MBB: NESCAC

[nescac1]

Interesting first half.  Ephs by eight.  Ephs dominating play but ice ice cold from three.  Robertson with ten taking it to hole strong.  He gets better each game and is gonna be great eventually.  Wang and Robertson driving on rmc all day.  Big Joe strong inside.  Whittington with at least three monster blocks.  Unfortunate that eph shooters are off because they are surprisingly taking it to rmc off dribble and inside. 

[nescac1]

Ephs were in total control, up 14, and totally fell apart against the press.  combo of rushing way too much and a series of frustrating 50-50 block / charges that went the other way, but really, the ephs should have put them away.  Ephs needs to seriously work against the press, fortunately not many teams in New England have as much quickness as RMC.  Ephs couldn't throw the balll in the bucket and still nearly beat a top five team on the roa, but this is a game they should have won, and they are looking like a veyr long shot at this point.  

Ephs aren't going to win many games going 3-16 from 3 against a good team, and most of the misses were open.  I actually feel better about Williams after this loss as they looked good in all aspects except against the press, which is something that can be worked on, and with two good point guards should be something the Ephs should handle.  Frustrating to lose, of course, though.   

[Old Guy]

Middlebury beats Rensselaer 63-52 in Troy (guess it's not RPI anymore). Rensselaer was 6-1 coming into the game - no league games. Midd was up 8 at the half - the Engineers got it to 4 with 8 1/2 minutes to go.

Edwards played 36 minutes and had 16 points (4 threes), 5 assists, 11 rebounds, 2 steals - nice to have him back. Wolfin had 6 assists, 10 points; Thompson had 10 points.

Up front, Sharry had 14 pts (6-9 shooting, 1-1 from three) and 7 boards, and Locke had 8 points. Nice offensive balance, again.

Middlebury won the battle underneath (43-34 rebounding edge), but had 20 turnovers.

A win on the road.

[bmull]

It was a good Middlebury win - a solid rotation of 7 in and out - Thompson and Wolfin nice frosh. Edwards a solid senior, Sharry a quality 2nd half with 10 points.
The RPI gym a good place to see a game.

[JustAFan]

Chad Labove from St. John's HS (MA) should be able to help Wesleyan when he's a junior and senior but is unlikely to have an immediate impact as a freshman like Kaasila at Amherst.  He's still growing into his current 6'7" frame and may have a few more inches to go.  His older brother Matt is 6'9" and is now starting at center for Dartmouth as a freshman, and recently was Ivy player of the week.  Both kids come out of a  high school program that provides great coaching and really teaches the fundamentals (as former Amherst player Mike Salerno will attest).  Both brothers are a bit slow afoot, and the older brother is more coordinated right now, especially on the offensive end, but give the Wesleyan coach a couple of years with the younger brother and you never know since he's big and strong and likes to bang. 

[walzy31]

Blake Curry, right, he was incredible.  Great, I look forward to it!  

I have Rhoten on first team ...

Williams -- RMC line would be a good (and challenging) one ... I am guessing RMC by about five, although I hope the Ephs can pull an upset.  Of course Williams still has to take care of business tonight, first (there is zero chance RMC will lose to MCLA ...).  

Randolph Macon -6.5 Vs. Williams
Over/Under: 150.0

I have a bad feeling that Williams is going to go 22-2 this year in the regular season with one of their losses coming tonight...

Randolph Macon 79
Willaims 74

Randolph Macon -6.5 Vs. Williams (Williams Cover +1.5)
Over/Under: 150.0 (Over +3.0)

Nice spread Nescac1

[y_jack_lok]

Ephs were in total control, up 14, and totally fell apart against the press.  combo of rushing way too much and a series of frustrating 50-50 block / charges that went the other way, but really, the ephs should have put them away.  Ephs needs to seriously work against the press, fortunately not many teams in New England have as much quickness as RMC.  Ephs couldn't throw the balll in the bucket and still nearly beat a top five team on the roa, but this is a game they should have won, and they are looking like a veyr long shot at this point.  

Ephs aren't going to win many games going 3-16 from 3 against a good team, and most of the misses were open.  I actually feel better about Williams after this loss as they looked good in all aspects except against the press, which is something that can be worked on, and with two good point guards should be something the Ephs should handle.  Frustrating to lose, of course, though.   

Just curious to get your persepctive on R-MC (I'm an alum). Do you think their #4 ranking is deserved? I live in St. Louis and have been going to Wash U games for 5+ years, so I know what good D3 baskeball is all about seeing Wash U and their UAA oppononents, plus occasionally a good CCIW team.

[Hugenerd]

Middlebury beats Rensselaer 63-52 in Troy (guess it's not RPI anymore). Rensselaer was 6-1 coming into the game - no league games. Midd was up 8 at the half - the Engineers got it to 4 with 8 1/2 minutes to go.

Edwards played 36 minutes and had 16 points (4 threes), 5 assists, 11 rebounds, 2 steals - nice to have him back. Wolfin had 6 assists, 10 points; Thompson had 10 points.

Up front, Sharry had 14 pts (6-9 shooting, 1-1 from three) and 7 boards, and Locke had 8 points. Nice offensive balance, again.

Middlebury won the battle underneath (43-34 rebounding edge), but had 20 turnovers.

A win on the road.

RPI's only two losses are at home to ranked NE teams: Middlebury and MIT.

[JustAFan]

Interesting comments from Williams Coach Maker after the game per the Williams game summary:

"We got everything we needed [offensively]," said Maker. "We scored 74 points on the road against the No. 4 team in the country that is very talented and very well coached. We had a difficult time in the second half getting the necessary defensive stops. We fouled too much, and they had too many second chance points. We need to have the mental toughness and collective resolve to be able to guard down the stretch, particularly on the road, and we didn't do that. We didn't finish what could have been a sweet victory against a very good basketball team and it stings, it's disappointing, but I am encouraged by what I saw.... .We are a better team than we were four days ago...."

With the top 3 ranked teams in the country all losing this week, don't be surprised if Randoph Macon moves up to #1 in next week's poll.  Tonight's victory is their second win against a top 25 team this season. 

[nescac1]

Jack, based on watching them for 1.5 games, I'd say RMC is not an elite team at the level of Wash U or past Amherst and Williams juggernauts, but they will be very tough out for anyone (and considering they have no seniors they rely upon, they'll be a contender for preseason number one next year).  They are missing that one dynamic go-to player on offense.  Jones played a great game but I'm not sure he could do it game in and game out, and Williams defended him poorly.  They have a lot of players who are very good at one thing, but no one at an all american level.  They play very good team ball, very balanced on offense, very tough-minded and were absolutely clutch down the stretch, draining every big shot and FT and making some clutch stops.  Well coached and enjoyable to watch but they don't have the dynamic individual talents that have let basically every title team this decade.  Still all the credit in the world as lots of teams would have folded after the Ephs took control in the second half.  I'd love to see them again on a neutral court ...

Williams will hopefully learn from that game.  As I said they were in complete control until RMC went small pressed them for the last ten minutes of the game.  Ephs actually did  not get beat on the back end of the court by the press much.  But once they beat the press, they were a bit flustered on offense, turning it over, rushing poor shots, charging in reckessly, instead of calming down and doing what worked in the first 3/4 of the game, which was Geoghegan inside and drives by the guards.  I think those issues can be resolved by practice and coaching. Defense i sa bigger concern for the Ephs as Maker pointed out.  Ephs gave up way too many open looks down the stretch, part of that was due to RMC's quick guardsa and great ball movement, but without a doubt Ephs need to be tougher especially in temrs of perimeter D.  Offensively, this team is great, as they scored 7 against a very good defensive team despite having Rubin, Dodson, and Schultz collctively cold from outside.  Defensively, they are only adequate.  Enough to beat most teams on the schedule, but if this team wants to be a contdender that is where there is room for improvement.


RObertson really lookedd like the real deal.  He has incredible handle, length, body control, and vision, and is quick enough.  Reminds me of Meehan the way he takes it to the hole and finishes with incredible body control , although doesn't have nearly the strength.  Same height as Meehan and similar crafty finisher inside.  His upside is basically Meehan with a better jumper and better vision IF he gets a lot stronger and improves his decsion making a bit.  Wang  of course continues to play at a very high level.  Wasnt Schultz best day but the defense seemed focused on him and I have no doubt he'll bounce back. 

[y_jack_lok]

Jack, based on watching them for 1.5 games, I'd say RMC is not an elite team at the level of Wash U or past Amherst and Williams juggernauts, but they will be very tough out for anyone (and considering they have no seniors they rely upon, they'll be a contender for preseason number one next year).

Thanks for all the insights above. I saw the team play 2 games 2 years ago when the juniors (Braxton, Brown, Jones, Pugh, etc.) were freshmen and were getting lots of minutes. Jones actually started the two games I saw. Braxton and Brown were both starters last season. So I think their greatest strength, if they don't have that one star player on offense, is experience. I thought Jordan Brown might become that player, but so far that doesn't appear to be the case. Good luck to Williams the rest of the season.

[old_hooper]

Props to Walzy for his incrediable insight!  Spot on!

[Hugenerd]

NESCAC has 3 teams ranked in the top 11 in the country.  Pretty impressive stuff.

[Wydown Blvd.]

In the D3 nerd battle between the UAA and NESCAC, NESCAC certainly seems to have the deeper/better overall conference this year... Its pretty drastic how down the UAA is this year IMHO (with the obvious exception of WashU).

Although the distance could be too great and the d3 tournament selection process wouldnt reward this, I think a UAA/NESCAC non conference tournament or challenge week would be pretty sweet. I was thinking similar to the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. (Im sure Walzy and Marty Perez would love it.)

[frank uible]

Would Chicago like to travel to Waterville in January for a game? Or Emory to Clinton?