MBB: NESCAC

[Vandy74]

I agree that Midd-Cortland will be a very tough game, especially at Cortland. Cortland is very good and should be a slight favorite playing at home.

Still, I like the match-ups. The players that have given the Panthers the most trouble have been interior bangers or highly skilled post players (or both)—Glen Thomas, Peter Kasilla, Michael Mayer, A.J. Stephens (Curry).  I have no doubt that the Cortland guard play is as good as advertised, but the Panthers have relatively good success against quick guards and good shooters: Matt Vadas, Brown and Beresford, Robertson and Klemm (at least the first game), Aaron Toomey, Ben Ferris, Papalambros and Sedale Jones. Only Willy Workman has gone off against the Panthers.

Midd will obviously have to shoot better than they did against Curry. And Lynch will need to stay out of foul trouble and on the floor.

Should be a great game.

The individual match ups don't look worrisome as long as fouls don't become a factor.  Why is Cortland's home court advantage so inordinately high, assuming I understand massey's HFA correctly?  The fact that Cortland starts 4 seniors who won't want to walk off their home court for the last time on the losing end of things worries me the most.  That intangible worked in Middlebury's favor against Curry.  It will be a major obstacle playing at Cortland.  The Panthers might need to be a bit lucky Old Guy.

Vandy,
Cortland's home court advantage is high because the Red Dragons are 13-0 at home this year and have won 12 of those games by double digits. Only Geneseo who lost 79-73 kept it under double figures. Plattsburgh State, who gave the Red Dragons one of their 4 losses this year in Plattsburgh, 80-77 couldn't keep it in single digits in Cortland as they lost twice in Corey Gym...68-55 during the regular season and 75-61 during the playoffs. Those Cortland sharpshooters love their home rims and they are deadly there. I call them the "good and plenties" because they're good (265 made 3's at 40% rate) and they have 5 guys who can bury the 3 on you. You just can't cover them all and they find the open shooter and it's drano time.

Magicman,
Thanks for the info.  A team with 4 seniors that thrives on home cooking.  Not good.  Two common opponents, Ursinus and Plattsburg State.  Cortland manhandled Ursinus on a neutral court while the Panthers won a fairly close game.  It was their season opener however.  Cortland lost to Plattsburg on the road while Middlebury won there.  Both games were close.  Considering the size match ups and Cortland's abundant firepower from 3 point land I wonder if playing Lynch and Roberts alternately and starting Jensen would be effective.  Jensen, like Lynch can get himself in foul trouble at times so that will bear watching.  Middlebury doesn't have a deep bench.  Merryman's shooting eye has been inconsistent since he donned the headgear and Bulluck hasn't been getting the PT since coming back from injury that he had before it.  Churchill doesn't contribute much stat-wise but can hold his own in the role Brown has him play.  I think the Panthers can find a way to win it.

Old hooper,
I saw my HS JV coach make a similar shot 45 years ago in one of those fund raising games.  I don't remember a donkey being there but there was some gimmick involved.  Obviously a more low pressure situation.

Walzy, I see what you mean.  That wall clock seemed a bit faster but I still couldn't tell for sure.  Does basketball have it's own "rule" that the tie goes to the shooter?  The discussion between the refs was brief.  Someone must have been certain that he saw it correctly.

WPI89,

That's the way to allow and control a court storming.  I also think students are much more mature these days.  I got caught up in the moment at Vanderbilt once when we upset Kentucky.  I really just wanted to congratulate a good friend who was on the team.  Scary mass mayhem.  Shouldn't have done it.  Sorry for going D1 here but it's what I've got.  Vandy has no jock dorms, no Phys. Ed. major, officially no Athletic Dept.  The athletes meet the school's high academic standards, attend class and graduate.  This season I'm not sure they have a basketball team though.

[gordonmann]

I was at the Dickinson game and noticed the security guards speaking with the students near the end of the game. I presume it was to set the rules for any court storming.

That's the first court storming I've seen in Division III and it was pretty cool.  They also hoisted Adam Honig on their shoulders, which I had never seen before in a D3 game.

[lefrakenstein]

I was at the Dickinson game and noticed the security guards speaking with the students near the end of the game. I presume it was to set the rules for any court storming.

That's the first court storming I've seen in Division III and it was pretty cool.  They also hoisted Adam Honig on their shoulders, which I had never seen before in a D3 game.

Wow, Adam Honig is an Amherst economics professor (or at least used to be) and I was very confused when I first read this.

[madzillagd]

Well I finally got around to watching a good chunk of the Williams win.  I say good chunk because the archived video cuts off with 8 or 9 minutes to go in the game unfortunately.  I had caught just the last 2 minutes live so at least I got to see the finish.  As strange as it sounds, it was a fantastic weekend with family at a funeral and then a day and half in Monterey which is always a great place to be.  A victory was nice icing on the cake so not too disappointed I didn't get to see it all.

I came away very encouraged and discouraged from this game.  Encouraged that Williams can play so much better than they did on Saturday and discouraged at how sloppy they did play that game.  I had expected after the week off that the Ephs would come out executing and a bit more precise drawing on their experience to really get off to a good start.  Instead they were casual with the ball, didn't finish around the rim and even down to the end of the game just made some head scratching plays.  Another game like they had and they will not be around very long but I fully expect them to learn from that outing.  Had the game gone the other way it definitely would have been a case of beating themselves more than being beaten by the other team.  Wesley played well and shot better than expected, but when the Ephs were literally handing them the ball (why James? why!?!?!    ).  I'm expecting them to take care of the ball this next game and finish around the rim. 

The biggest downside of the lost video is I apparently missed Mayer's dunk of the year.  Saw the alley-oop he threw down in the first half, but apparently he got up on a rebound and threw it down that was even more impressive later in the game.  That I would have liked to have seen.   

[amh63]

LeFraken....Maybe he is the same person and decided to pursue a more rewarding/lucrative profession. 
Madz...keep forgetting that your "Home turf" is most familiar to me.  Worked and traveled in the area for decades.  Have a brother-in-law who worked at UC-Davis along with his wife...been reading his blog on his motorcycle travels up and down the northern California area.  Monterey Peninsula...have classmates in Carmel and had contracts with the Naval Post Graduate School in the area....believe Middlebury has started a educational connection there.....fun place but much too cold for me in the early mornings when the mist comes in from the cold waters over the beaches.  John Steinbeck/Army Depot/sardine factories/Clint Eastwood/pumpkin capitol/and expensive golfing.....but I have really digressed. Need to visit again and live off of my wife's family.

Vandy....like Northwestern in the "Big 10?", your alma mater in the SEC is an odd ball private school that likes to beat itself up in a powerhouse sports conf.  Your school needs to take the Stanford approach and "buy" itself to respect in sports...did ok in football lately.

[nescac1]

Congrats to Michael Mayer on being named a Jostens finalist!   Particularly impressive since Mayer is only a Junior (most, maybe all, of the other finalists are seniors).  Oddly enough, he will be playing Catholic's Chris Kearney, another Jostens finalist, in what should be a dynamite individual match-up on Saturday.  Two Ephs have previously won the Jostens award, Blake Schultz and Mike Nogelo.

http://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2013/03/jostens-finalists-announced

Another Mayer note: it was recently announced that Williams will be playing in his hometown, Durham, N.C. during a Christmas tourney next year.  The Ephs will play perpetual ODAC power Hampden-Sydney in one of the games.  Should be fun. 

In future Eph news, a pretty impressive finale to Duncan Robinson's college career:

http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/high-school/post/_/id/22865/nepsac-crowns-for-st-thomas-more-cushing-exeter

"Six-foot-7 forward Robinson, the tournament MVP, put on what may have been the most impressive individual performance of the tournament, finishing with 24 points and 11 rebounds and playing as close to a perfect game as one possibly can -— knocking down five 3-pointers and shooting 9-for-9 from the field. Robinson's show was the cherry on top of an unprecedented season by Exeter, who earlier in the day met on the front steps of their gym to discuss their goals one last time before departing for the championship game."

[Bucket]

Middlebury-Cortland will tip at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday.

[NYHOOPS8]

Very interested in both East/Northeast matchups here. The question in the Cortland/Middlebury game is which advantage will be greater: Cortland's perimeter or Middlebury's frontcourt.  The Amherst/Plattsburgh game will be a fun one to watch.

[magicman]

I got my wish as the 2 two SUNYAC-NESCAC games are at completely different times and now will be able to watch both games.

Middlebury at Cortland State Saturday afternoon at 3:00 PM   
Hoping Cortland will be adding a live video broadcast for this game. I'm waiting to hear from Cortland's SID and will post something here when I do.

Plattsburgh State  at  Amherst  Saturday evening  at 7:00 PM   Amherst will have that one on video for sure. 

[Panthernation]

I agree that Midd-Cortland will be a very tough game, especially at Cortland. Cortland is very good and should be a slight favorite playing at home.

Still, I like the match-ups. The players that have given the Panthers the most trouble have been interior bangers or highly skilled post players (or both)—Glen Thomas, Peter Kasilla, Michael Mayer, A.J. Stephens (Curry).  I have no doubt that the Cortland guard play is as good as advertised, but the Panthers have relatively good success against quick guards and good shooters: Matt Vadas, Brown and Beresford, Robertson and Klemm (at least the first game), Aaron Toomey, Ben Ferris, Papalambros and Sedale Jones. Only Willy Workman has gone off against the Panthers.

Midd will obviously have to shoot better than they did against Curry. And Lynch will need to stay out of foul trouble and on the floor.

Should be a great game.

The individual match ups don't look worrisome as long as fouls don't become a factor.  Why is Cortland's home court advantage so inordinately high, assuming I understand massey's HFA correctly?  The fact that Cortland starts 4 seniors who won't want to walk off their home court for the last time on the losing end of things worries me the most.  That intangible worked in Middlebury's favor against Curry.  It will be a major obstacle playing at Cortland.  The Panthers might need to be a bit lucky Old Guy.

Vandy,
Cortland's home court advantage is high because the Red Dragons are 13-0 at home this year and have won 12 of those games by double digits. Only Geneseo who lost 79-73 kept it under double figures. Plattsburgh State, who gave the Red Dragons one of their 4 losses this year in Plattsburgh, 80-77 couldn't keep it in single digits in Cortland as they lost twice in Corey Gym...68-55 during the regular season and 75-61 during the playoffs. Those Cortland sharpshooters love their home rims and they are deadly there. I call them the "good and plenties" because they're good (265 made 3's at 40% rate) and they have 5 guys who can bury the 3 on you. You just can't cover them all and they find the open shooter and it's drano time.

Cortland's season-long shooting stats are pretty impressive (.481/.387/.718), and they only get scarier when you see what they done at home (.492/.427/.711). The two-point field goals don't change at all at home (in fact it gets a little bit worse: .534 at home vs. .547 overall), but the big difference is from beyond the arc (.387 overall vs. .427 at home). The only thing I'd contest is the "5 guys who can bury the 3 on you." Cortland really only has 4 guys who can shoot the 3 on the team, though those 4 guys shoot the ball really well (none of them shoot below 37.6% from 3).

What scares me more is the number of free throws Cortland shoots as a team. In 6 of their 12 home games the Red Dragons have shot 20 or more free throws and 18 in two others. That's a high number for a team that shoots so many threes, and reminds me of the mentality that some NBA teams have made very popular, which is that players should either be shooting 3s or going to the rim (as their high volume of free throws would indicate).

Having not seen any of their game tape it's hard to know, but the numbers seem to support that theory, which is enough to scare me.

[magicman]

Just heard from Cortland's SID, Fran Elia, who is a great guy and does a super job for that school. He informed me that there will be a video broadcast for Saturday afternoon's game. There will be live stats as well. So for all the Panther fans (and Cortland fans ) that can't make it to the game you can still see the game. Last week the SUNYAC championship game was on video from Cortland and it was a good broadcast with good announcing. I'll post a link to it on gameday if none shows up on the D3hoops scoreboard, but they will probably have the link as well. 

[magicman]

Panthernation,
The 5th guy who can shoot the 3 pointer for Cortland is Lamard Herron. I know he hasn't hit as many as the other 4 primary 3 point shooters but he has made 12 of 33 attempts for a 36.4%. And in the 1st round NCAA game against Elms College the other night he led the team in scoring with 20 points and was 2x3 from downtown. He also doesn't start and is basically the 5th option when the Red Dragons are looking for the long ball. But he loves to be left wide open if you think he can't shoot the 3 ball.

[middhoops]

Cortland looks very good, especially on their home court.  As a Panther fan I am just happy not to see a bunch of big, physical athletic guards on their roster.  After the Scranton (debacle) and Curry (scare), it will be relatively nice to compete against smaller, quick (if deadly) shooters.

There is no way around it, Middlebury is going to have to hit their shots at Cortland.  You can bet that Cortland will.

On another note, Plattsburgh is scrappy and fun to watch but going to LeFrak to play a rested LJ squad is too much for anybody right now, I think.
Williams opened with a close game.  I think they handle Catholic with a few to spare.

[amh63]

Middhoops......like your thinking!

Madzill.....Read today in the WSJ that the Big 10 Tournament to be held in the Chicago Bull playhouse will benefit from the equipment available.  The SportsVU effort applied to the NBA teams will be tried on the likes of Indiana, Michigan, etc. players.  Did not provide answers of when, who, will take the data collected....and who will use any data analyzed.

[amh63]

Magicman........Got a little BAD news for you concerning game times on Sat.   The Amherst website just announced the men's game will be at 4PM!
Stats and video feed will be provided.
Thought something was funny when this morning there were TBD on start times for the MBB and WBB games.  The final WBB game on Sat....is listed at 7:30PM.  Must be an NCAA thing to clear the gym after the men's game for different set of tickets, etc......more rest for the women playing the Friday late match.
Was also shocked to see that Tennis and Lacrosse games are scheduled on campus when such team previews have not been posted!
Time for Sat WBB game moved to time noted.....still some adjusting.....Add Baseball game on Sunday to the un previewed teams....as of today.!