MBB: NESCAC

[walzy31]

Amherst 98
Thomas 64

Close to 96-58 as predicted...

Olson had 8 assists in 22 minutes.
McLaughlin with 16 on 4-6 from deep.
Wheeler with a quiet 13.
11 guys played 10+ minutes.

Amherst is raw at this point but like an untrained $30,000 dog, just work with them a little bit and watch out how amazing they become.

Kevin Hopkins dunked twice in the game. Nicest dunk was on a fast break where he did a double-clutch reverse.

Tufts lost. Thats bad.

[formerbant10]

Amherst clearly has talent, but it should be interesting to see how the younger guys do if they are in some close games.  They still are the team to beat.

Tufts took a tough loss, but as stated earlier may have relied too much on the long ball.  Without a dominant post presence, they may see a few games where their shots aren't dropping and end up in a real dogfight.  The nights they are hitting from deep, watch out...seems like they have an endless supply of shooters.  Especially if Fitzgerald can step out and hit 1-2 a game.

Robert Taylor with 14 points in 12 minutes!  Bants had a solid weekend, have a lot of guys who can provide the scoring they graduated in Rhoten, but I think it will be somebody else stepping up every game.

Anyone see the Midd game?  I don't remember the last time they put 120 on the board.

[CCsalive]

CC has a win and a loss, defeated Suny-Plattsburgh and lost to Rutgers-Newark by one point in Newark.Stone had 17pts 6reb, and 15pts and 12reb. In the second game freshman Shavar Bernier had 11 points in 19 minutes...he is 5-5 from behind the arc in his first two games.

[middfan123]

formerbant-

you don't remember the last time midd hung up 120 because it has never happened before. they set the school record, breaking the 117 they threw up when you were about 5 or 6 years old. friday night midd opened the season losing to a deceptively good MIT team. it seems the lack of early two weeks of practice is hurting the NESCAC teams in early season games. mt. ida, whom midd smacked saturday, 120-61, was a decent team, they were trailing gordon by 3 points with 3 minutes left to go in the first game of the tourney and ended up losing by 17 or something. middlebury is somewhere in between their lights out performance saturday and their terrible showing friday. they are very deep and pretty explosive. we'll see if they can pull out those close NESCAC games that they've been losing in years past. because they'll be right there with every team they play this season.

[formerbant10]

MIT has been pretty good the last few years, but beating Mt. Ida by 60 isn't really much to brag about.

Congrats to the Panthers on setting a new record, 120 is a lot of points...even if it was against Mt. Ida.  Was that 117 point performance pre-3-pointer?  I can't recall when it was instituted in collegiate basketball as I was too young to remember.

[Old Guy]

Middlebury scored 117 vs NE College in '88; 116 vs Endicott in '98. These totals in one-sided contests are irrelevant: every school has them. Middlebury goes 12 deep. We'll see if their 1-8 can compete with other NESCAC teams' 1-8.

Interesting outcomes tonight: Wes handles Williams, at Williams; CT College beats MIT, who handled Middlebury last weekend. The bottom of the pack is moving up.

Middlebury was 10-3 going into league play last year: ended up 12-12. They know they have to fare better in NESCAC to gain respect.

The Panthers have virtually everyone back this year, and a couple of promising newcomers, Tim Edwards and Kevin Kelleher (whose dad, same name, was a great player, scored 1500 points from '77-80). Edwards is listed at 6'4, can play 2 or 3, Kelleher is 6'3" or so, will play at 3 probably. 

Lost to St. Lawrence on the road tonight, 80-64 after being up four at the half.

[eclinchy]

Tufts beats Western New England, 70-62.  Pierce scores 20 -- ALL in the second half.

[nescac1]

Uggh, not a good loss for Williams, double digits to Wesleyan at home.  Granted Wesleyan is much improved from last year with Ashe healthy, Kelly returning, and adding potential roy in Kaminer.  Still, though, even without Rose the Ephs should have at least been competitive.  Shalvoy 27 shots ... that indicates that other guys aren't being aggressive enough on offense.  Then again, with Geoghegan up against a stronger, far more experienced player, Weisbrot still working his way into shape (his stat line was the only possitive in the game), Rose out and Snyder apparently in a big time shooting slump to start the season, the Ephs didn't have any other creators out there.  Rose when he returns should help the offense, but several quick guards have now absolutely torched the Ephs on D, that will have to change in a hurry.  And they'll need either Snyder to get on track, or Geoghegan to become more consistent, even when Rose returns so that Shalvoy can expend his energy on defense and running the team rather than forcing shots.  Fortunately, a relatively easy stretch of schedule for the next two games, hopefully they can rebound. 

Rest of the NESCAC has had some early stumbles as well ... only Bates, Trinity and Amherst have looked all that solid.  Maybe there is something to that limited practice schedule adding to early season woes in non-conference games.  Bowdoin barely beat a pretty bad team last night and may have trouble staying out of the conference cellar, and Tufts, despite Pierce essentially replacing Martin's scoring, for some reason hasn't yet gotten on track, with two very narrow wins over mediocre teams and a loss.   Midd's off to a rocky start at 0-2 against real opponents.  Still, with all of its talent I imagine Tufts will be fine.   Good win for Conn last night at least. 

[formerbant10]

Kelleher has some potential to be pretty good.  Saw him play in a showcase last year and he reminded me of John Bedford.

Williams losing to Wes Tech for the first time in some years, they need Rose back before they can really get going.

How good is WNEC?  Tufts only beating them by 8 surprises me. 

Russ Martin showing the same good shooting touch from last year.  25 points on 16 shots is very efficient.  21 Assists to only 9 TOs is good as well.

[TUrighty14]

Its going to take the Jumbos a few more games before they start to gel and get some fluidity in their half court offense. That's where missing Martin comes in huge. Teams had to double down on him which would free up outside shot opportunities and when they didnt Dan went to work. In a few weeks they'll be fine.

I'm not sure if Weitzen as a starter works best for the Jumbos. Everyone knows he can score, but adding minutes to his game might work against him. I think they might work better with him coming off the bench the way he has the last two years. Their overall rebounding and defense would be better with Kumf, Pierce, and Fitzgerald as starting frontcourt.

The way they have it now, neither Kumf nor Weitzen really works well as a four, which forces kumf to try and play big which could lead to him getting in foul trouble. When that happens I like Pat Sullivan, he gives solid minutes and plays within himself.

Their backcourt also hasnt had much consistency so far. Shepherd is key for them late in games but looks like he is forcing tempo sometimes, and O'Keefe will get better with time as he is recovering from a thumb injury.

Big test sunday for Tufts at Brandeis. It was a great game last year even though Tufts won without Martin (concussion i think). I cant wait for league action to start, I think the parity this year in the league is tighter than it has ever been, with teams like Wesleyan and Middlebury looking better than years past.

Happy Turkey day to all...

righty

[walzy31]

Wesleyan will shed it self the "tech" as they continue to put up W's like they did against the Ephs. What does the shirt say again? Something like "My favorite team is Amherst, my second favorite team is whoever is playing Williams."

Eat mad turkey.

[eclinchy]

"How good is WNEC?  Tufts only beating them by 8 surprises me."

formerbant: I talked to Sheldon, and he pointed out that Bates only beat them by seven.  As long as we beat them by more than Bates does, I'm not worried.


righty: I actually like Kumf as a four.  Yes, he's very physical, but he's a great rebounder, so I like getting him inside.  Foul trouble is a risk they'll just have to take -- it's the same problem Fitzgerald's always had, and they've always had the bench depth to get around it.

That being said, I definitely think Pierce should start.  (He's now the leading scorer AND rebounder after three games.  Amazing.)  This may sound like total blasphemy since he's a captain, but maybe Fitz should come off the bench?  Pierce might make a better starting center, since he's a bit more athletic.

I'm scared out of my mind about Brandeis.  They've been blowing everybody out.  I covered last year's Brandeis game at Tufts, and the Judges led for most of the way, but Shep was really clutch in the final minutes.  Martin was out last year with a concussion, and Kumf came through with a huge game (so huge that Sheldon said "Dan who?" when I asked about Martin after the game).

Anyway, tomorrow might be brutal.  I'm terrified of Steve DeLuca.

[Red1]

Eclinchy,

True, Bates only beat WNEC by 7 (in the first game of the season), but that's not significantly less than 8.  I'd call it even.  To add some strangeness to the equation, Williams (who lost to Wes by double digits) beat WNEC by 15.  I don't think the margin of victory is that important unless there is a remarkable difference.  Effectively, all of these teams have put up an equal showing against WNEC.

Cheers,
Red1

[eclinchy]

That's fine.  I wasn't trying to pick a fight or anything... just saying the WNEC game didn't worry me, that's all.

Tufts lost to Brandeis today... 99-89.  This defense is getting walked all over.  I'm starting to worry.

[thunder32]

hey guys I just got back from a breif vacation and read all the post the last couple of weeks and it looks as if Tufts is starting to sputter right now.  I am sure that they will work all the kinks out of their system by conference time.  But can someone tell me what the big problem with them is right now?  Just curious.  Brandeis is really tough to beat in their own gym.  For some reason I really hated to play there.  Probably because it is the exact opposite of the Tufts gym but you would think that a longer court would help out a team like Tufts with their running game.  And is there any way some one can give me some quick updates from around the league.  Maybe a whos playing well and who is not. 

But on another note for all former players or maybe parents who want to see their son play but are from out of state there is a great site where you can get all your teams games on.  Its www.nextplay.com and I think it cost a small fee to join but you get all your teams games each week plus a game of the week and you can also check out teams that play all across the country.  So here on the east coast we can ceck out some west coast players.  I dont know you guys should check it out.