MBB: NESCAC

[hopefan]

Trying to watch from St. Louis... nothing....

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

When you do get the page to load... both NESCAC games link to the women's game. I have tweeted a few times, but I bet no one is reading those.

[nescac1]

Seems like a great back-and-forth game so far, too bad unable to watch.  Ephs, a team which generally is very careful to avoid fouls, in serious early foul trouble: Mayer 2, Rooke-Ley 3, and Greenman 2 ...

[nescac1]

Found a link that works:

http://nsnsports.net/nescac/?stm_type=alt&stm_id=9

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Yes... men solved.

[nescac1]

Based on the last few minutes (and the box score) just an awesome game between two heavyweights.  Ephs have to be happy just to survive given all the uncharacteristic foul trouble.  Enormous first halves for Duncan Robinson for the Ephs and for Tom Killian for Amherst.  Even in the few minutes of play I saw, Green and Robinson both hit really deep threes. 

[AncientSonOfHixon]

Lordy, what a half. Wouldda been nice to see it. Is live stats a godsend or an infuriation, given how good it is at revealing what you're missing.

Killian en fuego. Stage not too big for D. Robinson. Great shooting by Ephs. Even game with not much yet from either Toomey or Mayer.

Thanks so much N-1 for getting link. Seriously, i was starting to yearn for the old Amherst Cam, looply announcers and all. (All is forgiven, come back!) The vid failure is beyond amateur. As every school in the Nescac demonstrates on a nightly basis, it's not that hard....

[AncientSonOfHixon]

And while we're at it (watching halftime warm-ups), could that picture possibly be lower def??

OK, done grousing. Now back to a 2nd half that just might be epic.

[lefrakenstein]

amherst by 12 with 3:09 to go. Toomey with a triple-double

[nescac1]

Well, Amherst pulling away.  Another frustrating game for the Ephs.  Both teams were playing really fantastic back-and-forth hoops for the majority of the game, it seemed.  Then just everything fell apart for Williams -- Amherst hitting a lot of deep threes, Williams simply can't BUY a three, Amherst getting to all the loose balls, and a bunch of 50-50 calls (to put it charitably) going against Williams.  Even Duncan Robinson, who had been scorching, missed a few pretty easy threes.  Ugghh.  The entire story is really the two teams' relative three point percentage in the second half.  Hope to see Amherst again, but hope it's not until Salem ...

[nescac1]

As a Williams fan, I will be very, very happy to see Killian, Toomey and Kalema graduate.  It wasn't Toomey's best game but he did what it took to lead his team to victory, Kalema killed Williams in the second half, and Killian killed Williams all day, by far the most improved player in NESCAC and I can't recall anyone ever making such a big leap from his junior to his senior year.  He earned my vote over the past few weeks for first-team all-NESCAC (bumping Matt Hart to second team).  A tremendous senior class and Gach is an asset as well.  David George was also a monster inside for Amherst and did the best job anyone has done on Mayer (who I still would have liked to see get more touches during the stretch when Williams was tossing up a series of low-percentage threes, but being limited by foul trouble really hurt him). 

For the Ephs, the positives were Duncan Robinson having a huge day on a big stage -- it's very comforting to know that he is around for another three years, while Toomey is (finally, at long last) departing.  Dan Aronowitz also made a few nice plays and he is going to be a really good player in future years.  Taylor Epley was great in the first half but cooled down.  No one else had a particularly strong day on offense.

Look forward to seeing the NCAA pairings.  Hope Amherst and Williams are split up, but if not, I hope Williams gets another shot whenever that may occur.  If Amherst shoots collectively from three like that, I think they will beat anyone. 

[lefrakenstein]

Really well played game by both teams. Williams just ran into an Amherst team that absolutely could not miss, shooting 50% from beyond the arc on the day. The Ephs shot uncharacteristically poorly in the second half, and while I'd like to attribute some of that to amherst's D, they also missed quite a few wide open shots. If this is the last time Toomey and Mayer play each other, it's interesting that they left most of the fireworks to their teammates. Mayer b/c of foul trouble and David George, toomey because the Williams defense was draped all over him the entire game. Congrats to Mayer and Epley on great NESCAC careers.

Amherst becomes the first team ever to win three nescac championships in a row.

[lefrakenstein]

For the Ephs, the positives were Duncan Robinson having a huge day on a big stage -- it's very comforting to know that he is around for another three years, while Toomey is (finally, at long last) departing.  Dan Aronowitz also made a few nice plays and he is going to be a really good player in future years.  Taylor Epley was great in the first half but cooled down.  No one else had a particularly strong day on offense.

with Greenman, Aronowitz and Robinson, Williams will be very good for the next few years. It might be too early to call this, but I would peg Williams as the favorite for next year with with Wohl, Rooke-Ley and Kilcullen all returning as well. That's a pretty solid top-6.

[AmherstStudent05]

Back from another fantastic weekend in Amherst.

First off, congratulations of course to my Lord Jeffs for capturing the third straight NESCAC Championship (the longest active streak in the conference!).  This win also marked our 8th straight against Williams and the third time we beat this year's very strong Eph team by double digits.

Sorry to hear about the technical difficulties in the first half.  You guys missed one heck of a show.  As has been mentioned, Tom Killian was absolutely on fire.  Conner Green scored our first bucket of the game, and then Killian proceeded to score Amherst's next 17 points, including two highlight reel dunks (though still quite not Williamsonesque).

Killian finished the half with 20 points and the game with 31.  Conner Green was fantastic as well, scoring 21 points on some really impressive shooting.  When he is in a shooting groove as he was today, our offense is just so difficult to stop.  Toomey may not have had his best game, but he did notch his first career triple double with 12 points, 12 assists, and 10 boards (against just 3 turnovers).  Finally, we said David George needed to play stellar D today, and he certainly did just that.  What a fantastic effort from that young man.

Speaking of freshmen, while many of us had noted that Duncan had not really been a factor in either of the previous two Amherst games, DR proved today what I am sure most of us already believed -- those games were statistical outliers that in no way spoke to his ability to deliver in a big game.  He sure did deliver in a big way today.

The problem for Williams was the same problem the Ephs have had against us all year and the same problem that Coach Maker identifies in interview after interview.  Williams just hasn't found a way to give us most trouble on defense at all this year.  Obviously, we won't shoot 50% from distance in every game we play (though how I wish), and some of our looks were tough (Conner Green in particular hit one three from the parking lot), but Williams' D simply didn't do enough to take us out of our comfort zone.  For the second straight day, Greenman sat for most of the second half (Kalema shot a 3 over Greeny, which is probably DK has ever taken -- and made -- a three with someone right there in front of him), but it still wasn't enough.

One other point.  At tip-off I was a little concerned because our student section was largely empty.  I know our students often get off to a late start, but I wasn't expecting such a poor showing for a game against Williams -- for the NESCAC Championship no less.  Fortunately, by halftime, the student section was in full force and they provided the team with lots of great energy in the second half (and the team of course gave them plenty to cheer about).

For Amherst, a very satisfying win, but there are still some reasons for concern.  Our starting 5 is unquestionably deadly, but now with Pollack out, we are now incredibly thin on the bench.  Hix has been tight on his substitutions all year long, but today he was incredibly stingy with playing time for the bench (and, candidly, rightly so).  Last year, we would not have won the title without getting huge contributions off the bench from DK, Green, and Pollack.  We certainly can't expect that level of contribution this year, but we do need the bench to step it up -- particularly when it comes to defense and rebounding.

Looking forward to seeing how the draw shakes out tomorrow.  Hopefully we can stay at LeFrak for as long as possible.

[AmherstStudent05]

Now that conference play is officially over, I thought I would revisit my All-Conference projections. 

First Team: Toomey*, Mayer*, Kizel*, Robinson*, Killian

Second Team: Hart, Swords*, Sinnickson, Hudnut, Sabety

POY: Toomey*. Must be unanimous.

DPOY: No idea...could be Killian, Swords, Sabety or Wohl or maybe even Jensen.

ROY: Robinson*. Also has to be unanimous.

COY: Hixon, but maybe Cosgrove.

The asterix reflects an AS05 "projection".  The other picks are just those that I think should and will be honored.


During my last projection, I said that while Hart was in the driver's seat for the last spot on the First Team, he could be overcome if one of the second teamers turned in a fantastic performance in the Tournament.  Unfortunately for Hart, I believe that has happened, as I agree with nescac1 that Killian played his way on to the First Team today.  I am not confident enough to make a "projection" on this final first team spot, but I now think Killian is the one most deserving of it.  I can project though that both Killian and Hart will be on either the First or Second Team.  I think Swords is the other lock for the second team.  The other picks are harder to call.  I think Sinnickson has absolutely played his way onto the Second Team even if he missed a lot of time earlier in the season.  I know Hudnut and Sabety are underclassmen and the coaches are likely to want to honor upperclassmen if possible, but I think these two are the two most worthy guys.  Also, I wish I could get a Bantam and/or another guard on the Second Team, but while Starks would solve that problem nicely I just don't think he turned in a better season than either Hudnut or Sabety this year.

As for PoY, Toomey should be unanimous. DPoY could plausibly be any number of people.  I think CoY could easily go to Coach Hixon.  Not that these awards have to be consistent at all, but I think it is very hard to justify giving the award to Coach Brown in 2012 (which, to be honest, I thought was ridiculous) and not Hixon this year.  Hixon lost a spectacular senior class and yet still managed to win the NESCAC regular season and the NESCAC tournament.  Not bad.  I think Cosgrove has to be the only other plausible contender, and frankly, I wouldn't be too upset if he did get it.  This is so especially, as I predict, Trinity is completely shut out of all the other postseason awards.  For a fifth place regular season finish and a NESCAC semifinal appearance, Trinity is deserving of some "treat" when the all conference awards come out.