MBB: NESCAC

[Old Guy]

Looks like "live stats" at Skidmore are stuck at 30-30 with 1:02 to play in the first half. It's been this way for 15 minutes. Frustrating. Anyone have any advice on how to follow live stats without going crazy?

Good tight game. Midd not shooting well 29%. Sharry has 14 points and 8 rebounds (6 offensive). 8 fouls on Midd; 9 Skidmore.

I watched the second half of the Bowdoin-Colby game on the webcast. Pretty one-sided, Hanley and O'Connell had their way with the mules. The Colby student announcers referred constantly to the Bowdoin "Bearcats."

[Hugenerd]

Looks like "live stats" at Skidmore are stuck at 30-30 with 1:02 to play in the first half. It's been this way for 15 minutes. Frustrating. Anyone have any advice on how to follow live stats without going crazy?

Good tight game. Midd not shooting well 29%. Sharry has 14 points and 8 rebounds (6 offensive). 8 fouls on Midd; 9 Skidmore.

I watched the second half of the Bowdoin-Colby game on the webcast. Pretty one-sided, Hanley and O'Connell had their way with the mules. The Colby student announcers referred constantly to the Bowdoin "Bearcats."

I would recommend doing something else, like watching a game on tv, and just check the score every 15 minutes or so on the livestats.

[Old Guy]

Thanks, Hugenerd, that's what I ended up doing (but not every 15 minutes).

Middlebury wins a tight one, 64-59. Sharry (welcome back!) gets 24 points (9-15 - pretty efficient), 14 rebounds (10 offensive!), 4 steals, 4 blocks. Kizell scores 18, 10-11 from the line (4-4 in the last minute. Clutch).

Bucket was at the game. I suspect he'll provide the qualitative report.

[amh63]

Dinner was fine and got back to go on-line but decided to watch a crosstown rivalry game on tv....Richmond vs VCU, two schools that are 6 miles apart physically but a million miles apart socially...with both playing good BB.....VCU went to the Final 4 last year.  Better still, I have been on both their campuses and mingled among their students.
Yes technology is both good and bad.  Livestats come in many forms and they often contain errors as well as lags in temporal space.  It is like looking in a candy store window.. from the outside.   Live is best...video with broadcasters is good and livestats last behind audio feed.
Walzy....where are your predictions for Sat. games?  Will Amherst get two....one with Aaron T. playing and one without?  Seems that Trinity's game with Springfield was also low scoring.  Trinity's rally fell short at the end.  Nice recap writeup.  Where are the Trinity posters this year?

[amh63]

Slow morning as I hope to catch up on my reading and avoid my "chores".....awaiting the Army vs. Navy football game.
Went to the Midd. website to read about last night's game.  Seems All-American to be Sharry is contributing more in the front line than the "Kaasila/Holmes" Amherst combination at the #5 position.  To Midd. posters, what position is Sharry playing....though it doesn't really matter....the 4 or 5 position.?
Since the Midd.'s BB season is on hold for the time being.....there is a Amherst vs. Midd. ice hockey game tonight on the Amherst provided webcast.  Could never get into ice hockey at any level.  Midd. should be angry since they were upset by Hamilton last night and will take it out on poor Amherst like they did last year.
Will just have to wait for the Amherst versus Brandeis game tonight....without any fun inputs form Walzy.  Maybe even check in on the MIT vs. Tufts game a little and look for Walzy's profile in the stands......really not possible, even in the new floor arrangement.

[walzy31]

Walzy....where are your predictions for Sat. games?  Will Amherst get two....one with Aaron T. playing and one without?

Saturday December 10th Spread

Amherst @ Brandeis
Amherst -14.0
O/U: 155.5

[amh63]

Thanks Walzt!
The strangest things are going on on this full-moon day....besides the lunar eclipse.  Went to the Tufts' website to check on the time and video status of tonight's game.  Presently listed is the score of the MIT-Tufts game!  It was an OT game.   For a moment thought the game was last night.

[ac08]

Amherst and over

[JustAFan]

MIT outlasts Tufts 60-56 in a good one at Cousens as the Jumbos head into exams. The final stats were just about identical, showing how even a game it was.  Tufts led by 4 with 4 to go but its young backcourt made a couple of critical turnovers in final 2 minutes.  MIT led by 6 at the half, Tufts battled back to take the lead with 8 to go and it was back and forth from that point until the end of the game.  Players of the day were the big men on each team, with MIT's Hollingsworth and Tufts Orchowski having big games on the boards as well as offensively.  Tufts is a work in progress, with 2 of its 3 losses coming in OT coupled with today's down to the wire loss, but still much improved over last year thanks in part to the 2 freshmen in the backcourt.

Old Guy, you brought a smile to my face with your reference to your college days visiting Saratoga.  I suspect our paths might have crossed at one of the Thursday quarter beer nights at the downtown Saratoga watering holes and/or Skidmore's opening of school September mixer on the green that seemed to attract every 19 year old male college student from schools within a 3hour drive?! Good memories, all, albeit from a different era...

[Bucket]

Thanks, Hugenerd, that's what I ended up doing (but not every 15 minutes).

Middlebury wins a tight one, 64-59. Sharry (welcome back!) gets 24 points (9-15 - pretty efficient), 14 rebounds (10 offensive!), 4 steals, 4 blocks. Kizell scores 18, 10-11 from the line (4-4 in the last minute. Clutch).

Bucket was at the game. I suspect he'll provide the qualitative report.

Midd-Skidmore was a dogfight. Very physical game--though not dirty, like last year--that seemed to knock the Panthers off its stride a little bit. Midway through the second half, Midd just wore  Skidmore down. A couple of late (under a minute) threes kept the game in single digits at the end, but as Old Guy pointed out, the Panthers, particularly Kizell, sealed the win at the line.

Sharry was a beast--head and shoulders the best player on the court--and Skidmore didn't have an answer for him. The Midd guards really struggled from the field--a combined 5 for 24, I believe--but Kizell more than made up for it at the line. (He did also hit a couple of clutch threes.) It's not often (ever?) that Nolan Thompson fails to score, and he never really seemed in synch on the offensive end of the floor, but that didn't stop him from playing great D and doing a good job on the boards.

In limited action, the freshmen looked a little more like freshmen last night in a loud, standing-room-only environment against a physical team. Getting that experience is a good thing, though, and will only serve them well in conference play.

Lynch was in early foul trouble, which really limited his minutes and didn't allow him to be as physical as he likes when he was in the game. Jensen showed his athleticism on D with a couple of blocks that raised eyebrows. Was also impressed with Nate Bullock who looked very poised for someone hovering around the periphery of the rotation. Had a nice pull-up jumper with the score tied late in the first half; I think his medium-range game and athleticism will continue to earn him pt moving forward.

Wolfin's in a shooting slump, but his floor presence is so important. He and Kizell see the floor so well, they (and Thompson) create so many scoring opportunities for others even if they're struggling to find their shot.

Good game for Midd heading into exams and the winter break. The Panthers showed that they can take a punch from a team that came ready to play. When you come out on the positive end of the ledger, that's the type of game that you don't mind having.

[JustAFan]

Williams leads Springfield 29-20 at the half. No surprise that it's a low scoring game when you face S'field. Interesting stat for Williams: the Ephs took 28 shots in the first half, 18 of which were treys.  Springfield got caught up in it a bit themselves, going 1-10 from behind the arc. Williams has been to the line only 3 times. So much for pound the ball down low basketball.  I'll be curious to see if Coach Maker experiments with playing more than one of his big guys at once as the season progress since he's got height that most DIII would envy so why not use it more...I don't know how much of today's 4 guard (counting Epley as a guard) offense is due to his opponent or will be his preferred line-up going forward. Looking forward to nescac1's live comments and summary after the game.

[walzy31]

MIT outlasts Tufts 60-56 in a good one at Cousens as the Jumbos head into exams. The final stats were just about identical, showing how even a game it was.  Tufts led by 4 with 4 to go but its young backcourt made a couple of critical turnovers in final 2 minutes.  MIT led by 6 at the half, Tufts battled back to take the lead with 8 to go and it was back and forth from that point until the end of the game.  Players of the day were the big men on each team, with MIT's Hollingsworth and Tufts Orchowski having big games on the boards as well as offensively.  Tufts is a work in progress, with 2 of its 3 losses coming in OT coupled with today's down to the wire loss, but still much improved over last year thanks in part to the 2 freshmen in the backcourt.

Old Guy, you brought a smile to my face with your reference to your college days visiting Saratoga.  I suspect our paths might have crossed at one of the Thursday quarter beer nights at the downtown Saratoga watering holes and/or Skidmore's opening of school September mixer on the green that seemed to attract every 19 year old male college student from schools within a 3hour drive?! Good memories, all, albeit from a different era...

JustAFan covered most of the game. Tufts has more weapons than MIT but was careless down the stretch. I was very impressed with Orchowski. He finished with 18 and 13 but it felt like 20 and 20. CJ Moss is going to be in the running for ROY. He also is a heavy favorite to repeat on the All-Crazy team. Tufts runs a lot of sets where four men start low and then pop high with back screens and cuts. Not too complex, but gets them a lot of easy buckets as some defenders cheat or lose track of a man on one cut.

The big takeaway I have from the game is: MIT is not an elite team. This is not to take anything away from Tufts (who I think is better than MIT). MIT has Hollingsworth and Karriker as primary scorers and then two point guards that rotate in and out that can score on the drive. This equates to three weapons at any given time. Stop Hollingsworth first (he's very good...something like 28 and 12 today), make sure karriker doesn't get open looks (not hard to do), and then get your athletes defending the slashing point guards. If Amherst played MIT today, Amherst would win by 20. If Amherst played Tufts today, Amherst would win by ~14.

Ticket: $0
Parking: Illegal, but free
Nachos: Free
Hot dog: Free
Popcorn: Free

Great atmosphere in Cousens today. I will go back for more games this season.

[Hugenerd]

MIT outlasts Tufts 60-56 in a good one at Cousens as the Jumbos head into exams. The final stats were just about identical, showing how even a game it was.  Tufts led by 4 with 4 to go but its young backcourt made a couple of critical turnovers in final 2 minutes.  MIT led by 6 at the half, Tufts battled back to take the lead with 8 to go and it was back and forth from that point until the end of the game.  Players of the day were the big men on each team, with MIT's Hollingsworth and Tufts Orchowski having big games on the boards as well as offensively.  Tufts is a work in progress, with 2 of its 3 losses coming in OT coupled with today's down to the wire loss, but still much improved over last year thanks in part to the 2 freshmen in the backcourt.

Old Guy, you brought a smile to my face with your reference to your college days visiting Saratoga.  I suspect our paths might have crossed at one of the Thursday quarter beer nights at the downtown Saratoga watering holes and/or Skidmore's opening of school September mixer on the green that seemed to attract every 19 year old male college student from schools within a 3hour drive?! Good memories, all, albeit from a different era...

JustAFan covered most of the game. Tufts has more weapons than MIT but was careless down the stretch. I was very impressed with Orchowski. He finished with 18 and 13 but it felt like 20 and 20. CJ Moss is going to be in the running for ROY. He also is a heavy favorite to repeat on the All-Crazy team. Tufts runs a lot of sets where four men start low and then pop high with back screens and cuts. Not too complex, but gets them a lot of easy buckets as some defenders cheat or lose track of a man on one cut.

The big takeaway I have from the game is: MIT is not an elite team. This is not to take anything away from Tufts (who I think is better than MIT). MIT has Hollingsworth and Karriker as primary scorers and then two point guards that rotate in and out that can score on the drive. This equates to three weapons at any given time. Stop Hollingsworth first (he's very good...something like 28 and 12 today), make sure karriker doesn't get open looks (not hard to do), and then get your athletes defending the slashing point guards. If Amherst played MIT today, Amherst would win by 20. If Amherst played Tufts today, Amherst would win by ~14.

Ticket: $0
Parking: Illegal, but free
Nachos: Free
Hot dog: Free
Popcorn: Free

Great atmosphere in Cousens today. I will go back for more games this season.

Im sure its easy to make generalizations about a team based on one game, but that doesn't tell you the full story.  They had an off game shooting, their all-region player from last year, Tashman, was in foul trouble, and they had an overall bad game, but they still won. If the only Williams game I had watched this season was against Salem State, or the only Middlebury game I watched was against Skidmore, I would probably draw the same conclusions you are about them, but its only one game. They have played 7 games in the last 16 days (this being the last one in that stretch), so they were bound to have an off game, I'm just glad it didn't end up in a loss. Earlier in the year, Tufts beat UMB by 6 points, MIT beat them by 43, including starting out the game up 42-8. That just goes to show what can happen on any given day.

By the way, Karraker is not a primary option for MIT, he is their spot shooter. He is their 4th option in the offense, but if others draw help or get doubled, he gets a lot of shots on kickout 3s.

[nescac1]

Solid win for Williams over a pretty tough Springfield team.   The difference was from three: Williams really denied / defended the three very well, something that has been an issue for the Ephs in the early going, so it was great to see them really focused on that.  Springfield played much of the game in a 2-3 collapsing zone defense, which created some turnovers when Williams tried to drive the ball, and denied many open looks down low.  So Williams really took what the D gave them, which was a lot of swinging the ball around the zone for open threes.  Fortunately, Klemm, Wang and Epley were able to nail just enough threes for the Ephs to pull out the victory, even though it wasn't the team's crispest offensive performance ever, and the rest of the team struggled a bit from deep.  Wang and Robertson (who looked healthy) did a really nice job controlling the offense, even if neither put up huge stats, and both did a good defensive job on Springfield's very quick guard Berthiaume, who really had to earn his 16 points on 6-19 shooting.

Epley was definitely the MVP for Williams, he has really come on of late and gives the Ephs a big offensive threat at the four, something they have lacked for quite some time it seems like.  I've said it before, but I'll repeat once more that his all-around slashing game plus the ability to hit the three and mid-range shots reminds me a lot of Blake Schultz.  Williams will definitely play with four smalls almost all the time (counting Epley and Wohl as smalls), as that really fits Maker's system better, and frankly fits the talent on the roster better as well.  Wohl continues to make some athletic plays in limited minutes, including a dunk and a very nice block, he will make some frosh mistakes, but I hope he gets some more minutes as he gets more comfortable in the system as his athleticism really stands out and he has good hoops IQ.  Klemm continues to be a consistent threat from deep, hitting 6-12.  It would be good to see him drive more as well to keep defenses honest, although today Springfield was really playing into Klemm's forte.   

Williams still isn't all the way there on offense yet, a few too many turnovers, but they certainly have come a long, long way since the Salem State game, and it's good to see the team basically healthy.  Hopefully a few weeks off will help some of the guys like Wang (who still lacks some of his old explosion, but did a nice job on both ends today), Robertson, and Emerson, who have been pretty banged up all semester. 

[amh63]

Nice postings on the board.  Have several questions though.
First, .....Walzy how did you get FREE food and drinks?  Did you raid the team's "after the game food"?  Did you pass yourself off as a MIT stud/student?.....wait, maybe you did...do they still give out ID badges/cards?
2nd.....guys it is only a game so go to your corners and come out with hands extended.  I can give you guys advice since I'm older.