The nation’s bull’s-eye is focused on the Scots

  • Brian Questel
  • December 15, 2010
  • 281
                        
122010 ScotsNo1 Promo: Ranking isn’t the only motivation for Wooster to improve The nation’s bull’s-eye is focused on the Scots By Brian Questel When The College of Wooster men’s basketball opened the season, the No. 6 Scots were expecting big things this season. Now that the Scots are the top-ranked Div. III team in the nation, nothing has changed. Winning the North Coast Athletic Conference championship and earning a spot in the national tournament remains the same, just as the hunt for Wooster’s third berth in the Final Four is on the 2011 to-do list. Wooster coach Steve Moore, architect of the winningest program percentage-wise in all of a America, regardless of division, doesn’t put a great deal of stock in the poll because he knows a key ingredient in Wooster’s rise. “The first ranking is based a lot on last year and who has certain people back and the number of returnees,” said Moore. “That’s why we were ranked so high (in the preseason). Everyone else has lost and we have not, so we’ve automatically moved up.” Moore is exactly right. Defending national champion University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point has lost, as has an exceptional Randolph-Macon team. So, too, have Eastern Mennonite and Illinois Wesleyan, while preseason No. 5 Carthage has been in freefall, dropping out of the Top 25 entirely. So, that leaves 8-0 Wooster with a host of unbeatens hot on its heels – seven, to be exact – along with once-beatens No. 4 Stevens Point and No. 8 Eastern Mennonite and a legitimate North Coast Athletic Conference contender, Wabash, which has rocketed to No. 9 after a 10-0 start. Moore has no illusions of an unbeaten season, especially with the games immediately before his team. “I think there are teams in the country who could have earned a higher ranking than us based on this year,” said Moore. “There’s a team in our conference, Wabash, which is 10-0 and actually has better wins than we have. They weren’t ranked at the beginning of the year at all, so it’s hard to go from unranked to the top 5 or No. 1 But they beat Randolph-Macon, which was No. 2. They went to the Final Four last year and have everyone back heading into the season. “We played and lost to them last December (’09), so we know their personnel really well. They may be the most talented team (in Div. III). Wabash also beat DePauw, their arch-rival, at DePauw, and DePauw beat (Div. I) Evansville in an exhibition. “Wabash has had some impressive victories,” added Moore. “We don’t have any more conference games until Wabash (in January). Before we go back and play in the conference, we have some quality opponents. We have five straight games against really tough opponents, starting with Anderson (Ind.) on the road. They have a couple of losses, but they return pretty much everyone. They won their conference and they beat St. Thomas in Minnesota in the national tournament last year after St. Thomas beat us (in the Mose Hole Tournament) by a huge margin. I was thinking St. Thomas would win the national title and Anderson beat them. Anderson thumped Wittenberg at Anderson, so they are really good.” Wooster will return home to host the Mose Hole on Dec. 28-29 when they face the OAC’s preseason Nos. 1-2, John Carroll and Wilmington, before flying out immediately to Daytona Beach in Florida to play NAIA William Carey and then Baruch (N.Y.) College Jan. 1-2. Wooster will be done with non-league foes for the rest of the season as they open NCAC play at Wabash (2 p.m.) on Jan. 8. “Those are five games where it’s good we’re going to get tested,” said Moore. “Those will be tough challenges before we get back into league play. We wanted to play a tough non-league schedule and improve as a result of playing tough teams so that we’re playing our best basketball at the end of the season.” With the No. 1 serving as a target, the Scots answered one test in its last NCAC game against Allegheny Dec. 8 when senior Ian Franks hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to sink the 4-5 Gators 76-73, who nearly pulled off their quest to beat the nation’s No. 1 team. “The players know that, but Allegheny re-emphasized that,” said Moore. “No doubt everyone will want to play their best against us. A team like Anderson will definitely have its sights set on our game. It will be a tremendous challenge, but as I said before, it’s good. It’s good we play these tough teams. “We certainly should have not let Allegheny come back and tie the game. We were up seven with two minutes to go and definitely should have put the game away. Now that it’s over and winning it with a shot like that and having to maintain our poise, that’s a positive. It’s good to win close games and in the future when our players are in a tough position, we can think back and think we got it done before in a tough situation and we can do it again.” Moore knows those tough situations will come again, but that bull’s-eye is worth it in the long run. “It makes it tougher because teams get fired up, but it’s a good thing,” he said. “It’s good publicity for the basketball program and for the college in general. … It will only make us better.”


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