NCAC Champions Place League-High Four on All-Conference Squad
Billings, Hardaway, Kurt, Everett, Wooster staff honored
The North Coast Athletic Conference champion College of Wooster men's basketball team had four players earn all-conference honors, and the Fighting Scots took home the NCAC Coaching Staff of the Year award, as announced by the conference office on Thursday. Sophomore guard Jamir Billings earned first-team All-NCAC honors, senior guard Najee Hardaway and senior forward Turner Kurt were second-team selections, and junior Nick Everett earned third-team laurels.
Billings scored his second all-conference award and an elevation to first-team status after being an honorable mention selection last year. The sophomore was one of five players on a very balanced Wooster team to average over 10 points per game. Billings paired 5.2 rebounds, 5.2 assists, and 2.6 steals to his 10.8 points per game. He became the first Scot with two seasons with at least 140 assists and the second with two seasons with at least 65 steals this year. Billings' 140 assists are the fifth-most in single-season program history and he is just shy of appearing on the program's all-time top-10 list after two seasons of play. The sophomore is on the program's top-10 career list for steals, and is already tied for fifth-place with 153. Billings has the most and third-most steals in single-season program history. Billings tied his single-game program record with 12 assists against the University of Rochester and broke Rick Hochstetler's 26-year-old program record with 10 three-pointers in the championship game of the NCAC Tournament. Billings, who scored a career-high 30 points in the NCAC Tournament final, recorded the 120th 30-point game in program history.
Hardaway led Wooster with 12.3 points per game and really stepped up against archnemesis Wittenberg University. The first-time all-conference selection dropped in a career-high 24 points in a 79-76 win over Wittenberg on January 14, in what marked the 125th all-time game between NCAA Div. III's two winningest teams. Hardaway upped his rebounding career-high to 13 in a 68-60 win over the Tigers on February 4. The fifth-year senior elevated his contributions as a facilitator of the offense down the stretch with three games with at least six assists over the final five games of the year. Hardaway had 20 games with at least 10 points this year, including a 22-point night against Ohio Wesleyan University on January 25.
Kurt repeated as a second-team all-conference selection. The Scots' top forward averaged 10.3 points and 5.2 rebounds per game. Kurt made 55 percent (105-of-191) of his field goals and scored his 1,000th collegiate point between NCAA Div. II Edinboro University and Wooster during the Scots' 92-77 win over Oberlin College in the quarterfinals of the NCAC Tournament. Kurt hit the game-winning, buzzer-beating three-pointer in Wooster's 75-74 win over Wabash College on the last day of the regular season. That shot clinched Wooster's league-leading 19th NCAC title outright and secured the one seed for the NCAC Tournament. Kurt scored a season-high 26 points on the strength of 5-of-7 shooting from deep against Denison University on January 18, and it marked the second time the senior went 5-of-7 on three-pointers against the Big Red at Timken Gymnasium.
Everett played his way onto the all-conference team in February, starting with a then-career-high 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting in Wooster's 77-53 win over Kenyon College on February 1, in what was the program's 1,800th all-time victory. The junior followed that up with 18 points against Wittenberg, 20 at Hiram College, and a career-high 22 at Denison. Everett scored 80 points during that four-game stretch, and shot an astonishing 31-of-42 (73.8 percent) from the floor during the run. On the year, Everett ranked third on the team with 11.3 points per game and he averaged 4.5 rebounds, 1.0 steals, and 0.6 assists per game. Everett led the NCAC with a 69.1 field-goal percentage (112-of-162).
Doug Cline just completed his third year leading the program he once starred for. The 1995 Wooster alumnus is 43-19 as head coach and Wooster has a 654-155 record with Cline on staff. He guided the program to its league-leading 19th conference title, the program's 1,800th all-time victory, and the program's 34th consecutive full season with at least 18 wins this winter.
Cline is assisted by Jack Stevens, Phil Kuchta, and Mel Burke Jr. Stevens came onboard for the 2017-18 season as a student assistant and was elevated to the lead assistant role upon graduating from the College in 2021. Kuchta and Burke Jr. joined the staff prior to the 2022-23 season. The NCAC Awards Committee recently enhanced the conference's coaching honors, designating the award for the full staff instead of just the head coach starting with the 2022-23 academic year.
Notable, this is the 19th consecutive time at least three Wooster players made the all-conference team. Wooster last had four players on the all-conference team in 2013.