MBB: NESCAC

nescac hoops · February 13, 2007, 04:48:42 PM

walzy,
i've actually seen butler. my buddy coaches at another nyc prep school that butler plays against. he's very good. great size and a great shooter. it's really hard for me to judge high school basketball but i don't think the league he plays in is the top league in nyc. that being said, one thing that doesn't change in the college game from high school is the size of the hoop or ball. he is a great shooter now and that won't change when he arrives in amherst. he's probably around 6'5" with long arms. a lot of the times in the game i saw him play, he was able to shoot over defenders, which i'm not sure will happen as easily in college but he will undoubtedly pose a lot of mismatches. i have heard nothing of gavin but i'm not all that familiar with nyc high school bball. butler just happended to be playing my friend's team so i was able to see him play. he kind of reminds me of a slightly taller tim folan - great shooter with a lot of range who is instant offense.

formerbant10 · February 13, 2007, 06:34:52 PM

Poly Prep plays in the Ivy Prep League, they've been at the top of that league (for the most part) for the past decade. It's a decent league, has had a few Ivy League players and quite a few NESCAC players in the past few years also.

Amherst already had a Blue Devil that had a pretty solid career, Ray Corrigan, and I'm sure Butler will fit in well.

N Hoops, what school does your buddy coach?

nescac hoops · February 13, 2007, 07:02:25 PM

formerbant,
he's at trinity prep now. he had been at packer in brooklyn before trinity. he works with the jv teams mostly but also with the varsity. i thought i had read before that j. noah from florida also went to poly prep. i have also seen that he went to lawrenceville in nj. do you know if went to poly prep at anytime?

formerbant10 · February 13, 2007, 08:01:35 PM

I'm pretty sure Joakim was there for his freshman year. Don't know about middle school though. Poly had some very good teams, one starting five sent a guy to Princeton, 2 to Colgate, 1 to Midd then Corrigan to Amherst.

John McEnroe's son plays at Trinity now.

ephoops · February 14, 2007, 12:03:41 PM

Re Poly Prep: The private school league in NYC is not that strong and is a few notches below the Catholic and public school leagues.

Tom Parker, the Dir of Admissions at Amherst, is a grad of Poly Prep and a big supporter of the hoops team.

formerbant10 · February 14, 2007, 02:20:02 PM

Just contacted by an extremely reliable source. Noah played at Poly through his junior year then transfered. He was nowhere near as talented as he is now.

nescac hoops · February 14, 2007, 02:43:35 PM

yeah, i've heard that noah wasn't great early on in high school. i think some tall, lanky guys like himself take awhile to grow into their body, etc. even ben coffin says he didn't feel "comfortable" until his junior year of college. perhaps the same will happen with hopkins. i'm not saying he isn't good already but he has the
potential/height to be much better if his footwork, etc. improve.

nescac1 · February 14, 2007, 03:04:01 PM

Sweet. I was hoping someone would use the passing Noah mention as a springboard to further analyze Hopkins and/or Cohen, as that topic has not received nearly enough attention on this board of late.

Here's my list, by the way, of top five topics that have been killed to death, resurrected, and killed some more on this board (and I can't claim innocence here, as I have taken part in many of these discussion):

1. Hopkins v. Cohen
2. Bedford or Rhoten as 2006 player of year
3. Lack of double round robin robbing NESCAC of legitimacy
4. Amherst injuries were / were not responsible for prior NESCAC / NCAA tourney losses
5. (Tie) Dave Paulsen's recruiting ability or alleged lack thereof / reputed social skills of past Williams players and the effect on recruiting

I'm sure I'm forgetting a few ...

fpc85 · February 14, 2007, 03:41:26 PM

Quote from: nescac1 on February 14, 2007, 03:04:01 PM
Sweet. I was hoping someone would use the passing Noah mention as a springboard to further analyze Hopkins and/or Cohen, as that topic has not received nearly enough attention on this board of late.

Here's my list, by the way, of top five topics that have been killed to death, resurrected, and killed some more on this board (and I can't claim innocence here, as I have taken part in many of these discussion):

1. Hopkins v. Cohen
2. Bedford or Rhoten as 2006 player of year
3. Lack of double round robin robbing NESCAC of legitimacy
4. Amherst injuries were / were not responsible for prior NESCAC / NCAA tourney losses
5. (Tie) Dave Paulsen's recruiting ability or alleged lack thereof / reputed social skills of past Williams players and the effect on recruiting

I'm sure I'm forgetting a few ...

you are free to sart a more interesting thread.

formerbant10 · February 14, 2007, 05:38:11 PM

Quote from: nescac1 on February 14, 2007, 03:04:01 PM
Sweet. I was hoping someone would use the passing Noah mention as a springboard to further analyze Hopkins and/or Cohen, as that topic has not received nearly enough attention on this board of late.

Here's my list, by the way, of top five topics that have been killed to death, resurrected, and killed some more on this board (and I can't claim innocence here, as I have taken part in many of these discussion):

1. Hopkins v. Cohen
2. Bedford or Rhoten as 2006 player of year
3. Lack of double round robin robbing NESCAC of legitimacy
4. Amherst injuries were / were not responsible for prior NESCAC / NCAA tourney losses
5. (Tie) Dave Paulsen's recruiting ability or alleged lack thereof / reputed social skills of past Williams players and the effect on recruiting

I'm sure I'm forgetting a few ...

What should we discuss then? Existentialism? Democracy? Ricky Bobby?

I see your point, but I'd say #2 was very relevant last year and #3 is every year.

atn alum · February 14, 2007, 06:24:46 PM

Walzy31...

i don't rove around the message boards much, but I applaud your creativity on the "for entertainment purposes only..." material. Looking forward to your take on the semis and finals.

I thought Kostakis was a Greek name (broadcast the NCAA game last yr and recall being told that), but may be mistaken

daoustian · February 14, 2007, 06:52:49 PM

Quote from: walzy31 on February 13, 2007, 04:21:46 PM

Amherst recruiting update:

Wearing purple & white next winter...Billy Butler.
Poly Prep's leading scorer. 6'6'' sharp-shooter who chose Amherst over Ivy Leagues and aspires to become a heart surgeon.

"Poly Prep coach Bill McNally gives his star guard the green light beyond the arc and at any given point in a game, Butler is prone to pull up and nail an NBA-range three-pointer."
-Quote from January 30th feature article on Butler in the NY Daily News (written by Mark Lelinwalla)

The same article also says he'll be getting an academic scholarship to Amherst, which we know can't be true. I am cautiously optimistic that this kid will be a white Jackson Collins. But then again, I have that hope for all Jeff recruits.

ballaholic4 · February 14, 2007, 06:53:23 PM

FYI -

i once was easily fooled by those types of last names. But often times names that end in ak, ki, iak, or kis are Polish. Strange as it may seem, i bet that's a polish name. Greek names end in is (as in the end of kiss- democratis) or -es (as in candies - pericles, socrates, etc). It's an easy mistake 2 make.

Anyway,

I'll start an interesting thread with a couple of questions:

1) If you trade Ray for Olson, what's the difference in this season's records of their two teams. My contention is that they'd be the same, in which case...you have an interesting problem on your hands...

this leads to a more important question:
2) what player can you remove from which team that has the most drastic impact on their team's record? THAT is the POY, my opinion the list looks like this:

1) Stockwell (bates -6 wins)
2) Farrell (colby -4 wins)
3) Cohen (colby -4 wins)
4) Stone (conn coll -4 wins)
5) Ray (bates -3 wins)
6) Wheeler (amherst -3 wins)
7) R Kelly (weselyan -3 wins)
8) Olson (amherst -2 wins)

That would be my list for POY, cuz that's really what makes the most difference

frank uible · February 14, 2007, 07:09:08 PM

Who is more powerful Santa Claus or Ditka?

Agent_Zero · February 14, 2007, 07:12:30 PM

ballaholic, while i agree with the general premise of your argument, i think that can be a very slippery slope if thats how you want to judge POY. for instance, take a look at someone you left off your list, pierce from tufts. you could argue tufts doesnt win at least 6 of the games without some his stats and huge shots in the clutch. first game of his career, he had 26 against lasell in a game the jumbos were behind the whole time and he hit huge shots in the second half to keep them in it. against western new england, he had 20 points in the second half of a game they trailed at halftime. against keene state, he hit a 3 at the buzzer to force a second OT. against trinity after a tough loss to amherst, he had 26 and 7 or so, key to the jumbos win. against, conn college, he scored 15 in the last 8 minutes to pull the jumbos from behind. and against bowdoin, he hit a 3 from the corner with 15 seconds left in regulation to force OT. so there are 6 games that the jumbos perhaps dont win without pierce on the floor(but who knows for sure). so does that mean pierce should be POY? i certainly dont think so even though he has had a great year. i just wanted to point out the fact that making an argument like that lets in a whole bunch of players.