The Undefeated and the Winless

[Mr. Ypsi]

But, where have the touts and bookies in NESCAC-land put the line on the Middlebury / Green Mountain game?

My guess is that Coach Brown will go to his bench early and often, but his end of the bench players are going to be too tough for the Eagles. Middlebury hasn't hit the century mark all year and they've certainly played a few teams where that was possible. Coach Brown has always been a classy guy and doesn't like to rub it in. That being said it'll be hard to stop eager reserves from wanting to score. He'll make them run though their sets, use the clock, take a little air out of the ball, and they'll finish right around the century mark. I'm thinking 98-48 final.

Coach Brown did better than go to his bench early, he started his bench players. No  Middlebury starter even played in this game. 7 of the 10 Middlebury players that played in the game had the least amount of playing time on the team this year. Middlebury was up 39-24 at the half, which wasn't too bad, but Green mountain could only manage to score 6 points in the second half. Final score was Middlebury 74 Green Mountain 30.

That's the right thing to do. But then, when Green Mountain was going through purgatory this season, why was this game played anyway?

That's the question I asked on the NESCAC board.  Middlebury could have played their cheerleaders and won - what's the point?

[magicman]

It's not like Middlebury knew what Green Mountain's situation was going to be like when they scheduled them.
Heck all those schools that passed up a game with IWU cause they didn't want to get stomped probably wish they had scheduled them now that they are struggling to make the CCIW playoffs.

[gordonmann]

Plus keep in mind that these two schools are in a corner of the country where it's not easy to get non-conference games against Division III opponents. 

[Will2Win]

But, where have the touts and bookies in NESCAC-land put the line on the Middlebury / Green Mountain game?

My guess is that Coach Brown will go to his bench early and often, but his end of the bench players are going to be too tough for the Eagles. Middlebury hasn't hit the century mark all year and they've certainly played a few teams where that was possible. Coach Brown has always been a classy guy and doesn't like to rub it in. That being said it'll be hard to stop eager reserves from wanting to score. He'll make them run though their sets, use the clock, take a little air out of the ball, and they'll finish right around the century mark. I'm thinking 98-48 final.

Coach Brown did better than go to his bench early, he started his bench players. No  Middlebury starter even played in this game. 7 of the 10 Middlebury players that played in the game had the least amount of playing time on the team this year. Middlebury was up 39-24 at the half, which wasn't too bad, but Green mountain could only manage to score 6 points in the second half. Final score was Middlebury 74 Green Mountain 30.

I'm not a supporter of either institution here but I was a little offended after reading this post...

I understand not wanting to show a team up who has struggled mightly this year to say the least, but to start all bench players and not have your starters even take off their warm-ups seems like more of an insult to Green Mtn to me. Start you kids you 've been starting all year and yank em maybe 3-5 mins into the game after they've built a lead....That would have been the classy thing to do for the Middlebury coach. Guess some people just lack in this area though huh?? What goes around comes around though, This coach will be shown up sooner or later and I hope it's soon!!!

[Flying Dutch Fan]

But, where have the touts and bookies in NESCAC-land put the line on the Middlebury / Green Mountain game?

My guess is that Coach Brown will go to his bench early and often, but his end of the bench players are going to be too tough for the Eagles. Middlebury hasn't hit the century mark all year and they've certainly played a few teams where that was possible. Coach Brown has always been a classy guy and doesn't like to rub it in. That being said it'll be hard to stop eager reserves from wanting to score. He'll make them run though their sets, use the clock, take a little air out of the ball, and they'll finish right around the century mark. I'm thinking 98-48 final.

Coach Brown did better than go to his bench early, he started his bench players. No  Middlebury starter even played in this game. 7 of the 10 Middlebury players that played in the game had the least amount of playing time on the team this year. Middlebury was up 39-24 at the half, which wasn't too bad, but Green mountain could only manage to score 6 points in the second half. Final score was Middlebury 74 Green Mountain 30.

I'm not a supporter of either institution here but I was a little offended after reading this post...

I understand not wanting to show a team up who has struggled mightly this year to say the least, but to start all bench players and not have your starters even take off their warm-ups seems like more of an insult to Green Mtn to me. Start you kids you 've been starting all year and yank em maybe 3-5 mins into the game after they've built a lead....That would have been the classy thing to do for the Middlebury coach. Guess some people just lack in this area though huh?? What goes around comes around though, This coach will be shown up sooner or later and I hope it's soon!!!

IMHO there was no disrespect or insult toward Green Mtn by the Middlebury coach. 

[smedindy]

It's not like Middlebury knew what Green Mountain's situation was going to be like when they scheduled them.
Heck all those schools that passed up a game with IWU cause they didn't want to get stomped probably wish they had scheduled them now that they are struggling to make the CCIW playoffs.

If I recall, it was pretty much known during the summer that Green Mountain's roster would be spartan. And yes, there is a location issue. Does Middlebury have a JV team? Could they have the JV play Green Mountain and have it off-the-book for Middlebury? Just curious.

[buck1053]

But, where have the touts and bookies in NESCAC-land put the line on the Middlebury / Green Mountain game?

My guess is that Coach Brown will go to his bench early and often, but his end of the bench players are going to be too tough for the Eagles. Middlebury hasn't hit the century mark all year and they've certainly played a few teams where that was possible. Coach Brown has always been a classy guy and doesn't like to rub it in. That being said it'll be hard to stop eager reserves from wanting to score. He'll make them run though their sets, use the clock, take a little air out of the ball, and they'll finish right around the century mark. I'm thinking 98-48 final.

Coach Brown did better than go to his bench early, he started his bench players. No  Middlebury starter even played in this game. 7 of the 10 Middlebury players that played in the game had the least amount of playing time on the team this year. Middlebury was up 39-24 at the half, which wasn't too bad, but Green mountain could only manage to score 6 points in the second half. Final score was Middlebury 74 Green Mountain 30.

I'm not a supporter of either institution here but I was a little offended after reading this post...

I understand not wanting to show a team up who has struggled mightly this year to say the least, but to start all bench players and not have your starters even take off their warm-ups seems like more of an insult to Green Mtn to me. Start you kids you 've been starting all year and yank em maybe 3-5 mins into the game after they've built a lead....That would have been the classy thing to do for the Middlebury coach. Guess some people just lack in this area though huh?? What goes around comes around though, This coach will be shown up sooner or later and I hope it's soon!!!

I don't think it was disrespectful, plus it gives the guys who don't play as much during the other games a chance to get some meaningful minutes.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I went to high school in Colorado and went to a very good, but small basketball school.  Once a year we had to play this tiny HS from out on the plains - they were lucky to field seven guys for their basketball team - often that included 7th and 8th graders.  Our coach usually only sent the freshman team to play them; we never won the game by less than 60.

Sending the varsity would have been more than overkill.

[Ralph Turner]

The attitude of a player towards his/her opponent can be more important than the score in such a blowout.

Respect handles many of the awkward moments graciously.

Sportsmanship.

[smedindy]

Too many times I've seen instances of high school teams running up the score to pad stats against over-matched opponents. That happens a lot in the lowest class, especially in the era of charter schools.

It's quite a shame. In high school and even college, it's not about stats, or shouldn't be.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

The attitude of a player towards his/her opponent can be more important than the score in such a blowout.

Respect handles many of the awkward moments graciously.

Sportsmanship.

Very true.  Our coach usually spoke with the opposing coach before games, especially in the instance where everyone knew there would be a blowout.  Against one charter school, the coach came in very ambitious and the school provided the funds to really build a program, so the coach asked our guys to go all out the whole game just to show his guys how far they had to go to reach the top.  I think the final score was 114-8, but those guys really seemed to understand what they'd gotten themselves into and played hard the whole time.  It was pretty impressive to see guys overmatched and remained determined.

[magicman]

The attitude of a player towards his/her opponent can be more important than the score in such a blowout.

Respect handles many of the awkward moments graciously.

Sportsmanship.

I don't think it could be stated any better than that Ralph. Plus k.

[Gregory Sager]

I don't know where else to post this, but this seems like the right place ...

FINAL FROM PASADENA, CA

Caltech 46
Occidental 45

[Pat Coleman]

Yep, seems like a good place.

[magicman]

After being winless in the SCIAC since the mid 1980's (I think) Cal Tech has finally broken through in their last game of the year as they downed Occidental 46-45. Not sure if Oxy Bob who is a Cal Tech spectator on occasion is happy or sad about this newsworthy occurrence.  

I thought this was as good a place as any as well Greg, especially since I won the winless pool with Caltech last year.