MBB: NEWMAC

remsleep · January 31, 2012, 01:35:35 PM

Kates is the best player in the NEWMAC and has been for the past two years......by a fairly significant margin. All the other guys are terrific as well, but Kates is a step above....best player in that league since Bartolotta left.

mass_d3fan · January 31, 2012, 02:41:45 PM

Quote from: remsleep on January 31, 2012, 01:35:35 PM
Kates is the best player in the NEWMAC and has been for the past two years......by a fairly significant margin. All the other guys are terrific as well, but Kates is a step above....best player in that league since Bartolotta left.

Best at his position, yes, I agree. If he were 6'7" or bigger and could handle the ball as well as he does, then perhaps best player (Then again if he 6'7" and that good with the ball, he would most likely be getting a free education at a D1 school).

in my view, you really have to define it as best at their position. Kates is not going to guard a Coburn, Carr, or other big. No more than any of the bigs would be successful guarding him for 30 minutes a game.

When I think of calling an individual player the single best, he had better be able to play all 5 positions on both ends of the court. That is just my way of looking at it.

Magic Johnson was perhaps the best at filling that criteria. Lebron James is close to that in todays NBA simply because of his physical strength. I am not sure if he can play center the way Magic did in the 1980 NBA finals filling in for Kareem. Next closest might be Kevin Durant, but he would struggle with the Dwight Howards & Andrew Bynums ot the league.

In my opinion, Kates is by far the most valuable player on MIT, if for no other reason that he knows how, when & where to get the ball to his teammates to make them the most sucessful they can be. That is by far the primary task of your PG. If he does that job correctly, his own scoring opportunities will present themselves.

BBallers · February 01, 2012, 08:44:36 AM

Quote from: remsleep on January 31, 2012, 01:35:35 PM
Kates is the best player in the NEWMAC and has been for the past two years......by a fairly significant margin. All the other guys are terrific as well, but Kates is a step above....best player in that league since Bartolotta left.

Kates is a great player. I especially give him credit this year for bypassing his shot in lieu of better (higher percentage) scoring opportunities for MIT. I have not looked at his stats, but I would guess that his scoring is down from last year and MIT is a better team for it. I do wish that coach would allow Kates (the best one-on-one player) and some of the other guards more freedom against some matchups and some man defenses.

Hugenerd · February 01, 2012, 08:57:41 AM

Quote from: BBallers on February 01, 2012, 08:44:36 AM
Quote from: remsleep on January 31, 2012, 01:35:35 PM
Kates is the best player in the NEWMAC and has been for the past two years......by a fairly significant margin. All the other guys are terrific as well, but Kates is a step above....best player in that league since Bartolotta left.
Kates is a great player. I especially give him credit this year for bypassing his shot in lieu of better (higher percentage) scoring opportunities for MIT. I have not looked at his stats, but I would guess that his scoring is down from last year and MIT is a better team for it. I do wish that coach would allow Kates (the best one-on-one player) and some of the other guards more freedom against some matchups and some man defenses.

This is Kates lowest scoring season (per game) of his 3 seasons (13.2 ppg as a freshman, 15.6 as a sophomore, and 12.0 this year). However, he is better in nearly every other statistical categary, shooting a higher percentage from the field, more rebounds, assists, steals and far fewer turnovers than in his past seasons. This is by far his most complete season, and his maturity is also showing in that he is taking fewer shots to setup up his open teammates. He should be a runaway first team all-conference player and get recognition in the region and nationally sa well, in my opinion (the fact that he was 2nd team All-NEWMAC last year was absurd).

Good luck to the Engineers tonight. If Karraker and Hollingsworth hit slightly below their averages, they should both be surpassing the 1000 point mark (Karraker needs 13, Hollingsworth needs 12).

Hugenerd · February 01, 2012, 09:37:52 PM

Congrats to Noel Hollingsworth on surpassing 1000 career points. Jamie Karraker played limited minutes due to foul trouble and is just 8 points shy of 1000.

The game was never close, as MIT started the game on a 17-4 run over the first ~3 minutes and never looked back. Big games for Hollingsworth, Kates and Tashman.

mass_d3fan · February 01, 2012, 11:41:08 PM

WPI beats Babson, 70-49 behind a another big game from Matt Carr. He went 9 for 11 for 21 points to go with 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocks and was the only player in the game in double figures. Marco Coppola was back on the court scoring 9 pts. Domenick Mastascusa came off the bench to post 8 points. Sam Longwell had a game-high 5 assists to go with 5 points and 5 boards. Seniors David Brown (7 pts/3 asts) and Jamie Shannon (6 pts/3 asts) and junior Jameel Galloway (5 pts/3 stls/2 blks) also played well.

Marcus McDermott led Babson with 9 points, 5 boards & 2 steals. Tom Mack had a game-high 7 rebounds to go with 4 points and Sean McClung was led the Beaver bench players with 7 points.
Russell Braithwaite and Alex Rudolph each scored 6 points.

WPI89 · February 02, 2012, 09:53:58 AM

Good sign from WPI is it seems like you do not want to be the team that plays them after a loss - they have put a pounding on everyone the game after each of their 4 losses. Wouldn't mind less opportunities to prove that point but I do like the attitude.

mass_d3fan · February 03, 2012, 12:40:21 PM

Major Congratulations to Matt Carr of WPI for being selected 1st Team Academic All-District by CoSIDA. This is the 2nd year in a row the WPI center has be selected for this honor. He is joined this year by fellow NEWMAC players Noel Hollingsworth & Jamie Karraker of MIT. All three now move on to the selection process for Academic All-American. Carr was selected as a 2nd Team All-American last year.
Kudos to these great players and incredible students!

WPI Release
http://wpi.prestosports.com/sports/mbkb/2011-12/releases/201202021bcfbf

MIT Release
http://mitathletics.com/sports/m-baskbl/2011-12/releases/20120202r43lp9

amh63 · February 03, 2012, 03:50:43 PM

Old Guy on the nescac board has posted a link to an article in Sports Illustrated on both Middlebury and MIT.

mass_d3fan · February 03, 2012, 11:06:53 PM

Big day tomorrow in the NEWMAC. The big game is out in Springfield with MIT coming to town. This one is going to have a lot to do with the conference tournament seedings. The Pride only lost by 8 in Cambridge. Should be a good one!

WPI travels south to Coast Guard in a game they cannot have a letdown in.

Babson travels back to Worcester to play Clark.

Hugenerd · February 04, 2012, 04:05:37 PM

What a way to score 1000 points! Karraker hit a huge 3 down the stretch and 2 FTs with under 10 seconds to play to get to the 1000 point plateau and seal the win for MIT. They pull it out on the road at Springfield 69-67.

mass_d3fan · February 05, 2012, 10:43:10 AM

WPI wins over Coast Guard, 82-76. The Engineers were led by Matt Carr's 25 pts and 6 rbs along with Sam Longwells career high 18 pts, 8 boards and 4 assists. WPI got solid performances from Ryan Kolb (11 pts/8 rbs/3 assts) and Marco Coppola (10 pts).

The Bears got good performances from Kevin Sowers (14 pts/6 assts), Trip Fernandez (14 pts), David Anderson (11 pts/4 rbs), Greg Marshall (11 pts/4 rbs) & Jessie Hughes (7 pts/5 assts).

Clark defeats Babson, 67-54. The Cougars were led by Mitch Renshaw (24 pts/ 9 rbs) and DJ Bailey (20 pts, 10 for 10 shooting, 7 rbs).

Babson got good play from Tom Mack (11 pts/ 5 rbs) and John Wickey (8 pts/ 6 rbs).

mass_d3fan · February 06, 2012, 08:28:12 PM

Congratulations to Matt Carr of WPI & Mitch Renshaw of Clark for being selected NEWMAC Co-Players of the Week.

Carr:
http://www.newmacsports.com/sports/mbkb/2011-12/POTW/mbkbPOTW020612_WPI

Renshaw:
http://www.newmacsports.com/sports/mbkb/2011-12/POTW/mbkbPOTW020612_CLK

pjunito · February 07, 2012, 08:48:18 AM

Regional Rankings will be interesting as well; first one comes out this Wednesday. The teams that play the best in February usually make big runs in Conference Tournaments and beyond... Are there any teams that might be off the radar right know that anyone thinks might have a run left in their respective conferences?

In the GNAC, I think Johnson and Wales could be dangerous. They have a great scorer in Lamont Thomas; they won the conference last year and have the ability to shoot the 3 ball very well.

Hugenerd · February 08, 2012, 08:27:45 PM

MIT endures what is likely their worst shooting night of the season to defeat Babson 59-47. What they couldn't get done on offense, MIT made up for on D the last 16 minutes of the game. Trailing 40-27 at the 15 minute mark (that's right, MIT scored 27 points the first 25 minutes of the game), the Engineers would hold Babson scoreless for nearly a 10 minute span, closing out the game on a 32-7 run, allowing only 2 FGs in that stretch.

Maybe MIT came out a bit confused because of their regional ranking, which is lower than their national ranking. I understand the OWP/OOWP factor (which isn't that terrible for MIT, essentially 0.50), but MITs only loss is to WPI and every team in front of MIT has at least 1 'worse' loss than that, according to these rankings (Amherst - Brandeis and Wesleyan, Middlebury - Keene St., RIC - East Conn and UMD, West Conn - ALL 4 OF THEIR LOSSES, Albertus Magnus AND Southern Maine AND Plymouth State AND East Conn, WPI - Wheaton and Springfield, East Conn - Keene St and Wesleyan). Where do you draw the line? Does 0.07 on the weighted OWP/OOWP scale make up for 2 losses to under 0.500 unranked teams and 2 additional losses to teams ranked 8-12 in the NE (ie West Conn)? I'm all for playing better teams, but you should probably beat the bad-to-average teams also to deserve a ranking that high. And what about Albertus Magnus, they destroy West Conn by 19 and are ranked 8 spots below them, with their only loss to a team that isn't even in the NE region (I know the game may count due to geography)? You put so much stock into head-to-head that WPI is ranked over MIT, but still put West Conn 4? These are the most puzzling rankings I've seen since they started putting them out. It would be one thing if all the top teams just beat eachother, but they are ranking teams in the top 5-10 with really bad losses, and in some cases multiple ones. I hope this all works itself out in the end, but putting so much stock in playing other regionally ranked teams gives a huge advantage to conferences like the NESCAC and Little East. Compare Middlebury and Amherst's out-of-conference schedule to MIT's, pretty darn similar, but they are getting huge boosts from the several additional games they get from ranked teams in their conference. And, by the way, in terms of top-to-bottom league strength, Massey rates the NEWMAC above the LEC and just 2 spots behind the NESCAC, which goes to show MIT is playing similar strength of teams, on average, in their conference as well. If NCAA D3 wants to go to a more quantitative metric, they should hire someone who knows what they are doing instead of using these simple calculations and broadly applying them as though they are irrefutable evidence of a quality team.