MBB: NEWMAC

[Hugenerd]

I was always impressed with Coach Andersen--such a class act. You can see it everything he does from the beginning of the game til the end when he talks with his own kids and other kids and fans at the game. He has done a lot and deserves only the best. Congrats to MIT on a great season!

By the way, what is Coach Andersen a professor of? I wonder if you could audit his class.

I am not sure, but if you search for his name in the mit people directory (web.mit.edu, lower left corner), his title will come up as associate professor.

[Hugenerd]

Congrats to Jimmy Bartolotta for being named the Jostens trophy winner for this year.  He truly deserves the honor for his great season and career at MIT.

I wish him all the best in Europe next season!

[deiscanton]

I guess then I will be the second person to say congrats to Jimmy Bartolotta of MIT on being named this year's Jostens Trophy winner.    I concur with Hugenerd on his best wishes to Jimmy Bartolotta on his future endeavors.

[massd3fan]

Congratulations to Jimmy Bartolotta from me as well.  Very well deserved honor and a great way for him to end a fantastic career!  I wish him nothing but the best of luck in his quest to play in Europe.

Great for the conference too, the NEWMAC now lays claim to 2 of the last 3 Joosten Awards.

[massd3fan]

JustAfan,

   I managed to take in a few of the WPI games this season.  I'm an "old school" guy when it comes to basketball.  I firmly believe the most successful & consistent teams operate from the inside out.  You need a strong inside game to provide openings for your outside shooters.  By strong, I mean the ability to score from both sides of the lane in the low post, consistently box out, and be able to defend in the low post.  If your have true low post presence, then your outside game, and dribble penetration will be much, much more effective.

   Now, the game has progressed a great deal from my youth (I grew up watching Russell, Chamberlain, Alcindor/Jabbar, Unseld, Walton, Silas, etc.)  Today's game is indeed a guard dominated game at the college level, but the best teams still have good low post players.  There will be games where you guard play is down and the 3 points shooters are off.  If you don't have a strong inside game to go to when the outside game is off, you have big problems.  For what it is worth (probably not much more than Citibank stock right now) here are my observations and thoughts.

  WPI fell into this situation against Springfeild in the NEWMAC semi-finals.  They shot under 25% and half of their FG attempts were 3's.  Lessard was in foul trouble and only played 8 minutes going 0-1 with 4 boards, Perez played 22 minutes going 1-2 with 6 rebs & Carr played 5 minutes going 0-3 with 2 rebounds. As you noted, Stewart did not play in that game.  So you got only 6 FGA from the group and from the stat sheet, they went 13 for 54, with 29 of the attempts being 3-pointers.

   I am not sure what the status of Stewart is.  It does seem certain that something happened, but what will most likely remain internal. That is my guess, it's not based on any particular knowledge.  From what I could gather watching the games i did get to, I think Coach Bartley prefers smaller more athletic players over the typical big man.  He had 2 "big men" on the roster.  Lessard at 6'8" and he must be 245-250 in weight and Carr at 6'7" and rather wiry.  Stewart at 6'4"&  Perez at 6'3" provide a different look down low, but struggled against players in the 6'6" and above range.  They also have a couple of other freshmen Peter White & Dave Brown at 6'3".  White is listed as a forward & Brown a guard.  Lessard is a bit cumbersome and has difficulty handling the ball in the low post.  He will often pass the ball out when he should be attacking the rim. He is the only junior on the team and will need to refine his skills to make a bigger impact next year. Perez had flashes of brilliance this year.  He is undersized at the power forward slot, but uses his body very well.  He is also one of guys who just seem to have a nose for the ball.  He put up a couple of double-doubles down the stretch of the season at Babson & in the opening round win over Husson in the NCAAs.  He is also a good defender in the scheme coach Bartley employs.  If he can develop his right hand, he could be all-conference next year.  Carr didn't play all that much this season, but I did see him play a couple of times and he could be a real presence next year.  He appears to have the ability to be an offensive force from either side of the lane and boxes out very well on the boards. He very long and wore a knee brace this year.  From what I was told he is lost his senior high school season to an ACL tear. Even with a brace, he seems to get well above the rim with ease.  If he puts on some weight, he may be the perfect compliment to Perez inside.  White seems to be a leaper and more suited to the small forward position rather than the power forward slot.  Brown got into 19 games and my guess is he will be part of the guard rotation next year.  He is a good passer and can elevate over a lot of defenders.

In the games I managed to get to, Stewart looked to be the most polished and well-rounded offensive player of their big guy group.  Again, I think a bit undersized at center, but he did a great job of creating space to get off that 6 to 8 foot jumper.  He also was strong enough to attack the rim even against slightly bigger players.  The one feature I felt I brought that the others did not was the elbow/free throw line jumper.  Why he fell into the proverbial 'dog house', I cannot say.  One could make guesses or assumptions, but that would be unfair to the player & coach.

It would appear that Kyle Nadeau will take over for Lirette at PG.  Ben Etten will most likely remain in the small forward/guard slot. Jeff Robinson will most likely move into Jerome Kirkland's position.  Ryan Stock will most likely be involved in coming off the bench in both a guard and small forward role.  Todd Rappaport will join Brown as part of the guard rotation coming of the bench.  They will provide a some size at the guard position as well.

Overall, WPI should again be the top team in the NEWMAC.  MIT may have Billy Johnson back, but who knows what kind of team Coach Anderson will have to patch together next year.  Springfield beat WPI in the tournament, but they lose two key starters in Strawson & White.  They will do better in the regular season next year, but I do not think they can overtake WPI.  Clark gave WPI its only conference loss in the regular season and they will have the ROY back in Brian Vayda, but they lose 2 of their top 5 scorers.  Wheaton graduates 5, but only Mark Sullivan & Nick Michel were big factors.  Babson loses four, including Zach Etten and Pat Belniak.  Coast Guard will have to find someone to fill Craig Johnson's shoes.

Right now, I have not seen anything about committed incoming freshman.  I guessing that that our current economic mess has put a lot more stress & strain on families with kids starting college this fall.  Overall financial aid packages & a very strong focus on the academic avenue will most likely outweigh basketball concerns this year.

Feel free to offer up any other insights on WPI or other teams in the conference!

[WPI89]

NEWMAC - 2 Jostens in a row!

Congrats to both teams (MIT/WPI) proving academics and hoops can co-exist!

[Pat Coleman]

Two out of three -- Troy Ruths of Wash U won it last year.

[WPI89]

Correct - sorry - Cain felt like last year!

[massd3fan]

Come on now, surely someone out there has some more closing thoughts on this season.  Some insights for next year.  News on incoming players.  Some Congrats for an outgoing senior.

Ok, I'm grasping at straws, but I'm trying to keep the conversation going.  In couple more weeks, my wife will have the annual spring cleaning list posted and my time on the computer will be even more limited than it is now.  LOL

[T990]

Steve Buckley article on MIT (from last week):

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/college/basketball/view.bg?articleid=1156361&format=text

[Hugenerd]

Here is something interesting I found out today.  Bartolotta's ankle injury suffered in the third to last regular season game (against Babson, causing him to miss the game vs. WPI) wasn't as insignificant as initially made out to be by the team.  From what I hear, it wasnt anything too serious (he would have been fine if he could have sat out 2-3 weeks to let it heal), but because of the impending NEWMAC tourney and the end of his career, he played through it.  He didnt look the same to me though and now I know why.  The stats seem to support that as well:

Here is a comparison between his first 23 games and the 6 games he played with the injury:

Games	FGM	FGA	FG%	3FGM	3FGA	3%	FTM	FTA	FT%	RPG	APG	TOPG	SPG	BPG	PPG
First 23 games	210	404	52.0	82	173	47.4	151	179	84.4	5.7	3.0	2.3	2.2	1.5	28.4
Final 6 Games	50	114	43.9	13	45	28.9	34	42	81.0	8.2	2.7	2.5	1.2	1.3	24.5

All his stats are essentially down across the board (except for rebounds).  Obviously an ankle injury will hurt your elevation and quickness the most, and this is clearly apparent:  his shooting percentage is down over 8% after the injury, his 3% is almost down 20%, he is making 1.0 less steals per game, and scoring 4 points less per game while taking 1.5 more shots per game.  Clearly he wasnt getting the elevation needed to shoot 3s at the nearly 50% he shot before his injury (his 2PT% only dropped from 55.4% to 53.6% after the injury, so the 8% drop in shooting percentage is almost completely due to his drop in shooting from 3, which is likely a result of his decreased elevation on his shot). Needless to say, if he was healthy they may have done even better than they already did, but I am not complaining, they had a great season as it was.  His team did have a better winning percentage after the injury though (5-1 after the injury, 83.3%, compared to 18-8, 69.2%), so I guess he was doing something right after he came back.

Also, no need to worry, I hear that after a couple weeks of rest Jimmy will be back on the hardwood at 100% training for his Euro career.  Too bad this injury didnt come earlier in the season so that he would have had the opportunity to take a couple weeks off to heal up (a la Kent Raymond) and come back 100% for the tourney.  I guess it wasnt meant to be but I wish him the best in his career in Europe!

[T990]

Farmingdale State defeats Bridgewater State tonight, 84-64, to move to 27-3 and into the Elite 8.  The Rams take on Richard Stockton (28-2) for a spot in the Final 4.

[Hugenerd]

Farmingdale State defeats Bridgewater State tonight, 84-64, to move to 27-3 and into the Elite 8.  The Rams take on Richard Stockton (28-2) for a spot in the Final 4.

Stockton is tough.  They are extremely athletic.

[T990]

An article from the MIT campus paper about the basketball program and its affect on student life:

http://tech.mit.edu/V129/N12/mbasketball.html

[Hugenerd]

Article in the Globe:

http://www.boston.com/sports/colleges/extras/colleges_blog/2009/03/mits_bartolotta.html