Wooster Headed to Div. I Chattanooga for Exhibition Contest (Div. I Exhibition Game Notes)

Wooster Div. I Exhibition Contest Game Notes

Outlook: The College of Wooster men's basketball team - the winningest NCAA Div. III program of the 2000s - will play an exhibition game at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga at 7 p.m. on Thursday, November 4. Chattanooga is coached by Wooster great Lamont Paris '96. This is Wooster's first time playing a Div. I team in an exhibition game since the 2017-18 season.

Media Coverage: Chattanooga will have an audio broadcast of Thursday's exhibition contest. Fans will need to download the Varsity Network App at https://thevarsitynetwork.com/audioapplink and then search for Chattanooga. Chattanooga will also provide live stats of the exhibition contest at https://gomocs.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary.

Ticket Information: Padded reserved tickets are $20, tickets in the reserved 100/200 levels are $15, tickets in the 200 level corner are $12 ($8 for youth), and tickets on the 200 level baseline are $10 ($8 for youth). Call 423-266-MOCS from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. ET Monday-Friday to purchase tickets. The ticket booths at McKenzie Arena open 90 minutes before tipoff.

Series History: The two programs have never met before.

A Look at Lamont Paris' Career: Lamont Paris, a 1996 Wooster alumnus, blossomed into a starter as a senior and ranked third on the team with 10.4 points per game. The guard paired his scoring average with 3.8 and 3.7 rebounds and assists per game, respectively. As a junior, Paris was one of the first Scots off of the bench, and he averaged 7.9 points per game to pair with 2.2 rebounds and 1.8 assists per night. Paris played on teams that went 84-25, advanced to three NCAA Div. III Championships, and won two North Coast Athletic Conference titles. He later coached two years at Wooster.

Wooster is the Winningest NCAA Div. III Team of the 2000s: Since the start of the 1999-2000 season, the Fighting Scots have Div. III's highest winning percentage at .818 (525-117). In fact, Wooster's winning percentage in the 2000s is higher than the University of Kansas (.812; 635-147), Duke University (.810; 628-147), and every other NCAA Div. I or II program except for Gonzaga University (.834; 630-125).

Wooster is Right There with the "Big Names": The Scots have won 20 or more games in each of the last 24 seasons, and that's tied with Gonzaga for the second-longest active streak among NCAA men's basketball programs. Kansas is the active leader at 31 straight 20-win seasons, while Gonzaga also has 24. Duke had its 24-year run snapped during the 2020-21 season. Wooster's streak is still active as the Scots did not play 20 games during the 2020-21 season, and this has been verified by NCAA staff.

NCAA Tournament Success: Wooster holds the NCAA Div. III record with 18 consecutive NCAA Tournament berths, and that streak is still active as there were no Div. III championship selections during the 2020-21 season. Wooster boasts the fourth-longest active streak of NCAA Tournament appearances with only Kansas (31), Michigan State University (23), and Gonzaga (22) having longer active runs. Overall, Wooster's 18 straight appearances is tied for the seventh-longest consecutive streak in NCAA men's basketball history (all divisions) trailing Kansas (31, 1990-present), the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (27, 1975-01), Duke (24, 1996-19), Michigan State (23, 1998-present), Gonzaga (22, 199-present), and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (19, 1999-17). Wooster's run is tied with Indiana University Bloomington, which had an 18-year tournament run from 1986-03. Wooster's made 29 NCAA Tournaments since the formation of Div. III, which is second all-time. Longtime nemesis Wittenberg University has made a Div. III-leading 30 Div. III Tournament appearances, and the University of Scranton ranks third at 28 trips.

Among the Nation's Elite: Wooster's 1,698 wins are the second-most in Div. III history, trailing only Wittenberg's 1,812. The all-time series between the two programs is one of small college basketball's top rivalries. Wooster has won 11 of the last 12 meetings to take a 59-55 lead in the all-time series standings.

Notable Wooster Alumni in Basketball: Wooster has several notable alumni in prominent coaching and administrative rolls in collegiate and professional basketball. L.W. St. John '06 served as The Ohio State University's second athletic director, a position he held for 33 years. Current Ohio State assistant coach Ryan Pedon '00 was a three-year letterwinner for the Scots. Reggie Minton '63, an alternate for the 1964 United States Olympic Team, went on to have a decorated career as a coach and administrator. Minton's currently the deputy executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), and prior to that, was the head coach at the United States Air Force Academy from 1984-00. Larry Shyatt '73 was an assistant coach for numerous programs, including at the University of Florida, which won the NCAA national championship in 2006 and 2007. Later, Shyatt was the head coach at University of Wyoming from 2011-16  before joining the Dallas Mavericks as an assistant coach with primary focus on the team's big men. Lamont Paris '96 was on staff at Wisconsin for seven seasons, and helped the Badgers to back-to-back appearances in the Final Four during the 2014-15 tournaments, including an appearance in the 2015 title game. In 2017, Paris was named head coach at Chattanooga.

All-America Success: Wooster is the only Div. III program to have five different players selected as first-team NABC All-Americans in the 2000s. Bryan Nelson (2002-03, NABC Div. III Player of the Year), Tom Port (2006-07), Ian Franks (2009-10), Doug Thorpe (2013-14), and Danyon Hempy (2019-20) are Wooster's first-team selections in the 2000s.