Washington & Jefferson South alumnus Nathan Plottner will dunk the ball during a college basketball game earlier this season. (Photo courtesy of Washington & Jefferson/Stephen Rizke)
Parkersburg – Washington & Jefferson College Head Men’s Basketball Coach Ethan Stewart Smith’s former Mid-Ohio Valley Valley Villars pair recruiting undoubtedly helped Division III presidents.
Now sophomore, former Parkersburg South Pa Triot Nathan Plotner and former Ravenswood Red Devil Matthew Cult are undoubtedly known for their presence at W&J, competing in the President’s Athletic Conference. On Wednesday, second scorer Matt Seidl becomes the 27th player in school history, over 1,000 points, but plotter made the campaign’s ninth double double with a 84-75 victory at Thiel. I signed up, got 17 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and added six innings. It increases his block total to 63.
“We lost the early game of the season, especially trying to build that chemistry.” Coach Stewart Smith is set to host the home game quarter-finals game at the Salvitti Family Gymnasium on Tuesday as the team (19-6, 15-5) earned the third seed in the PAC tournament. “We’ve adjusted a bit how it works. After last year, our main strengths are two interior players, Plotner and Alex Acosta, our juniors. I’ve noticed it.
“Usually last year we only played one of those guys at a time. This year’s adjustment was to keep these two together for a long time.
“In our chemistry, especially in the offensive aspects, I feel like it’s much better as the years progressed, as the years progressed. That’s a bit double. One thing is that chemistry is good. Just be, two have really good players. We play 7 guys consistently. All averages are 9, Nathan is 14.5, our main scorer That’s what every night, it’s really just putting pressure on individuals to have to go out and hit a certain number. Now it really does what defense gives us. You can just take it.”
Like Seidl and Carte, two-time Class AA First Team All-State recipients were named Little Canada Conference Player of the Year during their senior campaign for Head Coach Mick Price, starting all 25 games.
Aside from leading the team in scoring and blocking, the former Patriot will roam the president with rebounds (9.9) and field goal shooting (62.6%). In the National Leader of Division III, plotters are 11th in total blocks, 12 blocks per game, 24th in rebounds, 9th in field goal percentage, and 32nd in double doubles.
“It comes from work. I mean he’s usually the first in the offseason gym.” Plotner coach Stewart Smith confirmed he was his first team class AAAA all-state pick as a senior. “He’s the leader with a small training group. He’s here every day and takes another person here. It’s time that it really starts clicking and other layers of his game started to appear. I knew it was a problem: last year I mainly had a big pick and roll and played during the transition with dumpdowns and finishes.
“This year, you can actually play through him on post-up opportunities. In our pressure system, he plays the top of our full court reporting, and he has been in the year. He has 52 steel. He is essentially a single press. His excessive activity and motor really lifts us up and the team. He really keeps the tone on the front of the press. And you can throw it into him consistently and just knowing he plays right and really locks us on the offensive side.”
The psychology major also changed the game a year later with the system. Ex-Red Devil enters the postseason with an average of 10.7 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.4 assists. The Chart also led the team in charity stripes (77.8%) and 3 seconds (48), filming 39.3% of the Ark.
“He went down a bit to a rocky start dating back to last year.” His coach said. “He was a bit slump to start this year, so if he’s probably going to take it like the first 10 or 15 games of his college career, he was probably like 3-45%. He’s really doing good things and running. Later last year, this year he’s got a lot better on the defensive side of the ball. Last year, his kind of success was measured by his ability to put the ball in the hoop, and this year He has a positive plus or minus even when he’s not scoring.
“He not only scored on the table and filmed, but also on both the mat and the plot, the winning pedigree changed the confidence of our team. These were programs he played in the Big Stage and West Virginia Tournaments. He is the one who has won, always hopes to succeed, and he really resonates with our team, and they are the leaders in that regard. They will never stop. They just show up, Every night we compete at such a high level.”
The accounting major, which is close to 3.8 GPA overall so far, admitted that when he first arrived at W&J, it was “it’s hard to wear a red for the first time.” good. I love this place. There’s something to do. It reminds me of Parkersburg. There are things you can think of eating everywhere.
“There are places where you can fish and places where you can go. I like the culture of victory. Two years ago, they were number one preseason, competed in the PAC Championship, and the previous year was in 2022. I won one. I’m about to win another this year. That’s the ultimate goal.”
The former Patriot said to the new venue from plays for Headman Mike Fallon from plays inside Rod Oldham Athletic Center, “I like the gym here. It’s like an open seating type.
“Like arena style, there are a lot of places to sit. There aren’t many people who show up in the student section, so it’s like a different kind of environment. The student section at ROAC was insane.”
It was a two-hour drive back to Parkersburg, so Plotner said he was able to get home for four days on Thanksgiving, and spent about twice as much time on Christmas.
“There’s a good mix to go home and stay here.” He said. “Me and Matt, we played together at Myrtle Beach in the Big South Tournament during Junior Summer, playing AAU together like we did in the West Virginia Rockets’ fourth-year students.
“We’ve always been around each other. It’s fun to meet new people and build chemistry on and off the court. We’re here, playing pickups before the season starts, and we’re going to each other. We learn, learn about each other’s playing style, escape it, and start competing.”
W&J only lost in double digits after this season, and it broke through the presidential 93-90 with a 90-71 setback. Top Sheep Chatham needed overtime to win W&J, 74-72 before winning the season sweep in a 92-90 home victory.
“Every time we lost, we responded.” Plotner said. “Like we haven’t lost a game twice in a row. Every time we lost, we were able to bounce back, find a way to win and continue to overcome adversity.
“It’s hard to beat a team three times, so I think the chances of competing in the playoffs to come out and win are really good.”
The 6-foot-7 pivot attracted him to the program with W&J’s style.
“It really looks similar.” He said. “That’s one of the reasons I came here was because of the press. We play just like that. It’s a fast tempo. We go outside and move on and run, We want to get a fast break with layups, which is pretty much the same as how we play in the South.”
One area in which the plotter is not very satisfied with the court’s outcome is in the free throw line, which is being converted with 61.6% clips.
“Whenever I miss it, it goes into my head and I keep missing them.” He explained. “At the beginning of the year, I was shooting better from the free throw line, which is down, but it would be better.
“The transition was fun. We became brotherly love here. We all want to win like the South. Now, our goal is to win the PAC Championship and nationally. It’s about participating in tournaments and competing.”
The president understands that if you want to go dance in March, you need to draw out some confusion, but the plotter knows there are two seasons left to continue improving. Despite this, we want to make the most of the opportunities we have at hand.
“I was measuring like last year, like I was 190, so I got about 15 pounds, so that was exciting. Plotner spoke about going to year one to second.
“It’s fun to see the work I’ve paid for and show them that they trust me and leaning against me to compete. Like last year, I’ve posted. I was even more anxious about this, but this year I’ve become even more patient.”
Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com
