MBB: NESCAC

[madzillagd]

The short version is he attended the elite camps at Penn, Columbia & Harvard last summer and Maker was there at each of those and started recruiting him on the spot.

The long version...  As many of you know, these elite camps are basically just for recruiting.  They do a some skill work but the majority of the time the campers are broken into teams and it gives the coaches the chance to see kids play 7 or 8 games over the course of a couple days.  Luke's team won all 3 camps with him playing primarily at the 1.  From those 3 camps he suddenly had 40-50 schools recruiting him but of all the coaches they met Maker really stood out.  They still didn't know a thing about Williams and hadn't made a visit when they were back for the camps unfortunately. 

My best friend happens to be married to Gary Smith's daughter so I see Gary on a regular basis.  Gary was the head coach at the U of Redlands for 30 years and a great resource for advice on schools, coaches etc.  When talking to Gary about the various schools Luke was being recruited by he made it very clear that no matter what offers he got that he thought Williams was his best opportunity.  So my bro & Luke decided it was worth it to make a trip out to Williamstown and the rest is history as they say. 

[frank uible]

Your nephew will have a chance to play for an excellent coach, whose teams at Williams have been of high d3 quality and have much enjoyed his coaching.

[frank uible]

P.S. Generally pretty good college too.

[nescac1]

Madzillagd, welcome to the board!  It's great to get the perspective of the families of players.  I second Frank that your nephew will likely have a great experience at Williams, especially playing for a class act like Coach Maker.  And the fact that he can play the one may earn him some pretty early PT, since James Wang just graduated and Nate Robertson is a rising senior.  Indeed, while Williams seems to have a lot of depth up front returning, the Ephs figure to be a bit thin in terms of ball-handlers next year, and will be heavily reliant on a few guys who are very talented but have had bad luck with injuries in the past.  Barring another crazy spate of injuries (knock on wood) like the Ephs suffered over the past year, I expect that they will be right back in the thick of things in NESCAC and potentially even nationally, depending on how a few young players develop.  For whatever reason, ever since Maker's arrival, Williams has been loaded with players from the Pacific Northwest, although I do believe your nephew if the first Eph baller from Idaho.  Good luck!

[amh63]

Madzillagd...boy your "handle" is hard for me to remember!  Anyway, I join Frank and NESCAC1 in welcoming you to the board.  Both Williams posters are IMHO first rate students of the game,...but you should enjoy their bias posts.  The Williams coach seems to "mine" the western states quite well and your nephew will enjoy his time in the wild NW hills of MA.  I agree with NESCAC1 that there is playing time to be had for your nephew at the point guard position next year.  I believe his time will be based on how well he can play on the defensive side.  The top teams in the conference all stress and depend on their defensive game for their success.
It is good that Williams....will hopefully....continue to make their webcast of games free.  It will save you a great deal of money and time during BB season.

[frank uible]

It's been a long time since your correspondent was last accused of being a first rate student.

[madzillagd]

It's a handle that is meaningless to everyone except friends/family but easy for me to remember from site to site so I've keep rolling it over.  At some point everyone starts calling me Mad for short typically.  I appreciate the welcome from my new rival.  Was able to catch portions of 4 or 5 games Williams last year on the webcast. Definitely looking forward to watching the webcasts this year whenever available.  I'm actually down in CA so I lucked out and was able to catch 3 or 4 webcasts of Luke in Idaho this past year in addition to seeing him live for 3 tourneys.

I'm really curious on how Maker is going to use Luke because I think he sees him as a clone of Nate Robertson and from the few games I saw I think that's pretty accurate.  Luke has been teammates with Marcus Colbert on both AAU & school for the past 10 years and Marcus has always been the primary PG.  Marcus won 82 varsity games as the starting PG and accepted a D1 offer to play at Montana State to give you an idea of his talent level.  In the video I posted, although you see Luke handle the ball a bit he was actually playing the 3 all that year because in addition to Marcus he played alongside Connor Hill who was the 2- Connor was the Idaho POTY and now plays D1 for Idaho in the WAC.  In my mind Luke is a true PG that looks to get his teammates involved first.  It will be interesting to see how he responds if he actually gets the majority of his minutes (however many that may be) at that position since he hasn't really had that role in the past.  Serendipitous that Maker happened to be at 3 camps where Luke played PG primarily because had he seen him at any HS or AAU games Luke would have been playing the 2 or 3 rarely had the opportunity to handle the rock. 

With all the unknowns of moving up to the next level, defense may be the one area that I'm the most cautiously optimistic.  Luke was a lockdown defender on his hs/aau teams so it will be interesting to see if that translates to the CAC, especially matching up against bigger/faster opponents.  If he does get time at PG, I'm curious how he does defending the ball as opposed to what he is used to guarding wing players.  Moves his feet, stays in position and doesn't foul which I think falls in line with what Maker teaches from what I've gathered. 

[toad22]

The word in Williamstown is that a transfer is making his appearance next year. Ryan Kilcullan, a 6'7" PF is transferring from Boston College. Looking back at information about Ryan from his days a Phillips Exeter in the 2010-2011 season, makes me believe that he is a highly skilled player who can go inside or out. As a walk on at BC he played sparingly this season. I would guess that he will back up Taylor Epley, and perhaps even Mike Mayer at the center position. Absent injury, I believe that the addition of Kilcullen and Thoreson makes us a significantly better team going into next year than we ended this year.

[amh63]

Mad......that is what I wanted to shorten the handle to.....and your reply allows me....I hope.  Anyway, it is interesting that you stated that Luke played the 3 position a great deal and even the off-guard role.  In the video, your nephew by his built and "game" reminded me  of my favorite player on the present Amherst team.  The player is Willy Workman '13.....a 6'6" player that plays the 3 position and even the 4 and 2 at times.  Willy has been a starter since his freshman year and is a real gym rat type player that loves to play against Williams.  Willy will rebound, block shots and score inside and outside....and was up for defensive player in the conference last year.  I hope Luke will not be as good as Willy Workman for selfish reasons but one can not hide talent.
It should be pointed out that Amherst, Midd. and Wes. all have top guards that are hard to guard and score well for their teams.  Luke should be prepared for tough times on the floor against them.  In any case, have him check out some video highlights of games on the school websites.....the Amherst website on "facebook" area does have Amherst highlights of games against Williams and Midd.  Willy Workman and Aaron Toomey...the pg...are seen working their game against Williams.

[lumbercat]

Thought I would provide an offseason post to update NESCAC pundits on the recruiting activities of the CBB schools. From an introspective standpoint the Maine schools have not been exceedingly dominant in the NESCAC though they have performed comparitively well in NESCAC tourney in recent years led by the gritty play of the Bates Bobcats who have overachieved in NESCAC tourney play recently and will be looking to advance beyond their familiar stance in the semi finals next year. The White Mules and Polar Bears are working to change that result.

The competition between the 3 Maine schools makes for a very competitive and interesting winter. Nowhere else in the NESCAC do we find 3 rival programs in such close proximity which makes for great local interest. The competition between these ancient rivals is intensified by the close proximity of these  Maine think tanks which are situated within a 50 mile stretch. It's the "D3 tobacco road of the north".

Bates was again the CBB champ last year,  they dominated Bowdoin and Colby and posted a fine showing in the NESCAC tourney with a gutty victory at Tufts. Bates Coach Furbush coaches a grinding approach and the Tufts win was testament to his coaching style.
From a recruiting standpoint Bates landed a highly touted prospect in Mike Boornazian a highly regarded prospect from Wlbraham Monson Prep. The kid may have gone to a higher level with interest from Columbia, Brown, St Anselm and Boston Universitry but felt comfortable with Jon Furbush and his right hand man Tommy Verdell.
The Bobcats also landed 6'11" big man Alex Perrone of Loomis Chaffee--Coach Furbush has effectively worked undersized pivotmen throughout his tenure and now has a legitimate 7 footer who he will tutor. When Cornell passed on Perrone the move to Lewiston was a no brainer for this young man with great academic credentials. Heres a bet that Furbush and Tommy V will be working hard with Alex. At the the end of the day Perrone, who is an accomplished musician will serenade his mentors with some great tunes on the piano following some intense workouts in Alumni Gym.

Bowdoin continues to recruit well. They lose one of the recent CBB greats in Will Hanley but will bring back a solid class. 7 footer Jon Swords will work hard on his game over the summer and has the opportunity to be a dominating big man in the NESCAC.  Coach Gilbride will be working on that........hard!! One man who will come into his own is Keegan Pieri who has the skill to dominate in the conference.
From a recruiting standpoint the Black and White pulled off a great signing with Jake Donnelly from Taft School. Jake is a point guard who is capable of running the Polar Bear offense in that eclectic gym next year. Recruited by Merrimack, Bentley, Assumption and Southern Maine. Feelings are that this kid will start as a freshmen.
The other Polar Bear grab is potential Marist recruit Lucas Hausman, a shooting guard at 6'4" who may join Donnelly in a freshman backcourt.
Former football guy Grant White will focus on hoops and should play prominantly in the Bears hardcourt future. Ex BC High cager Brian Hurley was one of the best frosh in the NESAC and will complete a great NESCAC career. At the end of the day the P Bears are over crowded in the back court which will create a numbers crunch with current roster. The Bears commonly recruit multi sport atheletes so expect some athletes to move to other sports....gotta love the NESCAC.

The Colby White Mules had a tough year following the daparture of the great "Whit". Refs in the Pine Tree circuit breathed a collective sigh of relief when Whitmore retired but things got no better with the debut of Damon Strahorn who makes Whit look like a cubscout in terms of his treatment of the zebras. Looks like status quo in Waterville......Zebras beware.

From a recruiting standpoint the Blue and Gray plucked a gem in power forward Patrick Stewart of Bangor HS. This pospect was recruited by Darmouth, Cornell, Tufts, and Bentley as is said to be a force on the boards with a nice shooting touch.

The CBB will provide another year of great entertainment for hoop fans in the Pine Tree State next winter, come out and catch a game.

[nescac1]

Thanks for the info on Kilcullen, Toad.  Based on the New England Recruiting rankings from last year (which are imperfect but a decent gauge) he would have been a top-tier NESCAC recruit, around the level of Mussachia (who didn't play much for Amherst but I imagine will this year) and Conor Green (one of this year's top Amherst recruits).  Williams will have an absolutely enormous second unit next year ... fighting for time will be 6'5 McCreary, 6'4 Thoreson, and 6'6 Wohl on the perimeter, and 6'6 Weinheimer, 6'7 Kilcullen, 6'5 McClelland, 6'7 Hoffmann, and 6'10 Flynn up front.  Wohl showed a lot in flashes next year, it sounds like Kilcullen will probably get some PT, and whoever makes the rotation from the rest of that group will provide a lot of size and athleticism with potential for an absolute lock-down defense second unit.  But playing time will be determined by whether they can provide scoring / shooting, which is a big unknown for most of that group.  Unless you are a five, to succeed in Maker's system, you generally need to show that you are at least a  threat to score from three. 

Great article on James Wang and his struggles with back issues last year (article fails to mention how he returned a few days after an appendectemy to play in the NESCAC tourney).  It was tough to see him struggle without his trademark explosiveness, but kudos to him for toughing out the season:

http://williams.prestosports.com/sports/mbkb/2011-12/releases/2012051898twu0

Lumbercat, thanks for the summary.  Like with your similar post on Maine recruiting in the football board, I think your descriptions are a BIT over-the-top in their breathlessness, but all the more entertaining for it.  Let's face it, lots of NESCAC hoops recruits get "looked at" by D-1 schools, but it is VERY rare when they actually turn down a D-1 scholarship offer (Wang is one of the few, I think he did have one lower-tier D-1 scholarship offer).  I believe that even Toomey and Sharry, both of whom I am confident WOULD have succeeded in the right D-1 setting, did not receive scholarship offers from any D-1 schools (Toomey could have walked on), and I would be pretty shocked if any of the guys you describe below are at the Toomey/Sharry level.  I have no doubt that some of the guys you describe will be solid players in college, but I'd bet that none of them are ready to step in and play at an all-conference level in their first two years in NESCAC. 

[mass_d3fan]

Congratulations & Good Luck to Amherst's Willy Workman  and WPI's Matt Carr as they play for the D3Hoops.com All-Star team in Europe.

[OhioRed17]

Lumbercat - Perrone is not that big more like 6-8/9 at best. He started slow at Loomis but came on late in the year.

[lumbercat]

Ohio-Red
Thanks for the clarification. I had seen Perrone listed at 6'10" in more than one place but would bet you are probably correct. I'll take it from someone who has seen him play and it sounds like you have some knowledge of the kid.
We all know that heights and weights can be embellished in recruiting circles but lets hope Perrone can develop into the big man that Bates is looking for. Having some knowledge of his game, what is your opinion of how he may fare in the NESCAC ?
Swords from Bowdoin is a legit 7 footer (I think) who will develop into a formidable NESCAC Center at some point. Bates will need someone to play him inside.

[madzillagd]

Yep, had heard about the Ryan Kilcullan transfer news but wasn't sure if that was public yet.  Was looking around for some video on him but haven't seen anything yet.  Be interesting to see if he can crack the starting line up at the 4 early on.

amh63 - I'll definitely track down some of that video and pass it on.  For me that's the fun thing of watching Luke, is he's the type of kid that wants step up to the challenge.  He'll get taught a lesson I'm sure but he'll be right back there at it again and again until he gets it right. 

nescac1 - Nice article on Wang.  My bro is a physical therapist and when they went back last year to check out Williams, he ended up doing some PT work on Wang the first time he met him.  I believe right now he's deciding whether he wants to try and play in Europe.  When you are used to playing at such a high level, tough to not end on your own terms.