MBB: NEWMAC

[Hugenerd]

Lots of credit to Karraker for making his open shots (he played unbelievable), but the night belonged to Mitch Kates on both ends of the court.  Just a few days ago TJ Tibbs put up 40 on RIC, but tonight Kates guarded him the whole game and really gave him problems, holding him to just 13 points on 3-11 shooting.  On the other end of the court, Kates was just as spectacular, going 8-14 from the field for 29 points to go along with 5 assists and 4 steals.  I think this goes to show what us in the NEWMAC have known for a long time, and I was glad he finally got an opportunity to show it on the national stage, that Kates is one of the best point guards in the country.

Tashman was his solid self defensively and in the paint, scoring 11 and hauling down 13 boards.  Hollingsworth had an off night, but his back court picked him up.  He still ended up with 13 points and 8 rebounds, which would probably be a great night for just about anyone else. I truly believe he, Tashman, and Hollingsworth are AA-level players and hope they get that type of recognition when its all said and done.

Should be a fun contest in the 2nd game of the night, can't wait to see who MIT will play.  Should be a great game tomorrow night either way!

[Hugenerd]

Also wanted to say that Dave McHugh did a great job on the production, as did the announcers (except for a few name errors, but understable given two out of town teams, really nothing compared to Dave's 'Jamie Cracker' on Hoopsville last night - it's 'Ka-ra-ker' !).  Really enjoyable broadcast to watch.

[WPI89]

So my MIT-Amherst match-up that I predicted to Amh63 before the season falls 50% short.  Holy cow did the NESCAC struggle.  Watched a good bit of both games and it seemed to me (at least on this night) that both Amherst and Midd struggled with scoring options - nothing came easy for either one - Kudos to Scranton and F&M.

[mass_d3fan]

I believe the NEWMAC is the only Northeast conference still dancing!

[Hugenerd]

Nice article linked on the d3hoops frontpage on MIT, from espn.com:

http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/colleges/post/_/id/2027/mit-hoopsters-doing-harvard-one-better

[Reserved Seat]

Looking forward to playing MIT tomorrow. Incredible three point shooting. F&M's Porter and Milligan will have to clamp down on the shooters.  Hard to predict tomorrow since Staten Island played little defense.  F&M's bigs should be able to hold their own under the basket.  F&M was 0 for 1 from the three line.  Two different views on the three.

[Hugenerd]

Looking forward to playing MIT tomorrow. Incredible three point shooting. F&M's Porter and Milligan will have to clamp down on the shooters.  Hard to predict tomorrow since Staten Island played little defense.  F&M's bigs should be able to hold their own under the basket.  F&M was 0 for 1 from the three line.  Two different views on the three.

MIT will definitely take the 3s if they are there, but thats not really their focus (Karraker gets essentially all his attempts on in and out looks from the post, or situations where Kates breaks down the defense and Karrakers man helps).  In the game before against Farmingdale, and their 7'0" center AJ Matthews, MIT's 6'9" center Noel Hollingsworth scored 37 points and 4 man Will Tashman had 16 and 13.  They are pretty balanced, so they can adjust to the type of team they are playing and whats working for them in that game.  SHould be a fun game to watch.

[remsleep]

Also wanted to say that Dave McHugh did a great job on the production, as did the announcers (except for a few name errors, but understable given two out of town teams, really nothing compared to Dave's 'Jamie Cracker' on Hoopsville last night - it's 'Ka-ra-ker' !).  Really enjoyable broadcast to watch.

Ditto......excellent job by the announcers....really makes it a  treat when those of us who can not get to the gym can watch the game without having to writhe in frustration because of less than adequate broadcast....nice job by all!

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Just got back from the games.  I sat in the MIT section this evening because those F&M fans are mean and scary.  Yikes!  Not a friendly atmosphere.

Anyway, the MIT was not as athletic as I expected, but they were smarter and played much better defense than I expected.  It was amazing to watch those guards nail 11 threes without missing (especially since Karraker is on my fantasy team).  Kates and Tashman were extremely impressive to me.  I'm not sure Hollingsworth got to show off all his skills.  He only had one opportunity to use a real post move and it was both complicated and smooth - easy bucket.

If they do indeed all return next year, it will be quite a force to be reckoned with.  I also appreciated how well they all played with fouls.  It's cliche, but MIT has a very, very intelligent basketball team.  They were disciplined and took care of the ball.

That being said, I don't see them winning tomorrow.  Both Amherst and F&M looked just a cut above.  They're both championship level teams and I'm not sure MIT has the depth to stick with F&M.  Their interior scoring was tremendous and the referees in Lancaster seem to be making random calls in the post, which could get MIT's short bench into foul trouble.

Still a good run.  I think they're clearly a top 10 team; they've overcome the relatively weak schedule with flying colors.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Also wanted to say that Dave McHugh did a great job on the production, as did the announcers (except for a few name errors, but understable given two out of town teams, really nothing compared to Dave's 'Jamie Cracker' on Hoopsville last night - it's 'Ka-ra-ker' !).  Really enjoyable broadcast to watch.

Thanks... we did our best. Hoped it was good for those out there who watched. Wanted to provide a bit more of a game then single camera.

Sorry about "Cracker"... I actually knew the name, but tripped as I went to say it.

[7express]

So my MIT-Amherst match-up that I predicted to Amh63 before the season falls 50% short.  Holy cow did the NESCAC struggle.  Watched a good bit of both games and it seemed to me (at least on this night) that both Amherst and Midd struggled with scoring options - nothing came easy for either one - Kudos to Scranton and F&M.

If you want the count the 3 NESCAC teams that were remaing on the women's side, the NESCAC went 1-4 on the evening in the 5 games (3 women's 2 men's).  Ouch!  First time since 2001 a final 4 won't have a NESCAC or UAA team.

[ECSUalum]

Lots of credit to Karraker for making his open shots (he played unbelievable), but the night belonged to Mitch Kates on both ends of the court.  Just a few days ago TJ Tibbs put up 40 on RIC, but tonight Kates guarded him the whole game and really gave him problems, holding him to just 13 points on 3-11 shooting.  On the other end of the court, Kates was just as spectacular, going 8-14 from the field for 29 points to go along with 5 assists and 4 steals.  I think this goes to show what us in the NEWMAC have known for a long time, and I was glad he finally got an opportunity to show it on the national stage, that Kates is one of the best point guards in the country.

Tashman was his solid self defensively and in the paint, scoring 11 and hauling down 13 boards.  Hollingsworth had an off night, but his back court picked him up.  He still ended up with 13 points and 8 rebounds, which would probably be a great night for just about anyone else. I truly believe he, Tashman, and Hollingsworth are AA-level players and hope they get that type of recognition when its all said and done.

Should be a fun contest in the 2nd game of the night, can't wait to see who MIT will play.  Should be a great game tomorrow night either way!

Huge,

CONGRATS on MIT's Elite8 status, We will all be rooting for the Engineers to take the Championship. Best of Luck!!

[ECSUalum]

Also wanted to say that Dave McHugh did a great job on the production, as did the announcers (except for a few name errors, but understable given two out of town teams, really nothing compared to Dave's 'Jamie Cracker' on Hoopsville last night - it's 'Ka-ra-ker' !).  Really enjoyable broadcast to watch.

Thanks... we did our best. Hoped it was good for those out there who watched. Wanted to provide a bit more of a game then single camera.

Sorry about "Cracker"... I actually knew the name, but tripped as I went to say it.

Dave McHugh,et al

Great job with the broadcasts yesterday and for Hoopsville all season.  Your making D3Hoops the best college basketball web sites in the country!!!!

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Thank you.

[Hugenerd]

Just got back from the games.  I sat in the MIT section this evening because those F&M fans are mean and scary.  Yikes!  Not a friendly atmosphere.

Anyway, the MIT was not as athletic as I expected, but they were smarter and played much better defense than I expected.  It was amazing to watch those guards nail 11 threes without missing (especially since Karraker is on my fantasy team).  Kates and Tashman were extremely impressive to me.  I'm not sure Hollingsworth got to show off all his skills.  He only had one opportunity to use a real post move and it was both complicated and smooth - easy bucket.

If they do indeed all return next year, it will be quite a force to be reckoned with.  I also appreciated how well they all played with fouls.  It's cliche, but MIT has a very, very intelligent basketball team.  They were disciplined and took care of the ball.

That being said, I don't see them winning tomorrow.  Both Amherst and F&M looked just a cut above.  They're both championship level teams and I'm not sure MIT has the depth to stick with F&M.  Their interior scoring was tremendous and the referees in Lancaster seem to be making random calls in the post, which could get MIT's short bench into foul trouble.

Still a good run.  I think they're clearly a top 10 team; they've overcome the relatively weak schedule with flying colors.

I held myself from responding to your comments yesterday, but needless to say I strongly disagree with them.

I hope you enjoy eating your words, because tonight it looked like MIT was in another class than F&M. 

All I can say is that, just as he did against Tibbs the night before, Kates won the battle against Milligan on both ends of the court.  I know that Milligan ended up with 23 points, but 9 or 11 of those were in the last 3 minutes when the game was pretty much decided, and even then, it took him 18 shots to get those points.  Kates disrupted his rhythm the whole night, especially with regard to Milligan being able setting up his teammates, as he finished with only 2 assists and 4 TOs (Kates had 8 asissts and 4 TOs).  If Milligan is a 2nd team All-American (as he was in the preseason), Mitch Kates has got to be at least on that same team because if you polled anyone who watched tonight's game, I think it was clear who the better PG is.

Karraker was again huge, hitting 5 big 3s, and McCue even got in the act with a couple.  Hollingsworth wasn't at 100% effectivity for the 2nd night in a row, but still finished with a respectable 14 and 9.  Tash didn't have a huge night, but he made his presence known on the defensive end (this is his first game of the tourney not having a double-double).

It will be interesting to see how MIT prepares for UWW, as the engineers will have a pretty dramatic size advantage inside.  Looking at tonight's box score, UWW starts players that are 6'1", 6'2", 6'3", 6'5", and 6'6", with only 2 main subs that are 6'0" and 6'4".  I know they have some tremendous athletes, like Davis, but I wonder if MIT will try to exploit that advantage more than they could this past weekend.  MIT starts 6'9" Hollingsworth, 6'8" Tashman (who I would guess would guard Davis), 6'5" Billy Bender (if he is back next weekend, if not it will be 6'3" Dan McCue), 6'4" Jamie Karraker, and 6'1" Mitch Kates.  MITs two main inside subs are also taller than anyone UWW has, in 6'8" Andrew Acker and 6'7" Dennis Levene.  Should be interesting to see how both teams prepare/adjust in the national semifinal.