MBB: NESCAC

[SpringSt7]

At this point I think it's more of a Wesleyan problem than a NESCAC problem. They're routinely the worst on the football scores as well.

Not much to learn from today but Trinity allowing 90+ to Mitchell is very un-Trinity like. Will have to clean that up to say the least. Also 3 minutes for Ben Callahan-Gold is a little concerning?

WPI will be a big test for Colby tomorrow, who I would have to say might be the underdog in that one with WPI's having practiced and played a little more together to start the year. Not basing much off of tonight, can't think of a worse team to have to open with than NEC. Maybe just Grinnell or Greenville!

[middhoops]

Middlebury's opening half at Wentworth has been a pleasant surprise.  Midd leads 37-29.
The Panthers started two freshman, David Brennan and Sam Stevens.  Alex Sobel is back and looks beastly.  He had 14 first half points in limited minutes, with no fouls.
Three first year players are in the rotation on a team that has plenty of questions to answer. 

[Bucket]

Welcome back Alex Sobel!

The Middlebury big goes for 30 and 17, along with 4 blocks, as Panthers roll over Wentworth, 73-56.

Freshman Sam Stevens impresses in his collegiate debut, with a double-double: 14-10.

Very nice stat line for sophomore Noah Osher, getting meaningful minutes for the first time as a Panther: 10 points, 4 boards, 4 assists.

Midd struggled behind the arc (3-16), but efficient elsewhere, shot very well from the line (16-19), dominated the glass (52-29) and had an impressive 18 assists on 27 buckets.

[Colby Hoops]

Rough one for Colby yesterday, wasn't able to watch very much of it. Think there has to be some concern about the offense after that weekend. Without Dorion and Jefferson, the depth of shooters just isn't there any more. Hanna will shoot much better and there will be better days ahead, but think there has to be some worry about how good the offense can be after that weekend. WPI is a very good defensive team, but seems they shut down Colby in a way that wasn't really possible two years ago.

Jack Lawson continues to be a bright spot for Colby.

[SpringSt7]

Hanna comes into this season as a 34% 3pt shooter. Now a lot of that is because of degree of difficulty and volume but it's not like he's going to be taking less shots and easier shots this year.

To me, Colby's season hinges on Will King's development and the kind of offense that Strahorn can build around him. Jefferson's development was MASSIVE and Dorion was key too but I really felt it was King's emergence in 2020 that keyed their offense, they had so many more ways to score with his creation on the floor. That needs to find another level if they are to hang around this year because they are never going to be an elite defensive team, and the shooting is not the same.

[Colby Hoops]

Hanna comes into this season as a 34% 3pt shooter. Now a lot of that is because of degree of difficulty and volume but it's not like he's going to be taking less shots and easier shots this year.

To me, Colby's season hinges on Will King's development and the kind of offense that Strahorn can build around him. Jefferson's development was MASSIVE and Dorion was key too but I really felt it was King's emergence in 2020 that keyed their offense, they had so many more ways to score with his creation on the floor. That needs to find another level if they are to hang around this year because they are never going to be an elite defensive team, and the shooting is not the same.

Agree on running the offense through King more, and agree that he needs to be the offensive engine if things are going to go well.

To be fair to Hanna he's been nearly 38% on high volume and crazy difficulty from three over the past two years, and he actually shot 58% from 2 point range last year. I do think he'll be challenged this year in even more of a main role, he's small and far from the most athletic guy on the court, so he has some challenges when defenders are keyed in on him. But, I don't think he'll go 1-13 again

[nescac1]

A few new-to-NESCAC players to watch (beyond the Colby / Midd guys, already discussed) based on early results:

Wesleyan (whose most hyped frosh, Cole Bryant, is out, presumably injured): Nicky Johnson, 7.5 ppg, 3 apg, 1.5 spg 3-5 from 3 off the bench in Wesleyan's two victories.  Wesleyan really does look loaded and very deep!

Bowdoin, unsurprisingly, played four news guys vs. Thomas (hard to tell much in a game vs. Thomas, but FWIW, frosh Hanin and Achufusi started at guard along with sophomore Michael Simonds, who I assume is related to Jack Simons so good bloodlines there).  Bowdoin's top player vs. Thomas was James McGowan, who had a storied high school career and put up 21-7-5 off the bench in his first college game.  Bowdoin is gonna be very young this year with three frosh and a sophomore playing his first season of college hoops on the perimeter, but at least they have a soft early schedule to break those guys in.

Trinity's stats are messed up but sophomore Gilbert Otoo had a great start to his college career, leading the team in minutes and scoring during the weekend tourney, and looks like he will be Trinity's go-to guy and someone to watch closely.  Hyped frosh Will Dorion, Alex's brother, started at guard for Trinity and played the second-most minutes, with solid production as well. 

Amherst's young guys had an impressive start to the season.  It's going to be hard to know just how good Amherst is for awhile, because they are probably gonna by 10-0 with ten blow-out wins, looking at the schedule to start the year, but the fact that so many young players are producing big right away is definitely a scary thought for the rest of the league, when of course Amherst has plenty of veteran talent.  Canin Reynolds, who I think will be a really fun player to watch, had 11 points, 3 assists, and 3 steals as the first guard off the bench.  First-year Ryker Vance started at the 4 which shows Amherst is clearly high on him, and first-year Will Schrerer was the first center off the bench.  Sophomore Mohammad Alausa, who looks very strong and very athletic (kind of reminds me of Allen Williamson in his build and maybe his style a bit too), had an impressive debut, with 14 points in only 11 minutes. The question with him is shooting and hitting 2-3 from deep in his first college game is a promising sign. 

Conn as expected played almost entirely new guys from what they put out there in 19-20, and lots of them had solid games.  Too early to say, really, who will emerge from all those frosh and sophomores as their go-to guys. 

Bates had the most disappointing start to the year for any NESCAC team, losing to a meh Clark team.  Other than Stephon Baxter, statistically, no one had a very good game for the Bobcats.  Bates did start two frosh (Nadeau and Fessienko) on the perimeter, but neither had a big game

[P'bearfan]

I'm late with this, but I wanted to congratulate Coach Lloyd with his first win as Bowdoin's head coach on Saturday when the Polar Bears defeated Thomas 89-68.  Didn't get to see the game but it looks like Bowdoin enjoyed some nice long range shooting. 

Hope this is the first of many victories for Coach Lloyd!

[quicksilver]

The young P'Bears looked good, @P'bearfan, even as they did not get much floor time due to the runaway nature of the game:

Soph Michael Simonds (Jack's brother and look-alike minus 5 inches): 16-5-3 (23 mins)
FY James McGowan (as good as advertised): 21-7-5 (21 minutes)
FY Achufusi: 13-5-1 + 2 blocks (20 min)

Bowdoin's weaknesses will be a definite lack of height.

Thomas College had a couple good players and a win over USM but did not seem to be much of a foe . . 

[amh63]

Was on the road...did not catch any of the game.  Was up near Cornell, where the new Amherst HC  coached a bit.  Expect the coaching staff to be checking out player combinations, new players, etc., etc.   The run for the Nescac title and the NCAA has finally begun...again

[toad22]

The countdown has begun! Only +/-5 hours to the tip-off of the first Eph men's game in over 600 days! Very exciting. Nobody in Billtown that I know has a clue what to expect. I like our talent a lot, but without opponents, there is no way to judge. Oneonta State is 3-0, all blowouts against teams that don't appear to be complete patsies. Oneonta has played Williams 6 times in the last few years and beaten them 3 times. Williams will need to play well to win. The game is at home, which helps. Go Ephs!

[nescac1]

Nice of the Ephs to treat the fans to five extra minutes after two years of no hoops -- and of course a win!  It took Williams awhile to find its groove against a good but top-heavy Oneonta squad, but Williams played great ball down the stretch of the second half and certainly in overtime, which it won 10-0. 

A lot of different guys made big contributions for the Ephs.  Cole Prowitt-Smith played great, 16 points, 12 boards, and lots of great hustle plays at critical junctures of the game.  He also was very under control and generally made good decisions with the ball.  Nate Karren was a force on both ends, 11 points, 12, boards, 6 assists, and great defense.  He struggled a bit to make shots against Oneonta's massive 6'11 big guy, who I thought was allowed to really hit Nate aggressively with his body down low.  But still, Nate looked very good and MUCH improved since his first year. 

Declan Porter and Brandon Roughley both showed a lot of promise in their first games.  Porter hit for 8 points including a big, very deep 3 in the OT to clinch the win, and also had a key defensive stop on Dylan Trombley late in the game, Trombley had been torching the Ephs and the frosh really stepped up and locked him down late.  Roughley with 8-3-2 in only 14 minutes, he looked great going to the rim and I think he will play a lot more minutes as the season goes along.  I love the Roughley-Karren combo, they seem to already work together quite well and one of them will usually present a mismatch when on the floor together.

Jovan Jones had a great two-way game for the Ephs, playing stellar defense on Oneonta's star Ortale, holding him (along with help from teammates) to a 5-16 game, and scoring in a variety of ways.  Alex Stoddard game off the bench to hit three big treys to keep the Ephs in the game when things were looking rough, he's another guy who I think will play more minutes as the rotation tightens up a bit, he's totally transformed physically since his first year on campus. 

Oneonta's Williams, Trombley, and Ortale are three excellent players, but they had to do too much and play too many minutes and wore down a bit down the stretch, when the Ephs tightened up their D on all three.  Trombley hit some VERY difficult three point shots but credit to App for making an adjustment and putting big defenders on him down the stretch and not giving him any clean looks in the last ten minutes of the game, basically. 

Plenty to clean up for Williams given that its the first game, but overall you could not ask for more for starting the season against a quality opponent who was a lot less rusty than the Ephs.  Williams was certainly much better in the second half and particular in OT than it was to start the game.  Game highlights here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTkxwhyz51w

[Colby Hoops]

Colby beats Thomas in another somewhat underwhelming game for the Mules, where the box score will look better than what actually happened. Colby was down 21-6 to start the game and losing with about 10 minutes to go. They finished strong and won easily, but it's definitely a different look this year offensively with far fewer shooters. Still early and a lot of time to improve -- would certainly love more Will King pick and roll when the offense bogs down. Lawson looks like a real find as a paint scoring threat (think he'll be very much in the mix for ROY). Tyson with another big game.

On a very trivial note, I have no idea what the scorekeeper was doing in terms of assists tonight. Colby finished with 5 as a team, but I think easily had 18+ from what I watched. King had a minimum of 6 on his own.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Do we have any Tufts fans around here?  Luke Rogers only played 15 minutes with no fouls, which isn't typically the stat line of a healthy all-american.  I'm curious to know more.

[Old Guy]

Nice game at Middlebury tonight, though a loss for the Panthers against Keene State (3-0), 86-77. Sobel was heroic: 21 points (9-16, 3-3), 15 rebounds, 6 blocks. He is very deft at both ends, blocking shots without fouling, scoring at the hoop with either hand. Nothing is easy as he attracts a lot of attention. Keene State is quick and strong and applied an aggressive full court man-to-man pressure the whole game (18 Panther turnovers). Midd was compromised in the backcourt as our most experienced guard Nash Goldman went out at the 8 minute mark (2-2 from 3 at that point) with what may be a serious wrist injury, x-rays tonight.

Keene led 31-28 at the half, and expanded it to double digits right away in the second. It looked a blowout coming, but the Panthers hung in there, 6-8 points down and then made a late run to close within two, 72-70. Keene hit their foul shots in the last minutes. Midd played three frosh (Jaden Bobbett, Sam Stevens, David Brennan), one soph (Noah Oscher), one junior (Sobel) in crunch time. The Panthers have heart; they played hard. I was encouraged.

Stevens (6'5") is a versatile player — handles the ball well, has a good shot, and can go to the basket: 17 points in 36 minutes (8-9 from the line); Bobbett is an athletic 6'2" and had 4 points in 22 minutes, played a good floor game, was poised; Brennan (6'6, 205) had 8 points (3-6, 2-2) and 8 boards, plays hard, defends well, a rugged presence. Oscher had 17 points and 6 assists, but 7 TOs, as he was required to bring the ball up under continuous pressure.

Midd had a big rebounding edge (36-22) and shot 50% from the floor, 50% from three (7-14) and were 16-19 from the line, but the turnover differential was too big (18-4).

It was great to be back in the gym after so long!