MBB: NESCAC

[SpringSt7]

While it has obviously been well documented, I was just so impressed with Will King tonight, seeing him for 40 minutes for the first time. Jefferson's year has been well-documented, and while his and Dorion's continued improvement shooting the ball at a seriously high level have been huge reasons for their success, I can't help but feel like it is King who is the primary reason they have been able to take it to the level that they have. To have a guy at his size, his ability to pass, and his IQ, it just makes their offense so multi-dimensional.

Last year they were knocking on the door of what they could become, but what King allows them to do from inside the arc is special. Shooting 18-56 from three on the weekend and getting wins in Pepin and Chandler? They weren't doing that last year, and they wouldn't be able to do it without King. He's got my ROY vote, and unless Cole Prowitt-Smith really steps it up, I'm ready to lock that one in for good.

[Bucket]

Change of pace.

Alumni hoops weekend at Middlebury.

In the alumni game, the "Old Guard" squad of Ryan Sharry, Jake Wolfin, Nolan Thompson, Jamal Davis, Ryan Wholey, and Jack Roberts easily handled the "Young Blood" contingent of Matt St. Amour, Jack Daly, Nick Tarantino, Eric McCord, Adisa Majors, Hilal Dahleh, and Liam Naughton.

Ryan Sharry, at 30 years of age, easily the best player on the court. (Though St. Amour was as deadly from 3 as he was as an undergrad.)

Highlight of the game: Wolfin, from a step inside midcourt, alleyoop to Sharry for a nasty dunk.

Jake Brown and Joey Kizel are both DI assistant coaches; were they to have played, Bucket the Sage figures they would have cancelled each other out.

And I don't believe either team underestimated the prowess of the other.

[Old Guy]

Will King is really impressive for Colby, and clearly won the battle of the two top rookie of the year candidates, putting up an 11-4-8 vs. CPS's 8-3-2 on a tough shooting night.   

Don't be too quick to give that ROY award to King or CPS. Move over, lads, I saw someone this afternoon, if he continues to play the way he did today, will win it easy! I watched Bates shock Hamilton 98-81, and the Bobcats 6'8" frosh center from Senegal, Omar Sarr, had this impressive double-double: 15 points (6-11 shooting, took no bad shots), 18 rebounds (8 offensive), 6 blocks (some spectacular), and no turnovers. How 'bout that, basketball fans! He has a ton of natural ability, great timing on the blocked shots — a gift, and plays with a smile on his face. He's a first year! I spoke to a Bobcat team member after the game, and offered, "He seems to be getting better every game," whereupon I was told "he gets better every PRACTICE!" It's not like he had the paint to himself — Hamilton is not without big fellows, but Sarr will be special, and he was certainly special today.

My Bates hoop alumni pal, wrote this to me before the game: "I have seen them play several times. If the Bates guards are shooting well, they can hang with anyone one in NESCAC. They are very dependent on threes, they have had big leads on a number of teams, then gone cold and blew the lead. The freshman from Africa is starting to contribute which makes them a much better team." Well, that was right on the mark. Last night against Amherst they couldn't shoot at all (1-19 from 3, 10-19 from the line), but still led for 2/3 of the game, and gave the Mammoths a real tussle. Tonight was better (10-31): Tom Coyne (21 points off the bench hit 4 threes in a row in the second half from very far away and made some other circus hoops. Spellman (19 pts) is a good player, creative and versatile; Greenhalgh (26 points), a kamikaze, scored every which way, had an excellent game. I like Gilpin's line: 33 minutes, one hoop, but 10 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals, and just one turnover: that's making yourself useful.

Tough weekend for Hamilton, with losses at Tufts and Bates. Tufts had a great weekend with big wins over Hamilton and Amherst today and is definitely in the conversation now. I think the Continentals will bounce back — they're balanced, deep, big — a talented club. They played hard today, I thought, sure looked that way to me, and I felt like I was on the floor, in the action, in Bates's beautiful archaic bandbox.

Kena Gilmour had an interesting game. He was not at all a factor in the first half. They certainly don't run anything for him. I told someone at the half, "watch out for #24, he's really good." So he came out in the second half and air-balled a three but then hit three 3s in a row, and I thought "here we go," but he pretty much disappeared again, and in fact was not even the floor for the last 5-6 minutes of the game when Hamilton was trying to claw its way back in. Strange. Doesn't appear hurt. He ended up with a quietly efficient 15 (on 5-10 shooting), 4 rebounds, 3 assists in just 22 minutes (no fouls).

Echoing Russ Reilly, the Bates PA announcer (Bates's Bucket) said at game's end, "It's a great day to be a Bobcat!"

[nescac1]

Seems to be a pecking order developing in NESCAC:

Colby is clearly the team to beat, they play SO well together on both ends, really pretty to watch.  There is the big hole in the middle, but then again, if you play a traditional center he will have to guard someone really tough on the perimeter.  Right now, they are very thin (if Tucker can return that issue is solved), but their top guys seem pretty tireless on both ends.  Middlebury and Tufts seem like the other two top contenders. I think there is a very good chance that all three of those teams end up in the NCAA tourney -- all three can really score the ball, and even if you have a good offensive game, they can simply outshoot you.  Tufts already has a lot of strong wins on its resume (St. Joseph's CT, Nichols, Hamilton/Wesleyan/Amherst) and will have a chance to add more when it plays Midd and Colby. 

Conn College, clearly 11th, Bowdoin, clearly 10th.  I don't think there is any chance we see either in the NESCAC tourney. 

The rest of the league feels like a huge mishmash.  Amherst, Williams, Trinity, Bates, Wesleyan, Hamilton are all teams with talent but also real flaws, and any of them can look good or bad on any given day.  I imagine they will all beat up on each other and it will be a real dogfight for spots 4-9 in NESCAC.  It's possible, albeit unlikely, that any of them (especially Amherst with the talent and experience on hand) can get hot and win three games in the NESCAC tourney, and clear that any of them will need to in order to earn an NCAA bid.

Amherst and Williams now have 13 combined losses.  Since 1994, NESCAC's first year of eligibility, there hasn't been a SINGLE year in which both Williams and Amherst have missed the NCAA tourney.  That's pretty crazy.  I think both are on track to miss the tourney this year, unless they get the automatic bid.  Williams is already out of Pool C.  Amherst, with 5 losses and a very weak schedule, would probably need no more than one more regular season loss to even be in realistic contention. 

Regarding individual awards, yeah, I forgot about Sarr re: rookie of the year.  His statistical progress over just the last half season is insane.  Right now, I'd say King, Sarr, Prowitt-Smith are the ROY candidates, in that order.  Prowitt-Smith has struggled to return to form since suffering the injury late in the Hamilton game, hopefully for Williams he can get back in a  groove.  King I still think has the edge right now because of his key role on the best team in the league, but Sarr definitely seems to be catching up fast and if his game keeps growing, wow ... must be an interesting story, how Bates found him in Senegal.   

For POY, I think right now it's a two-man race with Sam Jefferson as the clear leader and Matt Karpowicz second.  Karp is hurt by the team's lack of success but he has been a monster individually and especially in league play (19-8-4.5 on 70 percent shooting in league play).  After that, Kena Gilmour, Jack Farrell and Luke Rogers seem like the most likely contenders.  Rogers isn't talked about much, but so far in league play, he's 1st in scoring and 2nd in rebounding and blocks (in both cases behind Sarr!).  His one big achilles heel seems to be foul shooting.  Kena has been a bit up and down and Hamilton has really been struggling as a team.  Farrell is great, but Midd has a lot of balance and ample talent around him.  David Reynolds has shot the lights out but is behind the other guys and in all events the POY isn't coming from a 10th place team ....

[Colby Hoops]

Well, that was a fun weekend of basketball! What an impressive showing from the Mules, and to sweep the weekend with pedestrian shooting numbers is really something.

A great showing defensively -- everyone seems to be in the right spot all the time and they switch seamlessly across all five spots. Their size can be an issue, but they are rarely beat because of a missed rotation or assignment. On both ends, this is just a team of really intelligent basketball players. There aren't a lot of guys who jump out with height, speed or athleticism -- but a team of smart players (who can shoot) is proving to be quite a wagon.

A few thoughts on the Williams game:

• Karp was spectacular -- deft footwork, great touch and obvious size and strength. He had a dunks on back to back trips down the floor that were big time plays. Including one on Dean Weiner (who is an excellent shotblocker).
• Colby made him work defensively on the perimeter. He started on Jefferson and struggled (which seemed like a strange decision to go with that matchup) before covering Will King for most of the second half -- where he fared a bit better. I also thought Williams could have gone smaller when Karp was out of the game, playing Jones at center.
• Sam Jefferson was outstanding all game, carrying the offense on a day when others had trouble getting it going. He's a guy who has every right to dominate the ball and take a higher volume of shots. I can't say enough good things about how well he operates within the offense to get good looks. He epitomizes the Colby team -- he's not particularly fast or quick, doesn't jump that well, but is so smart and such a pure shooter.
• Will King was excellent with 11/4/8 -- says a lot about how big a part of this team he is that in the closing stretch, they spread the floor and just let him operate 1 on 1 against Karp.
• The Ephs need to find something from behind the arc -- if teams are forced to stay out on shooters more, Karp is going to be even more unstoppable.

Still plenty of tough games ahead in league play, but what a massive weekend for Colby.

[lumbercat]

I've been raving about Omar Sarr since the beginning of the season. Good to hear Old Guy validate my observations and only OG can sum up  the kid's game and abilities in a very succinct paragraph. Couldn't agree more. The kid was understandably a little tight starting out but has really progressed especially as a rebounder and shot blocker.
They will never forget the saying at Bates "It's a great day to be a Bobcat" or Russ Reilly who coined the phrase with ex Football coach Web Harrison in the 70's.

[ronk]

Will King is really impressive for Colby, and clearly won the battle of the two top rookie of the year candidates, putting up an 11-4-8 vs. CPS's 8-3-2 on a tough shooting night.   

Don't be too quick to give that ROY award to King or CPS. Move over, lads, I saw someone this afternoon, if he continues to play the way he did today, will win it easy! I watched Bates shock Hamilton 98-81, and the Bobcats 6'8" frosh center from Senegal, Omar Sarr, had this impressive double-double: 15 points (6-11 shooting, took no bad shots), 18 rebounds (8 offensive), 6 blocks (some spectacular), and no turnovers. How 'bout that, basketball fans! He has a ton of natural ability, great timing on the blocked shots — a gift, and plays with a smile on his face. He's a first year! I spoke to a Bobcat team member after the game, and offered, "He seems to be getting better every game," whereupon I was told "he gets better every PRACTICE!" It's not like he had the paint to himself — Hamilton is not without big fellows, but Sarr will be special, and he was certainly special today.

My Bates hoop alumni pal, wrote this to me before the game: "I have seen them play several times. If the Bates guards are shooting well, they can hang with anyone one in NESCAC. They are very dependent on threes, they have had big leads on a number of teams, then gone cold and blew the lead. The freshman from Africa is starting to contribute which makes them a much better team." Well, that was right on the mark. Last night against Amherst they couldn't shoot at all (1-19 from 3, 10-19 from the line), but still led for 2/3 of the game, and gave the Mammoths a real tussle. Tonight was better (10-31): Tom Coyne (21 points off the bench hit 4 threes in a row in the second half from very far away and made some other circus hoops. Spellman (19 pts) is a good player, creative and versatile; Greenhalgh (26 points), a kamikaze, scored every which way, had an excellent game. I like Gilpin's line: 33 minutes, one hoop, but 10 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals, and just one turnover: that's making yourself useful.

Tough weekend for Hamilton, with losses at Tufts and Bates. Tufts had a great weekend with big wins over Hamilton and Amherst today and is definitely in the conversation now. I think the Continentals will bounce back — they're balanced, deep, big — a talented club. They played hard today, I thought, sure looked that way to me, and I felt like I was on the floor, in the action, in Bates's beautiful archaic bandbox.

Kena Gilmour had an interesting game. He was not at all a factor in the first half. They certainly don't run anything for him. I told someone at the half, "watch out for #24, he's really good." So he came out in the second half and air-balled a three but then hit three 3s in a row, and I thought "here we go," but he pretty much disappeared again, and in fact was not even the floor for the last 5-6 minutes of the game when Hamilton was trying to claw its way back in. Strange. Doesn't appear hurt. He ended up with a quietly efficient 15 (on 5-10 shooting), 4 rebounds, 3 assists in just 22 minutes (no fouls).

Echoing Russ Reilly, the Bates PA announcer (Bates's Bucket) said at game's end, "It's a great day to be a Bobcat!"

Scranton in a Florida December game that I watched was one of those big leads(16 points w 9:12 to go) that was blown by Bates(didn't score in the final 4:39). Sarr looked good in limited mins(12) because of foul trouble. Scranton has an excellent post player who because of his ability and 3 years experience was able to exploit Sarr's inexperience. But u could see Sarr's effort and potential that others have said has been improving quickly for a frosh.
As for Tom Coyne, he was 7-10 on 3-pters against Scranton and at least 4 were 5 ft behind the arc.

[Titan Q]

The RPI ratings are computer generated.  And, that may be the lesson.
Tufts and Midd are rated above undefeated Colby due to SOS this early in the season.
Massey gets it right and I'll let you find that on your own, but......
then again, I have to acknowledge that RPI is a different computer.



http://tomaroonandgold.blogspot.com/p/division-iii-mens-regional-rankings.html

Here is how I have the NE region ranked and the Pool C picture sorted out at this point...

http://www.d3boards.com/index.php?topic=4232.msg1973272#msg1973272

[SpringSt7]

The RPI ratings are computer generated.  And, that may be the lesson.
Tufts and Midd are rated above undefeated Colby due to SOS this early in the season.
Massey gets it right and I'll let you find that on your own, but......
then again, I have to acknowledge that RPI is a different computer.



http://tomaroonandgold.blogspot.com/p/division-iii-mens-regional-rankings.html

Here is how I have the NE region ranked and the Pool C picture sorted out at this point...

http://www.d3boards.com/index.php?topic=4232.msg1973272#msg1973272

In my limited time spent watching the rest of the region, this personally for me matches up best with what my eyes tell me. The rest of the region seems pretty strong this year---big win over #3 Emory at the buzzer for Brandeis today showing yet another layer of depth amongst the non-NESCAC teams in the Northeast.

Ultimately, I think it's a 3 bid NESCAC this year.

[lumbercat]

Will King is really impressive for Colby, and clearly won the battle of the two top rookie of the year candidates, putting up an 11-4-8 vs. CPS's 8-3-2 on a tough shooting night.   

Don't be too quick to give that ROY award to King or CPS. Move over, lads, I saw someone this afternoon, if he continues to play the way he did today, will win it easy! I watched Bates shock Hamilton 98-81, and the Bobcats 6'8" frosh center from Senegal, Omar Sarr, had this impressive double-double: 15 points (6-11 shooting, took no bad shots), 18 rebounds (8 offensive), 6 blocks (some spectacular), and no turnovers. How 'bout that, basketball fans! He has a ton of natural ability, great timing on the blocked shots — a gift, and plays with a smile on his face. He's a first year! I spoke to a Bobcat team member after the game, and offered, "He seems to be getting better every game," whereupon I was told "he gets better every PRACTICE!" It's not like he had the paint to himself — Hamilton is not without big fellows, but Sarr will be special, and he was certainly special today.

My Bates hoop alumni pal, wrote this to me before the game: "I have seen them play several times. If the Bates guards are shooting well, they can hang with anyone one in NESCAC. They are very dependent on threes, they have had big leads on a number of teams, then gone cold and blew the lead. The freshman from Africa is starting to contribute which makes them a much better team." Well, that was right on the mark. Last night against Amherst they couldn't shoot at all (1-19 from 3, 10-19 from the line), but still led for 2/3 of the game, and gave the Mammoths a real tussle. Tonight was better (10-31): Tom Coyne (21 points off the bench hit 4 threes in a row in the second half from very far away and made some other circus hoops. Spellman (19 pts) is a good player, creative and versatile; Greenhalgh (26 points), a kamikaze, scored every which way, had an excellent game. I like Gilpin's line: 33 minutes, one hoop, but 10 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals, and just one turnover: that's making yourself useful.

Tough weekend for Hamilton, with losses at Tufts and Bates. Tufts had a great weekend with big wins over Hamilton and Amherst today and is definitely in the conversation now. I think the Continentals will bounce back — they're balanced, deep, big — a talented club. They played hard today, I thought, sure looked that way to me, and I felt like I was on the floor, in the action, in Bates's beautiful archaic bandbox.

Kena Gilmour had an interesting game. He was not at all a factor in the first half. They certainly don't run anything for him. I told someone at the half, "watch out for #24, he's really good." So he came out in the second half and air-balled a three but then hit three 3s in a row, and I thought "here we go," but he pretty much disappeared again, and in fact was not even the floor for the last 5-6 minutes of the game when Hamilton was trying to claw its way back in. Strange. Doesn't appear hurt. He ended up with a quietly efficient 15 (on 5-10 shooting), 4 rebounds, 3 assists in just 22 minutes (no fouls).

Echoing Russ Reilly, the Bates PA announcer (Bates's Bucket) said at game's end, "It's a great day to be a Bobcat!"

Scranton in a Florida December game that I watched was one of those big leads(16 points w 9:12 to go) that was blown by Bates(didn't score in the final 4:39). Sarr looked good in limited mins(12) because of foul trouble. Scranton has an excellent post player who because of his ability and 3 years experience was able to exploit Sarr's inexperience. But u could see Sarr's effort and potential that others have said has been improving quickly for a frosh.
As for Tom Coyne, he was 7-10 on 3-pters against Scranton and at least 4 were 5 ft behind the arc.

Thanks Ronk- great info on a game we didn't see. In the words of Bates announcer Aaron Morse- Coyne is known to throw up threes from the "parking lot"

[JEFFFAN]

"Paging Dave Hixon, paging Dave Hixon" ....

[Colby Hoops]

"Paging Dave Hixon, paging Dave Hixon" ....

Does Dave Hixon magically make Grant Robinson play better?

[Pat Coleman]

I mean, that is what coaches do, right?

[toad22]

"Paging Dave Hixon, paging Dave Hixon" ....

I suggest that Amherst is having more trouble this year primarily due to the graduation of Joe Schneider. He was a really good rim protector in his senior year. I know that Williams lost its two games to Amherst last year primarily due to Joe's defense. We generated way under one point per possession against Amherst last year, versus more than a point per possession in the win the Ephs had this year. Amherst's defense was so good last year because Schneider was so good. He allowed others on the team to take chances on defense without much risk if they failed, because Joe was there to to clean it up at the rim. If you talk to the coaches at Williams about Schneider, they will tell you how much he disrupted the offense. He was the unsung hero of last year's team.

[Colby Hoops]

I mean, that is what coaches do, right?

If it's a matter of putting players in better position to succeed, yes. With Amherst, the offense has not changed. If anything, the personnel this year, without two bigs on the floor for most of the game, opens up more space for Robinson. Whether it's the rumored offseason surgery or just a prolonged shooting slump, I don't think coaching is a factor at all for Robinson's down year.

I'm sure Hixon could make adjustments at the margins that might help the team to some degree, but the biggest factor (by far) for Amherst's down year is Grant Robinson going from first-team all league to much less than that. And, I really don't think coaching is the main reason for that.

I will second toad22's notion that Schneider being gone is a significant factor as well -- also not something that Dave Hixon can fix.

I guess my question is what would Hixon be doing differently that would change Amherst's results to this point? I don't think there are obvious players on the bench that should be playing more. The offensive and defensive system remain unchanged from what I can tell. Obviously, there is a level of experience and gravitas that Hixon offers, that Toomey can't. But, I have a very hard time believing that changes Amherst's results drastically.