MBB: NESCAC

[Rick Vaughn]

21 & 21 tonight...Whittington is a monster.  Wang had 8 more TO's in a 23-point win over Hamilton which is a little worrisome.  Good win for the Ephs.

[toad22]

I was really happy with the Williams win over Hamilton. It seems that nothing ever comes easy in Tuesday night games in early December. The academic workload at this part of the semester is very high, and Williams teams over the years have almost never played will. Though the game tonight was certainly not one for the ages, the Eph defense was quite good and the offense was OK, if a bit sloppy. Whittington came on very strong in H2 and made sure that Hamilton would not be making any comebacks. For a 5-10 minute period in the second half Troy completely dominated at both ends of the floor. This is a good game to have over and comfortably in the win column.

[frank uible]

Come NESCAC play a consistently poor team assist to turnover ratio will likely produce more than a fewl losses.

[lefrakenstein]

Come NESCAC play a consistently poor team assist to turnover ratio will likely produce more than a fewl losses.

Williams is nearly shooting 50/40/80 as a team for the year, an incredible rate. Very few individual players ever accomplish a season with those type of numbers, so for a whole team to be doing it even over the course of just 6 or 7 games is astounding. If they can keep shooting even close to the way they're shooting now, they don't need to worry about losing in the NESCAC.

I know it's whole different ballgame against NESCAC defenses, but shooting ability like the Ephs have can definitely mask a few problems like a bad A/T ratio.

[eph partisan]

Come NESCAC play a consistently poor team assist to turnover ratio will likely produce more than a fewl losses.

Williams is nearly shooting 50/40/80 as a team for the year, an incredible rate. Very few individual players ever accomplish a season with those type of numbers, so for a whole team to be doing it even over the course of just 6 or 7 games is astounding. If they can keep shooting even close to the way they're shooting now, they don't need to worry about losing in the NESCAC.

I know it's whole different ballgame against NESCAC defenses, but shooting ability like the Ephs have can definitely mask a few problems like a bad A/T ratio.

Lefrankenstein, I would tend to agree with you - but if the A/T doesn't improve a little, I do not know if the Ephs can have as much success in the NESCAC (or nationally) as they did last year.

Yes, this team is playing some excellent offense - 49/39/79 is pretty impressive. And its A/T could be worse - 1.3 (the current ratio) is exactly where last year's team ended the season.

But his team is actually a bit behind last year's team, for the time being. That team shot 52/46/77 - for the whole season. Meanwhile, Wang's A/T in particular is down from 1.8 last year to 0.9 this year. nescac1 and Colby Hoops, you told me not to worry when I mentioned his TOs earlier, but the change in personnel (losing Schultz, Geoghegan, and Rubin in particular) and early-season bumps don't override the fact that he is taking care of the ball at a much lower level than last season.

Maker is a phenomenal coach, and I think we'll clean it up after some time off, but frank is right - we probably aren't going to do as well, in a league that appears to be stronger than last season, unless our shooting improves slightly or we take care of the ball better.

[Colby Hoops]

I still wouldn't be concerned over Wang's turnovers, I think a lot of it has to do with him having to create more individual offense with Schultz gone.  I think the turnovers will get better, and it also seems to be nitpicking a bit, when he's averaging 19, 5, and 4 per game while shooting 57% from the field.

[toad22]

Last year, Wang's first semester A/TO ratio was much worse than his second semester ratio. He was just above 1:1 in H1 and better than 2:1 once league play began. He is an fierce competitor who is likely to get better as the situation demands more. 

[amh63]

Missed the webcast of the game last night.  Went to Emmanuel's website to get the stats for the game first.  Most interesting numbers found  were points in the paint, points from turnovers and fast break points.  Looking at just those numbers, I would conclude that Amherst was going inside and scoring well there; that defense was good, creating turnovers leading to double Emmanuel's points from turnovers.  Both teams hardly had any fastbreak points. 
Going to the individual players' stats, one sees that the big man Kaasila scored well inside, going 11-13.  Last year, Amherst center K. Bennett, went 12 for 12 against Emmanuel....and won player of the week in the conference.  Guess you can beat Emmanuel with an inside game.  Nice to see that Barrise is getting his outside game back.  Also, I believe Barrise is playing harder on defense.

[nescac1]

I was able to watch the game last night, albeit on the tiny webcast so a bit hard to follow at times (Rooke-Ley, Epley, Klemm and Mickens all look like basically the same guy on the small screen).  Whittington's level of dominance can not be overstated.  (This article captures it pretty well):

http://www.thetranscript.com/sports/ci_16804696?source=rss

Hamilton also seemed terrified to go into the paint anytime Whittington was roaming near the rim, he altered a ton of shots beyond his lone block.  I think he is at least as good as Ben Coffin was as a senior, and arguably better due to this defensive presence.  If he stays healthy, I can't see how he doesn't end the season as NESCAC POY and a first team all-American at center.   Wang, Sharry, Russell, Meehan and Ellis are all having great years as well, but I feel like Troy is playing at a whole different level at this point.   

In addition to Whittington's big game, I was most impressed by the Ephs' outstanding rebounding effort last night.   They are a smallish team, but most of the players are very good rebounders for their size, and the guards in particular all do a great job in that regard.  Many of the open looks weren't really falling last night, and that will happen at times, and when it does getting second chance points is crucial. 

As others have said, Ephs do need to work on the turnovers, and I am sure Maker will make that a point of emphasis once the team finally has some larger blocks of practice time.  I think as Robertson, Klemm and Rooke-Ley get more experience, they will be able to (and should) take some of the playmaking / ball-handling burden that Wang has had to assume; it's a lot to ask one guy to be both go-to guy on offense, leading scorer, and primary ball-handler / creator as well, even someone as talented as Wang. Of course, I am sure he would be the first to say that his own decision making can improve at times.  But given how exposive he is on offense, you have to take (to some extent) the good with the bad.  I can live with 3 to's or so per game, so long as he is getting to the line and driving for layups.
Obviously, though, 8-9 can't happen vs. an elite team. 


  To Hamilton's credit, their small, quick guards (one in particular) did a tremendous job pressuring the ball, ven drawing a five second call on Wang, which is something that must not happen too often.  But they just had no answer inside. 

[eph partisan]

I still wouldn't be concerned over Wang's turnovers, I think a lot of it has to do with him having to create more individual offense with Schultz gone.  I think the turnovers will get better, and it also seems to be nitpicking a bit, when he's averaging 19, 5, and 4 per game while shooting 57% from the field.

Last year, Wang's first semester A/TO ratio was much worse than his second semester ratio. He was just above 1:1 in H1 and better than 2:1 once league play began. He is an fierce competitor who is likely to get better as the situation demands more. 

Most definitely nit-picking, and great point, toad. It's honestly scary that he can shoot 59% from the field while creating as much of his own offense as he has to. To tell you the truth, I think he definitely will clean it up, and he is freakishly good. My nit-picking is in part because last year's title game is still on my mind... He only had 4 TOs in that game, but a few of them were game changers.

Wang, Sharry, Russell, Meehan and Ellis are all having great years as well, but I feel like Troy is playing at a whole different level at this point.   

In addition to Whittington's big game, I was most impressed by the Ephs' outstanding rebounding effort last night.   They are a smallish team, but most of the players are very good rebounders for their size, and the guards in particular all do a great job in that regard.  Many of the open looks weren't really falling last night, and that will happen at times, and when it does getting second chance points is crucial

...

To Hamilton's credit, their small, quick guards (one in particular) did a tremendous job pressuring the ball, ven drawing a five second call on Wang, which is something that must not happen too often.  But they just had no answer inside. 

Maker told me at one point last season that if Troy get get into good enough shape to stay on the court for the majority of the game, he would be unstoppable - it looks like he was right. He averaged fewer than 18 minutes a game last year; he's averaging 24 this year in games the Ephs are winning easily. I imagine that number will go up as the year goes on.

I am glad to hear that the Ephs are rebounding so effectively. That was the team's biggest weakness last year - way too many second chance points given up.

Finally, just to stir up a little debate, which of the five listed besides Whittington gets bumped from the first team, if the season ended today?

[Colby Hoops]

As far as the first team goes, I think it's tough to do this but I'd probably have to bump Sharry to the second team.  It's hard not to have one player from Midd on the first team, but statistically Sharry would be well behind in that group.  I'm also not sure that Locke isn't the more valuable player for that team.

My second team would be Sharry, Locke, Hanley, Sha Brown and a big question mark.  Klemm, Vadas, MacDougall, Anderson??? Not really a clear 5th for the second team. 

[leelowlang]

Most Productive/Efficient NESCAC Players Thus Far?

Using NBA Effeciency Rating:

(Pts + Rebs + Asts + Stls + Blks) - ((FGA-FGM) + (FTA-FTM) + TO) =

Total divided by GP = per game average

Williams - Whittington - 26.6
Amherst - Meehan - 16.4
Middlebury - Sharry - 21.0
Bates - Ellis - 26.8
Bowdoin - Hanley - 20.7
Trinity - MacDougall - 14.9
Wesleyan - Brown - 16.9
Conn - Hanson - 15.9
Colby - Russell - 23.1
Tufts - Orchowski - 15.3

[nescac1]

Very interesting, leelowlang, good work! 

Colby Hoops, I agree that the top nine are fairly clear (were the season to end today, but those are the same nine guys I would have expected pre-season, as well), with the tenth guy being a free for all at this point.  I'd say Alex Gallant from Bates, who has good numbers and has really picked Bates up since Ellis has missed a few games with an injury (how serious, I wonder?), would be the best candidate, especially since he is a senior.  But yeah, it could be anyone at this point.

Vadas certainly has the best numbers of any rookie, but Toomey, given his key role on a top team, is still the top candidate for ROY in my view.   Kizel, Rooke-Ley and Thomas from Wesleyan could also emerge as the season progresses.  Lots of good frosh guards this year. 

[Colby Hoops]

Agree on most of those, Gallant is a solid call.  Haven't seen Vadas or Toomey play so can't really comment there, both both have very solid numbers, and it seems that Toomey has made quite an impression on the Amherst posters who have seen him.

I think a few candidates will probably emerge throughout the year to make it a bit more clear, and it also seems that they often put 6 people on the second team. Orchowski from Tufts could be another guy in the mix and maybe Brian Ford from Trinity.

[walzy31]

Late line:

Amherst -15.5 Vs. Babson
O/U: 143.5