MBB: NESCAC

[OchoLoko41]

Once upon a time "traditional" big men were called goons.

while im sure that some players - big and small alike could wear the goon tag, every quality CAC team for years has had at least one quality big anchoring the middle

Off the top of my head we've had Locke/Sharry, Whittington, Stone, Phillps, Walters, Geoghegan all being key members of quality CAC teams and the list goes on.  All of these bigs gave their teams quality shots from the low block and good interior D without being "goons"

[frank uible]

By little man standards they (if "traditional") are, by definition, all of modest (or worse) athletic ability but for their height and length and consequently deserve the epithet, goons.

[Ashley Parker Angel]

Once upon a time "traditional" big men were called goons.

while im sure that some players - big and small alike could wear the goon tag, every quality CAC team for years has had at least one quality big anchoring the middle

Off the top of my head we've had Locke/Sharry, Whittington, Stone, Phillps, Walters, Geoghegan all being key members of quality CAC teams and the list goes on.  All of these bigs gave their teams quality shots from the low block and good interior D without being "goons"

That said, when it comes to big men it's hard to argue that the NESCAC is anything but a league made up primarily of goons, at least by frank's description of the word. To name a few from recent years:

Midd's Locke and Sharry both -- they're certainly imposing but also definite goons
Bowdoin's Mark Phillips
Amherst's Kaasila
Colby's Chas Woodward
Bates' Jimmy O'Keefe (one of my favorites)
Wesleyan's Neal Creeden
I'd even say Williams' Geoghegan, though I wouldn't even think of throwing Whittington into the list

As for the spreads:

Conn and over
Bates and under
Williams and over
Amherst and over
Colby and under

[amh63]

A.P. Angel.....glad you laid your bets down before the games began.  Only one that picked Amherst and over....good for you.
More impressed that you understand Frank U. "Haku" like postings.

[walzy31]

Trinity just scored their 20th point of the game...with 8:19 to play in the 2nd half.

[amh63]

It is worst than that.  With 5 min and 10 sec. to go, the score is 53-20, Amherst.  The live stats shows all starters are out and Killian, Conner, Williamson, Kalema and the big man from Florida in.  What is going on with Trinity?  They are 0-18 from three point range, but the fouls, turnovers, and rebounds are close.  It must be a strange game going on in Hartford.  Meanwhile Midd. is ahead of Williams by s6 points with a little over 3 minutes to go.

[walzy31]

Amherst wins 61-30 with Trinity shooting a shocking 0-21 from 3pt.
Close one up in Vermont...who set that horrible line anyway?
Wesleyan struggling with Conn...

[amh63]

I'm right behind you Walzy.  Midd. beats Williams 80-79 in Vt. It is Tufts by 6 over Bates with 26 seconds to go.  Bowdoin beats Colby by 27....67-40.  It was Conn. 49 and Wes. 47 with 4 minutes and 11 seconds to go.

[nescac1]

Very tough week for Williams -- big comebacks in two games, each time had the ball with a chance to win, each time the outcome didn't go their way.  Although very different games.  Amherst game was an ugly defensive battle that I felt Williams should have pulled out and I do think the refs played a big role, the Midd game was an offensive showcase (especially in the second half) that Williams would have been very fortunate to win as they certainly got more of the close calls from the refs.  Midd is not as intimidating on defense as in past years, although the perimeter D by the Panthers is still very strong.  Midd is however the best offensive team that I've ever seen from the Panthers.  Very, very hard to guard, Williams didn't have many breakdowns as in parts of the Amherst game, they simply couldn't match up with the two Midd big guys or Kizell, and Wolfin was on fire.  And they play well as a team finding guys for good shots consistently.  When Wolfin is hitting Midd is nearly impossible to stop because few teams have the size and strength to stop Midd inside one-on-one, and Kizell (who every time I've seen him has played great, without a doubt an all-NESCAC player right now, I'd rank him above Toomey actually) can penetrate on most guys, leaving teams to hope Midd shooters miss open shots.  Sharry by the way is by no means a goon, a very, very skilled big guy with tremendous touch.

At least for Williams, the silver lining is that the future is bright.  Epley was simply awesome offensively, he battled the best he could but giving up four inches just had trouble defending the Midd bigs, but he made them pay on the other end as they didn't have the quickness to stick with him.  He is a bit inconsistent still but capable of more big games like this for sure.  Mayer keeps getting better and better.  I think he is the most skilled big in NESCAC and as his strength and experience develop, he is really capable of tremendous things, he put on a clinic on the inside.  Unfortunately, the rest of the Williams team did very little offensively.  Part of that is thanks to Midd, who really prevented the Eph guards from getting clean looks from 3 or easy lanes to the basket. Williams really needs to find a way to get Klemm more shots, for the second game in a row he just couldn't get any easy opportunities.  And Wang still can't finish in the lane the way he used to, it's a shame, but you can see he doesn't have the same lift or explosiveness at the end of his drives.  Robertson didn't create a ton of opportunities today but he did not have the ball in his hands as much as I would like and when he did, Midd really defended him well.  Rooke-Ley also had a quieter game than usual. 

Overall, a fun game to watch, bummer for Williams that they couldn't pull out at least one of these two very even games, but the Ephs will be tougher going forward for the experience and it's great to see the Williams sophomore class continue to develop into a potentially great one. 

Great job by the announcers (Bucket?) very objective and extremely knowledgeable about hoops, a top-notch broadcast!  I still hope the Ephs can make a run in these last few games heading into the NESCAC tourney, but if they hope to make the NCAA's, they will have to do it the hard way winning the NESCAC on the road ...

[walzy31]

Saturday January 28th NESCAC Spreads

Conn College @ Wesleyan
Wesleyan -11.5
O/U: 127.5

Williams @ Middlebury
Middlebury -16.0
O/U: 126.5

Bates @ Tufts
Tufts -7.5
O/U: 149.5

Amherst @ Trinity
Amherst -17.0
O/U: 144.5

Colby @ Bowdoin
Bowdoin -18.0
O/U: 151.5

Conn College 57 @ Wesleyan 61
Wesleyan -11.5 (Conn College Covers +7.5)
O/U: 127.5 (Under)

Williams 79 @ Middlebury 80
Middlebury -16.0 (Williams Covers +15.0)
O/U: 126.5 (Over)

Bates 62 @ Tufts 67
Tufts -7.5 (Bates Covers +2.5)
O/U: 149.5 (Under)

Amherst 61 @ Trinity 30
Amherst -17.0 (Amherst Covers +14.0)
O/U: 144.5 (Under)

Colby 40 @ Bowdoin 67
Bowdoin -18.0 (Bowdoin Covers +9.0)
O/U: 151.5 (Under)

[walzy31]

Midd laying 16 to Williams?  I think you are way off, way too high a number.  That being said, I have been wrong on lines for years, just ask my bookie and his really nice Porsche I contributed to.  Let's see what happens.

1-0 = +1 Nice pick

Wesleyan and over
Williams and under
Tufts and under
Trinity and under
Colby and under

4-6 = -2.2 Units or 2K

Wesleyan and the under.
Williams and the over.
Bates and the under.
Trinity and the under.
Colby and the under.

7-3 = Up 3.7 units or +3K

Conn and over
Bates and under
Williams and over
Amherst and over
Colby and under

7-3 = Up 3.7 units or +3K

[Ashley Parker Angel]

Interesting that neither Sha Brown nor Greg St. Jean played today vs. Conn. Not sure what's up but hoping they'll be back by next weekend for the Sunday matinee vs. Hamilton (and even for Wednesday against a strong Eastern Connecticut team).

Looks like another big game from Mike Callaghan as well as undoubtedly scrappy play from the unheralded Zach Lynch, stepping up with 5 points and 3 steals, allowed Wes to escape a Conn team still without a NESCAC W.

[amh63]

What a afternoon of surprising low scoring games in the conference.  Where I had expected a low scoring game, it turns out to be more of an offensive showcase.  My take, after reading nescac1's writeup of who did what, etc....is that this year, the "top tier" conference teams contests against one another...to date....is how the teams match-up against one another....style of play, quickness, size. etc.  Bates and Tufts seem to be teams that Amherst really needs to focus on next weekend as they are both away games. 
I'm afraid most of the contest seems to say that the players did not have their Wheaties today....is that cereal stiil available?
Looking forward to the posts of those that saw the games.  Bummer that the Trinity game was not webcasted.

[O-Boards10]

Once upon a time "traditional" big men were called goons.

while im sure that some players - big and small alike could wear the goon tag, every quality CAC team for years has had at least one quality big anchoring the middle

Off the top of my head we've had Locke/Sharry, Whittington, Stone, Phillps, Walters, Geoghegan all being key members of quality CAC teams and the list goes on.  All of these bigs gave their teams quality shots from the low block and good interior D without being "goons"

That said, when it comes to big men it's hard to argue that the NESCAC is anything but a league made up primarily of goons, at least by frank's description of the word. To name a few from recent years:

Midd's Locke and Sharry both -- they're certainly imposing but also definite goons
Bowdoin's Mark Phillips
Amherst's Kaasila
Colby's Chas Woodward
Bates' Jimmy O'Keefe (one of my favorites)
Wesleyan's Neal Creeden
I'd even say Williams' Geoghegan, though I wouldn't even think of throwing Whittington into the list

No matter what your definition of "goon" is, Phillips (and Sharry for that matter) should not be mentioned in the same category as Woodward and O'Keefe. Phillips was far more than just height. He had an arsenal of low posts moves including the best hook shot in the NESCAC. Plus he was an ~80% free throw shooter for his career (Goons don't do that). Not to mention he was a National Strength & Conditioning All-American.

[Bucket]

I echo everything that Nescac1 said. (FYI: I do the PA for the home games, not the webcasts, though glad to hear that they do a good job.) Just a great, well-played game in Pepin. The gym was absolutely electric--standing-room-only and very loud--and this with hockey going on next door. Oh, how things have changed.

It was a game of inches--I thought for sure that Wang's three at the buzzer was going to drop. Even with Midd jumping out to a 14-point lead early in the second half, I felt it was going to go down to the end. Williams has so many capable shooters, they can get back in the game in a hurry. Tonight it was Epley, knocking down three after three, each one seeming deeper than the last.

Big moment w/ 8 to play. Midd leading by seven, Sharry gets whistled for a foul on Epley, shooting from deep. It's Ryan's fourth foul, sending him to the bench and Epley hits all three to cut the lead to 4.

Midd stretches to 9, then it's back to three. And it's like this til the end, lead never bigger than 5, though Midd never gives it up either. Stunningly, Kizell (who played brilliantly and is normally automatic from the line) misses the front end of a 1-and-1 w/ 7 seconds left to set the stage for Wang's game-winning attempt. It rims out.

Williams didn't seem to have an answer for Sharry. Well, that's not true. The answer was to get him in foul trouble and keep him off the court, and that worked, limiting his minutes in the first half and a stretch in the second. He still finished with 19 (7-10 from the field) in just 23 minutes. There was no answer for Lynch on the blocks, either. He was near perfect from the field (7-8) and had 15 pts.

Kizell had 15 and 5 assists and played hard-nosed D the entire game. Wolfin, as nescac1 pointed out, was on fire--16 (on 4-6 from deep) and 7 assists. The biggest play he made might have been w/ under a minute to play, Midd holding on to a 2 point lead. With the shot clock winding down, Wolfin drives and pulls up for a shot at the elbow. As he goes up, Robertson (I think) smacks the ball out of his hand, yet Wolfin has the presence of mind to bat the loose ball right to Lynch on the blocks, who lays it in. Clutch play.

Thompson plays 39 minutes, basically in the jersey of Wang or Robertson all game.

Was really impressed with Mayer, and I agree with earlier assessments. He has such a nice game around the basket and the future really looks bright for him. Epley was a beast. And Wang and Robertson are so dangerous with the ball in their hands. I understand that Klemm has struggled this year, but every time he pulls up for three, I hold my breath, convinced it's going in.

Great win for the Panthers. The ride continues.