Unforced error by the NCAA scheduling both men's and women's finals on the same day and hour.
Maybe it's a 1st world problem for NYU, having both teams make it this far, but really an unnecessary set of circumstances.

No shame for WPI to lose to the #1 team in the country.  The PBP guy was understandably talking a lot about the constant play stoppages, but unless I missed it never mentioned that Marelli came out after taking a 3-pt shot with about 17 minutes left and never returned.  Had to be an injury.  He had a quiet NEWMAC tournament, but you've got to let this guy play unless he was injured.  A senior playing his last game.  Then, they were already missing Margetson, so they had limited bench for guys who were part of the core group.  Marvillo before Pebley?  Another head-scratcher.  Was that to go small?  But Marvillo struggles from the outside.

But Wes was the better team.

WPI brings back a solid core for next season and should be at or very close to the top again, along with Clark and I think Emerson (particularly if McNamara returns to play and is on form).

Best of luck to the NEWMAC representatives, WPI and Clark.

Beating WPI with a guard-centric offense will be a tall order for Husson.  The guard trio of Newman, Margetson, and Callahan (even Reidy) are very good at keeping their guy in front and not easily coming off screens.  And Marelli and Molen should be able to do damage inside. 

Clark is obviously up against it.  One guy to watch in this one and in years to come is FY Boluwasefe John.  He's still raw, but his meaningful minutes are increasing and he was a difference maker in the NEWMAC tourney, altering shots on the defensive end and a menace on the offensive boards.

Quote from: WashedUp1 on February 26, 2025, 01:23:36 PM

Quote from: BaboNation on February 25, 2025, 09:25:18 PMThere'll be no 3-peat for Babson.

Coast Guard takes them down in the NEWMAC first round 80-69, in a game that was much closer than the final score, but CG controlled for most of the night.

Babson hung with everyone on their schedule til the Wheaton game mid-January when they seemed to lose their mojo and never got it back.  They were never the same team again.

Luke Farrell 20-10 is exactly the kind of player Babson needs and doesn't have - a low post option on offense.  And the CG guards were quicker and posed matchup problems.  Not enough lateral quickness from the Babson guards opened up the lane and caused rotations to be late.  And CG hit their shots when it counted.

Early commits for Babson look promising, but a Nate Amado (20-9 tonight) doesn't grow on trees.

I wonder how much the fairly smooth win on Saturday against Coast Guard played into the struggles last night - having not watched the playoff game but seeing parts of Saturdays game.

I don't think Saturday was a factor at all.  Both teams liberally substituted in that game and Babson was already locked into the 3 seed.  They barely beat CG in the last minute at their place a month ago.  Yes, Kloman missed that game, but they have played down to the competition for a month.  After the Wheaton game all the flags were up that something wasn't quite right.
Very uncharacteristic for this squad, but they kinda peaked in early January.

They really need a natural 5 going forward.  They cobbled stuff together and it worked for a while, but it got exposed/exploited as time went on.

There'll be no 3-peat for Babson.

Coast Guard takes them down in the NEWMAC first round 80-69, in a game that was much closer than the final score, but CG controlled for most of the night.

Babson hung with everyone on their schedule til the Wheaton game mid-January when they seemed to lose their mojo and never got it back.  They were never the same team again.

Luke Farrell 20-10 is exactly the kind of player Babson needs and doesn't have - a low post option on offense.  And the CG guards were quicker and posed matchup problems.  Not enough lateral quickness from the Babson guards opened up the lane and caused rotations to be late.  And CG hit their shots when it counted.

Early commits for Babson look promising, but a Nate Amado (20-9 tonight) doesn't grow on trees. 

Is the Middlebury announcement the 1st of 3 NESCAC shoes to drop?

https://x.com/hd_dirtking/status/1894156630368964798?s=61

Quote from: WPI89 on February 18, 2025, 03:49:56 PM...........and Babo - comparing SOS within NEWMAC is not completely fair (especially since as you said, this is a down overall NEWMAC year) - as the other 8 teams "get" to play WPI twice - which is a big SOS boost.

WPI:  But that's not how it works.  If all of the NEWMAC (or any conference for that matter) played only conference games they'd all have the exact same SOS. Because Massey's SOS is (quoting from his site) "the records of opponents and opponents' opponents".

Not all the teams have to develop an OOC schedule like Babson had this year (sounding like the homer I am), but on January 1st Babson had something like the 7th toughest SOS in the country while WPI was around the 180's.  Now Babson is just under 100 somewhere, because of the relative weakness of the NEWMAC and the fact that 64% of their games are within the conference.  If the NEWMAC teams played each other more and more rounds we'd eventually see a regression to the mean (in the high 100's).

None of this should be taken as WPI bashing.  They are a terrific team.  They are so talented and well coached that they could easily take on a stronger schedule.

Meanwhile I think Bartley should make sure his team is well rested for the NCAA Tournament and rest some guys for the NEWMAC postseason.

Regarding WPI, first off they are pretty safely in this year.  They could probably lose their final regular season game and lose the NEWMAC semi, finish 22-4, and still get a Pool C, unless there's an unprecedented run of bid thieves.

And I have always respected their program under Bartley.  He develops players and gets guys to fit his system year after year.  Just look at how Marelli and Reidy have made huge leaps in their game this year.

But their SOS needs to get better by scheduling tougher out of conference.  Massey has them 6th out of 9 NEWMAC teams for end-of-season projected SOS.  And they barely beat out Wheaton (186 vs. 188).  The last 2 years they finished 22-4 and 21-5 and missed the tournament both years.  There's simply no margin for error with a 186 Massey.  And compounding the issue was adding the 9th NEWMAC team (Salve Regina) so that 16 out of 25 games are now conference games.  Then add the factor that the conference as a whole has gotten weaker in the last 3 years (I watch the games - I don't like to say this).

If it can't be Babson I'll be rooting for the NEWMAC entry, whoever that turns out to be.

What Ryan described is in play for the NEWMAC.  WPI wins the tiebreaker if Clark beats WPI (assuming no other losses and no major changes to the standings of other teams).

Quote from: stlawus on February 01, 2025, 03:21:26 PMThe box score for the Clark-Babson game today is bonkers.  Clark was 15-20 from 3

Not a misprint.  Clark was also 9 of 10 in the 2nd half to blow the doors off.

The game had the rare double foul scrum on the way to the locker rooms at halftime.  One team emerged on fire, and the other ...

I can't be too upset.  This was the first game all year Babson didn't have it down to a one possession game with under 5 to play. 

Bartley was also on the Babson staff with Brennan for a few years.  That's a lot of coaching brainpower.

The Babson loss at Wheaton was one they couldn't afford to lose.  Yeah, they were missing Kloman, and Amado had to play fewer minutes, and tentatively while saddled with foul trouble. They dug themselves a 17 point hole by being torched by 3-pt shooting.  Credit for the comeback.  I think they had it to a 1 possession game a half dozen times.  And FY Frauenheim's final shot from about 35 almost fell.  But no excuses.  Can't lose to this Wheaton team.
Some guys are banged up.  But they're getting almost nothing offensively from their forwards.  On a roster of 19, they played 2 FY guards for most of the night, and they played well.
There's a fall-off cliff coming next year unless they get forward production (via xfers, or organically with the FY class).  Nate Amado, graduating this year, and xfer guards have covered up front court deficiencies for 4 years.
All that said, Babson is one of only 5 teams nationwide to make the last 4 tournaments.  In some ways, knowing they have to get the AQ makes them more dangerous in the NEWMAC postseason.  The last 2 years they've had to win 4 road games to win the NEWMAC, against formidable teams.  It would be risky to bet against them.
But they need a guy who can occasionally post up on the block, back to the basket, and score in the restricted area.  They had that with Bradanese '22 and even more so with Oftring '20.  Those teams were the last to advance in the NCAA tournament.  Not a coincidence.

Quote from: stlawus on January 08, 2025, 08:02:56 PMStill have my Flo subscripton from tuning into SLU play in Clark's holiday tournament before the new year so tuned into Clark-Babson.  Pretty high level of play. Babson has some athletes.  Looks like Clark's point guard isn't bothered by his wrist anymore.  Didn't think Babson's shot selection was the best but Clark matched and exceeded Babson's length at most positions.  Thought Babson would run away with it after a hot start to the 2nd half but Clark made some critical shots to keep them up more than a possession for the last 10 minutes or so.   Definitely a pretty tough league this year.

Yeah, I thought Babson didn't match Clark's level of intensity for much of the game.  Two guys that you have to contain had big games (Saintilus-28 and McArdle-19).  Babson tried 3 different guys on McArdle with little result. Too many easy baskets. It's been an Achilles heel in 4 of the losses - unable to contain a big man (McArdle) in the low post or in pick and roll. 
Conference games are always tough and this one had risk going in.  The next 6 for Babson should be W's.  If not, they'll be in trouble.

Quote from: deiscanton on January 07, 2025, 01:11:49 PM

Quote from: BaboNation on January 07, 2025, 12:01:48 PM

Quote from: WPI89 on January 07, 2025, 08:46:02 AMBabo - impressive - the NEWMAC will be fun - I hope we can return to a multibid conference.

It's going to be tough.  Adding the 9th team to the NEWMAC (which I was against) and then having the introduction of the NPI (which I like somewhat) reinforces the need for all teams to recruit better, schedule tougher, and win meaningful games.
Right now Babson and WPI rank 12 and 15 out of 21 potential Pool C bids.  I can't see either team feeling comfortable losing 3 more in the regular season and feeling good about their chances.  Even losing 2 more might depend on who you lose to.  Clark needs the AQ (really got hurt by Taylor being out).

Based on D3Datacast's mock run of last season's NPI numbers, both Babson and WPI would need to increase their NPI rating a few more points during conference play to either 62 or 63 to have a good chance at securing an at-large bid.  Unofficially, last year's cut line for at-large bid 21 would have been 61.18 accoring to D3Datacast. 

Some of that will take care of itself with an improvement in the winning percentage.  Looking at Babson, I could see them finishing anywhere from 18-7 to 20-5.  Their current 7-4 record, while average, comes with a Massey #6 SOS (not the official SOS).  18-7 probably means Babson needs to win the AQ. 19-6 might need a NEWMAC semi win.  20-5 should just be a matter of tournament seeding.
But Babson has a better road right now than WPI, and Clark or anyone else is going to need the AQ.

Quote from: WPI89 on January 07, 2025, 08:46:02 AMBabo - impressive - the NEWMAC will be fun - I hope we can return to a multibid conference.

It's going to be tough.  Adding the 9th team to the NEWMAC (which I was against) and then having the introduction of the NPI (which I like somewhat) reinforces the need for all teams to recruit better, schedule tougher, and win meaningful games.
Right now Babson and WPI rank 12 and 15 out of 21 potential Pool C bids.  I can't see either team feeling comfortable losing 3 more in the regular season and feeling good about their chances.  Even losing 2 more might depend on who you lose to.  Clark needs the AQ (really got hurt by Taylor being out).

Fantastic game with Babson winning in 2OT.

In their last 5 wins Babson has beaten

Brandeis (A) 5-0 at the time
WPI (H) 8-0
Case Western (N)
Wooster (A) 11-0
Trinity (H) 11-0

So proud of the squad.

Now on to the NEWMAC.