MBB: NESCAC

[Old Guy]

New Bowdoin President: http://www.bowdoin.edu/presidential-search/

Fascinating choice for Bowdoin's new President.  Not the background I would have expected for a liberal arts college

That's an understatement! Would love to hear reaction of Bowdoin faculty...

President of Bowdoin and the President of Bates both named "Clayton."

It doesn't seem to me to an unusual choice at all. He has a suitable credential: In 2003, following a highly successful 20-year leadership and management career in finance, he enrolled in the doctoral program in sociology at the University of Pennsylvania to study issues of race in America, earning his master's degree in 2005 and his Ph.D. with distinction in 2007.

Liberl arts institutions are being pressed to justify themselves (and their fees) in the marketplace as never before. We have all become more pragmatic and are moving away, fast, from traditional academic approaches and academic purity - and are offering all kinds of experiential opportunities (internships!) with shiny new programs in the social sciences (the Humanities are in retreat) and applied sciences (STEM). Teachers are being retrained to move away from old pedagogical formats to more "interactive" ways of classroom teaching (the flipped class!) - the "sage on the stage" is passé.

Clayton Rose is an expert in "leadership and management," teaches at the Harvard B School, studied "race" in in his Ph.D program at Penn (diversity is the watchword at our schools these day). Seems to me an inspired choice. Bowdoin may have just jumped the line.

[P'bearfan]

http://athletics.bowdoin.edu/sports/mbkb/2014-15/releases/20150126k2f15n

Bryan Hurley was named NESCAC co-player of the week.  Well deserved recognition .... and just great to see him playing so well after a really tough year last season.  Congrats!

Bowdoin's game against Husson has been rescheduled to Mon Feb 16th.

[polbear73]

Article on how John Beilein, Michigan HBC looks longingly at Duncan Robinson's practice performance.  http://www.freep.com/story/sports/college/university-michigan/wolverines/2015/01/27/michigan-basketball-austin-hatch/22386123/

[middhoops]

Good story, Polbear73.  Coach blows the whistle because Robinson is lighting up the starters with ten in a row and they have no answer.  Lots of Wolverine fans on this board next season.

[NEhoops]

I think the POY will be one of these four players and ultimately make up all but one spot on the first team

Hudnut (JR)
Safford (SR)
Sinnickson (SR)
Wohl (SR)

I think the next three will be competing for a spot on first team

Lin (SR)
Hausman (JR)
George (SO)

Lots of basketball still to play, but gotta start somewhere

[nescac1]

Conference stats to date ...

Lin: 19.4-1.4-9.8  47/35/82 (plus three steals per game)
Safford: 14.2-4.5-4.5  30/29/67 (plus 1.5 steals per game)
Hausman:  23.4-4.4-2.2  45/25/95 (plus 1.4 steals per game)

Stats aren't everything, but Lin and Hausman are both dramatically better than Safford in conference play, half-way through the NESCAC season.  I can't see putting Safford above either if those trends continue, and especially not if his shooting stays below 40 percent.  Lin in particular has DOUBLE the assists and DOUBLE the steals of Safford, while scoring 5 ppg more via dramatically superior shooting, and all playing on a team with less overall talent than Safford has to work with.  Lin is actually making a very strong case for NESCAC POY, despite Hamilton's lack of team success.  If they can pull out a few more conference wins, he is right there with Wohl, Hudnut, and Sinnickson. 

[NEhoops]

nescac1,

Great insight as always. There is a strong correlation between making the conference tournament and being selected to the first team. Hamilton has a tough stretch coming up and will most likely need some other teams to lose for them to make the tournament. If they do, I'm sure a lot of the credit will deservedly go to Lin. Bates doesn't leave the state for the rest of their season, if they can take advantage of that it would most likely be under the direction of Safford. Hasuman, who has been fun to watch and is having a great year may be slighted because he is a junior. However things end up all three of these players and many more have already put together great seasons and don't necessarily need an all conference nod to solidify that. 

[hoop master]

Tufts possibly will win the conference, but no all conference player?-- come on posters. Sabety ,-- a monster, Palleschi- as tough as they come, and even Smith-- one of the quickest guards in conference.  Shelton goes deep with bench so individual stats might not compare to some noted, but results for Jumbos will determine, how well these players should be considered .  A ways to go before we will know, but all should be under consideration

[amh63]

See that this board keeps rolling along....now pass 1300! pages and adding new members too.  Have to thank the Maine school fans for their efforts especially.
Been filling my BB needs watching Div 1 games...saw U. of Michigan win a Big Ten game, etc.  Did notice the number of tight games...both men and women games...among highly ranked teams.  More interesting are the low scores in those games.  There are surprising announcer comments wrt to the ref calls made....in particular to the new rules in play this season.  I find it surprising in that it is mid season and the players should be more aware of the rules.  Guess such calls are enhanced in low scoring tight games...conference games, especially  Aside from the play of selected big men..the freshman at Duke and the 7 footer for U. of Wisconsin....the majority of the games are controlled by the play of the backcourt players..the ball handlers really.  Seems that is appearing also in conference games, imo....maybe always?
The speed of the play...up and down the court...is also noted by announcers as they note the conditions of some players in games.  An announcer/analyst commented on watching a practice where the coach had the players go full speed up and down the floor for about a hour.
I have been translating some of the observations to games in the conference that I have watched....in particular Amherst.  First, a faster pace and the rotation of players by coaches favor the deeper teams...especially the ones that have athletic players.   At times, I have commented on the quality of D3 officials...mainly in consistency.  It  can be distracting at times to watch the reaction of the coaches to calls....in particular to the HBC of Trinity...who really wanted the win in LeFrak.  He was warned several times during the games ...an to his movement up and down the floor.  I enjoy watching him since his coaching entrance into the conference..  Remember when his wife sat near me on the Amherst side during a game....I sat among her family who was rooting for Amherst.
To the point....I'm thinking that some of the reactions shown by Amherst players to calls by refs, in particular the younger ones....could be due to the applications of the new rules by D3 quality refs.  A block vice a charge....a foul on a drive due to a use of an arm, etc.  New rules....maybe slight ones....but often are challenging the refs....in tight low scoring games.  How do coaches apply the rules in practice..especially when coaching defense?
Guess I adding to the page count here...waiting for Friday.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Honestly, I have seen a mixture of how coaches adapt to rules when it comes to practice. I have seen some who mention the changes to their players but then don't drive home the changes in practice (and then wonder why their guys don't get it games). I have also seen coaches who either bring in professional refs or those who know the rules well enough (I did that back in the day) to make the calls - even over-do the calls - to drive the point home.

I won't forget last year when the emphases was to keep hand-checking down and cutting players off a little more in check went into place and during a game I witnessed a clear violation per the new rule. The coach for the team in question is known for giving refs a real hard time on everything... but he screamed across the court to his player, "you know the rule... stop doing that!" It told me he understood the rule and had told his team and wasn't surprised with the call (don't know if they were driving it home in practice or not).

Ultimately, it is up to the athletes on the floor to figure it out. They are smart. They should understand how a game is called and adjust to it accordingly. Nothing drives more more crazy than to hear athletes, coaches, even fans complain that the refs called a game too tight and it cost them in the second half. As long as a game is called consistently, it is up to the players on the court to adjust to the refs - not to expect refs to adjust to them (if the came is called inconsistently, then I understand the argument to a point).

Now I will also admit, I don't know many partisan fans who will admit when they think a game is called consistently. Too many times I hear them simply repeat what the coach is yelling (he has ulterior motives, usually) or not even understand the rules in the first place (i.e. the old non-10 second backcourt rule in women's basketball, how three-seconds in the lane actually works, etc.).

As for Division III refs apparently sub-standard compared to Division I... while I agree not a lot of D3 refs are calling big-boy basketball, that doesn't mean the refs you see aren't calling D1 games. I actually know quite a few that call all levels of the game. And if you don't like them at the D3 level, you aren't going to like them at the D1 level. But to assume they are calling D3 level because they aren't good enough for a high level isn't exactly a fair assumption.

[grabtherim]

I think the overwhelming majority of refs at all levels do a great job often under very tough circumstances.  There are great refs at the high school level too.  I agree that consistency is the key to judging officiating in a game.  My pet peeve is when you have a three man crew and one guy seems to be making the overwhelming majority of the calls while the other guys seem to defer to him.  Even worse, when that happens the calls are usually lopsided against the visiting team.  I have seen it over and over again sitting on both sides of the advantage.  It seems to me certain guys are influenced by where the game is being played and/or the excitement of the home crowd in a gym. 

[toad22]

I have only seen one game live, where I am certain that the refs decided the game. Nearly always, when you lose, you have only yourselves to blame. I really hate that about sports - it's much more fun when you can blame somebody else.

[grabtherim]

I'm guessing you didn't see the Cowboys playoff games.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Well... indicating fouls are lopsided is one thing, but it is amazing how many times that people don't realize: refs aren't tasked with making sure the foul calls are evenly distributed. Case in point, if Team A is on offense and Team B is in a zone which Team A isn't attacking... yet Team A is playing aggressive man-to-man and Team B is attacking the rim... Team A is going to have more fouls called on them almost every game. Just because the foul count isn't even doesn't mean the refs are doing a bad job.

Yes, that doesn't mean you can't pick a part a crew and their calls to try and find bias, but I don't know that many refs any more who care where they are. There is a gym in the Mid-Atlantic that was notorious for that being the reason the home team won. It might have been the reason in the good old days, but that is far from the truth now.

And sure, the Cowboys game had a couple of calls that people had trouble with, but the one non-catch was with 8:40 left in the game. There was still plenty of time to execute the game plan and score a touchdown.

[P'bearfan]

Ultimately, it is up to the athletes on the floor to figure it out. They are smart. They should understand how a game is called and adjust to it accordingly. Nothing drives more more crazy than to hear athletes, coaches, even fans complain that the refs called a game too tight and it cost them in the second half. As long as a game is called consistently, it is up to the players on the court to adjust to the refs - not to expect refs to adjust to them (if the came is called inconsistently, then I understand the argument to a point).

Generally I agree with you.  However, I know of situations where the refs have told the players prior to the start of the game, "We're going to let you play and not call it real tight" only to have the refs call several touch fouls very quickly.  Players can pick up a couple of fouls very quickly in this type of situation.

Along that same lines, I'm always curious about the conversations that players have with refs.  Some players only complain - and quite demonstratively; others seems to have on-going, reasonably constructive dialogs. 

Are there any NESCAC players who appear to be particularly effective with the refs?