MBB: NESCAC

[nescac1]

If I have this figured out correctly Williams is the one seed with a win tomorrow.  If Williams loses it drops all the way to sixth, and Hamilton is the top seed.  Since Midd lost to Hamilton and Wesleyan I think three is the best it can do. 

Trinity is not exactly a gift for the top seeded team!

Regarding Pool C, I'd say Williams and Midd remain safe, Tufts is on the right side of the bubble but could use one more win to feel better, and Colby and Wesleyan are alive but likely need two wins. 

[toad22]

We really need posters from Conn College & Tufts at the very least. How to encourage that to happen?

[Colby Hoops]

If my tiebreaking math is correct, I think Colby-Wesleyan is a lock for next weekend. Either a 3 vs 6 or 2 vs 7 depending on the result tomorrow. Going to be an interesting tournament, a ton of parity amongst the top 8.

[nescac1]

Amen Toad!

I think that is right, Colby Hoops.  I believe it goes like this.  No set of results from these pairings will be at all surprising, I'd say. 

If Williams wins:

1 Williams v. 8 Trinity
2 Hamilton v. 7 Conn
3. Wesleyan v. 6 Colby
4. Midd v. 5. Tufts

If Conn wins:

1. Hamilton v. 8. Trinity
2. Wesleyan v. 7. Colby
3. Midd v. 6. Williams
4. Tufts v. 5. Conn

Pretty crazy that Williams could be on the road in round one vs. Midd or secure hosting rights for the entire tourney depending on how tomorrow goes.  Midd thanks to that loss to Conn will now have a very tough round one game either way, although at least they are locked into a home game.  Wesleyan and Colby are locked in no matter waht. 

[names jaismith]

Conn faces a monumental task tomorrow.  No doubt it will be hard to sustain as much defensive energy as they displayed vs Midd.  Add to that the fact that their starting pg is out for whatever is left of the season and thus they have lost almost 20% of their scoring.  Sure, they beat Midd without him, but Conn doesn't come close to 70 points very often and Williams is a team that can put up big numbers.  Which Williams will show up is another story.  If it's the Williams that inched past N Paltz, then Conn has a chance.  But if it's the Williams that pretty recently pummeled Trinity and Wesleyan, well, that's another story.  Either way, for Conn it's been a very successful season and another big step forward as a program.  If anyone hasn't seen the dunk by Ben Rice in the Midd game, check it out.  Probably tops in the league in that category this year.

[nescac1]

Here's video of the Rice dunk.  Looks like a raucous crowd at Conn:

https://twitter.com/camel_hoops/status/1624252501577945089?s=46&t=TxID808N16MxbQwLP_oXdQ

[SpringSt7]

If Williams wins today, they will be the 6th different team to win the conference regular season title since 2016. Only Tufts and Trinity have done it multiple times. Speaks to the parity in the league but also speaks to how much the power dynamics have changed now that Williams and Amherst aren't penciled in for 27 wins a year.

[names jaismith]

Williams brought their A+ game today.  Can't play better than that.  Credit to them!

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

This is probably something I should know, but why is CC the only team playing consistently on Sundays during NESCAC play?

[SpringSt7]

They are the odd man out with no travel partner in an 11 team league. So they play Friday Sunday and each team that plays them that weekend just plays the one game. Because both games aren't necessarily home-home or away-away they play Friday/Sunday for travel purposes.

[SpringSt7]

Ephs clinch the regular season NESCAC title with a bang, an 86-46 win over Conn. For Williams the story starts obviously with what I have to assume is a school record 20 made threes in a game, as a team they shot a staggering 20-33, 61%! Spencer Spivy and Declan Porter had 6 each, while Cole Prowtt-Smith and Nate Karren each made multiple as well.

Zone has given Williams fits in the past but a revamped look with Evan Glatzer at the middle of the zone gave Conn fits and really generated some outstanding ball movement. They made some really tough threes at times, including an outrageous Declan Porter and1 as well as a Spencer Spivy step back to beat the buzzer, but a majority of their looks were really comfortable and open shots off of two or three ball reversals.

It was also one of their better, if not best, defensive efforts of the year. Conn does not have a ton of firepower yes, but Cole Prowitt-Smith in particular played with his hair on fire at the point of attack, he was everywhere in ball screen defense and was the main reason Conn's guards could not get in the paint.

Once again, Kevin App has his team playing their best basketball at the right time, truly a hallmark of his program. The 1 seed seemed improbable after the bad Tufts loss but they got healthy (and lucky) and have everyone clicking at the right time. The shooting of the last two weeks seems unsustainable to say the least but the defense, ball movement, and depth are not. This feels like the most well rounded team since 2017 and this team plays better defensively too. Some really exciting times ahead in Williamstown where there are hopefully a lot of postseason games being played in Chandler for the next few weeks!

[nescac1]

Ryan, every year one NESCAC team gets the Friday-Sunday shaft.  It rotates every year - not ideal for the team whose turn it is.

I will try to guess the Coach App quote about this one: "this is why we schedule teams with a variety of styles in non-conference play, to be ready for league games like this late in the season."  Congrats to the Ephs on winning the regular season title and earning home court in what is sure to be an unpredictable and fiercely contested league tourney!

What an absolute clinic against a zone defense by Williams today.  20-33 from 3, sweet lord.  Not easy to do that unguarded!  Other than three extremely difficult makes (one by Spivy and two by Porter), all of those 3's were set up by beautiful ball movement.  Evan Glatzer was an absolute maestro in the middle of the zone today, finding all sorts of beautiful angles with the ball for a career high (I believe) 8 assists.  He also played shut-down defense and rebounded well.  As a team, 23 assists against 7 turnovers, what a performance.  While THAT level of shooting is hard to replicate, the ball movement and poise against a tough zone defense is something that reflects a huge amount of work by the team over the course of the season.

Declan Porter's eyes were huge from the get go on this one as reflected by 18 points on only nine shot attempts.  Spivy, Prowitt-Smith, and Karren were also stellar on both ends of the floor.

As good as the offense was, the defense may have been better, 10 blocked shots and a lot more shots that were very well contested leading to air-balls or bricks.  Other than David Murray, who is definitely an all league player and looked good, Conn just could not get anything clean the entire game. 

Off the bench, Alex Lee was ironically the only guy who was cold after being the only guy who was hot v. New Paltz.  But he still played well overall.  Hudson Hansen also brought some good energy.  Every time Sammy Cooley comes in late in games he looks really good to me.  He had an absolutely gorgeous move to the rim in garbage time today.  Someone to watch out for in the rotation in future years; just too many guys ahead of him on the wing right now. 

Go Ephs!

Edit: I read SpringSt7's post after posting mine, but obviously we noticed almost exactly the same things.  The one thing I failed to mentioned was Cole's awesome defense at the point of attack, I agree he was spectacular on that end.  He also had some highlight reel finishes inside. 

[SpringSt7]

Spencer Spivy finishes conference play 2nd in scoring (17.6), 1st in field goal percentage (.592), 1st in 3 point field goal percentage (.550), and 7th in rebounds (6.5). I am not going to tell you Sobel isn't player of the year, but....

[jumpshot]

Several keys to Williams College's excellent 86-46 win over Conn College: Really good individual and team defense (only 13 points for Camels at the half); Outstanding preparation by Coaches App, Phillips, and Sosinsky, particularly techniques to destroy Conn's "slanting 2-3 zone" (in which 2 front defenders and one wing move to form a diagonal alignment extended from the foul line toward ball side), still vulnerable to patient ball movement, exploiting open spaces high in the lane and corners, and, of course, 20 of 30 threes by 7 different EPHS guided by 23 assists, and only 7 turnovers. No response by Conn to allowing EPHS to shoot them out of their zone. Seems to me Colby used some of the same defensive approach versus Hamilton (and by the way a tip of the hat to the Mules for assisting the EPHS).

In short, good preparation provided by coaches and loose, free, and focused mindset by players in a big game on the road. Stay this way into the tournament, guys ....

[Hamilton4]

Every game next weekend looks like a tough one. Who got the easiest draw, I would say Hamilton vs Conn but the way Williams played today I feel bad for Trinity. Styles makes fights though, and Trinity will be playing man to man so it could be an entirely different game than todays.