MBB: NEWMAC

[Greek Tragedy]

Man, things getting ugly for Springfield without Jake Ross. Any injury update?

[BaboNation]

I'm kinda glad I missed the finals of the Babson Invitational, where for the 2nd year in a row Keith Brown went nuts for Endicott, scoring 29 points in the 2nd half (38 for the game), enabling Endicott to overcome a 16-pt halftime deficit and win going away.

Memo to Babson:  Disinvite Endicott from the 2019 Invitational and replace them with Cupcake College.
Meanwhile Brown is still only a junior and has a major in Business Management.  Did we try to recruit this kid?

Suddenly next Sunday's game of Endicott (4-0) @ Middlebury becomes very intriguing.

[rlk]

I'm kinda glad I missed the finals of the Babson Invitational, where for the 2nd year in a row Keith Brown went nuts for Endicott, scoring 29 points in the 2nd half (38 for the game), enabling Endicott to overcome a 16-pt halftime deficit and win going away.

Memo to Babson:  Disinvite Endicott from the 2019 Invitational and replace them with Cupcake College.
Meanwhile Brown is still only a junior and has a major in Business Management.  Did we try to recruit this kid?

Suddenly next Sunday's game of Endicott (4-0) @ Middlebury becomes very intriguing.

Looks like Endicott is very, very dangerous indeed.

[Mountain Man]

Very quiet on the Jake Ross injury. 

I saw a grimace and grab that said separated shoulder not dislocated. It was left shoulder and he is righty dominant

Regardless....shoulders are most difficult injuries to heal from.  They just never feel the same.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Very quiet on the Jake Ross injury. 

I saw a grimace and grab that said separated shoulder not dislocated. It was left shoulder and he is righty dominant

Regardless....shoulders are most difficult injuries to heal from.  They just never feel the same.

I have had different injuries to both shoulders ... and I can attest they haven't felt the same. One has had two surgeries on it, the other should have (and still might).

I felt the same about Ross' injury. I'm not worried, overall, because this is the best time of year to suffer an injury. No real pressure to come back right away.

[BaboNation]

Very quiet on the Jake Ross injury. 

I saw a grimace and grab that said separated shoulder not dislocated. It was left shoulder and he is righty dominant

Regardless....shoulders are most difficult injuries to heal from.  They just never feel the same.

I felt the same about Ross' injury. I'm not worried, overall, because this is the best time of year to suffer an injury. No real pressure to come back right away.

While the top priority is certainly the welfare of the athlete I wouldn't say there isnt't pressure being felt in the Springfield program.  With a healthy Ross they were almost certainly going to be invited to the tournament, even if they didn't automatically qualify as NEWMAC champion.
Now they likely NEED to win the NEWMAC to get a shot at the tournament (assuming a prolonged absence).

[BaboNation]

A brutal loss for Springfield tonight at previously winless Becker.  These are the games that can make/break you on Selection Sunday (if it even comes to that).
The Pride sometimes looked befuddled on offense and couldn't stop Davis when it counted.

It's gut-check time for Springfield now with a string of NESCAC opponents coming up.  There's too much talent on the roster for this kind of drop-off from the Ross injury.

[WPI89]

Great road win for the young Engineers from Worcester!  Almost perfect second half. Congrats Coach Bartley on a spectacular start to the season.

[amh63]

WPI189....glad to see you are still posting and keeping an eye on your team.  WPI has always put on a "show" for causal observers like me.  To bad that WPI and Amherst doesn't met during the regular season.

[BaboNation]

Solid win for Babson over Bates. 

In the first half Bates couldn't find the range until very late.  I wish I could credit good Babson defense but there were a lot of open looks.  I started to think Bates' 3rd game in 4 nights might have played a part, but they certainly found their rhythm in the 2nd half.

The biggest difference in Babson from last year to this season is rebounding.  I think the final stats show Babson losing the battle by 1.  If so, that's the first time this year they've been out rebounded.   Last year they were killed on both glasses and had a net disadvantage.  Tough to win that way.  The emergence of Oftring, continued improvement of Jaworski after a solid freshman year, and the significant minutes played by freshman Bradanese all give Johnson the help he didn't have last year.
Speaking of Johnson, he shows flashes of being very special and then can sometimes disappear for 10 minutes or more.  But man, he has an explosive first step.
Down the stretch in a tie game Babson got 10 straight from just the guys they wanted, in just the spaces they wanted the ball:  Johnson, Jaworski, and Oftring.  Old-school post-up basketball.

For Bates, Spellman was really smooth.  He's a complete basketball player.  Even as a Babson fan I love to watch guys who can drive, stop on a dime, elevate, and drain jumper after jumper from just inside the key.  Those shots aren't easy, but he makes them look so.

If Babson can find success with a point guard they'll be competitive in every game in the regular season.  They are using a 3-man rotation, but I'm partial to the freshman Welch from what I've seen.  I was really happy to see coach Brennan stick with Welch for the last 7 minutes of crunch time.

Last year's team was a bit of an outlier with a huge senior class' departure and trying to find an identity with 3 transfers.

This team could challenge for 2nd/3rd in the NEWMAC.  A lot depends on Ross with Springfield.
Brennan will certainly have them ready for the NEWMAC season, with more tough out of conference games coming up and a big holiday tournament in D.C.

[WPI89]

Wow we just do not match up with Fitchburg. Take the win and race back to Worcester. Mess of a game. But all ok in the end.

[BaboNation]

Another solid win for Babson over a NESCAC team (3 straight now - albeit all at home).

Garbage time came early in this one, quite unexpectedly I might add because Babson played without one of their big 3 (Jaworski).

Johnson had his best game as a Beaver ... late in the first half he hit a step-back 3, then stole a pass at the Tufts baseline and raced 90 feet for a thunderous dunk.  He's got enough help this year that it allows him to show flashes of his full potential.

FY Bradanese continues to improve, particularly on the glass and finished with a double-double.

FY Welch has a beautifully pure jumper.  He's only 5'11", but he gets great lift and has a quick release with deep range.  Babson shot over 60% from 3, and it was higher before they emptied the bench.

Oftring had another great 2-way game.

For Tufts, Aronson showed a lot of talent and presented match-up problems.

There is no alpha dog like Flannery on this team, but they have legit 8 or 9 man depth without a cliff-type drop-off.

Next week Babson travels to Amherst in what should be an excellent measuring stick.  Hopefully Jaworski will be back for that game.

[BaboNation]

I see MIT has now played the last 5 games without Forsythe, last year's NEWMAC frosh of the year.  He's such a talent, I hope he returns soon.  It's been a tough early start for injuries to key players in the NEWMAC.

[BaboNation]

Babson with an ugly loss at home to Brandeis in the championship of the "Big 4 Challenge".

All credit to Brandeis in this one.  I only saw the first half (hate Sunday games head-to-head against the NFL).
Dice had quick hands and outstanding rotation help on defense to disrupt Babson's inside game.  Johnson seemed to get frustrated early and Oftring had to fight through doubles to earn his points.  Alexis and Ulrickson finished a collective 0-11 with 8 TOs.  Worse, unable to find the range from outside, Brandeis swallowed them inside where they were out of options.
For the game, Babson had a 10/19 A/TO.  Again, credit to Brandeis.  These are the matchups that give the Beavers particular problems.

Brandeis is yet another NE team with at-large possibilities down the road.

For Babson, they'll need a solid 3 days of practice, a return of Jaworski, and, and, and ... before their trip to Amherst.

[BaboNation]

NEWMAC 3 for 3 in games that should have been wins "on paper".

MIT, WPI, and Wheaton all took care of business.  Wheaton looks like they may be better than expected.

But can we get some poll love for WPI?   How do they still rate only 10 points when they have arguably 3 quality wins already (Magnus, Wm. Patterson, and Tufts)?  I don't want to disparage an historically elite team like Amherst, but they have 99 points, and vaulted into the top 25 after wins over Anna Maria and Emerson (which is likely to battle with Clark for the NEWMAC basement).  What is their top win?

Having said that Amherst is quite capable of putting a hurt on my Beavers Thursday and fully justifying their lofty perch.  But maybe voters should give WPI a closer look.