MBB: NESCAC

[Mountain Man]

Tonight we MAY get a chance to see the main Williams' weakness which is defensive foot speed/team defense/team speed on display
If this does manifest, it will be in the form of a very close game with the Williams' 4 in foul difficulty.

Williams reminds me of last years' Hamilton squad which later in the year focused on improving team defense and almost got to the Final Four.  Not much to find fault with this Williams' squad.

However, rather than coronating them for punishing cupcakes this far. We should be looking for possible areas of weakness and improvement. At the end of the day, MATCHUPS dictate the possible results. Opposing Coaches look to exploit weaknesses

This board lacks discussion on defense and speed. Both kill.
Both are X Factors that are tools of opposing coach in trying to fashion a win.
Wesleyan & Amherst used these tools to overachieve our expectations last year in NESCAC tournament

Ephs: Who is going to cover Austin Hutcherson?  Possibly Feinberg??   

Cards: Who are you most concerned with? Hutch & Bonner can only cover two of Casey, Heskett, Scadlock. 
Do you throw in some zone. Do you throw in a 1-3-1 trap?   Cards get in foul trouble = big offensive dropoff

[Middfan]

Feeling the need to brag a bit about NESCAC's strength in women's athletics in general and Midd women's athletics in particular as the Panthers meet the Ephs in tonight's NCAA soccer final.  Williams is the reigning National Champion.  And two weeks ago, Middlebury prevailed over Tufts to win a consecutive NCAA title in field hockey.  Great programs, not to mention conference success in basketball and lacrosse.

[nescac1]

Don't forget Tufts men's soccer, who like the Eph women are playing for their third title in the last five years today.  I can't believe Shapiro is still in D3. Two absolute dynasties at this point.  Midd and Williams each lost only once all year, to each other, so it's the perfect title game.  The Eph women have survived a ridiculous spate of injuries to the team including last year's two returning leading scorers (out basically all year) and this year's leader by far, who has missed the last two playoff games.  Pinard's best coaching job for sure.

I'd love to see a good dose of the Williams zone defense against Wesleyan tonight.  It may not be ready for prime time yet (so perhaps it will be kept on ice) since it takes a ton of practice to perfect, but by February it will cause any team without a ton of skill and passing 1-5 problems. In man, the matchups this year are better for Williams because last year the Cards had a massive size mismatch vs Greenman. I assume Scadlock starts on Hutcherson and Feinberg on Bonner, but if Heskett avoids early foul trouble we will see a lot of him on Bonner when Soto or Taylor come into the game since he is the best matchup there.  Or perhaps they open with Heskett.  On offense the Ephs need whichever wing Jones is guarding to bring him to the perimeter and take him off the dribble.  I'd also post Hutcherson early to try to get a few quick fouls on him.  Whenever a backup center is in Karp should be option A every time though.

[Middfan]

Certainly didn't forget about the great Tufts program that coach Shapiro (Midd '97) has built.  And this year's men's NCAA tournament featured 6 NESCAC teams!  Go Jumbos!

[amh63]

Bunch of comments wrt to a bunch of posts.
Mountain Man....yes, in a conference with a host of teams with big talented players, defense and speed maybe the keys to success this season.  I posted earlier that Amherst was switching defenses while inserting young new players into games...anticipating games ahead against the ranked Nescac teams.
I did watch some of the women soccer games.  Noticed that both Midd and Williams won over teams with gaudy records.  Williams win against CNU was IMO aided greatly by its defense.  The Captains, a high scoring team never could recover or handle the Ephs' defense. 
Middwatcher....in our days, MBB games were played in the New England Cages...like the ones at UMass-Amherst and at Wesleyan.  The Cage in Middletown is gone and the one at UMass...where Doctor J played...has been remodeled and used for WBB games today.  Amherst's games was on a wooden floor over a dirt floor.  The Cage was upgraded with a new roof in a major athletic complex renovation awhile back.  The Cage, now named Coolidge Cage has a wooden surface and is used for indoor tennis and sometimes baseball practice, etc.  I was informed that the Cage was being upgraded...the floor again...the reason it was closed during Homecoming this year. 
I will be watching the Little Three game today for sure...Hutch is a hard man to cover...period.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Hey, because I like stirring the pot and there's actually people here to debate this.  I watched some of Williams' last game and also Hamilton's.  I've seen all the players in person at least once.  I'm wondering if Williams doesn't have the three best players in the NESCAC on one team.  Thoughts?

[Ubuntu]

Look forward to seeing Amherst play Emerson today haven't watched them yet.  I don't know if they have the 3 best players but that post makes me want to watch them.   Saw Bates play UNE, just watched the 2nd half and they looked pretty good.  Jury is still out though since UNE plays such a frenetic way.

Keene State v Middlebury should be a good one as well

Watched Colby and Bowdoin.  Colby looked great for most of the game, shooters, decent bigs, play hard.  After watching alot of NESCAC last year they look like a top 8 team.  Bowdoin 2 great players who seemingly have to hit tough shots all the time for them to compete.

Is there a way to watch the games after they've played?  Would love to see the Endicott Middlebury game.

[ContinentalDomer]

Feel free to discount for personal bias, I'll give you two - KS and JH.  If I were choosing sides, I'd take KG over BC.  But given the fact that they play different positions and that Williams spreads its talent across different positions, the Ephs top 3-4, on a good night, are a lethal combination.  And if it needs to be said, BC is the best at his position in the league.  Of course, it's a team game in the end.  Match-ups, execution, and momentum in a winner take all setting will dictate the outcomes.

Hey, because I like stirring the pot and there's actually people here to debate this.  I watched some of Williams' last game and also Hamilton's.  I've seen all the players in person at least once.  I'm wondering if Williams doesn't have the three best players in the NESCAC on one team.  Thoughts?

[middhoops]

Yes, Ryan.  It's possible.
Long season ahead.  Things change.

[Mountain Man]

Bucket was right.

Keene State's first half defense and aggressive attacking of the hoop have Middlebury on their heels.

Let's see if the foul riddled Panthers can come back down 10 at half.
Owls have presented the way to attack Middlebury's front line depth while keeping hands up on all shooters.
Panthers are rushing shots and guiding them.

[JEFFFAN]

We wont know until league starts whether the Amherst team is too young to compete with the more experienced teams, but this sophomore class is very, very good.  As one of the prior posters noted, Robinson is seriously coming into his own and developing (I wont make the full comparison) to the last great Amherst guards.   The other sophomores are also playing well - they beat up on what appears to be an average Emerson team today.   Fun start.

[JEFFFAN]

JEFFFAN....Nice bit of info....will put it in my personnel box.   The player Rehnquist, played at a public HS in the McClean  area of N. Virginia.  One of his sisters lives there presently and the other in Middlebury Vt., I believe.  The player's daughter played BB for Williams.  I will mention a newspaper story....posted it a long time ago....about a HS game in N. Virginia when Jim was doing his thing on the floor.  Seems as the game was progressing a person in the stands was complaining loudly at the refs on some calls.  One of the refs....as reported in the paper....turned to look at the loudmouth in the stands.  The ref stated that he was quite surprised and sort of shook up to see that the person was the Chief Justice.
There has been a strong connection between Supreme Court Justices and Amherst over many years. The late Scallia...sp? had a daughter or two attend Amherst.  One or both of Rehnquist's sisters attended Amherst.  A classmate of mine from D.C. had a father that became a Supreme Court Justice...Justice .Goldberg.  Another classmate from Md....now a semi-retired Federal Judge in Md. was a good friend of the late Chief Justice...they would travel jointly to S. America for judicial matters.  My classmate's oldest son who taught at St. Mary's College in Md. and is now a Prez of a Midwest college was a great swimmer for Bowdoin.  I am reminded by classmate Messitte and another classmate often how their sons at Bowdoin help beat Amherst in swim meets.

amh63

One of Jim Rehnquist's sisters has an additional NESCAC  connection, being the wife of the Middlebury College vice president of academic development.  The couple lives in Weybridge, Vt., the next town over from Middlebury.  They live just down the road from another brother of mine. 

I believe this is the article you mention.

https://people.com/archive/the-puns-are-unavoidable-dads-on-the-bench-but-amherst-star-jim-rehnquist-rarely-is-vol-5-no-8/

Rehnquist was a great jumper.  I was at the MIT game.  He stayed up in the air longer than others!  FYI, he graduated in 1977.   He played basketball with Bill Swiacki, who was drafted in the 9th round by the New York football giants in 1978 and played minor league baseball with the Dodgers for five years.   Also graduated with Sean Clancy, who was drafted in the 8th round by the Miami Dolphins and played for two years in the NFL.   Not bad for a small school!

[nescac1]

This is definitely the best Amherst team in my view since Toomey graduated. Unlike some recent squads with higher expectations, there are no individual agendas and everyone really works hard on both ends.  Robinson is so much better than last year, playing at an all-league level.  The defense is very tough and Cherry and Schneider are both DPOY candidate.  Cherry, Che, Day are all a lot better than last year as well.  McCarthy clearly isn't all the way back yet, but if he gets there by February the second unit will be that much better.  This team is more than the sum of its parts, which wasn't necessarily the case the last few years.  And next year they could be really scary. 

[jayhawk]

NESCAC1
Thank you for comments about Amherst
Today was worst game by far this year for Garrett Day and Eric Sellew
One of best games for Grant Robinson I was not sure about his jump shot but today he was quite good and could do it off the dribble

Time will tell about Amherst when it hits tougher competition

it does look encouraging
Agree about depth
was not sure about 3 pt shooting but looks good so far

[middhoops]

Old Guy and Bucket can analyze Keene St.'s well deserved win over Middlebury today.  The Owls used something I think Mountain Man mentioned recently.
"Speed Kills".  Yup, sure did.
Keene ran hard at Midd at every opportunity.  Their outstanding player, Ty Nichols, was held to 3 pts in the first half.  His 23 in the 2nd was the difference.

Big man James Anozie was brutal, schooling the Middlebury bigs with strong moves to the hoop.  He may be a new candidate for world's strongest man.

Soph guards Jack Farrell and Max Bosco combined for 51 points and Matt Folger had another big rebounding game with 15.  Alex Sobel learned some valuable lessons about playing defense at the college level.  His improvement is evident every game.  This kid is going to be a playa.

Congrats to Keene St.
Good luck the rest of the season.