MBB: NESCAC

[ne-ball]

anyone know what's going on with ashton coughlan at middlebury? he had a decent freshman year and seems to be very quiet so far.

[senatorfrost]

 I believe I used the word "Certainly" and said that if they do what I wrote they will "Certainly" make the NCAA. The word certainly means for sure. Right now nothing is for sure.
  As for the frosh would you have preferred I said frosh will be sophs? I said frosh are still frosh. Is that so wrong? If you prefer sophs I'll change it.
 

[senatorfrost]

I changed frosh to sophs on page 450.
After they beat Brandeis and take at least!! 3 out of four in Maine (and Medford) I'll start to get excited. Four out of four seems possible unless too many of them read on the bus during the long trip and strain their eyes. Talk about a great excuse.

[ac08]

Sen, I took your quotations out of context for the humor. With regards to eye strain, I am confident you don't need to see well in order to shoot well.

[BankShotCharlie]

 

Also, can somebody explain why Taylor Barise was named to the All-Tourney team over Steve Wheeler? 

charlie.
nice work with the stats, but maybe you should start with the fundamentals, like checking your facts before you post....

This conversation is futile.  Anyone see Michigan beat Duke?  Gotta love it. 

[nescac1]

I think Dman was referring to the fact that Wheeler actually WAS named to the all-tourney team ...

[Gabriel]

There are other conferences with academic pressures similar to NESCAC. 
The Centennial Conference is an example.   Schools like Haverford, Swarthmore, Johns Hopkins, Ursinus, Franklin & Marshall,  Muhlenberg, Dickinson, Gettysburg etc are not exactly chopped liver.

Who is this Ursinus? I hadn't heard of the school until last March when they appeared in Salem, and now they are getting tossed around in the same sentences as Swarthmore and Johns Hopkins. Am I missing something?

Eyeballing current records and remaining non-conference schedules, I predict Amherst, Bowdoin, and Middlebury to put together records that will impress the NCAA enough to get them into the tourney in March. Unless a 4th team wins the conference tourney, I don't see more than three teams from the NESCAC getting in.

In other news, Amherst is quietly on its way to that 13-0 record heading into the Brandeis game (no offense Emmanuel, Cal Tech, Pomona, Wes x2, Williams, Conn and Babson).

Walzy31,

Oh they have been around since 1869.  Went to the final four in 1981 and then had a long drought until about nine years ago.  They have had four appearances in the NCAA tourney in the past eight years.  The Centennial Conference is much like the NESCAC in that academics are rigorous, with all schools buying in to the academics first commitment.  Not necessarily better than anyone else but, perhaps, just as good.

[nescac1]

Nice dominating win for Williams, rebounding from their only poor performance of the season and beating a not-embarassingly bad team (based on prior results at least) 92-55.  Schultz and Snyder continue their extremely high caliber of play, combining for 49 points, 9 boards, 7 assists, and 10-15 from 3 in only 48 combined minutes.  Rubin, Dodson and Whittington all made strong contributions in limited minutes as well.  Some frosh got to play extended minutes in garbage time, with PG James Wang leading the way with 8/2/1 and 2-2 from 3 in 7 minutes.  Ephs now have a long breather, after which they will hopefully get Joe G. back.  Joe once healthy, Snyder and Schultz could well from the top trio in NESCAC, the question is will key support guys like Whittington, Rubin, Timmins and Dodson be able to (a) stay healthy and (b) step up consistently against the stronger teams. 

Amherst comes down to earth a little, barely scraping out a win against a bad team tonight, looks from the stats like Wheeler in particular just had a really off night. 

[r.w. mcnickels]

The Centennial Conference is much like the NESCAC in that academics are rigorous, with all schools buying in to the academics first commitment.  Not necessarily better than anyone else but, perhaps, just as good.

I admire and congratulate players who excel in the classroom as well as on the court, but the bottom line is that you still have to produce on the court regardless of everything else.

After reading the discussion on academics/athletics...

I went to the F&M/Muhlenberg doubleheader in Lancaster over the weekend.  Following their victory over the Diplomats to remain undefeated, the Muhlenberg women joined the crowd and watched the men's game.  At least two players, however, were not watching the game.  They were hard at work on their laptops, with textbooks and papers spread out across the bleachers.  It seemed to capture what D-III is all about.

[Hugenerd]

Doing HW before/after games is not that bad.  I played in the UAA and the worst was when you had to take an exam on a Friday morning/afternoon on the road (you had to take it the same time as the class so you wouldnt be able to call any of your friends back on campus) in the coaches hotel room before a friday night game.  Nothing gets you prepared to play a game like studying/ taking an exam up to a couple hours before game time.  It was also tough when there several guys on the team taking the same exam, so they would have to spread you out across the room and one person would be taking the exam at the only desk in the room while another was sitting on the bed, another on the ground, another in the bathroom, etc.

[Ethelred the Unready]

The Centennial Conference is much like the NESCAC in that academics are rigorous, with all schools buying in to the academics first commitment.  Not necessarily better than anyone else but, perhaps, just as good.

I admire and congratulate players who excel in the classroom as well as on the court, but the bottom line is that you still have to produce on the court regardless of everything else.

After reading the discussion on academics/athletics...

I went to the F&M/Muhlenberg doubleheader in Lancaster over the weekend.  Following their victory over the Diplomats to remain undefeated, the Muhlenberg women joined the crowd and watched the men's game.  At least two players, however, were not watching the game.  They were hard at work on their laptops, with textbooks and papers spread out across the bleachers.  It seemed to capture what D-III is all about.

Sounds like the Colgate pep band.  Play like hell during TO's - even when the table hits the recorded music - and then return to reading/studying.  Fortunately the director watches the game, otherwise nobody would know when to play "Louie,Louie".

[lefrakenstein]

Bennett and Holmes are 1/2 on Amherst in rebounding despite each averaging only a little over 10 minutes a game. Seems like both of those guys would be beasts on the boards with a starter's PT.

I havent been able to see the games, is Holmes playing center for the Jeffs, making it basically a three-way rotation between him, Bennett and Holsey?

[nescac1]

Well, Bowdoin comes back to earth with a second loss (they've now lost 2 of the only 3 road games they played).  They had an easy early schedule with mainly home games, but now they start a big stretch on the road which will really test them -- they did lose a lot of talent from last year's team.   Their biggest problem seems to be free throw shooting -- 61 percent as a team, and with 3 of the top 4 guys by attempts at 57 or less, is not going to get it done in close NESCAC games. 

Incredible that after the first third of the season, every NESCAC squad other than Amherst has at least 2 losses, and even Amherst has barely survived two close games against poor opponents, something that hasn't happened much in recent years.  Based on the early season results, the conference favorite has to be Amherst, with Midd at about the same level assuming Smith is healthy, and Williams (another team that needs its go-to guy on the inside to get healthy) and possibly Bowdoin in the mix.  Colby has a strong top five but doesn't have a lot of depth; they could be a dark horse as well.  No one else in the conference seems to be much of a threat to win the conference or make the NCAA's at this point.  Wes is terrible, Tufts is too dependant on one guy, Bates seems really inconsistent, Conn is too reliant on outside shooting, and Trinity seems way, way down from its usual standard (although I imagine they will play better as the young talent improves and they adapt to a new coach).  It would be a pretty huge shock if NESCAC was able to repeat nabbing four spots in the NCAA's ... even two is no sure thing this season. 

[ne-ball]

it just doesn't seem like a strong nescac year. even amherst does not seem that strong yet, and i don't think middlebury is that great either. i think the centennial conference is as strong or stronger than nescac this year. nescac has the rep, but centennial has some strong teams.

[lefrakenstein]

Time will tell if any of the other NE conferences are better than the NESCAC this year. I would expect some of the struggling 'CAC teams to improve as the year goes on and young players begin to find their groove. Also, there are a lot of pretty important injuries right now, Smith, Geohegan, etc. The NESCAC may very well still be on top by the time the tournament rolls around.

Also, Williams' loss to Fram St looks a little better after they beat Brandeis shortly after the Judges get featured on the cover of the site. The Ephs could be one of the top two or three teams in the conference, especially after Joe G gets back.