Wooster finishes 23-8 this season, falling on a layup with 2 seconds to play in the third round of the PIT. It was the team's only home loss of the entire season after being one of the last four schools left out of the national tournament. It marks the second consecutive PIT appearance and only the third in school history for the Scots, who now are 44-17  in two seasons under Coach rednu.

Sophomore Kurt Jackson (9 ppg, 2 rpb, 1.4 apg, 1.4 spg) and senior David Bush (11.1 ppg, 7.3 rpg) were both named all-conference honorable mention selections. Senor Charles Knopinski (9.1 ppg, 3.5 apg, 1.8 spg) got shafted, in my opinion, but graduates fifth on the school's career assists chart (398) and third on the career steals chart (182). The team also graduates Lester Daughtry and William Roberts, both of whom were good for 7.4 ppg this season.

The Scots outscored opponents 74.5-66.6 this season. The team hit 46.1 percent of its shots from the floor and 26.2 percent of its shots behind the arc. Opponents fired the rock at a 42.3 percent clip overall and 32.9 percent from downtown. The Scots were outrebounded 33.9-353 nightly, but compensated with a defense that produced 10.3 steals and 19.5 turnovers per contest.

The Scots have four scholarships to fill this off-season. Returning leaders for next year will be Jackson (above) and Anthony Townsend (6.9 ppg, 5.5 rpg). Thomas Hall, 6.5 ppg, is the only other returner to start more than 10 games this season for the Scots, who will likely be without a senior in uniform next season and will feature an entire roster of rednu's recruits.

Development for returning players: (numbers are start of season-end of season-after rollover)

Townsend     496-543-559
Hall     445-496-500
Jackson     510-572-584
Beck     530-587-610
Nelson     439-495-501
Reiner     424-492-507
Moore     437-477-483
Montero     432-455-455

Clearly, the talk of the off-season around Wooster is the dramatic improvement being showcased by Beck, who gained 23 points in the rollover and begins the new season 80 points higher than where he was at the start of his sophomore campaign. Sadly, it appears Beck is probably now within about 40 points of his cap, so the gain was more a product of high work ethic, not a sign of a monster player who might tag the 700 range. Nice offseason gains were also made by Townsend (16), Reiner (15) and Jackson (12). The redshirt on Montero netted 23 points and an Off/Def IQ improvement to C+/B-. Best one-year gain was by Reiner, who is 83 points ahead of where he was last year and has a ton of growth remaining. WIth the returning pieces in place, our attention now turns toward recruiting...

We're on the eve of recruiting season, so it is time to assess the roster for need areas -- three jump to attention. First and foremost, Wooster is in need of a point guard, preferrably one capable of stepping in to provide 10-15 minutes per game this season. I'll be looking for someone whose speed will peg at least 70 with good ball handling and passing. Bonus points if the kid can shoot the rock from downtown, but for this need area, I'm specifically looking for a speedy distributor who can draw fouls.

Next, we need someone who can shoot the ball from the outside. I've endured two seasons of knocking down just one out of every four shots we've chucked from behind the arc and, without help, this year's team might not be able to match those frigidly lofty numbers (56 is my highest returning Per rating...). Someone needs to be able to draw the attention of perimeter defenders, so I'll be looking for a sharpshooter. Again, bonus points if this person has ball handling and passing ability to leave open the possibility that they could split some time at the point, but the primary focus of this player will be to bomb away from downtown.

Last need area, we are without a center on the roster. The way I run the press, the PF and C slots are synonymous and many times I'll field a PF in the C slot because the PF's extra speed fares better defensively. That said, you still need to have a dominant rebounder to throw out there. My best right now is 71 (although he'll possibly be in the 80s by year's end as he's still blue). I've been blessed for two years with workhorse rebounders in the low post, now the time has come to restock the pipeline. I'll be looking for an athletic rebounder. Speed and the ability to at least resemble an offensive threat would be nice, but if he's "just" a rebounder/defender, that's all I need.

That leaves one "roaming" scholarship to offer to anyone that happens to harbor a host of blue potential when I'm out on the recruiting trail...

This will not be a recruiting season I look back upon and brag about. It might, however, be a recruiting season that I use as an example of what NOT to do.

Pre-recruiting, it looked fairly straight-forward. I had a quality PG and a solid blue PF, both within 70 miles of campus. I figured I'd snare both and be well on my way to meeting needs. As fate would have it, I missed the mini-cycle at the start of recruiting, so I got home that night to discover the PG was already being considered by two human players and the PF had a Sim on it. No problem, the prestiges of the guys on the PG were C+/C- and neither were within 200 miles. I fired off a salvo of home visits, scouting trips and a scholarship. Same strategy on the Sim that was on the PF.

Next cycle, I log in and realize that one of the humans on the PG was, in fact, a D2 school with 7 open 'ships. This battle just became dangerous if he's serious about the player. The PF, meanwhile, rejected my home visits...had I waited for the first Word on the Street, as I commonly advise others to do, I would have seen that the player must have been Simmy's top target. For those keeping score at home, this is about $1,600 spent on two players that I have little shot of landing, despite their proximity. Yes, I are idiot.

This necessitated Plan B, which worked out nicely when I got drop down notice for a player from South Caroina. A quick FSS of the state revealed that, oh my, SC was rich in high-potential low-D2/D3 recruits. I grabbed the 2 that were already showing D3, fired off a call to two D2 ones that I liked, and waited. Both dropped within a day. Four players with the potential to hit 600+ (one might fall just shy...) all from one mid-population state -- definitely not something I encounter every recruiting season.

So, rest assured, Wooster is not in South Carolina. It'll just feel that way for the next four years. Here's your recruiting class: 

-- Francis Davis is high-potential in defense, low post, perimeter, passing, stamina and free throws. He'll redshirt this season to bring up his defense number and work on his Off/Def IQs as he was the only player I recruited that did not have experience in the press defense or the triangle offense. The key to his career will be how many points his average speed potential holds. If it's a high average, he could be a PG/SG 'tweener for his career. If not, he's a pure SG.

-- Carl Wilson is the man responsible for the South Carolina pipeline coming to my attention. High potentials in speed, rebounding, defense, shot blocking, low post, passing, stamina and durability. He'll easily soar past 600 points, although his freshman year might be a bit of a learning curve as he catches up the points that he starts behind the other recruits.

--Donald Ryder is high potential in athleticis, speed, low post, perimeter and passing. He, too, will easily get beyond 600 points in his playing career for a rating. He'll be one of those players that, by his junior year, will be able to fill multiple roles on the floor.

-- Lucas Smart will be the shortest PF in the NCAC. Listed as a SF and standing only 6-foot, his 80 LP rating and high potential in athleticism will produce a player that sports all the numbers you want for a low block scorer. Other highs are defense, perimeter, stamina and free throws. He might  not reach 600 for a rating, but I see bright things in his career on the offensive end.

As for the season, Wooster begins the year ranked No. 20 in athleticism and defense in D3 ball. For a press team, that's a good combination. That said, there are some issues ahead. The non-conference schedule contains three encounters with preseason top 20 clubs, none of whom I look to match up well against at this point in time. We'll be vulnerable early in the season against pressing teams -- the high potentials we have returning in ball handling and passing need to spike quickly as the year goes on. The nice thing is that this is a team without a senior and could easily be pushing 540 for a rating by year's end as the younger players improve via playing time. The NCAC is in rebuilding mode across the board and the conference race could go to the team that improves its young players the most over the course of the season. I figure we'll be in the mix, but I won't say we'll be holding a championship banner at season's end. After lowballing my prediction the last two seasons, I'll say Wooster is aiming for 18 wins this regular season and a return to the postseason in some fashion.

Wooster fans are celebrating an outright conference championship following a 20-6 regular season and a 14-2 run through the NCAC. Both conference defeats came by single points (and just to twist the knife deeper, they came on back-to-back nights...). The Scots carry an 11-game win streak into the post-season and are hoping to extend that through the conference tournament to qualify for the Big Dance. With a spot at No. 52 on the projection report currently, I'll probably have to win out to make the NT. A stumble probably drops me into the PIT for a third consecutive season. More on the postseason at another time...had to bump my thread before it got knocked off the one-month timeline and I had to search for it. 

Wooster ends its season in the second round of the national tournament with a 24-7 record. It was only the second NT appearance in school history for the Scots and their first-round win over No. 14 George Fox was the team's first-ever NT victory. The Scots also celebrated an NCAC tournament championship for only the second time. Head coach Red Nu, who was named the NCAC coach of the year, improves to 68-24 at the helm of the Scots. Post-season honors also went to juniors Kurt Jackson, Russell Beck and Thomas Hall and sophomore Raymond Moore, all honorable mention performers. For Jackson, he is now a two-time NCAC honorable mention pick. Lucas Smart was stunned to learn he had not done enough to earn freshman of the year honors and used that motivation to produce his two best scoring games of the year in the postseason. (No, I didn't alter his distro, it just happened.)

For the year, Wooster outscored its opponent by a 72.9-63.3 margin. The Scots shot 45.4 percent from the floor and 28.9 percent from behind the arc while allowing opponents to connect on just 41.3 percent of their shots and 33.2 of their three-point attempts. Wooster outrebounded opponents 35.8-34.8 for the year and forced 19.8 turnovers while producing 9.9 steals per contest.

The Scots return their entire roster next season and will likely be a highly ranked team at the start of the year. Returning leaders will include Jackson (10.2 ppg, 3.5 rpg), Beck (8.8 ppg, 2.4 rpg), Hall (8.5 ppg, 2.5 rpg) and Smart (8.5 ppg, 4.6 rpg). There won't be much to write about this off-season. With not enough post-season money and rollover cash to risk gambling for an upgrade, the Scots will let their roster ride into next season and simply hope for big off-season improvements in preparation for a possible deep tournament run next year.

With no off-season recruiting to perform, the head coach of Wooster was reportedly last seen lounging on a Caribbean beach sipping a beverage of choice. The Scots improved to a B+ prestige in the offseason, not that it means anything since they're not recruiting. It will, hopefully, provide a springboard for next year, when we do need to start signing bodies to scholarships again.

Here's the off-season report. Numbers are start of last season-end of last season-start of this season: 

Jackson     584-635-645
Moore     483-524-527
Davis     439-470-473
Wilson     403-447-448
Beck     610-653-667
Hall     500-551-563
Montero     455-498-497
Ryder     448-500-514
Smart     430-479-484
Townsend     559-590-599
Nelson     501-559-569
Reiner     507-570-570

We had five double-digit improvements in the off-season, topped by a 14-point gain from the sophomore Ryder and the senior Beck. Beck's gain was especially surprising as I thought he was close to his cap when last season ended. He's definitely going to be close to his cap now. Another senior, Hall, gained a dozen points while Jackson and Nelson both shot up 10 points. That gives Nelson bragging rights for best single-season improvement this year with a 68-point gain. Average gain per player over the last year was 53 points.

Looking ahead, this is the moment of truth for the members of a highly regarded recruiting class to put it all together as seniors. The Scots will begin the season as one of the nation's top 25 teams in athleticism, defense and low post play. The team might sneak into the top 25 for speed as well. I will go out on a limb and say that those things, combined with the team's 546 starting rating for this season results in a preseason ranking of some nature. This is obviously a year that I'm looking upon as a possible deep-run year n the national tournament. We still have some weaknesses that need gameplanned around, but two strong recruiting years resulted in a roster filled with upperclassmen that ought to make Wooster a tough out for almost anyone. That said, Wittenberg is also back with the entire pantry stocked, so merely winning the division will remain a challenge. The non-conference schedule was also punched up this season, so this won't be a cakewalk. We could reach the postseason with five players rated 600+ and several more high 500s, as well as a horde of A- or higher IQs. Color me optimistic for the season ahead.

Hrmm...Wooster is excluded from the preseason top 25. I'm guessing it probably has something to do with my SF-heavy roster vs. the lineup the AI perceives that I'll be using when making the initial calculation for rankings. In any event, the team begins the year as No. 8 in team athleticism, tied for a spot in the top 25 in team speed, No. 10 in team defense and No. 12 in low post play.

Two tough divisional opponents in conference and two top-15 programs scheduled on the road for the regular season. Won't be an easy route to the tournament, but I'm definitely still holding fast to my goal of a deep tournament run this year.

Got though the non-conference with only a 6-4 mark, which is definitely concerning. You would think with the same 12 players back in uniform that preparing for this season would be as simply as importing last year's depth chart and distribution information, but that hasn't been the case. Our loss to the defending national champs was largely a product of 11-for-30 free throw shooting, easily the worst display from the line I've seen in 30+ seasons in this game. I'm so happy it had to be my team. The other losses though -- two to ranked teams, one to a team that jumped into the rankings by virtue of its win over me -- have all been by 12-14 points, which is definitely disconcerting to a coach looking to make a deep NT run. Starting to think that perhaps my perception of my team and the reality of my team just aren't meshing.

Wooster finishes the year with a 23-8 record, down a victory from the previous year, but once again advanced to the second round of the national tournament. I have mixed emotions for this season -- the second round of the NT is always good, but I really felt this team had the potential for more, and in just about every "big" game this season came up short in performance. I returned everyone, but for some reason we seemed to gel better as a group the previous season. Oh the fun of random number generation. 

Kurt Jackson (15.6 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 2.0 apg, 2.3 spg) was a first-team all-conference selection. Thomas Hall (11.5 ppg, 2.8 apg, 1.6 spg) was a second-team selection and Anthony Townsend (11.5 ppg, 5.4 rpg) was an honorable mention nod who started the season strong but couldn't maintain pace in the conference campaign. Sadly, all are seniors. Jackson finishes as the No. 9 scorer and the No. 7 steals man in school history. (1187 pts, 174 steals). Along with Russell Beck (9.0 ppg) we lose our top four scorers as the class that started with me at Wooster now graduates and leaves a significant hole to fill in recruiting. 

That leaves next year's top returning scorer as junior-to-be Lucas Smart (6.2 ppg, 4.1 rpg). Steven Nelson (5.9 ppg, 5.1 rpg) will also play a big role as a redshirt senior, but it will be a whole cluster of new go-to guys taking their step up to be "the man."

Team stats-wise, we averaged 83.7 ppg while giving up 67.2 per contest, outrebounded opponents 36.7-35.7, and forced 22.2 turnovers per game while grabbing 10.5 steals per game and giving the ball away just 14.5 times per night. Wooster shot 48.4 percent from the floor, 26.7 percent from 3-point range and 68.8 percent from the foul stripe. Our opponents' splits were 41.4/30.2/71.1 in those three areas. 

Player improvement tracker (numbers are start of season, end of season, after rollover)

Nelson     569-615-623
Reiner     570-624-644
Moore     527-564-569
Montero     497-536-543
Wilson     448-490-491
Ryder     514-563-573
Smart     484-530-531
Davis     473-516-524

Derrick Reiner leaps 20 points in the off-season and improves by 74 points over the start of last season, hopefully positioning him well to be a force in the paint for the Scots this season. Donald Ryder was the only other double-digit improvement in the off-season, gaining 10. He reports to campus 59 points better than he was a year ago and still has a minimum of 75 points of growth ahead of him. We'll be looking at a 650-700 rated player by graduation there. Always nice. As a team, we averaged 52 points of improvement per returning player. Nobody got caught eating too many potato chips over the summer, so there was improvement from everyone. Now the focus will turn to recruiting...

When does rollover happen.

Posted by jllanter on 4/27/2012 12:48:00 AM (view original):
When does rollover happen.

We should roll tonight...not sure exactly what time of the early a.m. it occurs (if you're in North America). Usually it doesn't happen at the same time the games sim,) In general, it's a day and a half before the recruiting starts in the world. 

On the eve of recruiting and here's how I'm assessing the Scots' needs for their four open scholarships: 

1. We lost a pair of good BH/Pass types that could play the point (even though one was an SG and the other an SF). I have one decent D3 point guard and two players who are functional at best at the position. It's time to go shopping and find a pure ball distributor for the triangle offense. 

2. I've been saying this every season since I arrived at Wooster, but our lack of perimeter shooting really is annoying the heck out of me. Once again, a strong SG three-point chuck-and-duck sort of player would be nice. Bonus points if he can handle point duties from time to time. 

3 and 4. Usually I like to keep a scholarship free for "best available player," but I'm really thinking I need to double up in the post with the last two scholarships we have. I'll lose some bigtime depth there when Nelson and Reiners finish the year. For depth purposes, I think I need to grab two, probably redshirting one for the season ahead. 

That's the plan...everybody has a plan until they start to get hit. Once that happens, we go on instinct and feel...

Wooster has inked its freshman class:

--Michael Burdick is listed as an SG from Our Lady of Mt. Carmel High School in Wyandotte, Mich. What we like about Michael is he's already athletic and fast for a D3 player. He'll get faster and more athletic. He will transition to a PG in the college game as his perimeter abilities aren't up to snuff to play the 2 position. High potential in BH and a known high-high in passing, plus highs in speed, defense and stamina. Michael's career might start slow until the BH/Pass combo gets up to speed, but with the Ath/Spd/Def numbers, he'll be a salty defender off the bench until his PG numbers develop.

--Russell Kendall is a PF from Grand Rapids Central HS in Grand Rapids, Mich. Russell, to put it simply, could be a stud. High potential areas in Reb, Def, LP, Per, BH and Passing with a stamina that could go well into the 90s by graduation. In case you can't tell, I am excited about this pick, although the low start values will stifle growth for one season. The other thing I love about Kendall is that he has no low-growth areas, so every rating area will climb notably through his career. I will attempt to slap the redshirt on Russell this season, because I'd really like to develop a couple of those areas. If he refuses, Burdick might be my next redshirt attempt to get the pass number jacked up.

--Stephen Millstein is another Michigan PF, this time from Byron Area HS. Stephen will be a solid post player with high athleticism and speec, which ought to come in handy in the press. The LP and Passing are also high potential. Millstein isn't the sort of guy you'd grab expecting an All-American. He's just one of those guys that will grow and develop and give you solid play. Only one low-potential area, and that's in perimeter, where he'll never play. Consider this an insurance play selection.

--Edward Valentine is an SG from Mifflin HS in Columbus, OH, just down the street from campus. If you followed along with my pre-recruiting plan, you would think this would be the chuck-and-duck guy that I was talking about wanting. He's not. The Per might get into the low 70s, which makes him borderline functional as a 3-point shooter in my opinion. The problem is, Valentine has seven high-potential categories and could easily be 60+/60+/60+ in Ath/Spd/Def with an overall of more than 625 by the time he graduates. That's a hard package to pass up when it's sitting in your back yard. It's especially hard to pass up when you're a press team. If the passing really spikes, he could add support at PG as well.

TALES FROM THE RECRUITING TRAIL -- There was actually a very solid PG prospect in-state and 130 miles from campus that I loved pre-recruiting and I offered him first cycle. So did three other colleges. After examining the rivals, I noticed one was 170 miles away, had an A+ prestige and came from a conference I knew to have more postseason cash. He also had more openings than I did. In my world, this translates roughly to "get the hell out of town." So I spent the second cycle hunting for a Plan B point guard. I also used the second cycle to offer Valentine -- I wasn't certain I actually WANTED Valentine yet, but like I said, a guy who can go better than 60/60/60 is hard to say no to. I at least wanted my name on him, and if something better came along, great. My only other move early was to send some scouting trips to a local in-state D2 that I was hoping might be a cheap pulldown. Got the message that the other coaches were way out of our league at the game and that were clearly a backup option and stopped -- the last time I got that message, it cost me 28 scouting trips to get the kid. Cost/benefit analysis = wait.

And that's what i did for most of the next 24 hours...waited for drop downs to contact me. I had a line on a PG in NJ that I visited and offered. The next cycle, he was claimed by a guy 20 miles from him. 680 vs. 20, even with a prestige advantage and the guy in a couple other battles...there were better fish to fry somewhere in the pond. The evening of Day 2, a got a call-back from Michigan on a prospect, so I FSS'd the entire state. The drop was attrocious...something like 9 low categories...but the state was rich in unclaimed multi-high potential talent with decent start values and lots of averages in the non-high categories. Much like I did with South Carolina a few seasons ago, I saddled up and rode that horse. From there, it was a case of defending a couple token challenges, but with about 2/3 of our recruiting budget still available and advantages over both challengers, there was never a risk and the class was assembled. Let the season begin!