MBB: NESCAC

[formerbant10]

Good win for Tufts, and Trinity pulled out a W from a very solid Springfield team.  I don't care what their record is, they are a pretty good team...some other NESCAC coaches agree with that statement.
Congrats to Tyler Rhoten on becoming the greatest Bantam scorer ever. 1,832 points and counting....not too shabby.  Glad to see Westbrooks hitting the open 3.  They need some more defensive rebounding though.  Great FT shooting down the stretch by Clarke, Trinity won't lose many games on the lines this year...that's for sure.

[ChesterGreen]

Its tough to take much from Springfield College wins this year, WNEC beat them, at this point who hasn't got a W on the pride this year, not sure what happening there big surprise.

More credit needs to go to Tufts, Plymouth loss a side they could very well be the 2nd best team in the nescac, Keene State is a traditional power who came in undefeated, very big win.  I have seen Tufts play and they appear very well balanced, solid big men and guards.

[walzy31]

nescachoopsfan,

i agree that tufts over keene on the road is an important win for the conference
i disagree that dave shepherd is one of the top players in nescac. i would stick with one of the top players on the jumbos roster.

[formerbant10]

Shepherd is a solid player.  Is he better than Zak Ray or Andrew Olson at his position, I don't think so.  He hasn't out-performed them yet.   But Shepherd is a very good player.

[nescachoopsfan]

i am not saying he is the best point guard in the league, but i am saying when preparing to beat tufts, you need to be prepared to stop shepherd.  and he did lead the nescac in assists being number 7 in the country in assists, but my only point was that he is becoming one of the best players in the nescac, and definetly top 3 point guards.  he has played huge this year, scoring 11 pts in less than 2 minutes to send the  game into ot, also hitting big free throws for the win over springfield.  just saying he is stepping up big this year for tufts

[nescachoopsfan]

i meant ot in the game against brandeis my mistake

[nescac1]

re: Shepherd, NESCAC has an unbelievable group of young point guards.  Olson, Shepherd, Shalvoy, Ray, Ashe, P. Martin, Bradley, Farrell, Washington, and the Midd Frosh -- that's every point guard in the league, who all should be back next year, and all are at least pretty solid players (I don't know about the Midd guy, but it sounds like he has made a big difference).  Except for Martin, that entire group will be three or four year starters before they are done.  Olson and Ray are all-league caliber stars, Ashe is the best player on his team, Bradley will be next year, and Shalvoy has been really oustanding this year and seems to improve all the time.  I think that as that group matures into juniors and seniors and capitalizes on their experience, the teams they lead will continue to improve and become more consistent.  Should be lots of great head-to-head battles over the next few years .... especially considering the lack of really dominant bigs in the league. 

[JeffRookie2]

Corrigan is coming back too. He has taken a team to the final-four, that has to say alot.

[walzy31]

Good post Nescac1.

My only question/comment now that I have done a little research is...
What about Jeremy Black on Tufts? Black plays nothing but Point for the Jumbos and he plays 16-30 minutes every night. So although Shepherd logs in the mid 30s of minutes every night, over half of his minutes are at the 2 guard. That is why he is scoring as much as he is. I'm not trying to take away from his assist stats because they are there regardless(often leads the team in assists). But he appears to be more of a 2 guard than a true point.
Has anyone seen otherwise that has something to say?

[ChesterGreen]

A similar argument could be said for Ashe with Wes whom I'm more familiar with.  He has not been the primary ball handler this year but his assists really haven't changed from last year.  In the case of Ashe as a point guard the ability to score and distribute the ball is there, but in terms of what is best for the team even more must be asked of him so more or less not willing to burn him out by having him bring up the ball against pressure during uncritical points in the game he has played a lot of off guard.  Ashe also is one of the best rebounding point guards if not the best in the league so again rather than not having him crash the offensive boards as a traditional point guard he can do so without fair of no help back.  Not sure if a related rational is not being applied at Tufts.  In either case I think both simply represent point guards who have to be more than point guards for their teams. 

[formerbant10]

I think what y'all are trying to say can be simply put that they are good basketball players.  Not just point guards, but guys who can do many things well, and they do what their team needs them to do.  Ashe is a very tough matchup for guards, gets to the hoop very well and has unparalleled determination at the guard spot.  I'm more familiar with his game than Shepherd's because of who he plays/played with there was not as much focus on him, rather it was on Stovell and Martin.  Still interested to see how they match up with the guards from the rest of the conference.

Just checked out the stats on those players....Shepherd's are strikingly similar to Pat Martin's.  Both right around 10.5 points, 5 assists, 3 rebounds.  Ashe is at 12 points, 5 assists, 7 rebounds.

[walzy31]

Amherst 94 - Worcester St. 65

Amherst jumped out to a 21-4 lead real fast and coasted the rest of the way. Bedford (17 pts) and McLaughlin (12 pts on near perfect shooting & 2 steals) were my mvps. Brandon Jones with nicest dunk. Keith received hardest foul. Too many fouls in the game in general. Amherst went 12 deep in the first half and played all 42 of their players in the second half.

For future NESCAC teams who have to play Worcester St...they have a crafty guard who comes off the bench and shoots bank threes. Can't say I didn't warn you.

(Adolphe jumps and the crowd oohs and ahhhs)    : )

Perhaps Emmanuel will give us a better game on Monday. Most likely not.

[ephwithbeef]

Middlebury lost to Hamilton 92-84 today in front of, for perhaps the first time in years, a packed house at the Midd gym. Even though we loss, I can't tell you how exciting it is to actually go to a game with a ton of fans to watch two undefeated teams face off. Hamilton broke away early scoring nearly every basket off uncontested layups right under the basket. Midd simply had no answer to any of their athletic big mean. The second half was fairly even but with every big bucket midd hit, hamilton came right back and hit huge shot after huge shot. Tim Welchons of Hamilton was absolutely ice from the field, hitting nearly every free throw and big shot down the stretch. Midd's weaknesses were clearly exposed in this game. We're going to have a tough time matching up to a more athletic bigger team. We have some 6'5 guys, but Hamilton played full court defense nearly the whole game which never allowed us to get in a rhythm.
Nevertheless, seeing the school excited about basketball again is worth more than a victory and hopefully Midd can still attract fans for rest of the season.

[cbone]

Once again another dominating performance by Amherst. Unless Rhoten gets over the "Amherst" hump this year he will be best remembered as the Shareef Abdul Raheem of the NESCACs. Schiel made it to one final four, and an elite eight. Rhoten leads his team to the NESCAC semifinals. Until a Rhoten led team actually wins something it is a joke to compare the two players. If Bedford or Wheeler played as many minutes as Rhoten they would put up just as solid numbers this year. The problem is they are blowing everyone out.

[mariner75]

Tufts enters winter break with a 7-2 record after defeating Clark 99-76 on Saturday.  The 2 losses on the Jumbos' season have been to Wittenburg & Plymouth St...whose combined records are 13-0.  With Amherst still considered the class of the NESCAC until proven otherwise, it should be an interesting race for the next couple of positions in the league.