MBB: NESCAC

[nescac1]

Williams definitely had trouble with the press at times vs. Moravian.  Bobby Casey is really the only guy who was able to dribble through intense pressure from multiple guys.  When the team passed the ball patiently up the court, they generally broke the press pretty easily.  When individual players tried to over-dribble through multiple defenders, they got into trouble.  It was good experience playing against a quality (albeit not elite) pressing team, and I think the team can improve the next time they face such a team, but the lack of a second true ball-handling guard is something that Williams will just need to overcome.  No team is perfect, certainly! 

I was really impressed by Karp over the weekend, especially yesterday.  He played (I believe) the most minutes he's ever played in two consecutive games, and they were back-to-back games against athletic teams who play with a lot of pace, and on a very short turnaround, so a very good sign that Karp played so well in game 2.  His averages over two games: 15.5-9-2.5, plus 2.5 blocks and crucially only 1 turnover total in two games (including none vs. Moravian).  If he can continue that kind of production, and can play a strong 25 mpg, it would be HUGE for Williams.  Kempton also had one of his better games vs. Moravian.

The Ephs are already a great team but have a few things to figure out to be a truly elite team.  The free throw shooting could be a bit more consistent, and as Toad mentioned they often seem to cruise to really big leads, before letting teams get back into games despite seeming outmatched. Versus the teams they have been playing, they probably don't feel terribly threatened, but versus tougher teams capable of comebacks, Williams will need to develop that killer instinct to maintain 100 percent focus and avoid coughing up hard-earned leads.   

Individually, Bobby Casey continues to have an all-American season.  18-5.5-4.5, on 50-45-75 shooting, plus very good defense, and if anything his stats don't fully reflect just how central he is to the team's success, particularly how many big shots he nails in crucial situations.  He's playing a masterful brand of point guard right now. 

James Heskett after an up-and-down start to the season has played like NESCAC POY James Heskett over the past five games, averaging over 20 ppg during that stretch and making a lot of very difficult shots look routine, especially when he gets into the paint.  Heskett has had a few very good looks from 3 just rim out over that stretch, but I have a feeling he is due for a stretch of really hot outside shooting to make him even more deadly offensively.   

Karp and Kempton are a stellar center duo, and Scadlock is the team's defensive stopper, top rebounder, and a guy who puts a lot of pressure on the defense by pushing the ball in transition. He's been a bit over-aggressive at times in the open floor, leading to too many turnovers, but that is something that can be cleaned up as the season moves along.

My biggest concern with Williams is who is going to ultimately be the fifth guy on the court in big situations.  Feinberg, Taylor, Jovan Jones, Spencer Spivy and Babek all bring different things to the table and all have the opportunity to emerge.  Feinberg has played the most so far and brings the most to the table in terms of toughness, rebounding, defense and hustle plays, but he's been struggling a bit on offense, especially in terms of hitting (usually very open) 3's.  If he can make around 35-40 percent of his 3's, he'd be great for that role, but so far this season he hasn't punished teams for leaving him open.   Taylor, Jones, and Babek have all had good moments as well, and all have different strengths and weaknesses as players.  Babek is the closest thing Williams has to a top-notch ball-handler after Casey, but even he had a bit of trouble with the press yesterday.   Jones is an exciting open court player who is still learning, but perhaps has the most upside.  Taylor has a lot of talent but is best suited to be a stretch 4, a position that the Ephs are already loaded at.   I'd love to see Spivy get more of an opportunity to show what he can do, just because he's a knock-down shooter and whoever the fifth guy on the floor is with the big four will get lots of easy looks from 3.  Spivy is also a guy who was a primary ball-handler in high school and MAY be ready by later in the year to help out as a secondary ball-handler.  The other guys are bigger and stronger but perhaps more duplicative of skill sets that Williams already has in abundance. 

All in all, a great first semester for the Ephs - big game ahead against a Wesleyan team that seems to be playing much better of late.  The Cards, with six frosh and sophomore players in the top 8 guys in the rotation, is surely a team that will just keep getting better. 

[P'bearfan]

A nice road win for Bowdoin, playing without Zavier Rucker, at Brandeis. Jack Simonds had 27 and Hugh O'Neil 16 points for the Polar Bears while David Reynolds was shut out of the scoring column. O'Neil also had 14 rebounds.

Only caught the last minute or two of the game.  If you asked me beforehand to predict the outcome of a road game in which Reynolds is scoreless and Rucker didn't play, I wouldn't have been too optimistic.  Glad to see everyone step up.

[ContinentalDomer]

Hamilton has a second commitment in the class of 2023 - 6'5" forward Liam Regan of The Rivers School (Weston, MA). Like future teammate/classmate Patrick Mogan, Regan also played for the Middlesex Magic AAU program. 

https://twitter.com/middlesexmagic/status/1080245762917834754?s=21

[jumpshot]

nescac1: I agree with your instinct that Spivy may be a good choice for increased minutes for ball handling and shooting.

[polbear73]

A nice road win for Bowdoin, playing without Zavier Rucker, at Brandeis. Jack Simonds had 27 and Hugh O'Neil 16 points for the Polar Bears while David Reynolds was shut out of the scoring column. O'Neil also had 14 rebounds.

Only caught the last minute or two of the game.  If you asked me beforehand to predict the outcome of a road game in which Reynolds is scoreless and Rucker didn't play, I wouldn't have been too optimistic.  Glad to see everyone step up.

O'Neil and Simonds particularly.  Simonds played with intensity not seen since his rookie year.  Hopefully a good omen for the Bears and a bad one for the league. 

[nescac1]

Note on Amherst, Cherry played only six minutes in the last game, and appears to be out for today's game, so I assume he is injured.  Hopefully nothing too serious, as he has had some bad injury luck in the past, and has worked hard to improve as a player and to earn his opportunity to start.  While losing Cherry for an extended period would certainly be a blow for Amherst, they have so much depth and parity of talent at every position that really no single player other than Grant Robinson seems to be indispensible, it's quite hard to say after Robinson how to rank the rest of the rotation 2-12. 

Speaking of Amherst, sorry to pile on regaring the less-than-Mammoth schedule, but yet another atrocious opponent today, 0-12 Keystone.   They've also played 1-10 Framingham, 2-11 Kean, 2-9 Lasell, 3-8 Springfield (although Springfield to me is a lot more talented than that record reflects, they've had loads of key injuries to deal with), 3-7 Hunter, and 4-9 Anna Maria.  Pretty brutal.  The Mammoths are generally crushing these teams, but really it remains hard to tell just how high their upside is until they start playing league games.   

[Colby Hoops]

Eager for league play to start like everyone else. Big game for the Mules against Tufts on Friday coming off a 26 day layoff. It's seemingly an ideal matchup for the Mules as Tufts is last in the league in opponent 3P% by a mile. The long layoff and some likely regression (even a bad team can't give up 45% on threes all year) have me nervous that it's not likely to play out quite that simply.

[jumpshot]

amHerst should be embarrassed playing Keystone at 0-12 and without a winning season for the past 5 years, as well as the others already mentioned.

Even the coach appeared bored and shameful today.

What's the point of this longstanding behavior ...?

[JEFFFAN]

amHerst should be embarrassed playing Keystone at 0-12 and without a winning season for the past 5 years, as well as the others already mentioned.

Even the coach appeared bored and shameful today.

What's the point of this longstanding behavior ...?

Uh ... winning more NESCAC regular season titles and tournament titles than any other program since the NESCAC started   Any other questions?   The guy knows what he’s doing 

[jumpshot]

Oh, come on, jefffan ---

NESCAC regular season and tournament titles are simply a partial metric. For example, in the period to which you refer, Williams has more Final Four appearances, amHerst has never beaten the EPHS in the NCAA tournament, have lost twice to Williams in Salem, etc.,etc. There are numerous other prominent NESCAC coaches, including one who won twenty consecutive games (two a year for ten straight years) versus amHerst.

Hardly dominant as you attempt to imply ....nice try to change the subject ... or deflect focus on the issue on the table.

Glad to know you're still capable of learning though ....

[grabtherim]

After watching years of NESCAC and D1 pre league play, I think too much is made of who teams do or do not play.  For me, the bottom line is a coach wants his team to have a few challenging games, find out what he has in his players, establish a rotation,  and get out of it healthy for league play. Many play games to insure they do not hurt their resume for the post season committee while others are trying to build up theirs via some tough choices.  Coaches and ADs schedule games for so many reasons including but not limited to history, relationships, favors owed or simply because they view the opponent as a tomato can. If you look at any NESCAC team's schedule over the past 5-10 years, we all have games which cover most if not all of these criteria.  While I'm not a member of the Hixon fan club, singling him out on this in my view is patently unfair...   

[polbear73]

After watching years of NESCAC and D1 pre league play, I think too much is made of who teams do or do not play.  For me, the bottom line is a coach wants his team to have a few challenging games, find out what he has in his players, establish a rotation,  and get out of it healthy for league play. Many play games to insure they do not hurt their resume for the post season committee while others are trying to build up theirs via some tough choices.  Coaches and ADs schedule games for so many reasons including but not limited to history, relationships, favors owed or simply because they view the opponent as a tomato can. If you look at any NESCAC team's schedule over the past 5-10 years, we all have games which cover most if not all of these criteria.  While I'm not a member of the Hixon fan club, singling him out on this in my view is patently unfair...   

Agreed.  Especially when one considers that coaches and ADs must schedule a whopping 15 out of conference games (13 for Little 3 and CBB). 

[Colby Hoops]

After watching years of NESCAC and D1 pre league play, I think too much is made of who teams do or do not play.  For me, the bottom line is a coach wants his team to have a few challenging games, find out what he has in his players, establish a rotation,  and get out of it healthy for league play. Many play games to insure they do not hurt their resume for the post season committee while others are trying to build up theirs via some tough choices.  Coaches and ADs schedule games for so many reasons including but not limited to history, relationships, favors owed or simply because they view the opponent as a tomato can. If you look at any NESCAC team's schedule over the past 5-10 years, we all have games which cover most if not all of these criteria.  While I'm not a member of the Hixon fan club, singling him out on this in my view is patently unfair...

Totally agree. Realistically we're talking about the difference between 2-3 games per year when comparing the weakest to the strongest non-conference schedule for NESCAC teams. And given Amherst's conference tourney and postseason success, I don't think any former players leave feeling they didn't get to play against the very best competition!

[nescac1]

The first weekend of league play is here!  Overall, on paper, not the most competitive group of games, but one never knows in league play.  Wesleyan has by far the most interesting weekend: at Williams and at Midd is a very tough back-to-back, but Wesleyan (after struggling early in the year) does seem to be on a major roll since changing up its rotation a bit.  The Cards have won five straight in convincing fashion, including the big win over Plattsburgh.  Frosh big man Joe DeLollo, who started all five of those games, creates more floor spacing since he can step out and shoot the 3.  That gives Wesleyan three outside shooters while Jordan James now has a bit more room to operate around the basket, where he has been really effective during the winning streak after a slow start to the season.  Athletic frosh wing Dezonie has also joined the rotation during the winning streak. 

Most of all, Austin Hutcherson is playing as well as anyone in NESCAC right now.  He's averaging 21-6-3 on amazing shooting from the field, three, and the line during the win streak, while also getting loads of steals and blocks.  He is really tough to guard because he is big, can drive and dish, can step back and nail the 3, and makes his free throws -- the NESCAC version of James Harden.  Now that there is a bit more spacing around him, he is even more effective.  Williams I thought was clearly the better team at Wesleyan, but Wesleyan is much improved and Williams (while winning) has had ups and downs in each game during the last 4.  The Ephs will need to keep their level of play up for the entire game to handle Wesleyan again.  Hopefully there will be a big crowd in Chandler to welcome Williams back after playing a very heavy road schedule in December. 

Wesleyan-Midd should be very interesting as well.  I think the teams are even, but Midd gets Conn at home the night before while Wesleyan will have a physical / emotional battle with Williams and then a road trip before a quick turnaround game, so that is a big advantage for Midd. 

[amh63]

Spent the day/evening watching a number of games on line.  Really a short time on many...to evaluate the play of ranked teams...MIT....to see rival games...Springfield vs Babson...with teams that Amherst played and conference opponents....Tufts.  Oh yes, watched Trinity play earlier in the week since Amherst plays the Bantams on Fri.  Some comments that MAY apply to the topic of scheduling.
The WPI vs MIT game in Cambridge....it was close in the first half but seems the "beavers" of MIT soundly beat the Engineers of WPI.  I smiled in reading the writeup of the game on D3hoops when the ariticle referred to both teams as the Engineers.  MIT's floor has a big beaver logo on it.  WPI was a former scheduled opponent for Amherst....both WPI and MIT  may be in the post season.  Mr Ross of Springfield is playing well now but Springfield continues its losing ways...check the record EPH fans.   Trinity won its Tourny recently and will be an interesting opponent for Amherst in LeFrak.  One of Trinity's losses to date was to an opponent with a poor losing record, I believe.  Trinity is carrying a "huge" roster, though one center is not assigned a Jersey no.
Tufts played a competitive game at home and will be dangerous opponent in Medford,IMO...it is a young team, much like Amherst.
Amherst's game with Keystone included all team players contributing. Amherst started a FY point guard and everyone worked defensively against a quick fast....and yes, smaller opponent.  Amherst finished the game with a very young team on the floor playing together defensively.
Last point...Mr Chery was walking but was kept out of the game and has only one "r" in his name.