MBB: NESCAC

[amh63]

What can I say.  Midd.'s defense shut the Amherst offense down.  Waller, Holmes and Meehan all had five fouls.  Stepping back a little, both "front lines" played about even.  Amherst's backcourt was outplayed  by Midd's this game.  Toomey and Meehan totaled only 9 points.....bad day.....good defense.. equals loss for Amherst.  Harsh reality.  Positive view is that I don't think Amherst's outside game and guard play will repeat in the Williams game today.    Will miss it as I will be on the road.
Glad that Old Guy could watch the game's end without stress.

[Major Hoople]

   Two excellent, well coached teams, a packed to the rafters gym, and much at stake.  This was D-3 basketball at its best.  On this night, Middlebury, with a tough defense and just enough offense, prevailed.

   Locke and Sharry made  scoring around the hoop an imposing task and the constant pressure from the Panther guards gave very few clean looks. Any baskets from the outside were well earned.

   Wolfin and Thompson give Middlebury what is perhaps the best guard tandem in the league.  They clearly outplayed Amherst's back court last night, and, with Kizel, outplayed the Eph's backcourt in a losing (without Sharry) cause.

   Locke's sweeping one handed dunk off a rebound brought the house down, and capped a great night for the 19-1 Midds.  Hopefully, they will not rest on their laurels in this afternoon's game against Trinity

[nescac1]

Major Hoople, great win last night, and Midd's guards are tough, but best backcourt in the league?  That is a big stretch.  Even if they had a rough night last night, I would still take Toomey and Meehan over Wolfin and Thompson.  And certainly Wang and Robertson over that pair.  (Remember, Wang was sick all week before the Midd game and was not his usual self that day, maybe his roughest game of the year, so even though they were fairly even with the Midd guards that game, I don't see that happening regularly).  Wang is an all-American.  Wolfin and Thompson are very solid players, but neither is likely to make all-NESCAC this year.  That is a big difference. 

Wang and Robertson combine for over 25 ppg, 7 apg, 8 rpg, and 2 spg and both shoot well over .50 from the field and over .83 from the line.  Wolfin and Thompson combine for over 18 ppg, 6 apg, 6 rpg, and 1 spg, and shoot .44 and .35 from the field, and both are under .80 from the line.  All four are outstanding defenders.  But the Eph guards have a substantial edge in production, especially in shooting efficiency.  Wang's 3 point percentage is nearly 20 percentage points higher than Wolfin's!

If you are talking about best front court in the league, there, I think Midd takes top honors due to the big guy tandem and good depth. 

I do wonder if Toomey might be hitting the rookie wall based on his last few games, when he has tailed off a bit -- he has struggled from the field for three straight games after lighting it up before that, which may indicate dead legs.  He has played a ton of big minutes for a first year player.  Still, I wouldn't bet against him having a strong game against Williams.  I wouldn't judge him (or for that matter Meehan, who has really been playing well) based on one off night, even if the Midd defense has a lot to do with it.

And while Wolfin and especially Thompson are great defenders, they can afford to far more aggressively than other NESCAC guards because they have the big guys behind them, and they can compensate when guys get by them ...   

[walzy31]

Not going to be as Pretty since I'm posting from my iPod (I would like to formally request the functionality to post up on this website using BlackBerry).

Saturday February 12th Lines

Amherst @ Williams
Williams -4.0 (hope I'm wrong)
O/U: 154.0

Bowdoin @ Wesleyan
Wesleyan -3.5
O/U: 143.5

Trinity @ Middlebury
Middlebury -13.5
O/U: 121.0

Bates @ Tufts
Bates -6.5
O/U: 141.5

Colby @ Conn College
Conn College -16.0
O/U: 132.0




Conn college Colby

Trinity. Middlebury

Bates tufts

[Colby Hoops]

I think that perhaps the craziest outcome of today would be Wesleyan beating Bowdoin, knocking Bowdoin out of the Nescac tournament.  That would be absolutely shocking for a team that we all thought would end up at the 4 seed about 3 or 4 weeks ago.

[walzy31]

I think that perhaps the craziest outcome of today would be Wesleyan beating Bowdoin, knocking Bowdoin out of the Nescac tournament.  That would be absolutely shocking for a team that we all thought would end up at the 4 seed about 3 or 4 weeks ago.

I'm done favoring Bowdoin

[Bucket]

Not much I can add to the Amherst-Midd game recap other than to concur with what all have said.

Great atmosphere, two great teams going after each other.

It's always nice to put a face to names on this board, and it was a pleasure meeting Walzy last night.

As a basketball fan, I'd love to see that Williams-Amherst match-up today, but as a Panther partisan, there's no place I'd rather be this afternoon than Pepin.

Good luck to everyone today.

[mainehoops]

Colby a 16 pt dog at Conn.  Wow.  Can I bet the moneyline there?  Colby will win this game

[nescac1]

Great webcast out of Williams with a professional TV crew filming.   Tremendous, very well-played half of hoops.  Williams up 8 thanks to a simply insane half of basketball from James Wang -- 9-13 from the field, 4-7 from 3, 24 points, just unconscious.  Whittington also big on both ends with 6 points, 8 boards, 2 blocks (and several altered shots), and an assist (but should have had more if guys had helped him out).  The rest of the Ephs haven't done a ton, Williams could really use a few other guys to step up if they want to hold on.  Klemm, Rooke-Ley, and Robertson combined for only 3 points, they need to get going a bit in the second half as Amherst is surely going to give more attention to Wang. 

Amherst hanging in thanks to their size advantage inside, with lots of second chance points and Holmes and in particular Workman giving the Ephs a tough time with their length inside.  Very, very quiet first half for Toomey and Meehan.  Ephs have played very good defense, other than one big run from Amherst where Williams fell asleep on a few transition buckets. 

Tremendous packed house in Chandler, tons of energy.  Love the "get ready to meet our Maker" sign.  Great national anthem rendition by a frosh Eph, Aguilera could take some lessons ...

[nescac1]

Just like that, 12-2 run for Amherst, Williams looks discombobulated.  Workman continues to kill Williams on both ends.  Williams needs to move the ball better on offense. 

[nescac1]

Congrats to the Ephs on a second straight perfect NESCAC regular season and, more importantly, the win over Amherst.  Heck of a game, with Walzy nailing the four point spread.

It was the Wang show for Williams, he played one of the best individual games by an Eph in recent memory, with 33 points, 3 boards, 3 assists, and no turnovers, while helping hold Meehan and Toomey to a combined 4-17 on the other end.  Amherst did a very good job on Whittington, but he still finished with a strong effort of 14 points, 11 boards, and 3 blocks.  Really, no one else on the Ephs played a tremendous game, although James Klemm wins the gut-check award for hitting the game-clinching 3 despite looking way out of synch for most of the game.  Nate Robertson also made some strong contributions including a clutch 3 late in the game.  Ephs missed a few front end of one-and-ones late to keep Amherst in it, but strong Eph D down the stretch enabled them to hold on.

For Amherst, Workman, as usual, absolutely killed Williams on both ends.  The Holmes-Kaasila combo did an impressive job playing the Whittington-Emerson due to a standstill.  But the difference was a huge day from Wang balanced against another off day from the Amherst guards.  Williams caught a bit of break when Williamson rolled an ankle at the end of the first half and did not return.  Amherst killed Williams off the boards, 44-33. 

I continue to think Amherst, Williams, and Midd are all basically dead even.  Each team presents big mismatches for one another at various spots.  The Ephs will always struggle on the boards against either, but have been able to compensate with strong defense, generally, and clutch threes on offense. 

[jayhawk]

great game at Williams. Did not see Amherst Middlebury but noted that Toomey, Meehan, and Willamons were shot a very low percentage, perhaps 10-20%. Out of character for those three- travel woes?. Toomey has been playing through a shoulder injury. Wang was phenomena todayl. Holmes, Kaasila, and especially Workman played well. Workman still working back after injury. David Waller had some key plays as well.  Congrats to Williams. The weekend experience was important fr what is a very young Amherst who has not gone on the road very much.  The playoffs this year should be an excellent. Both Holmes and Kassila really did a nice job on Whittington.

[toad22]

Great summary, nescac1. The only thing I would add is that I thought Robertson played beautiful defense today, and he hit one huge 3 near the end. His game often gets lost in the big scoring numbers of others, but he is a very tough competitor. For Amherst, I continue to love Workman. He is very good at all phases of the game, and will only get better. I would also add that he would certainly make All NESCAC if "trash talking" were a category. He's like Larry Bird was -- he never shuts up (not a criticism). It was a great game to watch, I even had some good fun with an Amherst couple sitting next to me. They kept asking me when Wang graduates. Wang has been particularly good against Amherst from his very first game as freshman. Very much like Brian Daust from Amherst plagued Williams in both football and basketball for his four years. It is interesting how certain players seem to play their best against certain opponents.

[nescac1]

Good thoughts on Robertson, Toad.  He is the sort of player who is better appreciated in person, there is a reason he leads the team in minutes, he does whatever it takes to get a win.  

Interesting on Workman.  Even on the videocast, without hearing what he said, he did an inordinate amount of chest pounding and pointing and face-making and whatnot, unfortunately (from an Eph perspective) he can back it up ... and like Wang plays his best against Amherst, Workman seems to save his biggest games for the Ephs.  Still, the kind of guy who is fun to hate as an Eph fan ... and athletic forwards like that always seem to give the Ephs particular problems, just like quick guards like Wang tend to excel against Amherst.  

I feel like Wang is a much better player than last year, even though his numbers are nearly identical.  Last year he would make three spectacular plays, but then occasionally hurt the team with an ill-advised decision where he tried to do too much on his own.  This year he seems to know when he is needed to take over, and when to reign it in.  His decision making (plus his overall play, period) in recent games has been really stellar.  And he has really cut down on the TO's since early in the season.  I'd say he is a lock for NESCAC player of the week, this week, and is even giving Troy a run for his money as conference player of the year.  

Here's one for Walzy ... over-under on number of remaining Amherst-Williams-Midd games in 2011?  I say 3.5.  And I think all will be wars. 

[Bucket]

Midd gutted out a very physical game against Trinity today. They always seem to play us down to the wire, and today was no exception. Maybe there was a bit of a Panther hangover from last night, but that's not fair to Trinity. They played aggressive, physical defense, and shot well from outside. The Bantams had no answer for Sharry, other than to be as physical with him as they could be. Midd's D was as stellar as it has been all year. There were maybe one of two defensive lapses that allowed Trinity easy looks; otherwise they were forced into very difficult shots (several of which they made.)

So Midd stands at 20-1 after playing through the NESCAC schedule. (Two make-up games this week against Hamilton and Green Mountain.) Hats off to Jeff Brown and the Panthers for another magical season. Here's hoping it continues for many more games.

So, very interesting match-ups in the quarters:

Bowdoin@Williams
Conn@Midd
Bates@Amherst
Tufts@Trinity

Thoughts?