MBB: NESCAC

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

The SUNYAC gets two teams in because Cortland lost and they hadto let Plattsurgh play, as sad as that is.

[walzy31]

New name for NESCAC tournament...

"The Amherst Invitational"
Amherst record in 6 conference tournaments in 16-2 out of a possible 18 games played. Their record against conference opponents the past two years in 27-1. Hamilton on Saturday at LeFrak at 7pm. Tufts will have their work cut out for them against Cortland.

[CCsalive]

The SUNYAC, as a whole, is a tough conference. One could argue that it is the toughest in New York State bettering CUNY, Liberty and E8. Ironically, Cortland's semi-final upset loss was to SUNY Utica-I.T.  , coached by former Hamilton great Tom Murphy.

BUT, does Cortland deserve to host? Are they better than Hamilton? Or, better question, do they deserve to get Tufts and Hamilton Amherst...not vice-versa?

[mrmike88]

Honestly, the way Tufts played this weekend, I highly doubt that Tufts will prove to be much of a "step down" in quality over Amherst.  Cortland and co. are just as unlucky to see the Jumbos, with the roll they are on.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I agree, there isn't much difference between Amherst and Tufts.  I think they are 1 and 2 in the region, even if they have to meet in the sweet sixteen.

[nescachoopsfan]

now that the season is over what are everyones predictions about 1st team 2nd team poy etc?

[JeffRookie2]

Good question- here are my picks.

First Team:
Rhoten
Bedford
Cohen
D. Martin
Petrie

Second Team:
Ray
Stockwell
Rose
Wheeler
Weitzen

Hurts to leave off: Olson, P. Martin. In fact, I think Pat Martin and Stockwell might be a toss up. Olson played so well at the start of the year I thought he would be a no-brainer for second team, if not first team, but I was pretty unimpressed with his play over the weekend, and against Tufts the Jeffs seemed to play better with Corrigan in the game.

Def. Player of the Year: Cohen
Rookie of the Year- Ben Rudin (almost by default. down year for frosh after olson and stone last year)
Player of the Year- Uhh, I've said Rhoten all year long, but the Tufts game on Saturday where Rhoten was powerless to help his team almost makes me want to change my mind. Still, I'll go Rhoten, for the lifetime achievement award, and because he should have won it last year.
Coach of the Year- Bob Sheldon, although I still cant figure out why he wouldnt call a timeout in the second half against Trinity.

[JeffRookie2]

By the way, is there any conference as deep in point guards as the NESCAC? How good a group is Ray, Olson, P. Martin, Shalvoy, Shepard, Black, Corrigan? Even the lesser teams have good point guards like Nick Farrell or Ben Rudin. This just seems unusual to me, as in most other leagues, (professional or collegiate) point guards seem very difficult to come by.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I think its much harder to find good big men than point guards, especially in d3.  That's my opinion, but it seems to play out across the country.  A d3 school can compete pretty well without anyone over 6'4" because there aren't too many truly good big men.  There's plenty of teams with good PGs, but a really good big man can take you a long way.

[JeffRookie2]

Looking at Hamilton's roster, I think the Jeffs might be ok. They don't have anyone over 6'6, which I'm hoping means that they dont have a big-time threat down low, (like rhoten, or martin) that could really be a problem. Of course, Weitzen and Stockwell aren't the tallest guys in the world, but they had no problem scoring all over us. Still, from what I gather from the LL board, they like to shoot the outside shots and run, and frankly I'll take the Jeffs in a shooting/running competition with anybody. The continentals leading scorer is a 5-11 guard named Tim Welchons, but he is closely followed by 6-6 nick jones. Hopefully O'Shea/Goldsmith/Hopkins/Jones will finally figure out how to guard in the post before this is all done. Since Zieja is the assistant coach, you would think they would just practice against him, which would probably make everyone else seem like a piece of cake. O well, sorry for the disorganized ranting.

[JeffRookie2]

Another random thought... after the Tufts/Trinity game I thought, "Well, at least we won't have to worry about Tyler Rhoten anymore" ... then I looked down the bench and saw his brother Clay. Formerbant, have you seen Clay on the court? Is he anywhere near his brother?

[CCsalive]

 I'm lost today without formerbant We only agree on one thing and that Rhoten for POY, but Tyler is losing ground!

Before everyone starts tooting horns on the first and second teams can we all acknowledge FOUR "automatic" first teamers in Rhoten, Bedford, D. Martin, and Cohen?

Let's try to move this guesswork forward...

[CCsalive]

Jeffrook,

Welchons is an Olsen who can score 35 pts... but he's not the floor general that Olsen is.

Hamilton does not have a dominant big man, Chavlieschvili was solid in the post most of the year, but is either hurt or they've committed to a faster pace...advantage Amherst...unless, well, we all know that you live and die in these match-ups...Illinois was pretty good last year, but the Heels out ran them.

Jones and Ngobeni are Coulibaly type athletes...all said, Hamilton has to beat Plattsburgh first.

[walzy31]

JeffRook,

C'mon man. Zieja isn't coaching at Amherst anymore. You've been to every home game and a few road games, you should know that. The big tall guy is Jamie Snyder-Fair. He graced the NESCAC with his presence the past four seasons with the Mules.
Also, I don't think a two game (or one game) span should affect the 1st and 2nd teams so drastically. And the POY is not a lifetime acheivement award. For being superfans of the same team we clash on a lot of the little things.

[JeffRookie2]

You're right walzy, i should have known that, I think someone misinformed me at some point.

With the player of the year thing, I agree that it shouldn't be a lifetime achievement award, but i would imagine that to some degree the thinking that goes into the award will take into account how close rhoten was to winning last year.

As for my first and second teams, im not totally sure the tournament changed my pre-tournament perception too much, except that weitzen raised a bit (as much because of tuft's finish as his individual performance) and olson fell a bit. Haven't you been a bit dissappointed that the andrew olson who was so hot at the beginning of the year, the one who put us on his back and carried us in that Endicott game hasnt really been around for awhile. He has been good of late, but he was spectacular at the beginning of the year. I would love to see him play like that again.