Thanks, Jefffan for the story on Duncan Robinson. What a great blog when an Amherst fan can send along a story on the former Williams player : )  Kudos to you, Duncan will be in the three point shooting contest on Saturday night !  ( May have to wear purple for that one ).

So, Tufts - Middlebury on Friday night. Hope all can catch some of it. Two really good teams right now !  Tufts is so balanced. Power Inside, a slasher and a great shooter on either side with several excellent guards to handle and a terrific coach. Am reminded of Bill James and his Baseball Abstracts from the 80s. One of his theories was to always watch out for an MLB team in September that would have a very good record and just miss out on the playoffs ..... look out for them the next April. That would be Tufts. That was a good team that beat Middlebury last February; not a fluke win at all. They have kept that momentum going all year.  And, Middlebury, especially coming off of last Sunday at Wesleyan.  Finally back to being healthy, with just about everything clicking right now. They are good ! The three big guys have been awesome: Folger able to get lift again off his feet, Eastman ( BTW - you all may want to just think about plugging he and Farrell for First Team All NESCAC next year ) has been tremendous and Cahill has added a lot. A very fine shooter. And Charley Moore has chipped in, too. Look out for him next year. The two primary subs, Ingram and DeLorenzo have done their thing: play some D, don't throw it away and chip in with a shot or two along the way. But, mostly, the 3 Designated Point Guards have really been awesome. Never better than last weekend. Farrell takes the teaching of " get a hand in the passing lane " to new heights..... " Get your whole body in the passing lane and just steal the thing ". He  has done it over and over again. Bosco gets to more key hoops late in games and is crazy at the foulline ( 34 of 35 at one stretch ). And Kornaker - how about 19 assists in two games ? Including what I thought was the Play of the Year at Wesleyan when he drove baseline, beat one, drew another looked for two receivers ( both covered ) and finally found the available beyond the arc and threw a bounce pass from underneath the basket out to Farrell for a three pointer !  You can have your dunks - that was Basketball. With all due respect to those mentioned as MIP for NESCAC - to me, it is Kornaker.  Has played great defense all year, usually guarding opponent's best - and is spunky and feisty when guarding people. Has improved his shooting form and results, and is always looking pass First to help out his team. Just an opinion.  Yes, the three smaller guards may get beat up a bit by taller guards, but the Big O at 6'5 is not waiting to come onto the court.  More power to them - and if they can just keep running and running, maybe Midd can spring the upset tomorrow night and really make things interesting the next few weekends. Hope you can watch the game.

I will bow out of this blog at this time. Many thanks for reading stuff. As a former player, coach and now dad ( my son is #13, P. DeLorenzo for Middlebury ) it is a bit tenuous being a fan and writing on blogs. I am not a social media guru ... never been on Facebook or Twitter and probably have screwed up several of these posts the past year or so. But it is a good blog, the people are intelligent and excited about basketball, so thanks for the good reading ! This weekend ( and, hopefully, a bit beyond for Middlebury ) will mark my swan song after over 50 years in the sport. It has been a wonderful love affair - not only with a round ball, but with the qualities of Division III in particular. The Midd guys are a joy - as I am sure are virtually all of the players at the other schools you all write about. Sports are a joy beyond all delight and remain a constant in an ever changing and challenging world. Best to the folks at D3Hoops.com.  You add a lot to the sport. 

Quote from: maineman on February 09, 2020, 10:35:13 PM
For Midd to get a home game in the playoffs they will have to pass Trinity in the standings with both teams at 5-3 and Trinity holding the head on head tiebreaker.  To move ahead of Trinity, Midd would have to win its two remaining home games against Tufts and Bates and Trinity would have to lose one of its remaining two road games against Amherst and Hamilton.  On paper, you might expect each team to go 1-1 on the weekend leaving things status quo. 

Of course another scenario would be for Williams to win twice at home against Bates and Tufts while Trinity drops two games and Midd wins at least one.  That would propel Williams ahead of Trinity and into a playoff game at Midd. 

Since I don't expect that to happen, it will likely come down to a Midd-Trinity playoff game, the question being, "Where?"  Most likely, Hartford which will make for a tough task for a Midd, a 3 or 4 loss team to advance past the NESCAC quarterfinals.  Padmore led Trinity was very efficient against Midd sporting a +11 in rebounds. 

If Trinity were to prevail in the playoff game would a 4 or 5 loss Midd team be competitive for a Pool C bid?  Within the league, Tufts Colby and possibly Amherst would be lined up ahead of them.  Who knows who will be ranked above them within the region and nation?

Have to agree with Maineman here. Scary as it sounds, a team that cruised through 14 non league wins without a loss ( including at least 3 four significant wins  ) could well be on the bubble a couple of weeks hence. But that's what makes it fun !  Great write ups by the Midd Fifth Estate contingent; not much to add from this end - except that it was a great " Welcome Back " for Matt Folger on Sunday. I will have to disagree a bit with esteemed Old Guy here - Matt WAS off to a great start this year. ( 17.3 points on 57% from 3 and 50% overrall through 3 games ) .... 22 for 69 on threes since .... until Sunday.  Heading into Sunday's game 10 for last 35. ( 28 % ).  That is not " steady " and it certainly was not Matt.  The ankle injury, quickly followed by a 4 stitch cut over the eye and then a bad, bad cold had him a non-starter at Trinity and a very average player for a long stretch of his senior year. None of which his fault. But, yesterday, he was BACK !  In a big way. 5 for 7 on threes ( 71% ) and moving great. He is the difference maker on that team because he is so uniquely himself. A 6'8" shooter from 22 feet who also has learned how to put it on the floor and get close enough to make an 8 footer. With Tufts playing their bigs as ' centerfielders ' in the paint; Folger's return should give Midd a fighting chance on Friday night. But Coach Sheldon is very gifted and did shut down Jefferson ...... so we shall see.  A year ago, Tufts handled Midd twice with the Tufts guards not having to face their nemesis - pressure on the ball bringing it upcourt.  ( hello, New England College   Trinity hammered them a year ago with that facet - got to NONE of it last Friday night because Trin never scored and therefore never even got into ball pressure after a make.  There were so few makes.  And Midd's smaller perimeter guys have a tough time with bigger guards - at both ends.  ( shot 3-23 from 3 pt. distance on the first Conn trip with an ill Folger and a no show DeLo ( home with a sprained ankle and very bad illness - team's leading 3 point shooter ).  So, Midd will have to work both ends with both Bigs and Littles really having strong games.  Tall order.  Have thoroughly enjoyed this NESCAC season. Balanced teams and Good Teams !

Trinity  82 - 76.  Earned it. Padmore and others really defended Midd guards well. Tremendous effort by Eastman in defeat.

Half: Trin 37. Midd 37.  Trin out of gate fast, 15-6 early. Game settled in; Midd hanging in.  Lots of grit from Midd players. 3 ( ? ) total team fouls on Trin. (Really ? ).  Interesting. Folger (ill), non- starter, DeLorenzo ( ill - at home ).  This will take quite an effort from Midd. Will see.

Great  entertainment tonight in Henniker, NH. Put the Tufts @ NEC game on the web if you are surfing around : )))  34 - 27 NEC at half. They are so much fun to watch. Forced 10 turnovers in first 5 minutes; 17 forced at halftime - against a very good Tufts team, who, as has been remarked upon before, has a bit of trouble vs. full court pressure.  NEC is just special.  A throwback to pressing teams of the past. Really fun.  Tufts, meanwhile, is playing a match up with the Big Man in the middle just centerfielding ..... no man coverage at all. 8 blocks in the post already by the two Tufts big guys. ( alternating, not on the court at same time ).   Anyway, hope some of you will catch second half.  NEC will not try and " hang on " - they are pedal to the metal all the way.

Nice job by Pat C. and Dave M. ( on Hoopsville ) mentioning the time frames .....have done that many times on a variety of plays in basketball. They are right on. Shot counts !  Sorry to be a Killjoy on Conn ( after all, they were all very excited, I am sure, to be a half second away from beating a very credible Trinity squad .... ) BUT - the second free throw should be propelled right at the front rim; hit it, ball comes down in a pack and Game Over. 100 times out of 100.  75 foot shots may well be one in a hundred, but that is better than 0.  They also had no one getting to the receiver and no one guarding the inbounder.  So, yeah, Backseat Quarterbacking - but that's what it is.  They did not play the final half a second well : (( 

Nice win for Midd on Saturday. Several have mentioned one player being out of the Midd lineup ..... but they lost Kornaker for 4 games, Sobel for the past 8, Bosco on Saturday, and MOST notably Joey Leighton for the entire year.  Also, Folger has been hurt since Game 4 - first with the ankle sprain, and then the eye contusion.  He is just now starting to come back to who he is normally. Still not 100%. In reality, having followed this team for a long time - backups Ingram and DeLorenzo would have barely played this year. Maybe that's good - or bad, who knows.  But the " missing persons " line for Middlebury has been significant and they have survived well.  Hopefully, they will be getting closer and closer to almost 100% in the coming weeks - although Leighton, a 40% 3 point shooter, will not play this year at all.

Am looking forward to seeing Stoddard. He is at 25 % ! Outstanding for a frosh. " Bates guys" surprised me, too. Schedule may have helped there so far, a number of weaker DIII schools on schedule to this point. Will be interesting to see how it all factors out.

Quote from: nescac1 on January 21, 2020, 12:26:41 PM
Where do you find stats, MiddWatcher, on defensive points allowed per possession?  That seems like some pretty deep dive stuff, didn't realize it was publicly available! 

I haven't seen enough of Che this year to have a perspective, but I've always been enormously impressed by him as a defender in the past.  He played Heskett and Hutcherson really tough, certainly, and those were two of the toughest guys to cover in the league (or really anywhere) the last few years.  Maybe he has more offensive responsibilities this year, taking away from his energy on D, but he always struck me as an elite defender.  As, for that matter, did Chery and Allen.  I figured Amherst would be OK without Schneider this year because those three guys are just SO tough on the perimeter.  But Toad makes a good point that Schneider's post presence (and to a lesser extent Bachmann, who was an underrated player at the 5 I thought) allowed those guys to take more chances, making them able to apply such intense ball pressure on every possession. 

All that being said, 11-5 is still pretty darn respectable for Amherst, especially considering they have had some key guys banged up.  I think (like Williams last year) they are a victim in some ways of incredibly high expectations heading into the season, so that every loss feels like a big shock.  Robinson's savvier with the ball then ever, but at least to my eye, he's not the same guy in terms of explosive finishing in the lane as he has been in the past.  If he can dial that part of his game up as the season goes along, Amherst can still certainly beat anyone. 

Turning back to Colby, Strahorn has done just a masterful job with this program over the past few seasons.  Colby can't realistically recruit the same kinds of big, athletic guys as the other NESCAC contenders.  But Strahorn has found real diamonds in the rough every year, and his players all seem to really improve over time, and the offensive system is very difficult to guard.  With mostly the same cast of key players (adding one critical piece per year, each of the last two years, of course), Colby has gone from 10-14 (1-9 in the league) to 11-13 (2-8 in league), to 17-8 (5-5 in league) to 15-0 (perfect so far in the league) over the past four seasons.  You can really see the benefits of guys playing big minutes early in their career together, and sticking together for 3-4 years, as Colby plays seemlessly as a unit (while also adding star frosh with mature games in back-to-back years who fit the team's needs perfectly).  Gives hope to every group of young players struggling to find their way in the league right now ... I loved Colby heading into the season, but even so, I would never have seen them rising to number 5 in the country!

Kudos to nescac1, as always, comes up with great analysis, I enjoy his viewpoint a lot. I just wish there were more on this board who remember the ' glory days ' of Colby / Dick Whitmore, pre - NCAA tournament eligibility ..... Colby was the dominant one in NESCAC then. But times do change. Great to see a really nice person, and excellent coach, like Damian Strahorn have success. Hope they keep it up.

I would probably get myself in trouble ( I have a habit of that ), so, suffice to say that I am an old coach - with a password to a coaching site that offers a lot of stuff. Will leave it at that.  The "Field goal percentage defense " is a neat category, but can be impacted by game schedule as well as who the guys are actually matched up against that particular day, for sure. So the Top Ten is an intriguing listing of not so household names .... but interesting, nonetheless.  NESCAC currently has ten guys with FG% Against numbers of 29.5% or less .... ( in order ) Cherry ( Amherst ), Mortimer ( Bates ), Stoddard ( Williams ), Coyne ( Bates ), Baxter ( Bates ), Snoddy ( Bates ), Osarenren ( Hamilton ), Nwafor ( Conn ), Rucker ( Bowdoin ), DeLorenzo ( Middlebury ).    Minimum of 50 shots defended.  All of the rest of the players in the league having defended more than 50 shots are above 30.0%.

Like I said, an intriguing grouping. Some of the people one might expect to see, are not.  I would definitely say that Cherry at #1 is a very legitimate correlation. Shot Affects are a great thing to look at during a game; man, they are significant. I have mentioned before how using the hand opposite the shooter's hand is such a big weapon. Not rocket science.

Watched Amherst - Tufts game from Saturday this AM. That is a telling game. Again, would probably get in trouble for offering thoughts - but suffice to say that the Tufts' offensive design of a beautiful mix of the " old " ( motion principles with spot ups and skip passes ), and " new " vs. the "new " ( endless ball screens at the wing with resultant rolls and almost never a skip pass ) as primarily on display by Amherst ( and virtually everyone else in basketball for that matter ) offered a distinctive view into basketball as currently played.  ( yup, you can tell I am not a huge proponent of the way the game has gone in the past 5 years ). Kudos to Sheldon for a terrific combination of the two styles - and for enhancing his players through the many options they have. Just great. Amherst's best moments came when they free-lanced and players were allowed to play, IMO.  So, now I am in trouble...... But that group of Day, Robinson, Allen, Mobley and others .... playing " 90's Motion " would be very, very difficult to deal with I would hazard to guess.  But I will throw it out there for any discussion amongst the purists : )  Even still, Amherst punished Middlebury badly using the " New " versus the smaller Midd guys, so more power to them on that night. It worked well. 

Quote from: JEFFFAN on January 20, 2020, 05:20:27 PM

I don't know what the impact would be but no one in their right mind is going to think that a 40 plus year coach who has won over 800 games isn't going to be more effective, in general, than a 27-year old coach who has never been a head coach before.   As noted previously, Aaron Toomey owes Amherst nothing - he is the GOAT in program history - and if Hixon wanted a year off, he probably earned that 20 years ago.   But in a good league, a tight league, there is not a doubt in my mind that Hixon would matter.

I do think that the analysis of their inside defense was spot on.  I attended the Williams game and the Jeff interior defense even with Sellew was pitiful.   They really don't have any power forwards on this team to play good interior defense.

Interesting. Amherst - Middlebury certainly was the best DIII game that I have seen Middlebury involved in this year. It was excellent and Amherst looked terrific. BUT - Midd had just lost its inside player; and neither Folger or Eastman is really a post - up kind of guy. Maybe that was a key ingredient as to why Midd just couldn't make a dent vs. Mammoths, in retrospect. More significantly, to Jefffan's point:  While Cherry leads the team in FG % defense against ( 24.1 % shooting vs. him - also leads NESCAC in that category ), Che's numbers defensively have been quite weak all year. Currently, 103 points given up in 108 possessions - 28th. percentile overrall with a 42% field goal percentage against. ( not very good ).  Looks like the numbers back up Jefffan's very astute eye read ). Amherst is an enigma - great talent, excellent statistical numbers, very imposing in so many respects .... but will have to win NESCAC to gain an NCAA berth. But will hold on to counting them out quite yet .... too many good players !

Quote from: lumbercat on January 17, 2020, 11:03:31 PM
Down by 4 with 4:49 left they were done- never seen a Middlebury team look like that with the game on the line at home...never.
The Gym was dead, the announcers were dead, the bench was dead. Go back and watch the end of the game, they were beaten.
Maybe Colby just kicked their butt early on but I haven't seen that in a Middlebury team at home in recent memory.....maybe just one of those nights.

Don't get crazy over it- it's one game.  The Panthers will win the Nescac and it will start tomorrow.

OK - will jump in quickly. The hoop by Farrell to put Middlebury up 71-69 with about 5:50 to go had the gym rocking. As did the efforts of the local kid ( DeLorenzo ) who hit some big hoops and played very hard. It was the loudest that Pepin Gym has been all year - by far ..... I have no idea what Lumbercat is talking about. Maybe the crowd mike was turned down. No clue, Lumbercat. Please don't tell us that the team was dead - they were not. They simply got outplayed down the stretch.  Big minutes for many - remember last year they were outscored 198 - 144 in the final 8 minutes of 7 losses combined.  That trend continued tonight.  In the waning minutes, Colby had jumped the 2 point deficit into an 8 point lead in no time flat. The big hoop was the 25 foot dagger by Dorion.  Probably the crowd was a bit in shock. It is also an older person crowd now in Pepin ..... not many students on campus, and, yes there was an ice hockey game with Plattsburgh State going on.  So, nice opinion, but I agree with Bucket and strongly disagree with your characterization of Middlebury tonight. They played hard and played well. They were not dead; and definitely did NOT overlook Colby. I know. I listen to many of the players in my 'Watcher role. That's it.

It's a long drive from southern CT to Middlebury, VT - especially to play a 5 pm contest in a half empty gym. It showed today for Albertus Magnus. The old expression " never got off the bus " was highly appropriate in this 'watcher's opinion. Not all in attendance agreed with me .... but I was somewhat pleased to read " d3hoopjunkie" in the GNAC page. ( IF I actually knew how to cut 'n paste from another one of these sections, I would have put it in here ! )  Read it if you are interested. I thought his/her thoughts were right on. Basically, they did not bring much emotion or energy to the game defensively, at all, and did not run any offense with any merit whatsoever. They had 4 assists as a team and 2 fast break points.  Really ??  I do think they have a terrific coach, and I have watched many of their games where they really play with emotion and zeal and a great deal of energy. They COULD give a lot of teams a big run for their money. But tonight was not the night. Very good efforts from Bosco,Cahill and Eastman again, as noted. Farrell never really got going, but all else contributed mightily and Ingram gave them a good effort off the bench. Folger changed a lot of shots. DeLorenzo's odd home/away shooting split in evidence ( 27% at home, 57 % on the road ). Kind of amazing for a kid who has been shooting in that gym since he was 5 years old.  The Mule train will arrive on Friday night and it should be really fun.

Hard fought win for the Middlebury Panthers today in Clinton, NY over a game Hamilton squad. The Continentals showed fine balance in building a lead as large as 7 points before a Panther comeback led by Jack Farrell, Tommy Eastman and Ryan Cahill turned the game around for Midd. A huge Cahill dunk gave the visitors a 71 - 64 lead before Hamilton tried to duplicate their comeback story from the night before vs. Williams. They even took a 76 - 75 lead with 14 seconds remaining before the " play of the game " occurred - a three point shot attempt by Max Bosco missed - but he was fouled in the act and calmly made two of three FTs to win. A sidebar to the final play was that Hamilton had only committed three team fouls when Midd inbounded from the sideline. No attempt to foul was made with those three free fouls to use. Will leave it to the reader to gauge whether that was a missed strategic opportunity, or not.  Griffin Kornaker, once again, defended the opponents' star player ( Kena Gilmour ) and held him to a quiet 16.  Midd grapevine suggested that Alex Sobel is a possible returnee, but is involved in personal health issues. Matt Folger again played with goggles covering his stitched up right eye. So Midd has a big three game week coming up with a somewhat handicapped squad.

Nice win for Amherst. Quality shooting; outrebounded Midd 47 - 33. Wore them down. Size and strength a huge factor. Midd hung in for awhile, mostly due to Farrell. Folger played, with glasses protecting 4 stitches. Sobel's name is no longer on roster. No info on that. Midd will need to adjust; team was very slight compared to Amherst - and Amherst played extremely well.

With you on this one, Colby Hoops.  Trinity has had a ton of assists as a team lately ... always a good sign.  And lots of senior leadership. Yes, look out for Bantams, everyone. No inside scoop on Midd personnel from here. ( I am only a 'watcher ).  Heard Folger was getting stitches for a cut over the eye, no information re: Alex Sobel. Certainly hope all is well with he and his family; if his absence last night was family related. Do not have any news on that front. Am delighted for Ryan Cahill ( a wonderful young man ) and Tommy Eastman for their success. Stepped right in without missing a beat. Eastman's team personality seems to be even better than his playing - and he can really play! Midd was very fortunate on him.  The story last night was Farrell. Somehow, he is even getting faster.  And his shooting is really developing technically. Scary !!

Will try to recap ( briefly ) Midd hoop win. Tough - after watching the disheartening end to Pats' season, camped out at an airport restaurant in NJ. Not many Patriots fans around : (   On to d3 hoops: Yes, a good team win for Middlebury today. Down early, 29 - 14 with 6:28 to play ( held to one basket over a stretch of 7:33 by solid Springfield defense ). Springfield had two of their complementary players really rise up and hit shots from all over, very much to their credit. Ross was defended well by Kornaker and Ingram and total team. ( he also passed out of contestable situations many times. That I have not seen in the past. There MAY have been an injury situation. Only conjecture from this third party. But it looked odd. ) Midd got back into game with Ross on bench at end of half; keyed mostly by Ryan Cahill and some inside hoops from Sobel. Back and forth throughout second half, Midd finally grabbed lead on several big drives by Bosco, a long three by Folger, and another three by Eastman with 1:25 left to stretch lead to 10. Whereupon it almost totally fell apart as SC cut it to 73-71 with 14 seconds left before a final miss by Ross.  All in all, an intriguing day for Midd as all who played contributed well at a variety of times; but no one had a stellar game. ( check the box if you wish to see what I mean. ) But many determined, hard fought, very caring and intensely competitive efforts from everyone who set foot on the floor - and sometimes that can be the most important thing. A big " team win ".  Have to throw out a special mention to Cahill who had several very good key plays; and to Tommy Eastman.  So, again, the Middlebury bench had its quiet impact on the game in a subtle way. One more non-league contest ( Plattsburgh State at home on Tuesday ) before back on road to Amherst next Friday night.  THAT will be fun to watch.