MBB: NESCAC

[jumpshot]

Nescac 1 described Williams' outstanding win tonight well, as usual. A few key statistics provide evidence of his narrative :

Williams starters outscore Mid's first five 67 to 30 with no Mid starter in double figures. Williams shoots 53% overall, 43% in 3-pointers (12/28) and 17 of 19 from the stripe. Mid shoots 37%, only 1 of 13 from the arc, and misses 9 foul shots (19/28). Williams team play excellent with 16 assists, Mid only 10 assists and lots of individual, forced play.

Also good defense by the EPHS; certainly a poor night all around for the Panthers.

As I and others pointed out, Mid's exceptionally soft schedule may well be catching up with them....

Having fun and playing with fortitude in February will determine winners....

[Bucket]

Excellent recap by nescac1 on Midd-Williams. Don't have much to add other than to add emphasis to a couple of things he mentioned:

*Wohl took Sinnickson out of the game in a way I have seen no player do before. It really threw a wrench into the Panther offense, totally disrupting the flow.

*When Williams is shooting that well, they have to be awfully tough to beat. Not only are they wracking up threes, but it opens the entire floor up.

*At halftime, I was actually confident that Midd would get right back in the game. The Ephs had to cool off. And they did. Unfortunately, Midd continued to struggle mightily, and credit Williamss's defense.

*A bright spot, if there is one in a 25-pt loss, was the play of Matt Daley. As mentioned, he really ran the floor well and consistently got good position in the post. If he can build on this game, he can be a difference maker for the Panthers down  the stretch.

*Midd just needs to file this one away and come back with a vengeance against Hamilton on Sunday.

[Bucket]

Tufts with expected w tonight. Lead by double figures for most of night other than a rough patch in first quarter when conn college closed to three. Second half lead grew to 20. Biggest concern was Sabety in street clothes with brace and crutches-- concerning in Jumbo- land.  Though with other twin tower and deep bench, tonight his missing was not a factor. All hope its nothing serious , but he has had a balky knee for much of the season.

That's gotta be a big-time concern, and I'm sorry to hear. Same goes for Hudnut @ Colby.

[amh63]

Nothing much to add in Amherst's blowout of a solid Colby team.  The Mule's big man was out but it would not have helped in the first half!  Conner out scored Colby 9-2 in the first 5 minutes...it seems.  19 points in 16 minutes. JMac was making his presence felt..11 rebounds and SIX Blocks.  DGeorge only had 4 blocks....also had another double double.  Green's rebounding was picked up by Nabatoff!
The second half was played even...though much of the 2nd half was played with Amherst "2nd" team and/ or a mixture of fresh and soph players.  Colby was badly beaten off the boards, but forced to many TOs on the LJs.  Without Hudnut inside, Colby played a zone for a time and caused TOs when Amherst tried to get the ball down low to George.
Watched a bit of the Bates vs WES game and the Trinity vs Bowdoin game.  Both close and filled with timeouts...via the coaches.  Foul shots in both games...often with the game on the line...was difficult to watch, even from a "neutral"  viewer.  Big Swords seemed to have a good game...stats wise.
Good games awaits on Sat. for both the men's and women's teams...against Bowdoin.

[MENESCACFAN]

Went to Bates v Wesleyan tonight, snow pretty bad and parking a nightmare, wonderful game though.  8 point game but was liv right until the last minute until free throws put a sheen on the margin for Bates.

Some magnificent 3 point shooting down the stretch with Jack Mackey bringing Wes close, and Safford twice landing to keep the Bates lead.  31 points for Safford, and great rebounding from the Delpeche twins.  While not the best player, Wesleyan's BJ Davis is exciting and I am guessing the fastest player in the league.

Conn driving in after loss to Tufts, and a likely 2nd W of the weekend of Bates tomorrow.  A family commitment will keep me away from game.

Trinity/Bowdoin looks like game of the night.

[pinseeking1]

I agree with MENESCACFAN nice summary of Bates' nice comeback tonight to beat Wesleyan. It could have been either team's game down the stretch, but Safford was clutch. He made some great shots to knock back any Cardinal momentum every time they came close. Also, the Delpeche twins came up with key rebounds time and again on both sides of the floor to give or keep possessions.

The defense of the Bobcats also looked very strong as Wes struggled for good shots late in the game. This was a big win for Bates as they stayed in the hunt in the NESCAC standings. A win over Conn College tomorrow and they'll be within a game of first place or better, depending on how Colby does at Trinity. (It feels a little weird to root for Colby...)

[lumbercat]

Hear you loud and clear Pinseeker--- The Bates athletic Dept took a flyer when they appointed a very young Jon Furbush as the Bobcat head coach ---- now its time for Lane Hall and the athletic Dept to put a good compensation deal on the table to retain a fine coach that they have nurtured following the chance they took on a young Bobcat- hopefully they will compensate Furbush on a level with the rest of the NESCAC head basketball coaches or they will lose a third coach to other NESCAC schools-let's hope Bates doesn't become the next Miami of Ohio

[lumbercat]

Menescacfan-
Wish I could have joined you in Alumni Gym at Bates tonight- spectators said it was over the top loud- no better venue in the NESCAC!!
A nice win for the Garnet and Black ........
Stafford is the ultimate grinder..not 100% but no quit in the Garnet Freeze.

[nescacobserver]

A few observations from watching the Colby/Amherst video:

Colby didn't stand a chance without Hudnut.  Colby has some nice players, like Westman and Jann, but without Hudnut they just could not handle the size and athleticism of Amherst.

Speaking of athleticism, McCarthy made some incredibly athletic defensive moves.  He has great timing on making steals, and can really sky for rebounds when he wants to.

If there were any questions about who is the better point guard,  Reid Berman answered those questions with his 13 assists.  The Amherst offense just runs so much smoother when Berman is out there, and Reid gets his shooters the ball in the right spots.  Dawson just doesn't see the floor as well.

Speaking of shooters,  Green was absolutely dominating the game until he started getting some questionable fouls.  He scored 19 points in just 16 minutes of play, but early on it looked like one of those games where he would end up with 40. 

Should be a real good one today.  I'm sure they'll put McCarthy on Hausman, and George will have to match up with a much taller Swords.

[nescac1]

Two final notes on Midd-Williams.  First, kudos to Kevin App on a smart coaching move: knowing that Midd likes to run and take advantage of their athleticism in transition, the Ephs sent no one at all to the offensive boards, instead running back on defense, hard, after every possession change.  Probably cost the team a few second-chance opportunities, but offensive rebounding is not the Ephs' strong suit so on the balance, it was a very smart strategy ... Midd guys would be flying down the court, only to find 3-4 Ephs already clogging the lane, so very little came easy for the Panthers.  If you don't nail your shots, hard to employ that strategy all game, but fortunately for the Ephs, the threes were falling. 

Second, I want to commend an incredible hustle play by Cole Teal -- after hitting a three, he immediately got back all the way down the floor to draw a fast-break charge right under the basket.  The refs (correctly) reversed the call because he was in the restricted area, but it was a heads-up play to even get into that defensive position so quickly.  He's shown a propensity for drawing charges which will only improve with experience as he improves his sense of where to position himself on the court. 

Has the Eph game with Castleton State that was cancelled been rescheduled?  I've seen no word of that.   Huge weekend road trip coming up for Williams, at Tufts and Bates.  Bates is always tough at home and guarding Safford will definitely pose a challenge for Williams -- I imagine we may see a lot of Chris Galvin, for defensive purposes, in that game to counter Safford's size and strength.  Obviously, Sabety's status is a huge difference-maker for Tufts -- it certainly doesn't sound likely that he will be playing any time soon if he was on crutches.  Even without Sabety, Palleschi is a tough cover inside and guys like Smith and Ferris seem to now be playing to their ability level, so the Ephs will need to play with the same type of poise, teamwork, and precision that they showed they are capable of last night.  Hope that neither he nor Hudnut are badly injured -- those guys are the two best centers in the league right now, edging out George and Swords. 

[amh63]

Just some loose end comments....
Noticed the Bates crowd.  Large percentage...male students?...were wearing white shirts!  First thought...ok, school colors....no that is Bowdoin's color...second thought, " white out" attempt.
Saw an elderly man in a red cap...leading crowd in singing a WES song?...along one sideline? Any clarification by other posters.
I believe that the Bowdoin player to guard hard is Hurley.  JMac on him?  Green has the size to guard Hausman.   Think there is a possibility of Conklin guarding Swords...strength on bulk.  In any case, need to prevent the ball going to Swords down low.  If the outside shooters are on, it will not matter.  Curious if Bowdoin will play some Zone.

[GoWesYoungMan]

First, kudos to Bates. The Bobcats earned the victory last night. Wes played well enough to win but the Bobcats made big plays on both ends down the stretch. It was 68-66 with 30 seconds left.  Safford especially took and made tough guarded shots. The Delpeches had several big blocks and the team made their free throws. Wes kept working the inside which created open looks and they hit 13/28 from three. Appeared to be a great crowd.

[booyakasha]

Amh63,

The guy leading the crowd chant was most likely the Bates guy. He's there and does it every game. I assume someone trying to start a Wes chant would be quickly booed (is that a word?) off the court.

[lumbercat]

Amh63
That guy has been at Bates games for years and leads some traditional cheers throughout the game. He is a fixture in Alumni Gym. I didn't hear any Wesleyan cheers.
There was a white out out thing going on last night. A fun atmosphere.
Not sure anyone really realizes the fact that Bowdoin's color is actually white- to most anyone at Bates Bowdoin is Black.
While there is great support for the Bobcats throughout the campus it has been tradition for the most vocal fans to sit in stage area at the end of the court. The Bobcat football team has typically been well represented in this very vocal section along with other student athletes.
The announcers of the games are 2 fine pitchers on Mike Leonard's Bobcat pitching staff. Rob Defranco and Connor Columbo- we will be hearing from both prominently this spring.

[P'bearfan]

Looking forward to the Bowdoin - Amherst game this afternoon.  While Bowdoin has been playing very well lately this will be a tough match up for the P'bears. 

Last night's loss to Trinity was not only disappointing but it was exhausting as well.  As I mentioned earlier, four of Bowdoin's starters logged 36 minutes or more, with Swords going for a career high 41 minutes (pretty sure that's right without even checking his career stats).

Bowdoin will need to do a 4 things to win today:

1) Defend Connor Green - we can't let him get hot.  With both Pieri and Fuller out this becomes an even tougher challenge as they would normally have drawn that assignment

2) Stay even on the boards - Swords and Palecki our very strong rebounders but Amherst has greater depth in the front court so this will be tough.  Again the loss of Fuller and Pieri will be most noticeable here.

3) Disrupt Reid Berman - Part of Amherst early season woes were due to the fact that their PG role was unsettled.  With Berman now firmly in place as the starter the LJ's may be finding a rhythm.  Anything Bowdoin can do to reduce Berman's effectiveness / efficiency in distributing the ball will be important.

4) Shoot ~35% from downtown - In 3 of Bowdoin's 5 losses they shot less than 27% from behind the arc; In 12 of their 13 wins the P'bears have shot 31% or better.

GoUBears!!