MBB: NEWMAC

[BaboNation]

Congratulations @BaboNation and Babson. Going to the dance!  Go NEWMAC. Will be a dangerous team to play!

Thanks.  I hope Lowther's injury isn't serious.  He's come back from so many things in the past I figured he was indestructible.  As tough as they come.

[WPI89]

May the selection gods with the NEWMAC - hopefully, Babson gets a decent draw and WPI gets in.  I watched a good bit of mock show last night and I know WPI got zero love.  I still don't see it.  21-4.  3 losses to tourney teams.  A good bit of weak SOS is out of their control.

I still think they are getting a bid.  We shall see shortly

[WPI89]

pushed back a half hour.............................

[WPI89]

Kudos to the selection committee for being true to the directives and consistent in their 20 pool C selections.  However, the overwhelming emphasis on SOS seems off to me.  60% of the schedule is set by the conference.  Admittedly as we have gone over, it was a soft year for sure for the NEWMAC - that killed WPI's SOS.  3 of WPI's 4 losses were to tourney teams - including #1 in the country.  They beat 3 tourney teams and ended up 21-4.  After not really losing much from a final 8 team last year.

swap 2 wins against weaker teams for losses against top teams and they would be in for sure at 19-6.  Not sure that is the spirit of the selection process.

Welp - I will be watching from afar and look forward to a great tourney - wishing the scarlet and grey (not even our colors anymore I don't think?)  had a shot.  Go Beavers.

[BaboNation]

Kudos to the selection committee for being true to the directives and consistent in their 20 pool C selections.  However, the overwhelming emphasis on SOS seems off to me.  60% of the schedule is set by the conference.  Admittedly as we have gone over, it was a soft year for sure for the NEWMAC - that killed WPI's SOS.  3 of WPI's 4 losses were to tourney teams - including #1 in the country.  They beat 3 tourney teams and ended up 21-4.  After not really losing much from a final 8 team last year.

swap 2 wins against weaker teams for losses against top teams and they would be in for sure at 19-6.  Not sure that is the spirit of the selection process.

Welp - I will be watching from afar and look forward to a great tourney - wishing the scarlet and grey (not even our colors anymore I don't think?)  had a shot.  Go Beavers.

There are a couple of reasons why I root for all conference teams.  Don't get me wrong, my first allegiance is to my squad.  But after that, a stronger conference gets each team better prepared for post-season play on the court.  And secondly, the broad strength of the conference helps the top teams mathematically come selection day.  A rising tide lifts all boats.
So while this was an especially difficult year for the conference it just reinforces that each team needs to do whatever it can to play teams outside the conference that are likely to help them out with SOS.  Next year Salve Regina will join the conference.  I don't think it's been announced yet, but I assume we'll continue the H&A format on the men's side.  That means 16 conference games instead of 14, and only 9 OOC instead of 11.  That should be fine most years, but I gotta say, without factoring in recruits and xfers, '23-24 may look similar to '22-23.  Emerson and Wheaton will lose a lot of their stars.  Clark and Springfield may rise over them, but maybe not to the level of Emerson and Wheaton's records. And Salve Regina's roster kinda looks meh, and now they are jumping up a bit.  No offense to SR fans, but at least for 1 year they may be another anchor weight.
Now I don't know how much of the '23-24 schedule is already locked in as far as OOC opponents, but if I'm Clark, Springfield,  WPI, and Babson I try to upgrade my schedule knowing that I'm confident in my team's chances to make the NEWMAC tourney and a decent chance at the NCAA Tournament.

[BaboNation]

NEWMAC Postseason Awards:

POY   Houston
DPOY Houston
ROY   Delgado-Gonzalez MIT
Coaching   WPI

Team                                       Name                   Institution
First Team All-Conference.         Jarred Houston        Emerson College
First Team All-Conference.         John Lowther           WPI
First Team All-Conference.         Aaron Williams        Wheaton College
First Team All-Conference          Alex Carlisle            Wheaton College
First Team All-Conference          John Adams             WPI
Second Team All-Conference      Andrew Kirkpatrick   Babson College
Second Team All-Conference      Max Davis               Emerson College
Second Team All-Conference      Aidan Callahan         WPI
Second Team All-Conference      Nate Martin             Emerson College
Second Team All-Conference      Isaiah Taylor           Clark University

Houston with back-to-back POY & DPOY.  We're unlikely to see that ever again.

Bruce Saintilus (Clark) and Nate Amado (Babson) did not play in 60% of league games to qualify for any award.

https://www.newmacsports.com/sports/mbkb/2022-23/releases/20230227sf2vez

[BaboNation]

Utica 72  Babson 60

Fun season comes to an end.

Babson with a 32-30 halftime lead, but the heavy load carried by Nate Amado was not sustainable, with 14 from Nate (and 24 for the game), but just 11 from the other core upperclassmen (Cibull, Gao, and Kirkpatrick).  The 2nd Babson scorer at the half was FY Lauder with 7.  And FY starter O'Toole ended the half with 4 fouls (even without hindsight, it was stupefying to keep him in while the game was still close).

And naturally the only player to suit up every game this year (Kirkpatrick) got injured in the 1st half, came back when the game was getting away (down 11 with 11 minutes to play), and gave it a go but was not his usual self.

The 3 Jersey home state players had particularly rough nights: Gao (5 on 2/13); Cross (0 for 3); Woolhouse (0).  Maybe Jersey jitters.

And the FY foul frenzy put the team in a hole both halves;  O'Toole with the aforementioned 1st half, that kept him out until they were down 9 with 12 minutes left (and fouled out in 14 minutes of court time);  and FY Woolhouse picked up back-to-back-to-back needless fouls in 30 seconds of court time.  These fouls and others put them at the limit too early against a team that was 74 pct. for the season and hit 22/29 tonight.

But take nothing away from Utica.  Lots of pure shooters, maybe the best group they faced all year.  Grad Hopkins (21 on 8/12) and savvy senior Brantley (14) drawing fouls (12/14 FTs).  All can create inside and out.  And they hit their FTs.

I can't get too  worked up about this one.  On the whole the season exceeded all expectations.  Thank you seniors, grad, team, and staff.   Keep grinding Babo.

[Greek Tragedy]

So, any word if some listed seniors like Lowther (WPI), Kirkpatrick and Gao (Babson), or Williams and Carlisle (Wheaton) are returning for 5th/grad years?

[BaboNation]

So, any word if some listed seniors like Lowther (WPI), Kirkpatrick and Gao (Babson), or Williams and Carlisle (Wheaton) are returning for 5th/grad years?

I haven't seen anything official, but from a Babson perspective I'll be pretty surprised if either of their guys come back.  Despite getting to 3 straight NCAA tournaments not one player has taken advantage of the extra Covid year as yet.  And that's pretty much true across all sports.  The hockey team was loaded (13 seniors; defending NEHC champion) and only 1 came back for a grad year, though some moved to D1.  It's not that they don't love the school.  Life awaits.
And without reading too much into this, Kieran Dorney, who didn't play all of 22-23 has dropped Babson from his twitter bio line.  A mystery inside an enigma:  not roster listed until January;  then in uniform on the bench for 5 games or so;  then gone again, though still roster listed.

Wheaton's Williams and Carlisle would have to change schools with no grad program at their college.

[ImTold]

I'm Told Babson has added a former all-NESCAC guard

[nescac1]

Regarding Babson, Will King, I assume?  That would be a huge addition for them if so ...

[BaboNation]

I won't dwell on the Babson rumor for now, but bringing in a veteran guard, particularly a PG, has become a regular occurrence over the last 10 years; almost expected:

D1 undergrad xfers (Kenny Ross and Crew Ainge) and grad xfers (Kirsch and Cibull).  If another PG xfer comes in that would be 4 in the last 5 years, and Ross and Ainge were pre-Covid, so it's been a long-term phenomenon.

While the team has also recruited their own 4 year PGs (most notably Chris Lowry, Shy Ulrickson, and Andrew Kirkpatrick) the minutes and production have been heavily weighted to the xfers over the 10-year period.

Ever since the season ended I expected 1 or 2 xfers in the backcourt where there is a huge gap (no disrespect to returning players and the incoming recruit), but losing Kirkpatrick, Cibull, and Gao (none of whom are returning) is the kind of veteran presence not easily replaced. 

Babson has a 2 year window to capitalize on the talents of their alpha dog, Nate Amado.  He's probably doing some recruiting of his own, much like Joey Flannery was influential in bringing in key xfers.

[nescac1]

If (and that's just an if at this point it seems) Will King is joining Babson, Amado-King might be a top five backcourt duo, nationally (assuming Amado is back to full health).  Is Dorney expected to play next year?  Not sure what the deal was last year but a King-Amado-Dorney trio would be really interesting.  Babson needs to figure out a go-to guy up front, otherwise, but at least has some big bodies in Woolhouse/Lauder/Mason, one of whom maybe pops next year ...

Lots of "ifs" in NEWMAC as whether Lowther is returning for WPI will dramatically impact its upside, as well ...

[BaboNation]

I have no insight on Dorney, neither last year, the present, nor the future.  But I love his game.  He was 1 made 3-pointer (33/68) away from 50% in conference play.  Their best shooter from distance by percentage or volume.  He also finds ways to score in the midrange and is sneaky good at rebounding despite a thin frame (was 2nd on the team).  Dorney could help any D2//D3 program.  If it's not in the cards at Babson I wish him all the best if he continues to play elsewhere.

Amado is such a hybrid.  He led the team in rebounding as a freshman.  More often than not he takes the opening jump despite having teammates 5-7" taller (and wins most tips).  Great hops.  Not speedy, but long strides, slashing, elevation, and high basketball IQ makes him very effective.  He's the team's only legitimate 3-level scorer.

The team needs one of its bigs - Lauder, Mason, or Woolhouse - to develop more as scorers in the paint;  Mason and Woolhouse particularly settle for the stretch shot, or the pick and pop game.

Some intriguing recruits coming in.  I don't know if Jared Flaks is related to the FY (Evan, who had a very nice year) @ Middlebury, but if Babson gets as much rotational depth from the next class as the prior class they'll be well positioned for the future.

My way too early, way too crude prediction for next year:

With neither a transfer PG nor SG:  top 3 in the league, along with WPI and Clark; miss the tournament
With one transfer PG/SG: league final loss, but Pool C slot winner
With one transfer PG/SG + Dorney:  Sweet 16 team

[BaboNation]

NEWMAC 25th Year All-Time Team

https://newmacsports.com/news/2023/6/16/newmac-announces-mens-basketball-25-year-all-newmac-team.aspx

I wish they had listed a 1st and 2nd team instead of just bunching them all together.