Lets hope all 3 can win again tomorrow!!!

Regarding Williams and post season awards...and we hear a lot from the Williams supporters during the season about great team play, a deep bench, etc....in the end this makes for a great team but statistically lower numbers on the individuals.  For the most part the players being extolled are not statistically high on the list.   In looking over the stats on the NESCAC home page it looks like no Williams player cracks the top 10 in almost any statistic....in fact they hardly crack the top 20.  The only exception is Nate Karen....and It looks like he was the one player acknowledged by the post season awards....so it seems to me that the coaches more or less followed the stats....I am sure there are a few exceptions (CPS great free throw stats) but overall the players that got it seem to line up with the numbers.   I would say that the Williams fans should be thrilled with being in the NCAA and every single team that did not make it would gladly trade post season awards for 1 more game!   Go NESCAC.

Hopefully NESCAC will not suffer a repeat of last year's day two flame-out.  I suspect not.  Trinity is a really tough matchup or a Swarthmore team that isn't big enough to punish them inside but is also much slower.  I never want to bet against Landry Kosmalski as he always gets his Swarthmore teams to overachieve their talent level, but when they do lose in the tourney, it's usually to a team with clearly superior athleticism, (Christopher Newport and Keene State the last two years), and this year's Swarthmore team, unlike the teams that made deep runs, doesn't have the ridiculously high-level three point shooting to help compensate.  Smith and Okorougo present a very tough defensive match-up for Swarthmore's do-everything star Vinny D'Angelo, and I think this is a game in which Trinity will cruise.

The other two games look more like toss-ups.  NYU will have the best player on the floor in Spencer Freedman, and he is very clutch at the end of close games; also, NYU is the much better outside shooting team.  But Tufts is bigger, tougher inside, and plays better defense.  To win this one Tufts will want to make it a scrappy, ugly game and pound the ball into Bernstein and Gyimesi and press the advantage inside, and not let NYU get into a rhythm from outside.

Williams-Oswego features a similar battle of styles, with Oswego games averaging a combined 150 plus ppg while Williams games average only a combined 135 ppg. For the Ephs, the keys are as they usually are - avoid transition points and protect the glass in order to make Oswego try to beat the stingy half-court set defense, and on offense, share the ball freely and get good looks inside for the big men, as the Ephs do have a size advantage which needs to counteract a speed disadvantage.  I expect that Dinkins and Cooley will share the tough assignment to try to slow down Oswego all-American Jeremiah Sparks.     

Quote from: D3Parent1 on March 02, 2024, 09:12:11 AMRegarding Williams and post season awards...and we hear a lot from the Williams supporters during the season about great team play, a deep bench, etc....in the end this makes for a great team but statistically lower numbers on the individuals.  For the most part the players being extolled are not statistically high on the list.   In looking over the stats on the NESCAC home page it looks like no Williams player cracks the top 10 in almost any statistic....in fact they hardly crack the top 20.  The only exception is Nate Karen....and It looks like he was the one player acknowledged by the post season awards....so it seems to me that the coaches more or less followed the stats....I am sure there are a few exceptions (CPS great free throw stats) but overall the players that got it seem to line up with the numbers.   I would say that the Williams fans should be thrilled with being in the NCAA and every single team that did not make it would gladly trade post season awards for 1 more game!   Go NESCAC.

I'm fine with every part of this logic but you have to throw it all out the window when Cam Schainfeld and his 9 ppg make all league as the third player on a team that didn't win a postseason game. I'd feel the same way as a Tufts fan too, for the record.

Very solid round of 64 defensive showing from the NESCAC as Tufts held Stockton to 55, Trinity held Utica to 54, and Williams allows just 51 to Desales.

Tufts has an NYU team which debatably has one of the best players in the country in Spencer Freedman. NYU has transfers from Duke, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia. I like how Tufts matches with these guys. McLaren and Medley will be as good of defenders as Freedman has seen all year. Tufts has size advantage. Should be a great game in front of a great atmosphere.

GO BO'S.

Ephs tied at 37 apiece in Oswego behind 14 pts from Nate Karren and 10 points from Cole Prowitt-Smith. Williams shooting a peculiar 6-12 from the FT line but otherwise getting a lot more offensively than they have for much of the year. For Oswego, Jeremiah Sparks and Ahkee Anderson have been as advertised with 10 and 12 apiece. Sparks is so hard to stay in front of and Anderson has made some tough tough shots.

For Williams to advance to the next weekend they will need to shoot better from the FT line and keep Anderson and Sparks in front of them just a little bit more. It would help if someone other than CPS or Karren could get going, Brandon Roughley and Hudson Hansen in particular have had a lot of mismatches but the Lakers are flooding the paint and living with open threes for Williams, which has not hurt them so far.

Cole. Prowitt. Smith.

That was a game that should have been played in the Elite 8.  Two awesome, awesome teams going toe to toe.  But Cole was just too good. 

OK, while I catch some breath, some more thoughts.

First of all, that was a BRILLIANT offensive game for Williams. The Ephs uncharacteristically struggled from the foul line and the three point shots weren't falling either, but they just got to the rim time after time, either in great post-ups, brilliantly-timed cuts, or incredible plays off the dribble. The offense generated SO many great looks. 

Individually, Nate Karren was huge as the only guy who was hitting anything from outside, and was also dominant in the post offensively.  Hudson Hansen and Roughley gave a great combined effort at the four.  A fantastic drawn charge by Roughley was one of the key plays of the game and Hansen seemed to get to a ton of loose balls on offense.  Noah Dinkins and Alex Lee also had some nice moments for the Ephs getting to the rim off the bounce.

But man, today was all about Cole, 27 points, 11-16 from the field, seemed to hit EVERY big shot in the second half, and many of them were really, really tough ones where he was navigating through three defenders, none more so than that legendary last shot. He was great on D as well, drawing a charge and blocking a three pointer to set the tone early in the game.

Oswego played really, really well and they hit SO many tough shots.  Williams could not guard Anderson or Sparks, both were simply unstoppable today hitting loads of closely contested shots and drawing fouls when they didn't.  But Cole was just too good. 

What a run for Williams and can't wait to see who is up next!  That sure looked like two top-five level teams going at it to me. 

Josh Bernstein denies Spencer Freedman's go-ahead lay-up attempt with 3.4 seconds left and the NESCAC goes 3 for 3 with Sweet 16 appearances. Furthermore, they are guaranteed to have a team play in the Elite Eight for a chance to snap the 7 year Final Four drought, as Trinity will take on Tufts next Friday.

Go NESCAC!  That Bernstein block was an elite play, Freeman seemed to have a clear path and went up and under the rim for what looked like the go-ahead layup and Bernstein read it the entire way, came out of nowhere to swat it away. Great night for NESCAC with three wins over three REALLY tough opponents. 

Not a great angle but here is Cole's game-winner:

https://x.com/howardherman/status/1764110671610798350?s=46&t=f6sxXDdfYkdSSeU0Te9c9A

Would love to see the Bernstein block again too. 

Here is the Prowitt-Smith circus finish from the broadcast:

https://x.com/NCAADIII/status/1764089322033025320?s=20

Unbelievable finish. He joked in the press conference that Coach App has seen him miss a lot of those - I would concur! But this one went down and that is all that matters.

As for the rest of the game? Man, where to start. At its most basic it was the highest level game of 2 on 2 that you could remember seeing. Akhee Anderson (25 pts) and Jeremiah Sparks (23) were as good as advertised, and probably better, especially in the case of Anderson, who made tough shot after tough shot, it just seemed like he scored whenever the ball left his hands - 9-17 seemed like a typo on the box score but 4-5 from three certainly seemed right. Williams led by 10 with about 8 minutes to go but Anderson, Sparks, and their decision to turn up the full court pressure turned a 10 pt lead into a 4 pt deficit just like that.

And then for Williams, Cole Prowitt-Smith (27 pts) and Nate Karren (21) were every bit their equal and just one play better. Nate did most of his work in the first half making his first 4 threes but he had some timely post moves in the second half down the stretch when they absolutely needed them to.

But the man of the night was Cole Prowitt-Smith who was simply as close to perfect as he could've been in the second half with 17 points on 7-9 shooting and 3-3 from the line. It was the Cole that we had seen before, in spurts across 5 years, that we knew he was capable of, but just a little bit different, more poised, just letting everything come to him from a decision making standpoint and it culminated with the best Williams basketball moment in recent history with the game winning acrobatic layup to send them to the second weekend with 0.7 seconds left.

As for the rest of the game, while it was a two man show for the most part, Hudson Hansen in particular was excellent off the bench, simultaneously stepping up and filling in for a Brandon Roughley at less than 100% on the block and on the glass with 8 points and 4 rebounds, but also playing the best perimeter defense of any one that tried their hand in guarding Jeremiah Sparks. He embodies the depth off the bench and they needed his contributions tonight - it seemed like every time he was on the court Williams went on a run. Noah Dinkins as well made some huge plays in the last five minutes, and finished the game with a spotless stat line of 6-5-5 with no turnovers as well as the biggest defensive play of the game poking the ball loose from Sparks with the game tied and less than a minute left. It's fitting that Dinkins played well tonight and down the sthretch as his individual contributions and development has really been the poster child and face of their second half run.

Williams will play Christopher Newport on Friday in a matchup of the 2019 Elite 8 in an unknown location - presumably Keene St. or Guilford, but we can worry about that later. From the second the ball was tipped against WPI through the end of January, they looked like anything but a tournament team. Then they beat Trinity, and then they beat Conn, and hung with Trinity again and all of a sudden they were a Pool C lock that could win a game in the tournament, and then they won two. Now they will head into another bonus week of the season as a legit contender to reach the last weekend in Fort Wayne. They have been through a lot of adversity to get here and they have truly earned it, and no matter what happens from here on out it has been one of the most memorable stretches of Williams basketball in recent memory.

Great summary SpringSt7, agree 100 percent. 

Williams-CNU will meet at Guilford in a stacked and balanced sectional, along with Keene State.  Seems like all four teams could easily emerge as the winner.  Looking ahead, because it's never too early, both Williams and CNU are not remotely the teams they were even just a few months ago.  For Williams, the nadir of the season was the loss to Santa Cruz (a team which also managed to beat CNU).  After that one, the Ephs already had three non-conference losses, none of which came to teams which ultimately the tourney.  They had just lost their starting point guard to a season-ending injury.  Nate Karren had a brutal game to end a rough semester in which he played through an extremely limiting injury.  Declan Porter and Hudson Hansen had barely played at all in the first semester (Porter of course would be out for the year), and Noah Dinkins also missed a lot of time due to injury and hadn't rounded into shape.  Coach App was mixing and matching, trying to find anything that worked. Brandon Roughley and Alex Lee were both struggling a bit with having to do too much to compensate.  Fast forward a few months and I'd say this Williams team would be a 20-point favorite over that Eph squad.  Crazy the difference a bit of continuity and a stable rotation can make! 

The other thing I'd say is that Williams has already won three incredibly competitive do-or-die games against great teams that went down to the wire - the first Trinity game, Conn College, and now Oswego.  Williams likely doesn't make the tournament without winning the first two games, and obviously its season would be over with a loss to Oswego. I think knowing they can come through in the clutch (again and again) with different guys stepping up each time has helped keep them poised down the stretch in a tough road atmosphere last night against a relentless opponent. 

As for CNU, they've had an even stranger year than Williams.  Of the eight guys who played the most minutes in last year's title game, seven returned, making them the easy consensus choice for pre-season number one. But starting point guard Ty Henderson, shooting specialist Caleb Furr, and most significantly, all-American center Trey Barber all left the roster during the course of the season. In addition, back-up center Jake Latta suffered a knee injury early in the Widener game and I imagine is doubtful to play next weekend.

So now, of CNU's remaining nine remaining rotation guys, an incredible six are FYs (including new starting PG Tyson Henderson, not to be confused with his older brother Ty Henderson).  And yet, against a Widener team stacked with graduate transfers, CNU was easily the more poised team down the stretch. As CNU's coach said, maybe an advantage of first year players is that they don't feel the pressure quite as much, knowing they will (almost surely for this talented group) be back.  While all six of those guys make significant contributions, Toa Hollenbach is by far the biggest threat offensively.  He's a future all-American - slithery and silky smooth on offense with a deadly release from anywhere.  Also critical to their success is non-FY Collin Hines, who is a terror on the defensive end. 

But of course the headliner for CNU remains all-American Jahn Hines.  His game isn't all that different from Sparks on Oswego, who tortured Eph defenders yesterday. He can get to the rim, draws a ton of fouls, and can hit very well-defended mid-range jumpers off the bounce, as well as just enough 3s to keep defenders honest. He's a guy you won't stop entirely, but need to keep from having a hyper-efficient outing.  The Ephs will surely throw a combo of Hansen, Cooley and Dinkins on him and hope to at least make him really work for his points.  That trio, along with Alex Stoddard, will also I'm sure get a good chunk of the tough Hollenbach assignment.  Should be a great game between two well-coached D3 powers who really know how to lock it down on defense.   

CNU already had All-American Center, Trey Barber leave the team earlier this year.  In last night's win, they lost starting center, Jake Latta to a pretty nasty knee injury.  They're going to be WAY undersized against Williams at pretty much every position.  It'll be interesting to see what game plan John Krikorian comes up with for this one.  He's definitely one of the best out there, so you can't count CNU out, but it'll be a big challenge.

Alright, @ESPN. Here's my application to be the President of your future NCAA D3 Boston office (many colleges, many teams, many of the nations best players - let's do it. If an ESPN NESCAC network suites your estimates more profitable we can start there.

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What a weekend for the Jumbos down in NYC! It's second sweet 16 in 4 seasons and 3rd tournament. Tufts to date in the tournament over this time span is 5-1, and of course the Jumbo's 2019-2020's season never ended in a loss as covid would spoil the dreams of hoopers across the country the same way in which the crashing of the 25 year old D3boards servers would spoil the dreams of conference bloggers nationwide. This of course superseded a tournament in which the NCAA treated D3 like it was ran by a dual degree holder in Geography and Finance, as the bracket makes no sense rankings wise from just about any angle. The Elephants Sweet 16 pod in Hartford is loaded with No. 3 Trinity (CT), No. 4 Randolph-Macon (VA), and No. 10 Calvin (MI).

"Unranked" Tufts is 3rd best in opponents PPG to date in the tournament at 58.5 which is 3rd best at the moment behind Hampden Sydney's 56 and Nebraska Wesleyan's 52, and with all that being said tufts has seen perhaps the most "star power" on the offensive side (maybe in entire tournament to date?) with a 2,200 point scorer in Stockton's DJ Campbell and UAA Player of the Year Spencer Freedman. Both of these teams had depth on the offensive end. Tufts held No.8 NYU to its 2nd lowest offensive output of the season as they won 65-62 in a game they controlled the pace and the lead pretty much the entire way. The gameplan of sticking McLaren/Medley and occasionally Champion on Freedman slowed him for the majority of the game, and big shots, rebounds and contributions were made by all who checked in supported by a bench that was together throughout + alumni section who were for much of the game louder than hosts NYU. Morakis, Champion, Dieterle, and Gettings in particular have been playing their best basketball. This team executes offensively and tires out the ops. When Tufts does this, play resembles D1 basketball (@ESPN). McLaren and Medley have shown they can guard anyone in the country, and the MVP of the weekend in the clutch (by epic proportions) was sophomore Joshua Bernstein who was 4-4 in the final minute in a one possession game against Stockton, and swatted Freedman's final layup attempt at the buzzer in what was essentially a 1 on 1 battle for the game at the rim with 4 seconds left. Jay Dieterle (one of nations best free throw shooters), would drill 2 free throws on the other end and an ATO final attempt to win would fall short for NYU who tried to put the ball in Freedman's hands with 2 seconds left but pressure from McLaren + Champion would end up forcing a TO as he misdribbled into the hands of Champion and the celebration ensued at Paulsen.

Tufts is 14-1 against a very strong non-conference schedule which has included regular season wins over CCC conference finalists Suffolk, NEWMAC finalists Clark, a tournament bubble-out team in WPI, wins over eventual tournament hosts Keene St and NYU in the tournament, and regular season wins over tournament teams UT Dallas, St Joseph's CT, and of course NESCAC foe and NESCAC finalists (and current sweet 16 team) Williams. This resume also includes Friday's opening round win Stockton who is a very talent team. It's one non-conference loss was in Thousand Oaks, CA against tournament hosts Cal Lutheran who were in the beginning phases of a 19 game winning streak.

With 3 NESCAC teams in the sweet 16 a combined 6-0, perhaps the NESCAC was underrated this year. Correct me if I'm wrong, but in my opinion this to be the best defensive league this year at the top and middle of the pack.

Up next for Tufts is NESCAC opponent No.3 Trinity who has an impressive 28-1 record albeit against weaker non-conference strength of schedule. Trinity has also gotten the better of the jumbos twice this season.

It sure will be interesting to see how next weekend unfolds, but if the Jumbos are able to pull off the win, there's no reason to believe that they aren't legit national title contenders. This team is young but at this point they are all comfortable in big games in front of big opposing crowds (Keene, NYU) with lots of tournament experience and is led by 2 seniors who have even more tournament experience.

With the Stockton win, McLaren became the all-time winningest player in Tufts program history. Things are clearly trending up for Jumbos, as one would assume that Tufts current sophomore class will snatch that honor from him down the line with haste.

Possibly awaiting Tufts in an elite 8 showdown would either be No.4  Randolph-Macon or No. 10 Calvin. Tufts currently has one of the best teams it has had on record against perhaps the best competition it has ever faced. Friday is a long wait!