MBB: NESCAC

madzillagd · October 22, 2013, 12:21:03 PM

Agree with NESCAC1, the first non-NESCAC team that comes to my mind to watch is WPI. This is a really big year for them and most importantly I think they need to do something in the tournament this year if they want to keep pace with MIT over the next couple of years. Sounds like MIT may have reloaded their big men but I expect them to take a year to get acclimated so I definitely think the NEWMAC is WPI's to lose this year. They put up a gaudy record last year but some of the shine came off with the 2nd round loss. I expect them to be in the top 10-20 to start the year and that game against Tufts in the first week of December will be a nice barometer of where those two young teams are at.

amh63 · October 23, 2013, 10:27:06 AM

Has anyone else notice that this board just flew through the 1000 page mark and shows no signs of slowing down.

Just got back from NE late yesterday...wife wanted to see an exhibit in Boston and had a birthday dinner for a friend..I know this is an excuse for not providing anything of value.
Did talk to Sanderson as he went to the weight room. The team members have individual weight room "work" when they can and several informal practices during the week. I missed the Sat one due to other commitments. Sanderson is around 215 lbs now and he has not grown much in height he believes. An assistant coach confirmed that he is stronger/ solid....tried to convince several of the 2007-2008 front court players to suit up and help out the team this year

. The alumni back for homecoming were mixed about their conditioning for today's game pace.
Here is a question for posters...given the players available, will the conf. Teams change their style of play from last year. Will Tufts play more of a running game or continue a half court style with their big front court? I think, Amherst will run more this year...would LIKE to run more based on my naive assessment of the talent on hand. Will Williams continue to play zone?...depend on the outside shooters? Some of you may have commented on such..but I missed it as I followed the Fall teams.

madzillagd · October 23, 2013, 12:23:32 PM

Quote from: amh63 on October 23, 2013, 10:27:06 AM
Will Williams continue to play zone?...depend on the outside shooters?

On the surface Williams appears to rely a lot on it's outside shooters but that's the beauty of Maker's system. In reality, they don't rely on their outside shooters any more than other teams in the conference and if we had the advanced stats I'd bet money that they take less outside shots than any other team with maybe the exception of Trinity. Trinity only took 11.3 threes a game last year, a low for the league. Colby was the high at 22.2. With the exception of Trinity, the remaining 10 teams took between 17.7 - 22.2 three point attempts a game. Williams was 3rd in attempts at 20.4 a game, second if you go by % of shots taken at 37.1 of their total shots per game. Not a huge difference between the teams in terms of how many threes they take.

The difference however, and this is where you just have to trust me on this one because I don't have the stats to back it up, is that Williams takes very few shots between 10 ft and the 3 point line. If you take an outside shot for Maker, you better be behind the line unless the shot clock is running out. There are no plays in the system for outside shots that are not 3s. If it's not a layup, then it needs to be a 3, there really isn't an in between.

The closest thing I can think of to illustrate this is to look at the FG % of the players on 2 pointers only. If we eliminate their 3 pt shots, here's how they breakdown for the main guys...

2 pt fgs only
Robertson: 56%
Weinheimer: 58%
Epley: 55%
Klemm: 62%
Wohl: 64%
Mayer: 60%

To give you a comparison, here's the same stat for the LJs
Workman: 51%
Toomey: 46%
Williamson: 56%
Killian: 46%
Kaasila: 64%
Green: 53%
Kalema: 50%

No one in their right mind would say Robertson is a better outside shooter than Toomey even though he shot 10% better. The reality is Robertson shot almost all layups (contest & uncontested) whereas Toomey shot far more outside shots. If we had the ability to see the plotting of all the shots throughout the year for all the clubs I think you'd find that Williams took far less outside shots that most teams.

As for the zone, I think it worked well enough last year in most games that we'll definitely see some of it this year. There were times that teams shot well against it and it didn't pan out, like in the first two games against Amherst, but overall I think it was a great advantage to Williams to utilize their length and disrupt the flow of the other team's offense. There may be times this year when the shortest guy on the floor for Williams is 6'5 and I definitely could see them going zone in those situations and forcing teams to shoot over them.

jayhawk · October 23, 2013, 03:01:22 PM

The way Williams offense is run, players get a significant number of backdoor plays and pick and rolls for layups. Mayer feasts on the pick and roll layup

middhoops · October 23, 2013, 03:54:11 PM

Michael Mayer is so effective putting the ball on the floor that most teams have to double down on him, creating good shots for his team mates. Without the mass of Big Pete, the LJs are going to have to adjust more creatively than last season.
As per Williams, I'm most interested to see who is the primary ball handler/distributor. Somehow I picture Wohl as being a scary match-up problem if he handles the ball a lot. Rooke-Ley is a fine player but considerably more guard-able from a size and athletic viewpoint. Regardless the Ephs are going to be a real force, nationally, this year.

madzillagd · October 25, 2013, 12:35:03 PM

Game 1 three weeks from today.

amh63 · October 25, 2013, 02:59:05 PM

Madz's...must be the Williams game

Little official info on BB coming out of Amherst. Amherst's schedule still has TBD for its early tourney. Having trouble scheduling games? No one wants to play Amherst locally?

Panthernation · October 25, 2013, 03:45:30 PM

This is pretty cool: Remember Varun Ram, the Trinity point guard who transferred to Maryland after his freshman season, during which he averaged almost 8 points per game? After spending last season on the Terrapins practice squad due to transfer rules, Ram was offered a scholarship spot by Mark Turgeon. Also, the article was written by Alex Prewitt, a recent Tufts graduate who helped write and edit NESCAC Insider.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/terrapins-insider/wp/2013/10/25/former-walk-on-varun-ram-defies-expectations-earns-scholarship-for-terps/

P'bearfan · October 25, 2013, 04:23:29 PM

Headed to Bowdoin this weekend. Hope to get some insights as to how the team is shaping up. Can't wait for the seaons to start.

Mr. Ypsi · October 25, 2013, 05:14:33 PM

d3hoops.com preseason poll is up. Amherst is #1, Williams #3, Midd #18, and Tufts got 3 points. For the CCIW, IWU is #2, Wheaton #5, NCC #6, and Augie got 63 points. (UWSP is #4.) Those are gonna be two TOUGH leagues this season!

nescac1 · October 25, 2013, 05:59:30 PM

Thanks, Mr. Ypsi. Considering those two leagues combined for four of the elite eight, two of the final four, and the national champion, and combine to return a slew of surefire pre-season all-American players, no surprise that they would fare well in the pre-season poll. Too bad we can't have a NESCAC-CCIW invitational this year ... Amherst vs. IWU, Williams vs. Wheaton, NCC vs. Midd and Augie vs. Tufts would all be really fun games.

Looking at how New England teams are ranked, it goes like this: Amherst, Williams, WPI, Midd, RIC, Eastern Conn, MIT, Tufts, Brandeis. That looks nearly dead-on to me, although I do think that Tufts will finish above both MIT and Eastern Conn this year. Still, the Jumbos have to prove that they are as good on the court as they appear on paper.

From an Eph fan perspective, I am excited for four big-time match-ups for Williams this year: home and away vs. number one Amherst, at number 14 HSC, and at number 18 Midd (not to mention Tufts and likely additional games vs. Midd and/or Amherst in the NESCAC tourney).

SE_D3_fan, curious to hear your Bowdoin report, as they seem to be the only squad capable for breaking into the expected NESCAC big four. And Panthernation, great article on Varun Ram. Would have been fun to see what he could have done had he stuck around NESCAC. And, a testament to how strong the talent level in NESCAC is, that a guy who played for a second-tier NESCAC team could early a scholarship at an ACC school.

toad22 · October 25, 2013, 07:12:24 PM

A great poll. All of the teams that look to me to be the best teams in the country this year are mentioned. Of course it is a preseason poll, so it will have major errors. Who cares? This is a very good effort.

amh63 · October 25, 2013, 08:41:12 PM

Though it is a pre-season poll, Amherst's regular season appears challenging. Brandeis, RIC and ECSU are scheduled outside conference opponents.

middhoops · October 25, 2013, 08:43:41 PM

Interesting that Midd is ranked so high given what they lost. After the first half dozen games of the season they could be a little higher or a whole lot lower. The Panthers go through a meat grinder on the road early.
During November I'll watch dozens if not hundreds of (mostly partial) games of the top teams, online.
I'll try to be objective as I look for more impactful players than Toomey and Mayer. For now I feel, for fairly arbitrary reasons, that they lead the pack as the season starts.
Can NOT wait for the games to begin.
Good luck to the CCIW, too. These two conferences are destined to meet a few times in March and April.

Mr. Ypsi · October 25, 2013, 08:46:22 PM

Quote from: nescac1 on October 25, 2013, 05:59:30 PM
Thanks, Mr. Ypsi. Considering those two leagues combined for four of the elite eight, two of the final four, and the national champion, and combine to return a slew of surefire pre-season all-American players, no surprise that they would fare well in the pre-season poll. Too bad we can't have a NESCAC-CCIW invitational this year ... Amherst vs. IWU, Williams vs. Wheaton, NCC vs. Midd and Augie vs. Tufts would all be really fun games.

Looking at how New England teams are ranked, it goes like this: Amherst, Williams, WPI, Midd, RIC, Eastern Conn, MIT, Tufts, Brandeis. That looks nearly dead-on to me, although I do think that Tufts will finish above both MIT and Eastern Conn this year. Still, the Jumbos have to prove that they are as good on the court as they appear on paper.

From an Eph fan perspective, I am excited for four big-time match-ups for Williams this year: home and away vs. number one Amherst, at number 14 HSC, and at number 18 Midd (not to mention Tufts and likely additional games vs. Midd and/or Amherst in the NESCAC tourney).

SE_D3_fan, curious to hear your Bowdoin report, as they seem to be the only squad capable for breaking into the expected NESCAC big four. And Panthernation, great article on Varun Ram. Would have been fun to see what he could have done had he stuck around NESCAC. And, a testament to how strong the talent level in NESCAC is, that a guy who played for a second-tier NESCAC team could early a scholarship at an ACC school.

That would be a blast! NCC lost so much that they are almost certainly over-ranked at #6 (some of the best analysts of the CCIW think Augie should have been ranked above NCC), but Midd also lost a ton.

At the very top, I would have put Amherst #4, and would not argue against ANY order of IWU, UWSP, and Williams that anyone prefers.