MBB: NESCAC

[Pat Coleman]

granted that MIT  lost one of their star players recently......they are still ranked 19th on D3hoops.   

Only because we haven't voted since their last loss.

[walzy31]

Saturday will be fun for Eph and Jeff fans. I feel badly that Whittington will likely not play. He is the most extraordinary player to play at Williams for a long time. It will be tough to make up for that loss. Williams is a fragile team this year in that they rely so heavily on two players. Amherst has experienced talent throughout the lineup. They are, however, heavily dependent on Meehan, as we saw last year. I look for a reasonably competitive game that will turn on assists and turnovers. If Wang and Robertson can play strong games, it will go down to the wire. In any case, it will be a good time.

Whittington will play and Williams will be a slight favorite. Line opened at Williams -1.5.

I was a little lost on NESCAC1's comment:

Assuming Troy doesn't play, Williams will be the underdog in a regular season game for the first time in a very long time.   

Is one year a very long time?

Thanks for the radio kudos. I had never done that before and it was fun.

[magicman]

walzy,
You know that Whittington will play for a fact or is that just speculation on your part?

[walzy31]

walzy,
You know that Whittington will play for a fact or is that just speculation on your part?

I am not Coach Maker, Troy, or the AT, but the odds that he plays is (-500 yes) and (+290 no). It's Amherst/Williams.

[amh63]

Have been reading all this speculation with respect to the outcome of the game....Amherst vs. Williams in LeFrak...depending on the presence of Williams' Sr. center in the game.  Granted that the player has been having a great year so far...but we seem to quickly forget last year's early contest at Williams.
 Last year Williams had Player of the year...Schultz play 35 plus minutes.  Last year, both Williams "big inside players" played well. Geogh. had 16 points and 9 rebounds.  Whitt.....had his minutes and scored 11 points.  Wang played 38 minutes and scored 19 points.    Meanwhile, K. Bennett started at center and led the team in rebounding but had no points.  P. Kaasila and J. Holmes contributed points and Holmes provided 5-6 rebounds.  Last year, Meehan  and Workman scored the bulk of Amherst's points.  Waller started and played 12 minutes.  Workman came off the bench and had his best game of the year.
 With a team that also had Rubin of Williams shooting from outside, etc....Amherst .. lost last year's game by only a few points... with the same players available (except for Wheeler) for this year's game!  Amherst lost lost the game on the foul lane last year.  They shot less than 40% from the line!.
 It should be a close game for sure, a typical Amherst/Williams  BB game.  The game only counts towards the "Little Three" title.   Enjoy the playing of the game with the players available.  There will be other matches to come later this year.

[toad22]

Joe Geohegan seemed to play his best against Amherst. Here in Williamstown, people were always asking why Geohegan played at all. I remember , once again, why he played, and how valuable he was.

[jayhawk]

Against Joe Georgehan was extremely solid, demonstrably very solid footwork in the post and rebounding well.
Nice article on Ryan Sharry in Boston Globe: http://www.boston.com/sports/colleges/mens_basketball/articles/2011/01/06/braintrees_sharry_leads_for_middlebury/

[jayhawk]

meant to say against Amherst Joe Geohegan was extremely solid and valuable

[walzy31]

Significant Line Change:

Williams will be a slight favorite. Line opened at Williams -1.5.

Amherst -4 Vs. Williams
Over / Under 149.5

[nescac1]

Is that reflecting a change on your view of Whittington's availability Walzy?

No proposition bets for this one?

[nescac1]

Great first half between two evenly matched teams.  Williams up two at the half.  Basically a preview of next year's match-up, as Meehan got two early fouls and barely played, and Whittington is out.  Waller is also out for Amherst.

Williams got tremendous play from its guards, even though Wang and Klemm picked up two fouls each (Maker took a risk and let both play, and neither picked up a third).  Only one shot for Klemm, he will need more touches in the second half.  Rooke-Ley playing the best ball I've seen from him, really looked great out there, as did Robertson and Wang. 

Williams without Troy had zero interior game at all -- Amherst had way too many easy baskets inside, especially off offensive rebounds, and there was just no inside help defense when guys were able to drive.  Fortunately for Williams, Amherst was a bit cold from three, or the Ephs could have been in big trouble. 

Toomey is really, really good,  Quicker then I realized, blew by whoever was guarding him, even Wang at times.  Workman as usual gave Williams a lot of problems too, but he missed some very makeable shots.  Kaasila had his way inside.  For Williams to win, they will have to do a slightly better job staying in front of Toomey and figure out a way to control Kaasila inside.  They also need Klemm to get going. Still, an impressive performance by Williams without an all-American center. 

[nescac1]

Great back and forth game in Amherst, alas the video feed is barely working.   Tied up now with six to play, Kaasila still dominating for Amherst, Wang carrying Williams on his back. 

[nescac1]

Williams up one, with ball, a minute left.  Three VERY iffy calls in a row all go Amherst's way.  Heart attack city!

[nescac1]

Argghh, Wang shot rims out, barely, amherst ball with four seconds, tie game.

[nescac1]

Headed to OT.  Incredible.