MBB: NEWMAC

Hugenerd · December 03, 2011, 05:13:59 PM

MIT gets a 92-52 blowout win this afternoon over Lesley. Mitch Kates had nearly a perfect game, going 10-10 from the field, 2-2 from 3, and 6-6 from the FT line for 28 points, in addition to 6 assists, 5 rebounds, and 4 steals. Noel Hollingsworth added 17 points, Jamie Karraker had 14 (including 4 3s), Billy Bender had 10 points and 12 boards, and Will Tashman nearly outrebounded Lesley himself with 15 boards (MIT held the advantage in that category 50-19).

Babson picked up their first loss today Tufts, Wheaton overcame a 3-15 early deficit to win by 1, and WPI struggled, but pulled out a 5 point win at Becker.

Hugenerd · December 05, 2011, 12:14:45 AM

Even with the recent losses by Springfield and Babson, the NEWMAC moved to the #2 spot in the rankings of the strongest conferences in D3 by the D3basketball Index:

https://sites.google.com/site/d3basketballindex/conference-ratings

NEWMAC now only trails the WIAC in the rankings.

mass_d3fan · December 05, 2011, 12:15:40 AM

I did manage to get to Leicester to see the WPI/Becker game Saturday. This was a classic case of a team looking ahead. WPI played sloppy, undisciplined and with a big lack of focus. Players were dropping passes & rebounds, blowing east shots, not paying attention to the shot clock, etc. Much of the game offensively they were out of sync, players not seeing open teammates, players only half-heartedly executing plays, etc.

Jamie Shannon recovered from a lousy 1st half (5 turnovers) to post 13 pts in the 2nd and help lead the Engineers to the win. Coppola put up 15 and Carr had 11. Carr was off all day, eve missing a break away dunk early in the first half. He did play big defensively down the stretch and finished with 8 boards, but looked gassed with about 10 minutes left in the game. He played 37 minutes, Coppola & Shannon each went 38 and they all looked beat at the end. This is the flaw I was worried about when I saw how the playing time was being dispensed in some of these early games. None of these guys had been consistently pushing past the 30 minute mark and its hard to jump from 25/26 a game to 37/38 at the snap of a finger. These kinds of City rivalry games are always played tighter than the teams records show, but this was the kind of 'trap game' I feared could happen for WPI.
It had the same feeling as the game these two teams played at Becker last season when the Hawks upset the Engineers.

This was my first time seeing Becker this year and I liked what I saw. They played with a lot of heart and pushed the Engineers to the brink. Their young 6'8" center, Jerome Cohen, at times outplayed Carr and their guards made the WPI backcourt look foolish at times as well. Cohen got to the free throw line more times than the entire WPI team. He finished the game with 16 pts & 8 rebs. He also did a great job setting screens for the guards. Becker did a great job of running their defenders into the screens, a huge contrast from the Engineers who still appear to have issues executing that simple fundamental. A couple of Becker supporters that I sat near also noticed this. Becker did a good job of getting the ball to a screener on pick & rolls too.

Terrance Favors & Rajai Leggett, the Hawks only seniors, both had bad days going a combined 2 for 17 from the field. They each had 5 turnovers. Becker got good play from Moody Doherty (16 pts) & Tyler Robertson (11 pts). Another freshman big, Yahmad Roundtree played well in limited minutes. Becker has reloaded pretty well, but will need Favors & Leggett to play better if they want to make serious noise in the NECC.

WPI has Colby-Sawyer on Tuesday & then RIC on Thursday. They need to take the lessons and the big time wake up call from yesterday and apply them this week. They need Carr to return to the level of play he has been giving them all year. The guards need to see the court better and make crisper passes and recognize what the defense is doing. And not to beat a dead horse, but this team seriously need to understand how a pick & roll works. They have a group of talented guys setting screens, but the guy with ball hardly ever looks at the roll guy, let alone passes it to him. This is a simple bread & butter play for most teams, and it can help you get your offense moving when things are not going well.

I'm hoping to get over to Clark this week and see how they look.

It will be interesting to see where in the poll this week MIT & WPI end up.

mass_d3fan · December 05, 2011, 12:18:34 AM

HN

Thanks for the info, great news for conference as a whole! I really think this years regular season is going to be very different from the past few years, no one is going to be able to take any game for granted. Any team that does not bring their A game is risking defeat.

Hugenerd · December 05, 2011, 01:49:23 PM

Hollingsworth is named POW for the second time in 3 weeks:

http://newmacsports.com/sports/mbkb/2011-12/POTW/mbkbPOTW120511

Hugenerd · December 06, 2011, 06:34:08 AM

MIT up to their highest ever ranking of #7. WPI also moves up to 15.

amh63 · December 06, 2011, 02:37:01 PM

I apologize Hugenerd. Notice your round about dig with the Div.1 ranking of Harvard on the NESCAC board. I too picked up the #24 Harvard ranking. I have noticed that many of the Ivy teams are winning against opponents in "stronger" leagues this year. This of interest to me in that there are a number of players that go to the Ivy teams that are "recruited" by Amherst and the other "CAC schools. Many of the players may have thought of MIT also but MIT's reputation for acad. rigor tends to scare them away...so to speak.
Congrats to the rise of WPI and MIT.

Hugenerd · December 06, 2011, 09:27:36 PM

Quote from: amh63 on December 06, 2011, 02:37:01 PM
I apologize Hugenerd. Notice your round about dig with the Div.1 ranking of Harvard on the NESCAC board. I too picked up the #24 Harvard ranking. I have noticed that many of the Ivy teams are winning against opponents in "stronger" leagues this year. This of interest to me in that there are a number of players that go to the Ivy teams that are "recruited" by Amherst and the other "CAC schools. Many of the players may have thought of MIT also but MIT's reputation for acad. rigor tends to scare them away...so to speak.
Congrats to the rise of WPI and MIT.

MIT actually has players on their roster who did, our could have played Ivy. Noel Hollingsworth transferred from Brown, and Mitch Kates chose MIT over Cornell so he could play right away.

With regards to tonights game against UMB, MIT was not challenged. They surged out to a 42-8 lead, en route to a 90-47 win. Jamie Karraker set a single game record with 9 three pointers.

MIT plays their next two games against ORV opponents, Salem State and Tufts, this Thursday and Saturday. Should be fun to see how they perform against some stronger competition.

toooldtoplay · December 06, 2011, 10:16:08 PM

Ivy teams routinely beat teams from stronger leagues on the boys and girls side. Harvard deserves the ranking based on play so far. MIT is winning by an average of 31 points per game with the starters averaging only 27 minutes per game. The improved depth that is being developed as well as the decreased minutes should help during league play but especially during tournament time. This has always been an MIT weakness but might be a strength this year.

toooldtoplay · December 06, 2011, 10:25:53 PM

Tufts lost to Plymouth State who got crushed by Amherst and got beat pretty well by Salem State. Tufts beat Salem State and a good Babson team which proves that on any given day................. Good tests this week.

7express · December 06, 2011, 10:31:22 PM

MIT vs. Salem state & WPI vs. RIC...2 good tests for the top 2 in the conference this coming Thursday.

mass_d3fan · December 07, 2011, 12:06:31 AM

NEWMAC goes 3-1 tonight with MIT, WPI & Clark winning and Wheaton going down to defeat. I was looking at the box scores and noticed that Bryan Vayda did not play tonight for Clark. I looked back and saw he has now missed two games. Anyone out there know if this is injury related or perhaps an illness? I was hoping to attend the game there tonight, but work prevented that. Clark is now 5-2 and has won these last two games without Vayda present. Hopefully this not injury realated.

NEWMACJACK · December 07, 2011, 10:28:11 AM

I believe Vayda is hurt but could be back anyday. Clark can is use this time to learn to play without him. Maybe a good thing for the team. Tough Becker team up next so I hope Vayda will be back for that.

NEWMACJACK · December 07, 2011, 12:45:02 PM

I notice MIT and WPI do not travel out of region at all to face stiffer competition during the early season. Is there a reason for that? Just curious. I know they try to schedule a fairly hard schedule in region early on but why not test outside other than for obvious reasons. At least WPI tries to schedule some tough opponents but MIT? Maybe academic reasons I would say?

amh63 · December 07, 2011, 01:50:55 PM

Hughnerd......Thanks for the "data input". Amherst, about 7-8 years ago, also had a Brown transfer that played well his first year at Brown. However, with his talent and size he never was a consistent contributor to the Amherst team. Chemistry, desire, etc.....who really knows. Of course, you know that at MIT, a talented player who plays well one year, may not go out for the team in another year...due to school demands. MIT should feel lucky that their starters have decided to play for multi years and that the transfers have meshed well in school and on the team.
Tooldtoplay.....My reference to stronger conferences.....refer to conferences like the Big East and mid-level div1 BB schools. To use a football analogy...somewhat out of date......the Ivy schools are in the IAA whereas BC is IA. Schools like the Patriot League with scholarship players are this year not only being pushed by the Ivy schools but beaten by them. To clear the air on any ill feelings, I am a dues paying graduate of MIT....two graduate degrees from MIT and a yearly donor to the Alumni Fund.