MBB: NESCAC

[JeffRookie2]

I was at the Amherst-Fitchburg St game. It was a complete mockery of a contest. Amherst scored pretty much at will and the Falcons couldn't move the ball at all. I don't think you can draw any conclusions from the game because the competition was so soft, but I did get to see every one of Amherst's incoming class. Coulibaly looks amazing as expected, he can shoot, drive, rebound, the whole nine yards. Baskauskas was very underwhelming, but to be fair, by the time he got on the court pretty much everyone on the court was clearly playing with complete disinterest. The one frosh who I thought looked really good was Marcus Bradley who had 8 points in 12 minutes, although he did turn the ball over three times. It looks like both Glen Wong and Bradley will play the point, which means that when Corrigan comes back the Jeffs will have an absurd five point guards, three of whom are sophomores or younger. I liked how Wheeler and O'Shea looked. O'Shea looks a lot bigger, and hopefully he and Hopkins will provide some physicality down low that was sorely lacking last year. Wheeler immediately looked to take an active role in the offense, I thought one of his biggest problems last year was a tendency to be a little hesitant. The one thing that Amherst did not do well was shot selection. They seemed a bit too anxious to launch up threes, something they should probably try to get away from this year now that they no longer have Lee and Schiel.

[JeffRookie2]

Did anyone see the Trinity game? Who did they play? Why was it so close?

[jdex]

Close? Cortland should have won the game. Four point play (trey + ft) by Clark won it at 0:11. Cortland ahead by as many as 11 in second half, and by seven with about 4' left. Well played for an opener

[rufus]

Just back from the Eastern Ct State Tournament with William Patterson(NJ), Mitchell College, and Bates.  Bates won the Tournament convincingly by beating William Paterson in the first round 68-54.  They started with a 11-0 run and never looked back.  Patterson made a couple of runs at the Bobcats throughout the game but nothing really significant.  ECSU beat Mitchell by -- ten I think.  Setting up the championship round between Bates and ECSU today at 3PM.  The final score was 75-57, Bates won the Tournament.  I thought that the Bobcats came out with great intensity, were very organized, used good shot selection, were scrappy under the boards, but most of all - and I was really impressed by this! - they were playing like a team.  I know that sounds strange, because when you sit in the stands to watch a game, its what we all expect.  But by comparison, the two teams that they beat played as individuals not as a team, and I believe that to be one of the reasons for the wins.  Both William Patterson and ECSU have good players that are above average athletes.  They just could not consistently put the ball in the basket and Bates took advantage of that.  I am taking nothing away from these two teams .  But as I watched both games, it occurred to me that Bates was about two weeks ahead of the others.  Last year the Wm Patterson team was 15-10, in what many have called a tough league.  ECSU went 8-16 last year and I suspect that both of these teams have the potential to win 15 games this year.  Admittedly that is a guess, but they do have good athletes and a fairly deep bench - from what I saw.  I give kudos to Coach Reilly for getting his players "together" so quickly.  Remember NESCAC teams do not start "official" practice until November 1, a little over two weeks ago.  So, for what its worth, I saw good shot selection, good rebounding, (of course good play from Rob Stockwell and a very unselfish Zak Ray)and, despite NESCAC1 indicating a "thin bench", there was a good deal of bench strength available to rest those starting 5.  All this means is that Bates starts out of the gate at 2-0, having played 2 solid teams - everyone on this board knows its the final 9 games that count.  So I am optimistic about what lies ahead of the Bobcats this season.  They play USM at Bates this Tuesday.  Good luck to all the NESCAC teams - may you win them all and then fight it out for the championship - may the best team win.

PS Pat - Ireally like this new format!  Thanks

[nescac1]

For the second straight game, Williams was two different teams in the first and second half.  In the first half, Babson's physical play really rattled them, missing some easy shots, rushing passes and turning the ball over, missing a number of foul shots, just generally out of synch.  In the second half, Williams looked very good.  Newton had a huge size advantage and he exploited that well, still not all the way back but he looked better than he did in the first game.  Still seems to be laboring a little out there when he runs and jumps, but otherwise looks pretty good.  Gibbons was fantastic again, playing very poised, making great drives with some good finishes / passes at the end, leading the team, he has really stepped up.  Rose was the top offensive player and most aggressive rebounder again, he is definitely vastly improved this year.  The key player, though, was Brian Nelson.  He was all over the place, hustling, making steals, just playing great defense and making hustle plays, his shot wasn't on but he made many contributions in other ways.  Shalvoy also played very well, handling the ball flawlessly against relentless pressure from Babson's very quick and physical guards, and nailing foul shots to seal the game.  Defense for the most part was very good, they are MUCH more intense on defense than last year, contesting passes, getting deflections, just playing with a lot of passion and aggression.

The only problems are, again, interior defense -- Babson got too many easy looks inside for such a short team.  Hopefully, when Newton gets more in the groove and Weisbrot returns to health, they can provide some intimidation in there, but yesterday they did a poor job contesting interior shots.  Kuntz didn't play very much but he looks like the only real solid interior defensive presence at this point -- Newton gets too many fouls and is too important to the offense to take risks out there.   They really miss Leary in that respect, although their interior defense was pretty poor last year, too.

Babson will return to the top of the NEWMAC in a year or two based on what  I saw.  They started two frosh guards who both looked very athletic and talented, and only have one senior on the roster.  Theyneed to get some height, but otherwise they looked like they have a bright future. 

Depth could be a bit of a problem as Williams barely used its bench.  The frosh are going to have to play more because they just don't have that many juniors and seniors on the roster.  Hanifan did play pretty well on defense and rebounding when he was in there, so he may see more time, but they need to find someone to score off the bench besides Nelson.  Moore didn't play at all after getting decent minutes in the first game.

I am interested to hear about what happened at Amherst, surprised Endicott gave them a little bit of a scare.  Two quality wins for Trinity in that tournament, good start for them.  Although, at least based on stats, the two hyped transfers -- Martin and Coulibaly -- haven't contributed all that much yet.  And Bates will definitely be tough once again although they didn't face brutal competition in that tournament.  Bad loss for Wesleyan, who could be in big, big trouble this year -- they just don't have many scorers.  They will likely fight with Midd for the bottom of the league.  Although let's see how they perform against Williams on Tuesday -- Wesleyan always gives the Ephs trouble on the road. 

Overall, solid opening weekend for the NESCAC, with the primary contenders all emerging undefeated and Bowdoin and Tufts showing signs of life as well. 

[formerbant10]

I like seeing Trinity win two close games...they struggled with that last year.  Kino Clarke with the breakout performance of his career.  Give Pat Martin a few games to adjust to his new teammates and figure out where his shots will come from and he'll be fine.  The one stat that jumps out at me, but not a surprise given who's not there anymore, is the assist to turnovers for the Bants.  11 A's to 9 TO's in the first game, 9 A's to 13 TO's in the second game.  Seems like Clarke and Rhoten had to create a lot of their own shots.   Trinity had been the top in A/TO the last 3 years.

Clarke and Martin play pretty much the entire game, could be trouble if either one of them gets into foul trouble.

Glad to see Russ Martin putting up some numbers early on, he has the potential to help the Bants out a lot for the next 3 years.

[JeffRookie2]

Wow, Clarke scored over 20 in both of those games. Early on it looks like he is the second option behind Rhoten. He only averaged 6 or 7 points a game last year and I don't remember thinking that he was anything special. It will be interesting to see if he keeps this up. I'm looking forward to seeing him play.

[formerbant10]

Clarke had a few outbursts last year scoring 14 points in 12 minutes, things like that.  But he had a few players in front of him so he didn't get to take 17 shots in a game.  There has never been a doubt that he could score, glad that he stepped up in the early games b/c with all the turnover from last year somebody needed to do so to put Trin over the top of the early games till they figure each other out.  I'm still confident that the Bants will make a strong run starting in mid January.

[walzy31]

FormerBant,

When you talk of the worsened turnover/assist ratio, are you referring to Jesse Farrell (who touched his hands to his toungue after every pass he made)? Or the 3rd highes assist man in the league in Hasiuk who is only a junior this year?

I think that the turnovers that you speak of when Rhoten "creates his own shots" is one of his biggest problems. There is no doubt that Rhoten is a dominant player in NESCAC, but much like Petrie, he tries to do too much on his own. The only difference is, Petrie has no one to help him on offense and Rhoten has always had a very solid team. Those turnovers should be blamed on Rhoten forcing the issue rather than Farrell's departure.

[formerbant10]

I think the turnovers are coming more from the fact that an entire new perimeter started for Trinity this weekend.  I didn't see the game, so I don't want to speculate where the turnovers came from.  Just stating something that concerns me.
Maybe Rhoten does try to do too much, but since his rookie year he's pretty much been able to do what he wants inside....minus a few games here and there. 
I figured that the turnovers would be a problem early, seeing as though official practices started 2.5 weeks before the first games.  If you look at who handled the ball last year, Trinity had Farrell (3 year starter), Hasiuk (lot of minutes as a frosh), Halas (3 year starter), Taylor (reigning ROY) playing most of the games.  Clarke played, but was counted on to score more than pass.  And Pat Martin will be fine after a few games of playing with Rhoten and Co.
Either way you look at it, Trinity won 2 close games...thats 2 more close games than they won last year.

[formerbant10]

The Bants lost to Eastern CT despite 33 points from Kino Clarke.  Once again 20 TO's to 12 Assists....starting to be a trend. 
Looks like Rhoten was in foul trouble most of the game.  No offensive help for Clarke, nobody else in double digits.
I'm not positive, but that may be the first time Rhoten has been under 10 points since the 2nd game of his freshman year.

Tufts wins by 1 over Springfield...didn't see a boxscore, but Tufts should be on the New England radar now....Springfield really struggling right now.

[All-around]

I saw Bates also lost. What is the forecast for them this yr??

[rufus]

All-Around - I managed to make it up to Gorham to see the game last night - and I went to the Eastern Conn "tip-off" this past weekend.  So I have seen all three games the Bobcats  have played.  Clearly, this was a disappointing loss for the Bobcats, but not the end of the world.  USM is a talented team, very athletic and they made their shots in critical situations.  I have followed the Bobcats pretty closely over the past 6 or 7 years, and with Coach Reilly you must accept some degree of  'guard mentallity'.  Joe was a 1,000 point scorer for Trinity and could still run with the best of them.  To play for him, you must accept the fact that you are going to live or die by the 3 pointer.  Last night they were 4-22 from the arch, that's 18% and so they died.   They simply were not able to find the bottom of the net, and credit the USM defense for some of that.  Their shooting, especially in the second half was poor.  On the opposite side of that, they did get some good inside play from their big people, and that largely kept the score from getting out of hand.

Another issue, and this may prove more critical as the season progresses, I heard that 2 second line guards went down with injuries this week in practice.  One could be season ending.  This put a greater pressure on Ray.  He was not able to rest, his play suffered, and he picked up fouls (4).  Down the stretch he looked tired.  Those injuries add greater stress to what some on this board have called a "thin bench".

They will finally get their first home game on Monday 11/28 - Alumni Gym will, once again, be packed.  I'm going to try to get up there.  Hopefully that 3 point % will go above the 38-40% mark - prior to this game they were around 47-48%.  While it was a disappointing loss, with a good home cooked meal and the screaming fans in Alumni, things should work out.

Disappointed to see that Trinity lost to Eastern Conn, but in a previous post I said that they were a talented team - that the score of their game with Bates didn't really reflect the type of team they were.  NESCAC1 was right - Bates didn't get "brutal" competition from them, but I think that they have proved they are a team to be reckoned with.

[nescachoopsfan]

I saw the tufts springfield college game.  What an exciting game.  Springfields derek yvon came out on fire and brought springfield an early lead and never looked back 3/4 of the game.  But Tufts finally started to shut down Yvon who ended up with 25 and he was basically they're only option.  But Tufts turned their level up a notch and battled back from an 14 point defecit in the 2nd half lead by senior center dan martin with 23 points and sophmore forward jake weitzen with 19 points to bring the game wtithin 1 point.  Tufts point guard Dave Shephard was foulded on a 3 with 5 seconds left and he was able to knock 2 out of 3 down to give tufts a 1 point lead, their first lead of the game.  Another tough loss for springfield who is now 0-3 loosing each game by less than 3 points.  Tuts finally seemed to click at the right time and looked great.  It was a great game both teams were battling with 2 double fouls called in the game and one technical.  Springfield recieved the second most votes out of the top 25 and now they are 0-3, tough way to start for them.  Also a big win for the jumbos to try and create a reputation for themselves.

[ephoops]

I saw the Williams Wesleyan game the other night at Wes.  Here are my impressions:

Williams:  They are small, except for Newtown.  Their defense was solid against a bad Wes team (Ashe didn't paly).  Paulsen continually implored his guards to push it up the floor.  It looks like he trying to develop a formula of tough "D" with a running game in order to win this year.  I have not seen Amherst play, but I've got to believe that Williams is a few notches below Amherst this year.  If Williams shoots well, they should be fine.  However, I believe they will struggle against teams with size upfront and perimter quickness.  My impressions of the freshmen?...to quote the late Al McGuire, "the best thing about the Freshmen is that they will all be Sophmores next year."  Snyder played a "heady" game...he appears to have a high basketball IQ.  His shot needs work though.  The rest of the freshmen struggled.  Rose is a scorer with an improved outside shot.  He appears to be playing with confidence.  He is clearly the team's best player.  Newtown appears to be recovering from his injury...however he still continues to struggle catching the ball and needs to be more aggressive on offense.  I'd like to see Casey be more aggressive in looking for his shot on offense...he's a senior, it's time to step up and show some leadership on the court.  In all, I believe that Williams will struggle to beat the better teams on its schedule.  In order to be competive in the NESCAC, they will need to play hard-nosed defense and rebound.   The weekend games against Trin and Amherst in Jan will be very telling...

Wes: As noted earlier, Ashe didn't play against Williams.  This is a team that will have a lot of difficulty this year in Nescac.  They were awful in the first half at home against Williams...the score was 41-14 at half.  They are below average in just about everything they do as a team and individually on the court.