MBB: NESCAC

Old Guy · January 31, 2014, 01:57:15 PM

I'm staying up! or getting up, anyway, if I am successful in napping at all in advance of tonight's big Wms - Midd tilt. I should be able to get at least the live stats at that hour (2:00 am start here). At my age, any sleep anytime is welcome.

I am apprehensive about tonight's game - my friends would say, "so what's new, you're apprehensive about every game," but this Midd team is especially unpredictable. We could be calling the season a "work in progress" till the final game. I wish Daley were in the line-up and something close to 100%. Good luck, Panthers. Play hard and have fun. Don't let Mayer have his way inside (but he's such a good foul shooter).

I haven't had a chance to see Part 4 of "The Road to Salem," as the internet is too sketchy here, but I have a man working on it, and still have hopes to catch it. From the feedback here, sounds great.

Nice piece on the Panther Nation blog by Young Guy, a frosh now at Midd, on his attachment growing up to basketball and Middlebury hoop, both high school and college. These Panther Nation guys, one of whom is doing the video (Road to Salem), are special, as you I'm sure have realized. I have seen nothing like them as sports journalists in my many years at Middlebury. One appears headed to law school eventually; the other is pursuing jobs in sports media. We will be hearing more from him, no doubt. I'm grateful that they are recruiting Young Guy. http://sites.middlebury.edu/panthernation/

hoya73 · January 31, 2014, 03:42:31 PM

Old Guy--you should be proud. Young Guy can write. Must get it from his mother. Get some sleep.

Panthernation · January 31, 2014, 04:50:44 PM

Our preview of Williams is up:
http://sites.middlebury.edu/panthernation/2014/01/31/williams/

Also, the Williams game will be our final broadcast together. For those who are interested in listening, the live stream of our call is available here: http://boombox.middlebury.edu:8000/WRMCSports.m3u

amh63 · January 31, 2014, 04:51:35 PM

Enjoyable posts today as I prepare to have an "online" dinner"....does not sound right like a TV dinner. Two games to watch with the first starting at 6PM. Anyway, need to respond to some posts.
Magicman....great news with your sighting of Walzy. Maybe there will be a chance in the near future to repeat on the Walzy's All Crazy team....then I can retire.

hoya73...you are truly perceptive at times. I understand that Old Guy's wife is the English Dept. Head. Our poster here "married well AND smart" as they say somewhere

Vandy74.....need not be concerned with your handle of Vandy on this board. Heck, I believe the last poster...hoya...indicates that he is a graduate of Georgetown U. You could change your handle also to the "mascot"...the Commodores? On the other hand, better not since Vermonters do not sail much and the singing group of that name is somewhat dated. All this in jest really....since you are multi-connected to Amherst.

7Express....thanks for your clarification of the ways of Coach Walsh. Need to point out that RIC's coach did make a change, Rather then pace up and down the baseline....In LeFrak, he stood still as if to block the Amherst title banners directly behind him from his players view. He looked pensive with his bent bent down as if he wanted to avoid seeing his school's banner hanging directly up in front of him....very prominent with a unique white background and Hamilton clearly displayed. Maybe he was thinking quietly of his bad uniform design on his players

Back to my chores or no dinner with the TV/computer on.

AmherstStudent05 · January 31, 2014, 05:02:42 PM

Thanks for the preview, PN.

At the start of the season, it seemed to be acknowledged by many posters that, relative to Amherst and Williams, Midd had a comparative advantage in terms of their depth and the number of configurations Coach Brown could plausibly put on the court. Even in Daley's absence, that advantage would appear to hold.

I wonder what use, if any, Coach Brown will make of it in this game. For instance, much has been made this year of the impressive collective length of the Williams starting 5 (not quite as pronounced with Greenman in for Rooke-Ley, but still quite apparent). Midd is one of the few teams in the NESCAC that could seemingly go toe-to-toe with the Ephs in this regard if they so choose. If I were Coach Brown I think I would consider starting Jensen over Jake Brown tonight in order to really put pressure on Williams defensively by matching size for size.

Ok, now for real enough about this Midd-Williams game. Must focus on Amherst-Colby.

7express · January 31, 2014, 07:29:32 PM

No matter how much Mid has been struggling, they'll always get up for games against Williams & Amherst. Should be a fun game to watch.

frank uible · January 31, 2014, 08:41:46 PM

Williams apologists, why is Williams apparently in the process of falling well short of consensus pre-season expectations?

nescac1 · January 31, 2014, 08:47:52 PM

It's hard to say Frank. That was one of the worst halves of basketball I've ever seen Williams play, really ugly to watch. There was no movement of the ball on offense, guys were launching terrible shots, Midd consistently beat them to lose balls and rebounds, and Williams' best player barely seemed to touch the ball. Midd shot the ball very well, certainly, hit some tough ones, but Williams also allowed them to get into a rhythm and gave up way too many easy looks. The Ephs right now are a lot less than the sum of their parts and don't seem to have a plan for what they want to do out there. They just looked utterly lost. I've never seen a Maker team generate so few easy shot attempts out of the offense. It's just move the ball around and launch threes. Really hard to diagnose what is going wrong, but it's a lot. Also Williams has now completely devoted itself to zone defense, but isn't a good enough zone team yet where that is going to be a consistently effective strategy.

nescac1 · January 31, 2014, 09:33:55 PM

Crazy night in NESCAC with Colby stunning Amherst -- who called that one??? Williams meanwhile woke up in the second half and actually started playing some basketball. Amazingly after the first half, Midd-Williams is going down to the wire (as usual between these two).

AmherstStudent05 · January 31, 2014, 09:44:33 PM

Well, all good things must come to an end, sadly. Amherst's 31-straight NESCAC streak was certainly a good thing, but unfortunately it is now definitely at an end thanks to an 80-75 win for Colby in Waterville.

Full credit to Colby who simply outplayed Amherst in the second half. The Mules totally shut Amherst down defensively in the second half (my Jeffs hit a bunch of late threes to deceptively inflate their final score) and stayed aggressive on offense. Stewart was particularly impressive for Colby, whose perfomance was all the more noteworthy in light of the fact that they were playing without Shane Rogers, who appears to be a nice player off the bench for the Mules.

For Amherst, Toomey played really well, but the usually reliable supporting cast had a little difficulty finding their range tonight. Oh well. It is very disappointing, but also makes me appreciate how impressive it was to win 31 straight in the conference in the first place. The guys will have to shake this one off quick with a big showdown with Bowdoin looming tomorrow.

Congrats to Williams for pulling out the win against Midd.

Still all to play for!

nescac1 · January 31, 2014, 09:47:29 PM

Wow. Stunner for the Ephs, gotta say, I did not see that coming after such a lethargic first half. They played just a horrible half of basketball, but it was night and day in the second half. The biggest difference was switching from zone to man. Against the zone, Midd had just loads of clean looks at three, and also got a ton of offensive rebounds. Williams played almost exclusively man D in the second half and totally and completely shut Midd down -- the Panthers got one shot, and one shot only, and usually it was a tough shot. That was by FAR the best defense Williams has played all season, and it wasn't even close. Of course, they were also helped by Midd, who REALLY visibly tightened up as the big lead collapsed. The problem with playing all zone is that it is easy to fall into just sort of standing around. The man pressure seemed to energize Williams' play on BOTH ends. Daniel Wohl played particularly sticky defense and was shutting down his man on the perimeter (frequently, Kizell).

For the Ephs, Taylor Epley was back in a BIG way and it could not have happened at a better time ... he looked infinitely more confident in his shot than he has in recent weeks, and was draining big threes throughout the second half. No one else on Williams played particularly well offensively -- Midd was all over Duncan Robinson and he just couldn't get freed up for good looks, although he did have a beautiful drive late in the game resulting in a pass to Mayer who was fouled and nailed the go-ahead free throws. Mike Greenman also hit a few clutch threes. The Ephs were also clutch from the free throw line down the stretch. Still, it was anything but an offensive masterpiece for Williams, even though the second half was far better than the first. Ephs were saved by clutch three point shooting, lock-down defense, and the inability of Midd to hit any sort of shot. Obviously the toughest miss for Midd was Merryman's WIDE open three on the second-to-last possession. There IS such a thing as being too open, and he just had too much time to think about that shot.

For Midd, the only guy who played well at all in the second half was Jake Brown. The rest of the team was a no-show in that half after absolutely dominating in the first half. Weird.

Can't believe that Williams is now in a three-way tie for first. Ephs will be rooting hard for Bowdoin tomorrow night, but I expect that the Jeffs will come out angry and ready to take it to the Bears after tonight's upset.

amh63 · January 31, 2014, 10:17:49 PM

Ugly...is right. Toomey and Kalema play in the last minute covered a bad second half by Amherst. The game ended with a block on Toomey, but even if it went in, Colby would have won. Killian and Green could not hit an outside shot really. It was so bad that two defensive plays by Amherst ended up with missed layups by both Green and Kalema!...unguarded breakaways. Amherst won the battle of the boards.....but one stats jump out. Colby had 23, yes 23 assists to only a dozen by Amherst. Steals, blocks, etc. were about the same. Colby shot over 50% while Amherst struggled to reach the high 30%. Amherst could not stop the back cuts of the Mules, plain and simple...that led to easy baskets. Every basket was hard for Amherst....except by Aaron...whether it was open or guarded.
Bottom line.....Amherst thought it was over at the half as they stormed back late in the first half. Colby did not follow the expected script... for a 1-4 team coming into the game. I could say I'm mad, but really not. I'm disappointed that experienced players played so badly.
I really wished that Aaron would have been more selfish in the last few minutes....truly. He passed off several open looks to give Killian and Green the ball...the outside shot. The way it was going...Aaron should have taken them. Sad to see Amherst's players not battle for rebounds at times.
Another game on Sat. Hope the Amherst team shows up to play. Really sad...sad....sad.

Bucket · January 31, 2014, 10:31:09 PM

Quote from: nescac1 on January 31, 2014, 09:47:29 PM
Wow. Stunner for the Ephs, gotta say, I did not see that coming after such a lethargic first half. They played just a horrible half of basketball, but it was night and day in the second half. The biggest difference was switching from zone to man. Against the zone, Midd had just loads of clean looks at three, and also got a ton of offensive rebounds. Williams played almost exclusively man D in the second half and totally and completely shut Midd down -- the Panthers got one shot, and one shot only, and usually it was a tough shot. That was by FAR the best defense Williams has played all season, and it wasn't even close. Of course, they were also helped by Midd, who REALLY visibly tightened up as the big lead collapsed. The problem with playing all zone is that it is easy to fall into just sort of standing around. The man pressure seemed to energize Williams' play on BOTH ends. Daniel Wohl played particularly sticky defense and was shutting down his man on the perimeter (frequently, Kizell).

For the Ephs, Taylor Epley was back in a BIG way and it could not have happened at a better time ... he looked infinitely more confident in his shot than he has in recent weeks, and was draining big threes throughout the second half. No one else on Williams played particularly well offensively -- Midd was all over Duncan Robinson and he just couldn't get freed up for good looks, although he did have a beautiful drive late in the game resulting in a pass to Mayer who was fouled and nailed the go-ahead free throws. Mike Greenman also hit a few clutch threes. The Ephs were also clutch from the free throw line down the stretch. Still, it was anything but an offensive masterpiece for Williams, even though the second half was far better than the first. Ephs were saved by clutch three point shooting, lock-down defense, and the inability of Midd to hit any sort of shot. Obviously the toughest miss for Midd was Merryman's WIDE open three on the second-to-last possession. There IS such a thing as being too open, and he just had too much time to think about that shot.

For Midd, the only guy who played well at all in the second half was Jake Brown. The rest of the team was a no-show in that half after absolutely dominating in the first half. Weird.

Can't believe that Williams is now in a three-way tie for first. Ephs will be rooting hard for Bowdoin tomorrow night, but I expect that the Jeffs will come out angry and ready to take it to the Bears after tonight's upset.

Williams wasn't lethargic on offense in the first half, at least not as seen from where I was sitting court side. Middlebury was playing a suffocating defense, forcing Williams into either very tough or very poor shots. They weren't making these shots, thus the low point output. To make matters worse, the officials were not quick to their whistle in the first half, as Williams missed several inside looks against physical D, no calls, much to the consternation of my friend Mike.

In the second half, Williams's switch from zone to man, benefited them immensely, completely took Midd out of the rhythm they had found in the first half. (This part, you got right.) On the other end, Williams made a couple of those tough shots they had missed in the first half, forcing Midd to extend their defense even further, and opening things up a little bit more for Mayer; not much, but enough to make a difference between the first half and the second. Adding to Williams's advantage (at least this night) in the second half was the discovery by the officials of their whistles. No calls in the first half became calls in the second. They were reasonably consistent on both ends of the floor, but obviously not half to half. Williams was the big-time beneficiary—14 of 15 from the line vs. 3 of 6 for Midd.

As for Midd players being no-shows in the second half... That's the ultimate insult to the young men who gave every ounce of energy and soul they have to that game tonight. Yes, Middlebury missed shots—St. Amour, Merryman, and Sinnickson—all in the final minutes, all shots they were draining earlier, but that's part of the game. No one shoots 100 percent from the floor. Williams had to fight and claw and shoot really really well to take a lead in the game's final minute. Nothing was easy. Those Midd players who you describe as invisible in the second half had something to do with how hard fought the game was.

We all have our biases, but I have to say that the prior posts are reflected through a particular gold and purple lens. The gist of the write-up seems to be that Williams was awful in the first half; clutch in the second. The opponent, it seemed, was secondary—an extraneous factor. Perhaps one had to be in the gym to understand how galling such sentiment can seem. Toad was there. I'm curious to hear his take on the game.

nescac1 · January 31, 2014, 10:41:45 PM

Bucket, I certainly don't say "no show" to signify any lack of effort from Midd. Midd always will and always has played very hard. I just meant that offensively no one produced, nothing more than that. I think anyone watching and being fair in their analysis would agree. Williams did play great defense in the second half but despite playing hard, the Midd guys other than Brown didn't make some plays that were on the table. Now I wasn't there in the gym, true, but I've watched a lot of Williams basketball and I stand by my assessment of the team as lethargic in the first half. Yes they were making shots in the second half but the team had a totally different style of play. They were moving the ball crisply and seemed energized. They were getting very clean looks. In the first half they seemed content to just sort of throw the ball around and settle for the first available three point shot. I've honestly not seen the team less engaged on offense in a half of basketball for quite some time. Midd played its typical hard defense both halves. But if you think the only difference for Williams was shots started going in that were missing, I'm sorry but you weren't watching the same game as I was. And by the way I did credit Midd with successfully taking Williams' top player almost entirely out of the game. Guys were on Robinson like glue all night. So it's not as if I failed to recognize Midds effort. Plenty of Midd fans here have said a heck of a lot worse in posts about the Panthers.

And of course I am focused on Williams in my post. Just like every post you make about a Midd game is 80 percent focused on discussing Midd players. Does that mean that you are "disrespecting" the opposing players, or just perhaps, as a fan of one team you are focused more on how that team happened to play, for better or worse? I assume that the half dozen Midd regulars here can give more detailed analysis from a Midd perspective. My analysis is obviously from a Williams perspective.

Vandy74 · January 31, 2014, 11:06:59 PM

I excuse nescac1 his fanaticism (if he can at least spell KIZEL correctly) and I congratulate a very good Williams team on the kind of come from behind win that should be expected from them. Otherwise I thank Bucket who like myself was actually at the game for his accurate analysis. Middlebury in many ways played it's best game of the season tonight. It wasn't quite good enough. Two things in particular worked in the Ephs' favor. The first was that Taylor Epley found his game. It was going to happen sooner or later and great players show up for big games. The second involved free throws. Williams made 14 of them on 15 attempts. Middlebury made 3 of 6. Williams was called for the foul 14 times to Middlebury's 13 but only 4 of the Ephs' infractions sent the Panthers to the line. Two very good teams played a hard fought game. It's hurts to come out on the losing end. But there is still more basketball to be played.