Wooster has been named the favorite for the 2024-25 North Coast Athletic Conference men’s basketball season, according to votes submitted by league coaches.
The Fighting Scots, who are aiming for their league-leading 20th conference title, earned six of the possible nine first-place votes to top the conference poll with 78 points. Denison, in the hunt for the program’s first conference title, tallied one first-place vote to finish second in the poll with 68 points, while Wabash captured two first-place votes and 63 points to sit third in the standings. Wittenberg (45) and Oberlin (42) secured fourth- and fifth-place, respectively, while DePauw and Ohio Wesleyan tied for sixth with 40 points apiece. The Indiana Tigers and the Battling Bishops were followed by Kenyon (18) in eighth, and Hiram (11) in ninth to round out the poll.
Wooster returns three all-conference players from their 2023-24 team that finished with an overall record of 18-10, a 12-4 mark in NCAC play and a runner-up finish in the 2023 NCAC tournament. Nick Everett (Salem, OH/West Branch) returns to action after earning NCAC Player of the Year honors for his efforts during the 2023-24 campaign. Last season, Everett was the NCAC’s most efficient shooter against league opponents, making 78-of-104 field goal attempts for an NCAC-best .750 shooting percentage. In 352 minutes of conference action, the returning senior averaged 13.5 points per game and set the Wooster program record with 24 consecutive field-goal makes spanning Jan. 17-Feb. 3. His efficient .728 shooting from the floor (134-of-184) broke the NCAC single-season record in field goal percentage, which was set in 2004-05 by Wooster’s Matt Schlingman (.696; 128-of-184). Senior Jamir Billings (Lorain, OH/Lorain) returns to the floor for the 2024-25 campaign as a three-time All-NCAC performer and the first two-time winner of the NCAC Top Defensive Player award after collecting the honor along with Newcomer of the Year in 2021-22. In his junior season, Billings played in all 28 games and averaged 10 points, 4.7 rebounds, while leading the team with 5.9 assists and 3.0 steals per game. In 16 conference games, the guard led the league in steals with 54 (3.4 spg), recording at least three in 10 NCAC matchups which included a season-high seven against Hiram on Feb. 14. Also returning for the Fighting Scots is Ashton Price (Bay Village, OH/Bay), a senior who earned All-NCAC first-team honors a season ago. Price led the Scots in scoring with 439 total points to average 15.7 points per game. In his 28-game junior campaign, he also a led the team with 65 assists while also pulling down 56 rebounds.
