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Wooster certainly has the history.
Misericordia’s opening opponent in the NCAA tournament has made 13 straight trips to the dance, the longest active streak in the nation for Division III. Twenty-four NCAA bids altogether. Three stops at the Final Four since 2003 and an appearance in the national championship game in 2011.
“The winningest NCAA team of the 2000s,” trumpets the Wooster website and media guide — a winning percentage of nearly 85 percent over 15 years.
The Cougars, it seems, have their work cut out for them today.
They made the 400-plus mile bus ride from Dallas to Marietta College in southeast Ohio on Thursday. They were scheduled to get in an evening practice and then get into their game day routine today for a 5 p.m. tip-off.
It will be just Misericordia’s second NCAA tournament game ever.
No, the Cougars don’t have Wooster’s history. But they do have two senior starters who have taken down just about every challenge in front of them this year.
Forward Steve Ware and guard Joe Busacca are playing some of the best basketball of their careers right now. Ware enters the game with four straight double-doubles. Busacca caught fire in the Freedom Conference tournament and won tournament MVP honors on top of his conference player of the year award.
“In their minds, they feel like they can compete with anyone in the country,” Cougars coach Trevor Woodruff said. “They’re very confident, and it’s confidence born from experience. They know they’ve done the job. They just go out and give everything — down the stretch in particular.
“They’re very confident. And they should be.”
In Saturday’s conference title game, Busacca finished with 29 points while Ware added 14 points and 11 rebounds to beat Delaware Valley for a third time on the season.
Aggies coach Casey Stitzel came away impressed.
“Those seniors put them on their backs,” Stitzel said. “Those guys deserve everything they’ve gotten. They’ve worked their tails off. It’s been a pleasure to watch them play, and I wish them nothing but the best in the NCAA tournament.”
As a freshman, Busacca played 25 minutes in the Cougars’ only other NCAA appearance, an 84-65 loss to NYU in a true road game. He scored 17 points and hit all four of his shots from the floor.
Fellow seniors Ware, Patrick Widdoss and Anthony Sergio were also on the roster for that game.
“Freshman year, we had a chance at this right away,” Busacca said after the Cougars clinched their NCAA bid Saturday. “But it’s been a long time (since then). So we’ve just been trying to scratch and claw, scratch and claw to get back.
“It means a lot to have players that have been there before. We have (former Cougars point guard) Matty Greene, who’s a coach now. He’s able to convey to us what it means, what the pressure is like. It helps out a lot.”
Along with starters Griffin Sponaugle, James Hawk and Jamie Egan and top reserves Jesse Urich and Erik Kerns, the Cougars enter the tournament ranked No. 2 in the country in field goal percentage defense (36.7 percent). They’re also eighth in defensive rebounds (29.7 per game) and 17th in scoring defense (60.4 ppg).
All of it will be needed against Wooster.
The No. 22 Fighting Scots boast a balanced offense led by senior guard Xavier Brown, a standout at both ends of the court who was just selected first-team all-conference for the fourth straight year.
Brown was joined on the first team this year by senior wing Evan Pannell and sophomore big man Dan Fanelly. It was the first time in the 31-year history of the North Coast Athletic Conference that three players from the same school earned first-team nods.
“I think their size on the wing is my biggest concern,” Woodruff said. “They have the ability to attack our wing players. … I’m concerned about how they can post up on our smaller guards. We have to figure out how to try to defend that.”
For all of the Scots’ accolades, however, they have off nights just like everyone else. In the NCAC finals last week, they missed every last three-pointer they took and crumbled in the second half of a 69-56 loss to DePauw.
Wooster ended up being one of 19 teams to get an NCAA at-large bid. It was just the sixth time in the last 18 seasons that the Scots didn’t win their conference tournament.
From Misericordia’s perspective, the Scots remind them a bit of Delaware Valley stylistically. Not a bad omen, given the Cougars’ success against the Aggies this season.
“They’re a little bigger, a little stronger (than DelVal),” Woodruff said. “They go nine or 10 deep, which is a little deeper than we’ve got. But in terms of style, it’s as good a matchup as we could hope for.
“We expect it to be a game.”
Stitzel’s Aggies have represented the Freedom Conference at NCAAs twice recently and both times, the draw was not favorable.
“It’s all about matchups,” Stitzel said. “Unfortunately, when we’ve gone there, we played Virginia Wesleyan twice, who plays like us — but with better players. A bad matchup. We needed to play a team that maybe our style of play would interrupt. Misericordia’s going to be the same way.
“But I’ll tell you what. I wouldn’t bet against those two seniors. I think they’ll give somebody a run for their money. Big time.”