MBB: NESCAC

[nescac1]

A few mentions of future Eph Taylor Epley, who was productive against tough competition in the Indiana-Kentucky high school all-star game:

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20100611/COLUMNISTS01/6110409/Rick+Bozich+|+Kentucky+boys+keep+up+with+Indiana

http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100612/SPORTS/6120329/1002

(One article mistakenly states that he scored 20 points, when he actually scored 11)

They play again tonight ...

[jumpshot]

Congratulations to all the Williams College student athletes, coaches, parents, faculty, etc., on Williams' 12th consecutive Directors' Cup with a record number of points, margin of victory, and many individual and team honors, including the most Academic All-NESCAC honorees (184) this year. For the 25th straight year Williams also won the most Little Three titles (19 out of 24). Fourteen teams finished in the top 10 nationally.

In short, quite a remarkable sustained performance of excellence in academics and amateur athletics. Even against schools with much larger student populations and the "optimistic admission and aggressive recruiting practices" of rivals, it continues to be "a great day to be an EPH".

[JSceltics17]

Congratulations to the Williams team on their success this year!

My son was a recent graduate of the football team at Williams and I usually follow my alma mater's league where I played basketball in the NE-10.  But with that said, I began to follow NESCAC basketball and last night I was refereeing a summer league game outside of Boston where Ryan O'Connell of Bowdoin College had 38 points.  His performance was not the usual spot up 3 point shooting but rather drives to the hoop as well as pull up jump shots and a coast to coast sprint for a dunk.  I saw him play last season and he did not play much.  In high school he averaged 12 points per game his sophomore year and his junior year came back averaging 29 ppg and leading the state in scoring.  Between him and future All-American Will Hanley, I believe Bowdoin will place in the top 2 in the NESCAC.  Has anyone seen this kid shoot the long ball? Wow.

[nescac1]

Good to see some Bowdoin enthusiasm, but hard to picture them finishing in the top half of the league next year, let alone the top two.  Bowdoin loses three solid starters, including an all-NESCAC center, from a team that finished fifth in the conference.  Williams also loses three starters, but from a much stronger / deeper team, and returns two all-American caliber players plus a few rising sophomores / incoming frosh who are ready to emerge.  Middlebury loses only one senior who saw the court, and Bates returns most of its firepower, plus adds at least one outstanding frosh.  Meanwhile, the three teams right behind Bowdoin, Amherst, Wesleyan and Trinity, each lose either one or zero players who saw substantial playing time, and each go from fielding young teams to very experienced teams.  Even with one star and one additional very solid player, Bowdoin doesn't have the depth to compete with Amherst/Midd/Williams, and looks a bit worse than the second tier of Wesleyan/Trinity/Bates as well. 

[JSceltics17]

Good stuff! Williams is with out a question the team to beat next year due to their size and their solidness across the board, let alone the fire from this seasons' NCAA Tournament run. Also, Bowdoin will definitely be missing Mike Hauser's 5 ppg and Mark Phillips' 6 rpg... In terms of incoming frosh through out the league, the teams relying on that (such as Wesleyan with Shasha Brown or Connecticut College with Demitrius Porter two years ago) may improve but will not excel with out experience. With that said, Bowdoin will fight for the top 2 teams in the league due to the fact that there is no two-player combination besides Wang and Whittington that can answer the numbers that Will Hanley and Ryan O'Connell will accumulate this upcoming season. Ryan Sharry, Shasha Brown, and Connor Meehan are the other top-notch guys that come to mind in the NESCAC, yet none have a partner in crime that can average 20 plus points per contest.  Hanley and O'Connell averaged 25 ppg combined with O'Connell taking less than 8 shots per game and Hanley taking only 11 field goals per game (Hanley shooting 50% and O'Connell shooting 47% from the field, respectively).  Bowdoin's team can now play a fast pace game with Randy DeFeo (3 year starter) at the point and get twice as many transition points with the best perimeter shooter in the league with O'Connell spreading the floor, and arguably the best player in the league with Hanley running the lanes. James Wang will get his 20 and create for other perimeter role players, while Whittington will get his 15 and 10.  Williams and Bowdoin have two go-to guys which is why they will put a lot of points on the board this year and I am sure we will not be watching traditional NESCAC set-up offense when watching Williams and Bowdoin.

[Hugenerd]

I guarantee having two go to guys will not compensate for being weak at the other positions.  Amherst is not as bad as they played last year, they have all kinds of talent if Meehan is running the show (and add a year of experience to those young guys).  Middlebury only lost one player from a 25-4 team (2 of those losses were to Williams, their only losses vs. NESCAC opponents).  They shut down plenty of tough teams last year, and they have some more good recruits coming in, so I dont think they will drop off at all.  I think any other team, including Bowdoin, has a ceiling of 4th in conference.  Bowdoin will not finish higher than 4th in the conference, if they finish in the top half at all.

By the way, is Hamilton in the conference officially this year?

[toad22]

Williams has to go to Maine twice next season. Bowdoin-Colby and Bates-Tufts. Williams has had a very hard time going better than 2-2 or 3-1 in past seasons. Though I think the Ephs will be very strong in the upcoming season, going undefeated again will be really difficult. A great Eph season will depend on several freshmen playing well, as well as the emergence of one or two shooters from the bench. I have seen the incoming players a little, and I would rate the chances of 2 of them being in the rotation by January as very high. I also like Jordan Mickens and James Klemm, neither of who played very much last year. Klemm, in particular, can shoot the lights out. Overall, I'm quite upbeat about the chances of another great year in Williamstown, though perhaps not quite as unblemished as last year.

[Hugenerd]

I agree, but even if they pick up a loss or two, they are still the odds on favorite to win the regular season crown.  Maybe there will be a 3 way tie for first in the conference at 7-2?  I dont know, but I am certain that Bowdoin will not be one of those top 3 teams.  Just dont see that happening, regardless of how talented their top two players are.  The NESCAC is too strong at the top.  Williams and Midd arent going anywhere, and Amherst should be much improved, with a very deep, talented roster.

[JSceltics17]

Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin, and Middlebury will all make the NCAA Tournament this coming year and I believe Williams will still have the talent to reach the Elite 8, possibly Final 4.

How is Hamilton? Not familiar with them, what league are they coming from?

[Hugenerd]

You're hurting your own credibility with comments like that.  There is almost no way you are getting 4 teams from a single-region conference.  Even 3 is tough, just ask Colby.  You essentially need a perfect storm for that to happen, with all 4 teams going essentially undefeated out-of-conference and split against eachother in conference (like the ODAC last year).  It also doesnt hurt if the weakest of those teams gets hot at the end of the seaon and gets the AQ.  So essentially what I am saying is that, unless Bowdoin gets hot and wins the NESCAC tourney, they arent likely to get into the NCAA tourney.  I also doubt any single-region conference will get 4 teams in the NCAAs (the UAA may have done it before, but they are spread out over 5 regions), I believe last year, with the ODAC, was the first time that that has happened in d3 (correct me if I am wrong).

[nescac1]

First, I don't think anyone objective would even "argue" that Hanley is the best player in NESCAC.   I'd say Wang, Whittington (both of whom could well be preseason all-Americans), Meehan, Sharry (probably in that order) are the top returning players, with Hanley, Russell, Ellis, Locke and Sha Brown the next group, in some order.  I also don't think O'Connell is any better than several guys on Amherst (Waller, Holmes, Workman all come to mind, if they are 100 percent) or Midd (Locke, Davis, Thompson).  I have no doubt that he will put up strong numbers this year, but if he was as dominant as you suggest, he would not have been a bench player for a fifth place team.  Also, I've heard that Midd, Amherst and Williams all have impact frosh coming in, while I've heard nothing about any recruits of note for Bowdoin ...

And you are also forgetting Trinity, who returns every single player from their roster, and have a lot of talent that might well finally come together under a very good coaching hire, and Wesleyan, who looked very impressive last year despite playing, at times, four frosh together.  Wes in particular should improve by leaps and bounds with a year of added experience for their tremendous frosh class.   And don't forget Bates, who returns four starters, including all-conference player Brian Ellis, and brings in the top-rated D-III recruit in New England.   I think Colby, Tufts, and Conn could all REALLY struggle next year, but the top half of NESCAC looks stronger and much more balanced than it was last season. 

[Gregory Sager]

You're hurting your own credibility with comments like that.  There is almost no way you are getting 4 teams from a single-region conference.  Even 3 is tough, just ask Colby.  You essentially need a perfect storm for that to happen, with all 4 teams going essentially undefeated out-of-conference and split against eachother in conference (like the ODAC last year).  It also doesnt hurt if the weakest of those teams gets hot at the end of the seaon and gets the AQ.  So essentially what I am saying is that, unless Bowdoin gets hot and wins the NESCAC tourney, they arent likely to get into the NCAA tourney.  I also doubt any single-region conference will get 4 teams in the NCAAs (the UAA may have done it before, but they are spread out over 5 regions), I believe last year, with the ODAC, was the first time that that has happened in d3 (correct me if I am wrong).

The NJAC got four teams into the tourney a few times, and the WIAC did it at least once back in the '90s. Of course, that was in the days when at-large berths were strictly apportioned on a region-by-region basis rather than nationally, so the undersized Atlantic Region pretty much had to have a surfeit of NJAC teams, given the relative weakness of the CUNYAC and other Atlantic Region schools.

[Hugenerd]

You're hurting your own credibility with comments like that.  There is almost no way you are getting 4 teams from a single-region conference.  Even 3 is tough, just ask Colby.  You essentially need a perfect storm for that to happen, with all 4 teams going essentially undefeated out-of-conference and split against eachother in conference (like the ODAC last year).  It also doesnt hurt if the weakest of those teams gets hot at the end of the seaon and gets the AQ.  So essentially what I am saying is that, unless Bowdoin gets hot and wins the NESCAC tourney, they arent likely to get into the NCAA tourney.  I also doubt any single-region conference will get 4 teams in the NCAAs (the UAA may have done it before, but they are spread out over 5 regions), I believe last year, with the ODAC, was the first time that that has happened in d3 (correct me if I am wrong).

The NJAC got four teams into the tourney a few times, and the WIAC did it at least once back in the '90s. Of course, that was in the days when at-large berths were strictly apportioned on a region-by-region basis rather than nationally, so the undersized Atlantic Region pretty much had to have a surfeit of NJAC teams, given the relative weakness of the CUNYAC and other Atlantic Region schools.

I should have stated that under the current format, this is a very rare occurance.

[mainehoops]

Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin, and Middlebury will all make the NCAA Tournament this coming year and I believe Williams will still have the talent to reach the Elite 8, possibly Final 4.

JS - Very interesting post in that you make one completely outrageous prediction and then one painfully obvious statement in arguing that Williams has the talent to reach the elite 8.  Williams is arguably better this year - and I would assume that in the eyes of their players and coaches, anything less than a National Champtionship would be considered a disappointment.  And maybe I'm the crazy one, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if Whittington earns a national player of the year honor when this season is over. 

As for Colby - obviously I understand that with the loss of Choice, people would
expect a down year.  But they do have a 1st team caliber player returning in Russell, and a very smart pg returning in Van Loenin. They will also start 2 very skilled 6'6 players in Beauleau and Donovan (who was injured all last year), with another 6'6 wing coming off the bench. They also apparently have some very good recruits coming in.  I'm not saying Choice is replaceable whatsoever, but I do think Colby is at the very least still comparable, if not better than Tufts, Wes, Trinity, Bates, Bowdoin, and Conn. They will be very tall and athletic – with an above avg. pg and a top 3 big man.  My prediction – Williams, Middlebury, Amherst, Colby, Bates, Bowdoin, Trinity, Wes, Conn, and Tufts.

[Hugenerd]

You're hurting your own credibility with comments like that.  There is almost no way you are getting 4 teams from a single-region conference.  Even 3 is tough, just ask Colby.  You essentially need a perfect storm for that to happen, with all 4 teams going essentially undefeated out-of-conference and split against eachother in conference (like the ODAC last year).  It also doesnt hurt if the weakest of those teams gets hot at the end of the seaon and gets the AQ.  So essentially what I am saying is that, unless Bowdoin gets hot and wins the NESCAC tourney, they arent likely to get into the NCAA tourney.  I also doubt any single-region conference will get 4 teams in the NCAAs (the UAA may have done it before, but they are spread out over 5 regions), I believe last year, with the ODAC, was the first time that that has happened in d3 (correct me if I am wrong).

And what about your credibility??? With a screen name like "hugenerd," one would think that you could at least do some research before jumping all over a newbie poster like JS for the simple prediction that 4 NESCAC teams might make it to the NCAA's in the upcoming season.

Try looking into the not-too-distant past (we're talking 2008) and you will find that the NESCAC sent 4 teams (including Bowdoin) to the NCAAs that year  . . . There was no "perfect storm" that year. A very good Amherst team was beaten by Bowdoin in the NESCAC play-offs but it wasn't the finals and Bowdoin didn't get the AQ for the conference (that was Trinity, IIRC).

You're right.  There was such a big deal made of the ODAC getting 4 teams last year, I thought that it hadn't happened before (I also added the caveat about correct me if I am wrong, and I do stand corrected).  I still stand by everything else in my post.