MBB: NEWMAC

[Hugenerd]

WPI at 6, MIT at 19, and Springfield picking up some votes in the new Week 12 rankings.

[mass_d3fan]

Great comeback win by WPI on Sat.

I attended the game along with a friend who was a Clark grad.  It was a very frustrating day for him.  All he kept saying was why shoot from the perimeter when you have Bailey inside who seemed to make things happen most times he got a touch in both matchups with WPI.  The Cougars could very well have beaten the Engineers both times except for the fact they cant seem to grasp where they have matchup advantages use them or disadvantages and compensate for them.  He was livid that it took so long for them make some kind of an adjustment to the WPI pressure.  20 turnovers in each of the two meetings  resulting in a 21 to 9 advantage in the first game and 19 to 10 in points off turnovers in game 2.  Looking at the box score afterwards, it does raise an eyebrow to look at the fact the Curley & Daprato each had more FGAs than Bailey.  Vayda has had a tough time with the Kolb/Wesloski duo this season. They have held him to a total of 7 points on 3 for 16 shooting in the 2 games.  All I could do was tell him they should have a 3rd shot at WPI on Saturday.

You do have to give a great deal of credit to the resolve of this WPI team. After Bailey's layup that gave Clark a 7 pt lead with 8 and half minutes to go, I really thought the Engineers may have lost the momentum for good.  The Clark bench and the building were fired up.  Three minutes later (4 TOs and a missed 1&1) it was a 5 point lead for WPI and it was Clark who had lost the momentum.  Zach Karalis had a a career game with 25 pts and was the driving force in final 5 minutes.  One concern for WPI is this was the third straight sub-par game for Sam Longwell.  He has shot 3 for 21 in the last 3 games and is visibly struggling with his shot.  For the Enginners to win the NEWMAC's AQ, they need him to return to form.

[mass_d3fan]

Congrats to Tashman for being named NEWMAC Player of the Week for the third time this year.  Definitely had a memoral week, averaging 22.3 point and 16 boards a game in 3 games.

Yes, Great Week.  He is the POY in my most humble opinion.

I agree.  In conference only games, Tashman led the league in rebounding (by a pretty decent margin), led the league in FG%, was second in scoring, was third in FT%, was 7th in assists, and 5th in blocks.  He and Kates both had great seasons, but Tashman really came on strong and played his best through the conference slate.  I would expect Coach Anderson to nominate Tashman for MITs POY candidate, because, even though I know he values both of them equally on the team, Tashman's numbers give him a better chance of winning it.

The only other real candidate would be Berthiaume (who has averaged exactly 1 more ppg than Tashman in conference games this year), but I would take a guy that scores 17 ppg at 59.2% than someone who gives me 18 ppg at 41.7% any day.  The only other categories that Berthiaume leads Tashman in are 3FG% (Tashman barely took any of them) and steals (1.5 vs. 0.8)...Tashman even averaged more assists than Berthiaume.

I hope the coaches vote in Tashman's favor this year.  I really felt Kates deserved it last year, with the year MIT had and the numbers Kates put up, and it would be a shame if that repeated itself, especially with the historical precedent of how the coaches have voted for the POY from the top 2 teams in the past (last year it went to Berthiaume on the 3rd place team).

I agree it is a 2 horse race this year between those two.

[mass_d3fan]

Congratulations to Mitchell Kates of MIT for being selected as a 2nd-team Academic All-American by CoSIDA.

This continues a rich tradition that the NEWMAC has developed over the past few seasons.

2005-06 - 3rd Team AAA - Mike D'Auria - MIT
2007-08 - 1st Team AAA - Jimmy Bartolotta - MIT
2008-09 - 1st Team AAA - Jimmy Bartolotta - MIT
2010-11 - 2nd team AAA - Matt Carr - WPI
2011-12 - 1st Team AAA - Matt Carr -WPI

[rlk]

Congratulations to Mitchell Kates of MIT for being selected as a 2nd-team Academic All-American by CoSIDA.

This continues a rich tradition that the NEWMAC has developed over the past few seasons.

2005-06 - 3rd Team AAA - Mike D'Auria - MIT
2007-08 - 1st Team AAA - Jimmy Bartolotta - MIT
2008-09 - 1st Team AAA - Jimmy Bartolotta - MIT
2010-11 - 2nd team AAA - Matt Carr - WPI
2011-12 - 1st Team AAA - Matt Carr -WPI

Also last year, Jamie Karraker and Noel Hollingsworth were 2nd team.

[mass_d3fan]

RLK

My Bad!  TY for the correction!

[WPI89]

No real surprises I guess - maybe RIC ahead of Midd?

Northeast – Week 3
1 Amherst 23-2 23-2
2 WPI 23-2 23-2
3 Williams 20-3 22-3
4 Rhode Island College 22-3 22-3
5 Middlebury 19-2 22-2
6 MIT 19-4 20-4
7 Springfield 18-7 18-7
8 Brandeis 17-7 17-7
9 Curry 18-7 18-7
10 Westfield State 19-4 21-4
11 Eastern Connecticut 18-4 18-7
12 Tufts 16-5 17-8

[Hugenerd]

And MIT and Springfield are adjacent to eachother in the rankings.  Saturday's game could be big.  The reason I say 'could' is because I think it is still possible that MIT is still ranked above Springfield regardless of the outcome of Saturday's game (they would have 3 less losses and still finished above Springfield in the regular season rankings, if Springfield won on Saturday and lost Sunday making both teams in play for Pool C).  However, I obviously wouldnt want to bank on that.  If MIT wins Saturday, I think there is a good chance they are in the tourney, win or lose on Sunday.  I think Springfield needs to win the tourney to have a good shot (8 losses seems like it would keep them out, their SOS is good - 0.561, but not high enough that they would get in with 8 losses, in my opinion).  WPI will make it regardless of this weekend's results.

[Charles]

No real surprises I guess - maybe RIC ahead of Midd?

Northeast – Week 3
1 Amherst 23-2 23-2
2 WPI 23-2 23-2
3 Williams 20-3 22-3
4 Rhode Island College 22-3 22-3
5 Middlebury 19-2 22-2
6 MIT 19-4 20-4
7 Springfield 18-7 18-7
8 Brandeis 17-7 17-7
9 Curry 18-7 18-7
10 Westfield State 19-4 21-4
11 Eastern Connecticut 18-4 18-7
12 Tufts 16-5 17-8

Sometimes stocking wins against easy opponents gets noticed by the NCAA more so the D3 Hoops top 25 ?

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Or the voters on the poll are looking at data and information that the NCAA can't per criteria to make decisions - which I know to be true .

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I think a team's going to need an SOS above .600 to get in with even 6 losses this year.  If you factor in the upsets, there's just so many gaudy records out there.

One thing to their advantage, though, they should be sitting on the table for quite a while.  Lot's of time for the committee to talk themselves into choosing them.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

If you mean nationally... I don't agree. First off, SOSs over .600 are rare. Secondly, we have seen lower SOSs with 6-losses make it before even with upsets. However, the closer to .500 a team's SOS gets, the chances go down as well.

[WPI89]

WPI big run - tied up with Babson with 3 minutes left!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[WPI89]

Tied again......1:10 remaining.

[WPI89]

Rebound buzzer beater after they traded clutch 3's.  WPI vs MIT/Springfield winner tomorrow.  Harrington looked awesome - I will be there tomorrow.