They might not have won this game under any circumstances, but playing the way they played tonight they'll have trouble beating anyone.

An informed (and anonymous) source suggested to me tonight that Coach Moore decided to take advantage of Geitgey's good practices and insert him into the rotation, bumping Bidwell to the post in Vandervaart's absence.  In other words, not so much a negative statement about Elam/Melick/et al., but a positive reward for Dustin.

[woosterbooster]

Notes from Timken Gym:

Denison is the least physical team that I've seen in probably all of my trips to Timken.  They applied no pressure at all on the perimeter, allowing whoever was running the Wooster offense to penetrate and score or dish almost at will.  It was one of the rare times that Wooster outmuscled an opponent, and topping this off was the fact that little was called on the Scots (except for poor Andy Van Horn who never gets a break) as far as bumping and reaching.  I thought they got away with a lot, but the Denision coaches basically accepted it, maybe considering the game result was predestined anyway.

Marty Bidwell continues to be more offense-minded.  He's become an exciting player on that end of the floor, with his slashing semi-controlled breaks to the hoop.  He finished well last night, a couple of times in near spectacular fashion.  And, he led the team in assists (6), deservedly, as he's always looking to find an open man while flying or spinning into the key. 

There are assists, and then there are assists.  Bidwell's are usually of the second type, where it's his penetration that allows the open man to, well, become open.  Then Marty finds him for the score.  Bidwell now trails only Brandon Johnson on the Scots in assists per minutes played.

I'd like to see a baseline to baseline race between the Wooster players, just to see who would win.  They've got some fast guys, to be sure.  My money would be on Bidwell (league 200 meter champion in high school, in the Dayton area), edging out Brandon Johnson, with maybe Tom Port placing.  Oh yeah.  Bidwell is also on the Dean's list.

[roadtrip]

Wally
I think Wabash will be ready to play today if for no reason other than to get rid of the bad taste left from the loss......What I'm getting tired of is we're making every team we play look like 3pt sharpshooters. How about playing some perimeter defense?? Those 3's aren't so easy when somebody is in your face. Man, I hate losing...and I'm tired of saying we"re soooo young (which we are).