MBB: NESCAC

[Old Guy]

Where's Nolan Thompson when you need him. They come and go so fast.

[Old Guy]

Tufts down at the half: Sabety lighting it up; Rafferty not in the line-up(?).

[lefrakenstein]

Tufts down at the half: Sabety lighting it up; Rafferty not in the line-up(?).

Harry Rafferty is a freshman at Wesleyan.

The jumbos are having terrible luck so far with both Ferris and Palleschi out, but when Ferris returns they look to have a very strong rotation with Ferris, a likely first- team all-NESCAC guy, Haladnya, who was great as a freshman last year, two solid senior guards in Cohen and Firempong, and then three newcomers: Sabety, Tarik Smith, and Spadaford, who all look very capable.

[Old Guy]

Harry Rafferty is a freshman at Wesleyan. Lafrakenstein

Yes. And?

[middhoops]

Impressive come back by Tufts.  They hit a barrage of 3s with about 3 minutes to go.  Sabety creates most of his own offense.  He appears to be very confident.  And strong.  Really strong.

[middhoops]

If anyone is looking for a good live game,  Castleton leads #9 WPI at the half. 

[lefrakenstein]

Tufts down at the half: Sabety lighting it up; Rafferty not in the line-up(?).

You mentioned him not being in the lineup before the Wesleyan game had started. I assumed from the context of your post that you thought he was on Tufts.Sorry

[P'bearfan]

Bowdoin down 36-30 at the half.  St Joe's came out very hot in the opening minutes and Bowdoin's offense was stalled.  St Joe's center, Nicholas Jobin lead them early scoring perhaps 10 of their first 15 points before Bowdoin made a defensive adjustment. 

Bowdoin had a chance to tie the game right before half time but a missed 3 pointer led to a St Joe's fast break and an open 3.

Pieri and Malinger have been fairly quiet offensively in the first half with only 2 points between them.  Hopefully, they can get going in the 2nd half.

[amh63]

Meanwhile, I am watching a post season soccer match and Live Stats of the Amherst BB game.  Amherst wins both.
The Amherst BB game is a no contest from the start with a team that wants to run and shoot and does not have the size to match up with Amherst.  Amherst has 54 points at the half and up by 19.  Game ends with Amherst scoring 114 points and everyone playing it seems.  14 Amherst players scores and all the starters have double figures.  Aaron Toomey has 13 pts, 8 assists, and 5 boards in the game.  Conner Green is still hot from outside and scores 21 points and is 6-8 from outside.  It seems that D. Magana is the second FY point guard candidate for Amherst....a large ball handler. 
D. Wright is another FY gunner.  Amherst had 90 points with 9 minutes to go and the bench players started to come in.  There was times when 3-4 FYs were on the floor with one upperclassman.  Gach, a shooting guard was on the floor near the end with four FYs....the PG being a 6'5" player from out West by the name of Diego M.
Should be an interesting season for Amherst fans
Will miss the Amherst vs. Williams soccer game on Sunday.  Got to go to Stevenson to watch a Panther game live.  Hope to see Middlebury catch and cook the Sea Gulls of St. Mary.

[P'bearfan]

Bowdoin comes back to win 69-65.  Swords came alive and scored 12 in the second half for a total of 14.  He also had 4 blocks.  Lucas Hausman provided a great spark off the bench scoring a total of 19.  A real team win for the P'bears and a great way to head into the Thanksgiving break.

[nescac1]

Very nice, comfortable Little 3 win for Williams despite playing without Mayer, who was in street clothes and wearing some sort of boot (the two biggest Ephs were both in street clothes, which played into Wesleyan's interior success, more on that later).  Williams is really starting to get banged up in the frontcourt, as Weinheimer (who played very well off the bench) left the game with what hopefully is not a serious injury, but hard to tell.  Ephs could be down three big guys next week, obviously a big concern. 

Williams was led by Hayden Rooke-Ley, who looks better and more comfortable seemingly each game.  He was the top player for either team today, and is clearly one of the top point guards in NESCAC.  While he is not quite the defensive player Nate Robertson is, he is a better offensive player overall because he is equally adept at both driving and shooting.  Very steady game for Hayden, 25-5-3, only one turnover, as dynamic as Wang and Robertson were leading the offense, the one flaw they shared was forcing the issue a bit too much leading to a few too many turnovers, and Hayden is very adept at picking his spots to be aggressive but also showing a very steady hand at the point and limiting the TO's.  I look forward to seeing him go up against Kizell and Toomey later as I think he may well surprise some folks with how competitive he will be even against all-American guys.  .

Duncan Robinson was ice, ice cold from outside (words I predict will become increasingly rare, but anyone can have an off day).  On the plus side, other than three-point shooting, he played very well, driving aggressively for two three-point plays, the hard way.  He has a real knack for finishing off the glass off the dribble, a very advanced offensive skill.  Once he puts it all together, driving and shooting, in one game, he could really start lighting it up.  Today finished with 16 despite a rough 1-8 day from deep.

Wohl played his usual great all-around game, all over the court on both offense and defense.  He has been the Ephs' MVP so far this season.  Epley continues his hot shooting and played a solid all-around game.  Ryan Kilcullen played a fantastic offensive game in Mayer's place.  He is a tremendous luxury to have as a back-up,  and when Mayer comes back it would be interesting to see a bit of two-towers action, since both shoot well enough to play the four.  He has a beautiful shooting stroke.  He needs to keep working on being physical on the defensive end, but not many teams can boast a back-up five with that type of ability. 

For Wesleyan, Rafferty was very, very impressive.  He is going to be a great four-year PG for the Cards.  He is not as unstoppable one-on-one as Sha Brown but I think will win a lot more games -- Wesleyan played much more within a team concept this year than they have the last few and despite less overall talent I think will be more competitive in conference play.  He struggled a bit to guard the bigger and more experienced Rooke-Ley, but his offensive game is already really polished.  Yet another great NESCAC rookie.

The Epps-Thomas combo just dominated the interior at times for Wesleyan.  They combined for 30-18, and shot 15-19, eventually forcing Williams to go to a zone (which looks improved, but still not great).  Of course, it didn't hurt that Mayer was out (his presence was missed much more on the defense than on offense), but Williams, even with Mayer, has struggled with those type of physical, athletic interior players all year.  The Ephs needs to do a better job of (a) denying entry passes, (b) pushing guys a foot or two out of their comfort zone on the block before they get the ball, and (c) boxing out on the defensive glass.  I don't know why Thomas doesn't play more minutes -- he is a beast down low.  And Epps is sort of a poor-man's Whittington -- plays MUCH bigger than his size and difficult to contain inside the paint, very adept at scoring over bigger guys.  I think Wesleyan is going to have its growing pains but they have a nice foundation going forward, they just need a few more players to step up and help. 

IN sum, the Ephs' offense continues to be extremely impressive, but the defense is still a work in progress, but looking better.  Williams also needs to show they can go more than seven guys deep.  But, beating a NESCAC team by 17 down an all-American is pretty darn impressive, very good day for the Ephs overall. 

[middhoops]

WaPo article on "New Rules" that Dave McHugh refutes.  Admittedly, perhaps the word should be "emphasis" rather than "rule". 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/college-basketball-rules-have-some-coaches-crying-foul/2013/11/11/3a847a7e-4b13-11e3-be6b-d3d28122e6d4_story.html

[middhoops]

"The new rules — cracking down on hand-checking and more rigidly defining the block-charge call and how a player can defend in the post — have been met with a variety of opinions following the opening weekend of play."

[Old Guy]

Tufts down at the half: Sabety lighting it up; Rafferty not in the line-up(?). Old Guy

Harry Rafferty is a freshman at Wesleyan. Lafrakenstein

Yes. And? Old Guy

And If you noticed, Rafferty did not play a single minute for the Jumbos tonight.

Apologies to Lafrak. I did, I did put Rafferty on the Tufts five. I knew better. Brain cramp, the second one this week (I had Sharry playing in 1912 against RPI (that was a typo;' this was just dumb). I've got to get out of the sun. I don't know exactly how karma points work, but I should be piling up the negatives.

I am interested in Ephs' fans reaction to the Wesleyan frosh pg. He would appear to have had a good night - 35 minutes, 19 points.

I also noticed that Mayer did not play tonight. (He does play for Williams, right?)

[grabtherim]

There is no paper so thin that it does not have two sides, and denial is not just a river in Egypt.  As Bucket points out, the game was called by the announcers in a fair and reasonable way.  As part of that call, it was refreshing to hear some questioning on certain calls.  From what I have seen at every level, it seems that the edict is clear from the top of the officiating heads to "enforce" the rules on hand checking more than ever has been done before making the players and coaches unsure of what will be called, and the danger of the games stretching out to ridiculous lengths.  After the fact to say all that was talked about was great plays, players etc etc tarnishes the honesty shown when these questions were raised in the first place.  Refs have heard far worse than an honest back and forth on an increased call on enforcement.  No one was talking about officiating?  Not really a big deal, but you were. 

Keeping out of foul trouble early this season is a crap shoot for all teams.  Officiating is inconsistent and confusing.  Teams aren't adjusting easily to the new rules.  Refs aren't uniformly enforcing them.  Maybe by January they'll all be on the same page.
I watched a lower level D1 game last week where 63 fouls were called.  It was an awful game to sit through.  By the end few people cared who won.  They were just happy it was over.

Last night's Middlebury game feature three refs who also call D1 games (actually, most of the officials yesterday have D1 experience)... and to be honest, no one was really talking about officiating yesterday. They were talking about the great games, the great plays, the teams, etc.

I wasn't in the gym, so I can't speak to what was being said there; I can only speak to what was being said on the broadcasts. And during the Midd-Stevenson game, Dave, you and Gordan aptly described blown calls, time and again, by officials. Now, you guys never spoke of a poorly officiated game, that is true. But you did point out what were questionable—or totally confounding—calls when they happened. Kudos to you both for doing so. But it seems to me to be a case of (selective?) amnesia to turn around and say no one was talking about this, when we heard you loud and clear!

You deserve great credit for organizing a wonderful invitational—great games, great plays, the teams—and you needn't worry that your efforts will be sullied by areas of the event, totally outside of your control, that prove to be unsatisfactory.