MBB: NEWMAC

[WPI89]

First note a little confusing because of dueling Robinson's - sorry.  After the initial mention of WC's Robinson - I am referring to WPI's Jeff Robinson.

[Hugenerd]

Article about MIT commit Nick Prus:

BG's Prus a hot shooter at Elgin Tournament

[Hugenerd]

Congrats to Babson's Braithwaite on a career high 27 points in their win over Penn State - Harrisburg today.

[mass_d3fan]

I attended the WPI-Becker game last night as WPI avenged an early season 1-pt loss by defeating the Hawks 82-66. The Engineers were led by Jeff Robinson & Matt Carr as they combined for 50 points.
Carr dominated the paint on both ends of the court and put up career highs of 24 points/12 boards.  Robinson did a great job getting the FT line and got half of his points from the stripe.  WPI got good play from others as Jerome Stewart scored 10, Ben Etten had 8 pts and 5 assists, Fernando Perez with 5pts/7rebs and Kyle Nadeau also had 5 pts.

I see Harvard took it to MIT today.  Hollinsworth did not play.  Any insights Hugenerd?
Tashman played a great game with 19pts/5 rebs before fouling out.  Harvard's Keith Wright posted a double-double in the 1st half with 13 pts/11 rebs.

Wheaton won its second tournament in a row as the Lyons beat Wesylan to win the Red & Black Classic.  Anthony Weeks led the Lyons scoring 46 points and grabbing 10 boards in the two games.  He was named tournament MVP.

Everyone have a Happy & Safe New Year's celebration.

[Hugenerd]

I attended the MIT-Harvard matchup.  MIT was undermanned, as Hollingsworth was in street clothes.  I wont go into more specifics on the injury for now.  However, MIT came out pretty strong, playing with Harvard for essentially the first 10 minutes and even took the lead about 7 minutes in.  The size of Harvard was too much to handle, though, as they absolutely got killed on the boards.  

Tashman held his own with Wright, really working hard in the post, defending him well and also playing well on the offensive end.  Unfortunately, Tashman didnt get to play as much as he should have, he picked up 2 ticky tack fouls, in addition to one legitimate foul, in the first 11 minutes of play, which cost him 10 minutes of PT in the first half.  He did a good job of playing with 4 fouls in the second, after picking another one up in the first couple minutes in the second half, but he really could have had a much better game if he werent in foul trouble the whole night.

Another bright spot was Mitch Kates, he was the best point guard on the court in my opinion.  He didnt shoot particularly well, but he only had 1 turnover in 32 minutes and was really effective in setting up the offense and hawking the Harvard guards.  In the end, however, MIT didnt have the size and quickness to compete.  The wings had a lot of shots that they would usually get off either get blocked or altered due to the longer and more athletic Harvard wings, resulting in very poor shooting overall.  The size and quickness also killed them on the boards, as previously stated.  They clearly missed Hollingsworth (Will Dickson would have played 6 minutes, not 36, if Hollingsworth were healthy), but he probably wouldnt have been enough to change the outcome of the game, MIT would have had to shoot much better and catch Harvard on a real bad day in order to have a chance at winning, neither of which happened.  Maybe next year....

[Hugenerd]

Noel Hollingsworth out for the season

[magicman]

Noel Hollingsworth out for the season

hugenerd,
Sorry to hear about Hollingsworth. That will certainly have major ramifications on MIT's season. Was following the game today on live stats and when he didn't play at all in the 1st half I knew something was wrong.
On a positive note, getting a medical waiver and giving him 2 more years with Kates and Tashman will certainly bode well for the future. Hopefully Hollingsworth will be granted the waiver, heal the shoulder, and come back stronger than ever. And Will Dickson is certainly going to benefit from all the extra playing time he'll see this year because of Hollingsworth's loss. 

[Hugenerd]

It is definitely a big loss for this year, but you can look at it postively also.  Hollingsworth was banged up before he injured his shoulder in the season opener, and now he will have time to heal, develop his game another year, and will also be in the same class as MIT's two other strongest players, Mitch Kates and Will Tashman (as well as several other very good players).

Despite the loss, I still think MIT has a great opportunity to compete this year for the NEWMAC championship, and as has been witnessed over the last several years in the NEWMAC, any team can get hot and win the end of season tourney at the end of the year.  Whether this makes WPI the favorite or not is debatable, but WPI will definitely be much more experienced with MIT essentially starting all freshman and sophomores (and sometimes senior Eric Zuk, but he is not usually a large statistical contributor, but more an intangibles type of player, while Karraker and McCue are both listed as Jr.'s but are both in their 2nd year playing due to lost year(s) from injury), with most of the guys coming off the bench also being freshman and sophomores (only player who plays significantly who is not is junior Billy Bender). 

I wouldnt discount them from contention too early, because they have some very talented players who can carry the team to victory on any given night.

[mass_d3fan]

Looking at the box score & recap, WPI blows out UNE today, 83-50.  Jeff Robinson scored his 1,000th point early in the 2nd half.  Robinson (15pts), Carr (13pts), & Perez (10pts) led the Engineers in scoring with limited minutes. Nadeau and Shannon combined for 11 of WPI's 25 assists.  Off the Bench, Ryan Kolb (7 pts/8 rebs) & Jameel Galloway (9 rebs) played well.
WPI opens conference play at home Vs. Wheaton on Wed.

Coast Guard loses to Salve Regina, 75-61. Greg Marshall led the Bears with 16 pts. Kevin Sowers (11pts) & Ed Gailor (10pts) also hit double figures. Coast Guard starts NEWMAC play on Wed. hosting Clark.

Springfield is defeated by Rutgers-Newark, 71-66, in the Hampton Inn West Springfield/Naismith Classic title game. Calavieri led the Pride with 22 pts & 8 boards.  Ryan Coburn had a double-double with 13pts/11rebs & Darvis Rankins chipped in with 11 pts. Springfield will open confernce play by hosting Babson on Wed.

MIT plays Tufts on Wed.

Hugenerd - I was very saddened to hear about Hollinsworth. I was looking forward to seeing him play. I hate to see any young athlete hurt.  Do you know if the tear will require surgery?  Whatever the the course of treatment is, I hope he follows it and doesn't force himself back prematurely.  We hear that story all too often.

It wil be interesting to see how the voters digest this in this week's poll.  I know the NCAA takes injuries into account, but not sure how the Top 25 voters will process it.  I am not one who is going to say the conference favorite is WPI because of the injury.  MIT still has a lot of depth inside and I think they present serious matchup problems for WPI in the backcourt. I also think Springfield will have a lot to say about things before its done.

[Hugenerd]

It wil be interesting to see how the voters digest this in this week's poll.  I know the NCAA takes injuries into account, but not sure how the Top 25 voters will process it.  I am not one who is going to say the conference favorite is WPI because of the injury.  MIT still has a lot of depth inside and I think they present serious matchup problems for WPI in the backcourt. I also think Springfield will have a lot to say about things before its done.

He hasnt really played all that much the season so far, so I guess it depends on how the voters were voting.  If they were putting MIT in the top 25 with the expectation that he would be back at full strength at some point in the season, they may drop, but if it was based on the team that was out there, they may not drop too much.  He had only started in 2 games this season, making 6 appearances, and only played 143 minutes this season, which is only 35% of the team's minutes not counting the Harvard game (which includes games through the previously published poll).  Compare that to last season where he played 32 minutes per game, or 80% of all games. It may also help that there is not much consensus in the 20-25 spots in the poll.  In the Week 4 poll, for example, there was a pretty heavy decline from the number 19 spot (MIT, 187 points), to the #20 spot (116 points), and a much bigger difference between MIT and #25, who had only 39 points.  Therefore, although I think MIT may lose some votes based on the loss of Hollingsworth and the bad loss to Harvard, I doubt it will drop them from the poll altogether.  WPI, on the other hand, may drop from the poll with the double-digit loss to West Conn.  I doubt voters will take into account how MIT played against Harvard too heavily, considering it was a D1 game and the first game after which they found out Hollingsworth was out. A couple guys who play in the rotation also didnt play their usual minutes because they didnt arrive in town until the day before the game because of the storms earlier in the week in Boston and other parts of the country.  Regardless of excuses, the final result of the Harvard game wasnt going to change even if Hollingsworth or anybody else on the roster was out there (unless maybe if former NBA player and MIT assistant Paul  Grant suited up).  I think the way Tashman played was a real bright spot for MIT and shows what he should be able to do now that he is their main inside threat.  MIT just needs to focus on their D3 and conference games ahead and I think they will be fine.

By the way, I am not sure if Hollingsworth will need surgery or not, as these tears do not always require it.  However, playing with the injury was found to be making it worse, which is the reason why they shut him down for the remainder of the season.

[mass_d3fan]

HN,

 I guess I was looking at it from the perspective that Hollinsworth was playing more since he returned.  Since the shoulder injury had been kept quiet, one would naturally assume that that voters would think he would be back close to 100%.  He was being quite productive as well - He had 40 pts, 16 rebs in 56 minutes in his last 2 games so even if he were not truly 100%, from the outside most people would have he was well on his way to it.

I do agree WPI will lose some votes, but not sure if they fall out or not. If they do, I dont thin k it should be too far.  They do have wins over teams getting votes (RIC, Becker)

Lets face it though, MIT has played what has turned out to be a really cupcake D3 schedule to this point.  The only team they have faced so far with more than 4 wins is UMass-Boston (6-4). They had the bad loss at Framingham (3-7), a last secondwin Vs Salem St (3-5) and a hard fought 10pt win over Newbury(1-8).  Their opponents combined record at this point is 29-58.  Given this, I do wonder if MIT would have had another loss or two if their schedule had included a few teams that were getting consideration for the Top 25.

WPI has played some of the same weak teams, but also has played Becker (8-2) twice, RIC(7-2) & West. Conn(9-1).  WPI's opponents combined record is 49-56.  Nothing to write home about for sure, but I think MIT's vote total in the polls had much more to do with personel and potential than a resume of quality wins.

Obviously, teams can't always plan their schedules around what might be or should be in regards to how good an opponent is.

(My appologies if i messed up any of the numbers - it has been a long couple of days here.)

[Hugenerd]

I was at the MIT game tonight, really bad second half for MIT.  Springfield found some matchups they liked and kept going to them and the MIT wings couldn't stop them. #32 for Bridgewater had 24 points in the second half, after scoring just 2 points in the first half (which came on Bridgewater's first basket); #12 for Bridgewater had 14 of his 20 points in the second half, meaning Bridgewater's wings combined for 38 points in the second half after scoring just 8 in the first half.  It didnt help that MIT had 27 turnovers.

Mitch Kates had a real nice game for MIT, scoring 24.  Will Tashman added 8 points and 14 boards. 

I guess it may take some time for MIT adjust to the new rotation.  Hopefully they will figure it out before conference play starts.

[jhawk]

WPI had a highly touted recruitung class 2010 .
The  curent roster shows only two are left . White  & Kolb  Any word on what happened to Nelson and Tsourganis to of New Hampshire's best  last year !!

[Hugenerd]

We had this conversation a while back, check the last few pages.

[Nelson is] Transferring to Rivier in NH.

[Hugenerd]

The top 25 is out, and we have our answer.  MIT was hardly punished for the bad loss to Harvard and losing Hollingsworth, remaining at #19 and losing only 7 votes.  I am pretty sure once their loss to Bridgewater is taken into account next week, they will definitely fall quite a bit, but at least for one more week they are in the top 25.  WPI  dropped out to ORV 29.