WBB: NEWMAC

[nescac hoops]

admittingly, i am not much of a newmac guy and don't know a whole lot about the conference. however, a couple years back i was at williams college for a weekend both the men's and women's team hosted a tournament. clark was in the tourny and somebody mentioned that auclair from clark was a potential all-america canidate (preseason honors?). can anybody tell me what happened to her the past couple of seasons. i looked at her stats and it they hardly look like the stats of an all-american...not even a potential all american. any insight?

[cheeks14]

Megan Pajonas has to be player of the year for the NEWMAC.....especially with WPI in 1st place which nobody expected

[pureshooter]

 i don't know if no one expected wpi to be on top. they had 9 returning players(may be 8 now), including both posts. i did not see any clear cut favorite. springfield is looking very good now.
i agree cheeks, pajonas should be poy. she's pretty solid fundamentally and good shooter from in the paint, as well as from the line.
  wpi leads the league in defense(scoring). as i said before, the coach runs some excellent schemes on both ends of the floor.
let's see how this last weekend shakes out, then some predictions?

[Pat Coleman]

A NEWMAC expert recently mentioned that to me as well, nescac hoops. That person didn't have an explanation either.

[NEWMACwatcher]

Watch out for SC in the tournament ... they've played fairly well for the past 10 games. A solid first 5 and a more than adequate bench.

Key will be the intensity of the D and to stay away from selfish offensive play where 1-2 players try to do it all themselves.

A lot of contributions this year from sophomores.

[pureshooter]

 sc looks good.
their posts are every bit as good as wpi's.
if any team ran a good fast break, you can wear down those post players. but no one really pushes the ball consistently in the newmac, which surprises me. there are some slower teams that could give up some easy hoops in transition. and there are a couple of teams that could play uptempo with their personnel, but for some reason do not.

[pureshooter]

no big surprise in these predictions.
going with all home teams wpi,mt. h, springfield and wheaton.
the 4-5 game (wheaton-clark) could go either way. clark has been playing well as of late(other than the last game), but wheaton is due.

[remsleep]

no big surprise in these predictions.
going with all home teams wpi,mt. h, springfield and wheaton.
the 4-5 game (wheaton-clark) could go either way. clark has been playing well as of late(other than the last game), but wheaton is due.

I see the quarter-finals a little bit differently....two upsets in the offing.  I'll go with WPI over Smith ( easily) and Springfield over Babson ( not quite so easily..and a possible upset here).  I think the Wheaton/Clark game is a toss-up but I'll pick Clark in a mild upset.  Shocker will be Coast Guard overtaking Mt. Holyoke.

[atn alum]

Yikes, that's a bold pick...

but for those curious to see if your picks come true.

NEWMAC playoff action webcast

Coast Guard at Mount Holyoke, 6:50 PM
http://www.sportsjuice.com

Babson at Springfield will have livestats, I believe, 5:30pm
http://www.spfldcol.edu/homepage/athletics.nsf/home

Clark at Wheaton will have livestats, 7:00pm
http://www.wheatoncollege.edu/athletics/live/

Smith at WPI, no livestats, but I will be exchanging scores with them, 7:00pm

[atn alum]

I should mention as well that if WPI wins tonight,  we'll have webcast coverage of the semis and finals-- all 3 games, regardless of who's involved.

[deiscanton]

We are going to have a new NEWMAC champion.

Babson has just upset Springfield at Blake Arena.

Final score:

Babson 66, Springfield 63

Springfield was leading 30-21 at the half.

Congratulations to the Beavers on pulling off the upset.

Good luck to all the remaining NEWMAC teams, and hopefully (for me anyway), the new NEWMAC champion will come from the unofficial "eastern division" of the NEWMAC league.  (a/k/a WPI, Wheaton, or Babson.)

[pureshooter]

 babson, great upset over springfield. wpi easily over smith, mt. h. over cg, and wheaton with a buzzer beating floater defeats clark. clark has a great program, but i'm told the coaches don't shake hands after a defeat. nice example set there.
  sat, wpi-wheaton, mt. h- babson.

[PJ]

Yeah.  I thought maybe the no shaking hands thing was limited to an in town versus WPI rivalry thing when I witnessed it earlier this season.  Seems kinda silly and poor sportmanship. 

[remsleep]

babson, great upset over springfield. wpi easily over smith, mt. h. over cg, and wheaton with a buzzer beating floater defeats clark. clark has a great program, but i'm told the coaches don't shake hands after a defeat. nice example set there.
  sat, wpi-wheaton, mt. h- babson.

Yeah.  I thought maybe the no shaking hands thing was limited to an in town versus WPI rivalry thing when I witnessed it earlier this season.  Seems kinda silly and poor sportmanship. 

PJ and pureshooter---I really need to step in here.  Pureshooter, by your own post you are indicating that "from what (you) are told the (Clark) coaches don't shake hands after a defeat"....why would you post something like this?  PJ..I am not debating your point RE: WPI earlier this season simply because I was not at the game.  However, I feel obligated to say this:  I have seen at least 35 Clark Women's games over the past two seasons
and have never witnessed anything approaching poor sportsmanship on the part of either the Clark coaching staff or their players.  I am not saying that there has never been a time when handshakes were not exchanged between coaching staffs at game's end because I have not seen every single game over this time period.  I am saying that I can tell you from personal knowledge that the Clark Women's program is coached and administered in a first-class manner.  If there was an instance when post-game handshakes were not exchanged it is more likely, at least from Clark's side,  that this was a matter of coaches being distracted by other matters and they simply missed the handshake line.  Either way, the inference that bad examples are being set, or that the Clark staff are "poor sports" is wholly spurious.  Your posts remind me of too many NY Times articles I have read.

[pureshooter]

remsleep,
             my post said "i'm told the coaches don't shake hands after a defeat". i know kids  that have been in that line in the past, and know their parents as well.   i trust they are not lying. truth be told, i put it out there  to see if anyone else had seen this. and someone has.
secondly, since i was curious about what i was told and i attend some games when i can, i have seen it. now i'm not at every game they lose and never said it occurs 100% of the time, but i have seen it on more than one occasion. i went to the game wed. night because it was the closest for me. my eyes don't lie. there were no distractions. both coaches went behind the bench, removed from the line, and got a cup of water. then were the last to leave the floor.
  now, if you want to call that a distraction, fine. i don't see it that way. i've been around the game and coached it long enough.  we can agree to disagree. last time i checked there is a handshake line after every game.
  my post also said clark has a great program. the coaching is outstanding, maybe the best in the league. i'm not criticizing the coaching or the administration. just telling you what i've heard and seen in person that backs it up.
  i can't believe anyone reads the times ( the globe as well) anymore!