MBB: NESCAC

[nescac1]

Hixon seems to have a (generally good) problem with a lot of different guards who can play.  After Robinson, clearly the best, a lot of different options with no clear pecking order in my view. 

McCarthy is clearly still working his way back and doesn't seem 100 percent yet, but when healthy he likely offers the best combo of size, outside shooting, athletic ability.  Chery is an ace defender and can create a bit but his outside shot still isn't reliable.  Day is dynamic offensively and can score in bunches, although inconsistent; too good a scorer to sit.  Mobley the long-distance specialist (although strangely given his elite shooting ability, he is only a 35 percent career three-point shooter, perhaps because not enough chances to get into rhythm).  Allen and Phelan seems like better athletes and defenders who are still figuring out how to score when closely guarded at this level.  All six of those guys can play but at some point a few will fall out of the rotation.  Hixon seems determined to stick with McCarthy as he works his way back.  It's clear he likes Allen given the recent starting assignment.  Day and Chery are going to play.  So my guess is Mobley and Phelan are on the bench by February if the other guys are healthy.  With all of those dudes back next year, it will continue to be a fight for minutes at the guard spots going forward.     

[Colby Hoops]

Jack Simonds with 27 in the first half for Bowdoin. Wow! And Bates continues to struggle big time.

Colby and Tufts in a barnburner in Waterville, not a lot of defense on either side. Colby jumped up 15 early behind a barrage of threes and Tufts battled back to cut the lead to 4 at half. No Sean Gilmore for Colby, looks to be on the bench with an injury. Interior defense is going to be a problem, hopefully the hot three point shooting continues.

[Mountain Man]

Colby = Nice Win for Mules. Somethin brewin up in Waterville

Bobby Casey 4-15  As discussed, very difficult to be both a Primary Ball Handler & a Primary Shooter. 2 Fouls first half.
Scadlock with the ball in his hands quite a bit in 2nd half as the secondary ball handler. Scadlock's best game of season
Karp & Kempton hitting big free throws.

Cardinals not able to throw a shot into the Ocean. All on Hutch's back. Cardinals defense was superb.

[Colby Hoops]

Apparently there was zero rust after the month off for Colby, winning 103-93. Colby led basically the entire game. Tufts cut it to 4 or 5 a few times, but Colby was clearly the better team and the outcome never seemed in much doubt.

Sam Jefferson was outstanding with 32-8-6 adding 5 steals, 4 blocks and 8 three-pointers. Matt Hanna, Ronan Schwarz and Noah Tyson were all really solid as well, with Tyson shooting well in the first half and Hannah pouring in 15 in the second half. There wasn't much defense to be found on either side. Tufts has some really skilled offensive players, but they have almost no interest in playing defense. A lot of open looks for Colby on just a couple of passes each possession resulting in 18-39 from deep. Mules will have to improve their defense against the stronger teams in the league, but they're never going to be great on that end. They'd happily sign up for these type of shootouts every night.

Overall, some big nights on offense across the league. In addition to Jefferson's 32, Simonds had 35 and Labossiere had 36. Simonds probably could have had 40 if the game wasn't such a blowout. No real surprises on the W-L side although it looks like Conn gave Middlebury more of a game than expected and Amherst really routed Trinity.

[jumpshot]

The EPHS do the hard work of basketball well ---defense and rebounding ---in gaining an excellent win over Wesleyan, while allowing only one cardinal in double figures. Typical half-court contest by these two teams, with foul shooting important toward the end. Previous two games helpful in preparing the EPHS for another "city game", except without the pace or pressure defense.

Stay focused versus Conn tomorrow ....

[nescac1]

Great win for the Ephs, thanks mainly to tremendous team defense.  These Williams-Wesleyan games are almost always physical slogs and today was no exception.  I thought there was little rhythm to the game as the refs were calling it TIGHT.  I've rarely seen so many off-the-ball offensive fouls called throughout the course of a game, certainly. 

Agree that MM that Scadlock was huge.  He's been struggling a bit with his finishing touch of late (he goes through stretches like this, then can bounce back) but he was just so tough despite mixing it up all night with a lot of beefy dudes from Wesleyan, earning lots of trips to the line and coming up with three crucial blocks.  Heskett was really the only dude in any sort of rhythm on offense for the Ephs.  He looked really smooth and needs to find ways to get a few more touches on offense.  Unlike MM I'm not worried about Casey -- he missed some very makeable shots for him, but everyone is human.  Even on an off shooting night, he finished with a 14-9 (including some big defensive boards) and played solid D. 

My biggest concern for Williams continues to be finding another guy who can consistently hit outside shots.  Soto's two threes were huge in the first half and hopefully he can keep taking and making them.  But tonight the team really struggled from deep and lots of guys who are playing aren't even looking to shoot right now.  Wesleyan just dared Williams (other than Casey/Heskett) to shoot at times and it was an effective strategy for them.

As for Wesleyan, Jordan James was a monster in the first half but struggled with foul trouble in the second and the Ephs found ways to contain him.  Williams did a great job guarding Wesleyan's big three on the perimeter.  Hutcherson is great but had to take a lot of shots to get his points.  Bonner and Walker were both way off.  Walker had a brutal night, forcing a lot of really bad shots that didn't come close. The Ephs' length is definitely going to be a problem for teams.   

That Sam Jefferson overall box score is something.  I challenge anyone to find a more impressive all-around box score for a recent Nescac player.  Of course, came vs. Tufts, which apparently plays very little defense this season.  But man, that is a wild stat line.  Speaking of impressive Maine performances, are we finally seeing the Jack Simonds we all thought was coming after his frosh year? 

[amh63]

Amherst plays a solid Trinity team....has a solid win record ...in LeFrak.  It was a rough physical game as both teams had 20 or more fouls called.  Trinity was rotating a lot of players in and out and both coaches were doing a lot of talking with the refs.  In the end, Amherst's bench played better than Trinity's bench.  Imho, Amherst played better defense than Trinity and Amherst's younger players matched speed/quickness with Trinity's players and shot better from outside.
Good "home" win.  Now to get a conference win in an away game.  Will look at the stats in the morning with fresher eyes.

[toad22]

I thought that Heskett really bothered Hutcherson with his size. Great win for Williams against a very very good and tough Wesleyan team. It seems that Wes always turns Williams games into mud wrestling contests. This year that tactic was unlikely to work, because Williams rebounds the ball better, and is so long that they are tough to score on. It was an intense game, but not a particularly close game.

[Old Guy]

Midd 92 - Ct College 80.

The Camels were ahead 72-71 with six minutes to go and it was a two point game with 2:30 left. Anybody's game. Midd went on a 12-2 run to finish it out. I thought CC wasn't s'posed to be any good. Coulda fooled me. An entertaining and well-played game, especially offensively.

CC only played seven guys but the ones they had out there were pretty good. They have a 7' frosh, Ryan Umslaer — 10 rebounds, 7 points, 3 blocks in 33 minutes. He'll be a factor (maybe like Bowdoin's John Swords, who got better and better).

LaBossiere was terrific (36 points!), going to the basket, hitting outside shots, playing with emotion in an enemy gym; he had a spectacular alley-oop dunk to give the Camels their only lead. Soph Dan Draffan (6'7") had 22 pts (9-15) and 10 rebounds. The Camels were formidable. They seemed cohesive and committed. I will be interested to see if they show up in Williamstown tomorrow with the same energy. If so, other NESCAC clubs best not take them for granted.

Middlebury's backcourt gets better and better. Tonight, it was Max Basco about whom you will hear more and more as time goes. He can really fill it and is playing confidently (24 points — 4-7 from three, 3 assists). He hit a couple of huge shots in the final run.

The sophomore trio, Farrell-Bosco-Kornaker is really something to see, pushing the ball, driving in traffic to the basket, and dishing to McCord when the help comes or to a sharpshooter on the arc. McCord had 21 points in this one, a number on layups at the basket. Senior Hilal Dahleh, juniors Joey Leighton and Perry Delorenzo are all solid and are unafraid to shoot the ball. Depth. Matt Folger is playing at a high-level, had 17 tonight, on a variety of tough shots.

The Wes-Midd game tomorrow afternoon should be a good one!

[Old Guy]

From elsewhere in D3, check out this insane play by a North Central player (which has had a crazy year in terms of weird injuries).  This guy was fortunately OK ... somehow. 
https://twitter.com/Skubie3Mageza/status/1080664665770942464

Yeah, that was always a worry for me — hitting my head on the backboard.

[Old Guy]

I heard around the Swarthmore gym how much they wanted Sobel - recruited him hard is the word.  Swat could use a couple more big guys, too.

Both of Sobel's parents are Midd grads. Dad was a rugby player.

[nescac1]

Finding quality big guys seems harder than ever.  Not a lot of underclassmen bigs making major  impacts in Nescac right now.  Makes a guy like Sobel that much more valuable. 

I'm not sure the last Nescac team to give up over 80 ppg.  It's been at least a decade I believe.  So far three league teams (who all appear likely to finish at the bottom of the standings) are doing so: Conn, Tufts and Bates.  Tufts is giving up a whopping 89 points per game.  About 9-10 points more per game than any league team during the past decade!   Tufts has played a difficult schedule, and basketball games are generally faster-paced and higher-scoring now, but still an eye-opening stat ...

[Colby Hoops]

The pace and style of play has changed a lot even in the last 3-4 years. And the analytics indicate that teams (even at this level) aren't close to the tipping point of taking too many threes. I don't think we'll see a slowdown any time soon. Watching the Colby-Tufts game last night it looked like a different sport than the NESCAC from 10 years ago. Fun to watch! I think we'll continue to see most teams cut down on midrange shots, but unlike the NBA there still seems to be value from post ups in college. Good post players are just much more efficient at the college level, likely due to a larger variance in size and athleticism between players. Luke Rogers was fairly impressive last night for Tufts -- a bit slow which makes him a liability on defense against a team like Colby, but has good footwork and a nice touch around the rim. I thought Tufts got away from feeding him down low early in the game too quickly.

[nescac1]

About as much drama as possible in the last six seconds of a total blowout half in Billsville: first Kyle Scadlock hits a layup for his 16th point of the half, and 1000th of his career - the third Eph senior to hit that milestone this season.  Congrats!  Then Conn hits a buzzer-beating halfcourt banked three, to cut the lead to (gulp) 27 ...

[Colby Hoops]

Atrocious first half in Waterville where Bates leads 48-37. Some really sloppy turnovers, lackadaisical defense and a LOT of missed wide open looks from three for Colby. Matt Hanna has been great, everyone else has been really bad. It doesn't help that Bates has decided to not miss from three, including some crazy contested stepbacks -- not sure they'd go 8-11 from deep with nobody playing defense!

I knew it would look ugly in games where Colby wasn't making perimeter shots, but the defense just hasn't been there at all. Still within striking distance, but they're going to need to tighten up on D.