MBB: NESCAC

[Friar T]

CalTech vs. Hampshire on the Ocho next Saturday... I'll take the refs by 16...

New found respect for nescac hoops knowing he balled once upon a time. I too had to chase a star around for a year, following Jeff Clement (all-time, all-division NCAA record for 3s in a game and dIII record for points in a game) through a triple screen and getting my a$$ kicked every day. Truly a humbling experience, but I'm better for it in the long run.

Should be a great weekend of ball. I'll get to watch tomorrow thanks to the beauty of Jumbocast, and I'm curious to see if Tufts is up to the challenge. Bates vs. Trinity on Friday will have ENORMOUS effect on Saturday's Amherst vs. Bates matchup. Bates needs to beat the Bants to keep their confidence up. If Trinity can pull off the road upset, Bates could just roll over on Saturday...

I'm sticking with my orginal picks and agreeing with FormerBant: The Jeffs and Bants prove to be road warriors and sweep the weekend!

Can't wait for Walzy to weigh in on the weekend...

[The Historian]

Looking forward to the big weekend.  Can't wait to see both games in person.  I'm sorry that I missed you at the Wes Tech game, Pat.  I hear that walzy and you had a great time talking hoops and NBC sports.  I'll have to introduce myself in Salem.

I'd also like to throw out the invitation again to all our posters for more stats.  I don't have any numbers from Middlebury, Wesleyan, or Conn and very limited numbers from Williams.  Perhaps you could contact your SID.  Whatever you get, you can pass along to me and I'll compile with what I already have.

[formerbant10]

Nescac hoops,

I don't know if Zak Ray will disrupt Olson too much.  I don't recall that being such an easy task.  But Bates should give the Jeffs a game. 

Friar,

I don't think the outcome of the night before will have as much to do with it, rather the type of game that Trinity and Bates play. 

I've seen teams get blown out on Friday night and come back strong on Saturday because their starters were better rested and playing with chip on their shoulder.  It's tougher to keep the bounce in your legs after playing a phyically and emotionally tough game....which the last couple of Bobcat/Bantam games have been in Maine.

Hampshire would easily beat Cal Tech....I'll take them by 35.   

[nescac hoops]

Frair T = Luke Flockerzi? That would be the only Grinnell-Amherst connection that I am aware of. If so, talk about a dedicated and  supportive ex-assistant coach for the jeffs.

I admittingly forgot that trinity was amherst's travel partner. As Friar pointed out, that could have a great effect on Saturday's outcome. I don't expect a Bants victory, sorry Formerbant, b/c I think Bates is a very tough venue but I think the closer the outcome and the more physical the game, the better for the Jeffs. The same can be said for the Bants with the Tufts-Amherst matchup. I don't think that Tufts has "found themselves", but nonetheless have the talent to make Amherst play its key players a lot. It should be a very exciting weekend in Medford and Lewiston. I wish these matchups took place in the last, deciding weekend of the conference tourny but i guess you can't control the scheduling of such games.

My predictions...
Amherts 2-0
Bates 1-1
Trinity 1-1
Tufts 0-2

[hoopjunkie]

nescac hoops, I would agree with you that Tufts "has not found themselves "
but to say Amherst would have to play their "key players " alot , is a slap in the TUFTS face
to say the least .

Being a big Tufts fan & supporter maybe Amherst "luck " has worn out  since last year & they will
get what they deserve .

[formerbant10]

Frair T = Luke Flockerzi? That would be the only Grinnell-Amherst connection that I am aware of. If so, talk about a dedicated and  supportive ex-assistant coach for the jeffs.

Let's remember that Luke is at U of R right now and has been especially busy the last couple days with the Chase tournament going....he's got a big game tomorrow night versus St. John Fisher, so we all know he's hard at work making sure they can top the Cardinals.

[nescac hoops]

junkie,
i really didn't mean it the way you interpreted it. amherst has been going 10+ deep all season. however, i don't think they have played against the competition yet that they will see this weekend in tufts and bates. i think olson is used to playing around 25 minutes so far.....i expect him to play 35+ on friday night and i expect that the amherst depth will shrink to only 7-8 players seeing 15+ minutes. so yeah, amherst "key players" (there top 7-8, not their 9-15 that often see time due to blowouts) will be seeing more time than they have all season and will be forced to play a lot of minutes. what is so offensive about that? are we a little touchy over there in medford? i think tufts has had a lot more slaps in the face this season that have nothing to do with what is said on an online forum. also, i'm an ephs fan not a jeff fan and would like nothing more than to see the jumbos win but don't see it happening. just speaking my opinion.

[hoopjunkie]

Hoops ,

Well since you are an Ephs fan, I forgive you . I am hoping this weekend at Tufts
will give the Jumbos a chance to gain some credibilty .
It has been a rocky road but their losses have been to Rhode Island (beat d1 Iona )
Brandeis , William Patterson (both ranked top 25 ) & Stevens Tech a very good team

I think that when point guard Dave Sheppard can get the ball to Weitzen & Peirce where
they can do damage, they again will an elite team in the NESCAC .

Tufts does play the toughest schedule so 1 or maybe 2 wins this weekend at home
is high hopes , but doable . It should be awesome baby !!!

[walzy31]

Caltech / Hampshire on the Ocho. wow haha.

Friday

Amherst 94
Tufts 69

Saturday

Amherst 71
Bates 63

Zak Ray disrupts Olson a little but to the point where Andrew has to work a lot harder than he usually does. Again, Zak is my favorite non-Amherst player to watch now that Blake Curry retired.

Bates plays Tufts the following weekend to see who starts their conference record at 0-3. Winner comes in 3rd in the regular season.

[Friar T]

Very good FormerBant, I am not Luke Flockerzi. I am much better looking and significantly taller...

However, I did play with Luke at Grinnell and he is/was my connection to the 'Herst. He's doing great things at UR and they've been pretty solid thus far on the season. Just another D3 team for me to support...

Amherst has and will play deep all season. The minutes of Olson and a few key guys may go up, but if you look at the box scores through the season (especially the last few games) Olson has been closer to 30 than 25 and as high as 37. He's typically joined around the 30 minute mark by McLaughlin, Wheeler or whoever has the hot hand that night.

That's really the biggest strength of the Amherst team that I don't think gets talked about enough. Their talent level is very high, but more importantly, it's distributed among 9-11 guys rather than 6-8. I think that their depth is what makes them one of the more impressive Amherst teams over the past few years.

Junkie, if you'd been following the posts on this board you'd know that losses in the weak New England region are not very excusable and that fact that Tufts has four of them is discouraging to their NCAA hopes if they can't pull off a conference tourney run. RIC supposedly isn't as good as was touted in the early season and Brandeis and William Patterson have both been dropping games to unranked opponents as of late as well.

Tufts is a good team. They were a better team with Mr. Martin in the middle, but they're still a good team. I think it'll will become clear this weekend just how much weaker they are without Thunder Dan.

I wonder if we'll be able to see the incredible amounts of sweat that pour off of Weitzen and Black on Jumbocast??? You can probably only get that live or on ESPNHD...

[mrmike88]

Over the last two years' worth of Amherst-Bates games (4 total, two regular-season tilts and two matchups in the conference tourney), Ray and Stockwell have gotten their points on offense but have been unable to disrupt Amherst on D.  Unless their teammates can step it up on the defensive end, recent history seems to suggest that Bates will be outscored again, in spite of the two seniors' efforts.

[eclinchy]

I wonder if we'll be able to see the incredible amounts of sweat that pour off of Weitzen and Black on Jumbocast??? You can probably only get that live or on ESPNHD...

Probably not, but there are no cameras like the JumboCast cameras for perfectly capturing the bright red glow of everyone's favorite Irishman, Brian Fitzgerald.

I agree with everyone who's defending Tufts on grounds of their strength of schedule.  I also think that Trinity, a team that lost to Springfield and hasn't beaten anyone notable, is being vastly overrated.

Bold predictions:

Amherst 83, Tufts 69
Bates 72, Trinity 68

Amherst 70, Bates 65
Tufts 77, Trinity 76

That's right, Amherst only wins by a combined 19 points, and Trinity ohfers the weekend.  You heard it here.

[Pat Coleman]

Attention NESCAC fans:

NESCAC native frank uible has been elected to the Posting Hall of Fame.

Please make a note of it.

[Gregory Sager]

Congrats, Frank, and welcome to the club!

[frank uible]

I'm speechless - almost!