MBB: NESCAC

[walzy31]

12-Year History of NESCAC Tournament (since inception)

Amherst  25-7     5 champs  4 RU's   (12/12)

Williams  16-8      4 champs  1 RU    (12/12)

Midd      11-7        2 champs  2 RU   (9/12)

Trinity    10-10      1 Champ  2 RU    (11/12)

[WPI89]

"never pass up the chance to say nothing when nothing is best". 

Holy cow Middfan - I love your father's quote - I printed it up and it is now on my office cork board!

[ECSUalum]

12-Year History of NESCAC Tournament (since inception)

Amherst  25-7     5 champs  4 RU's   (12/12)

Williams  16-8      4 champs  1 RU    (12/12)

Midd      11-7        2 champs  2 RU   (9/12)

Trinity    10-10      1 Champ  2 RU    (11/12)

Impressive record by those Lord Jeffs, I'd say that is consistency!!!!!!

[amh63]

Midd. wins their game by a wide margin.  Opponent was playing a zone and it took Midd. almost a half to find the proper offense to counter it and when they did, they "blew out" the other team.  Midd. cleared their bench by the end of the game.  The Midd. posters can provide the details.

[pjunito]

Midd puts on a clinic tonight. They remind us why they are one of the best teams in the nation. Their bigs pass the ball so well, they don't take bad shots, they don't rush their offense, they run the floor with space, just a beautiful thing to watch. Thry shoot 50% from the field and of course play excellent team defense.  They now take on an Albertus team that blew a 20 point lead, had technical fouls, and 21 turnovers.

Here is what Albertus must do to pull off an upset:

They must play solid team defense; they need to rotate better than they did against st. joe's. They cannot allow middlebury to have open looks consistently.

Their guards must win the battle of the back court. Dugas/Jackson need to take care of the ball, force Midd to respect their offensive game (allowing for watson and askew to play one on one), and stay out of foul trouble.

They must creat fast break opportunities. They need to score easy buckets.

If they do this, they may have a shot.. The falcons might show the region that they are better than the schedule they played; but will it be enough for the victory?

[Old Guy]

Midd up just six at the half 29-23, the 2-3 did give us some trouble: Morrisville said, beat us from the outside. Nolan Thompson missed his first four threes, shrugged, played great in the second half, led the Panthers in scoring with 19 points. Lynch is just so solid and dependable (5-6 from the floor). Sharry was 4-10, but it seemed he got every rebound, only 12 in fact. He's a terrific rebounder; 3 assists and 3 blocks, a nice game for the big guy, though not statistically (points) boffo. Second straight really good game from Jake Wolfin, all phases. Big crowd tonight, sell out. Fun. I buy extra tickets: as an old hooper who played and had a good experience in a mostly empty gym, the call I get now for tickets is something I could never have imagined, a wonder. I love it.

Tomorrow's game is interesting. Albertus Magnus (28-1)has some impressive talents. Ray Askew is as advertised (28 points, 11 rebounds tonight). He goes right at the basket. Darius Watson is a specimen who can hit the three and drive hard to the hole (28 points). Jefferson Lora is as big as a house (6'8" and 270 in the program - he's at least that), and can rebound and score in the paint (10 points, 9 rebounds in 18 minutes). Match-ups are interesting. Thompson on Askew, giving up 3-4 inches? Lynch on Lora? Sharry on Watson? Glad i'm not making these calls. I suspect they have not seen a team that plays defense as we do. Still . . . I'm taking nothing for granted.

AM plays a truly weak schedule, but their margin of victory (20 points) is impressive, and it's not their fault their conference is weak. We have two common opponents - Johnson and Wales and Trinity: no blood. They won in the championship game by 34 points. By the way, their coach, Mitch Oliver, is easy to dislike: he complains all the time, picked up a T tonight. He's the crankiest coach I've seen in our gym this year - and that includes Strahorn. Seemed to work though - they got the better of the officiating.

[Old Guy]

Becker beat #12 William Patterson tonight by 16, 69-53. Albertus Magnus beat Becker during the season by nine, 74-65.

Go Panthers.

[Bucket]

By the way, their coach, Mitch Oliver, is easy to dislike: he complains all the time, picked up a T tonight. He's the crankiest coach I've seen in our gym this year - and that includes Strahorn. Seemed to work though - they got the better of the officiating.

Cranky doesn't begin to describe it. F bombs every other word, more often than not directed at the officials. When he wasn't dropping the bombs, he was saying things like this to the refs: "I do this full-time. You're getting a $150 game check. And you can call [blank] like that?"

The refs gave him a long leash, warning him that they didn't want to T up anyone in a tournament game, but his behavior needed to cease. Well, it was a moot point. He was getting his T. And he easily could have been given a second T on multiple occasions and been tossed.

I'd say that his behavior almost cost his team the game. They were up 18, in cruise control, when he became unhinged over a 3-second call. Hit with the T. A few minutes later, one of his players earns his own technical. Seconds after that, another player gets hit with a flagrant 1. And then the wheels came off for AM. St. Joes, who really had no business being in the game, actually took the lead. And it was back and forth the last 3 minutes.  If AM loses that game, with the talent they have and the lead they held against an outmatched opponent, it can all be traced back to their coach's irrational behavior and what it created on the floor.

AM's kids deserve better than that guy.

[trixiep]

By the way, their coach, Mitch Oliver, is easy to dislike: he complains all the time, picked up a T tonight. He's the crankiest coach I've seen in our gym this year - and that includes Strahorn. Seemed to work though - they got the better of the officiating.

Cranky doesn't begin to describe it. F bombs every other word, more often than not directed at the officials. When he wasn't dropping the bombs, he was saying things like this to the refs: "I do this full-time. You're getting a $150 game check. And you can call [blank] like that?"

The refs gave him a long leash, warning him that they didn't want to T up anyone in a tournament game, but his behavior needed to cease. Well, it was a moot point. He was getting his T. And he easily could have been given a second T on multiple occasions and been tossed.

I'd say that his behavior almost cost his team the game. They were up 18, in cruise control, when he became unhinged over a 3-second call. Hit with the T. A few minutes later, one of his players earns his own technical. Seconds after that, another player gets hit with a flagrant 1. And then the wheels came off for AM. St. Joes, who really had no business being in the game, actually took the lead. And it was back and forth the last 3 minutes.  If AM loses that game, with the talent they have and the lead they held against an outmatched opponent, it can all be traced back to their coach's irrational behavior and what it created on the floor.

AM's kids deserve better than that guy.

By contrast, I thought the the St. Joseph's Coach was a complete class act.  Consistently positive with his team (even as they struggled mightily in the first 30 minutes), and never even looked at the referees (a veteran crew that did a very solid job).  As a result, his out manned team kept their composure, completely erased a 20 point second half lead, and had all of Pepin gym (sans the AM fans) on their side.  I hope they (and their fans) are holding their heads high today.  I also thought the Albertus Magnus kids comported themselves well on the court, in spite of the embarrassing behavior by their coach.   

[smorris12]

wow, he is a coach, i think we are being a little harsh, his players obviously enjoy playing for him, they are 28-1, last time i checked that is a good record.   I think he is playing the old "let me worry about the ref" game. I just HOPE he doesn't get too much attention or BLOW the game with any T's, from the announcers they said he was overly persistent, I wouldn't call him Frank Martin or anything.   He will need to be calmer tonight and just let the athlete's win the game tonight, they seem to e just as big as Middlebury and quicker, they create match up problems for Midd, midd won't be able to press as well as st joe's as st joe's had quickness, that is what caused the comeback and turnovers, unless midd is good at pressing, I don't know.    should be exciting game tonight, midd would be favored but in no way would this be a huge upset, AMC can play!!

[falcons2010]

Very harsh. Heres a history of the albertus program. From 02 to 07 they were 13-129. Yes ur reading that correctly. They avg 7 players on roster. Enter Mitch Oliver in 08 and albertus has 2 gnac titles(maybe 3 if askew didn't have to leave a semifinal against key last yr bc of the flu early in 1st half) and are 2-1 in ncaa tourney. There natl ranked for 1st time. The school/administration love the exposure there getting bc of it. He has completely turned a joke program around. And off the court is the opposite of his on court self. Nice humble guy that just wants to win. The kids love him. I know 1st hand bc I was a student in 04 and saw what it was then til now. It's amazing the quick turnaround. Go falcons.

[Bucket]

Very harsh. Heres a history of the albertus program. From 02 to 07 they were 13-129. Yes ur reading that correctly. They avg 7 players on roster. Enter Mitch Oliver in 08 and albertus has 2 gnac titles(maybe 3 if askew didn't have to leave a semifinal against key last yr bc of the flu early in 1st half) and are 2-1 in ncaa tourney. There natl ranked for 1st time. The school/administration love the exposure there getting bc of it. He has completely turned a joke program around. And off the court is the opposite of his on court self. Nice humble guy that just wants to win. The kids love him. I know 1st hand bc I was a student in 04 and saw what it was then til now. It's amazing the quick turnaround. Go falcons.

I'm not disputing any of this. I even said to someone, "For all we know, he's a good guy off the court." But last night, and that's all I can speak to, he put his team at a severe disadvantage. It was his behavior that created the conditions to let St. Joe's back in the game. And he really was unhinged: Fing everything, screaming at his players to get out of his seat (on the occasion when one came out of the game and sat down in the first chair), really abusive of the officials from the opening tap until the end.

I'll take back my statement that AM's kids deserve better. You're right, that's too broad a statement for one observation. But last night they deserved better. And I'll stick to that.

And I agree with the AM posters: The Falcons can play. They have a ton of talent, size, quickness. I expect to see a good, hard fought game. Pjunito's post earlier seemed spot on. He observed what Midd does well and outlined what AM needs to do to win. Anything can happen. That's why we play the game.

I just hope all parties are well behaved and the game is decided by the players.

[falcons2010]

Excellent post bucket, its going to be a fun one!

[smorris12]

agreed bucket the commentators agreed that Oliver was extraordinarily on the ref's too, he can't let his temper let midd get a run like st joes did because they won't come back as easily in Midd's gym!   good luck to all!!

[amh63]

Guess, I will put my two bits here on the Albertus coach.  Watched the AMC game a little on-line to see what all the fuss was about.
AMC had a little too much size for their opponent last night.  When AMC went up by double digits, I switched to the F&M site games and missed the comeback period which was the period that Coach Oliver lost control of himself. 
I remember the D3hoops interview with the AMC coach on Hoopsville...about three weeks ago.  He seems cool and collective on the show.  Even mention the game with Trinity and made reference to the NESCAC....thought it was the "Big East" equivalent in D3 (indirect putdown of the LEC).  Albertus is a school of less than 800 and the BB team has brought some spotlight on the school and the coach.  The coach maybe looking to a Div 1 job and seeing his team "underperform", may have caused too much stress.  How else can one explain his behavior.
Did come back to check on the Midd. game.  It seems that nothing rattles Sharry.  He, however, did not appear to be in the flow of the game..in the first half.  When I came back, Sharry was there collecting rebounds, etc.
Good luck to Midd. tonight!  Need you guys to hold up the honor of the conference on your side of the bracket.