MBB: NESCAC

Hugenerd · January 20, 2009, 08:40:32 PM

Deluca again stepped up against a ranked opponent (he played well earlier against CMU). This could hurt Amherst because this could have been a significant out of conference win for them. They didnt really play any other top tier out of conference games this season. They have one more chance to get a win out of conference against a top tier NE team when they travel to RIC later in the season. They better watch out though, if they lose a few more in conference (they have a whole lot of conference road games and then Williams and Middlebury at home to close out the season) and then lose to RIC, they could find themselves with 5 or 6 losses and a very poor OWP.

walzy31 · January 20, 2009, 08:50:04 PM

Final
Brandeis 73
Amherst 58

Deluca played a great game finishing with 23 and 12. He hit threes with 5 minutes and 4 minutes left (both to extend the lead to double digits), and then finished off rattling 8 straight points off for Deis with a tough move down low to put them up 13.

Baskauskas played a solid game statistically speaking, but I bet he is still upset with his performance.
Amherst shot the three VERY poorly in the second half (1-12 8.3%).

This is a loss that Amherst will grow from (unlike the Wesleyan loss).

magicman · January 20, 2009, 09:00:40 PM

Quote from: hugenerd on January 20, 2009, 08:40:32 PM
Deluca again stepped up against a ranked opponent (he played well earlier against CMU). This could hurt Amherst because this could have been a significant out of conference win for them. They didnt really play any other top tier out of conference games this season.

I agree. The Massey ratings that just came out today has them ranked at #42 because of their out of conference schedule strength.

eclinchy · January 20, 2009, 09:29:42 PM

Quote from: lefrakenstein on January 20, 2009, 05:58:12 PM
sAnybody else pumped for tonight's matchup between the Jeffs and the Judges. Thank goodness for Jeffscast! I hope the Amherst interior players are up for the challenge of DeLuca/Hollins. Predicting a narrow Jeffs win. Walzy, line?

As for All-Conference predictions, I would say my list right now looks like:

1st:
Baskauskas -AMH
Schultz -WIL
Rudin -MID
Pierce -TUF
Smith -MID

2nd:
Choice -COL
Geoghegan -WIL
Wheeler -AMH
Russell -COL
Phillips -BOW

Hon mention: Kyle Jackson, Chris Wilson, Artie Cutrone, Demetrius Porter, Shane Bernier, Ian Fels, Jeremy Kaminer, Kevin Snyder

This year is really hard. Tough to leave Kevin Snyder off, but it's hard to see 3 williams guys if they're not the top team in the league. 2 colby guys seems high, but they both have great stats. Feels like more than 6 teams should be represented, but who from Conn, Trin, Wes and Bates?

POY:Baskauskas
ROY:Holmes
COY:Hixon

(Thats right, I said it, an Amherst sweep. Can't deny Basky, Holmes is pouring it on, and Hixon is going to win the conference despite losing one of the best classes ever.)

Still not on your Amherst bandwagon. Keep trying.

Middlebury is 11-0 with a healthy Smith.

Your all-league list looks decent, although I'd move Russell off and Snyder (!!!) on. POY is really up in the air and any of those top 5 could win it -- I'd lean toward Rudin, though, because his team will end up on top and he's been healthy unlike Smith. ROY... probably Porter. COY... probably Brown. But we'll see.

eclinchy · January 20, 2009, 10:18:15 PM

Quote from: ephoops on January 20, 2009, 03:06:25 PMWhat happened to Galvin? How long is he out?

Hamstring, rumor has it. Maybe back next weekend, maybe not.

senatorfrost · January 20, 2009, 10:54:45 PM

It doesn't seem as if Smith is up to par since his return. I'm an Edwards fan by the way.
Just got back from the game. The student athletes of 'Deis' are pretty good as everyone knows. They seem to have maybe gotten it together the last couple games. I guess it takes a while sometimes when you have a player joining you after a year away. I mean they're student athletes and don't have all the practice time that some others may have.
What made tonight especially enjoyable were the fantastic 'Deis' fans screaming incessantly while rooting for their beloved student athletes on the floor. A couple of them even made cute little noises while they slapped palms with the S A's on the court. Sort of like a chatter/ twitter of some sort and delightful to watch.
Sure there were some who had to be escorted from the game but hey it was a pretty small %. I mean they were using foul language, making crude and obscene gestures as well as using/drinking something that helps one pass out.
However, the majority of them were simply abusive and borderline obscene. It could have been a perfect evening if the male students had taken off their shirts and beat their chests with their fists while chanting. They refrained. Oh well, maybe next time. The good news is they'll be back in two years. A class act.

lefrakenstein · January 20, 2009, 11:42:53 PM

Tough loss for Amherst tonight. My big fear was that we would be out-rebounded, but that didnt happen. In the last four years, with our offensive prowess and consistently sound defense, it was a rare night that amherst was just plain out-shot, but that was the case tonight.

Quote from: eclinchy on January 20, 2009, 09:29:42 PM
Your all-league list looks decent, although I'd move Russell off and Snyder (!!!) on.

i know, i know, but its hard to imagine 3 ephs on the list if they don't win the league.. which they still might. But if not, I think one of their trio gets left off. My final awards list is unabashedly biased, but no apologies for that.

ac08 · January 21, 2009, 05:57:51 AM

Tough loss for the Jeffs. I'm definitely not accustomed to Amherst losing at home. I don't suspect I will have to get used to it though.

In 50/50 games, the edge usually goes to the more experienced team. I think that happened last night. When it mattered 'Deis got the ball to their playmakers in their most effective areas.

nescac1 · January 21, 2009, 10:13:26 AM

All conference prediction shot:

First team: Baskauskas, Pierce, Rudin, Geoghegan (fifth spot it wide open, for now I'll say Choice)
Second team: Snyder (I'd say Schultz but I think as a senior Snyder will get the edge and no room for three Ephs), Wheeler, A. Smith, Bernier, Grayson

Other contenders: Schultz, Phillips, Jackson, Wilson, Cutrone, Russell

POY: Baskauskas
COY: Reilly (prob. won't get it but deserves it for what he has managed to do with Wesleyan team seriously lacking in firepower)
ROY: Porter (others who could contend, Sharry, Holmes, Waller, Hanley, and dark horse Wang from Williams if he continues to get more PT).

ephoops · January 21, 2009, 03:21:39 PM

Quote from: eclinchy on January 20, 2009, 10:18:15 PM
Quote from: ephoops on January 20, 2009, 03:06:25 PMWhat happened to Galvin? How long is he out?

Hamstring, rumor has it. Maybe back next weekend, maybe not.

Thanks for the update.

ephoops · January 21, 2009, 03:24:12 PM

Quote from: ac08 on January 21, 2009, 05:57:51 AM
Tough loss for the Jeffs. I'm definitely not accustomed to Amherst losing at home. I don't suspect I will have to get used to it though.

In 50/50 games, the edge usually goes to the more experienced team. I think that happened last night. When it mattered 'Deis got the ball to their playmakers in their most effective areas.

I think this is just a bump in the road for Amherst. My guess is that they lose one more game before the NESCAC tourney.

BornBalla · January 21, 2009, 03:24:42 PM

It's a tough loss for Amherst if you subcribed to the idea the Brandeis was not as good as originally thought. They are good! If Amherst & Brandeis played again, I think Brandeis would win again. They are a bit more physical and have a real ''go to guy". There's no way Brandeis catches early losses against Lasell & Fram St if DeLuca was really ready.WPI & UMD who knows & Rochester is a mainstay at the top of East Region & UAA. Point is...Brandeis is really a good team. especially for this region. I believe Amherst will catch two league losses & let's see how game at RIC goes. This is a great year for D3 hoops in NE & nationally. NE doesn't have the usual one/two powerhouse squads & then everyone else. There are a bunch of teams who(given the match up situation) can beat anyone in region. It seems like on the national level it's like that too.

nescac hoops · January 21, 2009, 07:52:05 PM

Sadly, I haven't been able to follow the NESCAC and D3 hoops as closely this year but I just took a look at the top 25 poll. Elms is ranked 16th in the country!?!? Their record is certainly good but they have only one win worth acknowledging, WPI. Unfortunately, their conference isn't strong so Elms won't be facing any real tests the rest of the season that I know of. Has anybody seen them play yet? Curious to know if they are really 16th in the country good.

nescac hoops · January 21, 2009, 08:00:19 PM

Quote from: Gregory Sager on January 13, 2009, 01:54:01 PM

And while Amherst and Williams have both history and proximity that link them together, so do Hope and Calvin (160 or so games played to date, thirty miles distance between the two campuses) -- plus, the two MIAA schools have a religious and ethnic connection that deepens the rivalry that Williams and Amherst don't share. Both schools are strongly flavored by the Dutch-American population that dominates that part of southwestern Michigan, and they represent the two rival Protestant denominations of Dutch heritage (Reformed Church of America, which is Hope's parent denomination, and Christian Reformed Church, which is Calvin's denomination) that exist in America.

Williams/Amherst is without a doubt a fantastic rivalry. But as far as D3 basketball rivalries go, nothing compares to Hope/Calvin.

Just catching up...."a religious and ethnic connection that deepens the rivalry that Williams and Amherst don't share." Can we make that into a t-shirt or something? Don't waspy kids form the CT/NY area making up 90% up the Williams and Amherst student population count as a shared religious and ethnic connection?

nescac1 · January 21, 2009, 08:51:28 PM

First of all, I love the Williams/Amherst hoops rivalry but it doesn't compare to Hope/Calvin for one simple reason. Sure, in recent years, Williams and Amherst have the edge in national implications, considering the two schools have combined for two national titles and eight final fours over the past decade. But Hope/Calvin also have a long history of excellence, and just as importantly, unlike (I assume) Hope/Calvin, the vast, vast majority of alumni from Williams and Amherst (at least 95 percent) have no idea and could care less who wins any particular basketball contest. Football is a somewhat (though not entirely) different story, because of all the joint telecasts and whatnot, but there are probably only a handful of alumni, many of whom post or read on this board, who could name more than a single player on either basketball team in any given year. Still a great, great rivalry for the kids on the teams and the students on campus, but the alumni just aren't as interested in the annual basketball match-ups as they are for football (fortunately for Williams, considering the radically disparate recent history of those sports).

Oh, and NESCAC hoops, I realize you are being satiric, but your 90 percent figure is way, way off -- more like 20 percent. Other than Wesleyan, no other NESCAC schools are more diverse than W/A. Williams, for example, is now 40 percent non-white American, has students from all 50 states, and is increasingly (thanks to a very rare all-grant / no-loans deal) socioeconomically diverse as well (although still has a ways to go there). Same goes for Amherst. For better (in most arenas) or worse (in terms of evaluating the best rivalry), Williams and Amherst are far, far more diverse than Hope or Calvin.