MBB: NESCAC

walzy31 · December 31, 2005, 12:10:02 AM

as Ephoops stated, Williams won a close one at Clark.

Tied 66-66 with 1:05 left. Chris Rose is a lot better this year than last year but the Williams team is so one dimensional that it is painful watching them. Dribble down court, one pass, shoot three, hope it goes in, if not, try and get offensive rebound and take it back at the hoop hard. Great offense.
Williams went 10 deep and played only one freshman (but lots of Sophomores). Lots of players can knock down open shots. No interior presence for Williams. Gibbons looked like he had an off night and Paulsen had a short temper tonight which didnt help a kid out like Gibbons when he was turning the ball over as much as he was. Feeling extremely confident for the Amherst game on January 7th.

Amherst by 16. Rose scores 16 points and is highscorer for Ephs. Shalvoy has more turnovers than assists.

toad22 · January 01, 2006, 07:27:04 PM

It is clearly a rebuildling year at Williams, but the problem that other teams will have with the Ephs is that this team can score points in bunches. They don't do it every night, but on the nights they are shooting it well, any team in the NESCAC will be in for a fight. On paper, Amherst at home, should decimate a young Williams team. However, this year's Ephs have a much better chance of pulling an upset against the top teams in the league due to their 3-point shooting.

walzy31 · January 02, 2006, 11:32:14 PM

CONGRATULATIONS TO DAVID HIXON FOR WINNING HIS 500th GAME AT AMHERST COLLEGE!

Amherst bested Pomona-Pitzer tonight by 19 out in Los Angeles. Amherst now 8-0 and, with a win tomorrow, should be moving to #2 in the top 25 poll.

formerbant10 · January 02, 2006, 11:47:37 PM

My congrats to Coach Hixon. Winning 500 is an unbelievable achievement. And winning at P-P is not an easy thing to do.

rufus · January 03, 2006, 07:58:22 AM

Attended the Springfield Tourament Sunday and Monday.
Bates beat Trinity TX 63-57, Springfield beat Colby-Sawyer 88-70, and Bates defeated Springfield in the championship 70-64. This was an excellent tournament.

nescac1 · January 03, 2006, 12:14:48 PM

Hmmm, Walzy, good to see that Amherst fans are as cocky as ever. I can recall some Amherst teams (especially football, but hoops as well) who were pretty damn cocky, only to be deflated by an inspired performance by a less-talented Williams team. Is Corrigan back now?

That being said, the talent differential may just be too great to overcome this year -- Amherst has so much more size than Williams, and is a more athletic and experienced team overall. Williams will have to play better defense than they have all season, and like toad said, be on from outside (at least in the high 30's, percentage wise, but probably in the 40's) to have any kind of shot, especially on the road. Also, they have to get some kind of inside game to keep the defenders honest, I think if Newton needs to score 18 plus points to complement the shooters. A lot of musts, but I feel this team can compete if they bring their A game ... given that they are probably expected to lose by 20, they should play like they have nothing to lose.

I noticed that Gibbons missed the last game, I guess he is still struggling with injury, which hurts a lot from a depth perspective. Good luck to the Ephs this weekend, hopefully they will perform better than they have at Amherst the last few years.

As for the rest of the NESCAC contenders, Trinity and Bates seem to be coming along, and Tufts still looks solid. I see the league as four tiers: Amherst, then Trinity, Bates, Tufts Williams competing for second and for probably one NCAA berth, then Bowdoin and Midd capable of beating anyone but Amherst, but also capable of losing to anyone, with Conn College, Wesleyan, and Colby holding up the rear.

JeffRookie2 · January 03, 2006, 03:05:55 PM

Just for clarification, when walzy said, 'with a win tomorrow' he meant against occidental, not williams, who we play on saturday. so i dont think he was being cocky.

walzy31 · January 03, 2006, 05:33:49 PM

I'm glad JeffRookie has my back, but I think nescac1 is referring to my arrogant predicition of Amherst beating Williams by 16 on Saturday from my previous post. What I can say to nescac1 is: while we are walking the walk, might as well talk the talk too.

Tonight's game at Occidental will be an extremely tough test for the Amherst squad. Hopefully we can take a 9-0 record and high ranking into LeFrak to continue to take revenge on Williams from the 02-03 and 03-04 seasons.

Pat Coleman · January 03, 2006, 06:59:07 PM

Trinity (Conn.) was delayed getting to Ursinus, so airtime is now 7:40, tipoff at 7:55.

http://www.broadcastmonsters.com

rufus · January 03, 2006, 07:27:10 PM

Best of luck to the Amherst guys. Show them what you've got!

thunder32 · January 03, 2006, 11:58:19 PM

first congrats to coach Hixon on his 500th, he must be doing something right over there at Amherst .

Secondly I saw Tufts play their first game back from the break. The played a very good MIT team that before the game was 7-1. the first half of the game was very sloppy but as the game went on both teams picked up the slack. Trailing by as much as eight tufts pulled off the win with Dan Martin having a great game with 17 point 13 rbs 5 block and 3 steals. Shepard also had real good game but still a very sloppy game on both sides Tufts now is improved to 8-2 and looking like are a togh TEAM.

Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) · January 04, 2006, 09:10:15 AM

Not a regional game, so basically worthless, but that Oxy team may have exposed some weaknesses. Maybe there is hope that Amherst won't get through the year unscathed in the NESCAC.

tigersports · January 04, 2006, 04:17:54 PM

Nothing to be ashamed from Amherst's perspective. They showed poise in coming after getting down 10 in a hostile gym, 3000 miles from home in a back-to-back. That's a heck of a team.

Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) · January 04, 2006, 05:00:20 PM

I wouldn't want to take anything from them, but I certainly wasn't expecting to see a non-conference blemish on the record. It's just very interesting.

nescachoopsfan · January 04, 2006, 07:21:00 PM

maybe this loss for amherst will serve as a wake up call. i dont really know what the mentality of the amherst team was but they are definetly beatable losing to a team not even in the top 25, although a very good team that recieved top 25 votes. but i think its good for the conference. maybe amherst isnt as invinceable to a nescac loss than everyone may think. just a possible bump in the road for amherst