Postseason Accolades Piling Up for Wooster, Highlighted by First-Team All-American for Port

Tom Port

James Cooper

Since advancing to the NCAA Div. III Tournament “Final Four,” members of The College of Wooster men’s basketball team have been collecting a series of postseason awards, with the most noteworthy going to senior forward Tom Port (Avon Lake, Ohio / Avon Lake), who was selected to the All-America First Team by the National Association of Basketball Coaches. He also earned second-team All-American honors from D3hoops.com, as did junior guard James Cooper (Springfield, Ohio / Springfield South).

Port was voted Great Lakes Player of the Year by the NABC (district) and D3hoops.com (region), and both organizations tabbed Wooster’s Steve Moore the Great Lakes Coach of the Year. Additionally, Cooper picked up first-team all-region (D3hoops.com) and second-team all-district (NABC) recognition, and senior center Tim Vandervaart (North Canton, Ohio / Hoover) was third-team All-Great Lakes (D3hoops.com) following a vote by the region’s sports information directors.

Port, who becomes just the second first-team All-American in program history (Bryan Nelson was the other in 2002-03) and was a finalist for the NABC’s national Player-of-the-Year award, capped an exceptional four-year run with the Fighting Scots by averaging career highs in scoring (16.1 ppg), rebounding (6.5 rpg), field-goal percentage (.534), 3-point percentage (.441), and steals (1.3 spg). An all-court player, Port also contributed 3.2 assists and 0.9 blocked shots per game this season as he ranked among the top-10 in the North Coast Athletic Conference in nine key statistical categories, including sixth in scoring, eighth in rebounding, fourth in assists, 10th in blocks, and eighth in steals.

For his career, Port finishes as a two-time All-American (fourth-team from D3hoops.com last season) as well as a three-time All-Great Lakes player. He’s only the fifth from Wooster to be four-time All-NCAC, highlighted by first-team accolades the last three years, and maybe most impressively, Port will graduate as the lone Scot to rank among the top-10 in school history in scoring (3rd; 1758 points), rebounding (9th; 758 rebounds), assists (4th; 399), blocks (5th; 116), and steals (10th; 117) while having led Wooster to a 108-16 record (.871), three NCAC championships, and eight victories in the NCAA tourney since 2003-04.

Cooper, who also was an All-American last season (third-team from NABC and honorable mention from D3hoops.com), finished as the Scots’ leading scorer for the second year in a row, averaging 18.0 points in a highly efficient manner. He shot 51.7 percent from the field (230-of-445), the highest by a guard in the NCAC, as well as 43.3 percent on 3-pointers (78-of-180) and 86.0 percent at the foul line (74-of-86). Cooper, who ranked fourth in the conference in scoring, posted 2.3 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and a career-high 1.0 steals per game as well. His 2006-07 campaign was highlighted by garnering MVP honors at both the NCAC Tournament and an NCAA Div. III Tournament sectional, where he scored a season-high 34 points to vault Wooster into the “Final Four.” Cooper will enter his senior season with an opportunity to become just the second player in team history to score 2000 career points, currently with 1491 (15.9 ppg).

Vandervaart nabbed his first all-region recognition, despite missing 10 games due to a couple of injuries. For the season, he was the league’s 10-highest scorer (14.0 ppg) and second-leading rebounder (7.9 rpg), while also topping the NCAC in field-goal percentage (.625) and rating fifth in steals (1.5 spg) and eighth in blocks (1.0 bpg). After fracturing his left wrist in a game on Jan. 20, Vandervaart returned exactly a month later and averaged 13.6 points and 6.7 rebounds during the Scots’ nine-game postseason run. In fact, he was Wooster’s best player at the “Final Four,” totaling 36 points on 17-of-23 field goals (.739) as well as 15 boards, three assists, two blocks, and five steals in the two games en route to all-tourney honors. Vandervaart finishes his playing career as the Scots’ 23rd-leading scorer (1053 points), in addition to ranking second in field-goal percentage (.634), sixth in blocked shots (102), and tied for eighth in steals (129).

Moore is now a four-time Great Lakes Coach of the Year (1990-91, 1999-00, 2002-03, 2006-07). He directed the Scots to their second “Final Four” appearance in five seasons and a 29-5 overall record. Along the way, Wooster won both the NCAC regular season and tournament championships and was ranked among the top-five in the D3hoops.com national poll every week, finishing at No. 4. Moore’s record during his 20-year tenure at Wooster now sits at 467-108 (.812), and he’s 554-173 overall (.762).