MBB: NESCAC

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

People might confuse you and wonder what happened on the historic all-women's campus!

[P'bearfan]

Bowdoin cruised to a 95-48 win of UMF last night.

Good game overall for the Polar Bears who were lead by Jack Simonds (27/8); Lucas Hausman (19 points); Matt Palecki (11/7).  Neil Fuller chipped in 8 points and Jake Donnelly had 7 points.  None of the starters played more than 23 minutes. The entire bench saw action with six different players scoring.

Bowdoin scored the first 16 points of the game and the outcome was never in doubt.  Bowdoin shot very well from all over the floor:  60% from the floor; 45.8% from long range; 75% from the line.  UMF often went with a smaller line up and the Polar Bears used their size advantage to dominate the glass 44-23. The biggest difference was on the defensive glass where Bowdoin held a 35-5 advantage; UMF's weak shooting created many rebounding opportunities that Bowdoin capitalized on.

Nice way for Bowdoin to head into the Winter Break.  Good luck to all the players with finals and safe travels home.

GoUBears!!

[amh63]

Looked in on the Bowdoin game...saw that the P'bears had the situation well in hand and soon departed.  For a moment, was confused with the uniforms....thinking the dark/black dressed players were Bowdoin...in part due to the love of Black by Bowdoin ...at the time the black dressed players seemed to be playing better.
Anyway, glad the conference team won, as Trinity lost on the road again!  Close score but the game at the King's College Tourny in Wilkes Barre, Pa was against Susquehanna...hope I spelled that correct.
Amherst plays this afternoon against the Lasers of Lasell.  Looked at the record of Lasell...their 3 early loses were close...one against Brandeis.  Amherst better be ready, as a previous poster noted.
Got a reprieve from my wife wrt to a recital/ reception...big IOU.  Got a game to watch .
Middlebury, Williams and Trinity also playing today.

[WPI89]

FYI. Michigan on ESPN news. Robinson getting his first start!  Hit his first 3.

[amh63]

WPI89....thanks....have been watching it awhile...now on EspnU.  Last game, An announcer thought Robertson should take his man into the lane...Robinson is going inside more today. Defense stressed at practice according to announcer.  Effort seems there but Delaware St. Is overmatched, IMO. So defensive improvement is hard to gauge.  Yes, I do see the offense by Michagan is similar to one I remember seeing at Williams under Maker...a "student" of Michigan's HC.
It should be noted that the Detroit/Michican article on Robinson was in error wrt to Maker.  He left Williams for a HC job., not for an assistant job in D1.

[jumpshot]

Williams down by 10 to Springfield after 9 minutes. Ephs hampered by poor fundamentals --- passing, catching the ball, weak defense particularly in not closing out on threes and team defense, likely a long season ahead.

[jumpshot]

Ephs getting blown out by Springfield behind by 15 at half. No evidence of skill, passion, or confidence.

See you next year....

[nescac1]

Ephs down by 15 at halftime.  One of the worst halves of Eph basketball we've seen in recent years -- out-executed, out-coached, out-worked.  Springfield has absolutely shot the lights out, 8-13 from 3 many of them from quite deep, but Williams has actually shot the ball well from deep themselves (5-11).  In every other aspect of the game Williams has been terrible. 

Springfield seems to beat the Ephs to every lose ball.  And the Ephs seem to have as many turnovers as they do good shot attempts.  Springfield keeps flashing two guys out on the perimeter to trap and the Ephs have no idea how to deal with it, creating lots of chaos.  Also the Ephs keep the season-long pattern of trying to force difficult passes into the interior instead of working the ball around more patiently and having guys work off the ball to get open.  On defense, Springfield shooters are continually getting open by curling off simple screens, and again, Williams seems to have no answer at all, not doing anything to disrupt the flow of the Springfield offense at all it seems.  Particularly bad for the Ephs is the interior finishing -- lots of rushed, awkward shots leading to bricks or blocks, need to be a bit more patient, utilize some ball fakes, and go up strong with the dominant hand.  Scadlock, who is generally the best finisher on the inside other than Aronowitz, is having sort of a nightmare game in particular, but virtually everyone has contributed to the interior woes. 

Ephs are very much showing their youth and continue to miss the composure of the two starting guards out of the lineup.  Hopefully the Ephs can at least make some adjustments during the second half to fight through some of the screens better on defense, and to get better shot attempts on offense, but 15 is a long way to come down from .... ugly. 

I would not agree with jumpshot's doom and gloom going forward.  Assuming this result holds, the Ephs are still going to be 5-3 heading into the break despite having a young coach, an extremely young roster, and missing the starting backcourt for most of the semester with injuries.  The return of the veteran guards will help the offensive flow, and the frosh have shown plenty of signs of talent, just need to gain experience.  It is unrealistic to expect a team that has had two of its top three guys as frosh and three more frosh playing big roles off the bench, and has had some tough injury luck early, to play as well early in the season as well as they will play later.  The team is very much a work in progress right now, and we are seeing that when they play very experienced, poised teams, but there is plenty of room for upwards growth. 

[nescac1]

Well, I'd say the Ephs came out with a different attitude and focus -- tie game 7 minutes into the second half!  Hopefully they don't relent and keep this up.  Spectacular 7 minutes of play to say the least. 

[nescac1]

The Ephs could not go into the break with any better momentum.  They followed their worst half of the season with by far their best, the entire approach and execution was night and day.  The biggest difference was perimeter defense -- it's amazing what actually fighting through screens, raising your arms and jumping out on shooters on the perimeter can do!  The interior finishing was also night and day -- going up assertively, but also not rushing shots.  Kudos to Coach App for making adjustments after the team had looked totally flummoxed by Springfield's offensive sets. 

Loads of guys contributed to the huge second half, outscoring Springfield by 25, none more than Kyle Scadlock.  As I said he had a nightmarish first half but dominated the second, putting up a 14-6 in 15 minutes, including a triple, a big momentum dunk, and THREE and-ones (each of which he finished).  He looked far more composed going up for layups.  He is going to be a star, just needs to work a bit on avoiding cheap fouls on both ends of the court.  He is so long that anytime he bumps a guy even a little it seems like he gets called for a foul, so he has to adjust a bit and use less of his arms on defense.   

Kudos to Cole Teal, who has been struggling of late but had I'd say his best overall game as an Eph, finishing with 15-4-3, no turnovers, 6-8 shooting, and most importantly taking the ball to the basket and finishing without hesitation.  Fellow soph Adam Kroot also had his strongest game as an Eph, finishing with 6-2-2 and hitting a few big shots.  Dan Aronowitz had a quiet day for him but still finished with a very solid 14-8 plus some good defensive plays.  Luke Thoreson in limited minutes made a few crucial plays in the second half, including a very timely three and a beautiful assist.  James Heskett also broke out of his shooting slump and hit a couple of huge threes in the first half to at least keep the Ephs within striking distance. 

The Ephs for the first time all year shot the ball like they are capable of shooting: 50/42/80.  As I said earlier I think ending the first semester 5-3 with such a young team and with some injury adversity would have been a positive sign for the future.  Finishing 6-2 and on a massively high note is obviously a heck of a lot better and the Ephs most importantly finally got some balanced scoring and contributions from a wide variety of players, instead of relying upon just a few to carry them.  Fingers crossed that they can quickly integrate the injured guys when they return and the frosh can build off one the best half of basketball this group has played, by FAR.  They have to come out with this sort of energy and intensity in the FIRST half of every game because the last two games that focus has not been there.  The Ephs also still have some offensive communication issues to work out which is inevitable for a bunch of guys who haven't really played together much, but that will work itself out.  The one thing they can control is playing with fire and in the second half, they absolutely brought it. 

[toad22]

The Springfield-Williams game was indeed unusual. The worst half of the season for the Ephs, followed by the best half. The Ephs are currently playing with two or three freshmen at all times. The only good thing about freshmen is that they become sophomores! Williams scored 24 in the first half, followed by 48 in the second. They gave up 39 in the first half, followed by 23. The Ephs took a lot of the first half off defensively, and decided to free-lance offensively, rather than run the simple, effective basketball plays the coach had drawn up. In the second half, the Eph energy level went way up, they started executing actual basketball movements, and they blew Springfield out. I hope this young team learned something from this.

[Vandy74]

Middlebury had a surprisingly easy 71-49 win over Plattsburgh this afternoon.  The game wasn't that close.  The far end of the bench players were all on the court with 8+ remaining.  The Cardinals were without the services of their second leading scorer Edward Correa who lit it up for 22 points on 6-10 shooting from behind the arc two seasons back in a 63-47 trouncing of the Panthers in Pepin.  Majestic Grigg, who had started the three previous games only played one minute and although no names were supplied I'd been told Plattsburgh had three potential starters unavailable.  For Middlebury  Matt St. Amour led all scorers with 19 and had 4 steals.  Matt Daley, who left the court with what seemed to be a bruised hip late in the first half but appeared to be fine following intermission, scored 12 points and led the team with 8 rebounds.  Jack Daly dished out 8 assists.  While the 3-point shooting, 3-19, was weak, the team shot 28-56 when willing to settle for 2.  Most importantly, Middlebury's defense dominated this game.  Kyle Richardson, who leads the Cardinal attack with a 19 ppg average, was held to just 2 points on 1-8 shooting.   Overall Plattsburgh shot 18-66 from the field, 4-20 on trey attempts.   Only Eli Bryant, 7-13 including all 4 of his team's treys, could find his shooting eye.   Middlebury had 13 steals, 10 from the starters all of whom had one. 

A 5-5 record going into the semester break isn't what Panther fans are used to these days but this is a young squad.  The Skidmore game was winable and the Thoroughbreds are a very good team.  While half a dozen sophs and frosh still have much to learn best taught by game experience, the team that left the court this afternoon is good enough to be at least 8-2 if allowed to play them all again, in this admittedly biased fan's humble opinion.   Following the holiday break games remain, with Endicott and those pesky So. Vermont kids Williams doesn't want to play with anymore, before the 'CAC competition kicks in.  I believe Middlebury will be ready.

[pinseeking1]

The Bates Bobcats were stunned by a 17-2 Colby run down the stretch to force overtime and an eventual Colby win in Waterville last night. The Bobcats led at halftime and had a 13 point lead in the second half before the closing Colby run. Ryan Jann of Colby had a strong shooting night, including a long 3-pointer with 10 seconds left to tie the game. Bates wasn't able to score on it's final possession and Colby earned the win in OT.

Colby went to the FT line 36 times in the game, compared to 17 for the Bobcats, which made the difference. It was a bit ironic that the Colby crowd complained about the calls on just about every foul call, given the huge home team foul advantage they had. Two Bates starters fouled out, which hurt their chances in OT. After shooting over 50% from 3-point range in their previous game, Bates' long range shooting fell to below 30%.  The win gives Colby the CBB championship after their earlier win over Bowdoin.

Very tough loss for the Bobcats as they played very tough and quick for most of the game. Hopefully, they can learn from the experience and close out better. Colby experienced a similar feeling earlier this year when they gave up a 26 point lead to lose to Staten Island. They probably used that loss to their advantage last night...

[booyakasha]

The CBB has yet to be decided. Bates and Bowdoin both have three games left to Colby's two.

[pinseeking1]

Oops. I forgot about those NESCAC games... There's still hope for the B's...