MBB: NESCAC

[formerbant10]

Absolutely right, and that is why the NESCAC has always gotten more Pool C bids than the other conferences.  I think it's great that our conference schedule plays into the criteria the NCAA uses to rank teams.  And with many of the NESCAC teams doing extremely well with their non-con's this year looks as good as any with all the new Pool C's.

[toad22]

I caught the Tufts-Wheaton game. Tufts was clearly the better team, but they were very sloppy. Neither team looked like they really wanted to be there, a phenomenon often afflicting teams in non-conference Tuesday night games this late in the season. Jake Weitzen was very impressive, as was Dan Martin. Though I didn't think Tufts played very well, they easily dispatched an average  Wheaton team with little trouble. Tufts is certainly good enough to give Williams all they can handle on Friday. The Ephs will have to find a way to keep Martin, Weitzen, and Brian Fitzgerald off the boards, or things could get ugly for The Ephs in Medford. One potentially bright area for the Ephs is that Tufts doesn't appear to be particularly concerned about defense.

[formerbant10]

Even money Rhoten gets his 2,000th tonight.  Only needs 28 against Conn.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Wow, that's a big deal.  Where is he on the Trinity all-time list?  This is still pretty early in the year for 2,000.  He could end up very high.

[eholmes]

ty rhoten is numero uno on the alltime list. he surpassed the former leader early this season (pre xmas break)

[mariner75]

You can catch the Tufts - Williams game tonight at 7pm on Jumbocast (www.jumbocast.com or go to the Tufts Athletic site links)......they do a nice job broadcasting Tufts' sporting events......incl. archives to catch past games, matches, etc. in various sports.  Check it out.

[mariner75]

Williams defeats Tufts 82-80 on a last second shot....great game.

[formerbant10]

Great win for Williams.  Tufts struggling in the conference play, I didn't expect that.  Mariner, who hit the shot??

Rhoten passed Ken Abere '86 against Springfield College.  The old record was 1,816.  Clearly Rhoten has easily surpassed that.  He also needed to play in 26 games this year to break the all time games played record of 102 at Trinity, currently held by 4 former Bantams.

[formerbant10]

Bates beats Middlebury by 22....big game tomorrow nite between Bates and Williams



And can anyone tell me why the Curry Coach just made a thread about his own team???  Is he serious with that?

[Red1]

Bates 69 Middlebury 47.  Bates' Nescac leading defense prevailed tonight.  Middlebury's Ben Rudin is a very quick point guard and Middlebury relies heavily on his ability to penetrate and either get a high percentage shot or draw defenders for their offensive production.  Unfortunately for Middlebury he ran into Bates' defensive specialist Sean Cahill and never got the penetration Middlebury needed, effectively stifling the Middlebury offense. 

On the other side Middlebury did a good job stopping Rob Stockwell, but it routinely took them 3 players to do it thus leaving the basket uncovered and allowing Bates lots of second, third, and at one point 4th chance points.  If that wasn't enough they were also unable to stop Bates' guards from hitting quite a few from behind the arc.  If left unchecked Zack Ray, Sean Cahill, Pat Halloran, Brian Wholey, and Scott Place are all very dangerous from behind the arc, and they had their way tonight. 

Middlebury played a 3-2 zone most of the time, and the set of Bobcat point guards had little trouble penetrating to the free throw line which is where that zone breaks down.  A defender would need to help leaving one of Bates many good outside shooters open on the back side of the zone.  This happened countless times.

Bates jumped to an early lead and held it rather easily.  Looking forward to the Williams game tomorrow.  Williams always makes me nervous, but Bates as generally had success against the Ephs in Lewiston.  I'm optimistic.  Prediction:  Bates 60 Williams 57.

Cheers,
Red1

[nescac1]

Williams--Tufts game was fantastic.  Williams played very well offensively the whole game, moved the ball really well and shot the lights out, especially in the second half.   After a few off games, Shalvoy was on fire, playing with a lot of poise, taking smart shots, and hitting clutch 3's all night, including the game winner which was money all the way.  The other key guy for the Ephs was Gibbons.  He was very aggressive, yet controlled, penetrating and making great passes for open buckets, and generally playing with a lot of poise, and hitting tough shots.   Rose was Rose, hitting lots of 3's including one from about 25 feet.  The Williams defense was poor in the first half.  They were not intense at all, letting Tufts get open looks and letting Martin (who is very nasty inside) have his way.  They went to a zone to try to limit Martin, but then Tufts had wide open looks from 3 which gave them a big lead.

IN the second half, Williams continued to be hot on offense (of course, Tufts is not really known for its D, they did play with a lot of intensity, perhaps too much, as their guards are really aggressive, allowing Shalvoy and Gibbons to penetrate almost at will and create open looks from 3), but the defense completely turned around.  They dropped the zone, which was smart, and played much, much tighter on the Tufts shooters -- Tufts hit open 3's all game but were much less effective when guarded (as you'd expect).  Tufts did take advantage with a few back-door cuts, and Martin continued to be unstoppable one on one, but overall the defensive intensity was much higher, and it showed.  They also tripple teamed Martin everytime he got the ball which limited him somewhat.  Weitzen is very difficult to guard as well with an unorthodox, surprisingly quick game, but the Ephs did a pretty good job containing him in the second half.

Key play of the game -- O'keefe (I think) from Tufts gets called for an obvious, out of control charge on a fast break, then picks up a T, four point turnaround right there which took the wind out of Tufts' sails and inspired Williams.  Tufts players were whining at refs the whole game, so it was only a matter of time.  From that point on, Williams gradually took control with big 3 after big 3.  End of the game, refs (who were off all night, but to be fair, they missed badly for both teams) missed a blatant foul where a Tufts guy was all over Rose, then Martin gets a ticky-tack three point play to put Tufts up by one.  That is when Shalvoy calmly sank the three to give Williams the victory.  Third heart-wrenching win in a row for the Ephs, amazing. 

Tomorrow Bates is going ot be very, very tough, with a LONG road trip, an early game against a great team, and they have got to be exhausted after this game, where both teams ran pretty much the entire game, and Tufts was very physical as well.  Ephs will have to somehow muster the defensive intensity for the entire game, instead of just the second half, and hope the shots fall as well as they did tonight.  It sucks that Midd is Williams' travelling partner, but what can you do? 

[formerbant10]

Only 20 points for Rhoten.  8 more for 2 grand.  My bet is he gets it in the first 6 minutes of tomorrow's game at Wes.  They don't have a whole lot of size down low.  Big game for Russ Martin with 17 of the bench.  Clarke with only 8, will need to be more consistent to win the big games, but they can get by the lower tier teams with only 2 in double figures.  This might be the last weekend where that can happen.  And anything can happen against Wesleyan who might quadruple team Rhoten.

[ajsnc13]

who do you guys think will win this weekend?  Here are my predictions for Saturday. 

Trinity over Wesleyan
Amherst over Conn College
Bates over Williams
Tufts over Middlebury
Bowdoin over Colby

I think the only close game will be the Bates/Williams game.  Any thoughts?

[walzy31]

ajsnc13,

I'll agree with all five of your predictions. Not too tough a day in NESCAC to predict with the exception of the Williams Bates game. Colby might be fired up for Bowdoin too but I'll still take the P-Bears.

Was not at the Amherst Wesleyan game last night but the Box made it seem like it was just another casual 20+point smoking of Wesleyan. No numbers stood out other than Amherst's bench production, as anticipated, and the 3pt % (Amh 9-18 and Wes 2-14{Blake Curry 1-7})

I'll take Amherst by 22 today at Conn

[Red1]

Bates 74 Williams 56.  Bates' defense proved to be too much for the 3pter happy Ephs tonight as they held Williams under 60pts for the game.  Bates came into the game ranked 4th nationally in rebound margin and it showed in a big way in the first half as Williams got very few second chances on the offensive side and Bates led by 14 heading to the locker room.  Williams started crashing the boards in the second half grabbing more rebounds and keeping it much closer, but  Bates pushed their lead to as much as 24 in the middle of the second half and held on to win by the final score above.  Center Andrew Newton really had his way in the paint for the ephs with the Bobcats defense was generally unable to find an answer to his height and shooting ability.  He also grabbed a lot of rebounds (I don't have the stats yet, but he may have been the games top rebounder.)  I didn't think that Williams went to him enough.  The further they got behind the more 3pters they took and the more they missed as Bates defense kept the Williams 3s at bay for most of the game.  I thought they could have been more successful if they'd kept pounding it in to Newton for the higher percentage plays.  No one on Bates seemed to have much luck stopping him tonight, and if you score more frequently and keep it close then you're more likely to come back.  I'm no coach though.

Bates was shooting well tonight, and Williams' defense stumbled a little (possibly from being worked so hard against Tufts the night before?) allowing Bates to record their highest total in a conference game so far this year.  Go Bobcats!

Cheers,
Red