MBB: NESCAC

[TheHerst2and4]

I wonder where this Amherst edition would rank next to three final four editions from 07-09.

Little early to compare. Prob better to save that convo for after the season and look at it retrospectively, but what the heck-

While I agree that the top teams in the NESCAC might be tougher this year than in those prior years, it may be that there was a little more talent lower in the league, and anyone had a squad that could get hot and pop off.
I remember the 07 Bates team being a tough 8 seed in the NESCAC tourney with z ray, stockwell and wholey putting up a good effort for a spoiler.

The argument could very well be circular- maybe those prior teams faced regional teams that are just as good or better than the teams now, but was able to handle them because they were that good? Pretty indicative of the difficulty of comparing teams from different "eras" relative to their competition

I'm also fairly confident with the 07 Amherst team to play with anyone- might not have had the same talent o f even the previous final four teams but the team chemistry and effort was pretty special.

Disclaimer: Clearly biased here, but as that saying goes: The older I get, the better I was.

[nescac1]

Colby Hoops, don't challenge Walzy's spreads ...

Nice win for Williams.  Wesleyan hung tough, leading by 1 a few minutes into the second half, then the Ephs just took total control.  Too big, too deep, too balanced.  Williams (Klemm in particular -- he had a rare off day) was a bit off from three for the first 25 minutes, allowing Wesleyan to hang around, but then the offense really started to click and there wasn't much the Cardinals could do.

Congrats to James Wang on scoring (already!) his 1000th career point ... many more surely to come.  He had a fantastic game, winning the individual battle against Shasha Brown (who also had many very good plays).  Looked very much in control out there, making smart decisions with the ball. 

Whittington was pretty much hacked and knocked around every time he touched the ball, but he still was very productive.  Outstanding games on both ends of the floor from both Brian Emerson, Nate Robertson, and Jordan Mickens, all of whom played outstanding defense and hit big shots.  Frosh Rooke-Ley and Epley continued to be reliable scorers off the bench as well.  The Ephs don't lose much when the second unit comes in. 

Wesleyan really needs more depth -- their guards seem to have play huge minutes every game, so, unsurprisingly, they often seem to falter down the stretch.  At their best, they can hang tough with anyone, as they have proven, but they really rely too much on about four guys to carry the team.  Today, the Ephs' balance and depth just wore Wesleyan down. 

[Colby Hoops]

Colby Hoops, don't challenge Walzy's spreads ...

I  guess so, he had it right, Colby loses a tough one. Quezada for Tufts was on fire for the first half, and Colby just couldn't get a stop when they needed it down the stretch.

On another note, Bates storms back in the second half to beat Bowdoin.  Rough weekend for the Polar Bears, its an absolute mess after the top 3 right now. 

[Mr. Ypsi]

Yeah, so much for a fourth NESCAC team in the top 25!   Bowdoin begins the weekend at 11-2, plays Tufts and Bates at home, and is now 11-4.

I followed the Bates @ Bowdoin game on livestats.  The Polar Bears were absolutely on fire in the first half - I think they shot 67% from the field.  They still led by 12 with 12 to go, when Bates eliminated the entire deficit in 3 minutes.  The key stats appear to be TOs (Bowdoin had 15 to just 6 for Bates) and FTs (Bowdoin: 10 of 20; Bates 24 of 30).  Bowdoin fouled rapidly and incessantly the last two minutes, but it is hard to gain ground when the opponent refuses to miss from the line!

[toad22]

Williams is getting better very fast. They are a better defensive team than they were last year, and are quickly becoming an excellent offensive team as well. They are about 2-3 players deeper this year. However, they don't rebound it quite as well, and clearly don't shoot it as well. They now appear to be a real final 4 contender.

With regard to league play, right now I would rate the "big three" about even. I am very impressed with Amherst, and Middlebury appears to be stronger than ever. Upsets are possible, and might very well determine the regular season champion. I'm not too surprised that Tufts had a good weekend up north. Though Williams handled them fairly easily last weekend, they appeared to be a team on the rise. They have good talent and appear to want to be out there on the court. That's the first time I can say that in several years. 

[walzy31]

Colby Hoops, don't challenge Walzy's spreads ...

I  guess so, he had it right, Colby loses a tough one. Quezada for Tufts was on fire for the first half, and Colby just couldn't get a stop when they needed it down the stretch.

On another note, Bates storms back in the second half to beat Bowdoin.  Rough weekend for the Polar Bears, its an absolute mess after the top 3 right now. 

The most difficult game for me to cap today was Bates / Bowdoin (and I got it wrong). The second most difficult was Colby / Tufts. The first thing I do is pick a winner with my gut and then do my system to see if it is right, what the score will be, and change it if I need to change it. Changing Tufts to Colby was the only change I had to make.

[walzy31]

Saturday January 22nd Lines
All Games Scheduled to Tip at 2pm EST

Wesleyan @ Williams Williams 82 - Wesleyan 63
Williams -18.5 (Williams Covers +0.5)
O/U: 155.5 (Under +10.5)

Trinity @ Amherst Amherst 88 - Trinity 67
Amherst -15.5 (Amherst Covers +5.5)
O/U: 140.5 (Over +14.5)

Bates @ Bowdoin Bates 75 - Bowdoin 71
Bowdoin -3.0 (Bates Covers +7.0)
O/U: 149.5 (Under +3.5)

Conn College @ Middlebury Middlebury 80 - Conn College 52
Middlebury -25.0 (Middlebury Covers +3.0)
O/U: 145.0 (Under +13.0)

Tufts @ Colby Tufts 78 - Colby 66
Tufts -3.5 (Tufts Covers +8.5)
O/U: 143.0 (Over +1.0)

[Marty Peretz]

Caught Amherst for the second time this year. In terms of completeness as a player, I haven't been as impressed by a D3 player, let alone rookie, since perhaps Tyler Nading at Wash.U. a few years ago (I'm more of a UAA guy). Toomey just does all the little things well and doesn't force anything. He is a pure basketball player.

Only other thought today: Trinity's #31 HAS to be an all crazy first teamer. Why one earth did he think imitating Rodney Harrison was an effective thing to do in the low paint? Never a fan of calling a guy out at this level, but that was dirty and dangerous. And, mostly, it was just plain inexplicable.

[Old Guy]

CC vs Middlebury - the first one-sided NESCAC game the Panthers have played, I saw only the first half as my son had a high school game at 3:00: first things first. Where's CCSalive?

Middlebury was as fluid in the first half today as they were tentative and out-of-sync last night against Wes. Wholey was on fire from the outside and going to the hoop, always a good sign. The Camels hung in there but Kizel nailed a three at the buzzer to give the Panthers a 12 point halftime lead.

In the second half, Locke went off, just dominating: 19 points, 18 rebounds, seven blocks for the game (in 27 minutes, the most of any Midd player). When I returned to the gym, everyone raved about his play, welcome after a few off games for him. A great sign.

Hamilton up there on Tuesday, the Ephs at Chandler on Saturday: big week for the Panthers.  

[lefrakenstein]

CC vs Middlebury - the first one-sided NESCAC game the Panthers have played, I saw only the first half as my son had a high school game at 3:00: first things first.

Any chance we'll be seeing Young Guy playing in the NESCAC in a few years?

Only other thought today: Trinity's #31 HAS to be an all crazy first teamer. Why one earth did he think imitating Rodney Harrison was an effective thing to do in the low paint? Never a fan of calling a guy out at this level, but that was dirty and dangerous. And, mostly, it was just plain inexplicable.

Could anyone fill me in on what happened here?

I wonder where this Amherst edition would rank next to three final four editions from 07-09.

I'm also fairly confident with the 07 Amherst team to play with anyone- might not have had the same talent o f even the previous final four teams but the team chemistry and effort was pretty special.

Disclaimer: Clearly biased here, but as that saying goes: The older I get, the better I was.

I always thought what set the NC team team apart from the other Final Four teams in that run was the defense (which of course is a lot effort), especially on the perimeter. They had two lock down defenders.

I wish I could see some games live, but from what I've heard on the webcasts, Workman is developing into that kind of guy.

[nescac1]

A few highlights from the Williams-Wesleyan game:

http://athletics.williams.edu/video/1_22_2011_M_Hoops_Ephs_82_Wes_63_James_Wang_1-000_pts.flv

It seems like they are still being (smartly) cautious with Whittington, as he is wearing a big knee brace and he hasn't played a ton of minutes since the injury.  Despite the brace (which has to be somewhat limiting), he is still the best player on the court whenever he plays, however, and Wesleyan seemed to have 2-3 guys bumping and harassing him every time he had the ball, played very physical with him, leading to numerous (totally obvious) foul calls.  Emerson played maybe the best I've seen from him, on both ends, yesterday, which is a great sign for the depth at center.  Still, against Midd's tremendous front line, I hope Troy can play 30 minutes plus.  They may even need to play them together a few minutes to counteract the Locke/Sharry duo.  It should be a tremendous battle of styles next Saturday, with Midd having more size and strength up front, and Williams with a superior perimeter game.

Congrats again to James Wang on 1000 points.  Nice to get to exactly 1000 at home, especially playing one of his best games of the year against very tough opposing guards.  I think if he stays healthy, he will likely end up as the second-leading all-time scorer at Williams, although catching Nogelo will be almost impossible.   

[Major Hoople]

I would expect Midd to do a little banging on its own, with Davis and powerful Pete Lynch to back up Sharry and the reenergizes 6'10'' Locke.  Wolfin controls the offense and is one of the league's premier passers.  If he gets his shooting touch back, he, along with Thompson and Kizel give Midd a solid perimeter trio.  Looking forward to this one.

[amh63]

Returned home after a tiring trip to see Amherst live.  My comments of the games follows.  My comments of where I see Amherst as a team will follow later in the week.  The writeups of the games this weekend are on the Amherst websites....so my comments are more my impressions.
Amherst-Curry game on Thursday night........Traveled all day and had dinner in Amherst and rushed to the game.  It was a blowout with Amherst 101-Curry 49.  My CT. host and I were soon bored with the game and left with over 6 minutes left in the game with Amherst's team basically made up of 4 FY players and a Jr. on the floor.  It was 51-19 at the Half!
Did get to see some promising FY players shine in their first extended time on the floor.  Tom Killian is a 6'5" slightly built guard (listed at 165 lbs) had 16 minutes and was the first FY player off the bench....after A. Toomey.  He has a good shooting touch from outside.....scored 8 pts and even had 4 rebounds!  Connor Gach, another FY guard at 6'4" also scored 8 points.and was perfect from outside and on the foul line.  My pick for a FY impact player other than Toomey, Logan Buckner actually played well in his first extended play.  Logan who is a 6'8" 240 lb FY player was a little winded after running up and down for 10 minutes.  He did score 6 pts and had 10 rebounds.
Amherst-Trinity game on Sat. afternoon. Amherst won by over 20 points.  It was an interesting game to watch.  Coming into the game, Trinity scores about 65 plus points a game and Amherst scores on average over 20 points more per game.  That was how the game played out.  Trinity shot 49% overall; 47% from outside and 71% from the foul line.....all around there average.
Amherst shot 60% overall, better from outside and from the foul line.  However, IMO, Trinity's record can be explained as follows:
When Trinity is shooting well from the perimeter, they can win games.  They have three guards that will hurt you if you do not play perimeter defense.  When Trinity's guards are off or guarded well, Trinity will lose.  Trinity does not have an inside game or much of a front line.  Their inside defense is primarily a physical one and a swarming type down low.
The game was very choppy.  Amherst did not get into a flow very often.  The referees called an very uneven game, IMO.  They neither called it tight, or let the players play....with respect to physical play that at times became rough...the players could not determine what or when there will be a foul violation.  Trinity's #31 that was called out by another poster earlier, exemplified the situation. C. Applegate, a 6'8" Jr. center for Trinity was having a "bad day".  He picked up 2 fouls early in the first half.  In the second half, he started resorting to pushing off outside and getting physical with Amherst's big guards outside.  He was often beat on defense.  My CT. host who saw the play that caused his coach to quickly remove him after the foul....stated that he should have been thrown out sooner for his rough play....that the referees were "not seeing".  I believe it was down low. Number 31 of Trinity in his 16 minutes had 0 rebounds and 0 points.  I give first year coach J. Cosgrove of Trinity, credit to take his player out of the game and sit him on the bench.
In the first half, Amherst could not shake Trinity.  Amherst would go ahead by double digits and Trinity's guards would hit. often well covered, outside shots to come back to a 7point deficit.  Amherst, IMO, with their improving defensive play and Toomey and Williamson each going 6-6 , was never in danger.
Trinity's new coach will have to recruit his first class with front court players in mind later this year.  Trinity does have young talented guards with size.
Other possible trivia of interest.....One of Amherst asst. coach is a former Trinity star player...John Halas.  Trinity's new coach, a West Hartford native, had his parents and wife at the game.  They were sitting on the Amherst side.....better viewing seats.
Conor Meehan, the star Sr. guard is from Ct. and always has his relatives and Ct. followers in the stands.  This time, the coach's wife was supporting Meehan!  She must be related to the Meehan family. (She told me to not let her husband know....in a smiling way.....so I guess I am in trouble with the Meehan's...again}

[Old Guy]

Any chance we'll be seeing Young Guy playing in the NESCAC in a few years? (Lefrakenstein)

Absolutely. If he's lucky enough to go to a NESCAC school he will undoubtedly play hoop. Probably not on the varsity team though. He's my favorite player, a gym rat, loves the game, works hard, earns every minute he gets on the floor in games (not that many). A great teammate. Coaches love him.

[walzy31]

Other possible trivia of interest.....One of Amherst asst. coach is a former Trinity star player...John Halas.

Amh63,
Good point on Halas. He was always one of my favorite non-Amherst players to watch because his game reminded me of Reggie Miller but with more defense. He shot threes, was long and could finish at the hoop when needed, got a surprisingly number of rebounds, AND was always in the ref's ear. Kid was basically born to play basketball and then coach basketball. Great player, and even better person.

Before your time on the D3hoops.com NESCAC forum, Halas also used to be the voice of reason under the handle "Formerbant10" (which was in no way him trying to hide his identity). When he started coaching in the NESCAC he stopped posting up per the unwritten rule of coaches and players should not post up (although if you players are reading, it is an automatic nod to the All-Crazy Team if you were to post up so I encourage it heavily). I don't know if he reads the forums any longer. Anyway, we are in good hands now because you have replaced him as a voice of reason...

On the subject of former NESCAC players coaching: The Bates coach was a former star at Bates, and the Tufts assistant was a former two-sport star (basketball/golf) at Amherst). Small world this NESCAC world is.