MBB: NESCAC

[7express]

Tough, close loss again for Williams. The same ref screwed us again tonight. He also did so at Trinity. I hope we never see that guy again.

Sorry Toad, Connecticut is known to have crappy officiating across the board.  Not college and it wasn't the end of the game but to give you an idea of how bad Connecticut officiating is:
In one game I was coaching this year, the opponent had the ball in the half court offense, and the wing player was passing it out to the guard to reset the offense.  The ball goes about 10 feet over the guard's head into the back court (and the defense was in a 3-2 zone, so there was no defender near or in the line of the ball to tip it and negate back court).  The guard goes and picks it up....and play continues as the refs let the play go saying it was "deflected." 

[ContinentalDomer]

Guess EPH fans will soon attend games with an autograph book, with all these famous BB relatives!
Nescac24....just kidding here.  Austin Carr...another Former Washington D.C. HS Star player.  Played at Mackin HS...that is no longer around.  Believe it was a parochial school.  Ronk maybe of help here.  Played at Notre Dame in the 70's and even played for the Washington NBA for a time.
Will be worried if the Williams players/recruits play as well as their relatives in college...from an Amherst fan perspective...of course .

For the old guard (and new), Austin Carr was no ordinary superstar.  Before the freshman eligibility and the 3 ball came into play, consider this, Austin Carr scored 1000 points in a SEASON - twice. Only Carr and Pete Maravich hold that distinction. Think about that - no 3s. Just a stunning level of accuracy, range, and powerful moves. Carr averaged 34.5 per game as a 2 time All American. He still holds the NCAA tourney single game scoring record - 61. He was the #1 pick overall in the 1971 NBA draft. Knee injuries wore him down quickly, but he still managed to play 10 years in the show and make an All Star game or two. Austin Carr is also one of the finest people you could ever meet - a genuine ND man.

[amh63]

Bunch of random comments while waiting for the 2PM Amherst game at Tufts.  Big and key game for Amherst!
Middhoops....there are some advantages to this age of technology! . Tufts used the replay system in football broadcasts.  Wesleyan used to have it, I remember, and multi camera views when it was NOT part of NSN.  Wish Conn College would join.
Unlike AmhStud05, the Bates-Amherst game was fine on my TV/flatscreen.  My wife was amazed at the clarity/reception when she dropped by with refreshments....an advantage of sorts when watching at home.  Take note OG .  Actually saw several Amherst fans, I recognized.  One was Conner Green's father and another was a former Classmate/namesake...and his wife.  Best I explain that last fan.
My namesake, a former Amherst BB player, wears an old stye letter jacket with the a BB logo and AMH 63 on his jacket.  Several seasons ago, a poster asked if I was at a Bates BB game.  My "former" classmate is really a member of the class of '62, but was assigned to my class after taking a leave of absence.  Anyway, He and I arranged to have the College put him back into his proper Class.  Whenever, I attend a live Amherst game, we chat. He is truly a "camp follower" fan since his retirement.
Toad22....was this official a small man that is somewhat short on hair?  Just wondering if it could be the same fellow that Coach Hixon likes to stare at and tries to chat with in games .
In the Bates game, Conner Green scored only 9 points, but pulled down 11 RBs inlimited minutes.  Should reach 1600 points mark soon.....not his goal, I believe....wants to win and will often take himself out of games.  Liked the greetings between Green and his fellow SR Bates players after the game.
Was concerned by the announcer's remark during the game about JMac heading to the locker room with a coach.  JMac returned and played well...led the team in RBs...a double double game.
Dawson, scored well...20 plus points...and led in assists...BUT he also led in TOs that stopped Amherst' s offensive flow, IMO.

[nescac24]

Guess EPH fans will soon attend games with an autograph book, with all these famous BB relatives!
Nescac24....just kidding here.  Austin Carr...another Former Washington D.C. HS Star player.  Played at Mackin HS...that is no longer around.  Believe it was a parochial school.  Ronk maybe of help here.  Played at Notre Dame in the 70's and even played for the Washington NBA for a time.
Will be worried if the Williams players/recruits play as well as their relatives in college...from an Amherst fan perspective...of course .

For the old guard (and new), Austin Carr was no ordinary superstar.  Before the freshman eligibility and the 3 ball came into play, consider this, Austin Carr scored 1000 points in a SEASON - twice. Only Carr and Pete Maravich hold that distinction. Think about that - no 3s. Just a stunning level of accuracy, range, and powerful moves. Carr averaged 34.5 per game as a 2 time All American. He still holds the NCAA tourney single game scoring record - 61. He was the #1 pick overall in the 1971 NBA draft. Knee injuries wore him down quickly, but he still managed to play 10 years in the show and make an All Star game or two. Austin Carr is also one of the finest people you could ever meet - a genuine ND man.

Also interesting that while Maravich and Calvin Murphy both made exactly 43.8 percent of their field goal attempts, Carr shot 52.9 percent. Carr took a LOT fewer shots than The Pistol (who was inarguably a great player, but had the green light all night) and 200 fewer than Murphy (also a great player), but was a more efficient player than either of those two.

[30 for 30]

Nice to see Matt Hart contribute big end of half trey in GW road win at VCU. Now watching DR play v MSU. Great experience for these NESCAC alums to play on National TV in these rivalry games.

[GoWesYoungMan]

Agree with everything previously noted re the Wes-Williams game last night. Wes struggled in the first half and it was 12-6 Williams at 10 minutes, but Mackey got hot and scored all 15 of his points over the next ten minutes. BJ Davis was on his game in the second half and scored all of Wes' final 15 pts over the final six minutes. Nice insight regarding the contributions of Krill and O'Brien. Krill gives the Cards a solid three man rotation for two post positions. While other FYs might stand out statistically, O'Brien does a lot of things that don't appear in the box score. He can be very disruptive to the opposing perimeter offense and has been a key part in Wes's low opponent Fg%.

These past two seasons may have been frustrating for Williams fans, but in many ways that speaks to the tremendous success of their program over the past several years. They will be fine. The freshmen are already good and will improve next year as they run through the NESCAC for the second time. Aronowitz (btw he is "arm pits" by my autocorrect) is already an all-league candidate. Scadlock played smart and had two huge blocks. Casey looks like he should be in driver's ed but is just fearless and I love his willingness to control the ball in crunch time.

The historical view of Little 3 competition is interesting and humbling. It gives some perspective on why Amherst/Williams fans are frustrated losing to Wes. Fact is Wes has not done enough to make the Little 3 more of a competition. Hopefully Wes can continue to do its part.

[pinseeking1]

One of the Trinity players caused a slight delay to today's start at Bates...shattered the backboard.

[jumpshot]

Jumbos crush the plague by 12 today, as the plague hampered by the one flaw that negates some of their exceptional talent ----a tendency to default to individual rather than team play, particularly when trying to catch up.

Big need to correct this weakness in order to get to and succeed in Salem....

[AmherstStudent05]

For the second year in a row Tufts really takes it to us in the regular season game.

Unusually for us we were out-matched physically all day. The stat sheet says we had the same number of offensive rebounds but I don't see how that can possibly be the case. Tufts killed us on the glass all game long.  Also, they had a ton of blocks in the first half where Tufts built up a huge lead, and strangely many of those blocks ended up going off Amherst players.

If he wasn't playing against us, Palleschi would be a lot of fun to watch.  He just has a wide variety of lovely post moves, including a baseline spin, that we just couldn't stop.

Connor Green was sensational for us, finishing with 26 points (his final shooting numbers might be a little misleading as in the final couple minutes of the game he took -- and missed -- a bunch of Hail Mary three attempts).  Funny, just when JMac gets his groove back, Racy continues to go AWOL. He was 0-6 from deep today and a few were way off.  Also, our free throw shooting continues to be horrendous -- George and Dawson in particular need to step it up.

Tufts took a huge lead in the first half -- as big as 19 I believe.  I thought a key sequence occurred at the end of the first half with Tufts up 17 and holding the ball for the final shot to possibly go up 19 or 20.  Tufts missed and McCarthy hit a miraculous three quarters shot to cut the deficit to "only" 14.

I thought that could be the spark we needed, and while we had a few nice mini runs we could never get within 4 or 5 as Tufts maintained a 7-12 point margin for most of the second half.

Oh well.  We will need to protect home court next weekend and up Trinity slips up if we want to host the Tournament.   

[booyakasha]

Colby doing well to overcome tough road conditions to take the lead at Midd. If they can keep Hudnut out of foul trouble I like their chances. Big call for his third foul, a four point swing on what could have been called a charge - midd gets and 1 but misses free throw, gets rebound and layup from Brown.

I'm most impressed with Brown on Midd. Great motor on that kid on both sides of the floor.

[AmherstStudent05]

I was only able to catch the final two minutes of action in Pepin, but wow what a crazy finish between Middlebury and Colby.

First, with 2 minutes to go Colby has the ball up 3. As the Mules are just getting into their half court set, Jann (without the ball) attempts to cross the court, but he isn't looking where he is going and absolutely steamrolls MSA.  This results not only in a critical turnover but Jann's 5th foul is well. Strahorn seemed to go crazy on the sidelines, and while I can appreciate his frustration I am not sure what else the refs were supposed to do there. Yes, it was almost certainly unintentional as Jann was not looking to gain any advantage -- he just wasn't looking where he was going -- but he still ran over MSA all the same.  Midd made the most of that critical turnover.

Then, even crazier, Majors ties the game with 31 seconds to go.  Westman crossed the timeline and it appeared that strahorn was signaling for a timeout, but none was given, and Westman -- rather than holding for the last shot which would seem to be the obvious play -- spins away from Brown and drives to the hole for a contested layup. Which he misses.

Brown alertly gets the ball out quickly to Jack Daly who is wide open for an easy lay up on the other end. Colby's last second three was no good and Midd holds on for a crucial conference win. 

[nescac1]

Unsurprisingly it was Ogundeko who broke the backboard.  That dude is a monster.  Best big man athlete in Nescac since Whittington.  And this year he's added a feathery jumper. 

https://twitter.com/batessports/status/696058859555844096

[nescac1]

Jack Mackey has competition for Tweet of the year:

https://twitter.com/batessports/status/696072202815459329

[Bucket]

I was only able to catch the final two minutes of action in Pepin, but wow what a crazy finish between Middlebury and Colby.

First, with 2 minutes to go Colby has the ball up 3. As the Mules are just getting into their half court set, Jann (without the ball) attempts to cross the court, but he isn't looking where he is going and absolutely steamrolls MSA.  This results not only in a critical turnover but Jann's 5th foul is well. Strahorn seemed to go crazy on the sidelines, and while I can appreciate his frustration I am not sure what else the refs were supposed to do there. Yes, it was almost certainly unintentional as Jann was not looking to gain any advantage -- he just wasn't looking where he was going -- but he still ran over MSA all the same.  Midd made the most of that critical turnover.

Then, even crazier, Majors ties the game with 31 seconds to go.  Westman crossed the timeline and it appeared that strahorn was signaling for a timeout, but none was given, and Westman -- rather than holding for the last shot which would seem to be the obvious play -- spins away from Brown and drives to the hole for a contested layup. Which he misses.

Brown alertly gets the ball out quickly to Jack Daly who is wide open for an easy lay up on the other end. Colby's last second three was no good and Midd holds on for a crucial conference win.

It was, indeed, a crazy conclusion to a crazy game. Wild swings in the second half—Midd up 15 early, Colby goes on a huge run fueled by lights out three-point shooting from Stewart. Mules take a 7-point lead with 8:00 to play. Then the big four-point possession—bucket and foul, missed free throw, offensive board and bucket to get it back to three, and back-and-forth we went from there until the final buzzer.

Hudnet looked like he might have had position on what was called a block, but the officials said he had his feet in the circle, thus the call. And I have no idea what Jann's intentions were, but he did steamroll St. Amour out of the way, and the official had no choice but to blow his whistle. Strahorn was claiming Jann was pushed into Matt, but that was wishful thinking.

And on the non-time out, it did look like Strahorn was calling for it, but new rule this year states that during live action a player must call the time out; the coach can no longer do it. For whatever reason, Westman slowed like he was going to call a time out, but then didn't, shifting gears and driving hard to the basket. I guess he thought he'd be faking out Brown with the move. (Not a bad assumption, because on the previous two occasions when Colby called timeout in front of their bench, Daly, and then Brown, attempted to reach in and steal the ball while Westman was starting to signal for a time out.) Instead, Westman misses the contested layup and Brown outlets to a streaking Daly for the go-ahead layup, beating everyone down the court.

I was not surprised that Strahorn drew up a potential game-winner for Stewart, considering the way he was shooting in the second half. It was well defended though and came up short.

Another option would have been to go inside to Hudnut for the tie—he had a monster second-half, dominating the interior with Daley injured and out—but my guess is that the Panthers would have fouled Chris if he had gotten the ball in position on the blocks. The only times he was stopped in the second half was when he was sent to the line (2-5).

The above assessment of Jake Brown's game today was spot on: 18 points (7-10), 6 assists, and only 1 turnover in 38 minutes of action.

Jack Daly comes sneaky close to a triple-double: 11 points, 8 assists, 8 rebounds. I say sneaky because his stat lines always seem to sneak up on you. With so much focus on Brown and St. Amour, the sophomore Daly quietly goes about making everyone else around him better.

Sophomore Adisa Majors another strong game: 14 points, 7-8 from the floor, including a feathery jumper in the lane with under 1:00 to play to tie the game.

Ryan Jann played great defense on St. Amour, who never got a good look at the basket—0-5 from deep, 2-14 overall. But he had a couple of big steals down the stretch, and just the threat of him on the offensive end forced Colby to really extend their defense.

Finally, if Colby is looking for a reason for the loss, the Mules should look no further than the turnovers line: 22 vs. 9 for the Panthers, leading to an eye-popping 18-1 points-off-turnovers advantage for Midd. Playing against a team that likes to run, repeatedly turning the ball over, especially in the open court, can be disastrous.

[P'bearfan]

Bowdoin lost a tough game today to Hamilton by a score of 71-86.

Bowdoin generally moved the ball well on offense, they just couldn't convert shots.  The Polar Bears wound up shooting 38.5% from the floor.  Their 29.4% conversion rate from behind the arc wasn't great but wasn't terrible either.  Unfortunately, almost all the Polar Bears were inefficient in shooting inside the arc.  As a result Bowdoin netted only 9 assists on the day well below their season average of 14.6. 

Bowdoin matched Hamilton on the glass with each team grabbing 41 caroms.  The Polar Bears grabbed 29 defensive rebounds which is just slightly above their season average of 28. 

Lucas Hausman led Bowdoin with 18 points - well below his season average.  Hausman shot 80% from the charity strip (great for most mortals but several ticks below his season average of 86.7%).  Unfortunately, Hausman wasn't very efficient shooting from the floor today going 4-11 overall and most importantly only hitting 2-6 (33%) from inside the arc. Jack Simonds dropped in 14 points on similar shooting and Jake Donnelly and Matt Palecki chipped in 11, and 10 respectively.  The Polar Bears got a nice contribution from Hugh O'Neill who scored 8 points with 6 coming in the first half.  Neil Fuller paced Bowdoin on the boards with 8 rebounds and Simonds and Palecki each had 6.

Unfortunately, Bowdoin had no answer for Hamilton's Ajani Santos.  The big man scored 25 points on 11-18 points all from the low post.  Hamilton also shot well from downtown going 46.2% from behind the arc.

Here's hoping the Polar Bears can shake this one off and come firing against the Panthers tomorrow at 1 pm.

GoUBears!!