Wooster to Host NCAA First- and Second-Round Action
For the third consecutive year, The College of Wooster has been selected as a host site for the NCAA Div. III Men's Basketball Championship opening weekend of first- and second-round games, as the Fighting Scots, fresh off their North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament title and ranked No. 15 in D3hoops.com's final regular season poll, welcome Capital University (18-9), Maryville (Tenn.) College (18-9), and Randolph-Macon College (21-6) to 3,400-seat Timken Gymnasium March 2-3. This Friday, Capital, Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament winners after sharing the regular season championship, will match-up against Randolph-Macon, runner-up in the highly-competitive Old Dominion Athletic Conference, at 5:30 p.m., followed by Maryville (Tenn.), champions out of the Great South Athletic Conference, and Wooster at approximately 7:30 p.m. The two winners will play each other during Saturday's second round, tipping off at 7 p.m., for the right to advance to the NCAA sectional semifinals (Round of 16).
On the Air: For fans unable to make it to Timken Gymnasium, the College will be providing live video of all three games at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/wooster-mens-basketball.
There will be live stats of all three games as well at http://livestats.prestosports.com/wooster/.
Additionally, every Wooster game can be heard live in the Wooster area on WQKT 104.5 FM or anywhere by following links on the commercial radio station's website at http://www.wqkt.com/. Mike Breckenridge serves as the "Voice of the Fighting Scots."
Ticket Information: As determined by the NCAA, ticket prices for this weekend's first- and second-round action are $6 for adults and $3 for senior citizens, students, and children (under two are free). College of Wooster students, however, can be part of the excitement for free, courtesy of the president's office. Students must present their College ID to receive a ticket.
Tickets for the first-round games will go on sale Friday at 4 p.m. at the Scot Center box office. Tickets for the second round will go on sale Saturday at 6 p.m. Also of note, artificial noisemakers are prohibited.
NCAA Tourney Notes: The Scots are making their 21st appearance in the NCAA Div. III tourney. Only six others have been in as many – Franklin & Marshall College (23), Hope College (23), Illinois Wesleyan University (21), Salem State College (23), University of Scranton (24), and Wittenberg University (26).
Wooster, which also played in two other NCAA Tournaments prior to Div. III (1971, 1973), has been in the national field 17 of the last 18 seasons and 20 times since 1990. The Scots' all-time record in the Div. III tourney is 25-21 – 17-5 in games played at Timken Gymnasium, 7-6 at neutral sites, and 1-10 in true road games. Wooster has reached the Div. III sectional round ("Sweet 16") seven times over the last 13 years, highlighted by runs to the 2011 national championship game and to the semifinals two other times (2003, 2007).
Against the 2012 NCAA Field: Wooster played six games against teams that made it into the 2012 NCAA Div. III Men's Basketball Championship field, going 4-2. Three of them came against fellow North Coast Athletic Conference foe Ohio Wesleyan University, all close Scot wins – 72-68 and 54-50 during the regular season and 89-80 in the conference tournament semifinals. Wittenberg University barely swept the Scots in the archrivals' regular season series, 56-55 and 68-62 in overtime. Wooster's other match-up with an eventual NCAA participant occurred in Puerto Rico, where the Scots came back from 20 points down to St. Mary's (Md.) College and prevailed 63-61.
All-Time Series: Maryville (Tenn.) and Wooster have been part of NCAA pods previously, but they've never played each other on the hardwood. At the 2000 NCAA sectional hosted by Calvin College, both teams lost their respective Round of 16 games, and in 2004, Maryville reached Wooster's sectional, with both teams losing to John Carroll University (Maryville in the Round of 16 and Wooster in the Round of 8).
Capital and Wooster, located less than 100 miles apart, have played 38 times over the years, with the Crusaders owning a 23-15 edge in the series. The squads' most recent meeting was in the 2009 NCAA Div. III Men's Basketball Championship second round, a narrow 72-70 win for Capital in Columbus, Ohio, when this year's seniors were freshmen.
Randolph-Macon and Wooster have played just twice before, but both games took place within the last seven years. They met in the opening round of the 2006 NCAA Tournament, with the Scots taking an 84-70 decision in Lexington, Ky., and just two seasons ago, Wooster was at Randolph-Macon's Briggs Elliot Tournament where the then-No. 6 ranked Yellow Jackets edged the Scots 72-65.
Head Coach Steve Moore: The architect behind the winningest NCAA men's basketball team of the 2000s is Steve Moore. In addition to guiding Wooster to 335 victories this century, he carries a 25-year record of 593-133 (.817) with the Fighting Scots. Prior to coming to Wooster in 1987-88, Moore coached Muhlenberg College for six seasons and was successful there as well, giving him a career record of 680-198 (.774), which puts him third all-time in wins for Div. III coaches. Moore has seven Coach-of-the-Year honors from the North Coast Athletic Conference.
Regular Season Recap: After graduating three of its top-four players from a group that extended Wooster's streak of conference championships to seven and advanced all the way to the national championship game of the 2011 NCAA Div. III Championships, expectations were slightly lower for the 2011-12 Scots, but they reloaded, going 21-4 through the regular season.
Of Wooster's four losses, two were heartbreakers to archrival Wittenberg University, one on an offensive put-back as the buzzer sounded for a 56-55 setback Dec. 7 and the other went to overtime before the Tigers prevailed 68-62 on Feb. 11. The other two were both road losses in Indiana, 72-58 to then-No. 25 ranked Wabash College Dec. 10 and 75-66 at DePauw University Jan. 14.
Other than that it has been all victories for Wooster, as it extended its NCAA Div. III-leading active streak to 16 consecutive 20-win seasons. Among the highlights were a 20-point comeback to defeat St. Mary's (Md.) College 63-61 in a game played at San Juan, P.R., on Dec. 19; a sweep of 20-game winner Ohio Wesleyan University, 72-68 on Jan. 21, 54-50 on Feb. 8, and 89-80 on Feb. 24; and avenging its previous losses to Wabash and DePauw by defeating the Little Giants 77-59 on Feb. 4 and the Tigers 74-67 on Feb. 18 as well as 59-51 on Feb. 21.
The Scots' key to success, as usual, has been defense. They rate second in NCAA Div. III in defensive 3-point percentage (.275) and 14th in overall defensive field-goal percentage (.390).
Offensively, the Scots traditionally balanced attack has six players averaging 6.0 or more points, including three in double figures. Four-year starter Justin Hallowell (Columbus, Ohio / Thomas Worthington) has been finishing strong with an average of 17.5 points the last 10 games to boost his season rate to a team-leading 13.4. The 6-7 forward can score in a variety of ways, notice 66 3-pointers, 61 two-point field goals, and 56 free throws, and he also paces Wooster in rebounding (6.6 rpg).
Xavier Brown (Bowling Green, Ohio / Bowling Green) has certainly been a welcome addition, as the freshman guard contributes 12.8 points per night, which included 18.1 through his first seven games, and he also leads the team with 29 steals. Junior center Josh Claytor (Oxford, Ohio / Talawanda) scored at a rate of 15.3 points during a 12-game stretch (Dec. 10-Jan. 25) to bump his season average to 11.0 points on a league-leading .630 field-goal percentage.
Senior Matt Fegan (Strongsville, Ohio / Strongsville) has connected on 55 3-pointers as part of a 7.6 scoring average while also distributing a team-high 2.6 assists, and the third starter is also a senior, Justin Warnes (Toledo, Ohio / Bowsher), who thrives in his role as a defensive stopper to go with 5.3 points.
Wooster's reserves currently consist of freshman forward Kenny DeBoer (Westerville, Ohio / Westerville North), freshman guard Jalen Goodwin (Hamilton, Ohio / Lakota East), junior center Jake Mays (Tallmadge, Ohio / Tallmadge), freshman guard Evan Pannell (Akron, Ohio / Archbishop Hoban), and sophomore guard Doug Thorpe (Columbus, Ohio / Eastmoor Academy). Mays and Thorpe are the top scorers of that group at 6.4 and 6.3 points, respectively.