MBB: NESCAC

[Vandy74]

Just back from having dinner with friends and see Bucket and Old Guy have covered all the details.  One bears repeating.  Congratulations, and I might add thank-you, Jeff Brown on 300 wins. 

[amh63]

Nescac24.....keep your favorite moment.  Conner Green has earned his right to take a shot.  He has his Coaches blessing..the " green light" to take his shot.  He is a senior and the captain that plays.  He wins games in other ways...rebounding, steals, defense, etc..even when his shooting is off. 
Everyone sees what they want to see and think they saw...including myself.  I see HC Hixon wanting him late in the game. 
Sorry Jefffan....Conner Green is The Man on this team.

[nescac24]

Nescac24.....keep your favorite moment.  Conner Green has earned his right to take a shot.  He has his Coaches blessing..the " green light" to take his shot.  He is a senior and the captain that plays.  He wins games in other ways...rebounding, steals, defense, etc..even when his shooting is off. 
Everyone sees what they want to see and think they saw...including myself.  I see HC Hixon wanting him late in the game. 
Sorry Jefffan....Conner Green is The Man on this team.

Amh63: As you know, the modern college bkb game is heavily dependent on effective three-point shooting, which Amherst has in abundance. Green and Jeff Racy are the best of them. Both are streaky, which is not -- and never has been, evermore -- uncommon with deep shooters. If I were the head coach, I would give Green freedom to shoot, as well. He'll make enough, sometimes in bunches. But it's not necessary to give him that freedom, because he is going to shoot. This will occasionally frustrate his teammates, although I'm sure they are used to it. It;s not always Kumbaya out there, even with good teams, and Amherst is a very, very good team.

[nescacobserver]

Nescac24, keep in mind that Green has a career 8-2 record vs Williams and I'm sure you have a lot of "moments" of he and his teammates consistently dominating your team over the past 4 years.   Great players find ways to win.

[JEFFFAN]

My point is that Green has to be smarter and stop shooting threes when they aren't going down. He should go inside because he has a small forward / big forward body. No one else has that combination on the team. We all know how Hixon loves the three - watch the last ten minutes of pre game warmup if you don't believe me, when they all shoot nothing but threes - but Green has to play smarter. I don't agree with my fellow alumn from the class of 63 - as astute as he is - being a senior doesn't give him the right to shoot with reckless abandon!

[nescac24]

Nescac24, keep in mind that Green has a career 8-2 record vs Williams and I'm sure you have a lot of "moments" of he and his teammates consistently dominating your team over the past 4 years.   Great players find ways to win.

He's a very good player. Just not easy to play with, win or lose. And Amherst is an excellent program, best in NESCAC for the last several years, hands down.

[booyakasha]

Not hoops related, but unbelievable stuff going on in that GB AZ Game. Hail Marys, poor clock mgmt, failed coin flips?

[P'bearfan]

Looking forward to the Bowdoin - Williams game today at 2 pm.

Not sure what to expect since I haven't seen Williams play this year but from other posters' descriptions the Ephs are big, long and young.  A few interesting items stand out when you look at the stats:

-Bowdoin has been a more efficient shooting team (FG%:47.3 vs 45.3; 3PT%: 35.5 vs 33.6; FT%: 74.4 vs 67.7). 

Not only has Bowdoin been better from the charity stripe the Polar Bears also get there more often (19.5  vs 16.9 attempts/game).  If it's close down the stretch Bowdoin may be able to win it at the foul line.  With all the talk of Williams size, I was surprised to see that Williams takes more 3PT FG's than Bowdoin (25.2 vs 21.6 attempts/game).  Not sure why a team with so much size and only average long range accuracy is taking that many attempts.  In contrast Bowdoin, a team without a true center, is taking more shots inside the arc (42.1 vs 31.9 attempts /games).  Some of this is certainly due to Hausman's ability to attack the rim.

Two ball control stats surprised me:  1) Bowdoin has been more successful rebounding than Williams (41.3 vs 38.8 rpg); 2) The Ephs and Polar Bears have nearly identical turnover rates (12.3 vs 12.2).  Only two other teams in the NESCAC have better turnover rates (Trinity: 11.7; Amherst 12.0) so the youth on both teams really hasn't hurt either team in this department.

Below are my keys for Bowdoin today:

-Start fast.  Bowdoin has had a habit of slow offensive starts (worst examples WCSU and Tufts).  Even in the Bates game following the Tufts loss, Bowdoin wasn't hitting on all cylinders in the first half.

-Balance the offensive attack. While it was great to see Hausman put the team on his back and rack up 42 points against Bates, it was equally concerning.  Great to know that he can do it (and it's just plain fun to watch him), but Bowdoin can't become a one-dimensional offense if they want to get very far.

-Keep the rebounding edge.  Teams with real size are a match up challenge for Bowdoin so they'll need to out rebound Williams and more importantly score on second chance points.

-Shake off the travel blues.  As many posters have mentioned, it's hard to win on the road.  However, the Polar Bears have relatively few home games this year so they'll need to overcome this challenge.  The normal 4+ hr trip from Brunswick to Willaimstown turned into a 6 hour ride last night which makes it tougher.  Hopefully without demands of classwork the team can get some sleep and come out ready to play.

GoUBears!!

[grabtherim]

Interesting start to league play near Otter Creek. As the Panthers minutes have gone to younger players, the intensity has ramped up. I don't think Midd can succeed without scoring and leadership from Huff and Daley, but this experience is huge for the young guys now and even more so next year and beyond. If Midd brings in another group of guys who warrant the minutes the last few classes have, they may well find themselves back on the 2009-2013 track.  All that said, I'm hoping for a magic carpet ride this season as their less than mediocre start makes it clear the only way the Panthers sniff the NCAAs is to hang a NESCAC banner in Pepin. 

[amh63]

Nice post P'bearfan.....very informative AND perceptive!
It is even snowing here in MD, so understand the travel burdens up North.   
Looking forward to the same game to see how both teams are progressing.  Especially interested on how Williams will check Hausman.
I believe the answer to your question wrt to outside shooting by Williams...Maker built his team with perimeter shooters,imo, and the new coach appears to have followed the pattern.  It does require execution of the offense to get players open for shots.

[nescac1]

Williams played one of its better overall halves of the season and leads Bowdoin by 9.  Dan Aronowitz has been fantastic on both ends, making Lucas Hausman really work for his points (Hausman has hits some very tough mid-range jumpers, he's an all-American for a reason) after picking him up once Scadlock got two early fouls, and he has been the dominant factor on offense for Williams with his driving, dishing and finishing.  Cole Teal's long range shooting was also huge for Williams in the first half.  Very cleanly played first half as the  teams have combined for only 7 turnovers.  Ephs have hurt themselves a bit from the line, the margin really should be double-digits. 

For the Ephs, it would help if Scadlock can avoid picking up a third foul early and play more minutes this half.  Ephs also need to get Bobby Casey some more looks at the basket.  Bowdoin hasn't gotten anything going inside the paint, and that is where the Bears need to improve in the second half. 

[nescac1]

Just like that a tie game.  Bowdoin hot from 3 to start the half, Williams ice cold. 

[middhoops]

Hausman and Simonds take 36 shots against Williams.  The rest of the team; 27. 

[nescac1]

Big NESCAC win for Williams.  The Ephs pull away to win by 11 as they ice the game at the free throw line.  Great game for Dan Aronowitz finishing with 19-11-5 and providing a steadying veteran hand late in the game, icing all his free throws in the last few minutes when the rest of the team has been struggling at the line.  He also played very solid defense on Hausman, who did score 26 points but needed 20 shot attempts to get there, and many of his points came on really strong individual efforts. 

The Ephs did a great job mainly avoiding the careless, avoidable turnovers that have plagued them, really played under control and didn't try to force the issue. 

For Bowdoin in the second half, the story was three point shooting -- Hausman and Simonds were pure from very deep early, and the Ephs weren't contesting tough enough, hitting four threes very early in the half to take the lead.  From that point on, Bowdoin didn't hit a single three pointer, I think they missed around a dozen in a row, but to the Ephs' credit about 2/3 of them were forced, deep threes late in the shot clock, so even when they were open, they were in no sort of rhythm at all.  Simonds has a very pure looking shot even though he struggled late, after Racey the prettiest-looking shot in NESCAC I'd say.  He is going to score a ton of points over the next few years.  He and Hausman are a real dynamic duo but there is really no one else on the team who can create his own shot.  As an Eph fan I am VERY glad not to see Hausman again, he has absolutely torched us several times over and he definitely deserves to be a first-team all-American this year. 

For Williams, beyond Aronowitz, the story was tremendous balance.  Eight guys scored at least 5 points and all eight of those guys played fairly well.  Cole Teal continued his strong outside shooting of late, he's been on fire from deep.  He hit some crucial threes.  For the second straight game Marcos Soto finished beautifully inside and is giving the Ephs some badly needed points off the bench on the interior.  The Williams frosh in fact had a very nice game collectively, as Heskett, Scadlock, Casey and Soto each took turns making big shots throughout the game.  Casey needs more than three shots!  Chris Galvin also had an excellent two-way game, looked to have more spring in his step than he has for awhile and was penetrating the lane beautifully creating for himself and others.

For Williams, as usual they struggled at times giving up some close-in offensive boards to the more physical and experienced Bowdoin big guys.  Ephs also struggled to hit free throws until the last two minutes, when they were finally on target to ice the game.  Bowdoin I'd say needs to get more help for the big two to win close NESCAC games on the road.   

[jumpshot]

Williams shows good progress in several aspects in today's win over Bowdoin, including fewer turnovers (although several unforced errors at key times), good shooting (except from the foul line), playing time for lots of guys, better poise and confidence, etc.

My observation is that within NESCAC the transition from a successful (or unsuccessful coach) in any sport usually takes time ---in basketball, it means instilling a culture of working hard, attention to detail (passing, cutting, defense, blocking out and rebounding, off-season improvement, etc.)

Oh, we can all name exceptions ----the moose's instant turnaround in women's basketball or Hartford State's football.

My point is that the EPHS are developing competitiveness step-by-step from the ground up --- a couple of good recruiting years should enable the results in the near-term (whatever that timeline turns out to be) to align with Williams' tradition of excellence in all sports.

Keep up the good work ....