Men's Hoops' NCAA Second-Round Game Features Top-10 Match-Up

Nationally-ranked and North Coast Athletic Conference-champion College of Wooster (27-2, No. 5 D3hoops.com) will take on Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association-champ Albion College (24-3, No. 9 D3hoops.com) Saturday night, March 5, in a battle of top-10 teams during the second round of the 2005 NCAA Div. III Men’s Basketball Tournament. The Albion-Wooster game, which will tip-off at 7 p.m. inside Albion’s historic Kresge Gymnasium (built in 1925), is one of two in the Round of 32 that features a top-10 match-up, as out west (Tacoma, Wash.), seventh-ranked University of Puget Sound (21-3) is hosting No. 8 Buena Vista College (26-3).

The winner of Saturday’s contest will advance to the “Sweet 16,” and play either 15th-ranked John Carroll University (23-5) or No. 4 Wittenberg University (25-3) at a sectional next weekend. The sectional will bring together four teams at one of the campus sites (the host will be determined by an NCAA committee on Sunday, March 6), and Round of 16 games will take place Friday, March 11, followed by a national quarterfinal game on Saturday, March 12.

On the Air: Every Wooster men’s basketball game is broadcast live on commercial station ?WKVX 960 AM in Wooster and can be heard over the Internet (www.wooster.edu/interactive). Calling the action on Saturday as usual will be Mike Breckenridge.

How They Got Here: Albion and Wooster earned two of the six at-large bids handed out across the country to NCAA Div. III teams from conferences with automatic qualification, thanks to overall records of 24-3 and 26-2, respectively, entering “Selection Sunday.”

The Scots won their conference’s regular season championship (15-1), but could not convert home-court advantage for the NCAC Tournament into the league’s automatic berth to nationals, as rival Wittenberg edged Wooster 61-59 in the finals (61-59). The NCAA selection committe awarded the Scots a first-round home game, and James Cooper (Springfield, Ohio / South) lit up the Baldwin-Wallace College defense for a career-high 27 points while leading Wooster to a convincing 94-78 victory over the Yellow Jackets on Thursday night.

Albion, on the other hand, is well-rested, having received one of 16 “byes” awarded in the first round of the Div. III Tournament. The Britons won the MIAA regular season championship (12-2), but just like their opponents for Saturday, lost at home in the conference tournament finals. Calvin College topped Albion 63-59 in that game.

NCAA Tourney Notes: The Scots are in the midst of a 16th NCAA Tournament appearance, including their 10th in the last 11 seasons and 13th since 1990. Wooster’s all-time mark in NCAA Tournament-play is 12-17, including records of 12-13 in the Div. III Tournament and 9-5 in games played at Timken Gymnasium. However, the Scots are just 1-6 in true road games and 2-7 on a neutral floor.

Should Wooster win on Saturday, it would mark the fifth time in seven seasons, the Scots advanced to the “Sweet 16,” something no other Div. III school can boast during the same stretch. Catholic (D.C.) University reached the Round of 16 four of the previous six years, but did not make the “Big Dance” in 2005. Also noteworthy, Wooster’s best showings in the NCAA Tournament have come in the last two seasons, a run to the “Final Four” in 2003 and an “Elite Eight” appearance last year.

Albion is playing in its fourth NCAA Div. III Tournament, according to the MIAA record book, with a record of 5-3. The Britons have experienced prior success, as they won four games in the 1978 tourney, finishing in third-place, and then went 1-1 the very next season. More recently, Albion was ousted by John Carroll 70-52 in the first round of the 1998 NCAA’s.

As a whole, the MIAA has a strong tradition of history in the NCAA Div. III Tournament. Calvin won the national championship in 2000, trouncing the Scots along the way (82-53 in the “Sweet 16”), and Hope College was the national runner-ups in both 1996 and 1998.

Including the aforementioned Calvin game in 2000, Wooster is 0-3 against MIAA teams in the national tourney, having also lost to Calvin in 1991 (85-68) and Hope in 1997 (67-56).

The Coaches: ?This match-up brings together two coaches who are among the top-20 on the all-time Div. III wins list in Albion’s Mike Turner (Albion ‘69) and Wooster’s Steve Moore (Wittenberg ‘74). Together, the duo has combined for 975 collegiate victories, while instructing from the bench for over 1,400 games (1,429).

Moore is coming off a milestone victory, as he tied the legendary “Mose” Hole for the most coaching victories in school history on Thursday night, and he could add another one Saturday. Moore, who also spent six seasons as the head coach at Muhlenberg (Pa.) College, owns an all-time mark of 499-163 (.754), which means he could become the 16th coach in Div. III history to reach 500 victories. Most of those wins have come at Wooster, where in 18 seasons, he has compiled a record of 412-98 (.808). During Moore’s era as head coach, the Scots have won eight NCAC championships, including five in the last eight years, and made 13 trips to the NCAA tourney.

Turner was named head coach at Albion prior to the 1974-75 season, and has since gone 476-291 (.621). His more recent teams have been some of the most successful, as the Britons won this year’s MIAA championship outright and were co-champions in 2003. Additionally, Turner guided Albion to league titles in 1981 (tri-champions), 1979 (outright champions), and 1978 (co-champions). An alum of the school, Turner, who also serves as the head golf coach, played basketball and soccer as an undergraduate.

All-Time Series: ?This will mark the 15th time Albion and Wooster have met on the hardwood. The Scots own an 11-3 lead in the all-time series, including five-straight, but they haven’t played one another since Jan. 4, 1964. Wooster got the better of the Britons on that day, cruising to a 100-68 victory in the championship of Wooster’s annual “Mose” Hole Classic. Albion’s last win over the Scots was the season-opener of 1956-57 (78-67).

Common Opponents: ?Albion and Wooster share a couple of common opponents from the 2004-05 regular season. The Britons toppled Ohio Wesleyan University by a count of 76-61 in the second game of the year (Nov. 20), while the Scots swept the season series from their NCAC opponent. They needed overtime on the road to avert an upset (75-67 on Dec. 4), but then had an easier time with Ohio Wesleyan at home, prevailing 76-62 on Feb. 19. The other common opponent is Mt. Union College, which Albion beat 74-54 Dec. 27 and Wooster got by 79-69 on Nov. 27. Both of those games took place on a neutral floor.

Scouting the Britons: ?Albion is having one of its finest seasons in school history. The Britons have already set a school record for wins (24) and their three losses have all come by less than 10 points. Albion has three victories against teams currently ranked in the D3hoops.com top-25 – No. 14 Calvin twice (68-65 on Jan. 8 and 78-76 in overtime Feb. 2) and No. 16 Ramapo College (89-73 on Dec. 28).

As a team, the Britons entered this week ranked 11th statistically in field-goal percentage (.504), 23rd in 3-point field-goal percentage (.400), 24th in rebounding margin (+7.6 per game), and 30th in scoring margin (+11.1 per game).

Individually, Albion is led by MIAA Player-of-the-YearTravis DePree, who does a little bit of everything for his squad. In fact, DePree’s only the third-leading scorer on the team (13.3 ppg), but the 6-7, 230-pound senior forward led the league in rebounding (9.7 rpg), assists (4.9 per game), and steals (2.19 per game). He also totaled 34 blocked shots, while teammates joining him on the All-MIAA First Team were Brandon Crawford, a name that may be familiar to Wooster fans, and Mike Thomas. Crawford was the NCAC Newcomer of the Year in 2002-03, averaging 15.2 points and 9.5 rebounds for Oberlin College. The now-junior forward/center then transferred to Albion, where he has earned back-to-back all-league honors. This season, Crawford’s averaging a Briton-best 14.8 points on a .623 field-goal percentage, which is tops in the MIAA. Thomas, a senior, is Albion’s top guard, as he throws in 14.0 points per game, including 34.6 3-point shooting (46-for-133).

In addition, junior guard Michael Bailey, sophomore guard Lonny Fulse, junior forward Garrett Gibbons, and sophomore guard Zak Silas are key players to watch. Fulse and Gibbons round out the starting five (along with DePree, Crawford, and Thomas), as they average 6.3 points and 2.9 assists, and 6.4 points, including 44.3 percent from 3-point range (31-for-70), respectively. Bailey and Silas enter the NCAA’s 1-2 in the MIAA in 3-point field-goal percentage, having connected on 50.7 percent (38-for-75) and 47.8 percent (32-for-67), respectively.

Mealer to Set Wooster Games Played Record, Eyes National Record: ?When Wooster senior power forward Blake Mealer (Wauseon, Ohio / Liberty Benton) steps on the floor Saturday, it will be his 121st game played for the Black and Old Gold, surpassing former teammate Ryan Snyder's record (120; 1999-00, 2001-04). Should the Scots advance, Mealer could tie the NCAA Div. III national record for career games played, currently held by Williams College’s Michael Crotty (122; 2001-04).

What to Watch For: ?In order for Wooster to extend its NCAA Tournament run, the Scots will most likely have to cut down on their turnovers. Wooster, which is averaging an uncharacteristic 13.7 turnovers this season, coughed it up 20 times against Baldwin-Wallace College. The Scots got away with those miscues by shooting nearly 60 percent from the field (.583; 35-for-60), including 14-of-26 3-pointers (.538). That continues a trend, which has seen Wooster finish with a field-goal percentage above .550 in five of the last eight games.

Also noteworthy, the Scots have made more than 10 3-pointers in three of the last seven games, including a season-best 15 against Kenyon College in the NCAC Tournament quarterfinals and 14 in Thursday’s NCAA Div. III Tournament first-round game. Prior to this recent stretch, Wooster had canned a double-digit number of 3’s in three of the first 22 games.

This and That: ?Wooster is the winningest NCAA Div. III team of the 2000s, currently sporting a 154-23 record. Also, the Scots’ winning percentage of .870 is the highest across all of NCAA men’s basketball (regardless of division) this decade … Wooster’s 24-1 record prior to postseason play marked just the third time in school history that it has finished the regular season with one loss. The others were in 1970-71 (23-1 before losing twice in the NCAA Tournament) and 1922 (14-1) … Despite being a regular in the NCAA’s, the Scots played a first-round game Thursday for the first time since 1997. That year, they also easily knocked off an OAC school – Ohio Northern University 84-58 – in an opener. During its previous five NCAA appearances, Wooster has received a “bye” ... In the latest NCAA statistics (through games of Feb. 27), the Scots are the only team in NCAA Div. III to rank among the top-10 in both offensive field goal percentage (fifth; .521) and defensive field goal percentage (seventh; .373). Wooster is third in scoring margin (+18.3 per game), fourth in rebounding (+10.6 per game), 15th in 3-point field-goal percentage (.410), 24th in scoring offense (82.1 ppg), and 38th in scoring defense (63.9 ppg) … Wooster is 100-12 (.893) at Timken Gymnasium since the start of the 1998-99 campaign, and 79-27 (.745) away from home … The Scots possess one of their deepest teams ever, with bench scoring accounting for more than 40 percent (.406) of their total points (973 of 2394) … Matt Schlingman (Ashland, Ohio / Ashland) scored his 1,000th career point on Feb. 25, and now Blake Mealer (Wauseon, Ohio / Liberty Benton) has an opportunity to join him on that list. Mealer needs 34 more points to become the 28th player in school history to reach that milestone. The two senior big men have led the team to 104 wins and just 16 losses (.867) … If the season ended today, Matt Schlingman's (Ashland, Ohio / Ashland) .694 field-goal percentage (125-for-180) would eclipse John Ellenwood's school record of .659 (141-for-214) in 1998-99.