MBB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[ScotsFan]

How about this question - In a best of 7 series, which Wooster final four team would win? Put some matchup thoughts in to make it interesting. I'll post mine soon.

Are we talking with a healthy Bryan Nelson?  Either way, I think I'd take the '02-'03 team in five or six.  Nelson was a difference maker and if he would have been healthy, I really believe Wooster would have won it all that year.  Nelson wasn't close to 100% and yet it took an inadvertant shot clock buzzer going off for Williams to get over on the Scots and go on to win the National title. 

It would definately be a contrast in styles.  The '02-'03 team was much bigger and stronger and looked at scoring a lot in the paint with a deliberate half court set.  Meanwhile, the '06-'07 team was much more up-tempo and chucked a lot of treys.  The thing that puts the '02-'03 over the top is that they had some pretty good guards that could shoot the three as well in Matt Smith, Rodney Mitchell, Kyle Witucky and Ryan Snyder.  And Blake Mealer could drain them as well.  I just like the combination of having a good inside and outside game which the '02-'03 team had.

So, as I said, '02-'03 in five.  Six at the most.  8)

[goscots]

My approach would be to compare  by position.

Witucky vs. Johnson -  the floor general and superior ball handler versus athleticism and speed. Even
Mitchell vs. Cooper - defense versus offense. Rodney would have made Cooper really work for an open shot but i think Coop still get most of his point. Advantage '07
Smith vs. Van Horn - Both were three point specialist. Smith looked to score more often, Van Horn usually drew the best player. Advantage '03
Mealer vs. Port - Mealer played better low post defense but overall this is Advantage '07
Nelson vs. (Vandervaart or Will), I'll use Vandervaart because he was he season starter until his injur. Clearly Nelson's style of play would give Vandervaart trouble and he would have needed double team help. On the other side of the court Vandervaarts quickness would have given Nelson trouble. Vandervaart was a better rebounder but Nelson a better FT shooter. Advantage '03

Bench (Will, Fulk, Bidwell) vs. (Schlingman, Snyder, Lilienthal) - Fulk tips the balance to '07

So by this accounting I think the '07 team was a deeper team. The key point is which team could consistently force their style of play. You know that the '03 would go to Nelson virtually every time down the court and the double team would come. Could the resulting '03 open man make the '07 team pay? '03 could shoot but I think the '07 team had more offensive weapons.

'07 in 7

[ScotsFan]

You make valid points goscots, but I think the tipping point in favor of the '03 team was how well they defended.  They held opponents to just 40% from the floor and only 30% from beyond the arc.   There weren't many times that the '07 team struggled against to find their points, but when they did, it was usually against a team that was very good at defending the perimeter. 

Wooster struggled to score in both Wittenberg games that year.  Even though they split the series, Witt was able to dictate the pace of both games.  And in the loss in the national semi-finals, against a good defensive team in Amherst, Wooster was again not able to dictate their pace in only scoring 60 points.

I feel you would see much of the same vs. the '03 team as the '07 team would have a hard time getting the tempo they liked.

I know it's cliche, but as the saying goes, 'Defense wins championships' and the '03 Scots were a pretty good defensive team which adds to why I picked them. 

Too bad no one else has an opinion to share... 

[sac]

Tommy Cawood  F  East Lansing HS, East Lansing Michigan will attend Denison University.

Sorry can't find his height anywhere, but I think he's in the 6-4/6-5 range.  He's listed as a F/C on the teams website.  Tommy was a Class A honorable mention, and was part of East Lansing cinderalla run to the Class A semi-finals in Michigan before losing to eventual champ Saginaw.


Tommy turned down D1 offers to Valparaiso and University of Detroit.............for Tennis.

"He also earned a Class A all-area honorable mention this past basketball season, and picked Denison, a Division III school, because it offered him the opportunity to continue playing that sport as well."~ Lansing State Journal

[wooscotsfan]

Wittenberg has posted next season's schedule: http://www5.wittenberg.edu/news/athletics/mbasketball/schedule08-09.html

The Tigers have nonconference home games vs. Transylvania, Ohio Northern, Taylor (IN) and either Mount St. Joseph or Wheaton (IL) in the 2nd game of Witt's Charles B. Zimmerman Holiday Classic.

Wittenberg's nonconference road games include Capital, Cedarville and Otterbein.  The Tigers are also playing in a tournament on 11/28 and 11/29 in Tacoma, Washington where they will face Concordia (OR) and the host team Pacific Lutheran.

Witt visits Wooster on Saturday, January 17th and Wooster plays in Springfield on Saturday, February 14th.

Wooster has not posted their schedule for next season yet but several games are now apparent from opponents' 2008-2009 schedules that have been posted.

Wooster has invited Washington & Jefferson to their season opening tourney though the actual matchups and 2 other invited teams are not apparent on the W&J schedule.  Wooster will play at Carnegie Mellon University on 11/25.

Wooster will also make a trip to Indiana on 11/29 and 11/30 to play in a tourney at Hanover College.  Wooster will face a strong WIAC team in UW Platteville in the first game and either the host team Hanover or IU-Southeast in the second game.

It will be interesting to see if Wooster plays both Walsh and Cedarville again this year as well as the other teams that get invited to the Al Van Wie and Mose Hole tournaments.  Can anyone else fill in the rest of Wooster's nonconference schedule for next season? 


 

[imderekpoe]

Can anyone else fill in the rest of Wooster's nonconference schedule for next season? 

The only game that I know of is at Univ of Hawaii - Hilo sometime around the week before Christmas.  Nice litte roadtrip!

[wooscotsfan]

imderekpoe - thanks for the insight on the Hawaii trip...and I see that you have switched usernames again. 

So by my count, that would make 8 non-conference games (2 - Al Van Wie, 2 - Hanover tourney, 2 - Mose Hole, at Carnegie Mellon and at Hawaii-Hilo.)  That would leave only 1 more non-conference game because Wooster normally plays 16 NCAC games and 9 non-conference matchups for a total of 25 regular season games.

I suppose Wooster could play a second game in Hawaii if that is set up as a tourney or they could play either Walsh or Cedarville (not both) for the 9th non-conference game.  Well, this off season mystery should be solved in the next few weeks (months?) when some more schedules get posted. 

[imderekpoe]

imderekpoe - thanks for the insight on the Hawaii trip...and I see that you have switched usernames again. 

So by my count, that would make 8 non-conference games (2 - Al Van Wie, 2 - Hanover tourney, 2 - Mose Hole, at Carnegie Mellon and at Hawaii-Hilo.)  That would leave only 1 more non-conference game because Wooster normally plays 16 NCAC games and 9 non-conference matchups for a total of 25 regular season games.

I suppose Wooster could play a second game in Hawaii if that is set up as a tourney or they could play either Walsh or Cedarville (not both) for the 9th non-conference game.  Well, this off season mystery should be solved in the next few weeks (months?) when some more schedules get posted. 

I'm told that the Hilo game is a single game, not a tournament.  So I wouldn't be surprised if they play either Walsh or Cedarville as the 9th non-conference game.

[Gregory Sager]

I'd be surprised if that ninth Wooster game was something other than another Hawaii-based contest. I've never heard of a D3 team going all the way to the Aloha State to only play one game.

There are three other D2 schools besides Hawaii-Hilo in our fiftieth state (BYU-Hawaii, Hawaii Pacific, and Chaminade). Back in 1991-92 North Park played UHH, BYUH, and HPU on a Hawaii road trip, plus Hawaii Loa (which merged with Hawaii Pacific following that school year), and it's commonplace for D3 teams to schedule at least two of the Hawaii-based D2 schools when they visit the islands. And it's also not unheard-of for D3 schools that are located in various parts of the country to play each other in Hawaii; in fact, Whitworth (which is located in Spokane, WA) used to host a tournament in Hawaii until it was discontinued a couple of years ago.

[jscwittfan]

Wooster plays in Springfield on Saturday, February 14th.

I'm sure the spirits of love, harmony, and brotherhood will be present on this Valentine's Day matchup...

[bufordscot]

Heard through the rumor mill that Steve Moore landed a 7 footer from somewhere in Africa.  Anyone heard such?

[Vanilla24COW]

I can't confirm that he is a true 7 footer but I have heard he is very close

[wooscotsfan]

Good to hear that Wooster may have landed a big man - will be interesting to learn some more details about him when they are available.

Another team's 2008-2009 schedule has revealed the participants in this year's Mose Hole Classic.  Kean University from New Jersey (NJAC) will join Mt. Union and Thiel as the 3 visiting teams in the Mose Hole.  No first round matchups are posted yet on the Kean website.  This seems like an average field to me so Wooster's toughest tourney this year will probably be the Hanover tournament where they face UW-Platteville in the first round.

UW-Platteville returns virtually their entire team which finished 2nd in the strong WIAC last year with a 19-7 overall record.  UW-P's best player is 6'10" center Jeff Skemp who was First Team WIAC and Third Team All American last season.  So, let's hope that Wooster's new big man can step right in and at least help 6'8" Robert Melick with some defensive minutes versus Skemp in late November. 

[wooscotsfan]

Wooster Scots are heading to Italy this month!

Coach Moore and the Scots are making a trip to Italy this month to play 3-4 games(?) against Italian club teams.  I don't know all the details so perhaps another poster can provide specifics.  The 2008 graduating seniors are invited and I heard through the grapevine that Evan Will plans to make the trip but Devin Fulk and James Cooper will not participate.  Cooper has another basketball commitment that starts August 15th.

James Cooper has recently received a professional contract to play for Dortmund, a team in Germany in the Third Division league.  Here is the link to the full story on the Wooster website:  http://athletics.wooster.edu/mb/news/2007-08/cooper_germany.php    Congratulations to Cooper on receiving this offer and good luck in Germany!  Same release also notes that Tom Port plans to play another year in Europe as well.

[wooscotsfan]

With some significant internet sleuthing, here is my best info on Wooster's incoming freshman class:

Gideon Mabeny ~7'0" Fork Union Military Academy in VA
He is Sudanese and only started playing basketball about 4 years ago.  Honors student at Fork Union.
Some Fork Union game recaps describe his rebounds (7 in one game) so he is probably a defender/rebounder type.

Justin Hallowell 6'7" Thomas Worthington HS in Columbus
Ohio Capital Conference First Team, All Central District Division I Honorable Mention, was listed on a Top 100 Ohio players list and received some interest from D2 schools

Greg Ross 6'5" Archbishop McNicholas HS in Cincinnati
14.5 ppg, 8.2 rpg last season.  Greater Catholic League First Team, Greater Cincy Division II Player of Year

Michael Evans 6'4" Pickerington North HS in Columbus area
16 ppg, 6.4 rpg last season.  Ohio Capital Conference Second Team, GPA of 3.6 and National Honor Society

Scott Voiers 6'3" Lutheran West HS in Cleveland area.
23.0 ppg, Leading scorer on team, All-Ohio Division III Third Team

Ibrahim Ibrahim 6'1" Licking Heights HS in Newark, OH area
17.8 ppg last season, All Central District Division II Third Team

Matthew Fegan 6'1" Strongsville HS in Cleveland area
~14 ppg, #2 scorer on team.  All Northeast Lake District Division I Honorable Mention

Blake Sword 6'1" Wellington HS near Oberlin (Yeomen didn't get him )
13.4 ppg last year, All Northeast Lake District Division III Third Team

This looks like a very nice incoming class for the Scots!  Justin Hallowell and Scott Voiers are probably the two best recruits but it is great to have a big man in Gideon Mabeny and several other players look like they could compete for playing time as well.

Did I miss any other Woo recruits?  Comments and corrections will be appreciated.