MBB: NESCAC

dman · January 12, 2011, 05:05:27 PM

the concept change is boys and girls traveling together. could be wrong, but i don't think hamilton will have a travel partner. its league games will be back to backers while the traveling partners get a night off. one of the reasons they left the league in the first place.....

Colby Hoops · January 13, 2011, 09:47:55 AM

I believe the Hamilton coach went to Clarkson. From what I've heard they've also had a lot of the same issues as Conn College with players quitting the team. As someone from the school told me, the intramural team could beat the current team with the amount of former starters they have.

Unlike Conn, Hamilton seems to recruit pretty well, so the are still okay, but its another odd situation with that many kids quitting. I've heard at least five kids who earned significant playing time have quit in the past two years.

dman · January 13, 2011, 11:38:24 AM

the hamilton coach, tobin anderson was the former coach at clarkson. he is a wesleyan grad from the early 90's. he was a good player who teamed in the backcourt with another guy whose name, i believe was brendan leary. they were always one good player away from being a great team but had some success.....

amh63 · January 13, 2011, 11:49:53 AM

Some random comments while awaiting this weekend of conference games.
Colbyhoops......The Hamilton coach is a Wesleyan grad.....went to the website to check on my slowly fading memory.
Talking about "unknown" teams......went to the Conn. College website since Amherst will play them this weekend. After losing their scorer in the early part of the season.....no longer on the team...they now have a freshman that has scored 30+ points recently....many from outside and have had good play from other young players. They seem to be an team that is playing "uneven" if you look into their recent games.
The Amherst recruit from north of Boston has a health condition that requires getting insulin from a device strapped to his arm. Amherst has a men's hockey player...a starter, I believe, that also needs to have controlled insulin injection from a device on his person during games.
Tim Prowitt, a local DC area player, was a key sub during the Amherst/Williams game. He was on the floor in the last minute of the game when Amherst had their best foul shooters on the floor. It was mentioned by the announcers that his older brother played BB at Stanford. I chatted with his older brother at the Amherst/Midd. game during Tim's freshman year. It seems that his older brother while in Palo Alto actually played a little playground ball against Brian Baskauska's father. Baskauska's father is a Mass. native and was a star BB player at Yale. Oh yes, Tim's brother (an inside/front court player) was much impressed with the defensive play of Locke of Midd. He smiled as Locke slapped away another Amherst shot. It appears Tim has come on strong lately.

Colby Hoops · January 14, 2011, 10:45:09 AM

Interesting win last night for Colby, beating Rhode Island College 69-58, the same team that beat Midd in last year's tournament. They didn't lose a ton from last year's team either. Russell with 23 and 15, while everyone else chipped in with solid games. Van Loenen With 12, 4 and 3, Foreman had 6 assists and Donovan had 11. Fischer also chipped in 12 and has really been playing much better of late.

Colby's is a rocky 8-6 but they seem to be playing a bit better of late with wins over Bates and RIC. RIC did shoot 1-17 for three so might have been an off night for them as well.

amh63 · January 14, 2011, 12:11:11 PM

Colby hoops........ caught the score last night. RIC may have had an off-night.....but that is part of college hoops. Good win for Colby and the conference. Confirms Old Guy's statement that there are dangerous teams in the conference outside of the often mentioned top three.
Since the Amherst/Conn game is not on the web in any manner, must decide between to games tonight.....Midd/Tufts game or the Williams/Bates game. Curious about the play of Midd this year and am also curious about the atmosphere at Bates. Nice to have choices.

gordonmann · January 14, 2011, 01:08:42 PM

QuoteThe Amherst recruit from north of Boston has a health condition that requires getting insulin from a device strapped to his arm. Amherst has a men's hockey player...a starter, I believe, that also needs to have controlled insulin injection from a device on his person during games.

Ursinus had a senior last year, Remy Cousart, who played with an insulin pump. Clark had someone like that last year, too. It's more common than I thought when I learned about Remy.

nescac1 · January 14, 2011, 07:34:22 PM

Great news for the Ephs, Whittington was back and didn't seem to miss a beat, with 14 points (on 5-6 shooting), 10 boards, and 3 blocks in only 21 minutes. Wang also had a big game for the Ephs, with a very efficient 23 points, including 3-4 from deep. No one else on Williams had to do much, although Klemm had ten second half points after not attempting a shot in the first. Ellis was great for Bates (his pump fake works nearly every time it seems), but was a one man gang, with no one else netting more than 7 against a tough Ephs' D bolstered by the big guy's return (in addition to his 3 blocks, he altered many other shots).

The Ephs played very well overall, with the only negative being giving up, for the second straight game, a ton (16) of offensive rebounds. There is just no way 5'8 Matarazzo should get 2 offensive rebounds vs. 4 for the Ephs as a team.

Looks like Midd, who was shockingly down 13 at halftime to Tufts (!) returned to form in the second half, dominating down the stretch thanks to a career game from Nolan Thompson.

amh63 · January 14, 2011, 07:42:57 PM

Based on the Conn. website, Amherst 70-Conn. 56
Thought for awhile Midd was going to fall to Tufts......based on the first half. Saw them come back to tie at 59-59 and slowly pull away.

TheHerst2and4 · January 14, 2011, 07:43:46 PM

Good to see Allen Williamson have a big night for Amherst going 10-10 for 20 points.
With his athletic abiliy-would like to see Williamson become an absolute force on defense and get out on breaks.
Even scoring by the rest of the jeffs with 5 players in double digits (Meehan and Kaasila close to double-doubles)

mass_d3fan · January 14, 2011, 08:48:11 PM

Quote from: gordonmann on January 14, 2011, 01:08:42 PM
QuoteThe Amherst recruit from north of Boston has a health condition that requires getting insulin from a device strapped to his arm. Amherst has a men's hockey player...a starter, I believe, that also needs to have controlled insulin injection from a device on his person during games.

Ursinus had a senior last year, Remy Cousart, who played with an insulin pump. Clark had someone like that last year, too. It's more common than I thought when I learned about Remy.

The Clark University player is junior center Mitch Renshaw.

Here a link to an article on him and his Type 1 diabetes.

http://www.clarkathletics.com/sports/mbkb/2009-10/releases/20100527w0cywm

lefrakenstein · January 15, 2011, 12:12:05 AM

Not a bad game from Amherst. Even though it wasn't a blowout, it seems like it was comfortably in hand for nearly the whole game.

No Waller and no Holmes though, I hope those two are back soon. Amherst is really thin in the front court without them. On the bright side, it will give Kaasila some great experience playing a ton of minutes.

lefrakenstein · January 15, 2011, 12:44:52 AM

Quote from: nescac1 on January 14, 2011, 07:34:22 PM

The Ephs played very well overall, with the only negative being giving up, for the second straight game, a ton (16) of offensive rebounds. There is just no way 5'8 Matarazzo should get 2 offensive rebounds vs. 4 for the Ephs as a team.

When you hold a team to 27% shooting they're bound to get a few offensive rebounds. Seems like the Ephs especially did a number on Brust, who went 3-13.

Was anyone there for this game? Was williams playing straight man-to-man? Who was guarding Brust for most of the game?

Old Guy · January 15, 2011, 12:55:01 AM

I'm in Maine visiting family - took in the Bates-Williams game (there's another game at Bates tomorrow: what a coincidence).

Williams had no trouble with Bates, though it was hardly easy. It was too much Wang and Whittington, a familiar refrain. I got to the gym halfway through the first half and the Ephs had already taken the rabid full-house crowd out of the game.

Bates hung around, but shot shot so poorly (28%) they couldn't ever scramble back into the game. Some of their poor shooting can be attributed to the pace of the game (both teams played man the whole time), but they missed wide-open shots too. Brust is a nice player with a good stroke: he must have had 8 shots rim out, half way down the hole - he was cursed (3-13). A couple of those go in, the crowd gets interested, and who knows? Ellis is tough. Goes right to the hoop, passes up 8-10' shots to get to the basket. Shmiemann is a versatile player who didn't do much tonight for Bates.

Whittington seemed pretty healthy, ask the Bobcats. I thought I saw him moving gingerly on a couple of occasions, but in general he was his usual beastly self, This game, despite the score, was hotly contested. Coach Maker reinserted Whittington into the game with 3:50 left and a 17 point lead, taking nothing for granted. Klemm is not Schultz, but he is a reasonable facsimile thereof. Emerson is not Geoghegan, but he's big and strong and plays hard. Robertson looks like he's in jr. high, but is a versatile player, confident, good with the ball. They bring strong and agile players off the bench. One rookie whose name I hadn't read on this board, Taylor Epley, had a couple of impressive hoops.

Williams is very good. With Whittington, at Chandler, my money has to be on the Ephs in the league rematch with the Jeffs. Everyone who likes pure hoops should be at that one.

The Panthers had a strange game at Tufts, down 15 in the second half. Then down by one with less than seven minutes to play, they finish the game with a 17-0 run. That's two high scoring games in a row for Thompson (27 points tonight), who is our defensive stalwart. He's emerging, shooting well from the arc (5-6), which is exactly what we need. Locke had six blocks. Sharry didn't start and only played 18 minutes. He got really banged up in the last two games. I worry that that's the word on how to combat the Panthers' height - play physically (beat 'em up).

Bates will rebound tomorrow - they're due. Could be a Bobcat-Panther catfight. Panthers better be ready.

.

Old Guy · January 15, 2011, 01:02:24 AM

I could be wrong - I was watching like a fan. I didn't notice anyone in particular guarding Brust. Williams has a number of quick 6'3, 6'4 guys who play tough D. But frankly, I think Brust got his shot - and missed it.