MBB: NESCAC

formerbant10 · December 02, 2005, 08:22:02 AM

Trinity played a very very good first half last night. They were running Curry off the floor with easy bucket after easy bucket. Clarke sat out most of the 1st half in foul trouble and Rhoten made a ton of transition baskets.
The 2nd half was a completely different story. Curry just outplayed them. Trinity missed some easy shots and gave up way too many open looks. 3-19 from 3 doesn't help either.
Losing any more out of conference games might seal the Bants fate unless they win the conference Tourney. They are a completely different team than last year, and are still figuring each other out. But there were just too many missed shots in the 2nd half. We'll see what happens in the next game.

Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) · December 02, 2005, 09:30:42 AM

Curry didn't even have their two best players in the game. I honestly thought it would be a blow-out the other way. CC has a great coach and a lot of talent, but I have never seen them get it together this well, especially without Tim Jones and Raheim Lamb. This potential has always been there, but I guess it took a really top notch Trinity team to bring it out.

All-around · December 02, 2005, 09:42:03 AM

I hate to say it with Trinity over the years losing to teams they shouldn't and the fact that they always seem to have a lot of talent but never end up winning big, is it possible that it might be time for a coaching change. I dont personally know the coach there, but i can't understand how with Pat Martin (who did play at BU) and Tyler Rhoten you loose to a curry team who is just above average (without TJ and Lamb)...

formerbant10 · December 02, 2005, 08:15:56 PM

The coaches can't put the ball in the hoop for them. Trinity had plenty of opportunities to score, but didn't make the big bucket. They had trouble putting anything in the hoop in the 2nd half. Trinity is still trying to find out how to play with each other and it shows....they have had trouble playing with a lead in the 2nd half and need someone to step up and take over at the end of the game.

walzy31 · December 02, 2005, 09:32:41 PM

Amherst 80 - Springfield 74

Amherst came out on fire against Springfield leading 32-13 after 11 minutes and 44-28 at the half. Amherst shot 59% from the field for the half and Olsen had 10 assists. Also in the first half, Bedford scored his 1,000th career point. The combined efforts of Beford and McLaughlin on Yvon held him to 10 at the half. The second half brought on an inspired Springfield team that was on fire and cut the lead to 3 points with 12 minutes. Key rebounds by Hopkins, Wheeler and McLaughlin pushed Amherst's lead back to 12 with six minutes to go but it was a one point game with 30 seconds to play. Yvon had some very impressive 1 v 1 moves that led to some crafty points. Andrew Olsen gets my MVP of the game as he took over offensivly. Olsen finished with 18 points and 12 assists (which is a career high and single game pioneer valley tournament record).

What I liked seeing was the depth of Amherst which looked great all game. Coulibaly played well in his limited time. But more noticibly, Amherst went with Goldsmith, Hopkins, and McLaughlin for long stretches during the second half. I saw today as a breakout game for Matt Goldsmith who fits his role to a T.

Amherst had zero dunks in the game...but four or five near dunks.

formerbant10 · December 02, 2005, 10:37:32 PM

Is it me or does it seem like the NESCAC is not quite as dominant as it has been in the past few years. Endicott beating Bates, Eastern and Curry beating Trinity and a shorthanded Springfield team staying with Amherst. I wouldn't count on too many at large bids for the conference this year if this play continues....but it is still early and I hope they all prove me wrong.

But Walzy, holding Yvon to 10 at the half is no great achievement...that's about what he averages per half over his career. What did impress me was holding him to 1-6 from 3 and 7-17 overall...that's a good job. 18 points on 17 shots isn't very efficient.

rufus · December 03, 2005, 11:11:29 AM

Completely agree with Formerbant on the competitiveness of the NESCAC teams at this point. The big surprises - Middlebury and Williams - will be playiing a fairly talented Union team this week. Middlebury plays Union today, and Williams plays them on Tuesday, so we can get some kind of gage on that. I know Middlebury's schedule has been a bit soft up 'til now, but my sense of things tells me Williams has greatly improved over last year. With the exception of Amherst, I see the playing field pretty level at this point. Tufts, WES, Conn, all look like they can hang in there with any team.

ephwithbeef · December 03, 2005, 05:08:27 PM

Middlebury beat Union 68-64 today at Pepin Gymnasium. Got a chance to watch the game and have a few things to say about this year's middlebury team. At first I thought they would be truly horrific, with only one senior, not much height, and no pure shooters. However, the freshmen and sophomore class is not all that bad, led by the starting point guard Ben Rudin. If anyone watched the tornado that was Simon Behan who ran point for Midd the past 4 years, you'd undestand how many times he absolutely blew games for us. However, with a legit point guard, Midd is now 5-0 and has some momentum going into break. Another freshmen hit a 3 with 8 seconds to go to put us up 4 and seal the game. Though we don't have much height, we do have a number of 6'5 guys who can play down low and evan thompson's has some hops and had two unbelievable blocks in today's game.
Our biggest weakness is we lack a player who can take it from the perimeter and drive to the hoop and i think we'll run into some trouble against some good defenses, but so far i'm just impressed to see we're 5-0. Last year, we would have lost the union game, because we could never win a close game. But maybe this year is diff. Interested to see how Williams does against union. To stop them all you gotta do is stop John Caginello. The guy is absolutely lights out. Averaging 29 points a game for union and is clutch out of his mind from the free throw line.

JeffRookie2 · December 03, 2005, 05:22:59 PM

I was really unimpressed with Derek Yvon last night. Granted he got his numbers, putting up a lot of points and all that, but whenever the Pride pulled close in the second half it was DeCesar who would really turn his game up a notch, not Yvon. His play just looked totally uninspired. Andrew Olson on the other hand single handedly put the Jeffs on his back and dragged them to victory. His only fault was not playing great defense against Pizzo, the speedy Springfield point guard who ran a great fast break. The difference in the first and second halves for Amherst in my opinon was mostly ball movement and half-court D. In the first half the Jeffs were passing crisply and kept finding open shots. Also, the did a great job of denying entry passes to Springfield, who had a hard time finding open shots outside. In the second half however, Springfield was able to get the ball down low without any issues. Something for the Jeffs to work on.

JeffRookie2 · December 03, 2005, 05:23:58 PM

Also, formerbant, how was Springfield shorthanded? Are you aware that Aponte played?

nescachoopsfan · December 03, 2005, 06:21:38 PM

i had a chance to check out to tufts brandeis game today, and what a game it was. tufts had the lead in the beggining but brandeis took the lead with 2 allyoops to steve deluca and never looked back. until the last 2 minutes that is. dave shepherd scored 7 points to send it into overtime, and tufts had too much momentum and firepower to look back outscoring the judges 24-10 in the last frame. all this without second leading scorer and leading rebounder dan martin (he suffered a concusion in thursdays game). a big week coming up for tufts to really separate them from just good teams, playing plymouth st and keene st. we'll see what happens. great game in medford mass

walzy31 · December 03, 2005, 08:20:29 PM

FINALLY the nescac is getting it done out of conference. It is good news for everyone in the league to see results like middlebury over union, bowdoin over maritime, amherst over westfield, conn over skidmore, and tufts over brandeis. And it's always good to see Williams lose no matter who they are playing.

Sounds like Tufts could have another season like they did last year. Brandeis is a very quality opponent and coming from behind without Martin is impressive.

Does anyone know how Bates did in their tourny?

I see the league like this:
1) Amherst
some seperation
2) Trinity
some seperation
3) Tufts
T4) Bates and Williams

until middlebury or bowdoin beats one of the four above them then they will remain in the bottom of the league with conn, colby and pathetic wesleyan

nescac1 · December 04, 2005, 07:36:29 AM

Walzy, your picks sound like they are based purely on last year's performance. You can't take TOO much from early season games, but you also can't take nothing -- and Trinity losing to two poor/mediocre teams makes them hard to place in second, especially with some separation. Of course, despite the fact that they are clearly improved, I'm not ready to put Middlebury in second either. I would say, based on a combination of both perspectives, it would have to go something like:

1. Amherst 2. Tufts 3. Williams 4. Trinity 5. Bates 6. Bowdoin 7. Conn College (who I think is ready to really start surprising a few teams) 8. Middlebury 9. Colby 10. Wesleyan.

Pre-season, I would have expected Trinity and Bates to look stronger, Williams a little weaker, and Midd MUCH weaker. Amherst and Wesleyan are each no surprise, however.

Tough loss for Williams, especially at home, but playing WPI essentially even is nothing to cry about -- 6-1 with the only loss to a national top ten team (even if that ranking is somewhat inflated) is a solid start, especially considering where Williams ended last season. The starting five played well it sounds like, but the Ephs are going to have to get more production from bench guys like Snyder and Weisbrot to have a chance in league play, right now they are pretty much six deep which just won't cut it. Rose has stepped up to be the top overall player on the team, and Shalvoy has ridiculous assist to TO ratio -- he is clearly vastly improved over last year. Now it's time for at least one other young guy to step up to take the burden over thing junior/senior classes. Two pretty tough opponents coming up in Springfield and Union, so let's see if the Ephs can learn from this game and improve.

Despite some early lossess from Nescac, very few New England teams are undefeated and the region as a whole looks down from last year, with some of last year's powers like Salem State, Western Conn, and Springfield off to rough starts. I think the NESCAC will still likely end up with at least three NCAA teams in the expanded tourney, possibly four. An early-season regional top ten might go:

1. Amherst 2. WPI 3. Keene 4. Plymouth 5. Tufts 6. Williams 7. Bowdoin 8. Trinity.

I expect both Trinity and Bates will eventually move up. But hard to say NESCAC is down, compared to the rest of the region, when Williams (perhaps 3d-5th best team in NESCAC) plays almost even with the best non-NESCAC team in the region, and other strong contenders like Springfield and Colby-Sawyer have already lost to NESCAC teams. A good barometer will be this week, when Tufts plays both Keene and Plymouth. Wins against those teams will go a LONG way towards earning Tufts an NCAA bid and firmly establishing NESCAC as the regional power once more, Tufts has played well against a tough early schedule and seems to have a lot of weapons, most balanced NESCAC along with Amherst.

rufus · December 04, 2005, 09:39:00 AM

Walzy31 - Bates won their tourny, but getting any info from the host website is rediculous. They beat a down UME-Fort Kent pretty badly (maybe by 35 points) and then beat the host team Husson by about 10. By all accounts the game with Husson was good quality - that Bates was ahead the whole game and simply finished it off at the end. The big men and the perimeter shooters are beginning to complement one another. Stockwell, MVP, Ray also selected all-star - as one would expect. Bobcats are back up to 5-2, and, hopefully, nescac1's prediction of them "moving up" will be a reality. Nice to see nescac teams winning again.

My previous post about Middlebury playing Union.... Congrats to the Middlebury guys. They have been down for a while and it looks like they are on the rise. I know a little about that Union team and they are no push overs. Any nescac team would be happy to come away with a win. Let's see how the purple cows do against them. Good luck!

formerbant10 · December 04, 2005, 10:51:02 AM

JeffRookie, I am aware that Aponte played...but this was his first game of the year due to some off the court problems and I doubt he was in game shape. Until he is 100% game ready, I'll consider them shorthanded....but I'll take Amherst beating them any day of the week, I like the NESCAC winning as many non-con's as possible.

NESCAC1...would you agree that the NESCAC is not as dominant as it was 2 years ago?? I'm not saying that every team is down, but the top 3 (whoever they are at this point) are not at the level Williams, Amherst and Trinity were...that's what I was trying to say.