MBB: NEWMAC

[WPI89]

Love the attitude bballers!  I achy ally have us 3-1 in round 1 with WPI the only L, believe it or not. I just hate our matchup. In fact I would rather play the host (Purchase) or maybe even Amherst round 1. 

5 weeks ago I would have loved our chances and the 3 ball gives us a punchers chance but I am not confident.

[WPI89]

Well done Amh63. Yes I need hugenerd and thanks for finessing just the right amount of crap for him making time to post just when MIT won the NEWMAC!

[Hugenerd]

Hugenerd......welcome back!  This board needs you.....WPI89 needs you!
Hope things are going well.  Does it take MIT to win the conference to get your attention?
Anyway, hope your team advances as in 2012.

Championship game is the first game I saw all season and actually the only reason I knew about it is that a basketball alumni email was sent out saying MIT upset WPI on Saturday. If it wasnt for that email, I may still be in D3boards hibernation.

[pjunito]

WPI.. If you are going Friday night. I will be there with my youngest son.

Good luck, I hope that it is a good game. of course, we are both bias. But, I respect WPI and what they do. Funny story; There are a set of twins from Connecticut. Both are freshmen. One goes to WPI and the other Albertus. I can't remember their names but I remember the story.

[rlk]

Hugenerd......welcome back!  This board needs you.....WPI89 needs you!
Hope things are going well.  Does it take MIT to win the conference to get your attention?
Anyway, hope your team advances as in 2012.

The young 'uns at the tute don't realize how good they have it.  In my day, we won 21 games in 4 years, with one season of 2-20 (although we did somehow beat you folks one of those years, and then next year, you beat us by 40).  I find myself still rubbing my eyes in disbelief at what the program has accomplished in recent years.

I was reading something earlier today on mithoops.net about the historic 2008-2009 season, and how that year would surely go down in the record books for years to come.  I don't think anyone outside of Coach Anderson and some other people in the athletic department had any inkling that that would just be an appetizer.

Anyway, I think we're all looking forward to this weekend!

BTW, amh63, Harlan Coben was a high school buddy (2 years older than me).

[amh63]

rik...would you have predicted that he gave up law school to write?  Played BB in college. married a WBB player that is a MD, have his oldest now a soph at Amherst.....and was a frat brother to another writer....your age...named Dave Brown

[magicman]

Hugenerd......welcome back!  This board needs you.....WPI89 needs you!
Hope things are going well.  Does it take MIT to win the conference to get your attention?
Anyway, hope your team advances as in 2012.

I'm not going to let you get away with that amh63. I thought you were going to root for my Cardinals to meet up with your Lord Jeffs once again. Shall I go find that post or will you own up to it?

Is anyone over here on this board headed up to Plattsburgh this weekend? If so and you have any questions or need help just let me know. I am expecting a good game between the Engineers and my Cardinals. Have my tickets already. 1200 tickets went on sale today for Friday and 1200 for Saturday. I got the first ones.   It will be the first time the 2 schools have ever met, I believe. Can't wait until Friday.

Pretty cold right now up here in the 'Burgh as I post this...15 below zero. Supposed to warm up to the mid 30's by the weekend, though, with no sign of any snow. So that's good news for anyone planning to make the trip.

[magicman]

WPI.. If you are going Friday night. I will be there with my youngest son.

Good luck, I hope that it is a good game. of course, we are both bias. But, I respect WPI and what they do. Funny story; There are a set of twins from Connecticut. Both are freshmen. One goes to WPI and the other Albertus. I can't remember their names but I remember the story.

Is that because your oldest son is on his way to my house in Plattsburgh, per our agreement?

[Hugenerd]

Hugenerd......welcome back!  This board needs you.....WPI89 needs you!
Hope things are going well.  Does it take MIT to win the conference to get your attention?
Anyway, hope your team advances as in 2012.

The young 'uns at the tute don't realize how good they have it.  In my day, we won 21 games in 4 years, with one season of 2-20 (although we did somehow beat you folks one of those years, and then next year, you beat us by 40).  I find myself still rubbing my eyes in disbelief at what the program has accomplished in recent years.

Part of the reason that I don't follow as closely is because I am no longer in Boston.  I was a grad assistant in 05-06 (MIT's first 20 win season, Bartolotta's freshman and D'Auria's senior year), was the founder of the MIT Hoops Blog (although no longer a contributor), and have known Larry for about 12 years now (almost transferred to play for him), so I still feel a strong connection to the team, but don't have the time to follow much anymore.

[mass_d3fan]

WPI89

"the 3 ball gives us a punchers chance but I am not confident"

I agree.  This team always has the ability to light it up from beyond the arc.  The problem is when they don't do that, they struggle.  It has been worse lately as well due to the injuries to Kolb & Davis.  It has had a very large impact on the team's play.

Remember it was Kolb who had a huge run last year in the post season, including the NEWMAC tournament MVP.  Kolb did not look good in that season finale at Clark and went 4 of 13 with only 3 rebounds vs. MIT.  I hope that this week has allowed him & Davis to heal up enough to play at their normal levels.  If the recent trend of offensive output continues, I can't see how they win this game. 

As you stated, they are going to need to shoot extremely well from the perimeter.  They are going to have to get something in the paint as well.  From what I have read out here, it appears that the AM center could pose some serious problems for the Engineers.  Along with being their 2nd leading scorer at 16 ppg, he has had double-digit rebounds in 17 games this year (10.7 rpg). WPI needs to balance that with some inside offense and perhaps get him into foul difficulty.

I hope every is healthy and the team can give its best possible effort.

[rlk]

rik...would you have predicted that he gave up law school to write?  Played BB in college. married a WBB player that is a MD, have his oldest now a soph at Amherst.....and was a frat brother to another writer....your age...named Dave Brown

[that's rlk, not rik]

Livingston has spawned an interesting bunch of people, including the current governor of NJ (who was Harlan's classmate) and one of the executive producers of Modern Family (who was my classmate).  He always had an interesting sense of humor, so I wasn't too surprised.  The Myron Bolitar novels were hilarious, especially with all of the Livingston references, in some cases to real people, in some cases amusingly out of context.

I managed the team during my era (I was manager of our high school team too, and in my senior year, had the strange experience of being taller than any of the players, but as they say, I'm slow and can't jump -- the most I could ever dunk was a volleyball, and I'm about 6'5").  I ran into Harlan at the Amherst games my freshman and sophomore years.

Funny thing about basketball players marrying other basketball players.  Jimmy Bartolotta married Abby Waner, who played for Duke.

[pjunito]

WPI.. If you are going Friday night. I will be there with my youngest son.

Good luck, I hope that it is a good game. of course, we are both bias. But, I respect WPI and what they do. Funny story; There are a set of twins from Connecticut. Both are freshmen. One goes to WPI and the other Albertus. I can't remember their names but I remember the story.

Is that because your oldest son is on his way to my house in Plattsburgh, per our agreement?

He is walking there... He left yesterday. Hopefully he makes it by April 1st.

[amh63]

rlk...my bad...made that mistake earlier....I believe...blame it on the courses at MIT that I took.  Messed my eyes up.  My daughter reads the books,,,mentioned that the main character is a BB player with a limp.  Seems your Livingston friend has turned to the Amherst area for his most recent novel.  It is not uncommon, I have been told, that writers go to personal places in order to best develop a story.  Dan Brown of the DiVinci fame....killed off his geology prof in an early badly written book.  I would only become worry if you become a character in a future Harlan book.

[mass_d3fan]

Nice Article on WPI's Sam Longwell and the team on the front page of D3hoops.com.

http://www.d3hoops.com/playoffs/men/2014/wpi-sam-longwell-survive-stress

Best of Luck tonight to the Engineers.

[WPI89]

Davis moving well in warm ups. Fingers crossed.