MBB: NESCAC

[walzy31]

The suspense has been killing me and too many people are texting/emailing me asking me when it is getting posted to wait any longer. I'd rather post the team today in order to give eight teams that are breathing post-season life the chance to read it rather than waiting until Sunday when only four teams will be left.

In February of 2006, I posted the inaugural "All NESCAC All Crazy" Team. Two legends were born:
Blake Curry #1 overall from Wesleyan
Simon Behan #2 overall out of Middlebury

In February of 2007, Wesleyan's most formidable rapper could not be stopped and was taken 1st overall again. Bowdoin's Jordan Fliegel and Jake Weitzen from Tufts went 2-3 in the draft.

2008 featured the first ever jersey retiring ceremony in the history of the Crazy Team. #44 hangs in the rafters and all Wesleyan fans should be proud of Mr. Curry's achievements. Fliegel (aka Roids) went 1st overall followed by Tom Selby from Tufts.

In February of 2010, Conn College's Demetrious Porter's 16 turnover performance locked up the 1st position of the draft and Amherst's DJ "The Situation" Carcieri went 2nd.

Campus newspapers reference the draft, dining hall employees instigate players to make them more crazy, coaches recruit for insanity, girlfriends of players egg their men on to make the squad (because any post-season recognition is sexy), forum posters crave it, and most importantly, the players are demonstrating sufficient craziness to keep the tradition alive.

For the fifth time in six years...it is time.

For those readers who are unfamiliar with this, it is not too hard to follow.
5 first teamers and 5 second teamers.
Nicknames are strongly encouraged, but are not required.
All stories are based on facts and rumors and may not be 100% non-fictional. Don't take it too seriously.
Craziness is required.

[walzy31]

With the first pick of the 2011 All NESCAC All-Crazy Team...I select... Greg St. Jean of Wesleyan University.

1st Pick – Greg "The Mean" St. Jean (Wesleyan University)
There is an unwritten rule in Crazy Team lore that says every First Team shall have a representative from Wesleyan University. This post represents the institution of making that unwritten rule written.

Last year's 5th overall pick as a Freshman, Greg continued his development on the All-Crazy team by not decreasing his energy or emotional output this season despite not playing any games or minutes. A minute-less captain, St. Jean exploded off the bench with his arms fist pumping when Wesleyan corralled a defensive rebound in one Wesleyan game I saw. The crazy part of this action was that it was the defensive rebound from the first shot of the game; one too many Red Bulls during pre-game.

Son of Garry St. Jean, ex-GM of the Golden State Warriors during the Spree choking Carlesimo debacle, Greg used to be known for his viciously hard fouls and standoffish persona. As a healthy player, St. Jean was an enforcer. As an injured captain on the All-Crazy team, St. Jean is the starting enforcer. When Wesleyan basketball loses and morale is down, St. Jean steps in and beats the crap out of whoever is unhappy. When Saturday nights don't end up as desired, St. Jean steps in and beats the crap out of whoever screwed up the evening. When Coach Reilly mentions it frustrates him that Bates is the 6th seed and Wesleyan missed the NESCAC tournament, St. Jean beats the crap out of him.

The All-Crazy team lacks experience and leadership this year and it was important to lock up such a valued asset to the team immediately. He is one of only two repeat-members from the 2010 All-Crazy team and I look forward to his return to the hardwood next season where he will certainly be favored to attain post-season crazy-team accolades for a third consecutive year.

[walzy31]

2nd Pick – Andrew "Don Juan" Locke (Middlebury College)
Andrew Locke is a known name around the NESCAC. A lock (no pun intended) for Defensive Player of the Year plaudits, Andrew leads the conference and country with 4+ blocks per game. Hopefully he recovers fully and quickly from his knee injury. What doesn't appear in the stat sheet is how he affects other shots that he does not block. Here are three examples:

   1) A player drives the lane and throws up and errant 7 foot floater because he doesn't want to take it all the way to the rack against Locke's imposing 6'10" frame.
   2) After an offensive rebound by an opponent, the player with the ball knows who is towering over him, and after pump-faking three times, tries to put back the rebound...only he alters his shot so much that the ball goes over the backboard and hits the 35 second clock for a turnover.
   3)The shots taken by the leading scorers of the Middlebury College women's basketball team in the games that immediately follow men's games...

Breaking hearts alone doesn't land you on the crazy team. But if you can break the hearts of two or three sisters that attend the same school, or of multiple sorority members of the same sorority, or of multiple teammates of the same women's basketball team at the same school, then you will get my attention.

Lastly, Andrew also was drafted as the team's designated free throw shooter. His 2010-2011 stat line of 37-102 from the line is impressive (35%!), but what is more impressive is that the stat line does not include self-inflicted lane violations. In the Amherst game, he air-balled one attempt and threw a second shot high off the backboard. Neither were recorded as missed free throw attempts because he went sprinting in after the ball and was whistled on lane violations both times (and all air balls are automatically violations). I don't know how many shooter violations he incurred this season. I hope there were many and I hope most of them were intentional. The point is that his free throw percentage is even lower than it appears on paper. We love that on the All-Crazy team.


3rd Pick – Peter "Guinness Book" Kaasila (Amherst College)
Pronounced "Kass-ill-ah," the addition of Big Pete is starting to make this year's All-Crazy team a who's-who of NESCAC big men. I will ruin some suspense for everyone by letting you know that Whittington, Hanley, and Russell are not Crazy-Team members.

The nickname is not derived from any statistics he collected or from an eating contest. He did not grow the largest pumpkin in his dorm nor did he bake the heaviest calzone. What #54 did do is set the Guinness Book record for number of minutes spent lacing basketball shoes up before games. At an average clip of 10 minutes per game (varying between 8 and 12 minutes), Kaasila has racked up an astonishing 230 minutes of pre-game shoe tying on Amherst game days this season. To put in perspective how crazy this is, think to yourself how long it takes you to tie your sneakers or dress shoes in the morning:
15 seconds?
30 seconds?
Definitely not longer than a minute.

I know Pete is smart and kind with no learning disabilities and that this is purely a superstitious routine. I wonder if the three games that Jeff Holmes started over Pete were due to shoe tying delays...the world may never know.


4th Pick – Gordon "Rondo" Fischer (Colby College)
No relation to Gordon Mann and not a member of the Gordon College team, Gordon Fischer is statistically the 6th man on Colby's team:
6th in minutes;
6th in points per game; and
He appeared in all 24 games.

I think this kid would have All-Conference statistics if one were to back out these box scores from his season statistics:

12/4 Maine Maritime http://www.nescac.com/sports/mbkb/2010-11/stats/COL1204.HTM
0-2FG (0-1 3PtFG), 0-0FT, 3Reb, 0Blk, 0Stl, 0PF, 0Pts, 0Ast, 2 Turnovers, 11 Minutes

12/5 Rivier http://www.nescac.com/sports/mbkb/2010-11/stats/COL1205.HTM
0-2FG (0-2 3PtFG), 0-0FT, 0Reb, 1Blk, 0Stl, 0PF, 0Pts, 0Ast, 2 Turnovers, 6 Minutes

12/11 Bowdoin http://www.nescac.com/sports/mbkb/2010-11/stats/BOW1211.HTM
0-3FG (0-2 3PtFG), 2-2FT, 1Reb, 0Blk, 0Stl, 1PF, 2Pts, 0Ast, 0 Turnovers, 15 Minutes

1/22 Tufts http://www.nescac.com/sports/mbkb/2010-11/stats/COL0122.HTM
1-3FG (0-2 3PtFG), 2-2FT, 1Reb, 0Blk, 1Stl, 2PF, 4Pts, 0Ast, 4 Turnovers, 20 Minutes

1/28 Amherst http://www.nescac.com/sports/mbkb/2010-11/stats/AMH0128.HTM
0-3FG (0-1 3PtFG), 0-0FT, 0Reb, 0Blk, 0Stl, 1PF, 0Pts, 0Ast, 0 Turnovers, 15 Minutes

1/29 Trinity http://www.nescac.com/sports/mbkb/2010-11/stats/TRI0129.HTM
0-2FG (0-1 3PtFG), 2-2FT, 2Reb, 0Blk, 0Stl, 2PF, 2Pts, 0Ast, 1 Turnovers, 13 Minutes

2/4 Middlebury http://www.nescac.com/sports/mbkb/2010-11/stats/COL0204.HTM
0-1FG (0-1 3PtFG), 0-0FT, 0Reb, 0Blk, 0Stl, 0PF, 0Pts, 0Ast, 1 Turnovers, 12 Minutes

2/12 Conn College http://www.nescac.com/sports/mbkb/2010-11/stats/CONN0212.HTM
0-6FG (0-3 3PtFG), 3-6FT, 3Reb, 0Blk, 0Stl, 1PF, 3Pts, 0Ast, 0 Turnovers, 13 Minutes

8 games totaling 102 minutes.
1 of 22 from the floor, 0-12 from three, and 9 for 12 from the line totaling 11 points.
10 rebounds & 7 personal fouls.
1 block, 1 steal, 0 assists, and 10 turnovers.

In that same 2/4 Middlebury/Colby game, Ryan Sharry of Middlebury came off the bench for 12 points, 12 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks, and 2 steals; out-assisting, out-blocking, out-scoring, out-stealing, and out-rebounding Fischer's 102 minutes of play in 19 minutes.

Ryan Sharry 1st Team All-NESCAC.
Gordon Fischer 1st Team All-NESCAC All-Crazy.

Some would call it a lack of production, but I call it the perfect amount of production for the All-Crazy team. With St. Jean, Locke and Kaasila, you've got three bigs who can score the ball. I'm not trying to field a team like the Lakers who have so many personalities and only one ball to play with. I need a guy like Fischer who is going to fill a role for me.

Gordon Fischer had some big games and big shots for the troubled Colby team throughout the season...just not in the above listed games. On a side note, Kaasila could lace his shoes ten times in the amount of minutes Fischer played this season.


5th Pick – Christian "The Bowling Ball" Van Loenin (Colby College)
Back-to-back Mules round out this year's First-Team. Van Loenin is an obvious selection. Not only do we need at least one player who can bring the ball up the court (which Christian can do very well) and to have a guard who might pass the ball to his other teammates, but Van Loenin is eerily similar to a prior two-time 1st Team All-Crazy member.

I don't know what the boys up in Maine eat, or how much they work out, or what kind of performing enhancing drugs get dealt to guys who don't want the heroine, but Jordan Fliegal and Christian Van Loenin have futures in a fighting ring.

I think Van Loenin is the 5th best guard in the conference, but it is hard to give him (or Sha Brown) All-NESCAC accolades as they were on the 9th and 10th place teams. While he probably will get snubbed from the All-NESCAC 2nd team, he now has upgraded and landed on the All-Crazy 1st team. Thriving on contact at both ends of the court, he physically terrorizes the white, black, and Australian guards in the conference.

Known around Waterville simply as "Barry," Van Loenin has already accepted a $25,000 signing bonus to fight in the UFC's minor leagues upon graduation. We need someone on the team who will make St. Jean, Locke and Kaasila think twice before stepping in and taking a charge during practice. CVL is our guy!



Ladies and Gentlemen, may I please present you with the
2011 All NESCAC All-Crazy First Team

1st – Greg St. Jean (Wesleyan)
2nd – Andrew Locke (Middlebury)
3rd – Pete Kaasila (Amherst)
4th – Gordon Fischer (Colby)
5th – Christian Van Loenin (Colby)

[walzy31]

6th Pick – Chris ("tina") Applegate (Trinity College)
Last year, the Wang from down under took home the honors of funniest name on the All-Crazy team. This year, it goes to a less funny name (although having the namesake of the first female network anchor to work alongside Ron Burgandy isn't nothing), and to a guy who is described by many that are involved in the conference as "having a screw or two loose."

Barely winning the Fist Pumping and Chest Pounding Player of the Year (FPCP-POY) honors ahead of Willy Workman is crazy impressive on its own right. I heard that he had an opportunity for an uncontested layup in a game but instead of dunking the ball or laying it in, he decided to do a post move with a drop-step and put the hook in off the glass...just so he could do his signature celebratory moves.

Described by a non-partisan observer who voted him onto this team as:
#31 on trinity. 6'7" 220 pound big man from North Carolina. A buffoon who seemed to have no idea that his illegal physical play was frightening because you thought a fight could break out at any moment. He'd literally just unnecessarily throw himself into opposing players on the low post, like the hitting motion that a free safety makes when trying to clear a guy's clock going over the middle.

I salivated when I received that message. Who better to replace St. Jean when he fouls out or is ejected than Mr. Applegate?


7th Pick – CJ "He Got Game" Moss (Tufts University '15)

This has to be the earliest in the year I've ever heard of a NESCAC player "committing":

http://www.newenglandrecruitingreport.com/news/article/1608/Moss-Headed-NESCAC.php

This kid will never be accused of having a lack of confidence.  Strange to read the type of press release usually associated with pro athletes.  What next, does he begin to refer to himself in the 3rd person?

CJ, thank you for making All-Crazy Team history. Never before has the All-Crazy Team rolled the dice on a senior in high school, but our player development and amateur scouts have assured me that we know exactly what we are getting. I hope, for my sake, that (you remain healthy for your career but that) you do not get much burn your Freshman or Sophomore years. Since you're "not the type of kid who would sit on the bench for two years just to say you went D1," wouldn't it be crazy if you were the type of kid who would sit on the bench for two years just to say you went D3? I think you have a shot at getting picked 1st overall in your future. You can easily lock it up by posting about yourself on the forum or adopting a Blake-Shot-Selection®.


8th Pick – Harlan Dodson (Williams College)
The team wouldn't be complete without the epitome of the Williams College basketball program present. Every crazy-team needs the awkwardly tall, not-so-surprisingly bright, Adam Morrison look-alike on its team.

How crazy is this statistic of Dodson's season so far?
In 441 minutes of playing time, the 6'8" Dodson is 4-7 from the line.
Four for seven!
Seven free throw attempts!
He is 6'8"!

Luckily for the All-Crazy team, we already have Locke to shoot-em-up from the charity stripe.


9th Pick – Sha ("wty") Brown (Wesleyan University)
Sha and teammate (and 1st overall pick St. Jean) are the only repeat members from last year's All-Crazy team. This year, he earns the accolades for a completely different, short, reason:

1)   http://www.wesleyan.edu/athletics/mbasketball/roster/index.html If you are six feet tall then I am more attractive and a better quarterback than Tom Brady.


10th Pick – Bobby "Get Yours" Bellotti (Conn College)
The final pick of the 2011 draft features Bobby Bellotti.

Scenario:
Down nearly 20 points with 40 seconds on the game clock and a fresh 35 second clock, the opposing team nonchalantly passes the ball around the front court as time runs out on the Camels. Conn College's five players, including Belotti, apply token pressure.

With six seconds left in the game, the opposing team threw up a poor three point attempt. The shot clock horn buzzed while the ball was in the air, but the shot hit the rim and the rebound caromed into a Conn College player's hands. It's at this moment that every NESCAC hooper has a decision to make. Should I:

A)   Hold the ball as the final five seconds expire?
B)   Pass the ball to a teammate and let him hold the ball as time expires?
C)   While the other 9 players on the court are shaking hands and the two team lines have already started walking towards one another, start dribbling the length of the court at full-speed and lay the ball in to beat the buzzer (cutting the deficit from nearly 20... to nearly 20)?

Hey, I understand the desire to get non-defensed statistics, but if you choose option C above (and Bobby Bellotti did), then you will most likely end up on this team. Get yours Bobby!



2011 All NESCAC All-Crazy Second Team

6th – Chris Applegate (Trinity)
7th – CJ Moss (Tufts)
8th – Harlan Dodson (Williams)
9th – Sha Brown (Wesleyan)
10th – Bobby Bellotti (Conn College)


I See You – Don't Give Up on Your Crazy Team Dreams (aka Honorable Mention)
Neal "The Real Deal" Creeden
Billy Butler
Whoever came up with the idea of having the men play before the women.
Joey Kizel
Nate Bulluck
Coach Cosgrove
John Squires
Ryan Weston
Justin Nowell
Evan Kulak
Oliver Cohen


Coach (Joe Reilly – Wesleyan College)
Coach Reilly is a great guy and a respected basketball coach. I have always considered him in the top half of NESCAC hoop coaches and liked his style of play back in the Stockwell/Ray era. That reminds me to ask him the question: Why did you leave Bates to go to Wesleyan again? Are you Crazy? I understand the family connections to Wesleyan and that it is generally accepted that Connecticut has "more going on" than the state of Maine, but if you want to be a winning basketball coach, why leave the program you built for success and join one of the two worst programs in the same conference?

The Wesleyan girls aren't hotter.
The admissions standards are higher.
The aptitude for your players to get involved with hard drugs is equal (tied for first place in the conference).

I'm lost. It'd be like Whitmore retiring this year and Maker or Hixon going to go coach the Mules. For your decision, which I am sure you're not loving right now, you have been awarded the honor to coach the above 10 crazies (you can elect to coach them in Lewiston, ME or Middleton, CT).


D3Hoops.Com NESCAC Forum Poster – Amh63 (Amherst College)
IMO, this was a "runaway" selection this year. A great man and a diehard fan, which I respect the hell out of, Amh63 has had a tendency this season to utilize some interesting (and brand new) grammar and spelling selections while making his comments. The whole Nixon/Hixon debacle sealed the selection.

Little to early, 'IMO, to get into this discussion.  End of the regular season would be better time and End of the conference tournament would be the best time.   Stars are best defined during "crunch time".

I guess one has to mention Williams to get national attention in the news,,,,satire here.

Knew Amherst was out of sorts....could have been the tough Tufts defense.  First play...Waller scoops up a loose ball off the jump ball.....goes to the basket for a two hand dunk and hits the back iron.  Turnover.  

Could have used Workman's defense as Tufts hits the outside shots and Barrise keeps loosing his man on the perimeter.  

Coach Nixon is quite mad and calls two time outs early in the game.

Old Guy....did you sweat at Bates....in the heat?

Back again for my "team assessment saga".....had a conference call with classmates on Amherst business..
Anyway, if a very large center will chase a player to prevent a score, that is to me ...defense commitment.

Returned home after a tiring trip to see Amherst live.  My comments of the games follows.  My comments of where I see Amherst as a team will follow later in the week.  The writeups of the games this weekend are on the Amherst websites....so my comments are more my impressions.

Just finished cleaning off the car after the snowfall......and focusing my thoughts for this post after last night's Amherst lost to Kean.

Some comments from last night's Amherst vs Wes. game in LeFrak.  The game writeup and boxscore are on the Amherst website, so I will make some general observations and comments.

Maine 1.......welcome aboard and please feel free to chat about teams in the conference you like/support/watch...etc.
I hope they include the Maine teams.  

Webcast Announcers (Bowdoin College)
For the second year in a row, the Bowdoin College webcast announcers take home the All-Crazy honors. Nescac1 picks up the credit for this selection. I laughed out loud at this post.

I loved the constantly changing pronunciations of Rooke-Ley, Whittington, and Ephs.  But most of all, these moments were enough to earn all-crazy:
-- claiming that Will Hanley, who leads Bowdoin in virtually every statistical category, was their "secret weapon"
-- claiming that incoming big man John Swords would likely be the best center in NESCAC next year
-- picking on Rooke-Ley for having a hyphenated last name, but then concluding that it wasn't his fault
-- a nice Wang / Australian accent imitation  

I am sure I am forgetting a few ... good stuff, overall.  

Crazy stuff! Love it.


Sports Information Director (Alex Kantor – Amherst College)
It's relatively easy to make it on the All-Crazy team from a Staff position: get kicked out of a sporting contest, affect the game by getting a technical foul, or quit in the middle of the season. Alex chose the last option and in the middle of January...quit. I am not a sports information expert, but that strikes me as a difficult time to get up and leave that job. Men's & Women's Swimming, Basketball, Squash, Hockey, and Indoor Track are all in season and it is a month before Spring sports start up. Alex edges out Bates SID Andy Walter who listed the attendance of the neutral site Roger Williams game on 1/2/11 as 98. Not 100, or any round number, but 98 fans.




That's it! I hope you all enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed compiling and writing this year's draft, aided by my ever-growing list of secret sources and voters.

[nescac1]

Well done, as always, Walzy.  While it is an honor to make all-NESCAC, making all-Crazy is what truly drives that extra hour in the gym after practice.  

On another note, from the open dates board, anyone know any coaches game for a trip to Billsville?: 

Williams College, located in Williamstown, MA, is still looking for 2 teams for its Williams Invitational tip off tournament on November 18-19, 2011. There will be one night of rooms and food provided.   Please contact Shaun Morris at spm3@williams.edu or 413 597 4202 with any interest.  Thanks.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Plus Pat pimped the All-Crazy team on the d3hoops.com Facebook page.  Apparently he's proud of this freakshow.  Kudos.

[amh63]

Walzy.....nice job.......do I get a t-shirt or something?
Nescac1......is this a side job for you?.....maybe Coach HIXON should join the fun up in Williamstown?  It can't be any crazier than having the football teams scrimmage before the start of the football season.  And.....Amherst MBB will get two away game wins!

[Pat Coleman]

Plus Pat pimped the All-Crazy team on the d3hoops.com Facebook page.  Apparently he's proud of this freakshow.  Kudos.

Well, I thought that it would be nice to recognize the D3boards community for its creativity and this is a regular feature, to be sure. 

[nescac1]

I think, Pat, that you should hire Walzy to compile a national all-crazy team ...

[toad22]

Walzy: You have done it again! Congrats!

[magicman]

Middlebury hosting Green Mountain tonight. Coach Brown playing it safe as no starter for the Panthers has played in the game. Halftime and Middlebury leads 39-24.

[magicman]

Middlebury wins 74-30 over Green Mountain. The Eagles only scored 6 points in the 2nd half. Panthers used 10 players who all broke into the scoring column. Classy move by Coach Brown to keep this score from being much worse than it was. Seven of his top players didn't play at all, including all starters.

[Mr. Ypsi]

My question would be why this game was ever scheduled in the first place?

Middlebury could have played their cheerleaders and won this game.

[lefrakenstein]

Also, lefrakenstein, that is really great stuff. Well done. Do you know what the PER numbers would look like if you weighted assists more highly, as Colby Hoops suggested?

I could mess with the weight given to assists, but it would be totally arbitrary. I would just basically be changing the multiplier until I thought it seemed right. I think I'll just leave it alone.

Lot of backlash on the PER's. I just think it's an interesting stat to look at. I'm not trying to give it any more significance than it deserves. Sorry if I offended anyone.


Love the all crazy team Walzy.

[walzy31]

I think, Pat, that you should hire Walzy to compile a national all-crazy team ...

I would do it for free but would need the right tips.
Could you imagine the craziness that must happen nationwide in a season of basketball (fights in games/practices, shot selection, bonehead plays, quotes in articles, etc)? ? ? It must be insanity! Locke might be the only one to make the team from the NESCAC.

I am glad you all enjoyed this year's edition. It was fun!