MBB: NESCAC

[Bucket]

While we can't give away anything juicy, we can tell you that James Jensen has been practicing and had his first one on one contact practice with a coach after the scrimmage.  He says definitively that he'll play against Stevenson in a couple weeks.

As I said a few weeks back...

[P'bearfan]

This Friday Bowdoin will kick off it's season at the Regis College Tip-off Tournament.  The P'bears will play Western Connecticut State in their first game.  On paper Bowdoin should be favored.

WCSU posted a 5-21 record last year scoring 65.3 ppg while allowing 74.0 ppg.  WCSU lost four seniors who averaged between 16.5 - 26.5 min / game.  This same group also accounted for 30 ppg (46% of total); 10.5 rpg (26% of total); 6.8 apg (49% of total) and 3.6 stl/gm (43% of total).  That's quite a bit of production to replace.

On the plus side for WCSU, last year they had 13 players with 10 or more minutes per game and 2 of those players were FY. So they will have players with enough game experience to step into the openings from graduation.

Last year Bowdoin averaged 69.5 ppg while allowing only 64.2 ppg while playing in a much tougher conference.  The P'bears lost only 2 seniors and 1 junior who accounted for  9, 20.7, and 4 mpg respectively and a combined 10.6ppg (15.2% of total).

Bowdoin should have a slight size advantage.  WCSU hasn't released their roster for 2013-14, so we don't know who's back and what the freshman class will bring.  However, based on last year, WCSU is likely to only have four players over 6'-5" (2 at 6'-5"; 1 at 6'-6"; 1 at 6'-7"). WCSU's tallest player - Barnes - was a junior last year and only averaged 14.7 mpg and scored 5.4 ppg.  Bowdoin has 5 players 6'-5" or taller with of course Swords at 7'. 

Of course the biggest challenge for Bowdoin will be at PG.  It will be hard to replace Hurley's production (points, assists, steals) and leadership.  The team will have to find a new offensive identify and flow.  So while Bowdoin looks to have the advantage on paper they are in the type of situation where their play could be up and down quite a bit leaving them vulnerable to upsets.

I'll be traveling to see the games this weekend.  Looking forward to the start of the season!

[madzillagd]

Two new assistants for Conn College

http://hoopdirt.com/news/3adaa5d7/connecticut-college-hires-two/

[P'bearfan]

http://www.colby.edu/athletics_cs/mens_basketball/index.cfm?content=roster

It looks like Colby has posted their full roster.  They are showing 16 players including 2 FY's  - a PG and SG. 

[madzillagd]

First week of games, couldn't come soon enough.  Here's a look ahead to this week's match ups for Williams.

Southern Vermont @ Williams 11/15  8 PM EST

Last year:  Williams 81, SVU 51;   Williams 93, SVU 45

Southern Vermont

Overview: 
SV is a complete mystery this year with a new coach Dan Englestad added in the offseason.  Dan graduated from St. Mary's (MD) just 6 years ago so he should have good knowledge of how a quality program is run.  He just finished up 3 years as an assistant at Holy Cross.  SV may be a program on the rise out of the depths to attain at least mediocrity, we'll just see how long it takes to get there.   His stated goal at SVU:  "I want to compete with Williams."  http://www.benningtonbanner.com/sports/ci_24093532/building-hoop-dreams  I suspect on Friday he's going to get a much better understanding of the difficulty of making that happen. 

Key Players:
Only two players that had much of an impact last year are returning in Juniors Travis Severs (9.2 ppg) and Jermaine Campbell (12.4).  SV averaged just 61.6 ppg last year and 22.2 of those came from graduated Senior Taeshon Johnson.  SVU has 3 Captains indicated on their roster, not a single one was on the team last year.  After playing essentially 5 guards last year, the most intriguing new player for SVU is the Fr. Blair Manners, 6'10, out of Auckland, NZ.  With no other size on the roster I'd assume Mr. Manners will be starting. 


Williams
The Ephs come off an Elite 8 finish and look loaded this year.  Staying away from injuries and developing the promising new players in the program will most likely be a focus in the early weeks of the season. 

Key Players:
Everything starts with the big man in the middle, Michael Mayer.  Mayer averaged 17.7 ppg, 8.8 rbs a game and will continue to be the key cog in the Williams offense.  Epley is back from an 18.5 ppg season and will likely get to play his natural 3 position rather than the 4 this year.  Daniel Wohl is primed to have a breakout year and may be the most valuable Eph not named Mayer. 

Keys to the Game: 
This really should not be much of a contest but it will be interesting to see Manners match up with Mayer.  He does not appear to be quick enough to keep up with Mayer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anEte_R_7eU
) which could leave SVU with a very small line up as we've seen in the past.  Of the 16 players listed on the SVU roster, 14 are 6'4 or less.  Mayer went for 23 pts, 9 rbs last year in only 23 minutes in the first match up; he topped that with a 22 pt, 12 rb game in 15 mins in the second matchup.  That's 45 pts, 21 rebs in 38 mins of play.. good luck Mr. Manners.

[madzillagd]

Salem State @ Williams 11/16  3 PM EST

Last year:  Williams 91, Salem St 61

Salem State

Overview: 
Last year, Salem St was able to hang with the Ephs for the majority of the first half.  With 6:26 to go in the first half, Williams led 23-22 before going on a 21-9 run to create a gap that Salem never closed.

Key Players:
Salem St. had five players average double figures in scoring last year and one at 9.8 ppg, unfortunately only two of those players are back with the squad this year in Andrew White (10.3 ppg, 5.9 rbg 2.9 apg) and Bryan Ortiz (13.6 ppg).  No other player on the roster scored as much as 5 ppg last year.

Williams
Something to watch for with Williams this year will be how deep Maker goes to the bench and whether he mixes up the combinations of bench and starters.  In the early season last year, Maker played essentially all starters or all bench, with Epley really the only starter that consistently played along side the second string.  The result was a bit of rain or shine.  The starters were very successful but then there was big drop off in scoring once the second string was on the floor.  Later in the year Maker switched the approach and only put one or two subs in at once, and they had much more success playing along side the starters.  That being said, the second string seems to be more talented offensively this year and that may not be an issue at all.

Key Players:
The assumed starter at point guard this year is Hayden Rooke-Ley who missed all of last year after having hip surgery.  HRL is a very physical guard and it will be interesting to see if he can stay out of foul trouble in these early games as they adjust to how things will be called this year. 

Keys to the Game: 
Salem St. appears to have a very inexperienced team this year so unless they have some freshmen surprises, I do not expect this to be too difficult a game for Williams.  With the new rules, there is always the possibility that fouls will force coaches to go to their benches early, but even then I believe Williams has the depth advantage and should still be able to take care of business. 

[jayhawk]

Have met and chatted with Dan Englestad over the summer through a friend
Dan is a hard working guy who has significant connections in the recruiting home front. I believe he was the chief recruiter for Holy Cross.
He is bringing in some potentially interesting players- time will tell as this is just his first year
curious to see Southern Vermont play Williams

[nescac1]

Nice scouting report madzillagd, thanks!  I have not checked them out, but in past years Salem State has often brought in impact recruits from junior colleges, so it is possible there is more to them then meets the eye. 

One positive note for a Conn College program that once again loses a key player (Shill) in the offseason ... Rob Harrigan, a leading scorer from two years ago, returns to the team.  The Harrigan-Vadas-McBurnie trio could be pretty good.  Conn doesn't have the depth or size to scare any of the top teams, but they should be somewhat improved this year, even without Shill. 

In light of injury reports (Hurley in particular) and other pre-season reports, I'm going to revise my all-NESCAC predictions:

1st Team: (super easy and will probably be unanimous, all these guys should be at worst all-Region and likely all-Americans if they stay healthy)
Michael Mayer, Taylor Epley, Ben Ferris, Aaron Toomey, Joey Kizell

2nd Team (pretty big drop-off from the first team):
Keegan Pieri, Daniel Wohl, Matt Hart, Mike Boornazian, Matt Vadas

3rd Team:
Connor Green, Andrew Madlinger, Steve Haladyna, David Kalema, James Jensen

POY: 1. Toomey, 2. Mayer,  3. Kizell  (I think Mayer is going to be the top player, by a smidgen, in NESCAC, but Toomey will be relied on to carry the load more). 
ROY (always a stab in the dark): 1. Duncan Robinson, 2. Harry Rafferty, 3. Hunter Sabety, 4. David George, 5. Matt St. Amour (awesome group of first-years in NESCAC this season, lots of other guys should make an impact).
DPOY: after many years of really elite defensive players, like Locke, Whittingon, Sharry, Thompson, Workman, this is the first year in awhile with no obvious candidates at all, with no true lock-down wing players nor any dominating defensive big guys, but I'll go with:
1. Wohl, 2. Kalema, 3. Jensen

[Old Guy]

curious to see Southern Vermont play Williams Jayhawk

They can only go up: 3-46 the last two years. At least they only get Williams once this year.

I think the second (or third) Midd player on an all-NESCAC team will be a surprise, someone whose name we have hardly mentioned (and I don't have anyone in particular in mind: there's that much up in the air, to be determined, on this club).

Let the games begin!

[nescac1]

Williams roster posted:

http://ephsports.williams.edu/sports/mbkb/2013-14/roster

No big surprises.  The Ephs' frontcourt looks like it will be much stouter this season: Mayer, Flynn, Epley, Wohl and Kilcullen added an average of about 15 pounds in the off season, and now average 225 lbs.  Plus they added sophomore football player Darrias Sime, who is 6'5, 223.  I imagine the Ephs will still play a precise offense focused on cutting and shooting, but they definitely have the size and bulk inside to overpower some teams for the first time in awhile.  Mayer and Epley can really punish teams in the post, and Wohl should be difficult for smaller wings to handle going to the hole now that he has bulked up.  Sime looks extremely athletic on the football field and should bring a different dimension to the team, although it might take some time for him to adjust since he didn't play hoops last year. 

[madzillagd]

Williams is scheduled to play basketball this weekend at home and host the regional volleyball tournament at the same time. While dodging volleyballs mid game does sound entertaining I do think the net may be a bit of a problem.  Is the old gym still usable to host a game?  Be kind of unique to have a throw back game there if possible otherwise I assume they will find a new site to play the hoops tournament.

[amh63]

Madz's..my take is the old gym which proved to be "tight" for BB games in the old days...with the columns and all ...maybe too restrictive for the California game
In any case with all the brain power in Willy Town, some time management is all that is needed, IMO .  Got to consider the webcasts.

[dman]

it appears that williams will open against southern vermont on friday night at mcla in north adams.  saturday's game will be played in chandler at 7:30 pm.....

[NEhoops]

First Team:

Epley (SR) – Williams
Kizel (SR) – Middlebury
Mayer (SR) – Williams
Toomey (SR) – Amherst

Second Team:

Ferris (JR) – Tufts
Hart (SO) – Hamilton
Madlinger (SR) – Bowdoin
Matarazzo (SR) – Bates
Vadas (SR) – Conn
Wohl (JR) – Williams

[madzillagd]

The revised schedule/location for the Williams men's & women's tournaments this weekend.  Looks like the women will play a game in Lasell which I think is a very cool opportunity. 

http://ephsports.williams.edu/sports/mbkb/2013-14/releases/20131112sh60f3