MBB: NESCAC

jayhawk · March 13, 2011, 07:35:12 PM

For those glum Amherst fans., ;)Amherst has the potential to be excellent next year as they are quite young. Their balance is really good with Kaasila and Workman and Williamson sophomores. All 3 have room to grow and adapt to college game. Waller looks to have returned to form and he has lots of potential. Barrise is an excellent shooter and Holmes a capable cemter/forward. Toomey will get physically stronger which help him significantly in the college game. Amherst has a strong six eight freshman who was county player of the year in Florida but could not get into rotation with Kaasila, Holmes, and the senior co-captain all bigs. Also a good guard/forward.

Hixon tends to not play freshman. Two incoming freshman look to be strong additions. Mussachia on paper has an excellent game with impressive stats of like 25 points and per game and 25 rebounds and lots of assist. He plays in a small league but excellent scouting report by NERR. We will have to see. The other recruit , who I will not mention by name, until it announced officially by scouting service or other sources , is an excellent guard (without the hoopla of Toomey) but appears to be super quick with good 3 point shooting skills, and able to drive and pass. More like Meehan but quicker and perhaps not as physically strong.
We will see who else comes along.
Looking forward to watching Middlebury and Williams I hope they both make it to the Finals

Bucket · March 13, 2011, 07:55:41 PM

Quote from: Major Hoople on March 13, 2011, 07:08:45 PM
Disappointed that Bucket has not given his courtside perspective of last night's game.

Bucket's courtside perspective was tempered about midway through the first half, as Major Hoople knows!

Old Guy · March 13, 2011, 09:34:20 PM

"Old Guy: How did Young Guy's team do?" JustAFan

They lost by eight in the state semi-final game to the #1 seed. A good game. His team had beaten two higher seeds to get there. A nice post-season run.

He and I texted on Saturday night (his game was in the afternoon) when I could get my fingers to work. Andrew Locke cut a piece of the net for him, a nice trophy.

Major Hoople · March 13, 2011, 09:47:07 PM

Bucket

I was not at either game this weekend, but watched the webcasts. I assumed that it was your son Locke was holding after Saturday's game. I hope that nothing happened as ominous as your post reads.

eph partisan · March 13, 2011, 10:05:33 PM

Quote from: nescac1 on March 12, 2011, 10:09:59 PM
... gotta give a shout out to Coach Maker. He is a D-1 coach coaching D-3 ball...

Quote from: Old Guy on March 13, 2011, 10:28:44 AM
Coach Brown goes undiscussed: I find the pretense of evaluating coaches problematic, but it strikes me that Jeff pushes all the right buttons.

I, also, want to sing both of these coaches praises. I'll start with Coach Brown, since I do not know him other than through watching his teams - but, he does a lot more than push the right buttons. Every single one of his players plays like they want it, each and every night, and Midd is the best defensive team I can imagine at this level. That starts and ends with the coach - with his system, his philosophy, and his ability to make the team want to play for him and for one another. Credit where credit is due: that man knows what he is doing.

As for Coach Maker, I cannot say enough good things about him. He is tactically very good, as a rule - take a look at his offense's efficiency, and his smart decision to leave Robertson and Wang to play the last 5 minutes of the last 2 games with 4 fouls each. nescac1 mentioned that he has faith in his players - but there is more to it than that. He goes about coaching the right way: winning is great, but it's honestly about the love for the game and for his team. He is 100% about playing it the right way. I wrote about this last year on the Williams website after last year's run to the national final. Last year, his pre-game speech to his players in the national title game finished like this: "I am proud of you; I love you; now let's play." He emphasizes passion, togetherness, and making the Williams community proud every time you talk to him. He genuinely means it, in my opinion, and that is what makes him special. He may get snapped up by a D1 program - but the process of leaving is going to be a hard one, if and when it happens.

Quote from: Major Hoople on March 13, 2011, 07:08:45 PM
Wolfin's NINE assists, plus 16 points were worthy of some comment from the Big Two loyalists, looked at in a vacuum or otherwise. There is no team in the NESCAC, in my opinion, that plays better as a team than Middlebury, a tribute to Coach Brown and the players themselves

MH! I thought we were past this big two loyalist thing! Let's be clear: I am strictly an Eph loyalist. Definitely no loyalties toward the Jeffs, whose talents as basketball players I respect but ~~thoroughly detest~~ thoroughly wish did not play for Amherst. With that in mind, congrats on a great career to Conor Meehan; I am rather pleased that we won't have to try to keep him in check next year.

MH, you are right that a shoutout to Wolfin's passing seems to be in order. Even more of a shoutout, though, as you say, to Midd as team, though I think others have already given it better than I can. And I agree with your praise of Coach Brown.

Quote from: jayhawk on March 13, 2011, 07:25:49 PM
Middlebury versus Williams is an exciting match-up. I think Middlebury has the best balance of any team in NESCAC with a very steady coach. If neither Locke nor Sharry get into foul trouble then they can play together which is a very difficult inside matchup. Williams has the more spectacular players with Whittington and Wang with excellent supporting cast.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves - not to say you were, jayhawk. But I think it is easy for us to get excited about the possibility of an All-NESCAC final. Both teams still have serious hurdles. Wooster and St. Thomas are very good. For the Ephs, Whittington's injury is particularly daunting, though they proved this weekend that the supporting cast can step up, and I bet he'll play. I'll have to think a little bit about what Middlebury's (and Williams' other) question marks are, but I am sure I can find some or others will throw a few out there. That said, I am hoping that we get to see the matchup you are describing play out!

Right, time to give another go at escaping insomnia.

centfan · March 13, 2011, 10:27:12 PM

eph partisan
i agree with you about maker...great coach with great ethics....a true example.
i think it is awesome and motivating to tell his players before a game that he loves them.
then i read how you "detest" amherst players. i am well aware of the amherst/williams rivalry, but i believe in you...i think you can do better than that, and i guess coach maker would agree.

The Voice · March 13, 2011, 10:34:46 PM

Wow! I was without internet all weekend and was reduced to text updates (on my dumb-phone) from my father. Very proud of this team, and I've talked to several recent Midd bball alums who are thrilled to see the team's success.

Other Middlebury supporters... I'm pondering a trip to Salem but am concerned about the prohibitive flight cost ($500+) and considerable driving distance (12 hours). What are the odds the college puts together a bus to get some fans to the game? These are uncharted waters, and I can't recall the school doing anything like that for past NCAA tourneys in other sports in recent years (cross-country, tennis, lacrosse, soccer... the list goes on).

Congrats to Williams, as well! An all-NESCAC final would be incredible, but obviously Wooster and St. Thomas must be handled first. Congrats as well to a TOUGH Amherst team. The upside on the Jeffs is incredible, with Toomey poised to fill Meehan's large shoes. What a fantastic run for the conference. Go Panthers!

Bucket · March 13, 2011, 10:46:05 PM

Quote from: Major Hoople on March 13, 2011, 09:47:07 PM
Bucket

I was not at either game this weekend, but watched the webcasts. I assumed that it was your son Locke was holding after Saturday's game. I hope that nothing happened as ominous as your post reads.

Yes, that was my son Locke was holding! A great moment, postgame.

Sorry that my earlier post implied an ominous occurrence. I was just alluding to the "encouragement" I received from one of the referees to temper my comments to him and his cohorts during the first half; that's what I thought you were hinting at. Sorry for the misunderstanding!

eph partisan · March 14, 2011, 05:09:33 AM

Quote from: centfan on March 13, 2011, 10:27:12 PM
eph partisan
i agree with you about maker...great coach with great ethics....a true example.
i think it is awesome and motivating to tell his players before a game that he loves them.
then i read how you "detest" amherst players. i am well aware of the amherst/williams rivalry, but i believe in you...i think you can do better than that, and i guess coach maker would agree.

centfan, I don't actually detest Amherst players - I had hoped it was clear, from the tone of the rest of the post, that I was making a joke. I am sorry it was not! I have modified my earlier post to make it more clear. Life is too short to detest people for any reason, let alone people that you don't know simply because they wear a different shade of purple.

frank uible · March 14, 2011, 06:26:13 AM

But in any event it certainly is an inferior shade.

nescac1 · March 14, 2011, 09:23:51 AM

Amen, Frank.

More great stuff from Chandler:

http://williams.prestosports.com/video/03_12_2011_This_is_our_house_!!!_NCAA_M_Bkb_Elite_Eight_Williams_77_Amherst_71.flv

amh63 · March 14, 2011, 03:07:01 PM

Ah, the games "grownups?" play. Speaking of games....planning to check out how a Williams grad ply his trade on Thursday. UConn plays Bucknell at 7:30 PM in the Verizon Center in D.C. May keep track of the cups of water Coach Paulsen drinks/carries around. Am aware that there are a number of parents of Amherst players that root for UConn....as well as me since my wife is an UConn grad. and makes donations accordingly.

amh63 · March 14, 2011, 03:14:39 PM

Almost forgot. The city of Roanoke that borders Salem Va. has a very good, recently upgraded art museum. Some of the Eph posters may need to refresh their knowledge of the "color wheel " by viewing the exhibits. Unless they missed one of the necessary arts in their "liberal arts " education.

nescac1 · March 14, 2011, 03:15:05 PM

Amh63, I hope you make the trip to Salem!

I will be at the Bucknell game ... I had tickets already (I live in DC) so it was a fortuitous coincidence. Paulsen and Maker back-to-back (I'm also headed to Salem), should be a fun weekend ...

The Voice · March 15, 2011, 01:34:03 AM

Couldn't avoid the siren's call... Just bought my tickets. Planning on making the 714-mile trek by car on Friday starting early enough to hopefully catch the Williams-Wooster game. Looking forward to seeing some of you there!