MBB: NEWMAC

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Final public regional rankings are out: http://www.d3blogs.com/d3hoops/2016/02/24/third-ncaa-regional-ranking/

[WPI89]

Congratulations to the Lady Engineers. Great finish. Way to represent! 

[rlk]

Congratulations to the Babson Beavers, worthy NEWMAC champions.  Very classy.  They recognized our seniors before the trophy presentation.  They were just too much for us to handle at the end, although our Engineers put up a valiant battle.  Now the (short) wait to see if we get a Pool C bid.  A lot of MIT parents at the game (as has been the case all season, and a lot of them are not local), and some recent former players including Andrew Acker.

MIT-WPI photos from Saturday.  Wild game after WPI started pressing, platooning, and jacking up the 3's early in the second half.  57-52 MIT just in the second half.  That's the kind of score for a full game I'm used to seeing in NEWMAC.  https://rlk.smugmug.com/Sports/Basketball/MIT-WPI-mbb-20160227

MIT-Babson photos from Sunday.  Another fairly high scoring game, but not the craziness of the WPI game.  https://rlk.smugmug.com/Sports/Basketball/MIT-Babson-mbb-20160228

[WPI89]

Dancin!

[rlk]

Bummer.  No dance for MIT.

[WPI89]

rlk - agreed.  I honestly thought it was going to be both or neither (WPI and MIT).  WPI beat them twice and maybe had a few better wins - but MIT thrashed them soundly on Saturday.  Would have been nice to have all 3!

[rlk]

rlk - agreed.  I honestly thought it was going to be both or neither (WPI and MIT).  WPI beat them twice and maybe had a few better wins - but MIT thrashed them soundly on Saturday.  Would have been nice to have all 3!

Were you at the game?  That was a wild one!  I know WPI likes to use a press sometimes, but that had to be seen to be believed.  Despite all that, neither team really had much of a run in the second half; the margin stayed between 10 and 20 points the whole time.  And I haven't seen that kind of platooning since high school, when an opposing coach used it for an entirely different reason.  I'm guessing he saw our short bench (we played 7 guys the whole game, which has been fairly typical -- 3 seniors and 2 frosh started, and 2 frosh subbed) and figured he could wear us down.

Interesting band you guys have.  That's one thing that has gone downhill since my era.  We had a pretty funny band play back then; these days there isn't one.

[WPI89]

rlk - I was not at the game.  Was going to head up on Sunday if there was a 3rd Babson/WPI matchup.  I watched the game on video - but I could not get past about 11 minutes left in the second half.  The freshman on MIT killed WPI.

I assume MIT will be offered and accept an ECAC bid.  They have a young team and much good can come from potentially winning that?

Anyone know the NE ECAC teams have been selected?  Pure guess but I could see MIT vs. Albertus Magnus in the final?

[WPI89]

NE ECAC First Round – Wednesday, March 5

#4 Elms (14-12) vs. #5 Pine Manor (11-9) at Pine Manor - 7:00 p.m.

Semifinals – Saturday, March 5

Semifinal #1: No. 1 Nichols vs. No. 4 Elms/No. 5 Pine Manor winner at Colby Sawyer – 1:00 p.m.

Semifinal #2: No. 3 Anna Maria vs. No. 2 Colby-Sawyer at Colby Sawyer – 3:00 p.m.

First off only 5 teams?  No Eastern, No Magnus, no Western, no MIT?  I am guessing quite a few teams passed on playing?

[rlk]

rlk - I was not at the game.  Was going to head up on Sunday if there was a 3rd Babson/WPI matchup.  I watched the game on video - but I could not get past about 11 minutes left in the second half.  The freshman on MIT killed WPI.

I assume MIT will be offered and accept an ECAC bid.  They have a young team and much good can come from potentially winning that?

Anyone know the NE ECAC teams have been selected?  Pure guess but I could see MIT vs. Albertus Magnus in the final?

From what I've heard our season has ended, so I guess either we weren't offered one or didn't accept it.  I suspect the ECAC is seen a lot like the post-season NIT in D1, and you know (presumably first hand from your moniker) what academics are like at engineering schools.  Regardless, the Cambridge Engineers had an excellent season, even if the committee didn't quite see it that way.  Last year's graduation depleted the roster, then the rash of injuries to key upperclassmen (and at least one key freshman), but the frosh really stepped up their game.  We had a tremendous freshman class, surely the best since at least Kates/Tashman/Karraker in 2009.  Nobody ever gave up, and all the big come from behind victories said something.  This showed even in our preseason scrimmage against Harvard, when we were within 2 in the second half before (as usual) they went on a run and playing out of a hole against any kind of even half decent D1 team is a big challenge.

You're referring to #5 (Bradley Jomard), I presume?  He's probably the best pure athlete I've seen (for MIT) and a very exciting player.  No fear whatsoever on the court.  Threw down a big slam on Harvard during the first half of his first college game and wound up our high scorer.  He dropped 33 (career high) on you on Saturday.  But Adam Jurko (#4) also did that in an earlier game this season.  We'll have to see what next year's freshman class brings; Ryan Frankel, Justin Pedley, Russell Johnson, and Lampros Tsontzos will leave big shoes to fill (in different ways).

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

NE ECAC First Round – Wednesday, March 5

#4 Elms (14-12) vs. #5 Pine Manor (11-9) at Pine Manor - 7:00 p.m.

Semifinals – Saturday, March 5

Semifinal #1: No. 1 Nichols vs. No. 4 Elms/No. 5 Pine Manor winner at Colby Sawyer – 1:00 p.m.

Semifinal #2: No. 3 Anna Maria vs. No. 2 Colby-Sawyer at Colby Sawyer – 3:00 p.m.

First off only 5 teams?  No Eastern, No Magnus, no Western, no MIT?  I am guessing quite a few teams passed on playing?

Did you see the access list?  There were like ten teams in all of new england that even applied.  The ECAC is dying.  They can continue forever because they make everybody pay for their own expenses, but it's becoming a bit of a joke.

[amh63]

Though the season is over for many, this has been a good season for schools that have fine engineering departments....Cal Tech, MIT and WPI.  Since I have some key posters from several of the schools posting...rik and WPI......I have a question to ask.  It has to deal with mascots and nicknames or whatever.
Here goes...Cal Tech are called the Beavers!   MIT are refer to as The Engineers BUT have a Beaver as a symbol....the Brass Rat as the Beaver is called.  I have a Brass Rat ring and wear it the correct way.
Now WPI is another story...they like to be called Engineers but have a different mascot.  Clarifications needed.
It gets confusing among many schools....The Tat Heels of UNC which has a Ram like Sheep figure near the athletic facilities.   
First....why did MIT let Cal Tech take the Beaver symbol from them?

[rlk]

Though the season is over for many, this has been a good season for schools that have fine engineering departments....Cal Tech, MIT and WPI.  Since I have some key posters from several of the schools posting...rik and WPI......I have a question to ask.  It has to deal with mascots and nicknames or whatever.
Here goes...Cal Tech are called the Beavers!   MIT are refer to as The Engineers BUT have a Beaver as a symbol....the Brass Rat as the Beaver is called.  I have a Brass Rat ring and wear it the correct way.
Now WPI is another story...they like to be called Engineers but have a different mascot.  Clarifications needed.
It gets confusing among many schools....The Tat Heels of UNC which has a Ram like Sheep figure near the athletic facilities.   
First....why did MIT let Cal Tech take the Beaver symbol from them?

(I'm rlk, not rik)

The beaver has been our mascot since whenever.  Pretty obvious mascot for an engineering school.  But our nickname is the Engineers.  Again, always has been.  I don't think Caltech "took" the beaver from us, it's just an obvious thing for engineers.  I can't speak for WPI.

Caltech indeed had a stunning basketball season by their standards.  Sure, 9-16 and 7-9 in conference (and not a very strong conference at that) isn't something that MIT or WPI or Amherst would find terribly impressive, but when you consider that they won more conference games this season than in the past 30+ combined, it takes on a different light.  Remember, they went something like 25+ years without winning a single conference game, and a fair number of those years had zero wins total (NCAA or otherwise).  We've played them something like 4 times and won every time.  I was at the first one, in 1984 IIRC at the Lopata Classic at Washington University.  We lost a close one to Johns Hopkins in the first round while WU crushed Caltech.  We played horribly the first half and actually trailed for msot of it, but wound up 27-22 in our favor.  The second half, they scored 2 quick baskets and then we woke up; it was 71-47 at the end including garbage time.  They may have had one player over 6'.

Several years back one of their then-stars (Todd Kramer, I think his name was) transferred to MIT because he wanted to play a higher level of basketball.  He had been their leading scorer his first two seasons; he barely got any playing time here.  That's how much difference there was, and we were nowhere near what we are today (I'd estimate that if the MIT teams could play each other the current team would win by 30 easily, and other people from my era whom I've discussed it with agree).  There's still surely a big difference -- WPI and MIT are perennially near the top (these days, at any rate) of a strong conference, while they're middling in a weak one -- but they're a lot better now than they used to be.

WPI always plays us tough.  I can't think of when we last swept them.  In our 29-2 year, they were our lone regular season loss -- at MIT.

[rlk]

Several years back one of their then-stars (Todd Kramer, I think his name was) transferred to MIT because he wanted to play a higher level of basketball.  He had been their leading scorer his first two seasons; he barely got any playing time here.  That's how much difference there was, and we were nowhere near what we are today (I'd estimate that if the MIT teams could play each other the current team would win by 30 easily, and other people from my era whom I've discussed it with agree).  There's still surely a big difference -- WPI and MIT are perennially near the top (these days, at any rate) of a strong conference, while they're middling in a weak one -- but they're a lot better now than they used to be.

Ugh.  That was confusing.  Todd Kramer transferred in the contemporary era, when MIT was already strong.  I didn't write that in a very linear fashion, so it's a bit of a mash-up with what happened in the 1980's.

[amh63]

rlk........I guess I did it again.  Thanks for being understading,  For your info..plus K.   The mascot/nickname is really odd thing to me.