MBB: NESCAC

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I just can't see Trinity going all the way through undefeated.  They are good enough, but they have been so up and down.  Although, they do get to play all the rest of their tough games at home with the exception of Williams.  I don't know.  It still appears to me that Tufts and Amherst are the best teams right now.  Hopefully we'll know more as things play out.

[formerbant10]

I'm gonna have to disagree with you saying that Tufts and Amherst are the two best teams right now.  While Trinity may not go through the conference undefeated, it is already assured that Amherst and Tufts will not.  Bates goes 2-0 while Tufts splits, and Trinity beats Amherst.  That makes me think that Trinity and Bates are playing better than Amherst and Tufts right now.  Season long, Amherst and Tufts have been better so far, but that does not mean they are playing better now.  And if Trinity is able to maintain their level of play for the next 4 weeks, there is no reason they won't finish undefeated.

And this particular NESCAC schedule has been very kind to the Bants, two years ago they finished 2nd at 8-1 in the conference only losing at Williams and two years before that they finished 1st in the conference only losing at Williams.  So even from a historical standpoint, there is reason to believe that the Bants will be fine this year.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Totally my bad.  I missed the fact that d3hoops doesn't have the Tufts loss up yet.  I just saw the record and assumed they went through the weekend fine.  I'll withdraw that comment now... and the ones on the regional rankings board.

[ajsnc13]

formerbant, why is the tufts loss to bowdoin particularly bad?  Bowdoin could have beaten bates if they did not shoot 20% in the first half.   Please explain your logic.

[formerbant10]

Because they were beaten by 14!!!  Any loss by 14 is a bad loss.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

New Top 25 out.  Amherst drops to #12, Trinity gets 22 points (sorta 36th).  Amazing what a name and a big win will get you.

[walzy31]

Amherst @ Elms tonight...

I predict Amherst comes out with some intensity against an Elms team who has a lot of talented shooters. Amherst leads 19 at the half. It gets as close as 14 in the second half but Amherst goes on to win by 25. 83-58

Wheeler high points
Cas high rebounds
Adolphe scores double digits
Mclaughlin high steals
Bedford no more than 2 misses from the floor
Olson either 5 points or 15 points
Corrigan with 7 dimes
Over 40 threes taken total between both teams

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

That's an important game in terms of the region.  Elms has a decent record and some mildly impressive wins.  Their performance will tell people a lot about their ability.  It's too bad for them they get Amherst after a loss.  I think the Jeffs will be ready to play.  25 points would be amazing, but I don't think it would suprise me at all.

[formerbant10]

I believe Amherst will crush Elms.  I'm more interested in the Williams-Wheaton game.  I think that will have more of an impact on the NE rankings than the Amherst game.  That is unless Amherst decides not to show up and lose this one....which I highly doubt will happen.

Walzy, I'm agreeing with the 40 threes taken.......the majority from Elms trying to fight their way back into the game.

[ephoops]

Formerbant - I believe you meant Tufts v. Wheaton.  BTW, Tufts won convincingly.  Weitzen had a huge game (no pun intended).

As I look at the rest of Williams schedule, i am very concerned.  They have a number of tough road games, including two weekend trips to Maine, and games at Tufts and Hamilton.  In addition, of their three remaining home games, two are against the best teams in NESCAC (AmHerst and Trinity).  They barely squeaked by a mediocre Lasell team at home by 2 in OT.

Everyone in the rotation needs to step up their games a couple of notches if the Ephs are to survive this brutal stretch of games.

[walzy31]

111-83 Amherst

28...close enough
exactely 40 threes taken (26 by Amh and 14 by Elms)
Cas tied for team high in rebounds
Bedford 8-9 FG (less than two misses)


Amherst bangs out 67 in first half and was leading by 31

Ephoops,
Lasell is pretty decent (beat an above average Brandeis team)...but you should be very concerned.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Nice call with the 25 Walzy, well done.

[nescac1]

Great night for the NESCAC last night, with three wins over three non-league regional teams with plus .500 records, plus Keene State going down.  Great to see Williams win close games, even if those are games you'd like to see them win with a little more breathing.  Conn doesn't worry me so much, I agree with DMan that they are on the rise -- they seemed to be w/out their top two guys against Coast Guard, and were likely still drained from the Williams game.  Watch out for them next year. 

Brutal week for Williams coming up, at three very difficult teams, they need to win at least one and hopefully two of those three, no easy task, especially the way they have shot the last few games.  Last year, their season went south when they lost ot Bates and Tufts back-to-back at home, hopefully that is all the motivation they need to be sharp.  They will definitely need to get some offense out of someone besides Rose and Newton to have a shot -- Shalvoy and Gibbons, the starting guards, have been struggling to score except for foul-shots lately, if they could hit some tough shots against the high-powered offenses of Bates and Tufts, it would help.  I'd say to beat Tufts on Friday, Newton, Rose, and at least two out of Nelson/Gibbons/Shalvoy/Snyder have to shoot close to 50 percent and hit some tough 3's.  Tufts seems wildly inconsistent, getting rocked by Bowdoin and then turning around and blowing out a quality team.  So that should be an interesting game.  This weekend will go a long way towards indicating who will challenge Amherst and Trinity, if anyone, the rest of the way.

Williams' future does look bright.  Shalvoy, Rose, Weisbrot (who I think has potential to be a solid rebounder / interior player) and the improving frosh Snyder are a nice core of athletic scorers to build around for the next few years, assuming they can recruit a couple of badly-needed big guys to complement them (and man, they need a few next year otherwise Weisbrot will be very lonely as the only guy over 6'5 on the roster). 

The region is still pretty crazy, I'd say outside of Amherst, any of the top 10 can beat each other on any given night.  And even Amherst is susceptible to a strong hot-shooting team (I note that Trinity has been awful from outside all year up until that game).  I'd put the new england contenders heading into the weekend at:

1. Amherst  2. WPI  3. Trinity  4. Bates  5. Tufts  6. Williams  7. Keene State.

I think after that, there is a bit of a drop off with anyone from MIT, Coast Guard, Wheaton, Bowdoin, Conn College, Norwich, Plymouth State staking a legit claim to top-ten status.  I'd be very surprised, the way things are going, if any non-Nescac team outside of WPI garners a pool C spot.  But at least five nescac teams are stilll clearly in the running (may change after this weekend depending on what happens at the Bates/Tufts weekend for Williams and Midd).   I don't think anyone save Amherst has the potential for a final four run from the region.   

[formerbant10]

Nescac1...someone from the region is gonna have a potential shot at getting to the final four.  Unless the brackets are completely changed.  I'd say that Amherst has a leg up on the others because they still have Bedford, Corrigan and Casnocha who all played in their previous final four and you can't fake experience.  Trinity has the potential to make a run...as seen in the Amherst game...and a lot of that will depend on how consistent Kino Clarke and Pat Martin play the rest of the conference schedule.  It seems that the role players of Trinity are ready to step up and hit shots as Mike Hoar hit two huge buckets against the Jeffs, and that will lighten the load Rhoten has to carry.  And Tufts has great size that can give many of the NE and East teams problems, again they just need to be consistent.

I can see the NESCAC getting two Pool C's this year, and depending on the rest of the NE maybe even snag one more if Bates or Williams can win a few statement games.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

They have to survive, but I think its doable only because of the once around thing.  Not having to play home and homes with everyone is a huge advantage over the Midwest schools.