MBB: NESCAC

[WPI89]

Tuesday 11/27/12 Lines

Amherst Vs. Lasell
Amherst -27.5
O/U: 168.5

Do I lose a karma point as the VIG?

Amherst and the under

Lasell and the Under. Down 0.1 units. Thanks for the action.

[7express]

Yah you lose 1 Karma point if you lose units: gain a karma point if you gain units from what I remember last year.

[walzy31]

7express is correct, but the vig gets rounded, so losing less than 0.5 units is still break even.

[WPI89]

Thanks - I better start writing some interesting posts or I will be negative Karma before I blink!

[pick and roll]

Through the first two weeks it looks like the NESCAC is the Big Three again then everyone else - and looking at the schedules there should not be many challenges until they face each other.  Thought the Cardinals would be there too, but not sure about them yet (does anyone know if Glen Thomas is hurt? he would help).  What I have noticed the last few years is the quality depth at Amherst, Middlebury and Williams - the rich get richer as they just keep reloading with quality players many of whom would be starting and doing very well at other schools in the conference.

[lefrakenstein]

Amherst question:

Sorry if this was already covered this summer and I missed it. I just noticed on newenglandrecruitingreport.com that one of the top 100 players in New England, and one of the top 2-3 to commit to a D-III committed to Amherst for football. The kid's name is Jaymie Spears. He's a 5-8 PG and played corner for the Amherst football team.

Anyone know if he plans to play any basketball? I know that site's rankings are often pretty mediocre, but it seems like he could be nice addition to the class.

[amh63]

LeFrak....You are talking about #20 on the football team that covered Williams' WR Hartwell......the one that go beat for a TD by Hartwell....the first Williams' score.  FY Spears made the game saving interception and also recovered a fumble in the GAME.  Yes he was a PG for St. Marks and has caught the eye of Coach Hixon.  On Sunday after the football game, Coach Hixon was hoping for several football players to try out for the BB team.   Mr Lippe, Mr. Garay and Mr. Spears did not show up for practice.  Coach Hixon pointed out to me that #20 started as a PG for St. Mark, a team that had a very good season last year in Ma.

[lefrakenstein]

Thanks for the info amh63.

So not showing up for try-out means not on the team? That's too bad.

Does the same apply for Landrus Lewis as well?

[frank uible]

Inflexible?

[walzy31]

Inflexibility is part of it as Landrus has a torn ACL.

As for Spears and Lippe, it appears like this is the end of an era. That is, the end of the era of the two-sport athlete. Both Spears and Lippe are talented enough to play (and maybe contribute) on the hoops team, unfortunately, the demands of one sport (even at the D3 level) has continued to rise. Off-season weightlifting programs and the overall need to give the body a break and focus on school.

I think what we are seeing is the days of two-sport athlete beginning to fade away. Daoust, Perry, and Salerno did it; Noon and Lippe gave it a go for 1-2 years and then picked a sport; in the future, it will unfortunately be but a distant memory. There may always be the Peppers (UNC), Smardjiza (ND), and Ellington (So Car) of the world, but those guys are literally one in a million.

[Pat Coleman]

That's interesting you say that, because the NESCAC is really built for the two-sport athlete. With the later start to practice there's very little overlap for the fall to winter season. (Especially for football.)

[nescac1]

Darias Sime at Williams is another guy who was a prospective two-sport athlete, but ended up not playing basketball this year. 

That being said, I think Walzy is wayyyy premature in pronouncing the death of the two-sport athlete, especially at NESCAC.  Just last year, John Squires from Bates made all-NESCAC in both football and hoops.  Greg Payton, a WR on the Williams football team, is playing basketball this year.  Darren Hartwell, the top Williams football player, is also a baseball player.  Just a few out of tons of examples.  I think that basketball and football are a really, really hard combination.  Both are physically taxing on the body (in very different ways), and the seasons overlap so if you play football you miss all of the pre-season works outs / informal practices in basketball.  But across NESCAC, there continue to be, and I think always will be, TONS of football players who also play baseball or lacrosse, among many other two-sport athletes (other common combos are women's field hockey and lacrosse, and at Williams, there are always some dual football-wrestlers).

Fall-Spring is much easier than, say, fall-winter because there is no overlap and plenty of recovery time.  But NESCAC schools are actually picked by many schools for the very reason that guys WANT to play two sports.  Hartwell, for example, could have played baseball at Harvard, but instead chose to do two sports at Williams (and surprisingly, football ended up as his best sport).

As for Amherst, Garay for sure and Lippe possibly would not have seen much time on the basketball court until at least next year, and maybe never, so that may have figured into their decision.  Also, Lippe is now the starting QB, which is a particularly demanding position, and one which can really benefit from off-season work.  As for Spears, he is only a first year, so perhaps he will decide to play hoops in the future.  But again, he'd be stuck behind Toomey and Kalema for two years, so it's not as if he would see the court much until at least his junior year, anyway. 

[walzy31]

Perhaps I'm pronouncing the terminal condition for Amherst, not for the conference as a whole. I was in school not too long ago and there were about a dozen two-sport male athletes (mostly a fall sport and a spring sport with the exception of Salerno and a hockey/baseball guy). Now you can count the male athletes who play two team sports on one hand...and as we've discussed, it's not for lack of ability.

[amh63]

Nescac 1...your comments do run true......in particular the Fall-Spring split vice the Fall -winter combo.  Mr Heller who starred in football was always a pro prospect in baseball....comment by the the Dean of Admission,,,,and he was taken by the Boston MLB franchise.  As to Mr Garay, who was coming on as a WR, in particular with Lippe at QB....he was out of the Williams game due to an injury....according to a comment by Lippe to me on Friday before the game.  That would delay any attempts to go out again for the BB team.  Did speak to Mr. Spears' parents and him after the football game a bit....without knowing that he was a top recruit in football and that that he played BB.  It is hard for a FY student to adjust to college in general..and then going out for TWO teams in a row.  Who knows, maybe next year.
The team has added another player.  Mr. Buck is listed....appears to be a guard and could be a walk on.  Did see a "unknown" player during practice on Fri. of Homecoming that fits his size.
I may have used a wrong term in my post....."try-out" versus "come-out".

[frank uible]

Two sport participation feasibility has the potential of drawing an Ivy or Patriot quality athlete to a NESCAC college and, I believe, does from time to time.