MBB: NESCAC

[NEhoops]

Hats off to the Northeast. At least two teams from the region (there is potential for four) will make it to the Elite Eight. Its seems like the remaining NESCAC teams have all taken a different road to their current destination, but nonetheless are all currently playing great basketball.

As mentioned before the Ephs were an afterthought in early January, but have come together in impressive fashion due to the work of the staff and players alike. The Panthers seemed destined for greatness since the start of the year and have recovered nicely from the few bumps in the road that they've encountered. The Jumbos, who also had some high expectations heading into the year, are back on the right track, despite the (potentially devastating) injury to Palleschi. All three have the ability and momentum to make it to Salem.
 
This time of year comes to down to confidence, but also the leadership of the seniors. The makeup of the Middlebury team makes it easy to see why are they able to compete at a high level every night. You've got an experienced point guard who controls the game on both ends of the floor; an all-American who can makes clutch shots from all over the court (particularly the free throw line); a do it all guard that makes winning play night after night; and a stable of skilled and energetic big men. Tufts and Williams have some great players as well and its exciting to see all three teams represent the NESCAC on the national level.     

[Old Guy]

It should be illegal to have as much fun on a Saturday night as we had last weekend at Middlebury. I've been watching basketball for a long time – very special night. There was joy in the place (after a tough week at the College in other respects).

A first for me today. I went to the campus box office at 10:00 a.m.. Tickets went on sale at 8:30. I was shut out – the games sold out in an hour! I'll get there somehow. If not, there'll be a big pahty at my house, with beer and dogs. I'll hook up the computer to the big screen. I did make sure I got tickets for Saturday.

This weekend is a fortuitous grouping of four teams. The Panthers are itching to avenge their only home loss against Endicott. When Endicott came back from a 17 point deficit to beat us in that game, everyone cast aspersions on Middlebury, but it was pretty clear to me (as I posted on the board) that Endicott is a very good team! Their guards outplayed ours – that didn't happen again.

How great would a Williams-Midd game be for the chance to go to Salem? Traditional opponents – and a decade of extraordinarily competitive games. So much on the line. It would be a madhouse. An all-time big time. Fingers crossed the Panthers advance. Such a good time.

[amh63]

Old Guy....Enjoy the Weekend.  Such events on your home turf are RARE...and must be enjoyed with open arms and with friends.  Will be rooting for the Panthers.
Me, will be following the Lady Jeffs this weekend online....but taking a peek at the games in VT.

[BigMike33]

Old Guy is spot on..

Saturday was a magic carpet ride...wow

Max Montroni, has to be toughest player pound for pound in D3.  He got Jake Brown in foul trouble...4 with 6 mins to go.

Hopefully Montroni used up some of his magic against Nichols. 34 points in 33 minutes.... I can see an early Middlebury lead as I sense a hostile attitude coming from the Panthers towards Endicott. Again we have the spectre of the offensive system change as first game was played with Zach Baines. 

Finally, I already predicted Williams-Middlebury for Final 4 berth from start of tournament.  Williams has the easier match-up.  Williams manhandled Scranton who beat Susquehanna twice...

What we do have going for us..a team that wants to win a championship, one goal all season, they can see the road, they can taste it.
I can't imagine there being a more raucous situation for Endicott & Williams to endure.  It also got very warm in the Pepin.  The first Endicott game with students away was viewed with 200 people.

Chips all in would have to be behind the 3 of a kind...Daly, Brown, St. Amour.  the ball is in their hands 80% of the time. 
The Big 3...I trust.... to find a way to Salem....,...

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Daquan Sampson is the key.  He dominated the paint against Middlebury, despite his slight frame.  He has a tendency to get in foul trouble, but Endicott can't really hit those outside shots without him rebounding and kicking out.

[middhoops]

Tickets for the foursome in Middlebury on Friday are in great demand.
I woke up this morning with a long list of emails from people asking me if I could help them out.  I am not connected.  And some people who are, don't have tickets.
Some people who never miss a game got shut out.  It is one very hot ticket. 

Endicott, Williams and Susquehanna fans; be sure you have a ticket before you drive north.  And, if you are lucky enough to have one, bring ear plugs.

[Canvas Hightops]

Daquan Sampson is the key.  He dominated the paint against Middlebury, despite his slight frame.  He has a tendency to get in foul trouble, but Endicott can't really hit those outside shots without him rebounding and kicking out.

Spot on, Ryan Scott.
Sampson operated as he pleased in the early season game.  Midd also had no answer for Kamahl Walker.  Max Motroni ran hard at Midd's bigs, scoring and drawing fouls.

Panther fans hope that the four big man rotation that has solidified since conference season started can maintain their level of physical play, good passing and post scoring. 
Endicott is a very good team, the only one to beat Middlebury at home this season.
When the ball goes up, it will be the play of Sampson, more than any other, who will determine whether Endicott can replicate their previous success.

Sorry to hear about fans not being able to get tickets. 
The good news is, Bruce Bosley does a fantastic job of announcing on the NSN broadcast.  NOT a homer, Bruce is well informed, restrained and highly professional.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I presume, at some point, whatever tickets were allotted to the other teams and unsold will come back.  I hope the Midd ticket office kept a waiting list.

[amh63]

Believe there was a notice on the Williams website that tickets for the games ahead....to call Middlebury for tickets.  No tickets to be sold at Williams.
Do students at Midd get subsidized?  At Amherst, post season tickets are.. for a limited number, i.e. first 100. 
I noticed on D3hoops there was a mention that due to limited seating at Babson, first game fans may have to exit in order for later fans...for the Tufts game to get a seat.

[NEhoops]

Its seems like Babson is always a lock to host, but their seating is limited compared to other schools. What factors go into determining the host schools?

[nescac1]

How big is the capacity at the Midd gym for post-season games?  Chandler I think is something like 1600, so they've generally been able to accommodate most people who were trying to attend in past years.  Pepin is one of the coolest looking gyms in NESCAC I think, along with Bates and Tufts' gyms.  A lot of character. 

Seems like Baines' defection was, for THIS year, addition by substraction, notwithstanding his immense talent and strong production.  As others have noted, Midd is now bigger, tougher, and more physical inside with two bigs on the floor at all times.  While the team isn't quite as speedy without Baines, the Midd bigs do a great job in transition, enabling Midd to still play at a breakneck pace even with a bigger lineup, which in my view is key to this success.  Now, next year, where Baines could have moved to the three to replace much of St. Amour's production, is where he will really be missed.  That is huge hole in the lineup no matter what, and now with no obvious guy who can step in.  But for this year?  Midd is certainly much better now than they were in the first semester, no doubt. 

As for Williams, I think we have all agreed here that the first Midd game (really, the second half of the Hamilton game following the first half fiasco set the tone, but the Midd game was where things started to come together) was the turning point.  That was the game that App changed his starting lineup to insert Greenman and Soto.  I don't think the Soto move mattered much because all three bigs still rotate in and out frequently and play in varying amounts each game depending on match-ups.  But Greenman has been stellar since being inserted as a starting point guard, averaging 8 ppg, 4.5 apg, fewer than 2 topg, and generally being a steady hand at directing the offense more than the stats might indicate.  That's something Williams had been missing for the last year and a half with a rotating cast of point-guard-by-committee.  It's no coincidence that Williams' five best performances in that time period -- Midd 1, Tufts 2, Conn, and the two NCAA games -- all featured especially strong play from Greenman.  That switch has also allowed Bobby Casey to play more minutes at his natural 2 guard position, where I think he is most effective, with only spot minutes at the point.  The Ephs have a veteran floor leader on the court almost all of the time now (since Galvin, who has also been playing very well, is Greenman's primary backup at PG) and that seems to have resulted in, for the most part, the team playing in a more composed fashion with fewer of the head-scratching turnovers that plagued them for much of the season.  When Williams doesn't turn the ball over, they are very tough to beat.  When they don't turn the ball over and they are really hot from the outside, they are nearly impossible to beat. 

Of course, the other key to Williams' improvement has been the emergence of Kyle Scadlock as a second two-way star to help take some of the offensive and defensive burden off Arowonitz, who looks a bit more relaxed knowing that not ALL the burden to create offense on his own when the team offensive flow is not quite there rests on his shoulders.  Aronowitz is best when he lets the game come to him and picks his spots when there are good opportunities prestented by the spacing of the defense, and that is precisely how he has been playing of late. 

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

How big is the capacity at the Midd gym for post-season games?  Chandler I think is something like 1600, so they've generally been able to accommodate most people who were trying to attend in past years.  Pepin is one of the coolest looking gyms in NESCAC I think, along with Bates and Tufts' gyms.  A lot of character. 

Seems like Baines' defection was, for THIS year, addition by substraction, notwithstanding his immense talent and strong production.  As others have noted, Midd is now bigger, tougher, and more physical inside with two bigs on the floor at all times.  While the team isn't quite as speedy without Baines, the Midd bigs do a great job in transition, enabling Midd to still play at a breakneck pace even with a bigger lineup, which in my view is key to this success.  Now, next year, where Baines could have moved to the three to replace much of St. Amour's production, is where he will really be missed.  That is huge hole in the lineup no matter what, and now with no obvious guy who can step in.  But for this year?  Midd is certainly much better now than they were in the first semester, no doubt. 

As for Williams, I think we have all agreed here that the first Midd game (really, the second half of the Hamilton game following the first half fiasco set the tone, but the Midd game was where things started to come together) was the turning point.  That was the game that App changed his starting lineup to insert Greenman and Soto.  I don't think the Soto move mattered much because all three bigs still rotate in and out frequently and play in varying amounts each game depending on match-ups.  But Greenman has been stellar since being inserted as a starting point guard, averaging 8 ppg, 4.5 apg, fewer than 2 topg, and generally being a steady hand at directing the offense more than the stats might indicate.  That's something Williams had been missing for the last year and a half with a rotating cast of point-guard-by-committee.  It's no coincidence that Williams' five best performances in that time period -- Midd 1, Tufts 2, Conn, and the two NCAA games -- all featured especially strong play from Greenman.  That switch has also allowed Bobby Casey to play more minutes at his natural 2 guard position, where I think he is most effective, with only spot minutes at the point.  The Ephs have a veteran floor leader on the court almost all of the time now (since Galvin, who has also been playing very well, is Greenman's primary backup at PG) and that seems to have resulted in, for the most part, the team playing in a more composed fashion with fewer of the head-scratching turnovers that plagued them for much of the season.  When Williams doesn't turn the ball over, they are very tough to beat.  When they don't turn the ball over and they are really hot from the outside, they are nearly impossible to beat. 

Of course, the other key to Williams' improvement has been the emergence of Kyle Scadlock as a second two-way star to help take some of the offensive and defensive burden off Arowonitz, who looks a bit more relaxed knowing that not ALL the burden to create offense on his own when the team offensive flow is not quite there rests on his shoulders.  Aronowitz is best when he lets the game come to him and picks his spots when there are good opportunities prestented by the spacing of the defense, and that is precisely how he has been playing of late.

It's 1200 seats.  If they're having this much trouble, I wonder if they'd consider clearing it between sessions to sell more tickets - or is it just that more than 1200 Middlebury fans want to get in?

[Bucket]

How big is the capacity at the Midd gym for post-season games?  Chandler I think is something like 1600, so they've generally been able to accommodate most people who were trying to attend in past years.  Pepin is one of the coolest looking gyms in NESCAC I think, along with Bates and Tufts' gyms.  A lot of character. 

Seems like Baines' defection was, for THIS year, addition by substraction, notwithstanding his immense talent and strong production.  As others have noted, Midd is now bigger, tougher, and more physical inside with two bigs on the floor at all times.  While the team isn't quite as speedy without Baines, the Midd bigs do a great job in transition, enabling Midd to still play at a breakneck pace even with a bigger lineup, which in my view is key to this success.  Now, next year, where Baines could have moved to the three to replace much of St. Amour's production, is where he will really be missed.  That is huge hole in the lineup no matter what, and now with no obvious guy who can step in.  But for this year?  Midd is certainly much better now than they were in the first semester, no doubt. 

As for Williams, I think we have all agreed here that the first Midd game (really, the second half of the Hamilton game following the first half fiasco set the tone, but the Midd game was where things started to come together) was the turning point.  That was the game that App changed his starting lineup to insert Greenman and Soto.  I don't think the Soto move mattered much because all three bigs still rotate in and out frequently and play in varying amounts each game depending on match-ups.  But Greenman has been stellar since being inserted as a starting point guard, averaging 8 ppg, 4.5 apg, fewer than 2 topg, and generally being a steady hand at directing the offense more than the stats might indicate.  That's something Williams had been missing for the last year and a half with a rotating cast of point-guard-by-committee.  It's no coincidence that Williams' five best performances in that time period -- Midd 1, Tufts 2, Conn, and the two NCAA games -- all featured especially strong play from Greenman.  That switch has also allowed Bobby Casey to play more minutes at his natural 2 guard position, where I think he is most effective, with only spot minutes at the point.  The Ephs have a veteran floor leader on the court almost all of the time now (since Galvin, who has also been playing very well, is Greenman's primary backup at PG) and that seems to have resulted in, for the most part, the team playing in a more composed fashion with fewer of the head-scratching turnovers that plagued them for much of the season.  When Williams doesn't turn the ball over, they are very tough to beat.  When they don't turn the ball over and they are really hot from the outside, they are nearly impossible to beat. 

Of course, the other key to Williams' improvement has been the emergence of Kyle Scadlock as a second two-way star to help take some of the offensive and defensive burden off Arowonitz, who looks a bit more relaxed knowing that not ALL the burden to create offense on his own when the team offensive flow is not quite there rests on his shoulders.  Aronowitz is best when he lets the game come to him and picks his spots when there are good opportunities prestented by the spacing of the defense, and that is precisely how he has been playing of late.

It's 1200 seats.  If they're having this much trouble, I wonder if they'd consider clearing it between sessions to sell more tickets - or is it just that more than 1200 Middlebury fans want to get in?

Midd sold out its allotment in less than an hour. Even a standalone Midd-Endicott matchup would be a sellout; especially accounting for Endicott fans. I believe the crowd for Midd-Lycoming game was at capacity.

[amh63]

To continue this "seating issue" further in a bit of quiet period, there remains the question of the true seating capacity for ticket sales.  In places like Williams and in Cousens, there are often many fans in areas than have no seats...standing room areas.  At times in Williams vs Amherst games, the crowd overflow in LeFrak have fans sitting on the floor.  The Final determination is based on
the Fire Marshall rules.  At Amherst, temp stands  at the end of one basket are put in for post- season ticketed games.  The temp stands are from three rows and up.  In Duke's Cameron Area, the announcers, etc. are in the rafters.  At Amherst, the camera crew and announcers, etc. take up bench row seats. Of course bench row seats are not like true seats in many venues and one should avoid the question of the physical size of fans wrt to row seats .
Finally, one more comment on ticked seating capacity rules.  There is always the question of money.
Often in D3 BB, the question of hosting is determined by money...number of flights to move teams around vs. the 500 mile criteria.  Yes money.  Heck...a senior citizen, which I am, is defined as 65 and older.  That line is harsher than movie tickets rules these days!

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

FYI - Babson isn't the only one splitting the session (if they are). Marietta is doing it as well considering their crowd support. 5 & 8 PM games as a result.