Danyon Hempy of River Valley has committed to Wooster:

http://www.marionstar.com/story/sports/high-school/basketball/boys/2016/03/16/boys-basketball-all-ohio-danyon-hempy-dick-hempy/81854008/

Sac,

Man, you are on top of this stuff. If I didn't know better, I'd think you were the Wooster SID. Are these guys showing up on a recruiting commit list somewhere?

Wooster has "landed" it's top recruit, or at least the one that is going to pay the most immediate dividends, obviously:

http://www.the-daily-record.com/local%20sports/2014/03/29/barnes-coming-back-to-finish-business

Quote from: countyroad on March 26, 2014, 12:04:56 PM
Any news next year's newcomers at Wooster, whether it be freshman or transfers? It will be nice to hopefully have LaLonde back and healthy.

Wooster's top "recruit" for next year is already on the team now (DeBoer). We need to see an article about him like was written about Richard Barnes today (http://www.the-daily-record.com/local%20sports/2014/03/29/barnes-coming-back-to-finish-business). It's not as much of a pipe dream as you might think. The other top "newcomer" for next year is also already on the team (LaLonde). Considering he has only played 18 varsity games in three years of college, and none this past year, he is more or less like getting a new recruit.

As for players not currently on the team, if they can land a true post player and preferably a point guard who can run the offense in two years, then this will have been a successful offseason. But that is a lot of ifs.

Wooster might actually be more athletic next year, but will they be able to shoot well enough? That's what has sent them home each of the past two seasons, and right now I don't see an obvious reason to think that they will be a better shooting team next year either.

Quote from: KnightSlappy on March 02, 2014, 09:46:50 AM
KnightSlappy do this, KnightSlappy do that...

RG   ##   WP      bSOS    bRPI    NAT   Pool   D3      RRO   CONFER   TEAM
RG   ##   WP      bSOS    bRPI    NAT   Pool   D3      RRO   CONFER   TEAM
GL   01   0.923   0.543   0.638   005   A      24-2    7-2   NCAC     Wooster
GL   02   0.760   0.555   0.606   024   C      19-6    2-4   MIAA     Hope
GL   03   0.741   0.541   0.591   041   C      20-7    3-5   NCAC     Ohio Wesleyan
GL   04   0.750   0.530   0.585   048   C      21-7    3-6   NCAC     Wittenberg
GL   05   0.720   0.538   0.583   051   C      18-7    0-4   OAC      Marietta
GL   06   0.692   0.545   0.582   052   C      18-8    4-5   NCAC     DePauw
GL   07   0.692   0.542   0.579   057   A      18-8    1-2   OAC      Wilmington
gl   08   0.769   0.514   0.578   058   C      20-6    0-1   OAC      Mount Union
gl   09   0.800   0.501   0.575   062   C      20-5    1-0   PrAC     Bethany
gl   10   0.826   0.483   0.569   073   A      19-4    2-4   MIAA     Calvin
gl   11   0.852   0.466   0.563   080   A      23-4    1-0   AMCC     Penn State-Behrend
gl   12   0.792   0.483   0.560   085   A      19-5    1-1   PrAC     St. Vincent
gl   13   0.615   0.534   0.554   095   C      16-10   1-2   OAC      Ohio Northern
gl   14   0.621   0.519   0.545   116   C      18-11   1-3   OAC      John Carroll
gl   15   0.560   0.540   0.545   118   C      14-11   3-6   UAA      Case Western Reserve
gl   16   0.556   0.534   0.540   129   C      15-12   1-4   PrAC     Thomas More
gl   17   0.731   0.473   0.537   137   C      19-7    0-0   AMCC     Hilbert
gl   18   0.519   0.543   0.537   138   C      14-13   0-4   OAC      Baldwin Wallace
gl   19   0.462   0.543   0.523   168   C      12-14   1-3   OAC      Capital
gl   20   0.417   0.555   0.520   176   C      10-14   1-8   UAA      Carnegie Mellon

As always, thanks for doing this. I'm late to the party, so maybe this has been addressed already, but are they still doing "once ranked always ranked" or do you have to be in the final rankings to be counted as regionally ranked for the purposes of determining record vs. regionally ranked opponents? I'm just confused by Wooster's RRO. In the last data sheet, they were listed at just 5-1. But using the old formula, they should have been 6-2 at the last rankings, and now 8-2. They beat Wittenberg 3 times, OWU 2 times, DePauw, Marietta and Wheaton once each. That is eight wins. Their two regional losses are to OWU and DePauw.

Thanks for this KenyonFan. Wabash has a perfect view of the Rogers take down from the baseline. I would like to think if the Refs saw it as clearly as the camera, he would have been ejected. Would an ejection mean an automatic one-game suspension? I have no idea.

I know Wooster has company with the other top teams in the NCAC right now in terms of struggling during the second half of their schedule in comparison to the first go around, but the point differential between teams Wooster has played twice this year is quite striking. There are six teams that Wooster has played a second time this year. In the first six games, which were all victories, the Scots were outscoring their opponents by 21 points per game, and five of the games were decided by 13 points or more. The next time Wooster played  these same six teams, two of which were losses, the Scots were outscoring their opponents by just over 5 points per game, and only one game was decided by more than seven points. So Wooster has seen a 16-point drop in their offensive output in comparison to their opponent. That is a pretty striking turn of events. If you take away the second Kenyon game, which was a 20-point win, the difference drops to just 2.2 points per game. I would say that part of this can be explained by the fact that some of the lower half teams are playing better now than they did before. But I also think Wooster has kind of hit a wall with their overall play, if not lost a little bit from where they were several weeks ago. The Scots need to make some adjustments to get better, as other teams are making adjustments to them and it's showing.

So based on the average margin difference of 16 points we've seen, Wittenberg should win Saturday by nine points, since they lost by seven points the first time

Just popped into my head today that Kenny DeBoar at this time last year was a sophomore (athletically), but decided before this season that this would be his last year (paying another year of tuition will do that to you), since he attending a Div. II school for one year before coming to Wooster. Would be nice to see him in a Scot uniform next year along the front line.

Maybe this is the game we see a little bit of Milt Davis again, since he went for 12 points and four rebounds in just 13 minutes of action against Kenyon last time. As soon as Wingard left the team, Davis filled at least some of his minutes in the rotation. For the five immediate games after Wingard left, Davis averaged nearly 11 minutes a game, averaging 4.6 ppg while shooting 7-of-13 from the field and 3-of-6 from three. Then they just stopped playing him. I know this is a small sample, but Davis has the high school pedigree that this is the kind of production that we should expect, if not more. And if Purcell and Goodwin were playing better, then I'd understand, but they aren't. After leading the NCAC in three-point field-goal percentage last year, Goodwin is shooting 23% from three and just 28% from the field. Defenses can completely ignore him. Purcell's overall numbers are pretty solid, but lately his shooting has been erratic, as he's riding an 1-for-11 streak from three-point range.

I guess my larger point is that the Scots need/should have done a better job of developing other offensive options outside of Thorpe and Brown. It's hard to imagine them making any kind of deep run in the tournament when you rely on two players so heavily, especially in the second half of games. And with that, they need to at least make defenses defend the paint once in a while. Even when teams were playing man-to-man, Wooster almost never throws the ball into the post, even if to try to get the defense to sag off the guards. When teams play zone, Kipfer and Fanelly might as well just stay on the defensive end for as many touches they are going to get. Wooster's offense runs through its guards, and that can be a winning formula. But if you don't even make the other team defend the paint, the perimeter defense can extend itself even farther out on the three-point shots, which is part of the reason Wooster's three-point shooting has been lagging lately.

Fanelly has a lot of talent and promise, but if he can't figure out how to stay out of foul trouble, the Scots are not going to advance very far when it matters. He has now fouled out of four games this year, including three of the past six, and had four fouls in six other games. And he is averaging less than 20 minutes a game. Over the course of the season, he's averaging one foul every 5.7 minutes played, meaning it's almost impossible to count on him to play more than half the game. Plus, when he gets in foul trouble, he becomes even less of a factor defensively and on the boards.

While Wingard and LaLonde don't play the post, their length and athleticism would have helped in games like this. They had the ability to come in from the wing and out jump people for the ball. They don't really have that now other than Evan Pannell.

This isn't meant to panic, as Wooster is still in real good shape and nearly won despite the bad rebounding effort. But when trying to picture how they might fare in the tournament, this is a pretty glaring problem that has to be figured out to some degree if they want to beat elite teams.

Quote from: seinfeld on January 01, 2014, 12:35:44 PM

Quote from: ScotsFan on December 31, 2013, 04:04:06 PM
Seinfeld, when will we know if Wingard did or did not make the grades?  I'm assuming he won't be playing on Saturday vs Denison?

I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing Monday, Jan. 6. If he doesn't play again this year, it will mean the Scots will be without two guys (Alex LaLonde being the other) who I thought going into the season could be big keys in addressing the one weakness that was exposed last year -- three-point shooting from the wing. This really showed up against Cabrini (and OWU in the NCAC Tournament). Both have the length and the range to be zone busters (accuracy is still in question). They were also two very athletic guys who could guard both small forwards and big men as well. Wooster has the depth to overcome their absence, but I think it definitely makes a postseason run more challenging.

Wingard is officially out of school for this semester.

Hopefully Thorpe can get his shooting touch back tonight. For the season he has only hit 50% or more of his field goal attempts in one game, and over the past six games, he is shooting just 28.8% from the field and 25% from three-point range, averaging just 8.5 ppg during that stretch.

Quote from: ScotsFan on December 31, 2013, 04:04:06 PM
Seinfeld, when will we know if Wingard did or did not make the grades?  I'm assuming he won't be playing on Saturday vs Denison?

I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing Monday, Jan. 6. If he doesn't play again this year, it will mean the Scots will be without two guys (Alex LaLonde being the other) who I thought going into the season could be big keys in addressing the one weakness that was exposed last year -- three-point shooting from the wing. This really showed up against Cabrini (and OWU in the NCAC Tournament). Both have the length and the range to be zone busters (accuracy is still in question). They were also two very athletic guys who could guard both small forwards and big men as well. Wooster has the depth to overcome their absence, but I think it definitely makes a postseason run more challenging.

No DeBoer and Wingard for Wooster, so any type of win was a good win. Fanelly didn't score either. Wingard may be done because of academics, but nothing is certain right now. I think Brown's immense value to the Scots, as if it ever needed to be defended, is without question this year, especially in recent games.

I don't know what the exact error or error message was last night but I believe the local cable crew that does these games for free typically don't like to work sundays

I know this ship has already sailed, but with today being the last day to vote for the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year (http://coachoftheyear.com) and Frank Colaprete in 3rd place among Div. III coaches, I thought I'd share my thoughts on the NCAC Coach of the Year award.

I don't know what the exact criteria is for evaluation this award, and maybe there isn't any, but I think it basically comes down to what coach got the most out of his talent and how much did they exceed realistic expectations (or if the team had legitimately high expectations, were they at least sufficiently met). Using this as the basis to judge the award on, it seems to my somewhat biased view that Colaprete should have been the clear choice.

Before I lay out a very detailed reason why Colaprete should have been the coach of the year, I do want to say in fairness to Fincham that it is hard to fairly judge if his team met or exceeded reasonable expectations at the time of the voting – at the end of the regular season. To make a fair judgment of his work, we needed to see how they did in the playoffs. And based on their showing (2nd round loss to Mt. Union), I would say Wittenberg went as far as to be expected this year, but no further. Remember, the Tigers were the preseason favorite to win the NCAC, had a huge and talented senior class, and had the best player in the most important position on the field (Florence at QB). With this lot, winning the NCAC should have been expected.

On the other hand, what Colaprete did with Wooster was wholly unexpected, particularly when digging into the details of what he inherited talent wise, then what he did with that talent. I don't think many people realize how short of a deck Colaprete and his staff were working with this year.

Wooster was 2-8 in 2012. Gone from that team were its leading tackler (Hood), best defensive back and kick returner (Ogletree-Crawford), best defensive lineman and top sack producer (Holtz), all-conference punter (Obery) and their top two receivers (McIntyre and Weidrick). On top of the three defensive starters already mentioned, they also lost four other starters on that side of the ball. On offense, while they managed to keep a majority of those players in the program, they had the big question mark at quarterback, and where Barnes would fit into the equation. The fact that they were able to get Barnes to fulfill his potential and turn the corner as a player, when Schmitz was never able to do so, is enough reason to make Colaprete the Coach of the Year. They also moved Hackel from defense to running back, a brilliant move as he became the NCAC's leading rusher. This was but one of several position changes Colaprete and the coaching staff made before the season, and all of them paid off in a big way.

Wooster had 82 players on the roster to start the 2012 season. The Scots had just 61 players on the 2013 roster. Colaprete was hired in early February, with literally zero recruits already committed to Wooster. He was only able to get 13 freshmen, of which only three really had any kind of impact. The two most impactful, Owens and Vogel, were guys he and his staff were able to get to commit to Wooster late in the process.

So in summary, Colaprete and his staff inherited a 2-8 team and had about 75% of the talent that Schmitz had the year before, yet went 7-3 and finished 3rd in the NCAC. I don't think it was possible for any coach to exceed this, let alone match it.

Here are some statistics on just how remarkable a season it was:

•   One of the five biggest turnarounds in terms of wins in Div. III in 2013.
•   Best one-year improvement (by far) in NCAC history (1 win to 7 wins)
•   The five-win improvement from last year to this season was the most in Wooster history since Jack Lengyl had a five-win improvement from 1969 to 1970 (before leaving for Marshall)
•   The 20-point comeback against Ohio Wesleyan was the largest in school history.
•   Beat five teams (Allegheny, Denison, DePauw, Kenyon, OWU) they lost to in 2012. Outscored these five teams 155-102 after being outscored 131-81 by these same teams last year.
•   Amassed the most yards by any team against Wabash (426) and the most yards against Wittenberg (386) by any Div. III team during the regular season. The Scots were also without the NCAC's leading rusher (Hackel) against Wittenberg.

I know this isn't a court of law, so there isn't really precedents that are set, but the selection of Fincham, by at least this group of coaches, is basically saying the coach of the team that wins the conference is the automatic Coach of the Year. Because I don't know how else you can interpret this vote. If Colaprete's resume this year and the improvement his team made wasn't enough since his team didn't finish first, then it's hard to see how any other coach who doesn't win the conference wins this award.

And to the argument that in basketball it almost always goes to the coach of the winning team, it simply isn't true. We just have to look back to last year, when Kenyon's coach won the award despite finishing in a tie for third. In fact, five of the last six years a coach other than the coach of the conference champion (usually Steve Moore and Wooster) has been named coach of the year.

Kind of a cool thing posted on Wooster's website.

http://www.woosterathletics.com/sports/fball/2013-14/photos/celebration/index