MBB: NESCAC

[amh63]

Grabtherim...thank you kindly for your responses to both my inquires.  I too remember Moses and call myself fortunate to watch him play in a summer game with members of his freshman class.  It was on a lighted playground gathering place in the Chevy Chase DC neighborhood where I lived for awhile.  It was also the location where one could see great BB played in the Summer.  Local sport news writers could be seen and even Red A. of the Boston Celtics would show up on occasions to "scout" the college talent.  It was also his neighborhood too.  My younger brother was a H.S. Classmate of Red A.'s daughter.  Maybe we were at games together...Grab?
Memories...I see Lefty as a great Coach...a recruiter yes, but his greatness was also to build the Terps' program to the level that could compete with the then "Powers " down in NC.  Getting Tom McMillian away from UNC and Dean Smith was the spark.  Lefty also had a very humane side, one in which he continue to give a player a scholarship, when the player could not play for health reasons...a very unique move at the time. 

[quicksilver]

Williams, and I think now most of NESCAC in fact, is also using NSN.  The quality and reliability of the webcast vs. last year is night-and-day, a dramatic upgrade.

Three NESCAC schools use NSN: Bowdoin, Middlebury, and Williams. I think NSN will also be doing all NESCAC championship weekends for all sports. It's a huge upgrade. .

[middhoops]

Williams, and I think now most of NESCAC in fact, is also using NSN.  The quality and reliability of the webcast vs. last year is night-and-day, a dramatic upgrade.

Three NESCAC schools use NSN: Bowdoin, Middlebury, and Williams. I think NSN will also be doing all NESCAC championship weekends for all sports. It's a huge upgrade. .

What is Amherst using this season?
I hope that Tufts upgrades soon.  Their video is limited to only showing the score when play stops for long periods of time.  No play by play. 
Bowdoin is doing a nice job with their online broadcast.
Happy Thanksgiving to all you guys who are sneaking a peak amidst the crush of family joy.

[quicksilver]

What is Amherst using this season?
I hope that Tufts upgrades soon.  Their video is limited to only showing the score when play stops for long periods of time.  No play by play. 
Bowdoin is doing a nice job with their online broadcast.
Happy Thanksgiving to all you guys who are sneaking a peak amidst the crush of family joy.

Amherst has an in-house webcast operation. It used to be very good but seems to have slipped a bit this year (or at least it has as to hockey) or perhaps it looks less good when contrasted with the more professional NSN operation.

[lumbercat]

Bates announcers are a couple of students who really do a nice job- the broadcasts are good but not at a level with the Bowdoin productions on MSN.
Up at Colby, not sure what they are doing - Colby. seems to operate in their own cocoon in Football and Basketball--stats, reporting, box scores and overall coverage generally at a lower level than their NESCAC peers.

[ronk]

Grabtherim...thank you kindly for your responses to both my inquires. I too remember Moses and call myself fortunate to watch him play in a summer game with members of his freshman class.  It was on a lighted playground gathering place in the Chevy Chase DC neighborhood where I lived for awhile.  It was also the location where one could see great BB played in the Summer.  Local sport news writers could be seen and even Red A. of the Boston Celtics would show up on occasions to "scout" the college talent.  It was also his neighborhood too.  My younger brother was a H.S. Classmate of Red A.'s daughter.  Maybe we were at games together...Grab?
Memories...I see Lefty as a great Coach...a recruiter yes, but his greatness was also to build the Terps' program to the level that could compete with the then "Powers " down in NC.  Getting Tom McMillian away from UNC and Dean Smith was the spark.  Lefty also had a very humane side, one in which he continue to give a player a scholarship, when the player could not play for health reasons...a very unique move at the time.

I was at the Chevy Chase playground for summer basketball at least once in the early 70s, but don't remember who I saw then; was a 5-year season ticket holder for Terp bball but gave them up when Moses went to the ABA, instead.

[amh63]

The Amherst operation does not have the replay capability but I thought HD capacity had arrived.  The operation for the most part has student announcers.  When holidays arrive , there is non student fill ins on occasions ...or no announcers.  For football, the UMass hockey announcer did the duty with an assistant BB coach.  I'm surprised about the hockey degrade..since...the UMass announcer also did the Amherst games for free.  I believe the in house operation is being kept since it provides jobs for students.  One good change this year that I notice on webcasts is the background music!  In past years, I thought that all schools had the same awful tape to play during half, etc.  No music was better than rap-type music. . I have watched live games at Conn., Wes., Trinity, Amherst.

[quicksilver]

The Amherst operation does not have the replay capability but I thought HD capacity had arrived.  The operation for the most part has student announcers.  When holidays arrive , there is non student fill ins on occasions ...or no announcers.  For football, the UMass hockey announcer did the duty with an assistant BB coach.  I'm surprised about the hockey degrade..since...the UMass announcer also did the Amherst games for free.  I believe the in house operation is being kept since it provides jobs for students.  One good change this year that I notice on webcasts is the background music!  In past years, I thought that all schools had the same awful tape to play during half, etc.  No music was better than rap-type music. . I have watched live games at Conn., Wes., Trinity, Amherst.

I know more about the Amherst hockey webcasts than its webcasts of other sports as my exposure to Amherst webcasts is somewhat hockey centric. Historically, Amherst was ahead of its NESCAC brethren in the hockey webcasts by a lot, most notably on the technical and production quality. Middlebury had good NSN webcasts but charged for each game so few viewers. Then, about 2 years ago, Middlebury opened up its NSN webcasts to the public at no charge, and NESCAC hockey fans saw how good they were (replays, close-ups, on-screen scoreboards, etc) and what they were missing. Then Bowdoin and Williams joined NSN, with impressive results at Bowdoin but not so impressive results at Williams (NSN must have just plugged into existing Williams equipment). Now the Amherst hockey webcasts seem limited and amateurish in comparison to the Bowdoin and Middlebury hockey webcasts. I can't tell whether the technical quality of the Amherst webcasts has truly deteriorated or whether the contrast makes it seem as though they have. The guy who does the hockey webcasts for Amherst is an Australian -- I think that his name is something like Hugh Campbell. He does a pretty solid job on the play-by-play but he is never joined by a student announcer.

[amh63]

Not much conference action today...guess I will go to the Cardinal and Polar Bear games on-line this weekend...for D3.
Concerning webcasts...priorities for me....first- FREE; second announcers, good ones; webcast quality last.   Prefer seeing games live though one does miss things without announcers at times.
Again, how we forget the old days when there were few games on- line and those cost a lot!  Now we want HD, replay, and scoreboard and stats along with the visual. 
A little off topic for this board...I did enjoy a sports event over Thanksgiving via the new technology and NESN.  watched the Amherst " beating" of Williams in Football for the last time on grass! . ..again.  Guess I need to thank the Purple Cow and the generous Ephs alums.

[P'bearfan]

guess I will go to the Cardinal and Polar Bear games on-line this weekend.

Bowdoin v Babson should be a good game.  Babson doesn't have a big like Swords but otherwise I think the teams matchup well. Hopefully the P'bears will be sharp on Sunday.

[Panthernation]

Here's our preview of Middlebury's matchup with RPI tomorrow:
http://sites.middlebury.edu/panthernation/2013/11/30/looking-to-rebound-at-rensselaer/

[nescac1]

Is Sinnickson still out for Midd? Seemed like he had a big game prior to whatever his injury was ...

[P'bearfan]

The key for Bowdoin today against Babson will be to get off to a fast start.  Last week their offense stalled early against St Joe's (Me)  and they needed to play catch up for most of the game.  The P'bears need to establish an inside game right away and force Babson to commit men down low which should free up the mid-range and 3 pt shots.  However, in the first couple of games Bowdoin has generally been slow to get the ball inside early so hopefully they can emphasize this today.

Bowdoin will also be thin at 4/5 spot with a couple of guys banged up and not available to play.  This means that Swords, Pieri, and Fuller need to stay out of foul trouble so I expect we'll see a good deal of 2-3 zone.

Should be fun.  Good luck to the P'bears.

[P'bearfan]

http://babsonathletics.com/sports/m-baskbl/2013-14/releases/20131130gff3dp

Here's a nice preview of the Bowdoin v Babson game from the Babson website.   I watched a little of the Babson's last game against Becker and they reminded me a lot of Bowdoin - they run similar sets in the half court and have good outside shooting.  Also Babson has a balanced attack with four guys averaging in double figures so far this season (Palazini; Flannery; Wickey; and Dean) - just like Bowdoin.

Babson received 4 votes in the most recent Top 25 poll so this should be a real test for the P'bears.  If Bowdoin can start well offensively and not let one of Babson's 4 guys get too hot I think they win a close one at home.

[amh63]

P'Bearfan......what are your thoughts on the play of Sr. Matt Mathias to date.  I thought he would take more of a leadership/offensive role with Hurley out.  Went over his stats to date...seems to be laying back ,IMO.  He played a very strong game last season against Amherst in LeFrak.