MBB: NEWMAC

[BaboNation]

Babson 80   New England College 69

Finally some basketball.  Both teams play again tomorrow, this time on NEC's court.

Well, for whatever reason Crew Ainge was one-and-done on the basketball court at Babson.  Maybe it wasn't worth the shortened season, maybe he graduated early ...

Also, Andrew Kirkpatrick, a starter last year did not play, although he IS listed on the roster.  They could have used his ball-handling tonight because Babson had trouble with NEC's traps and quickness.

Welch had the best game of his Babson career (22) with back-to-back 3's in the 2nd half that moved a 11-point game to 17.
Bradanese also had a strong game at both ends and matched Welch with 22.

NEC has a lot of quickness and Allen (25) and Cheek (21) were a handful all night.  They cannot be taken for granted by anyone.  They returned a strong nucleus from a tournament team last year that was 13-0 at home, beat Tufts and WPI, and lost by 1 at Middlebury.

[BaboNation]

Babson 80  New England College 73

This win impressed me even more than yesterday's game.

Andrew Kirkpatrick was back and was masterful in handling ball pressure and getting the team into the offense with excellent spacing.  Even without Ainge, the point guard duties are in good hands.  He finished with 7 points, but bigger than that was 9 assists against 4 turnovers, while dogged all over the court.

Andrew Jaworski had a solid 24/8 game that only lacked his 3-point stroke.  But hey, it's only game 2.

Bradanese had the steady game I've come to expect at both ends, finishing with 9/5.

FY Gorgol shows he belongs, played very meaningful minutes (29 total) and ended with 12/5.  He's listed at 6'4", but he plays bigger than that.

The entire 8-man rotation played well, in a multitude of combinations.  That's a credit to the coaching.

Beau Smith had a solid game, with a 2nd half dunk on one end, followed by a block at the other.  Nice to see he and Welch both playing well as juniors.

If the schedule holds, NEC will have been a good prequel to St. Joseph CT, which is scheduled in a couple of weeks.

Jamal Allen (25 points) for New England College is one exciting player.  Limitless range (5/9 on 3's), near impossible to keep out of the paint, and finishes on shots with extremely high degree of difficulty.

[BaboNation]

Babson 80  Lasell 72

(3 straight games scoring exactly 80)

A rocky start for the home team, down 20-13, but Welch made 3 treys in a 13-0 run and Babson never fell behind the rest of the way, although the lead was only 3 at halftime. 

Welch has always been a good deep shooter and has always been squared to the basket, so everything looked like it was dead on.  I think the difference this year, unlike past years, is he's no longer drifting left or right while taking the shot.  He's now 11/17 on 3 pointers for the abbreviated season, finishing 5/8 today.

In all 7 different Babson players hit 3's.

It was also nice to see a healthy Max Gussen play 14 meaningful minutes (career high) after 2 injury-plagued seasons.  His size was needed because Beau Smith did not see action.

Jaworski was a solid 25-6-7 with only 1 turnover.  In a normal season he would have been a strong NEWMAC POY candidate, and probably other postseason accolades.

First glimpse at FY Jack Staiti.  The future looks bright.

For Lasell, Nunez and Day had strong games.  Day is super-quick and did not play in last year's game.  He is a handful for anyone ... he had 2 38-point games against Albertus Magnus last year.

Same teams, same time, same venue tomorrow.

[BaboNation]

Babson 97  Lasell 55

This one got lopsided very early.  It was 30-12 ten minutes in, and the lead kept expanding from there.

Babson's 1-8 rotation is as consistent as it has been for some time with no noticeable drop off on either the offensive or defensive end.  A large part of that is due to the continued development of the junior class.  Welch has gotten off to a terrific start;  Gussen has put together back-to-back solid games (19/8 tonight);  Teddy Sourlis saw action and contributed;  and of course Bradanese continues to improve year to year.  It's a testament to Gussen and Sourlis for putting in the work after both largely missed the first 2 years with injuries.

This was the second game in a row with Beau Smith missing.  Other than that just 2 FY players did not see action.  Given the score I assume their absence is injury/health related.

Up next is a home/away weekend with St. Joseph's if the schedule holds to form.  This will be the toughest test thus far.  In particular the defensive board must be protected.  It will take all hands to hit the glass against that unit and if Smith isn't part of the rotation the task becomes harder.

On a side note that Yeshiva-St. Joseph's game was something special.  Lots and lots of talent on both sides.  Yeshiva is really fun to watch.

[WPI89]

Can't believe you messed up your 80 point streak, Babo!

[BaboNation]

Babson 83  Mitchell 58

Not a strong test here.  Babson closed out the first half by extending a 25-24 advantage to a 37-24 margin with a 4 3-pointer sequence from Welch-Welch-Gao-Pattyson, the last just before the buzzer.

Once again Welch provided the spark off the bench, finishing with 21 (team high), including 5/10 from the arc.  Kirkpatrick was also hot deep, draining 3 of 5 and finishing with 13 overall.  Lots of good spot up 3-point shooters on this squad.

Bradanese was about the only inside force offensively and had a double-double (17/11).  Jaworski had a quiet night offensively, but did the important things when the shot isn't falling.

Nice to see Beau Smith back in action and a first look at FY Jones. 

Looking ahead to St. Joseph's, Bradanese is going to need inside help holding the Bluejays size off the glass.  Having the full complement of Bradanese-Gussen-Smith could be key.

And it appears another game with Mitchell has been added at Home.

[Good to see WPI89 check in]

[BaboNation]

St. Joseph 73  Babson 67

A tale of two halves.  Babson had a strong first half on both ends, good rotation on offense and good help defense (eventually) in the paint to open a 14 point halftime lead.  The 3-point game was working (9/17), they were shooting over 53% from the field and had only 4 turnovers.

But then ...  Bradanese picked up his 3rd foul early in the 2nd half with Babson up 10, and the Blue Jays just kept working the inside, picking up fouls, getting to the bonus early, and by the time Bradanese got back it was a 5-point Babson lead.

The offensive flow suffered, and SJ dug in more by extending their defense and maybe wearing Babson down with a deeper rotation.  Babson shot just 26% in the 2nd half.

It was still 64-64 with just over 2 minutes left when Sullivan found O'Neill out of a trap and converted a dagger 3.

Bradanese had a strong game for Babson (Powell was not much of a factor), but Smith struggled on both ends and Gussen never saw the court in the 8-man rotation.  Unavailable?

Credit to SJ for sticking with their game, so much of which comes within the restricted area.  Powell arguably had the quietest game of the Blue Jays starters. 

Same teams tomorrow @ SJ.

[BaboNation]

St. Joseph 92  Babson 82  (3OT)

This one almost had a storybook ending, but the Blue Jays prevailed in triple overtime.

For about 38 minutes of game action it looked like it would be a case of too much Blue Jay quickness and too much size for Babson to win.  Much like the 2nd half of the first game Babson was denied open looks from the arc (5/33) and every other shot was contested.  And they had their hands full on both boards, where the Blue Jays had a decided advantage.

But with 2:30 left in regulation, down 60-50, and without the ball Babson closed on a 12-2 run to tie it, and had a contested shot by Jaworski at the buzzer that didn't drop.

They had the ball again in a tie game at the end of OT1, but turned it over.

St. Joseph won this game (again) inside and at the line.  Just a real tough matchup for this Babson roster.  There aren't many teams with the quickness all over the floor to stay with the ball rotation on the perimeter and still recover to smother the paint.

Powell more than made up for yesterday with 30 and 12.  O'Neill is overshadowed on this team, but he put up 17 in both games and had 16 boards for the weekend.

[BaboNation]

Babson 90  Mitchell 66

Good to see liberal use of the bench, early and often.  Just 3 players didn't see the court, presumably due to health/injury.

Just 2 games left on the schedule now with Eastern Nazarene Sat & Sun.

[BaboNation]

Babson 72  Eastern Nazarene  64

More than anything, I came away impressed by EN, particularly since they were playing their first game of the season.  They gave the home team all they could handle, opening a 14-point 1st half lead.  It was still a one possession game with under 2 minutes left, so the final score in no way reflects the competitiveness.

Good to see Babson trying to take it inside more in the 2nd half and down the stretch.  Jaworski and Bradanese had clutch baskets to close this one out.

Just one more game - tomorrow @ EN.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Babson 72  Eastern Nazarene  64

More than anything, I came away impressed by EN, particularly since they were playing their first game of the season.  They gave the home team all they could handle, opening a 14-point 1st half lead.  It was still a one possession game with under 2 minutes left, so the final score in no way reflects the competitiveness.

Good to see Babson trying to take it inside more in the 2nd half and down the stretch.  Jaworski and Bradanese had clutch baskets to close this one out.

Just one more game - tomorrow @ EN.

I didn't get to see the game, but I was surprised by the score.  Not only is ENC playing their first game, they graduated a lot last year - this is a lot of guys in new roles on top of just starting to play.  Tomorrow should be interesting - alas, I'll miss that one as well; I'm headed down to VA to watch RMC-Trine.

[BaboNation]

Babson  70   Eastern Nazarene  59

Good team effort before they got sloppy in the last 10 minutes.  So,  that ends this crazy season.  Kudos to the entire athletic department for making this possible.

Most Improved:  This one's easy.  Welch became an integral force in the offense.  He was 2nd on the team in scoring, despite coming off the bench.  He went from a 4ppg scorer up to 14.5;  a 52 pct. shooter overall, and a terrific 47pct. from the arc.  And his shot selection and decision making have improved.

Most Valuable:  I have to go with Bradanese.  He was 1st in rebounding and 3rd in scoring.  Maybe "most indispensable" is the more accurate tag for Bradanese, because of his production, which has increased year by year, and the inconsistency of backup big men.

Graduating Seniors:

Matt Pattyson:  Not the most gifted physically, but solid on both ends.  Whenever the team was getting away from what was needed you could always rely on him to steady the ship and be a coach on the floor. 

Andrew Jaworski:  In a normal year he'd have been a NEWMAC POY candidate.  He was one of my favorite players the last 4 years.  His game always seemed to rise to the occasion.  Fundamentally sound in every area.  And he was tireless without any loss of production.  He finished (I believe) 18th in career scoring, despite the shortened season.  This season it appeared he was playing through something because his FG and 3-pt FG percentages took a noticeable dip, and he no longer got to the foul line.  Whatever the case, he provided endless enjoyment for us fans.  Vintage Jaworski was on display in last year's thrilling win over Amherst when he did his classic up-fake at the arc, drove and finished a difficult layup off the glass to effectively close the game.

[sac]

Apologies if previously posted
Bryce Vanderweire  6-7 F  Schoolcraft, Michigan will attend Coast Guard.

I believe his dad played ball at Kalamazoo College in the early 90's.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Expect an application for membership soon:

https://www.hartford.edu/about/athletics-transition.aspx

[BaboNation]

Expect an application for membership soon:

https://www.hartford.edu/about/athletics-transition.aspx

Ryan,

Do you have a source suggesting that the NEWMAC will be extending an invitation, or is this more an educated prediction?  Only the NEWMAC?  What about the GNAC maybe?
Generally, the sports mix (assuming Hartford doesn't drop any) looks like a fit.  As a NEWMAC fan, I'd be against this.  I'd expect a pretty substantial drop-off in their talent pool in a highly competitive NE region once scholarships disappear.
But mostly I'd fear that as the NEWMAC might grow in numbers the home & away games that we now enjoy in basketball would disappear and become unbalanced like it is on the (larger) women's side.  And if I'm correct that they fail to attract competitive recruits the NEWMAC SOS will suffer.  I think the current mix of out of conference games is perfect, both in the number of games and the quality of opponents.