MBB: NESCAC

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

fair enough Mike. I happen to think the UAA is better than nescac anyway(oops that'll get folks fired up)...again, I like Amherst and don't feel a need to tarnish their season or pressurize their post-season...

You might have a point this year, but overall, that one is debatable.

[JeffRookie2]

I apologize for my outside of the NESCAC ignorance, but who is in the UAA?

[mrmike88]

Carnegie Mellon, NYU, Rochester, Brandeis, Emory, Case Western Reserve, Chicago, WashU.  Pretty impressive league this year.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

University Athletic Association - the highbrow of d3, major research universities who like to fly their teams around the country to play games and cavort about how they are so much better than the rest of us.




(That should be worth some karma drops for all the people who have no sense of humor).

[formerbant10]

I feel that the UAA started off great, but as of late they started beating each other and NYU dropping off the face of the earth in the last weekend hurt the status of their league.

Must be nice to fly everywhere, but playing games Friday night and Sunday afternoon leaves very little time to socialize with the rest of the students.

At least the NESCAC did something right by making the 2nd game in the afternoon....for social purposes.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

NYU lost their leading scorer to injury over the weekend.  It happens.

I think their talent level can challenge the NESCAC this year, but they don't yet have the tradition of this quality of play, at least on a league-wide level.


I'm sure social purposes have a lot to do with the scheduling.

[walzy31]

CCSalive,

I think you are right on with your comments about this years Amherst team. "Anything less than a final 4 would be a dissapointment." MrMike88 brought up last year's game against URoch and I think if you asked the team last year if they thought the year was dissapointing they would say it ultimately was. They would say how going 9-0 in league and winning the tournament was great, but these kids really want to get back to Salem, and losing in the Sweet 16 at home sucked. No one has said the final 4 is or was a gimmie, but it is the goal for all teams(some teams just have more realistic goals than others). Hopefully this year they do get back to the final 4, where they will be more fired up to win it all, than just being there.
Also, Adolphe played amazingly against Conn on Saturday and I completely can see why you are high on him right now. I too am excited for the way he has been playing the past 4 games. I hope that he does become first team all conference the next two years...but some games this year he hasn't looked as good as in the Conn game...that is why some of the Amherst fans on the site are saying McLaughlin is more valuable to the team. Either way, it is a nice dilemma for Hixon to have: Having to choose between putting Tim or Adolphe in for Cas or Bedford.

Formerbant,

I knew you would come right back with a post about Bedford/Rhoten statistics...just supporting my guys like you are yours haha.

Regarding the UAA,
They do not have a post season tournament (for travel issues I would guess), and instead play a regular season of home and homes. These road trips are INSANE for some of the teams. Wash U flew to Boston to play at Brandeis this past Friday... They then traveled to New York to play at NYU on Sunday, before returning back to Missouri. Then this coming saturday they play their last game at Chicago. The "closer road games" are traveling to places like Atlanta (for Emory). It's crazy, but the league is strong this year with it being so competitive that the top teams in the league each have 4 conference losses. They will get Carnegie and Wash U in for sure...with Rochester and NYU still bubble teams.

Geronimo,
He's back and he's a flippin legend. War killing people with kindness. heyOH!

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

From the region they are in, Amherst would be a disappointment to most observers if they can't make the final four out of the East-Northeast.  There just are not many teams with the ability to compete on that level.  Rochester may or may not be there.  Then you have the rest of the NESCAC, St John Fisher and Cortland.  Their biggest test may come if someone from the A/MA region gets shipped North.

I think they need to make it to Salem to be satisfied with the season.

[formerbant10]

Walzy,

I'm all about supporting your guy with stats.  I was just saying choose the more appropriate one that shows Bedford being superior.  The Points Per Shot stat does that.  I wasn't disagreeing with you at all.

My one problem with Bedford, he's the exact same age as me and is still playing in college.  Maybe that's not really a problem, but shows how helpful the extra year (wherever he took it before college) is.  Wish I had done it as well.

[walzy31]

Hoops fan,

You're right on with your last post. I personally would be more concerned with a Mid-Atlantic team coming to town than an Atlantic team. Bu they most likely would not ship north the best teams of either region would they? (York, Alvernia, Widener, or SUNY Baruch?)

I remember someone posting about the record for consecutive weeks that a team has remained in the D3hoops top 25. They said the record was in the 50s and that Amherst was very close to it. Does anybody know the details of that record? Is there a place to see teams streaks active?

Formerbant,
I know. That's why I was laughing. I hope they split the award and name both co-poy because they both deserve it.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Amherst is at 60 consecutive weeks in the Top 25, the record is 62.  Wooster is also riding that streak, but they are a couple weeks behind Amherst.

I think they might move a few teams up, I'd be especially worried about a NJAC school coming up.  The other question is if they keep the VA/NC schools on the East Coast, because throwing VA Wesleyan and Randolph-Macon into the MA region would necessitate shoving some schools up North.  It all depends on how it shakes out.

[walzy31]

Thanks Hoops-Fan.

Yeh those southern schools seem more intimadating to me as a fan than the PA & NY teams. Hopefully nothing Amherst can't handle comes our way. You can't win it all without beating some good teams along the way anyway.

Amherst is currently 2nd in the Nation in Scoring Margin at +21.6 while Wooster is #1 at +23.0
Many people equate this statistic to the "run up the score award". If you look at Wooster's results they have 30+ point wins of 49, 36, 59, 49, 31, 35, 36, 33, and 62 (in chronological order). I think that indicates running up the score. Compare to Amherst's 30+ point wins of 55, 30, 35, 31 and 36 (also chronological order), it seems as Amherst wins most of their games by 20-30 points and plays their full team. Wooster wins half their games by 30-60 points and the other half by 10-20 points.
Scoring Margin also counts losses. So losing by small amounts as opposed to getting blown out (wesleyan) will lower your scoring margin less. Both Amherst and Wooster have that going for them (2 small defeats apiece).
I am trying to point out that if Amherst DOES win this title (which very few people know about and no one cares about), it will be won with class.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

To me running up the score is only if your starters are in in the last ten minutes.

If your 10-12 guys are in, they can score all they want, I don't care, those kids deserve it.

[CCsalive]

Adolphe was awesome saturday...with a McGrady like PULL-
UP from the foul-line in the second half. Formerbant, I'm no casual fan who thinks that D-III basketball is one notch above your mens league at the Hartford Y...but any of us that watched Grinell "represent" on ESPN 2 last year cringed because of how BAD they looked. Granted, that's Grinnell and their circus act, but there is a BIG difference b/w DIII and DI...maybe not b/w a developed Rhoten or Bedford and an Ivy Leaguer, but a freshmen that scores 11 vs. Missouri on opening night is sitting 9th on the depth chart at Amherst? I hate to tell you, but as far as I know its only your pals the Ephs that have talked the talk and knocked off a DI team.

[formerbant10]

CC,

Yes Williams is the only that knocked off a D1 team in Holy Cross.  I've had the pleasure in playing with 2 of Holy Cross' players as I grew up, so I know their talent level pretty well.  Those two players have played in the same summer league as many other D1 players and Colby's own Drew Cohen and Cohen repeatedly outplayed his counterparts from bigger schools.  The gap is not as big as you think, trust me.


And I don't play in a men's league at the Hartford Y, the competition in the league I currently play in is slightly above that.  And I personally don't believe that the gap is quite what most people think.  And its not just Rhoten and Bedford that could play at a higher level, there are quite a few that could be playing up but choose not too. 


Also, I don't know how good the NJAC is this year, there seems to be much more parity in that league.  Last year, Ramapo and TCNJ were very good, but I know both teams lost their best players in Amin Wright and Derrick Grant and I haven't really followed them that closely this year.

On another note, Tyler Rhoten needs to play in 3 more games to break the Trinity record for all time games played.  It'd only be 103 which compared to the Amherst guys is nothing, but another record for him to shoot for.