MBB: NESCAC

[amh63]

Watched the Amherst game closely against Emerson.  Emerson's FY Center is a handful and should be a star by next season...under his HC.  Watch the combos of players that HC Hixon used.  Seems to me Asst coach Toomey was more active in the game..directing his players.  The guard play of Amherst was impressive...on both sides of the game.  Both Day and Robinson can score inside and outside and play a little defense too. 
Yes it is early in the season but there is strong evidence that Amherst is a DEEP team.  The young players are getting to work with the "older" players.  Is this a team that when someone is having an off night that you can go to the bench and find the " hot' shooter?  Both Chery and Che were hitting from outside and battling for rebounds inside.  Both Day and Robinson took the ball from one end of the court and scored inside on the other end.
Yes, I am getting ahead of myself .
Watched the Midd vs Keene game quite a bit.   Midd just could not climb out of the hole that Keene put them in...in the first half.  Panther effort was there....but the rebounds did not fall their way so to speak. 
Midd got within a few points a number of times in the 2nd half, with effort.  Keene St.was just better today and beat the ranked Panthers in their den. 

[Bucket]

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.

Sometimes I hate being right. 

Thanks for the acknowledgement. And I think your analysis of the first half was spot on. Very aggressive defense forced Midd into bad shots, while equally aggressive offensive sets had Midd's D on its heels, as you pointed out.

Midd started to settle down in the second half, but a 14-point hole against a good team was tough to overcome. Midd did tie it, though, on a Bosco (21 points) floater—75-75 with a couple of minutes to play. A defensive lapse led quickly  to an Owls layup, but then it looked like Midd still had momentum. Down 2, Folger is fouled shooting a three; looked like the shot was going to drop for a potential four-point play, but it rimmed out. Then 3 free throws, all missed. The stripe was the only place Folger struggled, recording a double double of 15 and 15. It looked like the Panthers were going to get the ball back down two, but what seemed like an obvious travel on the Owls big man when confronted with a double team in the post was instead whistled as a foul on McCord, his 5th. Both free throws made, and the air went out of the gym.

Panthers didn't lose because of the ref though; as others have pointed out, Keene was the better team today. Hats off to the Owls. Last note that shouldn't be overlooked in the loss: a career-high 30 points for Jack Farrell, who was every bit as quick as the Owl guards. Farrell also guarded Nichols—who is terrific, as we all know—and while the all-american candidate got his share of points, Jack made him work really, really hard for them.

[nescac1]

Anozie is a beast, but I agree, that play was traveling. 

Kudos to Old Guy for the Don Nelson reference on the play by play earlier in the half.  Going to the well! 

[nescac1]

Very nice road  Little 3 win for Williams.  For the Ephs, it was all about the big four -- Scadlock and Karpowicz controlled the first half, and Heskett and Casey caught fire in the second.  Heskett in particular was huge, as for the first time this season he really looked like NESCAC POY Heskett, especially in the second half when he was draining shots from every spot on the court.  Just so versatile and hard to cover.   He also scored his 1000th career point on a key second half bucket. Congrats!!  Casey hit his customary deep jumpers, and Karp and Scadlock did a lot of damage inside early in the game.  Williams struggled with some foul trouble, as Scadlock picked up some very avoidable fouls with some overly-aggressive play and Casey picked up three really iffy offensive foul calls. 

Although Wesleyan got within six at one point in the second half, I felt like Williams was never in a huge amount of danger and was pretty clearly the better team.  The Ephs suffered from some sloppy play, with way too many turnovers, and it seemed like Wesleyan could not really stop Williams in the paint so the Ephs should have been a bit more careful with the ball and need not have pressed the issue so much.  Just be patient, keep pounding it inside and make them stop you.   I imagine App will have the same message.  Williams also got a bit less support from its role players than would be ideal, although Marc Taylor did hit a huge three when Williams was struggling in the second half.  After that, it was the Heskett and Casey show. 

For the Cards, Austin Hutcherson is fantastic, definitely one of the top five guys in the league.  He is NESCAC's answer to James Harden, as he is the primary ball-handler, creator, and scorer for his team.  He's also probably Wesleyan's best defender.  That's a lot to ask (a sophomore especially) to do, and like Harden in some big game, Hutcherson seemed to wear down just a bit in the second half.  Still quite an overall game for him: 16-9-3 plus two blocks and two steals.  Jordan Bonner is also a very tough player, one of the most explosive leapers in the league, but Wesleyan just doesn't have enough dudes around them right now.  Antone Walker is very quick but takes a lot of difficult shots and his make percentage is about what you'd expect on them.  Frosh Joe DeLollo was very impressive on offense, keeping Wesleyan in the game with three triples and 15 points in total, but he isn't yet ready to guard an elite NESCAC big man like Karp.  Still, he is going to be very good for the Cards in the future, beautiful touch for a bulky dude, an Andrew Schiel type (for those who remember him). 

[nescac1]

Congrats to the Eph women and Tufts men soccer teams for extending their dynasties last night.  Tough beat for Midd losing on PKs, but Williams was the deserving winner of the game.  With that win, Williams and Midd stay tied with an amazing 38 national championships each.  Unreal.  Tufts though has been piling them on over the past decade as well.

One more note from Williams-Wesleyan: Scadlock had an amazing game on D, with four steals, two blocks, and playing some great second half individual D on Hutcherson (who was 1-9 in the second half, after a scorching first half).  As noted before, right now Wesleyan is asking a bit too much of Hutcherson, Bonner, and Walker.  They played all but five minutes collectively and basically initiated all of the offense on nearly every possession. Went 6-24 in the second half and you have to think that while the Williams defense was great, fatigue played a role as well.  This would be a very different team with one more big-time playmaker to share the load (say, Kevin O'brien ...)

[lumbercat]

Surprised to see the Middlebury result yesterday, but did not see the game. I saw posts alluding to a strong big man in the front court for Keene St.
Didn't think there were too many guys that McCord wouldn't be able to handle. I've only seen the McCord kid a few times but my impression off him was a NESCAC version of a cross between Wayne "The Wall' Embry and old Wilt back up Luke Jackson.....
Did they have McCord on the Keene bigman yesterday?

[MiddWatcher]

Lumbercat:  McCord picked up two quick fouls.  Also has had a " travelling " bug plaguing him thus far. Keene State well prepared defensively. But, it was the combo of the " other guys " who really impacted in first half. Diallo and Ezedonmwen combined to shoot 7 for 8 ( 19 points ) as Nichols totalled 6 assists in first half alone. He is a terrific player; and unselfish to boot. Last year, Middlebury used a 1-3-1 zone with a long 6'4 on the top to open up a tight game at Keene midway through first half. Midd played no zone yesterday, but even the slough ( from m-m ) to help on Nichols' drives opened up the " other guys ".  Very, very well coached and played by Keene State and Ryan Cain, for sure.  But, mostly, Midd missed outside shots that they have been making all year so far in the first half. Players not named Folger shot 2 for 14 from distance. That happens. Second half they were back to normal ( 7 of 14 ) on treys. Foul shooting ( where they had been leading NESCAC at 79 % ) reared its ugly head at 14 of 23.  Again, that happens.  All in all, nice road win for Keene State that may well help come NCAA Committee time in February. They may not need the help if Keene State wins the AQ from Little East. Which they may well do. For Midd, not a terrible loss as some of the younger guys continue to gain experience and playing time. Another big road test for Midd will come on Tuesday at Plattsburgh as a team who draws a lot of fouls ( PS was 23 of 49 the other night at the line ) looms. Patron looms as a likely candidate to attack the Midd interior.

[toad22]

It was fun to watch the Williams - Wesleyan game last night. The game felt like we were in the playoffs. The Ephs played well, and though Wesleyan played hard, Williams was never threatened too seriously. Williams just had more weapons.

[nescac1]

Looking at the top 25 losses, Midd will drop 4-6 spots but is I'd say sure to stay in the top 20.  Amherst is a near-lock to join the top 25 and could start moving up fast with a few more wins ... Williams and Hamilton are both just waiting for NWU to lose (if they ever do - not many teams on their schedule who pose a huge threat). 

A young Tufts team fell back to earth, hard, with three straight losses.  In general outside of five one-loss or no-loss teams, Nescac has been struggling to an unusual degree early this season. Bottom half of the league not looking too strong right now. 

[jayhawk]

https://twitter.com/gprepbasketball?lang=en

see recent clip on Beluo Oranye from Georgetown Prep twitter
Amherst College recruit

[jayhawk]

Beluo with great jumping ability, believe only started playing organized BBall several years ago

[polbear73]

Behind David Reynolds' career high 31 points, Bowdoin never trailed in a 34 point win over Anna Maria last night. Maybe Bowdoin has snapped out of its early season lethargy.  Zavier Rucker has become more aggressive with the ball and has become more of a scoring threat. Bowdoin uses a thin 8 man rotation with Bors, Grad, and freshman Kagitomi coming off the bench and, at least right now, seems to live and die with the 3.

[Colby Hoops]

Behind David Reynolds' career high 31 points, Bowdoin never trailed in a 34 point win over Anna Maria last night. Maybe Bowdoin has snapped out of its early season lethargy.  Zavier Rucker has become more aggressive with the ball and has become more of a scoring threat. Bowdoin uses a thin 8 man rotation with Bors, Grad, and freshman Kagitomi coming off the bench and, at least right now, seems to live and die with the 3.

Polbear73, I think Bowdoin will be just fine. I was looking at some stats and it seems that almost all of their main guys are playing well. Reynolds has obviously been fantastic (leading the NESCAC in scoring) and Simonds has been quite good. Even most of their supporting guys have good numbers (other than Bors) and Rucker has taken a step forward. Seems that their defense has been a little leaky against the better competition, so if they can get that straightened out they should be as good as anyone in the league outside the top 4.

[P'bearfan]

Behind David Reynolds' career high 31 points, Bowdoin never trailed in a 34 point win over Anna Maria last night. Maybe Bowdoin has snapped out of its early season lethargy.  Zavier Rucker has become more aggressive with the ball and has become more of a scoring threat. Bowdoin uses a thin 8 man rotation with Bors, Grad, and freshman Kagitomi coming off the bench and, at least right now, seems to live and die with the 3.

Polbear73, I think Bowdoin will be just fine. I was looking at some stats and it seems that almost all of their main guys are playing well. Reynolds has obviously been fantastic (leading the NESCAC in scoring) and Simonds has been quite good. Even most of their supporting guys have good numbers (other than Bors) and Rucker has taken a step forward. Seems that their defense has been a little leaky against the better competition, so if they can get that straightened out they should be as good as anyone in the league outside the top 4.

Hope you're right.  I suspect that they missed Sam Grad quite a bit in the last few games.  Not only is he a good player but Bowdoin is a bit thin up front so his absence really hurt.

GoUBears!!

[amh63]

For what it is worth wrt early rankings on D3hoops....Amherst has appeared in the top 25....4 CAC teams listed.  Nescac1's post extremely accuratewrt Midd too.  Do you get a vote on the poll Nescac1?