MBB: NESCAC

[toad22]

In the 55 years I've been watching basketball, I've never heard a ref call an "arm bar" foul. I bet I've heard it 10 times in the 5 games I've watched this year. It may not be a new rule, but it might as well be.

[nescac1]

Old Guy, Mayer was in street clothes with an injury.  Hopefully he will not be out for too long but the Ephs' offense was still humming even without him. 

Rafferty is as good as advertised.  He made several tough three point shots and also broke some good defenders down off the dribble.  He appears to be a very good leader and capable ball-handler.  He is a bit height-challenged and had a bit of trouble guarding Rooke-Ley at times, but I think will be a solid defender as he gets more experience.  I did notice that me made one very good defensive play on Duncan Robinson, where he seemed to anticipate one of his moves -- unsurprising, as I believe they have a long history of playing together.  He is going to be Wesleyan's starting PG for the next four years.  Davis Reid, who played with him at Exeter, also hit a pair of threes for the Cards.  Between those two, Duncan Robinson, and the two D-1 players from that team, as well as Max Eaton who is getting some PT at Bates, that must have been one heck of a high school basketball team.  And of course Connor Green who has been lighting it up for the Jeffs starred at Exeter the prior year, and Ryan Kilcullen, who played great for Williams tonight, is also an Exeter product -- quite the NESCAC feeder program they have going there.  Based on that group of players, the Exeter coach either really knows how to recruit, or coach-up, long-range shooters. 

As talented as the current group of seniors are in NESCAC, I can't recall ever seeing so much individual star power in a first-year class.  Robinson at Williams, George at Amherst, Sabety at Tufts, Brown / St. Amour for Midd, the Delpeche twins at Bates, Ogundeko at Trinity, Rafferty at Wesleyan -- seems like almost every team has one or two big time frosh, and it's very early in the season ... more guys are likely to emerge over time. 

[middhoops]

Nescac1, wait til you see Jake Brown.  He's going be a serious presence in the conference.  Did you watch Sabety today?  He could play for any America East (lower rung D1 league) ... now.
Bottom line is, you're absolutely right.  This fy class is going to raise the level of play for 4 years.  The really good news is that they aren't all at Amherst, Williams and Middlebury.

[lefrakenstein]

So far, so good for Amherst through three games against admittedly weak competition. Nevertheless, it's nice to see the team pick up right where they left off and keep things rolling.

Still some question of who will pick up the production of the departed seniors. George has looked awesome at center and appears to be about as capable a replacement for big Pete as could reasonably be hoped for. Nabatoff has also looked good at center.

The wing continues to look thin after the departure of Workman and Williamson. Green has really stepped up and seems to be ready to take over a significant portion of the scoring load. Kalema and Killian continue to be steady, although both started the season really cold from behind the arc (combined 2-21) before heating up a little tonight. Behind them Mussachia should be ready to provide some dependable minutes this year; he's averaging 7 and 5 in a little over 15 min/game. He still has not shot a three though, which is very unusual for an Amherst player. Other than that... there's pretty much no one. None of the four freshman wings (Magana, Holding, Racy, Wright) are getting enough playing time to suggest that Hixon views them as potential rotation players this year. Berman, the freshman pg, is getting that kind of time, which might allow Toomey/Kalema to spend more time at the 2. The wing position  though definitely could have some depth issues this year.

Lots of milestones coming up for the team as well. Hixon is only 4 wins away from 700, Toomey needs only 44 points for 1,500 and the team needs only 5 more wins in a row to complete a perfect 2013. Not sure how many college teams have ever gone a full calendar year without losing game. It would be quite the feat, but Emerson, Babson and Brandeis could all prove to be significant challenges. 

[jayhawk]

Connor Green of Amherst in last two games has made 13 out of 18 shots from 3 point land. He is shooting his quick release shot with confidence so far.
Mussachia is a player whose strength is his game around the key, he drive really well and is a tough rebounder. He is a not 3 pt threat. Berman is a pass first point guard, in 10 minutes today 5 assists. The emergence of Mussachia, more aggressive play of Killian and presence of David George provide potential bright spots that might ameliorate the loss of 3 starters.

In the short snapshot provided so far freshman wings look good, Wright has very good mechanics on his jumpshot and made a few 3's. Magana can dribble better than anticipated. This year might be tough for some of the freshman to find time

For Amherst the games will get tougher and will be able to get better sense of the players. My sense is that Toomey is giving others a chance to step up and with tougher opponents look for him to have a bigger scoring role. He may benefit from the new rules, as opposing players have had a tendency to body him up in an attempt to slow him down.

[old_hooper]

LeFrak, to your point, #2 Ill Wes falls tonight by 5 to Loras College in Iowa.  It is very difficult to run the table.  Loras also beat #5 Wheaton last week. 

[John Gleich]

LeFrak, to your point, #2 Ill Wes falls tonight by 5 to Loras College in Iowa.  It is very difficult to run the table.  Loras also beat #5 Wheaton last week.

#2 IWU lost today
#3 Williams lost last week
#5 Wheaton lost twice this week (@Loras and @Wooster today)
#6 North Central lost twice (vs DePauw and @Aurora today)

Amherst already has 13 first place votes... do they pick up the other 11 from the teams who lost (9 from IWU, 1 from Williams, 1 from Wheaton) or does Point pick some up and gain some ground?

Should be an interesting poll come... Tuesday(?)

[Vandy74]

LeFrak, to your point, #2 Ill Wes falls tonight by 5 to Loras College in Iowa.  It is very difficult to run the table.  Loras also beat #5 Wheaton last week.

IWU had a rough day.  The football team lost 41-7 to Wartsburg in the opening round of the ncaa this afternoon.  Tough luck Chuck.

[John Gleich]

LeFrak, to your point, #2 Ill Wes falls tonight by 5 to Loras College in Iowa.  It is very difficult to run the table.  Loras also beat #5 Wheaton last week.

IWU had a rough day.  The football team lost 41-7 to Wartburg in the opening round of the ncaa this afternoon.  Tough luck Chuck.

And their WBB lost at home to UWSP after IWU had an 11 point first half lead and 7 pts at the half.

[Mr. Ypsi]

LeFrak, to your point, #2 Ill Wes falls tonight by 5 to Loras College in Iowa.  It is very difficult to run the table.  Loras also beat #5 Wheaton last week.

IWU had a rough day.  The football team lost 41-7 to Wartburg in the opening round of the ncaa this afternoon.  Tough luck Chuck.

And their WBB lost at home to UWSP after IWU had an 11 point first half lead and 7 pts at the half.

I hadn't even gotten to the WBB results.  That does it - IWU FB, MBB, WBB all lose, UM loses, EMU gets smashed (like that's a surprise! ) - my life is over! 

I've written off all 3 FB teams, and have faith both BB teams will come back and represent well.  Life goes on, after all.

chuck

(Not surprised about either UM or EMU FB, but, taking nothing away from Wartburg [who clearly deserved the win], that is the worst I have EVER seen IWU play.  Of SEVEN turnovers, IMO only 2-3 were takeaways; the rest were all unforced giveaways.  Usually sure-handed receivers who flat out dropped at least 10 passes.  A running back who needed only 74 yards for the single season record (he was averaging 101 pg) who was seated for 40 minutes after rushing for -6 yards.  Overall, an abominable performance.)

[Vandy74]

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.

Amh63......What you describe is not much different than the Panthers' performance against GMC 3 nights before a Stevenson team that was good enough to put a scare in them, but shouldn't have been able to beat them, won quite decisively, regardless of the close score with 3 minutes remaining.  Just a friendly warning.

I'm glad to hear you will be at the Midd-St. Mary's game.  I wish I could be there as well.  You and I have to meet one of these days.  Perhaps when the Panthers take on the Lord Jeffs in what should be a very important finale to the regular season.  I look forward to it.  A Middlebury victory this afternoon would be nice but considering the fact that they will still be without Jensen and Sinnickson just playing well will suffice, although the disappointment in the event of a loss will be genuine.  I believe, especially in what I witnessed the first three games of the season, a healthy Middlebury squad can beat anyone on any given day.  There is no doubt in my mind.

I owe you a PM.  There are several things you would be interested in knowing that don't relate particularly to this board.  Let me unclutter my work space and find a few notes I've jotted down over the last few weeks.  Enjoy the basketball.  Find the Middlebury parents.  There is not a better group to sit with.  And of course, good luck to Amherst on a strong second place finish this season.

[middhoops]

amh63, be sure to locate the Midd parents.  Find Jim and Liz Jensen and tell 'em Vandy and Middhoops sent you.  Along with many other of the young men's parents, they're the nicest people you could hope to meet today.

[middhoops]

Don't know if anyone noticed but #9 WPI came to snowy Vermont yesterday and got beat by Castleton.  It was no fluke.  The Engineers were outplayed in almost every aspect of the game.
The smaller Castleton team played remarkably like Stevenson did a night earlier, hustling for offensive boards and attacking the bigger team with impunity with endless lay ups.

The CCIW had a flurry of losses over the weekend .  IWU, North Central, Augustana and Wheaton all lost, some twice.  (Careful about tweaking them for it though, Vandy.)

[Panthernation]

Many Middlebury fans both publicly and privately have speculated that a lack of leadership could be a problem for this team. Here's a different take: http://sites.middlebury.edu/panthernation/2013/11/24/what-ails-middlebury/

[amh63]

LeFrak....good points.  I believe the wings at Amherst will be fine....today with all the strong players going for rebounds and can score inside and outside, traditional designations become somewhat fuzzy.
FY Wright can shoot outside and his size allows him to go inside.  For a brief moment he showed me he is a player to watch...a Detroit city style player?  Based on the few games played to date, Emerson college maybe the " snake in the grass ".  Babson and Brandeis are having a slow start.
Jayhawk...like you eyes on the Amherst team.  Wish I could watch the games live.  Cannot get my wife to buy a winter home in Amherst ...wants time in Florida.  Cannot understand since she is a Ct. Girl.
Vandy and Middhoops...thanks for the advice.  Guess I will have to wear something Purple and act obnoxious for sure to get the attention.  Do not have a yellow or white hoodie
Oh yes...  It will be a challenging season in the conference Vandy but the order of the finish this season will only be between Midd and Williams, IMHO .