MBB: NESCAC

Bucket · February 21, 2009, 07:28:57 PM

In the next room, crying by the two-year-old to his mother as he gets ready for bed: "I don't want to take my jersey off!"

That's the custom-made #24 Middlebury jersey the Rudins gave him this afternoon.

Way to go Panthers!

Mr. Ypsi · February 21, 2009, 08:29:14 PM

Quote from: Bucket on February 21, 2009, 07:28:57 PM
In the next room, crying by the two-year-old to his mother as he gets ready for bed: "I don't want to take my jersey off!"

That's the custom-made #24 Middlebury jersey the Rudins gave him this afternoon.

Way to go Panthers!

If mom made him remove the jersey, expect a visit from Child Protective Services!

CCsalive · February 21, 2009, 09:07:15 PM

Cheers to Nescac.
Hopefully Colby gets to play a few more games.
I'm glad Porter showed up. I like the Camels in 2010. Surprised?
Imagining I was Ben Rudin, this is the ride of a lifetime. Was he recruited by other NESCSAC teams? Should midd win the nescac tourney; He is perhaps an all-time, all- nescac player.
I was hard on Colby; and I begged for bowdoin names. The Maine schools make this league special. If they all sucked; nescac wouldn't be the same. Bravo to Maine and it's hoops. Vermont? Even better.
Interestingly, the Centennial Conference has 10 teams. Only 5 make the play-offs. #1 plays the 4/5 winner. If nescac decided that conn, at 2-7, wasn't worthy of any play-off, I'd understand. At the same time, the more the merrier. It's only time before D1 goes to 80+ teams.

Midd has a great gym. Should be awesome. That said, it would be better if it was at a non nescac superpower. I'd list Bowdoin as the #4 overall power with trin a close fifth.

Conn will practice until the d3 season is over. With this type oif effort; they'll one day win the league.

Marty Peretz · February 21, 2009, 09:43:37 PM

Caught the 2nd half of the Williams Bates game today. Was VERY impressed by Wang. Have not seen a freshman guard in D3 show such flashes of dominance since Olson in 04-05. Whittington also impressed, particularly if he is just a sophomore as an eph friend told me. Shultz and Rubin were also solid. Very surprised this Williams team isn't in the hunt for an at-large bid, but with a first year coach it sometimes takes a while to find a groove. Really looking forward to that Amherst Williams game. Should be a great clash.

frank uible · February 21, 2009, 10:47:19 PM

Depends on which Williams shows.

CWM_42 · February 21, 2009, 11:13:08 PM

Huge win by the P-Bears and conversely huge loss for Colby. Maybe the commissioner of the CBB can make incidental postseason meetings a tie-breaker for the coveted conference championship. (For that matter, next week's William-Amherst game could count toward Little Three standings).

I heard from a few different people at the game that once again Hanley off the bench was a difference maker and the Mules were "Caribou, Maine cold" shooting in the second half. From what I've seen it's Hanley or Wang for Rookie of Year, but please let me know if I'm missing someone.

I thought Trinity, based on the way they've been playing, would give the Jeffs more of a run. The other two games went pretty much as expected. Marty Peretz, or Frank Uible, who played well for Bates?

The Panther Palace will be rocking next week. I'm hoping for two overtime games in the semis. Have we established the video/audio/gametracker situation there? Old Guy, can you use some of your clout and get video in place? Sounds to me like Bucket should be doing play-by-play and you could handle the color.

frank uible · February 22, 2009, 12:11:59 AM

Didn't see the game.

nescac1 · February 22, 2009, 12:24:56 AM

Other than Wilson who is really good no one guy stood out for Bates -- they seem to have a lot of solid players but no real stars. They are physical up front with a bunch of bangers in O'Keefe, Wirth, Ellis, Thayer, but without Geoghegan, Williams doesn't have a ton of bulk/strength inside so a lot of teams can appear to be pretty physical.

Marty, as for the Ephs, it has taken a long time to find an offensive rhythm. Not only a brand new system and graduating a three year starting point guard, but Dodson has been in and out all year with injuries, as has Geoghegan, Wang for some reason (maybe just takes awhile for a frosh to get acclimated) got almost no PT until the last third of the season, and Whittington and Rubin both missed virtually the entire pre-season and the very start of the regular season with injuries. As those three have played more and more, the offense has gotten better. I think the last few weeks of lots of practice time have helped them finally start to grasp the offensive system. Other than when Trinity threw the match-up zone at them (that was ugly), they have looked far more in-synch in recent weeks on offense. When they work the ball instead of settling for long 3's early in the shot clock, they are very hard to guard. And when they show up on defense and especially the glass (which failed to happen in a few losses), they are a tough match-up for anyone. Ephs should be absolutely loaded next year now that they know the system with five returning guys who at this point basically play starter minutes in a healthy Geoghegan, Dodson (who has a ton of talent just needs to get a little stronger physically and diversify his offensive game a little), Schultz, Rubin (by far the best pure shooter on the team if not all of NESCAC), and Wang, with Whittington as a stellar sixth man who would start for anyone else in the league. Hopefully they can win two more this year to get a taste of tourney action a year ahead of schedule ... of course won't be easy to topple Amherst and Midd back to back but if they compete on the boards and play smart it is doable. Considering that Midd and Amherst are led by the best two seniors in the league, Ephs need some of the younger guys to really step up as you know Rudin and Baskauskas will bring it in the big games.

nescac1 · February 22, 2009, 09:44:15 AM

Oh, and rookie of the year should be interesting -- do the coaches reward guys who were go-to players, with huge numbers, on bad teams in Porter or Mendell? Or key pieces, with relatively modest numbers due to less playing time / more talent around them, on contenders in Waller, Sharry, Wang, or Hanley? If any of the latter four plays a big role for the winning team next weekend, they would certainly have a strong case (especially Wang). But all six can make a strong case. It's strange, of late NESCAC has had very strong classes, overall, every other year. Classes of 08, 10, and 12 all very solid across the board. '09 and '11 less-so ... given the number of talented frosh who should become key players next year, NESCAC should be substantially stronger overall ...

And to answer an earlier question about Rudin, one of the Midd guys can elaborate, but I thought I read somewhere that he was actually lightly regarded coming out of high school, that Midd was in fact more interested in Dudley, his high school teammate, but there was an opening at point guard and he exceeded expectations as a frosh, and took off from there ... either a late bloomer or NESCAC just missed the boat ... speaking of Rudin, Midd folks, is there anyone on the roster in line to replace him at point? His back-up is also a senior I imagine -- obviously Midd is still enjoying the ride this year, but that will be an enormous hole for that program to fill. Awesome story about the jersey, good stuff, by the way.

Bucket · February 22, 2009, 10:18:44 AM

Quote from: CWM_42 on February 21, 2009, 11:13:08 PM

The Panther Palace will be rocking next week. I'm hoping for two overtime games in the semis. Have we established the video/audio/gametracker situation there? Old Guy, can you use some of your clout and get video in place? Sounds to me like Bucket should be doing play-by-play and you could handle the color.

Actually, I believe D3 Cast will be video webcasting the semis and finals. http://www.d3cast.com/index.php

And you just might get to hear Bucket....I've been asked about doing color commentary for the webcast. Stay tuned.

The Franchise · February 22, 2009, 10:46:04 AM

Quote from: nescac1 on February 22, 2009, 09:44:15 AM

And to answer an earlier question about Rudin, one of the Midd guys can elaborate, but I thought I read somewhere that he was actually lightly regarded coming out of high school, that Midd was in fact more interested in Dudley, his high school teammate, but there was an opening at point guard and he exceeded expectations as a frosh, and took off from there ... either a late bloomer or NESCAC just missed the boat ... speaking of Rudin, Midd folks, is there anyone on the roster in line to replace him at point? His back-up is also a senior I imagine -- obviously Midd is still enjoying the ride this year, but that will be an enormous hole for that program to fill. Awesome story about the jersey, good stuff, by the way.

Timmy Edwards will likely assume the PG role next season. Tim will be able to get the Panthers in their sets without a problem, but he's not the same offensive player that Rudin is. He'll take smaller guards into the post, and tends to spot up for jumpers (doesn't create quite the same way as Rudin). As a Panthers fan, I'm not as worried about the PG position, but the number of PPG that will be graduating. Rudin/Dudley/Smith combine for the vast majority of the teams points (granted they get the most looks). Ashton Coghlan must reassume the offensive firepower that he displayed his freshman year to really give them a boost. Defensively, the team should still be solid with Edwards defending the best wing, and the length of Sharry and Locke down low (Midd will miss Smith's physicality).

As for the recruitment of Rudin, I know that Midd was focusing on Dudley (I actually housed him as a recruit, great kid... funniest/most personable recruit I had ever housed). Rudin on the other hand was being recruited by D3 programs as a soccer player (fairly certain he was a goalie). On a scouting trip to see Dudley, Rudin impressed, and he was offered a spot on the Midd roster. Not sure what other NESCAC schools thought, but I think there was a third player from that Scarscdale high school team that ended up at Amherst (may have been a year behind).

eclinchy · February 22, 2009, 12:18:02 PM

Or three years behind?

The Franchise · February 22, 2009, 12:59:00 PM

I did a little research, and the third player was Brian Groark (6'5 center who was scouted by many D3 programs but ended up at Union). Played there for only a season, but was a part of the Scarsdale team that won the league championship Dudley and Rudin's senior year.

Old Guy · February 22, 2009, 05:22:40 PM

"Classes of 08, 10, and 12 all very solid across the board. '09 and '11 less-so ... "

Middlebuy is graduating important players (Rudin, Dudley, Smith, Westman). Matt Westman is an interesting story. He was abroad last year and didn't get much time. Now he's usually the first off the bench, plays at 2 - he's quick, shoots the ball well, plays tenacious D Brilliant student.

Sharry '12 is an important addition, no question, and Edwards '10 is a rock, but the class of '11 at Middlebury is impressive and should keep us in the hunt next year. Locke is unlike anyone we've had here. We've had tall guys but no one with his "upside," as they say. It takes more than length to block shots: Locke is a good athlete with terriific timing. Ryan Wholley has nice size (6'3", 6'4") and can shoot from the outside or drive to the hoop. His baseline floater against CC, after faking his defender out of his shoes, was as nice a hoop as we've seen this year in our gym. Jamal Davis has improved enormously this year, his three foul shots under pressure against Trinity were crucial: he's just going to get better; and don't forget Ashton Coglan, who has battled injuries early and saw his minutes go to other worthies, but he went for 23 (Bates) and 19 (Colby) last year and can play at spots that open up due to graduation. That's a good group of '11s.

nescac1 · February 22, 2009, 05:35:22 PM

I didn't mean to suggest that NO one overall had a strong class of 11, just in the aggregate, not an incredibly strong bunch. Midd is probably as strong as anyone in the league in that class. I mean Ellis was ROY and he is hardly a guy who is likely to dominate at any point in his career. Figure the top group of sophs in the league are Locke, Whittington, Dodson, Ellis, Meehan, Russell, McDougal, Fells, the other Midd guys you mentioned ... compare that group to the extremely strong and deep junior class (Bernier, Choice, Pierce, Beyel, Phillips, Edwards, Schultz, Rubin, Geoghegan, Wheeler, Hauser, Ellis, Kaminer) and I'd say there is a pretty huge drop off. Early indications are that this year's frosh look more, overall, like the current juniors ... as evidenced by a MUCH more competitive race for top rookie / a lot more guys producing on good teams as frosh.

Locke is definitely an unusual player in NESCAC -- other than Amherst's center last year, I don't recall anyone else in recent NESCAC memory over 6'8 who was actually athletic / mobile. But Midd does lose more than anyone else in the conference to graduation, so I am sure they are playing with a sense of urgency.