MBB: NESCAC

JustAFan · March 11, 2017, 10:08:47 AM

For those who could not attend in person, last night might have been the best home-viewing night ever for NESCAC fans, with 5 sweet-16 men's and women's games to switch back and forth to, plus a really good, season opening men's lacrosse battle between two top 10 teams, Tufts and Middlebury. Plus, for New England fans, Keene State's great win over CNU. How the world has changed for NESCAC fans in just 10 short years now that games are broadcast live.

Changing gears, can anyone explain why the DIII tournament games must includeTV timeouts when the games are not on TV? Why do rules established for television broadcasts of D1 games need to apply to DIII games? They break up the rhythm of the game without fail, take away the advantage that teams with deep benches have, make it difficult for teams that like to play up-tempo to impose that tempo on the game, and simply are not necessary. I suspect the coaches don't mind since they generally like any opportunity to do more coaching, but in my opinion they take away from the game from a fan's perspective, and do not belong in the DIII tournament, especially since they are not used during the regular season.

Finally, a plea to the Williams guards and wing players: please follow your shots! The Eph shooters have a bad habiting of standing flat footed after their shots from the arc, and missed many opportunities last night for second chances on misses if they had only followed their own shots and grabbed long caroms back. On the positive side, hats off to Michael Kempton, who continues to blossom and had another strong game last night and will need to do so again tonight, and to Coach App as well: the Ephs offense against the Susquehanna zone was a thing of beauty to watch last night.

Here's hoping both Williams and Middlebury bring their A games tonight. Good luck to both; each is worthy of a Final 4 spot.

nescac1 · March 11, 2017, 10:19:16 AM

Rubber match game day! Should be a fun night in Middlebury and great to see another NESCAC team in Salem regardless of the outcome, the fourth in the last four years. Williams is aiming to be the first NESCAC squad to book eight trips to the national semifinals, and Middlebury looks to be the first team other than Williams or Amherst to book two (Trinity and Conn likewise have one each). Amazing that this is the first NCAA meeting for Williams and Midd, and of course the stakes could not be any higher.

Both teams know each other well, and know what each other want to do. Middlebury is going to once again fight like hell to prevent Williams off-the-ball cutters from getting clear paths to the basket while also clogging the lane to prevent drives by Aronowitz. The Ephs are going to need to drain a higher volume of threes (and potentially free throws) than the last game to counter that strategy. This would be a great game for Cole Teal to really go off, or for Heksett, Soto or Casey to catch fire. They all will have plenty of chances. The Ephs are surely going to be all over St. Amour on the perimeter while doing all they can to ensure that Middlebury doesn't get easy baskets in transition. Brown and Daly are going to get into the lane, but Williams needs to work really hard to make sure it's not easy or routine. You have to give up something, so the Ephs I imagine will take their chances with outside shots from anyone save for St. Amour. Anything is possible but I expect a close, classic battle.

amh63 · March 11, 2017, 10:57:00 AM

Several comments on the D3 games I dropped in on.
First, was surprised to see Midd up by 40 plus points in the second half....wasn't the first game a little closer?

Looked into the audience to see if I could identify the Old Guy family crowd. Camera coverage made things difficult.
Went to the Tufts' game. It was close until the last 5 minutes. The surprise for me was seeing Vinny Pace on the bench during Tuft's late attempts to cut the lead. Announcers pointed out that Tufts allows around 80 points a game...Babson was at 79 points at the time and had a double digit lead with around three minutes to go.

Canvas Hightops · March 11, 2017, 12:35:48 PM

Justafan:
"Finally, a plea to the Williams guards and wing players: please follow your shots! The Eph shooters have a bad habiting of standing flat footed after their shots from the arc, and missed many opportunities last night for second chances on misses if they had only followed their own shots and grabbed long caroms back"

With the speed of today's game, if perimeter shooters follow their shot and don't get the ball, it's an automatic odd man mismatch on the break going the other way.
Big guys who are moving toward the hoop need to get the offensive board, but with guards; get back on defense or you'll get torched.

Bucket · March 11, 2017, 01:02:36 PM

Quote from: JustAFan on March 11, 2017, 10:08:47 AM

Changing gears, can anyone explain why the DIII tournament games must includeTV timeouts when the games are not on TV? Why do rules established for television broadcasts of D1 games need to apply to DIII games? They break up the rhythm of the game without fail, take away the advantage that teams with deep benches have, make it difficult for teams that like to play up-tempo to impose that tempo on the game, and simply are not necessary. I suspect the coaches don't mind since they generally like any opportunity to do more coaching, but in my opinion they take away from the game from a fan's perspective, and do not belong in the DIII tournament, especially since they are not used during the regular season.

I believe it is because the championship game is going to be televised, and it will include tv time outs. So the idea is that it's best not to spring this on teams for the first time in the biggest game of the season.

iwumichigander · March 11, 2017, 01:15:04 PM

Quote from: Bucket on March 11, 2017, 01:02:36 PM
Quote from: JustAFan on March 11, 2017, 10:08:47 AM

Changing gears, can anyone explain why the DIII tournament games must includeTV timeouts when the games are not on TV? Why do rules established for television broadcasts of D1 games need to apply to DIII games? They break up the rhythm of the game without fail, take away the advantage that teams with deep benches have, make it difficult for teams that like to play up-tempo to impose that tempo on the game, and simply are not necessary. I suspect the coaches don't mind since they generally like any opportunity to do more coaching, but in my opinion they take away from the game from a fan's perspective, and do not belong in the DIII tournament, especially since they are not used during the regular season.

I believe it is because the championship game is going to be televised, and it will include tv time outs. So the idea is that it's best not to spring this on teams for the first time in the biggest game of the season.

D-Mac could give a better TV timeout explanation but yes I part because the Final Four games are broadcast. Also, you have radio stations broadcasting that have to sell a little soap to cover expenses.
The tournament TV timeouts do help coaching staffs, particularly those conferences which do not use them, to prepare for game management. A much different approach when you ah e TV timeouts.

Dave 'd-mac' McHugh · March 11, 2017, 01:20:10 PM

Yes... we have been using media breaks in Division III tournament for a number of years now because at the championship weekends they are used even if the games are only being web streamed. It is for consistency reasons. There was a time that the media breaks were only in the title games, but it was felt teams were disadvantaged to the sudden rule change in the final game (it was a running joke to see teams break the huddle a minute into the TO and then stand around for another 90 seconds). It was then adjusted to the semifinals as well to help compensate, but again it wasn't felt to be fair because so many things change with these media breaks including how coaches have called TOs prior and how they manage their team and substitutions. So a number of years ago it was shifted to the entire tournament and for all games.

jumpshot · March 11, 2017, 05:50:17 PM

Just watched the final two minutes of Hanover's last second win over Hope yesterday in front of a huge crowd at Hope. Great competition, one of the best contests I've seen this year at any level. Available on video link in recap available through D3Hoops' front page, or simply on YouTube Hanover vs. Hope.

Don't miss it ....

nescac1 · March 11, 2017, 07:45:01 PM

Exciting and evenly-played first-half in Vermont. The Ephs have benefited from strong shooting by Teal and Casey, and excellent two-way play from Karpowicz in limited minutes (only in the game due to foul trouble). Williams' leaders through most of the tourney, Greenman, Aronowitz, and Scadlock, need to do a lot more on offense in the second half. All have struggled with turnovers and haven't been able to generate enough good looks. Credit to Midd, which works hard to take away your top options. Williams needs to take care of the ball a bit better, overall -- three totally unforced TOs were killers. On defense, they really can't hope to do much better except for slightly better boxing out ... too many easy second-chance points for Midd.

Midd is led by St. Amour who has been hot from two but cold from three -- hard to imagine the latter stat holding up in the second half, and Williams needs to be ready for the oncoming storm there. Jack Daly has been stellar today, leading Midd on both ends, but played only 12 minutes due to two early fouls. Midd has to be happy that they are down only two with Daly missing so much time, as he's been their MVP when on the floor.

ECSUalum · March 11, 2017, 08:45:45 PM

Congrats to Williams College in victory over a really tough Panther team!! Best of luck in Salem!!

nescac1 · March 11, 2017, 08:48:16 PM

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Salem baby, go Ephs! What a win. It wasn't pretty down the stretch, but kudos to an ice-cold (on multiple levels) Marcos Soto for nailing two free throws, despite being iced by a TO, after being out of the game just about forever. The Ephs lost a bit of composure fouling incessantly down the stretch (not usually a great late-game strategy with a substantial lead), but they held on. Bobby Casey's ace shooting was key. But really except for the fouls the Eph defense was nasty tonight. They were all OVER St. Amour in particular and dared anyone else to beat them. Daly ALMOST did single-handedly, but not quite. Midd had no field goals made in seemingly forever in the second half.

Can't believe this team has gone from 1-4 in NESCAC to Salem. Unreal.

Sympathies to the Midd fans. Great, great team, all class, all heart, never say die, never quit, etc. etc. etc. Daly is a monster and if he didn't play so well against Williams he'd be my favorite non-Eph in the league. Kudos to Brown and St. Amour on spectacular careers. That was a hell of a battle and both teams fought like hell throughout. Ephs just had the better shooting night, in the end.

Wow.

Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) · March 11, 2017, 08:51:22 PM

I'm writing the Williams profile this week - any interesting tidbits I should dig into?

nescac1 · March 11, 2017, 09:01:10 PM

Ryan, loads. I'll PM you this weekend.

One key stat for the Ephs: the center rotation finished with 25-7-7 plus two blocks, 9-14 shooting, 4-5 from the line, only two TOs, not to the mention the clinching FTAs. Certainly their best game of the year, especially considering the caliber of the opponent's bigs. NESCAC can't be happy that trio has another two years together (and that Karpowicz has another year after that, he was beastly today coming in cold after not playing at all last night). Kempton has definitely raised his game in the NCAA tourney and the Ephs badly needed that. And I'd like to think Karp has earned some PT vs. Augustana next weekend!

Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) · March 11, 2017, 09:04:23 PM

Quote from: nescac1 on March 11, 2017, 09:01:10 PM
Ryan, loads. I'll PM you this weekend.

One key stat for the Ephs: the center rotation finished with 25-7-7 plus two blocks, 9-14 shooting, 4-5 from the line, only two TOs, not to the mention the clinching FTAs. Certainly their best game of the year, especially considering the caliber of the opponent's bigs. NESCAC can't be happy that trio has another two years together (and that Karpowicz has another year after that, he was beastly today coming in cold after not playing at all last night).

Email is quicker - ryan.scott@d3sports.com; I can get the on court stuff, but I don't really have a good handle on any background/off court stuff that might be of interest. Let me know.

jumpshot · March 11, 2017, 09:13:20 PM

A win for the ages that showed great character by the Ephs on MIddlebury's home court to earn a trip to Salem!

Everyone contributed as evidenced by balanced scoring and 30 bench points. In Salem Ephs will need to reduce significantly 17 turnovers resulting in 25 points, 12 steals, and giving up 20 offensive rebounds, a lot of which reflects the energy, pace, and fitness of Panther players who deserve lots of accolades for a fabulous season conducted with Panther Pride and sportsmanship equal to that of the Ephs. Two outstanding institutions that understand what the experience is all about. A special tip of the hat to Coach App and his assistants for a sound game plan using lots of depth, and reinforcing the mental discipline needed to win many challenging games down the stretch.

Keep playing freely and with fun and joy ----you will always remember this coming weekend ....