MBB: NESCAC

[CCsalive]

Does anybody who reads this page watch ESPN, follow sports in general, or appreciate sarcasm?

Do any of you wonder why people consider Amherst a bastion of geekdom?

Who cares about f-ing spelling!?

I want some Jim Rome style smackdown! I'm a step ahead of all of you. I shut you up regarding Harvard>BC>UNC, and most of you are like "huh?"

"You play to win the game!"- Herman Edwards
"Playoffs!?"-Jim Mora, as featured in the Coors light ads. Does anyone else understand these types of funny sports/pop culture running jokes/quotes?

Seriously, this page has become as exciting as The Wall St Journal. Or, should I say Martin Luther's Treatise?

Did you guys know that Conn College didn't enroll men until the mid-seventies and they went to a Men's Final Four before Amherst did? Please, do me a favor, respond to my other thoughts before you expound on why it took so long for Amherst to get to a Final Four.

Where are the Predictions!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?

[hoya73]

CC---I have two thoughts.  First, I like the Camel system and I tend to agree with you, especially with its performance so far, that the Camels will be dangerous.
Second, if you are thinking about sneaking up on people you may want to shut your trap!

[frank uible]

It is suspected that Amherst's relative tardiness to the Final Four was caused by the fact that Amherst has academic standards for its players.

[CCsalive]

Now we're cooking.
Frank, you Hall of Famer you, that was an IDIOTIC post.
Which are you implying, that Conn College does not have academic standards or that Amherst dropped theirs in order to reach the upper echelons of D3 hoops?
Again, poor choice of words; especially for a Hall of Famer like yourself.

Please please please do not educate me on the relative selectivity of Amherst's admissions compared to that of Conn College. Both schools adhere to standards of athletic recruitment as defined by the NESCAC.

I was hoping to stir the pot, but you really know how to dwell and how to bring things back to the rich nature of Amherst and Williams' venerable traditions of scholarship and athletics. YAwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwN

[lefrakenstein]

I wonder if Hixon would consider starting Holmes rather than Waller. Right now Holmes seems to be playing really well, averaging 5 points and 5 rebounds in under 15 minutes a game. I'm not saying Waller hasn't been playing well also, but giving Holmes a little more PT might address a need for a presence down low and let Baskauskas move back to his more natural postion at the 3. What do other Amherst observers think?

[lefrakenstein]

Did you guys know that Conn College didn't enroll men until the mid-seventies and they went to a Men's Final Four before Amherst did? Please, do me a favor, respond to my other thoughts before you expound on why it took so long for Amherst to get to a Final Four.

Where are the Predictions!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?

Why don't you expound on why it's taking CC so long to win a national championship?

Prediction: It will never happen. 

After examining the Williams-Hamilton boxscore the only thing I can find of note is that the Ephs got burned by a player named Ephraim. Ephraim McDowell scored a team-high 16 points to lead the Continentals to victory. That can't really be a good omen for Williams' season.

[fpc85]

I wonder if Hixon would consider starting Holmes rather than Waller. Right now Holmes seems to be playing really well, averaging 5 points and 5 rebounds in under 15 minutes a game. I'm not saying Waller hasn't been playing well also, but giving Holmes a little more PT might address a need for a presence down low and let Baskauskas move back to his more natural postion at the 3. What do other Amherst observers think?

Bausky played the 2 last year and was fine.

[walzy31]

Loving CCSalive's energy. LOVING it!
Let the Hope/Calvin debate remain in Ireland or Holland or wherever.

Waller isn't playing Holmes' minutes. If you look at some of the most recent Amherst boxes and add up Holsey + Holmes minutes you get pretty darn close to 40 (IE. sure there were some times when Olson and Meehan were on the court together last year, but their minutes almost always added up to 40).

The question then is, do you award Holmes with more PT than he has been getting?
I would say no for two reasons:
1) Big men coming off the bench have had a decent impact on Amherst teams the past decade (think Hopkins in 2007). Playing 15-20 minutes a game is not going to be materially different than playing 20-25 minutes a game (especially if you are a fouling machine)
2) Holsey is capable of putting up 10, 8 and 6...Holmes is not (at least not yet).

[ac08]

It can also be difficult for first years to change their role at this point in the season. They have been a part of the program long enough to have a sense of what they have to do but haven't been there quite long enough to swap spots comfortably.

I don't know what the learning curves are for other programs, but some of the Amherst O definitely takes a full year to "install" in fresh brains.

[lefrakenstein]

I wonder if Hixon would consider starting Holmes rather than Waller. Right now Holmes seems to be playing really well, averaging 5 points and 5 rebounds in under 15 minutes a game. I'm not saying Waller hasn't been playing well also, but giving Holmes a little more PT might address a need for a presence down low and let Baskauskas move back to his more natural postion at the 3. What do other Amherst observers think?

Bausky played the 2 last year and was fine.

He played the 3 his sophomore year. I thought he was playing the 4 now rather than the two. The line up is 1-Meehan, 2-Waller, 3-Wheeler, 4-Baskauskas and 5-Holsey right? Or do I have Waller and Baskauskas flipped? Waller is listed as a guard.

[lefrakenstein]

Loving CCSalive's energy. LOVING it!
Let the Hope/Calvin debate remain in Ireland or Holland or wherever.

Waller isn't playing Holmes' minutes. If you look at some of the most recent Amherst boxes and add up Holsey + Holmes minutes you get pretty darn close to 40 (IE. sure there were some times when Olson and Meehan were on the court together last year, but their minutes almost always added up to 40).

The question then is, do you award Holmes with more PT than he has been getting?
I would say no for two reasons:
1) Big men coming off the bench have had a decent impact on Amherst teams the past decade (think Hopkins in 2007). Playing 15-20 minutes a game is not going to be materially different than playing 20-25 minutes a game (especially if you are a fouling machine)
2) Holsey is capable of putting up 10, 8 and 6...Holmes is not (at least not yet).

Thanks Walzy, those are really good insights. My only thought would be that it seems like Holmes is the better rebounder. Thats just from the box scores though.

[CCsalive]

Walzy,
Thank you for the shout-out. Please sign my petition for a promotion to "starter."
I will be skiing this weekend and I'm bummed that the schedule has Conn v Amherst over MLK. I know nothing about the Lord Jeffs other than Basko Jr who's game I love.

FYI- I did see Hamilton's frosh Patrick Sullivan. I kid you not he draws comparisons to Mike Nogelo. I haven't seen the box score of the Ham v Williams game, I don't know if had 15 or 0, but the kid is good. 6'7" stocky, shoots it well, he is a modern-Amherst proto-type. The Ephraim kid is also a frosh I believe.

Meeks for Kentucky dropping 55 inspired me to go out and drop 60 last night in my weekly game agains terrible co-workers. I probably had at least 20.

I do know this. If Wesleyan can beat Amherst. So can the Camels. Is a 2-0 start a possibility for the boys from New London? Daunting, but we shall see!
In response to the claim that Conn will never wn a National Title...I love the expectations of NESCAC. We'll see who the third team from the conference to win a National title will be...sure seems like Trinity is on the down-turn, Tufts too. It's not gonna come from Maine. How many UAA teams have NCAA Championships? Do Rochester and NYU each have one?

[BankShotCharlie]

There was a time when I could ruffle some NESCAC feathers, but we have stooped so low as to debate Protestant Mission statements.

We are?

Hope vs. Calvin excites me as much as Oregon vs Oregon St in college football. As Bruce Springsteen so eloquently noted in the intro to The Essential album, "..."one man's coffee is another man's tea, one man's whiskey..."

Bruce Springsteen excites me as much as Oregon vs. Oregon St in badminton.

I've seen some monsterous crowds for SUNY Maritime vs US Merchant Marine of King's Point...but you don't read the Skyline supporter's rants in the Great Lakes page now do you?

That's their fault. Given their aquatic affinities, the folks around the Great Lakes would probably be delighted to hear from the good people affiliated with our seagoing schools.

Comparing attendance figures between the two rivalries is apples and oranges.

The numbers are only part of the story. If numbers were everything, then Ohio State/Michigan would be the most intense rivalry in the country, and that's certainly not clear. That's why I focused upon: a) the satellite parties; and b) the game at Aurora's Thornton Gym. Those aspects of the rivalry have nothing to do with population size, ease of transportation, gym size, or anything like that. Those aspects of the rivalry reflect fervor that is transported far, far away from the two campuses, plain and simple.

Hope / Calvin is a great rivalry.  However, given the history of Williams and Amherst, Hope / Calvin comes in a close second.

That's a nice, self-serving statement, but you have nothing to back it up. Hope/Calvin has that same sort of history, and underlying dimensions of ethnicity, religious affiliation, and player/fan relationships between the two schools that Williams and Amherst don't have.

I'm sorry but Ohio State - Michigan football certainly is the most intense rivalry in American sports.  There have been numerous books written on the subject and it has all of the ingredients and credentials that make up what great rivalries are.  The game was ranked by ESPN in 2000 as the greatest North American sports rivalry.  Don't get me wrong but I think ESPN is a reliable source for settling these kind of things, NOT by how many aging alums are huddled around their streaming video screens or dusty television screens in old taverns and bars. 

I lived in southeastern Michigan for 18 years and quite frankly, the first time I ever heard about "the rivalry" between Hope and Calvin was on this site two years removed from Michigan and coincidentally living in Amherst Massachussetts.  Nobody cares about the Hope Calvin rivalry except for the bubble that is southwestern Michigan. 

[lefrakenstein]

How many UAA teams have NCAA Championships? Do Rochester and NYU each have one?

Rochester has one,  NYU has not won. The only conference with more individual national titelists is the WIAC with 3: Platteville(4), Stevens Point (2) and Whitewater (2)

[formerbant10]

...sure seems like Trinity is on the down-turn,

Trin is very young this year.  2 seniors who start then it's all freshman and sophomores.  May be a little down this year, but I don't see it being a long term thing.  By the end of the year, they'll be better.

Heard you were hooping at the NYSC off the Saw Mill, you playing in that league?