MBB: NESCAC

[amh63]

What an ugly game!  Thought for awhile that Amherst would pull it out late in the second half.  Wheeler looked like he was lost without Meehan and did not take the challenge/leadership role for a senior. His drive to the basket and a bad decision to make a one foot pass to Waller that ended up in a Babson player's hand, late in the game, exemplified his play.  Waller cannot make short layups and tend to foul early in the game.
Two starters missing in action...Meehan and Wheeler, a third disappearing again..Waller and with Barrise playing subpar, it was lucky that Amherst wasn't blown out.  The positive side is that Workman plays hard and Williamson has a great game.  Holmes played solid, but again shows that he doesn't really want to play hard defense.
It is discouraging at this time of the season that the more experience players are not playing hard and are flat.  Connor Johnson is not a point guard and should not be bringing the ball up.  He is more a 3 or 4 type.
It appears that Workman may become the back up for Meehan....until Noon gets more experience.  Wheeler needs to be sit down by Hixon for awhile...replaced by Workman and become a 6th man type of player.  Just thoughts from Amherst fan that should know better to keep quiet.
Babson outrebounded Amherst and therefore won the game!  Babson wanted the game more.
If Hixon cannot find a solution with respect to Waller and Wheeler, he may have to hope his young freshmen come on faster.
Oh well, I will still be rooting for Amherst this weekend and yelling at all the misguided calls by the officials.

[Hugenerd]

What an ugly game!  Thought for awhile that Amherst would pull it out late in the second half.  Wheeler looked like he was lost without Meehan and did not take the challenge/leadership role for a senior. His drive to the basket and a bad decision to make a one foot pass to Waller that ended up in a Babson player's hand, late in the game, exemplified his play.  Waller cannot make short layups and tend to foul early in the game.
Two starters missing in action...Meehan and Wheeler, a third disappearing again..Waller and with Barrise playing subpar, it was lucky that Amherst wasn't blown out.  The positive side is that Workman plays hard and Williamson has a great game.  Holmes played solid, but again shows that he doesn't really want to play hard defense.
It is discouraging at this time of the season that the more experience players are not playing hard and are flat.  Connor Johnson is not a point guard and should not be bringing the ball up.  He is more a 3 or 4 type.
It appears that Workman may become the back up for Meehan....until Noon gets more experience.  Wheeler needs to be sit down by Hixon for awhile...replaced by Workman and become a 6th man type of player.  Just thoughts from Amherst fan that should know better to keep quiet.
Babson outrebounded Amherst and therefore won the game!  Babson wanted the game more.
If Hixon cannot find a solution with respect to Waller and Wheeler, he may have to hope his young freshmen come on faster.
Oh well, I will still be rooting for Amherst this weekend and yelling at all the misguided calls by the officials.

It is amazing how one stat (other than the score) can be so telling.  Babson is 6-1 when the are not outrebounded and they are 0-6 when they do get outrebounded.  You have to think a few more timely rebounds would have won this game for Amherst.

[amh63]

Correction on the Babson stat line.  Babson is 7-1 when they are not out rebounded.

[nescac1]

In case there was any doubt, it is clear from this result that Meehan is NESCAC's MIP (and arguably MVP), the combination of his being a first-team all conference guy through whom the entire offense runs, and no real back-up point guard who Hixon appears to trust.  I guess now we know why he plays 38-40 minutes in close games.  Just an enormous difference in offensive efficiency without him.  Amherst's next five games or so are all very winnable even without Meehan, but as Senator Frost says they'd be a lot more interesting if he cannot go ...

On the plus side for Amherst's future, incredibly, they almost won without getting a single point from an upperclassman.  Looks like Kaasila / Workman / Williamson is a heck of a frosh class.  Holmes seems to play well when on the court, but he has been limited by foul trouble two straight games.  Waller looked REALLY good to me last year, I wonder if injuries are still bothering him or if he just hasn't found his groove after missing a lot of practice time.  He clearly has the ability to be a solid contributor.  

[Hugenerd]

Correction on the Babson stat line.  Babson is 7-1 when they are not out rebounded.

That is impossible, unless you have some preseason stats that I dont.  Babson is only 6-7 with tonight's win.

http://www.d3hoops.com/school/BAB/mens/2010

[Hugenerd]

Did you guys look at the boxscore:

http://babson.prestosports.com/sports/m-baskbl/2009-10/stats/100111mb.htm

Tough to win with 8 points out of your starters in 102 minutes of play.

[walzy31]

What an ugly game!  Thought for awhile that Amherst would pull it out late in the second half.  Wheeler looked like he was lost without Meehan and did not take the challenge/leadership role for a senior. His drive to the basket and a bad decision to make a one foot pass to Waller that ended up in a Babson player's hand, late in the game, exemplified his play.  Waller cannot make short layups and tend to foul early in the game.
Two starters missing in action...Meehan and Wheeler, a third disappearing again..Waller and with Barrise playing subpar, it was lucky that Amherst wasn't blown out.  The positive side is that Workman plays hard and Williamson has a great game.  Holmes played solid, but again shows that he doesn't really want to play hard defense.
It is discouraging at this time of the season that the more experience players are not playing hard and are flat.  Connor Johnson is not a point guard and should not be bringing the ball up.  He is more a 3 or 4 type.
It appears that Workman may become the back up for Meehan....until Noon gets more experience.  Wheeler needs to be sit down by Hixon for awhile...replaced by Workman and become a 6th man type of player.  Just thoughts from Amherst fan that should know better to keep quiet.
Babson outrebounded Amherst and therefore won the game!  Babson wanted the game more.
If Hixon cannot find a solution with respect to Waller and Wheeler, he may have to hope his young freshmen come on faster.
Oh well, I will still be rooting for Amherst this weekend and yelling at all the misguided calls by the officials.

Let's not get carried away from one game. Steve Wheeler should start and should shoot 10-18 times per game. Shooters are going to have off nights here and there, but they will keep shooting and that's what makes them dangerous players. Remember that five days ago he dropped 27 points against Wesleyan...now while that might be one hell of a weapon to bring off the bench in your conference opener, it would also be like sitting Kobe for the first and third quarters (best player on the team comparison...not a Steve Wheeler is Kobe Bryant comparison). On a lighter note, it was nice to see him knock down the two intentional foul free-throws that didn't count. He will probably score 30-45 pts this weekend and be in the top 5 in NESCAC scoring after two games.

The rebounding margin was noticeable. That is coachable. I agree that Johnson may be better suited for an off-guard role and that Noon needs a few more games like today.

[Rick Vaughn]

Scanning that box score, Williamson had three dunks in a four minute span.  Surprising that energy couldn't spread to the rest of the team and help get Amherst over the hump. 

[Hugenerd]

Scanning that box score, Williamson had three dunks in a four minute span.  Surprising that energy couldn't spread to the rest of the team and help get Amherst over the hump. 

They were really good dunks too.  The last one was an and1 over someone to give Amherst the lead.  I thought Babson had blown it after giving up a 14 point advantage, because they were in hang-on mode for about the last 15 minutes of the game, but they were able to regroup and make shots down the stretch to pull it out.

[nescac1]

Amherst will have D-1 level size, quickness, and athleticism at the swing positions for the next few years with the scary-athletic Williamson / Barrise / Workman / Waller group (I still am high on Waller, seems like injuries may have limited him this year but he has ability.  If that group can collectively improve its three point and foul shooting (Barrise the only consistent three point shooter and all seem to struggle at times from the stripe), and add in the Holmes / Kaasila combo at center, Amherst could be a very, very scary team in a year or so, assuming Hixon finds a quick distributor or two to complement and eventually replace Meehan, which I'd say is a safe assumption given Hixon's recruiting track record.  As those guys physically mature, it will be VERY tough for anyone at the D-3 level to stop them from getting inside and finishing, especially if they have a point guard to get them the ball in good position.  Expect a LOT of packed-in defenses, especially once Wheeler isn't around to provide an outside presence.  If Williamson and Workman in particular start hitting three's, watch out ...

The Amherst game summary noted that Babson's point guard, who is apparently their leader in scoring and assists, also missed the game with an injury. 

[amh63]

Thanks for the positive remarks Nescac1!  Another day and more thoughts.
Babson is a very young team.  The missing starting point guard, McDermott is a freshman.  His "replacement", Marcus Edwards, I believe, is a soph. and 3" bigger.  M. Edwards torched Amherst last year for 26 points at Amherst.  He only got 13 this year!  The other two contributers for Babson are also freshmen.  Noonan and Braithwaite.  Interesting to see that Braithwaite was a teammate of big Peter K. at St. Marks.  Babson's writeup stated that it was their defensive effort that led to the upset.
Such a young team may explain their season so far.  They have potential to be a spoiler in their conference.
Though I wish for as speedy recovery for Meehan, there maybe a silver lining here.  It will give Hixon a chance to work on a different rotation/lineup.  It will make it necessary to speed up the development of a backup point guard.  I believe he has the talent on hand.
Though the younger players all have talent, especially the bigs, I believe that the development of the 3-point perimeter game has limited the younger players.  What has happened to the short jump shots.the drive, pull up shot.  Today it is either a jam or a 3-point shot.  B. Jones '08 developed a great turnaround jump shot inside before he became featured for his six 3's on the Amherst website.  I mentioned that skill to Waller's father last year and he agree in part that his son should work on it.
Williamson has great skills/talents.  However, he needs to work on his foul shooting.  Late in the game, he clanked two straight shots..not even close.  He is now not an outside shooter.  The positive side is that Holmes actually made some pressure foul shots last night.

[TheHerst2and4]

A few observations from an outsider, I've seen Amherst play 3 times now.
We all know the recent free throw woes have played a major role in their recent lack of success

They don't seem to be giving enough deference to their offensive sets. Quite often they'll come down and not even run through a full series of their o, before breaking down into a one on one situation. When they do run their sets they resort to one on one too much as well. In the past a lot of the open shots and scoring came off the off ball screens, cuts, and pick and rolls. Too much one on one can lead to a lack of rythmn in an offense and may be part of the reason guys like Wheeler have had some struggles.

Getting outrebounded. They will have superior height and length to a majority of teams they play, they should never get outrebounded. They don't seem to box out well. I'm not sure if they are relying on their height but smaller guys are outrebounding them.

The team doesn't seem to value possessions. They need to value every time they have the ball, and value defensive stops.

Lastly and maybe most importantly they aren't playing very good defense. I don't think its so much on the ball defense. They help defense comes late, and there is no recovery to the help's man. Off the ball they are doing a poor job denying the next pass. They are a half a step slow, where they could be shutting down an offense they are allowing an offense to run their sets.

The Jeffs need someone to step up and lead, both on the court and in practice.
I'm obviously not writing the Jeffs off because they certainly have talent (especially some young guys with lots of upside as mentioned in a  previous post) and the season is still early.

[nescac1]

Bates' returning all-conference point guard Chris Wilson, who hasn't played in a few games, is now off the roster entirely:

http://www.bates.edu/x216725.xml

That is a big blow for Bates ...

[amh63]

TheHerst2and4.....nice to hear from you again.  If I recall correctly, being a member of Amherst's national championship team, and a backup guard to Olsen, your observations carries weight.  Your strength was leadership and defense (also on the football team).  I will now look at Amherst's off-man defensive play this weekend.  Maybe I will see you at the games?
Oh yes, my regards to your father.  I miss seeing him at the games now.

[Old Guy]

I asked Jeff Brown last year who he thought was at the top of the list as a NESCAC point guard: he thought for a minute and then said how much he liked Wilson from Bates.

We play the Bobcats and the Jumbos this weekend - and after our Colby-Sawyer loss, I take absolutely nothing for granted. We beat Bates last year in OT in the first NESCAC game, after trailing most of the way. Had we lost, it might have been a different season.

Let the games begin.