MBB: NESCAC

[Pat Coleman]

Magicman.....Thanks for the heads up....good advice.  The Amherst women's team has a 7PM game at home...against a team that they blew out on the road.  Though both teams are better now.....it should be "over" early.  Can check in on the game while watching your suggested game.  Are you not from upper NY and follow the "hometown" state school?  If so, any low down on the host team....keys to the game advice.
Seems all the bets are down on the game in VT! 
Pat C.   .....it is not good to tempt this "betting crowd" on this board....to challenge their minds/habits.  By the way, what is the prize if one wins?  All paid trip to Salem?

I think the "playing for pride" line says it all.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Magicman.....Thanks for the heads up....good advice.  The Amherst women's team has a 7PM game at home...against a team that they blew out on the road.  Though both teams are better now.....it should be "over" early.  Can check in on the game while watching your suggested game.  Are you not from upper NY and follow the "hometown" state school?  If so, any low down on the host team....keys to the game advice.
Seems all the bets are down on the game in VT! 
Pat C.   .....it is not good to tempt this "betting crowd" on this board....to challenge their minds/habits.  By the way, what is the prize if one wins?  All paid trip to Salem?

I think the "playing for pride" line says it all.

d3hoops.com t-shirt?  That might cost $20 including shipping.

[dman]

haven't posted in a while but feel i need to set the record straight regarding sedale jones.  he is not from the "boston area".  he played high school ball in pittsfield, ma and is the all-time leading scorer in berkshire county.  he prepped for a year at notre dame of fitchburg and spent a season as a walk-on at umass.  he has been at curry for the past few seasons.  as has been noted, he is a terrific offensive basketball player......would also add that williams seems to have a really tough draw compared to schools it has beaten and can only conclude that geography somehow played a role in the pairings this year compared to other years, whereas its nice to see midd, amherst & williams in three different brackets.......

[Panthernation]

Sedale Jones played against Amherst, Williams, WPI and MIT early in the season.  He scored 41, 34, 22 and 10.  MIT was the statistical anomaly.  Jones on took 10 shots in 34 minutes.  While he had 34 free throws in the other games, he only took 4 against MIT.
Jones averaged almost 8 free throws a game for the season and had 95 turnovers in 28 games.  He takes the ball to the rack.  A bunch. 
In his 41 point explosion against Amherst, his team lost by 21 and he had 4 of Curry's 17 turnovers.
Walzy's o/u looks about right.  Hoops Fan's assessment looks right, too. 
However, I'll take the under because if he gets frustrated, it doesn't matter how many shots you take if they ain't fallin', and Middlebury will be in his face every moment.
I'd guess that he'll get around half of his point from the free throw line.  (that could be a lot.)
Sedale Jones is a dominant player, a superior offensive talent to any Panther.  That's why he played D1 ball at UMass before transferring. 
Curry's style is prone to turnovers and his supporting cast is unlikely to stay with Middlebury for 40 minutes.

Middhoops,

The thing to consider when discussing Nolan's defense on Sedale Jones this Saturday is how rarely the guy Nolan is guarding gets to the free throw line. Here are the notable players whom Nolan has guarded over the course of the season, with the FTs they shot in games against Middlebury and the number of fouls Nolan himself committed.

Ferris FTs - 0, Nolan fouls - 0
Vadas - 3, Nolan - 2
Brown - 4 (2 intentional), Nolan - 2, 1 intentional
Epley - 2, Nolan - 2
Ryan Martin - 0, Nolan - 1
Toomey/Workman - 5, (1 intentional), Nolan - 1, also intentional
Brown - 4, Nolan - 1
Epley - 0, Nolan - 2

UPDATE: Those 7 guys, averaging Toomey and Workman together, and counting Epley and Shasha Brown twice, averaged to shoot a combined 35.3 FTs per game. Nolan held them to 16.

This list is a veritable who's-who of elite scorers in the NESCAC as well as Ryan Martin, himself a D1 transfer, though obviously of a different build than Sedale Jones. These 7 guys combined to shoot 19 FTs in 8 games against Nolan, 3 of which were the result of intentional fouls. So on average, controlling for late game foul situations, Nolan allowed an average of 2 FTs a game against some of the best offensive players in the country. The lack of free throws shot by his assignments, coupled with Nolan's 11 total fouls (9 when controlling for intentional fouls) shows that not only is he stopping penetration, but he is doing so without fouling, keeping himself in the game and his team out of the penalty.

Sedale Jones will provide a new challenge for Nolan, but his preparation, attention to detail and work ethic are unrivaled. He is a remarkable defender. If he draws Jones, as the line assumes, I don't think Jones will score more than half of his points from the line, unless he is held to single digits. Given his season average of 8 FTs per game, I would set the line for Sedale Jones FTs at 4.5 and think the under on 20.5 points is a safe bet.

[grabtherim]

Post season honors out.  No real surprises.  Congrats to the players. 

[lefrakenstein]

Very predictable post season awards. Hixon gets coach of the year. Does that say something about the number of craps his colleagues give about 'box out gate'? Maybe. Maybe they just felt they had no choice after last year.

Amherst becomes the second ever team with two first teamers and a second teamer. Thompson and Kizell both get first team. Mayer and Epley represent Williams.

Overall, not a bad job by the coaches, except for the fact that Ben Ferris might have been the best player on the second team if he had been included. Definitely think he deserved it over Epley and Callaghan. He's my top snub.


Also, someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Sha Brown becomes the first player ever to get first team one year only to regress to second team the next year.

[madzillagd]

I'm a little surprised Wes got two players on.  I could easily have seen Bryan Hurley on there instead of Callaghan but he may have been a victim of Senior vs Soph. 

[nescac1]

lefrankenstein, your Sha Brown comment sounds incorrect to me, but I can't think of any specific examples off-hand.  James Wang, of course, went from second team to no team at all last year, but that was entirely due to an injury affecting his play. 

Agreed that Ferris is deserving over Callaghan based both on team and individual performance, but I would not say he is more deserving than Epley. 

Nate Robertson, when you consider his entire career body of work, is arguably the best NESCAC player I've seen (or at worst, one of the few best) never to have made an all-NESCAC team.  Testament to the depth of talent at the top of NESCAC this year that Nate, Peter Lynch, Matt Vadas, and Pieri / Hurley from Bowdoin were not honored.  All had excellent years.  Any of those guys could make a solid argument that they belong on the second team.   

With Epley, Mayer, Toomey, Kizell, and Ferris all back next year, NESCAC should be well-represented on pre-season all-American teams ...

[lefrakenstein]

Nate Robertson, when you consider his entire career body of work, is arguably the best NESCAC player I've seen (or at worst, one of the few best) never to have made an all-NESCAC team.  Testament to the depth of talent at the top of NESCAC this year that Nate, Peter Lynch, Matt Vadas, and Pieri / Hurley from Bowdoin were not honored.  All had excellent years.  Any of those guys could make a solid argument that they belong on the second team.   

I definitely agree with this. I think a guy like Vadas would make it in almost any other year. Voters seem to like guys with a lot of points. Also agree that at the very least Robertson is as good as your average 2nd-team All-nescac player over the years. That actually seems like it's sort of an insult to Nate, given his level of play over the course of his career.


And you're right about my being wrong about Sha Brown - Russ Martin did the same.

[middhoops]

Nate Robertson has so many intangible skills/assets that coaches love.  I agree that his body of work deserves something.  However, in a league so talent laden, a jack of all trades skinny guard who doesn't shoot much has a hard time breaking through for recognition.

[Major Hoople]

Frankly, if Robertson is deserving of recognition so is Wolfin.

[madzillagd]

Overall, not a bad job by the coaches, except for the fact that Ben Ferris might have been the best player on the second team if he had been included. Definitely think he deserved it over Epley and Callaghan. He's my top snub.

Scott Anderson Tufts  (7-3)
12.8 pts  FG %: 45.4%  3 Pt: 31.8%  FT: 88.2%   5.7 reb  1.7 asts

Shasha Brown Wes (4-6)
17.2  FG %: 44.3%  3 Pt: 28.8%  FT: 80.5%   3.2 rebs  4.0 asts

Mike Callaghan Wes (4-6)
14.9 pts FG %: 50.7% 3 Pt: 37.0%  FT: 78.8%  7.2 rebs  1.3 asts

Taylor Epley  Williams (9-1)
18.1 pts FG %: 49.0%  3 Pt: 43.2%  FT: 83.5%  3.7 reb  2.0 asts

Peter Kaasila Amherst (10-0)
13.7 pts FG %: 64.1%  3 Pt: --   FT: 67.3%  6.3 reb  0.5 asts

**********
Ben Ferris Tufts (7-3)
13.3 pts  FG %: 49.4%   3 Pt: 43.8% 3s  FT: 78%  6.5 rebs  2.2 Asts

Bryan Hurley (5-5)
9.4 pts  FG %: 35.4%   3 Pt %: 33.6% 3s  FT: 75.8%  4.0 rebs  8.3 Asts


I think if you take records into account it's tough to argue Callaghan over Ferris or as I mentioned Hurley.  If you ignore records, Kaasila could really be the first to go since Ferris had similar numbers - even outrebounding the big man. 

The reason I like Hurley over Callaghan is he brings something unique that nobody else in the league accomplished or even came close to. There's a lot of players that can score, there's a lot of players that can rebound, but Hurley is the only guy in the league with the insane assist totals.  He averages 3.2 more assists a game than Toomey, the POY.  I'm guessing his low shooting %s are what kept him off the list. 

[pick and roll]

I think the coaches have a preference for upper classmen.

[NEhoops]

It will be interesting to see how the all-league teams shake out. I don't think we can discount the value that the coaches give to seniors when voting. With that said it will be interesting to see if any of the top teams get three players recognized. Here is my ten, it's a little top heavy and it includes three Amherst players. 

Anderson – Senior and leading scoring of a top four team; second team last year
Brown – Senior and leading scorer in the conference; two time all league selection
Callaghan – Senior; second team last year
Epley – Fifth leading scorer in the league
Kaasila – Senior; top ten in points/rebounds/FG%
Kizel – Leading scorer of a top four team; top ten in assists/steals; first team last year
Mayer – Leading scorer of a top four team; top five in rebounds/FG%
Thompson – Senior; top ten in points/3FG%
Toomey – Leading scorer of #1 seed; top five in assists/steals/3FG%; first team last year
Workman – Senior; top ten in rebounds/assists/3FG%; second team last year

POY: Toomey – he is the most important player to any team in the league
DPOY: I know the contenders, but haven't seen everyone play enough to comment on it
ROY: Palleschi – second leading rookie scorer; top ten in rebounds/FG%. Hart had a great year as the top rookie scorer and they could be co-winners
COY: I think Hixon is the front runner, but not the clear cut favorite. It's a funny award. Greg Popovich has won four NBA titles and led the Spurs to the best record in the league six times - maybe more, but only has two COY awards

I'm rather impressed with my all conference predictions from a few weeks back. That must earn me a few karma points or something. As I mentioned the coaches tend to typically reward seniors and will take into account conference record as well. 15 sophomores have been selected over the 13 seasons. I'm not surprised Ferris didn't make it, but based on the history of the voting I'm sure he was considered. In addition to Brown, there have been three incidents when a junior makes the first team and then doesn't make it their senior year. Wang (Williams) and Ellis (Bates), both due to injuries and Drew Cohen from Colby, made the first team in 05-06, but didn't make either time his senior year (not sure why).

I agree that Robertson and Wolfin are two of the most underrated players of the past four years. They both made an immediate impact as freshmen and helped their respective programs win alot of games, in addition to being well respected throughout the league. I'm sure Vadas got some votes, but his team didn't win a league game and he wasn't a very efficient scorer.         

[nescac1]

Prescient indeed, NHhoops, plus one!

No frosh has ever made an all-NESCAC time going back to 2000 (the oldest online data available).  Quite a few sophomores have made it, and the majority of them (with a few exceptions) were all-Americans, or damn close.  One thing is clear: if you play for Amherst or Williams and don't make all-conference in your first two years, it's nothing to worry about.  Consider: Blake Schultz, Adam Harper, Andrew Olson, Willy Workman, John Bedford, Troy Whittington, Ben Coffin, Mike Crotty, all of them all-American players who did not earn all-NESCAC until their junior years. 

This year, by the way, the NESCAC sophomore class (in stark contrast to the very strong senior class and absolutely loaded junior class) is extremely weak.  Only Dan Wohl, Ben Ferris, Keegan Pieri, Graham Safford and Bryan Hurley appear to be guys who might eventually challenge for all-NESCAC honors from that group.  In fact, I'd be willing to bet that at least 4 of those 5 earn all-NESCAC before they are done, in part because of weak competition from their classmates.