MBB: NESCAC

[JustAFan]

Florida Memorial, the team that beat Amherst Saturday, had a 5-6 record entering that game. It competes in Division II of the NAIA (which only has 2 divisions) and it made the DII national tournament last year.  Comparitive scores are always a dangerous measure, so for what it's worth Embry Riddle U., the first place team in the league in which Florida Memorial participates--and currently ranked #4 nationally in NAIA DII--beat Hobart by 11 (82-71) and St. Lawrence by 3 (77-74) this weekend to improve to 12-0. 

[old_hooper]

Floridia Memorial last Saturday played Concordia University of Irvine (10-1), the NAIA D1 national runner-up last year. It was a very competitive game and they ended up losing by 10.  CUI has been ranked 2nd and 3rd in the NAIA D1 polls and is considered to be a favorite to win it this year.  Flordia Memorial would appear to be a better team then its record would indicate.

[speedy]

There's some news on several NESCAC recruits for next year here (Bowdoin, Williams, Colby, Conn College) at this site:

http://www.newenglandrecruitingreport.com/


The biggest news is Bowdoin's pick up of Ryan O'Connell, out of St. John's Prep in Mass, who was a D1 prospect and was the leading score in Massachusetts as a junior.  Here's a little more on him:

http://salemnews.com/pusports/local_story_197002514.html?keyword=secondarystory

[La Verdad]

I just happened to be in Coral Gables visiting family over the weekend, so I got a chance to go see Amherst play FMU...
  FMU is without a doubt the most athletic team Amherst will see all year, and they are probably the best team Amherst has played thus far.  Props to Hixon for going out and scheduling the type of squad that gives him nightmares. 

[Marty Peretz]

Not to be too picky, but does anyone else find it interesting that Hixon schedules a tough game against non-D3 competition? The ramifications of a loss being, well, absolutely nothing. Why not go out and play Occidental or Lewis and Clark if you're to travel to a warmer climate over the break?

[Mr. Ypsi]

Not to be too picky, but does anyone else find it interesting that Hixon schedules a tough game against non-D3 competition? The ramifications of a loss being, well, absolutely nothing. Why not go out and play Occidental or Lewis and Clark if you're to travel to a warmer climate over the break?

I think you answered your own question: because it means absolutely nothing (for pool C).

[nescac1]

Wow, O'Connell sounds like a pretty big signing for Bowdoin, he should step right in for Hippert when he graduates.  Bowdoin always seems to bring in just enough guys to be competitive but never enough depth to compete for a top three spot in the conference ... maybe next year will be different (although losing both starting big men won't help).  Not surprised Amherst is bringing in some high level recruits.  Not too often a very recent national champ can offer an opportunity for meaningful playing time right away, but with 6/7 guys graduating, Amherst will have a lot of openings to fill next season. 

Update on Williams:  heard Whittington is OK.  Hopefully he can return to the court soon, because he really showed a lot against Lehman.  He definitely earned some more PT if healthy as he is force close to the hoop.  I realize the Lehman score opened some eyes, but they did hit a meaningless 3 as time expired so it was more like a 6 point win.  Also, Lehman's best guy by FAR was a very nasty big guy (could really jump and shoot) who had only played a few games this year ... I imagine if he was on the team all season, they would have had a better record coming into the Williams game.  They were not a bad team overall.  Still, the Ephs should have played a little better ... they had a lot of trouble finishing around the hoop, missing quite a few shots within three feet of the rim, and also missed a large number of open looks from "3."  Also were a little sloppy against the press, too much dribbling and not enough passing.  Hopefully those were just a sign of rust after a long layoff.  The team defense was very solid though, for the most part. 

Nice to see the Ephs blow out a bad team in the CCNY game, and particularly good to see Rose get out of his shooting slump in a big way hitting 8-12 from 3.  They will need more games like that from him if they are going to beat the better teams on the schedule.   Ephs' interior play has been MUCH better than last season with guys such as Weisbrot, Meyer, and Geoghegan all contributing more.  But they still haven't had a game against a strong opponent where more than one shooter at a time is "on."  With NESCAC season coming up soon, that will have to change in a hurry. 

Huge game for Williams tonight against Keene.  Keene's big guy returned to the team, and now has two games under his belt, so this will be tougher game than Keene's record indicates.  Ephs should come out fired up for their biggest game of the year to date.  If they win this game (a very big if), they could move to as high as number 3 in the polls given that Point, Amherst, Guilford and Augustana all lost ...

[walzy31]

Buzz from the Amherst Hoop Recruiting Hotline:

David Waller, 6'6'' from Tampa Prep is also joining Zaitz to be a Jeff class of 2012.
When you google him you find some pretty good stuff about his abilities and accomplishments.

[nescac1]

Thanks Walzy.  If Waller, Zaitz, and this year's recruit Bennett are as good as hyped, Amherst will have quite the front court for the next three years (not to mention one more year of Baskauskas, who will have to carry Amherst next season).  And although Olson is irreplaceable, it sounds as if Meehan will be a very solid point guard as well.   Those four are a nice nucleus for the future. 

[nescac hoops]

Marty,
Let us know when you are completely done beating this horse.

Not to be too picky, but does anyone else find it interesting that Hixon schedules a tough game against non-D3 competition? The ramifications of a loss being, well, absolutely nothing. Why not go out and play Occidental or Lewis and Clark if you're to travel to a warmer climate over the break?

[JustAFan]

Walzy, how good is your info about David Waller becoming a Jeff? The article linked below appeared a week ago and certainly gives the impression that he was still wide open as of a week ago, with the UChicago coach watching him at a 12/23 game and new schools coming into the picture pretty regularly.  The Lafeyette website reported a month ago that he was hot and heavy to attend Lafeyette, Columbia or UPenn.

http://blogs.tampabay.com/preps/2007/12/tampa-prep-star.html

[JustAFan]

Williams beats Keane St 86-66 tonight before a good crowd (close to 900--are the students back yet?). Williams was up by 12 at the half. Nine players played 10 or more minutes for the Ephs, and they get very balanced scoring from their 5 starters (14, 14, 11, 17 and 14 points). Weisbrot has a big game off the bench with 7 rebounds and Geoghegan has 13 boards to go with his 14 points. Looks like Alex Rubin made some solid contributions off the bench as well, signalling he may be getting himself back into shape after his early season injury. Shalvoy had 9 assists in 38 minutes. The Ephs have to hope he doesn't wear down or get injured because the point is the only spot where they don't have sufficient, or at least proven, depth.

[nescac1]

Great win for the Ephs over a solid opponent.  Nice to see the balanced scoring continue.   Ephs have two easy games ahead, barring an utter catastrophe they will be 12-0 heading into a war at Amherst.  I expect Amherst to handle Babson and Wesleyan with ease, meaning that game will be a battle of two top-five teams.   

[frank uible]

The opponent may have been solid, but  in my view Williams' foul shooting, care of the ball and movement without the ball were less than adequate. Also Geo fouled out with more than 3 minutes to go.

[senatorfrost]

 No surprise tonight. Williams lost no one from what evolved into a very! good team by the end of the year. I know most everyone was talking about unbelievably powerful Amherst at the beginning of the season but now reality is starting to take over.
  Someone wrote about Amherst having 6 (yes 6) legitimate stars up front. Now if indeed that's true then you would have to add in at least two more in Olson and Coulibaly. At the time Coulibaly was starting and at least three of the 'stars' weren't.
  So that would mean that Amherst has 8 legitimate stars and well they may be. I saw MIT and if Amherst has 8 stars then MIT has at least 6. I would give Bartolotta 2 stars which makes 7 and then give Amherst a star for home court.
   Brandeis may have 9, not even counting Deluca with this kind of thinking and then I started wondering where this kind of thinking comes from. How could Wheeler be a star that early in his soph year when he hardly played as Frosh, not to mention Coulibaly? Goldsmith was called a star and so on. Also there were people saying how the loss of Wheeler and McLaughlin meant almost nothing. (Height of absurdity)
    This year I had the pleasure of going to a game that was not played at Amherst. I sat next to a scout from a solid NESCAC contender. (Williams or Tufts)
This person gave me the same line I saw on this site. How Amherst was beyond super and had so much talent and poor little them would be lucky to stay within 20 (or so) etc. etc. This person was trying to sell me the notion that Amherst had everything and everyone else had next to nothing,
    This of course filters down to fans and the idea is to make people believe that Amherst is super talented-Then if you lose well Amherst is super and if you win, well then since Amherst has the talent and still lost it sort of follows that the other coach is a genius. Coaches have been doing this sort of thing forever. I think people are starting to see that Amherst is not super. That they were not able to dominate MIT's front line and that they are perhaps a little shy in the backcourt.
   Amherst lost a first team all NESCAC player and a player who would have been all NESCAC had he performed as well in the regular season as he did in the playoffs. (My guess is he probably got a few all conference votes anyway.)

  This year even though Amherst has a lot of height, Williams is the obvious favorite. The onus is on the Williams coaching staff not to lose. Mind you I think Paulsen is the best coach in NESCAC. (I don't rate Hixon because I am an Amherst fan and I might not be objective.)
  One word about height. The scout I talked to kept stressing Amherst's height. That's the easiest way to sell something in basketball in my opinion. In 2001 Clark got to the final 8 and gave Catholic U. a run for the money. If I remember right Clark's starting linup averaged under 6:2. Even when they played both their 'big' men I don't think they went over 6:2.
  Fleming was 6:0
  Macnamara=5:10
  Andre?? was 6:2 (can't remember his name)
  Bagdis was 6:5
Walker was 6:3 or 6:4 He was an outside shooter-Andre?? played closer to basket.
  They had another 6:5 guy and a very short backcourt sub.