MBB: NESCAC

[dman]

lefrak and frank,
  shame on me for not checking the facts.  which non-conf. team do you think amherst will drop in order to put hamilton back on their schedule??  i doubt they'll drop the cream puffs and will probably consider either brandeis or ric.... the whole idea of scheduling league games with hamilton in the mix is a nightmare.....just for speculation, i would say mit would be a likely candidate for nescac inclusion; then i would consider vassar or skidmore- not many others out there and any additions would be likely years away.......

[frank uible]

Norwich, Coast Guard, Springfield, RPI, King's Point.

[ephoops]

Union has a black mark against it, which can't be remedied.

What is Union's "black mark"??

[lefrakenstein]

Norwich, Coast Guard, Springfield, RPI, King's Point.

I dont think any of those schools meet the academic profile of the NESCAC

[frank uible]

What precisely is the academic profile of NESCAC? When it was a member of NESCAC, Union intentionally, systematically and clandestinely violated NESCAC's rules concerning financial aid to athletes.

[formerbant10]

RPI's hockey is division 1, that wouldn't quite fit the NESCAC profile athletically.

[frank uible]

Midd's, Williams', Colby's, Bates' and Bowdoin's skiing are DI. Trin's squash is surely D1 equivalent.

[Hugenerd]

Norwich, Coast Guard, Springfield, RPI, King's Point.

Can you really see a NEWMAC school leaving to joing the NESCAC?  They would essentially be screwing over the rest of the league because that would drop the NEWMAC to only 6 mens basketball teams, which I think would mean they would lose their AQ.  I honestly cant see it happening.

[lefrakenstein]

What precisely is the academic profile of NESCAC? When it was a member of NESCAC, Union intentionally, systematically and clandestinely violated NESCAC's rules concerning financial aid to athletes.

And Union is no longer a participating school.

From the release announcing Hamilton's acceptance as a full member:

"The NESCAC is a group of 11 highly selective liberal arts colleges and universities that share a similar philosophy for intercollegiate athletics. The conference was created out of a concern for the direction of intercollegiate athletic programs, and remains committed to keeping a proper perspective on the role of sport in higher education. NESCAC members believe intercollegiate athletic programs should operate in harmony with the educational mission of each institution. "

Certain educational standards are expected of NESCAC schools. I'm not saying there's a test to get in or anything, but there is no sense denying that there is a sense of academic snobbery. Whether having "highly selective" schools "committed to keeping a proper perspective on the role of sport in higher education" is actually important to keeping the NESCAC a competitive conference is not for me to say.

If anything, it seems like the language that goes into these announcements suggest that the NESCAC doesn't want schools taking athletics too seriously, but at the same time this is the conference that pretty much dominates the Director's Cup Standings year after year. The rhetoric of the NESCAC makes it sound like the conference is full of Swarthmores, when in actuality athletics are taken much, much more seriously.

[Hugenerd]

What precisely is the academic profile of NESCAC? When it was a member of NESCAC, Union intentionally, systematically and clandestinely violated NESCAC's rules concerning financial aid to athletes.

And Union is no longer a participating school.

From the release announcing Hamilton's acceptance as a full member:

"The NESCAC is a group of 11 highly selective liberal arts colleges and universities that share a similar philosophy for intercollegiate athletics. The conference was created out of a concern for the direction of intercollegiate athletic programs, and remains committed to keeping a proper perspective on the role of sport in higher education. NESCAC members believe intercollegiate athletic programs should operate in harmony with the educational mission of each institution. "

Certain educational standards are expected of NESCAC schools. I'm not saying there's a test to get in or anything, but there is no sense denying that there is a sense of academic snobbery. Whether having "highly selective" schools "committed to keeping a proper perspective on the role of sport in higher education" is actually important to keeping the NESCAC a competitive conference is not for me to say.

If anything, it seems like the language that goes into these announcements suggest that the NESCAC doesn't want schools taking athletics too seriously, but at the same time this is the conference that pretty much dominates the Director's Cup Standings year after year. The rhetoric of the NESCAC makes it sound like the conference is full of Swarthmores, when in actuality athletics are taken much, much more seriously.

How does Tufts fit in?  They arent a liberal arts school.

[frank uible]

The release doesn't mention geography - so how about colleges like Pomona, Grinnell, Swarthmore, Haverford, Carleton, Washington and Lee - not to mention the women's colleges like Smith, Mount Holyoke, Wellesley.

[frank uible]

I wonder how the UAA handles the travel - for instance, one week Brandeis may play in Atlanta, the next in St. Louis. Does the UAA have something like travel partners?

[Hugenerd]

I wonder how the UAA handles the travel - for instance, one week Brandeis may play in Atlanta, the next in St. Louis. Does the UAA have something like travel partners?

Yes they do have travel partners.  You play Friday night/Sunday afternoon games.  The partners are Chicago/WashU, Brandeis/NYU, CMU/Rochester, and Case Western/Emory.  So if you were on the road, you would play Chicago Friday night and then WashU Sunday afternoon, for example.  They also play double-headers with the women's game.

[nescac1]

Tufts is definitely a bit of an outlier in NESCAC -- in some ways, more a UAA type school.  But, while a university, Tufts doesn't have all that many grad programs, and its undergrad student body is far smaller than most univerities -- I don't think it has THAT many more undergrads than the other relatively large NESCAC schools (Midd and Wesleyan). 

Speaking of Wesleyan, according to the New England site, yet another recruit for them.  This profile makes him sound like a solid prospect:

http://zip06.theday.com/blogs/the_source/archive/2009/03/26/callaghan-bleeds-basketball-success.aspx

So that is at least six recruits (the two small but very talented point guards, two wings, and two shooting forwards) confirmed for Wesleyan, perhaps more as well.  Very impressive job by Reilly in his first year there. 

[Bucket]

I'd like to get back to the recruiting topic, if you guys don't mind. Sorry that things have been quiet from Panther-land. We're multi-sport enthusiasts up here, where I am an ardent follower of the men's lax team and Old Guy is our resident Seamhead. Every once and a while I'll spot him at a lax game, an obvious sign that he has exhausted all opportunities to watch baseball that day.

Anyway, back to the recruiting trail. I'm intrigued by this 6'6" forward out of Massachusetts, Peter Lynch. He didn't have a lot of competition in high school (Westford Academy), but I hear he can play. He'll have a chance to bang with Sherry, Davis, and Locke in practice, and I'm curious to see if he cracks the rotation. I understand the Panthers have a point guard from Long Island, Chaminade High to be precise, headed to the North Country. I don't know much about him, but CHaminade has produced some players in the past.

I know the Amherst gang is excited about their class, but the class that really scares me (as a Panther fan) is Williams's. Not only did the Ephs get the guard they coveted-- the kid Robertson from Michigan--but they also picked up a gem in James Klemm from Heritage in Colorado. If that school sounds familiar, it's the same program that produced Kevin Snyder and Jimmy Bartolotta--and the coach out there says that Klemm is a better player at this stage than either Snyder or Bartolotta were. They're not New England guys so they're not getting a lot of chatter, but these guys--along with a couple of other solid recruits from Long Island and the Pacific Northwest--that leave me thinking that Williams will be a force to be reckoned with--and soon.

Full disclosure: As many on this board know, Coach Maker is a good friend of mine. But believe me when I say that if I felt that he was bringing in a dog of a class, I would gleefully let him know. I bleed Panther blue. But I know how he works, how--and more importantly where--he hits the trail. And I think his first recruiting class is a doozy.