MBB: NESCAC

[BornBalla]

I agree about Trinity. I actually saw them once(ECSU game). They have good talent and I think their young coach will be good if the school gives him a few years. They have played some decent schools(lost to a few "no names" who are better this year). Their seniors are really role player guys even though they have talent. There is no real take charge guys. Trinity will not be down long. The coach now can flat out get players. He's proven that.
College ball is about recruiting first and foremost.

[cruiser]

colby takes a good win over a good rhode island college team. after a subpar game against bates, colby's balanced attack, combined with a monster second half by adam choice primes them for saturdays showdown against bowdoin. of note, coach dick whitmore has 599 wins and will be going for his 600th career win against his alma mater, bowdoin. should be a great game in waterville.

[Gregory Sager]

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.

Give me a break. ESPN is in no more of a position to settle this than is anybody else. There are lots of people out there -- Alabama/Auburn fans, Duke/UNC fans, heck, the entire two branches of the armed services that are represented in Army/Navy -- who would dispute this. "Numerous books written on the subject"? Yeah, there's also been numerous books written on the subject of Area 51, and I'm not holding my breath about the existence of little green men being proven based upon the volume of gift-store-rack paperbacks printed about the conspiracy theory of a government coverup in Roswell, NM.

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)

Not true. The OAC also has had three schools win national championships: Wittenberg (which won its title in '77 when it was still an OAC school), Ohio Northern, and Otterbein.

[FormerPolarBear]

I have been absent from the board for a little while, but I just wanted to give a little update on the Bowdoin Polar Bears...

They had 2 tough road losses at st joes and colby-sawyer; Had st joes down by double digits until the last 5 minutes of the game and fell apart.  They have struggled on the road but looks like they are learning how to win with two wins on the road against plymouth state and maine-farm.  While these two teams are not very good this year, they are normally decent programs.

Also colby-sawyer and st joes might not be as bad as usual considering colby-sawyer gave middlebury a tough game (lost by ten up by 7 at half).  Key to bowdoin's success is finding that go to scorer when they need a bucket down the stretch in close games.  If they are able to get 3 or even 2 out of the next 3 against colby bates and tufts on the road they are decent shape

Phillips is finally playing like he can getting double doubles the past two games.  Him and Jackson will have to be the go-to scorers.

Jackson is a good player, and Tim Lane is in double figures as well.  These next two weekends are huge for bowdoin

They have a good chance to be in every game because their defense is good like last yr, and they do not turn the ball over much because Mike Hauser is a point guard who rarely commits turnovers and makes very good decisions

Hanley and Sellew provide scoring off the bench and Sturgis is a great defender and rebounder, that can finish strong

O'connell is starting to look more comfortable on the court and he is a major shooting threat if he continues to get more confidence... it would be huge to get two threes from him.

They are 8 guys deep, with 8 guys getting 15 minutes or more a game.  Doesnt look like the league is as strong in the past as everyone has been saying but I feel like this team is hitting stride as league play starts.  I think nescac1 said something like if they are able to get through all these road games with 2 or 3 losses then they can be competitors and they have a pretty good shot at doing it.  Right now I would rank amherst and middlebury at the top with bowdoin, williams, and conn close behind.

I am looking forward to league play and hope for Bowdoin to play as well as they did last year.

[walzy31]

Amherst up 47-18 at the break against Wesleyan. JeffCast looks great. So do the Jeffs.
I can't believe Amherst lost to them 9 days ago.

[walzy31]

Amherst 76
Amherst 1st Half Only 47
Wesleyan 46

[Old Guy]

Middlebury escaped, 73-65. Not a pretty game. Dudley hit a three with 20 secs to go to send it into OT, 55-55, and Midd sailed in the extra period. Tough loss for the Bobcats: they played very hard. We'll see if they have anything left for the Ephs. Midd was 2-10 from the line in the second half, 3-14 from three for the game. Rudin was just about the whole thing - 28 points, a career high (7-8 from the line, crucial with the game on the line). Edwards played a tough D on Wilson, who scored 18 anyway. Based on who was back from last year, I though Midd would be a high scoring outfit - turns out they defend well, every game, and the O comes and goes.

Middlebury never got into any rhythm or flow tonight. Credit Bates. They have a lot of lunchpail players. I never comment on officiating (a learned behavior), but this one was pretty ragged, both ways. 53 fouls called in the game. You won't find much cockiness in Pantherland tonight - just sighs of relief.

I look forward to seeing Jon Pierce tomorrow. Hope we play better.

[senatorfrost]

  Just got home from the game. Hopefully Conn Coll will give Amherst a better game than Wes. The player who made that last second shot, Kaminer, didn't play. After all I've heard about Conn Coll I am looking forward to a pretty good game.

Bank Shot Charlie: yes Ohio State v Michigan has more people and is better known but there is the 'Quality of the experience' factor.  If you want to go to eat in the Amherst area before a game you can go to Macdonald's or you can go to the East Side Grill. Ohio State v Mich is a football game and so is Amherst Williams. Macdonalds is a restaurant and so is East Side Grill.
   More people have heard of Macdonalds and yet people who know, people who have been to both, would say the East Side Grill is a far more satisfying and tasty experience and mind you I used to love the quarter pound fat burgers.
The only thing that beats Amherst v Williams and Calvin v Hope is Calvin v Hobbes which I truly miss an awful lot.

[met_fan]

I'm sorry....comparing Ohio St./Mich and Williams/Amherst is dumb.  It's barely the same sport.

[edhershey]

Good luck to one of America's premier coaches in any division, Dick Whitmore, as he goes for No. 600 when Colby hosts Bowdoin Saturday.

I've been fortunate to see a number of superb coaches up close in 55 years of watching, writing about and announcing basketball -- from Roy Rubin in my days at LIU to Red Holzman when I covered the Knicks to Steve Donohue in more recent years announcing at Cornell -- but I never saw anyone as knowledgeable or intense than Dick Whitmore in the six years I was privileged to work at Colby.

[frank uible]

The rules are the same - almost everything else is far different.

[nescac1]

Ephs bounced back nicely from a dispiriting loss to Hamilton -- team had to be reeling from an Amherst game they probably should have won (you just can't get outrebounded / outhustled like that at home, plus the bounces just weren't going their way), and it sounded from Maker's comments like the Hamilton game was not their strongest effort.  Nice to get two easy wins to start the NESCAC season.  Rubin, Wang, and Whittington are all getting more PT and giving the Ephs spark -- those guys are athletic, bring energy, and can score, and I imagine their playing time will only increase.  Geoghegan seems to be rounding into form and is poised to dominate in conference play.  Ephs really need to spread the ball around so that they don't depend too much on shooting from Snyder and Schultz, but it sounds like they are starting to do that. 

A few observations from the first weekend of conference play -- Conn, Wesleyan, Tufts and Trinity will be fighting it out for last place.  Tufts seems to be playing even less defense than usual this year -- giving up over 90 points to a previously-cold Williams team missing 3 of its top 4 big men due to illness and injury is bad enough, but then following that up with giving up over 100 to a Midd team that had to be tired from a tough OT game the previous night is just awful.  Who would have predicted before the start of the year that Wesleyan would beat both Amherst and Trinity this year?  Wes seems a bit up and down, but it will still be a major surprise if they knock off anyone outside of the aforementioned list. 

The Maine teams look really evenly matched and should play a lot of tough games as they fight it out for the CBB title; they will probably end up in the middle of the pack.  As for the contenders, Amherst seems to have regained its footing but they are still not the dominant teams of years past.  Still, beating Williams on the road is enough to return them to co-favorite status with Middlebury.  Ephs have to play both on the road in conference play, but if they can pull an upset in either game they also have a shot at nabbing the number one seed.   Certainly possible as Geoghegan rounds into form, Maker continues to tweak his rotation to find guys comfortable who work in his system, and they get a badly needed spark off the bench from Wang. 

[ac08]

Amherst 74 Connecticut 49

To reiterate others' sentiments: Jeffscast is wonderful.

The 'Herst looked impressive. Offensively, they seem to have an advantage at every position. Everyone knows how to create easy shots for themselves. When they defend the way they did this weekend, they are top tier.

[eclinchy]

Number of Middlebury players who scored 8 points or more today: 8
Number of Tufts players who scored -- at all -- today: 6

Yikes.

[Old Guy]

Middlebury played better - and then some. last night, everything was hard, a grinder of a game, baskets tough to come by.  Today the Panthers were flying from the start, lots of hoops in transition, dunks, 9-20 from three, a dream game. Rudin had 14 assists in 24 minutes. Sharry - 15 points in 17 minutes. I don't think Tufts lay down - I think they got rolled over. Pierce is impressive (23 points).