MBB: NESCAC

[Bucket]

At Middlebury, Dylan Sinnickson is the starting center fielder on the baseball team and will be a key reserve and possibly spot starter on the hoops team when he returns from a broken arm. And Hunter Merryman, who this year is proving to be instant offense off the bench, is the full time DH on the baseball team.

I think both would consider hoops to be their main sports, but they also were full-time baseball starters last year as freshmen.

[Old Guy]

We have the tallest baseball team in NESCAC. Sinnickson (6'5") is fun to watch in cf, earned the starting spot on the spring trip. He can really run down a fly ball. It took Merryman a while longer to win the dh role. He's a corner infielder (at 6'6"), but our captain is a first-sacker but is only 6'3". Our ss last year was 6'3". Funny season last spring: we beat Amherst and Williams 2 out of 3 and failed to make the NESCAC tourney. Lost three to Wes and two to Hamilton!

I admire the two sport athletes and am glad we have 'em. It may be more common on the women's side. Midd has the national field hockey player or the year, Lauren Greer. She was recruited as an ice hockey player and is now starring on that team. Katie Ritter (daughter of the Midd football coach) is a D1 prospect lacrosse player, came to Midd in part because she loves to play hoop. Starts for that team.

Middlebury had a great quarterback, Don McKillop, set every NESCAC and East region passing record (ironic that his successor, MCallom Foote is just as good). I interviewed him and asked if he had D1 possibilities - and he said he had many, but not at schools with Midd's academic reputation (i.e. the Ivys) and not at places that would have allowed him to play baseball. He was a terrific baseball player. He came to Midd in large part because he could play two sports.

So, unlike when I was a baseball and basketball player in college, today the very best athletes on our campuses are the two-sport athletes. In many cases, they come to NESCAC, D3 schools explicitly for that reason - to play two sports. They're our D1 caliber athletes. God bless 'em, I say.

[met_fan]

Judging by the scores so far this season (including tonight's loss to Keystone), it looks like it could be a long year for Hamilton.

[lumbercat]

Walzy-

I enjoy your contributions to the board but disagree with your point on 2 sport athletes in the NESCAC. I think the number of 2 sport athletes may be greater than ever at many NESCAC schools. I base that on my recent observations at the Maine schools. I follow the CBB pretty closely and 2 sport participation seems to have become a trend which seems to be expanding in recent years.

With each program having a limited amount of TIPS I think there are synergies that emerge with the multisport athlete that create recruiting advantages. Also, per earlier posts it's a great recruiting tool for NESCAC coaches who can promise a recruit that he or she will not have a problem if they want to play another sport......thats a trump card for the NESCAC over the Ivies and The Patriot League.

I believe some programs in the conference are specifically recruiting the 2 sport athlete.

I actually think we will see a 3 sport athletes again sometime soon. I know of some in the 70's and 80's at Bates and Bowdoin but don't know if there have been any recently in the NESCAC.

Last year at Bates they had 2 guys who were all NESCAC in 2 sports which was a great accomplishment-

Kevin Helm- 1st team All NESCAC in Football and First team in Lacrosse (Not sure if others have achieved that)
John Squires- 1st team All NESCAC in Football and 2nd team All NESCAC in Basketball.

That was agreat accomplishment for the Bates Athletic program that has gone un noticed- if it happened at some other NESCAC schools we would still be reading the press releases. I believe Bates along with Bowdoin and Colby  recruit multisport student athletes pretty aggressively and it has worked well.

The multispot athlete tends to be focused and diciplined. Personally I was a single sport athlete in college and my grades were always better during my athletic season and I observed this with my teammates as well. I think the trend to multi sport athletes will continue in the NESCAC.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Yes, bring back the THREE sport athletes!

Steve Laub (IWU, 1967) was a TEN-time all-CCIW player as quarterback, point guard, and shortstop (arguably the most critical/difficult positions in each sport) - a total freak of nature.

[Pat Coleman]

And in modern times Martin Luther had a kid who did the same thing. We ran an interview with him on all three sites.

[pick and roll]

#1 MIT was spanked by Rhode Island last night - a team that just squeezed by Bates on Sunday.

[maineman]

Walzy-

I enjoy your contributions to the board but disagree with your point on 2 sport athletes in the NESCAC. I think the number of 2 sport athletes may be greater than ever at many NESCAC schools. I base that on my recent observations at the Maine schools. I follow the CBB pretty closely and 2 sport participation seems to have become a trend which seems to be expanding in recent years.

With each program having a limited amount of TIPS I think there are synergies that emerge with the multisport athlete that create recruiting advantages. Also, per earlier posts it's a great recruiting tool for NESCAC coaches who can promise a recruit that he or she will not have a problem if they want to play another sport......thats a trump card for the NESCAC over the Ivies and The Patriot League.

I believe some programs in the conference are specifically recruiting the 2 sport athlete.

I actually think we will see a 3 sport athletes again sometime soon. I know of some in the 70's and 80's at Bates and Bowdoin but don't know if there have been any recently in the NESCAC.

Last year at Bates they had 2 guys who were all NESCAC in 2 sports which was a great accomplishment-

Kevin Helm- 1st team All NESCAC in Football and First team in Lacrosse (Not sure if others have achieved that)
John Squires- 1st team All NESCAC in Football and 2nd team All NESCAC in Basketball.

That was agreat accomplishment for the Bates Athletic program that has gone un noticed- if it happened at some other NESCAC schools we would still be reading the press releases. I believe Bates along with Bowdoin and Colby  recruit multisport student athletes pretty aggressively and it has worked well.

The multispot athlete tends to be focused and diciplined. Personally I was a single sport athlete in college and my grades were always better during my athletic season and I observed this with my teammates as well. I think the trend to multi sport athletes will continue in the NESCAC.

As recently as 2008, Midd had John Sales, a three sport athlete in soccer, hockey and lacrosse. I believe that Mickey Gilchrist may have done the same around the same period.

[madzillagd]

#1 MIT was spanked by Rhode Island last night - a team that just squeezed by Bates on Sunday.

I watched the entire first half last night and a bit of the second.  As you put it, MIT was spanked and you can't really sugar coat it.  From what I saw, MIT could not match the athleticism of RIC and RIC did a great job of moving their feet to eliminate any size advantage in the post.  Despite having the height and weight advantage, the MIT bigs did nothing more than create space for themselves and then fail to deliver the few times they got the ball in the post.  As for the guards, I noticed on several possessions MIT would start out the set at the 3 point line and within 3 passes they'd be 10 feet behind the line because of the RIC pressure, only to have to reset the offense again.  The guards were not able to penetrate consistently and when they did RIC did a great job of collapsing.  Most of the points MIT got in the first half were on broken plays or transition where RIC was not able to find their men, once they did it was possession after possession of misses for MIT.

As for RIC's offense, on the NEWMAC board I saw it mentioned that RIC was nailing 3s but I don't think that really was that big of a difference in the game.  The difference truly was RIC's ability to penetrate at will that opened up all the shots.  The MIT guards simply could not stay with the RIC players.  Had they not made as many 3s they still would have won this game, maybe not as easily but they still would have won.

I think everyone had their suspicions about MIT before this game (which is why I tuned in) so I don't think this was a surprise to anyone, even the MIT fans.  My take away is that MIT is still a very good club, but I think similar matchups in the future will continue to cause them problems.  Just looking at their style and roster, they are much better suited to play against other big teams than they are against smaller, quicker teams.  That being said, not sure how many more talented athletic teams they have on their schedule so they very well could go through the year only losing a couple games. 

[frank uible]

Can them MIT eggheads both play basketball and also comprehend quantum physics in the same realm of time?

[amh63]

Madz.....nice points raised on your post of the MIT loss to RIC.  I watched the game last night and posted my comments on the LEC and NEWMAC boards.  The game holds interest to me for many reason....Amherst plays RIC every year and it will be an away game this year...RIC plays Amherst tough every year....in the 2011 sweet 16 site at Williams, RIC and Amherst were playing and Williams emerged from the site to go to the final 4.  Last year both MIT and Amherst were at the sweet 16 site down in Lancaster PA.  MIT and Amherst were favored to meet in a game leading to the Final 4.  MIT had all their "guns" last season and went to the Final 4.....Amherst was "upset" by the host school...alas...and the match game did not happened. 
I posted that with all the injuries on the MIT team it has become basically a two player offense, IMO.  MIT cannot handle a quicker team.
It is also points out that new players do not always contribute much.  MIT recruits written up on the NEWMAC board were tall and talented.  In last night's game, the new players playing in the last few minutes of game were not ready for the contest against the RIC bench players.
Anyway, Amherst plays tonight and I am again left with following the action via live stats!  May have to watch ice hockey on the webcast.

[Panthernation]

I believe some programs in the conference are specifically recruiting the 2 sport athlete.

Just touching back on the two-sport athlete discussion quickly -- I interviewed Middlebury AD Erin Quinn last year while writing an article about recruiting at Middlebury and asked him this very question. He said that while coaches will coordinate with one another when they recruit an athlete who has interest in playing two sports, the department does not specifically target two-sport athletes. He said most often prospective two-sport athletes are recruited by one team with the possibility of contributing to a second team. These recruits do not receive any extra push with admissions, however (i.e. they don't count as two recruits or something like that). Some NESCAC schools may pay particular attention to two-sport athletes, but Middlebury is not one of them.

As Old Guy and Bucket said, however, the list of two-sport athletes is both extensive and impressive at Middlebury. Other examples of this are Scarlett Kirk (2x First-Team NESCAC soccer player and significant contributor to the women's basketball team) and Billy Chapman who is the captain of both the football and lacrosse teams.

As for the three-sport athletes, this is not the spirit of the three-sport athlete, but runners who compete in cross country in the fall, indoor track in the winter and track in the spring do not receive nearly the credit they deserve. Each season requires different forms of training and competition and they are participating in a varsity sport year-round with daily practices and weekly competitions. Not exactly the quarterback/point guard/shortstop combo as previously noted, but impressive nonetheless.

[7express]

Anyone know why Tufts is playing out in Missouri this weekend (they play Illinois Wesleyan tonight, not sure who they play tomorrow)??  Are there players from the Missouri area that the coach wanted to get a couple games in front of family and friends??  A different reason??

Seems really strange that a NESCAC team would play a couple games halfway across the country about a week or two before final exams.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

It's a tournament at WashU (also playing - Wilmington) - that's a good chance to face some good competition without sacrificing regional record?

They do have one freshman from illinois, but I doubt that's why they're going.

[frank uible]

It is recalled that Amherst played in that same tournament about 25 years ago. A tournament appearance in St. Louis by a NESCAC college may serve the purpose of showing the flag in that region for applicant recruiting, alumni relations and general public recognition purposes plus a trip to the midwest may be horizon expanding for many of the players.