MBB: NESCAC

[amh63]

Old Guy....did you sweat at Bates....in the heat?
Amherst announcers stated that Nate R.  did not look like someone that was an athlete from his appearance.  He is from Ann Arbor Mich......the same school that sent Fletcher Walters to Amherst.  Walters' father was at Amherst for a BB game, even after his son had graduated.  We chatted a bit and he mentioned that Nate was a player to watch.
I too noticed....from the video feed.....that Whittington seemed to be favoring "something" as he went down the floor.  He also seemed to be "slowly" going  up and down the floor.  He was quick enough around the basket though.   Thought it was maybe the video feed and/or he was saving his energy.
Amherst posters that may have been at last night's game.   What is the story about Waller's condition?  Was Holmes dressed?

[JustAFan]

Another tough loss for Tufts...two games ago they lead MIT by 10 with 7:19 to go and couldn't hold on for the win, and last night they similarly led by 6 minutes to go and remarkably didn't score another point the rest of the game. It'll be tough to regroup from this loss against Williams this afternoon, but Tufts is a very young team with some talent, especially up front, and they are playing well in stretches for 30 minutes each game, but haven't yet developed the ability to stretch that effort for a full 40 minutes.  They lack a pure point guard to steady them during crunch time and and a go-to shooting guard to get the critical baskets in tough situations, but they are still improved over last year's team.

[nescac1]

The big three in NESCAC all win with ease on the oft-challenging second leg of the night-day road trip.  Bowdoin seems to be playing well, but still, at this point it would be a big upset if Williams, Amherst or Midd lose to any NESCAC teams save for each other.  Another big game for Nolan Thompson who is a lock for NESCAC player of the week.  Watched some of the Midd game and they looked very good -- their defense is as tough as always, but they are a much better shooting team, both from 3 and from the foul line, than in recent years.  Thompson is very smooth and looks very confident out there.  At this point, I really think Midd/Amherst/Williams will be a toss-up anytime they play, with the home team having maybe a slight edge.  

Nice to see Williams getting, easily, its most balanced effort of the season, with Rooke-Ley (in particular), Epley, Emerson, and Robertson all making big contributions.  Another strong effort from Whittington (leading the team in scoring in limited minutes) who hopefully will be up to full strength by next weekend.   Tufts does seem a tougher out than in recent years, but doesn't have the firepower to hang with the big boys.  

[amh63]

Amherst 77-Wes. 61
All starters scored in double figures and Toomey had 8 points.  The big scorers for Wes in the previous game did not hurt Amherst this time.  P. Kaasila played most of the game with K. Bennett providing relief.  Meehan and Barrise player almost the entire game and Workman and Williamson followed in time played.  Conner Johnson played about 5-7 minutes.
The story for this game was who did not play!  It seemed that in both the Conn and Wes games, Amherst had only 8 players in the game and only 6 players with significant time.
No Waller, Holmes, Edwards, or any other players off the bench.  Was there a mass revolt,,,,sickness....injury during practice after the Williams game?
In the 08-09 season, just before the last two home games of the regular season.....with games against Williams on Friday and Midd. on Sat....that would determine the hosting of the tournament, etc.......the team had sickness run through the team.  I spoke with a gloomy parent just before the game.....a parent from Maryland that I knew.  Asked about his son and he simply stated ok.  During the game that followed, I spoke with another parent about the play of the team....the tam seemed a step slow and lacked energy, etc.  Only then, did the father stated that many of the players had been sick during the week.  Much so that they could not hold any team practices due to a lack of players.  That Williams game was lost.....but on Sat. Amherst upset Midd.! The first father had not mentioned his son's sickness during the week.  No excuses/info of the team's condition came out at the games by the coaches or the players.

[duffer]

Tufts is an improved team because Sheldon can't stand on the sidelines this year yelling "look for Jon"; "see Jon"; "look at Jon". Having the team they had in the last 2 years with 2 players averaging between 15-20 pts & among the top 10  in all of NESCAC, yet still only winning a half dozen games is a coaching travesty.  Most everyone else was forced to stand around while coach tried to make Pierce a hero. Good luck to this year's Jumbos. It is a team game men!

[toad22]

Tufts is better, especially at the defensive end. In the past, almost any team could figure on scoring 80+ points against Tufts, even if you were going to end up losing 93-87. Now, the Jumbos are really working at it. They still don't have the firepower to play with the top teams, but I'm guessing that it won't be long. The "new" gym is really nice.

I really liked the way the Ephs played this weekend. Their defense is ahead of where it was last year. The offense has a way to go. Whittington is completely uninjured at this point, but is a little out of shape. He only got 1-2 practices in after being cleared to play. The younger players (Klemm, Epley and Rooke-Ley) are making progress. I expect them all to be major contributors by the end of the season. The Ephs have a small lineup, Wang, Robertson, Rooke-Ley, Epley, and Whittington, that has the clear potential to be as good as last year's. They play better defense than last year's best lineup and are super offensively. I think they just need a few more games to mature the freshmen. The big problem for Williams this year is that Amherst and Middlebury are better. We are looking at a very tight race.

[Old Guy]

"The big three in NESCAC all win with ease on the oft-challenging second leg of the night-day road trip." (NESCAC1)

Middlebury hardly won "with ease" today.  The Panthers played very well and had to to beat the Bobcats, who were better than they were Friday night against the Ephs (28% shooting vs 46% today). Maybe the games seem so ferocious at Bates because you're right on top of the action, ground level, and can hear every sneaker squeak, grunt, and muttered curse - and the collisions, bodies flying, are that much more immediate.

Very much like the game the night before, Bates fell behind early, down ten at halftime. But that's about the way it stayed. I never felt confident of the outcome. Bates played well down the stretch, in the last five minutes, but so did the Panthers, who shot well indeed for the game. Inconsistent shooting has been a problem - not today: 24-28 from the line, 60% from the floor (4-9 from three).

Thompson was terrific at both ends: 22 points on 8-12 shooting (and tough shots in traffic), 2-3 from the arc, 4-4 from the line, and great D on Brust. He played 39 minutes, all out. Sharry, wearing eyesight-limiting goggles because of a facial injury suffered against Skidmore, was a force, with a big block down the stretch and a putback to seal it (12 points, 9 rebounds). Wolfin and Kizell were surehanded in the backcourt and at the line against Bates's relentless man defense. Wholey, sporting a multi-chromatic shiner (Skidmore again), hit a couple of big threes at crucial times.

For Bates, Gallant had a good game (20 points), and Ellis was . . . well, Ellis, attacking the hoop, diving for loose balls, hitting his shots (8-12): I have him in my top five in the league. He plays so hard and with a great attitude - no breastbeating antics, just old-fashioned hardball. Seems like a great teammate.

Yes, a loss to either Tufts or Bates would have been a  big upset. Nonetheless, these are two good wins against real teams in their gyms. Nice job, boys. 

[Old Guy]

What's up with Bowdoin? They decisively beat Colby at Colby (who beat Bates at Bates last week). Hanley had 22 points and 19 rebounds.  He's a good player.  What else do they have? Colby Hoops?

[nescac1]

I am surprised no one else has mentioned it ... separated at birth: Aaron Toomey and Ollie from Hoosiers ...

http://eighties.weebly.com/uploads/7/4/6/1/746191/7111403.jpg
https://www.amherst.edu/media/view/281026/original/ToomeyCroppedMilless.jpg

As for Bowdoin, Hanley seems to be having a ridiculous year -- right there with Whittington and Wang as the most impressive statistical performer in NESCAC:

20 points, 10 boards, 3 assists, 1.5 blocks, 1 steal pg, .58 percent shooting -- those are all-American type numbers, and he is only a Junior.  His only weak spot seems to be foul shooting.  Considering that Bowdoin has only one senior on the roster, and he is only the fourth leading scorer on the team, they could be a contender by next year, even if I think they may not have the depth this season to really threaten the big three when push comes to shove (they do get Midd and Williams at home, which helps ... those long Maine trips are never fun). 

6'10 center Staiger in particular appears to be one of the most improved players in the conference (up from 2.0 ppg, 1.0 rpg, .3 bpg and .46 percent shooting as a frosh, now at 8.0, 4.5, 1.5, and .69 respectively), and if he continues to develop, and with the pending arrival of another 6'11 guy next season, their front line should be quite intimidating next year. 

[amh63]

nescac1.....nice touch.  Really need to "get up early" to stay ahead of you on "color/trival" info.

If the present pace continues among the top conference teams...the race for home court advantage in the conference tournament will go down to the wire.   Down to Amherst's last two regular season games.....away games.....at Williams and Midd.
The home court could be the difference..between the three top teams this year....even when all players are healthy.
Of course, there are dangerous games ahead.  It is interesting to me that Tufts' young team is playing similar to several local ACC Div 1 teams , I am following....UMD and UVA.  Both teams have taken leads against higher ranked teams into the second half....yet the players have not learned to "close out the game"....yes...it truly is a learning process.

[Colby Hoops]

Watched a decent portion of the Colby-Bowdoin game online, and also attended the game earlier in the year.  Bowdoin is good, and I wouldn't be surprised if they took down one of the top 3.  I also wouldn't be surprised if they lost to a non top-3 team.

Hanley is the real deal, he's so long and skilled that he's a hard matchup for anyone in the league.  As usual Bowdoin plays stellar defense, and they have a lot of length down low, something that seems to bother Russell quite a bit.  Defeo has been very solid for them, and O'Connell can shoot it even though hes struggled at times this year. They don't have a ton of depth, which will present challenges against Amherst, Midd, Williams.

It'll be interesting how the bottom of the league shakes out.  Colby, Tufts, Wesleyan, Trinity, Bates, and even Conn all seem to be relatively evenly matched based on what we've seen.  I think Bowdoin may be a notch above those teams, but I think before the season it seemed fairly clear that Tufts and Conn would be the bottom two, and thats not necessarily the case anymore.

[walzy31]

I am surprised no one else has mentioned it ... separated at birth: Aaron Toomey and Ollie from Hoosiers ...

http://eighties.weebly.com/uploads/7/4/6/1/746191/7111403.jpg
https://www.amherst.edu/media/view/281026/original/ToomeyCroppedMilless.jpg

As for Bowdoin, Hanley seems to be having a ridiculous year -- right there with Whittington and Wang as the most impressive statistical performer in NESCAC:

Haha that is good stuff.

I also agree with nescac1 and Toad's analysis of Midd/Amh/Will being in an extremely tight race. I'd still be worried about Bowdoin handing one of those teams a L, but the league most likely will not be decided until that last weekend of play where Amherst plays Midd and Williams on the road.

I apologize to the forum for not posting spreads as I had promised. I missed last weekends games and will miss this weekends games as I am in the land of Wang searching the high school hardwood down under for Toomey's replacement in 3 years.

I will have spreads posted for all games taking place the weekend of 1/28.

Also, I have one player on the All- NESCAC All-Crazy team already (potentially a 1st overall pick) and a SID. Anyone have any good webcast, radio, fan, coach or player stories to share? We are early in the season, but never too soon to discuss the most important post-season accolades.

[amh63]

Several weeks ago, I mentioned a program at Amherst that helps the faculty and the student athletes improve communications.
In my watching of BB games via the Bates website this past weekend, I noticed a "faculty laisions program" cited on the athletic page.  After reading about it, I recognize that it was very much like the program I briefly mentioned at Amherst.  Not surprising, in reflection.  The AD at Amherst came from Bates where she also held the AD position.  For interested posters, go to the Bates' site for clarity of the program adopted at Amherst.

[Old Guy]

Middlebury's had a Faculty Affiliate Program for the past 6-8 years:

http://www.middlebury.edu/athletics/about/facaff

I think other schools have them too.

[walzy31]

Yes, however great an Athletic Director Suzanne Coffey is (and she is great), I do not think she invented the novelty of the faculty liaison position in NESCAC. I wouldn't be surprised if every NESCAC member had a program or something quite similar.

I'd like to comment that the liaison program is one that exists with the best of intentions, but like many things in life, it takes a buy-in from both sides for it to be a success. The best liaisons I witnessed during my four years were the faculty who attended games, spoke with players in the dining halls or in passing on campus, and would meet with the team at least once per semester. This created a sense of the faculty member caring, and added another person for the athlete to respect and not let down. The athlete wants to do well in the classroom and on game day for his or herself, family, friends, coaches, and team mates...inclusion of a liaison program adds someone on the academic side of the table whom the athlete wants to impress and perform for.

The other side of the coin on liaison programs is that if the faculty member is assigned to the team (rather than volunteering for the position), and does not show commitment (which I respect as being difficult considering it falls low on their list of priorities behind career, family, health, etc), then it can be more harmful than not having a liaison at all. It puts the liaison, coaches, players, and even other professors in awkward positions of knowing the program is in place, but not being able to rely on it for its intended purposes (ie. A biology professor approaches a team's liaison who works in a different department and asks why athlete Jon isn't coming to class any more. The liaison says he hasn't spoken with he team since the first week of school but will get on it. The liaison then contacts Jon and asks what is going on, but Jon doesn't have a bond or connection with the liaison so the effect is lost on him.)

Liaison programs are great when they work. When the athlete can approach his or her liaison and ask them question about how to communicate with their professors it can be invaluable for the professor/student relationship. However, it is a challenge to find 20-30 individuals (or one for however many teams there are at the school) willing to put in the required time and energy to make it work. Ironically at Amherst, the best two or three liaisons that come to mind are the ones that don't have time for it...either because they are department chairs, have three young children, are in the midst of having a book or research published (or all three). The people that do everything and happen to be passionate about a particular sport.