MBB: NESCAC

amh63 · December 03, 2014, 03:00:57 PM

Several CAC games on tap for me to check in on. Top of the list is. The WPI vs Tufts game. Have not seen the Tufts team much. Other game is the Trinity game. May try again to watch two games at the same time...do not believe my mental capacity is up for it. Tried it on Tues...bad results.
Meanwhile, Hamilton is playing out West with little coverage from this board...almost unknown. Hamilton is always a tough away game for Amherst.
It strikes me more than odd that both the MBB and WBB teams will be playing only their 5th games later this week...while most other if not all their opponents have played double the number of games to date. Yesterday, Amherst's teams played only their fourth games against opponents playing their 8th. Both HBCs have young talented teams. Is it possibly the academic schedule at Amherst, intertwined with the holidays is the reason. .Amherst is entering its end of the semester reading period before exams this week This year for Amherst, the two teams do not even play at the same place when they play on the same day!
Need to make a correction wrt to Amherst academic schedule. Classes end on the Nov 10... Off a week.

toad22 · December 03, 2014, 03:27:19 PM

It has seemed to me that Dave Hixon has always scheduled fewer games in the first semester than most other teams in the league. As a result, they play more mid-week games in January, when the school is out. I think it is just a difference in philosophy, or perhaps academic scheduling.

LarryBasketball33 · December 03, 2014, 05:45:46 PM

Happy Birthday Coach Hixon. Here's one of your shining moments of teaching good sportsmanship by example. My favorite part is the voice from the crowd who says "That's why you have never been coach of the year" What a guy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BtggkunT2Lo#

AmherstStudent05 · December 03, 2014, 06:27:38 PM

Quote from: LarryBasketball33 on December 03, 2014, 05:45:46 PM
Happy Birthday Coach Hixon. Here's one of your shining moments of teaching good sportsmanship by example. My favorite part is the voice from the crowd who says "That's why you have never been coach of the year" What a guy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BtggkunT2Lo#

Great stuff, Larry! I never tire of watching that Toomey game-winner. I was planning on saving it for mid-February, but why not watch it now as well.

I guess the voice from the crowd has never heard of the NESCAC, the NABC, or d3hoops.com?

lumbercat · December 03, 2014, 07:58:26 PM

Johnny Most called a dive a Stanislofski and it stuck- no correcting a legend- any one from the Boston area during the Johnny Most era would pronounce it that way....though technically incorrect.

Mr. Ypsi · December 03, 2014, 08:38:05 PM

Quote from: lumbercat on December 03, 2014, 07:58:26 PM

Johnny Most called a dive a Stanislofski and it stuck- no correcting a legend- any one from the Boston area during the Johnny Most era would pronounce it that way....though technically incorrect.

Could also call it a Christiano Renaldo - guy takes more dives than Greg Louganis!

middhoops · December 03, 2014, 08:41:33 PM

One time Phil Ford took a flop. Johnny went nuts.
"Phil Ford?!!", "I call him Fall Ford!!", "What a Stanislovski!"

P'bearfan · December 03, 2014, 09:31:04 PM

QuoteCould also call it a Christiano Renaldo - guy takes more dives than Greg Louganis!

+K for the Louganis reference!! Saw him at the 1980 NCAA championships at Harvard. Unbelievable athlete.

Vandy74 · December 03, 2014, 11:59:51 PM

Quote from: Mr. Ypsi on December 03, 2014, 08:38:05 PM

Could also call it a Christiano Renaldo - guy takes more dives than Greg Louganis!

I knew it was coming up soon Chuck but I figured it was still a few days away. You must have been busier than usual lately. Congratulations on 20,000 posts.

pinseeking1 · December 04, 2014, 12:24:09 AM

Watched some of the Tufts-WPI game tonight. Tufts' two big men looked pretty good, but the poor outside shooting kept Tufts from pulling off an upset over number 13 WPI in "Meffa", as they say in Medford.

WPI has a nice balanced attack and plays good defense. I think the only other NESCAC school they play this season is Williams, which should be a good matchup.

nescac1 · December 04, 2014, 07:50:41 AM

So, Hamilton is 7-0, albeit against a very soft schedule. Still, that's an impressive start after being written off following the transfer of Hart. Hamilton is doing it with balance, with many different contributors, and varied contributions from game to game. Ewing Theory at work, potentially??

Tufts, meanwhile, is a fairly stunning 2-4. Tufts' last two losses have not been bad ones ... games that went down to the wire against Top-25 opponents. Still, with four regional losses already, the Jumbos have already placed themselves in a position where they will likely need to win the NESCAC tourney to earn an NCAA bid, considering they still have to play Babson, Amherst, Trinity, Bowdoin, Colby and Bates on the road, plus Williams and Midd at home ... hard to imagine going better than 5-3 in that stretch. The Jumbos may miss the steady hand of their former starting backcourt more than anticipated (Firepong and Cohen were more valuable than their statistics would indicate), as the leading assist man averages only 4.2 assists and no one else averages more than 2.5, which is insane when you can just lob the ball to Sabety for dunks or layups at least three times per game. Also, the three perimeter starters are struggling to shoot the ball in a MAJOR way ... Ferris, Smith and Haladyna are combining to shoot around 30 percent per game overall, and around 20 percent per game from three. That means teams are going to collapse on the two big guys over and over until they prove they can hit a shot. The team's foul shooting is also abysmal which is a problem and probably will cost them at least one or two close games if it does not improve.

Ferris, while reputed to be healthy, must just not be the same guy physically as he used to be, which is sad ... as a sophomore he was a physically imposing, well-rounded guard who could hit jumpers or take it to the hole and bounce off guys to finish strong. He averaged a very efficient 49/44/78 shooting, and led the team in free throw attempts. This year, he has yet to attempt a SINGLE free throw through six games, signalling that his former explosion to the rim is missing. More difficult to explain is Haladyna's shooting regression, from his first year to this year he's gone from shooting 44 percent from 3, to 36 percent, to 17 (!) percent. He is an excellent shooter with deep range, and playing with two good bigs should theoretically create a lot of open looks, so it's really bizarre. I'm not sure if it's a system issue, or lack of a true point guard on the squad, or lack of chemistry, or what, but Tufts still has plenty of individual talent and time to figure out what is ailing them offensively, and the Sabety-Palleschi combo should theoretically create a mismatch inside vs. every team they face.

middhoops · December 04, 2014, 08:15:29 AM

A poster on the NEWMAC board commented that the NESCAC may be a one bid league this year.
"....everyone's beating the NESCAC...."
The Tufts woes and Williams two early losses are being noticed, as well as the Bowdoin debacle against Babson.

Great post regarding Hamiilton, nescac1. Hopefully a great story in the making.

Even losing to a very good WPI team, the twin towers looked scary as hell to me. Palleschi (and thanks to the Tufts' announcer, I now pronounce his name correctly) is such a smart player with a very soft touch. No rust on him.

WPI89 · December 04, 2014, 09:20:54 AM

That NEWMAC poster was certainly not me. Way too early to speculate on bids - although I do agree with NESCAC1 that Tufts has very likely played itself into having to win the CAC tourney at this point. The bright side is that with 8+ top 30ish opponents left - maybe there is time to salvage. I only "watched" live stats last night and it felt like 2 good teams trading punches.

Just thrilled to have Tufts out of the way before they truly "wake" up.

Very likely planning on heading up to Salem on 12/29 for the Williams/WPI game. Will check in as we get closer to see if any of you guys are heading over.

nescac1 · December 04, 2014, 09:25:39 AM

I'd bet good money that NESCAC will have at least two bids. NESCAC doesn't have the level of elite, first-team all-American talent at the top that has defined the league in recent years. But there is still plenty of talented squads, many of which are still coming together. NESCAC teams often start a bit slow due to the abbreviated practice schedule ... Williams the way it is playing now would beat Southern Vermont by 20 or more (similar to last season, when they would have beaten then by 30-40 late in the season). Add an unusual amount of personnel turnover across the league due to a combination of graduation, transfers, and injuries, and it's no surprised that several teams have started off more slowly than expected. But that still leaves four NESCAC teams undefeated, and for at least two of them, Amherst and Midd, there would have to be a suprising series of events for either not to make the NCAAs. Remember, the NEWMAC, which is a lot weaker than NESCAC when push comes to shove as last year's tourney performance demonstrated, got FOUR teams in last season.

There is almost NO chance that NESCAC gets in only one. I mean, who else in New England is getting those bids? The LEC is off to a strong start this year, but it is doubtful that they will ultimately get more than one at-large bid. I can't imagine NEWMAC getting three at-large bids again, that almost never happens for ANY league; plus, NEWMAC already has zero undefeated teams, and only three one-loss teams. One of the better NEWMAC teams, Springfield, just lost last night to Trinity, which looks like a middle-tier NESCAC squad. Babson has already lost at home to Bates, and has a really brutal four game non-conference stretch ahead of it. And so on ...

ronk · December 04, 2014, 10:45:54 AM

Quote from: nescac1 on December 04, 2014, 09:25:39 AM
I'd bet good money that NESCAC will have at least two bids. NESCAC doesn't have the level of elite, first-team all-American talent at the top that has defined the league in recent years. But there is still plenty of talented squads, many of which are still coming together. NESCAC teams often start a bit slow due to the abbreviated practice schedule ... Williams the way it is playing now would beat Southern Vermont by 20 or more (similar to last season, when they would have beaten then by 30-40 late in the season). Add an unusual amount of personnel turnover across the league due to a combination of graduation, transfers, and injuries, and it's no surprised that several teams have started off more slowly than expected. But that still leaves four NESCAC teams undefeated, and for at least two of them, Amherst and Midd, there would have to be a suprising series of events for either not to make the NCAAs. Remember, the NEWMAC, which is a lot weaker than NESCAC when push comes to shove as last year's tourney performance demonstrated, got FOUR teams in last season.

There is almost NO chance that NESCAC gets in only one. I mean, who else in New England is getting those bids? The LEC is off to a strong start this year, but it is doubtful that they will ultimately get more than one at-large bid. I can't imagine NEWMAC getting three at-large bids again, that almost never happens for ANY league; plus, NEWMAC already has zero undefeated teams, and only three one-loss teams. One of the better NEWMAC teams, Springfield, just lost last night to Trinity, which looks like a middle-tier NESCAC squad. Babson has already lost at home to Bates, and has a really brutal four game non-conference stretch ahead of it. And so on ...

While I agree that the NESCAC is highly unlikely to be a 1-bid league, the Pool C bids are national and theoretically no one in New England has to get one.