MBB: NESCAC

[magicman]

Amherst defeats Plattsburgh State 87-63. I believe that was the final score as the video feed and live stats cut out with about 35 seconds left in the game.

Plattsburgh narrowed a 20 point halftime deficit down to 13 early in the 2nd half but Amherst hit a pair of 3 pointers and quickly built it back to 20 points.  They increased the lead to 23 and the Cardinals started pressing and got it down to 16 with about 8 minutes left but once again a 3 point shot by Killian boosted the LJ's lead back to 19. The Cardinals could get no closer than 17 after that and both teams brought in the bench players for the final few minutes of the game.

Amherst was the better team and it's easy to see why they just may pull off back to back National Championships.  Congratulations to Amherst on a well played game.

Tom Killian with 22 points led the way for the LJ's. Aaron Toomey and Connor Green both had 15 points. Toomey had 12 assists and 3 steals, while Green added 7 rebounds. David George came up 1 block short of a triple double as he had 13 points, 11 rebounds and 9 blocks. Amherst fans are gonna love him for the next 3 years, along with Green for the next 2. David Kalema was the 5th starter to score in double figures with 12 points and 6 rebounds.

Plattsburgh was led by John Perez with 16 points and 8 rebounds. Eddie Correra, Shamoy McIntosh and Ezra Hodgson all scored 11 points each. Xavier Thomas had 6 points, 5 rebounds and 2 blocks. Point guard Chris Manning had 8 steals, 3 assists amd 3 rebounds. Mike Mitchell had 5 points, 3 assists and 2 rebounds. 

The Lord Jeffs shot 55.4% from the field (31x56), 44.8% from long range (13x29) and 80% from the line (12x15).
The Cardinals had an off night only shooting 34.8% from the field (23x66), 6x21 from beyond the arc (28.6%) and 64.7% from the line(10x17).

Amherst won the battle of the boards 45 to 27 but did have quite a few more turnovers than the Cardinals, 19 to 8

The Lord Jeffs will take on Morrisville State for the right to advance to the Final Four. Now that's the biggest surprise in D3. I'd be willing to bet that no one's bracket other than a Morrisville backer has the Mustangs in the Elite Eight.

[amh63]

Nice wrap up Magicman.  I know you are hurting a little now....I would a lot. +K to you for the effort.  What surprised me was the rebound margin.  I went back to last year's game and saw that your Cardinals also generated a large number of turnovers....so Amherst should have been better prepared.  Killian had a double double again....with his 10 rebounds.  The key player in this game along with George, imo.
For awhile....I was nervous.....two reasons. Watched the first game.  I had also watched the Amherst WBB team lose in OT after leading by 7 at the half to Ithaca.....a team they beat easily early in the season.   Thought this game was going to be a barn burner.

[Vandy74]

Emory and Stevens Point just went into OT.

[middhoops]

Emory and Stevens Point just went into OT.

Emory wins on a 3 with 3 seconds to go to send UWSP home for the season.  A heck of a game. 
Heck of a night.

[Vandy74]

Emory and Stevens Point just went into OT.

The Point goes down.  What a game.  Emory was the other school I was accepted at, btw.

[nescac1]

Wow, Stevens Point goes down.  Didn't see that one coming.

Now I gotta figure out how to cut out of my all-day wine-tasting bachelor party an hour early.  Maybe I can convince my Mary Washington alum friend to come to the game.  Or perhaps I can get him sufficiently hammered so that he passes out by 5:00 ...

Fourth Elite Eight in five years for Coach Maker and the Ephs -- simply spectacular, hard to ask for anything more as an Eph fan (although I'll admit, I'd still love to see three more wins this year!).  Congrats to the Ephs on coming out top in a crazy game.  First, though, the least valuable player of the evening -- the D.C. area traffic.  For whomever said it takes an hour to get to Fredericksburg on a Friday afternoon -- HAH.  Try 2.5 hours.  Fortunately I was able to watch most of the first half on video and saw all of the second half and the end of the first half in person.  As for AMC, Eian Davis was as good as advertised, and then some.  I've never seen a point guard like him in D3 hoops.  He was incredibly, incredibly quick and crafty with the dribble.  Unbelievably creative passer.  Williams was playing five feet off him (if he could shoot from deep, he'd be a very good D1 point guard, but that is the one hole in his game) and still he was blowing by guys.  Insane. 

It was a wild game, up and down, with just a ton of fouls and violations called.  There were definitely a ton of legit traveling violations on both teams, but also a lot of calls where I just didn't see it, or the violations were very minor indeed.  I've never seen HALF that many travel calls in an college game.  The bulk of them were called against AMC, so that worked to the Ephs' benefit.  Davis was such a blur and so unorthodox with the ball, he definitely turns it over a lot with palming and so on, but sometimes, it was really hard to tell.  I did think the huge number of fouls called on AMC were generally warranted -- they were just right in guys' faces, giving no space at all, to the point where if you made a quick move, they almost invariable fouled, and they were called on it.  Basically, in the second half they seemed to be fouling on virtually every play.  The exception was some of the calls on the AMC big guy, which, frankly, I just didn't see at all -- certainly those calls were breaks for the Ephs (though not determinative of the game, fortunately).  But they were getting visibly frustrated with the reffing, at times warranted, at times not, which affected their play.  They were VERY fortunate in fact to not get a few T's called on them, including one play were a guy bumped a ref after a foul call, and no T was called -- a lot of restraint from the ref, there.  I would have hated to be a ref in that game, which resembled street ball at times, so I think they did the best they could under really tough circumstances.

As others have noted, Williams had the perfect game plan in the first half.  Guys were just wide open, again and again and again, on back-door cuts.  What's amazing is that Williams put up 110 without shooting the ball well from deep -- had they hit a few more open threes, it easily could have been a lot more.  AMC did adjust in the second half, and played much tougher D, but again, were just far too aggressive bodying guys up and never adjusted to how the refs were calling the game.  Also, when the AMC big guy sat down with foul issues, Mayer just had his way, no one had the size to match up with him.  AMC has a lot of talent with the Davis and the big dude back, they are going to be a force going forward.  They played very hard, just came up against a squad that had them scouted perfectly.

For the Ephs, Mayer, Robinson, and Rooke-Ley were all really great.  Hayden's aggressive driving into the lane was absolutely key, he was fearless and drew a ton of crucial fouls.  Robinson and Mayer were tremendous in cutting and finishing good looks around the basket.  The Eph balance, size and execution won the day against a very talented, quicker, and certainly more athletic team.  It won't be the last time this year they need that combination of results.  Unfortunately, I don't see anyone else allowing so many easy buckets out of confusion like we saw in the first half today.

[GnacBballFan]

Great analysis NESCAC. Spot on with everything. Williams was the better team. They spreads the floor on offense and moved great without the ball. I was overly impressed. Proud of albertus, they've come a long way. I think they panicked early, and forced some bad shots when the margin got to 10 in the first half. I think if they stayed calm it could have been a closer game. But the future looks good with Davis, who I have been praising about since the first game I saw him lol just happy he's been seen by everyone now, and everyone but Watson coming back. Good luck to Williams, rooting for them to win it all

[nescac1]

Thanks GnacBballFan, you and the AMC fans are a class act.  Your team is fun to watch and hope to see Davis et. al. play again next year.  The future is definitely bright. 

Stuck around to watch the first half of Mary Washington.  First, awesome individual performance by Khory Moore, from Arlington, VA (my place of residence, and yeah, he was a dominant player around here for several years).  He is one heck of a first-year and a future all-American in my view.  Fun to see him in person.  One more shout-out to Williams as well: Darrias Sime, who played some important minutes at the five despite not playing in a big moment all year, due to the Eph big guys in foul trouble.  His did a nice job in his first meaningful action and will be an important player as an upperclassman. 

But on to Mary Washington.  They are in many ways the opposite of Albertus Magnus.  They are not particularly big, quick, or individually dynamic.  But they exemplify the essence of D3 basketball.  They move the ball beautifully and generate open looks out of the offense.  All five guys can move without the ball, and they have a lot of shooters.  They don't beat themselves on either end.  If you make a mistake on defense they make you pay.  They work extremely hard on the defensive end.  Definitely a team which is more than the sum of its parts.  Although they do have one very good individual player -- Bradley Riester -- think Matt Hart, very similar players.  He is small and slight, with a beautiful jump shot, excellent at moving off the ball, and surprisingly crafty at finding his shot.  He is a very tough cover.  No other player made a big impression as an individual, but as I noted, they work really well together in a motion offense that gets guys open both from screens and from drive-and-kicks, and all five guys can play.  Williams will have to play an entirely different style of defense tomorrow.

To me, the Eph keys for victory tomorrow:

(1) Robinson, Epley, Rooke-Ley and Greenman need to hit more threes.  Mary Washington simply is not going to allow the kind of easy layups the Ephs got today, nor will they send Williams to the line nearly as much.  Williams needs to get into a shooting groove to open up the lanes for cutters off the ball.  The Ephs haven't really been lighting it up from deep of late.  They are going to need a few really good shooting games to keep advancing as the competition gets tougher. 

(2) Mayer has to stay out of foul trouble and dominate.  Mary Washington is a small team.  I'm sure they will throw a lot of help at Mayer, but that can't stop him from looking to score.  The Ephs' big advantage tomorrow is Mayer and they have to take advantage of that.  Epley posting up could be effective as well. 

(3) Williams has to defend one-on-one without helping.  If you help on Mary Washington, they will find the open man, and they will make you pay.  The Ephs need to stay in front of their men, and when that doesn't work out, don't be too aggressive in collapsing and helping leading to open threes. 

(4) I expect Wohl will be guarding Riester.  He needs to use his length to bother his very effective outside shot.  And he needs to find him in transition, where Mary Washington, and Riester in particular, was very effective. 

Final thoughts: Mary Washington has an amazing facility -- just gorgeous -- and the fan presence was INTENSE, loud, passionate, and clearly energized the players tonight.  Great, great fans.  I expect more of the same tomorrow.  The Ephs can't get rattled and have to play their game, stay poised on both ends, quiet the crowd a bit early, and patiently work the ball into the interior (to Mayer, but also to Epley or Robinson vs. certain match-ups).  It will be interesting to see if Williams can quickly adjust to such a radically different style of opponent with the short turnaround.  Should be fun!

[lildave678]

Williams was just an offensive machine we hadn't seen before. Backdoor cuts are backdoor cuts but I'd imagine we focused SO MUCH on jumping out at the potential shooters Williams has to offer. I was never one of the ones to question our ranking in the region. We might be one of the best teams one on one, but when a team shares the basketball we get lost on D. It's tough to type on my phone after drowning the sorrows but I'm always gonna root for the northeast!

[lildave678]

I guarantee Darius is KILLING himself for ending on a night like this but Idk if it makes a difference, just appreciate the nescac guys for seeing what Davis could be. He literally could be on uconn ahead of bum ass Terrance Samuels (UCONN guy here as you can tell) but hopefully he hangs around albertus and they make another run next year with 4 of 5 starters returning. Maybe Julius Sanders (hurt all year) comes in for Darius. You don't just replace a 2000 point scorer but he's been there since Askew has been on the team.

[frank uible]

Is it going to boil down to Williams' Yuan Dynasty scoring against the advantages of Mary Washington's home cookin'?

[GnacBballFan]

Thanks NESCAC appreciate the kind words. Dave I questioned albertus northeast ranking from the first week they were released til the last. However my gripe was always that we shoulda been right after Amherst and Williams. Never that we shoulda been ahead of them. I think after the ncaa showing that gripe kinda makes sense, as albertus, Amherst, and Williams were the only teams in the region to get to the sweet 16. And I think albertus lost to maybe the second best team in the country last night, and certainly a top 5 team

[nescac1]

A few more random thoughts before tonight ...

(1) Although my predictive powers for this tourney have been iffy at best (didn't see Emory coming, certainly), I feel pretty confident in this bold prediction: if Toomey doesn't break the 2000 point barrier tonight, Amherst will not win.  Congrats to him in advance. 

(2) One amazing stat from last night's game: in the second half, Williams shot 29-31 from the line -- 94 percent!  Albertus was chipping away at the lead, getting as close at seven before the ten point run that put things away.  Without the Ephs' dead-eye free throw shooting, though, it could have been a close contest down the stretch. 

(3) Checking on Mary Washington, it is unsurprising that they play with great poise and togetherness, considering they start four seniors and a junior.  That kind of veteran leadership is a huge asset in a big game.  But they are as small as they looked -- no starter above 6'4!  They haven't played a lot of elite big guys this year, but did play Wesley's David Langan twice.  In one game they held him to 8 points on 3-8 shooting and five turnovers.  in the second game, it was a different story, as he poured in 33 despite only 12 field goal attempts.  Whatever strategy they employed against Langan the first go-around, I'm sure they will try against Mayer, and for the Ephs to win they need to see something more in the neighborhood of Langan's second outing from Mayer.

(4) A few guys at the game last night, who were neutral, asked me several times how in the world Duncan Robinson was playing D3.  As good as this year's seniors are in NESCAC, you can understand how all of them ended up at the D3 level, even Toomey (although a lot of D1 schools I'm sure wish in hindsight they had offered him a scholarship).  But Robinson, Hunter Sabety, and David George are all guys you just don't see in NESCAC, or heck, in D3, very often (and all three, it is worth noting, had multiple D1 scholarship options).  Their combination of size and skill (in Robinson's case) or size and athleticism (for the other two) is very, very rare in Division 3.  Even looking at the other teams making deep tourney runs, you just don't see guys in the 6'7 to 6'9 range like that on other rosters. 

George, since Pollack got injured, has really stepped up his game, and has been key to Amherst's continued success.  Having an elite rim protector makes life so much easier for other defenders, and I think that George will go down as the best rim protector in NESCAC history.  Since postseason play began (NESCAC and NCAA), George has averaged around 9 points, 10 boards, and over FIVE blocks per game.  Wow.  It's like having Dikembe Mutombo in his prime out there. 

Duncan has been playing very well overall of late, other than his outside game, where he has cooled off quite a bit.  After shooting around 50 percent from three for most of the season, he's been shooting around 30 percent over his past six games in the NCAA and NESCAC tourney.  Obviously the defenses have tightened a bit and focused on preventing him from getting clean three point looks, but some of the shots that were going in routinely earlier haven't been dropping.  He's still managed to put up 16.5 ppg during that stretch by scoring in the post, off of cuts, and off the dribble, but if he can get his outside stroke going again ... look out! 

(5) I was nervous before last night's game, as in Maker's four NCAA trips there has been a disturbing trend going: losing in the title game in 2010, then the semis in 2011, then the Elite 8 in 2013 -- glad that trend did not continue with a Sweet 16 exit last night.  Four Elite Eights in five years really is an amazing accomplishment.  Fingers crossed for three Final Fours in five, which would also be incredible.  Go Ephs!

[Bucket]

Thanks NESCAC appreciate the kind words. Dave I questioned albertus northeast ranking from the first week they were released til the last. However my gripe was always that we shoulda been right after Amherst and Williams. Never that we shoulda been ahead of them. I think after the ncaa showing that gripe kinda makes sense, as albertus, Amherst, and Williams were the only teams in the region to get to the sweet 16. And I think albertus lost to maybe the second best team in the country last night, and certainly a top 5 team

Though compare the AMC result w/Middlebury's two games with Williams. The Ephs weren't putting up 110 on the Panthers. Or look at the Tufts-Williams overtime game in the first round of the NESCAC tournament.

Just being on the same court with Williams doesn't justify being "right after" a Williams or an Amherst in the rankings. You have to be competitive.

[nescac1]

To be fair to AMC, Bucket, Middlebury and Tufts have both seen Williams play a lot, and know how to play against them.  Williams blew Tufts out the first time they played, remember, and Tufts purposefully slowed the second game down to a crawl in the NESCAC tourney, which was very effective. Midd and Williams, of course, know each other really well after all the various OT games they've played in recent years, and Midd knows exactly how to defend the Ephs, and vice versa. 

AMC was simply not ready for Williams' offensive system or style of play, and Williams was also just playing incredible offense ball in the first half. I think if they played again, the game would be much closer.  AMC had some REALLY talented players.   Looking in particular at how all the higher-ranked NEWMAC teams fared in the NCAA tourney (not well at all, including a loss to AMC), I do think that AMC proved that they were one of the top 3-4 teams in New England this year.  I also think AMC needs to play much tougher out-of-conference competition going forward to better prepare them for the level of execution that the top NCAA teams are capable of. 

Also, Midd played Williams twice with Sinnickson.  Without him, they were a totally different team (I believe they went 3-3 without him, and also lost his first game back while the team was still figuring things out).  I think it's safe to say that the team Midd put on the floor at the end of the year was not reflective of their overall season record, and they, too, were one of the better teams in New England, even if the rankings didn't (and should not have) reflected that due to their early-season struggles.