MBB: NESCAC

[OldCardinal]

Been following Tufts closely this year.  Palleschi returned last week but clearly wasn't ready to contribute.  The extra week seems to have helped him.  He played only 8 minutes last weekend and 22/29 this weekend.  That's a good sign for Tufts. The other thing that surprised me this year is that they had a lot of success with a very inconsistent Vinnie Pace, still not 100% after end of season knee surgery.  Pace seemed to come alive in the final minutes of the Salem game and then broke out with 37 points against Fisher.  It will be interesting to see if that kind of contribution continues.  If it does, they will be dangerous b/c a number of other weapons emerged this year as well.  Go NESCAC.

[amh63]

Nice post OldCardinal!  I scanned the CAC games in a break while watching the Amherst WBB.  Unfortunately, all the games I went to were at halftime.  Was surprised to see the SJF two row stands in the camera view. Assume the gym was like the one at Conn College...fan stands on the opposite side.
Saw a bit of the Babson game.  Their opponent was actually leading the game a bit in the second half...one player was making long threes like layups.  Went 5 for 5 in the run!  Saw Flannery miss a couple of shots and get a shot blocked underneath. 
Magicman...yes, Quite a player and leader was Olsen.  A PG just under 6 feet.  Like Toomey's mother, Olsen's mother was a constant avid supporter in the games I attended. Olsen' s mother would pass out small cheerleader items to wave during games. 
In the Championship game, the most memorable part of the game for me was the play of a front court bench player that was put into the game in the 2nd half.  The player was a former Ma. Allstate HS player.  The reigning National Champs from Va. had a big man that Amherst could not stop.  The bench player asked to be put in.  He entered the game and slowed the Va. star enough for Amherst to win the game.  Believe HC Hixon recently attended  the wedding of the player.

[Cards Fan]

Now that I'm done stewing over Wesleyan's loss, congrats to Midd, Tufts and Williams on the sweet sixteen.

[ECSUalum]

ECSU, congrats on a great run by your team this year, but Keene State's win over #5 Ramapo tonight might be one of the Little East's best basketball wins ever!

It's great to see five (5)(!!) New England teams in the Sweet 16.  Hopefully many of them will continue to advance next weekend.

JustAFan,
Thank You Sir, and agree on Keene! They were a peculiar team this year losing to teams that they should not have lost to, but over the last 3-4 yrs, they come alive in the post season to a remarkable extent!!  They will lose a lot of their line up next year but now have an excellent team that gave ECSU all that they could handle in the LEC tournament!

[Bucket]

A handful of Midd statistical tidbits, as we await the Sweet Sixteen:

Matt St Amour set the single season scoring mark last night, 641 points and counting. He's currently 3rd all-time, with 1,665 points. And this is a young man who blew out his ACL mid-way through his freshman season, requiring reconstructive surgery.

Jack Daly, with 176 assists this season, is three away from tying the single season mark at Midd. Right behind him? Jake Brown, with 168. It's possible that both will pass the previous single-season mark (179). That figure is an eye-popping number that has stood for 25 years, and if a pair of teammates pass it in the same season? Crazy.

Jake Brown is now sitting on 538 career assists, trailing Jake Wolfin (553) by 15 for the school record. The two games Brown missed obviously loom large; of course, with a run to Salem, that record is within reach, too.

A caveat: I don't think the players give a damn about any of this. They just want to win.

It was pure joy in Pepin last night: http://www.wcax.com/story/34667559/panthers-romp-to-ncaa-2nd-round-win

As OG has pointed out, Midd played exceptionally well, and the capacity crowd made for a special environment.

Of course, I've seen pure heartbreak in the same gym. It's a fine line in March.

[toad22]

I am very happy for the Eph coaches and players. After the Hamilton game on January 20, their season, and the team, were all but dead and buried. At that point they were 1-4 in league. Since then they have gone 9-3, with three wins late in the season being effectively "win or go home" games. Miraculously, they not only got in to the NESCAC tournament, but made it all the way to the finals. Thus, they got a bid to the NCAAs. They have now made it to the third round of the tournament, and a trip up Route 7 to Middlebury, for a game on Friday with Susquehanna.

What a second half it has been. I think it is fair to say that the January 20th team no longer exists. A better, more mature team has superseded it. The good news is that almost nobody has paid any attention to these changes, and the Ephs enter the "sweet sixteen" with practically no notice. A perfect spot to be. William's two holdovers from the 2014 team that came .8 seconds from winning it all in Salem, Dan Aronowitz and Mike Greenman, are both playing great and providing terrific leadership to a big bunch of very talented (mostly) underclassmen. They have finally figured out how good they can be when they trust each other, and play with confidence.

Good luck to them the rest of the way. They have already made us fans very proud.

[jumpshot]

Well said, Toad.

[amh63]

A bit of the D3 MBB topic...but maybe of interest to MBB fans in the NorthEast.
My daughter informs me...lives/works in the Ithaca area....that the son of long time HC of Syracruse is going to Cornell to play in the Ivies. Hey, did the Nescac coaches miss recruiting a talent?  I know, that Cornell MBB has not been good since their HC left for BC....a while back.

[JustAFan]

amh63, Boeheim's son is a post-grad at the New Hampton School in NH.  He's a 6-6 wing player with very good range who is a Patriot League/Ivy caliber player, maybe even better than that. Good fit for him to attend Cornell and be close to his upstate New York roots.

[nescac1]

NESCAC folks you can support Ed Ogundko for inclusion in the the senior all star game in Salem: http://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2017/03/nabc-all-star-voting-2017

[BigMike33]

Happy to talk basketball.

Susquehanna has a definitive answer key on how they lose their games. Their bench is small in number and impotent offensively would be my description.  The 5 River Hawk losses all involve an aggressive attacking strategy where you get River Hawks in foul trouble forcing the bench to produce.  Focus on Traub & Weidlich both offensively and defensively, then how does Susquehanna score.  Get Traub off court with foul trouble. His minutes in losses: 32 (48 minute OT game), 25,22,23,& 30. In the 30 minute game, starter Dietrich played 16 minutes due to foul trouble which caused fatigue across lineup, forcing a bench piece to fit in.

Williams & potential Middlebury match-ups are not favorable. Williams depth will allow them to take Traub away with offensive pressure and wear River Hawks down. I expect a low double digit victory for Williams.

The clear indicator of River Hawk lack of offensive balance showed in game 1 of season, a 120-116 OT loss to Misericordia.  Here is what it took for Susquehanna to score 116, a team that averaged 80 per game. Weidlich pumped in 49 points on 44 shots.

So exposed on film comment meant the lack of offensive cohesion and confidence without Traub on the court. 1 in 4 out offense. You need to have pieces to make them pay. Williams, Middlebury have those pieces.  Medaille & E Conn St did not have pieces to challenge Traub, he played 33 & 31 minutes. Scranton & Moravian had the pieces and the familiarity to execute this plan.

River Hawks fans..every once in a while, Big Mike sticks his Giant Hoof in his mouth. A bench player steps up and even though minutes reduced for Traub...the heart of a champion of a team comes through when staring at the end of their season in the face. Weidlich goes off for 40 plus on less than 30 shots etc. etc. A hero is born from bench.

I would like nothing more than to be wrong here. The team I fear is Williams...said it before, say it again...that said Middlebury is on a mission from God... Jake & Elwood and all the rest of the Middlebury crazies will be in da house, in what has been an Electric Atmosphere, which will be amped up several levels from this past weekend, if at all possible.

Every newscast in Burlington has 90 seconds on the latest Middlebury news led by home state, local hero, Matt St. Amour. you also have University of Vermont with longest winning streak in Men's D1 at 18, after the Gonzaga loss last week.  Basketball is in the air.

This is a fairy tale..I will be happy to stay asleep until evening of March 18...wake me when its' over.

[BigMike33]

Toad,

Spot on.  I noticed the first Middlebury trip to Williams a different "air" to the Ephs.  I thing they said **** it..we are good and deep , let's play like it.....it has served them well.

Basketball is all about confidence and will.  When confident it flows. You need to have the will to execute and the confidence to know that it is a tale of two halves so continue with execution & strategy and you will be successful.

St. Amour was shut down via great Williams defense in first half of NESCAC.  He deferred a bit to Jake Brown, adjustments were made and he scored 17 of his 20 in second half.  St. Amour was held down literally by Farmingdale with no foul calls, so more pick action was set and he erupted in second half.  This is will to continue to fight adversity and confidence that you are best player and you just need looks.

[ronk]

Great story on former Eph coach Curt Tong, who recently passed away:

http://www.si.com/nba/2017/02/13/gregg-popovich-coach-mentor-curt-tong-williams-pomona-pitzer

Turns out that the author, Tim Layden, is a friend of a guy I play ball with, Don Markus, the Baltimore Sun beat writer for U of Maryland basketball who mentioned this article today when I said I had spent the weekend watching NCAA D3 tourney play.

[amh63]

JustAFan...thanks for the info/details!  Plus K.  Been in the "place" where the Big Red play.  Have watched football games at Cornell....maybe will take in a few MBB games now.  Maybe Boeheim will drop by to watch his son play. . A side note...the relative new HFC at Hamilton...a native  of Eastern NY state sent his youngest child to Cornell.  His oldest children went to Alfred where he coached for many successful years.  Cornell has many great schools to seek an education...several unique in the Ivies.

[Cards Fan]

My projected sweet sixteen:

Whitman v Emory

Marietta v Rochester

Staten Island v Ramapo

Babson v Tufts

Middlebury v Neumann

MIT v Williams

Benedictine v St Thomas

Hope v Hanover

Looks like I was off on this! Anyway, may as well make my final 4 picks even thought they most likely won't be correct. (All in good fun anyway!)

Rochester is on fire. Whitman is 29-0. Could we have a Kentucky situation? I don't think so. From the top left I take Whitman. From the bottom left I take Babson. I don't know who to take there, any of them could come out on top. We almost always have one serious upset, why not let it be Endicott? I take endicott for the final four after beating Nichols by 36(!) the other day. They could get hot and make it a couple more rounds. Finally, I take Hope from the bottom right portion.