MBB: NESCAC

Mr. Ypsi · February 06, 2016, 07:42:56 PM

Duncan Robinson had almost certainly his worst game as a Wolverine today, going 1-5 from the field (0-3 from deep), scoring two points and no rebounds (but a turnover and a foul), in a home loss to MSU by 16. MSU may have been fired up by a tidbit in the paper today - 7 of the last 8 times they have won in Ann Arbor they went to the Final Four; they have NEVER gone to the FF in years they lost in Ann Arbor.

Old Guy · February 06, 2016, 09:53:31 PM

Great summary of today's Midd-Colby game by Bucket. Very exciting game. Colby came out like gangbusters in the second half and wiped out Midd's 13 point halftime lead and held that seven point lead with about 10 minutes left. That four point Midd possession that Bucket described was crucial, blunting the momentum of the Mules - they were flying to that point, stretching that lead; Midd got it from seven to three, and we all said, "it's a game again!"

Colby has some really good players: Hudnut, Stewart, Jann, Wilson. What a sad season to date for them, with illness, injury, and misfortune dashing their hopes for a really special season. If they can sneak into the NESCAC tourney, they will be a tough out. 65 of Colby's 67 points were by their seniors.

Hudnut sat out a long stretch of the first half with two fouls but really had his way in the second against our inexperienced big guys. Down the stretch we tried to jam their three point shooters and double Hudnut. He was terrific, but his two misses on the back ends of one and ones gave us a chance.

We may have escaped with a win - a big win. Historians, has the league ever been this close, top to bottom?

amh63 · February 07, 2016, 10:27:14 AM

Late to the Posting party! It was a " bad" day for Amherst BB. Watched the WBB game after the men's loss and Amherst in LeFrak loss by one point to Tufts.
Tufts wins the right to host the Tourny and Amherst win streak at home ends at 121!
Had a dinner party to go to and watched Maryland hold serve against ranked Purdue in the Big 10.
Boy, talk about a crowded race for the title in the Big 10....filled with ranked teams
Back to the CAC.
AmherstStudent05 made a fine recap, so I will only add a few comments on the game.
Noticed on the weekend, Racy was having his shooting problems, but stayed in the game. Wondered if his younger brother and parents were at the game in Medford/Somerville....finally acknowledge that the campus is in two towns.
It was senior day and boy did the seniors off the bench contribute...one hit two threes and the other, a center played well.
George seems to disappear when he picks up two fouls early and is taken out. Plays tentative the rest of the time when is put back in...IMO.
Want to note the battle between JMac and Vance of Tufts will be terrific to watch the next two years.
JMac's shot just before the end of the half was around 60 feet...according to the announcer...well behind the half court line...to cut the lead.
Dressed in an all black outfit for the dinner I was hosting....my wife too to support my" mourning"

The closing weekend games with Midd and Hamilton are critical. Do not see anyone upsetting Trinity for the right to host again. It must be noted that last season, Amherst was crushed by Tufts and in the Tourny did the same to the Jumbos in Hartford.

P'bearfan · February 07, 2016, 12:00:58 PM

Looking forward to today's Bowdoin Midd matchup.

Keys to the game for the Polar Bears:

-Lucas Hausman: He is a very special player and a key for Bowdoin winning the game. Being a fierce competitor I'm certain Hausman will want to come out looking to shoot better than yesterday. And Bowdoin needs that. IMHO, the ideal situation is if Hausman scores ~24 - 28 points - mostly through efficient shots inside the arc. Not sure that a 35 point game will increase Bowdoin's chances of winning (e.g. Hausman racked up 32 points in a blow out loss to Amherst).

-The rest of the team: they need to give Hausman some help and shoot much better than in yesterday's game. If the Polar Bears keep up the good ball movement and make the good shots this movement creates they'll be in a good position to win.

-Turnovers: The Polar Bears turned the ball over 13 times slightly ahead of the average of 11.8. What hurt was many of the turnovers were unforced - a player zigged when the passer thought he was going to zag. But it some were the result of poor decision making - a smaller player on a break driving to the basket against 3 much larger defenders and having the ball blocked vs pulling it back out. In the second half, Bowdoin had 3 consecutive turnovers that were avoidable and it's hard to close a gap when that happens.

Middlebury created 12 steals yesterday against Colby - that's an intimidating stat. Bowdoin will need to take care of the ball in order to have a chance to win.

GoUBears!!

AmherstStudent05 · February 07, 2016, 12:40:15 PM

Quote from: Old Guy on February 06, 2016, 09:53:31 PM

Historians, has the league ever been this close, top to bottom?

In 2000-01 -- or, as NESCAC theologians undoubtedly call it, 1BAS05 -- I think there were four or maybe even five teams tied for first place. Trinity got to host the first NESCAC tournament based on tiebreakers.

Also, while I know Conn wasn't great last year, I thought the margins were fairly small between all, or most all, of the teams in the Conference last year. For instance, as far as top seeds go, I thought Trinity was fairly average last season, and as far as #9 seeds go, Midd was pretty good.

I find these parity questions interesting. Is there more parity now because the league has gotten better as a whole, or is there more parity simply because the top teams are not as talented as they have been in seasons past. Perhaps a little of both.

And while there is still plenty of exciting basketball left to play this year, it seems like there will be an enormous amount of talent returning next season, which should make our league even more competitive.

AmherstStudent05 · February 07, 2016, 02:57:53 PM

Big win for Middlebury over Bowdoin.

I know there is still another weekend of basketball to play, but if Bowdoin misses out on the postseason, should Hausman still be voted PoY? I think most everyone would agree that he is the run away choice this year, but if Bowdoin doesn't end up finishing in the top 8 I wonder if other deserving candidates would emerge -- particularly if an MSA or an Ajayi, etc leads their respective team on a title run.

At the moment, Bowdoin would actually seem to be in a strong position to get PoY and RoY this season.

pinseeking1 · February 07, 2016, 03:36:19 PM

Wow, it looks like four teams will be fighting for that last playoff spot (Bowdoin, Colby, Hamilton, Bates). Right now, they each have two wins. Bowdoin and Colby have remaining home games against Wes and Conn, Hamilton has remaining road games at Trinity and Amherst and Bates has one remaining road game at Williams.

I'd have to say that all of these four teams will be underdogs in all of their remaining games next weekend, so the question is, what happens if they all end up with 2 wins? Does anyone know the tiebreaker used? If it's games against the other three teams in this group, Bates is 2-1, losing only to Bowdoin. Bowdoin is 2-1, losing to Hamilton. Colby is 1-2, losing to Bowdoin and Bates. And Hamilton is 1-2, losing to Colby and Bates. Then, if the next tie-breaker is head-to-head matchups, I guess it would be Bates vs Bowdoin, and Bowdoin would win that tie-breaker and advance to the 8th spot.

Does this make sense or does anyone know the actual details of the tie-breakers? It looks like any wins next week for any of these four teams could get them into the last playoff spot...

One more interesting thought. If Williams loses to Conn today, a win by Bates at Williams next weekend could propel them past Williams in the standings. Not really sure of the other implications of throwing Williams into the mix with the other teams.

Funny how even fighting for the last playoff spot is fun...

nescac1 · February 07, 2016, 03:38:30 PM

Only watched a few minutes of the first half and yet it was enough to see two of the three Eph achilles heels on display: total failure to box out several times, including on foul shots, and missing front end of one-and-ones. Didn't see any crazy turnovers, at least!

If there was a record kept for front end of one-and-ones missed and offensive rebounds off foul shots, this Ephs team would surely set both. All five guys, including guards, need to box out their man until the rebound is secured. And the big men have to find some sort of way to stay in front of opposing players off missed free throws. It seems like that, at least, should be a correctable issue. Those two issues alone have probably cost the Ephs three wins this year.

Bucket · February 07, 2016, 04:18:10 PM

I love all of the permutations at play in the NESCAC standings. Heading into the last weekend, no one is eliminated with all kinds of combinations of wins and losses leaving teams in and out.

At the top of the standings, three teams still alive for the top spot: Trinity, Amherst, and Middlebury. The Panthers obviously have the toughest road (pun intended) to the number one seed in the NESCAC tournament, needing to win at Amherst and at Trinity to secure the top spot. A Trinity sweep of Hamilton and Midd would secure the number one seed for the Bantams. Amherst needs two wins and a Trinity loss.

Today in Vermont, Middlebury concludes a perfect regular season in Pepin with a 78-69 win over the Polar Bears.

The two-headed Polar Bear monster of Hausman and Simonds were as advertised with 29 and 23 points, respectively. But they had no help whatsoever. I'll leave it to those who know the Polar Bears better to say whether this was an anomaly or the norm, but it seemed that there was no other person on the offensive end who could have hurt the Panthers.

Though they didn't guard each other, it was a treat to watch offensive talents like Hausman and St. Amour shine. St. Amour nearly matched Hausman point for point, finishing with 26 on identical shooting from the floor (9-21), though St. Amour attempted and made more threes (4-9 for MSA and 1-6 for LH). Hausman got to the line a lot and made 10-12 free throws (to St Amour's 4-5).

Despite near-identical scoring totals, St. Amour and Hausman are very different players. Hausman glides and is silky smooth; MSA is more of a locomotive, always chugging, taking the ball hard to the hoop or running hard off screens for shots. The biggest difference, between the two, in my humble opinion, is that St. Amour does much more than score. Along with his 26 today, he had 9 boards, 4 assists and a steal (compared to Housman's 3, 1, and 0). Hausman is the best scorer and best shooter in the league, hands down. But I think an argument can be made that St. Amour is a more valuable player. That said, this year my vote for player of the year, if I had one, would be for the senior Lucas Hausman.

With St. Amour and Hausman dueling and Simonds looking like the best freshman in the league, the top-to-bottom contributions from a very balanced Panthers squad was the difference in the game.

There were Brown (9 pts and 7 assists) and Jack Daly (8, 5, and 4), of course, all while hounding Hausman into 12 missed shots, but also Adisa Majors (8 and 5), Zach Baines (9 and 5 w/ 2 monster blocks)–and a host of Panthers expertly filling roles in spurts (Tarantino, 6 boards in 9 minutes; Brian Jones, a big 3 in just 6 minutes.) The Panthers were the polar (heh) opposite of Bowdoin in that they could hurt you offensively in so many ways.

Another glaring discrepancy was rebound margin. Even with leading rebounder Matt Daley sidelined with concussion-like symptoms following a nasty blow to the head yesterday against Colby, Midd outrebounded Bowdoin 45-31, leading to 17 second-chance points.

P'bearfan · February 07, 2016, 04:19:13 PM

Heart-breaking loss today as Bowdoin falls to Middlebury 69-78 in a game that was closer than the scoreboard might indicate.

Overall Bowdoin shot much better than yesterday finishing with 41.4% from the floor. Unfortunately, the overall 3 point shooting wasn't that strong with the team going 23.8% for the game.

Bowdoin moved the ball well and finished with 15 assists. It was nice to see the team completing many of the shots they missed against Hamilton.

Hausman and Simonds lead the Polar Bears with 29 and 23 points respectively. Hausman was efficient inside the arc shooting 53% on 8-15. He struggled a bit from deep going only 1-6. Simonds was efficient today going 6-8 (75%) from inside the arc and 3-9 (33%) from behind it. Palecki chipped in 7 points on 3-7 shooting and Liam Farley added 5 points including a trey.

Bowdoin didn't rebound that well today. They Polar Bears only pulled down 31 total rebounds including 21 on the defensive glass. Each of those stats are 7-8 rebounds below their average. Bowdoin was effective in tipping several of the potential rebounds which created many 50/50 balls - unfortunately, a number of those went Middlebury's way.

Bowdoin turned the ball over 12 times, slightly above their season and conference average but again many were unforced. Hate to see that so late in the season. Fortunately, Bowdoin did protect the ball from Middlebury who only finished with 3 steals (a big source of concern after yesterday's 12 steal performance).

It will be a long bus ride back to Brunswick. Hopefully the Polar Bears can shake of this weekend and bounce back in time to host Bates in Tuesday's non-conference matchup.

GoUBears!!

P'bearfan · February 07, 2016, 04:22:40 PM

QuoteWith St. Amour and Hausman dueling and Simonds looking like the best freshman in the league, the top-to-bottom contributions from a very balanced Panthers squad was the difference in the game.

Great observation and have to agree with you. The Panther coaching staff drew up several great plays that involved driving and dishing to the open man. Kudos.

middhoops · February 07, 2016, 04:59:56 PM

During the 2nd half when Simonds was on a monster scoring run, Vandy74 asked, "Why did UMaine not recruit this kid?"
They probably did. He is as impressive as any first year player to come into Pepin Gym I've seen in a while.

Getting to watch Lucas Hausman was a treat. He is a very slick player with a pretty stroke. POY for certain.
Having said that, I agree with Bucket that St. Amour, playing a completely contrasting style, is arguably at least as valuable in helping his team win. See the league stats for steals. Assists. Rebounds.

P'bearfan · February 07, 2016, 05:02:17 PM

QuoteI'll leave it to those who know the Polar Bears better to say whether this was an anomaly or the norm, but it seemed that there was no other person on the offensive end who could have hurt the Panthers.

A tough one. All year long Bowdoin has relied on Hausman and Simonds - and they are prolific scorers. However you raise an interesting question: is this reliance b/c no one else can help or do they just over-rely on these two?

IMHO, Bowdoin is more effective when Hausman is efficient in scoring from inside the arc (and I've bored this group to no end with the statistical analysis behind that). It also helps if he isn't forced to carry too much of the scoring load - which has lots of secondary benefits as the defense can't cheat to double or triple team him which means he has less contested shots; the ball moves more and someone else should have an open shot.

Again, IMHO, Bowdoin would be more effective offensively if they got the ball inside more consistently and effectively. You saw glimmers of this today. In the first half Fuller got the ball in the lane, drove to the basket thereby drawing a Midd defender and then dished the ball to a wide open Palecki who laid it in. In the second half Zach Baines was guarding Fuller and when he got the ball Fuller easily got the position he wanted and scored on a jump hook. Bowdoin had that mis-match multiple times today but they didn't exploit it. This has been a consistent issue all year - not recognizing and exploiting mis-matches underneath when they happen. Not taking advantage of pick and roll opportunities is another.

Hausman and Simonds are great scorers and the go to guys. That isn't going to change nor should it. However, Bowdoin has the potential to develop a more sustained interior scoring threat and it's going to be tough to win against good teams until they do.

GoUBears!!

iwumichigander · February 07, 2016, 05:38:08 PM

Quote from: nescac1 on February 07, 2016, 03:38:30 PM
Only watched a few minutes of the first half and yet it was enough to see two of the three Eph achilles heels on display: total failure to box out several times, including on foul shots, and missing front end of one-and-ones. Didn't see any crazy turnovers, at least!

If there was a record kept for front end of one-and-ones missed and offensive rebounds off foul shots, this Ephs team would surely set both. All five guys, including guards, need to box out their man until the rebound is secured. And the big men have to find some sort of way to stay in front of opposing players off missed free throws. It seems like that, at least, should be a correctable issue. Those two issues alone have probably cost the Ephs three wins this year.

You are correct about the stat not being kept. Add this category (I used to keep track of course I did stats the old fashioned way) - Foul after turnover! Inevitably, the player making the turnover attempts to salvage and in doing so fouls about 65-70% of the time.

Old Guy · February 07, 2016, 07:55:40 PM

Very exciting game at Middlebury today, two in a row, big weekend. 63-63 with three minutes to go - and then two Zach Baines hoops (one a dunk) and four straight free throws (Daly, St. Amour) put it away. Daly jammed up Hausman in the final minutes, made it difficult for him to get the ball. Earlier, Jake Brown had picked him up, hoping to blunt him with speed. Hausman is tricky and smooth (even if he looks like a junior high schooler, so slight, shorts too long, very unprepossessing physically) got to the basket anyway. He's a player.

Simonds was very impressive. Midd had a nice 13 point lead (63-50) in the second half at 8:43. Then Simonds went to work, scoring the next ten points, two threes, a turnaround jumper from the low post, and two free throws, and it's a game again. He's 6'6" can score from the outside or from the low blocks (that little turnaround jump shot is virtually unstoppable). He's a nice building block for next year, must have been fun to watch at Falmouth (ME) H.S.. Another frosh, Hugh O'Neil (6'6"), gave the Polar Bears some good minutes (six rebounds - four offensive); he made two big foul shots late to bring Bowdoin back within two at 65-62. FY Tim Anh can play the point. Bowdoin will be okay next year.