MBB: NESCAC

[ECSUalum]

Thanks old hooper for the comments.  Amherst just has too many weapons to control, so maybe I was too harsh on ECSU's defense.
Not sure what happened when Amherst lost to Emerson, but their overall stats are excellent. 
That is great, (though not for ECSU last night), that Ben Pollack has returned as he definitely is a force on the court.  Should put the LJs in good position for the NESCAC contests down to the end of the season. 
Yes, Kalema, not a flashy player but does a lot of things right, compliments Toomey well and, as you say, is a very good ball handler/Free Throw shooter.

Toomey was a little frustrated in the 1st half of the game last night, but when he started to click, I sort of knew it was over for the Warriors.

ECSU is still relatively young, with Lindo, Preston, and Kaczinski getting a lot of minutes.  If Geitner can mold 6-11 David Canny like he did with Chris Robitaille over his career, it will finally give Easter a big big who can dominate a game offensively and defensively.

[amh63]

Been watching two games on line that I thought would be interesting.  WPI vs Springfield at Springfield and Emerson vs. Babson at Babson.  WPI, the recent featured school on Hoopsville is blowing out Springfield.  It is 51-30, WPI at the half.  WPI's defense and outside shooting has made Springfield look overmatched so far.  The surging Babson team is also making Emerson look like the team rated last in the pre-season by conference coaches....unaware of the new member of the league.  Interesting outcomes so far when one considers that Amherst played 3 of the 4 teams....losing only to Emerson at Emerson when both Pollack and Killian were out with injuries.  Killian's return in the Babson game was the key in that win, imho.
Will be traveling Thursday and hope to see some posters in LeFrak on Friday.

[Old Guy]

Self-doubt is corrosive, contagious, and fatal to performance. Not just in sports. The Panthers are being tested: let's hope their love of the game (joie de jouer) and one another is not eroded by this tough spell. Cliches are cliches for a reason: play 'em "one game at a time" - and don't judge your play exclusively on the basis of score and outcome. Discipline, communal effort, and purity of commitment are considerations too. These words, concepts, must take form in action - there's the challenge. In a previous life, I  spent two summers helping to run baseball camps with Steve Blass. Remember him? We had good talks about these things.

Best wishes, Middlebury coaches and players, from a hotel room in Istanbul, where I am for two days, as my flight here from New York was delayed, I missed my connection to West Africa, and there are no flights there for two days. I'm here with my hoop companion, live stats. Tuesday night, Young Guy was texting me at JFK ever-more discouraging updates from the Plattsburgh game.

Good luck against the Bobcats (my second favorite NESCAC team) and the Jumbos. Play hard, have fun (I know, easy to say).

[nescac1]

Incredible re: Steve Blass, Old Guy -- it's generally not a good thing in baseball when your name becomes synonymous with, well, anything (see Tommy John surgery, the Mendoza Line, and of course Steve Blass Disease, the latter of which was my fantasy baseball team name for four years, which came back to bite me after acquiring Rick Ankiel).  I am glad to hear he used his experiences to help others going forward. 

Considering that a single NESCAC game has yet to be played, the season is still wide open.  I don't think many people were forecasting that Amherst would not lose again last year after it fell in back-to-back games to mediocre teams early in the season. Obviously, Midd is not as talented overall as last year's Amherst team, but sometimes things just take a little while to click. 

Interesting NEWMAC games last night.  Despite a rough loss to WPI, I wouldn't bury Springfield yet -- WPI, while a good-shooting team, was just collectively lights-out from three that game, including several guys not noted for their long-ball acumen.  I have a feeling that WPI, Springfield, Babson and MIT are all going to beat each other up depending on match-ups, and that all will pick up at least a few NEWMAC losses ... but if I had to pick one to be the biggest threat, it would be Babson rather than WPI. 

[WPI89]

NESCAC1 - agree completely with your assessment.  I think Babson on any given night has the highest upside in the NEWMAC this year - perhaps followed by MIT.  I still wouldn't bet against WPI winning the regular season NEWMAC just because coach Bartley never seems to let them have a down night..........but none of them are looking at anything close to 13-1.  I could see 11wins or even 10-4 winning the NEWMAC number 1 seed.

Both conferences will be crazy to follow the next 7 weeks - very much looking forward to it.

[maineman]

I guess I am on an island here but I really liked the VMI campus when I recently visited.  Stark, yes, but beautiful in its own way and loved the enormous grassy field at the center (which I assume is kept for military exercises).  Not as beautiful as W&L, no doubt, but how many schools are? 

I have never been to W&L or VMI, but I wonder if a New England comparison of the appearance and architecture of Norwich (a military school) and any of the NESCACs could be made?  Norwich has the parade ground in the center and barracks around it.  Is that stark?

[WPI89]

Never been to Norwich but have been to Lexington, Va. - A decent analogy of W&L/VMI could be made to Conn College and Coast Guard - right in our backyard.

[jayhawk]

as far as Emerson, their gym structure is unique - a bandbox unique home court advantage
that said having Pollack and Killian probably would not have lost
Those two individuals provide an important physical presence to Amherst

[Old Guy]

As we head into the first big NESCAC weekend, a few performances from last Tuesday deserve note:

Colby gave up 53 points in the second half in their 8 point road loss, 82-74, to Maine neighbor, Husson, (Husson is 10-0 in the Castleton, Colby-Sawyer, UMaine Farmington league: remember the great battle they gave an outstanding Williams team in the opening round of the NCAAs a few years ago. Can't tell you exactly when, or the score, as I can't find Eph archives on their webpage). Hudnut went 1-10 (but had 8 free throws).

Bates lost by 5 to Brandeis in Waltham, 83-78: Graham Safford had 33 points and 6 assists (38 minutes). Is there anyone in the league playing better? Matarazzo is back, played 14 minutes, had no hoops from the floor (only took 2 shots), four free throws, and no assists. The Delpeche twins, twin towers, played 24 minutes combined and had only 5 points and 5 rebounds. Malcolm fouled out and Marcus had 4 fouls. With both big guys in foul trouble, the Bobcats don't have much size. Boornazian went for 16 and 10.

Bowdoin beat Bridgewater State by 5, 64-59. Swords' line was modest for him by this year's standards, 7 points, 5 rebounds, but he only committed one foul. Obviously, staying in the game will be crucial in upcoming contests

[old_hooper]

An intriguing matchup for Friday will be the game in Hartford featuring Trinity and Williams.  Trinity is very young (no seniors) with frosh and sophs seeing considerable action and their leading scorers.  They are 8-4 overall with losses-two by a single point, 4 and 11.  The 4 point loss was to common opponent Springfield who Williams beat on their floor by 5.  The Bants schedule is not going to impress anyone but this is a young team that is making significant progress and seem to be staying in their games.  At some point they will start to find a way to win some of those close ones. 

The most interesting stat the Bants are 8th in the country in defense allowing 59.5 per game.  What makes this so interesting is the fact that they are so young.  They are very effective defending the 3 holding opponents to 28%.  A real strength for William's at 42%.  Defense is something you develop a mindset for and it appears the coaching staff has it going with the Bants.  Williams balanced attack and match ups present the biggest challenge thus far for them.  Mayer will have to have a big game.  Should Williams get into foul trouble with some starters this could be a key factor in the game.  It will be interesting to see if Trinity can keep it close in this one at home.  The Ephs will then have to face the 7th best offense nationally on Saturday against the Jeffs who are averaging 92 per game.

[madzillagd]

O_H, I'm more nervous about the Trinity game than I am about the Amherst game quite frankly.  Not that I think the Ephs will beat Amherst, I just don't think it's that bad of a loss if they drop the Amherst game in the overall scheme of things.  It is going to be a tough loss though if they don't get past Trinity and could impact selections down the road. Trinity is one of the few teams I haven't watched this year so I really don't have a sense of how they will match up. 

One thing that stands out to me about the Maker offense is I don't remember a single game where a team has been able to prevent the Ephs from getting good looks from 3.  Go back a year and they went 6-9 against Tufts, that is their low total in awhile.  This year they've shot at least 20 three pointers in 10 of their 11 games.  They 'only' put up 13 in the Washington College game but they made 7 of those.  They are averaging 25 three attempts a game and Mayer has yet to start shooting them.  They certain have shot poorly from deep in some games but I've never come away from those games thinking they didn't get good looks, they typically just didn't knock them down.  It will be interesting to see if Trinity can slow them down from deep and if they do, can the Ephs take advantage of them on back cuts.

[toad22]

I agree with Madz. A loss to Amherst, at their place, is not worrisome, though I would hate it. A loss to Trinity would be unexpected by most, and very hurtful to the Eph postseason chances. I seriously doubt that Williams will really start to play the way I believe they can play until late January or early February. By then I expect that Williams will be playing nearly up to their potential. Till then, they are a work in progress. Trinity will be difficult for Williams primarily because they are so good on the offensive boards. This is an area that we have been very weak so far. Williams needs to put in a decent effort on the boards and shoot the ball well. I think they'll be ok against Trinity if they can do that. Amherst is a much tougher challenge. I know that the best they can do against Toomey and Green is to slow them down a little. They should be able to do a better job against the rest to the Amherst team. The only other guy that worries me some is Kalema, because of his speed.

[magicman]

Rhode Island College leads Tufts 32-23 at the half.

Jumbos shooting themselves in the foot way too much. Already with 16 turnovers. Down 18-16 with 8:17 left in the half the Jumbos committed 8 turnovers, 4 fouls and went 3x10 from the field allowing RIC to open up a 10 point lead. RIC's full court press is bothering the Jumbos and they are also allowing themselves to get trapped against the sideline or endline way too much. The Anchormen don't even have their two best players, Nyheem Sanders and Tom DeCiantis in the game.

Hunter Sabety leads Tufts with 10 points and 5 rebounds.  Michael Palumbo is high man for RIC with 10 and Austin Cilley has 9.

[middhoops]

On Tuesday I told magicman that Midd would score big against Plattsburgh (and got my head handed to me on a platter) and that Williams would upset Amherst at LeFrak on Saturday.
As my mentor/uncle once told me about himself while only slightly laughing, "I'm often wrong, but seldom in doubt."
I stand by my Eph/LJ prediction.  Duncan Robinson is unguardable by Amherst.  A healthy Wohl and Robinson can conceivably disrupt Toomey and Green.  The big problem for Williams is if they get some bad calls against them in LeFrak.  No bench.

Tomorrow night in Middlebury, VT, is scary for most of us Panther fans.  No more needs to be said regarding adversity and barriers to be overcome.  Midd needs to come out and drain some shots.  Really.
Conference season is now upon us.  Let's enjoy discussing it.

[magicman]

Tufts down by 1, 56-55,  RIC with the ball 33 seconds left.

Jumbos get a steal with 23 seconds left and call a TO.

Tufts Kwame Firempong turns it over as he's called for an offensive foul with 10 seconds to play.

RIC inbounds the ball but Firempong steals it  and fires up a 3 pointer with 2 seconds to go, that is off the mark. Tufts gets the rebound but the shot is after the buzzer goes off and isn't close anyways.

Tufts loses 56-55.