MBB: NESCAC

[frank uible]

NESCAC? NESCAC? Isn't that a sugar wafer made in New England? Or is it a brand of coffee?

[ac08]

It's a poor frog that doesn't praise his own pond.

[frank uible]

What is it that Dirty Harry said about "limitations"?

[ac08]

I prefer what Dory said about "swimming".

[MichaelEvans]

Hi everyone, I played basketball at Hamilton (3 yrs for Murphy, 1 for Anderson).
I just want to make you all aware of a fundraiser I'm putting on for my nonprofit organization, Full Court Peace (www.fullcourtpeace.org), which uses basketball to unite Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland.

If you get a chance, check out the video that explains it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8RefTOiTnk

Thanks!

Mike Evans
Hamilton '05

[lefrakenstein]

Projections for next season:

1. Williams (Snyder gone, but Schultz will have the help of a healthy Geohegan and youngsters Wang and Whittington. Should be loaded offensively)
2. Amherst  (Love the top 5 of Meehan, Wheeler, Waller, Holmes and Barrise, but who will come off the bench? Also, Baskauskas will be awfully tough to replace)
--major drop off--
3. Trinity (Great stash of young talent that really came on at the tail end of last year. probably have to wait a year to be legit contenders)
4. Colby (Lose Cutrone, but have Choice coming into his senior year)
5. Middlebury (Loss of Rudin, Smith and Dudley will be hard to recover from, but still have plenty of talent in Locke, Edwards, Coughlin)
6. Wesleyan (should have a legit one-two punch in Mendell and Kaminer, plus a stacked freshman class)
7. Bowdoin (they'll D-up as usual, but with Jackson and Lane gone, Mark Phillips may need to score 50 a game for them to win)
--major drop off--
8. Bates (Chris Wilson and Brian Ellis have their work cut out for them)
9. Tufts (Jon Pierce may actually face quadruple teams)
10. Conn College (Have seamlessly transitioned from the 'Stone and nobody else' era to the 'Porter and nobody else' era)

Basically, if Geohegan stays healthy it should be a battle at the top, if not, Amherst will reassume their rightful position at the top of the league.

Middle of the pack will be crowded, but I think Trinity showed at the end of last year that they're at least ready for 'best of the rest' status, with serious contention maybe a year away. Wouldn't want to see them in the tournament.

I don't know if Sheldon is allergic to defense or what, but until the Jumbos start showing some interest on that end of the court it doesnt really matter how good jon pierce is. Which is kind of a shame because he's really good.

[nescac1]

That sounds about right.  I know Wes has a LOADED frosh class coming in, but frosh are still frosh and the team is really undersized in a suddenly big-guy filled league, I think they will finish 8th or 9th -- Bowdoin, Bates, and Tufts all return veteran-laded squads with at least one proven star.   A year from now, I expect Wes to shoot up in the standings.  That being said, if the frosh are as good as hyped, sixth wouldn't shock me.  I also don't think Midd will fall QUITE that far.  Rudin is a huge loss but Locke/Davis/Sharry is an enormous, athletic frontcourt that will intimidate a lot of teams, and Edwards is top returning perimeter defender in the league.  Midd may struggle to score at times, but they will be very, very tough to score against.

As for Williams, I agree that this is their best chance in years to take the conference.  In addition to the players you mentioned, Rubin and Dodson can also really shoot and can't be left open from three (Dodson was banged up a lot last year but has the talent to make a bigger impact), and frosh Robertson may give them the true distributing point guard they lacked last year -- even if not, Wang should get a lot more minutes.  But they really need Big Joe (and of course Schultz) to stay healthy.   Ephs will have no trouble scoring, they need to get more consistent in terms of defense and rebounding to be an elite team.  But if any of Whittington, Dodson and Rubin break out (all three easily could) they will be tough to handle. 

As for Amherst, ya figure at least a few of the highly regarded frosh will fill the bench role that Holmes and Barrise managed to perform as frosh last year ...

[lefrakenstein]

Projections Part II: Post Season Awards -

First Team:

Blake Schultz: Williams
Joe Geoghegan: Williams
Jon Pierce: Tufts
Adam Choice: Colby
Steven Wheeler: Amherst

Second Team:

Andrew Locke: Middlebury
Mark Phillips: Bowdoin
Chris Wilson: Bates
Jeremey Kaminer: Wesleyan
Brian Ford: Trinity

Possibles: Conor Meehan, David Waller, Jeff Holmes, Ian Fels, Luke MacDougal, Brian Ellis, Shavar Bernier, Demetrius Porter, Jason Mendell, Tim Edwards, Ryan Sharry, Ryan Wholey, Ashton Coughlin, Michael Russell, Will Hanley

Quick Quiz: (don't look it up!)

Name the only NESCAC school to have a player on every NESCAC all-first team (since the 01-02 season, which is as far back as the archive goes online)

Name the only player to ever make the All-First Team as a sophomore

Name the only team (school and year) to have 3 players make the 1st or 2nd team. Name the three players.

Name the only player to be named rookie of the year to never make a 1st or 2nd team in their career (not counting Brian Ellis and Demetrius Porter, who still have time)

Ok, back to Business

DPOY:

Canidates:

Andrew Locke, Middlebury (6'10 tree in the lane)
Tim Edwards, Middlebury (defending champ)
Salah Abdo, Trinity (quietly turning into a monster perimeter defender)
Tom Selby, Tufts (block machine)
Somebody from Bowdoin (team defense consistently the best in the league)

Winner: Tim Edwards (Hard to argue with the defending champ. I thought somebody from Bowdoin should have won last year, but team defense never wins the accolades)

COY

Canidates:

Joe Reilly (if Wesleyan makes the big jump earlier than expected he'll be a prime canidate)
Mike Maker (if Williams wins the league, he will likely get the nod for returning them to the top)
Dave Hixon (thought he should have won last year for keeping Amherst competitive despite the huge loss of the '08 class. If he wins the league this year it will have been one awfully short rebuilding period)
Sean Tabb (totally possible that the Bantams pull a surprise win in the tournament. If they do, Tabb will deserve the COY award and the 'interim' stripped from his title)

Winner: Mike Maker (I've got the hated Ephs as the favorite to win the league this year, so that makes Maker the favorite for COY.

POY

Candidates:

Geohegan (needs to stay healthy, be clearly the best player on his own team)
Schultz (needs to be clearly the best player on his own team)
Choice (needs to be a statistical beast and keep Colby competitive)
Pierce (needs Tufts to win at least 4 games in the league)
Wheeler (needs to be the unquestioned leader of an Amherst team that would probably have to win the league)

Winner: Choice (This one is harder to pick than usual this year, but I think overall he'll edge anybody from the more balanced Williams and Amherst teams and lead a better team than Pierce)

ROY:

Derick Beresford, Wesleyan (Obviously this is a shot in the dark, but he's the most hyped of the Wesleyan recruits, and should get a chance to play before a lot of the Williams/Amherst/Trinity guys)

[nescac1]

I think that is pretty good except I am surprised you value Wheeler over Meehan.  Wheeler is a fantastic shooter but Meehan I think makes that team go.  I'd put Meehan on first team, Wheeler on second, and then replace Kaminer and Ford with Edwards and Bernier, otherwise looks pretty good. 

For ROY, my sense is that Sha Brown is the most hyped Wesleyan recruit, but who knows.  Certainly, a Wes guy winning is a good bet, unless perhaps someone like Robertson or Kaasila ends up starting for a NESCAC title team. 

[ac08]

2. Amherst  (Love the top 5 of Meehan, Wheeler, Waller, Holmes and Barrise, but who will come off the bench?

I think Carcieri, Johnson, and Bennett will be the primary 1, wing, and 5 off the bench.

As a unit, if Amherst defends well they will be win the 'CAC.

[nescac1]

Kevin Snyder hired by William & Mary (whose coach was once the long-time head coach at D-III power Hampden Sydney):

http://www.tribeathletics.com/story.php/9026/

[PandB]

New poster here...

I had the opportunity to watch James Klemm (~6'4" SG - Williams '13) workout/play a few weeks back and the kid is the truth.  As was previously mentioned on this board, Klemm is better now than the two other notable players from his same high school (Snyder @ Williams and Bartolotta @ MIT).

Still wondering what kind of style Middlebury is going to play without Rudin.

[Hugenerd]

New poster here...

I had the opportunity to watch James Klemm (~6'4" SG - Williams '13) workout/play a few weeks back and the kid is the truth.  As was previously mentioned on this board, Klemm is better now than the two other notable players from his same high school (Snyder @ Williams and Bartolotta @ MIT).

Still wondering what kind of style Middlebury is going to play without Rudin.

Welcome to the board PandB

[Wydown Blvd.]

Bartolotta just post as yourself (instead of in third person). Its alright to be "MIT-bias", because posters here really appreciate the insight that you will bring. Its just easier that way. Not trying to call you out, but trying to be honest.

[nescac1]

Thanks for the insight ... sounds promising.  I assume you mean better at the same point in his career, because otherwise, he obviously would have been a D-I guy.  Hopefully he makes the same sort of improvements as the other Heritage guys made ...

Robertson, Klemm, and Wang sound like they could be a pretty nice three guard rotation for the future, all with very different skills (distributor, shooter, penetrator), which is encouraging considering the strong crew of swingmen graduating after this year.